If you apply this argument to Microsoft, you would be saying that Windows should be our National Operating system, and that it should be regulated in the name of fairness.
I don't think I need to elaborate as to why that bugs the heck out of me. Bill Gates might even want that particular outcome!
You're right; KTOP did rip off the Windows NT task manager, which was about the only think I liked about Windows NT.:-) KTOP does have an interesting problem, though - its window size seems to be a big big. I'd love to have a version you could shrink and expand at will (which the NT manager doesn't do gracefully either).
However, I don't know if we want an Add New Hardware Wizard, at least not as MS did it. It struck me as a kludgey loss whenever I've used it.
Other than that, it strikes me that people are working on better equivalents of the other stuff on your list, and I suspect Windows source code is so tied into their API as to be basically useless anywhere else. The KDE folks have shown that worthwhile parts of Windows are clonable. Hey, I could probably do most of it in GTK myself (I'm more a C than a C++ hacker).
At any rate, I really doubt that a Linux-like community could be built out of open source Windows, so I suspect Gates has a lot to lose and nothing to gain from a Windows open source project.
What the antitrust findings of fact really tell me is what I'd suspected before: Microsoft knows it makes inferior products and is scared to death of anything that might threaten them. If this wasn't so, I really doubt that they would have dumped almost half a billion dollars into Internet Explorer.
Most of the features I see in sites requiring recent browsers simply aren't worth it. I want useful, interesting information, not little programs that pop up and do useless things.
Personally, I look at my site in all browsers I can get, and if it doesn't look right, I tweak it until it's OK. I'm certainly not going to want to exclude someone just because his idea of the best browser is different from mine.
I'm not a big MSIE fan myself, but you can easily switch off the smooth scrolling - I think it's in the preferences / advanced tab. One of about 1,000,000 options, but it's there, and once you find it, the irritating smooth scroll goes away.
I still pine for Netscape 3, which had a way better interface than Netscape 4. In fact, NS 4 stuck me as a bit of a copy of the then-current version of IE, which is exactly what I didn't want in a browser.
Generally, I won't use IE simply due to the symbolism - I hate Microsoft's junkware, and using IE proclaims to the world: "I use Microsoft's junkware, I'm a MS clone guy". So I only use IE to test my own web pages, and occasionally when I've found some sites that I need to access that don't work with NS.
Before using IE, I recommend you read Judge Jackson's findings of fact in the MS antitrust case. Made me sick to my stomach. Do I want to do what those bastards want me to?
I wish there was an Ask Slashdot on selling domain names. I'd really like to know if I could get half a million dollars for the thing, like many of the domain sales sites imply.
Well, I think the same of "real" crackers too, to tell the truth. But "real" crackers are out challenging prominent sites that have administrative staffs who can take the heat.
I, well, I'm just me. I'm easy prey for script kiddies, because for the most part I don't care whether someone breaks into my system or not. But one of them did, and hacked PS. Since I need a working PS, I need to install Linux all over again, and frankly, I really don't have the time.
Script kiddies love people like me because we don't present a significant challenge. Crackers don't care because we present no challenge.
So script kiddies make me more upset than hackers because they're the only people who'd feel there's any point in cracking my system.
Anyone have a recommendation for a "secure out of the box" Linux distribution I could use? One that wouldn't prevent telnet, because unfortunately I have to get to my system from windows boxes that don't have stuff like ssh?
UserFriendly, of course, is already doing this, although coverage is a bit thin, at least in my area.
I'm starting a new personals site that seems to have attracted some interesting people (albiet mostly in the UK). My main interest was in making a more creatively-oriented, entertaining personals site. The profile system is very individualistic; it makes the answers fun to read.
Visit it at http://207.151.18.18/ - and note that it's completely free to use - no strings, no catch, you can reply to anyone you want as soon as you set up an account.
My for-pay competition is at http://www.match.com (probably the best one), http://www.americansingles.com/ and http://www.adultfriendfinder.com . Incidentally, I think the latter is a scam for the most part.
http://www.relationships.com appears to be free, and it has some interesting profile ideas. However, like the other services, it strikes a "too corporate" note in my mind.
I hope you'll try mine (and the others, if it pleases you) and let me know what you think. Bear in mind that it's about a week old, so there won't be too many geographically desirable matches just yet. Give it a little time and you might be surprised.
I ran Netscape years ago, and it had horrible memory leaks which forced frequent restarts and really brought down the performance of the system.
Apache has never given me a lick of trouble.
If their performance results mirror mine, I would guess that they're ramping up for the holiday season, where they expect billions of people to come in and buy books, toys, music and what-have-you.
It's strange, but they will always be books for me. It would take a major shake for me to consider another book vendor, but I don't know what it would take for me to buy toys or music there; I really like specialist companies and will probably continue buying from them.
Each hour I spend on security is an hour I don't spend improving the content of my site - and that content benefits a lot of people.
Why shouldn't I be complacent about security? Why should I waste my time downloading patches, installing new stuff, and so on?
I suppose if there was top-secret information on my systems, I'd think otherwise, but the only really valuable stuff on my sites is what's already exposed to the public.
To me, script kiddies are evil, and the whole idea of breaking into other people's systems for a thrill is childish.
I think there should be extremely stiff penalties for being a script kiddie, and they should be enforced. People should go to jail for invading systems -- that would stop it right proper. It's no different morally than breaking into someone's house and burning it down.
Seems odd for the other fellow to count this as an off-topic post - it clearly relates to the topic.
need to be first = long hours in an ability to make an impossible deadline.
But it might be added that I'm not sure being first is necessarily that powerful.
Bill Gates didn't create the first personal computer operating system.
VHS was not the first consumer video format.
What people actually need is a compelling reason to switch. If you give them that, they will. The trick is finding out what that is, and executing well.
The advantages I see are pretty interesting.
Bill Gates leveraged the potent IBM brand to create the PC standard that we're still stuck with today. He also took advantage of the complacent nature of Lotus and WordPerfect when he brought out Excel and Word.
Panasonic/JVC realized peoplen needed longer recording times, and provided that in VHS.
Seems like a little more thought put into original product designs (in the case of VHS, anyway) might really help. Perhaps that's another lesson to the startup.
I just played around with this yesterday - ODBC access to mySQL data works very well. So all you have to do for the update is to write an VBA (the Access language) program to take the data from the access database and append it to a copy of it in mySQL. This should work very nicely.
I definitely want to emphasize what many others have: DO NOT use Access for a multi-user application. It will work just well enough to fool you into committing resources, and then it will fall on its face. You are much better off getting the data into mySQL as soon as humanly possible, and then going from there.
It builds, slowly, especially in markets like Linux games, where there is a high perceived risk. When the truth comes out about Linux games - whether good or ill - competition will decide whether to appear. Competition is only immediate when people assume that entering the market is a sure thing. Until then, well, there's always reluctance to be an early adapter.
I've seen enough enthusiasm about Linux games around here that I think people would buy them. More intriguingly, I think most gamers consider open source a less important issue than for tools such as operating systems and web servers.
I see people cheerfully talking playing closed-source games who would never even dream of using a closed-source OS.
Jim Clark is certainly not a perfect individual. But he's built up two major companies that have had a significant impact on the world as we see it today, and I fear that's a great deal more than the average Slashdotter has done -- or even Jon Katz.
In that context, I find it difficult to criticise his taste in nautical toys. If I had his kind of money, I'm sure I would indulge myself in a similar way. Those who risked their lives in the boat are similar to people who risk their lives climbing mountains; they knew there were risks when they signed on; they signed on because they wanted the experience (or the paycheck).
Sadly, I can't contribute much more because my copy of this book is presently wending its leisurely way from amazon.com:-(, but even after having read part of the book in the bookstore, I think a lambasting of Jim Clark and the author is misguided.
What I see - and I see it very often - is that a NT machine will start up pretty fast, slow down over a the course of a few hours of hard work and finally all but stop. At that point, the system may not have technically bluescreened, but it sure isn't any fun to work on. The only cure that I know of is a reboot.
I never see this problem on Unix systems - I think it has to do with the way Windows applications interact with the OS, with all the shared gunk that clogs up everything.
Oh, come now, NetPositive can handle images just fine:-).
I agree, though, sometimes I really hate client-side scripting. Nothing wrong with the concept, I suppose, but what it's really best for is slowing down and crashing browsers - no matter what platform you're using:-(.
Vital signs for Be aren't half bad, if you know where to look. Revenues are growing, and last time I looked, the stock price was holding up to about level with the offer price. That indicates to me that investor confidence is decent. Granted, not excellent, but hardly in "dead" mode either.
In terms of usability, we have things like e-picture, which is a very nice web graphics application, GoBe Productive, which is a fine office-style application, and of course NetPositive the web browser.
Linux users with a reasonably open mind would probably like GoBe Productive - it's not hideously bloated like StarOffice, and the functions it supports are smooth and cleanly designed. That's an unusual way of describing a contemporary office suite, isn't it?
If it weren't for the lack of JavaScript support in NetPositive, I'd say BeOS would do superbly as a Windows substitute. I would certainly not write it off by any means. When Mozilla is released, most of the problems associated with BeOS should disappear.
The main problems with Linux in my mind are cosmetic. I'm typing this message on an old SGI workstation which has far less computing power than my Linux boxes, but I like it better anyway, simply because it's pretty. I can read most of the fonts without wincing. BeOS is like that; they've put all the detail work into the user interface so it looks nice and will be immediately appealing to the consumer.
What I wonder is which is more cost-effective: Giving Linux a better look, or giving Be a better web browser. Considering how fun NetPositive is to use on web sites which support it, I wouldn't bet against the latter.
However, I fear it won't be ready for prime time as a mainstream system until it at least has a working version of Netscape Navigator or equivalent.
NetPositive is actually a fantastic browser, and I often use BeOS because I love the speed and smoothness with which it works. But it won't work at all on all too many web sites. Until they can get something that's feature-equivalent to Navigator, I don't think they will be able to do a good webtop box-style system.
But maybe I'm too pessimistic - after all, WebTV seems to be doing OK nowadays, and their support for pretty much everything is rather minimalistic. It must be a wretched experience, though, to browse on some of those "frames only" sites.
I've talked to a number of people about T1 versus DSL, and many DSL customers have had significant outages (for literally 5-8 hours or more at a time).
If you can possibly get T1, you should.
In many areas, frame relay T1 will save you money - if you're far away from the company offering a T1, Pacific Bell will sell you frame relay at a fixed price. I think it's about $ 450/month for the frame relay T1, so your cost for the co-op would be $650/month. This is in contrast with the equivalent (industrial strength business-style service) DSL for about $ 420 a month.
If I could get the deal, I'd take the money and run. Trust me on this one:-). Right now, I pay $1,500 a month for a T1's worth of bandwidth and an office in which the power goes off every other weekend:-(, and a T1 to my home would cost about the same.
If anyone offers a service like this in the Los Angeles area, please let me know. My email address is valid and on the post.
You'd think a company like Coke, which has to be in touch with consumer desires, could do better than that.
We are exploring innovative technology and communication systems that can actually improve product availability, promotional activity, and even offer consumers an interactive experience when they purchase a soft drink from a vending machine.
Now, nothing there says that this would not involve price changes. After all, "improv[ing] product availability" could be accomplished by raising the prices in times of hot weather.
My guess is that they did decide to do this, but are backing off because they now understand the firestorm of protest it would inspire.
The real tragedy, of course, is that they're the only company but AltaVista with the huge archive, and when I tried both I seem to remember Dejanews (the old version) was far superior to AV.
Unfortunately for your theory about loss of focus creating prolblems, dejanews.com started sliding downhill about a year ago (or maybe even more); each change of their user interface made the service harder and harder to use. I still remember my discussions with their very nice tech support chap, who said the idea was to make it easier for newbies. Well, I don't think there was a single grizzled old verteran user who didn't despise the changes:-(.
I'm wondering how they do now with the average chap, their targets. Ratings seem to have been a reasonable success, at least judging by the number and variety that have been created. But the USENET archive is, as you said, saddled with a horrid user interface now. It almost makes me tempted to do my own archive, if I could afford the massive capital needed to do it:-(.
It's true that sans serif fonts are in fact easier to read in large sizes and at a distance. That's why many people use helvetica in headings and times roman as body text, which I think generally looks pretty good (or rather it would, if the Linux helvetica wasn't so ghastly).
He seems like a nice guy, and I can't help but notice that people who have tried his product love it.
Before we flame him for not being open source, I think we should give the product a chance to prove itself. It sounds to me like it's shaping up to be a modest success, maybe more than that if it gets some buzz.
I like open source too, but I hate the level of hostility I see on the subject. Paul Nolan is a real person, with real feelings, and since he has worked very hard to create a good product, I think he deserves some respect.
As I said in another thread (replying to someone who felt the same way), I think he should port to BeOS as well. Be users seem to be used to paying for software, and don't seem to have the ideological baggage of many Linux folks.
Slashdot Mirror
If you apply this argument to Microsoft, you would be saying that Windows should be our National Operating system, and that it should be regulated in the name of fairness.
I don't think I need to elaborate as to why that bugs the heck out of me. Bill Gates might even want that particular outcome!
D
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Your viewpoint would be a shade more convincing if you made references to facts in the opinion that are verifiably wrong.
D
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You're right; KTOP did rip off the Windows NT task manager, which was about the only think I liked about Windows NT. :-) KTOP does have an interesting problem, though - its window size seems to be a big big. I'd love to have a version you could shrink and expand at will (which the NT manager doesn't do gracefully either).
However, I don't know if we want an Add New Hardware Wizard, at least not as MS did it. It struck me as a kludgey loss whenever I've used it.
Other than that, it strikes me that people are working on better equivalents of the other stuff on your list, and I suspect Windows source code is so tied into their API as to be basically useless anywhere else. The KDE folks have shown that worthwhile parts of Windows are clonable. Hey, I could probably do most of it in GTK myself (I'm more a C than a C++ hacker).
At any rate, I really doubt that a Linux-like community could be built out of open source Windows, so I suspect Gates has a lot to lose and nothing to gain from a Windows open source project.
What the antitrust findings of fact really tell me is what I'd suspected before: Microsoft knows it makes inferior products and is scared to death of anything that might threaten them. If this wasn't so, I really doubt that they would have dumped almost half a billion dollars into Internet Explorer.
D
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Most of the features I see in sites requiring recent browsers simply aren't worth it. I want useful, interesting information, not little programs that pop up and do useless things.
Personally, I look at my site in all browsers I can get, and if it doesn't look right, I tweak it until it's OK. I'm certainly not going to want to exclude someone just because his idea of the best browser is different from mine.
D
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I'm not a big MSIE fan myself, but you can easily switch off the smooth scrolling - I think it's in the preferences / advanced tab. One of about 1,000,000 options, but it's there, and once you find it, the irritating smooth scroll goes away.
I still pine for Netscape 3, which had a way better interface than Netscape 4. In fact, NS 4 stuck me as a bit of a copy of the then-current version of IE, which is exactly what I didn't want in a browser.
Generally, I won't use IE simply due to the symbolism - I hate Microsoft's junkware, and using IE proclaims to the world: "I use Microsoft's junkware, I'm a MS clone guy". So I only use IE to test my own web pages, and occasionally when I've found some sites that I need to access that don't work with NS.
Before using IE, I recommend you read Judge Jackson's findings of fact in the MS antitrust case. Made me sick to my stomach. Do I want to do what those bastards want me to?
NO!
D
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In all seriousness?
Even I do that sometimes.
I wish there was an Ask Slashdot on selling domain names. I'd really like to know if I could get half a million dollars for the thing, like many of the domain sales sites imply.
D
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Well, I think the same of "real" crackers too, to tell the truth. But "real" crackers are out challenging prominent sites that have administrative staffs who can take the heat.
I, well, I'm just me. I'm easy prey for script kiddies, because for the most part I don't care whether someone breaks into my system or not. But one of them did, and hacked PS. Since I need a working PS, I need to install Linux all over again, and frankly, I really don't have the time.
Script kiddies love people like me because we don't present a significant challenge. Crackers don't care because we present no challenge.
So script kiddies make me more upset than hackers because they're the only people who'd feel there's any point in cracking my system.
Anyone have a recommendation for a "secure out of the box" Linux distribution I could use? One that wouldn't prevent telnet, because unfortunately I have to get to my system from windows boxes that don't have stuff like ssh?
D
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UserFriendly, of course, is already doing this, although coverage is a bit thin, at least in my area.
I'm starting a new personals site that seems to have attracted some interesting people (albiet mostly in the UK). My main interest was in making a more creatively-oriented, entertaining personals site. The profile system is very individualistic; it makes the answers fun to read.
Visit it at http://207.151.18.18/ - and note that it's completely free to use - no strings, no catch, you can reply to anyone you want as soon as you set up an account.
My for-pay competition is at http://www.match.com (probably the best one), http://www.americansingles.com/ and http://www.adultfriendfinder.com . Incidentally, I think the latter is a scam for the most part.
http://www.relationships.com appears to be free, and it has some interesting profile ideas. However, like the other services, it strikes a "too corporate" note in my mind.
I hope you'll try mine (and the others, if it pleases you) and let me know what you think. Bear in mind that it's about a week old, so there won't be too many geographically desirable matches just yet. Give it a little time and you might be surprised.
D
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I ran Netscape years ago, and it had horrible memory leaks which forced frequent restarts and really brought down the performance of the system.
Apache has never given me a lick of trouble.
If their performance results mirror mine, I would guess that they're ramping up for the holiday season, where they expect billions of people to come in and buy books, toys, music and what-have-you.
It's strange, but they will always be books for me. It would take a major shake for me to consider another book vendor, but I don't know what it would take for me to buy toys or music there; I really like specialist companies and will probably continue buying from them.
D
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Each hour I spend on security is an hour I don't spend improving the content of my site - and that content benefits a lot of people.
Why shouldn't I be complacent about security? Why should I waste my time downloading patches, installing new stuff, and so on?
I suppose if there was top-secret information on my systems, I'd think otherwise, but the only really valuable stuff on my sites is what's already exposed to the public.
To me, script kiddies are evil, and the whole idea of breaking into other people's systems for a thrill is childish.
I think there should be extremely stiff penalties for being a script kiddie, and they should be enforced. People should go to jail for invading systems -- that would stop it right proper. It's no different morally than breaking into someone's house and burning it down.
D
----
Seems odd for the other fellow to count this as an off-topic post - it clearly relates to the topic.
need to be first = long hours in an ability to make an impossible deadline.
But it might be added that I'm not sure being first is necessarily that powerful.
Bill Gates didn't create the first personal computer operating system.
VHS was not the first consumer video format.
What people actually need is a compelling reason to switch. If you give them that, they will. The trick is finding out what that is, and executing well.
The advantages I see are pretty interesting.
Bill Gates leveraged the potent IBM brand to create the PC standard that we're still stuck with today. He also took advantage of the complacent nature of Lotus and WordPerfect when he brought out Excel and Word.
Panasonic/JVC realized peoplen needed longer recording times, and provided that in VHS.
Seems like a little more thought put into original product designs (in the case of VHS, anyway) might really help. Perhaps that's another lesson to the startup.
D
----
I just played around with this yesterday - ODBC access to mySQL data works very well. So all you have to do for the update is to write an VBA (the Access language) program to take the data from the access database and append it to a copy of it in mySQL. This should work very nicely.
I definitely want to emphasize what many others have: DO NOT use Access for a multi-user application. It will work just well enough to fool you into committing resources, and then it will fall on its face. You are much better off getting the data into mySQL as soon as humanly possible, and then going from there.
D
----
It builds, slowly, especially in markets like Linux games, where there is a high perceived risk. When the truth comes out about Linux games - whether good or ill - competition will decide whether to appear. Competition is only immediate when people assume that entering the market is a sure thing. Until then, well, there's always reluctance to be an early adapter.
I've seen enough enthusiasm about Linux games around here that I think people would buy them. More intriguingly, I think most gamers consider open source a less important issue than for tools such as operating systems and web servers.
I see people cheerfully talking playing closed-source games who would never even dream of using a closed-source OS.
D
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Jim Clark is certainly not a perfect individual. But he's built up two major companies that have had a significant impact on the world as we see it today, and I fear that's a great deal more than the average Slashdotter has done -- or even Jon Katz.
:-(, but even after having read part of the book in the bookstore, I think a lambasting of Jim Clark and the author is misguided.
In that context, I find it difficult to criticise his taste in nautical toys. If I had his kind of money, I'm sure I would indulge myself in a similar way. Those who risked their lives in the boat are similar to people who risk their lives climbing mountains; they knew there were risks when they signed on; they signed on because they wanted the experience (or the paycheck).
Sadly, I can't contribute much more because my copy of this book is presently wending its leisurely way from amazon.com
D
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What I see - and I see it very often - is that a NT machine will start up pretty fast, slow down over a the course of a few hours of hard work and finally all but stop. At that point, the system may not have technically bluescreened, but it sure isn't any fun to work on. The only cure that I know of is a reboot.
I never see this problem on Unix systems - I think it has to do with the way Windows applications interact with the OS, with all the shared gunk that clogs up everything.
D
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Oh, come now, NetPositive can handle images just fine :-).
:-(.
I agree, though, sometimes I really hate client-side scripting. Nothing wrong with the concept, I suppose, but what it's really best for is slowing down and crashing browsers - no matter what platform you're using
D
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Vital signs for Be aren't half bad, if you know where to look. Revenues are growing, and last time I looked, the stock price was holding up to about level with the offer price. That indicates to me that investor confidence is decent. Granted, not excellent, but hardly in "dead" mode either.
In terms of usability, we have things like e-picture, which is a very nice web graphics application, GoBe Productive, which is a fine office-style application, and of course NetPositive the web browser.
Linux users with a reasonably open mind would probably like GoBe Productive - it's not hideously bloated like StarOffice, and the functions it supports are smooth and cleanly designed. That's an unusual way of describing a contemporary office suite, isn't it?
If it weren't for the lack of JavaScript support in NetPositive, I'd say BeOS would do superbly as a Windows substitute. I would certainly not write it off by any means. When Mozilla is released, most of the problems associated with BeOS should disappear.
The main problems with Linux in my mind are cosmetic. I'm typing this message on an old SGI workstation which has far less computing power than my Linux boxes, but I like it better anyway, simply because it's pretty. I can read most of the fonts without wincing. BeOS is like that; they've put all the detail work into the user interface so it looks nice and will be immediately appealing to the consumer.
What I wonder is which is more cost-effective: Giving Linux a better look, or giving Be a better web browser. Considering how fun NetPositive is to use on web sites which support it, I wouldn't bet against the latter.
D
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Like most Be users, I love BeOS.
However, I fear it won't be ready for prime time as a mainstream system until it at least has a working version of Netscape Navigator or equivalent.
NetPositive is actually a fantastic browser, and I often use BeOS because I love the speed and smoothness with which it works. But it won't work at all on all too many web sites. Until they can get something that's feature-equivalent to Navigator, I don't think they will be able to do a good webtop box-style system.
But maybe I'm too pessimistic - after all, WebTV seems to be doing OK nowadays, and their support for pretty much everything is rather minimalistic. It must be a wretched experience, though, to browse on some of those "frames only" sites.
D
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Bizarre that it wound up anonymous, but I suppose that's life.
D
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I've talked to a number of people about T1 versus DSL, and many DSL customers have had significant outages (for literally 5-8 hours or more at a time).
:-). Right now, I pay $1,500 a month for a T1's worth of bandwidth and an office in which the power goes off every other weekend :-(, and a T1 to my home would cost about the same.
If you can possibly get T1, you should.
In many areas, frame relay T1 will save you money - if you're far away from the company offering a T1, Pacific Bell will sell you frame relay at a fixed price. I think it's about $ 450/month for the frame relay T1, so your cost for the co-op would be $650/month. This is in contrast with the equivalent (industrial strength business-style service) DSL for about $ 420 a month.
If I could get the deal, I'd take the money and run. Trust me on this one
If anyone offers a service like this in the Los Angeles area, please let me know. My email address is valid and on the post.
D
ISP FAQ: http://www.amazing.com/internet/
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You'd think a company like Coke, which has to be in touch with consumer desires, could do better than that.
We are exploring innovative technology and communication systems that can actually improve
product availability, promotional activity, and even offer consumers an interactive experience
when they purchase a soft drink from a vending machine.
Now, nothing there says that this would not involve price changes. After all, "improv[ing] product availability" could be accomplished by raising the prices in times of hot weather.
My guess is that they did decide to do this, but are backing off because they now understand the firestorm of protest it would inspire.
D
----
The real tragedy, of course, is that they're the only company but AltaVista with the huge archive, and when I tried both I seem to remember Dejanews (the old version) was far superior to AV.
:-(.
:-(.
Unfortunately for your theory about loss of focus creating prolblems, dejanews.com started sliding downhill about a year ago (or maybe even more); each change of their user interface made the service harder and harder to use. I still remember my discussions with their very nice tech support chap, who said the idea was to make it easier for newbies. Well, I don't think there was a single grizzled old verteran user who didn't despise the changes
I'm wondering how they do now with the average chap, their targets. Ratings seem to have been a reasonable success, at least judging by the number and variety that have been created. But the USENET archive is, as you said, saddled with a horrid user interface now. It almost makes me tempted to do my own archive, if I could afford the massive capital needed to do it
D
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Correct, and that - of course - was my point.
It's true that sans serif fonts are in fact easier to read in large sizes and at a distance. That's why many people use helvetica in headings and times roman as body text, which I think generally looks pretty good (or rather it would, if the Linux helvetica wasn't so ghastly).
D
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He seems like a nice guy, and I can't help but notice that people who have tried his product love it.
Before we flame him for not being open source, I think we should give the product a chance to prove itself. It sounds to me like it's shaping up to be a modest success, maybe more than that if it gets some buzz.
I like open source too, but I hate the level of hostility I see on the subject. Paul Nolan is a real person, with real feelings, and since he has worked very hard to create a good product, I think he deserves some respect.
As I said in another thread (replying to someone who felt the same way), I think he should port to BeOS as well. Be users seem to be used to paying for software, and don't seem to have the ideological baggage of many Linux folks.
D
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As someone who owns Linux, SGI and BeOS machines, I'd like to second this motion.
For graphics stuff, BeOS just feels better than anything, Linux or Windows or even Mac, aside.
D
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