If a government body wants to save costs, saying "it will create thousands of jobs" isn't exactly a good thing. Amazingly enough when people get jobs, they expect to be paid.
I knew it was familiar..
The launch of Windows Vista next year will be directly responsible for creating more than 50,000 IT jobs in six large European countries, and will lead to a flood of economic benefits for European companies, according to a Microsoft-funded IDC study released on Thursday.
I know the "year of Linux" thing is a running joke. My point is that I'm saddened that it has become a joke and nobody takes it seriously. It shouldn't be a joke. It shouldn't be something that people make fun of. It should be reality. Until this is reality, there is a whole range of hardware that I can't use because they're not supported on Linux.
Is it really important? Was there a year of Firefox? a year of XP. a year of OSX, a year of Palm? No.. Each one gradually got to a point where it was profitable to develop for the specific platform. And practically every pundit you ask will give a different year and a different reason. Linux is heading this way too. But not rushing headlong into a market share that could end up wrecking it. I've seen adoption figures ranging from.01% to 5-6% which is right, and which should be seen as the one to use for the year of Linux announcement?
The only thing there can be is a year people may look back on and say this was where Linux started to really go mainstream. It could be last year when the Dell Ubuntu PCs came out, or when the Eee started selling like hot cakes. Or this year with the surge in interest in low power computers from many mainstream OEMs that put Linux in the hands of the great unwashed, or it could be next year when something else comes out, or it could be a decade or more ago when people started putting Linux on servers and super computers. Who knows.. Perhaps someone will discover a hole so big in Windows that Microsoft can't possibly patch it, and Microsoft get dropped like a bad habit.
the year of Linux is a nice idea, but a pointless goal. It has been and will remain a joke.. and will continue right to the point where Microsoft threatens to take the FSF to court for anti competitive practices or something equally daft. And even then, someone will still say that Linux is not capable of being a desktop OS.
Can I buy any old machine from Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. that works with Ubuntu, and expect it to work fully (graphics, sound, wireless, etc.) with GNewSense?
If so, it would be a philosophically refreshing way of computing. Otherwise, pile it on the list of OS cruft that doesn't work.
And if the whole free part of FOSS is of ultimate importance to you, you will be carefully selecting individual components based on the availability of 100% open drivers, so an of the shelf machine would not be the one you want.
Personally, I have no use for this kind of distro either, but I'm not a "free or nothing" Linux user. I use the Nvidia drivers, I use the Gstreamer codec packs, I listen to MP3s and watch and create DVDs. I even play commercial games.. Shocking I know, but I'm still a Linux user. So I'm not the target group. Nor is the run if the mill Linux user. It is a special purpose distro. And as such, it fulfils its criteria.
To put it in non software terms.. If you need to do something on a flat surface, so you put it on a table or do you pay for a very expensive cast iron machined "mechanically flat" reference surface? This is the equivalent of an engineering reference measurement for Linux, not an everyday distro. Which is most likely why the FSF are sponsoring it.
Sigh, 7 replies later and I'm still getting this kind of one-liner replies. Maybe you people don't care about Linux on the desktop after all?
Nope.. Too busy using it and enjoying myself. And next week I'm going to be installing a Linux distro on an old PC for a friend who wants to connect it up to his TV. So add another Linux user to the tally:-)
You are getting the one liners because you are taking it far too seriously, and people are making fun of you. I have no idea how long you have been a Linux user, but to be honest, you give the impression of someone who has just discovered it, and now sees it as your vocation in life to convert the world.
The year of Linux thing is a running joke. Nobody with any sense takes it seriously. Non Linux users make the year of Linux joke, non OSX users wind OSX users up by suggesting that Apple might not be perfect, and watch the rationalisations. And everyone laughs at Vista. This is the way of things.. forums are hotbeds of petty arguments and ill informed arguments. If a requirement for posting on/. was to have a valid point, then there wouldn't be very many posts.
Linux is not.....
A universal OS that every person on the planet should use..At gunpoint if required.
We want people to come and use Linux, so we talk about it. But only if it is right for them. If it isn't they have alternatives to use. And I hope they have a good time using their computers. researching a motherboard for Linux compatibility is not everyone's idea of a fun time.
The OS that is going to kill Microsoft...
They are far more likely to do that themselves. They lost me and many others at WGA, and quite a few others with Vista. And no doubt, future actions will make even more Linux users.
A cure for baldness..
Although some of the problems that I have had certainly contributed to my lack of follicle count from time to time.
Relax, enjoy Linux. Do cool stuff, and brag about it. Write a howto if you can, so others can do the same cool stuff. And if a distro doesn't do what you want, try another. If you enjoy Linux, by all means help someone to get up and running with it, but don't try to convert someone to Linux because it is Linux. Do it because it suits the individual person's use of their computer better. It's an operating system, not a religion.
Aploogies for taking so long to reply.. ISP and email account problems..
Okay. I Implied that Gimp was for graphic designers. Maybe that was the problem.:) Or not... I don't know. I think the more people you can make happy, the better. So because I'm a creative person *and* a logic person, I'd build my apps for those, and then ask others for unfamiliar target groups. It would be cool if the Gimp developers had that mindset, or someone would simply build another interface for their backend.
I think they feel the same way. The goal is always to make the best program possible. But does anybody ever finish a program? Adobe have not finished Photoshop. Only made it fit for the purpose of their target market. The next version of Photoshop will be better. Just like the next version of Gimp..
The Gimp Devs are working on UI matters, so it isn't a task they are ignoring, just not focusing on to the cost of other stuff.
Commercially produced financially supported software has a different set of priorities. Polish is sometimes as important as the capabilities of the app. the dodgy bits underneath can be sorted out later.
Nothing. And everything. At the same time.:) I simply offer more than one UI. And when proper done, I can even offer everything in between The UI should be separated from the logic anyway. (Do you say "anyway" or "anyways"?) Planning and developing such things is one of my hobbies.:)
A good idea. I have no idea if Gimp is a modular enough design or not, so how simple it would be I don't know. Gimp has years of code that is not likely to be thrown out unless there is a fantastic reason. And I would guess that getting a few more users is not really a good enough reason from the maker's point of view. Nothing to stop you suggesting such a thing though, along with any suggestions you have for UI design. They do have a feedback mechanism, along with some people specifically in charge of developing the UI. See above link.. And the correct word is "anyway". Your english is better than my any other language, so no problem.
If you are interested in UI design, perhaps getting involved in the Gimp project would be an interesting experience.
I never said something about a "market". Money should play no direct role here.
My fault. User base is a more appropriate phrase.
My incentive is, to make everyone happy with my projects and ideas, and not only propagate trough breeding, but trough spreading of my reality / mindset too. Because in the end, we're just expanding biomass and information. It's a part of my interpretation of the meaning of life.
It is a good philosophy, but how you apply it depends on the time scale you are looking at, and the available resources. I tend to be more pragmatic. You can never please everyone.
The interface may be a barrier to some, but not all. Even with a perfect interface, there are tools that are missing and functions that make Gimp useless for graphic designers, but more than adequate for other users. So an interface aimed at someone who can not get their work done without the missing tools is a waste of resources.
Cinepaint is a variation of Gimp, and it is used by some of the biggest computer graphics houses. So function can be more important than form. Cinepaint does not have a very user friendly interface either. Yet it has the features these users need, so it is used.
Well, I'm not saying Linux is attacking... just that it's threatening to Microsoft. Linux is still causing Microsoft to be on the defensive, in no small part simply because its simply experiencing a nice rate of growth in the market.
Exactly. The existence of an alternative is something that Microsoft sees as damaging, so reacts in the way it does. Personally, my ideal future would be an at least three way split between Microsoft, Apple and the various *nixes. Each company/project would have a tangible incentive to make their products as cross platform as possible, and nobody would control a market that is too important to everyone to be dominated by anybody. More challenging for the companies, and better for users of any system.
So, no, the developers of Linux aren't necessarily doing it with the goal of beating Microsoft, it's just kind of, sort of, kind of doing it as a side effect. Quoth Linus Torvalds: "Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect."
Which seems to be the thing that the "Linux will never take over the desktop until.." repeaters don't seem to understand. There is no need to take anything over. Linux doesn't do invasion.. but is quite good at erosion.
Linus knows he's not into it to "destroy" Microsoft, but he does believe that it will merely as an effect of Linux beginning to thin out Microsoft's control of the market. A lot of cynics don't believe the year of Linux on the desktop has happened yet, I respectfully disagree, thanks to distributions like Ubuntu, MintOS, Freespire, and gOS, we've officially arrived.
Because punching through a wall is much harder than going around it. Traditional corporate entities have no answer to open source (not just Linux)
I agree with the "year of Linux" having arrived long ago. Mine was 2006 with a Knoppix boot disk and a faulty PC that crashed every half an hour or less due to damage from a blown video card. I was amazed that it worked so well.
Microsoft, in essence, is beginning to get backed into a corner by the open source community because it has found that it just can't squish them like a competing company or product that's based on the "tried and true" proprietary methods. In effect, the Cathedral is failing to destroy the Bazaar, but the Bazaar is beginning to nicely bring down the Cathedral.
I agree on the result, but not so much on the cause. I don't think Linux is actually attacking anything. Microsoft seems to be on the defensive in some cases, yes.. But only because they seem to get a bit over excited when they perceive anybody getting a toe hold in "their" computer industry.
Microsoft is now faced with a big problem. They like to FUD, but if they FUD Linux in general, they have the risk of fallout of their FUD hitting the Linux distributions they want to be sold, like SuSE. Maybe Microsoft, in light of this, might start targetting specific distributions with extensive FUD. Red Hat and Ubuntu are likely targets, both being threats in the server and desktop market, respectively, and didn't even entertain the notion of signing a cross-patent deal with Microsoft.
Not sure they can without sounding more and more shrill. Some will believe the PR stunts, just as some take the Mojave campaign seriously. Linux is different to any product they ahve attacked. No product they can undercut, no product they can blundle
Now we have the GPLv3, which essentially outlaws those kinds of deals. Microsoft can't effectively target Linux distributors anymore without running the risk of running afoul of the GPL.
True.. It doesn't stop Microsoft trying to bugger things up fro the inside, but it does make things way more complicated.
Not they cannot. Certainly a watch can have a phone function. Yellow(tm) would sue the telephone maker into oblivion.
And what if Yellow(tm) decided to come out with a line of hats with a built in watch? Or even just a "hat clip" for their watch?
Ahh.. like apple (fruit) Apple (computers and music players and now phones) And Apple (Records).. One is a fruit, another sells consumer electronics,and the other publishes music, and so long as Apple consumer electronics don't get into the music business, everything is ok..
Indeed. People have actually been giving Novell a little more flak than it deserves, despite falling for the patent FUD.
But do the people who are giving the flak actually buy the Novell support contracts? Unless I'm mistaken, Suse has a community version and a corporate version. If they lose users in the community, it may be embarrassing, but not damaging as such. And if they can get more customers in mixed environments to switch to Suse, then they have made a good choice. Problem is, I don't think being blessed by Microsoft is as big a sales point as they thought it would be.
My favorite example is how people seem to think Novell is some sort of MS lackey, despite no real evidence Novell actually is under any MS control.
Lacky or not, it has been used as a propaganda tool by Microsoft despite Novell's insistence in press releases that they don't have any code covered by any named MS patent. It is unclear what Microsoft could actually do to harm Linux via Novell that would not have a very big risk of blowing up in their face.
That and Red Hat seems to be a bit smarter than Novell. They knew despite public perception of Novell getting gobs of $$$ from Microsoft in their cross-patent deal, they'd lose in the long term.
It's the lesson of $5 now vs. $10 in a year, except Microsoft isn't offering the $10 in a year, only more threats.
Who can say. The benefit of being associated with Microsoft doesn't seem to have been that beneficial.
I suppose $100m will pay some Mono developers' salaries for a while longer, though I reckon if they wanted to really support Linux interoperability and suchlike, they'd have bought RedHat vouchers instead/as well.
They tried to offer the same deal to Red Hat more than once I think. But while Red Hat was quite happy to offer to work work with them on interoperability as much as they liked, they refused to enter into any cross patent protection deal like Novell. So no "You open source commies are stealing our IP" deal was possible.
Marketing is changing nothing. Now I hear this new Windows Mojave rocks! I can't wait till it gets released!!!
Then you're really going to like Mojave Linux!
The interesting thing is... Could Microsoft sue them for using the name of an imaginary Microsoft product?
You could have the camera synchronize with the atomic time (or the time off a local cell network). Assuming you haven't hacked the camera's firmware (which, even if you had the motive, would be easy enough to detect if they examined the physical camera... i.e. take another picture with it), it'd be safe to assume that the picture was then taken when it says it was taken. If it also embedded GPS coordinates, it would be even more failproof. Taking a picture of a picture would be possible, but even then the timestamp (or GPS tags) would probably give away the fact that it was taken at a later time and place.
A very complex way to do very little.
How to defeat the whole thing..
Assume the parking ticket evidence for want of a better scenario..
Parking warden has it in for subject "A", so they get a friend to knock up a good image of subject A parking illegally and make a print of sufficient size to allow photographic duplication by taking a picture of the print.
Take the print to the place where the alleged offence occurred, and take a photo of the doctored photo. The GPS and time stamp are perfectly ok, and will make it even harder to prove any trickery. There is no second photo to complicate anything, just a photo of the doctored photo.
Nah. I absolutely *hate* oversimplification aka stupidification.:)
Same here. I've played around with the tramlines type apps too, but only for a few minutes. I don't even like the extra effects in some cameras. Much better to do this on the computer with an adequate package.
I wrote a large posting about why the UIs of open source software is the way it is: The developers had to only make it perfect for themselves. So that's what they did. Unfortunately, developers are no graphical artists. They are developers. They think like developers. But most people do not. So there's a huge chance that it's not fitting with those people. This is going to stay, because it's no problem for the developers. They are of course happy the way it is.
And if your intended audience is mostly developers and people of similar mindset, then I'd call that a success. Graphic designers are not Gimp users. You are approaching the problem from your own perspective, or even worse, the Joe Sixpack perspective. Nothing wrong with the former, but unless you are the target audience, you will be setting yourself up for a frustrating time. you will only ever be able to say why something works or does not work for you , not why it does or does not work for me.
Gimp is designed with Linux as it's primary platform. So it isn't going to be as comfortable to use in Windows, and I have heard it is exceptionally horrible on a Mac. Linux users tend to develop a different mind set, so it works ok for us. And ok is good enough for now.
So there is no absolute "good" or "bad"... as always.
Agreed. It is too complex and too subjective a matter for any agreement to ever break out. Perhaps we can agree that we have different concepts of good enough, and different requirements.
I dislike Gimp's interface because it simply does not make any sense to me. But hey, I can only speak for myself and what others that I trust told me about their opinion.
Perfectly rational position. I'd hazard a guess that many of not all the people who you spoke to about this were also Photoshop users or designers of some sort. Personally I find Gimp to be quite logical, and each time I learn a new method, I increase my familiarity. But then, I don't have a lot of baggage from a different UI. So I'm learning the Gimp way instead of trying to translate from Photoshop to Gimp.
Conclusion: Gimp needs some fresh people who come from the designer side in the first place, and then a huge makeover. (This does not mean that the actual state has to go. It does simply become one of many UI modes.)
That is the problem. And Adobe faces the exact same problem, as does any established project or program. Which is why UI design is such a complex field.
How much do you change the app at once? Gimp is established, with a large community of users. Photoshop may be bigger, especially if you count all the pirate copies out there, but a user base is a user base, and annoying them is never a good idea.
Strange as it may seem from the outside, there are people who are quite happy with Gimp, and they don't have to turn out commercial grade work, so it is perfectly adequate for their needs right now. A professional graphic designer pays exactly the same price as some beginner who just wants to resize a baby picture to send to their aunt Gertrude, so what is the incentive to make Gimp for the graphic design market?
Gimp? Naaah, Gimp does not allow anyone (other than the developers) to alter photographs. Or do anything useful.
It allows you to explode your head by trying to use it, sure. And if you survive, you still have to force it to let you alter photographs.
But that's about it.:D
That would be where the skill aspect comes in.
Gimp is sadly missing the "delete Drunk Uncle George", and "whiten Aunt Maggie's yellow teeth" buttons.
You could digitally sign it with a certificate built into the camera and that uses a secure timestamps from a trusted source.
Unless you take a picture of a picture that has been altered.. Timestamps and certificates are always only as good as the issuing authority, and the ability to get around them, and can be manipulated. At best, it proves that a given camera was used on a given day, and that a particular image was produced. the origin and interpretation is still up for grabs.
I'm sure they do exist - the only thing is, you have to wade through numerous anti-rabid-Apple-fanboy comments to get to a single rabid-Apple-fanboy comment on any given Apple related article.
Conditioned response. So much Apple fanboy action over the years, that the non Apple users want to get their comment in a pre-emptive post. Worked well on Engadget. After every non iphone article had a non apple person post "OMG they copied Apple", along with the most mundane feature list, the iFans stopped claiming that Apple invented everything from multi touch to icons with rounded corners and metallic trim..
You must admit.. they are entertaining. The logical contortions required to buy a phone and defend it's limited phone ability a phone is quite impressive. I have nothing against Apple, I don't buy any of their gear because it doesn't fit with my tastes, and apart from the iPod, it isn't very common here in the UK. I just come here to watch the RDS in full display.
Anyone else think that the shroud mode sounds a lot like the spirit mode in Prey? Especially the part about symbols on the wall changing into things when you go into shroud mode.
Its way older than that. Prey only came out fairly recently. There was a vampire game, one of the legacy of Kain series from 1999 http://www.dark-chronicle.co.uk/sr1/index.php?id=2 I think. Perhaps even earlier implementations of shroud/spirit/reality shift etc. And I'm sure there are movies with this plot device too that pre-date even that. Even Zelda on the Wii has this switching realms thing as a plot device. Pretty cheap to do too. change the lighting, put different texture maps on the models and characters, and you have double the gameplay with less effort. Put a switch to remove collision detection on the enemies in one ream, and you can even do things like walking through people when travelling in the ghost mode.
There is no reason to not use such a plot device. After all, a FPS is a FPS. The details and setting may change, but when it comes down to it, shoot the monsters, pull the switches, collect the tokens, and move on to bigger better monsters and weapons... and repeat on new map. Is there really any FPS that deviates much from this? Its a well tested successful format for a game, People like it, the engines, once created can be used to make more similar games, and making third party maps and mods is a well established shelf life extender.
Slashdot Mirror
If a government body wants to save costs, saying "it will create thousands of jobs" isn't exactly a good thing. Amazingly enough when people get jobs, they expect to be paid.
I knew it was familiar..
The launch of Windows Vista next year will be directly responsible for creating more than 50,000 IT jobs in six large European countries, and will lead to a flood of economic benefits for European companies, according to a Microsoft-funded IDC study released on Thursday.
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39283327,00.htm
I know the "year of Linux" thing is a running joke. My point is that I'm saddened that it has become a joke and nobody takes it seriously. It shouldn't be a joke. It shouldn't be something that people make fun of. It should be reality. Until this is reality, there is a whole range of hardware that I can't use because they're not supported on Linux.
Is it really important? Was there a year of Firefox? a year of XP. a year of OSX, a year of Palm? No.. Each one gradually got to a point where it was profitable to develop for the specific platform. And practically every pundit you ask will give a different year and a different reason. Linux is heading this way too. But not rushing headlong into a market share that could end up wrecking it. I've seen adoption figures ranging from .01% to 5-6% which is right, and which should be seen as the one to use for the year of Linux announcement?
The only thing there can be is a year people may look back on and say this was where Linux started to really go mainstream. It could be last year when the Dell Ubuntu PCs came out, or when the Eee started selling like hot cakes. Or this year with the surge in interest in low power computers from many mainstream OEMs that put Linux in the hands of the great unwashed, or it could be next year when something else comes out, or it could be a decade or more ago when people started putting Linux on servers and super computers. Who knows.. Perhaps someone will discover a hole so big in Windows that Microsoft can't possibly patch it, and Microsoft get dropped like a bad habit.
the year of Linux is a nice idea, but a pointless goal. It has been and will remain a joke.. and will continue right to the point where Microsoft threatens to take the FSF to court for anti competitive practices or something equally daft. And even then, someone will still say that Linux is not capable of being a desktop OS.
Can I buy any old machine from Dell, HP, Lenovo, etc. that works with Ubuntu, and expect it to work fully (graphics, sound, wireless, etc.) with GNewSense?
If so, it would be a philosophically refreshing way of computing. Otherwise, pile it on the list of OS cruft that doesn't work.
And if the whole free part of FOSS is of ultimate importance to you, you will be carefully selecting individual components based on the availability of 100% open drivers, so an of the shelf machine would not be the one you want.
Personally, I have no use for this kind of distro either, but I'm not a "free or nothing" Linux user. I use the Nvidia drivers, I use the Gstreamer codec packs, I listen to MP3s and watch and create DVDs. I even play commercial games.. Shocking I know, but I'm still a Linux user. So I'm not the target group. Nor is the run if the mill Linux user. It is a special purpose distro. And as such, it fulfils its criteria.
To put it in non software terms.. If you need to do something on a flat surface, so you put it on a table or do you pay for a very expensive cast iron machined "mechanically flat" reference surface? This is the equivalent of an engineering reference measurement for Linux, not an everyday distro. Which is most likely why the FSF are sponsoring it.
Sigh, 7 replies later and I'm still getting this kind of one-liner replies. Maybe you people don't care about Linux on the desktop after all?
Nope.. Too busy using it and enjoying myself. And next week I'm going to be installing a Linux distro on an old PC for a friend who wants to connect it up to his TV. So add another Linux user to the tally :-)
You are getting the one liners because you are taking it far too seriously, and people are making fun of you. I have no idea how long you have been a Linux user, but to be honest, you give the impression of someone who has just discovered it, and now sees it as your vocation in life to convert the world.
The year of Linux thing is a running joke. Nobody with any sense takes it seriously. Non Linux users make the year of Linux joke, non OSX users wind OSX users up by suggesting that Apple might not be perfect, and watch the rationalisations. And everyone laughs at Vista. This is the way of things.. forums are hotbeds of petty arguments and ill informed arguments. If a requirement for posting on /. was to have a valid point, then there wouldn't be very many posts.
Linux is not.....
A universal OS that every person on the planet should use..At gunpoint if required.
We want people to come and use Linux, so we talk about it. But only if it is right for them. If it isn't they have alternatives to use. And I hope they have a good time using their computers. researching a motherboard for Linux compatibility is not everyone's idea of a fun time.
The OS that is going to kill Microsoft...
They are far more likely to do that themselves. They lost me and many others at WGA, and quite a few others with Vista. And no doubt, future actions will make even more Linux users.
A cure for baldness..
Although some of the problems that I have had certainly contributed to my lack of follicle count from time to time.
Relax, enjoy Linux. Do cool stuff, and brag about it. Write a howto if you can, so others can do the same cool stuff. And if a distro doesn't do what you want, try another. If you enjoy Linux, by all means help someone to get up and running with it, but don't try to convert someone to Linux because it is Linux. Do it because it suits the individual person's use of their computer better. It's an operating system, not a religion.
And do you see how irrelevant that is to the discussion at hand?
Nope.. Perhaps you can explain.
How many computers do you honestly think there are out there that have more than a single user?
Well.. On mine. Root, my personal account and a low privilege guest account for someone who drops by and needs to get on the net for a minute.
Not unless Linux gains 50+% of the end-user market share.
Provided it's the 50%+ from the stupid end...
Aploogies for taking so long to reply.. ISP and email account problems..
Okay. I Implied that Gimp was for graphic designers. Maybe that was the problem. :)
Or not... I don't know. I think the more people you can make happy, the better. So because I'm a creative person *and* a logic person, I'd build my apps for those, and then ask others for unfamiliar target groups.
It would be cool if the Gimp developers had that mindset, or someone would simply build another interface for their backend.
I think they feel the same way. The goal is always to make the best program possible. But does anybody ever finish a program? Adobe have not finished Photoshop. Only made it fit for the purpose of their target market. The next version of Photoshop will be better. Just like the next version of Gimp..
The Gimp Devs are working on UI matters, so it isn't a task they are ignoring, just not focusing on to the cost of other stuff.
http://gui.gimp.org/index.php/GIMP_UI_Redesign
Commercially produced financially supported software has a different set of priorities. Polish is sometimes as important as the capabilities of the app. the dodgy bits underneath can be sorted out later.
Nothing. And everything. At the same time. :) :)
I simply offer more than one UI. And when proper done, I can even offer everything in between
The UI should be separated from the logic anyway. (Do you say "anyway" or "anyways"?)
Planning and developing such things is one of my hobbies.
A good idea. I have no idea if Gimp is a modular enough design or not, so how simple it would be I don't know. Gimp has years of code that is not likely to be thrown out unless there is a fantastic reason. And I would guess that getting a few more users is not really a good enough reason from the maker's point of view. Nothing to stop you suggesting such a thing though, along with any suggestions you have for UI design. They do have a feedback mechanism, along with some people specifically in charge of developing the UI. See above link.. And the correct word is "anyway". Your english is better than my any other language, so no problem.
If you are interested in UI design, perhaps getting involved in the Gimp project would be an interesting experience.
I never said something about a "market". Money should play no direct role here.
My fault. User base is a more appropriate phrase.
My incentive is, to make everyone happy with my projects and ideas, and not only propagate trough breeding, but trough spreading of my reality / mindset too.
Because in the end, we're just expanding biomass and information.
It's a part of my interpretation of the meaning of life.
It is a good philosophy, but how you apply it depends on the time scale you are looking at, and the available resources. I tend to be more pragmatic. You can never please everyone.
The interface may be a barrier to some, but not all. Even with a perfect interface, there are tools that are missing and functions that make Gimp useless for graphic designers, but more than adequate for other users. So an interface aimed at someone who can not get their work done without the missing tools is a waste of resources.
Cinepaint is a variation of Gimp, and it is used by some of the biggest computer graphics houses. So function can be more important than form. Cinepaint does not have a very user friendly interface either. Yet it has the features these users need, so it is used.
Well, I'm not saying Linux is attacking... just that it's threatening to Microsoft. Linux is still causing Microsoft to be on the defensive, in no small part simply because its simply experiencing a nice rate of growth in the market.
Exactly. The existence of an alternative is something that Microsoft sees as damaging, so reacts in the way it does. Personally, my ideal future would be an at least three way split between Microsoft, Apple and the various *nixes. Each company/project would have a tangible incentive to make their products as cross platform as possible, and nobody would control a market that is too important to everyone to be dominated by anybody. More challenging for the companies, and better for users of any system.
So, no, the developers of Linux aren't necessarily doing it with the goal of beating Microsoft, it's just kind of, sort of, kind of doing it as a side effect. Quoth Linus Torvalds: "Really, I'm not out to destroy Microsoft. That will just be a completely unintentional side effect."
Which seems to be the thing that the "Linux will never take over the desktop until.." repeaters don't seem to understand. There is no need to take anything over. Linux doesn't do invasion.. but is quite good at erosion.
Linus knows he's not into it to "destroy" Microsoft, but he does believe that it will merely as an effect of Linux beginning to thin out Microsoft's control of the market. A lot of cynics don't believe the year of Linux on the desktop has happened yet, I respectfully disagree, thanks to distributions like Ubuntu, MintOS, Freespire, and gOS, we've officially arrived.
Because punching through a wall is much harder than going around it. Traditional corporate entities have no answer to open source (not just Linux)
I agree with the "year of Linux" having arrived long ago. Mine was 2006 with a Knoppix boot disk and a faulty PC that crashed every half an hour or less due to damage from a blown video card. I was amazed that it worked so well.
Microsoft, in essence, is beginning to get backed into a corner by the open source community because it has found that it just can't squish them like a competing company or product that's based on the "tried and true" proprietary methods. In effect, the Cathedral is failing to destroy the Bazaar, but the Bazaar is beginning to nicely bring down the Cathedral.
I agree on the result, but not so much on the cause. I don't think Linux is actually attacking anything. Microsoft seems to be on the defensive in some cases, yes.. But only because they seem to get a bit over excited when they perceive anybody getting a toe hold in "their" computer industry.
Microsoft is now faced with a big problem. They like to FUD, but if they FUD Linux in general, they have the risk of fallout of their FUD hitting the Linux distributions they want to be sold, like SuSE. Maybe Microsoft, in light of this, might start targetting specific distributions with extensive FUD. Red Hat and Ubuntu are likely targets, both being threats in the server and desktop market, respectively, and didn't even entertain the notion of signing a cross-patent deal with Microsoft.
Not sure they can without sounding more and more shrill. Some will believe the PR stunts, just as some take the Mojave campaign seriously. Linux is different to any product they ahve attacked. No product they can undercut, no product they can blundle
Now we have the GPLv3, which essentially outlaws those kinds of deals. Microsoft can't effectively target Linux distributors anymore without running the risk of running afoul of the GPL.
True.. It doesn't stop Microsoft trying to bugger things up fro the inside, but it does make things way more complicated.
Not they cannot. Certainly a watch can have a phone function. Yellow(tm) would sue the telephone maker into oblivion.
And what if Yellow(tm) decided to come out with a line of hats with a built in watch? Or even just a "hat clip" for their watch?
Ahh.. like apple (fruit) Apple (computers and music players and now phones) And Apple (Records).. One is a fruit, another sells consumer electronics,and the other publishes music, and so long as Apple consumer electronics don't get into the music business, everything is ok..
Oops.....
Indeed. People have actually been giving Novell a little more flak than it deserves, despite falling for the patent FUD.
But do the people who are giving the flak actually buy the Novell support contracts? Unless I'm mistaken, Suse has a community version and a corporate version. If they lose users in the community, it may be embarrassing, but not damaging as such. And if they can get more customers in mixed environments to switch to Suse, then they have made a good choice. Problem is, I don't think being blessed by Microsoft is as big a sales point as they thought it would be.
My favorite example is how people seem to think Novell is some sort of MS lackey, despite no real evidence Novell actually is under any MS control.
Lacky or not, it has been used as a propaganda tool by Microsoft despite Novell's insistence in press releases that they don't have any code covered by any named MS patent. It is unclear what Microsoft could actually do to harm Linux via Novell that would not have a very big risk of blowing up in their face.
Maybe I should have read your response more carefully. Agreed, there is no simple set of inputs that crash all human minds.
Oh no? Steve Ballmer at the bottom of your bed wearing a thong.
That and Red Hat seems to be a bit smarter than Novell. They knew despite public perception of Novell getting gobs of $$$ from Microsoft in their cross-patent deal, they'd lose in the long term. It's the lesson of $5 now vs. $10 in a year, except Microsoft isn't offering the $10 in a year, only more threats.
Who can say. The benefit of being associated with Microsoft doesn't seem to have been that beneficial.
I suppose $100m will pay some Mono developers' salaries for a while longer, though I reckon if they wanted to really support Linux interoperability and suchlike, they'd have bought RedHat vouchers instead/as well.
They tried to offer the same deal to Red Hat more than once I think. But while Red Hat was quite happy to offer to work work with them on interoperability as much as they liked, they refused to enter into any cross patent protection deal like Novell. So no "You open source commies are stealing our IP" deal was possible.
Marketing is changing nothing. Now I hear this new Windows Mojave rocks! I can't wait till it gets released!!! Then you're really going to like Mojave Linux!
The interesting thing is... Could Microsoft sue them for using the name of an imaginary Microsoft product?
You could have the camera synchronize with the atomic time (or the time off a local cell network). Assuming you haven't hacked the camera's firmware (which, even if you had the motive, would be easy enough to detect if they examined the physical camera ... i.e. take another picture with it), it'd be safe to assume that the picture was then taken when it says it was taken. If it also embedded GPS coordinates, it would be even more failproof. Taking a picture of a picture would be possible, but even then the timestamp (or GPS tags) would probably give away the fact that it was taken at a later time and place.
A very complex way to do very little. How to defeat the whole thing.. Assume the parking ticket evidence for want of a better scenario.. Parking warden has it in for subject "A", so they get a friend to knock up a good image of subject A parking illegally and make a print of sufficient size to allow photographic duplication by taking a picture of the print. Take the print to the place where the alleged offence occurred, and take a photo of the doctored photo. The GPS and time stamp are perfectly ok, and will make it even harder to prove any trickery. There is no second photo to complicate anything, just a photo of the doctored photo.
Nah. I absolutely *hate* oversimplification aka stupidification. :)
Same here. I've played around with the tramlines type apps too, but only for a few minutes. I don't even like the extra effects in some cameras. Much better to do this on the computer with an adequate package.
I wrote a large posting about why the UIs of open source software is the way it is: The developers had to only make it perfect for themselves. So that's what they did. Unfortunately, developers are no graphical artists. They are developers. They think like developers.
But most people do not. So there's a huge chance that it's not fitting with those people. This is going to stay, because it's no problem for the developers. They are of course happy the way it is.
And if your intended audience is mostly developers and people of similar mindset, then I'd call that a success. Graphic designers are not Gimp users. You are approaching the problem from your own perspective, or even worse, the Joe Sixpack perspective. Nothing wrong with the former, but unless you are the target audience, you will be setting yourself up for a frustrating time. you will only ever be able to say why something works or does not work for you , not why it does or does not work for me.
Gimp is designed with Linux as it's primary platform. So it isn't going to be as comfortable to use in Windows, and I have heard it is exceptionally horrible on a Mac. Linux users tend to develop a different mind set, so it works ok for us. And ok is good enough for now.
So there is no absolute "good" or "bad"... as always.
Agreed. It is too complex and too subjective a matter for any agreement to ever break out. Perhaps we can agree that we have different concepts of good enough, and different requirements.
I dislike Gimp's interface because it simply does not make any sense to me. But hey, I can only speak for myself and what others that I trust told me about their opinion.
Perfectly rational position. I'd hazard a guess that many of not all the people who you spoke to about this were also Photoshop users or designers of some sort. Personally I find Gimp to be quite logical, and each time I learn a new method, I increase my familiarity. But then, I don't have a lot of baggage from a different UI. So I'm learning the Gimp way instead of trying to translate from Photoshop to Gimp.
Conclusion: Gimp needs some fresh people who come from the designer side in the first place, and then a huge makeover. (This does not mean that the actual state has to go. It does simply become one of many UI modes.)
That is the problem. And Adobe faces the exact same problem, as does any established project or program. Which is why UI design is such a complex field.
How much do you change the app at once? Gimp is established, with a large community of users. Photoshop may be bigger, especially if you count all the pirate copies out there, but a user base is a user base, and annoying them is never a good idea.
Strange as it may seem from the outside, there are people who are quite happy with Gimp, and they don't have to turn out commercial grade work, so it is perfectly adequate for their needs right now. A professional graphic designer pays exactly the same price as some beginner who just wants to resize a baby picture to send to their aunt Gertrude, so what is the incentive to make Gimp for the graphic design market?
If it's the former, it doesn't make sense. How can the statement "nothing is true" be true?
It isn't. Nothing is a lie.
Gimp? Naaah, Gimp does not allow anyone (other than the developers) to alter photographs. Or do anything useful. It allows you to explode your head by trying to use it, sure. And if you survive, you still have to force it to let you alter photographs. But that's about it. :D
That would be where the skill aspect comes in. Gimp is sadly missing the "delete Drunk Uncle George", and "whiten Aunt Maggie's yellow teeth" buttons.
You could digitally sign it with a certificate built into the camera and that uses a secure timestamps from a trusted source.
Unless you take a picture of a picture that has been altered.. Timestamps and certificates are always only as good as the issuing authority, and the ability to get around them, and can be manipulated. At best, it proves that a given camera was used on a given day, and that a particular image was produced. the origin and interpretation is still up for grabs.
I'm sure they do exist - the only thing is, you have to wade through numerous anti-rabid-Apple-fanboy comments to get to a single rabid-Apple-fanboy comment on any given Apple related article.
Conditioned response. So much Apple fanboy action over the years, that the non Apple users want to get their comment in a pre-emptive post. Worked well on Engadget. After every non iphone article had a non apple person post "OMG they copied Apple", along with the most mundane feature list, the iFans stopped claiming that Apple invented everything from multi touch to icons with rounded corners and metallic trim..
You must admit.. they are entertaining. The logical contortions required to buy a phone and defend it's limited phone ability a phone is quite impressive. I have nothing against Apple, I don't buy any of their gear because it doesn't fit with my tastes, and apart from the iPod, it isn't very common here in the UK. I just come here to watch the RDS in full display.
Or if you jump to literature... there's the ring from the Lord of the Ring trilogy.
Yes!! I knew I had seen the idea somewhere, but couldn't think of an example.
Anyone else think that the shroud mode sounds a lot like the spirit mode in Prey? Especially the part about symbols on the wall changing into things when you go into shroud mode.
Its way older than that. Prey only came out fairly recently. There was a vampire game, one of the legacy of Kain series from 1999 http://www.dark-chronicle.co.uk/sr1/index.php?id=2 I think. Perhaps even earlier implementations of shroud/spirit/reality shift etc. And I'm sure there are movies with this plot device too that pre-date even that.
Even Zelda on the Wii has this switching realms thing as a plot device. Pretty cheap to do too. change the lighting, put different texture maps on the models and characters, and you have double the gameplay with less effort. Put a switch to remove collision detection on the enemies in one ream, and you can even do things like walking through people when travelling in the ghost mode.
There is no reason to not use such a plot device. After all, a FPS is a FPS. The details and setting may change, but when it comes down to it, shoot the monsters, pull the switches, collect the tokens, and move on to bigger better monsters and weapons... and repeat on new map. Is there really any FPS that deviates much from this? Its a well tested successful format for a game, People like it, the engines, once created can be used to make more similar games, and making third party maps and mods is a well established shelf life extender.