Two things have been lacking-- Developer docs and Sysadmin docs. Developer docs are expanding pretty rapidly-- that's a project that's underway now.
As to admin docs, well....
Part of the issue is that GNOME system administration isn't that different from any other kind of UNIX/Linux system administration: config files in the ~/ and ~/.gnome directories, defaults in/etc/skel or per-app in $PREFIX/gnome, (/usr/share, or/opt, depending on distro), and so forth. So it hasn't been as cruicial as you imply.
However, it's something that at least a few GNOME community members are either working on or plan to work on in the near future. Check out the gnome-love@gnome.org or gnome-docs-list@gnome.org mailing lists if you're interested in having more input.
I suspect you're not actually interested in hearing a response to this, and I know that other responses have already been posted in other threads. But, just for the heck of it, I'll reply:
If you would like to see a cost-benefit analysis of Ximian Connector vs. Two PCs' on your desk, one with Windows & Office/Outlook, you can visit http://ximian.com/products/solutions/
Now, even if you *don't* buy a second computer, $69 is still less than the cost of VMWare+Windows, and Evolution is faster than rebooting every time you want to use Outlook.
As to OWA, well-- Ximian Connector uses WebDAV, which is turned on with the same switch as OWA. Ximian Connector doesn't parse the HTML. No fricking way.
If you'd like to see reviews of the software, check Linuxplanet and Eweek, among others.
You can contact Ximian's sales team (http://ximian.com/about_us/information.html) about site licenses or volume pricing for more than 25 seats at a time.
Visit http://ximian.com/products/solutions/ for a cost/benefit analysis of Ximian solutions implemented in a large organization.
Outlook Web Access does parsing and displaying of all the data via a web page.
As others have pointed out, Ximian Connector doesn't parse the HTML (shudder-- what a terrible idea!) it uses WebDAV as the interface-- that just happens to be turned on at the same time as OWA.
What do you get for your 70 bucks? Better performance, not having to use a web browser to check your mail, a native application, no Windows license, no VMWare license, no need for an extra computer or rebooting just to check your calendar....
You might also want to look at this: http://www.ximian.com/products/solutions/ At the bottom of the page is an ROI chart for Connector vs. the "Two Machine Solution"...
You can read the FAQ at http://www.go-mono.com, where it says that Mono means Monkey in Spanish. Miguel and the Ximian crew, in case you hadn't noticed, like monkeys. The logo. Rupert, the plush monkey mascot (store.ximian.com) The name "Evolution" for the email client. The name "bonobo" for the component architecture (heh heh, nudge nudge, wink wink, pluggable, bonobo, get it?).
One problem with doing it P2P is legitimacy-- you might trust the Duke University Mirror, but do you trust "anonuser@netmasq"?
You could have it check md5sums but those can be faked. One could presumably use PGP signatures, of course, and I don't know what the issues with that are.
Another problem is that there is no guarantee that you'll get the latest files, and no way to stop the continuing distribution of a faulty package, etc. etc.
I installed all my KDE packages through Red Carpet. Now, Ximian doesn't maintain those packages-- they'll be updated when the distribution maintainers update them-- but they are treated the same as any other non-Ximian-maintained package. You update Konqueror through Red Carpet just as you would update Gnumeric, wu-ftpd, or sendmail.
Personally, I like to get my Evolution nightly snapshots as fast as possible.
And what about the situation where you want to do something, and realize you don't have the program installed to do it? Fast downloads mean you're back to work faster. That happened to me just yesterday-- I downloaded a PDF and realized I'd forgotten to install xpdf.
Ximian hosts all the packages that are included in your distribution. Including KDE. I've installed KDE with Red Carpet. No, really.
Now, why do package management systems succeed or fail?
All package management systems have two issues: First, figuring out which packages are needed.
Second, going out and downloading them.
The first one is a matter of a file format with metadata and then parsing. It can be tricky but it's basically parsing. The second is a server management and control-of-system issue.
Debian's system, like Ximian's works reasonably well because it's more or less closed: very few packages will ever require something that isn't in one of the mirrors.
Download a random rpm, deb, or tgz from the net, and who knows what you'll get. Maybe it will ask you for something that's in a mirror. Maybe it won't. If you're lucky, it'll ask for something you can find somewhere.
Select Tools-->Mail Settings, select your IMAP account, click "Edit" and under "Receiving Options" check the "Override Server-Supplied Namespace" button, then enter the namespace you want to use.
You can also use "Tools-->Manage Subscriptions" to control which folders you view in IMAP.
Hi. I'd like to defend my statement and also the company I work for. As a Slashdot reader, I'm sure you are familiar with the statement "My personal political beliefs do not represent those of my employer." Well, that applies here. I'm a free individual person and I have my beliefs. I'm a technical writer and I have a job. Not related.
I am, for the record, not an imbecile. I am also a patriot and I believe deeply in the freedoms that the United States of America offers me as its citizen. I believe especially in my freedom of expression, and my freedom to disagree with the policy of my government, and my freedom to hold pacifist views.
What are those beliefs that I am trying to express on my home page?
I believe that patriotism does not mean that I agree that carpetbombing Afghanistan is exactly the right thing to do. I don't see how B-52s killing Afghans helps the people who died in the WTC attacks.
My statement was not in any way a defense of the terrorists. I'm just trying to point out that people who are surprised by the fact that the US is disliked are missing a great deal of history and context.
To really parse that statement we'll need to define some terms.
By "senseless" I mean to say that it would not be possible to comprehend why such an attack occurred. Because we can look at the motivations of the attackers (a percieved undermining of their culture and religion by the US) and understand what they were, we cannot call the attack senseless.
Their reason was not a *good* reason to blow up a building. There is no good reason to blow up a building and kill thousands of people. Which is why I don't think that the US should be doing it either.
Now, let's talk cowardice. A coward is someone who shrinks from pain and danger, who avoids the call of duty. Well, these hijackers may have heard some twisted duty call, but they were not afraid to die. They were not cowards. You don't hear a lot about those people. You hear about brave heroes, not brave villans. But these were brave villans.
So, if you still think I'm stupid, fine. I'm perfectly willing to have you dislike or disrespect me. More upsetting is the idea that you would turn down perfectly good GPL'ed software just because you disagree with one employee's views.
If you disagree with ESR about gun control, you don't have to stop using his software. If you disagree with RMS about free love and private property, you can still appreciate emacs. So, Red Carpet and Evolution are still great software, even if you don't like the politics of the person who writes the manuals.
You're complaining about the default settings. Here's how to make it look like Eudora or any of the older email clients:
(This is GNOME after all, you can configure the UI a great deal)
First off hide the Shortcut Bar (View--> Shortcut Bar). You can add a folder-tree if you want, or leave a folder-tree available as a dropdown menu in the left end of the toolbar.
Then, for complete Eudora-ness, extend the bottom edge of the message list down until it completely hides the "preview pane". Voila! Use n and p to navigate unread messages, up and down arrows to forward and backwards in the messagelist regardless.
And of course, hit return to open a message in a new window.
It does work perfectly well under KDE. Lots of people do this, actually. One of the things we're working on now is making sure that apps we make can be used with a lot of different configurations-- so you could run Evolution with KDE, blackbox, whatever.
The Boston one is at 3rd and Binney, in Cambridge, in the MIT/Kendall neighborhood. The budiling was a steam boiler factory when it was built in the late 1870s, and was an autoparts factory until the 70s, and was converted into an apartment building and an office suite in the 90s.
Until two weeks ago, the cube-club was one of the Lime Group's offices. I live in the apartments next door. Believe me, it's weird to have my house advertised on TV, Radio, and online.
Convenient that I can go play video games in my pajamas, though.
Purple potatoes are widely available in South America. They're also found in some fancy grocery stores in the US. Just like green and yellow and purple tomatoes, they are now regarded as "heirloom" varieties, and grown only for the novelty. Like the red carrots with more beta carotene, or the blue and purple corn sold for decorations (quite edible, although not as "saleable" to picky american eaters) it's perfectly natural.
The homogenization of varieties led to blight spreading too easily, and rediscovery of "heirloom" foods (popularly tomatoes and roses-- the tomatoes are tastier and the roses better-smelling, although not as good for shipping long distances) has become something of an organic-hippie fad. That's good.
If everything becomes purple potatoes, i imagine it'll be back to homogenization again.:(
We've been using it at Ximian for general project tracking and it works pretty well. Customizing it for various different tasks isn't too hard.
I wouldn't be too concerened about scalability, either-- if you're tracking something huge, then you can assign each team its own database. No problem.
For a non-technical audience, the major issue is making the query page not look huge and scary. And probably calling it something like "The issue management website" and not "BugZilla."
Check out the "simple bug reporting assistant" we've set up at:
http://bugzilla.ximian.com/simple-bug-guide.html for a reasonable way of making bugzilla look a little more simple for non-technical users.
You won't ever get rid of religion, and I don't think it would be a good thing to do so. However,
I think we'd be far better off if we were to keep civil and religious government seperate.
That is to say, have civil government exist to promote individual liberties and mediate the inevitable disputes between parties, preventing people and groups from exploiting each other. Let religious authorities tend to the spiritual, and let civil authorities tend to the civil.
That would mean a secular territory of Israel and Palestine, rather than a theocracy that makes Palestinians second-class citizens. A government that tries to keep the Catholics and the Protestants from fighting has been what kept the Troubles in N. Ireland from being as violent as they have been-- and the more secular and unbiased they become, the more respect they get from both groups of combatants.
Similarly, that would mean allowing any two people to have a civil and legal partnership distinct from a spiritual/religious marriage.
A secular government would not stop the violence, but it would prevent the creation of religious states with the resources to launch coordinated, massive violence like this.
You know, separation of church and state, morality and civility. "Render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar, render unto God, that which belongs to God." Etc.
This is what meetings are for-- as a programmer, you probably hate them. But say to your managers, "I'm feeling pretty burnt-out here, and I think that the quality of our work is suffering. Can you see where I'm coming from? What do you think we can do to make things work better?"
Your managers are *not* out to get you, and may believe as much as you do in "doing good work." Odds are, they will react reasonably if you can communicate clearly with them.
Of course, it could be that you're just getting to the point where you know how to do 90% of your job automatically, and it could be time to make a lateral move into a different sort of programming environment that is more challenging. In that case-- say the same thing to your manager: "I'm getting tired of this work; is there some way that I could move to projects that excite me more?"
Slashdot Mirror
Two things have been lacking-- Developer docs and Sysadmin docs. Developer docs are expanding pretty rapidly-- that's a project that's underway now.
.
/etc/skel or per-app in $PREFIX/gnome, (/usr/share, or /opt, depending on distro), and so forth. So it hasn't been as cruicial as you imply.
As to admin docs, well...
Part of the issue is that GNOME system administration isn't that different from any other kind of UNIX/Linux system administration: config files in the ~/ and ~/.gnome directories, defaults in
However, it's something that at least a few GNOME community members are either working on or plan to work on in the near future. Check out the gnome-love@gnome.org or gnome-docs-list@gnome.org mailing lists if you're interested in having more input.
I suspect you're not actually interested in hearing a response to this, and I know that other responses have already been posted in other threads. But, just for the heck of it, I'll reply:
If you would like to see a cost-benefit analysis of Ximian Connector vs. Two PCs' on your desk, one with Windows & Office/Outlook, you can visit http://ximian.com/products/solutions/
Now, even if you *don't* buy a second computer, $69 is still less than the cost of VMWare+Windows, and Evolution is faster than rebooting every time you want to use Outlook.
As to OWA, well-- Ximian Connector uses WebDAV, which is turned on with the same switch as OWA. Ximian Connector doesn't parse the HTML. No fricking way.
If you'd like to see reviews of the software, check Linuxplanet and Eweek, among others.
Cheers!
You can contact Ximian's sales team (http://ximian.com/about_us/information.html) about site licenses or volume pricing for more than 25 seats at a time.
Visit http://ximian.com/products/solutions/ for a cost/benefit analysis of Ximian solutions implemented in a large organization.
First off, my guess is that you got modded down because this has already been discussed in other threads... but here's the answer:
Ximian Connector uses WebDAV to interface with the E2K server. It doesn't parse the HTML-- WebDAV is just turned on at the same time as OWA.
Ximian didn't need permission because WebDAV is an open protocol.
Outlook Web Access does parsing and displaying of all the data via a web page.
As others have pointed out, Ximian Connector doesn't parse the HTML (shudder-- what a terrible idea!) it uses WebDAV as the interface-- that just happens to be turned on at the same time as OWA.
What do you get for your 70 bucks? Better performance, not having to use a web browser to check your mail, a native application, no Windows license, no VMWare license, no need for an extra computer or rebooting just to check your calendar....
It's a good deal.
You might also want to look at this:
http://www.ximian.com/products/solutions/
At the bottom of the page is an ROI chart for Connector vs. the "Two Machine Solution"...
Or the part where the person who is the basis for the protagonist of the movie is now serving time for molesting a minor? (true).
GIDE/Anjuta2 has the same strategy of plugin-centric-ness. it's a good design. not novel, but good.
You can read the FAQ at http://www.go-mono.com, where it says that Mono means Monkey in Spanish. Miguel and the Ximian crew, in case you hadn't noticed, like monkeys. The logo. Rupert, the plush monkey mascot (store.ximian.com) The name "Evolution" for the email client. The name "bonobo" for the component architecture (heh heh, nudge nudge, wink wink, pluggable, bonobo, get it?).
One problem with doing it P2P is legitimacy-- you might trust the Duke University Mirror, but do you trust "anonuser@netmasq"?
You could have it check md5sums but those can be faked. One could presumably use PGP signatures, of course, and I don't know what the issues with that are.
Another problem is that there is no guarantee that you'll get the latest files, and no way to stop the continuing distribution of a faulty package, etc. etc.
I installed all my KDE packages through Red Carpet. Now, Ximian doesn't maintain those packages-- they'll be updated when the distribution maintainers update them-- but they are treated the same as any other non-Ximian-maintained package. You update Konqueror through Red Carpet just as you would update Gnumeric, wu-ftpd, or sendmail.
You realize, shift8key, that Ximian GNOME is still free, and that you are still welcome to use Red Carpet for free?
Red Carpet Express is optional and faster. But you're welcome to use the free service or any of the free mirrors.
Why would the availability of an additional service influence you to stop using Ximian GNOME?
Personally, I like to get my Evolution nightly snapshots as fast as possible.
And what about the situation where you want to do something, and realize you don't have the program installed to do it? Fast downloads mean you're back to work faster. That happened to me just yesterday-- I downloaded a PDF and realized I'd forgotten to install xpdf.
Ximian hosts all the packages that are included in your distribution. Including KDE. I've installed KDE with Red Carpet. No, really.
Now, why do package management systems succeed or fail?
All package management systems have two issues: First, figuring out which packages are needed.
Second, going out and downloading them.
The first one is a matter of a file format with metadata and then parsing. It can be tricky but it's basically parsing. The second is a server management and control-of-system issue.
Debian's system, like Ximian's works reasonably well because it's more or less closed: very few packages will ever require something that isn't in one of the mirrors.
Download a random rpm, deb, or tgz from the net, and who knows what you'll get. Maybe it will ask you for something that's in a mirror. Maybe it won't. If you're lucky, it'll ask for something you can find somewhere.
Aaron Weber
Technical Writer
Ximian, Inc.
I'm not sure-- As far as I can tell, it's been there for quite some time.
May have been misfiled. Sorry for the confusion.
We do have namespace.
Select Tools-->Mail Settings, select your IMAP account, click "Edit" and under "Receiving Options" check the "Override Server-Supplied Namespace" button, then enter the namespace you want to use.
You can also use "Tools-->Manage Subscriptions" to control which folders you view in IMAP.
Yours,
Aaron Weber
Ximian, Inc.
Hi. I'd like to defend my statement and also the company I work for. As a Slashdot reader, I'm sure you are familiar with the statement "My personal political beliefs do not represent those of my employer." Well, that applies here. I'm a free individual person and I have my beliefs. I'm a technical writer and I have a job. Not related.
I am, for the record, not an imbecile. I am also a patriot and I believe deeply in the freedoms that the United States of America offers me as its citizen. I believe especially in my freedom of expression, and my freedom to disagree with the policy of my government, and my freedom to hold pacifist views.
What are those beliefs that I am trying to express on my home page?
I believe that patriotism does not mean that I agree that carpetbombing Afghanistan is exactly the right thing to do. I don't see how B-52s killing Afghans helps the people who died in the WTC attacks.
My statement was not in any way a defense of the terrorists. I'm just trying to point out that people who are surprised by the fact that the US is disliked are missing a great deal of history and context.
To really parse that statement we'll need to define some terms.
By "senseless" I mean to say that it would not be possible to comprehend why such an attack occurred. Because we can look at the motivations of the attackers (a percieved undermining of their culture and religion by the US) and understand what they were, we cannot call the attack senseless.
Their reason was not a *good* reason to blow up a building. There is no good reason to blow up a building and kill thousands of people. Which is why I don't think that the US should be doing it either.
Now, let's talk cowardice. A coward is someone who shrinks from pain and danger, who avoids the call of duty. Well, these hijackers may have heard some twisted duty call, but they were not afraid to die. They were not cowards. You don't hear a lot about those people. You hear about brave heroes, not brave villans. But these were brave villans.
So, if you still think I'm stupid, fine. I'm perfectly willing to have you dislike or disrespect me. More upsetting is the idea that you would turn down perfectly good GPL'ed software just because you disagree with one employee's views.
If you disagree with ESR about gun control, you don't have to stop using his software. If you disagree with RMS about free love and private property, you can still appreciate emacs. So, Red Carpet and Evolution are still great software, even if you don't like the politics of the person who writes the manuals.
Yours,
Aaron Weber
Technical Writer
Ximian, Inc
http://primates.ximian.com/~aaron/
You're complaining about the default settings. Here's how to make it look like Eudora or any of the older email clients:
(This is GNOME after all, you can configure the UI a great deal)
First off hide the Shortcut Bar (View--> Shortcut Bar). You can add a folder-tree if you want, or leave a folder-tree available as a dropdown menu in the left end of the toolbar.
Then, for complete Eudora-ness, extend the bottom edge of the message list down until it completely hides the "preview pane". Voila! Use n and p to navigate unread messages, up and down arrows to forward and backwards in the messagelist regardless.
And of course, hit return to open a message in a new window.
It does work perfectly well under KDE. Lots of people do this, actually. One of the things we're working on now is making sure that apps we make can be used with a lot of different configurations-- so you could run Evolution with KDE, blackbox, whatever.
The Boston one is at 3rd and Binney, in Cambridge, in the MIT/Kendall neighborhood. The budiling was a steam boiler factory when it was built in the late 1870s, and was an autoparts factory until the 70s, and was converted into an apartment building and an office suite in the 90s.
Until two weeks ago, the cube-club was one of the Lime Group's offices. I live in the apartments next door. Believe me, it's weird to have my house advertised on TV, Radio, and online.
Convenient that I can go play video games in my pajamas, though.
Purple potatoes are widely available in South America. They're also found in some fancy grocery stores in the US. Just like green and yellow and purple tomatoes, they are now regarded as "heirloom" varieties, and grown only for the novelty. Like the red carrots with more beta carotene, or the blue and purple corn sold for decorations (quite edible, although not as "saleable" to picky american eaters) it's perfectly natural.
:(
The homogenization of varieties led to blight spreading too easily, and rediscovery of "heirloom" foods (popularly tomatoes and roses-- the tomatoes are tastier and the roses better-smelling, although not as good for shipping long distances) has become something of an organic-hippie fad. That's good.
If everything becomes purple potatoes, i imagine it'll be back to homogenization again.
a.
We've been using it at Ximian for general project tracking and it works pretty well. Customizing it for various different tasks isn't too hard.
l
I wouldn't be too concerened about scalability, either-- if you're tracking something huge, then you can assign each team its own database. No problem.
For a non-technical audience, the major issue is making the query page not look huge and scary. And probably calling it something like "The issue management website" and not "BugZilla."
Check out the "simple bug reporting assistant" we've set up at:
http://bugzilla.ximian.com/simple-bug-guide.htm
for a reasonable way of making bugzilla look a little more simple for non-technical users.
Aaron Weber
Ximian, Inc.
You won't ever get rid of religion, and I don't think it would be a good thing to do so. However,
I think we'd be far better off if we were to keep civil and religious government seperate.
That is to say, have civil government exist to promote individual liberties and mediate the inevitable disputes between parties, preventing people and groups from exploiting each other. Let religious authorities tend to the spiritual, and let civil authorities tend to the civil.
That would mean a secular territory of Israel and Palestine, rather than a theocracy that makes Palestinians second-class citizens. A government that tries to keep the Catholics and the Protestants from fighting has been what kept the Troubles in N. Ireland from being as violent as they have been-- and the more secular and unbiased they become, the more respect they get from both groups of combatants.
Similarly, that would mean allowing any two people to have a civil and legal partnership distinct from a spiritual/religious marriage.
A secular government would not stop the violence, but it would prevent the creation of religious states with the resources to launch coordinated, massive violence like this.
You know, separation of church and state, morality and civility. "Render unto Caesar that which belongs to Caesar, render unto God, that which belongs to God." Etc.
This is what meetings are for-- as a programmer, you probably hate them. But say to your managers, "I'm feeling pretty burnt-out here, and I think that the quality of our work is suffering. Can you see where I'm coming from? What do you think we can do to make things work better?"
Your managers are *not* out to get you, and may believe as much as you do in "doing good work." Odds are, they will react reasonably if you can communicate clearly with them.
Of course, it could be that you're just getting to the point where you know how to do 90% of your job automatically, and it could be time to make a lateral move into a different sort of programming environment that is more challenging. In that case-- say the same thing to your manager: "I'm getting tired of this work; is there some way that I could move to projects that excite me more?"
A p233? You *do* know that for under two thousand dollars you can get something ten times faster, don't you?
Yes, Nautilus has issues, even on faster hardware. But don't blame the software when your p233 is slow.