The only thing I would have to ask is, can you get the driver to work in Windows without administrative rights?
How is this relevant? Most people are accustomed to "insert this CD before using this new hardware dongle" instructions. You're not making the claim that new IFS drivers require root privs to use after their installation, are you?
Are you talking about the "Utility Window" hinting that you can use for various windows in the Gimp? I've only seen that work correctly under Windows. (Ironic, no?) OTOH, the KDE taskbar makes a new entry for the Firefox Preferences window.:) I'm not sure that there's anything that can be done to hide from the taskbar. *does some research* Ah! Under KDE 4 it seems that the "torn off menu" hinting is what they really need to hide the a window from the KDE taskbar. (Not that you care... I'mma bookmark this on my LJ for my notes later.)
So I need to click multiple times to have all gimp windows back.
Or minimize the browser window, or use multiple desktops.:) But yeah... On the one hand, there should be a "link all Gimp windows' Z-order" option that you could enable. OTOH, that sort of thing is supposed to be determined by the window manager.
Your complaints are *very* valid. I hope that you don't get the impression that I'm blowing you off. To summarize: You're not complaining about the "million windows" interface of The Gimp, you're complaining about how most window managers don't make it easy to work with applications that use such an interface? If you had your one button that popped EVERYTHING up, would that resolve your beef with the Gimp UI? Or is there more than just that?
I wonder how icky the WM code is inside the Gimp...
I just find the interface unnecessarily cluttered, and it makes me cranky.
What do you think of this interface? http://simoncion.wargameweaver.com/pix/kde4_svn_desktop.jpeg (Warning. Huge JPEG alert! [Screenshot taken from a dual 1600x1200px screen setup.]) The black rectangle below the urxvt icon is the system tray. The icons in it recently stopped display correctly. I have yet to diagnose the problem or file a bug. (/me loves living on the bleeding edge!) Also, that "Folders" windows that the cursor is on vanishes when Dolphin doesn't have focus. It can also be docked in the Dolphin window.
(OK - I started using KDE just when that horrible 4.0 version came out).
4.0 should never have been packaged. 4.2 is nice. _If_ you ever get a hankering to try out KDE again, know that 4.0 was *never* supposed to hit an end-user's computer. It was a tech preview for developers.:)
...if you have it installed, you can run Konqueror from inside GNOME perfectly well.
This is why most of the "KDE vs. GNOME" arguments are fuckin' pointless. You can run KDE apps under a Gnome environment and vice versa. There's no lock-in here. (I guess that you'll have some ~200MB of libs sitting around that you don't use all that often, so this functionality doesn't come without a price. OTOH, disks are cheap ATM.)
The first thing which was really annoying is, that the "Dolphin" file manager eats about 200mb of ram almost instantly.
Hi. Many things have changed since KDE 4.1. Over here (running KDE 4.2.1), Dolphin has a virtual size of ~71MB and a resident working set of ~20MB. You might want to look into upgrading.
Ah. Something that I just thought of... is your version of KDE an optimized build? (I'm not sure that this would make *very* much difference at all, but...) Over in my full debug version of KDE SVN trunk, Dolphin has a virtual size of ~128MB and a resident size of ~28MB.
(I ask 'cause I'm a programmer who has been shoehorned into a UI designer role. Also, I like how The Gimp's UI functions, so understanding the opposing viewpoint helps me to become a better UI designer. [maybe])
I've never used wxWidgets. I've done 99% of my work in FLTK's FLUID. [0] Given how the wxWidgets folks do things, I'm surprised that their Vista implementation doesn't use native Vista widgets. I'll make a note to check out their interface designer over the weekend.
Frankly, I think that MSFT's UI designing tools suck, hard-core. Even FLUID does a better job than what MSFT has put out there.
What has MSFT done to win you over with the Vista UI? Also, what does Vista have that you don't see present in Linux that makes Vista a better platform for desktop development?
I can run 64 bit Linux on my Opteron, but can't run Linux.
What? Is there a typo here?
[0] If this doesn't tell you how much I care about pretty UIs, I don't know what will.;) Function over form, baby!
Two things. 1) opensuse seems to package KDE 4.1.x. *A lot* changed between then and KDE 4.2. If you're having issues w/ their rev of KDE 4 [0], you might want find some way to get your hands on a newer version. 2) kdevelop 4 is still crashy.:/ Also, its GDB integration is currently nonexistant. However, its "Intellisense" [1] is really very good, IMO.
[0] The OpenSUSE machines in the local Uni computer lab seem to be *extremely* crashy and slow when you enable OpenGL Composite acceleration. YMMV. [1] Is there a word to describe that feature that's not covered by a trademark claim?
In fact, let me know when the Linux GUI gets -ANY- control that doesn't suck.
Hi. QT4.x is here. You might wanna check it out. (Check out KDE 4.2 [and 4.3 when it's released] while you're at it. You might be pleasantly surprised.)
...but on Windows I can cut and paste fairly often between my local desktop and a remote desktop.
I've not noticed "rich" cut and paste between QT and GTK-based applications fail in more than five years. I've never noticed plain-text cut and paste [0] fail between any apps, ever. Any two dialogs that I can cut and paste between on my local machine, I can also cut and paste between if they're running the same remote machine, or one's on a remote machine and the other is local, or each one is running on a different remote machine. Moreover, I can run remote applications and have their windows appear seamlessly on my local machine, on the same desktop as my local applications. Let me repeat that, in case you missed it. I can manage windows created by a remote application just as if they were generated by a local application. Let me know when Microsoft adds that to the OOtB Windows Experience.
[0] Using the "drag-to-highlight, click the text box that's gonna recieve the text, then middle click (or press the left and right mouse buttons simultaneously) to past the text." method, that is.
Suppose we took your idea to its logical conclusion, and ended up with an entirely automated production system with no need for people at all. We'd all be unemployed at that point.
This is the logical conclusion of all modern societies. Imagine a world where every menial task is performed by a robot... robot farmers, robot chefs, robot maintenance men. Would all men in this world be required to starve to death 'cause there was no "honest work" for them to do? To flip this around; why should a man be required to do something that is easily achieved by a machine? Shouldn't there be a greater task for a man's mind than its direct application to menial, repetitive labour?
A perpetual, sustainable, all-encompassing leisure class is the greatest thing that humanity can ever strive for. What better life could there be for a man than to do as he pleases for the rest of his life? Note that this *does* *not* mean that no man-driven "real work" ever gets done. There are people in this world who have great ideas and will set their mind to working on them without provocation. For people like these, the pursuit of their passion is leisure.
a0) Hardened Gentoo does run on a couple of exotic arches. Check out their homepage. a1) I'm not sure that the underlying architecture is *really* going to make that much difference WRT a system's susceptibility to malware attack. We have software replacements for hardware DEP. We have ASLR and other exploit foiling schemes. b0) GJ @ making an allusion to Ken Thompson's theoretical trojaning of GCC. You lose points for either: making your allusion extremely obtuse, or not mentioning Thompson to your student. b1) We have mechanisms in place these days that help prevent this sort of trojaning in the future, and provide quick damage control and containment if it ever should happen again. Granted, your computing system is only as trustworthy as its least trusted component. (How many of us have audited the microcode in our CPU? The code in our BIOS's? Hell, how many of us secure our hardware when we leave our houses for the day?)
...will need the same or higher computer specs to run a configuration that gets close to what the Windows experience offers...
Check out the SVN trunk version of KDE 4 some day. [0] When you combine that with an ATI card, the open source drivers, and OpenRC, you get a desktop experience that (IMO) blows the doors off of anything coming out of Redmond. With this configuration, I have a Linux machine that goes from GRUB bootloader to a usable [1] desktop in ~45 seconds. (Time spent typing username/password not included. Time spent starting X is included.) Server 2K3 on the same hardware (with nothing else happening on startup) takes nearly a minute and a half. [2] My Linux desktop gives me an OpenGL accelerated desktop. [3] (Hello translucent windows, zoomable desktop, and live preview of window contents on ALT-Tab [or the Expose knockoff]). I get a faster USB stack... faster USB mass storage device recognition, mount, and unmount times... transparent access to network (and other exotic) resources... [4] the Lancelot launcher... fine-grained control over users and applications with PolicyKit and grsecurity... network-transparent audio. The list goes on and on.
It sounds like you haven't tried out a Linux distro in a while. You might wanna grab a couple of six-packs, and spend some afternoons over the next month checking out what's available these days.
[0] SVN KDE 4 won't eat your data, but you might not wanna install the dev packages required to build it. So, you could also check out KDE 4.2 (or 4.3 when it is released.) What I've said here about KDE SVN also holds for KDE 4.2 and later. [1] By usable, I mean the time that ipv6.google.com comes up in Firefox and I can type a query into the search box. And no. I'm not restoring any previously saved FFox sessions. [2] Guess what? My Linux installation also brings up Postgres, mysql, apache, an svn server, the BOINC client, and the usual host of remote access daemons on startup. The Server 2k3 install does none of that... it doesn't even start IIS. [3] Do I get shader support? No. IIRC, we're waiting on the Gallium3D project to mature. [4] There's nothing quite like being able to mounting a network resource (or ISO image, or...) inside a directory in your filesystem and being able to use it just as if it were local data. No fussing with UNC path handling. No bitching from CMD.EXE about being unable to handle UNC working directories. Nothing like that.:)
And since most applications require administrator access to run at all...
Cite? 100% of the applications that my employer creates require only regular User privs. Also, 100% of the userland code running on my Windows (Server 2k3 , BTW) machine at home runs w/ regular User privs. Hell. Even Process Explorer runs as an unprivileged process.
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If Microsoft's [FAT-related] patents are valid...
You're forgetting about the Doctrine of Latches, my friend...
The only thing I would have to ask is, can you get the driver to work in Windows without administrative rights?
How is this relevant? Most people are accustomed to "insert this CD before using this new hardware dongle" instructions. You're not making the claim that new IFS drivers require root privs to use after their installation, are you?
So how are people going to convince the administrators of the PCs...
Protip: :)
Most people are Administrators of the machines that they run... one way or another.
Completely misjudging the market and producing hardware that no one wanted killed 3dfx.
*has memories of those magical 16-bit graphics* :/
I actually have two PCI Voodoo 3 boards in my bin of spare hardware!
I'm easily distracted/annoyed at the incongruences of a messy desk...
I see. My desk (whether at home or at work) would drive you up the wall. :)
Are you talking about the "Utility Window" hinting that you can use for various windows in the Gimp? I've only seen that work correctly under Windows. (Ironic, no?) :) I'm not sure that there's anything that can be done to hide from the taskbar.
OTOH, the KDE taskbar makes a new entry for the Firefox Preferences window.
*does some research* Ah! Under KDE 4 it seems that the "torn off menu" hinting is what they really need to hide the a window from the KDE taskbar. (Not that you care... I'mma bookmark this on my LJ for my notes later.)
So I need to click multiple times to have all gimp windows back.
Or minimize the browser window, or use multiple desktops. :) But yeah... On the one hand, there should be a "link all Gimp windows' Z-order" option that you could enable. OTOH, that sort of thing is supposed to be determined by the window manager.
Your complaints are *very* valid. I hope that you don't get the impression that I'm blowing you off. To summarize: You're not complaining about the "million windows" interface of The Gimp, you're complaining about how most window managers don't make it easy to work with applications that use such an interface? If you had your one button that popped EVERYTHING up, would that resolve your beef with the Gimp UI? Or is there more than just that?
I wonder how icky the WM code is inside the Gimp...
I just find the interface unnecessarily cluttered, and it makes me cranky.
What do you think of this interface?
http://simoncion.wargameweaver.com/pix/kde4_svn_desktop.jpeg (Warning. Huge JPEG alert! [Screenshot taken from a dual 1600x1200px screen setup.])
The black rectangle below the urxvt icon is the system tray. The icons in it recently stopped display correctly. I have yet to diagnose the problem or file a bug. (/me loves living on the bleeding edge!) Also, that "Folders" windows that the cursor is on vanishes when Dolphin doesn't have focus. It can also be docked in the Dolphin window.
(OK - I started using KDE just when that horrible 4.0 version came out).
4.0 should never have been packaged. 4.2 is nice. _If_ you ever get a hankering to try out KDE again, know that 4.0 was *never* supposed to hit an end-user's computer. It was a tech preview for developers. :)
...if you have it installed, you can run Konqueror from inside GNOME perfectly well.
This is why most of the "KDE vs. GNOME" arguments are fuckin' pointless. You can run KDE apps under a Gnome environment and vice versa. There's no lock-in here. (I guess that you'll have some ~200MB of libs sitting around that you don't use all that often, so this functionality doesn't come without a price. OTOH, disks are cheap ATM.)
Blender is one of the few programs with a complex well done interface in Linux...
I think that is debatable.
It is debatable. IMO, Blender's UI is good in the same way that VIM's UI is good. Complex, hard to learn, but powerful and correct. :)
The first thing which was really annoying is, that the "Dolphin" file manager eats about 200mb of ram almost instantly.
Hi. Many things have changed since KDE 4.1. Over here (running KDE 4.2.1), Dolphin has a virtual size of ~71MB and a resident working set of ~20MB. You might want to look into upgrading.
$ ps -eo vsize,rss,comm | grep dolphin | grep -v grep
71652 20868 dolphin
$ dolphin --version
Qt: 4.5.0
KDE: 4.2.1 (KDE 4.2.1)
Dolphin: 1.2.1
Ah. Something that I just thought of... is your version of KDE an optimized build? (I'm not sure that this would make *very* much difference at all, but...) Over in my full debug version of KDE SVN trunk, Dolphin has a virtual size of ~128MB and a resident size of ~28MB.
$ ps -eo vsize,rss,comm | grep dolphin | grep -v grep
128268 28532 dolphin
$ dolphin --version
Qt: 4.5.0
KDE: 4.2.68 (KDE 4.2.68 (KDE 4.3 >= 20090327))
Dolphin: 1.2.80
In Linux, how something like Gimp looks, sucks.
Why? Be specific.
(I ask 'cause I'm a programmer who has been shoehorned into a UI designer role. Also, I like how The Gimp's UI functions, so understanding the opposing viewpoint helps me to become a better UI designer. [maybe])
I've never used wxWidgets. I've done 99% of my work in FLTK's FLUID. [0] Given how the wxWidgets folks do things, I'm surprised that their Vista implementation doesn't use native Vista widgets. I'll make a note to check out their interface designer over the weekend.
Frankly, I think that MSFT's UI designing tools suck, hard-core. Even FLUID does a better job than what MSFT has put out there.
What has MSFT done to win you over with the Vista UI? Also, what does Vista have that you don't see present in Linux that makes Vista a better platform for desktop development?
I can run 64 bit Linux on my Opteron, but can't run Linux.
What? Is there a typo here?
[0] If this doesn't tell you how much I care about pretty UIs, I don't know what will. ;) Function over form, baby!
Two things. :/ Also, its GDB integration is currently nonexistant. However, its "Intellisense" [1] is really very good, IMO.
1) opensuse seems to package KDE 4.1.x. *A lot* changed between then and KDE 4.2. If you're having issues w/ their rev of KDE 4 [0], you might want find some way to get your hands on a newer version.
2) kdevelop 4 is still crashy.
[0] The OpenSUSE machines in the local Uni computer lab seem to be *extremely* crashy and slow when you enable OpenGL Composite acceleration. YMMV.
[1] Is there a word to describe that feature that's not covered by a trademark claim?
In fact, let me know when the Linux GUI gets -ANY- control that doesn't suck.
Hi. QT4.x is here. You might wanna check it out. (Check out KDE 4.2 [and 4.3 when it's released] while you're at it. You might be pleasantly surprised.)
...but on Windows I can cut and paste fairly often between my local desktop and a remote desktop.
I've not noticed "rich" cut and paste between QT and GTK-based applications fail in more than five years. I've never noticed plain-text cut and paste [0] fail between any apps, ever.
Any two dialogs that I can cut and paste between on my local machine, I can also cut and paste between if they're running the same remote machine, or one's on a remote machine and the other is local, or each one is running on a different remote machine. Moreover, I can run remote applications and have their windows appear seamlessly on my local machine, on the same desktop as my local applications. Let me repeat that, in case you missed it. I can manage windows created by a remote application just as if they were generated by a local application. Let me know when Microsoft adds that to the OOtB Windows Experience.
[0] Using the "drag-to-highlight, click the text box that's gonna recieve the text, then middle click (or press the left and right mouse buttons simultaneously) to past the text." method, that is.
Your t-shirt feed is offline:
"Error establishing a database connection"
Don't fix it 'cause I complained, though... I'd never heard of it until three minutes ago.
Suppose we took your idea to its logical conclusion, and ended up with an entirely automated production system with no need for people at all. We'd all be unemployed at that point.
This is the logical conclusion of all modern societies. Imagine a world where every menial task is performed by a robot... robot farmers, robot chefs, robot maintenance men. Would all men in this world be required to starve to death 'cause there was no "honest work" for them to do? To flip this around; why should a man be required to do something that is easily achieved by a machine? Shouldn't there be a greater task for a man's mind than its direct application to menial, repetitive labour?
A perpetual, sustainable, all-encompassing leisure class is the greatest thing that humanity can ever strive for. What better life could there be for a man than to do as he pleases for the rest of his life? Note that this *does* *not* mean that no man-driven "real work" ever gets done. There are people in this world who have great ideas and will set their mind to working on them without provocation. For people like these, the pursuit of their passion is leisure.
a0) Hardened Gentoo does run on a couple of exotic arches. Check out their homepage.
a1) I'm not sure that the underlying architecture is *really* going to make that much difference WRT a system's susceptibility to malware attack. We have software replacements for hardware DEP. We have ASLR and other exploit foiling schemes.
b0) GJ @ making an allusion to Ken Thompson's theoretical trojaning of GCC. You lose points for either: making your allusion extremely obtuse, or not mentioning Thompson to your student.
b1) We have mechanisms in place these days that help prevent this sort of trojaning in the future, and provide quick damage control and containment if it ever should happen again. Granted, your computing system is only as trustworthy as its least trusted component. (How many of us have audited the microcode in our CPU? The code in our BIOS's? Hell, how many of us secure our hardware when we leave our houses for the day?)
...will need the same or higher computer specs to run a configuration that gets close to what the Windows experience offers...
Check out the SVN trunk version of KDE 4 some day. [0]
When you combine that with an ATI card, the open source drivers, and OpenRC, you get a desktop experience that (IMO) blows the doors off of anything coming out of Redmond.
With this configuration, I have a Linux machine that goes from GRUB bootloader to a usable [1] desktop in ~45 seconds. (Time spent typing username/password not included. Time spent starting X is included.) Server 2K3 on the same hardware (with nothing else happening on startup) takes nearly a minute and a half. [2]
My Linux desktop gives me an OpenGL accelerated desktop. [3] (Hello translucent windows, zoomable desktop, and live preview of window contents on ALT-Tab [or the Expose knockoff]). I get a faster USB stack... faster USB mass storage device recognition, mount, and unmount times... transparent access to network (and other exotic) resources... [4] the Lancelot launcher... fine-grained control over users and applications with PolicyKit and grsecurity... network-transparent audio. The list goes on and on.
It sounds like you haven't tried out a Linux distro in a while. You might wanna grab a couple of six-packs, and spend some afternoons over the next month checking out what's available these days.
[0] SVN KDE 4 won't eat your data, but you might not wanna install the dev packages required to build it. So, you could also check out KDE 4.2 (or 4.3 when it is released.) What I've said here about KDE SVN also holds for KDE 4.2 and later. :)
[1] By usable, I mean the time that ipv6.google.com comes up in Firefox and I can type a query into the search box. And no. I'm not restoring any previously saved FFox sessions.
[2] Guess what? My Linux installation also brings up Postgres, mysql, apache, an svn server, the BOINC client, and the usual host of remote access daemons on startup. The Server 2k3 install does none of that... it doesn't even start IIS.
[3] Do I get shader support? No. IIRC, we're waiting on the Gallium3D project to mature.
[4] There's nothing quite like being able to mounting a network resource (or ISO image, or...) inside a directory in your filesystem and being able to use it just as if it were local data. No fussing with UNC path handling. No bitching from CMD.EXE about being unable to handle UNC working directories. Nothing like that.
And since most applications require administrator access to run at all...
Cite?
100% of the applications that my employer creates require only regular User privs. Also, 100% of the userland code running on my Windows (Server 2k3 , BTW) machine at home runs w/ regular User privs.
Hell. Even Process Explorer runs as an unprivileged process.
Why drop support of their previous major version?
'Cause they don't have the manpower and/or money to support the previous major version?
They could at least provide security updates.
I daresay that they did just this for roughly six months after FF 3.0 was released.
https://wiki.mozilla.org/ReleaseRoadmap
What does Fox Mulder's apartment number have to do with this?
...do the entire planet a favor and put a fucking gun in your mouth already
Silly. They're not gunitarians.
I managed to find a store with power a few miles away and got ice.
And if *noone* can do that anywhere in the country? How about anywhere in the world? :)
The code in my state directs us to treat intersections with malfunctioning traffic signals as four-way stops.