This is just want I was thinking when I read the parent post. I have a saying: "If it ain't available through apt-get, then it ain't worth installing." Of course, people who haven't used apt-get for their main operating system will never understand.
Also, for the free software purist, Debian is OS utopia. Worrying about installing non-free RPMs is the least of a Debian admins worries.
True... true... I recently installed a Libranet system, and I am amazed with apt-get and the Debian package system. Installing software on a Debian box is easier than installing software on a Mac or Windows machine!
Of course, I am on dialup, but still, apt-get resumes downloads and all that stuff. All Debian needs to do is get their installation as easy to use as apt-get. Of course, I know that installing an entire operating system is a bigger deal than installing software for an operating system... but... well, its always nice to have an "idiot install" option that partitions stuff for you and has complete and total auto-hardware detection.
Note that I am not saying that installing Debian is difficult. Its just not as easy as doing an "apt-get install mysoftware".
Every day I continue to use my Debian computer, I understand more and more why Debian zealotry exists and why Debian is the one true Linux distro.
I am still waiting for TI or some other company that makes calculators to come out with a Haskell calculator. It would be nice to have a hand-held Functional Programming Language Calculator. I hate programming my current TI calculator in its nasty procedural scripting language or whatever you call the crap it comes with.
Strange how Slashdot has an article about distros, just after I got done playing with them last night. For a while now, I have been stuck with Windows. Microsoft can really get you hooked in, even when you are an individual user.
Well, as the story goes, I vowed a month ago to completely switch %100 to Linux once Mandrake 8.0 was released. I had been using Mandrake 7.x for a while, and it was pretty damn spiffy... but the versions of KDE 2 were kind of unstable among other things. With the release of Mandrake 8.0, I was really excited about an easy transition to a stable user-friendly Linux desktop. I downloaded the ISO and ran through the install. Everything was brain-dead-easy until I finished installing the application packages and went for the initial reboot. The installer kept giving me a no hdlists error, and so I tried expert install and many other options. Things got frustrating, so I decided to try something else.
Libranet was that something else. Any open-minded techie will be able to see the superiority of a Debian based distro, with regards to system updates etc, using apt-get. However, I also have two eyes which can see the superiority of KDE 2.1 to anything Gnome has the offer. I never got involved in any emotional or religious license arguements are crap like that. I just simply wanted the best Linux setup possible, and I didn't want to have to spend allot of time/effort/money to get it.
Libranet 1.9.0 has all the features I want, with a cutting edge journeling filesystem, the latest great kernel, KDE 2.1, etc... It is easy Debian based!
So the install. You want to know about the install? Well, lets just say that it ain't as easy as Mandrake, when Mandrake dosen't shit itself on you. When Mandrake's installer works, a 3 year old could install it. But Mandrake wasn't working for me at all, so maybe Libranet's more involved install actually helped.
The biggest problem with Libranet's installer was its reliance on floppies. Excuse my foul language, but it ain't fscking 1997 anymore guys. Most workstations don't use floppies anymore, using CD-RW instead. CD-RW is more dependable and its cheaper than floppies. Libranet's install requires you to make floppies if you are installing Libranet on SCSI harddrives. So, yes, the biggest and most difficult part of the entire install for me was trying to dig up an old floppy drive that I had stashed away at the bottom of a closet full of boxes of knick-nacks. After hooking it up and making the boot floppies, I try to boot my soon-to-be Linux box on them. Yup, the disks were bad, so I was back to trying to rawrite more boot disks until I found some old floppies that didn't have bad sectors all over them.
Floppies floppies floppies! After the floppy fiasco, the rest of the install was a piece of cake. And I mean easy easy easy! The installer didn't have a theme manager like Mandrake's, but the installer was doing one thing that Mandrake's installer wasn't doing for me yesterday: it was working!
Libranet's installer is super easy to use. You need to know a few obvious things to properly move through the installer for Libranet:
Time zone you live in
Type of mouse you have
How you want to partition your harddrives (this is the most sophisticated part, but the install instructions walk you through a basic partition install, which any literate 5 year old could follow)
Type of video card you use
Type of sound card that you use
Again, just incase you guys don't get the point of how easy the install is... floppies can be a bitch and partitioning the drives requires actual though, but even the partitioning is as straight forward as cutting a birthday cake or a pizza, which most people have done at least once in their life.
What is Libranet actually like? Well, I could better answer this question a month from now, after using it everyday, but from what I have seen so far, Libranet seems rock solid stable and loaded with cool (and useful) apps. Of course, I was one of the cursed Northpoint customers that got his line cut, so I suck down the net through a 28.8 dialup now, but apt-get is just way too cool! With it, I probably won't download a new distro for another 2 years! If you have a dedicated net connection, like a cable modem or a DSL line... apt-get would be the Holy Grail of Linux for you. Installing and updating software is easier on a Debian Linux than on any Mac OS or Windows OS!
IT JUST WORKS!
Why more people don't use a Debian based distro is weird to me. I suggest Libranet 1.9.0 if you want to experiment with a Debian based distro, or if you simply want a better rock solid Linux setup. In my opinion, Debian should be THE core standard for all distros.
By the way, I am posting this from Konqueror, which after several hours of frantic use, hasn't crashed once. Konqueror is THE Internet Explorer killer.
Hmmm, not sure where you are looking, but Mandrake 8.0's KDE setup allows for anti-aliasing to be selected as a checkbox in one of KDE's GUI configuration menus (similar to Windows 98). So anti-aliasing is there in KDE and there in a popular Linux distro.
Dare it be repeated: KDE is far ahead of Gnome. Put religious issues behind you and use both desktops with their associated applications. KDE is years ahead of Gnome.
Amen to that! I played River City Ransom for a couple hours last night, on my Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The NES comes from circa 1985, and can currently be had for around $20 off of Ebay, with the works (controllers, cables, etc...) The games have tons of replay value (I have been playing them for around 12 years now), and they can be had for around an average of $5 each.
Yes, having the latest and greatest is always a fun thing for the gamer... but when you find yourself sitting around bored, waiting for next-gen game consoles... you need to do a reality check, and ask yourself: Am I having fun?
Is it me, or does the average Slashdotter want to see the XBox fail? Personally, I don't like witnessing Microsoft assimilate large industries into their borgness... but isn't Sony an even more evil company to have control the game industry? I remember John Carmack saying something like that.
Compaq actually gives the information needed, so that you can build your own Itsy. Maybe a group of Linux hackers could put together a site that would take orders for the Itsies, and once they reached enough requests, they could start building them and selling them to those who placed an order (and put down a deposit).
Anyway, I am sure some of the more hardware skilled peeps that read slashdot could put together an Itsy, if they had the resources.
I know that it is just another Onion joke, but I got really upset when I read that Onion article. Maybe I read slashdot too much? Maybe I think that Microsoft will eventually do something as bad as that, in real life.
A little FYI, for those who are still buying (and getting ripped off) rechargable batteries from local electronic stores. Check out Thomas Distributing for a great online source of rechargable batteries and other related equipment. I am not associated with the company, but I am a satisfied customer. Basically, I was let down by the poor performance of the rechargables that I bought from RadioShack... and so I went surfing online. Some diehard Palm users recommended Thomas Dist, and so I placed an order. The benefit to Thomas is that they differentiate between good, better, and the best yields of batteries from various manufacturers. Just like CPUs, NiMH batteries can have various qualities within the same make and model.
For a PDA user, that uses two AAA batteries, I recommend 4 of the Nexcell AAA, which have a 700mAH capacity. Having 2 sets of 2 lets you cycle between charging and using the batteries. To charge those little bad boys, I recommend the MAHA MH-C204F. It charges my totally drained AAAs in under an hour. For those who need to use AA batteries, check out these 1740mAH capacity bad boys! With that much juice, you really can catch 'em all! Anyway, just some FYI for the power users out there.
Not just that. I good Prof is sometimes not enough. You also need a good student body. With an apathetic class, a good Prof can do next to nothing.
I am not sure why the strong anti-academia mentality has grown in the tech industry. An industry born out of research within the academic sector. People like Church, Turing, Kleene... the grandfathers of computer science... guess what? They came from University - along with their break-through research.
So anyway - the main problem that I see at modern University is not that of bad Professors... I see the problem of an apathetic close-minded student body. Remember your roots, and you will realize the value of University.
The best have already been doing this...
on
Open Courses at MIT
·
· Score: 3
...the best professors that is. There is nothing more valuable than a good teacher. Frank Pfenning, in my opinion, is one of those great teachers. I am not a student of the university that he teaches at, but I can still follow along his courses, read his class notes and do his homework. I highly recommend his courses to any computer scientist who is interested in the foundations of computer science (constructive logic and the lot).
After following through Prof Pfenning's material, I have given allot of thought to going to CMU... I just need more money;-)
Anyways, thanks CMU and thanks Prof Pfenning!
Do your homework, and you will find that an 800mhz Duron with 256MB of ram, a 17in CRT (a nice optiquest which is a budget viewsonic), CD-RW, 40gig harddrive, mouse, keyboard, etc... can all be purchased for around $600. Notice how, in every way, this "budget PC" beets the cheapest iMAC in terms of performance. Fact is, Linux or BSD on dirt cheap PC hardware is the best bet for a do-it-yourself power user. Need I mention overclocking your 800mhz Duron to even greater speeds?
So you want to know where? Well, you have to build the computer yourself, and you need to do a little homework at pricewatch
Syncing with your PC drains the batteries pretty
fast though - something to do with the way the
serial port is powered. There is currently a
bug (we think) that causes the batteries to drain
quickly if you leave it in the 'cradle' - even
in 'hibernate'...there is hope that this will
be fixed "Real Soon Now".
Yeah, seeing as most of the Palms and clones have that same problem, I don't see it ever getting fixed.
Palm's Graffiti is so underrated! Just because the Palms don't support full fledge handwriting recognition, people piss and moan. Graffiti has been optimized to simplify each character of the alphabet. Every character from the Roman Alphabet can be written with one simple stroke. Sure you have to learn something new, but its not difficult. I have gotten to the point where I can take notes during a college lecture, with my TRGPro (Palm Pilot Clone with CF interface).
Its fun watching the students with laptops, doing everything they can to conserve battery life... while I do all of the same digital note taking on a fraction of 2 AAA batteries;-) NiMH AAAs none-the-less.
Yeah, but without a truely intelligent AI, search algorithms will always be exploitable. Keyword spamming is the old school method, and with google, maybe a combination of keyword spamming and link spamming (have tons of other bogus sites link to yours) would work.
No, no, no... you are missing the point. Think in terms of bottlenecks with power consumption as the object of performance optimization. The crusoe has optimized part of the system, but the screens for most mobile computers are bottlenecking the power consumption process.
So just like Intel had problems justifying selling newer "faster" CPUs, because of FSB bottlenecks, and addressing the FSB bottleneck became a growing concern for Intel, because otherwise, the end user wouldn't notice significant performance improvements when they bought the latest and greatest pentium....Transmeta is probably hoping that someone addresses the power consumption bottlenecks. It is definitely a good thing for Transmeta.
...and why did the linux watch get stamped with the stigma of uselessness? Sure it has a low battery life (4 hours), but then again, so do most laptop computers.
Computer Science is a mathematical field, not a scientific field. Not sure who coined the name, but it is definitely a bad one. Computer science has more to do with proof-theory, than any scientific occupation.
Slashdot Mirror
This is just want I was thinking when I read the parent post. I have a saying: "If it ain't available through apt-get, then it ain't worth installing." Of course, people who haven't used apt-get for their main operating system will never understand.
Also, for the free software purist, Debian is OS utopia. Worrying about installing non-free RPMs is the least of a Debian admins worries.
True... true... I recently installed a Libranet system, and I am amazed with apt-get and the Debian package system. Installing software on a Debian box is easier than installing software on a Mac or Windows machine!
Of course, I am on dialup, but still, apt-get resumes downloads and all that stuff. All Debian needs to do is get their installation as easy to use as apt-get. Of course, I know that installing an entire operating system is a bigger deal than installing software for an operating system... but... well, its always nice to have an "idiot install" option that partitions stuff for you and has complete and total auto-hardware detection.
Note that I am not saying that installing Debian is difficult. Its just not as easy as doing an "apt-get install mysoftware".
Every day I continue to use my Debian computer, I understand more and more why Debian zealotry exists and why Debian is the one true Linux distro.
Carnivore
...etc...
Filters/censorware for libraries, schools, and Universities
DMCA
CDA
I am still waiting for TI or some other company that makes calculators to come out with a Haskell calculator. It would be nice to have a hand-held Functional Programming Language Calculator. I hate programming my current TI calculator in its nasty procedural scripting language or whatever you call the crap it comes with.
Well, as the story goes, I vowed a month ago to completely switch %100 to Linux once Mandrake 8.0 was released. I had been using Mandrake 7.x for a while, and it was pretty damn spiffy... but the versions of KDE 2 were kind of unstable among other things. With the release of Mandrake 8.0, I was really excited about an easy transition to a stable user-friendly Linux desktop. I downloaded the ISO and ran through the install. Everything was brain-dead-easy until I finished installing the application packages and went for the initial reboot. The installer kept giving me a no hdlists error, and so I tried expert install and many other options. Things got frustrating, so I decided to try something else.
Libranet was that something else. Any open-minded techie will be able to see the superiority of a Debian based distro, with regards to system updates etc, using apt-get. However, I also have two eyes which can see the superiority of KDE 2.1 to anything Gnome has the offer. I never got involved in any emotional or religious license arguements are crap like that. I just simply wanted the best Linux setup possible, and I didn't want to have to spend allot of time/effort/money to get it.
Libranet 1.9.0 has all the features I want, with a cutting edge journeling filesystem, the latest great kernel, KDE 2.1, etc... It is easy Debian based!
So the install. You want to know about the install? Well, lets just say that it ain't as easy as Mandrake, when Mandrake dosen't shit itself on you. When Mandrake's installer works, a 3 year old could install it. But Mandrake wasn't working for me at all, so maybe Libranet's more involved install actually helped.
The biggest problem with Libranet's installer was its reliance on floppies. Excuse my foul language, but it ain't fscking 1997 anymore guys. Most workstations don't use floppies anymore, using CD-RW instead. CD-RW is more dependable and its cheaper than floppies. Libranet's install requires you to make floppies if you are installing Libranet on SCSI harddrives. So, yes, the biggest and most difficult part of the entire install for me was trying to dig up an old floppy drive that I had stashed away at the bottom of a closet full of boxes of knick-nacks. After hooking it up and making the boot floppies, I try to boot my soon-to-be Linux box on them. Yup, the disks were bad, so I was back to trying to rawrite more boot disks until I found some old floppies that didn't have bad sectors all over them.
Floppies floppies floppies! After the floppy fiasco, the rest of the install was a piece of cake. And I mean easy easy easy! The installer didn't have a theme manager like Mandrake's, but the installer was doing one thing that Mandrake's installer wasn't doing for me yesterday: it was working!
Libranet's installer is super easy to use. You need to know a few obvious things to properly move through the installer for Libranet:
Again, just incase you guys don't get the point of how easy the install is... floppies can be a bitch and partitioning the drives requires actual though, but even the partitioning is as straight forward as cutting a birthday cake or a pizza, which most people have done at least once in their life.
What is Libranet actually like? Well, I could better answer this question a month from now, after using it everyday, but from what I have seen so far, Libranet seems rock solid stable and loaded with cool (and useful) apps. Of course, I was one of the cursed Northpoint customers that got his line cut, so I suck down the net through a 28.8 dialup now, but apt-get is just way too cool! With it, I probably won't download a new distro for another 2 years! If you have a dedicated net connection, like a cable modem or a DSL line... apt-get would be the Holy Grail of Linux for you. Installing and updating software is easier on a Debian Linux than on any Mac OS or Windows OS!
IT JUST WORKS!
Why more people don't use a Debian based distro is weird to me. I suggest Libranet 1.9.0 if you want to experiment with a Debian based distro, or if you simply want a better rock solid Linux setup. In my opinion, Debian should be THE core standard for all distros.
By the way, I am posting this from Konqueror, which after several hours of frantic use, hasn't crashed once. Konqueror is THE Internet Explorer killer.
Hmmm, not sure where you are looking, but Mandrake 8.0's KDE setup allows for anti-aliasing to be selected as a checkbox in one of KDE's GUI configuration menus (similar to Windows 98). So anti-aliasing is there in KDE and there in a popular Linux distro.
Dare it be repeated: KDE is far ahead of Gnome. Put religious issues behind you and use both desktops with their associated applications. KDE is years ahead of Gnome.
...you're wrong! $300 is the suggested price.
Amen to that! I played River City Ransom for a couple hours last night, on my Nintendo Entertainment System (NES). The NES comes from circa 1985, and can currently be had for around $20 off of Ebay, with the works (controllers, cables, etc...) The games have tons of replay value (I have been playing them for around 12 years now), and they can be had for around an average of $5 each.
Yes, having the latest and greatest is always a fun thing for the gamer... but when you find yourself sitting around bored, waiting for next-gen game consoles... you need to do a reality check, and ask yourself: Am I having fun?
Don't forget the classics.
Is it me, or does the average Slashdotter want to see the XBox fail? Personally, I don't like witnessing Microsoft assimilate large industries into their borgness... but isn't Sony an even more evil company to have control the game industry? I remember John Carmack saying something like that.
Compaq actually gives the information needed, so that you can build your own Itsy. Maybe a group of Linux hackers could put together a site that would take orders for the Itsies, and once they reached enough requests, they could start building them and selling them to those who placed an order (and put down a deposit).
Anyway, I am sure some of the more hardware skilled peeps that read slashdot could put together an Itsy, if they had the resources.
Have fun recharging, while I am catching more Pokemon.
I know that it is just another Onion joke, but I got really upset when I read that Onion article. Maybe I read slashdot too much? Maybe I think that Microsoft will eventually do something as bad as that, in real life.
A little FYI, for those who are still buying (and getting ripped off) rechargable batteries from local electronic stores. Check out Thomas Distributing for a great online source of rechargable batteries and other related equipment. I am not associated with the company, but I am a satisfied customer. Basically, I was let down by the poor performance of the rechargables that I bought from RadioShack... and so I went surfing online. Some diehard Palm users recommended Thomas Dist, and so I placed an order. The benefit to Thomas is that they differentiate between good, better, and the best yields of batteries from various manufacturers. Just like CPUs, NiMH batteries can have various qualities within the same make and model.
For a PDA user, that uses two AAA batteries, I recommend 4 of the Nexcell AAA, which have a 700mAH capacity. Having 2 sets of 2 lets you cycle between charging and using the batteries. To charge those little bad boys, I recommend the MAHA MH-C204F. It charges my totally drained AAAs in under an hour. For those who need to use AA batteries, check out these 1740mAH capacity bad boys! With that much juice, you really can catch 'em all! Anyway, just some FYI for the power users out there.
For those who want user-friendly slashdot posts, here is a link to Libranet's site: http://www.libranet.com/
Not just that. I good Prof is sometimes not enough. You also need a good student body. With an apathetic class, a good Prof can do next to nothing.
I am not sure why the strong anti-academia mentality has grown in the tech industry. An industry born out of research within the academic sector. People like Church, Turing, Kleene... the grandfathers of computer science... guess what? They came from University - along with their break-through research.
So anyway - the main problem that I see at modern University is not that of bad Professors... I see the problem of an apathetic close-minded student body. Remember your roots, and you will realize the value of University.
...the best professors that is. There is nothing more valuable than a good teacher. Frank Pfenning , in my opinion, is one of those great teachers. I am not a student of the university that he teaches at, but I can still follow along his courses, read his class notes and do his homework. I highly recommend his courses to any computer scientist who is interested in the foundations of computer science (constructive logic and the lot).
;-)
After following through Prof Pfenning's material, I have given allot of thought to going to CMU... I just need more money
Anyways, thanks CMU and thanks Prof Pfenning!
Do your homework, and you will find that an 800mhz Duron with 256MB of ram, a 17in CRT (a nice optiquest which is a budget viewsonic), CD-RW, 40gig harddrive, mouse, keyboard, etc... can all be purchased for around $600. Notice how, in every way, this "budget PC" beets the cheapest iMAC in terms of performance. Fact is, Linux or BSD on dirt cheap PC hardware is the best bet for a do-it-yourself power user. Need I mention overclocking your 800mhz Duron to even greater speeds?
So you want to know where? Well, you have to build the computer yourself, and you need to do a little homework at pricewatch
Palm's Graffiti is so underrated! Just because the Palms don't support full fledge handwriting recognition, people piss and moan. Graffiti has been optimized to simplify each character of the alphabet. Every character from the Roman Alphabet can be written with one simple stroke. Sure you have to learn something new, but its not difficult. I have gotten to the point where I can take notes during a college lecture, with my TRGPro (Palm Pilot Clone with CF interface).
;-) NiMH AAAs none-the-less.
Its fun watching the students with laptops, doing everything they can to conserve battery life... while I do all of the same digital note taking on a fraction of 2 AAA batteries
...and according to www.pricewatch.com , that much PC133 SDRAM would cost you around $150.
Yeah, but without a truely intelligent AI, search algorithms will always be exploitable. Keyword spamming is the old school method, and with google, maybe a combination of keyword spamming and link spamming (have tons of other bogus sites link to yours) would work.
Yeah, I get the joke. If you can search on google, you are already on the internet!
No, no, no... you are missing the point. Think in terms of bottlenecks with power consumption as the object of performance optimization. The crusoe has optimized part of the system, but the screens for most mobile computers are bottlenecking the power consumption process.
...Transmeta is probably hoping that someone addresses the power consumption bottlenecks. It is definitely a good thing for Transmeta.
So just like Intel had problems justifying selling newer "faster" CPUs, because of FSB bottlenecks, and addressing the FSB bottleneck became a growing concern for Intel, because otherwise, the end user wouldn't notice significant performance improvements when they bought the latest and greatest pentium.
...and why did the linux watch get stamped with the stigma of uselessness? Sure it has a low battery life (4 hours), but then again, so do most laptop computers.
Computer Science is a mathematical field, not a scientific field. Not sure who coined the name, but it is definitely a bad one. Computer science has more to do with proof-theory, than any scientific occupation.