to me it sounds like you are just coming to the realization that you spent 5000 dollars (and will soon spend 1000 more just to have your blessed operating system) all in vain. it is ok, take your steam out on us.
one of the fellows below summed up the pros and cons vrs PS and PP under windows pretty well, i figured i might add a few things. the major upgrades you get with PS 5 are these: multiple undo. photoshop was playing catch up with this one as most other raster editing programs already did this. both Gimp and PP do this, PP provides a window that gives you a list much like PS 5 does, gimp doesn't have a list. PS 5's list is very slick and intuitive but in essence no more powerful then the other's editable text: they still lead the pack with that one, i know the business i work with has been helped tremendously by that feature. kudos to PS there real-time effects: this is one of those things you say WOW to...when you first rip off the plastic and stick the disk in...but after about a week of usage you stop using it consistently...there are few uses for them...the thing that limits their use is that they look "canned" remember when PS came out with the lens flare? you saw the flare in almost Every peice of artwork and it became canned...now i'm seeing PS5 effects left and right...most serious designers don't use them and would rather stick to the old fashioned way because then you can fashion it to your wishes more powerful scripting?: i heard this was boosted in PS 5 but i really didn't see much of a difference...i was never impressed with their scripting abilities...i guess since you've never tried anything else you wouldn't know but with the gimp you can actually use programming languages(such as perl or TCL) to tell it what to do...creating dialog boxes and all manner of things...some parts of The Gimp actually started out as plug-ins and still technically are...things like the gradient editer which is the best gradient editer i've seen in ANY graphics program ever...so the gimp actually blurs the line between actions and plug-ins...corel PP does the same...they have fully scriptable macros that you can open up in their editor and tweak codewise...you may be saying "well why would i need that? PS actions do all i need"...well all i can say to that is...until you see the power inherited in such a system you can't really make a comparison...it is like owning a horse drawn cart and asking why you need a car... lets see, magnetic lasso: if that could even be considered a major upgrade feature, it isn't that much...i so rarely use it...the other programs have similiar features anyways undo paintbrush: nice feature...but again...playing catchup with corel PP...they've had such a brush since version 3.0 at least...and that is VERY archaic if you know your corel history... overall...the PS5 upgrade really wasn't worth the money you had to shell out for it...i resented photoshop for making such a move...i didn't mention the color correction scheming because that caused WAY more trouble then good...they almost got sued over that one...in my opinion if you are printing graphics PS is still the way to go...gimp doesn't even have CMYK color scheme...and corel's is notoriously "off"(maybe 8 fixed that, i havn't heard)...as far as creating on screen graphics, corel PP has a plethora of incredible and powerful features, plus the ability to adapt photoshop plug-ins, as well as their own APIs...its only drawbacks are a slightly clumsy feeling interface...this is due to the fact that it offers so much...throw in tight intigration with its counterpart...coreldraw and you have a killer package...photoshop and illustrator really don't intigrate at all... as for The Gimp?...in creating on screen graphics i'd choose no other...it Feels slim and powerful...just like PS does...everything is hotkeyed and customizable...creating graphics in the gimp is like starting over all over again...its FUN...ever since i touched it PS hasn't been fun for me anymore...i feel like i'm working in a limited space...as for scanning and color correcting 50 megabyte pictures i might still stick with photoshop...oh BTW for all you X Window users...raster's imlib tools include gamma and color correction to your screen making decent color correction in Gimp a reality...
my general opinion of their new cases is negative...i mean they are trying to make a point of being different and all, but those things are just UGLY...i wouldn't want that sitting in my living room...it wouldn't go with anything else...a NORMAL beige box is inconspicuous and can be hidden...i guess if you stare at your CPU all day it would be cool.:.
i tried mutt when i first got linux...i like pine better...of course i just use it for personal email...not getting massive amounts of mail...so i'm not sure how good its filtering is... but if you need filtering and use MS you should try pegasus instead of eudora... does mutt have good filtering? i really didn't play with it that much...wasn't impressed with the interface...pine is much more intuitive and easy to leap around to different parts of the program IMO
um...does your current version of eudora work just fine? then how do you lose your client? it isn't as if the thing is going to *poof* just because the company stops developing it... i don't use eudora but from what i've heard it is a pretty stabile and neat interface... if that is correct... then what more do you need? just keep on using your current version until it becomes outdated(not likely since i don't see email protocol shifting very much in the near future)
i tend to agree! pegasus is one of the better email clients i've ever touched...very scaleable(sic) and feature rich... as compared to eudora lite...give me a break...no competition there... ever since i switched over i've been missing pegasus expecially since i have a ton of email sitting around in peg format:)
I'm just weird but I like pine...i don't really see the need for having 25 windows open, i mean if you know the hotkeys you can navigate around pine very fast in just window. to me, i see email as a mostly text operation, Some Companies have gone with adding bold tex and and RTF formatting and what not, totally unneccesary in my opinion, email should be left as what it is, free fast simple communication with that in mind...you don't need alot of bells and whistles...i just want to type in text...and the pico editor isn't bad at all... i tried netscape's email but i just loath waiting for netscape communicator to open every time i want to check email...and unless you have a ton of ram it isn't worth it to leave the thing open...tis a huge memory hog just to be collecting email i tried a few other GUI clients...but found them either to be lacking in features, buggy, or the dreaded Both... pine is Very stabile and i know then when i click send my email is going to be sent without glitches just my opinion though...most of the m$ migrants are going to be wanting GUIs with RTF and all sorts of whiz bang... so i see the validity in a program that can do that stuff...it just isn't for me
is how entertwined alot of these hardware vendors are and microsoft. did anybody else notice how deadly that liscense is? microsoft has a CONTRACT with toshiba that prohibits them from seperating their software from their hardware. later on it said they can't sell a system without a valid operating system...but i bet that implies MS operating systems because why would microsoft make them sign an agreement like that. it is little wonder that the hardware industries are anxious to get microsoft off of their backs if they are being forced to sign prohibitive liscense like this. i wonder how long they are effective? this is definatly one of the things "they" would rather not have known and i'm glad this story brought it up.
it's a pity i used my M$ software, back when i purchased the computer i didn't even really know what linux was fully. oh well. i'll get to do this with my next upgrade:)
you are correct, the average user really doesn't need 1/4 of the CPU that they purchase on their computer. But you need to keep in mind that most of the users that are switching over to Linux are already power users of some right and they in general are going to be more tasking to their system, and will notice sluggishness and be annoyed at it. I don't claim to use my CPU 100% all of the time, that would be a stupid claim with a PII 400, but i definatly do task it at times, and the times that it was tasked would be increased if i was using hardware that was feeding off of the CPU. call me picky, but i don't want my computer to be sluggish in any way. i'm sure many feel the same way, if not, then get a winmodem.
i too just discovered DFM...right now i'm running a very slim profile with IceWM, gnome, and dfm... that is a pretty fast combination...and very usefull too...dfm is nice for those who are used to the macintosh file management system...as well as OS/2...one gripe i had with it...i couldn't find a way to print out the files in list format...just icon format...icon format is bulky...i'd rather an extended list format that gives me mdodes and stats...
you've struck on a very important thing...a massive rash of the latest hardware has been turned into "win" devices so that they can slim back on horsepower on the hardware and let windows take care of the rest...meaning a much cheaper product... porting these things wouldn't be impossible...but the real question is...do we WANT them...win devices slow down your computer since they use the main CPU for most of their processes... i think the slowest market to change will be the hardware market...alot of hardware companies have put alot of investment into win-devices and it will be hard for them to turn around and make real devices again...and until they see the profits of doing that they won't think about it...and i don't see any reason for them to see profits in it until fall or so of this year... i could be drastically wrong on this...but hardware will be the last boat to turn it's rudder...and until you get decent hardware it is hard to make "decent" games...of course i'm a fan of games that require thought instead of voodoo3 chips...but that is just a personal preference...most people want descent: freespace. or whatever.
Your angst is showing... If you had correctly read my argument you would have seen that I wasn't calling the macos a fake OS...or the imac a fake computer. No you had to extort that information from what I said like the poor reader you are. I clarify for you what I said in different, more easy to understand words.
The iMac represents a future trend that is leading to a market split. In which you have computers that are real computers, and computers that are "terminals"
let us analyse that statement. That means the market split does NOT exist yet. that means the imac is NOT a terminal. What it represents will LEAD to such a split. If you don't see this then I can't help you out much.
I am all for diversity. I love computers with style. They arn't my first priority since I don't really stare at the box much, but they are a good thing. That isn't what I'm talking about however. I'm talking Apple and Microsoft's goal to create miniture terminal computers in the future that are built into your stove or what not. When the average person is able to get such an embedded device that reads emails and prints out term papers, who'll need to buy a big full machine anymore? The hardware industries won't be driven to make full computers for cheap anymore. Long gone will be the days when you can get a middle line computer for 1000 bucks. Gone will be the days that you can get a relatively top of the line computer for 2500. Who needs those when you have everything you want in an embedded computer? Right?
Well that is a wrong philosophy because all of the geeks and hobbiest like me out there will still want a computer they can tear apart and work with. To get such a machine we will have to pay huge amounts of money because that will be an extremely vertical market. the only reason that computers are as cheap as they are now is demand. If the demand drops everybody will have to charge more. This really isn't tha complicated and i'm surprised it completely flew over your head.
I have a friend that just put linux PPC on his G3, and from what I've seen its not faster at all. The whole thing has this feel of "emulation" as if I'm running the whole system on top of something else or behind it or something. I'm not saying this is the case, that is what it feels like. And as for being more or less Open, just go take a look at the RPM archives and look at the number differences. for the ones who don't know how to tweak code and recompile you are stuck with Much less software to run on PPC. I'm not saying this means PCs are superior in all aspects. That would be stupid of me to say that. But at this space in time there is much more support and speed(from what i've seen)for the PC. yes linuxPPC is easy to set up...uhh...think about it? Apple is very closed when it comes to hardware. there really arn't that many options and so setting up drivers is cake since all G3s are shipped with the same specs for the most part. yet another reason why PCs are more open.
You are forgetting the target audience of the imac isn't going to be upgrading their computer every 2 years. what they bought they are most likely going to be stuck with for a good while. These are the types of people that own 286s and use WP 5.1. they bought the computer once for the intention of writing papers and what not and that is all they need.
Seeing how i don't view VW beetles as a very important facet of our community, who cares what I think about its aesthetics.
the thing that is bad about the imac is that it is pawning off an inferior computer for styling to a target audience that doesn't realize the importance of what future trends will bring. if we see the death of the real computer to little nice dinky machines that don't even have a real operating system, and to get a real computer you'll have to pay 10,000 bucks, don't come whining to me about it. I warned you.
the imac is only furthering the market split. I think we should be spending more time educating the masses instead of providing an easy way out. so they don't WANT to learn about computers? oh well tough meat for them because they are the way of the future. i didn't expecially WANT to learn algebra back in highschool. but i'm glad i took it now. providing the masses with an 'idiot-tool' will only further split the market and end up how i described it above.
the friendly little imac is a dangerous trend in my eyes. not for what it is right now, but for what it represents.
I'm down with that. I want my computer to be HUGE ugly and minimal. When I got my latest computer i ordered it in the largest box they had. I have enough free space inside there to put the Netwinder inside it. I love high vibration CD-ROM readers, you know the ones that cause your neighbors to seek shelter under desks when you stick a CD in? Why doesn't anybody make a computer for me? Put dry-ice(hmmm...pentium nuetralizer?)...and puffers so that it blows smoke. anyways, i'm getting off topic
The slashdot readers for the most part live in this little bubble of the computer market that is pretty narrow and specialized compared to the rest of the market. For the most part none of us care. We want a machine that will perform, we want to be able to rip it open and fiddle with it, even if there isn't an urgent pressing meaning to do that. I take the same approach to computers as Lightsabers. Make you own.
But I am not the average consumer. The average consumer is an idiot. I feel bad that they are being exploited by apple into buying the imac because it has many inherant faults. I always tell new users to get something other then an imac because they can get 5 times the worth for a much cheaper cost. Sure it won't look straight off the jetsons, but it will cost you 500 bucks less, and if something goes wrong with it, i could fix it. Not be scared to crack the plastic case putting a screw back in. Hey I could even send you a file on a floppy and you could read it. Amazing.
I see apple's motives, we live in a society where people plug the power strip into itself and wonder why nothing works. You expect this kind of person to know what parts to purchase and put a computer together, then install debian?
I have nothing against stylistic computers, there is nothing wrong with that. But when you are stripping components and features, charging more for it, and then "making it look pretty." That is just a 10 on the lame meter when your target audience is idiots.
I've been into the underground music scene for a while and I really respect these musicians who just release their hours of toil as free for whoever wants to download it. I am going to donate to keep them alive! They have some of the best tunes.
You are correct, this program definatly isn't for the novice, not even the just graphic realm, but you are going to need some general all around expertise on running computers to figure out what Blender is doing. It took me a while to get it going but partially that is because of a bug with my virtual resolution spreading the graphics around and wreaking havok on it.
But really, if you look at any high-end 3-d graphics or CAD program you arn't going to find usability high on the list. Just try to crank up Form-Z and figure it out in an hour and you'll know what I mean.
I really havn't delved into Blender enough to figure out if it is really going to be that usefull to me or not...But on the surface I don't think it looks robust enough to replace anything.
However I do appreciate its interface and small size. This is something that I wish the commercial venders would learn from the majority of freeware out there. Keep things concise. Try new methods, the old interfaces arn't always the best interfaces.
Slashdot Mirror
to me it sounds like you are just coming to the realization that you spent 5000 dollars (and will soon spend 1000 more just to have your blessed operating system) all in vain.
it is ok, take your steam out on us.
we understand.
one of the fellows below summed up the pros and cons vrs PS and PP under windows pretty well, i figured i might add a few things.
the major upgrades you get with PS 5 are these:
multiple undo. photoshop was playing catch up with this one as most other raster editing programs already did this. both Gimp and PP do this, PP provides a window that gives you a list much like PS 5 does, gimp doesn't have a list. PS 5's list is very slick and intuitive but in essence no more powerful then the other's
editable text: they still lead the pack with that one, i know the business i work with has been helped tremendously by that feature. kudos to PS there
real-time effects: this is one of those things you say WOW to...when you first rip off the plastic and stick the disk in...but after about a week of usage you stop using it consistently...there are few uses for them...the thing that limits their use is that they look "canned" remember when PS came out with the lens flare? you saw the flare in almost Every peice of artwork and it became canned...now i'm seeing PS5 effects left and right...most serious designers don't use them and would rather stick to the old fashioned way because then you can fashion it to your wishes
more powerful scripting?: i heard this was boosted in PS 5 but i really didn't see much of a difference...i was never impressed with their scripting abilities...i guess since you've never tried anything else you wouldn't know but with the gimp you can actually use programming languages(such as perl or TCL) to tell it what to do...creating dialog boxes and all manner of things...some parts of The Gimp actually started out as plug-ins and still technically are...things like the gradient editer which is the best gradient editer i've seen in ANY graphics program ever...so the gimp actually blurs the line between actions and plug-ins...corel PP does the same...they have fully scriptable macros that you can open up in their editor and tweak codewise...you may be saying "well why would i need that? PS actions do all i need"...well all i can say to that is...until you see the power inherited in such a system you can't really make a comparison...it is like owning a horse drawn cart and asking why you need a car...
lets see, magnetic lasso: if that could even be considered a major upgrade feature, it isn't that much...i so rarely use it...the other programs have similiar features anyways
undo paintbrush: nice feature...but again...playing catchup with corel PP...they've had such a brush since version 3.0 at least...and that is VERY archaic if you know your corel history...
overall...the PS5 upgrade really wasn't worth the money you had to shell out for it...i resented photoshop for making such a move...i didn't mention the color correction scheming because that caused WAY more trouble then good...they almost got sued over that one...in my opinion if you are printing graphics PS is still the way to go...gimp doesn't even have CMYK color scheme...and corel's is notoriously "off"(maybe 8 fixed that, i havn't heard)...as far as creating on screen graphics, corel PP has a plethora of incredible and powerful features, plus the ability to adapt photoshop plug-ins, as well as their own APIs...its only drawbacks are a slightly clumsy feeling interface...this is due to the fact that it offers so much...throw in tight intigration with its counterpart...coreldraw and you have a killer package...photoshop and illustrator really don't intigrate at all...
as for The Gimp?...in creating on screen graphics i'd choose no other...it Feels slim and powerful...just like PS does...everything is hotkeyed and customizable...creating graphics in the gimp is like starting over all over again...its FUN...ever since i touched it PS hasn't been fun for me anymore...i feel like i'm working in a limited space...as for scanning and color correcting 50 megabyte pictures i might still stick with photoshop...oh BTW for all you X Window users...raster's imlib tools include gamma and color correction to your screen making decent color correction in Gimp a reality...
my general opinion of their new cases is negative...i mean they are trying to make a point of being different and all, but those things are just UGLY...i wouldn't want that sitting in my living room...it wouldn't go with anything else...a NORMAL beige box is inconspicuous and can be hidden...i guess if you stare at your CPU all day it would be cool.:.
heh...maybe the notebooks come specially packed in balsa wood?
DON'T DROP IT!!!
i tried mutt when i first got linux...i like pine better...of course i just use it for personal email...not getting massive amounts of mail...so i'm not sure how good its filtering is...
but if you need filtering and use MS you should try pegasus instead of eudora...
does mutt have good filtering? i really didn't play with it that much...wasn't impressed with the interface...pine is much more intuitive and easy to leap around to different parts of the program IMO
um...does your current version of eudora work just fine?
then how do you lose your client? it isn't as if the thing is going to *poof* just because the company stops developing it...
i don't use eudora but from what i've heard it is a pretty stabile and neat interface... if that is correct... then what more do you need?
just keep on using your current version until it becomes outdated(not likely since i don't see email protocol shifting very much in the near future)
i tend to agree! pegasus is one of the better email clients i've ever touched...very scaleable(sic) and feature rich... :)
as compared to eudora lite...give me a break...no competition there... ever since i switched over i've been missing pegasus
expecially since i have a ton of email sitting around in peg format
I'm just weird but I like pine...i don't really see the need for having 25 windows open, i mean if you know the hotkeys you can navigate around pine very fast in just window.
to me, i see email as a mostly text operation, Some Companies have gone with adding bold tex and and RTF formatting and what not, totally unneccesary in my opinion, email should be left as what it is, free fast simple communication
with that in mind...you don't need alot of bells and whistles...i just want to type in text...and the pico editor isn't bad at all...
i tried netscape's email but i just loath waiting for netscape communicator to open every time i want to check email...and unless you have a ton of ram it isn't worth it to leave the thing open...tis a huge memory hog just to be collecting email
i tried a few other GUI clients...but found them either to be lacking in features, buggy, or the dreaded Both...
pine is Very stabile and i know then when i click send my email is going to be sent without glitches
just my opinion though...most of the m$ migrants are going to be wanting GUIs with RTF and all sorts of whiz bang... so i see the validity in a program that can do that stuff...it just isn't for me
is how entertwined alot of these hardware vendors are and microsoft. did anybody else notice how deadly that liscense is? microsoft has a CONTRACT with toshiba that prohibits them from seperating their software from their hardware. later on it said they can't sell a system without a valid operating system...but i bet that implies MS operating systems because why would microsoft make them sign an agreement like that. it is little wonder that the hardware industries are anxious to get microsoft off of their backs if they are being forced to sign prohibitive liscense like this. i wonder how long they are effective? this is definatly one of the things "they" would rather not have known and i'm glad this story brought it up.
it's a pity i used my M$ software, back when i purchased the computer i didn't even really know what linux was fully. oh well. i'll get to do this with my next upgrade
i'm going to start making shrunken head apples for a living!
you are correct, the average user really doesn't need 1/4 of the CPU that they purchase on their computer. But you need to keep in mind that most of the users that are switching over to Linux are already power users of some right and they in general are going to be more tasking to their system, and will notice sluggishness and be annoyed at it. I don't claim to use my CPU 100% all of the time, that would be a stupid claim with a PII 400, but i definatly do task it at times, and the times that it was tasked would be increased if i was using hardware that was feeding off of the CPU. call me picky, but i don't want my computer to be sluggish in any way. i'm sure many feel the same way, if not, then get a winmodem.
i too just discovered DFM...right now i'm running a very slim profile with IceWM, gnome, and dfm... that is a pretty fast combination...and very usefull too...dfm is nice for those who are used to the macintosh file management system...as well as OS/2...one gripe i had with it...i couldn't find a way to print out the files in list format...just icon format...icon format is bulky...i'd rather an extended list format that gives me mdodes and stats...
you've struck on a very important thing...a massive rash of the latest hardware has been turned into "win" devices so that they can slim back on horsepower on the hardware and let windows take care of the rest...meaning a much cheaper product...
porting these things wouldn't be impossible...but the real question is...do we WANT them...win devices slow down your computer since they use the main CPU for most of their processes...
i think the slowest market to change will be the hardware market...alot of hardware companies have put alot of investment into win-devices and it will be hard for them to turn around and make real devices again...and until they see the profits of doing that they won't think about it...and i don't see any reason for them to see profits in it until fall or so of this year... i could be drastically wrong on this...but hardware will be the last boat to turn it's rudder...and until you get decent hardware it is hard to make "decent" games...of course i'm a fan of games that require thought instead of voodoo3 chips...but that is just a personal preference...most people want descent: freespace. or whatever.
Your angst is showing...
If you had correctly read my argument you would have seen that I wasn't calling the macos a fake OS...or the imac a fake computer. No you had to extort that information from what I said like the poor reader you are. I clarify for you what I said in different, more easy to understand words.
The iMac represents a future trend that is leading to a market split. In which you have computers that are real computers, and computers that are "terminals"
let us analyse that statement. That means the market split does NOT exist yet. that means the imac is NOT a terminal. What it represents will LEAD to such a split. If you don't see this then I can't help you out much.
I am all for diversity. I love computers with style. They arn't my first priority since I don't really stare at the box much, but they are a good thing. That isn't what I'm talking about however. I'm talking Apple and Microsoft's goal to create miniture terminal computers in the future that are built into your stove or what not. When the average person is able to get such an embedded device that reads emails and prints out term papers, who'll need to buy a big full machine anymore? The hardware industries won't be driven to make full computers for cheap anymore. Long gone will be the days when you can get a middle line computer for 1000 bucks. Gone will be the days that you can get a relatively top of the line computer for 2500. Who needs those when you have everything you want in an embedded computer? Right?
Well that is a wrong philosophy because all of the geeks and hobbiest like me out there will still want a computer they can tear apart and work with. To get such a machine we will have to pay huge amounts of money because that will be an extremely vertical market. the only reason that computers are as cheap as they are now is demand. If the demand drops everybody will have to charge more. This really isn't tha complicated and i'm surprised it completely flew over your head.
I have a friend that just put linux PPC on his G3, and from what I've seen its not faster at all. The whole thing has this feel of "emulation" as if I'm running the whole system on top of something else or behind it or something. I'm not saying this is the case, that is what it feels like. And as for being more or less Open, just go take a look at the RPM archives and look at the number differences. for the ones who don't know how to tweak code and recompile you are stuck with Much less software to run on PPC. I'm not saying this means PCs are superior in all aspects. That would be stupid of me to say that. But at this space in time there is much more support and speed(from what i've seen)for the PC.
yes linuxPPC is easy to set up...uhh...think about it? Apple is very closed when it comes to hardware. there really arn't that many options and so setting up drivers is cake since all G3s are shipped with the same specs for the most part. yet another reason why PCs are more open.
You are forgetting the target audience of the imac isn't going to be upgrading their computer every 2 years. what they bought they are most likely going to be stuck with for a good while. These are the types of people that own 286s and use WP 5.1. they bought the computer once for the intention of writing papers and what not and that is all they need.
Seeing how i don't view VW beetles as a very important facet of our community, who cares what I think about its aesthetics.
the thing that is bad about the imac is that it is pawning off an inferior computer for styling to a target audience that doesn't realize the importance of what future trends will bring. if we see the death of the real computer to little nice dinky machines that don't even have a real operating system, and to get a real computer you'll have to pay 10,000 bucks, don't come whining to me about it. I warned you.
the imac is only furthering the market split. I think we should be spending more time educating the masses instead of providing an easy way out. so they don't WANT to learn about computers? oh well tough meat for them because they are the way of the future. i didn't expecially WANT to learn algebra back in highschool. but i'm glad i took it now. providing the masses with an 'idiot-tool' will only further split the market and end up how i described it above.
the friendly little imac is a dangerous trend in my eyes. not for what it is right now, but for what it represents.
I'm down with that.
I want my computer to be HUGE ugly and minimal.
When I got my latest computer i ordered it in the largest box they had. I have enough free space inside there to put the Netwinder inside it.
I love high vibration CD-ROM readers, you know the ones that cause your neighbors to seek shelter under desks when you stick a CD in?
Why doesn't anybody make a computer for me? Put dry-ice(hmmm...pentium nuetralizer?)...and puffers so that it blows smoke. anyways, i'm getting off topic
The slashdot readers for the most part live in this little bubble of the computer market that is pretty narrow and specialized compared to the rest of the market. For the most part none of us care. We want a machine that will perform, we want to be able to rip it open and fiddle with it, even if there isn't an urgent pressing meaning to do that. I take the same approach to computers as Lightsabers. Make you own.
But I am not the average consumer. The average consumer is an idiot. I feel bad that they are being exploited by apple into buying the imac because it has many inherant faults. I always tell new users to get something other then an imac because they can get 5 times the worth for a much cheaper cost. Sure it won't look straight off the jetsons, but it will cost you 500 bucks less, and if something goes wrong with it, i could fix it. Not be scared to crack the plastic case putting a screw back in. Hey I could even send you a file on a floppy and you could read it. Amazing.
I see apple's motives, we live in a society where people plug the power strip into itself and wonder why nothing works. You expect this kind of person to know what parts to purchase and put a computer together, then install debian?
I have nothing against stylistic computers, there is nothing wrong with that. But when you are stripping components and features, charging more for it, and then "making it look pretty." That is just a 10 on the lame meter when your target audience is idiots.
I've been into the underground music scene for a while and I really respect these musicians who just release their hours of toil as free for whoever wants to download it. I am going to donate to keep them alive! They have some of the best tunes.
You are correct, this program definatly isn't for the novice, not even the just graphic realm, but you are going to need some general all around expertise on running computers to figure out what Blender is doing. It took me a while to get it going but partially that is because of a bug with my virtual resolution spreading the graphics around and wreaking havok on it.
But really, if you look at any high-end 3-d graphics or CAD program you arn't going to find usability high on the list. Just try to crank up Form-Z and figure it out in an hour and you'll know what I mean.
I really havn't delved into Blender enough to figure out if it is really going to be that usefull to me or not...But on the surface I don't think it looks robust enough to replace anything.
However I do appreciate its interface and small size. This is something that I wish the commercial venders would learn from the majority of freeware out there. Keep things concise. Try new methods, the old interfaces arn't always the best interfaces.