i get the impression that raster is going to be doing things to make enlightenment gnome unfriendly. i think that's unfortunate. i hope i'm wrong, and i hope he works closely with the gnome people (and if the kde people have wm specs, i hope he works with them as well) to deliver a good, integrated wm.
There are NO PLANS (as in zero, zilch, nada, none) to so much as remove GNOME compatibility, let alone intentionally make E GNOME-unfriendly. It's not going to happen. Period.
i also hope he, mandrake, and the author of eterm work on one additional goal - smaller memory footprint.
For what they do, Enlightenment and Eterm both have very small memory footprints. I often hear people comment that Eterm uses less memory than rxvt, aterm, and even xterm. However, we have chosen a feature-rich and configurability-focused approach to our products rather than a minimalist approach. We will always strive to write our code in an efficient manner, but saving memory is not our primary goal.
After all, memory is cheap. I remember when a 1 MB SIMM cost you an arm and a leg! Now you can get a fast 128 MB DIMM for under $100. Now don't get me wrong -- I hate pointless bloat due to bad code just as much as you do. But more features require more code and more memory, and I think the feature sets of Enlightenment and Eterm are well worth it.
but we want to know how this is going to impact the devel of E.
This means only good things for the development of Enlightenment. Not only will raster and mandrake be working for a company which supports free software, but they will be working together at the same company, and even in the same room. This will facilitate the exchange of ideas in a much more effecient and productive manner than ever before.
In fact, I have accepted a position with VA as well and will be joining them shortly. I am going to be working on developing Eterm and helping raster and mandrake with Enlightenment, Imlib, etc. Having us all together means features -- more, better, and faster.
Also.. will any effort be made to keep E compatible with future redhat releases? I know they rather soured the milk on this, but alot of us still use redhat..
Enlightenment was compatible with RedHat Linux before raster ever went to work for them. Furthermore, VA ships RedHat on its servers.
I'll try to avoid sounding like another "Me too!" post (of which slashdot.org has no shortage *grin*).
I just wanted to voice my support for linux.com and the great people behind it. I had the opportunity to meet some of the people behind it recently. Not only do they do great work, but they are genuinely focused on making a good quality site for everyone. They've said from the beginning they wanted this to be a neutral site, and they've successfully done exactly that.
Congrats to Trae, Garrett, and Dan (et al.) for a flawless launch, and to VA for their unprecedented support of the Linux community. Great job guys!
cje is correct. "Sol" is the name of the star we call our sun. "Sun" is a generic term which can be applied to any star, but when we refer to "the sun," we refer to Sol only. So to call any other star system a "solar system" is a misnomer; there is only one solar system, and that is ours.
There can, however, be any number of planetary systems (or, actually, the preferred term, "star systems").
Re: OSS lets us fix bugs and leave author in peace
on
A Bit About Freshmeat
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· Score: 1
i've always assumed that the reply would be "you've got the source. fix it."
This comment brings up two interesting points. One, not all e-mail users send to authors is bug reports. Some are requests for features, some are requests for assistance, etc. Two, I (and many other OSS authors) don't mind getting bug reports that don't have patches. Of course, we prefer patches since they save us work, but we also realize that not everyone is a programmer. I do sometimes tell people "I'll fix it when you send me the patch," but I try to only do that to people I know and/or with bugs I can't reproduce myself.
now, the thought of actually flaming somebody who gave me a free program, with source code that i could fix myself . . . jesus, that's just beyond comprehension.
Rude, yes. Uncalled-for, yes. Beyond comprehension, perhaps. But it happens all the time.
The Open Source system yields something that other systems don't have: Direct access to developers. When was the last time you knew the e-mail address of the guy who designed your television set or your car? OSS has set a precedent of not just supported software, but author-supported software. You can send e-mail directly to the person who wrote the actual code that you love (or hate, as the case may be) so much. And they might actually even read it and reply!
If you could talk to the person who decided where all the switches on your dashboard would go, you might have some (ahem) constructive criticism for him/her. I know I would. But we don't, so we deal with it. In the OSS world, however, we do have that kind of access, so we feel like we have a license to speak our minds without consideration for a few key facts.
One, the vast majority of OSS developers don't get paid for their work. They are donating their time and talent to help make the lives of the rest of us easier and more tolerable. Two, most of these programmers have "regular" jobs that pay the bills and that require their attention. Their lives do not revolve around their OSS development. Three, and most important, these developers are PEOPLE. They are not simply e-mail addresses on the other side of the world. They are human beings, with egos, feelings, moods, and all the other things that make us all human. They care about the work they've done and the people whose lives are affected by that work, and to have those people turn on them can be quite unpleasant.
As users, I make this request. Let us all remember that we want OSS to succeed, and therefore we should support it, and the people who make it work, as best we can. If you have criticisms for a given program, web site, or whatever, fine. You have every right to express those opinions. But you must do it respectfully and politely. Remember, the person who is going to be reading this is a person! Treat them as you would want to be treated. Make sure to compliment the things you like, and thank them for their efforts.
As developers, we must also recognize that e-mail is a very poor forum for conveying voice inflections and other non-verbal communications that tell us how someone intends their words to be interpreted. The same phrase can come across a hundred different ways, depending on how it's said. So we must try to take critically-worded e-mails in stride, and be extra-tolerent of flames. We must acknowledge the phenomena I mentioned above as a fact of life in the world of open software and try our best not to take it personally.
In the same way that you should think before you open your mouth, you should also think before you send an e-mail. The same old rule, slightly paraphrased, applies: "Read twice, send once."
Slashdot Mirror
i get the impression that raster is going to be doing things to make enlightenment gnome unfriendly. i think that's unfortunate. i hope i'm wrong, and i hope he works closely with the gnome people (and if the kde people have wm specs, i hope he works with them as well) to deliver a good, integrated wm.
There are NO PLANS (as in zero, zilch, nada, none) to so much as remove GNOME compatibility, let alone intentionally make E GNOME-unfriendly. It's not going to happen. Period.
i also hope he, mandrake, and the author of eterm work on one additional goal - smaller memory footprint.
For what they do, Enlightenment and Eterm both have very small memory footprints. I often hear people comment that Eterm uses less memory than rxvt, aterm, and even xterm. However, we have chosen a feature-rich and configurability-focused approach to our products rather than a minimalist approach. We will always strive to write our code in an efficient manner, but saving memory is not our primary goal.
After all, memory is cheap. I remember when a 1 MB SIMM cost you an arm and a leg! Now you can get a fast 128 MB DIMM for under $100. Now don't get me wrong -- I hate pointless bloat due to bad code just as much as you do. But more features require more code and more memory, and I think the feature sets of Enlightenment and Eterm are well worth it.
No. It will not be removed.
but we want to know how this is going to impact the devel of E.
This means only good things for the development of Enlightenment. Not only will raster and mandrake be working for a company which supports free software, but they will be working together at the same company, and even in the same room. This will facilitate the exchange of ideas in a much more effecient and productive manner than ever before.
In fact, I have accepted a position with VA as well and will be joining them shortly. I am going to be working on developing Eterm and helping raster and mandrake with Enlightenment, Imlib, etc. Having us all together means features -- more, better, and faster.
Also.. will any effort be made to keep E compatible with future redhat releases? I know they rather soured the milk on this, but alot of us still use redhat..
Enlightenment was compatible with RedHat Linux before raster ever went to work for them. Furthermore, VA ships RedHat on its servers.
I'll try to avoid sounding like another "Me too!" post (of which slashdot.org has no shortage *grin*).
I just wanted to voice my support for linux.com and the great people behind it. I had the opportunity to meet some of the people behind it recently. Not only do they do great work, but they are genuinely focused on making a good quality site for everyone. They've said from the beginning they wanted this to be a neutral site, and they've successfully done exactly that.
Congrats to Trae, Garrett, and Dan (et al.) for a flawless launch, and to VA for their unprecedented support of the Linux community. Great job guys!
Michael
cje is correct. "Sol" is the name of the star we call our sun. "Sun" is a generic term which can be applied to any star, but when we refer to "the sun," we refer to Sol only. So to call any other star system a "solar system" is a misnomer; there is only one solar system, and that is ours.
There can, however, be any number of planetary systems (or, actually, the preferred term, "star systems").
i've always assumed that the reply would be "you've got the source. fix it."
This comment brings up two interesting points. One, not all e-mail users send to authors is bug reports. Some are requests for features, some are requests for assistance, etc. Two, I (and many other OSS authors) don't mind getting bug reports that don't have patches. Of course, we prefer patches since they save us work, but we also realize that not everyone is a programmer. I do sometimes tell people "I'll fix it when you send me the patch," but I try to only do that to people I know and/or with bugs I can't reproduce myself.
now, the thought of actually flaming somebody who gave me a free program, with source code that i could fix myself . . . jesus, that's just beyond comprehension.
Rude, yes. Uncalled-for, yes. Beyond comprehension, perhaps. But it happens all the time.
MichaelThe Open Source system yields something that other systems don't have: Direct access to developers. When was the last time you knew the e-mail address of the guy who designed your television set or your car? OSS has set a precedent of not just supported software, but author-supported software. You can send e-mail directly to the person who wrote the actual code that you love (or hate, as the case may be) so much. And they might actually even read it and reply!
If you could talk to the person who decided where all the switches on your dashboard would go, you might have some (ahem) constructive criticism for him/her. I know I would. But we don't, so we deal with it. In the OSS world, however, we do have that kind of access, so we feel like we have a license to speak our minds without consideration for a few key facts.
One, the vast majority of OSS developers don't get paid for their work. They are donating their time and talent to help make the lives of the rest of us easier and more tolerable. Two, most of these programmers have "regular" jobs that pay the bills and that require their attention. Their lives do not revolve around their OSS development. Three, and most important, these developers are PEOPLE. They are not simply e-mail addresses on the other side of the world. They are human beings, with egos, feelings, moods, and all the other things that make us all human. They care about the work they've done and the people whose lives are affected by that work, and to have those people turn on them can be quite unpleasant.
As users, I make this request. Let us all remember that we want OSS to succeed, and therefore we should support it, and the people who make it work, as best we can. If you have criticisms for a given program, web site, or whatever, fine. You have every right to express those opinions. But you must do it respectfully and politely. Remember, the person who is going to be reading this is a person! Treat them as you would want to be treated. Make sure to compliment the things you like, and thank them for their efforts.
As developers, we must also recognize that e-mail is a very poor forum for conveying voice inflections and other non-verbal communications that tell us how someone intends their words to be interpreted. The same phrase can come across a hundred different ways, depending on how it's said. So we must try to take critically-worded e-mails in stride, and be extra-tolerent of flames. We must acknowledge the phenomena I mentioned above as a fact of life in the world of open software and try our best not to take it personally.
In the same way that you should think before you open your mouth, you should also think before you send an e-mail. The same old rule, slightly paraphrased, applies: "Read twice, send once."
Michael