I've been a linux user off/on for about 14 years. Have used KDE as desktop environment of choice since version 2.0, previously a Windowmaker junkie.
I've tried KDE4 a couple of times and irresepective of all the architecture changes, my immediate reaction was something like this:
hmm, start menu is a bit buggy, i click on stuff and sometimes i thinks i've tried to move things
all my desktop icons are no longer seamlessly placed on the desktop, but in a shitty folder window
hmm, theme is different
hmm, crashes a bit
KDE 3.x was solid, from an end user's perspective. 4.x is arse.
For "getting shit done" KDE3 was pretty hard to beat. ioslaves are the shit, and the interface was fairly clean and usable. As far as 4.x goes, I just don't see anything that helps me "get shit done" in a more efficient manner.
For those who are about to retort "ahh but you need to give it some time to learn the new features" - i shouldn't have to. They shouldn't be so vague and not immediately obvious that a Linux user of 14 years doesn't see/notice them, and only sees the downsides...
Windows 7 vs previous versions - interface is a dramatic, intuitive, immediately noticable improvement. KDE 4.x is a joke. I'm going back to Windowmaker and getting into GNUstep programming I think...
More relevant I think is to perhaps use a Unix to learn network related skills such as TCP/IP network design, DNS, mail routing, VOIP, etc.
Unix (or Windows) is a tool to accomplish a given task. Learn the fundamentals of what you are trying to do and how the protocols work together, and then you can apply this to whatever operating system you happen to get lumbered with by the bean counters or previous management/admin...
So yeah, download a free unix, but remember, its just a tool to achieve a desired service. Focus on the services (and how to diagnose them), rather than the actual particular software package so much. Knowing Linux's quirks (just for example) inside out won't do you any good if you're trying to support Windows or Solaris (or SCO or FreeBSD, etc)...
Keep your mind open, and get exposure to as many tools as possible, it will increase your opportunity for employment...
This. Spend your spare time at home learning new marketable skills. Don't be a zealot with regards to open-source vs Windows or whatever, look at what businesses are using and learn to fix it. By all means, get skilled in Linux/Unix/whatever, just be aware of the potential market for the skills you're learning.
Be a zealot as far as new software/application development goes if you think you can support it, but don't exclude Windows skills simply because "Windows sucks"; you're cutting yourself out of a huge share of the market.
I started out in helldesk at an ISP, see sig below for what I'm currently doing...
They army changing platform would cost them FAR more than the relatively small cost in Windows licenses on new PCs. I get what you're saying, but if you do a proper cost analysis, I'm putting money on the fact that they will SAVE money by sticking with Windows, at least in the short term. I'll bet dollars to gold bars that they have plenty of custom apps that would need to be totally re-written or replaced (and thus debugged and tested before deployment) if they were to switch platform.
Plus, MS is big enough that if they say "jump" they can be pretty sure that they can formulate an appropriate response rather than just say, declare bankruptcy and go under or whatever.
I doubt the military would take them up on the free Windows 7 upgrade though, at least not for a couple of years. At least a year or so for any unknown kinks to be ironed out, and... well, if they're going to be deploying vista, they'll need to set up new images, etc for 7. The free license upgrade is going to be a far smaller cost than the cost in user re-training, application compatibility testing, dealing with both Vista and 7 machines in the field rather than a single platform, etc, etc.
I'm saying that they probably will go to 7 eventually, but its more likely to be when vista reaches end of support... at which point Windows 7 will be well tested (and, guess what... probably on SP2:D)
here here. my thoughts exactly. if they concentrated on making games that you can play for more than a few days (hell, most games I've purchased lately have been boring as shit after a few hours) - the market wouldn't be flooded with secondhand stuff that's barely a week old. impressive graphical effects and voice acting are NOT a replacement for replay value.
there are games on Amiga, C64, etc that I could play for months... come back to years later even. Falcon 4 (with various updates), on PC, i have been replaying since 1997 for example. Most recent games consigned to the bin after a few hours. Some recent stuff is still good though... NWN, NWN2, most bioware games in fact... I play for months. I'll happily pay for (and keep) most of the stuff they put out.
... hell, first time playability. concentrate on that rather than eking out 2 more fps or one more coloured lighting effect, and I'll keep your fucking game and replay it, rather than consigning it to the secondhand shop after 12 hours trying to get some of my money back.
Download the RC for 7, and see what "effing fast" really means. I've used vista since march 07, Windows 7 RC is quite a bit snappier (upgraded my Vista 64 install to Win7 on the same hardware; the difference is quite noticeable).
Have an X-fi I've run on both 64 bit vista and windows 7 with no issues. I have an intel DP35DP board though, maybe you have slight hardware compatibility issues?
Windows 7 basically = vista + a heap of untested code and new features.
Vista has been out for 3 years now and is a "known quantity". SP2 is out soon, and many people live by the policy with MS software of "wait for SP2".
The military deciding to roll out Windows 7 now would be rather foolish. They need to migrate OFF XP if they want continued support in 2010, so really, its either vista or Linux, etc. Like it or not, Vista is the path of least resistance.
Besides, vista isn't as bad as the reputation anyway... in the 3 years I've run it, none of the problems have been insurmountable, and there are plenty of benefits over XP. No one cares that it may be 5% slower at foo task when you're running it on hardware that is 500% faster than the gear you replaced.
Duke 3d is competent. 3d realms have/had a few coders from the demoscene days (Broussard, i think he was with Ultraforce back in the day??). Duke3d was the first FPS shooter 3d engine from memory to have mirrored surfaces, levels above levels (unlike doom), ability to look up/down, etc.
In it's day, it was competent, and the theme was kick-ass.
Unfortunately, it would appear that they lost the plot.
this is THE major reason chrome is my browser of choice. I am sick to death of shitty javascripts, plugings, etc freezing my browser so that i can't continue browsing while i wait in the other 5-6 tabs I've queued up.
0-day exploit using one of the many un-patched buffer over-runs still present in Windows, when one of your "trusted" sites gets hacked?
You realise that your habits leave you in the position of implicitly trusting the security of each and every web server you visit? I'm not sure if you were around in the code-red days, but by the looks of it, nope...
Vista fixed a lot of things. If you took Vista SP1, slapped some different eye candy on it, and called it Windows 7, half the people who are giving Vista shit and waiting for 7 would be none the wiser...
I'm installing the 7 RC this weekend. However I am actually fairly happy with Vista SP1 to be honest. No its not perfect, but its less "crap" than most other alternatives for my purposes (browsing, gaming a bit, managing an AD environment).
AS an os/X and windows user - i'd say the finder in OS/X is a royal fucking pain in the arse. At least windows explorer actually has an interface you can use. Trying to browse things in the finder is painful.
Don't get me wrong, OS/X is great, but the finder is shit.
Seriously, the Free Software world needs to call a timeout. Establish a core and devote every available resource into making that core bug free and secure. Then allow no change to be committed to that core without extensive peer review to prevent new bugs from getting in.
I think you're looking for FreeBSD. This is exactly what the freebsd-core team are for...
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I've been a linux user off/on for about 14 years. Have used KDE as desktop environment of choice since version 2.0, previously a Windowmaker junkie.
I've tried KDE4 a couple of times and irresepective of all the architecture changes, my immediate reaction was something like this:
KDE 3.x was solid, from an end user's perspective. 4.x is arse.
For "getting shit done" KDE3 was pretty hard to beat. ioslaves are the shit, and the interface was fairly clean and usable. As far as 4.x goes, I just don't see anything that helps me "get shit done" in a more efficient manner.
For those who are about to retort "ahh but you need to give it some time to learn the new features" - i shouldn't have to. They shouldn't be so vague and not immediately obvious that a Linux user of 14 years doesn't see/notice them, and only sees the downsides...
Windows 7 vs previous versions - interface is a dramatic, intuitive, immediately noticable improvement. KDE 4.x is a joke. I'm going back to Windowmaker and getting into GNUstep programming I think...
More relevant I think is to perhaps use a Unix to learn network related skills such as TCP/IP network design, DNS, mail routing, VOIP, etc.
Unix (or Windows) is a tool to accomplish a given task. Learn the fundamentals of what you are trying to do and how the protocols work together, and then you can apply this to whatever operating system you happen to get lumbered with by the bean counters or previous management/admin...
So yeah, download a free unix, but remember, its just a tool to achieve a desired service. Focus on the services (and how to diagnose them), rather than the actual particular software package so much. Knowing Linux's quirks (just for example) inside out won't do you any good if you're trying to support Windows or Solaris (or SCO or FreeBSD, etc)...
Keep your mind open, and get exposure to as many tools as possible, it will increase your opportunity for employment...
This. Spend your spare time at home learning new marketable skills. Don't be a zealot with regards to open-source vs Windows or whatever, look at what businesses are using and learn to fix it. By all means, get skilled in Linux/Unix/whatever, just be aware of the potential market for the skills you're learning.
Be a zealot as far as new software/application development goes if you think you can support it, but don't exclude Windows skills simply because "Windows sucks"; you're cutting yourself out of a huge share of the market.
I started out in helldesk at an ISP, see sig below for what I'm currently doing...
Plus, MS is big enough that if they say "jump" they can be pretty sure that they can formulate an appropriate response rather than just say, declare bankruptcy and go under or whatever.
I doubt the military would take them up on the free Windows 7 upgrade though, at least not for a couple of years. At least a year or so for any unknown kinks to be ironed out, and... well, if they're going to be deploying vista, they'll need to set up new images, etc for 7. The free license upgrade is going to be a far smaller cost than the cost in user re-training, application compatibility testing, dealing with both Vista and 7 machines in the field rather than a single platform, etc, etc.
I'm saying that they probably will go to 7 eventually, but its more likely to be when vista reaches end of support... at which point Windows 7 will be well tested (and, guess what... probably on SP2 :D)
lol. i missed a comma :D but i think you know that. touche` :)
there are games on Amiga, C64, etc that I could play for months... come back to years later even. Falcon 4 (with various updates), on PC, i have been replaying since 1997 for example. Most recent games consigned to the bin after a few hours. Some recent stuff is still good though... NWN, NWN2, most bioware games in fact... I play for months. I'll happily pay for (and keep) most of the stuff they put out.
... hell, first time playability. concentrate on that rather than eking out 2 more fps or one more coloured lighting effect, and I'll keep your fucking game and replay it, rather than consigning it to the secondhand shop after 12 hours trying to get some of my money back.
Have you actually used os/x for more than 10 minutes?
Massive kernel improvements are a worthy feature imho. It is far, far more responsive than vista on the same hardware.
Download the RC for 7, and see what "effing fast" really means. I've used vista since march 07, Windows 7 RC is quite a bit snappier (upgraded my Vista 64 install to Win7 on the same hardware; the difference is quite noticeable).
Have an X-fi I've run on both 64 bit vista and windows 7 with no issues. I have an intel DP35DP board though, maybe you have slight hardware compatibility issues?
News flash: the average age of a gamer these days is 30.
Windows 7 basically = vista + a heap of untested code and new features.
Vista has been out for 3 years now and is a "known quantity". SP2 is out soon, and many people live by the policy with MS software of "wait for SP2".
The military deciding to roll out Windows 7 now would be rather foolish. They need to migrate OFF XP if they want continued support in 2010, so really, its either vista or Linux, etc. Like it or not, Vista is the path of least resistance.
Besides, vista isn't as bad as the reputation anyway... in the 3 years I've run it, none of the problems have been insurmountable, and there are plenty of benefits over XP. No one cares that it may be 5% slower at foo task when you're running it on hardware that is 500% faster than the gear you replaced.
Seriously, what sort of nerd are you?
err... works for me. looking at that bug report, it looks like its only broken with windows "classic" theme.
Funny... but the most important chrome feature to me is 1 process per tab. no other browser seems to do that anywhere near as well yet.
... there's a reason tape backup is still in use.
So i see you are not a slashdot subscriber, but come on here to whinge/read anyway?
Duke 3d is competent. 3d realms have/had a few coders from the demoscene days (Broussard, i think he was with Ultraforce back in the day??). Duke3d was the first FPS shooter 3d engine from memory to have mirrored surfaces, levels above levels (unlike doom), ability to look up/down, etc.
In it's day, it was competent, and the theme was kick-ass.
Unfortunately, it would appear that they lost the plot.
damn shame...
this is THE major reason chrome is my browser of choice. I am sick to death of shitty javascripts, plugings, etc freezing my browser so that i can't continue browsing while i wait in the other 5-6 tabs I've queued up.
You realise that your habits leave you in the position of implicitly trusting the security of each and every web server you visit? I'm not sure if you were around in the code-red days, but by the looks of it, nope...
I'm installing the 7 RC this weekend. However I am actually fairly happy with Vista SP1 to be honest. No its not perfect, but its less "crap" than most other alternatives for my purposes (browsing, gaming a bit, managing an AD environment).
Don't get me wrong, OS/X is great, but the finder is shit.
I think you're looking for FreeBSD. This is exactly what the freebsd-core team are for...