My girlfriend just bought a new laptop and, not wanting to spend money on Windows Vista, installed Ubuntu on it.
She is a pretty normal user (what you would call a slightly above average Windows user), but she was amazed at Ubuntu. She got almost everything to work, and those things which would not work out of the box fired her up to get it to work.
Mostly she liked the all-around-friendly atmosphere of Ubuntu, the decidedly non-elitistic image, the helpful community. Also the fact that Ubuntu is pretty gorgeous helped.
For me it seems that the few problems she fought with had to do with missing drivers and video codecs. Also, for a new user, the package system takes some getting used to.
I did a lot of UI work in a lot of different technologies. I always found it rather pleasing to build something the user would actually see. And to know that a good UI would make him happy and a bad UI could completely torture him.
I had once a customer who had been given a carelessly written piece of coding by a coworker of mine. That coworker was a good programmer, but he hated UI work, and you could tell by looking at this UI.
Anyway, when I wrote a cleaner interface with a streamlined workflow for that customer, the customer was so happy he literally cried. He had to use that bad UI day-in-day-out at his job and it pained him so much. The workflow on the old UI was so bad that he had to put in overtime since weeks to get all his work done.
This really changed my way I look at UIs. The fact that real people have to live with it, and that with a little more care I can make a big change in how they live thru their work day really rattled me. Since then I pay special attention to UI work.
True. But who needs a pretty UI if the code is beautiful to look at:)
Seriously though, I never understood why developers hate UI work. I always loved it. I am a UI junkie. A good UI gives me as much pleasure as good code.
The people hating messes are the developers which have to look at this day by day. Cleaning up code is never something managers care about - its always driven by developers with a sense for order and simplicity.
That means that Open Source software has a higher chance of getting cleaned up than propietary software, because there you have a higher percentage of truly motivated developers and no managers to bug them. Sigh...
You cannot kill it (quite literally, mainframes have a MTBF of what, 40 years? How is your windows box doing?).
You can sneer at it, disregard it, ridicule it. But it is still there after decades of getting bad rep and no fresh blood. That is actually pretty impressive.
What can also be argued is that people get the government they deserve.
Well, I am german and I don't think I deserve this government. We tried to stop this law but failed.
Actually, at no time in the years of Bush administration I thought americans deserve that government. Too many Americans I knew were really unhappy about it.
Everything is warm and fuzzy, until the ecosystem comes into contact with the outside world: native species die like flies because they can't compete with outside species which had the whole outside world to compete against and adapt to.
As a competent developer, I get extremely annoyed by this sort of shit.
I could not agree more.
Simple rules like "don't use goto/printf/memcpy/..." give you a false sense of security (or, accomplishment). It is perfectly possible to write completely f** up moronic code while following all such quality standards by the letter.
You'll never find a programming language that frees you from the burden of clarifying your ideas.
Simple rules never should replace thinking. Unfortunately, they often do.
But you know what? That "stereotype" effectively describes 4 out my 5 last girlfriends, my mother, all my aunts, and a solid majority of female friends I've had over the years.
You realize that this tells more about your preferences in women than about women in general (at least for your girlfriends, where you have a choice)?
I for one always preferred the cool and smart and nerdy ones... So I usually end up with women who'd rather drop dead than wear pink.
"The People".. the righteousness of that post makes me gag. Speak for yourself, don't hide behind "the People" with capital P.
I read a lot of books by Ms. Le Guin over the years, had a lot of fun and insights doing so, and gladly paid for ever single of those books. She of all authors certainly deserves better than to be bashed this way.
People who don't agree with the principles in the Declaration and writings of the U.S. Founders should move to the E.U.
Who are you to decide who stays and who has to go?
Btw, I am from the E.U. I guess you don't get out a lot of your country, do you?
"The product has been a bear for the development group but the thought of being able to run 3,000 copies of Windows on one System z so fascinated the team that we needed very little additional incentive"
Slashdot Mirror
My girlfriend just bought a new laptop and, not wanting to spend money on Windows Vista, installed Ubuntu on it.
She is a pretty normal user (what you would call a slightly above average Windows user), but she was amazed at Ubuntu. She got almost everything to work, and those things which would not work out of the box fired her up to get it to work.
Mostly she liked the all-around-friendly atmosphere of Ubuntu, the decidedly non-elitistic image, the helpful community. Also the fact that Ubuntu is pretty gorgeous helped.
For me it seems that the few problems she fought with had to do with missing drivers and video codecs. Also, for a new user, the package system takes some getting used to.
Just a plug for the Phoronix Test Suite?
maybe I am ignorant, so please enlighten me.
What shortcuts do you mean?
On the command line? Not counting tab completion, which still forces me to remember at least the start of the ridiculous path name?
six years of development and a console to show....
no shit. I wince every time I have to type a path with "Documents and Settings". ..
speaking of "wince" (aka windows ce), that was not so good either...
I did a lot of UI work in a lot of different technologies. I always found it rather pleasing to build something the user would actually see. And to know that a good UI would make him happy and a bad UI could completely torture him.
I had once a customer who had been given a carelessly written piece of coding by a coworker of mine. That coworker was a good programmer, but he hated UI work, and you could tell by looking at this UI.
Anyway, when I wrote a cleaner interface with a streamlined workflow for that customer, the customer was so happy he literally cried. He had to use that bad UI day-in-day-out at his job and it pained him so much. The workflow on the old UI was so bad that he had to put in overtime since weeks to get all his work done.
This really changed my way I look at UIs. The fact that real people have to live with it, and that with a little more care I can make a big change in how they live thru their work day really rattled me. Since then I pay special attention to UI work.
True. But who needs a pretty UI if the code is beautiful to look at :)
Seriously though, I never understood why developers hate UI work. I always loved it. I am a UI junkie. A good UI gives me as much pleasure as good code.
I agree.
The people hating messes are the developers which have to look at this day by day. Cleaning up code is never something managers care about - its always driven by developers with a sense for order and simplicity.
That means that Open Source software has a higher chance of getting cleaned up than propietary software, because there you have a higher percentage of truly motivated developers and no managers to bug them. Sigh...
and still very much alive.
You cannot kill it (quite literally, mainframes have a MTBF of what, 40 years? How is your windows box doing?).
You can sneer at it, disregard it, ridicule it. But it is still there after decades of getting bad rep and no fresh blood. That is actually pretty impressive.
There is one exotic usage I have sometimes, if you want to give someone (eg an IT support person) access to your machine.
Just set the DISPLAY to his local box and let e.g. a root xterm pop up on his box. That way you don't have to give him the root password.
(of course there is nothing secure about this, it is only convenience)
"After a week of daily ejaculations, the sperm was re-measured. "
For this to make sense, they must have started out with men who don't ejaculate daily. How do you find those men?
And I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.
Just not funny anymore.
Almost as bad as using "42" as an answer to a question thinking this makes you a geek...
You must be a manager.
Doesn't default in English also mean "to go bankrupt"? Someone defaulting on the credit you extend to him means he won't pay it back?
Somehow that usage of "default" always confused me (as a non-english-speaker). So, is "defaulting on a credit" the default?
What can also be argued is that people get the government they deserve.
Well, I am german and I don't think I deserve this government. We tried to stop this law but failed.
Actually, at no time in the years of Bush administration I thought americans deserve that government. Too many Americans I knew were really unhappy about it.
Sometimes I am afraid we burn away our ability to bootstrap our civilization to space.
But then, maybe space tourism fuels public interest in space exploration.
It is a bit like creating a closed off ecosystem.
Everything is warm and fuzzy, until the ecosystem comes into contact with the outside world: native species die like flies because they can't compete with outside species which had the whole outside world to compete against and adapt to.
this is exactly what I will do for any code I have to port to windows.
As a competent developer, I get extremely annoyed by this sort of shit.
I could not agree more.
Simple rules like "don't use goto/printf/memcpy/..." give you a false sense of security (or, accomplishment). It is perfectly possible to write completely f** up moronic code while following all such quality standards by the letter.
You'll never find a programming language that frees you from the burden of clarifying your ideas.
Simple rules never should replace thinking. Unfortunately, they often do.
But you know what? That "stereotype" effectively describes 4 out my 5 last girlfriends, my mother, all my aunts, and a solid majority of female friends I've had over the years.
You realize that this tells more about your preferences in women than about women in general (at least for your girlfriends, where you have a choice)?
I for one always preferred the cool and smart and nerdy ones... So I usually end up with women who'd rather drop dead than wear pink.
be really really wicked slow.
correlation != causation
that was sarcasm...
be really really wicked slow.
The People. The ultimate holders of authority.
"The People".. the righteousness of that post makes me gag. Speak for yourself, don't hide behind "the People" with capital P.
I read a lot of books by Ms. Le Guin over the years, had a lot of fun and insights doing so, and gladly paid for ever single of those books. She of all authors certainly deserves better than to be bashed this way.
People who don't agree with the principles in the Declaration and writings of the U.S. Founders should move to the E.U.
Who are you to decide who stays and who has to go?
Btw, I am from the E.U. I guess you don't get out a lot of your country, do you?
Dude, I'm german but this is new to me... Maybe I'm missing out on something? Or maybe you watch too much Southpark...
Quote:
"The product has been a bear for the development group but the thought of being able to run 3,000 copies of Windows on one System z so fascinated the team that we needed very little additional incentive"
That is one bizarre fascination.