This used to be a problem for me (I do a fair amount of scanning/OCR). But in the last little while, xsane backends have gotten better, and there are decent OCR interfaces to decent engines like Tesseract. I find I'm able to scan/OCR without having to leave Linux, and I'm getting results about as good as I got with Windows and commercial software.
This miserable dog of an AC used my nickname without authorization of any kind. I certainly had nothing to do with the post above. Unethical doesn't even begin to describe the AC's action.
My post above was modded down a lot more than I had anticipated, and a follow-on poster completely missed the point.
First, there will be no "year of Linux on the desktop" nor does there need to be. Linux is for those who choose to use it and choose to deal with it, and truthfully the same can be said for Windows. The difference? Windows is the incumbent, the majority by an overwhelming margin.
I'm surprised that the fellow who tried for 20 years to get Linux to do what he wanted didn't just give up years sooner. Most people would, and in fact should.
But let's think about what's meant by "getting Linux to do what I want." Isn't that, in most cases, to have Linux look and act like something familiar, namely Windows? And doesn't that really miss the point? If you want Windows, just use Windows. Why bother with Linux? On the other hand if you want something different maybe Linux is an option for you, as it is for me and many others.
When the poster talked about making Linux easy to use, I think he meant make it more like Windows, then it will be easy to use, because he's already familiar with Windows. But, starting from scratch with no prior experience, can you say that Windows is easy to use? Put someone in front of Windows 8.1 and will they have a clue what to do? That's even somewhat true for Windows 10, from what I've seen.
My wife, who has no particular computer skills, uses Linux. She doesn't even know that it's Linux or what the difference between Windows and Linux is. Yes, I set it up for her. But is she saying "it doesn't do what I want"? No. She uses a web browser and little else.
I really don't think it's a matter of Linux geeks wanting it to be hard for non-geeks so they can feel superior. I use Linux because it's a positive aid in getting the things done that I need to get done. I can't say that about Windows, but it doesn't matter. Other people have the reverse opinion. No big deal. To each his own.
No kidding. I've also used Linux for about 20 years, and I definitely know how to get what I want and need from it. I don't understand the statement above about frequent crashes, massive security lapses, and a poor UI. I experience none of these problems. I can't even remember the last crash... it would have been years and years ago. The UI? I have choices. I don't have to use Gnome 3 (and I don't). Security? Thank you but I feel safer with open source (and the same goes for being spied on).
If the above poster has used Linux for 20 years and can't get it to work the way he wants, I suggest that the fault is not with Linux.
Publishers hate the on-line revolution and the ability of authors such as myself and millions more to self-publish.
What the publishers don't realize is that Google is giving them free publicity. I'd guess that Google's efforts increase sales, not decrease them. Google just publishes sample pages. Like what you read? You'll have to buy the book, and you just might do that!
But no, publishers want things to be like they were 50 years ago, when they were the kings of the book world, and they controlled everything.
97% consensus! We've done a great job in eliminating the opposition. But there are still a few out there. Until we eliminate them all and reach 100%, the job isn't done. Maintain vigilance.
The above really gets to the point. It's not that record profits make copyright infringement or piracy somewhat "okay." And even though copyright infringement and theft aren't the same thing, neither one is legal, and the fact that the movie industry has made a lot of money doesn't change that.
It does put the lie to their statement that piracy is killing them. And this matters, again not because piracy is right, but because the MPAA and others are using their bogus argument to justify all sorts of oppressive and draconian measures to "protect" them. It's clear that they hardly need "more protection" or more enforcement tools or harsher laws. They're doing fine.
Piracy isn't right. But neither is taking away the rights of legitimate buyers, restricting the legitimate freedoms of innocent people, and all the rest.
I have to disagree. It takes some time and effort to get comfortable with Bash, but once you do it's really powerful and logical. I used to script most things in Perl or Python but found that for a lot of uses, Bash was more than adequate once I put in the effort.
Just like C, Perl, Python, or anything, Bash scripts can be indeed a nightmare if poorly coded. But properly coded Bash scripts are easy to work with.
In my post, I didn't attribute W8 to millenials (or anyone for that matter). I stated that I don't know enough about millenials and hipsters to comment on them (I really don't).
Another lousy headline, including the headline on TFA. Deeper in the article it says that there are no current plans to clone humans. I also love the picture in TFA, which has a caption about cloning cows but shows a line of people.
I don't know enough to comment about hipsters and millenials. To each his own. But I do agree with the comment that form and style now seem more important than function and even basic quality. I think the smartphone mess is really characteristic of this, but it reaches to the desktop as well.
The ultimate in function, the command line, is the minimum in style. (Of course there are usability arguments, but my point still stands.)
All I have to do is look at Windows 8. I'm honestly impressed with the slick appearance, very far beyond my Gnome 2 desktop. And it's great until you actually try to do something... at which point you realize that glitz and glitter don't get work done.
Yours is an excellent post and contains much food for thought. I do however view things much differently, but I don't want to seem to "attack" what you've said, as it provides valuable insight.
Perhaps I have a different idea of what it means to be an introvert or extrovert. In my case, introversion displays as difficulty in starting relationships. However, the ones that do "make" it (that sounds terrible, I know) become very deep and indeed extremely "fault tolerant." I accept and navigate friends' "flaws" because I realize that they are simply part of who they are. They extend the same tolerance to my flaws and faults. It's not at all a matter of limiting time together because of fault intolerance, so to speak.
So I go back to the OP's idea that my group of introverts is simply very busy and wants to get lots of things done, and so we treasure our time together but none of us want it to be so extended that our goals are diverted. In that manner we're supportive of each other. (It might help to know that in my case, my friends are mostly other writers.)
I want to go back, though, and briefly elaborate my unrelated side point: that the bar/football "mainstream" crowd is non-reciprocal. That is, while I can see that those folks enjoy the bar/football experience, and I'm not at all critical of their choice, they will not extend the same tolerance to me and my own choices and interests, which they criticize openly. Example: I once told one of the bar/football people I was going to compete in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. He gave me a disdaining look and said, "Is there something wrong with you?"
You are SO right. I live in a high rise condo complex with over 800 units and more of the same surrounding us. I use wired connections. No issues of stability or channel interference at distances beyond a couple of feet.
I hate to use the old phrase "quality time" but it comes to mind here. I have a handful of very good friends with whom I interact regularly but not constantly. I don't need or want more than that, and they don't either. So when we do get together, it's terrific. I think there would be rapidly diminishing returns if we got together more and more often.
Email is fine to stay in touch day to day (which doesn't necessarily translate as 'daily' in all cases). We are all really busy, like-minded people, which is probably why we're friends.
I don't understand the idea of calling and talking on the phone for hours daily, or the modern equivalent of texting every other minute. Now, many people do that. I'm not being critical. To each his or her own. Whatever makes you happy.
Drinking beer and watching football at the bar with buddies doesn't do it for me. And, lest you accuse me of being judgmental (when I just said above that I'm not!) --- this puts me outside the mainstream, and many if not most of those football/bar people do judge me for not being "social" enough.
It took me way too long to learn this: When you're outside the mainstream, don't expect acceptance and understanding to be reciprocal.
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This used to be a problem for me (I do a fair amount of scanning/OCR). But in the last little while, xsane backends have gotten better, and there are decent OCR interfaces to decent engines like Tesseract. I find I'm able to scan/OCR without having to leave Linux, and I'm getting results about as good as I got with Windows and commercial software.
but I've seen you say some pretty nasty things to people, too.
Really? Look back at my posts and show me. Of course, you're posting as an AC, aren't you?
- chipschap
This miserable dog of an AC used my nickname without authorization of any kind. I certainly had nothing to do with the post above. Unethical doesn't even begin to describe the AC's action.
And the Dumbocrats are better?
Not much to choose from.
These guys need to be black balled and the editors at Nature Climate Change need to be fired.
Good news and reference to potential positive effects are not permitted. We can only have bad news, doom and gloom.
My post above was modded down a lot more than I had anticipated, and a follow-on poster completely missed the point.
First, there will be no "year of Linux on the desktop" nor does there need to be. Linux is for those who choose to use it and choose to deal with it, and truthfully the same can be said for Windows. The difference? Windows is the incumbent, the majority by an overwhelming margin.
I'm surprised that the fellow who tried for 20 years to get Linux to do what he wanted didn't just give up years sooner. Most people would, and in fact should.
But let's think about what's meant by "getting Linux to do what I want." Isn't that, in most cases, to have Linux look and act like something familiar, namely Windows? And doesn't that really miss the point? If you want Windows, just use Windows. Why bother with Linux? On the other hand if you want something different maybe Linux is an option for you, as it is for me and many others.
When the poster talked about making Linux easy to use, I think he meant make it more like Windows, then it will be easy to use, because he's already familiar with Windows. But, starting from scratch with no prior experience, can you say that Windows is easy to use? Put someone in front of Windows 8.1 and will they have a clue what to do? That's even somewhat true for Windows 10, from what I've seen.
My wife, who has no particular computer skills, uses Linux. She doesn't even know that it's Linux or what the difference between Windows and Linux is. Yes, I set it up for her. But is she saying "it doesn't do what I want"? No. She uses a web browser and little else.
I really don't think it's a matter of Linux geeks wanting it to be hard for non-geeks so they can feel superior. I use Linux because it's a positive aid in getting the things done that I need to get done. I can't say that about Windows, but it doesn't matter. Other people have the reverse opinion. No big deal. To each his own.
No kidding. I've also used Linux for about 20 years, and I definitely know how to get what I want and need from it. I don't understand the statement above about frequent crashes, massive security lapses, and a poor UI. I experience none of these problems. I can't even remember the last crash ... it would have been years and years ago. The UI? I have choices. I don't have to use Gnome 3 (and I don't). Security? Thank you but I feel safer with open source (and the same goes for being spied on).
If the above poster has used Linux for 20 years and can't get it to work the way he wants, I suggest that the fault is not with Linux.
I'll never understand the antipathy and general shit that Outlook catches. It's the best goddamned email client on planet Earth.
It's nothing compared to Gnus :)
Note that if you live in Alaska or Hawaii you don't get free 2-day shipping, just free one to two week shipping via Parcel Pool.
But you see, Some of us feel that conservatives and libertarians deserve that for lying about climate change
How is it that climate change makes its way into everything, even things that are remotely if at all related?
Ah, the cloud, yes. I just knew this had to have something to do with global warming.
Publishers hate the on-line revolution and the ability of authors such as myself and millions more to self-publish.
What the publishers don't realize is that Google is giving them free publicity. I'd guess that Google's efforts increase sales, not decrease them. Google just publishes sample pages. Like what you read? You'll have to buy the book, and you just might do that!
But no, publishers want things to be like they were 50 years ago, when they were the kings of the book world, and they controlled everything.
What in blazes is Microsoft R Open? A Microsoft rebranding of R?
97% consensus! We've done a great job in eliminating the opposition. But there are still a few out there. Until we eliminate them all and reach 100%, the job isn't done. Maintain vigilance.
The above really gets to the point. It's not that record profits make copyright infringement or piracy somewhat "okay." And even though copyright infringement and theft aren't the same thing, neither one is legal, and the fact that the movie industry has made a lot of money doesn't change that.
It does put the lie to their statement that piracy is killing them. And this matters, again not because piracy is right, but because the MPAA and others are using their bogus argument to justify all sorts of oppressive and draconian measures to "protect" them. It's clear that they hardly need "more protection" or more enforcement tools or harsher laws. They're doing fine.
Piracy isn't right. But neither is taking away the rights of legitimate buyers, restricting the legitimate freedoms of innocent people, and all the rest.
I have to disagree. It takes some time and effort to get comfortable with Bash, but once you do it's really powerful and logical. I used to script most things in Perl or Python but found that for a lot of uses, Bash was more than adequate once I put in the effort.
Just like C, Perl, Python, or anything, Bash scripts can be indeed a nightmare if poorly coded. But properly coded Bash scripts are easy to work with.
In my post, I didn't attribute W8 to millenials (or anyone for that matter). I stated that I don't know enough about millenials and hipsters to comment on them (I really don't).
Another lousy headline, including the headline on TFA. Deeper in the article it says that there are no current plans to clone humans. I also love the picture in TFA, which has a caption about cloning cows but shows a line of people.
Come to think of it ...
I don't know enough to comment about hipsters and millenials. To each his own. But I do agree with the comment that form and style now seem more important than function and even basic quality. I think the smartphone mess is really characteristic of this, but it reaches to the desktop as well.
The ultimate in function, the command line, is the minimum in style. (Of course there are usability arguments, but my point still stands.)
All I have to do is look at Windows 8. I'm honestly impressed with the slick appearance, very far beyond my Gnome 2 desktop. And it's great until you actually try to do something ... at which point you realize that glitz and glitter don't get work done.
MS is a lot of things, but I'd have to think that their programmers are not quite that stupid.
Exactly so. Their programmers are not quite that stupid, so would they pass up this opportunity to collect even more personal data?
Yours is an excellent post and contains much food for thought. I do however view things much differently, but I don't want to seem to "attack" what you've said, as it provides valuable insight.
Perhaps I have a different idea of what it means to be an introvert or extrovert. In my case, introversion displays as difficulty in starting relationships. However, the ones that do "make" it (that sounds terrible, I know) become very deep and indeed extremely "fault tolerant." I accept and navigate friends' "flaws" because I realize that they are simply part of who they are. They extend the same tolerance to my flaws and faults. It's not at all a matter of limiting time together because of fault intolerance, so to speak.
So I go back to the OP's idea that my group of introverts is simply very busy and wants to get lots of things done, and so we treasure our time together but none of us want it to be so extended that our goals are diverted. In that manner we're supportive of each other. (It might help to know that in my case, my friends are mostly other writers.)
I want to go back, though, and briefly elaborate my unrelated side point: that the bar/football "mainstream" crowd is non-reciprocal. That is, while I can see that those folks enjoy the bar/football experience, and I'm not at all critical of their choice, they will not extend the same tolerance to me and my own choices and interests, which they criticize openly. Example: I once told one of the bar/football people I was going to compete in the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament. He gave me a disdaining look and said, "Is there something wrong with you?"
You are SO right. I live in a high rise condo complex with over 800 units and more of the same surrounding us. I use wired connections. No issues of stability or channel interference at distances beyond a couple of feet.
I hate to use the old phrase "quality time" but it comes to mind here. I have a handful of very good friends with whom I interact regularly but not constantly. I don't need or want more than that, and they don't either. So when we do get together, it's terrific. I think there would be rapidly diminishing returns if we got together more and more often.
Email is fine to stay in touch day to day (which doesn't necessarily translate as 'daily' in all cases). We are all really busy, like-minded people, which is probably why we're friends.
I don't understand the idea of calling and talking on the phone for hours daily, or the modern equivalent of texting every other minute. Now, many people do that. I'm not being critical. To each his or her own. Whatever makes you happy.
Drinking beer and watching football at the bar with buddies doesn't do it for me. And, lest you accuse me of being judgmental (when I just said above that I'm not!) --- this puts me outside the mainstream, and many if not most of those football/bar people do judge me for not being "social" enough.
It took me way too long to learn this: When you're outside the mainstream, don't expect acceptance and understanding to be reciprocal.
The translation of SJW is: "Anyone who doesn't agree with me".
''
Actually I thought that was the SJW's definition of a bigot, racist, etc.
I doubt Microsoft is going to extinguish open source. If that were possible they would have done it long ago. They are anything but altruistic.
If they're contributing to open source now, you can be certain they have a business reason. After all, they're a business.
I cautiously welcome this. Time will tell what's really behind it, of course. Meanwhile, no one is obliged to use their stuff if you don't wish to.