If finding out where KDE is installed isn't trivial for the user, then why are they using a distribution that requires them to do so?
Because nearly all distributions do, to one extent or another. Each distro developer has their own ideas of where things should go. Rememeber that KDE isn't a single bit of software, it is a collection of programs and libraries; and each distribution has different locations for various sorts of libraries and programs.
These will not necessarily be same as the structure the KDE obtained from the developers/maintainers of KDE assume.
And so the user is locked in to getting his KDE from the source of his distro, which may well leave him with an underdeveloped/poorly maintained KDE (a not unheard of complaint lodged against Ubuntu at the moment), or completely locked out of KDE if he cannot manually install it himself.
Multiply the problem across all software packages, not just KDE. KDE is just being used as an example.
The standards are to make life easier for developers. ..
So that they may write one install script that works across all distros, making life easier for the user. Developers are not the point of software. Users are.
Consider, however, a situation in which an audio engineer actually recommends Bose speakers as an optimum solution to a particular problem, even though in general they are crappy.
He'll be out in left field all by himself, even though his opinion is the most correct.
Trust systems are really only valuable in finding average solutions to average problems. In unique situations requiring real expertise they will tend to reject the true experts right along with the clueless wonders.
Wrong. Nobody switching to Linux gives a shit what directory their KDE is installed in. Believe it or not most people have more important criteria that they demand from their computers, and are much more likely to switch back to Windows if they are required to look in their KDE directory in the first place.
Exactly! You seem to have missed the point poster was getting at. It may well be necessary to look in the KDE, and other, directories to simply get KDE to install on a given system, because the files get put in different directories on those systems, which is not where the automagical installer puts them.
The point of a uniform directory structure isn't so that a user can find things, it's so that a user never even has to know those things exist just to have a running system.
reliability can be assessed based on who agrees with whom, in which case you will see pockets of people with 0 reliability (these people can then be banned from the system).
This assesses consensus, not correctness. The two are often at odds with each other.
As Thoreau noted a man more correct than his neighbors already constitutes a majority of one.
I am always suspicious of those product review sites.
And this, I am afraid, is already the optimum solution to the problem.
If you actually read the EULAs you will discover that there is just as much variation in the licenses of propriatary software as there is in freely distributable software. In fact every Microsoft OS is issued under a different license and each are available under mulitple forms of that license. You just don't notice it because a)you don't actually read the EULAs; b)the differences aren't really all that relevant to you as user, which is one of the reasons you don't read the EULAs.
For the most part the differences in the licenses of open source software are equally not really relevant to you as user.
As user there are really only two licenses you have to worry about, the one that doesn't let you give away copies of the software; and the one that does. The rest is commentary of interest to software authors.
The reason licenses are discussed so much in the OS world, giving the impression of greater variation than in the propriatary world, is that there are, because of the nature of the open licenses, so many authors; who are all free to discuss it.
Case vendors always seek to attract younger buyers with extravagant form factors and outrageous looks.
These aren't gamer's cases. They're children's playroom cases.
My gamer's case is big, steel, biege with all the necessary interface bits right out in the open and if the cat gets too close to the intake vent I have to power down to get her unstuck.
A gamer is too busy keeping his ass alive to even notice that he has a case.
Too bad they rejected the original title: "Falling Chunks";-)
Although the official explanation is that the word is derived from the Greek for "four", it turns out that "Tetris" translates as "Falling Chunks" in Vogon.
If I encode my posts with a 128 key and give you the key, would you bother to look up the algorithm I'll refer you to and decode it?
I don't know. I might, if I were in that sort of mood. I know, however, that I consider it routine to look up words and phrases I do not recognize, especially those in languages I do not know. I cannot expect a Bulgarian, writing in Bulgarian, to know what Bulgarian phrases I do and do not know.
Had you written your post entirely in Bulgarian it is likely I would have taken a stab at understanding it, although I cannot guaruntee any sort of success. Your English is better than my Bulgarian, although I am not entirely unfamiliar with the Balkan linguistic union. I would have greater chance of success with Greek.
I have not quoted Latin at you. I have quoted a bit of Latinate English. Ironically, had I known you were Bulgarian I might well have used a more formally Latin grammar, since I would expect you to have a greater chance of understanding an international "Lingua Franca" than my own native tongue.
The phrase is extant and has the same meaning globally.
And, if I may repeat myself, and I may, I provided an idomatic contextual explanation of the phrase: Price is not function.
Your country has many fine luthiers working in it, making many fine violins. It is a shame that so many people reason by the purse, or they would surely have much greater respect.
A Bulgarian violin selling in America for $1000 dollars has its entire working life still before it, whereas the violin that just sold at auction for $3.5 million had expended its entire working life about 250 years ago (the object sold actually being little more than a collection of new parts, repairs and "improvements" on the original).
Could you please speak in a language that's not dead yet.
I'm sorry, but English actually is my first language. Since I am aware that the average person these days cannot be bothered to look up things they do not understand (you'll find the phrase in any decent English language encyclopedia. Or even Wikipedia) I did, however, include an idiomatic translation into modern American. I cannot help it if the modern American mind is incapable of grasping the concept that price does not equal quality/correctness.
I suppose when we're living on other planets, companies who offer to pay return shipping will likely have to update their T&Cs to specify that it applies only to Earth.
Outsource.
When I have a Martin guitar repaired under warranty it goes to a guy who lives down the block, not back to Nazareth, PA.
. ..for a multi-million (billion?) piece of machinery, I'd expect it to work past my death . ..
Argument Ad Crumenam.
Price is not function. A $20 million Formula One car, for instance, has a functional halflife of about 4 hours, because it is designed that way, much of that $20 million being spent to effectively shorten it's halflife compared to a street car. In fact the perfect racing car has been defined as one that falls apart one foot after crossing the finish line, since anything else implies it has been overengineered at the sacrifice of its intended performance.
If such a car went a full season competively without an engine rebuild every mechanical engineer in the world would wish to study it. It would be a true marvel.
a couple of years ago when the phantom was relatively new they showed off the console and some PC ports and the thing seemed at least somewhat real.
And demonstrated that they had invested nearly several hundred of those $70 million on something other than coke and hookers.
You're still talking like the console was ever supposed to be a real product. The object you bring up that was displayed is something called "bait." Myself I prefer to dry fly fish for trout on the surface rather than bait fish for suckers feeding in the muck on the bottom.
I know, that this might be shocking for some people, but copyright isn't a natural law.
Shhhhhhhhh! If people start thinking like that they might even jump to the conclusion that corporations only exist by grant of government charter as well; agreeing to obtain certain legal benefits in exchange for certain legal responsibilities.
That's good enough for casual use, but since we're talking about the first chicken genetically you have to define chicken precisely enough that the not chicken parents can be distinuished from their chicken offspring.
when reading the article i suddenly realized that the chickens outnumber us humans 4 to 1!...
If that bothers you don't read too deeply about cockroaches.
Slashdot Mirror
If finding out where KDE is installed isn't trivial for the user, then why are they using a distribution that requires them to do so?
.
Because nearly all distributions do, to one extent or another. Each distro developer has their own ideas of where things should go. Rememeber that KDE isn't a single bit of software, it is a collection of programs and libraries; and each distribution has different locations for various sorts of libraries and programs.
These will not necessarily be same as the structure the KDE obtained from the developers/maintainers of KDE assume.
And so the user is locked in to getting his KDE from the source of his distro, which may well leave him with an underdeveloped/poorly maintained KDE (a not unheard of complaint lodged against Ubuntu at the moment), or completely locked out of KDE if he cannot manually install it himself.
Multiply the problem across all software packages, not just KDE. KDE is just being used as an example.
The standards are to make life easier for developers. .
So that they may write one install script that works across all distros, making life easier for the user. Developers are not the point of software. Users are.
KFG
The only thing I wish my Boring Beige Case (TM) had is a handle for carrying it around.
Make one out of nylon webbing and a bit of leather/PVC pipe.
KFG
They're really giving way to a new form of Communism that only seems to select and use the parts that are useful to them given the time and place.
This has always been the way of China. In the long haul they have always been social pragmatists.
You may not be so different yourself. Have you adopted Germanic pagan tree worship, or do you just put up a "Christmas" tree because you like to?
KFG
Consider, however, a situation in which an audio engineer actually recommends Bose speakers as an optimum solution to a particular problem, even though in general they are crappy.
He'll be out in left field all by himself, even though his opinion is the most correct.
Trust systems are really only valuable in finding average solutions to average problems. In unique situations requiring real expertise they will tend to reject the true experts right along with the clueless wonders.
KFG
Wrong. Nobody switching to Linux gives a shit what directory their KDE is installed in. Believe it or not most people have more important criteria that they demand from their computers, and are much more likely to switch back to Windows if they are required to look in their KDE directory in the first place.
Exactly! You seem to have missed the point poster was getting at. It may well be necessary to look in the KDE, and other, directories to simply get KDE to install on a given system, because the files get put in different directories on those systems, which is not where the automagical installer puts them.
The point of a uniform directory structure isn't so that a user can find things, it's so that a user never even has to know those things exist just to have a running system.
KFG
reliability can be assessed based on who agrees with whom, in which case you will see pockets of people with 0 reliability (these people can then be banned from the system).
This assesses consensus, not correctness. The two are often at odds with each other.
As Thoreau noted a man more correct than his neighbors already constitutes a majority of one.
I am always suspicious of those product review sites.
And this, I am afraid, is already the optimum solution to the problem.
KFG
Weird article really. Kind of pointless too.
The author is kinda confused. It would take me an article roughly ten times as long to go over it point by point; and I ain't gonna.
What I will do is suggest that Andy should consider one key point deeply before he writes another article:
Windows NT is also available under license to anyone who wishes to use it.
KFG
If you actually read the EULAs you will discover that there is just as much variation in the licenses of propriatary software as there is in freely distributable software. In fact every Microsoft OS is issued under a different license and each are available under mulitple forms of that license. You just don't notice it because a)you don't actually read the EULAs; b)the differences aren't really all that relevant to you as user, which is one of the reasons you don't read the EULAs.
For the most part the differences in the licenses of open source software are equally not really relevant to you as user.
As user there are really only two licenses you have to worry about, the one that doesn't let you give away copies of the software; and the one that does. The rest is commentary of interest to software authors.
The reason licenses are discussed so much in the OS world, giving the impression of greater variation than in the propriatary world, is that there are, because of the nature of the open licenses, so many authors; who are all free to discuss it.
KFG
From the article:
Case vendors always seek to attract younger buyers with extravagant form factors and outrageous looks.
These aren't gamer's cases. They're children's playroom cases.
My gamer's case is big, steel, biege with all the necessary interface bits right out in the open and if the cat gets too close to the intake vent I have to power down to get her unstuck.
A gamer is too busy keeping his ass alive to even notice that he has a case.
KFG
Every ship at sea has a machine shop.
KFG
Too bad they rejected the original title: "Falling Chunks" ;-)
Although the official explanation is that the word is derived from the Greek for "four", it turns out that "Tetris" translates as "Falling Chunks" in Vogon.
Coincidence?
KFG
No offend but, that's exactly how I've always imagined a conversation with a protocol droid.
I am not responsible for the things you imagine.
KFG
If I encode my posts with a 128 key and give you the key, would you bother to look up the algorithm I'll refer you to and decode it?
I don't know. I might, if I were in that sort of mood. I know, however, that I consider it routine to look up words and phrases I do not recognize, especially those in languages I do not know. I cannot expect a Bulgarian, writing in Bulgarian, to know what Bulgarian phrases I do and do not know.
Had you written your post entirely in Bulgarian it is likely I would have taken a stab at understanding it, although I cannot guaruntee any sort of success. Your English is better than my Bulgarian, although I am not entirely unfamiliar with the Balkan linguistic union. I would have greater chance of success with Greek.
I have not quoted Latin at you. I have quoted a bit of Latinate English. Ironically, had I known you were Bulgarian I might well have used a more formally Latin grammar, since I would expect you to have a greater chance of understanding an international "Lingua Franca" than my own native tongue.
The phrase is extant and has the same meaning globally.
And, if I may repeat myself, and I may, I provided an idomatic contextual explanation of the phrase: Price is not function.
Your country has many fine luthiers working in it, making many fine violins. It is a shame that so many people reason by the purse, or they would surely have much greater respect.
A Bulgarian violin selling in America for $1000 dollars has its entire working life still before it, whereas the violin that just sold at auction for $3.5 million had expended its entire working life about 250 years ago (the object sold actually being little more than a collection of new parts, repairs and "improvements" on the original).
KFG
Could you please speak in a language that's not dead yet.
I'm sorry, but English actually is my first language. Since I am aware that the average person these days cannot be bothered to look up things they do not understand (you'll find the phrase in any decent English language encyclopedia. Or even Wikipedia) I did, however, include an idiomatic translation into modern American. I cannot help it if the modern American mind is incapable of grasping the concept that price does not equal quality/correctness.
Re the rest of your post:
Joshua the savior who will come, WTF?
KFG
I suppose when we're living on other planets, companies who offer to pay return shipping will likely have to update their T&Cs to specify that it applies only to Earth.
Outsource.
When I have a Martin guitar repaired under warranty it goes to a guy who lives down the block, not back to Nazareth, PA.
KFG
. . .for a multi-million (billion?) piece of machinery, I'd expect it to work past my death . . .
Argument Ad Crumenam.
Price is not function. A $20 million Formula One car, for instance, has a functional halflife of about 4 hours, because it is designed that way, much of that $20 million being spent to effectively shorten it's halflife compared to a street car. In fact the perfect racing car has been defined as one that falls apart one foot after crossing the finish line, since anything else implies it has been overengineered at the sacrifice of its intended performance.
If such a car went a full season competively without an engine rebuild every mechanical engineer in the world would wish to study it. It would be a true marvel.
KFG
Our bias is your thought crime.
KFG
Yeah, but it's. . .
.lovingly aged, with a beautiful patina.
. .
KFG
>>. . . coke and hookers.
>>
>Shouldn't that be 'Coke and dogs' ?
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
KFG
a couple of years ago when the phantom was relatively new they showed off the console and some PC ports and the thing seemed at least somewhat real.
And demonstrated that they had invested nearly several hundred of those $70 million on something other than coke and hookers.
You're still talking like the console was ever supposed to be a real product. The object you bring up that was displayed is something called "bait." Myself I prefer to dry fly fish for trout on the surface rather than bait fish for suckers feeding in the muck on the bottom.
KFG
. . .there are an infinite number of numbers between three and four, but none of them are five.
"You fool," said the mathematician. "Don't you know that if you can only move toward the girl half the distance each time you'll never reach her?"
"Yes," replied the engineer. "But after awhile I'll get close enough."
KFG
And we wouldn't want that now, would we?
And yes, I did preview. Srroy.
KFG
I know, that this might be shocking for some people, but copyright isn't a natural law.
Shhhhhhhhh! If people start thinking like that they might even jump to the conclusion that corporations only exist by grant of government charter as well; agreeing to obtain certain legal benefits in exchange for certain legal responsibilities.
And we wouldn't not that now, would we?
KFG
That's good enough for casual use, but since we're talking about the first chicken genetically you have to define chicken precisely enough that the not chicken parents can be distinuished from their chicken offspring.
when reading the article i suddenly realized that the chickens outnumber us humans 4 to 1!...
If that bothers you don't read too deeply about cockroaches.
KFG
And to answer that, you have to define what a chicken egg is, is it an egg that hatches into a chicken, or is it an egg laid by a chicken?
:)
Because you'll never get anywhere if you don't define your terms
Please define "chicken."
KFG