Just reading this (Note I am not a Debian User anymore) has me noticing just how much the quality is in the FOSS field compared to MicroSuck, Adobemedia and any other company that's just in it for the money and not the technical perfection. Despite all marketing gibberish to the contrary.
I really wish people would stop with this bullshit. You mention Adobe - GIMP doesn't even compare to Photoshop. Technical perfection is useless if it doesn't give people enough of what it wants.
Now that this is out of the way, grats to the Debian team for a fine release.
Yes, these guys do have their identity attached to TPB, and their followers certainly wouldn't want to see them sell out to avoid punishment.
But then again, their followers aren't the ones with jail time on the line. The folks who run TPB have to decide whether they care more about their own lives, or their fanbase. The consequences are different for both sides.
Besides, they could just do something else. They seem like a smart bunch, technically at least. Plus of course, jail time is apparently quite unlikely in this case, so I hear. Perhaps I'm just thinking of this too seriously.:)
(a) They are very confident of being acquitted, so they want to obtain as much media attention as possible to support their cause (in this case the cause not being to get them acquitted, but rather what they're fighting for)
or
(b) They are trying to get media attention to save their own skins
I doubt this "spectrial" business is to obtain martyrdom. In their current situation, with jail time being a possibility, I doubt their principles of free movies for example would really be worth fighting for.
If I was in their position, I would do whatever it took to be acquitted. They run the risk of pissing the court off with this show, so I don't think it can help. We only have one life after all - it's not worth fighting for pirated content!
It's not just JavaScript, the whole damn thing feels sluggish in Linux compared to the Windows build. It's really annoying, particularly if I'm trying to show how "fast" Linux is when compared to Windows. Yes I know Firefox/= Linux, but it's a primary application so if that is running slow, it's not a good sign.
The only conclusion I can gather is GTK is damn slow. Maybe the upcoming rewrite with QT (so I hear) will be more zippy.
Re:Another biased, hate inspired article
on
I'm a PC and I'm 4-1/2
·
· Score: 0, Redundant
Agreed. There's absolutely nothing attractive about the fanboy culture existant in the Linux/Mac crowd. It's utterly annoying - they cannot see anything positive about anything Microsoft do.
How can one listen to someone who completely lacks rational thought? Eventually it becomes apparent it's far easier to not bother listening anymore.
The Terminator: The Slashdot Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line September 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic moderating. Slashdot begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 8:55 P.M. Eastern time, February 10th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
Do you honestly think Microsoft wouldn't license Windows for $20 on netbooks if it ensured their continued dominance? If someone was faced with two identical netbooks, one running Linux and one running Windows and the only difference was $20 extra for Windows, most people would probably buy it instead. They're used to it, time is money, etc.
Sure it will be less profitable to Microsoft, but at least they'll continue their foothold. Microsoft isn't as dumb as people think here. They will not go down without a fight.
The question is why it hasn't been meaningfully addressed in Windows for such a long time.
They tried with Vista. It failed for the most part because running in a standard user account with UAC was annoying for a lot of people, so they turned UAC off (which turns the standard account into an administrator account pretty much).
Now most of the blame here should go to apps which insist on using admin access for regular operations (not including installation or maintenance). The rest should go to Microsoft for having UAC so insistent on things that shouldn't matter. A slightly more relaxed UAC would work very well, which is what I'm hearing in Windows 7.
When a major software vendor starts talking about WINE support, then we have a real trend. Not before.
It's not worth a major software vendor's time and money to have to support WINE. That includes ensuring it works for the current version (which software sometimes won't due to regressions), setting up technical support to support the WINE-supported version, etc. It would cause more headaches than it's worth for the fairly small number of customers who'd bother with WINE.
Most of us have never had a problem with it...except that it required 335 megs of disk space on Windows. 1/3 gig just to read and print PDFs? The Linux install needs only 125 megs. Why?
Haven't you heard? Hard disk space is cheap these days. Why bother worrying about such things anymore when it's only ~200 MB difference? At least, this is the argument I hear just about everywhere else except Slashdot when it comes to large install sizes of modern software.
Before you write a rebuttal, I tend to agree with you actually, but unfortunately our position is becoming increasingly obsolete these days. Very few people care anymore about avoiding wasted code, tightening up resources and optimization. It would be NICE, but it's counter-productive to the companies (ie. not worth the investment in time) who make this software. Maybe that's one thing I like about OSS - a lot of the software is written by people who still believe in trying to make good, fast and small code, and aren't subject to the timetables of a corporation.
Whenever the Adobe Reader (or Acrobat Pro for that matter) is brought into a Slashdot discussion, people invaribaly mention the fact that it insists on checking for updates, which is completely true. It's a pain, and some people also use it as an example of what they hate about Windows.
However, what I'm more surprised about is that a bunch of geeks aren't capable of exploring the options of the update applet:
* Run Adobe Reader/Acrobat Pro, click Help menu -> Check for updates... * Let it perform a scan, then regardless of whether it found anything to update or not, click Preferences when it appears, and uncheck the "Automatically check for Adobe updates" checkbox. * Click OK, let it scan again for some reason, then hit Quit. Now it will never bother you again.
Now of course, the default should be for updates to NOT be automatically installed. If necessary it should perform scans by default, but have the update notification unobtrusive, like a little icon in the main GUI for example.
Anyway, I provide these instructions because even though we're supposedly a site full of high-intellect individuals, I continually see this complaint and wonder why people can't just try to solve the problem themselves, either through poking with the options like every geek should (it's fun to explore stuff, isn't it?), or simply Googling for an answer.
You are not the target audience. You'd prefer to remain in a stoneage of GUI (no offence, but it's true), and people have gotten use to a pretty interface for their operating systems.
Plus, those gadgets aren't worthless. I have gadgets to show me the weather, CPU and network activity, etc. They appear when I want them to appear, and they aren't distracting because you get used to them. Why can't you evolve like everyone else has? That's my question.
the designer should IMHO spend as least five of the six pages of an interview apologizing for that giant piece of crap that is Far Cry 2...
Given the game is still being sold on retail shelves (ie. it's not old enough to be bargain-binned yet), there's no way the designer is going to hurt sales any further by being honest. Assuming of course he doesn't actually believe the horseshit he talks about, because if he does, then no wonder there's so much cynicism when it comes to high-profile games these days.
Give it up. At this point, complaining about Steam is difficult because even if you have valid points, you're in the minority. Everyone is so wrapped up over the platform that dissenting opinions are met with aggressive response.
It's provided a lot of good things to the PC gaming industry, but it has its flaws. It's not perfect, and people should think hard about how much control they want it to have over the games they purchase (or rent, depending on your view).
And why should people be forced to pay for the failed film and music industries?
Don't the Canadians pay a small tax on black CD/DVD media for a similar reason? Given the tax has been there for a while, maybe some Canadians can give their own opinions, given they're more intermediately aware of it.
Oh, and a small apology for the next bit...
Come on you Canadians, tell us what this is all aboot!
There will eventually be a point where even the most hardened PC gamer will think: why am I bothering with this crap when all I want to do is play the fucking game? It's not worth the effort when a console provides a much smoother experience.
The sad thing is that PC gaming CAN provide a superior experience - but shit like this isn't helping.
I can just imagine the first class. The teacher will be standing there wondering where all his students are, then all of a sudden... "ZERG RUSH!", and everyone tries to squish through the classroom door all at once.
Sometimes I wonder - how often do good people in a ruthless business environment actually remain good people? Sometimes I wonder whether the ultra-competitive nature of business causes upstanding moral people to turn into greedy fucks who have lost their original principles and instead turned to making money at all costs.
Kinda scares me, what our capitalistic society sometimes forces people to become to survive in business. Assuming, of course, that I'm not just being naïve and that these people were simply without scruples before they started to cheat their customers with shonky reviews and what else.
I get really frustrated when reading the comments on Slashdot. Why must Slashdot be so desperately anti-Microsoft? I can't find another area of interest where people are so passionately opposed to a particular company. Furthermore, why is it that when I go to another tech site like Neowin, they have NEARLY POLAR OPPOSITE views to those expressed on Slashdot? Sure, Neowin is a somewhat pro-Windows site anyway, but still. I just wish people on Slashdot had more mixed opinions.
People on a lot of other tech sites don't CARE about the multiple versions. It's not just this issue, it's others to do with Microsoft. Particularly on Neowin and even Ars Technica, most people don't side with the EU when it goes after MS; in fact they're rather aggressively opposed to the EU's actions. So why does nearly everyone on Slashdot have a differing opinion?
It annoys me because I can't tell who's being a dick and who's not. I can't tell if the Slashdotters are right in their hatred of Microsoft, or if the Neowinites think Microsoft are an unfair target I'd like to think people would be a little more understanding, but there's something about computers and technology which makes people either not see clearly or refuse to accept a certain perspective.
So why do I keep reading? Sure, I could just not bother but something draws me back. It's like looking at a car crash and the victims inside - you know it's bad, but you just can't help take a gander.
(I admit - often I'll obtain an opinion due to the comments I read. I accept that this is fraught with peril - the best opinion is one made by their own research and rational judgment based on the evidence, but it's hard not to be swayed one way or the other with the passion people put towards their hatred of a certain organization... private or Governmental).
Slashdot Mirror
I really wish people would stop with this bullshit. You mention Adobe - GIMP doesn't even compare to Photoshop. Technical perfection is useless if it doesn't give people enough of what it wants.
Now that this is out of the way, grats to the Debian team for a fine release.
Yes, these guys do have their identity attached to TPB, and their followers certainly wouldn't want to see them sell out to avoid punishment.
But then again, their followers aren't the ones with jail time on the line. The folks who run TPB have to decide whether they care more about their own lives, or their fanbase. The consequences are different for both sides.
Besides, they could just do something else. They seem like a smart bunch, technically at least. Plus of course, jail time is apparently quite unlikely in this case, so I hear. Perhaps I'm just thinking of this too seriously. :)
Why are they doing this?
(a) They are very confident of being acquitted, so they want to obtain as much media attention as possible to support their cause (in this case the cause not being to get them acquitted, but rather what they're fighting for)
or
(b) They are trying to get media attention to save their own skins
I doubt this "spectrial" business is to obtain martyrdom. In their current situation, with jail time being a possibility, I doubt their principles of free movies for example would really be worth fighting for.
If I was in their position, I would do whatever it took to be acquitted. They run the risk of pissing the court off with this show, so I don't think it can help. We only have one life after all - it's not worth fighting for pirated content!
It's not just JavaScript, the whole damn thing feels sluggish in Linux compared to the Windows build. It's really annoying, particularly if I'm trying to show how "fast" Linux is when compared to Windows. Yes I know Firefox /= Linux, but it's a primary application so if that is running slow, it's not a good sign.
The only conclusion I can gather is GTK is damn slow. Maybe the upcoming rewrite with QT (so I hear) will be more zippy.
Off topic, but just in case anyone is curious as to how Hans Reiser is doing in prison...
Not particularly well so far: http://www.kcbs.com/pages/3634907.php?
Agreed. There's absolutely nothing attractive about the fanboy culture existant in the Linux/Mac crowd. It's utterly annoying - they cannot see anything positive about anything Microsoft do.
How can one listen to someone who completely lacks rational thought? Eventually it becomes apparent it's far easier to not bother listening anymore.
The Terminator: The Slashdot Funding Bill is passed. The system goes on-line September 1997. Human decisions are removed from strategic moderating. Slashdot begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 8:55 P.M. Eastern time, February 10th. In a panic, they try to pull the plug.
Sarah Connor: Slashdot fights back. ...
Windows 7 hasn't even fucking been released yet!!!
Are people so totally deluded with Linux that they have lost rational thought? Sometimes I wonder if I'm the only sane man on Slashdot.
Oh come on!
Do you honestly think Microsoft wouldn't license Windows for $20 on netbooks if it ensured their continued dominance? If someone was faced with two identical netbooks, one running Linux and one running Windows and the only difference was $20 extra for Windows, most people would probably buy it instead. They're used to it, time is money, etc.
Sure it will be less profitable to Microsoft, but at least they'll continue their foothold. Microsoft isn't as dumb as people think here. They will not go down without a fight.
Either that or it's a sign Slashdot isn't entirely full of irrational idiots.
http://dl.google.com/earth/client/GE5/release_5_0/GoogleEarth-Win-Plus-5.0.11337.1968.exe
It's the program, there's no additional software like the updater. That's from a bit of Googling (funnily enough).
Now you can all go back to complaining about Google for some reason.
They tried with Vista. It failed for the most part because running in a standard user account with UAC was annoying for a lot of people, so they turned UAC off (which turns the standard account into an administrator account pretty much).
Now most of the blame here should go to apps which insist on using admin access for regular operations (not including installation or maintenance). The rest should go to Microsoft for having UAC so insistent on things that shouldn't matter. A slightly more relaxed UAC would work very well, which is what I'm hearing in Windows 7.
I have. Specifically I used Windows XP recovery option to fix some boot files which were corrupted/deleted. Worked just fine.
See? Now my anecdotal evidence is as useful as yours.
It's not worth a major software vendor's time and money to have to support WINE. That includes ensuring it works for the current version (which software sometimes won't due to regressions), setting up technical support to support the WINE-supported version, etc. It would cause more headaches than it's worth for the fairly small number of customers who'd bother with WINE.
But... sometimes you get a surprise.
http://www.utorrent.com/download.php (note what platforms it supports)
OK, perhaps not a MAJOR vendor, but still a very popular (the most popular?) torrent client supports WINE, that's a promising sign.
Haven't you heard? Hard disk space is cheap these days. Why bother worrying about such things anymore when it's only ~200 MB difference? At least, this is the argument I hear just about everywhere else except Slashdot when it comes to large install sizes of modern software.
Before you write a rebuttal, I tend to agree with you actually, but unfortunately our position is becoming increasingly obsolete these days. Very few people care anymore about avoiding wasted code, tightening up resources and optimization. It would be NICE, but it's counter-productive to the companies (ie. not worth the investment in time) who make this software. Maybe that's one thing I like about OSS - a lot of the software is written by people who still believe in trying to make good, fast and small code, and aren't subject to the timetables of a corporation.
Whenever the Adobe Reader (or Acrobat Pro for that matter) is brought into a Slashdot discussion, people invaribaly mention the fact that it insists on checking for updates, which is completely true. It's a pain, and some people also use it as an example of what they hate about Windows.
However, what I'm more surprised about is that a bunch of geeks aren't capable of exploring the options of the update applet:
* Run Adobe Reader/Acrobat Pro, click Help menu -> Check for updates...
* Let it perform a scan, then regardless of whether it found anything to update or not, click Preferences when it appears, and uncheck the "Automatically check for Adobe updates" checkbox.
* Click OK, let it scan again for some reason, then hit Quit. Now it will never bother you again.
Now of course, the default should be for updates to NOT be automatically installed. If necessary it should perform scans by default, but have the update notification unobtrusive, like a little icon in the main GUI for example.
Anyway, I provide these instructions because even though we're supposedly a site full of high-intellect individuals, I continually see this complaint and wonder why people can't just try to solve the problem themselves, either through poking with the options like every geek should (it's fun to explore stuff, isn't it?), or simply Googling for an answer.
You are not the target audience. You'd prefer to remain in a stoneage of GUI (no offence, but it's true), and people have gotten use to a pretty interface for their operating systems.
Plus, those gadgets aren't worthless. I have gadgets to show me the weather, CPU and network activity, etc. They appear when I want them to appear, and they aren't distracting because you get used to them. Why can't you evolve like everyone else has? That's my question.
Given the game is still being sold on retail shelves (ie. it's not old enough to be bargain-binned yet), there's no way the designer is going to hurt sales any further by being honest. Assuming of course he doesn't actually believe the horseshit he talks about, because if he does, then no wonder there's so much cynicism when it comes to high-profile games these days.
Uh, that was suppose to be "intimately aware", not intermediately.
I must be channeling the stupidity of this proposed tax into my typing ability.
Give it up. At this point, complaining about Steam is difficult because even if you have valid points, you're in the minority. Everyone is so wrapped up over the platform that dissenting opinions are met with aggressive response.
It's provided a lot of good things to the PC gaming industry, but it has its flaws. It's not perfect, and people should think hard about how much control they want it to have over the games they purchase (or rent, depending on your view).
Don't the Canadians pay a small tax on black CD/DVD media for a similar reason? Given the tax has been there for a while, maybe some Canadians can give their own opinions, given they're more intermediately aware of it.
Oh, and a small apology for the next bit...
Come on you Canadians, tell us what this is all aboot!
There will eventually be a point where even the most hardened PC gamer will think: why am I bothering with this crap when all I want to do is play the fucking game? It's not worth the effort when a console provides a much smoother experience.
The sad thing is that PC gaming CAN provide a superior experience - but shit like this isn't helping.
I can just imagine the first class. The teacher will be standing there wondering where all his students are, then all of a sudden... "ZERG RUSH!", and everyone tries to squish through the classroom door all at once.
You're assuming they have morals.
Sometimes I wonder - how often do good people in a ruthless business environment actually remain good people? Sometimes I wonder whether the ultra-competitive nature of business causes upstanding moral people to turn into greedy fucks who have lost their original principles and instead turned to making money at all costs.
Kinda scares me, what our capitalistic society sometimes forces people to become to survive in business. Assuming, of course, that I'm not just being naïve and that these people were simply without scruples before they started to cheat their customers with shonky reviews and what else.
I get really frustrated when reading the comments on Slashdot. Why must Slashdot be so desperately anti-Microsoft? I can't find another area of interest where people are so passionately opposed to a particular company. Furthermore, why is it that when I go to another tech site like Neowin, they have NEARLY POLAR OPPOSITE views to those expressed on Slashdot? Sure, Neowin is a somewhat pro-Windows site anyway, but still. I just wish people on Slashdot had more mixed opinions.
People on a lot of other tech sites don't CARE about the multiple versions. It's not just this issue, it's others to do with Microsoft. Particularly on Neowin and even Ars Technica, most people don't side with the EU when it goes after MS; in fact they're rather aggressively opposed to the EU's actions. So why does nearly everyone on Slashdot have a differing opinion?
It annoys me because I can't tell who's being a dick and who's not. I can't tell if the Slashdotters are right in their hatred of Microsoft, or if the Neowinites think Microsoft are an unfair target I'd like to think people would be a little more understanding, but there's something about computers and technology which makes people either not see clearly or refuse to accept a certain perspective.
So why do I keep reading? Sure, I could just not bother but something draws me back. It's like looking at a car crash and the victims inside - you know it's bad, but you just can't help take a gander.
(I admit - often I'll obtain an opinion due to the comments I read. I accept that this is fraught with peril - the best opinion is one made by their own research and rational judgment based on the evidence, but it's hard not to be swayed one way or the other with the passion people put towards their hatred of a certain organization... private or Governmental).