As a programmer, I can see both sides to this. On the one hand, that's what manuals are for. I shouldn't have to memorize every single function name and what its arguments are. On the other hand, many things are very very useful to have committed to memory for the sake of efficient programming. The programmer who has a good subset of Emacs or VI commands committed to memory and can generate complex regex's on the fly, will be much quicker at doing complex editing tasks than the programmer who looks these things up in a reference every time he needs them. If you get in the mode of always looking up and copying, you may retain some of the more common commands simply due to repetition. However, if you consciously examine the command (actually observe the thing) or think of a simple mnemonic device for recalling it, you'll have much better command and efficiency over the toolset you are working with. ----
You can extend the idea of a PDA being a memory crutch to anything of that nature. When you jot a person's phone number on a piece of paper, you are not trusting your memory. The more you do this, the more you will fall out of the practice of remembering things at all. The truth is, you didn't just forget it, you never really observed it fully to begin with. You just wrote it down on a piece of paper or entered it into your Palm Pilot. When you meet a person at a party and 3 seconds after he's told you his name you've forgotten it, chances are you didn't really hear it to begin with. It "went in one ear and out the other" so to speak.
I discuss these and other principles in my memory document: ----
It is the default on just about every distro except for Red Hat. Whoever keeps saying that KDE is less popular or is dying out or fading away is clueless.
Not true. There are at least 3 major Linux distributions that ship with Gnome as the default (Redhat, TurboLinux, and Debian), IIRC. Also, HP and Sun have both made announcements that they will be shipping with Gnome as the default environment replacing CDE on HP-UX and Solaris respectively. Dell has also made an agreement with Eazel to ship Gnome + Eazel's NUE (Network User Environment) based around Nautilus on it's Linux desktop and notebooks offerings. With these announcements and others including the fact that Sun, Eazel and others are unifying around Gnome's component architecture, Gnome's future is quite bright. ----
I completely disagree. To me QT looks like Windows, hardly original. I do agree that the default GTK+ theme isn't the best looking but GTK+ is completely themeable. ----
Yes, Nautilus is a lot faster nowadays and Eazel is still profiling and working on performance issues. On my box (AMD K6-2 450 Mhz with 256 Mb RAM) it's quite fast. There are a few areas that are still a tad sluggish. Opening a new window takes long enough to make it annoying to wait and my home directory which has quite a few directories and files also takes a while to load. Once it does load the first time, though, things move along at a good pace. ----
It's not just portability you are paying for--it's super-portability. If my understanding is correct, Kylix allows you to develop applications that will automatically run natively using the widgets of the platform whether it be Windows, Gnome/GTK+ or KDE/QT. I don't know how many people would pay $999 for personal use, but I can definitely see software companies being attracted. ----
Yes, and no. The partnership doesn't just mean that Redhat will ship with Nautilus. That was obvious. What it means is that you'll be able to upgrade your Redhat linux packages through Eazel's Nautilus update framework. They are working together to make updating all aspects of your system in one place. Hopefully this means that eventually you won't have to launch 3 different update agents to get various aspects of your system updated. ----
I don't think it's so much that Nautilus is "revolutionary" though the Eazel folks certainly have done some innovative work. It's more the fact that the Gnome platform with the addition of the Nautilus framework is coming together very nicely and will be an outstanding environment for users and developers. Often users look at a few screenshots or run one of the pre-releases and make hasty judgements such as, "Oh, wow, so it does thumbnails of images..blah blah, Kondquer does that too, so does Windows explorer" or "It doesn't let me copy or move files the way I want to and am used to doing." or "Damn thing crashes way too often and is slow." All of these comments are short-sighted and naive. If you really look at the architecture behind Nautilus and Gnome in general, you'll see the pieces falling together very rapidly. Personally, when I take a look at the snapshots of Evolution or Nautilus from CVS, I'm not so much looking to see if they have fixed this particular bug that's annoying me or if they've implemented this little feature (though I do look at those things), I'm primarily looking to see where it's heading. Where I can see it in the future. And then I get excited. Running out of time on this post, but if anyone relatively new to Gnome would like more information on how to get involved, I'd be happy to assist in any way I can. ----
Actually, Helix will use Nautilus. The reason is that Helix is a distribution of the Gnome environment. As of version 1.4, Gnome will include Nautilus for file management, help browsing, and the like. Gmc is going out the window. It will be included with the Gnome 1.4 Extra Apps, for those who prefer it, but it won't be a part of the core Gnome environment. Nautilus is its replacement. Helix Code will ship Nautilus in addition to the other core Gnome packages. Nautilus isn't just some add-on file manager for the Gnome project. It will be the file manager for the Gnome project. ----
It will be very interesting to see just how far Helix takes
the whole "let's copy windows" thing.
It's not about "copying windows." It's about using the good ideas from a variety of platforms and paradigms, supporting and implementing existing languages, and providing freedom. If you don't like Visual Basic (I'm not fond of it, myself), there is no reason why you have to use it. However, if you want to read an Excel spreadsheet in Gnumeric that uses VB scripting, the gnome basic support that's integrated with Gnumeric comes in handy. And if you're a windows programmer familiar with Visual Basic, this allows easy migration to the GNU/Linux/Gnome platform. Once there, hopefully you'll see the merits of other languages such as Perl and Python. ----
Did you read the article? Miguel explains why updates having been coming for a while. For the lazy:
Linux Orbit: Since Comdex, I've noticed a bit of a slow down on the
number of updated packages on the Helix Code Update servers, is there
a reason for this?
Miguel de Icaza: Yes, there is a reason. As we grow to support more
operating system and more distributions, we have been working in parallel
on a new system that will allow us to automate a lot of the work that we did
in the past manually and to provide better quality assurance and support
for our users.
This project (called blue sky) has taken most of our resources recently,
and the last batch of updates has been completely done with it, so we
have been basically migrating from our old setup to a new, more
extensible setup. For example, some users want to have a stable system
and are just interested in getting bug fixes, while other users are
interested in getting the latest and craziest inventions from the GNOME
community. So part of our work is to establish various "levels" that can
address the needs of those groups. ----
The fact is, strong encryption and the WWW filfills 99.9% of Freenet's goals.
I disagree. Freenet allows distribution of data in such a way that it cannot (reasonably) be determined where the data came from. You can't trace the source. This is invaluable. "Strong encryption and WWW" doesn't give you that. The lack of centralized control and censorship that defines Freenet is the very quality you are passing over lightly.
----
Incidentally, I'd be delighted to discuss this subject of the authorship of the Pentateuch, or of any other historical documents for that matter, further with any interested parties. Email me, if interested. ----
I don't know where you've been studying, but most respected historians and theologians, in point of fact, acknowledge Moses as the author of the Pentateuch, unless you read the views of the extreme liberalists, whose arguments for the "group of four authors" does not hold water against modern critique of the facts. ----
The Dead Sea scrolls contain portions of all five Books of Moses (which certainly qualifies it for the oldest Biblical manuscripts) and some of the writings of the Essenes sect. ----
Some of the translations are more recent than 1,000 years, but the original greek is older. And the Old testament is much older than 1,000 years. The dead sea scrolls, which were only copies of the original documents, written on leather and descovered in 1947, are over 2,000 years old. ----
I guess I'm a bit biased since I was homeschooled from 1st through 7th grade, but it was a very positive experience for me. The primary reason my parents chose to homeschool me was the extreme inefficiency of a traditional public or private education. Think about how much time is utterly wasted in a typical schoolroom of 20 to 30 kids. People learn different subjects at different rates and yet it is very difficult to teach each child at his or her own rate in a classroom. If you "get it" you still have to sit there while the other kids who "don't get it" ask questions and stumble through it with the teacher. Conversely, if you are slower than the majority of the class, chances are good that you'll be lost as the class forges ahead. This will often lead to falling further and further behind, possibly requiring extra tutoring and out-of-class study-time to get back on track.
In homeschooling (at least as my peers and I experienced it) we could learn at precisely our own rate. My study time every day was approximately 1 to 2 hours for text-book reading, assignments, and writing, followed by about 2 hours of reading (everything from novels to biographies). And of course I had other assignments which were not so regular (research papers, science labs, etc.).
Some common criticisms of homeschooling are that it doesn't enhance social skills and that parents don't generally have the resources that a school has to offer (chemistry lab, etc.). Depending on where you live, you might be surprised how well you can network with other homeschoolers. The truth is, I had more time each day to pursue my own interests (both social and academic) than would a typical student. I met regularly with other homeschoolers for field trips, study groups, and group classes. We shared our resources (very much in tune with the Open Source/Free Software philosophy). I took classes from other parents in subjects such as poetry, literature (we read various works from the Great Books collection), Latin, and science. Businesses (such as Monsanto, headquartered here in St. Louis) are often quick to donate equipment and resources.
Homeschool isn't for everyone, and requires a lot of dedication on the part of the parents and students, but it can provide an excellent social and educational foundation. ----
GNOME is not just a "desktop environment". It's a complete application framework and it includes GTK+. Check out developer.gnome.org for more information. ----
Slashdot Mirror
You can download the .NET framework BETA from The Microsoft Developer Network. It's not vapour.
----
As a programmer, I can see both sides to this. On the one hand, that's what manuals are for. I shouldn't have to memorize every single function name and what its arguments are. On the other hand, many things are very very useful to have committed to memory for the sake of efficient programming. The programmer who has a good subset of Emacs or VI commands committed to memory and can generate complex regex's on the fly, will be much quicker at doing complex editing tasks than the programmer who looks these things up in a reference every time he needs them. If you get in the mode of always looking up and copying, you may retain some of the more common commands simply due to repetition. However, if you consciously examine the command (actually observe the thing) or think of a simple mnemonic device for recalling it, you'll have much better command and efficiency over the toolset you are working with.
----
I discuss these and other principles in my memory document:
----
I stand corrected on that point. I've never actually used Debian, but had heard from somewhere that it shipped with Gnome as the default.
----
Not true. There are at least 3 major Linux distributions that ship with Gnome as the default (Redhat, TurboLinux, and Debian), IIRC. Also, HP and Sun have both made announcements that they will be shipping with Gnome as the default environment replacing CDE on HP-UX and Solaris respectively. Dell has also made an agreement with Eazel to ship Gnome + Eazel's NUE (Network User Environment) based around Nautilus on it's Linux desktop and notebooks offerings. With these announcements and others including the fact that Sun, Eazel and others are unifying around Gnome's component architecture, Gnome's future is quite bright.
----
I completely disagree. To me QT looks like Windows, hardly original. I do agree that the default GTK+ theme isn't the best looking but GTK+ is completely themeable.
----
Yes, Nautilus is a lot faster nowadays and Eazel is still profiling and working on performance issues. On my box (AMD K6-2 450 Mhz with 256 Mb RAM) it's quite fast. There are a few areas that are still a tad sluggish. Opening a new window takes long enough to make it annoying to wait and my home directory which has quite a few directories and files also takes a while to load. Once it does load the first time, though, things move along at a good pace.
----
It's not just portability you are paying for--it's super-portability. If my understanding is correct, Kylix allows you to develop applications that will automatically run natively using the widgets of the platform whether it be Windows, Gnome/GTK+ or KDE/QT. I don't know how many people would pay $999 for personal use, but I can definitely see software companies being attracted.
----
Yes, and no. The partnership doesn't just mean that Redhat will ship with Nautilus. That was obvious. What it means is that you'll be able to upgrade your Redhat linux packages through Eazel's Nautilus update framework. They are working together to make updating all aspects of your system in one place. Hopefully this means that eventually you won't have to launch 3 different update agents to get various aspects of your system updated.
----
I don't think it's so much that Nautilus is "revolutionary" though the Eazel folks certainly have done some innovative work. It's more the fact that the Gnome platform with the addition of the Nautilus framework is coming together very nicely and will be an outstanding environment for users and developers. Often users look at a few screenshots or run one of the pre-releases and make hasty judgements such as, "Oh, wow, so it does thumbnails of images..blah blah, Kondquer does that too, so does Windows explorer" or "It doesn't let me copy or move files the way I want to and am used to doing." or "Damn thing crashes way too often and is slow." All of these comments are short-sighted and naive. If you really look at the architecture behind Nautilus and Gnome in general, you'll see the pieces falling together very rapidly. Personally, when I take a look at the snapshots of Evolution or Nautilus from CVS, I'm not so much looking to see if they have fixed this particular bug that's annoying me or if they've implemented this little feature (though I do look at those things), I'm primarily looking to see where it's heading. Where I can see it in the future. And then I get excited. Running out of time on this post, but if anyone relatively new to Gnome would like more information on how to get involved, I'd be happy to assist in any way I can.
----
I guess I visit a different segment of the web than you, too. Can you give me a URL that crashes Mozilla 0.7? Or M18? I like to report bugs.
----
actually, Helix will use Nautilus..see my reply to your previous comment.
----
Actually, Helix will use Nautilus. The reason is that Helix is a distribution of the Gnome environment. As of version 1.4, Gnome will include Nautilus for file management, help browsing, and the like. Gmc is going out the window. It will be included with the Gnome 1.4 Extra Apps, for those who prefer it, but it won't be a part of the core Gnome environment. Nautilus is its replacement. Helix Code will ship Nautilus in addition to the other core Gnome packages. Nautilus isn't just some add-on file manager for the Gnome project. It will be the file manager for the Gnome project.
----
It's not about "copying windows." It's about using the good ideas from a variety of platforms and paradigms, supporting and implementing existing languages, and providing freedom. If you don't like Visual Basic (I'm not fond of it, myself), there is no reason why you have to use it. However, if you want to read an Excel spreadsheet in Gnumeric that uses VB scripting, the gnome basic support that's integrated with Gnumeric comes in handy. And if you're a windows programmer familiar with Visual Basic, this allows easy migration to the GNU/Linux/Gnome platform. Once there, hopefully you'll see the merits of other languages such as Perl and Python.
----
Linux Orbit: Since Comdex, I've noticed a bit of a slow down on the number of updated packages on the Helix Code Update servers, is there a reason for this?
Miguel de Icaza: Yes, there is a reason. As we grow to support more operating system and more distributions, we have been working in parallel on a new system that will allow us to automate a lot of the work that we did in the past manually and to provide better quality assurance and support for our users. This project (called blue sky) has taken most of our resources recently, and the last batch of updates has been completely done with it, so we have been basically migrating from our old setup to a new, more extensible setup. For example, some users want to have a stable system and are just interested in getting bug fixes, while other users are interested in getting the latest and craziest inventions from the GNOME community. So part of our work is to establish various "levels" that can address the needs of those groups.
----
I disagree. Freenet allows distribution of data in such a way that it cannot (reasonably) be determined where the data came from. You can't trace the source. This is invaluable. "Strong encryption and WWW" doesn't give you that. The lack of centralized control and censorship that defines Freenet is the very quality you are passing over lightly.
----
Incidentally, I'd be delighted to discuss this subject of the authorship of the Pentateuch, or of any other historical documents for that matter, further with any interested parties. Email me, if interested.
----
I don't know where you've been studying, but most respected historians and theologians, in point of fact, acknowledge Moses as the author of the Pentateuch, unless you read the views of the extreme liberalists, whose arguments for the "group of four authors" does not hold water against modern critique of the facts.
----
The Dead Sea scrolls contain portions of all five Books of Moses (which certainly qualifies it for the oldest Biblical manuscripts) and some of the writings of the Essenes sect.
----
Some of the translations are more recent than 1,000 years, but the original greek is older. And the Old testament is much older than 1,000 years. The dead sea scrolls, which were only copies of the original documents, written on leather and descovered in 1947, are over 2,000 years old.
----
In homeschooling (at least as my peers and I experienced it) we could learn at precisely our own rate. My study time every day was approximately 1 to 2 hours for text-book reading, assignments, and writing, followed by about 2 hours of reading (everything from novels to biographies). And of course I had other assignments which were not so regular (research papers, science labs, etc.).
Some common criticisms of homeschooling are that it doesn't enhance social skills and that parents don't generally have the resources that a school has to offer (chemistry lab, etc.). Depending on where you live, you might be surprised how well you can network with other homeschoolers. The truth is, I had more time each day to pursue my own interests (both social and academic) than would a typical student. I met regularly with other homeschoolers for field trips, study groups, and group classes. We shared our resources (very much in tune with the Open Source/Free Software philosophy). I took classes from other parents in subjects such as poetry, literature (we read various works from the Great Books collection), Latin, and science. Businesses (such as Monsanto, headquartered here in St. Louis) are often quick to donate equipment and resources.
Homeschool isn't for everyone, and requires a lot of dedication on the part of the parents and students, but it can provide an excellent social and educational foundation.
----
Check out the article on Gnotices. Owen has added OpenType support to freetype and Pango. It uses the XRender extension to achieve this.
----
GNOME is not just a "desktop environment". It's a complete application framework and it includes GTK+. Check out developer.gnome.org for more information.
----
Okay, so where can I download a truly transparent terminal?
----
Didn't you just contradict yourself? Isn't XEmacs an application?
----