So I just gave it a try, and my existing complaints still stand.
My current LO test is Slide Transitions in Impress, because for as long as I can remember, the slide transitions have been very broken. Specifically, it seems to be an issue with transitions that make use of OpenGL. As of this version, they're *still* very broken. I'm testing this on a Mac BTW, but in the past I also found the problem existed on Linux as well. I haven't tried the Windows version but according to others, the Windows version allegedly doesn't have this problem.
Impress is my benchmark app because it's so easy to quickly tell whether they've fixed these major glaring issues. The fact that they *still* haven't done so, makes their support for importing keynote presentations completely laughable. As if I would ever use LO over Keynote when it's so half-assed.
I am also one of those people. In my case, I can no longer use Hey Siri, although inexplicably, it works fine if I activate Siri using the home button.
It's as if no one at Apple actually drives a car. I can't think of any other explanation as to how they can suggest we update the car's firmware, while keeping a straight face.
As I've mentioned in another post, I'm going to wait for the next gen of Android phones that include Project Treble, and then I'm likely going to be jumping ship.
Apple has lately been screwing up too often, and too consistently for a while now, and we've now reached a tipping point where Android has improved sufficiently to be worth considering.
I've been repeatedly accused of being an Apple fangrrl on Slashdot because I've tended to argue in favour of Apple. But the thing is, if I'm a fan of anything, I'm a fan of no bullshit.
The thing is, when you compare iOS to android (and I'm talking versions prior to the most recent), iOS has always been generally superior.
Android's biggest selling feature is that it gives you the most control. However, that's not entirely true. It gave google and app developers the most control. You... not so much. As a result, android battery life was crap. The whole SD card situations was shockingly brain-damaged. You had better than even odds that your phone would receive only a few, or maybe no, updates even if it was a flagship device from a major manufacturer. And lets not even get started with the malware. The list of issues just goes on and on.
In a nutshell, an android user HAD to put their sysadmin hat on (assuming they were skilled enough) just to manage their phone. There's a reason the term "Landfill Android" was invented. The whole ecosystem was a cesspool of crap.
Apple on the other hand, treated developers with serious contempt. They were very heavily restricted. They were also a sole manufacturer so they had exclusive control of the entire pipeline. The end result? You never had to wonder if your phone would shart itself from one day to the next. Battery wouldn't drain magically unless you were using a very cpu intensive app/game/whatever. You got, on average, updates for approx 5 years. Also, the malware situation on Apple's side is a bare fraction compared to Google. I paid a price premium, and it was less flexible, but I knew that it would be there for me when I really needed it. Being confident in your device can be worth a lot of money to people who need it.
A phone, while a powerful computing device, still has more in common with an appliance than a computer. And I expect an appliance to Just F__king Work.
The last Android device I had was a Samsung S3. I was forced to root the device and install Cyanogen just to get the thing operating decently cause of all the crapware Samsung put on it. And because Google (despite their protestations otherwise) don't actually support any standards, I had to install a 3rd party caldav/carddav connector to sync with my server, which managed to cut my battery life by about 1/3. Oh, and every time I tried to move apps to my SD card, I would be lucky if 50% of it went over, the rest remaining on the way too small internal storage.
That was when I threw my hands up in the air and went to Apple. I wasn't able to screw around with my phone nearly as much as my android phone. I couldn't upgrade the storage. But it worked. I could pick it up at any time during the day, confident that the battery hadn't drained or some other nonsense happened. I did jailbreak a couple times, but I gave up on it. Not because Apple made it such a PITA (although that was a contributing factor), but the fact that the jailbreak ecosystem was just as crap, if not worse, than the Android one. Apps that weren't maintained, dubious functionality, stuff that broke other functionality in your phone... It was a complete joke. But I digress...
But when we fast forward to today, things have apparently done a Dem vs Rep-style flip over. Google dramatically improved permissions. They've seriously tightened up battery/process management. They've (finally) introduced a HAL so updates should now be easy. Apple, meanwhile, seems to be hell bent on seeing just how far they can shove their proverbial heads up their backsides. Their products are sliding into mediocrity while still selling at a premium price. iOS 11 in particular has been a turd-covered locomotive falling off a cliff. I've actually lost functionality since going to iOS 11. It's been less stable. Even my bluetooth headphones are less reliable when on iOS 10 they were flawless. I am *livid*. I bought a premium device, and I damn
When Apple killed off the XServe, their commitment to anything server related was immediately put in question. The Mac Mini Server was cute, but I don't know of one single person that actually took it seriously.
I never considered OSX Server as a system to be relied upon. If I needed anything, I would run a linux machine instead. Apple made no effort to demonstrate anything resembling a commitment to the server arena, most likely intentionally, so no one in their right mind (barring exceptional circumstances) would ever roll out OSX Server for anything.
So you could probably say that this announcement was the inevitable conclusion of a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's sad, cause Apple could have done a fantastic job here and possibly given a serious blow to Microsoft right on it's home turf, but alas, Apple has no interest in that side of things.
If you're not willing to support my site, feel free to boycott it. However, stop stealing from me. You're not required to go to my site, but you're not welcome to violate my copyright with a derivative work in order to steal revenue from me.
First of all, they're not violating copyright by simply downloading content. Secondly, if you're using one of these scammy ad networks (and, to my knowledge, there isn't a single one that *isn't* scammy), then you're just going to have to accept that fact that one one gives a shit about what you want.
Third party javascript nonsense had gotten so far beyond the pale, that it behooves everyone with a computer to enable ad blocking technology, for their own personal safety. This youtube crypto thing is just one of countless examples of malicious code forced upon people. If you derive income from this bullshit, then you're complicit in this and deserve every bit of scorn anyone heaps on you.
If you don't like it, then set up a patreon account so people can be assured that you're getting paid directly without they themselves getting screwed in the process with malware.
This sounds like a trap to me. The idea of a Baby Bell championing for consumer rights is just too unbelievable. The real question is, what would they actually gain?
Well, if they're involved in the process of writing these new rules, they would be in a prime position to legislate even more power to the big telecom companies while stifling smaller ISPs and the visibly growing trend of municipalities starting their own ISPs.
There may be more subtle benefits that I can't think of, but that would be the big one to me.
Unfortunately Office for Windows and Office for Mac are two completely different code bases. Which is bloody moronic and inexcusable, I agree. But that's an issue until itself, separate from the LO office I'm talking about.
On my Mac, I literally can't use Impress. It's completely broken. It's also broken on Linux, which is a joke considering that LO is the darling office suite of Linux. Not just "It doesn't work on a different platform". It doesn't work properly right from the start, making it a completely unviable solution (at least for people not on Windows).
So for presentations I use Keynote, which is included for free with every Mac. One nice bonus I recently discovered is that it can export presentations into some wierd webapp format (ostensibly its "HTML", but if you look at the output it's anything but...) that will work nicely in any modern browser.
Correction. It doesn't seem to be exhibiting the landscape issue in the version I now have installed. But that was still a *massive* piss-off when it was happening. It's the kind of inexcusable bug that should never have happened in the first place, and makes it very hard to trust the software for anything important.
If your needs are limited to word processing, then Writer is mostly sufficient if buggy. Calc is similarly ok.
But everything else? Completely and utter shit. Impress is so shockingly bad that they should be embarrassed to include it in the package. The slides look like they were made by something from the 90s, half the transition effects render shockingly jerky and ugly, and the other half don't render at all. I've confirmed this on my Mac as well as a test Ubuntu install I happened to be experimenting with.
Add to the fact that I've repeatedly had issues trying to create and print a document in landscape, which one would think should be a standard feature, I have to concur with the AC. I don't see how anyone could consider LibreOffice suitable for professional use.
While I'm all for Firefox improving performance, it can't come at the expensive of reliably rendering websites. After the upgrade, I noticed various problems across several sites I used to access without issue.
Because of that, I've been forced to switch to Chrome for the time being as my primary browser because I have enough on my plate without having to worry about "Is the website broken or is it me?"
Maybe I'll try it again after it's had a couple versions to shake out bugs.
Considering how dim a view the Olympics takes on any kind of enhancement, they would probably ban the technology very quickly. If there's no way to check for such modifications, then they could always just ban China from attending, like they did with Russia.
Well, it IS a problem, because Apple has so little variation in their products that you are forced to take it or leave it. Combine that with Apple's popularity/visibility, and any questionable decision they make is greatly magnified. Every other manufacturer has multiple products in their lineup with varying features, so if their mainstream model doesn't suit you, there's at least a decent chance that another device will.
But things like non-removable batteries? AFAIK apple started this trend, and everyone else picked up on it. Apple also started the "remove the headphone jack" trend. Like it or not, Apple is a major trend-setter in technology. The tech manufacturing world is so shockingly devoid of ideas, so utterly unable to come up with novel things, that as soon as someone does something markedly different then everyone else starts jumping on the bandwagon, for good or for ill.
I remember when the original Apple gumball iMacs came out with their multicolour translucent cases. Suddenly *everything* started getting Apple-blueberry translucent cases. Computers. Clothes irons. Microwaves. It was crazy.
That's a great link though. I'll have to remember that! Shame it didn't go beyond 'holding it wrong'.
Whoops, I was wrong. The software is called MoneyWorks. It's still around, but I had to *really* push my google-fu to the limit to find it. They clearly haven't even made a dent against intuit.
In that case, an alternative isn't acceptable because whatever accountant you're working with probably also uses quickbooks and isn't very likely to change.
Heck, there was a company (from New Zealand I believe) that would give you a free second copy of their software for you to give to your accountant, in an effort to break the quickbooks stranglehold. I search now and can't find them anywhere.
IMO that's one of the key apps that Wine needs to get working before there's really any hope of gaining meaningful marketshare.
That's true. Modern versions of windows fail for completely different reasons.
1. Game crashes in Windows 2. Try rebooting to see if that helps 3. Microsoft forces an update to install 4. Computer bricks and requires a complete reinstall of windows
While you are technically correct, the problem is that these social networks are used overwhelmingly for socially negative reasons.
It was supposed to be used for people to be able to connect and discuss. Instead it's used for profiting, large-scale social manipulation, and even outright hate. SM has taken the natural human fear of "being left out", and abused it to such an incredible extent that people en masse are getting burned out and simply walking away.
There are lots of ways to accomplish what social media was supposed to do, but without being forced to expose yourself to all the negative aspects.
I personally have given up on facebook, twitter, and well, pretty much all of them. It's just too much. I'm much less up to date with how my friends are doing, which is unfortunately, but I also feel a heck of a lot less overwhelmed by the world too.
For similar reasons I've also stopped watching and reading news. It's very rarely relevant to me. If there wasn't a local incident, they'll fill up the time with remote incidents instead, so that you are constantly bombarded by a steady stream of "look how utterly shitty the world is".
Being bombarded by negativity from all directions *will* take it's toll on you, even if it doesn't seem like it at first.
Slashdot Mirror
So I just gave it a try, and my existing complaints still stand.
My current LO test is Slide Transitions in Impress, because for as long as I can remember, the slide transitions have been very broken. Specifically, it seems to be an issue with transitions that make use of OpenGL. As of this version, they're *still* very broken. I'm testing this on a Mac BTW, but in the past I also found the problem existed on Linux as well. I haven't tried the Windows version but according to others, the Windows version allegedly doesn't have this problem.
Impress is my benchmark app because it's so easy to quickly tell whether they've fixed these major glaring issues. The fact that they *still* haven't done so, makes their support for importing keynote presentations completely laughable. As if I would ever use LO over Keynote when it's so half-assed.
I am also one of those people. In my case, I can no longer use Hey Siri, although inexplicably, it works fine if I activate Siri using the home button.
It's as if no one at Apple actually drives a car. I can't think of any other explanation as to how they can suggest we update the car's firmware, while keeping a straight face.
As I've mentioned in another post, I'm going to wait for the next gen of Android phones that include Project Treble, and then I'm likely going to be jumping ship.
Apple has lately been screwing up too often, and too consistently for a while now, and we've now reached a tipping point where Android has improved sufficiently to be worth considering.
I've been repeatedly accused of being an Apple fangrrl on Slashdot because I've tended to argue in favour of Apple. But the thing is, if I'm a fan of anything, I'm a fan of no bullshit.
The thing is, when you compare iOS to android (and I'm talking versions prior to the most recent), iOS has always been generally superior.
Android's biggest selling feature is that it gives you the most control. However, that's not entirely true. It gave google and app developers the most control. You... not so much.
As a result, android battery life was crap. The whole SD card situations was shockingly brain-damaged. You had better than even odds that your phone would receive only a few, or maybe no, updates even if it was a flagship device from a major manufacturer. And lets not even get started with the malware. The list of issues just goes on and on.
In a nutshell, an android user HAD to put their sysadmin hat on (assuming they were skilled enough) just to manage their phone. There's a reason the term "Landfill Android" was invented. The whole ecosystem was a cesspool of crap.
Apple on the other hand, treated developers with serious contempt. They were very heavily restricted. They were also a sole manufacturer so they had exclusive control of the entire pipeline. The end result? You never had to wonder if your phone would shart itself from one day to the next. Battery wouldn't drain magically unless you were using a very cpu intensive app/game/whatever. You got, on average, updates for approx 5 years. Also, the malware situation on Apple's side is a bare fraction compared to Google. I paid a price premium, and it was less flexible, but I knew that it would be there for me when I really needed it. Being confident in your device can be worth a lot of money to people who need it.
A phone, while a powerful computing device, still has more in common with an appliance than a computer. And I expect an appliance to Just F__king Work.
The last Android device I had was a Samsung S3. I was forced to root the device and install Cyanogen just to get the thing operating decently cause of all the crapware Samsung put on it. And because Google (despite their protestations otherwise) don't actually support any standards, I had to install a 3rd party caldav/carddav connector to sync with my server, which managed to cut my battery life by about 1/3. Oh, and every time I tried to move apps to my SD card, I would be lucky if 50% of it went over, the rest remaining on the way too small internal storage.
That was when I threw my hands up in the air and went to Apple. I wasn't able to screw around with my phone nearly as much as my android phone. I couldn't upgrade the storage. But it worked. I could pick it up at any time during the day, confident that the battery hadn't drained or some other nonsense happened. I did jailbreak a couple times, but I gave up on it. Not because Apple made it such a PITA (although that was a contributing factor), but the fact that the jailbreak ecosystem was just as crap, if not worse, than the Android one. Apps that weren't maintained, dubious functionality, stuff that broke other functionality in your phone... It was a complete joke. But I digress...
But when we fast forward to today, things have apparently done a Dem vs Rep-style flip over. Google dramatically improved permissions. They've seriously tightened up battery/process management. They've (finally) introduced a HAL so updates should now be easy. Apple, meanwhile, seems to be hell bent on seeing just how far they can shove their proverbial heads up their backsides. Their products are sliding into mediocrity while still selling at a premium price. iOS 11 in particular has been a turd-covered locomotive falling off a cliff. I've actually lost functionality since going to iOS 11. It's been less stable. Even my bluetooth headphones are less reliable when on iOS 10 they were flawless. I am *livid*. I bought a premium device, and I damn
I see that you're a javascript developer.
I thought the new FCC was all about reducing regulation. But this smells a lot like *more* regulation.
I'm assuming that they're redoing the rules in such a way that the wireless companies can somehow make more profit.
So how exactly is this different from the SMC (System Management Controller for those that don't know)? AFAIK the SMC already does these tasks.
Sounds like they're just replacing whatever the SMC used to be (I'm assuming an FPGA of some sort) to an ARM CPU?
I'm not at all surprised.
When Apple killed off the XServe, their commitment to anything server related was immediately put in question. The Mac Mini Server was cute, but I don't know of one single person that actually took it seriously.
I never considered OSX Server as a system to be relied upon. If I needed anything, I would run a linux machine instead. Apple made no effort to demonstrate anything resembling a commitment to the server arena, most likely intentionally, so no one in their right mind (barring exceptional circumstances) would ever roll out OSX Server for anything.
So you could probably say that this announcement was the inevitable conclusion of a self-fulfilling prophecy. It's sad, cause Apple could have done a fantastic job here and possibly given a serious blow to Microsoft right on it's home turf, but alas, Apple has no interest in that side of things.
If you're not willing to support my site, feel free to boycott it. However, stop stealing from me. You're not required to go to my site, but you're not welcome to violate my copyright with a derivative work in order to steal revenue from me.
First of all, they're not violating copyright by simply downloading content.
Secondly, if you're using one of these scammy ad networks (and, to my knowledge, there isn't a single one that *isn't* scammy), then you're just going to have to accept that fact that one one gives a shit about what you want.
Third party javascript nonsense had gotten so far beyond the pale, that it behooves everyone with a computer to enable ad blocking technology, for their own personal safety. This youtube crypto thing is just one of countless examples of malicious code forced upon people. If you derive income from this bullshit, then you're complicit in this and deserve every bit of scorn anyone heaps on you.
If you don't like it, then set up a patreon account so people can be assured that you're getting paid directly without they themselves getting screwed in the process with malware.
If you know how to pump your own gas you'll be ahead of the game. :)
This sounds like a trap to me. The idea of a Baby Bell championing for consumer rights is just too unbelievable. The real question is, what would they actually gain?
Well, if they're involved in the process of writing these new rules, they would be in a prime position to legislate even more power to the big telecom companies while stifling smaller ISPs and the visibly growing trend of municipalities starting their own ISPs.
There may be more subtle benefits that I can't think of, but that would be the big one to me.
I think the parent implied that such a page should have existed AT THE TIME they made the change.
The wayback machine clearly shows that it didn't even exist until late December last year, and had been undergoing heavy modification since.
I wonder if this means Apple will learn from this and stop making fundamental changes to existing devices without first notifying it's users.
*pfff*BWAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Sorry, I tried to keep a straight face... I really did.
Unfortunately Office for Windows and Office for Mac are two completely different code bases. Which is bloody moronic and inexcusable, I agree. But that's an issue until itself, separate from the LO office I'm talking about.
On my Mac, I literally can't use Impress. It's completely broken. It's also broken on Linux, which is a joke considering that LO is the darling office suite of Linux. Not just "It doesn't work on a different platform". It doesn't work properly right from the start, making it a completely unviable solution (at least for people not on Windows).
So for presentations I use Keynote, which is included for free with every Mac. One nice bonus I recently discovered is that it can export presentations into some wierd webapp format (ostensibly its "HTML", but if you look at the output it's anything but...) that will work nicely in any modern browser.
Correction. It doesn't seem to be exhibiting the landscape issue in the version I now have installed. But that was still a *massive* piss-off when it was happening. It's the kind of inexcusable bug that should never have happened in the first place, and makes it very hard to trust the software for anything important.
If your needs are limited to word processing, then Writer is mostly sufficient if buggy. Calc is similarly ok.
But everything else? Completely and utter shit. Impress is so shockingly bad that they should be embarrassed to include it in the package. The slides look like they were made by something from the 90s, half the transition effects render shockingly jerky and ugly, and the other half don't render at all. I've confirmed this on my Mac as well as a test Ubuntu install I happened to be experimenting with.
Add to the fact that I've repeatedly had issues trying to create and print a document in landscape, which one would think should be a standard feature, I have to concur with the AC. I don't see how anyone could consider LibreOffice suitable for professional use.
While I'm all for Firefox improving performance, it can't come at the expensive of reliably rendering websites. After the upgrade, I noticed various problems across several sites I used to access without issue.
Because of that, I've been forced to switch to Chrome for the time being as my primary browser because I have enough on my plate without having to worry about "Is the website broken or is it me?"
Maybe I'll try it again after it's had a couple versions to shake out bugs.
Considering how dim a view the Olympics takes on any kind of enhancement, they would probably ban the technology very quickly. If there's no way to check for such modifications, then they could always just ban China from attending, like they did with Russia.
I think we all know exactly what would happen.
According to the US, national sovereignty is a one way street.
Well, it IS a problem, because Apple has so little variation in their products that you are forced to take it or leave it. Combine that with Apple's popularity/visibility, and any questionable decision they make is greatly magnified. Every other manufacturer has multiple products in their lineup with varying features, so if their mainstream model doesn't suit you, there's at least a decent chance that another device will.
But things like non-removable batteries? AFAIK apple started this trend, and everyone else picked up on it. Apple also started the "remove the headphone jack" trend. Like it or not, Apple is a major trend-setter in technology. The tech manufacturing world is so shockingly devoid of ideas, so utterly unable to come up with novel things, that as soon as someone does something markedly different then everyone else starts jumping on the bandwagon, for good or for ill.
I remember when the original Apple gumball iMacs came out with their multicolour translucent cases. Suddenly *everything* started getting Apple-blueberry translucent cases. Computers. Clothes irons. Microwaves. It was crazy.
That's a great link though. I'll have to remember that! Shame it didn't go beyond 'holding it wrong'.
Whoops, I was wrong. The software is called MoneyWorks. It's still around, but I had to *really* push my google-fu to the limit to find it. They clearly haven't even made a dent against intuit.
https://www.cognito.co.nz/
How about Quickbooks?
In that case, an alternative isn't acceptable because whatever accountant you're working with probably also uses quickbooks and isn't very likely to change.
Heck, there was a company (from New Zealand I believe) that would give you a free second copy of their software for you to give to your accountant, in an effort to break the quickbooks stranglehold. I search now and can't find them anywhere.
IMO that's one of the key apps that Wine needs to get working before there's really any hope of gaining meaningful marketshare.
That only works if you know what the executable name is before-hand. But that's good to know for future reference.
That's true. Modern versions of windows fail for completely different reasons.
1. Game crashes in Windows
2. Try rebooting to see if that helps
3. Microsoft forces an update to install
4. Computer bricks and requires a complete reinstall of windows
1. and 2. being completely optional, of course.
So the top bug hunters make more than the average software engineer? Well slap my ass and call me a cantaloupe!
What about top software engineers compared to average software engineers? What about A-list celebrities vs stuntmen?
I know! How about we compare the top strawmen vs average strawmen?
While you are technically correct, the problem is that these social networks are used overwhelmingly for socially negative reasons.
It was supposed to be used for people to be able to connect and discuss. Instead it's used for profiting, large-scale social manipulation, and even outright hate. SM has taken the natural human fear of "being left out", and abused it to such an incredible extent that people en masse are getting burned out and simply walking away.
There are lots of ways to accomplish what social media was supposed to do, but without being forced to expose yourself to all the negative aspects.
I personally have given up on facebook, twitter, and well, pretty much all of them. It's just too much. I'm much less up to date with how my friends are doing, which is unfortunately, but I also feel a heck of a lot less overwhelmed by the world too.
For similar reasons I've also stopped watching and reading news. It's very rarely relevant to me. If there wasn't a local incident, they'll fill up the time with remote incidents instead, so that you are constantly bombarded by a steady stream of "look how utterly shitty the world is".
Being bombarded by negativity from all directions *will* take it's toll on you, even if it doesn't seem like it at first.