Please take a leaf out of the Windows book and provide solid backwards compatibility for KDE 2 applications to run in KDE 3. I love KDE as a desktop but - this is a Linux-bashing cliche - it's the apps, stupid.
If developers can't write for one platform in the security that their version will not be broken in six months, they won't write for the platform.
And if users can't download rpms/tar files without getting dependency problems, they won't bother trying new applications.
So, if you want to challenge Windows on the home and corporate desktop, please devote time and effort to making sure that backwards compatibility works.
Other than that, congratulations. I look forward to downloading.
Which means that by the iron laws of price competition, you won't make any money from your code. Why pay $99 when you could just pay $10 to a redistributor?
Hah! The despicable fools! They chose to spend time with their families and friends, rather than read YOUR masterwork on PowerPoint? They deserve all they get - in fact, they should be forced to work on a VAX using only the number keys, until they have LEARNED to spend their leisure hours poring over PowerPoint manuals.
I think you underestimate the flexibility of children. I see no reason why a well set up Linux box (running KDE 2 and a few solid, tested applications) should be frightening even to an adult. Certainly not to a kid.
I also think it's a crying shame to decide that these children are "going to be" office workers and shop clerks. They're children. They can be whatever they want to be. We shouldn't be training them to be keyboard monkeys, but educating them to understand what a computer is, and to learn the creative techniques of computer programming - even if they go on to be artists, peanut-butter salesmen or shop clerks.
For these skills, Linux is clearly a far better platform: it offers a multitude of simple programming languages, and once you get beyond the point-and-drool stage, it's much more intuitive to play with than Windows: no registry, a superior command line, etc.
What either Python or Ruby should do in order to gain share, is to get a perl-compatible syntax mode written which would enable you to use the massive CPAN libraries. It seems a shame to have to reimplement vast amounts of programming.
Hmm... wait a second, I think I am describing a specific subset of.NET
Interesting point. But you have to counterbalance that against the educational benefit. And it may even have positive environmental effects: more hackers = a more advanced economy = less "old-style" heavy industry (coal, steel etc.) = less pollution.
Rather than "recycling" them, why not set up a scheme to distribute them to places like India which are crying out for the technical resources to train their huge potential developer base?
You could grade every old PC for power, then load it with free software - e.g. a 386 becomes a simple file server, a decent Pentium gets XFCE and can be used as a developer desktop. Then distribute them to the voluntary sector in the developing world.
No experience of Win2K, but I run KDE 2.1 every day, 8 hours a day It crashes probably once every two to three weeks. My business partner has Win98 and crashes daily - at least.
The UK has been an attractive location for high-tech development because of the pound's strength against the euro, and because of Britain's efficient network of rails supporting the industries that support high tech.
Efficient network of rails? Uh, have you been abroad for the apt 60 years?
Still, it's nice to see the UK serving as a role model for others, a role normally enjoyed by France.
Hey, I don't really think the KDE/Gnome war is all that serious except in the mind of some zealots. They may take the mick out of each other by calling each other "legacy" or whatever, but that is harmless fun. They still manage to co-operate on e.g. the ".desktop" standard for shortcut files.
Linux v. Windows: that's serious.
Dave
Re:Leave it out, it's marvellous!
on
'Snatch'
·
· Score: 1
As a Brit, I just want to register a protest against the idea that Guy Ritchie's second crock of absurd Mockney shite is a "good British film". His plots are ridiculous. His dialogue is constantly trying to be clever and witty in a "Withnail and I" way, and failing because it tries so hard. His characters are stupid caricatures of real villains. His films are part of the modern New Lad cult of admiration for thuggishness, despite the fact that he himself is a fucking middle class Barleyesque media twat. They're not just worthless: they're evil.
If you want to see a good British film, with a fairly realistic take on the people at the bottom of the pile, check out Ken Loach's work. That's the real shit. Guy Ritchie's work is fake.
Also not like Netscape because Netscape the browser had to work on Windows. Linux just works on Linux. That means that while MS can release FUD, they can't sabotage Linux by embedding a rival product into the OS. (Which, BTW, as a programming decision, I applaud - Konqueror does the same thing with KDE 2 and it rocks; Mozilla still tries to do everything it's own way and ends up being second rate.)
David
Re:About Paul Johnson From The UK
on
The Renaissance
·
· Score: 1
Whether you call him moderate or not, I think it's important our US cousins should know that Paul Johnson is not a scholar but a journalist who fancies himself as a scholar. His writings have been attacked by serious scholars as sloppily edited, inaccurately researched and uninsightful. Also, in my entirely personal opinion, he's a stupid, snobbish buffoon.
Dave
Sounds a bit silly to me. Maybe car mechanics think all car users should be forced to repair their own cars. Or maybe we should all be making our own clothes, then we wouldn't have time to worry with this computer nonsense.
... the comments are so bad, and the usability bugs are so obvious, that this did come into my mind: what if AOL are worried about being tied to Netscape (I seem to remember they have some kind of agreement to distribute Netscape with their next product) - so they force Netscape to release too early and then have an excuse for sticking with safe old IE?
... No. Never attribute to conspiracy what cockup can explain. Still, I would recommend the Mozilla nightlies, even above M18, and way above Netscape 6 by the sound of it. Or Konqueror, which I am using now (just installed Mandrake 7.2:-), and which is stable as hell and full of cool features. And integrated with the desktop. Which is an advantage, dammit!
A friend of mine had this exact same problem,and submitted a patch. You can contact him on
will at kellar dot co dot uk
and ask him about it. I think the patch will be in the kernel.
The approach he took got his message out much more effectively. Would we be discussing this incident here on Slashdot if he had merely made a speech?
No, the foolish action by the school authorities in suspending him got his message out effectively. If he had rejected the Homecoming King title and they had just elected someone else, he would have looked silly and petulant - for the good reasons that many other people have given - and we would never have heard about it.
It still may have been a good choice though. I don't really know what a Homecoming King is, if it is just a ceremonial role then I think it is rather nice that he got elected, but perhaps it's more like a position which has some influence and power, and he wanted to say no to the whole idea.
More to the point, how the hell did he win? Was there a mass geek block vote?
The government decides who gets to have security clearance, but the people decide who gets to run the government. It would be very foolish to let even the best-intentioned government have a hand in this last decision. Better that you get the occasional crack addict Mayor than that well-intentioned rulers decide who is and is not good enough to join their club.
Might I suggest a massive registration rally in protest followed by massive search engine submissions?
If anyone wants to register
guinnlessisgoodforyou.com
or
ihateguinness.com
or anything else, you can use these guys to register your domain for free and set up a simple website with them: Freenetname.
Don't know if they are any good, or if they will pull when threatened by Guinness, but it's worth a try. They only offer.co.uk, but as Guinness is originally a UK (Irish?) company, that seems appropriate.
With careful use of meta tags and content, anyone can get their site on to the first page of the search engines... enjoy.
Whether or not this scam worked, the problem remains that Google's algorithm works by taking web pages as authorities on other web pages (there's a good explanation of how this stuff works at Quiver's website, in their technical white paper.) This means that if enough web pages can get together, they form a cosy little club, each certifying the others' authority. The problem is not so much that this can be "scammed" - although I see nothing to prevent this - as that it systematically biasses the results in favour of large websites or conglomerates of websites (cf. Internet.com).
Ultimately the best way of finding good sites has to be by getting humans to find them, but without requiring the huge expenditure of effort that actual directories need - even the Open Directory is nowhere near a full reference. This is what "favorites directories" like Blink and Backflip are about, as well as Alexa which uses information based on people's surfing patterns. Maybe an open source implementation of some of these, built into Mozilla, would be a good idea.
All true, but we are looking for a dynamic. The disadvantages you mention to bad programming have always been there, and have presumably been taken into account by management; and still are, or no computer programmer would ever be highly paid. But one factor, the balance between cost of programmer time and cost of hardware, has changed, and this has altered the balance, which is why (I claim) the computing profession is being deskilled. I don't want to go overboard. There will always (foreseeably) be a place for highly skilled programmers. Even the "deskilling" is relative. We aren't talking about checkout operators here. Nevertheless, I still maintain there is a solid business reason behind the change towards things that many programmers hate - Visual Basic et cetera. Of course, I don't want to equate business logic with moral rightness; I'm no libertarian. But many programmers are.
Slashdot Mirror
If developers can't write for one platform in the security that their version will not be broken in six months, they won't write for the platform.
And if users can't download rpms/tar files without getting dependency problems, they won't bother trying new applications.
So, if you want to challenge Windows on the home and corporate desktop, please devote time and effort to making sure that backwards compatibility works.
Other than that, congratulations. I look forward to downloading.
Hehe. Don't start on Deleuze and Guattari. Deterritorialize the internet with schizological lines of flight... man.
I am 90% sure.
Freedom of speech won't feed my children
Which means that by the iron laws of price competition, you won't make any money from your code. Why pay $99 when you could just pay $10 to a redistributor?
Freedom of speech won't feed my children
Hah! The despicable fools! They chose to spend time with their families and friends, rather than read YOUR masterwork on PowerPoint? They deserve all they get - in fact, they should be forced to work on a VAX using only the number keys, until they have LEARNED to spend their leisure hours poring over PowerPoint manuals.
Freedom of speech won't feed my children
I think you underestimate the flexibility of children. I see no reason why a well set up Linux box (running KDE 2 and a few solid, tested applications) should be frightening even to an adult. Certainly not to a kid.
I also think it's a crying shame to decide that these children are "going to be" office workers and shop clerks. They're children. They can be whatever they want to be. We shouldn't be training them to be keyboard monkeys, but educating them to understand what a computer is, and to learn the creative techniques of computer programming - even if they go on to be artists, peanut-butter salesmen or shop clerks.
For these skills, Linux is clearly a far better platform: it offers a multitude of simple programming languages, and once you get beyond the point-and-drool stage, it's much more intuitive to play with than Windows: no registry, a superior command line, etc.
David
Freedom of speech won't feed my children
What either Python or Ruby should do in order to gain share, is to get a perl-compatible syntax mode written which would enable you to use the massive CPAN libraries. It seems a shame to have to reimplement vast amounts of programming.
.NET
Hmm... wait a second, I think I am describing a specific subset of
Dave
Freedom of speech won't feed my children
I don't agree that the advanced economy does cause them. Computers are clearly far less toxic than e.g. cars. But that is too big a debate for here.
Are computers "hazardous" waste?
David
Freedom of speech won't feed my children
I would and I have. Cool.
David
Freedom of speech won't feed my children
Interesting point. But you have to counterbalance that against the educational benefit. And it may even have positive environmental effects: more hackers = a more advanced economy = less "old-style" heavy industry (coal, steel etc.) = less pollution.
David
Freedom of speech won't feed my children
Rather than "recycling" them, why not set up a scheme to distribute them to places like India which are crying out for the technical resources to train their huge potential developer base?
You could grade every old PC for power, then load it with free software - e.g. a 386 becomes a simple file server, a decent Pentium gets XFCE and can be used as a developer desktop. Then distribute them to the voluntary sector in the developing world.
David
Freedom of speech won't feed my children
No experience of Win2K, but I run KDE 2.1 every day, 8 hours a day It crashes probably once every two to three weeks. My business partner has Win98 and crashes daily - at least.
Just my experience, not necessarily typical
Dave
Freedom of speech won't feed my children
Efficient network of rails? Uh, have you been abroad for the apt 60 years?
Still, it's nice to see the UK serving as a role model for others, a role normally enjoyed by France.
Cesse de fumer le crack.
Linux v. Windows: that's serious.
Dave
If you want to see a good British film, with a fairly realistic take on the people at the bottom of the pile, check out Ken Loach's work. That's the real shit. Guy Ritchie's work is fake.
Also not like Netscape because Netscape the browser had to work on Windows. Linux just works on Linux. That means that while MS can release FUD, they can't sabotage Linux by embedding a rival product into the OS. (Which, BTW, as a programming decision, I applaud - Konqueror does the same thing with KDE 2 and it rocks; Mozilla still tries to do everything it's own way and ends up being second rate.)
David
Whether you call him moderate or not, I think it's important our US cousins should know that Paul Johnson is not a scholar but a journalist who fancies himself as a scholar. His writings have been attacked by serious scholars as sloppily edited, inaccurately researched and uninsightful. Also, in my entirely personal opinion, he's a stupid, snobbish buffoon.
Dave
Sounds a bit silly to me. Maybe car mechanics think all car users should be forced to repair their own cars. Or maybe we should all be making our own clothes, then we wouldn't have time to worry with this computer nonsense.
... the comments are so bad, and the usability bugs are so obvious, that this did come into my mind: what if AOL are worried about being tied to Netscape (I seem to remember they have some kind of agreement to distribute Netscape with their next product) - so they force Netscape to release too early and then have an excuse for sticking with safe old IE?
:-), and which is stable as hell and full of cool features. And integrated with the desktop. Which is an advantage, dammit!
... No. Never attribute to conspiracy what cockup can explain. Still, I would recommend the Mozilla nightlies, even above M18, and way above Netscape 6 by the sound of it. Or Konqueror, which I am using now (just installed Mandrake 7.2
A friend of mine had this exact same problem,and submitted a patch. You can contact him on
will at kellar dot co dot uk
and ask him about it. I think the patch will be in the kernel.
No, the foolish action by the school authorities in suspending him got his message out effectively. If he had rejected the Homecoming King title and they had just elected someone else, he would have looked silly and petulant - for the good reasons that many other people have given - and we would never have heard about it.
It still may have been a good choice though. I don't really know what a Homecoming King is, if it is just a ceremonial role then I think it is rather nice that he got elected, but perhaps it's more like a position which has some influence and power, and he wanted to say no to the whole idea.
More to the point, how the hell did he win? Was there a mass geek block vote?
The government decides who gets to have security clearance, but the people decide who gets to run the government. It would be very foolish to let even the best-intentioned government have a hand in this last decision. Better that you get the occasional crack addict Mayor than that well-intentioned rulers decide who is and is not good enough to join their club.
If anyone wants to register .co.uk, but as Guinness is originally a UK (Irish?) company, that seems appropriate.
guinnlessisgoodforyou.com
or
ihateguinness.com
or anything else, you can use these guys to register your domain for free and set up a simple website with them: Freenetname. Don't know if they are any good, or if they will pull when threatened by Guinness, but it's worth a try. They only offer
With careful use of meta tags and content, anyone can get their site on to the first page of the search engines... enjoy.
Ultimately the best way of finding good sites has to be by getting humans to find them, but without requiring the huge expenditure of effort that actual directories need - even the Open Directory is nowhere near a full reference. This is what "favorites directories" like Blink and Backflip are about, as well as Alexa which uses information based on people's surfing patterns. Maybe an open source implementation of some of these, built into Mozilla, would be a good idea.
All true, but we are looking for a dynamic. The disadvantages you mention to bad programming have always been there, and have presumably been taken into account by management; and still are, or no computer programmer would ever be highly paid. But one factor, the balance between cost of programmer time and cost of hardware, has changed, and this has altered the balance, which is why (I claim) the computing profession is being deskilled. I don't want to go overboard. There will always (foreseeably) be a place for highly skilled programmers. Even the "deskilling" is relative. We aren't talking about checkout operators here. Nevertheless, I still maintain there is a solid business reason behind the change towards things that many programmers hate - Visual Basic et cetera. Of course, I don't want to equate business logic with moral rightness; I'm no libertarian. But many programmers are.