While I agree with his reasoning, error trapping is an important part in any program, he picked some bad examples:
-Ximian Evolution
-KDE Aethera
Last I knew, these were still pre-1.0. You HAVE to expect errors in projects that aren't done yet. I have had no direct experience with some of his other examples (Sylpheed, Balsa, or Gnumeric), but I would expect that they are in the same boat.
Really, the only reason I can think of to justify the types of errors he is talking about is that the program is not done yet. Laziness is inexcusable.
The problem with looking for hidden messages is taht you can apply some algorithm to any set of bits to generate any message. It's all about how the bits are interpreted.
You might be surprised how many "joe sixpacks" don't even know what a right-click is. I saw some stats about it somewhere (don't remember specifics, though) and was absolutely shocked. I guess the right-click context menu is just one of those things I really take for granted.
Despite how much you might hate the company, this is one hell of a product
I agree, I just wish they would play nice with others so people who choose not to use their platform could still work with people who do. I don't expect them to release MS-OfficeLinux anytime soon (or ever, for that matter), I only wish that they either open up their document format or use a more standard one (XML would be good).
Nothing big, though. I administer a classified site for automobiles (EZCarLocator -- please don't slashdot it too hard, it's only a virtual host sharing a machine with 3 other sites) and I store the images in userId_AdImageNumber_UNIXTimeStamp.jpg format. Well, the userId's are in the 4-digit range now, and the rollover added one more character than I allowed in my table field, so i lost the 'g' at the end of each new file resulting in a bunch of broken images.
The same thing would have happened if the user id's had rolled over to 5-digits, though. I think it's fixed now (i doubled the field length to 40 characters, now) and it should hold for quite a while.
I guess I'm just fortunate to have a little bit of in-house testing or it would have probably gone un-noticed for quite a while.
Granted, however, the parent poster implied that the lowest end PC's you can buy now is the *minimum* you would need to run typical home applications. If you already have, say a high-end pentium I, there is really no need to upgrade hardware (except in the case of disk space) unless some application you want/need to use requires something bigger. Most likely, that new app won't be a typical home/office application.
Wow! what kind of non-game, non-DVD home applications are you running?
My home PC seems to keep up quite nicely: Pentium 233MHz, 2MB video card, 64MB RAM. It's dual booted: RedHat 7.1, Windows 2000 Pro, and has never had any problems. It even runs a good handful of games just fine (The Sims, You don't know jack 4/5)
There is no need for a huge powerhouse PC for almost all non-game, non-DVD home applications to run quite nicely
I've also been using a Logitech wireless for a couple of years. I originally got it when I was living in a dorm and space was tight, so it was nice to be able to tuck it into my desk drawer when I wasn't using it.
Later, when I moved to a bigger apartment and got a computer desk, it worked great for the pull-out keyboard/mouse platform. No wires getting tangled or in the way, just kinda sat there.
Now it's hooked up to my mp3 player which is connected to my TV & stereo. It's really nice to be able to turn on the computer and bring the KB to wherever I decide to crash and not have to pull the cables around.
The range on it is supposed to be 6 ft, but I've been up to 10 ft away with very little loss of performance.
I'd really recommend a wireless, especially if you're tight on space or just don't want to mess with cords.
Artists would not be able to make sufficient profits
This isn't necessarily true. Artists make quite a bit of revenue from ticket sales, t-shirts, poster, etc. Allowing a free distribution of their music gains fans that go to their concerts, buy the t-shirts and whatnot.
quality of music would lessen
What we would have is an increase in music quality, not a decrease. Live music is much higher quality than recorded music.
It may seem kinda wierd, but human error on stage is one major reason live music is better. Every time a band plays the same song, it is a little different.
If you want true quality music, go to live shows where you can hear a song for the first time, no matter how many times you've heard the recording.
yeah, they get booted and then sign up as a different user so they can to it again.
My wife gets all sorts of spam from addresses like asdfjkl123@hotmail.com... There are a lot of different random combinations for spammers to use for new accounts.
I think it's a great idea to release beta versions to their users. I would bet that most of the people trying the beta versions will be users that look at the source and can point out bugs so RH has a chance to fix them before they release the final version.
The least RH could do is grant those users a small refund or another small gesture for their hard work.
Let's see...how exactly do you give a refund on a free download? A refund implies a monitary transaction. If I were to submit a bug fix or some suggestion that actually made it into the final distro, I couldn't really ask for a better "small gesture"
and I think that KDE should become the standard desktop in order to facilitate a distinctive brand and consumer recognition.
Isn't the whole idea behind open source that you get to choose what your desktop, shell, etc. looks like? Why, then, would anyone want a "standard" desktop. IMHO there should be a good default with any distribution, but never a standard one
I don't know how low you can go to decompress mp3's on the fly. Buy my 66Mhz 486SX with a 33Mhz Math Coprocessor and 16MB RAM wouldn't even think about trying to do mp3's on the fly
Slashdot Mirror
While I agree with his reasoning, error trapping is an important part in any program, he picked some bad examples:
-Ximian Evolution
-KDE Aethera
Last I knew, these were still pre-1.0. You HAVE to expect errors in projects that aren't done yet. I have had no direct experience with some of his other examples (Sylpheed, Balsa, or Gnumeric), but I would expect that they are in the same boat.
Really, the only reason I can think of to justify the types of errors he is talking about is that the program is not done yet. Laziness is inexcusable.
The problem with looking for hidden messages is taht you can apply some algorithm to any set of bits to generate any message. It's all about how the bits are interpreted.
You might be surprised how many "joe sixpacks" don't even know what a right-click is. I saw some stats about it somewhere (don't remember specifics, though) and was absolutely shocked. I guess the right-click context menu is just one of those things I really take for granted.
Despite how much you might hate the company, this is one hell of a product
I agree, I just wish they would play nice with others so people who choose not to use their platform could still work with people who do. I don't expect them to release MS-OfficeLinux anytime soon (or ever, for that matter), I only wish that they either open up their document format or use a more standard one (XML would be good).
Yeah, I noticed... just my luck
I just downloaded the 8.1RC isos yesterday and am not even done burning them when I read this!
Now, I get to go back and download the new ones.
Oh well, not like I have anything better to do with my bandwidth.
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:DbYXcv4JI5
gotta love it!
I would have to argue that someone knows who is responsible, they just aren't telling.
Nothing big, though. I administer a classified site for automobiles (EZCarLocator -- please don't slashdot it too hard, it's only a virtual host sharing a machine with 3 other sites) and I store the images in userId_AdImageNumber_UNIXTimeStamp.jpg format. Well, the userId's are in the 4-digit range now, and the rollover added one more character than I allowed in my table field, so i lost the 'g' at the end of each new file resulting in a bunch of broken images.
The same thing would have happened if the user id's had rolled over to 5-digits, though. I think it's fixed now (i doubled the field length to 40 characters, now) and it should hold for quite a while.
I guess I'm just fortunate to have a little bit of in-house testing or it would have probably gone un-noticed for quite a while.
Granted, however, the parent poster implied that the lowest end PC's you can buy now is the *minimum* you would need to run typical home applications. If you already have, say a high-end pentium I, there is really no need to upgrade hardware (except in the case of disk space) unless some application you want/need to use requires something bigger. Most likely, that new app won't be a typical home/office application.
Wow! what kind of non-game, non-DVD home applications are you running?
My home PC seems to keep up quite nicely: Pentium 233MHz, 2MB video card, 64MB RAM. It's dual booted: RedHat 7.1, Windows 2000 Pro, and has never had any problems. It even runs a good handful of games just fine (The Sims, You don't know jack 4/5)
There is no need for a huge powerhouse PC for almost all non-game, non-DVD home applications to run quite nicely
Another nice thing about a GUI installer is that you at least have the illusion of seeing how fast it's getting done :-)
I believe you are looking for this:
rpm -Uvh x.rpm
I've also been using a Logitech wireless for a couple of years. I originally got it when I was living in a dorm and space was tight, so it was nice to be able to tuck it into my desk drawer when I wasn't using it.
Later, when I moved to a bigger apartment and got a computer desk, it worked great for the pull-out keyboard/mouse platform. No wires getting tangled or in the way, just kinda sat there.
Now it's hooked up to my mp3 player which is connected to my TV & stereo. It's really nice to be able to turn on the computer and bring the KB to wherever I decide to crash and not have to pull the cables around.
The range on it is supposed to be 6 ft, but I've been up to 10 ft away with very little loss of performance.
I'd really recommend a wireless, especially if you're tight on space or just don't want to mess with cords.
Personally, I prefer to stick them to my wall. I've got about a 12' x 9' section of wall completely covered with 'em :o)
This isn't necessarily true. Artists make quite a bit of revenue from ticket sales, t-shirts, poster, etc. Allowing a free distribution of their music gains fans that go to their concerts, buy the t-shirts and whatnot.
quality of music would lessen
What we would have is an increase in music quality, not a decrease. Live music is much higher quality than recorded music.
It may seem kinda wierd, but human error on stage is one major reason live music is better. Every time a band plays the same song, it is a little different.
If you want true quality music, go to live shows where you can hear a song for the first time, no matter how many times you've heard the recording.
yeah, they get booted and then sign up as a different user so they can to it again.
My wife gets all sorts of spam from addresses like asdfjkl123@hotmail.com... There are a lot of different random combinations for spammers to use for new accounts.
The least RH could do is grant those users a small refund or another small gesture for their hard work.
Let's see...how exactly do you give a refund on a free download? A refund implies a monitary transaction. If I were to submit a bug fix or some suggestion that actually made it into the final distro, I couldn't really ask for a better "small gesture"
Isn't the whole idea behind open source that you get to choose what your desktop, shell, etc. looks like? Why, then, would anyone want a "standard" desktop. IMHO there should be a good default with any distribution, but never a standard one
I don't know how low you can go to decompress mp3's on the fly. Buy my 66Mhz 486SX with a 33Mhz Math Coprocessor and 16MB RAM wouldn't even think about trying to do mp3's on the fly