The (new) plex86 website presents this as a great leap forward for the project. I suppose that almost anything would be better than its previous moribund state, but it's a bit nauseating to see the amount of spin Kevin is applying on this announcement.
For people who are more familiar with "Web programming" than kernel code, suppose the Mozilla (or Konqueror) team made the following announcement: rather than implement a full and heavyweight web browser which can view any web page, they would take a new approach: only view web pages which conform to the HTML/1.0 specification and do not use images, tables, or forms. This would lead to a much lighter-weight browser, and faster performance -- a great improvement, right? This is just about what Plex86 is doing with this announcement.
Now, there's nothing wrong with deciding that the hard stuff is too hard, so you'll focus on the easy stuff and do it really well. You should at least be honest and admit that's what you're doing, though. Trying to sell this as a bold step forward is rather..well..Microsoftian. Or if you object to that term, the old standby of "dishonest" will fit as well.
Daniel
(PS: I do not work for vmware, nor do I particularly like them)
I never really understood what made it better than straight up lpd.
A configuration file format which is distinguishable from line noise.
Daniel
Re:I wonder how much of this is quality . . .
on
Critics Pan Nemesis
·
· Score: 2
I don't know what's more disturbing:
(a) that I just saw someone draw a distinction between Sci-Fi and Science Fiction; (b) that I scrolled far enough down this thread (on Friday evening, no less) to find out; (c) that I care.
Simple: you can either take the white stick, and be enlisted as fighters to impose DMCA-style regulations on the rest of the world, or you can take the black stick, and be forever encased within an impenetrable "media shield" which prevents any music except for N'Sync reruns from being imported or broadcast. You must choose within one week, or be blasted into the stone age by our fusion weapons. We are the Ur-Disney.
That may be true with modern processors and compilers, but I don't believe it was true when compiled languages first became popular. My compiler/processor history may not be up to snuff, though..
Usually when I get a bug report like that I send an email back politely asking the user for more information. (only 'usually' because if the bugreport was along the line of "your software sucks and you stink and I am going to burn your house down and eat your children" I might have to settle for "civil" instead of "polite")
Most users, if given explicit instructions, can ferret out enough information for me to determine whether it's a big, a misfeature, an issue, or a non-problem.
Of course, what often [0] happens with these people is that they never reply with further information and I close the bug after a decent time (a year or two)
Oh, I bet you're talking about "Castle adventure" or something like that. Fun game:) I wonder if there are any copies of it still around...media from back then tended to degrade pretty fast.
If that's the design goal for Debian, that's fine by me.. just thought you might want to know what your prodcut looks like from someone you are (apparently) intending to exclude.
Please don't use the possessive; as far as I can tell the previous poster is not a member of Debian and does not speak for us (the two are seperate; few if any Debian members can truthfully claim to speak for the organization)
Some members of the Debian development community do share his views (I can think of one or two prominent examples), but I don't believe that they are anything like a majority. (see caveat above, however:) )
They may not be Debian developers, but it DOES give that impression.
I know, hence my comments above. I wanted to emphasize the fact that Debian users do not speak for Debian developers. For that matter, there are a couple hundred Debian developers (at least); no individual developer can claim to speak for everyone. Myself included.
The only way to correct this impression is to fix/replace the damn thing.
This is already being done -- there are two separate replacements being worked on, and one recently reached 1.0. The next Debian release will have a new installer.
It depends. I don't want people to get the impression that every Debian developer is complacent and arrogant, which is what I would read into "we never install the system, so why bother improving the installer"?
Description: Frontend to apt to build, optimize and install packages
This is an apt-get front-end for compiling software optimized
for your architecture by creating a local repository with built packages.
It can manage system upgrade too.
Slashdot Mirror
Is it because of massive advances in human stupidity that you say you don't think bots are the problem?
You've got to be kidding.
Daniel
The (new) plex86 website presents this as a great leap forward for the project. I suppose that almost anything would be better than its previous moribund state, but it's a bit nauseating to see the amount of spin Kevin is applying on this announcement.
For people who are more familiar with "Web programming" than kernel code, suppose the Mozilla (or Konqueror) team made the following announcement: rather than implement a full and heavyweight web browser which can view any web page, they would take a new approach: only view web pages which conform to the HTML/1.0 specification and do not use images, tables, or forms. This would lead to a much lighter-weight browser, and faster performance -- a great improvement, right? This is just about what Plex86 is doing with this announcement.
Now, there's nothing wrong with deciding that the hard stuff is too hard, so you'll focus on the easy stuff and do it really well. You should at least be honest and admit that's what you're doing, though. Trying to sell this as a bold step forward is rather..well..Microsoftian. Or if you object to that term, the old standby of "dishonest" will fit as well.
Daniel
(PS: I do not work for vmware, nor do I particularly like them)
Can the debate of whether the MPAA is an ignorant, greedy monstrosity finally be put to rest with a resounding yes?
Wait, there was a debate?
Daniel
I never really understood what made it better than straight up lpd.
A configuration file format which is distinguishable from line noise.
Daniel
I don't know what's more disturbing:
(a) that I just saw someone draw a distinction between Sci-Fi and Science Fiction;
(b) that I scrolled far enough down this thread (on Friday evening, no less) to find out;
(c) that I care.
Daniel
I have to agree. It's almost as absurd as this guy I heard about -- a son of Bach who remained unknown for over 150 years? Laughable!
Daniel
Are you sure about that? The two biggest complaints that I hear are (a) lack of hardware autodetection, and (b) starting dselect by default.
(a) is addressed already by debian-installer, and I've heard they plan to fix (b) as well.
Anyway, I probably shouldn't spout off too much until I give the new installer a spin.
Daniel
I should just point out that your comment makes no sense...debian-installer is a replacement for boot-floppies, not for the package management tools.
(although I've heard rumors it will default to something other than dselect, such as aptitude)
Daniel
What's happening to this planet ?
Simple: you can either take the white stick, and be enlisted as fighters to impose DMCA-style regulations on the rest of the world, or you can take the black stick, and be forever encased within an impenetrable "media shield" which prevents any music except for N'Sync reruns from being imported or broadcast. You must choose within one week, or be blasted into the stone age by our fusion weapons. We are the Ur-Disney.
Daniel
Not so much in chess. This is a sport whose first world champion died in an insane asylum..
Daniel
Even better: I have that bumper sticker.
Daniel
(well, mine says "if this sticker is red, you're going too fast", but close enough)
I don't think this is particularly unique to RTSes -- you get the same thing in other strategy games like chess, risk, etc..
Daniel
That may be true with modern processors and compilers, but I don't believe it was true when compiled languages first became popular. My compiler/processor history may not be up to snuff, though..
Daniel
it is defn. important to have a list of the worst offenders, but even more useful would be the best of the bunch!
Sure, here it is:
That help?
-- Daniel
Usually when I get a bug report like that I send an email back politely asking the user for more information. (only 'usually' because if the bugreport was along the line of "your software sucks and you stink and I am going to burn your house down and eat your children" I might have to settle for "civil" instead of "polite")
Most users, if given explicit instructions, can ferret out enough information for me to determine whether it's a big, a misfeature, an issue, or a non-problem.
Of course, what often [0] happens with these people is that they never reply with further information and I close the bug after a decent time (a year or two)
Daniel
[0] I'd estimate 50-75% of the time.
Hm, I remember it being an EXE or COM file..AFAIK you couldn't compile Basic, no?
Probably you could run it in Bochs or something, and throttle the emulated clock rate.
Daniel
Oh, I bet you're talking about "Castle adventure" or something like that. Fun game :) I wonder if there are any copies of it still around...media from back then tended to degrade pretty fast.
Daniel
Yeah -- if you mean the one with the bird and the cage, it's actually still around, in the bsdgames package.
Daniel
Didn't that happen years ago?
Daniel
If that's the design goal for Debian, that's fine by me.. just thought you might want to know what your prodcut looks like from someone you are (apparently) intending to exclude.
:) )
Please don't use the possessive; as far as I can tell the previous poster is not a member of Debian and does not speak for us (the two are seperate; few if any Debian members can truthfully claim to speak for the organization)
Some members of the Debian development community do share his views (I can think of one or two prominent examples), but I don't believe that they are anything like a majority. (see caveat above, however
Daniel
They may not be Debian developers, but it DOES give that impression.
I know, hence my comments above. I wanted to emphasize the fact that Debian users do not speak for Debian developers. For that matter, there are a couple hundred Debian developers (at least); no individual developer can claim to speak for everyone. Myself included.
The only way to correct this impression is to fix/replace the damn thing.
This is already being done -- there are two separate replacements being worked on, and one recently reached 1.0. The next Debian release will have a new installer.
Daniel
It doesn't really matter WHY the installer sucks!
It depends. I don't want people to get the impression that every Debian developer is complacent and arrogant, which is what I would read into "we never install the system, so why bother improving the installer"?
Daniel
Assuming you speak for every Debian developer, fair enough.
I don't think that he speaks for *ANY* Debian developer; he is a developer of other stuff (Freenet, as far as I can tell) who happens to use Debian.
Daniel
Ummm, there is no such package.
There is, but it's only in unstable right now.
Description: Frontend to apt to build, optimize and install packages
This is an apt-get front-end for compiling software optimized
for your architecture by creating a local repository with built packages.
It can manage system upgrade too.
Daniel