Look I know its unpopular.
But simply making ISPs charge based on amount of data uploaded would fix this.
i.e. $20/month for 5BG uploaded, $30 for $10GB etc.
Sorry. You're on crack. Some people (like myself, and I know several others) do legitimate uploading and downloading of very large files (ISOs of free software, CVS for developing new software, digital photos that we took ourselves, self-made music, etc.) -- why should we be forced to pay more because others are swapping mainstream movies and music?
Why hasn't anyone mentioned Windows Update yet? Not only is it a fully graphical tool, but it automatically detects what software your computer needs, without sending that information to a third party, and then gives you an easy install wizard to update everything. Sure, some things may require a reboot, but there is a lot of Linux software that also requires a reboot to function properly. Personally, I think it is a far superior tool to apt-get, because it can also make recommendations on what kind of cool new screen saver you might want to check out, or update DirectX to improve your gaming framerates and such.
A Few points...
People have already mentioned Windows Update
Neither apt-get nor urpmi submit information to a third party (unless you count the hits that the file downloads cause -- but then both apt-get and urpmi download files from various mirrors. Windows Update, unless I am mistaken, all comes from Microsoft...)
Yes, there's a lot of software that requires a reboot while using Linux distribution. I'll summarize it in three words: The Linux Kernel. That's right, the only reason you'd have to reboot your computer is to upgrade the kernel. Name another "reason", and I bet you can do that just fine in userland without rebooting.
Windows Update tends to break things, and your box is sometimes rendered useless.
Windows Update doesn't really sort out dependancies; it just knows what you can and can not install at the same time. It does not take care to do what you say; you have to do things the way it dictates.
You can not download 3rd party software or provide a configuration option for any outside sources within Windows Update.
Anyway, enough diversions. I'm going back to reinstalling Debian a machine that was once running Mandrake for a while. "urpmi", although nice, didn't hold a candle to "apt-get" -- and this is precisely the reason I'm switching the distro back. Mandrake's stuff does have an easy enough graphical frontend, however.
Really quick, however... my largest complaints with urpmi are, as follows:
One must download an ~8M description file from a single server
The dependancy handling isn't done as well as under Debian
Error messages under urpmi aren't as helpful or descriptive as those of apt-get
You cannot define your own multiple sources as easily with urmi as you can with apt-get
When paths of software or various other somewhat important things occur, it does not optionally notify you like apt-get can
Since it takes a long time to download and parse the large file (see above), urpmi was noticably slower, especially in the GUI when it had to refill lists and trees.
For what it's worth, console-apt (and using apt-get by itself too, of course) usually suffices for me, but I would love to see a useable GTK+ based frontend for Debian's package system one of these days. I think a lot of other people would like that as well.
If we had the concepts of Red Carpet, the slickness of Windows Update, the widespread use of urpmi, and the power of apt-get all rolled into one tool, it would truly be the killer upgrade apt -- err -- I mean app. (:
I'm not sure if it was actually running on Linux or a BSD, but it was definately hooked up to a Unix box. If you saw the video clip, it was pretty obvious that the guy was running Gnome (it had the little Gnome foot on his panel).
Pretty neat, if you ask me.
Re:Are there Free X-Servers for Windows.
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Low-Bandwidth X
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· Score: 1
WeirdX is a GPL'd Java-based X server and even has ESD support. It should run great any operating system which has decent Java support (including Windows and MacOS).
Hopefully this is what you're looking for. If you're willing to try an X server for DOS, then I suppose Java is even more than adaquate. (:
Re:Still no support for resumable desktops
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Low-Bandwidth X
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· Score: 4
It already exists, and has existed for a number of years now... (since 1995)
If you're running Debian, then it's only an apt-get away.
If running Red Hat or any other RPM-based distribution, there is an i386 and src RPM available on the 'Net as well.
In addition, I suggest that you try out x2x. Think "Xinerama" across multiple desktops over the network. It's kind of like that. With the combination of x2x and xmove, you can actually move the displays of X applications across machines, and control all of the boxes from one control point. Good stuff. (:
Slashdot Mirror
Sorry. You're on crack. Some people (like myself, and I know several others) do legitimate uploading and downloading of very large files (ISOs of free software, CVS for developing new software, digital photos that we took ourselves, self-made music, etc.) -- why should we be forced to pay more because others are swapping mainstream movies and music?
A Few points...
Anyway, enough diversions. I'm going back to reinstalling Debian a machine that was once running Mandrake for a while. "urpmi", although nice, didn't hold a candle to "apt-get" -- and this is precisely the reason I'm switching the distro back. Mandrake's stuff does have an easy enough graphical frontend, however.
Really quick, however... my largest complaints with urpmi are, as follows:
For what it's worth, console-apt (and using apt-get by itself too, of course) usually suffices for me, but I would love to see a useable GTK+ based frontend for Debian's package system one of these days. I think a lot of other people would like that as well.
If we had the concepts of Red Carpet, the slickness of Windows Update, the widespread use of urpmi, and the power of apt-get all rolled into one tool, it would truly be the killer upgrade apt -- err -- I mean app. (:
Pretty neat, if you ask me.
Check out WeirdX. It's hosted on SourceForge and also has a project page on Freshmeat.
WeirdX is a GPL'd Java-based X server and even has ESD support. It should run great any operating system which has decent Java support (including Windows and MacOS).
Hopefully this is what you're looking for. If you're willing to try an X server for DOS, then I suppose Java is even more than adaquate. (:
It already exists, and has existed for a number of years now... (since 1995)
It is called "xmove", and is available from ftp://ftp.cs.columbia.edu/pub/xmove/
If you're running Debian, then it's only an apt-get away.
If running Red Hat or any other RPM-based distribution, there is an i386 and src RPM available on the 'Net as well.
In addition, I suggest that you try out x2x. Think "Xinerama" across multiple desktops over the network. It's kind of like that. With the combination of x2x and xmove, you can actually move the displays of X applications across machines, and control all of the boxes from one control point. Good stuff. (: