Slackware is hard, in my opinion, for the following reasons.
1) Getting X to work. X didn't just come up running. After I spent DAYS tinkering with the config file, reading every newsgroup and every web page I could I was fusterated beyound words.
In a fit of desparation I ended up booting Knoppix and copying ITS XF86Config-4 file over.
2) Sound support. Similiar issues. The machine had run Mandrake before which used the ALSA drivers. Had major trouble getting sound to work and wasn't sure where to even start. (Found the right chmod for/dev/mixer and/dev/dsp. Midi is still a loss. As is Timidity.)
3) Network modules loaded in/etc/rc.d/rc.netdevice? Was banging my head against the wall for HOURS trying to get the card to work because I kept putting and "eth0=" line in my modules.conf file. Silly me.
Mind you, now that I've done all of that, I'm happy with Slackware and will continue to stick with it. I find its "by the book" approach refreshingly rewarding.
Though if I ever change video cards in this machine I'll be reaching for Knoppix again.
~Looking over at his web cam, shuddering at what it will take to make that work. No distro he has used had a "find new hardware" option that worked well.~
As a bagpiper myself I know that 90% of my music is bagpipe music and I tend to listen to it just about everwhere.
I'd be far more worried if the guy was trying to PLAY the bagpipes while driving, though on the passenger side I've direct-blown the chanter to drown out rap music from the cars beside us.
I never had a chance to play FF6/FF3 on a console, only through an emulator and I found that Sabin was -unplayable- because neither my keyboard nor my gamepad would let me do the diagonal moves required to use Sabin's special attacks.
At least with several of the other FF series you could set the special characters to "auto" and let them try an attack on their own. It made a nice compromise.
This actually goes back to early versions of ForTran (back when the language was still spelled this way).
Variables were typed based upon the first letter of the name, with "i" starting your integer variables.
Its been too many years since I learned FORTRAN (and I try to deny knowing it at all) so I can't remember exactly how the naming conventions work anymore.
Over the years, both as an end user and as a coder, I have found that software falls into one out of two catagories.
1) Software that I understand what it is supposed to do 2) Software that I have no clue what it is supposed to do.
For example: I have NO understanding of accounting. None, nil. A mystical and dark art done by pencil pushers.
I don't think it is POSSIBLE to write an accounting package that I will find user friendly because I don't understand the basic premise of what should happen.
Similar things can be said for 3D modeling packages and FPS. I rue the day that Quake came out.
On the other hand, I undertand how Word Processors should work. I know the basic functions that should be there and I can pretty easily switch from one to the other without slowing down keystrokes.
--- That, I think, is the major issue of "User Friendly." In the day and age of Star Trek and the computers of TV, the people just want to say "TiVo, record me a good show on TV tonight" and it will be done.
Users will NEVER master basic software until they understand what the software does. Aunt Tillie will never be good with her word processor until she unlearns her typewriter. (She will never unlearn her typewriter because the text field of her mail program works like a typewriter _sigh_)
You can't tell users not to open an attachment, because they have no clue what an attachment is. The concept, if they have any at all, will bring about an image of a photograph paper clipped to the letter or a small flyer tossed in the envelope. You don't "open" attachments, you just make sure they are there.
Aunt Tillie will never understand clearing out her browsers cache because she has no clue about a cache. She will never understand installing a new video codex because those things are outside her realm of experience.
Computers don't follow physical rules and so all of their worlds knowledge and understanding will fail to prepare them for the world of computers.
The way I see it, there are a few reasons why "abandonware" sites should exist.
1) If the copywrite owners stated, in writing, they would replace defective media.
2) If the game was "licenced" and not purchased (as per most EULAs) then the owner of the software is REQUIRED to replace defective media, because I don't own the game, I only lease it. The lease owner has to keep up the maintence.
I have too many games around here that I did spend the money to purchase that have suffered bit rot, or physical damage to the media. Most of them fit in one of the above catagories.
I may be showing my age, but rms was his user name back on the GNU machines.
(I don't know if he is still using that login account anymore or not, ever since MIT stopped providing guest access to those computers I've not kept track of who is logged in.)
Slashdot Mirror
Dude, if you're gonna troll, at least do it right. ^W=end of transmisttion block, ^H=backspace
Unless you are using BASH, in which case ^W removes a word.
above link as bad as goatse.sx... you don't wanna go there.
Slackware is hard, in my opinion, for the following reasons.
/dev/mixer and /dev/dsp. Midi is still a loss. As is Timidity.)
/etc/rc.d/rc.netdevice? Was banging my head against the wall for HOURS trying to get the card to work because I kept putting and "eth0=" line in my modules.conf file. Silly me.
1) Getting X to work. X didn't just come up running. After I spent DAYS tinkering with the config file, reading every newsgroup and every web page I could I was fusterated beyound words.
In a fit of desparation I ended up booting Knoppix and copying ITS XF86Config-4 file over.
2) Sound support. Similiar issues. The machine had run Mandrake before which used the ALSA drivers. Had major trouble getting sound to work and wasn't sure where to even start. (Found the right chmod for
3) Network modules loaded in
Mind you, now that I've done all of that, I'm happy with Slackware and will continue to stick with it. I find its "by the book" approach refreshingly rewarding.
Though if I ever change video cards in this machine I'll be reaching for Knoppix again.
~Looking over at his web cam, shuddering at what it will take to make that work. No distro he has used had a "find new hardware" option that worked well.~
As a bagpiper myself I know that 90% of my music is bagpipe music and I tend to listen to it just about everwhere.
I'd be far more worried if the guy was trying to PLAY the bagpipes while driving, though on the passenger side I've direct-blown the chanter to drown out rap music from the cars beside us.
I never had a chance to play FF6/FF3 on a console, only through an emulator and I found that Sabin was -unplayable- because neither my keyboard nor my gamepad would let me do the diagonal moves required to use Sabin's special attacks.
At least with several of the other FF series you could set the special characters to "auto" and let them try an attack on their own. It made a nice compromise.
In the Scottish accent, "Door hinge" and "orange" actually do rhyme, coming more as "Dorange" with the accent heavy on the first syllable.
This actually goes back to early versions of ForTran (back when the language was still spelled this way).
Variables were typed based upon the first letter of the name, with "i" starting your integer variables.
Its been too many years since I learned FORTRAN (and I try to deny knowing it at all) so I can't remember exactly how the naming conventions work anymore.
Over the years, both as an end user and as a coder, I have found that software falls into one out of two catagories.
1) Software that I understand what it is supposed to do
2) Software that I have no clue what it is supposed to do.
For example: I have NO understanding of accounting. None, nil. A mystical and dark art done by pencil pushers.
I don't think it is POSSIBLE to write an accounting package that I will find user friendly because I don't understand the basic premise of what should happen.
Similar things can be said for 3D modeling packages and FPS. I rue the day that Quake came out.
On the other hand, I undertand how Word Processors should work. I know the basic functions that should be there and I can pretty easily switch from one to the other without slowing down keystrokes.
---
That, I think, is the major issue of "User Friendly." In the day and age of Star Trek and the computers of TV, the people just want to say "TiVo, record me a good show on TV tonight" and it will be done.
Users will NEVER master basic software until they understand what the software does. Aunt Tillie will never be good with her word processor until she unlearns her typewriter. (She will never unlearn her typewriter because the text field of her mail program works like a typewriter _sigh_)
You can't tell users not to open an attachment, because they have no clue what an attachment is. The concept, if they have any at all, will bring about an image of a photograph paper clipped to the letter or a small flyer tossed in the envelope. You don't "open" attachments, you just make sure they are there.
Aunt Tillie will never understand clearing out her browsers cache because she has no clue about a cache. She will never understand installing a new video codex because those things are outside her realm of experience.
Computers don't follow physical rules and so all of their worlds knowledge and understanding will fail to prepare them for the world of computers.
1) If the copywrite owners stated, in writing, they would replace defective media.
2) If the game was "licenced" and not purchased (as per most EULAs) then the owner of the software is REQUIRED to replace defective media, because I don't own the game, I only lease it. The lease owner has to keep up the maintence.
I have too many games around here that I did spend the money to purchase that have suffered bit rot, or physical damage to the media. Most of them fit in one of the above catagories.
(I don't know if he is still using that login account anymore or not, ever since MIT stopped providing guest access to those computers I've not kept track of who is logged in.)