I'm not at my computer right now, but I'll check for you when I can. It's something I never noticed, so it probably doesn't irk me. I can understand that such small things annoy. Many of those and the frustration adds up.
I don't know for other slashdotters, but I can tell you why I care about sane defaults. Support. You see, many slasdotters live in a void where there is their desktop and the rest can just suck it up. I, on the other hand, help other people with their computers.
Ubuntu, until the version 10.04 LTS, was a distribution you could take, drop on a machine, install half a dozen packages (Thunderbird, Restricted Extras,....) and be done with it. Installation time very quick. This compared to a Windows install which can take a up to a day, including hunting for drivers, software, securing it and finally setting the GUI to sane defaults. It's a complete pain.
Now, assume just for the sake of it that I ddi default installs for my friends and family and let them figure it out, and I do my thing in my corner. First support call, I get from them will put me and Linux in a bad light (either, or... ) and I want neither. Thus, I use the default desktop in order to be able to support them! Eating your own dog food, you know.
Deviating significantly from default install, increases the initial install time and increases the risk that you forgot to change a tiny GUI setting you use. (Example from the Windows world: you work with extensions turned on, the default is off. You forgot that on you family/friends computer. Try explaining the how to turn it on and why you need it, as it now suddenly deviates from what they are used.
That's my personal problem with the whole debacle. Furthermore, there has to be said something about software quality feels. If you have sane GUI settings from the beginning, your software is perceived as higher quality. That is also very important for the normal user. That we, nerds, can change everything to our hearts desire is not important to them.
As for Unity, I hated it at first too, but the changes in 12.04 beta, improved its usability. It's not perfect, but by now I can see my mom use it. (She's on 10.04LTS) and that/is/ important to me.
Have you checked out VueScan? My father was in the same situation as you and we found VueScan to be the solution. We use it under Linux, but I'm sure the Windows version is good too. Of course, it's still more money than just sticking with what you have.
Minor cost? I guess you will pay for the half dozen XP machines I support for family and friends, because non-nerds see no point in paying for something that works in their eyes. Heck, I have one remaining XP machine and see no reason tho shell out good money that I can use for more useful things. You talk about 100$ as if it were chump change. It also assumes your old peripherals will work, where printers and scanners are the worst players. At work we have an expensive multifunction printer whose Vista/7 drivers suck compared to the very reliable XP drivers. At least there were drivers available. Replacing peripherals that stop working because of an OS upgrade cist money too. Sure this problem probably is moot when talking about a Vista to 7 upgrade.
The longevity of XP was an accident. It was a good time to live in, but they won't make that mistake ever again. Don't expect support to last as long as the XP support for 7 either.
True, but in this case everyone except MicroEquus, is in the business of using horses. Some of them are employed as brewery horses, others are employed as race horses, but as long as they work fine, there is no need from horses from MicroEquus.
You can of course switch to the free Llamas, but they're so unfamiliar.
If you think open source is not the way to go, then why bother asking slashdot? Seriously? You won't get the answers you're looking for here.
Basically, the only reply to OSS business models is "support your product". If the product is so easy/good that no support is required, then you might as well have no product at all. Then the only thing that remains is using your free product as a showcase for your paid products, but those won't be open source.
As much as I love open source, if you don't serve specific niches or aren't a big company, you're unlikely to get far when you're a one man shop.
Hey, I'm a full fan of simply using ssh with keys and all. SSH-tunneling for the win, I use it all the time. What I just wanted to say is that setting up a VPN is a pain once, then you're done and you connect as if the resources were local.
My experience is that most companies don't want you to telecommute. I could do 95% of my work from home, but they insist on me being local. Besides, I'm the one who does the donkey work and if you worked at my company you wouldn't have had to configure the VPN in the first place as I'd have done it.
I'd say, your issue is with your workplace, not with VPNs.
I'm trying to figure out what exactly the hassle is with VPNs on linux. If you're using openvpn, drop the configuration in/etc/openvpn and make sure the your certificate, your keyfile and you CA certificate are accessible for openvpn. (Me, I just dump them in/etc/openvpn/connectioname folders). Then adapt/etc/default/openvpn and set those you want to autostart.
Alternatively, under Ubuntu you can configure it graphically, but I haven't found a way to have more than one VPN active.
That said, you do need to install a few packages. Which ones shouldn't be hard to figure out.
I partially agree with "just use ssh", but do keep in mind there are much more bots that try to attack ssh ports with typical user/password combos than there are bots that attack VPNs. At least to my knowledge.
Can you be more specific? Like telling us what doensn't work? All major chat protocols work, email works, browsers work, OpenVPN works (others may work too). There are good terminal services clients. So, apart from the "I can't have Microsoft Office", what -pray tell us- doens't work.
Fair enough... I have some very expensive gear (actually my fathers) that hasn't got drivers any more on any platform. Not Windows, not Mac OS X and not Linux. Vuescan does, on all platforms (and the license is valid on all platforms). Since I got the license, and (for example) my wifes Canon LiDE20 doesn't work with OS X, I tried it with that and... tadaaa... working scanner.
Of course, I could have bought a new scanner, but why? The gear I had was in working order, the problem was software.
Take a look at VueScan. Best $79.95 I ever spent on software and the only single proprietary software I use on Linux. I'm just a happy customer, I have nothing to do with the creator and/or company.
Given what the average God offers, I'd prefer to burn in their hell than to praise their pompous asses all day long. Hand me the bottle of oil, it's my turn to rub your back.
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I'm not at my computer right now, but I'll check for you when I can. It's something I never noticed, so it probably doesn't irk me. I can understand that such small things annoy. Many of those and the frustration adds up.
Just to make sure, I'm talking about the icon bar at the left side of the screen (They call it dash or somesuch).
Nope, that was one of my biggest issues with it and I must not have been the only one. It's fixed now.
Ubuntu, until the version 10.04 LTS, was a distribution you could take, drop on a machine, install half a dozen packages (Thunderbird, Restricted Extras, ....) and be done with it. Installation time very quick. This compared to a Windows install which can take a up to a day, including hunting for drivers, software, securing it and finally setting the GUI to sane defaults. It's a complete pain.
Now, assume just for the sake of it that I ddi default installs for my friends and family and let them figure it out, and I do my thing in my corner. First support call, I get from them will put me and Linux in a bad light (either, or... ) and I want neither. Thus, I use the default desktop in order to be able to support them! Eating your own dog food, you know.
Deviating significantly from default install, increases the initial install time and increases the risk that you forgot to change a tiny GUI setting you use. (Example from the Windows world: you work with extensions turned on, the default is off. You forgot that on you family/friends computer. Try explaining the how to turn it on and why you need it, as it now suddenly deviates from what they are used.
That's my personal problem with the whole debacle. Furthermore, there has to be said something about software quality feels. If you have sane GUI settings from the beginning, your software is perceived as higher quality. That is also very important for the normal user. That we, nerds, can change everything to our hearts desire is not important to them.
As for Unity, I hated it at first too, but the changes in 12.04 beta, improved its usability. It's not perfect, but by now I can see my mom use it. (She's on 10.04LTS) and that /is/ important to me.
Have you checked out VueScan? My father was in the same situation as you and we found VueScan to be the solution. We use it under Linux, but I'm sure the Windows version is good too. Of course, it's still more money than just sticking with what you have.
Minor cost? I guess you will pay for the half dozen XP machines I support for family and friends, because non-nerds see no point in paying for something that works in their eyes. Heck, I have one remaining XP machine and see no reason tho shell out good money that I can use for more useful things. You talk about 100$ as if it were chump change. It also assumes your old peripherals will work, where printers and scanners are the worst players. At work we have an expensive multifunction printer whose Vista/7 drivers suck compared to the very reliable XP drivers. At least there were drivers available. Replacing peripherals that stop working because of an OS upgrade cist money too. Sure this problem probably is moot when talking about a Vista to 7 upgrade.
The longevity of XP was an accident. It was a good time to live in, but they won't make that mistake ever again. Don't expect support to last as long as the XP support for 7 either.
You can of course switch to the free Llamas, but they're so unfamiliar.
The words you're looking for are "good enough", because that's what XP is and Microsofts main problem with it.
If you think open source is not the way to go, then why bother asking slashdot? Seriously? You won't get the answers you're looking for here.
Basically, the only reply to OSS business models is "support your product". If the product is so easy/good that no support is required, then you might as well have no product at all. Then the only thing that remains is using your free product as a showcase for your paid products, but those won't be open source.
As much as I love open source, if you don't serve specific niches or aren't a big company, you're unlikely to get far when you're a one man shop.
Hey, I'm a full fan of simply using ssh with keys and all. SSH-tunneling for the win, I use it all the time. What I just wanted to say is that setting up a VPN is a pain once, then you're done and you connect as if the resources were local.
My experience is that most companies don't want you to telecommute. I could do 95% of my work from home, but they insist on me being local. Besides, I'm the one who does the donkey work and if you worked at my company you wouldn't have had to configure the VPN in the first place as I'd have done it.
I'd say, your issue is with your workplace, not with VPNs.
I'm trying to figure out what exactly the hassle is with VPNs on linux. If you're using openvpn, drop the configuration in /etc/openvpn and make sure the your certificate, your keyfile and you CA certificate are accessible for openvpn. (Me, I just dump them in /etc/openvpn/connectioname folders). Then adapt /etc/default/openvpn and set those you want to autostart.
Alternatively, under Ubuntu you can configure it graphically, but I haven't found a way to have more than one VPN active.
That said, you do need to install a few packages. Which ones shouldn't be hard to figure out.
I partially agree with "just use ssh", but do keep in mind there are much more bots that try to attack ssh ports with typical user/password combos than there are bots that attack VPNs. At least to my knowledge.
I think you're spot on.....
Skype works just fine on Linux. I use it daily, yes, even for voice and video.
Can you be more specific? Like telling us what doensn't work? All major chat protocols work, email works, browsers work, OpenVPN works (others may work too). There are good terminal services clients. So, apart from the "I can't have Microsoft Office", what -pray tell us- doens't work.
That's what I assumed. Many people have a serious problem with understanding the hypethread concept. Still a lot of cores, though ;-)
You have a Mac with 16 cores? Even the Mac Pro currently only features up to 12.
My karma is rock solid. I'll be just fine. :-) My humour doesn't always work because people get offended too easily.
+1, Funny... You owe me a new keyboard. Coffee, I swear... coffee. Nothing else...
Too bad moderators didn't see the humor in my comment. Oh, well, sex and slashdot are an odd couple in the first place.
Why would anyone be against shemales? They know best how to give head while at least superficially looking like females ;-)
Fair enough... I have some very expensive gear (actually my fathers) that hasn't got drivers any more on any platform. Not Windows, not Mac OS X and not Linux. Vuescan does, on all platforms (and the license is valid on all platforms). Since I got the license, and (for example) my wifes Canon LiDE20 doesn't work with OS X, I tried it with that and... tadaaa... working scanner.
Of course, I could have bought a new scanner, but why? The gear I had was in working order, the problem was software.
Take a look at VueScan. Best $79.95 I ever spent on software and the only single proprietary software I use on Linux. I'm just a happy customer, I have nothing to do with the creator and/or company.
Everyone knows it's the Amount of Facial hair
Given what the average God offers, I'd prefer to burn in their hell than to praise their pompous asses all day long. Hand me the bottle of oil, it's my turn to rub your back.