I don't know about you, but I have a couple of tablets too. And I have had more than a few occasions when editing a document while on the road with only a phone would have been the most efficient thing to do, even with the crappy on screen keyboard.
Did I write a number of bug reports to help out? Yes, I did. What I got was UNCO, or outright rejection, like 'try the most recent version, we think it has been solved'. How to try the most recent version if it isn't in the pools of my distro? And worse: When I tried, it hadn't.
Don't be discouraged, you efforts are indeed appreciated, even if the response may seem lacking or perfunctory. You may have just run up against an overworked volunteer having a bad hair day. Just tag onto your bug report with the new info. That update is precious, and allows the devs to be more sure that their own efforts won't be wasted. Or in the best scenario, a dev with the same bug may find your current report by web search and decide to get the code and track it down themselves, and the team gets bigger by one person.
The next chapter of the LibreOffice story must be "Full port to Android". It is pathetic that this has not already happened. No fault of the LibreOffice devs, it is the fault of the corporations who never managed to get their sorry asses out of bed to put money behind an effort that benefits themselves more than anybody.
No, not Google. Google hates LibreOffice because it competes with their cloud lock-in agenda and, trust me, Google is no charitable nest of fairy godmothers. Samsung should have backed the Android port, starting years ago. Instead they wasted ten (100?) times the money that would be needed to add a half dozen full time Libreoffice devs and chose instead to publicly embarrass themselves with fiasco Tizen. As long as LibreOffice is not on Android, Microsoft still has a corporate lock-in story to tell. End that now, or is somebody stupid?
They are in the Khronos Group working on Vulkan. Not for the next box but for this one. All they need is a driver update, the hardware already supports it.
Great, now just need brain transplants for a couple of key managers and its a done deal.
I'm quite amazed that Vulkan will support all versions of Windows from XP onwards. So you can have the low overhead of DirectX 12 without forcing your users to upgrade to Windows 10. I can see a lot of game developers migrating to Vulkan, just because they get more sales the more OS versions they support
I can see Sony caving and going with Vulkan for their next box instead of doing their own thing once again. By that point Direct3D is going to be looking just a little bit funky, being the last roll-yer-own funky API standing.
Although I agree that OpenGL is an absolute mess right now, Vulkan will clear all of that away.
I disagree that OpenGL is an absolute mess. What are you comparing it to? (If you want to behold a real mess, look at the legacy garbage that Direct3D has.) A more accurate characterization: OpenGL has warts here and there, but mostly solid and spectacularly flexible. OpenGL is moving with the times, without breaking old code, pretty amazing that. I have every confidence that Vulkan will once again not break legacy OpenGL apps, just move them to a legacy profile.
And yet, "write once, debug everywhere" applies even more to OpenGL than it does to Java.
Not in my experience. I tend to hit the occasional difference between hardware vendors, often due to relying on some undefined state behavior. More often I end up impressed at how much code just works across wildly different hardware (AMD vs nVidia vs Intel vs PowerVR)
The whole draw of OpenGL was that developers could just add in the effects they wanted and allow users to turn them on/off to improve looks/performance
Err. Are you just making stuff up? The "whole draw" of OpenGL is API portability.
Not just that. API continuity, efficiency, support for new hardware features, consistent feature support across all configurations, legacy profiles, safety profiles, much more. API portability is important and is an OpenGL superpower indeed, but it is far from the "whole draw".
OpenGL specification development continues to focus heavily (but not exclusively) on efficiency. Direct State Access is one of many examples of that - not yet present in ES, but expected for ES 4
Linux now runs on considerably more computers than Windows.
Sure, if you count all servers and smart washing machines. Still, Linux's share on the desktop is only about 1%.
You also have to count 80% of smartphones, nearly the entire web infrastructure, most data centers and most supercomputers. Soon, Linux will dominate automotive applications. The list goes on and on. Chances are, even you have at least two Linux computers in your home right now. You are right, anon softie, that only a few millions of desktops run Linux on the desktop. With illegal trustmaking tactics Microsoft won that battle for now. But Microsoft still lost the war.
In the not too distant future there will be more Linux desktops running Linux then there are smartphones running Windows, for what that is worth. Whatever, believe the quarterlies. Microsoft has had three loss making quarters in its history. Soon, this will be normal.
Linux has some problems though. Windows software does not run on it, well, som things work with Wine, others don't.
Earth to Microsoftie... times have changed. Linux now runs on considerably more computers than Windows. So it's not a problem for Linux, it's a problem for Microsoft. If you don't believe me then believe the quarterlies.
First reaction may be to label them as patent trolls... and will not actively use them for unfair profit gain.
First, second, third and fourth reaction, actually. IBM is a well known patent troll that has taken unfair advantage of the patent system since the dawn of geek time. Just search for Nazgul.
Posting ad hominem as anon reveals a lot about you. Make no mistake about it: I personally am critical of the Turkish regime, as is the US administration and the EU administration as evidenced by no ascension anywhere on the horizon. But indeed, filthy politics, and real economic constraints, tend to get in the way of the necessary calvary charge.
As for Cyprus, the EU and US fully endorses and supports Turkey, because Turkey is their biggest ass kisser in the middle east...
Neither EU or US recognizes Turkey's claim to Cyprus as legitimate, quite the opposite of endorsing and supporting. (In fact, no country recognizes Turkey's claim, so the world properly regards the presence of Turkish troups as an occupation. Not even bad actors like Russia and China were willing to break ranks over that one.
The Turks have always been big on genocide and what is currently going on in southeast Turkey pretty much continues the tradition (see burning forests to depopulate villages - can you tell the difference between that an ethnic cleansing?)
I wonder why the EU is hesitant to consider admitting Turkey?
EU so far does not have any dictatorships as members, and doesn't want to start. Also, Turkey still illegally occupies half of Cyprus. Those two alone are enough for a permaban without even looking at Turkey's financial governance etc.
Slashdot Mirror
Was that a spelling flame?
We can make fun of the mosquitoes, just like you do.
Office Home is pretty crappy and there are better things to do with $100.
And spend the savings on massively more memory, or some creature comforts like a UPS or big SSD or monster display.
Bluetooth keyboard. Bluetooth mouse. On an airplane, you can do that on the meal tray in economy, generally not possible with a laptop.
I don't know about you, but I have a couple of tablets too. And I have had more than a few occasions when editing a document while on the road with only a phone would have been the most efficient thing to do, even with the crappy on screen keyboard.
Perhaps you mostly use your phone for texting.
Did I write a number of bug reports to help out? Yes, I did. What I got was UNCO, or outright rejection, like 'try the most recent version, we think it has been solved'. How to try the most recent version if it isn't in the pools of my distro? And worse: When I tried, it hadn't.
Don't be discouraged, you efforts are indeed appreciated, even if the response may seem lacking or perfunctory. You may have just run up against an overworked volunteer having a bad hair day. Just tag onto your bug report with the new info. That update is precious, and allows the devs to be more sure that their own efforts won't be wasted. Or in the best scenario, a dev with the same bug may find your current report by web search and decide to get the code and track it down themselves, and the team gets bigger by one person.
The next chapter of the LibreOffice story must be "Full port to Android". It is pathetic that this has not already happened. No fault of the LibreOffice devs, it is the fault of the corporations who never managed to get their sorry asses out of bed to put money behind an effort that benefits themselves more than anybody.
No, not Google. Google hates LibreOffice because it competes with their cloud lock-in agenda and, trust me, Google is no charitable nest of fairy godmothers. Samsung should have backed the Android port, starting years ago. Instead they wasted ten (100?) times the money that would be needed to add a half dozen full time Libreoffice devs and chose instead to publicly embarrass themselves with fiasco Tizen. As long as LibreOffice is not on Android, Microsoft still has a corporate lock-in story to tell. End that now, or is somebody stupid?
Revisionism much? Results showed that modern OpenGL can be many times faster than Direct3D 11
DirectX may not be platform agnostic but don't pretend OpenGL is that much better.
No need to pretend. OpenGL is that much better, and then some. And now, also running on more machines than DirectX.
They are in the Khronos Group working on Vulkan. Not for the next box but for this one. All they need is a driver update, the hardware already supports it.
Great, now just need brain transplants for a couple of key managers and its a done deal.
I'm quite amazed that Vulkan will support all versions of Windows from XP onwards. So you can have the low overhead of DirectX 12 without forcing your users to upgrade to Windows 10.
I can see a lot of game developers migrating to Vulkan, just because they get more sales the more OS versions they support
I can see Sony caving and going with Vulkan for their next box instead of doing their own thing once again. By that point Direct3D is going to be looking just a little bit funky, being the last roll-yer-own funky API standing.
Although I agree that OpenGL is an absolute mess right now, Vulkan will clear all of that away.
I disagree that OpenGL is an absolute mess. What are you comparing it to? (If you want to behold a real mess, look at the legacy garbage that Direct3D has.) A more accurate characterization: OpenGL has warts here and there, but mostly solid and spectacularly flexible. OpenGL is moving with the times, without breaking old code, pretty amazing that. I have every confidence that Vulkan will once again not break legacy OpenGL apps, just move them to a legacy profile.
The "whole draw" of OpenGL is API portability.
And yet, "write once, debug everywhere" applies even more to OpenGL than it does to Java.
Not in my experience. I tend to hit the occasional difference between hardware vendors, often due to relying on some undefined state behavior. More often I end up impressed at how much code just works across wildly different hardware (AMD vs nVidia vs Intel vs PowerVR)
The whole draw of OpenGL was that developers could just add in the effects they wanted and allow users to turn them on/off to improve looks/performance
Err. Are you just making stuff up? The "whole draw" of OpenGL is API portability.
Not just that. API continuity, efficiency, support for new hardware features, consistent feature support across all configurations, legacy profiles, safety profiles, much more. API portability is important and is an OpenGL superpower indeed, but it is far from the "whole draw".
OpenGL specification development continues to focus heavily (but not exclusively) on efficiency. Direct State Access is one of many examples of that - not yet present in ES, but expected for ES 4
Linux now runs on considerably more computers than Windows.
Sure, if you count all servers and smart washing machines. Still, Linux's share on the desktop is only about 1%.
You also have to count 80% of smartphones, nearly the entire web infrastructure, most data centers and most supercomputers. Soon, Linux will dominate automotive applications. The list goes on and on. Chances are, even you have at least two Linux computers in your home right now. You are right, anon softie, that only a few millions of desktops run Linux on the desktop. With illegal trustmaking tactics Microsoft won that battle for now. But Microsoft still lost the war.
In the not too distant future there will be more Linux desktops running Linux then there are smartphones running Windows, for what that is worth. Whatever, believe the quarterlies. Microsoft has had three loss making quarters in its history. Soon, this will be normal.
Linux has some problems though. Windows software does not run on it, well, som things work with Wine, others don't.
Earth to Microsoftie... times have changed. Linux now runs on considerably more computers than Windows. So it's not a problem for Linux, it's a problem for Microsoft. If you don't believe me then believe the quarterlies.
Assume an expert driver on both
I would like to see a bake-off between this thing and a dirt bike. Which one can cross given terrain fastest?
First reaction may be to label them as patent trolls... and will not actively use them for unfair profit gain.
First, second, third and fourth reaction, actually. IBM is a well known patent troll that has taken unfair advantage of the patent system since the dawn of geek time. Just search for Nazgul.
Posting ad hominem as anon reveals a lot about you. Make no mistake about it: I personally am critical of the Turkish regime, as is the US administration and the EU administration as evidenced by no ascension anywhere on the horizon. But indeed, filthy politics, and real economic constraints, tend to get in the way of the necessary calvary charge.
As for Cyprus, the EU and US fully endorses and supports Turkey, because Turkey is their biggest ass kisser in the middle east...
Neither EU or US recognizes Turkey's claim to Cyprus as legitimate, quite the opposite of endorsing and supporting. (In fact, no country recognizes Turkey's claim, so the world properly regards the presence of Turkish troups as an occupation. Not even bad actors like Russia and China were willing to break ranks over that one.
The Turks have always been big on genocide and what is currently going on in southeast Turkey pretty much continues the tradition (see burning forests to depopulate villages - can you tell the difference between that an ethnic cleansing?)
I wonder why the EU is hesitant to consider admitting Turkey?
EU so far does not have any dictatorships as members, and doesn't want to start. Also, Turkey still illegally occupies half of Cyprus. Those two alone are enough for a permaban without even looking at Turkey's financial governance etc.