I actually installed YDL 2.0 yesterday after having run OS X for a long while and three things struck me about how far YDL and Linux in general has come since the last time I used it.
How fast it is. Compared to the sluggish interface of OS X, KDE is incredibly faster on the same hardware.
How easy it was to install. The last time I used LinuxPPC I had to spend weeks of configuring until I had X, sound and a swedish keyboard layout. This time it just works!
How far KDE has come. KDE is really impressive nowadays (2.1). I'm amazed that the linux companies hasn't dared to say yet that Linux is ready for the desktop.
While funny, it would also make reporters everywhere describe deCSS as an evil hacker tool that must be destroyed, and that it's authors should be put in jail.
In related news the independent artists are looking into suing the RIAA for copyright infringement. One spokesperson of the artists had this to say: "It has come to our attention that people have bought CD:s and contributed them to napster. Obviously the RIAA owes us money for this distribution."
One place where OpenGL has found a new home is the Mac OS, and especially Mac OS X. Since DirectX is not available, and Apple has abandoned it's older QuickDraw 3D technology, OpenGL is the only game in town to 3D games on the Mac.
Nowadays it seems that more and more new games are scheduled for release on the mac and pc simultaneously (or more often: the mac version released shorty after the pc version) Since most pc games are using DirectX, it's apparently not too hard to port them to OpenGL.
Come to think of it, the companies that are porting games to Mac OS are probably the ones that would be best at making linux ports. By porting the games to SDL they suddenly have a port that runs on two platforms.
Why bother with MP3? Well I've got a portable MiniDisc player and I'm thinking about replacing it with an MP3 player, why? Because transferring audio to a minidisc is such a mess.
I can either make a digital copy which is quicker but can't be used as a master for another digital copy, which makes it bad for backup. The other option is to make analog copies of the tracks. This has to be done in real time, which of course means that recording a 74 minute disc takes 74 minutes. Also I have to make sure that the volume is set right otherwise the sound will be distorted.
With an MP3 player it becomes a lot easier, since all my music already is encoded to MP3, all I have to do is upload it to the device or burn them to a CD (which is a lot faster with my 12x burner)
If you install Darwin, you should check out the GNU-Darwin distribution. They are working on a complete distribution of GNU tools and applictions to run on Darwin or Mac OS X.
They currently have XFree86 and lots of X windowmanagers and apps (including the Gimp) running on Darwin.
I think having X on a PDA could be very useful. Think about using it as a terminal: a PDA with wireless networking running X apps from your server at home or at work. seems very cool to me.
Thanks for helping customers making the desision to move away from Windows and use Mac OS or Linux even easier!
It's fun to see that at the same time as Microsoft limit the use of mp3s, Apple releases iTunes for free, which allows you to create mp3s with a bitrate up to 320bps.
Normally I would say that the high prices in Europe are due to the fact that we are used to pay that kind of money for things.
Since European consumers expect prices to be high they don't complain, and companies like Sony realize that they can get away with higher prices in Europe without loosing too many customers.
But when It comes to the Playstation 2 the price is just rediculous! Here in Sweden it sells for SEK 4500 (about $450) which is almost twice what the Dreamcast costs.
I don't know the exact number on how many machines will reach Sweden before christmas but if the supplies are so low as Sony say they'll probably be able to sell the few consoles they have at this price since they will be so rare -- but I'll doubt that a lot of people will pay that kind of money for the PS2 in January or whenever supplies increase..
The problem is that the IPv4 adresses are running out, in other parts of the world we have had this policy for years since IP adresses are even harder to get here than in the US.
I guess it's about time to start using IPv6...
The Microsoft applications that have been released for Mac OS have not been very consistent in quality. The applications that has been built from the ground up to be Mac apps, like Office 98 and IE are great.
However, some other applications are just ports of Windows programs, like Windows Media Player 6.3 which is slow, takes no advantage of graphics hardware and crashes a lot. (Although, perhaps it's too much to expect an application that starts with Windows to run well on any other platform).
I guess that the situation will be simular on Linux/UNIX. If Microsoft wants to create great applications for these platforms they can but unfortunatly they will probably just do quick ports of IE and WMP to persuade content provides to use these propriety formats.
Slashdot Mirror
How fast it is. Compared to the sluggish interface of OS X, KDE is incredibly faster on the same hardware.
How easy it was to install. The last time I used LinuxPPC I had to spend weeks of configuring until I had X, sound and a swedish keyboard layout. This time it just works!
How far KDE has come. KDE is really impressive nowadays (2.1). I'm amazed that the linux companies hasn't dared to say yet that Linux is ready for the desktop.
While funny, it would also make reporters everywhere describe deCSS as an evil hacker tool that must be destroyed, and that it's authors should be put in jail.
In related news the independent artists are looking into suing the RIAA for copyright infringement.
One spokesperson of the artists had this to say: "It has come to our attention that people have bought CD:s and contributed them to napster. Obviously the RIAA owes us money for this distribution."
...did s/he?
I guess slashcode still doesn't include a spellchecker.
Nowadays it seems that more and more new games are scheduled for release on the mac and pc simultaneously (or more often: the mac version released shorty after the pc version) Since most pc games are using DirectX, it's apparently not too hard to port them to OpenGL.
Come to think of it, the companies that are porting games to Mac OS are probably the ones that would be best at making linux ports. By porting the games to SDL they suddenly have a port that runs on two platforms.
I can either make a digital copy which is quicker but can't be used as a master for another digital copy, which makes it bad for backup. The other option is to make analog copies of the tracks. This has to be done in real time, which of course means that recording a 74 minute disc takes 74 minutes. Also I have to make sure that the volume is set right otherwise the sound will be distorted.
With an MP3 player it becomes a lot easier, since all my music already is encoded to MP3, all I have to do is upload it to the device or burn them to a CD (which is a lot faster with my 12x burner)
Perhaps the icon could be the head of Jean-Louis Gassée with some sort of palm-like augmentation on his face..
Threat to national security, right.
Temporarily unable to connect: Operation timed out
A Slashdot-site has been slashdotted!
They currently have XFree86 and lots of X windowmanagers and apps (including the Gimp) running on Darwin.
You could use it together with the Darwin Streaming Server to stream QuickTime media... This could be the start of your media empire!
(Of course, it also runs on FreeBSD/Linux/Solaris and NT)
I think having X on a PDA could be very useful. Think about using it as a terminal: a PDA with wireless networking running X apps from your server at home or at work.
seems very cool to me.
It's fun to see that at the same time as Microsoft limit the use of mp3s, Apple releases iTunes for free, which allows you to create mp3s with a bitrate up to 320bps.
[localhost:~] user% bill gates
OK? kill gates? yes
kill: Arguments should be jobs or process id's.
[localhost:~] user%
What would FreeBSD need added to it to make a desktop friendly BSD distribution?
As Apple has showed, all they need is a good GUI, the underlying system is good enough for the desktop.
So Scientologists aren't evil, they are just 2,000 years behind the rest of us?!
Not Unix
Since European consumers expect prices to be high they don't complain, and companies like Sony realize that they can get away with higher prices in Europe without loosing too many customers.
But when It comes to the Playstation 2 the price is just rediculous! Here in Sweden it sells for SEK 4500 (about $450) which is almost twice what the Dreamcast costs.
I don't know the exact number on how many machines will reach Sweden before christmas but if the supplies are so low as Sony say they'll probably be able to sell the few consoles they have at this price since they will be so rare -- but I'll doubt that a lot of people will pay that kind of money for the PS2 in January or whenever supplies increase..
The problem is that the IPv4 adresses are running out, in other parts of the world we have had this policy for years since IP adresses are even harder to get here than in the US. I guess it's about time to start using IPv6...
The Microsoft applications that have been released for Mac OS have not been very consistent in quality. The applications that has been built from the ground up to be Mac apps, like Office 98 and IE are great. However, some other applications are just ports of Windows programs, like Windows Media Player 6.3 which is slow, takes no advantage of graphics hardware and crashes a lot. (Although, perhaps it's too much to expect an application that starts with Windows to run well on any other platform). I guess that the situation will be simular on Linux/UNIX. If Microsoft wants to create great applications for these platforms they can but unfortunatly they will probably just do quick ports of IE and WMP to persuade content provides to use these propriety formats.