>Of course on modern distros the locate command will complain that it's database doesn't exist until you manually enable the service because the command line is supposed to be dead.:(
I don't know the details of your case, but in general, it is NOT a distro thing. In the case of wifi, anything using the same kernel newer than 2.6.23 should have similar wifi support except for some like Mint that automate ndiswrapper setup.
>Now we have the main xorg branch floundering from lack of interest and developers.
They could use more devs, but it is not really floundering. It is taking more time than everyone would like, but they know where they are going, and when they get there it should be pretty good (DRM2, KMS, GEM, Gallium3D).
>Nowadays it's just a huge pain in the ass because it kills performance and makes the whole thing insanely complex.
I don't think I have ever heard an X dev say anything like that, and I have heard several of them deny it. Network transparency is not a major contributor to X's problems.
>Free software like NoMachine [nomachine.com] and VNC [tightvnc.com] exists today and handles the Remote Desktop Use-Case much better (faster!) than the native X protocol.
NoMachine is X with custom X-orientated compression (as opposed to generic compression like gzip).
>Xlib
That is a library issue, not a protocol or server issue, and the way out is XCB.
>Anyone who has ever worked with Xlib knows that the ridiculous API is the #1 reason why "linux on the desktop" is just not happening.
"linux on the desktop" is about average end users, and they do not care about underling libraries
XCB is a set of bindings/library that replaces Xlib, and it will probably eventually achieve that goal. It got two important boosts when Fedora (and Ubuntu?) started using XCB with its xlib compatibility mode, and when it got a direct user in the form of version 3.0 of the Awesome window manger.
Apple never promoted NeXT/OS X stuff as an X replacement for everyone.
You are right that the X replacements (y-windows, various FB ideas, etc) never got anywhere, but Wayland doesn't change or replace the X protocol. It is merely a new X server, which is a much easier transition - XFree to Xorg, Xsun to Xorg, etc.
Kernel modesetting is a good thing, but there is no need to put the drivers into the kernel. KMS gets you lots of good things: BSoD (much better than the display freezing with no error message), flicker-free boot, and X could be moved away from needing to run as root.
As far as the drivers themselves, the best thing for them will be the move to the Gallium3D driver model, which will greatly reduce the amount and complexity of code needed to write a new driver. [1][2][3]
Keith Packard talks in his blog [4] about kernel mode drivers, but this seems to be KMS + memory management (GEM or TTM), not having, say, the entire Radeon driver in kernel. I guess it depends on how you define drivers. or maybe the difference between classic 2d drivers and DRM drivers (I have never figured out the details of that)?
>Today's X servers still support all kinds of usermode drivers, just so that 95% of configurations can thunk it all to the kernel.
All X drivers are usermode. There are graphics drivers that are in the kernel (fbdev), but these are unrelated to X.
Note: I am not a X dev or even a real programmer, but I follow X blogs, mailing lists, etc, and I try to learn as much as possible about X. If I am wrong about anything here, please correct me!
Phooey. I have been using SeaMonkey (Mozilla) nightlies almost continuously since the release of 1.0 (1.8). Before that I frequently used Mozilla nightlies in the 1.7/1.6 era. That time period was the last time I had a nightly really fail badly. In the 1.8/1.9 time frame, I haven't had a major issue. Some builds are better than others, but nothing too awful.
I still wouldn't recommend for average users, but it is nothing even a below-average/.er couldn't handle.
Slashdot Mirror
Why use VNC when you can use ssh -X or NX?
personally, I use an alias like this:
alias xkcd="sudo make_me_a_sandwich"
when I click on a pdf, SeaMonkey asks me what to do, and I either save it or open it in evince
I guess after they took Turing-completeness out of PS to make PDF, they wished they hadn't, and somehow thought JS was better than PS.
Thank you!
JS in PDFs is silly IMO, but I have to point out that PS (but not PDF) is a Turing-complete language.
http://www.tinaja.com/post01.asp
Yeah, I tried a new kernel, Ubuntu's X, and a different video card, and RAM is next on the list.
wmctrl is new to me. Interesting, but I prefer WMs like wmii and awesome, which have excellent cli scriptablity (sp?)
I know about job control, but somehow I never use it much, except for & for things that take a while to complete
I don't yet understand xargs.
That and my underuse and lack of understanding of grep/find/locate are my biggest failings
>Of course on modern distros the locate command will complain that it's database doesn't exist until you manually enable the service because the command line is supposed to be dead. :(
AKAIK, Debian sets up the db right away
I found this and "cd" = "cd ~" a few months ago, and they have been very useful.
phooey, I am 26 and I use dd relatively frequently. I always use mount/umount (no desktop icons here, just a root window with a picture).
I certainly understand /usr and /usr/local (I have a fair bit of stuff in /usr/local). I don't have an /opt, and I admit I am not familiar with /u.
I hadn't heard of slirp until now, but I certainly know and use scp.
you don't have to use Ctrl-a. You can bind screen's escape to any key.
Over here on Debian Unstable, I have lately been having lots of X freezes that sometimes freeze the whole machine. No ssh, no ping response.
I don't know the details of your case, but in general, it is NOT a distro thing. In the case of wifi, anything using the same kernel newer than 2.6.23 should have similar wifi support except for some like Mint that automate ndiswrapper setup.
That is true with any xorg 7.4. It is not Ubuntu-specific.
Yeah, the first time I saw X/kernel people say "Yay, BSoD will be possible!", I didn't know what to think. But it makes sense once it is explained.
>Now we have the main xorg branch floundering from lack of interest and developers.
They could use more devs, but it is not really floundering. It is taking more time than everyone would like, but they know where they are going, and when they get there it should be pretty good (DRM2, KMS, GEM, Gallium3D).
>Nowadays it's just a huge pain in the ass because it kills performance and makes the whole thing insanely complex.
I don't think I have ever heard an X dev say anything like that, and I have heard several of them deny it. Network transparency is not a major contributor to X's problems.
>Free software like NoMachine [nomachine.com] and VNC [tightvnc.com] exists today and handles the Remote Desktop Use-Case much better (faster!) than the native X protocol.
NoMachine is X with custom X-orientated compression (as opposed to generic compression like gzip).
>Xlib
That is a library issue, not a protocol or server issue, and the way out is XCB.
>Anyone who has ever worked with Xlib knows that the ridiculous API is the #1 reason why "linux on the desktop" is just not happening.
"linux on the desktop" is about average end users, and they do not care about underling libraries
"If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominoes will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate!"
> Or did you mean Wayland is a buggy WIP?
+1, funny
Xorg replaced XFree86.
XCB is a set of bindings/library that replaces Xlib, and it will probably eventually achieve that goal. It got two important boosts when Fedora (and Ubuntu?) started using XCB with its xlib compatibility mode, and when it got a direct user in the form of version 3.0 of the Awesome window manger.
Apple never promoted NeXT/OS X stuff as an X replacement for everyone.
You are right that the X replacements (y-windows, various FB ideas, etc) never got anywhere, but Wayland doesn't change or replace the X protocol. It is merely a new X server, which is a much easier transition - XFree to Xorg, Xsun to Xorg, etc.
Kernel modesetting is a good thing, but there is no need to put the drivers into the kernel. KMS gets you lots of good things: BSoD (much better than the display freezing with no error message), flicker-free boot, and X could be moved away from needing to run as root.
As far as the drivers themselves, the best thing for them will be the move to the Gallium3D driver model, which will greatly reduce the amount and complexity of code needed to write a new driver. [1][2][3]
Keith Packard talks in his blog [4] about kernel mode drivers, but this seems to be KMS + memory management (GEM or TTM), not having, say, the entire Radeon driver in kernel. I guess it depends on how you define drivers. or maybe the difference between classic 2d drivers and DRM drivers (I have never figured out the details of that)?
>Today's X servers still support all kinds of usermode drivers, just so that 95% of configurations can thunk it all to the kernel.
All X drivers are usermode. There are graphics drivers that are in the kernel (fbdev), but these are unrelated to X.
Note: I am not a X dev or even a real programmer, but I follow X blogs, mailing lists, etc, and I try to learn as much as possible about X. If I am wrong about anything here, please correct me!
[1] http://www.tungstengraphics.com/wiki/index.php/Gallium3D
[2] http://akademy.kde.org/conference/presentation/9.php
[3] http://zrusin.blogspot.com/search/label/Gallium3D
[4] http://keithp.com/blogs/kernel-mode-drivers/
Phooey. I have been using SeaMonkey (Mozilla) nightlies almost continuously since the release of 1.0 (1.8). Before that I frequently used Mozilla nightlies in the 1.7/1.6 era. That time period was the last time I had a nightly really fail badly. In the 1.8/1.9 time frame, I haven't had a major issue. Some builds are better than others, but nothing too awful.
I still wouldn't recommend for average users, but it is nothing even a below-average /.er couldn't handle.