It'll require more products, more "wizbangs", easier installation, and general "user friendliness" on all aspects
Linux has installation down pretty damn nicely, actually. At least from the RedHat and Mandrake camps, we now have installs that are EASIER than Windows. I haven't tried installing XP yet, but Red Hat 7.2's install is actually a lot easier than Win2k or WinME, IMHO.
However, on the other points, you're right. Linux still needs more desktop apps, and the desktop apps it does have still need just a little more work. That, and Linux could really use a few more Shiny Things (TM) for the desktop... like AA everywhere, and stupid animations and translucency in places it doesn't belong, etc. These things are largely just STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, but they have great geek "sex appeal," which helps put Linux on more geek desktops.
Ignoring for a moment the moral and legal implications of stealing content, this is all a huge PITA, and would in all seriousness probably take several hours for a typical movie. Is it really worth it? A practical example: I just picked up "Jay And Silent Bob Strikes Back" (sure, it's no "Clerks" or "Dogma" but I'm a fan of Smith's work). It has two DVDs crammed full of stuff. While I haven't checked, they pretty much have to be dual layer, because otherwise, why not just issue one dual-layer disc?
So there's four recordable DVDs worth of content, and a ton of time spent recreating menus and splitting content out over four discs, not to mention the cost of the four recordable discs themselves. When you're done, you have to switch between four discs instead of two, and you navigate them using crappy homemade menu screens instead of the cool ones on the original discs. Know how much this movie cost me? $17.99.
For the love of God, people, just go buy the damn movie.
Couldn't have said it better myself. If only Hollywood would rely on producing GOOD flicks, adding a little extra "value" (read: nice side features) to the DVD release, and releasing them for a FAIR price, which will make me *want* to buy the damn thing instead of increasing the incentive to just get a DivX copy without paying for it. The latter might be Wrong(TM) in my opinion, but I'm damned tempted sometimes. $30 for the Trainspotting DVD (my local Media Play) and it's just a dump of the VHS onto DVD with chapter selection slapped onto it. What a joke.
(Especially bad on Mandrake. I tried installing ssh-server, and it asked to install XFree86!)
And there, my friend, is the crux of your issue. While Mandrake has some GREAT featues, and is, IMHO, the best distro for newbies, hands down, it also has *serious* packaging issues. The kinds of problems you're describing are part of the reason I switched to Red Hat. While they aren't as bleeding edge, I find Red Hat to be a much more maintainable, stable distro. (Debian is very nice too, but way too steep a learning curve for newbies)
BTW: you said you wanted ssh server, but it wanted XFree86? This implies you didn't have XFree installed, which in turn implies you're using Mandrake as a *dedicated server*... can't say that's something I recommend for *anyone*, newbies or otherwise.;)
Gnome 1 programs will run FINE on a Gnome 2 desktop. Ever tried running a KDE app on Gnome, or vice-versa? It works fine. Gnome 1 apps on Gnome 2 desktop is just like that.
BTW, this is like your 3rd quasi-troll post on this thead. How exactly do you post with a +1 bonus?!
hehe... I know you were just kidding, but I thought it was worth mentioning that the Gnome 2 version of Nautilus is MUCH faster! I'm really excited to see what the community-at-large has to say about Nautilus when they see all the headway its made in terms of speed!
As for Mozilla? GREAT project, the Web *needs* Mozilla, but for my desktop? I'll stick with Galeon, thanks:)
... y'know, trolling is one thing, but putting out my email in plain text is just lower than low. So I curse thee, wicked troll! May a plague of spam come down upon thy head like in a swarm of Low Mortgage Rates and Nasty BBW Teen Bitches!
While I'd love to own this movie, especially on DVD, I refuse to give another cent to Disney. After what I read about what Eisner had to say at the Senate hearing, I will NEVER purchase another Disney product, and I encourage others to do the same.
Check out this quote from the above link:
"Eisner confessed that the only reason he could think of for Michael Dell not to build in ubiquitous copyright-policing functions in his products was that Dell wants to sell his products to infringers."
In the face of such blatent corporate doublethink, how can anyone who's at all concerned about Fair Use justify the future purchase of even a single Disney product?
Oh, yeah, btw... Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 6. There you go - free trade as defined in the constitution.
While I appreciate the citation, I wouldn't call that a "right to profit" as we discussed. Free trade is a method of encouraging the growth of business, but it's not a right to profit. However, Article I, Section 8, Paragraph 8 says: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries"
Not the limited Times; I think this contradicts the concept of "Profit Uber Alles", and promotes a view that Arts and Sciences are good for MORE than just their "market value." This notion of balance is very important - it is a recognition that the end all and be all of our lives should not be the simple persuit of profit, but that some things are worth doing for the sake of doing them, or for the benefit of the whole of society. On the other hand, however, it strongly states that the authors, film makers, scientists, et al, should be fairly compensated for their work, and that money is one way to encourage the advancement of the arts and sciences. To forget or ignore either half of this notion is, IMHO, to miss the point completely.
The unalienable right to pursue hapiness should not be challenged by your perspective on what hapiness is or by your belief in the welfare state.
Nice troll. Where exactly am I advocating a "welfare state?" And I'm not even going to TOUCH the compairson between the "right to profit" and the "persuit of Happiness". Happiness is now a purchasable, tradable commodity? Attitudes like this are part of what helps America SUCK MORE AND MORE EVERY DAY. grrrr!
And quit complaining that somebody is making money for his innovation.
Woah, slow down there Mr. Balmer... I thought we were talking about the MPAA, not software.
Those are all principles that this country is built on, if you don't like them, GET OUT!
That's funny, I don't see a whole lot on the "right to profit" in our constitution... We do, however, have LAWS that are supposed to protect our fair use rights. Perhaps it was these principles you were referring to?
Telling people to "get out" of the country when they don't agree with the status quo is plain bullshit. Tell me you've never once complained about the way the Gov't is run. Bet you can't - so why don't you just LEAVE? See, Democracy is all about being able to *change* the laws to suit the times. If one doesn't like the system, it is that person's right to try to change it!
If one uses Ximian Gnome, keeping up with all those "horrible" dependencies is a snap. I understand why it can seem like a pain, but what does the reviewer want? STATIC builds of everything? Screw that. I'll just pop open Red Carpet and grab it all at once, thanks...
That is what I was leaning toward, but in the world we live in now, the two things do go hand-in-hand.
This I'm not going to touch, as it's more a fundamental belief than anything debatable on/. so I'm not going to touch this one, sufficing to say "I disagree."
The other issue is, how far from screening for diseases to screening for differences?"
Hrm... Well, I could see legislation to this effect as being appropriate and probably defective. Allowing for the screening only of medically defined diseases might be one way to go. But I think it's a huge mistake to not explore these avenues. Isn't prevention far far better than cures?
Even that noble goal is a slippery slope to tread. What diseases do we screen for? Cancer? Diabetes? Sickle Cell? ADD? Psoriosis? Dandruff? Halitosis?
What SHOULDN'T we screen for? If it's possible to screen for all of those things, hell, why not? They're not desirable traits, that's for sure. This isn't the same as aborting fetuses, it's *screening eggs*. So once again, why not? Where's the harm?
I think what you're getting at is that this will inspire a discrimination of people who currently have some diseases like what you list above. I can see where you're coming from on that, but I don't believe the 2 go hand in hand. We recognize that some people are born with negative traits, fine. But if we can help eliminate unnecessary hindrances like ADD, or even halitosis, why shouldn't we? Are these things that we need to protect somehow?
I bought CrossOver back in November, and I LOVE it. As a previous poster talked about, I don't enjoy "legitimizing" uber-proprietary formats like Sorensen Quicktime or Windows Media, but sometimes one has no choice. This is where CrossOver comes in, and it does its job admirably. The install and setup are simple, and best of all, it JUST WORKS, just as all payware ought to. If all commercial/payware software was as well made and as well supported as Crossover, Free software wouldn't have nearly the appeal that it does right now, IMHO...
Anyway, if you're running Linux and you've ever missed not being able to watch movie trailers, certain pr0n stuff, etc, don't suffer any longer! Plunk down the $20, it's worth it! You get great software AND you're supporting the single largest (to my knowledge) contributor to the WINE project. (Not to mention helping put some food on the table for some great geeks - I live near St Paul so I got a free tour of their office; they're cool people.:)
Why should the GPL be any less credible than any other software license out there?
If anything, it's MORE credible, given that it doesn't impair fair use or free speech, unlike many proprietary licenses. (The "No negative reviews allowed" McAffee license comes to mind here...)
While not performing too badly, it's a shame that the SiS chipset doesn't do a little better against the Via offerings... I've got an SiS 735 board, and it's solid as a rock, and blazing fast under Linux 2.4.18-pre9, and I don't have to put up with Via's flakey-ass south bridge chips. Via might be the speed king, but I'm sticking with SiS' 7x5 line for my future purchases. Here's hoping the 755 (or whatever comes next) kicks some Via ass. (or that AMD comes along and makes another decent chipset again, whichever...)
Re:GNOME vs KDE for the newbie
on
GNOME 2.0 Beta
·
· Score: 2
yeah, or you could just stick to GMC.;) It matches Rox's speed, but beats the hell out of it for features.
As it is, though, Nautilus2 for Gnome 2 is a big improvement for performance it seems. I tried some Gnome2 development snapshots last weekend and Nautilus was pretty responsive. Heck, 1.0.6 isn't bad, but it could definately use some improvement. What I like about Nautilus though is features, features, features. Lots of good stuff, like the ability to use scripts with Nautilus, and using as an SMB browser (when you get gnome-vfs-extras installed that is). And let's not forget the uber-l33t SVG icons it supports, too.:)
I do some tech support at my job, so I know where you're coming from. That aside, I refuse to dumb down MY computing experience because some people are Fucking Retarded(TM) when they sit in front of a computer. I'm personally scared shitless that these very people who can't seem to handle a whole *second* mouse button can probably get drivers licenses. "What do you mean? I have to steer AND work **2** pedals AT THE SAME TIME?? That's outrageous!"
But back to my point... I can see where a 3rd or even 4th and 5th buttons on a mouse could be very intimidating, but two? How hard can it be? At some point I expect people like this to tie one arm behind their back because "handling *2* arms at once was just too complicated".
As for the 'weighted' trackpad? I'd love to see them try... honestly, if anyone could to it, it'd be Apple, but I seriously doubt it would ever happen.
I'm sorry, but that solution sucks. I want it RIGHT NEXT TO THE OTHER BUTTON like on *any other* laptop. And here I thought Macs were about "usability"... </flame mode>
Slashdot Mirror
It'll require more products, more "wizbangs", easier installation, and general "user friendliness" on all aspects
Linux has installation down pretty damn nicely, actually. At least from the RedHat and Mandrake camps, we now have installs that are EASIER than Windows. I haven't tried installing XP yet, but Red Hat 7.2's install is actually a lot easier than Win2k or WinME, IMHO.
However, on the other points, you're right. Linux still needs more desktop apps, and the desktop apps it does have still need just a little more work. That, and Linux could really use a few more Shiny Things (TM) for the desktop... like AA everywhere, and stupid animations and translucency in places it doesn't belong, etc. These things are largely just STUPID, STUPID, STUPID, but they have great geek "sex appeal," which helps put Linux on more geek desktops.
From the article:
Ignoring for a moment the moral and legal implications of stealing content, this is all a huge PITA, and would in all seriousness probably take several hours for a typical movie. Is it really worth it? A practical example: I just picked up "Jay And Silent Bob Strikes Back" (sure, it's no "Clerks" or "Dogma" but I'm a fan of Smith's work). It has two DVDs crammed full of stuff. While I haven't checked, they pretty much have to be dual layer, because otherwise, why not just issue one dual-layer disc?
So there's four recordable DVDs worth of content, and a ton of time spent recreating menus and splitting content out over four discs, not to mention the cost of the four recordable discs themselves. When you're done, you have to switch between four discs instead of two, and you navigate them using crappy homemade menu screens instead of the cool ones on the original discs. Know how much this movie cost me? $17.99.
For the love of God, people, just go buy the damn movie.
Couldn't have said it better myself. If only Hollywood would rely on producing GOOD flicks, adding a little extra "value" (read: nice side features) to the DVD release, and releasing them for a FAIR price, which will make me *want* to buy the damn thing instead of increasing the incentive to just get a DivX copy without paying for it. The latter might be Wrong(TM) in my opinion, but I'm damned tempted sometimes. $30 for the Trainspotting DVD (my local Media Play) and it's just a dump of the VHS onto DVD with chapter selection slapped onto it. What a joke.
(Especially bad on Mandrake. I tried installing ssh-server, and it asked to install XFree86!)
;)
And there, my friend, is the crux of your issue. While Mandrake has some GREAT featues, and is, IMHO, the best distro for newbies, hands down, it also has *serious* packaging issues. The kinds of problems you're describing are part of the reason I switched to Red Hat. While they aren't as bleeding edge, I find Red Hat to be a much more maintainable, stable distro. (Debian is very nice too, but way too steep a learning curve for newbies)
BTW: you said you wanted ssh server, but it wanted XFree86? This implies you didn't have XFree installed, which in turn implies you're using Mandrake as a *dedicated server*... can't say that's something I recommend for *anyone*, newbies or otherwise.
Uh.... no.
Gnome 1 programs will run FINE on a Gnome 2 desktop. Ever tried running a KDE app on Gnome, or vice-versa? It works fine. Gnome 1 apps on Gnome 2 desktop is just like that.
BTW, this is like your 3rd quasi-troll post on this thead. How exactly do you post with a +1 bonus?!
Why dont they just release one big RPM ?
Because that would be Compeltely Retarded(TM) and go against the whole damn idea of having things installed as components.
On the other hand, a nice little gtk-perl/pygtk frontend to a downloader script would be great.
Also, if you use Ximian Gnome, there is a "Gnome 2 Developer Snapshots" channel that you can use to get everything in just a few clicks...
hehe... I know you were just kidding, but I thought it was worth mentioning that the Gnome 2 version of Nautilus is MUCH faster! I'm really excited to see what the community-at-large has to say about Nautilus when they see all the headway its made in terms of speed!
:)
As for Mozilla? GREAT project, the Web *needs* Mozilla, but for my desktop? I'll stick with Galeon, thanks
... y'know, trolling is one thing, but putting out my email in plain text is just lower than low. So I curse thee, wicked troll! May a plague of spam come down upon thy head like in a swarm of Low Mortgage Rates and Nasty BBW Teen Bitches!
Completely agreed.
While I'd love to own this movie, especially on DVD, I refuse to give another cent to Disney. After what I read about what Eisner had to say at the Senate hearing, I will NEVER purchase another Disney product, and I encourage others to do the same.
Check out this quote from the above link:
"Eisner confessed that the only reason he could think of for Michael Dell not to build in ubiquitous copyright-policing functions in his products was that Dell wants to sell his products to infringers."
In the face of such blatent corporate doublethink, how can anyone who's at all concerned about Fair Use justify the future purchase of even a single Disney product?
Oh, yeah, btw... Article I, Section 9, Paragraph 6. There you go - free trade as defined in the constitution.
While I appreciate the citation, I wouldn't call that a "right to profit" as we discussed. Free trade is a method of encouraging the growth of business, but it's not a right to profit. However, Article I, Section 8, Paragraph 8 says: "To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries"
Not the limited Times; I think this contradicts the concept of "Profit Uber Alles", and promotes a view that Arts and Sciences are good for MORE than just their "market value." This notion of balance is very important - it is a recognition that the end all and be all of our lives should not be the simple persuit of profit, but that some things are worth doing for the sake of doing them, or for the benefit of the whole of society. On the other hand, however, it strongly states that the authors, film makers, scientists, et al, should be fairly compensated for their work, and that money is one way to encourage the advancement of the arts and sciences. To forget or ignore either half of this notion is, IMHO, to miss the point completely.
The unalienable right to pursue hapiness should not be challenged by your perspective on what hapiness is or by your belief in the welfare state.
Nice troll. Where exactly am I advocating a "welfare state?" And I'm not even going to TOUCH the compairson between the "right to profit" and the "persuit of Happiness". Happiness is now a purchasable, tradable commodity? Attitudes like this are part of what helps America SUCK MORE AND MORE EVERY DAY. grrrr!
And quit complaining that somebody is making money for his innovation.
Woah, slow down there Mr. Balmer... I thought we were talking about the MPAA, not software.
Those are all principles that this country is built on, if you don't like them, GET OUT!
That's funny, I don't see a whole lot on the "right to profit" in our constitution... We do, however, have LAWS that are supposed to protect our fair use rights. Perhaps it was these principles you were referring to?
Telling people to "get out" of the country when they don't agree with the status quo is plain bullshit. Tell me you've never once complained about the way the Gov't is run. Bet you can't - so why don't you just LEAVE? See, Democracy is all about being able to *change* the laws to suit the times. If one doesn't like the system, it is that person's right to try to change it!
If one uses Ximian Gnome, keeping up with all those "horrible" dependencies is a snap. I understand why it can seem like a pain, but what does the reviewer want? STATIC builds of everything? Screw that. I'll just pop open Red Carpet and grab it all at once, thanks...
Mplayer doesn't do Sorensen.
:P
Need I say more?
That is what I was leaning toward, but in the world we live in now, the two things do go hand-in-hand.
/. so I'm not going to touch this one, sufficing to say "I disagree."
This I'm not going to touch, as it's more a fundamental belief than anything debatable on
The other issue is, how far from screening for diseases to screening for differences?"
Hrm... Well, I could see legislation to this effect as being appropriate and probably defective. Allowing for the screening only of medically defined diseases might be one way to go. But I think it's a huge mistake to not explore these avenues. Isn't prevention far far better than cures?
Even that noble goal is a slippery slope to tread. What diseases do we screen for? Cancer? Diabetes? Sickle Cell? ADD? Psoriosis? Dandruff? Halitosis?
What SHOULDN'T we screen for? If it's possible to screen for all of those things, hell, why not? They're not desirable traits, that's for sure. This isn't the same as aborting fetuses, it's *screening eggs*. So once again, why not? Where's the harm?
I think what you're getting at is that this will inspire a discrimination of people who currently have some diseases like what you list above. I can see where you're coming from on that, but I don't believe the 2 go hand in hand. We recognize that some people are born with negative traits, fine. But if we can help eliminate unnecessary hindrances like ADD, or even halitosis, why shouldn't we? Are these things that we need to protect somehow?
I bought CrossOver back in November, and I LOVE it. As a previous poster talked about, I don't enjoy "legitimizing" uber-proprietary formats like Sorensen Quicktime or Windows Media, but sometimes one has no choice. This is where CrossOver comes in, and it does its job admirably. The install and setup are simple, and best of all, it JUST WORKS, just as all payware ought to. If all commercial/payware software was as well made and as well supported as Crossover, Free software wouldn't have nearly the appeal that it does right now, IMHO...
:)
Anyway, if you're running Linux and you've ever missed not being able to watch movie trailers, certain pr0n stuff, etc, don't suffer any longer! Plunk down the $20, it's worth it! You get great software AND you're supporting the single largest (to my knowledge) contributor to the WINE project. (Not to mention helping put some food on the table for some great geeks - I live near St Paul so I got a free tour of their office; they're cool people.
Why should the GPL be any less credible than any other software license out there?
If anything, it's MORE credible, given that it doesn't impair fair use or free speech, unlike many proprietary licenses. (The "No negative reviews allowed" McAffee license comes to mind here...)
As am I! Please provide some links, if available - I'd be very interested in seeing something like this.
you're mistaken.
the *635/645* is for the P4. The 735/745 is for the Athlon/Duron.
Well, Microstar is a pretty good brand. How about this?
1 .h tm
http://www.msi.com.tw/newsrelease/2002_0207_656
I'd prefer an ASUS too, but MSI is pretty damn good... As it stands, I really like my current ECS board too.
If you're really curious about benchmarks, etc, email me.
While not performing too badly, it's a shame that the SiS chipset doesn't do a little better against the Via offerings... I've got an SiS 735 board, and it's solid as a rock, and blazing fast under Linux 2.4.18-pre9, and I don't have to put up with Via's flakey-ass south bridge chips. Via might be the speed king, but I'm sticking with SiS' 7x5 line for my future purchases. Here's hoping the 755 (or whatever comes next) kicks some Via ass. (or that AMD comes along and makes another decent chipset again, whichever...)
yeah, or you could just stick to GMC. ;) It matches Rox's speed, but beats the hell out of it for features.
:)
As it is, though, Nautilus2 for Gnome 2 is a big improvement for performance it seems. I tried some Gnome2 development snapshots last weekend and Nautilus was pretty responsive. Heck, 1.0.6 isn't bad, but it could definately use some improvement. What I like about Nautilus though is features, features, features. Lots of good stuff, like the ability to use scripts with Nautilus, and using as an SMB browser (when you get gnome-vfs-extras installed that is). And let's not forget the uber-l33t SVG icons it supports, too.
I do some tech support at my job, so I know where you're coming from. That aside, I refuse to dumb down MY computing experience because some people are Fucking Retarded(TM) when they sit in front of a computer. I'm personally scared shitless that these very people who can't seem to handle a whole *second* mouse button can probably get drivers licenses. "What do you mean? I have to steer AND work **2** pedals AT THE SAME TIME?? That's outrageous!"
But back to my point... I can see where a 3rd or even 4th and 5th buttons on a mouse could be very intimidating, but two? How hard can it be? At some point I expect people like this to tie one arm behind their back because "handling *2* arms at once was just too complicated".
As for the 'weighted' trackpad? I'd love to see them try... honestly, if anyone could to it, it'd be Apple, but I seriously doubt it would ever happen.
*laugh*
;)
Perhaps that was my point?
I'm sorry, but that solution sucks. I want it RIGHT NEXT TO THE OTHER BUTTON like on *any other* laptop. And here I thought Macs were about "usability"...
</flame mode>