"What surprises me is that there doesn't seem to be a utility/online database of various monitors and their specs. If the autodetection doesn't work, you're basically on your own and have to track down the horizontal sync and vertical refresh rate ranges, which is stupid." SAX has that feature and yes it is wonderful. I think more distros should pick up SAX since it is now GPL.
Good point. The funny thing is that it made me think of what could be a great new feature for Pidgin. A buddy basied todo list. If you wanted to chat with a friend about some subject wouldn't it be handy to have a way to add a a TODO to your IM? When a buddy that has a pending TODO comes one it would then pop up with a dialog asking if you want to start a conversation and would even remind you with the Subject. You could then start chatting or dismiss the TODO.
does it have to do with quality? Would a picture of say an inexpensive home stimulate a persons brain more or less than say an image of a sports car? Or what about a run of the mill airliner to say a Ferrari?
OpenOffice mainly uses java for the database functions, a few file export functions and the media player functions on Unix like OS's. It also uses it for some wizards. It will not cause OpenOffice to run slow on Windows. And Vuze is a bit-torrent client. That will tend to be IO bottlenecked. Again Java will have next to nothing to do with it's speed. But that aside notice I said "mainly" used on the servers. Mainly != only. Hack I develop in Java. It is a very nice RAD system that runs on Linux, Windows, and OS/X. I would love to see it used more but again this is a benchmark and you should try to make a reasonable effort to make it fair. If not it is no better than saying Windows SUX dude!
I tend to agree. I in High School I had hopped to that I would semd my life helping build O'Neil's L5 Space colonies. It didn't happen. Of course the latest science is saying that oil and natural gas are not a major contributer to green house gas emissions the real problem is coal. Makes sense. The simple truth is that if we want to really cut CO2 we need to stop using coal and go for nuclear for power. Supplement with wind and keep researching and supplementing with solar. Use Geothermal where practical and skip tides since it very limited and really just a side show.
But it pretty much is. I meditation does have a religious basis. I wouldn't want "instruction" in meditation to be required in my work place. But there is an issue of free speech. Someone inviting a co-worker or even an employee to a church function is one thing. Making it mandatory is something else.
True except that most java runs in a server environment and not even on a desktop. A better test would have been to streamline the system to what a knowlegeable user would do. And of course the big thing is that they didn't use the same version of Java for both systems..10 has been a big improvement.
You shouldn't be. Most java development these days takes place on the server side. Linux is has a large precentage of the server market. Then you must know that Sun is a Unix company. They push Solaris and java on Solaris. Solaris is a lot more like Linux than Windows. The the final piece is that in the Windows server market Java shares space with.net. So as far as the amount of attention I would say that Solaris/Linux/Unix gets just as much attention as Windows does.
One also has to wonder how well they "tuned" the Vista install. Was it running antivirus or indexing in the background? Vista tends to have a lot of "stuff" running in the background. A lot of of which you can turn off. They also really should have used the.10 release. It was a huge point release.
I do think that Quicken would be a a mover. The simple truth is that some Closed source software are really dang good programs. You could be right that in the 12 dollar range you may have a FOSS version breathing down your neck but there is a market for cheap casual games now on Windows think about Popcap's games. There are FOSS games in that market as well but there seems to be room for both. Static linking IS a problem. too many libs that you would want or need to use are LGPL. So that is an issue.
Windows NT and 2000 was multi platform. There maybe a build of Vista or Seven for the Arm somewhere. But there are no drivers or applications to speak of for it.
Yep that is the problem in a nutshell. There is no good way to sell a $12 program on Linux or even a $49.95 program on Linux.
Actually for the desktop I would be tempted to say just support deb if it wasn't for Suse. I think RedHat has given up on the Desktop. I don't see Fedora going for any OEM deals. HP is doing SuSE but I don't think they are going to push it too hard. Ubuntu really seems to be the best hope for Desktop Linux that I can see. They have Dell now. I still think they need a software store like iTunes and the Google Android store to complete the ecosystem. Then just get Intuit to port Quicken and TurboTax and Apple to port Itunes. Like it or not the iPod is EXTREMELY popular. Then if you get Valve on board with Steam... And actually I do work for a commercial vendor. Software based DRM is a flop. Anyone with a brain knows that. Every game on the planet gets pirated so fast it makes your head spin. The only DRM that I have seen that works is hardware based. Things like HASP keys and such. Even then it is a battle to keep them locked and it is only worth the effort for the most expensive software. For mainstream software DRM only makes customers lives hard. It doesn't stop the pirates. Now activation keys while a pain do provide for at least a little "protection" with very little grief for the user so maybe they wouldn't be so bad.
Please stop chanting the party line. A stable binary interface is nothing more than a jump table. You can change ANYTHING BUT THE entry points. Since the Kernel already has a stable source driver interface this would add no new restrictions to innovation or big fixes. So as long as you can recompile drivers for a new kernel without changing the drivers source you could have a stable binary interface.
Selling software? You know of a free 3d Cad system as good as PRO-E, Soldworks, or AutoDesk Inventor? What about a game as good as BioShock or Left For Dead? I love FOSS and I have written FOSS. But FOSS will not ever be the only software. Closed source allows for the cost of development to be spread over a large number of customers. I doubt that you will see FOSS solutions for most vertical markets, Games, or even things like CAD/CAM. Or say Tax software. I could be wrong but they sure are not there right now.
The problems with Selling software has nothing to do with the FOSS nature of Linux but the fragmentation of the market and the lack of standards in the Distros. IBM, Oracle, and SAP all sell closed source software on Linux and make good money from it. The problem comes in when you try to market a program to end users. Google is going to sell a lot of Linux software with their Android store. So get over the FOSS as a religon.
If you want to see Linux thrive on the desktop then you need software and the more the better. If people can sell software and make money at it then they will write it. Guess what sparky? having closed source programs available for Linux wouldn't hurt Linux it would help. If people could get Quicken, TurboTax, PhotoShop, iTunes, and Bioshock on Linux then a lot fewer of them would buy Windows. If fewer people bought Windows fewer people would use Office and IE! And once they started using FOSS they might even start using GNU Money instead of Quicken and Gimp instead of Photoshop Elements!
The Germans told people not to travel on any British ship. And the Lusitania did burn. The reason that there was ammunition on the ship was because England needed all the explosives that it could get it's hands on!
Cleaning up the environment and global warming are two very different issues. If global warming isn't man made then the CO2 output is harmless. CO2 doesn't make anything shitty to use your terms if it isn't the root cause of global warming. It sure doesn't have any effect on water or soil quality. Now burning coal without good the latest emissions controls sure does. Leaded gas also is an issue.
I am a skeptic of the global warming religion but at the same time I am for at least cutting the growth in CO2 output until we know for sure just to be safe.
But if CO2 isn't an issue we will spend a lot of resources solving a none problem that could go to solve other problems. Not to mention the cost in jobs and just plain standard of living.
The latest studies that I have read BTW oil and gas really are not the problem it is Coal.
So your statment sounds good but really has no basis in fact. It has nothing to do with wanting pollution but with not wanting to waste resources.
Why I disagree with those that want to do nothing they are not as dumb or as simple minded as you seem to think.
A license key is a version of DRM. That is one reason I don't really like that solution. I feel that DRM doesn't really work to prevent piracy. The only version that I have seen that is remotely effective is Steam. You have mentioned LSB but LSB hasn't solved the problem of distribution. Trying to install an RPM that works with Red Hat will more times than not fail if you try to install in on OpenSuse. I think deb is a little better. But that is the problem. To make it easy you really need ONE way to install stuff and have it work on all X86 distros. Okay maybe not even all but maybe the top three or four.
Not really. One of the strengths of Linux is that it isn't tied to one ISA. The x86 ISA is a nasty mess of an ISA. But it proves that if you throw enough talent and money at a pig you can make one fast pig. I think we need to move even farther from the ISA. One way that you can do that is with VMs and JIT compiles like Java, Mono, and.Net does. What I would love to see is moving to a system like the old IBM model 38/AS400. Every program is compiled to a "perfect" ISA. When you first run the program a JIT compiler compiles that ISA to your native ISA and then stores that compilation on your system. From then on everytime you run the program on the system you would use the cached version instead of the prefect one. You could even do the translation at install time.
What free software compares to say BioShock? Gimp is very good and is as good or better than Photoshop Elements but it isn't as good as CS4. Your right that it isn't available for Linux because it is really hard to sell and commercial program for Linux. The problem starts with the lack of a good installer and goes from there. For Linux to do well on the desktop I feel their needs to be a way for people to sell software for it. Choice is good. Even if it the choice to choose Gimp or Photoshop.
I stable binary interface is nothing but a jump table. Is it necessary? No. Would it be convenient? Yes. If you want to make a new sound card and you want to support Linux. Today you write a driver and submit it to the Kernel developers. They may or may not put it in to the Kernel before you ship the card. Then the distro makers may or may not push that Kernel to their users. The users may or may not upgrade to that kernel. If you want to put a driver on your website your choice is to put it out a source and make your users compile it and they may or may not have the kernel source.... If their was a stable binary interface you could just put the driver on our website OR on the CD and an installer and you would be good to go.
Thank you for making my point for me. "consider any closed-source Linux kernel module or driver to be harmful and undesirable. We have repeatedly found them to be detrimental to Linux users, businesses, and the greater Linux ecosystem. " Guess what sparky? You can have FOSS drivers that use use a binary interface. A binary interface would mean that you could put a drive on a CD and have it work. It means that you can put a drive on a website and people can download it and have it work... WITHOUT COMPILING IT!
Yes it makes releasing closed source driver easier but the lack of a binary interface has not stopped closed source driver. nVidia???? So you actually made my point for me. The link you provided me was all about why Closed source drivers are evil. Nothing about why a stable binary interface is a bad idea at all. And yes even that is all about religion. I really do support FOSS drivers but even if you are releasing your drivers as FOSS it would be easier for the end user if they could get binary driver. Just as it is easier for end users to get binary packages for applications instead of downloading the source and compiling it.
I used to be a big fan of Palm. For the life of me I have NO IDEA WHAT THEY HAVE BEEN DOING. None of their PDA hardware is competitive with say the iPod Touch and only their Centro while cheap really is very flawed. No GPS, no voice dialing with a blue tooth headset and you have to buy a program to get stereo support for bluetooth. Palm's browser just doesn't cut it any more. The only thing Palm has going for it is their huge library of 3rd party apps but even that is aging. Linux is Palms last real hope.
The reason that ARM based notebooks can't run Windows has nothing to do with the "power" of the chip. There isn't an ARM version of WindowsXP or Vista! And even if their was there is no software that would run on it!
People kept predicting the year of the network. It never came or it came and we didn't know it. Networks went from being very rare to being pretty common in companies then they started selling the stuff in Walmart. It is the ever growing creep. Linux will just keep creeping into our life.
Of course I have my list of things that are slowing it down and most of them are religious issues. Lack of a stable binary driver interface and the difficulty in selling software are two big ones. But full support from Adobe for for Linux for Flash, Air, and PDF Reader are a big sign that the slow march of Desktop Linux is on track.
Humm so if a "shop" voted to be all Baptist that would be okay? I mean you can opt out by going down the street if you didn't like it. Or all white? Or all Republican? The thing that makes me distrust unions is that there right now is a big push to make the vote to unionize public. The only reason that I can see for public ballot is so you can intimidate people into voting the way you want.
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"What surprises me is that there doesn't seem to be a utility/online database of various monitors and their specs. If the autodetection doesn't work, you're basically on your own and have to track down the horizontal sync and vertical refresh rate ranges, which is stupid."
SAX has that feature and yes it is wonderful. I think more distros should pick up SAX since it is now GPL.
Good point.
The funny thing is that it made me think of what could be a great new feature for Pidgin. A buddy basied todo list.
If you wanted to chat with a friend about some subject wouldn't it be handy to have a way to add a a TODO to your IM? When a buddy that has a pending TODO comes one it would then pop up with a dialog asking if you want to start a conversation and would even remind you with the Subject. You could then start chatting or dismiss the TODO.
does it have to do with quality?
Would a picture of say an inexpensive home stimulate a persons brain more or less than say an image of a sports car?
Or what about a run of the mill airliner to say a Ferrari?
OpenOffice mainly uses java for the database functions, a few file export functions and the media player functions on Unix like OS's. It also uses it for some wizards.
It will not cause OpenOffice to run slow on Windows.
And Vuze is a bit-torrent client. That will tend to be IO bottlenecked. Again Java will have next to nothing to do with it's speed.
But that aside notice I said "mainly" used on the servers. Mainly != only.
Hack I develop in Java. It is a very nice RAD system that runs on Linux, Windows, and OS/X. I would love to see it used more but again this is a benchmark and you should try to make a reasonable effort to make it fair. If not it is no better than saying Windows SUX dude!
I tend to agree. I in High School I had hopped to that I would semd my life helping build O'Neil's L5 Space colonies.
It didn't happen. Of course the latest science is saying that oil and natural gas are not a major contributer to green house gas emissions the real problem is coal.
Makes sense. The simple truth is that if we want to really cut CO2 we need to stop using coal and go for nuclear for power. Supplement with wind and keep researching and supplementing with solar. Use Geothermal where practical and skip tides since it very limited and really just a side show.
But it pretty much is. I meditation does have a religious basis. I wouldn't want "instruction" in meditation to be required in my work place.
But there is an issue of free speech. Someone inviting a co-worker or even an employee to a church function is one thing. Making it mandatory is something else.
True except that most java runs in a server environment and not even on a desktop. A better test would have been to streamline the system to what a knowlegeable user would do. .10 has been a big improvement.
And of course the big thing is that they didn't use the same version of Java for both systems.
You shouldn't be. .net.
Most java development these days takes place on the server side. Linux is has a large precentage of the server market. Then you must know that Sun is a Unix company. They push Solaris and java on Solaris. Solaris is a lot more like Linux than Windows. The the final piece is that in the Windows server market Java shares space with
So as far as the amount of attention I would say that Solaris/Linux/Unix gets just as much attention as Windows does.
One also has to wonder how well they "tuned" the Vista install. .10 release. It was a huge point release.
Was it running antivirus or indexing in the background?
Vista tends to have a lot of "stuff" running in the background. A lot of of which you can turn off.
They also really should have used the
I do think that Quicken would be a a mover. The simple truth is that some Closed source software are really dang good programs. You could be right that in the 12 dollar range you may have a FOSS version breathing down your neck but there is a market for cheap casual games now on Windows think about Popcap's games. There are FOSS games in that market as well but there seems to be room for both.
Static linking IS a problem. too many libs that you would want or need to use are LGPL.
So that is an issue.
Windows NT and 2000 was multi platform. There maybe a build of Vista or Seven for the Arm somewhere. But there are no drivers or applications to speak of for it.
Yep that is the problem in a nutshell.
There is no good way to sell a $12 program on Linux or even a $49.95 program on Linux.
Actually for the desktop I would be tempted to say just support deb if it wasn't for Suse. I think RedHat has given up on the Desktop. I don't see Fedora going for any OEM deals. HP is doing SuSE but I don't think they are going to push it too hard. Ubuntu really seems to be the best hope for Desktop Linux that I can see. They have Dell now. I still think they need a software store like iTunes and the Google Android store to complete the ecosystem. Then just get Intuit to port Quicken and TurboTax and Apple to port Itunes. Like it or not the iPod is EXTREMELY popular.
Then if you get Valve on board with Steam...
And actually I do work for a commercial vendor.
Software based DRM is a flop. Anyone with a brain knows that. Every game on the planet gets pirated so fast it makes your head spin. The only DRM that I have seen that works is hardware based. Things like HASP keys and such. Even then it is a battle to keep them locked and it is only worth the effort for the most expensive software.
For mainstream software DRM only makes customers lives hard. It doesn't stop the pirates.
Now activation keys while a pain do provide for at least a little "protection" with very little grief for the user so maybe they wouldn't be so bad.
Please stop chanting the party line.
A stable binary interface is nothing more than a jump table. You can change ANYTHING BUT THE entry points. Since the Kernel already has a stable source driver interface this would add no new restrictions to innovation or big fixes.
So as long as you can recompile drivers for a new kernel without changing the drivers source you could have a stable binary interface.
Selling software? You know of a free 3d Cad system as good as PRO-E, Soldworks, or AutoDesk Inventor?
What about a game as good as BioShock or Left For Dead?
I love FOSS and I have written FOSS. But FOSS will not ever be the only software. Closed source allows for the cost of development to be spread over a large number of customers. I doubt that you will see FOSS solutions for most vertical markets, Games, or even things like CAD/CAM. Or say Tax software. I could be wrong but they sure are not there right now.
The problems with Selling software has nothing to do with the FOSS nature of Linux but the fragmentation of the market and the lack of standards in the Distros. IBM, Oracle, and SAP all sell closed source software on Linux and make good money from it. The problem comes in when you try to market a program to end users. Google is going to sell a lot of Linux software with their Android store. So get over the FOSS as a religon.
If you want to see Linux thrive on the desktop then you need software and the more the better. If people can sell software and make money at it then they will write it.
Guess what sparky? having closed source programs available for Linux wouldn't hurt Linux it would help.
If people could get Quicken, TurboTax, PhotoShop, iTunes, and Bioshock on Linux then a lot fewer of them would buy Windows. If fewer people bought Windows fewer people would use Office and IE!
And once they started using FOSS they might even start using GNU Money instead of Quicken and Gimp instead of Photoshop Elements!
The Germans told people not to travel on any British ship.
And the Lusitania did burn. The reason that there was ammunition on the ship was because England needed all the explosives that it could get it's hands on!
Good grief folks.
Cleaning up the environment and global warming are two very different issues.
If global warming isn't man made then the CO2 output is harmless.
CO2 doesn't make anything shitty to use your terms if it isn't the root cause of global warming.
It sure doesn't have any effect on water or soil quality.
Now burning coal without good the latest emissions controls sure does. Leaded gas also is an issue.
I am a skeptic of the global warming religion but at the same time I am for at least cutting the growth in CO2 output until we know for sure just to be safe.
But if CO2 isn't an issue we will spend a lot of resources solving a none problem that could go to solve other problems.
Not to mention the cost in jobs and just plain standard of living.
The latest studies that I have read BTW oil and gas really are not the problem it is Coal.
So your statment sounds good but really has no basis in fact. It has nothing to do with wanting pollution but with not wanting to waste resources.
Why I disagree with those that want to do nothing they are not as dumb or as simple minded as you seem to think.
A license key is a version of DRM. That is one reason I don't really like that solution. I feel that DRM doesn't really work to prevent piracy. The only version that I have seen that is remotely effective is Steam.
You have mentioned LSB but LSB hasn't solved the problem of distribution. Trying to install an RPM that works with Red Hat will more times than not fail if you try to install in on OpenSuse.
I think deb is a little better. But that is the problem. To make it easy you really need ONE way to install stuff and have it work on all X86 distros. Okay maybe not even all but maybe the top three or four.
Not really. .Net does. What I would love to see is moving to a system like the old IBM model 38/AS400.
One of the strengths of Linux is that it isn't tied to one ISA. The x86 ISA is a nasty mess of an ISA. But it proves that if you throw enough talent and money at a pig you can make one fast pig.
I think we need to move even farther from the ISA. One way that you can do that is with VMs and JIT compiles like Java, Mono, and
Every program is compiled to a "perfect" ISA. When you first run the program a JIT compiler compiles that ISA to your native ISA and then stores that compilation on your system.
From then on everytime you run the program on the system you would use the cached version instead of the prefect one. You could even do the translation at install time.
What free software compares to say BioShock?
Gimp is very good and is as good or better than Photoshop Elements but it isn't as good as CS4.
Your right that it isn't available for Linux because it is really hard to sell and commercial program for Linux. The problem starts with the lack of a good installer and goes from there.
For Linux to do well on the desktop I feel their needs to be a way for people to sell software for it.
Choice is good. Even if it the choice to choose Gimp or Photoshop.
I stable binary interface is nothing but a jump table.
Is it necessary? No. Would it be convenient? Yes.
If you want to make a new sound card and you want to support Linux. Today you write a driver and submit it to the Kernel developers. They may or may not put it in to the Kernel before you ship the card. Then the distro makers may or may not push that Kernel to their users. The users may or may not upgrade to that kernel.
If you want to put a driver on your website your choice is to put it out a source and make your users compile it and they may or may not have the kernel source....
If their was a stable binary interface you could just put the driver on our website OR on the CD and an installer and you would be good to go.
Thank you for making my point for me.
"consider any closed-source Linux kernel module or driver to be harmful and undesirable. We have repeatedly found them to be detrimental to Linux users, businesses, and the greater Linux ecosystem. "
Guess what sparky? You can have FOSS drivers that use use a binary interface. A binary interface would mean that you could put a drive on a CD and have it work. It means that you can put a drive on a website and people can download it and have it work... WITHOUT COMPILING IT!
Yes it makes releasing closed source driver easier but the lack of a binary interface has not stopped closed source driver. nVidia????
So you actually made my point for me. The link you provided me was all about why Closed source drivers are evil. Nothing about why a stable binary interface is a bad idea at all.
And yes even that is all about religion. I really do support FOSS drivers but even if you are releasing your drivers as FOSS it would be easier for the end user if they could get binary driver. Just as it is easier for end users to get binary packages for applications instead of downloading the source and compiling it.
Linux might save Palm.
I used to be a big fan of Palm. For the life of me I have NO IDEA WHAT THEY HAVE BEEN DOING.
None of their PDA hardware is competitive with say the iPod Touch and only their Centro while cheap really is very flawed. No GPS, no voice dialing with a blue tooth headset and you have to buy a program to get stereo support for bluetooth.
Palm's browser just doesn't cut it any more.
The only thing Palm has going for it is their huge library of 3rd party apps but even that is aging.
Linux is Palms last real hope.
The reason that ARM based notebooks can't run Windows has nothing to do with the "power" of the chip.
There isn't an ARM version of WindowsXP or Vista! And even if their was there is no software that would run on it!
People kept predicting the year of the network. It never came or it came and we didn't know it.
Networks went from being very rare to being pretty common in companies then they started selling the stuff in Walmart.
It is the ever growing creep. Linux will just keep creeping into our life.
Of course I have my list of things that are slowing it down and most of them are religious issues.
Lack of a stable binary driver interface and the difficulty in selling software are two big ones.
But full support from Adobe for for Linux for Flash, Air, and PDF Reader are a big sign that the slow march of Desktop Linux is on track.
Humm so if a "shop" voted to be all Baptist that would be okay? I mean you can opt out by going down the street if you didn't like it.
Or all white?
Or all Republican?
The thing that makes me distrust unions is that there right now is a big push to make the vote to unionize public. The only reason that I can see for public ballot is so you can intimidate people into voting the way you want.
I just built my wife an AMD 780G system. It is a really nice chip set. The graphics are actually pretty good and it had six SATA ports.
I wounder if you could use the GPU on that board to off load checksums and maybe encryption? What a nice NAS system that would make.