Just with regards to multimedia, alsa still doesn't have software mixing enabled by default. A feature Windows has had for a decade, a feature that the average user will notice, in fact they will notice it to the point of being a showstopper, and it isn't enabled by default yet. On most systems you can't play more than one sound at a time, through alsa or oss. With a little configuration file tweaking and some application support, it could be enabled for oss and everything else, but nobody has done it yet.
Its just one example of a situation with Linux that keeps it from being ready for the desktop as far as Multimedia is concerned.
Personally, I'm for 20 years, and 5 for software with mandatory source code escrow
Not to pick on you (even though I am:), but this brings up a good point that I think most people tend to forget in all of this. People are worried about the artists being compensated, but why does nobody worry about OSS programmers being compensated and "getting what they deserve"? Because Linux and OSS has proven that you can get stuff for free and still get a useful product. Sometimes you can even get paid to make it.
Why isn't anyone trying to do this with music/movies/TV? Why isn't anyone trying to bolster the creative commons, or making music/movies/TV easy enough to produce that someone can sit down in thier nights and weekends and make a decent product? Instead everyone is worrying about the artists of the current system getting "what they deserve"? Who decides what they deserve? The free market. And if the market thinks they deserve zero, then so be it, someone out there will make it work.
So my question isn't "how can we create a system where artists are compensated 'fairly'", but "how can we make a system where music is made for what the market is willing to pay for it". It just seems like to me several people are missing the point.
Besides all the idiotic namecalling, youre right, he did commit a crime. What people are taking offense at is that he is being held liable for potential losses, i.e. losses which he hadn't caused yet.
I think he was specifically referring to the "make you the bad guy" statement, not the product as a whole. You said yourself "we are definitely not our kids best friend" and that was the only part of the article that I took offense at, the "Dont be the bad guy! Let the box punish your kids!" part of the article. You have to be the bad guy, or someone else will, who doesn't love your kids as much.
Kazaa and Napster don't violate the DMCA, in fact Kazaa, it has been found, doesnt violate any laws at all. What Napster violated was normal everyday copyright law. Apple would be in the position of Kazaa, they allow it to happen, but dont facilitate by hosting any files/info. The guys that run the "iTunes share sites" do though.
Mandrake solves the dependency problems with urpmi, exactly the same as emerge, apt-get or apt-rpm. The writer of the article seemed to be griping about the way standalone RPMs are packaged, which would be a problem no matter what distro you use. Using urpmi I dont miss apt-get at all.
Yes, they would get away from it for free. But they cant use any GPL code in the future, so all thier product would have to be recalled till they rewrite all the GPL code, then release thier product. Thats a pretty big problem.
Re:My experiences with Gentoo
on
Gentoo Reviewed
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· Score: 1
it's a preference thing. Since the compilation (generally) just finishes it's self in the background (and if it doesn't, it's generally my fault for using insanely aggressive compilation flags) you don't really use that time - just start emerge kde before you go to bed - when you get back from work it'll prolly be done.
If you want to do that, thats fine, but I dont want to plan my day around the installation of my OS. What if something goes wrong and my disk gets corrupted? Itll take X hours to get my system useable again, and it may not be a time of day where that is convenient. Also, if this is a work box, that may not even be an option. Mandrake takes 30 mins to install, and its fully useable, for example. Debian takes less. My schedule isnt to the point where I can let my computer sit for a day or more.
also - you shoudn't underestimate some of the optomizations, such as -fpmath=sse - which uses sse for all the floating point math on the system, instead of the ancient, slow, x387 instructions. with my opmizations, I laugh at people who call kde slow
I would like to see some benchmarks on this, not that I dont believe you Id just like to see some numbers (response time, system load, ect). When I tried it around Gentoo 1.2, I couldn't notice a difference in KDE on the RedHat box and on Gentoo running on a similarly configured machine, though admittedly I didnt do alot of research learning just the right gcc options to get it perfect.
Also, how much time did it take you to learn all of your optimizations you use? Do they work on all apps? Do you use different optimizations for different apps?
I guess what Im getting to is, how much work did you do to get your system to the point its in, and how much more optimized is it than an average binary distro? Its like you said, its a preference thing, I just want to know where Gentoo lies on the effort/reward scale.
Re:My experiences with Gentoo
on
Gentoo Reviewed
·
· Score: 1
While it can take 2 to 3 days (or more for a slow computer) to install Gentoo, do you really lose 2 or 3 days of your life? Seriously, do you just sit in front of the computer and watch the screen as the compiler messages goe by? When I install Gentoo, I start the process, go do something else, check on it to see if it needs my attention every once in a while and get on with my life. I don't feel that I've lost 2 days.
I didn't mean that, I meant that Ive lost 2 days of using my computer. I could have used those two days on a binary distro actually getting work done, instead of waiting for KDE/Gnome/Mozilla to compile so that I can use a graphical web browser.
And, as an afterthought. If you use a binary based distribution, you are still waiting on the compile time, it is just a hidden quantity, generally paid for only once per upgrade (of any given package) cycle.
Yes, but I dont have to pay it with my machine, it is only paid on one computer, not on every computer running the distro. Also, the first time I install the distro I dont have to pay the price on my machine to get a useable system, someone else already has, I can just start running.
Re:My experiences with Gentoo
on
Gentoo Reviewed
·
· Score: 1
Granted, a Microsoft-esque installer is great and everything, but I'd much rather have an iffy, somewhat-cryptic installer and a beautiful package system than vice-versa.
But its not an either or proposition. Having excellent package management, which I hear emerge is, is no excuse for having a cryptic installer.
Another topic altogether though, is the thing that got me, the person in the article actually stated, "if you have three days a week to dedicate to Gentoo, its the best" or something along those lines. Who has three days a week to dedicate to installing software? Dont you want to get something done at some point? Thats why I cant accept primarily source based distributions, I like to spend my time actually doing things. The one time I tried Gentoo, which I admit was about 1.2, it took 2 days to compile KDE and Mozilla. What kind of performance difference would make up for the fact it took 2 days to compile? How long would you have to use that box, untouched without upgrading anything, to get those 2 days back?
if you compiled it rather than used a package manager.
What part of that isn't clear? Also, don't assume the package manager always works. You need something to fall back on when the package manager breaks.
Its true, the user should never have to see where thier programs are installed, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. And furthermore, even if you never have to see where your programs are installed, why is making them easier to find a bad thing? Nothing you describe above couldn't be done with Gogo, but now when someone wants to know where thier programs are, they can find them easily. If people want it, let them use it. If you don't, use the old style directories, or dont use it at all. Youre also assuming that theres a nice GUI for the package management, and that youll never need to circumvent the package management, which if youve used a Linux distro for a desktop you know is not true. So having an intuitive filesystem would help users keep track of things when things go wrong with the package management.
If you want, you can make a version in your native language. Such as in German Windows, Program Files is Programme or whatever. Im not sure if the functionality is there now, but you should have a configuration file that would say "Programs is in/programs" ect.
Also, why is having the binaries in "/programs/name/version/bin" achieving nothing? People don't look at thier system like "I want my binaries". Most people don't know what the hell binaries are, they know "I installed Photoshop, where is that?" Itd be in/programs/Photoshop, which makes sense to them. You think in UNIX terms? Use/bin, its still there.
Id like to add, a filesystem is not more effecient if you can't find what you're looking for without reading a book or a manpage. You just wasted any effeciency you gained on learning the unintuitive names. Then relearning them the next time you use it, as the average user doesn't use thier computer enough to have this stuff memorized.
Youre assuming its not broke, and the thing is GoboLinux thinks it is, otherwise they wouldn't try to fix it.
Also, like the other posters have already said, you dont actually keep anything useful in the root home directory, do you? If you can't login becuase the home directory can't be found, there are more problems than an NFS mount, thats for sure.
There are several things that are much faster 3d accelerated than 2d. Scaling, rotation, or vector graphics, for instance.
Using a "3d accelerated" desktop doesnt mean throwing away 2d acceleration, but using both where they bring the biggest speed benefit. Nobody is saying animate everything in full 3d with rotations, bump mapping and shadows, just use it where it works.
Okay, so Monster.com owns thier company, but they can't do things like that because you disagree.
Fine. Next time Microsoft gets Administrator access on your box, and deletes non-Microsoft programs, you have no right to bitch. You may own the box, but they disagree with your choice of software, so you can't choose it.
Just because its an evil and despicable thing to do doesn't mean they should be barred from doing it. Its thier service, to tell them what they can and cannot do with it is exactly like telling you what you can and cannot do with your computer. Let em do it and lose all thier customers. Id much rather see them humiliated than litigated to death.
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emu10k does hardware mixing, so if you left it at default that was probably why it worked.
If you changed the settings, thats what I was talking about.
Its just one example of a situation with Linux that keeps it from being ready for the desktop as far as Multimedia is concerned.
Why isn't anyone trying to do this with music/movies/TV? Why isn't anyone trying to bolster the creative commons, or making music/movies/TV easy enough to produce that someone can sit down in thier nights and weekends and make a decent product? Instead everyone is worrying about the artists of the current system getting "what they deserve"? Who decides what they deserve? The free market. And if the market thinks they deserve zero, then so be it, someone out there will make it work.
So my question isn't "how can we create a system where artists are compensated 'fairly'", but "how can we make a system where music is made for what the market is willing to pay for it". It just seems like to me several people are missing the point.
Besides all the idiotic namecalling, youre right, he did commit a crime. What people are taking offense at is that he is being held liable for potential losses, i.e. losses which he hadn't caused yet.
I think he was specifically referring to the "make you the bad guy" statement, not the product as a whole. You said yourself "we are definitely not our kids best friend" and that was the only part of the article that I took offense at, the "Dont be the bad guy! Let the box punish your kids!" part of the article. You have to be the bad guy, or someone else will, who doesn't love your kids as much.
Thats not overhead, but sunk cost. A very different beast, if my basic understanding of economics hasn't failed me.
Did anyone else see the article title and think "Wow! Nintendo is going to put an FPS on a watch! Its Game and Watch 2003!"
You won't be doing that from a DVD. They are compressed from the master in MPEG2.
You obviously don't get out of Linux much. Play Half-Life, NOLF2, Medal of Honor, or Deus Ex. Then you'll see what hes talking about.
Kazaa and Napster don't violate the DMCA, in fact Kazaa, it has been found, doesnt violate any laws at all. What Napster violated was normal everyday copyright law. Apple would be in the position of Kazaa, they allow it to happen, but dont facilitate by hosting any files/info. The guys that run the "iTunes share sites" do though.
Mandrake solves the dependency problems with urpmi, exactly the same as emerge, apt-get or apt-rpm. The writer of the article seemed to be griping about the way standalone RPMs are packaged, which would be a problem no matter what distro you use. Using urpmi I dont miss apt-get at all.
Yes, they would get away from it for free. But they cant use any GPL code in the future, so all thier product would have to be recalled till they rewrite all the GPL code, then release thier product. Thats a pretty big problem.
it's a preference thing. Since the compilation (generally) just finishes it's self in the background (and if it doesn't, it's generally my fault for using insanely aggressive compilation flags) you don't really use that time - just start emerge kde before you go to bed - when you get back from work it'll prolly be done.
If you want to do that, thats fine, but I dont want to plan my day around the installation of my OS. What if something goes wrong and my disk gets corrupted? Itll take X hours to get my system useable again, and it may not be a time of day where that is convenient. Also, if this is a work box, that may not even be an option. Mandrake takes 30 mins to install, and its fully useable, for example. Debian takes less. My schedule isnt to the point where I can let my computer sit for a day or more.
also - you shoudn't underestimate some of the optomizations, such as -fpmath=sse - which uses sse for all the floating point math on the system, instead of the ancient, slow, x387 instructions. with my opmizations, I laugh at people who call kde slow
I would like to see some benchmarks on this, not that I dont believe you Id just like to see some numbers (response time, system load, ect). When I tried it around Gentoo 1.2, I couldn't notice a difference in KDE on the RedHat box and on Gentoo running on a similarly configured machine, though admittedly I didnt do alot of research learning just the right gcc options to get it perfect.
Also, how much time did it take you to learn all of your optimizations you use? Do they work on all apps? Do you use different optimizations for different apps?
I guess what Im getting to is, how much work did you do to get your system to the point its in, and how much more optimized is it than an average binary distro? Its like you said, its a preference thing, I just want to know where Gentoo lies on the effort/reward scale.
While it can take 2 to 3 days (or more for a slow computer) to install Gentoo, do you really lose 2 or 3 days of your life? Seriously, do you just sit in front of the computer and watch the screen as the compiler messages goe by? When I install Gentoo, I start the process, go do something else, check on it to see if it needs my attention every once in a while and get on with my life. I don't feel that I've lost 2 days.
I didn't mean that, I meant that Ive lost 2 days of using my computer. I could have used those two days on a binary distro actually getting work done, instead of waiting for KDE/Gnome/Mozilla to compile so that I can use a graphical web browser.
And, as an afterthought. If you use a binary based distribution, you are still waiting on the compile time, it is just a hidden quantity, generally paid for only once per upgrade (of any given package) cycle.
Yes, but I dont have to pay it with my machine, it is only paid on one computer, not on every computer running the distro. Also, the first time I install the distro I dont have to pay the price on my machine to get a useable system, someone else already has, I can just start running.
Granted, a Microsoft-esque installer is great and everything, but I'd much rather have an iffy, somewhat-cryptic installer and a beautiful package system than vice-versa.
But its not an either or proposition. Having excellent package management, which I hear emerge is, is no excuse for having a cryptic installer.
Another topic altogether though, is the thing that got me, the person in the article actually stated, "if you have three days a week to dedicate to Gentoo, its the best" or something along those lines. Who has three days a week to dedicate to installing software? Dont you want to get something done at some point? Thats why I cant accept primarily source based distributions, I like to spend my time actually doing things. The one time I tried Gentoo, which I admit was about 1.2, it took 2 days to compile KDE and Mozilla. What kind of performance difference would make up for the fact it took 2 days to compile? How long would you have to use that box, untouched without upgrading anything, to get those 2 days back?
What part of that isn't clear? Also, don't assume the package manager always works. You need something to fall back on when the package manager breaks.
Its true, the user should never have to see where thier programs are installed, but that doesn't mean it doesn't happen. And furthermore, even if you never have to see where your programs are installed, why is making them easier to find a bad thing? Nothing you describe above couldn't be done with Gogo, but now when someone wants to know where thier programs are, they can find them easily. If people want it, let them use it. If you don't, use the old style directories, or dont use it at all.
Youre also assuming that theres a nice GUI for the package management, and that youll never need to circumvent the package management, which if youve used a Linux distro for a desktop you know is not true. So having an intuitive filesystem would help users keep track of things when things go wrong with the package management.
If you want, you can make a version in your native language. Such as in German Windows, Program Files is Programme or whatever. Im not sure if the functionality is there now, but you should have a configuration file that would say "Programs is in /programs" ect.
/programs/Photoshop, which makes sense to them. You think in UNIX terms? Use /bin, its still there.
Also, why is having the binaries in "/programs/name/version/bin" achieving nothing? People don't look at thier system like "I want my binaries". Most people don't know what the hell binaries are, they know "I installed Photoshop, where is that?" Itd be in
Id like to add, a filesystem is not more effecient if you can't find what you're looking for without reading a book or a manpage. You just wasted any effeciency you gained on learning the unintuitive names. Then relearning them the next time you use it, as the average user doesn't use thier computer enough to have this stuff memorized.
Youre assuming its not broke, and the thing is GoboLinux thinks it is, otherwise they wouldn't try to fix it.
Also, like the other posters have already said, you dont actually keep anything useful in the root home directory, do you? If you can't login becuase the home directory can't be found, there are more problems than an NFS mount, thats for sure.
"Point 1 - why not just use 2D acceleration?"
Why not use 3D? Using one doesn't mean not using the other.
"Granted, it may be something that 3D accelerated cards optimise, "
If its faster on a 3D card, why not use it? Again, it doesn't mean you do everything on the 3D card, just what gets a speed benefit.
There are several things that are much faster 3d accelerated than 2d. Scaling, rotation, or vector graphics, for instance.
Using a "3d accelerated" desktop doesnt mean throwing away 2d acceleration, but using both where they bring the biggest speed benefit. Nobody is saying animate everything in full 3d with rotations, bump mapping and shadows, just use it where it works.
The Start Menu is eye-candy? Tabbed windows are eye-candy? Pie-Menus are eye candy (ok, mozilla only, but still)?
Okay, so Monster.com owns thier company, but they can't do things like that because you disagree.
Fine. Next time Microsoft gets Administrator access on your box, and deletes non-Microsoft programs, you have no right to bitch. You may own the box, but they disagree with your choice of software, so you can't choose it.
Just because its an evil and despicable thing to do doesn't mean they should be barred from doing it. Its thier service, to tell them what they can and cannot do with it is exactly like telling you what you can and cannot do with your computer. Let em do it and lose all thier customers. Id much rather see them humiliated than litigated to death.
And every administration before that one proved the same thing :)
What if by driving it you are defeating encryption, then they get to selectively prosecute the ones that complain about thier product.