If I subscribe, do I get my blacklist removed? After all these years, it'd be nice to finally get moderator points for the first time. But because I posted in "The Post" way back when, a valid critique of Slashdot that the editors didn't like (but was modded up by the readers), I miss out. Will subscribing change that for me?
Gentoo was by far the easiest to configure, straightforward to understand and helpful in documentation. The first attempt was a disaster, the second attempt booted right up. The third attempt, on my 700 mhz Ibook was a total sucess with very minor cosmetic glitches.
Doesn't sound so newbie-friendly after all. Do you think newbies will bother after the first disaster? Or tolerate minor cosmetic glitches after three tries? They'll demand something that just works.
Why is it a ridiculous attitude? Tell you what, you go away and design this killer GUI, and come back when you've got it all figured out. If it's good, I'm sure somebody will be enthusiastic enough to help you.
I'm going to let everyone in on a little secret:
Most movie reviewers aren't movie makers.
I know, I know. You're thinking, "How could somebody criticize something without being able to go out and make something better all by themselves?" But, it's true.
In fact, there are those who--horror of horrors--hold opinions about music (if you hate Limp Bizkit, why don't you go out and make something better?), games (if you hate Halo, why don't you go out amd make something better?), operating systems (if you hate MacOS, why don't you go out and make something better?), websites (if you hate Fark, why don't you go out and make something better), religion (if you don't like Scientology, why don't you go out and make something better?), and much, much more. In fact, recent studies have shown that people hold opinions about most everything they come across in their lives. All without being able to make better equivalents themselves!
Sorry, but while you were whinging on Slashdot tigert, jimmac, everaldo and tackat were busy making GNOME and KDE pretty. By all means go and help them, but I find the latest GTK2/GNOME2 apps much better looking than their equivalents on Windows or the Mac.
I'll continue my "whinging" because I hold opinions. I'm sorry you can't stand to read them.
No, the ridiculous attitude to have is to presume that you can sit, having made absolutely no contributions aside from a retarded comment about a "killer app... new GUI system," and tell coders what they should be doing with their time.
This is the attitude I see constantly that is holding Linux back. The idea that people are completely disallowed from making any criticism if they aren't elite coders themselves. If the GUI coders aren't in it to listen to the criticisms of the users, why bother pretending to be caring about their needs in the first place? I'm so sick of these attitudes. I've been hearing them since the mid-90s.
What exactly do you expect? Some sort of magical new alternative to dialogs, start menus, and taskbars? Those have been the staple of GUI design, not only for Windows, but for MacOS, BeOS, OS/2, and basically all other GUI systems.
I said dialogs and windows were staples of GUI design. But does it have to be such a blatant rip-off of Windows? Start-menu in bottom-left corner, taskbar, even print dialogs look the same. Yes, I do expect some innovative new alternative to a lot of things. Even Microsoft tried to modify their start menu a little bit so it wasn't just lists of items. Of course, I have more "revolutionary" ideas in mind for the basic design of my ideal GUI system, but as I am not a project leader nor a programmer, I won't list them on Slashdot. People here would be too afraid of the change anyway (yes, most Linux users are as engrained as Windows users when it comes to their systems).
Have people tried to create radically new desktops before? Yes, and those have always been spectacular failures.
So let's just copy forever. Yeah.
I don't expect something "radically new." I didn't even say to lose the concept of the desktop.
I just wish someone would start a project to create something new from the ground up. No X, no libraries like GTK/QT, no window manager on top of that, and then no desktop system on top of that. I'm sick of all the layers and the conflicting libraries and inconsistencies. I know it would take a lot of work, but if people can write entire 3D engines for free like Crystal Space and Genesis, reverse engineer the hardware for hundreds of arcade boards to write emulators like MAME, and create new VM subsystems from scratch for the kernel, surely there is the possibility of someone out there writing a good, seamless GUI system that can replace X. One in which there is a smart Install/Remove system for programs. One in which it intelligently auto-updates itself. One that actually looks and feel like a professional, productive system, but doesn't replace the command lines and so forth. I'm thinking of how OS X is like a "shell" on top of the Unix-like system behind it. I would love to have those two powerful systems on my laptop here. Instead, I use Windows 2000 because the GUI is actually responsive and pleasant on the eyes, and my apps install just by popping in a CD. I would love that sort of convenience on Linux so I can get things done, complete with a better overall GUI.
The second someone finds something better, EVERYONE will switch.
Exactly my point.
For now, this is the paradigm we have, and every group tries to creates its own vision of that paradigm. These are not "half-assed clones".
I'm sorry, but it's just that my opinion of GNOME and KDE are that they are horrible. Just because they are made by volunteers, quite honestly, doesn't mean a damned thing in the end. I still have a right to criticize it. If nobody wants criticism, don't release it to the public and instead just keep it on your private network. In the real world, it's not about the nice people behind the project, it's whether or not the output is actually good or not...
Believe it or not, but some people actually prefer using Linux desktop environments over Windows.
I know. I was one for years until Windows 2000 was released.
I'm one of those people. I can't stand Windows at all, so I use Gnome. It's not perfect, but neither is Windows. I use what gets the job done quickly and get the bonus of not having to be constantly irritated by the Windows feel.
Since neither are perfect, what's wrong with trying at something better? I'm sure you have ideas of your own about things that should be changed and improved.
Whenever a program is cloned, it is usually for good cause -- sometimes Microsoft or some other company creates a good program or adds something interesting to the UI that others overlooked before. To not take advantage of a proven design for the sake of being different is sheer arrogance. I've noticed that Gnome and several GTK apps draw their influence from various sources to create programs that have their own personality. (I've never really used KDE, but I'm sure the same can be said about it.)
It's just that I see all of the Windows conventions but poorly implemented. As someone with more of an eye for the graphics and usability side, I notice things like menu items being too close together or completely badly organized, colors not contrasting enough in certain areas, a bizarre and laggy desktop icon system, and so forth. I can't help it; my programming side is drowned out by the fact that what I'm looking at is kind of ugly. Pretty graphics here and there, but badly organized. For someone like me who spends hours into the night working, I need a GUI that doesn't cause me to want to rip my arm off and beat myself with it.
Which leads me to this: Your comment is total nonsense. Every one of your five paragraphs have at least one major flaw. Some have more.
Thanks for pointing out the flaws and addressing them instead of just flat-out calling my comment "total nonsense." With such logic, you have really convinced me that I should never criticize KDE or GNOME again.
I don't think I'll be able to influence your opinion on the matter at all, so I won't even try.
Why bother? If you're happy with KDE/GNOME, knock yourself out. Personally, I'm tired of feeling held back by those systems.
But since you've given your opinion, I thought I'd give mine.
Glad you did.
I just want something good enough that people stop relying on Microsoft. I think everyone here wants that. I just don't think KDE and GNOME and any of their obsessions with naming apps with a K or a G will get us there. Call me misguided or whatever, I think more people would agree with me than you think.
"Why can't people try and learn from constructive criticism?"
Because they're so used to their command shells and Emacs sessions and idealistic FSF attitudes that they don't realize that sometimes, you have to drop the attitude and listen to the usability needs of a typical user if you want the success that Linux needs to completely topple the competitors.
That is, of course, if you want Linux to be more generally used than it is. There are those who wish it to remain amongst the elite masses as strictly a geek OS so that they can impress their IRC friends. Whatever.
Bad analogy. Wheels are essential. That's like a mouse cursor or a basic window in GUI terms.
But KDE and Gnome also copy dialogs, start menus, taskbars, basic design conventions, and much more.
You can either copy forever in a futile attempt at winning the Windows crowd (yeah, let's give them half-assed clones of what they already have), or innovate and create something people will actually want to use.
You say Microsoft has good ideas that are poorly implemented. KDE and GNOME are just copying what's been done in that department, under the guise of making it more "customizable" (wow, I can move the taskbar and start menu around now).
Please, won't somebody create something new? The "killer app" I think Linux needs is a new GUI system designed from the ground up for desktop use. Don't give me "well, write it yourself," because I don't have the skill level, but more importantly, it's a ridiculous attitude to have to start with. Besides, if you want a graphic designer, I'm your man. Linux apps are always sorely lacking in the aesthetics department.
Since this is a story about Windows, all of the pre-programmed Slashbots are going to trot out and declare that Windows is broken, old, badly designed, missing features, whatever.
Meanwhile, the Windows team continues, release after release, to pound out great code that addresses all of the shortcomings people tend to cite. Faster direct rendering? Check. Anti-aliased text? Check. Multi-head? Check. Video extensions? Check. 3-D? Check.
Do you see a pattern here? Windows is versatile. Windows is extensible. Windows is the industry standard--all commercial GUI programs use it.
And as always, Windows's killer feature is its application base. No "desktop-on-top-of-a-window-manager-on-top-of-a-ro ot-window" nonsense like you have to do on other platforms. Today I had the windows of programs from no less than three different commercial applications running on my desktop. Productively. Lots of Windows users do this every day, usually without even thinking about it.
Perhaps someday the tired old "Windows is obsolete and must be replaced" will finally cease. But today is probably not that day. Let the flames begin. I will ignore them and continue to praise the Windows developers for another job well done.
Some people don't know what else to think when their mouse stops working. You're thinking in technical terms--a driver problem, a misconfigured XF86Config file, and so forth--when all they see is a cursor that's not working. Some people don't spend their lives in front of computers.
So, they say "my mouse is broke." They simply don't know any better. It doesn't mean they're stupid, want a "free ride," or don't want to "help themselves." They don't have time to learn how to get their simple input devices working, nor should they have to. Some people own computers simply just to USE them, not to learn how every little thing works internally. Elitist techies seem to look down on people who own a computer and don't know every little thing about it. It's an attitude that never ceases to make me laugh.
Do you know everything about how your car works? Or your fridge? Or television set? Would you like it if mechanics criticized you for not knowing any better about the internals of your appliances if you asked for help fixing it?
Or would you just switch to an easier-to-use appliance that didn't give you such problems? Is that a "free ride?" I call it choosing the better product.
Let me get this straight...you consider a "free ride" like the ability to go from Windows to Linux frustrating? You want people to be "self-sufficient" and "figure things out for themselves?" In other words, you want them to take time out of their days learning to use their system in order to be productive, when they could be using that valuable time to actually BE productive?
If everyone operated like this, then there would be very little time wasted explaining the documented solutions to common problems, which would free everyone up to concentrate on the real problems, in order to make progress.
Instead of this ass-backwards view, how about developers get around to FIXING those common problems, so they don't need to be explained? Expecting people to make tinkering with their OS a hobby in order to use it--lest they get a "free ride"--is ridiculous to me. It reaks of the "smug feeling of superiority" you say isn't so prevalent. Linux being difficult to set up isn't a fault of the users. I am so tired of people who imply such. Some out there need to spend some time away from their command prompt and Emacs sessions and interact with the rest of the world and see how they use computers. Otherwise, Linux will forever remain just a nice file and web server.
Sorry for the frustrated tone...I just want Linux to succeed, and I see so many attitudes holding it back.
Despite OS X's minor shortcomings, they are nothing next to the ugly mess that is the Linux desktop experience. I can boot up my Linux desktop and be presented with apps that use "://" to label their open dialog. Vast heirarchies of unintelligently labelled items on my Start menu rip-off. Windows that leave trails when dragged. Tons of conflicting window libraries, each with their own looks and standards and fanbases. Poorly placed menu-items. General sluggishness and an attitude of "you figure it out yourself or write something on your own; we're volunteers so we can't be arsed to bother with the needs of the user." As technical users, most Slashdot denizens can get used to this experience and revel in the smugness of the fact that they're using their neat GNU/Linux systems they took so long to configure, as if that proves the value of their systems.
In reality, as GUI systems go, Linux is left in the dust, and the sooner it is realized, the greater chance there is of people finally getting off their asses and conquering the desktop. I would love to see that day come, because the potential is really there, but nobody takes advantage of it, and instead we obsess over taking screenshots with our latest KDE skin, complete with required xclock session running somewhere in the corner for effect. Or we run the latest GSomething app that rips off a popular Windows app, just implemented poorly (but with zillions more options, so that makes it better! 5 checkboxes and a config file edit for something I click a pushbutton for in Windows).
OS X is pretty and easy on my eyes. I like it, and the nice look makes it more pleasant to use. No wonder there are so many people actually devoted to using it. Aesthetics can really add to the experience, if elitists would stop and realize it instead of obsessing over copying every single thing in Windows and adding "G" or "K" to the beginning of their program names.
"Efficiency" and "speed" sound like the excuses people give me for using something ugly and horrible like FVWM95 or twm. I spend a lot of time using my computer, so it makes for a nicer experience if the colors aren't retina-burning and fonts are nicely smoothed and so forth.
I like when my house looks nice...don't you? I don't place function before form when it comes to my house--there is a balance. I think OS X has achieved that balance. Some might argue Windows XP placed form before function. Linux is most definitely function before form.
Yeah, let's complain about the shortcomings of the Windows GUI and then proceed to completely emulate it when we have the unique opportunity to start from scratch and revolutionize before a deep-seated userbase has been established.
Slashdot seems to have certain weeks when there are non-stop Microsoft articles, and two-thirds are obviously slanted in some way against them, usually through some snide and ingnorant remark in the summary or a biased headline.
Finding some unconfirmed 1995 article is just another great opportunity to get as many readers as possible in the "make fun of Microsoft for technical bugs" category to click the links. They're popular among the biased crowd of Slashdot, and so get posted. Just moving hits along, as usual.
I used a pencil eraser to get the dirt off. After receiving my NES in the early 90s, you can imagine my amazement when I turned it on and it worked as well as the day I got it.
Game Genie is very bad at loosening the connectors. Luckily, that doesn't seem to be too much of a problem right now. Occasionally I get a blinking screen, but not as much as before.
I'm dissatisfied with the system more over the fact that the editors exert such bizarre controls, not the occasional crackhead moderation (of which I've received many in my day). I replied to "The Post" way back when...I've never gotten mod points. My karma is "Excellent." The fact that the entire thread was modbombed repeatedly, overwriting several of the community's moderations, and people were blacklisted, along with other notable examples of strange editor moderation, doubled with the constant repeat-posts, spelling mistakes, inaccurate headlines, and misleading summaries, make for a dissatisfied cross-section of the Slashdot community (and the longest run-on sentence I've ever written).
So, I think most of the trolls are a result of the fact that lots of people don't respect Slashdot as much as they used to and see it as a big joke now, so they have fun with it. Some are motivated by vengeance, sure, but I think the majority simply don't take this place seriously anymore. Just my pet theory.:D
Slashdot Mirror
If I subscribe, do I get my blacklist removed? After all these years, it'd be nice to finally get moderator points for the first time. But because I posted in "The Post" way back when, a valid critique of Slashdot that the editors didn't like (but was modded up by the readers), I miss out. Will subscribing change that for me?
Nice, admins now have to pay money to some other website in order to know beforehand when their own sites will crash and burn. Real nice.
Gentoo was by far the easiest to configure, straightforward to understand and helpful in documentation. The first attempt was a disaster, the second attempt booted right up. The third attempt, on my 700 mhz Ibook was a total sucess with very minor cosmetic glitches.
Doesn't sound so newbie-friendly after all. Do you think newbies will bother after the first disaster? Or tolerate minor cosmetic glitches after three tries? They'll demand something that just works.
Doom had attitude. The way you cocked your shotgun repeatedly as you blasted holes in cacodemons. The grin on your face when you picked up a chainsaw.
The atmosphere for its time was amazing. Dark rooms lit only by broken, blinking computer lights. Adventures through flesh-ridden tunnels in hell.
It was just cool.
I'd rather be using something better than Windows.
And X.
Why is it a ridiculous attitude? Tell you what, you go away and design this killer GUI, and come back when you've got it all figured out. If it's good, I'm sure somebody will be enthusiastic enough to help you.
I'm going to let everyone in on a little secret:
Most movie reviewers aren't movie makers.
I know, I know. You're thinking, "How could somebody criticize something without being able to go out and make something better all by themselves?" But, it's true.
In fact, there are those who--horror of horrors--hold opinions about music (if you hate Limp Bizkit, why don't you go out and make something better?), games (if you hate Halo, why don't you go out amd make something better?), operating systems (if you hate MacOS, why don't you go out and make something better?), websites (if you hate Fark, why don't you go out and make something better), religion (if you don't like Scientology, why don't you go out and make something better?), and much, much more. In fact, recent studies have shown that people hold opinions about most everything they come across in their lives. All without being able to make better equivalents themselves!
Sorry, but while you were whinging on Slashdot tigert, jimmac, everaldo and tackat were busy making GNOME and KDE pretty. By all means go and help them, but I find the latest GTK2/GNOME2 apps much better looking than their equivalents on Windows or the Mac.
I'll continue my "whinging" because I hold opinions. I'm sorry you can't stand to read them.
Did I say Microsoft didn't copy those?
Yeah, I said something about innovation.
Windows 1.0 had the taskbar, by the way. Amiga what?
No, the ridiculous attitude to have is to presume that you can sit, having made absolutely no contributions aside from a retarded comment about a "killer app ... new GUI system," and tell coders what they should be doing with their time.
This is the attitude I see constantly that is holding Linux back. The idea that people are completely disallowed from making any criticism if they aren't elite coders themselves. If the GUI coders aren't in it to listen to the criticisms of the users, why bother pretending to be caring about their needs in the first place? I'm so sick of these attitudes. I've been hearing them since the mid-90s.
What exactly do you expect? Some sort of magical new alternative to dialogs, start menus, and taskbars? Those have been the staple of GUI design, not only for Windows, but for MacOS, BeOS, OS/2, and basically all other GUI systems.
I said dialogs and windows were staples of GUI design. But does it have to be such a blatant rip-off of Windows? Start-menu in bottom-left corner, taskbar, even print dialogs look the same. Yes, I do expect some innovative new alternative to a lot of things. Even Microsoft tried to modify their start menu a little bit so it wasn't just lists of items. Of course, I have more "revolutionary" ideas in mind for the basic design of my ideal GUI system, but as I am not a project leader nor a programmer, I won't list them on Slashdot. People here would be too afraid of the change anyway (yes, most Linux users are as engrained as Windows users when it comes to their systems).
Have people tried to create radically new desktops before? Yes, and those have always been spectacular failures.
So let's just copy forever. Yeah.
I don't expect something "radically new." I didn't even say to lose the concept of the desktop.
I just wish someone would start a project to create something new from the ground up. No X, no libraries like GTK/QT, no window manager on top of that, and then no desktop system on top of that. I'm sick of all the layers and the conflicting libraries and inconsistencies. I know it would take a lot of work, but if people can write entire 3D engines for free like Crystal Space and Genesis, reverse engineer the hardware for hundreds of arcade boards to write emulators like MAME, and create new VM subsystems from scratch for the kernel, surely there is the possibility of someone out there writing a good, seamless GUI system that can replace X. One in which there is a smart Install/Remove system for programs. One in which it intelligently auto-updates itself. One that actually looks and feel like a professional, productive system, but doesn't replace the command lines and so forth. I'm thinking of how OS X is like a "shell" on top of the Unix-like system behind it. I would love to have those two powerful systems on my laptop here. Instead, I use Windows 2000 because the GUI is actually responsive and pleasant on the eyes, and my apps install just by popping in a CD. I would love that sort of convenience on Linux so I can get things done, complete with a better overall GUI.
The second someone finds something better, EVERYONE will switch.
Exactly my point.
For now, this is the paradigm we have, and every group tries to creates its own vision of that paradigm. These are not "half-assed clones".
I'm sorry, but it's just that my opinion of GNOME and KDE are that they are horrible. Just because they are made by volunteers, quite honestly, doesn't mean a damned thing in the end. I still have a right to criticize it. If nobody wants criticism, don't release it to the public and instead just keep it on your private network. In the real world, it's not about the nice people behind the project, it's whether or not the output is actually good or not...
Believe it or not, but some people actually prefer using Linux desktop environments over Windows.
I know. I was one for years until Windows 2000 was released.
I'm one of those people. I can't stand Windows at all, so I use Gnome. It's not perfect, but neither is Windows. I use what gets the job done quickly and get the bonus of not having to be constantly irritated by the Windows feel.
Since neither are perfect, what's wrong with trying at something better? I'm sure you have ideas of your own about things that should be changed and improved.
Whenever a program is cloned, it is usually for good cause -- sometimes Microsoft or some other company creates a good program or adds something interesting to the UI that others overlooked before. To not take advantage of a proven design for the sake of being different is sheer arrogance. I've noticed that Gnome and several GTK apps draw their influence from various sources to create programs that have their own personality. (I've never really used KDE, but I'm sure the same can be said about it.)
It's just that I see all of the Windows conventions but poorly implemented. As someone with more of an eye for the graphics and usability side, I notice things like menu items being too close together or completely badly organized, colors not contrasting enough in certain areas, a bizarre and laggy desktop icon system, and so forth. I can't help it; my programming side is drowned out by the fact that what I'm looking at is kind of ugly. Pretty graphics here and there, but badly organized. For someone like me who spends hours into the night working, I need a GUI that doesn't cause me to want to rip my arm off and beat myself with it.
Which leads me to this: Your comment is total nonsense. Every one of your five paragraphs have at least one major flaw. Some have more.
Thanks for pointing out the flaws and addressing them instead of just flat-out calling my comment "total nonsense." With such logic, you have really convinced me that I should never criticize KDE or GNOME again.
I don't think I'll be able to influence your opinion on the matter at all, so I won't even try.
Why bother? If you're happy with KDE/GNOME, knock yourself out. Personally, I'm tired of feeling held back by those systems.
But since you've given your opinion, I thought I'd give mine.
Glad you did.
I just want something good enough that people stop relying on Microsoft. I think everyone here wants that. I just don't think KDE and GNOME and any of their obsessions with naming apps with a K or a G will get us there. Call me misguided or whatever, I think more people would agree with me than you think.
"Why can't people try and learn from constructive criticism?"
Because they're so used to their command shells and Emacs sessions and idealistic FSF attitudes that they don't realize that sometimes, you have to drop the attitude and listen to the usability needs of a typical user if you want the success that Linux needs to completely topple the competitors.
That is, of course, if you want Linux to be more generally used than it is. There are those who wish it to remain amongst the elite masses as strictly a geek OS so that they can impress their IRC friends. Whatever.
Bad analogy. Wheels are essential. That's like a mouse cursor or a basic window in GUI terms.
But KDE and Gnome also copy dialogs, start menus, taskbars, basic design conventions, and much more.
You can either copy forever in a futile attempt at winning the Windows crowd (yeah, let's give them half-assed clones of what they already have), or innovate and create something people will actually want to use.
You say Microsoft has good ideas that are poorly implemented. KDE and GNOME are just copying what's been done in that department, under the guise of making it more "customizable" (wow, I can move the taskbar and start menu around now).
Please, won't somebody create something new? The "killer app" I think Linux needs is a new GUI system designed from the ground up for desktop use. Don't give me "well, write it yourself," because I don't have the skill level, but more importantly, it's a ridiculous attitude to have to start with. Besides, if you want a graphic designer, I'm your man. Linux apps are always sorely lacking in the aesthetics department.
I am a happy Windows user.
o ot-window" nonsense like you have to do on other platforms. Today I had the windows of programs from no less than three different commercial applications running on my desktop. Productively. Lots of Windows users do this every day, usually without even thinking about it.
Since this is a story about Windows, all of the pre-programmed Slashbots are going to trot out and declare that Windows is broken, old, badly designed, missing features, whatever.
Meanwhile, the Windows team continues, release after release, to pound out great code that addresses all of the shortcomings people tend to cite. Faster direct rendering? Check. Anti-aliased text? Check. Multi-head? Check. Video extensions? Check. 3-D? Check.
Do you see a pattern here? Windows is versatile. Windows is extensible. Windows is the industry standard--all commercial GUI programs use it.
And as always, Windows's killer feature is its application base. No "desktop-on-top-of-a-window-manager-on-top-of-a-r
Perhaps someday the tired old "Windows is obsolete and must be replaced" will finally cease. But today is probably not that day. Let the flames begin. I will ignore them and continue to praise the Windows developers for another job well done.
Yeah, gee, how dare people ask for help.
Some people don't know what else to think when their mouse stops working. You're thinking in technical terms--a driver problem, a misconfigured XF86Config file, and so forth--when all they see is a cursor that's not working. Some people don't spend their lives in front of computers.
So, they say "my mouse is broke." They simply don't know any better. It doesn't mean they're stupid, want a "free ride," or don't want to "help themselves." They don't have time to learn how to get their simple input devices working, nor should they have to. Some people own computers simply just to USE them, not to learn how every little thing works internally. Elitist techies seem to look down on people who own a computer and don't know every little thing about it. It's an attitude that never ceases to make me laugh.
Do you know everything about how your car works? Or your fridge? Or television set? Would you like it if mechanics criticized you for not knowing any better about the internals of your appliances if you asked for help fixing it?
Or would you just switch to an easier-to-use appliance that didn't give you such problems? Is that a "free ride?" I call it choosing the better product.
I would rather we innovate, and create something so new and great that users can see how obviously better it is than the rest and switch in droves.
But, instead, we continue to copy the GUI mistakes of the past in an attempt to gain a slightly larger userbase.
The potential is there, if people could just get their priorities straight.
Let me get this straight...you consider a "free ride" like the ability to go from Windows to Linux frustrating? You want people to be "self-sufficient" and "figure things out for themselves?" In other words, you want them to take time out of their days learning to use their system in order to be productive, when they could be using that valuable time to actually BE productive?
If everyone operated like this, then there would be very little time wasted explaining the documented solutions to common problems, which would free everyone up to concentrate on the real problems, in order to make progress.
Instead of this ass-backwards view, how about developers get around to FIXING those common problems, so they don't need to be explained? Expecting people to make tinkering with their OS a hobby in order to use it--lest they get a "free ride"--is ridiculous to me. It reaks of the "smug feeling of superiority" you say isn't so prevalent. Linux being difficult to set up isn't a fault of the users. I am so tired of people who imply such. Some out there need to spend some time away from their command prompt and Emacs sessions and interact with the rest of the world and see how they use computers. Otherwise, Linux will forever remain just a nice file and web server.
Sorry for the frustrated tone...I just want Linux to succeed, and I see so many attitudes holding it back.
You, sir, are a scholar and a gentleman, and I salute you.
If someone says something beginning or ending with the phrase "if I remember correctly," it is most assuredly false.
Despite OS X's minor shortcomings, they are nothing next to the ugly mess that is the Linux desktop experience. I can boot up my Linux desktop and be presented with apps that use "://" to label their open dialog. Vast heirarchies of unintelligently labelled items on my Start menu rip-off. Windows that leave trails when dragged. Tons of conflicting window libraries, each with their own looks and standards and fanbases. Poorly placed menu-items. General sluggishness and an attitude of "you figure it out yourself or write something on your own; we're volunteers so we can't be arsed to bother with the needs of the user." As technical users, most Slashdot denizens can get used to this experience and revel in the smugness of the fact that they're using their neat GNU/Linux systems they took so long to configure, as if that proves the value of their systems.
In reality, as GUI systems go, Linux is left in the dust, and the sooner it is realized, the greater chance there is of people finally getting off their asses and conquering the desktop. I would love to see that day come, because the potential is really there, but nobody takes advantage of it, and instead we obsess over taking screenshots with our latest KDE skin, complete with required xclock session running somewhere in the corner for effect. Or we run the latest GSomething app that rips off a popular Windows app, just implemented poorly (but with zillions more options, so that makes it better! 5 checkboxes and a config file edit for something I click a pushbutton for in Windows).
Just my opinion on the matter...could be wrong.
The OS X dock is easily moved to the right side.
I've never been a moderator at Slashdot in all my years here. How is that a lie?
When I was 12, I was looking at girls. I win!
OS X is pretty and easy on my eyes. I like it, and the nice look makes it more pleasant to use. No wonder there are so many people actually devoted to using it. Aesthetics can really add to the experience, if elitists would stop and realize it instead of obsessing over copying every single thing in Windows and adding "G" or "K" to the beginning of their program names.
"Efficiency" and "speed" sound like the excuses people give me for using something ugly and horrible like FVWM95 or twm. I spend a lot of time using my computer, so it makes for a nicer experience if the colors aren't retina-burning and fonts are nicely smoothed and so forth.
I like when my house looks nice...don't you? I don't place function before form when it comes to my house--there is a balance. I think OS X has achieved that balance. Some might argue Windows XP placed form before function. Linux is most definitely function before form.
Yeah, let's complain about the shortcomings of the Windows GUI and then proceed to completely emulate it when we have the unique opportunity to start from scratch and revolutionize before a deep-seated userbase has been established.
Slashdot seems to have certain weeks when there are non-stop Microsoft articles, and two-thirds are obviously slanted in some way against them, usually through some snide and ingnorant remark in the summary or a biased headline.
Finding some unconfirmed 1995 article is just another great opportunity to get as many readers as possible in the "make fun of Microsoft for technical bugs" category to click the links. They're popular among the biased crowd of Slashdot, and so get posted. Just moving hits along, as usual.
I love that it's implied it is in some way the readers' fault for not telling him "in 2 hours."
I used a pencil eraser to get the dirt off. After receiving my NES in the early 90s, you can imagine my amazement when I turned it on and it worked as well as the day I got it.
Game Genie is very bad at loosening the connectors. Luckily, that doesn't seem to be too much of a problem right now. Occasionally I get a blinking screen, but not as much as before.
I'm dissatisfied with the system more over the fact that the editors exert such bizarre controls, not the occasional crackhead moderation (of which I've received many in my day). I replied to "The Post" way back when...I've never gotten mod points. My karma is "Excellent." The fact that the entire thread was modbombed repeatedly, overwriting several of the community's moderations, and people were blacklisted, along with other notable examples of strange editor moderation, doubled with the constant repeat-posts, spelling mistakes, inaccurate headlines, and misleading summaries, make for a dissatisfied cross-section of the Slashdot community (and the longest run-on sentence I've ever written).
:D
So, I think most of the trolls are a result of the fact that lots of people don't respect Slashdot as much as they used to and see it as a big joke now, so they have fun with it. Some are motivated by vengeance, sure, but I think the majority simply don't take this place seriously anymore. Just my pet theory.