Dont get me wrong though, I can see myself going to Unity in a few years, but that is a LOOOONG time as far as Linux is concerned. There are just too many issues with it right now.
Don't worry, by the time Unity's stability begins to materialize, they'll have lost interest and moved on to something else. Such is the way of the Linux desktop.
Eclipse and others (Anjuta, KDevelop, Kommodo, emacs, etc.) do just fine.
That's frankly the biggest load of crap I've heard all day. You're comparing a professional development tools to Anjuta and KDevelop? For fuck's sake.
The attitude that these half-baked, ancient development tools are as slick as what MS and Apple are offering sums up the problem with the Linux desktop: a steadfast refusal to stay competitive and serious delusion about why the Linux desktop hasn't caught on.
The core of his argument seems to be that the lack of ABI stability was the main reason we didnâ(TM)t get a significant market share in the desktop market. Personally I think this argument doesnâ(TM)t hold water at all...
This is one argument I really don't get, and yet the FOSS library maintainers seem to be adamant that they must be able to break their ABIs whenever they want.
Yes, I know keeping a stable ABI is hard. But here's the deal: as a maintainer, it's your job.
Let's not forget that the point of libraries is to develop software on top of them. If the library ABIs are shifting all the time, then those libraries have failed at their most fundamental task.
There's absolutely zero excuses for why an app written three years ago shouldn't run fine today. None. If MS and Apple can do it, then so can you.
But it's worse than that. Writing a GUI application that runs just on the past two or three versions of Ubuntu requires writing your own compatability layers, or at least peppering your code with #defines. Why on earth would we want to put this burden on application developers?
Sure you can! And it's a totally intuitive process. You just open your web browser, visit the Gnome Shell extensions site, click through a few pages of poorly organized extensions, and there will be five of them that sort of do what you want and are only partially broken.
Microsoft has previously argued against such a move by analogy, claiming a burglary victim wouldn't expect to be able to sue the manufacturer of the door or a window in their home.
Slashdot Mirror
So you not only didn't read the article, but you didn't even read the headline?
So you're saying people should expect less from Linux because it's free?
Don't worry, by the time Unity's stability begins to materialize, they'll have lost interest and moved on to something else. Such is the way of the Linux desktop.
What about the white iPhone 4?
Um, what? We just went through the worst recession in years, and recent CS grads were still getting jobs without a whole lot of effort.
Now we're knee deep into WTF territory. If you have a CS degree, why the hell are you working an IT job?
Or if it turns out it was a hacker, that won't inspire confidence in GoDaddy either.
Yes, the "if you're not drinking the Kool Aid, you're a corporate whore" is totally the kind of attitude that leads to excellent software.
Yeah, but those are *square* icons, you see.
That's frankly the biggest load of crap I've heard all day. You're comparing a professional development tools to Anjuta and KDevelop? For fuck's sake.
The attitude that these half-baked, ancient development tools are as slick as what MS and Apple are offering sums up the problem with the Linux desktop: a steadfast refusal to stay competitive and serious delusion about why the Linux desktop hasn't caught on.
Leave it to Slashdot commenters to provide free evidence for the study!
Don't get me wrong, the list view is great and I use it all the time.
But in terms of information density, the compact view lets you see a lot more. It's particularly useful on devices with lower resolutions.
Actually they removed compact view. To say it's "more compact" is the opposite of what happened.
I don't know where you're buying your indie games, but most of the ones I've seen cost $10 or less on Steam.
If you're paying $50 for indie games, someone is ripping you off.
A good start, but wake me up when there's a high-level language that compiles into DNA.
Hmm, maybe that doesn't stem from piracy so much as the constant firehose of low-quality games from Ubisoft?
You can fool people for a while, but eventually they're going to notice you're charging $50 for what other companies would release as a $10 DLC.
But hey, you hang out with hornets, you get stung.
First of all, if you do that it's no longer the same binary.
Secondly, why would you place that burden on the user? The whole point of software is to solve problems for users, not to create new ones.
FTA:
This is one argument I really don't get, and yet the FOSS library maintainers seem to be adamant that they must be able to break their ABIs whenever they want.
Yes, I know keeping a stable ABI is hard. But here's the deal: as a maintainer, it's your job.
Let's not forget that the point of libraries is to develop software on top of them. If the library ABIs are shifting all the time, then those libraries have failed at their most fundamental task.
There's absolutely zero excuses for why an app written three years ago shouldn't run fine today. None. If MS and Apple can do it, then so can you.
But it's worse than that. Writing a GUI application that runs just on the past two or three versions of Ubuntu requires writing your own compatability layers, or at least peppering your code with #defines. Why on earth would we want to put this burden on application developers?
Sure you can! And it's a totally intuitive process. You just open your web browser, visit the Gnome Shell extensions site, click through a few pages of poorly organized extensions, and there will be five of them that sort of do what you want and are only partially broken.
Gnome could alter their deal by changing the APIs every 6 months, breaking software for no reason.
Oh, except wait -- only one of those is actually happening.
Um, no. That's like saying people have bad vision because we evolved to wear glasses.
Look, I mean you probably found a bug. The thing to do is to either post on the project mailing list or file a bug report.
Posting a comment on Slashdot is unlikely to result in a solution.
The fact that you remember your dream suggests you did, in fact, learn something.
Interesting choice of words there!