As much as I apreciate the KDE efforts, I don't want Gnome to be left behind. What I like about GTK+/Gnome is that in contrast to Qt/KDE it is far easier to use in non-C++ languages. There a zillion of language bindings for GTK+/Gnome out, so I have the freedom to write for it in the language of my choice - hey, I can even use Haskell do write GTK+ apps:-)
Besides, I like the fact that Gnome performs notably faster and less memory consumpting on smaller machines (my notebook comes to mind) - as long as you don't use Nautilus.
BTW, any news on Nautilus? Although it's very bloated, I like that thing. Don't let it fade...
I'd be interested in that, too. All I could get so far from the interview and the screeshots is that it's nothing more than the 23876th incarnation of a WIMP-Interface. From what I could get so far, Natulius is more of a Next Big Thing than E17. Looks a bit like the Amiga's Workbench to me.
When I read in Raksin's about ZUIs, I had to think of Nautilus. Sure, it is far from what a proper ZUI should be like, but it is a small step in the right direction. Too bad that it is overshadowed by Konq and that development or at least publicity has stalled since Eazel left the building.
Without Jef Raskin there surely wouldn't be this discussion. Without Raskin, Apple had no Mac - he was the main driving force behinde the Macintosh, and it took him a quite while to convience Steve Jobs of his idea.
Not really. Although BeOS is not based on Unix despite other claims, the drivers work somehow similar. A Be engineer once stated on the dev mailing list that it'd be possible to port XFree86 drivers in a couple of hours.
As for sound and network drivers, just like in Unix they are mapped to device files with regular open(), read(), write() etc functions.
Well, this is the future how I'd like to see it:
Palm takes BeIA in order to compete with the PocketPC/WindowsCE platform and possibly licence BeOS for devices like Edirol and Tascam make them or let Sony build HARP-devices. BeOS will remain as the development platform for BeIA, I think it ain't that easy to migrate the complete development environment to Win2k. Palm will make BeOS available for free just like you can get the PalmOS development tools for free now. In order to have broad acceptance for that development platform, Palm will be forced to keep BeOS up to date with support for the latest hardware, like Kyro or PIV.
Let's just hope the best
I've been participating in a demo that became #5 its class at MK2k-1. It was a PC-demo a friend of mine wrote with fpc and I made the sound on my Amiga. I has been real fun!
I can only recommend watching the c64 and Amiga demos too, with a fast box and a good emulator they should run in about realtime (although, the originals sound much better). When you really know what good coders can get out of such "old" machines, you really wonder why our GHz-GForce-512MB RAM boxes are so dog slow.
That's no different from hot-plugging any other devices, be it a mouse, a printer or a modem. Hot-plugging always contains the risk of damaging the chip that sits behind the port. That's nothing special to the Palm.
You are just/so/ right. I don't have 22 years of experience (22 comes close to my age), but I too noticed that the UI still is what really holds most OS projects back from broader acceptance.
I'm really disappointed with KDE2, it is full of compromises due to the lack of leadership. They didn't even decide wether to put the menu bar on top of the screen or inside the window, they just made it an option! Making such essential decisions an option is a bad mistake. To me it really seems like they could not decide wether to make a true SDI or a true MDI environment, thus running into serious problems.
Take a look at KWord for Example: For every document instance, you get a new window with lots of space-wasting buttons on the top. This does not happen with true MDI like in Word 97 for Windows nor with true SDI like in Word for Macintosh.
The P4 should have shown everyone that MHz dont't say anything. In most cases, a fast Athlon or P3 can beat the almost 400MHz faster P4.
So there's no reason why a 900MHz Sparc or a 866MHz G4 shouldn't be able to compete with the CPUs above. MHz don't count - it's that simple.
But it'll take AtheOS a long time until it reaches the point where BeOS is now: AtheOS still lacks audio support, lots of drivers, apps, video support, dial-up networking...
Of the things I do every day in BeOS, I can't do a single thing in AtheOS yet.
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Re:The world was different in 1985
on
An Amiga Round-up
·
· Score: 1
Yes, that was holding me back a long time from switching from my Amiga 4000 to a Mac or PC. Only in 1999, when I saw BeOS R4 on x86 for the first time, I immediately sold my Amiga and got me a cheap PC just in order to run BeOS on it (and it still runs 90% of time on it). But Windows or Unix flavours never came anywhere near the responsiveness of the Amiga.
What Be really has proven is that a new proprietary OS, no matter how cool and wonderful, can easily be ruined with poor marketing and a focus shift in the worst moment.
Just because Debian does it in text mode instead of in Qt or GTK doesn't mean it's installation is more complicated.
As far as I could see, Debian and SuSE (in expert mode) ask you the same questions, just that SuSE does it in more colours. Who's selecting easy mode anyway?
Calli's book is great, but it's already outdated. It doesn't describe any of Blender 2.x advanced features (like the game engine) and IMHO you should consider buying the Blender manual instead (which is much more beautiful and there's also a lot of Calli's work in it - he works for NaN now).
the manual
"It's not about speed, it's about comfort" - I myself did not change to dvorak (I haven't found a layout with german umlauts yet), but the folks I know who switched to dvorak told me that it felt much more comfortable.
I don't know if it'd make sense for me - all the studies assume that your fingers rest on the middle row, but I keep my fingers always about 1 cm above the keyboard.
You call putting all the important keys away from your fingers "with ergonomics and optimal typing speed in mind"? Just try and type a word like minimal on QWERTY and then on Dvorak, then you'll notice the difference. Dvorak still makes you type left-right-left-... whenever possible but for most words you don't have to move your fingers away from the home position. Maybe it's not faster (although other (unbiased?) studies claim that), but it definately puts less strain on your fingers.
Slashdot Mirror
As much as I apreciate the KDE efforts, I don't want Gnome to be left behind. What I like about GTK+/Gnome is that in contrast to Qt/KDE it is far easier to use in non-C++ languages. There a zillion of language bindings for GTK+/Gnome out, so I have the freedom to write for it in the language of my choice - hey, I can even use Haskell do write GTK+ apps :-)
Besides, I like the fact that Gnome performs notably faster and less memory consumpting on smaller machines (my notebook comes to mind) - as long as you don't use Nautilus.
BTW, any news on Nautilus? Although it's very bloated, I like that thing. Don't let it fade...
I'd be interested in that, too. All I could get so far from the interview and the screeshots is that it's nothing more than the 23876th incarnation of a WIMP-Interface. From what I could get so far, Natulius is more of a Next Big Thing than E17. Looks a bit like the Amiga's Workbench to me.
When I read in Raksin's about ZUIs, I had to think of Nautilus. Sure, it is far from what a proper ZUI should be like, but it is a small step in the right direction. Too bad that it is overshadowed by Konq and that development or at least publicity has stalled since Eazel left the building.
Without Jef Raskin there surely wouldn't be this discussion. Without Raskin, Apple had no Mac - he was the main driving force behinde the Macintosh, and it took him a quite while to convience Steve Jobs of his idea.
Obviously, you didn't read his book. Jef explains his idea of a revoutionary UI looks like, and it makes sense to me.
What's wrong? I have written drivers for BeOS, I have read sources of Unix drivers. I know how BeOS drivers look like from the inside, do you?
Not really. Although BeOS is not based on Unix despite other claims, the drivers work somehow similar. A Be engineer once stated on the dev mailing list that it'd be possible to port XFree86 drivers in a couple of hours. As for sound and network drivers, just like in Unix they are mapped to device files with regular open(), read(), write() etc functions.
Well, this is the future how I'd like to see it:
Palm takes BeIA in order to compete with the PocketPC/WindowsCE platform and possibly licence BeOS for devices like Edirol and Tascam make them or let Sony build HARP-devices. BeOS will remain as the development platform for BeIA, I think it ain't that easy to migrate the complete development environment to Win2k. Palm will make BeOS available for free just like you can get the PalmOS development tools for free now. In order to have broad acceptance for that development platform, Palm will be forced to keep BeOS up to date with support for the latest hardware, like Kyro or PIV.
Let's just hope the best
Imagine how great this will be for a night out: No more worries about dress codes, your clothes will always match to the club you're in!
I've been participating in a demo that became #5 its class at MK2k-1. It was a PC-demo a friend of mine wrote with fpc and I made the sound on my Amiga. I has been real fun!
I can only recommend watching the c64 and Amiga demos too, with a fast box and a good emulator they should run in about realtime (although, the originals sound much better). When you really know what good coders can get out of such "old" machines, you really wonder why our GHz-GForce-512MB RAM boxes are so dog slow.
That's no different from hot-plugging any other devices, be it a mouse, a printer or a modem. Hot-plugging always contains the risk of damaging the chip that sits behind the port. That's nothing special to the Palm.
You are just /so/ right. I don't have 22 years of experience (22 comes close to my age), but I too noticed that the UI still is what really holds most OS projects back from broader acceptance.
I'm really disappointed with KDE2, it is full of compromises due to the lack of leadership. They didn't even decide wether to put the menu bar on top of the screen or inside the window, they just made it an option! Making such essential decisions an option is a bad mistake. To me it really seems like they could not decide wether to make a true SDI or a true MDI environment, thus running into serious problems.
Take a look at KWord for Example: For every document instance, you get a new window with lots of space-wasting buttons on the top. This does not happen with true MDI like in Word 97 for Windows nor with true SDI like in Word for Macintosh.
The P4 should have shown everyone that MHz dont't say anything. In most cases, a fast Athlon or P3 can beat the almost 400MHz faster P4. So there's no reason why a 900MHz Sparc or a 866MHz G4 shouldn't be able to compete with the CPUs above. MHz don't count - it's that simple.
Mono won't hurt anyone. The more software there is, the better, right? No one's forced to use it, but we get lots of possibilities through it.
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But it'll take AtheOS a long time until it reaches the point where BeOS is now: AtheOS still lacks audio support, lots of drivers, apps, video support, dial-up networking... Of the things I do every day in BeOS, I can't do a single thing in AtheOS yet.
--
Yes, that was holding me back a long time from switching from my Amiga 4000 to a Mac or PC. Only in 1999, when I saw BeOS R4 on x86 for the first time, I immediately sold my Amiga and got me a cheap PC just in order to run BeOS on it (and it still runs 90% of time on it). But Windows or Unix flavours never came anywhere near the responsiveness of the Amiga.
--
What Be really has proven is that a new proprietary OS, no matter how cool and wonderful, can easily be ruined with poor marketing and a focus shift in the worst moment.
--
How come people are more likely to shoot their family members instead of burglars?
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Oh my god! They killed Ötzi! You bastards!
--
Just because Debian does it in text mode instead of in Qt or GTK doesn't mean it's installation is more complicated.
As far as I could see, Debian and SuSE (in expert mode) ask you the same questions, just that SuSE does it in more colours. Who's selecting easy mode anyway?
--
You haven't talked to your buddies lately, have you? NaN is back in business.
--
Calli's book is great, but it's already outdated. It doesn't describe any of Blender 2.x advanced features (like the game engine) and IMHO you should consider buying the Blender manual instead (which is much more beautiful and there's also a lot of Calli's work in it - he works for NaN now).
the manual
--
Become a lefty.
--
"It's not about speed, it's about comfort" - I myself did not change to dvorak (I haven't found a layout with german umlauts yet), but the folks I know who switched to dvorak told me that it felt much more comfortable. I don't know if it'd make sense for me - all the studies assume that your fingers rest on the middle row, but I keep my fingers always about 1 cm above the keyboard.
--
You call putting all the important keys away from your fingers "with ergonomics and optimal typing speed in mind"? Just try and type a word like minimal on QWERTY and then on Dvorak, then you'll notice the difference. Dvorak still makes you type left-right-left-... whenever possible but for most words you don't have to move your fingers away from the home position. Maybe it's not faster (although other (unbiased?) studies claim that), but it definately puts less strain on your fingers.
--