Heavens above. i'd take this with a very large grain of salt. Here in the UK ; "The Sun" is more of a comic than a newspaper, it is notorious and despite having a huge readership, as far as newspapers go its hardly one I'd say was a reliable source of information here in the UK. How can you take a paper seriously when page 3 has a bird with her tits out every day?
I dont think that is actually possible. Since PearPC is a powerpc emulator, just because OSX runs on PPC it doesnt mean that PearPC is illegal. Other oses also run on ppc (surprise surprise , linux, darwin, et al) its up to the users what os they choose to run on it. I doubt Apple would be to phased by this anyway because performance is unlikely to be good enough to make it usable. It would be interesting to see the core used in something like a gamecube emulator. Again though its going to be a while before performance is anywhere near good enough for any real world applications (other than debugging (albeit slowly) and developing ppc code)
I didnt really get a chance to see the original article to which his responses were made but all in all his comments do seem pretty fair. I think that sometimes some of us linux-heads can get a bit fired up about things that are worthy of taking on face value.
Its a perfectly valid to point out areas where linux has problems, and i'll be the first to admit that sound is probably the biggest problem area.
Id also like to point out that if linux is to continue to become more and more mainstream as is happening at the moment. This generally means that more and more less techie people are going to be using it. And if we want linux to become more and more successfull then we must address the needs of you regular joe-sixpack user. Thats a fact, it is also very well dissing the man but he is presenting a genuine viewpoint, broadly speaking that point is that linux does not always deliver the expectations of the average joe-sixpack user. There are two ways to adress this problem, and that is for distro vendors not to make overrated claims etc. Or, fully test distro's to ensure that their claims are met. Its perfectly acceptable for Microsoft to lie and bullshit about windows, because thats what people have come to expect. We dont wont people to think linux vendors are full of shit too. We need to be much more diligent because Linux isnt yet in a position to have its problems accepted and taken for granted like they are with windows.
And for christs sake us linux-heads should really be nicer to people who are reviewing and testing our beloved OS, because sooner or later this guy is going to do another review. It would be nice if he remembers the linux/open source community as being a friendly and helpful one. Instead of one full of elitist zealots thinking that every person that uses windows must be thick. * (some people)
The other point that I would like to make is that pointing out problems is actually good for linux because highlighting them will generally, hopefully lead to them being addressed. Its a little embarrasing for us when they are pointed out in a high profile review such as his was but, at least he has got his point heard.... I submitted a bug with Arts some weeks ago, i dont even think anyone has actually even looked at it yet, but hopefully it will. New users with problems should be encouraged to submit bugs, problems and wishlists to open source projects. Everyone can help make Linux better no-matter how techie/non-techie you are. The best thing about Linux and Open Source is by far the community. Generally speaking we are a helpful bunch and only to happy to help freinds and newbs out because its something we love to do.
Transmeta To Add 'NX' Antivirus Feature To Forthcoming Chips?
Is it me or does this sound like a tremendous failure on the part of operating system vendors, in that this has to be implemented in hardware?
Im sure its more secure but hell, I think this could in the end lead to more complacency in software design. "No need to bother writing secure code cus new chips will have NX technology?" I personally dont even think this will be enough when it comes to the track record of Microsoft anyway.
Well, thats not strictly true either he (Tanenbaum) did not translate the Unix code at all, the code for Minix was written from scratch and published in an educational text book. If you want to find out about the real origins of Linux I suggest reading "Rebel Code", by "Glynn Moody"
Linux origins originally came from an educational book called "Operating Systems: Design & Implementation" The book came with illustrative examples called Minix. It could potentially be argued that the father of Linux is therefore the author of Minix Andrew Tanenbaum.
An interesting quote from the book. Tanenebaum (in response to a ban on discussing Unix code) : "He realised that the only way to make somenthing comparable available to his students was to write an operating system on my own that would be system call compatible with Unix" -- that is, working in exactly the same way -- "but which was my own code, not using any AT&T code at all."
Linus spent some time hacking with Minix but eventually found that he wanted something more "a better Minix, than Minix" thus the idea was borne.
Im more than certain that this is a publicity stunt. A very good one apparently that it should appear on CBS. "As it happens!" I was at Shugborough Hall on this very same day. I was doing a bit-part in a documentary called "All The Queens Cooks". There were a number of people milling around doing press-shoots etc. But to me it seemed like a stunt, to get people to visit the Hall, I think it also some sort of anniversary of the Enigma or Alan Turing round about now too.
They had got the Enigma all layed out on display on a table with red velvet, (ie for show). In reality if the real purpose of this excersize was to crack those codes dont you think they would have used a laptop with an enigma simulator/code cracking program? So while they may be attempting to crack that code I think there were also some alterior motives on their mind, like getting a bit of publicity for the tourist trade!
"snippet of desktop wallpaper pasted in the background"
Just how else are you supposed to do it then? Somehow you have to take a copy of whats underneath the window before you apply the translucency to it, thats the obvious way you do it! Its a small change to grab not just the wallpaper thats underneath but the icons and stuff too. The concept and methods are the same.
worse even because they control both the hardware and software
And you think that Microsoft dont control both the hardware and the software? (and that's not all else they control either!) Im amazed you are that shortsighted.
Translucent windows have been around for ages, blimey, 4or5 yrs ago i was playing around with translucent terminals in enlightenment window manager. Although I'm sure it goes back further than that.
Jesus though when is all this patent crap going to be stopped?
The purpose of a fine is to penalise the company. By passing the costs on to consumers they are effectively passing the penalty on to someone else.
Microsoft have that much control over "everything" simply breaking them up into seperate entities could be disatrous to the economy. These price increases will be far reaching, it means prices of OEM PCs + Windows tax will also go up, companies use PC's in all areas of business so other products and services go up. I am not an economist but it seems fairly obvious to me that the influence of Microsoft in todays world economies is a serious problem.
It sickens me that it has been allowed to get this far, though sooner or later they are going to collapse. As the old adage goes what goes up, must come down. In the case of Microsoft the higher you climb, the harder you fall. Lets just hope that it happens sooner in order to minimise disruption.
so this trend might reverse if air pollution clears up.
Well, lets see there is less light, and probably heat too. That isnt going to really help matters, people will just use more electricity to compensate. That translates to more pollution.
I'm personnally betting that the PS4 would be Sony's grand attempt at a universal media server. PS3 is too soon.
I dont beleive the parent actually stated that the PS3 would be this fabled media server. He just commented that eventually Sony would wipe the floor with Microsoft. Considering Sony have long been regarded as a quality brand as a manufacturer of home entertainment systems, hi-fi's TV's and whatever else Id say that would be a fairly good bet. The only possible way Microsoft could infiltrate that it to make their OS the standard for this kind of equipment. Something I hope never happens, frankly the idea of watching a DVD and getting a BSOD at a critical point during the movie doesnt exactly fill me with excitement
I have found several people noting the benefits of "rox filer" on these lists, Im sure its a great application (not having used it) but surely what is telling about this comment is that the standard Gnome tools are so crap one needs to install "Rox Filer" in order to get a good experience. It doesnt matter which way you look at it, if you need to replace a part of Gnome with a different application then there must be something poor about the standard Gnome distribution. Maybe Gnome need to think about including rox into the project ?
Well, dude, if you are going to download bent or pirated software you have got to be prepared for the consequences. Who do you have to blame other than yourself ? Dipshit ! I can hardly believe your post got accepted on slashdot!
I think you replied to the wrong comment, but I spotted your comment amongst the mist.
Basically its all pretty standard stuff.
Im using the latest build of KDE. Simply right click on the panel
go to panel menu-> configure panel. In there you can find options to make the panel transparent, resize it and all sorts of other funky stuff. Also I removed all the applets and created a child panel (right) which i use for the applets and system tray. Again i made this transparent.
For the stippling and other look & feel stuff you will need the Baghira look & feel from themes.kde.org
For the icing on the cake you will need the icon theme (16mb) and the shadows patch
I have to admit that I do prefer KDE, I just think that its easier to use, more flexible and more attractive to the eye. Im sure Gnome can look nice (Post your screenshots!), but Ive always found its ugly to the core. File requesters (even the latest ones are just butt ugly and inflexible). The widgets and icons look horrid and the taskbar at the bottom has never looked good.
Id like to see a gnome desktop that looks as nice as mine. Without the hideous file requesters and generally with more configurabilty.
I've tried gnome several times but I've always ended up going back to KDE because gnome has always made me feel unpleasently restricted.
Having said that, I am open minded and if the Gnome projects ever offers a better experience for me than that which I experience with KDE then id switch.
Linux has several promising projects on the cards, however I havent found any that I have been able to use to compose tunes. Ardour for example is a very promising hard disk recorder with a few nice bells and whistles, however instability and regular crashes rendered it useless. Same goes for Rosegarden (Cubase VST-esque) which suffers similar stability problems. This is seems to be exacerbated by the variety of audio drivers / audio subsystems required Arts, Jack, Alsa (which is now part of the kernel) OSS, esd, GStreamer and whatever else i've forgotten. The latest build of Arts on my Gentoo box is less stable than the previous build and VBR MP3 playback is so bad I've had to change my audio backend to GStreamer and use non-arts players instead. (Clearly not a happy state of affairs)
Most of the soundtrackers are pretty damn inferior when you've spent a lot of time with Med Soundstudio a clone of which id love to see under linux. There are some good sample editors I've found though , really that is about it.
My comments probably sound rather negative, but the sad fact is this is an area in which linux is sadly lacking. I switched to linux around 4yrs ago. Since then I havent used my computer for music making purposes, not for want of trying but there simply are not any tools that I have discovered that come close to windows / mac counterparts. Rosegarden is probably the closest we have but its not really viable for anything serious yet.
I've tried many of the tools but most of the time the interface gets in the way of creativity or stability is poor.
Im not sure what the real solution is, Id like to see an audiosubsystem/backend standardised for a start. It looks like Alsa is going to be the replacement for OSS, but the additional layers Arts (KDE) seem to interfere and get in the way. I think these guys might be on the right track in creating a dedicated music distribution. Ill be keeping an eye on these guys and maybe the day will come when I can use my computer to write tunes again.
Nick (who would really like to use linux for music composition, but remains without tools)
One word "mplayer" , crossplatform media player. Many would say its better than WMP. I cant comment on this (havent used windows for years) but it plays everything you can throw at it including QuickTime & WMP. The developer mailing list is also very active. Xine is good too, new versions of KDE use the xine libraries xine-lib for embedding media into applications file browsing , web browsing etc. so i'd say its very good.
I would have looked into a way to make this windows apps draw the controls with the linux gui theme.
I wonder just how difficult that would be. A good chunk of the controls are basically pixmaps there would be some constraints as to dimensions and possibly palette issues. But since we have a partially complete native implemetation of the windows API in wine I cant imagine that it would be that much of a mammoth task to intercept API calls and/or use an alternative pixmaps. The wine project are probably more concerned about achieving compatibility at the moment than anything else. None the less I wouldnt mind seeing something along these lines also.
Slashdot Mirror
Heavens above. i'd take this with a very large grain of salt. Here in the UK ; "The Sun" is more of a comic than a newspaper, it is notorious and despite having a huge readership, as far as newspapers go its hardly one I'd say was a reliable source of information here in the UK. How can you take a paper seriously when page 3 has a bird with her tits out every day?
I dont think that is actually possible. Since PearPC is a powerpc emulator, just because OSX runs on PPC it doesnt mean that PearPC is illegal. Other oses also run on ppc (surprise surprise , linux, darwin, et al) its up to the users what os they choose to run on it. I doubt Apple would be to phased by this anyway because performance is unlikely to be good enough to make it usable. It would be interesting to see the core used in something like a gamecube emulator. Again though its going to be a while before performance is anywhere near good enough for any real world applications (other than debugging (albeit slowly) and developing ppc code)
...
nick
I didnt really get a chance to see the original article to which his responses were made but all in all his comments do seem pretty fair. I think that sometimes some of us linux-heads can get a bit fired up about things that are worthy of taking on face value.
Its a perfectly valid to point out areas where linux has problems, and i'll be the first to admit that sound is probably the biggest problem area.
Id also like to point out that if linux is to continue to become more and more mainstream as is happening at the moment. This generally means that more and more less techie people are going to be using it. And if we want linux to become more and more successfull then we must address the needs of you regular joe-sixpack user. Thats a fact, it is also very well dissing the man but he is presenting a genuine viewpoint, broadly speaking that point is that linux does not always deliver the expectations of the average joe-sixpack user. There are two ways to adress this problem, and that is for distro vendors not to make overrated claims etc. Or, fully test distro's to ensure that their claims are met.
Its perfectly acceptable for Microsoft to lie and bullshit about windows, because thats what people have come to expect. We dont wont people to think linux vendors are full of shit too. We need to be much more diligent because Linux isnt yet in a position to have its problems accepted and taken for granted like they are with windows.
And for christs sake us linux-heads should really be nicer to people who are reviewing and testing our beloved OS, because sooner or later this guy is going to do another review. It would be nice if he remembers the linux/open source community as being a friendly and helpful one. Instead of one full of elitist zealots thinking that every person that uses windows must be thick. * (some people)
The other point that I would like to make is that pointing out problems is actually good for linux because highlighting them will generally, hopefully lead to them being addressed. Its a little embarrasing for us when they are pointed out in a high profile review such as his was but, at least he has got his point heard.... I submitted a bug with Arts some weeks ago, i dont even think anyone has actually even looked at it yet, but hopefully it will. New users with problems should be encouraged to submit bugs, problems and wishlists to open source projects. Everyone can help make Linux better no-matter how techie/non-techie you are. The best thing about Linux and Open Source is by far the community. Generally speaking we are a helpful bunch and only to happy to help freinds and newbs out because its something we love to do.
Lets be nicer to each other!
Nick
Transmeta To Add 'NX' Antivirus Feature To Forthcoming Chips?
...
Is it me or does this sound like a tremendous failure on the part of operating system vendors, in that this has to be implemented in hardware?
Im sure its more secure but hell, I think this could in the end lead to more complacency in software design. "No need to bother writing secure code cus new chips will have NX technology?" I personally dont even think this will be enough when it comes to the track record of Microsoft anyway.
nick
Well, thats not strictly true either he (Tanenbaum) did not translate the Unix code at all, the code for Minix was written from scratch and published in an educational text book. If you want to find out about the real origins of Linux I suggest reading "Rebel Code", by "Glynn Moody"
Linux origins originally came from an educational book called "Operating Systems: Design & Implementation" The book came with illustrative examples called Minix. It could potentially be argued that the father of Linux is therefore the author of Minix Andrew Tanenbaum.
An interesting quote from the book. Tanenebaum (in response to a ban on discussing Unix code) : "He realised that the only way to make somenthing comparable available to his students was to write an operating system on my own that would be system call compatible with Unix" -- that is, working in exactly the same way -- "but which was my own code, not using any AT&T code at all."
Linus spent some time hacking with Minix but eventually found that he wanted something more "a better Minix, than Minix" thus the idea was borne.
Anyway go read the book its fascinating
Im more than certain that this is a publicity stunt. A very good one apparently that it should appear on CBS. "As it happens!" I was at Shugborough Hall on this very same day. I was doing a bit-part in a documentary called "All The Queens Cooks". There were a number of people milling around doing press-shoots etc. But to me it seemed like a stunt, to get people to visit the Hall, I think it also some sort of anniversary of the Enigma or Alan Turing round about now too.
...
They had got the Enigma all layed out on display on a table with red velvet, (ie for show). In reality if the real purpose of this excersize was to crack those codes dont you think they would have used a laptop with an enigma simulator/code cracking program? So while they may be attempting to crack that code I think there were also some alterior motives on their mind, like getting a bit of publicity for the tourist trade!
nick
"snippet of desktop wallpaper pasted in the background"
..
Just how else are you supposed to do it then? Somehow you have to take a copy of whats underneath the window before you apply the translucency to it, thats the obvious way you do it! Its a small change to grab not just the wallpaper thats underneath but the icons and stuff too. The concept and methods are the same.
nick
worse even because they control both the hardware and software
And you think that Microsoft dont control both the hardware and the software? (and that's not all else they control either!) Im amazed you are that shortsighted.
Translucent windows have been around for ages, blimey, 4or5 yrs ago i was playing around with translucent terminals in enlightenment window manager. Although I'm sure it goes back further than that.
Jesus though when is all this patent crap going to be stopped?
The purpose of a fine is to penalise the company. By passing the costs on to consumers they are effectively passing the penalty on to someone else.
Microsoft have that much control over "everything" simply breaking them up into seperate entities could be disatrous to the economy. These price increases will be far reaching, it means prices of OEM PCs + Windows tax will also go up, companies use PC's in all areas of business so other products and services go up. I am not an economist but it seems fairly obvious to me that the influence of Microsoft in todays world economies is a serious problem.
It sickens me that it has been allowed to get this far, though sooner or later they are going to collapse. As the old adage goes what goes up, must come down. In the case of Microsoft the higher you climb, the harder you fall. Lets just hope that it happens sooner in order to minimise disruption.
Nick,
Why dont they just weave some flexible tubing into some cloth and stick a fan on one end? Kinda like squashy version of one of these ?
these ?
Or if air isnt good enough howabout pumping a gas or liquid through that tube?
so this trend might reverse if air pollution clears up.
Well, lets see there is less light, and probably heat too. That isnt going to really help matters, people will just use more electricity to compensate. That translates to more pollution.
Oh dear it looks like we are all doomed.
nick..
I'm personnally betting that the PS4 would be Sony's grand attempt at a universal media server. PS3 is too soon.
..
I dont beleive the parent actually stated that the PS3 would be this fabled media server. He just commented that eventually Sony would wipe the floor with Microsoft. Considering Sony have long been regarded as a quality brand as a manufacturer of home entertainment systems, hi-fi's TV's and whatever else Id say that would be a fairly good bet. The only possible way Microsoft could infiltrate that it to make their OS the standard for this kind of equipment. Something I hope never happens, frankly the idea of watching a DVD and getting a BSOD at a critical point during the movie doesnt exactly fill me with excitement
nick
Hmm, IBM, Sony, new chip , not wanting to give M$ a lead ... I wonder what OS this thing will be running..
Could potentially be very very tasty.
nick...
It sounds like a case of give away crap that nobody uses in order to make themselves look good in the eyes of the Open Source community.
..
Having said that the CPL , the license itself doesnt see too bad and its an officially acceptable open source license.
The really interesting part here would be finding a way to make these projects in some way useful to linux. That would really stir the broth up!
nick
I have found several people noting the benefits of "rox filer" on these lists, Im sure its a great application (not having used it) but surely what is telling about this comment is that the standard Gnome tools are so crap one needs to install "Rox Filer" in order to get a good experience. It doesnt matter which way you look at it, if you need to replace a part of Gnome with a different application then there must be something poor about the standard Gnome distribution. Maybe Gnome need to think about including rox into the project ?
Well, dude, if you are going to download bent or pirated software you have got to be prepared for the consequences. Who do you have to blame other than yourself ? Dipshit ! I can hardly believe your post got accepted on slashdot!
I have found the Series 60 version very useful to.
http://s2putty.sourceforge.net/
Works like a dream on my Nokia 6600
There is a configuration option in the Appearance control panel.
Here
nick...
I think you replied to the wrong comment, but I spotted your comment amongst the mist.
Basically its all pretty standard stuff.
Im using the latest build of KDE. Simply right click on the panel
go to panel menu-> configure panel. In there you can find options to make the panel transparent, resize it and all sorts of other funky stuff. Also I removed all the applets and created a child panel (right) which i use for the applets and system tray. Again i made this transparent.
For the stippling and other look & feel stuff you will need the Baghira look & feel from themes.kde.org
For the icing on the cake you will need the icon theme (16mb) and the shadows patch
Im unable to RTFA due to the slashdotting.
...
I have to admit that I do prefer KDE, I just think that its easier to use, more flexible and more attractive to the eye. Im sure Gnome can look nice (Post your screenshots!), but Ive always found its ugly to the core. File requesters (even the latest ones are just butt ugly and inflexible). The widgets and icons look horrid and the taskbar at the bottom has never looked good.
Id like to see a gnome desktop that looks as nice as mine. Without the hideous file requesters and generally with more configurabilty.
I've tried gnome several times but I've always ended up going back to KDE because gnome has always made me feel unpleasently restricted.
Having said that, I am open minded and if the Gnome projects ever offers a better experience for me than that which I experience with KDE then id switch.
nick
Is Mono actually in a state where it can be deployed?
Linux has several promising projects on the cards, however I havent found any that I have been able to use to compose tunes. Ardour for example is a very promising hard disk recorder with a few nice bells and whistles, however instability and regular crashes rendered it useless. Same goes for Rosegarden (Cubase VST-esque) which suffers similar stability problems. This is seems to be exacerbated by the variety of audio drivers / audio subsystems required Arts, Jack, Alsa (which is now part of the kernel) OSS, esd, GStreamer and whatever else i've forgotten. The latest build of Arts on my Gentoo box is less stable than the previous build and VBR MP3 playback is so bad I've had to change my audio backend to GStreamer and use non-arts players instead. (Clearly not a happy state of affairs)
Most of the soundtrackers are pretty damn inferior when you've spent a lot of time with Med Soundstudio a clone of which id love to see under linux. There are some good sample editors I've found though , really that is about it.
My comments probably sound rather negative, but the sad fact is this is an area in which linux is sadly lacking. I switched to linux around 4yrs ago. Since then I havent used my computer for music making purposes, not for want of trying but there simply are not any tools that I have discovered that come close to windows / mac counterparts. Rosegarden is probably the closest we have but its not really viable for anything serious yet.
I've tried many of the tools but most of the time the interface gets in the way of creativity or stability is poor.
Im not sure what the real solution is, Id like to see an audiosubsystem/backend standardised for a start. It looks like Alsa is going to be the replacement for OSS, but the additional layers Arts (KDE) seem to interfere and get in the way. I think these guys might be on the right track in creating a dedicated music distribution. Ill be keeping an eye on these guys and maybe the day will come when I can use my computer to write tunes again.
Nick (who would really like to use linux for music composition, but remains without tools)
One word "mplayer" , crossplatform media player. Many would say its better than WMP. I cant comment on this (havent used windows for years) but it plays everything you can throw at it including QuickTime & WMP. The developer mailing list is also very active. Xine is good too, new versions of KDE use the xine libraries xine-lib for embedding media into applications file browsing , web browsing etc. so i'd say its very good.
...
nick
I would have looked into a way to make this windows apps draw the controls with the linux gui theme.
I wonder just how difficult that would be. A good chunk of the controls are basically pixmaps there would be some constraints as to dimensions and possibly palette issues. But since we have a partially complete native implemetation of the windows API in wine I cant imagine that it would be that much of a mammoth task to intercept API calls and/or use an alternative pixmaps. The wine project are probably more concerned about achieving compatibility at the moment than anything else. None the less I wouldnt mind seeing something along these lines also.
nick...