I use no Gnome (or KDE) software on my computer, have no Gnome (or KDE) libraries installed, and am capable of the same level of productivity as those who do.
Are you using Linux?
If so, please post the apps you use regularly because I'd love to find something that I can run on a low-end machine but still be productive.
One more thing that I haven't seen mentioned in the comments yet. Stored procedures allow easy updates, especially if your application is compiled. You found a bug in how data is accessed/returned from the DB? No need to recompile anything, just give the client a script to run that patches the affected sprocs. Easy, non-disruptive, and fast.
This was a huge timesaver for us and our clients at my last job.
Uhh.. and lemme see, how do you get up to speed in the first place so you can use the brake... Oh yeah. With the gasoline engine! Just cause there's an extra step doesn't mean you're not getting the energy from the engine.
Yeah I read that part.. I guess that makes sense. Just depends if we can get people to plug in their cars. The compensation would have to be pretty good.
Sooo.. I don't really see the point of V2G. The article makes it sound like the energy comes for free from the car. You're just going to be draining the battery, having to use more of the gasoline engine's power the next time you drive to replentish it. So wheres the advantage? It's probably much easier to make one big, efficient, clean generating station than rely on millions of little generators.
Selling energy back to the grid is a good idea but only if that energy was generated in a fundementally better way.. Like farmers selling energy generated from burning methane from their manure pit, or some guy with a windmill in his backyard.
But what's the point of getting energy from cars? That energy was generated by burning fossil fuels (usually) so why bother?
Gotta love that kind of response. Now read the following very very closely.
Advanced language features (Generics, closures, macros, etc etc), while nice to have sometimes, are almost irrelevant
Some missing language features will cost you a couple extra lines of code, its not gonna prevent you from getting your work done. So while they're great from a nerd standpoint, they're not crucial in real life. Way way way WAY more important is what libraries are available for a certain language. Java (and VB and C# etc) has an expansive, nice client library that JUST WORKS. Just in the Java standard libraries I have so much more functionality than in the standard Perl or Python libraries and they are all coded in the same style.
ROFLMAO Because it doesn't support your USB mic, it's a no go on linux?
Yes. Why the hell should I have to buy a headset just to use some software. I already have a soundcard and mic that work perfectly fine so skype should work with them.
This mindset of "the user should work around the sofware" instead of the other way around is retarded.
Tried the newest version on Linux, still no go for me.
It looks nice, loads fast, but you still can't specify what device you want to use for a microphone. It automatically assumes that you are using/dev/dsp for both your soundcard and your mic. Unfortunately I have a seperate USB mic and therefore can't use Skype in Linux at all. I've posted this on their forums but no official response so far.
Yup, the brainfingers system works quite well. I have two of them here at the university and they're pretty impressive. Recognizes features generated by different muscle movements in the face. They also have some quite complex software to map incoming features to computer functions (controlling the mouse, keyboard, etc).
I'm doing a bit of work on their feature detection to detect long features more accurately.
Re:v6 could help solve some net problems
on
IPv6 is Here
·
· Score: 1
Uhhh.. So instead of making an intelligent argument you'll just randomly throw insults around.. Great.
The slippery slope argument is so bullshit its not even funny. Just because child porn is blocked doesn't mean the logical progression will be for all porn to be blocked! Do you remember prohibition? They tried to stop people from drinking and it never worked because of public resistance. It would be the same with porn.
Its just like the retarded argument against euthanasia. "OMG!! If we kill these terminally ill, constantly in pain, suffering from some horrible disease patients its a slippery slope! Soon we will be killing people with the flu or with a broken annkle!" BULLSHIT! You think people don't have common sense??
Good points, and I really don't care if he switches to linux or not. In fact, aside from me, I don't really know anyone that I could switch to linux without them suffering some inconvenience (usually its because of lack of MSN webcam support). I on the other hand, believe that I can get my work done faster and more comfortably on linux. Every person will have different requirements though.
Legitimate support for DVD playback - Check the Slashdot story from a week or so ago about powerdvd for linux. I admit this is a bit weak but xine plays dvds fine. Are you seriously concerned about illegally playing DVDs?
Games - Agreed. Then again some of the quality new games are also available for linux.
MS Office - Openoffice for 99% if the work. If you really need 100% compatibility you can run Office with Wine
Painless firewalling - Painless like not enabling the firewall until after the internet is up? Please, theres tons of nice graphical firewall config apps for linux too.
Free, automatic updates - C'mon.. Linux has had free updates from its creation. And any decent modern distro has an autoupdate facility. And not just for the OS but for all the applications you have installed!
"I dont care how great Linux gets, I WILL NOT QUIT USING WINDOWS"
So you're saying that even if (note the IF, I'm not saying its there yet) Linux becomes much better in all respects than Windows you'll still use Windows? And you're complaining about zealotry?
I know it sounds easy to edit a config file. And in the simple case it is, but in reality its complex, very complex.
You have to account for every different way a config file could be written, every stupid weird way some user might have written a valid file, and much harder, an invalid file. You have to figure out what to do when the file is unreadable for some reason, how to recover, how to get past it. RELIABLY parsing and keeping track of config files that users can edit is not a trivial task.
Personally, I'd rather have intelligent discussion about the strong and weak points of various OS/software/languages/etc. here than stupid name calling. Maybe it's just my own prejudices, but when I see a post with that kind of crap, I assume I'm as likely to get reasonable discourse out of the post as I am to get a fair and balanced opinion about non-Causasians from a member of the KKK. I skip to the next post.
Hear hear! I ignore any post that refers to Microsoft by anything but their proper name. If you can't have a civil argument without name calling then you're not worth the bytes your message transferred on. I wish there was a filter in slashdot: Don't show messages containing the words: M$, Micro$oft etc
Hey cool, same here. First installed slackware 3.6 on my 386. Downloaded all the floppy sets over a 14.4 dial-up connection and installed it. It was great, I remember emailing a KDE guy asking if I could run KDE 1.0 with 4MB of ram. Turns out they recommended about 8MB...
Oh the nostalgia.. I miss the excitement of the discovery in those days.
Now I run Debian, which kicks ass, but it lacks the same kind of excitement and hobby feel as I had back then.
Well said, sure Firefox renders some pages more correctly and seems to do better with some plugins, but it still takes way longer to start up. Konqueror now starts in about half a second with preloading enabled, even without its still about 3-5 times faster than firefox on my machine. Also firefox doesn't behave like an integrated part of the desktop. Key bindings are slightly different, menu order isn't the same. It's just annoying.
I really hate Kopete though. Metacontacts are cool but the application just feels really overengineered and has messed up my contact list one too many times. File transfer is also pretty flaky and the process of allowing someone to quickly log in is tedious to say the least (always have to create profile). I'll stick with aMsn and licq.
Don't forget the Javascript controls. Goodbye to those websites that move your browser window, fullscreen it, hide the status bar, or insert some stupid scrolling text in it.
Thank you, a well reasoned response for once. I agree with most of your list, Just a few additions:
4. Instant messaging (GAIM) - Windows version
** And no IM for Linux as of yet supports MSN video chat..
6. A stable operating system that doesn't hide things from me - Win2k/XP are as stable as Linux in most situations
** Stable yes, but still prone to degrading over time for unexplained reasons. I've been abusing my Debian system as a desktop for 3 years (running unstable, and even some packages from experimental) and for the most part it runs faster today than when it was freshly installed. That is a huge timesaver for me. I hate reinstalling OSs and having to spend days getting all my software set up to how it was.
10. Multimedia (mplayer, XINE, etc.) - Windows media player, many free players
** I find it rather slow and ugly. Also it only plays some formats. Xine and mplayer will play almost everything under the sun and you don't need 3 different players installed like in windows (Quicktime, WMP, Realplayer) each of which bring their own annoyances.
11. Complete office suite (OpenOffice.org) - Windows version
** Seems to run better under Windows even.
1. It seems like every week some worm or other would be able to take out my machine - I have never had a problem, I don't run a virus scanner, just make sure I'm up to date on patches
** It's only when you reinstall and suddenly get hit by sasser as you're trying to patch. A patch CD solves this problem, although its still a hassle.
5. Microsoft's software just isn't cool. It's like some pale imitation of cool software with just the minimum set of features to make the average Joe go "cool" while drooling into his beer. - Linux makes you feel cool, like a "hacker", but you can't play games (MOST) and thats not cool
** Very true.. I'm just lucky I guess that I think games are a waste of my time so the issue doesn't affect me.
Slashdot Mirror
I use no Gnome (or KDE) software on my computer, have no Gnome (or KDE) libraries installed, and am capable of the same level of productivity as those who do.
Are you using Linux?
If so, please post the apps you use regularly because I'd love to find something that I can run on a low-end machine but still be productive.
One more thing that I haven't seen mentioned in the comments yet.
Stored procedures allow easy updates, especially if your application is compiled.
You found a bug in how data is accessed/returned from the DB? No need to recompile anything, just give the client a script to run that patches the affected sprocs. Easy, non-disruptive, and fast.
This was a huge timesaver for us and our clients at my last job.
What's to stop someone from strapping a well-blanced magnet to their driveshaft and creating a coil around that?
Nothing. If you feel like using more fuel to charge a battery. You're always going to lose energy in the transition though so there's not much point.
Uhh.. and lemme see, how do you get up to speed in the first place so you can use the brake... Oh yeah. With the gasoline engine!
Just cause there's an extra step doesn't mean you're not getting the energy from the engine.
Yeah I read that part.. I guess that makes sense. Just depends if we can get people to plug in their cars. The compensation would have to be pretty good.
Sooo.. I don't really see the point of V2G. The article makes it sound like the energy comes for free from the car. You're just going to be draining the battery, having to use more of the gasoline engine's power the next time you drive to replentish it. So wheres the advantage? It's probably much easier to make one big, efficient, clean generating station than rely on millions of little generators.
Selling energy back to the grid is a good idea but only if that energy was generated in a fundementally better way.. Like farmers selling energy generated from burning methane from their manure pit, or some guy with a windmill in his backyard.
But what's the point of getting energy from cars? That energy was generated by burning fossil fuels (usually) so why bother?
Gotta love that kind of response. Now read the following very very closely.
Advanced language features (Generics, closures, macros, etc etc), while nice to have sometimes, are almost irrelevant
Some missing language features will cost you a couple extra lines of code, its not gonna prevent you from getting your work done. So while they're great from a nerd standpoint, they're not crucial in real life.
Way way way WAY more important is what libraries are available for a certain language. Java (and VB and C# etc) has an expansive, nice client library that JUST WORKS. Just in the Java standard libraries I have so much more functionality than in the standard Perl or Python libraries and they are all coded in the same style.
ROFLMAO Because it doesn't support your USB mic, it's a no go on linux?
Yes. Why the hell should I have to buy a headset just to use some software. I already have a soundcard and mic that work perfectly fine so skype should work with them.
This mindset of "the user should work around the sofware" instead of the other way around is retarded.
Tried the newest version on Linux, still no go for me.
/dev/dsp for both your soundcard and your mic. Unfortunately I have a seperate USB mic and therefore can't use Skype in Linux at all.
It looks nice, loads fast, but you still can't specify what device you want to use for a microphone. It automatically assumes that you are using
I've posted this on their forums but no official response so far.
Yup, the brainfingers system works quite well. I have two of them here at the university and they're pretty impressive. Recognizes features generated by different muscle movements in the face.
They also have some quite complex software to map incoming features to computer functions (controlling the mouse, keyboard, etc).
I'm doing a bit of work on their feature detection to detect long features more accurately.
Uhhh.. So instead of making an intelligent argument you'll just randomly throw insults around.. Great.
The slippery slope argument is so bullshit its not even funny. Just because child porn is blocked doesn't mean the logical progression will be for all porn to be blocked! Do you remember prohibition? They tried to stop people from drinking and it never worked because of public resistance. It would be the same with porn.
Its just like the retarded argument against euthanasia. "OMG!! If we kill these terminally ill, constantly in pain, suffering from some horrible disease patients its a slippery slope! Soon we will be killing people with the flu or with a broken annkle!" BULLSHIT! You think people don't have common sense??
Good points, and I really don't care if he switches to linux or not. In fact, aside from me, I don't really know anyone that I could switch to linux without them suffering some inconvenience (usually its because of lack of MSN webcam support).
I on the other hand, believe that I can get my work done faster and more comfortably on linux. Every person will have different requirements though.
Legitimate support for DVD playback - Check the Slashdot story from a week or so ago about powerdvd for linux. I admit this is a bit weak but xine plays dvds fine. Are you seriously concerned about illegally playing DVDs?
Games - Agreed. Then again some of the quality new games are also available for linux.
MS Office - Openoffice for 99% if the work. If you really need 100% compatibility you can run Office with Wine
Painless firewalling - Painless like not enabling the firewall until after the internet is up? Please, theres tons of nice graphical firewall config apps for linux too.
Free, automatic updates - C'mon.. Linux has had free updates from its creation. And any decent modern distro has an autoupdate facility. And not just for the OS but for all the applications you have installed!
"I dont care how great Linux gets, I WILL NOT QUIT USING WINDOWS"
So you're saying that even if (note the IF, I'm not saying its there yet) Linux becomes much better in all respects than Windows you'll still use Windows? And you're complaining about zealotry?
I know it sounds easy to edit a config file. And in the simple case it is, but in reality its complex, very complex.
You have to account for every different way a config file could be written, every stupid weird way some user might have written a valid file, and much harder, an invalid file. You have to figure out what to do when the file is unreadable for some reason, how to recover, how to get past it.
RELIABLY parsing and keeping track of config files that users can edit is not a trivial task.
Most references to Lunix or open sores come in posts from trolls. It is very very rare that an even remotely constructive post will use those terms.
Personally, I'd rather have intelligent discussion about the strong and weak points of various OS/software/languages/etc. here than stupid name calling. Maybe it's just my own prejudices, but when I see a post with that kind of crap, I assume I'm as likely to get reasonable discourse out of the post as I am to get a fair and balanced opinion about non-Causasians from a member of the KKK. I skip to the next post.
Hear hear! I ignore any post that refers to Microsoft by anything but their proper name. If you can't have a civil argument without name calling then you're not worth the bytes your message transferred on.
I wish there was a filter in slashdot:
Don't show messages containing the words: M$, Micro$oft etc
Hey cool, same here. First installed slackware 3.6 on my 386. Downloaded all the floppy sets over a 14.4 dial-up connection and installed it. It was great, I remember emailing a KDE guy asking if I could run KDE 1.0 with 4MB of ram. Turns out they recommended about 8MB...
Oh the nostalgia.. I miss the excitement of the discovery in those days.
Now I run Debian, which kicks ass, but it lacks the same kind of excitement and hobby feel as I had back then.
Where did the 6.7 come from? I guess I can see the 6 from X11R6 but when was 6.1 - 6.5 released?
Does anyone know the historical reasons why X.org's first release it called 6.7?
I actually did get spam today trying to sell me Redhat Linux 7.3 for 60 bucks. I dunno what they're smoking.
Well said, sure Firefox renders some pages more correctly and seems to do better with some plugins, but it still takes way longer to start up. Konqueror now starts in about half a second with preloading enabled, even without its still about 3-5 times faster than firefox on my machine. Also firefox doesn't behave like an integrated part of the desktop. Key bindings are slightly different, menu order isn't the same. It's just annoying.
I really hate Kopete though. Metacontacts are cool but the application just feels really overengineered and has messed up my contact list one too many times. File transfer is also pretty flaky and the process of allowing someone to quickly log in is tedious to say the least (always have to create profile). I'll stick with aMsn and licq.
Don't forget the Javascript controls.
Goodbye to those websites that move your browser window, fullscreen it, hide the status bar, or insert some stupid scrolling text in it.
That's one of the real killer features.
great... but I always get the same pattern. Whats up with that?
Thank you, a well reasoned response for once.
I agree with most of your list, Just a few additions:
4. Instant messaging (GAIM) - Windows version
** And no IM for Linux as of yet supports MSN video chat..
6. A stable operating system that doesn't hide things from me - Win2k/XP are as stable as Linux in most situations
** Stable yes, but still prone to degrading over time for unexplained reasons. I've been abusing my Debian system as a desktop for 3 years (running unstable, and even some packages from experimental) and for the most part it runs faster today than when it was freshly installed. That is a huge timesaver for me. I hate reinstalling OSs and having to spend days getting all my software set up to how it was.
10. Multimedia (mplayer, XINE, etc.) - Windows media player, many free players
** I find it rather slow and ugly. Also it only plays some formats. Xine and mplayer will play almost everything under the sun and you don't need 3 different players installed like in windows (Quicktime, WMP, Realplayer) each of which bring their own annoyances.
11. Complete office suite (OpenOffice.org) - Windows version
** Seems to run better under Windows even.
1. It seems like every week some worm or other would be able to take out my machine - I have never had a problem, I don't run a virus scanner, just make sure I'm up to date on patches
** It's only when you reinstall and suddenly get hit by sasser as you're trying to patch. A patch CD solves this problem, although its still a hassle.
5. Microsoft's software just isn't cool. It's like some pale imitation of cool software with just the minimum set of features to make the average Joe go "cool" while drooling into his beer. - Linux makes you feel cool, like a "hacker", but you can't play games (MOST) and thats not cool
** Very true.. I'm just lucky I guess that I think games are a waste of my time so the issue doesn't affect me.