Depends on your use case. Two-car households may differ.
My wife and I have two cars, but one of 'em is used 90% of the time just for commuting over the Bay Bridge and back... let's say 25 miles roundtrip. I could easily make do with a 100 mile range for that car. 250 would be even better. 3 hours to recharge? That's what "overnight" is for.
A car like this sounds appealing. If this guy can keep production quality high (unlike, say, the Corbin Sparrow), he can probably sell as many as he can make.
I do not dispute any of your points, but you miss an obvious issue here: the dudes who wrote the game should have added a "best effort" mode for hi-res screens.
Most games seem to say "here's a dozen sliders to control junk; adjust for framerate the best you can. good luck!"
But given the prevalence of higher-res lcd screens these days, what games really need is an option for "here's the native resolution I want to use; figure out what you have to adjust in order to run smoothly on it".
When you design user interfaces, it's a good idea to keep two principles in mind:
1. Users don't have the manual, and if they did, they wouldn't read it.
2. In fact, users can't read anything, and if they could, they wouldn't want to.
Thanks for the advice. I actually did try the fixmbr route you describe, but for obscure reasons it didn't work (I don't have the link anymore but found forums of people on other Linux variants having similarly difficult-to-recover-from MBR problems...)
I actually did try the LiveCD, but when I learned it did the partition thing, I figured, hey, go for it! As mentioned elsewhere, I just wish they had a big red warning disclaimer about potential problems...
Re: the drivers, yeah, I understand it's a chicken and egg problem, but nevertheless, the problem still exists...:-/
No, I'm attempting to use an OS that promotes itself as one that "Just Works" (their words, not mine):
Ubuntu offers you a complete Linux-based operating system, including all the major applications you need to play and work. With a strong focus on a desktop that Just Works, Ubuntu is a great choice for home or the office. The base system and all included software is free, and support is available from the community or by professional support providers.
If you want to specify your own configuration, just run sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg.
And with that testimony, I rest my case.
Seriously, if it's necessary... even sometimes... it should be exposed in the UI.
What you have described is NOT what I would call a discoverable user interface.
(Thanks for the tip, though!)
To be frank, you asked for it. Resizing Windows partitions is a black art
Um, given the limitations you described, shouldn't the partition resizer attempt to detect a Windows install on the partition, and give a big black warning if it looks likes you're trying to do this dangerous operation? I mean, clearly Ubuntu *wants* to support this kinda of thing -- if not, why go to the considerable effort of making a (mostly-kinda-sorta) functional partitioner in the first place?
Do you know how many times I've deleted one goddamn space only to have the whole line jump four or even EIGHT spaces over too far? Morons...
Do you know how many times I've tried to delete one goddamn tab-indentation only to find that some moron used a billion space characters to indent, making me hit backspace over and over where a single tap should have sufficed?
(Actually, my Ubuntu test recognized my no-name wireless card out of the box... very impressive. When it recognizes my video and audio out of the box too... with up to date drivers... then we'll talk.)
Adobe (et al) will port their product lines to Linux when it becomes economically viable to do so.
If there is a clear market for (say) Photoshop on Linux -- and said market was likely to be profitable -- you'll see Adobe doing ports.
Flash Player is being ported to Linux, true, but it's not sold (for desktop use) in the first place... it's given away as a way to drive sales for Flash Authoring, Flex, Breeze, etc., so that's really a different scenario.
So Ubuntu 6 got all the great buzz, so I grabbed a copy and installed it on a spare Windows box I had.
Gee, I think, this looks pretty good. Finally some attention to nice graphic detail. A good installer. Software install that includes "blessed" prebuilt exes.
But then the rough edges showed up again.
First... this is an nForce2 machine with built-in video, and the default config refused to let me select a screen-res larger than 1024x768. I know, the nerds out there are saying "just edit your x config file", right? OK, but here's the thing:
(1) that's an INEXCUSABLY STUPID AND LAZY way to design operating system software (2) it's too easy to screw up your x config file and break x (and by "too easy" I mean "remotely possible")
Second... I discovered that the oh-so-lovely disk partitioner has the added feature that on some systems (including mine) it borks the MBR of the resized Windows partition in such a way that Windows will refuse to boot. Even after uninstalling Ubuntu. And even after applying various fixes via UBCD and friends. (Right now this system is sitting disconnected under my desk because I refuse to reinstall Ubuntu, but reinstalling Windows is a horrible half-day affair on its own...)
Look, I know I'm gonna get flamed and burn karma for this, but the whole point is that for a system that I want to use mainly for surfing the web and playing games, it has to Just Work.
Not "mostly work with some crap I have to hand edit", it has to be freakin' bulletproof against a stupid user who neither knows nor cares that "sudo gedit foo" is required for some otherwise-seemingly-trivial configuration options.
No, this is not an apology for Windows, whose install and configuration is a nightmare of its own, but when you're the underdog, you can't just play catch-up, and you can't make boneheaded mistakes like those listed above.
To the bonehead moderators who marked the parent "offtopic" and "troll" --
what the fuck is wrong with you?
Offtopic, maybe a little, but geez, it's a grade-school level grammar mistake in the headline, for fuck's sake. The editors deserve to be slapped around for it; they should know better.
And if you think that proper spelling and grammar are optional, well, I just feel sorry for you.
Slashdot Mirror
Depends on your situation.
I know many city-dwellers who own *no* car.
Or just a scooter or motorcycle.
Do they also need a "real" car?
For some situations, the constraints of 250 miles with a long "refill" may be perfectly acceptable.
If you have only one car, yes.
If you are a multicar household, and one is used mainly for daily commuting, no.
Depends on your use case. Two-car households may differ.
My wife and I have two cars, but one of 'em is used 90% of the time just for commuting over the Bay Bridge and back... let's say 25 miles roundtrip. I could easily make do with a 100 mile range for that car. 250 would be even better. 3 hours to recharge? That's what "overnight" is for.
A car like this sounds appealing. If this guy can keep production quality high (unlike, say, the Corbin Sparrow), he can probably sell as many as he can make.
I do not dispute any of your points, but you miss an obvious issue here: the dudes who wrote the game should have added a "best effort" mode for hi-res screens.
Most games seem to say "here's a dozen sliders to control junk; adjust for framerate the best you can. good luck!"
But given the prevalence of higher-res lcd screens these days, what games really need is an option for "here's the native resolution I want to use; figure out what you have to adjust in order to run smoothly on it".
Only if you immerse it in liquid nitrogen...
Yeah, I want to give the submitter a "-1, Offtopic" for even mentioning that...
(1) In my experience, users are unfixable.
(2) If the users consider the system to be broken, then it's not "perfectly good" to them.
Let me quote Mr. Spolsky here:
0 000000062.html
When you design user interfaces, it's a good idea to keep two principles in mind:
1. Users don't have the manual, and if they did, they wouldn't read it.
2. In fact, users can't read anything, and if they could, they wouldn't want to.
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/uibook/chapters/fog
Thanks for the advice. I actually did try the fixmbr route you describe, but for obscure reasons it didn't work (I don't have the link anymore but found forums of people on other Linux variants having similarly difficult-to-recover-from MBR problems...)
:-/
I actually did try the LiveCD, but when I learned it did the partition thing, I figured, hey, go for it! As mentioned elsewhere, I just wish they had a big red warning disclaimer about potential problems...
Re: the drivers, yeah, I understand it's a chicken and egg problem, but nevertheless, the problem still exists...
Well, I guess you're entitled to your point of view.
In this context, I consider documentation to be a crappy substitute for discoverability.
No, I'm attempting to use an OS that promotes itself as one that "Just Works" (their words, not mine):
Ubuntu offers you a complete Linux-based operating system, including all the major applications you need to play and work. With a strong focus on a desktop that Just Works, Ubuntu is a great choice for home or the office. The base system and all included software is free, and support is available from the community or by professional support providers.
( http://www.ubuntu.com/desktop )
If you want to specify your own configuration, just run sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg.
And with that testimony, I rest my case.
Seriously, if it's necessary... even sometimes... it should be exposed in the UI.
What you have described is NOT what I would call a discoverable user interface.
(Thanks for the tip, though!)
To be frank, you asked for it. Resizing Windows partitions is a black art
Um, given the limitations you described, shouldn't the partition resizer attempt to detect a Windows install on the partition, and give a big black warning if it looks likes you're trying to do this dangerous operation? I mean, clearly Ubuntu *wants* to support this kinda of thing -- if not, why go to the considerable effort of making a (mostly-kinda-sorta) functional partitioner in the first place?
Wow, your humor slays me.
Hee hee.
Wow, thanks for a genuinely useful response... it's rare to get one like this on Slashdot these days. Consider yourself added to my friends list :-)
Do you know how many times I've deleted one goddamn space only to have the whole line jump four or even EIGHT spaces over too far? Morons...
Do you know how many times I've tried to delete one goddamn tab-indentation only to find that some moron used a billion space characters to indent, making me hit backspace over and over where a single tap should have sufficed?
Fucktards.
... you'd now be on my Friends list.
(Actually, my Ubuntu test recognized my no-name wireless card out of the box... very impressive. When it recognizes my video and audio out of the box too... with up to date drivers... then we'll talk.)
Adobe (et al) will port their product lines to Linux when it becomes economically viable to do so.
If there is a clear market for (say) Photoshop on Linux -- and said market was likely to be profitable -- you'll see Adobe doing ports.
Flash Player is being ported to Linux, true, but it's not sold (for desktop use) in the first place... it's given away as a way to drive sales for Flash Authoring, Flex, Breeze, etc., so that's really a different scenario.
Actually, this does sound superior to me over the first two (especially for something like Python where indentation is meaningful).
But if you thought we had holy wars now, just imagine the nightmare that a third option will introduce...
So Ubuntu 6 got all the great buzz, so I grabbed a copy and installed it on a spare Windows box I had.
Gee, I think, this looks pretty good. Finally some attention to nice graphic detail. A good installer. Software install that includes "blessed" prebuilt exes.
But then the rough edges showed up again.
First... this is an nForce2 machine with built-in video, and the default config refused to let me select a screen-res larger than 1024x768. I know, the nerds out there are saying "just edit your x config file", right? OK, but here's the thing:
(1) that's an INEXCUSABLY STUPID AND LAZY way to design operating system software
(2) it's too easy to screw up your x config file and break x (and by "too easy" I mean "remotely possible")
Second... I discovered that the oh-so-lovely disk partitioner has the added feature that on some systems (including mine) it borks the MBR of the resized Windows partition in such a way that Windows will refuse to boot. Even after uninstalling Ubuntu. And even after applying various fixes via UBCD and friends. (Right now this system is sitting disconnected under my desk because I refuse to reinstall Ubuntu, but reinstalling Windows is a horrible half-day affair on its own...)
Look, I know I'm gonna get flamed and burn karma for this, but the whole point is that for a system that I want to use mainly for surfing the web and playing games, it has to Just Work.
Not "mostly work with some crap I have to hand edit", it has to be freakin' bulletproof against a stupid user who neither knows nor cares that "sudo gedit foo" is required for some otherwise-seemingly-trivial configuration options.
No, this is not an apology for Windows, whose install and configuration is a nightmare of its own, but when you're the underdog, you can't just play catch-up, and you can't make boneheaded mistakes like those listed above.
Last I checked, "fuck" is, in fact a real word.
And it did a pretty good job of expression what I was saying, IMHO.
Depends on your perspective, I guess.
I find this so-called "f-bomb" to be just another word.
Your mileage may vary.
To the bonehead moderators who marked the parent "offtopic" and "troll" --
what the fuck is wrong with you?
Offtopic, maybe a little, but geez, it's a grade-school level grammar mistake in the headline, for fuck's sake. The editors deserve to be slapped around for it; they should know better.
And if you think that proper spelling and grammar are optional, well, I just feel sorry for you.
Bah. Everyone knows that xxcopy is old tech; it has only two x's.
I much prefer xxxxxxxxxcopy.
What will happen to you if you don't have a flash player or editor? Will you die? Will you starve? Will you be cold?
What will happen to you if you don't have a web browser?
What will happen to you if you don't have a computer at all?
Will you die? Will you starve? Will you be cold?
No idea how it's coming along, but they've got a guy working on it, and he's blogging a little to let everyone know he's alive.
The guy is Mike Melanson.
Blog link here: http://blogs.adobe.com/penguin.swf/
He has actively sought input on various issues on the past. If a Linux Flash Player is important to you, check it out.