That's what you get for expressing an honest opinion that finds fault with Linux on/.
I use a Mac and have many (VMWare Fusion) VMs running all sorts of OSs under OS X 10.4.11 (inc. various XP and Vista).
Just installed the latest Ubuntu Desktop 7.10 and frankly, it's just a piece of shit. It was way, way better at 6.0.
That's the problem with geek-lead projects: no focus. Everyone just plays around and tinkers about with shit that's unimportant to the end-user, breaks stuff, forgets stuff, etc. etc.
I expect I'll get modded into oblivion for saying this, but so what?
Get your act together Ubuntu! I thought you were making progress but the suckage on 7.10 desktop is horrifying.
Hey, well ha ha, yeah. My name really is Steve, actually.
I suppose you were implying that I was 'teh evil' Steve Ballmer or something, because I dared to suggest that a meaningless pro-Linux puff piece was less than worthy of a 'News' item on Slashdot.
Of course, because I don't slaver and chant the Linux 'party slogan' whenever some invented feel-good piece of 'journalism' comes to light it must mean I'm an M$ SHILL (oooh! the horror!).
Well, I was happily reading along and moderating when I came to this comment where there was no moderation drop-down - even though someone had already moderated the comment +1 Insightful.
What gives Slashdot?
Don't tell me you can suddenly withdraw the powers of moderation from a comment if you don't like the way it's going?
I understand what you're saying, but I think it's a vast over-simplification.
To say that it could all be "cross-platform without having to do any other work" is staggeringly naive. It costs real bucks for every platform the game engine needs to be developed for, deployed for, and run on - and Linux doesn't cut it in the target audience percentile.
Remember how Java's 'write once - run anywhere' became 'write once - debug everywhere'?
It's good to bring the 'mind set' of one language to another. While it's not always practical, it's often useful to imagine how you could reproduce one neat feature of a particular language or environment within the constraints of another.
I think that's the best and most natural way for languages be extended and improved.
Good that you know 2^4 languages! I think the more programming languages you know, the more you realize there is no perfect language. Everything is a compromise.
>>Ya, That's pretty much right. It's really sad. I know these people.
Amen.
I happen to be a keen amateur photographer. Since digital cameras came out, you wouldn't believe how some nitwits will burn $1,000s every few months to get the latest (minute) technological advantage.
I know some 'photographers' who have invested $12K+ on new cameras, lenses etc. from, say, Canon, only to dispose of it all a few months later (with a massive financial hit) to buy into the new Nikon system. It's not as though any of these guys can take a picture worth a damn - it's all birds, and their kids and their pets - sheesh! The power of marketing indeed!
What is good coding style to me, may be anathema to you.
Ok, there is utterly shit code (which probably accounts for a fair proportion of all code if my life experience is anything to go by), then there is 'run of the mill' code, then sometimes rare glimpses of 'great' code.
Great code for me is when you see it and understand the programmers intention, and you think: a) I would have done it that way, or more likely b) if I was smarter I would have done it that way. You learn from great code, if you're already a good coder.
I think the greatest obstacle to 'great' code is 'language fascism'. Some languages are better than others, that's true, but they way some people carry on you'd think it was only possible to write 'great' code in their language of choice. This behavior is generally exhibited by those that can code in one (or at most two) languages only.
I'm generally proud of my code and am happy for others to scrutinize it. All that means is that I spent the time to make it as good as I could withing the prevailing time/cost constraints.
I used to write a lot of assembler. Some of my colleagues used to think it was cool to use obscure instructions, in unintended ways, just to show how 'cool' they were at flipping the registers. I never subscribed to this idea and always used 2 or 3 common instructions instead of one 'neat' instruction. Performance never seemed to suffer and maintenance programmers were eternally grateful.
>>the gaming machines. That is where the big win is and where people are most likely to be influenced.
Developing modern, mainstream games is a hugely expensive process - akin to making a movie.
What, exactly, is going to persuade a major game developer to develop a title for a highly marginal platform (Linux) when it already has to cover Windows PCs and the console market?
Firstly, Microsoft doesn't live or die by one thing. They are a mega-corporation with diverse income streams and assets. Whatever some people think here on./, MS isn't going to 'die' any time soon - so get over it.
Secondly you misunderstand a fundamental driver in the market: people (individuals and businesses) actually WANT to upgrade! Shocking isn't it?
We live in a culture where continuous 'improvement' and 'economic growth' are the goals. Making do with what you have is definitely not the message.
People want newer, shinier stuff. It makes them feel good. It makes them feel successful and that they belong.
I'm no more immune from this trend than anyone else - even though I sometimes feel a pang of shame and think I should be more noble.
That's why I'm sitting in front of a 24" iMac instead of the 266Mhz Pentium box I had 10 years ago (that and the fact that it probably wouldn't still be working and none of the software I use would even run on it).
Do you not think it "damning" enough that US soldiers no longer have to abide by the long-established and widely-accepted international conventions on Human Rights?
Most of my Windows OSs are run under VMs now, not in primary desktop, dev box or server roles.
I still like XP though. I run it under VMWare Fusion on my main desktop Mac (and sometimes under Boot Camp) and it works brilliantly. Fusion's 'unity' mode really is the best of both worlds.
I have only one native Windows Box - an elderly ThinkPad running XP, but it still provides most of what I need on the road.
The point is, I don't see me buying into Vista, ever.
XP is a good OS, and has reached a level of maturity that SP3 will complete. I can't think of anything more I want from a Windows-based OS. XP SP3 will probably be my last Windows OS, and will help me get the most from the investment I've made in Windows software over the years.
As for the future - well, Windows it ain't (short of some ground-breaking development). For me, it looks like Mac OS on the desktop and Linux on the (small) server, with a venerable but stable version of Windows XP in a VM partition.
I think Vista may well be the undoing of Microsoft. It's a turkey. Okay, Apple's Leopard is a turkey also, but that's a temporary thing, whereas Vista represents a huge commitment for MS and seems MS misread the tolerance/gullibility or their market.
So how can I run all my lovely.NET 2.0 web services under WAMP?
I use LAMP/WAMP plenty and often, but.NET web services are just too good to ignore when designing big, complex web/intranet applications (not some Mom & Pop shopping cart).
If Apache under Windows could offer.NET 2.0 web services like IIS can, then I'd be sold.
Before anyone tells me to write my web services using some lame Java technology - JUST DON'T!!!!
It's almost impossible to use CSS to satisfactorily modify a site that hasn't been designed to cater for mobile devices from the ground up.
If you're ending up with a load of 'display: none' then it begs the question of what value that content had in the first place if you can omit it and still have a useful site. Most of that would be decorative graphics I guess.
If you provide graphics using the CSS 'background' attribute instead of the html img element then it doesn't get sent if 'background: none' which saves a lot of grief.
The site content shouldn't need to change - only the presentation.
All that needs to be done is to serve up a different style sheet depending on the user agent, or a default 'safe' stylesheet, or none at all.
Determining which style sheet to use will necessitate peeking at the user-agent so Vodaphones approach could be problematical. Maybe if they had a meta tag to tell their gizmo not to process the site.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, let's see...
/.
You are 50% Overrated and 50% Troll.
That's what you get for expressing an honest opinion that finds fault with Linux on
I use a Mac and have many (VMWare Fusion) VMs running all sorts of OSs under OS X 10.4.11 (inc. various XP and Vista).
Just installed the latest Ubuntu Desktop 7.10 and frankly, it's just a piece of shit. It was way, way better at 6.0.
That's the problem with geek-lead projects: no focus. Everyone just plays around and tinkers about with shit that's unimportant to the end-user, breaks stuff, forgets stuff, etc. etc.
I expect I'll get modded into oblivion for saying this, but so what?
Get your act together Ubuntu! I thought you were making progress but the suckage on 7.10 desktop is horrifying.
Make Mistakes???
That's putting it mildly!
Did you have a point to make?
>Bear in mind you don't get shot for looking suspicious
Oh really?
In London you do: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Charles_de_Menezes
Mainframe to Linux transitions I've seen have been equally disasterous.
It's an accountants solution (CHEAP!) not a technical one.
Hey, well ha ha, yeah. My name really is Steve, actually.
I suppose you were implying that I was 'teh evil' Steve Ballmer or something, because I dared to suggest that a meaningless pro-Linux puff piece was less than worthy of a 'News' item on Slashdot.
Of course, because I don't slaver and chant the Linux 'party slogan' whenever some invented feel-good piece of 'journalism' comes to light it must mean I'm an M$ SHILL (oooh! the horror!).
Well, I was happily reading along and moderating when I came to this comment where there was no moderation drop-down - even though someone had already moderated the comment +1 Insightful.
What gives Slashdot?
Don't tell me you can suddenly withdraw the powers of moderation from a comment if you don't like the way it's going?
Nah! Probably a technical glitch, eh?
I understand what you're saying, but I think it's a vast over-simplification.
To say that it could all be "cross-platform without having to do any other work" is staggeringly naive. It costs real bucks for every platform the game engine needs to be developed for, deployed for, and run on - and Linux doesn't cut it in the target audience percentile.
Remember how Java's 'write once - run anywhere' became 'write once - debug everywhere'?
It's the same with game engines.
Yes Lars, I know what you mean.
It's good to bring the 'mind set' of one language to another. While it's not always practical, it's often useful to imagine how you could reproduce one neat feature of a particular language or environment within the constraints of another.
I think that's the best and most natural way for languages be extended and improved.
Good that you know 2^4 languages! I think the more programming languages you know, the more you realize there is no perfect language. Everything is a compromise.
>>Ya, That's pretty much right. It's really sad. I know these people.
Amen.
I happen to be a keen amateur photographer. Since digital cameras came out, you wouldn't believe how some nitwits will burn $1,000s every few months to get the latest (minute) technological advantage.
I know some 'photographers' who have invested $12K+ on new cameras, lenses etc. from, say, Canon, only to dispose of it all a few months later (with a massive financial hit) to buy into the new Nikon system. It's not as though any of these guys can take a picture worth a damn - it's all birds, and their kids and their pets - sheesh! The power of marketing indeed!
I want my flying car before my personal space ship.
...to somebody, for some reason.
There is no Holy Grail of code.
What is good coding style to me, may be anathema to you.
Ok, there is utterly shit code (which probably accounts for a fair proportion of all code if my life experience is anything to go by), then there is 'run of the mill' code, then sometimes rare glimpses of 'great' code.
Great code for me is when you see it and understand the programmers intention, and you think: a) I would have done it that way, or more likely b) if I was smarter I would have done it that way. You learn from great code, if you're already a good coder.
I think the greatest obstacle to 'great' code is 'language fascism'. Some languages are better than others, that's true, but they way some people carry on you'd think it was only possible to write 'great' code in their language of choice. This behavior is generally exhibited by those that can code in one (or at most two) languages only.
I'm generally proud of my code and am happy for others to scrutinize it. All that means is that I spent the time to make it as good as I could withing the prevailing time/cost constraints.
I used to write a lot of assembler. Some of my colleagues used to think it was cool to use obscure instructions, in unintended ways, just to show how 'cool' they were at flipping the registers. I never subscribed to this idea and always used 2 or 3 common instructions instead of one 'neat' instruction. Performance never seemed to suffer and maintenance programmers were eternally grateful.
>>the gaming machines. That is where the big win is and where people are most likely to be influenced.
Developing modern, mainstream games is a hugely expensive process - akin to making a movie.
What, exactly, is going to persuade a major game developer to develop a title for a highly marginal platform (Linux) when it already has to cover Windows PCs and the console market?
I know. I know.
Sometimes I just have to say it.
Firstly, Microsoft doesn't live or die by one thing. They are a mega-corporation with diverse income streams and assets. Whatever some people think here on ./, MS isn't going to 'die' any time soon - so get over it.
Secondly you misunderstand a fundamental driver in the market: people (individuals and businesses) actually WANT to upgrade! Shocking isn't it?
We live in a culture where continuous 'improvement' and 'economic growth' are the goals. Making do with what you have is definitely not the message.
People want newer, shinier stuff. It makes them feel good. It makes them feel successful and that they belong.
I'm no more immune from this trend than anyone else - even though I sometimes feel a pang of shame and think I should be more noble.
That's why I'm sitting in front of a 24" iMac instead of the 266Mhz Pentium box I had 10 years ago (that and the fact that it probably wouldn't still be working and none of the software I use would even run on it).
You've got one - it's called Vista!
TFA is just a rather poorly informed opinion piece and a lot of wishful thinking.
Since when did this consititute 'news'?
Do you not think it "damning" enough that US soldiers no longer have to abide by the long-established and widely-accepted international conventions on Human Rights?
What exactly would you consider "damning" then?
Most of my Windows OSs are run under VMs now, not in primary desktop, dev box or server roles.
I still like XP though. I run it under VMWare Fusion on my main desktop Mac (and sometimes under Boot Camp) and it works brilliantly. Fusion's 'unity' mode really is the best of both worlds.
I have only one native Windows Box - an elderly ThinkPad running XP, but it still provides most of what I need on the road.
The point is, I don't see me buying into Vista, ever.
XP is a good OS, and has reached a level of maturity that SP3 will complete. I can't think of anything more I want from a Windows-based OS. XP SP3 will probably be my last Windows OS, and will help me get the most from the investment I've made in Windows software over the years.
As for the future - well, Windows it ain't (short of some ground-breaking development). For me, it looks like Mac OS on the desktop and Linux on the (small) server, with a venerable but stable version of Windows XP in a VM partition.
I think Vista may well be the undoing of Microsoft. It's a turkey. Okay, Apple's Leopard is a turkey also, but that's a temporary thing, whereas Vista represents a huge commitment for MS and seems MS misread the tolerance/gullibility or their market.
>>I got a kernel panic which wiped out my home directory after about a day of use.
Erm... "not without problems" would be putting it mildly.
Can you imagine the outcry here if Vista did that?
>> I install Linux over Windows about once every three or four weeks for friends
Holy shit! I'll bet you're running out of friends!
Do you ask them first?
>>WAMP still beats them anyway.
.NET 2.0 web services under WAMP?
.NET web services are just too good to ignore when designing big, complex web/intranet applications (not some Mom & Pop shopping cart).
.NET 2.0 web services like IIS can, then I'd be sold.
So how can I run all my lovely
I use LAMP/WAMP plenty and often, but
If Apache under Windows could offer
Before anyone tells me to write my web services using some lame Java technology - JUST DON'T!!!!
Yes, agreed.
It's almost impossible to use CSS to satisfactorily modify a site that hasn't been designed to cater for mobile devices from the ground up.
If you're ending up with a load of 'display: none' then it begs the question of what value that content had in the first place if you can omit it and still have a useful site. Most of that would be decorative graphics I guess.
If you provide graphics using the CSS 'background' attribute instead of the html img element then it doesn't get sent if 'background: none' which saves a lot of grief.
CSS provides Media Descriptors that allow specific stylesheets to be used depending on the presentation media.
'Handheld' is such a descriptor.
Provided the device supports this and use the correct stylesheet there shouldn't be any need to do anything else.
The site content shouldn't need to change - only the presentation.
All that needs to be done is to serve up a different style sheet depending on the user agent, or a default 'safe' stylesheet, or none at all.
Determining which style sheet to use will necessitate peeking at the user-agent so Vodaphones approach could be problematical. Maybe if they had a meta tag to tell their gizmo not to process the site.
It's a fair cop. But society is to blame!