This is a great post and deserves to be modded up. Well-designed, maintainable software is kind of timeless (barring the obvious) and is orthogonal to the technology used.
The corollary to this is too many developers aren't taught how to design software. Instead, they learn about "features" and technology-specific stuff, when in reality the technology is just not that important.
It's not that simple. Nokia is enforcing its patent on GSM and making everyone pay. Meanwhile, companies are infringing on Apple's multitouch in order to stay competitive, so Apple wants them to pay too - including Nokia, who don't want to. So Nokia countersued. Etc. etc.
Patents are just a part of the technology biz. This is totally normal stuff.
I know it's currently cool around here to blame Apple for everything, but as usual things are much more complicated than that.
The point is that not all use cases match yours. This is particularly true in companies of all sizes, where certain webapps (email, HR like Taleo, CRM like Salesforce.com, accounting, document management, etc. etc.) are a godsend because it breaks them free from the silly costs of SAP, Microsoft, and the rest, not to mention the costs of administration and so forth.
In short, no one is forcing companies to use this stuff - there is real demand for it. Webapps are an attempt to break the upgrade cycle and all that goes with it (mostly downtime).
You, on the other hand, are some out of shape dude sitting in a basement somewhere who has the time and inclination to tinker around and doesn't mind the upgrade cycle one bit because your needs are light and it doesn't affect your revenue. But don't cry, because desktop apps aren't going anywhere.
"As always with CrunchBang, this release is not recommended for anyone who requires a stable system. Anyone who uses CrunchBang should be comfortable with occasional or even frequent breakage. Remember, CrunchBang Linux could make your computer go CRUNCH! BANG!:)"
Add my voice to the chorus of thank-yous. Anyone have any other suggestions for good, science-based news sources that a) aren't afraid to get technical/mathmatical and b) stay away from dreary shit like politics, copyrights and patents?
Funny thing - go to any Unix conference, filled with probably some of the nerdiest people ever, and check out the laptops people have. Hint: they aren't Dells running Linux.
OS X is the only viable desktop Unix out there, and the Macbook hardware is great. Please tell me how the tool I use to earn $95 an hour as a programmer who deploys to Unix is a "toy". Thanks.
Oh, while you're at it, post what you do for a living, what tools you use, and how much you make. That's assuming you have a job, of course.
I assume that by "exploited", you mean "made significant contributions back to". And it's not an OS bolted "on top" of Unix - if you understood OS X's architecture (and you don't), you'd know that.
Aren't you the same guy who thought OS X wasn't a real Unix because it doesn't have the same filesystem layout as some Linux variant? A brutal mocking ensued, as I recall.
Damn, how come more crazy people like you don't post here anymore? Nowadays, Slashdot's idea of a conspiracy theory involves Apple barging into people's homes and oppressing them mightily.
That's true on any system that provides an api. Also, that's not even what your quote says in the first place. What sort of a "developer" are you, HTML?
Actually, the linked article says exactly the opposite, and up above I posted a link to the JVM definition that verifies it. So you are 100% incorrect.
"The floating-point types are float and double, which are conceptually associated with the 32-bit single-precision and 64-bit double-precision format IEEE 754 values and operations as specified in IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic , ANSI/IEEE Std. 754-1985 (IEEE, New York)."
Slashdot Mirror
Other than the horrid startup time, I actually quite liked Java applets for exactly the sort of reason you mention.
Hey, I took that quote from the website. Come on, a no-thrills laptop? Talk about truth in advertising.
This is a great post and deserves to be modded up. Well-designed, maintainable software is kind of timeless (barring the obvious) and is orthogonal to the technology used.
The corollary to this is too many developers aren't taught how to design software. Instead, they learn about "features" and technology-specific stuff, when in reality the technology is just not that important.
The $118.00 Cherrypal Africa (Windows CE), seven inches no-thrills laptop for Internet browsing.
It's not that simple. Nokia is enforcing its patent on GSM and making everyone pay. Meanwhile, companies are infringing on Apple's multitouch in order to stay competitive, so Apple wants them to pay too - including Nokia, who don't want to. So Nokia countersued. Etc. etc.
Patents are just a part of the technology biz. This is totally normal stuff.
I know it's currently cool around here to blame Apple for everything, but as usual things are much more complicated than that.
Posted AC because xkcd has 10^3 kg of fanboys.
So that's like what, eight or nine Slashdotters.
Yum sucks compared to apt.
Really, how so? Apt was dumped for a reason and replaced with aptitude, after all.
The point is that not all use cases match yours. This is particularly true in companies of all sizes, where certain webapps (email, HR like Taleo, CRM like Salesforce.com, accounting, document management, etc. etc.) are a godsend because it breaks them free from the silly costs of SAP, Microsoft, and the rest, not to mention the costs of administration and so forth.
In short, no one is forcing companies to use this stuff - there is real demand for it. Webapps are an attempt to break the upgrade cycle and all that goes with it (mostly downtime).
You, on the other hand, are some out of shape dude sitting in a basement somewhere who has the time and inclination to tinker around and doesn't mind the upgrade cycle one bit because your needs are light and it doesn't affect your revenue. But don't cry, because desktop apps aren't going anywhere.
Anyway, like I said, separate use cases.
From the #! website:
"As always with CrunchBang, this release is not recommended for anyone who requires a stable system. Anyone who uses CrunchBang should be comfortable with occasional or even frequent breakage. Remember, CrunchBang Linux could make your computer go CRUNCH! BANG! :)"
Wow, sounds awesome!
Unfortunately, they got fired: http://www.infoworld.com/t/platforms/openbsd-contract-suspended-due-world-events-727
Add my voice to the chorus of thank-yous. Anyone have any other suggestions for good, science-based news sources that a) aren't afraid to get technical/mathmatical and b) stay away from dreary shit like politics, copyrights and patents?
Cool story, bro
Most of the price differential appears to be from the UK VAT, unless I'm mistaken.
Funny thing - go to any Unix conference, filled with probably some of the nerdiest people ever, and check out the laptops people have. Hint: they aren't Dells running Linux.
OS X is the only viable desktop Unix out there, and the Macbook hardware is great. Please tell me how the tool I use to earn $95 an hour as a programmer who deploys to Unix is a "toy". Thanks.
Oh, while you're at it, post what you do for a living, what tools you use, and how much you make. That's assuming you have a job, of course.
I guess you are new to computers.
Correct, they are being phased out, much like pennies should be.
I assume that by "exploited", you mean "made significant contributions back to". And it's not an OS bolted "on top" of Unix - if you understood OS X's architecture (and you don't), you'd know that.
Aren't you the same guy who thought OS X wasn't a real Unix because it doesn't have the same filesystem layout as some Linux variant? A brutal mocking ensued, as I recall.
To the OP, you can get lots of Apple open source stuff here: http://opensource.apple.com/
Damn, how come more crazy people like you don't post here anymore? Nowadays, Slashdot's idea of a conspiracy theory involves Apple barging into people's homes and oppressing them mightily.
That's true on any system that provides an api. Also, that's not even what your quote says in the first place. What sort of a "developer" are you, HTML?
The other day I had to explain ICMP to someone who was trying to ping a specific port on some server.
He actually did have a CS degree...from China.
Actually, the linked article says exactly the opposite, and up above I posted a link to the JVM definition that verifies it. So you are 100% incorrect.
"The floating-point types are float and double, which are conceptually associated with the 32-bit single-precision and 64-bit double-precision format IEEE 754 values and operations as specified in IEEE Standard for Binary Floating-Point Arithmetic , ANSI/IEEE Std. 754-1985 (IEEE, New York)."
http://java.sun.com/docs/books/jvms/second_edition/html/Overview.doc.html
He wasn't trying to offer insights into the future. So there's your problem.
He also took a shitload of amphetemines (which produced every book written before 1970) and LSD, and smoked pot daily. I'm sure that helped.