Bah, frankly I'm tired of people modding things like this "Insightful".
Are you completely ignorant to reality? The Internet is like the real world: there are bad places, but there are also good places! If you get flamed down at an IRC channel, big deal. Move on to a good channel where people are willing to help you. Saying that everybody in the Linux community tells you RTFM just because someone from a certain channel said that is like saying every human is a thief because a certain human is a thief. It's a completely wrong generalization.
An excellent Linux support forum would be the ComputerTotaal Forum (Dutch). People have been very helpful to me ever since 1999. People will Linux software and hardware problems are never flamed down. Just take a look at the GNOME and KDE mailing lists. Do you see RTFM anywhere? I don't. Take a look at the GNOME support forums. Where do you see newbies getting flamed down?
You don't get it. There's good criticism and there's bad crtiticism (I'm not saying this article is bad), aka mindless bashing. If someone calls you "a geek who will never get a girlfriend" and tell you to die, will you listen to his "criticism"? How is "you suck, this is a piece of crap, Linux will never succeed on the desktop" constructive criticism? Frankly a lot of the "criticism" against Linux is very similar to that.
Blindly listening to criticism is not the answer. Just because something is criticism doesn't mean it's correct. Unfortunately, Slashdotters mod up all Linux criticism, *including the bad ones*, and whenever somebody don't agree with that criticism, he gets flamed down by Slashdotters for "not listening to criticism". In other words: Slashdotters these days expect developers to blindly listen to criticism without being critical to the criticism. Do you think that's a good thing? I don't.
People who expect developers to listen to them after having insulted the developers seriously need more social skills. Unfortunately most Slashdotters are exactly like that: they treat developers like slaves, like insects. They even go as far as denying developers' fundamental human rights! Yes it's true, I saw a +5 Insightful post that says developers should be slaves.
There have been cases when developers really did listen to the bashers. But when that happens, tons of people flame down the developers AGAIN exactly BECAUSE they listened to the bashers! And if they don't listen to the bashers, they get flamed down for "not listening to criticism"! It's completely rediculous!
Phatbot is insanely well-written. A while ago I read a web page about what Phatbot can do: - Exploits all kinds of vulnerabilities. - Sniffs network traffic for usernames and password. - Steal IRC operator passwords. - Can kill many other viruses and anti-virus software. - Can steal CD keys for popular games. - Can steal AOL passwords. - Can harvest emails for spam purposes. - And more. Whomever made Phatbot sure spent *a lot* of work into it.
Because not everybody has the same needs. Isn't that obvious? What if none of the I-don't-know-how-many distros fits your needs, and then one day, someone comes up with a distro that does *exactly* what you want (not not what other people want)? How would you feel if Slashdotters massively scream "OMG WHY DO WE NEED ANOTHER DISTRO?!", mentally destroy the developers who made that distro, and thus destroying the one distro that exactly fits your needs?
Denying people to make their own distro is denying them essential human rights!
And where do you see Free Software developers lobbying for world domination? I rarely see them. They come mostly from Slashdotters who *are not* developers.
There's a huge difference between "criticising" and "bashing". Most Slashdotters don't criticisze: they bash. How the hell is "you are a fucking retarded elitist and will never have a girlfriend" constructive criticism? How's saying that I have to be a slave constructive criticism? I try my best to make software as usable as possible, and all I get on Slashdot is insults, with *almost no constructive criticism whatsoever*.
"often justifiably"
The point is, they are often injustifiably "critisizing". It has reached a point when even lies (yes, lies. there's sometimes solid proof that what they're saying is 100% incorrect) against Linux is modded up.
Heck, why can't you people take criticism? What makes your criticism so much greater and better than mine?
"telling them "quit whining about what you get for free" or "go code it youself" or "you're engaging in the mental destruction of Free Software developers.""
Most of those statements come from users who are tired of the bashing, not developers. Most developers don't even read Slashdot comments because of the high number of trolls and flames. Heck, I have a friend who's just a normal user. I showed him some Slashdot threads and he was baffled by how people kept bashing volunteers who give away software for free.
Even the Windows community is better! The users who use Dev-C++ (open source IDE for Windows) are very polite when they have criticism against us (unlike Slashdotters!) and they often realize that we are just volunteers and shouldn't expect too much from us, especially when it's free. But no, not Slashdot. Slashdottes treat us like we're some kind of robots who are supposed to give away everything for free and work 24 hours a day.
Summary: 1. Most developers don't scream world domination. Zealots users do. So don't blame us. 2. Lots of developers don't respond with "code it yourself". Users do. When a developer does so, it's most likely because you're being impolite/being a jerk! You really need better social skills if you don't realize this. 3. No matter how hard we try to make a good product, all you people do is insult and flame us. Like we have no personal life or something. 4. If you don't show respect to me, why should I show respect to you?
"Slashdotters often complain about (anti-Linux) FUD in one breath, while spreading anti-MS FUD with the next."
The impression I have is that while this may be so in the past, it is no longer true. A few years ago things quickly changed, and now most Slashdotters seem to be *very* critical against Linux. Just look at the number of critical posts in stories about usability about Linux/open source apps. Heck, it's so much that it drives me nuts. I'm trying my best to make as usable software as possible and the only thing Slashdotters do is flame me down and even claiming that I have to be a "slave".
While the editors may be anti-MS, most Slashdotters are definitely not. Heck, I'd even say most Slashdotters are anti-Linux, or at least criticise Linux for absolutely everything, even when it's not appropriate or false. The fact that your post got modded up to +5 is the absolute proof of that.
The difference is that with Linux, you are allowed (and encouraged) to contribute fixes. You can compile a Linux kernel yourself to suit your needs. Good guys can help out everybody.
Not Win2k. If a good man finds a bug in Win2k's source code and contacts MS, he'll either get sued or end up in jail. The good guys are eliminated, only the bad guys are left.
Isn't that exactly what the installers already do for you? When I installed Fedora, it automatically detected by Windows partition and made a "DOS" entry for it.
Why do people keep blaming open source for this? Blender used to be closed source, but back in those days people didn't complain about it's user interface. Now that Blender is open source, people start complaining it, and start blaming open source for it's user interface. That's just rediculous.
So? Neither is "the open source community". Yet Slashdotters continue to flame down the open source community as a whole, just because of a vocal minority. Until Slashdotters have fixed this attitude problem, I will continue to treat Slashdotters like a single entity.
And who exactly is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to use Gimp? I don't know anybody. Nobody is forcing you to use Gimp. If you don't like it, then don't use it.
People on Slashdot always claim that "Linux zealots are trying to convert people" but where are they? Other than a few occasional trolls I've never really seen anybody claiming that proprietary software sucks. Heck, I see more people complaining about Gimp, saying how much it sucks, and trying to mentally destroy Linux developers!
Constructive criticism is good. But the thing is, most criticism on Slashdot are NOT constructive! They're destructive bashing! "Gimp sucks, Linux sucks, you are an elitist bastard, you moron. Linux will fail and you will never have a girlfriend. Photoshop is so much better mwahaha.". If you're a developer and you read things like that, would you call it "constructive criticism"? What's so constructive about it?
I'm a happy Gimp user. I'm very productive in Gimp. Photoshop? No thanks! Gimp is free and does everything I want. Also, Gimp 2.0 has a much improved user interface.
Finally, a truly insightful post! You hit the nail completely, and I agree with you 100%.
These days, most of the "criticism" on Slashdot against anything related to Linux is quite useless. They're not constructive, their criticism don't make the situation any better. Instead, the criticism is solely meant to mentally destroy Linux developers. People don't even see that. If you critisize them, they'll just call you "a Linux zealot who can't stand criticism".
There's constructive criticism and there's bashing. Yet most of the criticism on Slashdot is destructive bashing!
Good criticism: "Gimp has strengths, but also weaknesses. This and that needs more work, I suggest (insert suggestion here). It would be better if (blabla)."
Bashing: "Gimp sucks! Linux has failed on the desktop! If I see a Gimp developer I'll kill him! You have an ego problem because you don't agree with me! All Linux developers are elitist bastard" (90% of Gimp criticism on Slashdot)
No, attitudes like yours are the problem. If you can't see the difference between constructive criticism and bashing, then you are a zealot.
"Everytime someone talks about usability of an open source software, the OSS community unite itself under the voice of "That's because you're not used to it"."
Maybe it's because that's a valid reason? You people are always so fast to dismiss any criticism against you.
The first time I started using Paint Shop Pro, I only had experience with MS Paint. PSP confused me. All the menus/buttons/tool windows/etc. didn't make any sense to me. At first I wasn't productive in PSP at all - I thought MS Paint is better. Only after having worked with PSP for a few months, I was able to work well with it.
Same for Gimp. Now that I've gotten used to Gimp, I find it much better than Paint Shop Pro! I reboot back to Linux just to be able to use Gimp. Yes I know there's Gimp for Win32, but Windows's window management sucks compared to Linux; no magnetic window snapping and no virtual desktops.
"Now The Gimp is another matter altogether. I don't know anyone that got used to its clumsy 12 windows that fill in your task bar."
I'd much rather have 12 items in my task list than 12 menu entries in the Window menu! What's a faster way to switch to another image window, click Window->Image6, or just clicking on Image6 on the task list? Heck, this even allows you to Alt+Tab between image windows! If you're concerned about mixing up Gimp windows and other apps, then use virtual desktops. I find that this works much better than the Win32 window-in-window approach.
Heck, the praised-by-all MacOS X also works like that. Photoshop opens tons of image windows and tool windows.
Gimp 2.0 has a new flexible docking interface. You can put all the tool windows in one single window if you want (I have 2). Your arguments are quite outdated. Heck, almost all arguments against Gimp on Slashdot are outdated.
"None of the user interactions are standard (Like Esc to simulate "Cancel", Tab, Space, Enter,...)"
What are you talking about? Esc in Windows exits a dialog - same in Gimp. Open the Preferences dialog and press Esc. Tab in Windows moves the focus to the next control. Same in Gimp. Space and Enter in Windows activates the focused button. Same in Gimp.
Why are all complains about Gimp on Slashdot about Gimp 1.x? Gimp 2.0 has been out for quite a while, with a much better UI. You can drag & drop docks together into a single tool window, and there's a top menu bar for every image window now. The GUI now looks much slicker with it's colored icons.
Yet it's always the Slashdot crowd who's whining about "Don't imitate Microsoft! Come up with something original!"? Gimp's interface is original, yet Slashdotters complain about it *because* it's not a Microsoft imitation?!
This kind of Slashdot attitude is exactly what's wrong.
"Being honest and open about the capabilities, strenghts and weaknesses of the platform we love so much is more likely to win people over - after all, they get enough lies and deceit from the proprietary side of the fence, don't they?"
What? One of the things Slashdotters complain most about Linux is the lack of marketing. Yet marketing is for a large part based on lying.
So when people are honest about Linux and it's development, Slashdotters will complain about: - Conflicts between groups. If you tell them that companies have internal conflicts too (it's just that they don't let anybody know), they'll tell you that Linux will fail on the desktop *because* conflicts are public. - Lack of marketing. - Security vulnerabilities. Linux doesn't hide it's vulnerabilities. Yet more and more people are constantly nitpicking on Linux, saying "Look! Linux is more insecure than Windows!", while not even looking at the fact that Microsoft hides a lot of bugs from the public. Linux developers release information about new vulnerabilities so admins are aware of it, yet Slashdotters abuse it to claim that Linux has "failed".
Obviously being honest about this has done Linux more harm than good. Yet if we're *not* honest about it, people like you complain about lack of honesty?! Damned if you do, damned if you don't?!
"I am sure this will be modded flamebait by some kneejerk reactionary moderator, just the other reply to the parent, but what the hey......"
No it won't, I'm sure it will get modded up, like all other similar posts. Slashdot is not a pro-Linux anti-MS place! Heck, I'd even argue criticism against Linux is often overrated - it's like people mod it up even when it's not true, like it's a divine thing or something.
Linux must be one of the most hated things in existance. People do nothing more than insulting it and claiming it's defeat. People are constantly belittleling Linux developers. I'm working hard to write software to make Linux better, yet all people do is insulting me and telling me how much everything sucks?! Even the Windows community is better than the Slashdot crowd!
Then don't. Who's forcing you to use Konqueror? Nobody. But do you want to force Mozilla to people who don't like Mozilla at all, by eliminating all choices? Do you encourage slavery?
Yes, I mean that multiple programs can write to/dev/dsp at the same time. I can run XMMS and mplayer simultanously.
I'm using Fedora Core 1. When my card was autodetected, it used the OSS drivers, which do not support hardware sound mixing. I switched to the ALSA drivers, and I automatically got hardware sound mixing support without having to do anything else.
Install the ALSA kernel modules. This is what I have in my modules.conf: #alias sound-slot-0 via82cxxx_audio --- OSS driver, commented out
# ALSA alias char-major-116 snd alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx options snd-card-0 index=0 dxs_support=4
# OSS/Free portion alias char-major-14 soundcore alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
# card #1 alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
Slashdot Mirror
Bah, frankly I'm tired of people modding things like this "Insightful".
Are you completely ignorant to reality? The Internet is like the real world: there are bad places, but there are also good places! If you get flamed down at an IRC channel, big deal. Move on to a good channel where people are willing to help you.
Saying that everybody in the Linux community tells you RTFM just because someone from a certain channel said that is like saying every human is a thief because a certain human is a thief. It's a completely wrong generalization.
An excellent Linux support forum would be the ComputerTotaal Forum (Dutch). People have been very helpful to me ever since 1999. People will Linux software and hardware problems are never flamed down.
Just take a look at the GNOME and KDE mailing lists. Do you see RTFM anywhere? I don't.
Take a look at the GNOME support forums. Where do you see newbies getting flamed down?
In other words:
Stop spreading the RTFM-myth!
You don't get it. There's good criticism and there's bad crtiticism (I'm not saying this article is bad), aka mindless bashing. If someone calls you "a geek who will never get a girlfriend" and tell you to die, will you listen to his "criticism"? How is "you suck, this is a piece of crap, Linux will never succeed on the desktop" constructive criticism? Frankly a lot of the "criticism" against Linux is very similar to that.
Blindly listening to criticism is not the answer. Just because something is criticism doesn't mean it's correct. Unfortunately, Slashdotters mod up all Linux criticism, *including the bad ones*, and whenever somebody don't agree with that criticism, he gets flamed down by Slashdotters for "not listening to criticism". In other words: Slashdotters these days expect developers to blindly listen to criticism without being critical to the criticism. Do you think that's a good thing? I don't.
People who expect developers to listen to them after having insulted the developers seriously need more social skills. Unfortunately most Slashdotters are exactly like that: they treat developers like slaves, like insects. They even go as far as denying developers' fundamental human rights! Yes it's true, I saw a +5 Insightful post that says developers should be slaves.
There have been cases when developers really did listen to the bashers. But when that happens, tons of people flame down the developers AGAIN exactly BECAUSE they listened to the bashers! And if they don't listen to the bashers, they get flamed down for "not listening to criticism"! It's completely rediculous!
Phatbot is insanely well-written. A while ago I read a web page about what Phatbot can do:
- Exploits all kinds of vulnerabilities.
- Sniffs network traffic for usernames and password.
- Steal IRC operator passwords.
- Can kill many other viruses and anti-virus software.
- Can steal CD keys for popular games.
- Can steal AOL passwords.
- Can harvest emails for spam purposes.
- And more.
Whomever made Phatbot sure spent *a lot* of work into it.
More details at: http://www.lurhq.com/phatbot.html
Also contains instructions to manually remove it from an infected system.
Because not everybody has the same needs. Isn't that obvious? What if none of the I-don't-know-how-many distros fits your needs, and then one day, someone comes up with a distro that does *exactly* what you want (not not what other people want)? How would you feel if Slashdotters massively scream "OMG WHY DO WE NEED ANOTHER DISTRO?!", mentally destroy the developers who made that distro, and thus destroying the one distro that exactly fits your needs?
Denying people to make their own distro is denying them essential human rights!
And where do you see Free Software developers lobbying for world domination? I rarely see them. They come mostly from Slashdotters who *are not* developers.
There's a huge difference between "criticising" and "bashing". Most Slashdotters don't criticisze: they bash. How the hell is "you are a fucking retarded elitist and will never have a girlfriend" constructive criticism? How's saying that I have to be a slave constructive criticism?
I try my best to make software as usable as possible, and all I get on Slashdot is insults, with *almost no constructive criticism whatsoever*.
"often justifiably"
The point is, they are often injustifiably "critisizing". It has reached a point when even lies (yes, lies. there's sometimes solid proof that what they're saying is 100% incorrect) against Linux is modded up.
Heck, why can't you people take criticism? What makes your criticism so much greater and better than mine?
"telling them "quit whining about what you get for free" or "go code it youself" or "you're engaging in the mental destruction of Free Software developers.""
Most of those statements come from users who are tired of the bashing, not developers. Most developers don't even read Slashdot comments because of the high number of trolls and flames. Heck, I have a friend who's just a normal user. I showed him some Slashdot threads and he was baffled by how people kept bashing volunteers who give away software for free.
Even the Windows community is better! The users who use Dev-C++ (open source IDE for Windows) are very polite when they have criticism against us (unlike Slashdotters!) and they often realize that we are just volunteers and shouldn't expect too much from us, especially when it's free. But no, not Slashdot. Slashdottes treat us like we're some kind of robots who are supposed to give away everything for free and work 24 hours a day.
Summary:
1. Most developers don't scream world domination. Zealots users do. So don't blame us.
2. Lots of developers don't respond with "code it yourself". Users do. When a developer does so, it's most likely because you're being impolite/being a jerk! You really need better social skills if you don't realize this.
3. No matter how hard we try to make a good product, all you people do is insult and flame us. Like we have no personal life or something.
4. If you don't show respect to me, why should I show respect to you?
"Slashdotters often complain about (anti-Linux) FUD in one breath, while spreading anti-MS FUD with the next."
The impression I have is that while this may be so in the past, it is no longer true. A few years ago things quickly changed, and now most Slashdotters seem to be *very* critical against Linux. Just look at the number of critical posts in stories about usability about Linux/open source apps. Heck, it's so much that it drives me nuts. I'm trying my best to make as usable software as possible and the only thing Slashdotters do is flame me down and even claiming that I have to be a "slave".
It's exactly because of zealot-trolls like you why the MS community is so hated. Get a clue.
While the editors may be anti-MS, most Slashdotters are definitely not. Heck, I'd even say most Slashdotters are anti-Linux, or at least criticise Linux for absolutely everything, even when it's not appropriate or false. The fact that your post got modded up to +5 is the absolute proof of that.
The difference is that with Linux, you are allowed (and encouraged) to contribute fixes. You can compile a Linux kernel yourself to suit your needs. Good guys can help out everybody.
Not Win2k. If a good man finds a bug in Win2k's source code and contacts MS, he'll either get sued or end up in jail. The good guys are eliminated, only the bad guys are left.
Isn't that exactly what the installers already do for you? When I installed Fedora, it automatically detected by Windows partition and made a "DOS" entry for it.
That's great, and what about multiple kernel versions? /boot in a different partition that /? Etc. etc.
And this is exactly the reason why Slashdotters and people like you are globally recognized as idiots: you zealots can't stand a bit of criticism.
Why do people keep blaming open source for this? Blender used to be closed source, but back in those days people didn't complain about it's user interface. Now that Blender is open source, people start complaining it, and start blaming open source for it's user interface. That's just rediculous.
So? Neither is "the open source community". Yet Slashdotters continue to flame down the open source community as a whole, just because of a vocal minority. Until Slashdotters have fixed this attitude problem, I will continue to treat Slashdotters like a single entity.
And who exactly is holding a gun to your head and forcing you to use Gimp? I don't know anybody. Nobody is forcing you to use Gimp. If you don't like it, then don't use it.
People on Slashdot always claim that "Linux zealots are trying to convert people" but where are they? Other than a few occasional trolls I've never really seen anybody claiming that proprietary software sucks. Heck, I see more people complaining about Gimp, saying how much it sucks, and trying to mentally destroy Linux developers!
Constructive criticism is good. But the thing is, most criticism on Slashdot are NOT constructive! They're destructive bashing! "Gimp sucks, Linux sucks, you are an elitist bastard, you moron. Linux will fail and you will never have a girlfriend. Photoshop is so much better mwahaha.". If you're a developer and you read things like that, would you call it "constructive criticism"? What's so constructive about it?
I'm a happy Gimp user. I'm very productive in Gimp. Photoshop? No thanks! Gimp is free and does everything I want. Also, Gimp 2.0 has a much improved user interface.
Finally, a truly insightful post! You hit the nail completely, and I agree with you 100%.
These days, most of the "criticism" on Slashdot against anything related to Linux is quite useless. They're not constructive, their criticism don't make the situation any better.
Instead, the criticism is solely meant to mentally destroy Linux developers.
People don't even see that. If you critisize them, they'll just call you "a Linux zealot who can't stand criticism".
There's constructive criticism and there's bashing. Yet most of the criticism on Slashdot is destructive bashing!
Good criticism: "Gimp has strengths, but also weaknesses. This and that needs more work, I suggest (insert suggestion here). It would be better if (blabla)."
Bashing: "Gimp sucks! Linux has failed on the desktop! If I see a Gimp developer I'll kill him! You have an ego problem because you don't agree with me! All Linux developers are elitist bastard" (90% of Gimp criticism on Slashdot)
No, attitudes like yours are the problem. If you can't see the difference between constructive criticism and bashing, then you are a zealot.
"Everytime someone talks about usability of an open source software, the OSS community unite itself under the voice of "That's because you're not used to it"."
...)"
Maybe it's because that's a valid reason? You people are always so fast to dismiss any criticism against you.
The first time I started using Paint Shop Pro, I only had experience with MS Paint. PSP confused me. All the menus/buttons/tool windows/etc. didn't make any sense to me. At first I wasn't productive in PSP at all - I thought MS Paint is better.
Only after having worked with PSP for a few months, I was able to work well with it.
Same for Gimp. Now that I've gotten used to Gimp, I find it much better than Paint Shop Pro! I reboot back to Linux just to be able to use Gimp.
Yes I know there's Gimp for Win32, but Windows's window management sucks compared to Linux; no magnetic window snapping and no virtual desktops.
"Now The Gimp is another matter altogether. I don't know anyone that got used to its clumsy 12 windows that fill in your task bar."
I'd much rather have 12 items in my task list than 12 menu entries in the Window menu! What's a faster way to switch to another image window, click Window->Image6, or just clicking on Image6 on the task list? Heck, this even allows you to Alt+Tab between image windows!
If you're concerned about mixing up Gimp windows and other apps, then use virtual desktops. I find that this works much better than the Win32 window-in-window approach.
Heck, the praised-by-all MacOS X also works like that. Photoshop opens tons of image windows and tool windows.
Gimp 2.0 has a new flexible docking interface. You can put all the tool windows in one single window if you want (I have 2). Your arguments are quite outdated. Heck, almost all arguments against Gimp on Slashdot are outdated.
"None of the user interactions are standard (Like Esc to simulate "Cancel", Tab, Space, Enter,
What are you talking about?
Esc in Windows exits a dialog - same in Gimp. Open the Preferences dialog and press Esc.
Tab in Windows moves the focus to the next control. Same in Gimp.
Space and Enter in Windows activates the focused button. Same in Gimp.
Why are all complains about Gimp on Slashdot about Gimp 1.x? Gimp 2.0 has been out for quite a while, with a much better UI. You can drag & drop docks together into a single tool window, and there's a top menu bar for every image window now. The GUI now looks much slicker with it's colored icons.
Yet it's always the Slashdot crowd who's whining about "Don't imitate Microsoft! Come up with something original!"? Gimp's interface is original, yet Slashdotters complain about it *because* it's not a Microsoft imitation?!
This kind of Slashdot attitude is exactly what's wrong.
"Being honest and open about the capabilities, strenghts and weaknesses of the platform we love so much is more likely to win people over - after all, they get enough lies and deceit from the proprietary side of the fence, don't they?"
What? One of the things Slashdotters complain most about Linux is the lack of marketing. Yet marketing is for a large part based on lying.
So when people are honest about Linux and it's development, Slashdotters will complain about:
- Conflicts between groups. If you tell them that companies have internal conflicts too (it's just that they don't let anybody know), they'll tell you that Linux will fail on the desktop *because* conflicts are public.
- Lack of marketing.
- Security vulnerabilities. Linux doesn't hide it's vulnerabilities. Yet more and more people are constantly nitpicking on Linux, saying "Look! Linux is more insecure than Windows!", while not even looking at the fact that Microsoft hides a lot of bugs from the public. Linux developers release information about new vulnerabilities so admins are aware of it, yet Slashdotters abuse it to claim that Linux has "failed".
Obviously being honest about this has done Linux more harm than good. Yet if we're *not* honest about it, people like you complain about lack of honesty?! Damned if you do, damned if you don't?!
"I am sure this will be modded flamebait by some kneejerk reactionary moderator, just the other reply to the parent, but what the hey......"
No it won't, I'm sure it will get modded up, like all other similar posts. Slashdot is not a pro-Linux anti-MS place! Heck, I'd even argue criticism against Linux is often overrated - it's like people mod it up even when it's not true, like it's a divine thing or something.
Linux must be one of the most hated things in existance. People do nothing more than insulting it and claiming it's defeat. People are constantly belittleling Linux developers. I'm working hard to write software to make Linux better, yet all people do is insulting me and telling me how much everything sucks?! Even the Windows community is better than the Slashdot crowd!
Then don't. Who's forcing you to use Konqueror? Nobody. But do you want to force Mozilla to people who don't like Mozilla at all, by eliminating all choices? Do you encourage slavery?
That 'automatically' refers to the ALSA drivers. You can also install the latest ALSA drivers on your RedHat 9 box.
Yes, I mean that multiple programs can write to /dev/dsp at the same time. I can run XMMS and mplayer simultanously.
I'm using Fedora Core 1. When my card was autodetected, it used the OSS drivers, which do not support hardware sound mixing. I switched to the ALSA drivers, and I automatically got hardware sound mixing support without having to do anything else.
Install the ALSA kernel modules. This is what I have in my modules.conf:
#alias sound-slot-0 via82cxxx_audio --- OSS driver, commented out
# ALSA
alias char-major-116 snd
alias snd-card-0 snd-via82xx
options snd-card-0 index=0 dxs_support=4
# OSS/Free portion
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-slot-0 snd-card-0
# card #1
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
I have the exact same card. I use the ALSA drivers and it supports hardware sound mixing just fine.