For those of us who remember, multi-tasking (after a fashion) was made possible on Windows 3.1 via the TSR - Terminate-and-Stay-Resident programs that left a stub, inert but still in RAM - that allowed a limited task-switching capability.
TSR was not a way to have multi-tasking on Windows 3.1; TSR was a way to have pseudo-multi-tasking in DOS before Windows [and other multi-tasking environments such as DESQ(view)] came by. In fact, most TSR apps would NOT work in Windows.
Of course, TSR-multitasking was not really multitasking, since the TSR was not really 'running' at the same time as whatever you were running under DOS. Multitasking was offered by Windows (which before version 3.0 did not offer 'real' multitasking either). or by other programs such as the mentioned DESQView.
It used to be that one of the big selling points of Mozilla/Firefox was that it could run on almost any OS! Mac, Windows (95 and NT 3.51 and up), Linux, BeOS, OS/2, Solaris, and more!
I guess Opera will be the last browser still supporting everything then.
In fact, Corel's WordPerfect Office has always been significantly better than MSO (at least for the parts I've been using, namely the WordPerfect and Quattro Pro) [and no, it's not as perfect as the name would suggest, sadly]
I believe they harm the market by undermining the very rights that make the market possible.
Any pure free market (in particular without antitrust law) will in time destroy itself by degenerating into a monopolistic market. In a monopolistic market no new competitors can enter (because an existing monopoly can lower its prices long enough to starve any newcomer).
Any company that would attempt to artificially inflate prices would see their previous customers no longer buy their product, and move on to another product.
This is only true if the company is providing non-essential services AND if there is another, competing product. Which there might not be in case of monopoly (see above)
This is precisely the reason why I always try to push people towards using (on Windows) programs which are also available on Linux: OpenOfficeorg, the GIMP (yes I know it's not Photoshop), Inkscape, Audacity, pidgin, Firefox (or Opera), Thunderbird etc.
It's only after they are familiar with these that you can start working on the operating system transition.
Although I agree with most of what you wrote, there are a few things that I think deserve a reply.
> There is no common way to install and remove software.
This is actually more true for Windows than it is for Linux. Aside from the various more-or-less-(un)successfull attempts at universal installers, the truth is that for the software which is available on Linux there _is_ a common way to _obtain_, _install_ and _remove_ software, and that's your distro's package manager. Of course, if you use hardcore distributions such as slackware or gentoo you might have a problem, but that's not what non-geek linux users would use.
> There is no stable base to write drivers (thus no hardware support)
This is not the reason for the lack of drivers. Lack of specs is. And this is not just a matter of philosophical differences (open vs closed drivers), as the recent (ok, last year now) experience of NVIDIA horrible drivers both for Vista and for Ubuntu shows.
> There are too many distros with too many proprietary ways of doing things.
With Windows XP, there used to be significant differences in the way you could administer your computer, due to the 'Home' version having significantly less features, working in ways that were significantly different from the 'Professional' version. Have you ever tried giving the usual friendly tech support to one, possessing the other, or making two such computers play well together in a network?
> Too many proprietary repositories, too many proprietary package systems
This is actually mostly transparent to the user, so it's much less of a burden that you make it look like. For most stuff that is shipped with your distro, the user won't _care_ about things such as where the repositories are, or the package system programs are distributed with. And when getting stuff from the net (in the rare cases you need to) the dropdown menus let you select your distribution just like they let you select your Windows version (95? 98? Me? XP? Vista?)
> to many proprietary filesystem layouts.
This is only relevant the day you have to do low-level maintenance stuff, which the normal user is supposed to not need to do.
> Gimp is *not* Photoshop. Sorry. I know I mentioned this, but I'll repeat it again. You insult people who actually use Photoshop by making this claim.
This is quite true indeed. Of course, one wonders how many home users need the superiority of Photoshop over what Gimp can provide.
the way gcc compiles the big delegator switch in MRI's core, with a large sparse stack that causes ridiculous memory consumption (and sometimes even leaks).
Couldn't the code be written in a way that gcc can compile efficiently then? Seems like a simpler solution.
This is what some of the MBARI patches do. (Of course, ideally you shouldn't need to rewrite your code to have the compiler produce better stuff.) Anyway, the point is (was) that the scalability issues in Ruby are not intrinsic in the language but a consequence of the implementation.
Re:Should have used PHP.
on
Twitter On Scala
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
The problem is that most of those compiler/interpreters suck enormously.
Exactly. MRI (Matz' Ruby Interpreter) is known to have some serious scalability issues. Interestingly, one of the main issues with MRI comes from the way gcc compiles the big delegator switch in MRI's core, with a large sparse stack that causes ridiculous memory consumption (and sometimes even leaks). There's a set of 8 patches (the MBARI patchset) that drastically improve the situation. The reduced memory footprint and the much smaller stack also give a noticeable speed increase.
The good news is, these patches are progressively being merged upstream, so it's very likely that future MRI versions will be much better.
Being a mathematician by culture and by trade, I happen to have a great deal of experience with LaTeX. And that's precisely the reason why I despise OOo. You can put it any way you want, but it's still crap. Even good ole' WordPerfect was eons better in almost every respect (reveal codes, proper watermark support, smart toolbars, generic SGML and XML editing, anything you want to name, they had it); too bad it's in the wrong hands 8-/
Our 150+ users use either openoffice or staroffice on Linux or Mac every day and thank us almost daily since switching.
I'm glad for them. I still cringe every frigging time I have to use it. And no, I don't like MSO any better (in fact much less), but presenting OOo as a decent product still calls for a correction.
OpenOffice? They do seem to have a few decent devs there...
Except that OpenOffice sucks at so many levels that I really can't understand why you're bringing it up as an example of what a few decent devs can do.
In other words, when accused of a crime by the government, the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you are guilty. When a private business seeks to terminate a business relationship with you, they don't always have to prove *anything at all*. Ever notice those "We reserve the right to refuse service..." notices in contracts or posted on the walls in many businesses? This is why.
Good objection. However, for many forms of business relationship, esp. when it comes to providing services, you are usually allowed (1) a 'grace period' before termination to look for alternatives (2) the possibility to challenge the termination. Of course, it does depend on the form of relationship, the enforceable contract terms, and a plethora of other things, though.
This, correct me if I'm wrong, is completely legal; so I would rather them pursue this vein of inquiry than through legal action.
Maybe, and anyway only insofar as the provider issues the notice including documented, solid, and legitly-acquired proof that you were indeed infringing copyright, and only if you are allowed, at no cost, to challenge the proof (or the legality of the acquisition of such proof). Otherwise, it's a 'guilty unless proven innocent' stance which is NOT legal.
If an applet requests certain information, pop-up confirmation and EXPLAIN as simply as possible what Allowing or Disabling access would do, none of the technobabble, most people don't even know what an extension is
Most people will also just start clicking Allow automatically or panic, just like they already do with all the confirmation dialogs, UAC dialogs and whatever.
Slashdot Mirror
Have you ever tested new code with new features and found some bugs?
No, we only write perfect code.
as a former resident of New Hampshire, I can tell you that having a black car and black roof on a cold but sunny winter's day is very helpful!
Ideally, we would have surfaces that change color with the season.
For those of us who remember, multi-tasking (after a fashion) was made possible on Windows 3.1 via the TSR - Terminate-and-Stay-Resident programs that left a stub, inert but still in RAM - that allowed a limited task-switching capability.
TSR was not a way to have multi-tasking on Windows 3.1; TSR was a way to have pseudo-multi-tasking in DOS before Windows [and other multi-tasking environments such as DESQ(view)] came by. In fact, most TSR apps would NOT work in Windows.
Of course, TSR-multitasking was not really multitasking, since the TSR was not really 'running' at the same time as whatever you were running under DOS. Multitasking was offered by Windows (which before version 3.0 did not offer 'real' multitasking either). or by other programs such as the mentioned DESQView.
"Normal, 'thinking' people" can arrive at drastically different conclusions. See Conservative v. Liberal v. Libertarian.
Wait, why are you talking about thinking people in the first sentence and then switch to a totally different topic in the second one?
It used to be that one of the big selling points of Mozilla/Firefox was that it could run on almost any OS! Mac, Windows (95 and NT 3.51 and up), Linux, BeOS, OS/2, Solaris, and more!
I guess Opera will be the last browser still supporting everything then.
In fact, Corel's WordPerfect Office has always been significantly better than MSO (at least for the parts I've been using, namely the WordPerfect and Quattro Pro) [and no, it's not as perfect as the name would suggest, sadly]
I believe they harm the market by undermining the very rights that make the market possible.
Any pure free market (in particular without antitrust law) will in time destroy itself by degenerating into a monopolistic market. In a monopolistic market no new competitors can enter (because an existing monopoly can lower its prices long enough to starve any newcomer).
Any company that would attempt to artificially inflate prices would see their previous customers no longer buy their product, and move on to another product.
This is only true if the company is providing non-essential services AND if there is another, competing product. Which there might not be in case of monopoly (see above)
It's only after they are familiar with these that you can start working on the operating system transition.
Although I agree with most of what you wrote, there are a few things that I think deserve a reply.
> There is no common way to install and remove software.
This is actually more true for Windows than it is for Linux. Aside from the various more-or-less-(un)successfull attempts at universal installers, the truth is that for the software which is available on Linux there _is_ a common way to _obtain_, _install_ and _remove_ software, and that's your distro's package manager. Of course, if you use hardcore distributions such as slackware or gentoo you might have a problem, but that's not what non-geek linux users would use.
> There is no stable base to write drivers (thus no hardware support)
This is not the reason for the lack of drivers. Lack of specs is. And this is not just a matter of philosophical differences (open vs closed drivers), as the recent (ok, last year now) experience of NVIDIA horrible drivers both for Vista and for Ubuntu shows.
> There are too many distros with too many proprietary ways of doing things.
With Windows XP, there used to be significant differences in the way you could administer your computer, due to the 'Home' version having significantly less features, working in ways that were significantly different from the 'Professional' version. Have you ever tried giving the usual friendly tech support to one, possessing the other, or making two such computers play well together in a network?
> Too many proprietary repositories, too many proprietary package systems
This is actually mostly transparent to the user, so it's much less of a burden that you make it look like. For most stuff that is shipped with your distro, the user won't _care_ about things such as where the repositories are, or the package system programs are distributed with. And when getting stuff from the net (in the rare cases you need to) the dropdown menus let you select your distribution just like they let you select your Windows version (95? 98? Me? XP? Vista?)
> to many proprietary filesystem layouts.
This is only relevant the day you have to do low-level maintenance stuff, which the normal user is supposed to not need to do.
> Gimp is *not* Photoshop. Sorry. I know I mentioned this, but I'll repeat it again. You insult people who actually use Photoshop by making this claim.
This is quite true indeed. Of course, one wonders how many home users need the superiority of Photoshop over what Gimp can provide.
> Ponies
Yep, Linux unicorns are quite daunting.
the way gcc compiles the big delegator switch in MRI's core, with a large sparse stack that causes ridiculous memory consumption (and sometimes even leaks).
Couldn't the code be written in a way that gcc can compile efficiently then? Seems like a simpler solution.
This is what some of the MBARI patches do. (Of course, ideally you shouldn't need to rewrite your code to have the compiler produce better stuff.) Anyway, the point is (was) that the scalability issues in Ruby are not intrinsic in the language but a consequence of the implementation.
The problem is that most of those compiler/interpreters suck enormously.
Exactly. MRI (Matz' Ruby Interpreter) is known to have some serious scalability issues. Interestingly, one of the main issues with MRI comes from the way gcc compiles the big delegator switch in MRI's core, with a large sparse stack that causes ridiculous memory consumption (and sometimes even leaks). There's a set of 8 patches (the MBARI patchset) that drastically improve the situation. The reduced memory footprint and the much smaller stack also give a noticeable speed increase.
The good news is, these patches are progressively being merged upstream, so it's very likely that future MRI versions will be much better.
Pedantic comment: You'll have to add '--force-yes' to the upgrade command.
Less pedantic comment: Even then you'll have to do a reboot if it applies a kernel update.
Technically you don't have to, but of course you won't get the updated kernel until you do.
Crying earthquake in a volcanically active region.
Just to nitpick, that's not a voclanically active region. It's a seismically active region.
It still runs.
Yes, like a lame wingless duck climbing a mountain on foot.
Being a mathematician by culture and by trade, I happen to have a great deal of experience with LaTeX. And that's precisely the reason why I despise OOo. You can put it any way you want, but it's still crap. Even good ole' WordPerfect was eons better in almost every respect (reveal codes, proper watermark support, smart toolbars, generic SGML and XML editing, anything you want to name, they had it); too bad it's in the wrong hands 8-/
Our 150+ users use either openoffice or staroffice on Linux or Mac every day and thank us almost daily since switching.
I'm glad for them. I still cringe every frigging time I have to use it. And no, I don't like MSO any better (in fact much less), but presenting OOo as a decent product still calls for a correction.
OpenOffice? They do seem to have a few decent devs there...
Except that OpenOffice sucks at so many levels that I really can't understand why you're bringing it up as an example of what a few decent devs can do.
Before reading the summary I thought Germany had decided to get rid of its old currency by donating it to Wikipedia.
That's what I use my IRC bot for. And it has the advantage of being useful to other people in the channel too.
Inconceivable!
(fixed that for you)
I put on my robe and wizard hat.
(Were you expecting maybe a different meme?)
I demand it.
(fixed that for you)
In other words, when accused of a crime by the government, the prosecutor must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you are guilty. When a private business seeks to terminate a business relationship with you, they don't always have to prove *anything at all*. Ever notice those "We reserve the right to refuse service..." notices in contracts or posted on the walls in many businesses? This is why.
Good objection. However, for many forms of business relationship, esp. when it comes to providing services, you are usually allowed (1) a 'grace period' before termination to look for alternatives (2) the possibility to challenge the termination. Of course, it does depend on the form of relationship, the enforceable contract terms, and a plethora of other things, though.
This, correct me if I'm wrong, is completely legal; so I would rather them pursue this vein of inquiry than through legal action.
Maybe, and anyway only insofar as the provider issues the notice including documented, solid, and legitly-acquired proof that you were indeed infringing copyright, and only if you are allowed, at no cost, to challenge the proof (or the legality of the acquisition of such proof). Otherwise, it's a 'guilty unless proven innocent' stance which is NOT legal.
If it was all about rendering speed and usability, everybody would have switched to Opera a long, long time ago.
If an applet requests certain information, pop-up confirmation and EXPLAIN as simply as possible what Allowing or Disabling access would do, none of the technobabble, most people don't even know what an extension is
Most people will also just start clicking Allow automatically or panic, just like they already do with all the confirmation dialogs, UAC dialogs and whatever.