> Or better yet encourage your game maker to write that game in OpenGL so its easier to port to OSX or Linux.
I agree with the sentiment, but you'd have to be a fool to think the game developers are going to listen to a pathetically tiny fraction of their audience. Particularly when Direct3D has new effects and other fuckery to show off.
ID long stopped being about innovative gameplay. Anything innovative in terms of gameplay stopped at Quake 1, and any innovation there was more due to less technical restraints than anything else.
ID is about technological innovation - creating the game engine that dozens of others will use as the springboard for their "innovations" (big or small as they may be). Half-Life is a good example of this at work.
In the Computer Science department, we have a room full of Pentium III systems. Only half of them work. Actually, depending on the moon cycle, it can be less than half.
In the Mathematics department, we have a room full of ugly-ass old iMacs. I've only seen 1 or, at absolute most, 2 machines in the room that were not functioning.
The worst part is that the Pentium III systems are set up on a fancy little "imaging" system, where each boot restores a remotely hosted disk image for whatever OS you choose (Win2000, Win98, or an old Red Hat Linux). So we're not even talking OS problems here - every working machine gets a fresh one every boot. It's pure hardware failures in that room.
The iMacs all run off persistant locally-installed copies of OS something (not OS X, and I'm not much of a pre-OS X Mac user, so I can't tell you if it's OS 8 or 9 or what). No fancy re-imaging on boot or anything. Just an OS that doesn't tend to break, on hardware that doesn't tend to break.
You talk about KDE's extensive ability to be customized, but you take the flawed approach of thinking that people that enjoy this option use every last capability of it.
This is not true.
The point of KDE customizing is so that people that want one or two things to be a very specific way can make it that way and be happy.
Very few people customize every last thing on the desktop. But many people customize a few things, and for different people, it's different things they want changed.
You don't have to customize everything to appreciate KDE's deep and broad customizing options. All you have to do is customize a couple of GUI features in a way that other DE's don't allow, and you'll see the benefit immediately.
I would. The point is to be able to run KDE apps natively in OS X. That would be a major infusion of free software - some of which (KDevelop especially) I use extensively.
It would lessen my need to dual-boot my Powerbook, and let me run OS X alone a lot more.
Windows: Install new software. Shortcut to program is made in the Start Menu (virtually guaranteed, unless you tell the installer not to).
KDE: Install new software. Shortcut to program is... well, depends. Is it a KDE app, or a GNOME or X app? What distribution are you using? Even if it's a KDE app, uhm, well, maybe it'll be there.
Sure, their quarterly revenue is around $12 billion. But a lot of that turns around and gets spent.
Their quarterly PROFIT is around $1.5 billion. They just lost 1/3rd of their quarterly profit in one fell swoop. Think that might affect them coming in below estimates this quarter??
... and we just accept their feelings and let them hold that opinion, and go about watching them if we so wish.
Why can't the same standard be held for games? Someone doesn't like violent games... well OK. Let them develop non-violent ones like they enjoy. I can still play Silent Hill and Splinter Cell if I want to.
Xbox Live is one of the few MS products that is truly "innovated", and I love it for such.
New features continued to be developed and added - but they're nice, useful, and UNOBTRUSIVE - unlike many MS software features.
Xbox Live is one of the most forward-thinking entities in console online gaming, and even online gaming in general. This is what Microsoft can do in an industry where they are a COMPETITOR instead of a MONOPOLY. If we could get their PC division in the same boat, maybe we'd get more useful additions out of them.
You asked when will you see these applications. I'm telling you when. I don't see why you ask "when will we see them" and then talk about right now.
What's the obsession about proof of concept about? Clearly MS doesn't feel the need to "prove" anything. If they think.NET is all that, they'll make Longhorn as they're apparently planning and let everyone start coding accordingly. They don't have to prove anything beforehand - just make everyone deal with it like they had to deal with Win32.
The fact that a UI as customizable as KDE is making such inroads in usability is a testament to progress.
That said, KDE still has a too-high "clunky" factor. It still is too unresponsive and lacks a certain "smoothness" and uniformity. It's good enough for daily desktop use for me, but on my laptop where I want low hassle and high productivity, I'll be using OS X.
I eagerly await every new release of KDE. A lot of progress has been made in a short amount of time. One of the biggest problems that remain for KDE and GNOME is the fact that installing software may or may not give you a launcher in the "start menu" (to borrow the Windows term). Joe End User doesn't care to differentiate between Qt/KDE apps and GTK+ apps, and frankly, neither do I. A dektop environment needs to make installing software something less than a chore.
That is true. Everyone always asks me that question, just because I made the paint program! Let's set the record straight: Silicon Graphics created OpenGL. I just utilized it to create the paint program. All the credit really belongs to them, but I am flattered over the attention.
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I agree with the sentiment, but you'd have to be a fool to think the game developers are going to listen to a pathetically tiny fraction of their audience. Particularly when Direct3D has new effects and other fuckery to show off.
ID is about technological innovation - creating the game engine that dozens of others will use as the springboard for their "innovations" (big or small as they may be). Half-Life is a good example of this at work.
Say it ain't so, HoDo!
In the Mathematics department, we have a room full of ugly-ass old iMacs. I've only seen 1 or, at absolute most, 2 machines in the room that were not functioning.
The worst part is that the Pentium III systems are set up on a fancy little "imaging" system, where each boot restores a remotely hosted disk image for whatever OS you choose (Win2000, Win98, or an old Red Hat Linux). So we're not even talking OS problems here - every working machine gets a fresh one every boot. It's pure hardware failures in that room.
The iMacs all run off persistant locally-installed copies of OS something (not OS X, and I'm not much of a pre-OS X Mac user, so I can't tell you if it's OS 8 or 9 or what). No fancy re-imaging on boot or anything. Just an OS that doesn't tend to break, on hardware that doesn't tend to break.
What school is this?
*concocts a plan to get failing students to help fund a G5 tower purchase*
This is not true.
The point of KDE customizing is so that people that want one or two things to be a very specific way can make it that way and be happy.
Very few people customize every last thing on the desktop. But many people customize a few things, and for different people, it's different things they want changed.
You don't have to customize everything to appreciate KDE's deep and broad customizing options. All you have to do is customize a couple of GUI features in a way that other DE's don't allow, and you'll see the benefit immediately.
I would. The point is to be able to run KDE apps natively in OS X. That would be a major infusion of free software - some of which (KDevelop especially) I use extensively.
It would lessen my need to dual-boot my Powerbook, and let me run OS X alone a lot more.
KWrite? *yawn*
KDevelop? Woohoo!
KDE: Install new software. Shortcut to program is... well, depends. Is it a KDE app, or a GNOME or X app? What distribution are you using? Even if it's a KDE app, uhm, well, maybe it'll be there.
Their quarterly PROFIT is around $1.5 billion. They just lost 1/3rd of their quarterly profit in one fell swoop. Think that might affect them coming in below estimates this quarter??
Why can't the same standard be held for games? Someone doesn't like violent games... well OK. Let them develop non-violent ones like they enjoy. I can still play Silent Hill and Splinter Cell if I want to.
Please be quiet or I will assault you and have sex with your posterior.
New features continued to be developed and added - but they're nice, useful, and UNOBTRUSIVE - unlike many MS software features.
Xbox Live is one of the most forward-thinking entities in console online gaming, and even online gaming in general. This is what Microsoft can do in an industry where they are a COMPETITOR instead of a MONOPOLY. If we could get their PC division in the same boat, maybe we'd get more useful additions out of them.
I used to use a dual-wheel Radio Shack mouse. It was actually very cool.
What's the obsession about proof of concept about? Clearly MS doesn't feel the need to "prove" anything. If they think .NET is all that, they'll make Longhorn as they're apparently planning and let everyone start coding accordingly. They don't have to prove anything beforehand - just make everyone deal with it like they had to deal with Win32.
Around the time of Longhorn's release, maybe? That's still 2 years off.
That said, KDE still has a too-high "clunky" factor. It still is too unresponsive and lacks a certain "smoothness" and uniformity. It's good enough for daily desktop use for me, but on my laptop where I want low hassle and high productivity, I'll be using OS X.
I eagerly await every new release of KDE. A lot of progress has been made in a short amount of time. One of the biggest problems that remain for KDE and GNOME is the fact that installing software may or may not give you a launcher in the "start menu" (to borrow the Windows term). Joe End User doesn't care to differentiate between Qt/KDE apps and GTK+ apps, and frankly, neither do I. A dektop environment needs to make installing software something less than a chore.
This was quite humerous and probably nobody else read it.