When I first tried Linux (1997) I hadn't been able to get past root+boot disks (I am a dumbass, and I had problems with LBA for my IDE disk, if I remember well). It was a Slackware distro found on a book in the public library.
Then, three years ago I tried RedHat 6.1 without any installation problems. The first time that I started Gnome (the buggy beta version) and KDE1 I didn't believe what I was seeing: some usable (in Average Joe sense) environments when I thought Linux had only very little graphic apps.
Since then a revolution had happened on the desktop side.
Yeah, I agree with the original post that if developers cooperated on only one project we would have had a great environment in 2 years of work rather than several good environments in 4 years. Thanks, I prefer choice.
Yeah, I used a spreadsheet to solve civil engineering problems (concrete and steel design) when I was an undergraduate student. It was very useful for simple computations. I remember a peoject in which I had to solve a problem (design of an aqueduct) with around 60 unknowns and nonlinear, piecewise defined equations.
It took me two hours to write the problem in Excel from scratch and 5 minutes to solve it with Solver on a P2 266. My teachers were impressed when I showed them that thing (they teached us to linearize the problem and solve it with a linear solver, and they didn't know that Excel had a solver).
Now I'm a PH.D. student in computatinal mechanics, I use Mathematica and (serious) Fortran 90, I'm learning parallel programming and when I need a spreadsheet I use Openoffice.
1) Create a small company
2) Develop something useful
3) Sell it to MS with a restrictive license
4) Threaten MS customers
5) Watch MS buying your small company
6) Profit!
For MS employees watching Slashdot: is there anyone at MS interested in including in the next Windows version my penis enlargement technology, so that I can finally stop spamming people? Naturally your customers cannot use this technology to develop anything else than their penis size without infringing my license. You can call the next revision of your OS 'Windows XL'.
... I need the floppy. How else am I supposed to triumphally state to everyone I know that while Windows is slow and bloated, Linux can 'just run from a floppy disk'?
That's why I think Linux will rock on the corporate desktop. A pre-configured environment, a selected number of apps which do the job, no worry for the user about the possibility to break something, simpler administration (1 Linux vs 1 Windows at home -> Windows is easier to mantain; 100 Linux vs 100 Windows in a corporation -> Linux is easier to mantain). Drawbacks: no possibility to install and run all those cute 'internet accelerator' applets, p2p apps, etc...;-) ).
Once large corporations will start using linux apps at work, more and more people will like to have the same apps at home. That's how I see the Linux-on-Desktop issue. It's only a matter of time.
About 12 years ago, when I bought an Amiga 500, I found on an Italian computer games magazine the review of a game called 'Persian Gulf Inferno'. I remembered that the main complaint was about the stereotype involved in a Rambo-ish main character shooting arabs all over the game, with a very high level of violence. The game received a bad rating for this reason (added to the fact that it was a boring game, according to the reviewer).
Just a memory.
Ok, I had never heard about it so I googled a little and it seems a way to encapsulate mpeg2 and other formats in an ogg stream, if I understand. Not exactly what I meant.
Anyway, I'm not sure to be right, so here is my gzipped txt lossy compression method:
I use a proprietary tool (my eyes) to read the pr0n stream which passes on video. Another proprietary tool (my hands) writes down (in emacs) what my eyes see. Then gzip does the trick.
Even this method doesn't achieve perfect results, but at least it's an open standard. The fact that I'm using proprietary tools doesn't change the situation. At least, anyone could produce tools which do a better job for free.
My research group has a still quite powerful (and almost unused) Alpha (a 533 MHz with some 128 MB, I think) running an old version of Tru64. Now it's used only as a file server and as a test machine for compilation.
It would be nice to convert it to Linux (it would be mainly used for LaTeX and Fortran development (Compaq distributes its Fortran 90 compiler for free (beer) for research purposes). Probably the best distro is Debian. Any suggestion?
Hey, some of my 25 years old friends wouldn't never switch to Linux because it 'doesn't work', i.e. they can't play those 'nice' Shockwave executables and those 'useful' Internet accelerators and IE search bars. It's the same problem you have with your 3 years old son.
Slashdot Mirror
Then, three years ago I tried RedHat 6.1 without any installation problems. The first time that I started Gnome (the buggy beta version) and KDE1 I didn't believe what I was seeing: some usable (in Average Joe sense) environments when I thought Linux had only very little graphic apps. Since then a revolution had happened on the desktop side.
Yeah, I agree with the original post that if developers cooperated on only one project we would have had a great environment in 2 years of work rather than several good environments in 4 years. Thanks, I prefer choice.
Yeah, I used a spreadsheet to solve civil engineering problems (concrete and steel design) when I was an undergraduate student. It was very useful for simple computations. I remember a peoject in which I had to solve a problem (design of an aqueduct) with around 60 unknowns and nonlinear, piecewise defined equations. It took me two hours to write the problem in Excel from scratch and 5 minutes to solve it with Solver on a P2 266. My teachers were impressed when I showed them that thing (they teached us to linearize the problem and solve it with a linear solver, and they didn't know that Excel had a solver). Now I'm a PH.D. student in computatinal mechanics, I use Mathematica and (serious) Fortran 90, I'm learning parallel programming and when I need a spreadsheet I use Openoffice.
Seriously, 'free' means 'free', not 'free minus epsilon'.
\begin{troll}
Even my PC and my house have design commonalities. I need to use keys to access both of them.
\end{troll}
2) Develop something useful
3) Sell it to MS with a restrictive license
4) Threaten MS customers
5) Watch MS buying your small company
6) Profit!
For MS employees watching Slashdot: is there anyone at MS interested in including in the next Windows version my penis enlargement technology, so that I can finally stop spamming people? Naturally your customers cannot use this technology to develop anything else than their penis size without infringing my license. You can call the next revision of your OS 'Windows XL'.
complete lack of sane interface design.
They will not succeed. You know, with their 65 CPUs cluster they can resist any slashdotting attempt.
Yeah, I suggest they could repost the story with correct syntax.
I was waiting for this card to switch from my 3Dfx Voodoo 5 6000!
... they can.
... I need the floppy. How else am I supposed to triumphally state to everyone I know that while Windows is slow and bloated, Linux can 'just run from a floppy disk'?
Once large corporations will start using linux apps at work, more and more people will like to have the same apps at home. That's how I see the Linux-on-Desktop issue. It's only a matter of time.
... a story of Linux running on iPod follows a story of Linux running on iPod.
First they tell me their primary goal is increasing security. Then they allow me to buy twice the bugs with the same bucks. Something's wrong.
About 12 years ago, when I bought an Amiga 500, I found on an Italian computer games magazine the review of a game called 'Persian Gulf Inferno'. I remembered that the main complaint was about the stereotype involved in a Rambo-ish main character shooting arabs all over the game, with a very high level of violence. The game received a bad rating for this reason (added to the fact that it was a boring game, according to the reviewer). Just a memory.
Anyway, I'm not sure to be right, so here is my gzipped txt lossy compression method:
I use a proprietary tool (my eyes) to read the pr0n stream which passes on video. Another proprietary tool (my hands) writes down (in emacs) what my eyes see. Then gzip does the trick.
Even this method doesn't achieve perfect results, but at least it's an open standard. The fact that I'm using proprietary tools doesn't change the situation. At least, anyone could produce tools which do a better job for free.
Let's make a deal: tell me how do you store videos in OGG format and I'll tell you how I archive all the pr0n I create in gzipped textfiles.
It would be nice to convert it to Linux (it would be mainly used for LaTeX and Fortran development (Compaq distributes its Fortran 90 compiler for free (beer) for research purposes). Probably the best distro is Debian. Any suggestion?
Just compile Human Interface Device support as a module.
One question: can I play Super Mario Cart with it?
Maybe
Linux for kids
is the right place for them.
The exact question should be: Do you think there is ANY intelligent life in the galaxy/universe?