"but Microsoft is not a monopoly. A monopoly is a company that gets exclusive market rights from the government."
WRONG! In the US, a monopoly is any company that has complete or near-complete control of a particular market segment. With 95% of the market, Microsoft qualifies.
I'm definately biased, and I find Time, Washington Post, CBS News, and CNN to be perfectly unbiased. In fact, CBS and CNN are a bit too conservative for my taste. Add Newsweek to your list, btw.
Frankly, I see no point in trying to pretend that either side is biased or unbiased. Individuals are inherently biased, and even if an unbiased source did exist, we biased humans would never know it.
That said, my problem with FOX News is that it represents the basest, most knee-jerk kind of conservatism. Both conservatives and liberals have that segment of their party that they're ashamed of. The conservatives have the unthinking knee-jerk faction, which simply holds conservative ideals because they don't know any better, and the liberals have the brainless faction, who have no grip of reality. I don't see CNN corrupted by the latter as much as FOX is corrupted by the former. I know a lot of very conservative people, and can debate with them at great length without losing my respect for them. Yet, watching FOX just makes me physically ill.
Jesus Christ. That link is worse than goatse.cx! The formating, oh god, the formatting! Someone steal this man's period key so he can't use any more ellipses!
Its only manual if you don't use something like APT, Yum, urpmi, Portage, etc. Most of the major distributions have these, its just a matter of getting their package repositories up to speed. Debian, for example (or Gentoo to a slightly lesser extent) has a huge package repository. Most everything that can be installed on Debian is either in the repository, or has a 3rd party repository available. Gwydion Dylan's new Debian repository is a great example of this. Just stick a URL into your sources.list (which can be done via the GUI in Synaptic) and instantly you have access to everything in that repository. Best of all, as new versions come out, apt will automatically update them!
I agree with you that installing RPMs manually is a pain. That's why nobody does it anymore!
Well, I don't want to shake your belief in mankind, but if it's not a walk-through installer (with buttons and clear choices) it's already too hard. >>>>>>>>>>>>&g t; Walk-through with buttons and choices is already too hard. Double-clicking "gimp" in Syanptic or YaST is easy.
Well, my firewire iPod works out of the box on Debian, Gentoo, and Fedora. Just plug in and mount. Its even easier than Windows --- XP needs drivers for it.
And installing new programs is NOT easy at all. >>>>>>>>>>>>. Actually, its a matter of "apt-get install " or "yum install " or "emerge foo". The package repositories don't have 100% coverage, but for the stuff your average office worker or home user needs, its all there. Going back to Windows installer "what, I have to download it myself???" is positively archaic.
If you take a look at other high-end software, they're only supported on certain configurations on Windows. You install a patch, and its not supported anymore. Its a problem specific to high-end proprietory software, not the underlying OS. Its only exacerbated on Linux because the OS changes so fast. Are you saying that we should slow down the progress of the OS? Concerns like this shouldn't affect normal users.
Both APT and Portage have ways to only download a package and all its dependencies. For APT its the option --download-only, and for Portage its --fetch-only.
Um, you're describing a problem that was fixed long ago. Most modern distributions (RedHat, Mandrake, Debian, SuSE, etc) use a package repository. Thus, installing applications is as simple as double-clicking it in something like Synaptic (much better than the multi-step wizard-style MS Windows installer) and boom, its in your start menu. The repository manager takes care of everything else.
As for dependencies --- they're the right technical solution. OSS can't afford to reinvent the wheel for every little app, and shipping your own copies of each dependency is just asking for trouble. Its easy enough to handle the logistics automatically through software, so there is really no point in going to an "include-the-world" MS windows style installer. Also, Linux software is constantly evolving. That can't be helped, its a natural byproduct of the development model. As a result, you'll just have to get used to updating once every month or two. Its not like it costs anything, and systems like APT and Yum make it a single-command, 10 minute process.
I paid the time investment once, and that was that. I had to learn Windows too, and at the time I did that (Win 3.x) *it* didn't work either. As for Hani, he's lower than some IT-reject's ejaculate. He should be so lucky. A
Only if you're an inexperienced Linux user. As an experienced Linux user, who uses Linux as his everyday desktop, (and an increasingly un-experience Windows user) I can't imagine what I'd do without apt-get or all of kwin's helpful features, or having to deal with insane directory names like "Documents and Settings" in the CLI.
umm RH9 is intended to be a desktop distro, that means made for a linux newbie. >>>>>>>>>> No it doesn't. RedHat, generally is meant for the corporate desktop. That means that a professional IT staff is on hand to maintain the computer. The end-user doesn't need to do anything with it.
That doesn't make any sense. If generic math moved to the GPU, it wouldn't be the GPU anymore, it'd be the CPU! Ideally, we wouldn't have GPUs. We'd have a multiprocessor system with very fast CPUs (with dedicated 3D instructions) connected by a very high bandwidth memory bus. This really simplifies things in the graphics system. You don't have to worry about concurrent rendering --- the scheduler handles everything. You don't have to copy large command buffers over the AGP bus --- you don't even have to buffer at all!
Right on! I absolutely do not understand where these complaints come from. Does anybody complain that the GDI doesn't have a unified look and feel? Just because X bothers to properly abstract the drawing mechanism from the GUI, its suddenly a weakness?
First, AOL's Linux version of AIM bites. Its unavoidable --- you have to understand which apps are popular for what. Its the same in Windows, its just that you already have experience with it, so you know that you should use Winzip or whatever.
Second, why were you trying to compile? SuSE has binaries of gaim. Just start up YaST, go to the installer, and install the gaim program.
Could you point to a few examples? My KDE 3.2 desktop is *far* more consistent than any version of Windows I've ever used. In Windows, its almost impossible to be consistent, because some core apps (MS Office, Visual Studio, IE, Windows Media Player) all look and behave differently!
It really depends on how you use your desktop. Personally, I fall itno that catagory of "asthetically consistent" users. Yet, I quite happily use KDE as my desktop. Almost all the apps I need are available for KDE, and it really doesn't bug me to start up gtkpod once every few weeks to transfer files to my iPod. If you can get away with using just GNOME or just KDE for your core apps, you get a very consistent experience --- certainly more of one than Windows, and also more of one than OS X Panther (due to the bane that is Brushed Metal).
Slashdot Mirror
"but Microsoft is not a monopoly. A monopoly is a company that gets exclusive market rights from the government."
WRONG! In the US, a monopoly is any company that has complete or near-complete control of a particular market segment. With 95% of the market, Microsoft qualifies.
Like they say: A computer without Windows Media Player is like a dog without a brick tied to its head.
I'm definately biased, and I find Time, Washington Post, CBS News, and CNN to be perfectly unbiased. In fact, CBS and CNN are a bit too conservative for my taste. Add Newsweek to your list, btw.
Frankly, I see no point in trying to pretend that either side is biased or unbiased. Individuals are inherently biased, and even if an unbiased source did exist, we biased humans would never know it.
That said, my problem with FOX News is that it represents the basest, most knee-jerk kind of conservatism. Both conservatives and liberals have that segment of their party that they're ashamed of. The conservatives have the unthinking knee-jerk faction, which simply holds conservative ideals because they don't know any better, and the liberals have the brainless faction, who have no grip of reality. I don't see CNN corrupted by the latter as much as FOX is corrupted by the former. I know a lot of very conservative people, and can debate with them at great length without losing my respect for them. Yet, watching FOX just makes me physically ill.
The guy is using a weird theme/color scheme. The program looks much prettier in real life with a decent theme.
I think he's saying that the blatent right-wing bias appeals more to mainstream America...
Jesus Christ. That link is worse than goatse.cx! The formating, oh god, the formatting! Someone steal this man's period key so he can't use any more ellipses!
I think Fink might have APT (which is what Synaptic is based on) but I don't use OS X so I'm not sure.
Its only manual if you don't use something like APT, Yum, urpmi, Portage, etc. Most of the major distributions have these, its just a matter of getting their package repositories up to speed. Debian, for example (or Gentoo to a slightly lesser extent) has a huge package repository. Most everything that can be installed on Debian is either in the repository, or has a 3rd party repository available. Gwydion Dylan's new Debian repository is a great example of this. Just stick a URL into your sources.list (which can be done via the GUI in Synaptic) and instantly you have access to everything in that repository. Best of all, as new versions come out, apt will automatically update them!
I agree with you that installing RPMs manually is a pain. That's why nobody does it anymore!
Well, I don't want to shake your belief in mankind, but if it's not a walk-through installer (with buttons and clear choices) it's already too hard.
>>>>>>>>>>>>&g t;
Walk-through with buttons and choices is already too hard. Double-clicking "gimp" in Syanptic or YaST is easy.
Well, my firewire iPod works out of the box on Debian, Gentoo, and Fedora. Just plug in and mount. Its even easier than Windows --- XP needs drivers for it.
And installing new programs is NOT easy at all.
>>>>>>>>>>>>.
Actually, its a matter of "apt-get install " or "yum install " or "emerge foo". The package repositories don't have 100% coverage, but for the stuff your average office worker or home user needs, its all there. Going back to Windows installer "what, I have to download it myself???" is positively archaic.
Linus uses it. That's a good enough reason for me.
If you take a look at other high-end software, they're only supported on certain configurations on Windows. You install a patch, and its not supported anymore. Its a problem specific to high-end proprietory software, not the underlying OS. Its only exacerbated on Linux because the OS changes so fast. Are you saying that we should slow down the progress of the OS? Concerns like this shouldn't affect normal users.
Both APT and Portage have ways to only download a package and all its dependencies. For APT its the option --download-only, and for Portage its --fetch-only.
Um, you're describing a problem that was fixed long ago. Most modern distributions (RedHat, Mandrake, Debian, SuSE, etc) use a package repository. Thus, installing applications is as simple as double-clicking it in something like Synaptic (much better than the multi-step wizard-style MS Windows installer) and boom, its in your start menu. The repository manager takes care of everything else.
As for dependencies --- they're the right technical solution. OSS can't afford to reinvent the wheel for every little app, and shipping your own copies of each dependency is just asking for trouble. Its easy enough to handle the logistics automatically through software, so there is really no point in going to an "include-the-world" MS windows style installer. Also, Linux software is constantly evolving. That can't be helped, its a natural byproduct of the development model. As a result, you'll just have to get used to updating once every month or two. Its not like it costs anything, and systems like APT and Yum make it a single-command, 10 minute process.
I paid the time investment once, and that was that. I had to learn Windows too, and at the time I did that (Win 3.x) *it* didn't work either. As for Hani, he's lower than some IT-reject's ejaculate. He should be so lucky. A
Actually, lots of people have seen MS code. Its licensed to universities all the time.
Only if you're an inexperienced Linux user. As an experienced Linux user, who uses Linux as his everyday desktop, (and an increasingly un-experience Windows user) I can't imagine what I'd do without apt-get or all of kwin's helpful features, or having to deal with insane directory names like "Documents and Settings" in the CLI.
umm RH9 is intended to be a desktop distro, that means made for a linux newbie.
>>>>>>>>>>
No it doesn't. RedHat, generally is meant for the corporate desktop. That means that a professional IT staff is on hand to maintain the computer. The end-user doesn't need to do anything with it.
That doesn't make any sense. If generic math moved to the GPU, it wouldn't be the GPU anymore, it'd be the CPU! Ideally, we wouldn't have GPUs. We'd have a multiprocessor system with very fast CPUs (with dedicated 3D instructions) connected by a very high bandwidth memory bus. This really simplifies things in the graphics system. You don't have to worry about concurrent rendering --- the scheduler handles everything. You don't have to copy large command buffers over the AGP bus --- you don't even have to buffer at all!
Right on! I absolutely do not understand where these complaints come from. Does anybody complain that the GDI doesn't have a unified look and feel? Just because X bothers to properly abstract the drawing mechanism from the GUI, its suddenly a weakness?
First, AOL's Linux version of AIM bites. Its unavoidable --- you have to understand which apps are popular for what. Its the same in Windows, its just that you already have experience with it, so you know that you should use Winzip or whatever.
Second, why were you trying to compile? SuSE has binaries of gaim. Just start up YaST, go to the installer, and install the gaim program.
How is Xinerama a hack?
Could you point to a few examples? My KDE 3.2 desktop is *far* more consistent than any version of Windows I've ever used. In Windows, its almost impossible to be consistent, because some core apps (MS Office, Visual Studio, IE, Windows Media Player) all look and behave differently!
It really depends on how you use your desktop. Personally, I fall itno that catagory of "asthetically consistent" users. Yet, I quite happily use KDE as my desktop. Almost all the apps I need are available for KDE, and it really doesn't bug me to start up gtkpod once every few weeks to transfer files to my iPod. If you can get away with using just GNOME or just KDE for your core apps, you get a very consistent experience --- certainly more of one than Windows, and also more of one than OS X Panther (due to the bane that is Brushed Metal).