I'm way too lazy to attempt to get X11 to run over/under/next to/whatever or however it runs with/without OS X.
Don't get me wrong, I dislike running X11 on my Mac as much as the next guy. But... too lazy? Too lazy to download and double-click one installer? (Warning: direct link to the XDarwin installer StuffIt archive!)
You can even run a more user-friendly window manager for the price of one additional download. I know that we're getting into multiple steps here, so the "lazy" think kicks in again, but if you ever absolutely have to run X11, this is about the easiest way to do it.
Gee. All this time I thought James Joyce died in 1941. Who knew he was posting as an AC on Slashdot?
overwrung. A charmful waterloose post, dacently gaylaboring the auld meanderthalltale from jayjay's mything Byoublong of farago. D'ya dismember what a mnice old mness it all mnakes? But Hark! Hark! Tray chairs fur Muster Anonymous Coward in a roustering rendition of "Miss Hooligan's Christmas Cake," the topsiest mnoment of a quarky under-parformance. Stillandall, the posts a way a long a last a long a little.
How many Mac users bother to purchase the 3-button?
As many as want to. I use a three-button mouse sometimes (Maya), and a one-button mouse the rest of the time. My friend uses a one-button mouse all the time. My girlfriend uses a three-button mouse, but only because she likes the way it feels better than the Apple mouse; she doesn't actually use the third button.
It's all about choices, man. I love not having to use the right mouse button for anything.
Compare helloworld.c from HelloGTK (with the comments stripped out for brevity's sake and massaged to appease the stupid lameness filter [which should ignore stuff inside ecode tags, dammit]) to the equivalent Controller.m from Hello.app, which I wrote in Objective C using the Cocoa API with Project Builder and Interface Builder in about two minutes.
Re:Foolish Punishment?!??
on
Kevin Free
·
· Score: 2
Last things first: when quoting, your own question mark or exclamation point takes the place of the terminal period. For example, if you said
This is a sentence.
and I wanted to ask someone if that's what you said, I would write,
Did Alsee just say, "This is a sentence?"
You should never use double terminal punctuation marks (except in one case) like this:
Did Alsee just say, "This is a sentence.?"
That's incorrect. As for the exception, in the case of a terminal ellipsis a period is used with the ellipsis to indicate the end of the sentence:
This is an elliptical sentence....
In that case, the ellipsis (three periods) is followed by a sentence-ending terminal period. But that's the only case where double terminal punctuation is necessary.
Now, if a situation were to arise in which a terminal period were a significant character, the correct course of action would be to structure the letter in some form other than a sentence. Punctuation marks are part of the structure of a sentence, and are generally ignored by the reader.
As to what Castalan wrote, nested quotes would not have been appropriate in that case. The only time one uses nested quotes is when one is quoting a quotation:
Did Twirlip just ask, "Did Alsee just say, 'This is a sentence?'"
Quotes nest indefinitely, alternating between double and single (or single and double, in some non-standard regional conventions).
The poster was quoted as saying, "Did Twirlip just say, 'Did Alsee just say, "This is a sentence?"'"
The important thing to remember, though, is that written English is not a programming language. Trying to apply the rules of a programming language to written English-- like leaving punctuation marks outside quotation marks-- will result in an error.
There are numerous stories on/. and other sites regarding dubious behavior from the BSA, why do you choose to ignore it? Because they have caused _you_ no harm?
Well, yes. I don't give the BSA a moment's thought, usually, because I've never seen anything even remotely like what you describe. It's hard to imagine that what you say is true-- representatives lying about who they are?-- but I'll take your word that this has happened to you. Wow. You have my sympathy. Have you tried a cease-and-desist from your attorney? It might not work, but you never know.
The Gimp is better than Photoshop for _me_, but you choose to ignore that.
I'm not ignoring it, dude. I was just saying that the point that Gimp is cheap doesn't trump the point that Gimp isn't acceptable. If it is acceptable in a given situation, then bully for you. I don't see why you're making such a big deal out of this.
You are simply an anti-linux biggot; you are no different the the Linux biggots you seem to despise.
Oh, come on. If you're going to flame me, at least flame me for what I am: an anti-FSF zealot.;-) I don't have a particularly strong opinion about Linux, except that I don't care for it myself. If you like it, knock yourself out. The whole GPL aspect of it means that I'm unlikely to ever approach it again, but that's my problem, and I don't make a big deal out of it.
I will argue with you all day and all night about the FSF, though. But that's a different conversation, one that I don't think we really need to get into.
You continue to pretend that you are fair and some type of voice of reason, but you continually show your own biases.
I don't even try to hide my own biases. I've been using computers for a long time, for a while professionally but recently just as a user. I've developed a lot of strong opinions during that time. I am biased as hell, and I will admit it to anybody who asks.
Are you upset because I criticize Linux? I won't apologize for that, but I do regret making you angry. I criticize Linux honestly: I say just what I think, and I invite people to prove me wrong. Most of the time my criticisms are irrelevant-- some people continue to use Linux no matter how awful the user experience is-- but I voice them anyway, because I'm an opinionated prick with a Slashdot account.
But at least I'm honest about it. I don't spread FUD, I don't troll, I don't lie, and I don't-- deliberately-- contradict myself. (Nobody's perfect.)
It [Gimp] is at least worth looking at for most people who use Photoshop.
Most people who use Photoshop work in the CMYK color space. So Gimp is completely unacceptable to a lot of people before they've even looked at it. I'm not saying that Gimp isn't okay for you, I'm just throwing a little perspective on your fire.
I think your politics are extremely dangerous for the future of society, especially in this new-fangled information age.
That's okay. I think the "new-fangled information age" is a myth, and people who believe that they're living in a different world than their fathers did are fools. I also believe that a leopard can't change his stripes; human nature is fixed and immovable, and anybody who thinks they can deny it and achieve a stable society is naive.
Do you know if Firefly has been cancelled?
Yes. Fox made it clear a couple of weeks ago that they weren't going to be ordering any new shows. There are a couple of shows finished and shelved that Fox may or may not decide to air in the future. Based on their past performance, I'd say probably not.
Joss and Tim are currently actively looking for someone else (coughUPNcough) to pick up the show, but the odds aren't good. The cast and crew have all been released, so even if somebody were to buy more episodes of the series, getting the entire team back together would be very tough.
"Post Anonymously" is a beautiful thing, isn't it? It lets you absolutely flame the shit out of whomever moderated you down, while still preserving that all-important karma.
Oh, speaking of which, you do know that the rules changed recently, right? Karma can no longer be redeemed for valuable prizes. Sorry.
On the other hand, others may believe that a user who posts as "Twirlip of the Mists" may be asking for the same thing.
Yes, but for those who know where the name "Twirlip of the Mists" comes from, it makes perfect sense. There's a difference between a name that discredits oneself and a name that acts as a shibboleth.
I've covered the anti-Disney issue in my journal so as not to draw a -1 Offtopic by continuing to discuss it here. Please reply there.
Will do. I should have thought to check that first. Thanks much.
Come on, now. Critiquing the source is not always an unfair attack. If a man stood at a lectern in a full Ku Klux Klan outfit and gave a lecture on the evils of affirmative action, would you not take just a moment to consider the source?
A user who posts under the name "Trolling4Dollars" is asking, positively begging, not to be taken seriously. I merely gave him want he was looking for.
Since then, he's gotten quite attached to me. In the sense that leeches get attached, I mean. Check out his journal.
On a completely unrelated topic, I checked out your Losing Nemo site, and I found myself a little confused. What have you got against Disney, exactly? I'd really like to understand your point of view on that subject.
Fusion is not dirty. Whereas fission starts with big, heavy atoms and breaks then apart, fusion starts with tiny atoms-- just particles, really-- and smooshes them together. Fission starts with uranium or something heavier, while fusion starts with merely protons created from hydrogen atoms electrolyzed from pure water.
Re:Foolish Punishment?!??
on
Kevin Free
·
· Score: 2
It's got nothing to do with English. It's got to do with typesetting. Putting punctuation outside of quotation marks looks terrible. Compare:
"This is a quote." "This is a quote".
The first one is easier on the eyes. That's all it is. Over the years since the advent of the printing press, the hanging-punct-inside-quote rule has been codified to the point where the first one is right and the second one is wrong.
There's no ambiguity there, either. The rule is universally known, and the question of whether the punctuation belongs to the quote or to the enclosing sentence is never in doubt. Back when I was a system administrator, I must have sent out thousands of emails of this form:
Your new account has been created. Your user name is "foo." Your temporary password is "bar."
I never had one instance of a user thinking that his user name or password included in trailing period.
Don't take this as criticism.
Oh, don't worry. Language rules are always open for a debate, and a comment about them is always on-topic. Kinda like how a motion to adjourn is always in order.;-)
When Linux gets decent user applications, then it will be viable on the desktop.
The idea, of course, is that the applications currently available for Linux aren't acceptable alternatives to the applications available for Windows or the Mac. So-- and this was my point-- given the opinion that Gimp is not an acceptable alternative, the fact that you can get it for free is not relevant.
Have you not read anything about the BSA?
Read anything? I've been contacted by the BSA no fewer than four times over the past few years. Their letters basically consist of an offer of an audit to ensure license compliance. A quick form letter thanking them for their offer but reassuring them that our license compliance is not in doubt is all it takes.
The key, of course, is to actually comply with the licenses, instead of just throwing them away with the box the software came in. Complying with licenses is the easiest thing in the world-- there's so little you're allowed to do, after all;-) -- and the BSA has no authority to threaten or extort anything. They can merely warn and offer, warn and offer. Which is fine by me.
You sir, are the one full of FUD.
I see another trip to the dictionary is in order. FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Since what I'm saying is that you have nothing to Fear from the BSA, that you can be Certain that they can't hurt you, and that there's no reason to Doubt your position, seems like I'm expressing the exact opposite of FUD.
You, on the other hand... well, your last two posts speak for themselves, in my opinion.
The only way to be safe from the BSA is to have full site licenses of all the software used in your organization...
Evidently not. But if your company is big enough, you can save considerable money by buying site licenses instead of per-seat licenses. So that's an option, too.
Currently the BSA is harrassing the company I work for, even though we have absolutely no software contracts that give them any right to audit us.
Harassing? That's funny. In my experience, if you tell them "no" politely they just go away. What do you mean by "harassing?" Has your experience been different from mine?
I've heard of companies where the official, unwritten policy is "stonewall BSA. We know we're in compliance, but the cost of proving it would kill us.
You don't have to prove anything to the BSA. They can ask you to provide proof, but they can't compel you to do anything.
That said, though, there's really not excuse for not being in compliance with the records to prove it. It's a simple matter, one that every company should already be doing in the normal course of business.
Excuse me for not keeping up with every trivial operating system out there.
I will happily excuse you for that. It's going to take a bit more, though, to live down making a giant stink about something that hasn't even been a topic of conversation since about 1999.
Seriously, one of the things that coerced me to switch; pretty soon you'll be needing to "upgrade" a lot of that software, which means spending a lot of green. With Linux, when there's a new version of The Gimp, I go download it, for free.
I think you might have missed an important point. If Gimp is an unacceptable substitute for Photoshop 7, why would it be an acceptable substitute for Photoshop 8? Until Gimp gets to the point where it can be used instead of Photoshop, cost just doesn't figure in to the equation.
Compare that to windows or mac os, where you would be spending several thousand dollars for what is essentially incremental upgrades for all the software products you mentioned.
Yes, but the point is that the Windows or Mac solution works, while the Linux one, at present, does not. Which is why, in a lot of cases, you literally can't give Linux away.
And then there is also licensing issues, the BSA, builtin backdoors, software shipped containing viruses(has happened several times in major proprietary software), etc.
Smells like FUD to me. I don't know what you mean by "licensing issues." The BSA is of no concern to companies that actually pay for all of their software. The danger of a back-door in open source software is the same as in closed source software; re-read "Reflections on Trusting Trust." And as far as viruses goes, if you're running Windows without some form of virus protection, you deserve everything you get. To Mac users, the whole virus question is largely irrelevant.
What I mean by server class networking is that it doesn't come brain damaged by default. Every workstation class OS from MS (9x, NTWS, XP, 2kPro) will refuse any more than 10 connections. Many network services are not possible to install at all without a server version.
Microsoft distinguishes between the server and the workstation versions of Windows in order to sell the workstation version at a lower price. If you're not happy with the limitations of the workstation version, you're free to buy the server version instead. So saying that Linux has better networking than Windows is really just a price argument, which (1) Linux already wins, and (2) is obviously irrelevant.
The one app that really needs to get addressed this year is Quickbooks though.
I can't see how this could be done. I ran my last (failed, dammit) business venture on QuickBooks. The level of support you get from Intuit is amazing. No free solution could ever hope to match that level of service.
Here's the challenge part. Show me front line Linux applications that rival (or even come close to matching)...
Can I add a few non-Windows-specific items to your list? Let me just peruse my applications folder here...
Illustrator
InDesign (which is the same as Quark, for purposes of this discussion)
Photoshop
FaxSTF
FileMaker Pro
iCal
iChat
iDVD
iMovie
iPhoto
iTunes
Microsoft PowerPoint
NetNewsWire
OmniGraffle
OmniOutliner
Palm Desktop
Quicken
Sherlock
Snapz Pro
StuffIt Deluxe
Watson
These programs all have counterparts-- some perfect, some okay, some not so okay-- for Windows. None of them, to my knowledge, have counterparts for Linux.
An app that starts with a "K" is a KDE-app. That's very useful because you know before you try it. Just like you know that a "Win*" app is a Windows app.
Why should I, a user, care if an application is a KDE application or not? If I want to use it, I'll want to use it for my own reasons, reasons that will have nothing at all to do with KDE.
And the "Win-" thing? Dumb. Every application on a Windows computer is a Windows application; they require no naming convention to identify them.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm way too lazy to attempt to get X11 to run over/under/next to/whatever or however it runs with/without OS X.
Don't get me wrong, I dislike running X11 on my Mac as much as the next guy. But... too lazy? Too lazy to download and double-click one installer? (Warning: direct link to the XDarwin installer StuffIt archive!)
You can even run a more user-friendly window manager for the price of one additional download. I know that we're getting into multiple steps here, so the "lazy" think kicks in again, but if you ever absolutely have to run X11, this is about the easiest way to do it.
Oh and I'd much rather not use Objective-C for anything, I find it incredibly hard to read...
;-)
Like Python is easy on the eyes? My kingdom for a damn semicolon!
Gee. All this time I thought James Joyce died in 1941. Who knew he was posting as an AC on Slashdot?
overwrung. A charmful waterloose post, dacently gaylaboring the auld meanderthalltale from jayjay's mything Byoublong of farago. D'ya dismember what a mnice old mness it all mnakes? But Hark! Hark! Tray chairs fur Muster Anonymous Coward in a roustering rendition of "Miss Hooligan's Christmas Cake," the topsiest mnoment of a quarky under-parformance. Stillandall, the posts a way a long a last a long a little.
How many Mac users bother to purchase the 3-button?
As many as want to. I use a three-button mouse sometimes (Maya), and a one-button mouse the rest of the time. My friend uses a one-button mouse all the time. My girlfriend uses a three-button mouse, but only because she likes the way it feels better than the Apple mouse; she doesn't actually use the third button.
It's all about choices, man. I love not having to use the right mouse button for anything.
helloworld.c Controller.m Which API would you rather use?
This message was brought to you by Citizens Against Black Helicopters and Fluorinated Drinking Water. Fight the future!
I'm completely 100% serious. You kick ass, dude.
Now, if a situation were to arise in which a terminal period were a significant character, the correct course of action would be to structure the letter in some form other than a sentence. Punctuation marks are part of the structure of a sentence, and are generally ignored by the reader.
As to what Castalan wrote, nested quotes would not have been appropriate in that case. The only time one uses nested quotes is when one is quoting a quotation:Quotes nest indefinitely, alternating between double and single (or single and double, in some non-standard regional conventions).The important thing to remember, though, is that written English is not a programming language. Trying to apply the rules of a programming language to written English-- like leaving punctuation marks outside quotation marks-- will result in an error.
There are numerous stories on /. and other sites regarding dubious behavior from the BSA, why do you choose to ignore it? Because they have caused _you_ no harm?
;-) I don't have a particularly strong opinion about Linux, except that I don't care for it myself. If you like it, knock yourself out. The whole GPL aspect of it means that I'm unlikely to ever approach it again, but that's my problem, and I don't make a big deal out of it.
Well, yes. I don't give the BSA a moment's thought, usually, because I've never seen anything even remotely like what you describe. It's hard to imagine that what you say is true-- representatives lying about who they are?-- but I'll take your word that this has happened to you. Wow. You have my sympathy. Have you tried a cease-and-desist from your attorney? It might not work, but you never know.
The Gimp is better than Photoshop for _me_, but you choose to ignore that.
I'm not ignoring it, dude. I was just saying that the point that Gimp is cheap doesn't trump the point that Gimp isn't acceptable. If it is acceptable in a given situation, then bully for you. I don't see why you're making such a big deal out of this.
You are simply an anti-linux biggot; you are no different the the Linux biggots you seem to despise.
Oh, come on. If you're going to flame me, at least flame me for what I am: an anti-FSF zealot.
I will argue with you all day and all night about the FSF, though. But that's a different conversation, one that I don't think we really need to get into.
You continue to pretend that you are fair and some type of voice of reason, but you continually show your own biases.
I don't even try to hide my own biases. I've been using computers for a long time, for a while professionally but recently just as a user. I've developed a lot of strong opinions during that time. I am biased as hell, and I will admit it to anybody who asks.
Are you upset because I criticize Linux? I won't apologize for that, but I do regret making you angry. I criticize Linux honestly: I say just what I think, and I invite people to prove me wrong. Most of the time my criticisms are irrelevant-- some people continue to use Linux no matter how awful the user experience is-- but I voice them anyway, because I'm an opinionated prick with a Slashdot account.
But at least I'm honest about it. I don't spread FUD, I don't troll, I don't lie, and I don't-- deliberately-- contradict myself. (Nobody's perfect.)
It [Gimp] is at least worth looking at for most people who use Photoshop.
Most people who use Photoshop work in the CMYK color space. So Gimp is completely unacceptable to a lot of people before they've even looked at it. I'm not saying that Gimp isn't okay for you, I'm just throwing a little perspective on your fire.
I think your politics are extremely dangerous for the future of society, especially in this new-fangled information age.
That's okay. I think the "new-fangled information age" is a myth, and people who believe that they're living in a different world than their fathers did are fools. I also believe that a leopard can't change his stripes; human nature is fixed and immovable, and anybody who thinks they can deny it and achieve a stable society is naive.
Do you know if Firefly has been cancelled?
Yes. Fox made it clear a couple of weeks ago that they weren't going to be ordering any new shows. There are a couple of shows finished and shelved that Fox may or may not decide to air in the future. Based on their past performance, I'd say probably not.
Joss and Tim are currently actively looking for someone else (coughUPNcough) to pick up the show, but the odds aren't good. The cast and crew have all been released, so even if somebody were to buy more episodes of the series, getting the entire team back together would be very tough.
"Post Anonymously" is a beautiful thing, isn't it? It lets you absolutely flame the shit out of whomever moderated you down, while still preserving that all-important karma.
Oh, speaking of which, you do know that the rules changed recently, right? Karma can no longer be redeemed for valuable prizes. Sorry.
On the other hand, others may believe that a user who posts as "Twirlip of the Mists" may be asking for the same thing.
Yes, but for those who know where the name "Twirlip of the Mists" comes from, it makes perfect sense. There's a difference between a name that discredits oneself and a name that acts as a shibboleth.
I've covered the anti-Disney issue in my journal so as not to draw a -1 Offtopic by continuing to discuss it here. Please reply there.
Will do. I should have thought to check that first. Thanks much.
Put down the remote and step away from the tee vee, Sparky.
Damn, I hate these holiday "Star Trek" marathons.
Highly explosive hydrogen. I'm sure they won't have a problem with that.
All things considered, it's better than highly poisonous uranium, plutonium, or whatever.
Ad hominem attacks are not acceptable.
Come on, now. Critiquing the source is not always an unfair attack. If a man stood at a lectern in a full Ku Klux Klan outfit and gave a lecture on the evils of affirmative action, would you not take just a moment to consider the source?
A user who posts under the name "Trolling4Dollars" is asking, positively begging, not to be taken seriously. I merely gave him want he was looking for.
Since then, he's gotten quite attached to me. In the sense that leeches get attached, I mean. Check out his journal.
On a completely unrelated topic, I checked out your Losing Nemo site, and I found myself a little confused. What have you got against Disney, exactly? I'd really like to understand your point of view on that subject.
Fusion is not dirty. Whereas fission starts with big, heavy atoms and breaks then apart, fusion starts with tiny atoms-- just particles, really-- and smooshes them together. Fission starts with uranium or something heavier, while fusion starts with merely protons created from hydrogen atoms electrolyzed from pure water.
"This is a quote."
"This is a quote".
The first one is easier on the eyes. That's all it is. Over the years since the advent of the printing press, the hanging-punct-inside-quote rule has been codified to the point where the first one is right and the second one is wrong.
There's no ambiguity there, either. The rule is universally known, and the question of whether the punctuation belongs to the quote or to the enclosing sentence is never in doubt. Back when I was a system administrator, I must have sent out thousands of emails of this form:I never had one instance of a user thinking that his user name or password included in trailing period.
Don't take this as criticism.
Oh, don't worry. Language rules are always open for a debate, and a comment about them is always on-topic. Kinda like how a motion to adjourn is always in order.
You didn't; this guy did:The idea, of course, is that the applications currently available for Linux aren't acceptable alternatives to the applications available for Windows or the Mac. So-- and this was my point-- given the opinion that Gimp is not an acceptable alternative, the fact that you can get it for free is not relevant.
Have you not read anything about the BSA?
Read anything? I've been contacted by the BSA no fewer than four times over the past few years. Their letters basically consist of an offer of an audit to ensure license compliance. A quick form letter thanking them for their offer but reassuring them that our license compliance is not in doubt is all it takes.
The key, of course, is to actually comply with the licenses, instead of just throwing them away with the box the software came in. Complying with licenses is the easiest thing in the world-- there's so little you're allowed to do, after all
You sir, are the one full of FUD.
I see another trip to the dictionary is in order. FUD: Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt. Since what I'm saying is that you have nothing to Fear from the BSA, that you can be Certain that they can't hurt you, and that there's no reason to Doubt your position, seems like I'm expressing the exact opposite of FUD.
You, on the other hand... well, your last two posts speak for themselves, in my opinion.
The only way to be safe from the BSA is to have full site licenses of all the software used in your organization...
Evidently not. But if your company is big enough, you can save considerable money by buying site licenses instead of per-seat licenses. So that's an option, too.
Currently the BSA is harrassing the company I work for, even though we have absolutely no software contracts that give them any right to audit us.
Harassing? That's funny. In my experience, if you tell them "no" politely they just go away. What do you mean by "harassing?" Has your experience been different from mine?
I've heard of companies where the official, unwritten policy is "stonewall BSA. We know we're in compliance, but the cost of proving it would kill us.
You don't have to prove anything to the BSA. They can ask you to provide proof, but they can't compel you to do anything.
That said, though, there's really not excuse for not being in compliance with the records to prove it. It's a simple matter, one that every company should already be doing in the normal course of business.
Excuse me for not keeping up with every trivial operating system out there.
I will happily excuse you for that. It's going to take a bit more, though, to live down making a giant stink about something that hasn't even been a topic of conversation since about 1999.
Some of those systems predate the Internet.
Meaning that you don't have to use the Internet to do the job, then?
The conversation is about jobs that do (or more accurately do not) require access to a computer that is connected to the Internet.
Seriously, one of the things that coerced me to switch; pretty soon you'll be needing to "upgrade" a lot of that software, which means spending a lot of green. With Linux, when there's a new version of The Gimp, I go download it, for free.
I think you might have missed an important point. If Gimp is an unacceptable substitute for Photoshop 7, why would it be an acceptable substitute for Photoshop 8? Until Gimp gets to the point where it can be used instead of Photoshop, cost just doesn't figure in to the equation.
Compare that to windows or mac os, where you would be spending several thousand dollars for what is essentially incremental upgrades for all the software products you mentioned.
Yes, but the point is that the Windows or Mac solution works, while the Linux one, at present, does not. Which is why, in a lot of cases, you literally can't give Linux away.
And then there is also licensing issues, the BSA, builtin backdoors, software shipped containing viruses(has happened several times in major proprietary software), etc.
Smells like FUD to me. I don't know what you mean by "licensing issues." The BSA is of no concern to companies that actually pay for all of their software. The danger of a back-door in open source software is the same as in closed source software; re-read "Reflections on Trusting Trust." And as far as viruses goes, if you're running Windows without some form of virus protection, you deserve everything you get. To Mac users, the whole virus question is largely irrelevant.
I have nothing to gain here but the affection of AC trolls by saying anything even remotely positive about a Microsoft product.
You're gaining more than you may realize, A.C. You're on my "friends" list, and the lists of several people whom I respect a lot.
What I mean by server class networking is that it doesn't come brain damaged by default. Every workstation class OS from MS (9x, NTWS, XP, 2kPro) will refuse any more than 10 connections. Many network services are not possible to install at all without a server version.
Microsoft distinguishes between the server and the workstation versions of Windows in order to sell the workstation version at a lower price. If you're not happy with the limitations of the workstation version, you're free to buy the server version instead. So saying that Linux has better networking than Windows is really just a price argument, which (1) Linux already wins, and (2) is obviously irrelevant.
The one app that really needs to get addressed this year is Quickbooks though.
I can't see how this could be done. I ran my last (failed, dammit) business venture on QuickBooks. The level of support you get from Intuit is amazing. No free solution could ever hope to match that level of service.
Can I add a few non-Windows-specific items to your list? Let me just peruse my applications folder here...
- Illustrator
- InDesign (which is the same as Quark, for purposes of this discussion)
- Photoshop
- FaxSTF
- FileMaker Pro
- iCal
- iChat
- iDVD
- iMovie
- iPhoto
- iTunes
- Microsoft PowerPoint
- NetNewsWire
- OmniGraffle
- OmniOutliner
- Palm Desktop
- Quicken
- Sherlock
- Snapz Pro
- StuffIt Deluxe
- Watson
These programs all have counterparts-- some perfect, some okay, some not so okay-- for Windows. None of them, to my knowledge, have counterparts for Linux.An app that starts with a "K" is a KDE-app. That's very useful because you know before you try it. Just like you know that a "Win*" app is a Windows app.
Why should I, a user, care if an application is a KDE application or not? If I want to use it, I'll want to use it for my own reasons, reasons that will have nothing at all to do with KDE.
And the "Win-" thing? Dumb. Every application on a Windows computer is a Windows application; they require no naming convention to identify them.