Boycotting disney WILL NOT help. Oh, wow, THOUSANDS of slashdot readers boycott disney. Oh, MY GOD. There revenues will dip, they'll lay people off, they'll go out of business. Whoohoo!
Do you know how many people there are in the world? Yes, Disney is multinational.
The problem with boycotts is thus:
The general populus just doesn't care. They just don't give a damned. They don't try to or want to understand or help. Unless THEY boycott, this will do no good. And, trust me, they won't boycott.
Or better yet, DO type it fluidly. I've typed my password so many times that my fingers just flow from key to key. I type around 160wpm anyway. The timings are no different between a letter and a number than between two letters. Its 14 characters and takes me about 0.4 seconds. Just TRY and reconstruct the password from those keytimings...
Better yet. The hole duration of the connection, even when we aren't typing. The ssh client should flood the network with dummy packets to making sniffing impossible. The packets should be as large as possible, maybe 64k, just to keep everyone on their toes.
Then the ssh client should check the weather and display it in a window on you screen. But first it should open lots of wake windows with dummy weather information so anyone walking by your cubicle can't find out what the REAL weather is. Muahhaha.
Or, better yet. The easy way. Just group characters into blocks before sending them and send the blocks at a regular interval. If 8 keys have been typed in that interval, send 'em all. If only one, send just that one. Encypher the block so no one can tell how many keystrokes are in it. Send them every.1 seconds or whatever. Just block 'em. Done. Problem solved.
Here are my problems with what you say:
1) If your passwords are dictionary crackable you have problems even without keytiming sniffing. You can crack a dictionary password using the WHOLE dictionary in less than 10 seconds, why should eliminating 95% of the keyspace be that valuable in this case?
2) If your passwords are not dictionary crackable than the keyspace is HUMONGOUS and eliminating 99% of that keyspace (multiplying by a constant) will leave you with another HUMONGOUS keyspace. Multiplying by constants is never a good way to reduce keyspace size, even if it is.01 (1%).
3) No, one-handed random blindfolded two-finger backwards DVORAK standing-on-your-head typing will NOT help. NO ONE WILL DO IT.
4) No, this is not as horrible as Telnet. A VERY VERY small percentage of people that might be sniffing your network have the skills, motivation and time necessary to analyze your keystroke timing and use that information to any useful extent.
5) Yes, random jitter WOULD be effective. Random jitters don't even come close to averaging out to the real timings unless someone sits there and types there password over and over for several thousand iterations.
Now, for unrelated points of interest:
Anyone that types with any sizeable ammount of speed will not show enough difference in keystroke timings for it to be helpful in any useful way. And I would guess that most people that SSH on a regular basis are pretty good touch typists.
Fine, sending packets at regular intervals, and, more importantly, grouping keystrokes together, is a good solution. However, the situation is not nearly as dire as you would have us believe.
My god man, look at your user id!!! After all this time you are STILL whining about unnoteworthy news. Well, it's okay. Maybe you were confused and thought you were on a different website. This is slashdot, for the love of god! Come on man! Wake up!
Very good point. Thank you. I am an atheist, but I will procede anyway.
I agree that my analogy was invalid. It was merely an example to demonstrate that proving "X can't happen" or "X doesn't exist", can't be done, which I hope we both agree to be true, regardless of my flawed logic.
It could be viewed that the "theoretical model" is yours (and mine), the model that this magical universe of matter just happened to always exist, so that that matter could give rises to life via the big bang scenario. There is, of course, no evidence of where this matter came from as it was, naturally, all lost in the big bang.
The only way I can find around this argument is that of the Many Universe theory of Quantum Mechanics which says that maybe every possible universe exists at the same time and time is merely the felt effect of moving from one universe to another.
Of course, this theory, as with most of Quantum Theory, just doesn't sit well with me.:-). Oh well. It's fun to think about regardless.
Just FYI, your conclusion was for a separate postulate than your intro stated. You claimed to be rebuking the notion of extraterrestrial intelligence and then went on to show that there was LIKELY not any extraterrestrian intelligence IN OUT GALAXY. These are two completely separate notions.
Also, just cause we can't detect something doesn't mean it isn't there. If we are looking for life in a galaxy 100 million light years away, there is no way to know whether life exists there or not. We can only know that no life existed there 100 million years ago, since it takes that long for info about that planet to get to us.
Either way, we haven't proved it does exist, but there is NEVER any way to prove the converse of this.
ie. You could prove God exists, if he would step down here, wave hi to everyone, work some incredible god-like voodoo magic, and then disappear. That'd be proof that he exists. However, there is NO way to prove that he doesn't exist. Anyway, i degress. I'm done.
Okay buddy, I don't know how long you've been reading slashdot for, but you need to run down to the corner store and by yourself a clue.
If you don't want uninformed miscreants spouting anti-microsoft, pro-linux bullshit, then don't read here. On occasion you get some good humor. The content of the articles as well as most of the posts sucks. Don't whine about the "blantant misinformation." That's what slashdot IS. It's what slashdot has BEEN. Read somewhere else if you want real news and real discussion...
No source code to a language design? What about BNF, or doesn't that count? That definitly seems like langauge design to me. What about the actual yacc/lex code used to write the official compiler? There is no reason that you couldn't GPL your BNF grammar and your lacc/yex code.
As it's theorized that there aren't even 10^100 atoms in the universe, or electrons for that matter (obviously), we're going to have to REALLY shrink our die sizes down to get there...
Actually, I don't love FreeBSD either. However, if you want a REALLY great server, try OpenBSD. It's secure. You can get it running in less than 100M. It's fast. It doesn't come with all kinds of bullshit software you'll never use like linux does. It's Minimum install is REALLY a minimum install.
The basic OpenBSD install is around half the size of the basic Linux install. All the software you want is available to install, it just doesn't shove it down your throat like linux does with it's 10 CLI text editors in the minimum install.
I've tried RedHat, Debian, Mandrake, Suse, TurboLinux, Corel Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Solaris 8. The one one who's default install I haven't hated is OpenBSD. The only one that's never given me any trouble installing packages is OpenBSD. The only one that I feel comfortable leaving as my server OS is OpenBSD. The only one that can take me from booting off the CD to fully installed and configured in 25 minutes is OpenBSD. It's got the most simple, wonderful installer ever made. Anyway, just ranting...
But honestly, I think he has a point. I play a bunch of EA games on the PS2. Mostly Madden 2001 and Knockout Kings 2001. As the PS2 is DVD based, there ARE load times associated with animations, unlike cartridge based systems.
It pissed me off when I have to wait through 8 seconds of loading to see the mandatory EA Sports animation so I can click start and sit through 8 more seconds of loading so I can click start again to skip their fucking intro movie. And then 8 more seconds to the actual main menu.
I mean that's 24 seconds gone. Sit here and count slowly to 24. Can you honestly tell me you didn't stop before you got there? It's a long freaking time...
Bullying and teasing are a fundamental truth of life. There is NO WAY to avoid them. They WILL happen. Especially during middle school and high school.
Depression however is purely voluntary, with the possible exception of chemical/clinical depression.
At some point in your life someone will tease you. You have to realize though, that their teasing does not hurt your feelings. Words can't affect your emotional state. They are not directly related. The way in which your mind processes the words can affect your emotional state however. Notice that extra level of abstraction there. Your brain, of course, is something which you control.
What I am trying to point out is that becoming depressed is a strictly optional side-effect of being teased. I wish more people realized this.
I wish these kids had had parents who had let them know that they were being teased not because they were wrong but because the other kids were immature. And that they had no reason to feel bad about themselves, that instead they should feel bad for the bullies for being emotionally immature enough to do the bullying.
That philosophy is, of course, easier to say than to live. But that's true with everything. Nothings easy anymore... even being a kid.:-).
uhhh... she's currently ranked #7 in the WORLD. she may not be as good as hingis or seles or the williams sisters. but they are four of only six people in the WORLD that can say they are better than her. common misconception tho...
I'm not sure what definition of "sold out" this is... but AMDZone is far more "sold out" than anandtech. It's got a freaking brand name in it's URL. What do you expect it to say "This chip sucks. It's too fast." These four sites are all also biased, just differently. Everythings biased. Thats one of those fundamental truths of life. People just tend to call "fair" whatever they see that is biased in a way that they find agreeable.
I'm a programmer. I want to learn more languages. I realize that C++ is a horribly flawed OO language but it's the only one I know well. What are some good languages that you would suggest learning?
I know: Basic, VisualBasic, Pascal, C, Assembler, C++, Java, Perl, Lisp. In that order chronologically.
Okay, I understand what you are saying better this time. Maybe I was just too tired last time I posted. I do agree with you. Choice IS good. I still feel as though standards are equally good though. Oh, well. I'll just respectfully disagree and leave it at that. Thanks for the viewpoint,
I fear that you have lost the ability to think like a new user and you don't realize it. Also, I never ever ever once indicated that choice was bad nor that any choice should be removed. Just that a common set of defaults should be set.
Make the default WM Sawfish and the default desktop environment GNOME. Make the default shell BASH. They don't have to be those specific options, but some option. If they choose to make Blackbox/KDE/tcsh the defaults, that's fine. Just so that there is a common default.
Leave it just as easy as it is now to change those values if you don't like them. Even encourage it. Most of the people that have no linux experience at this point, on exposure to linux, I don't believe would give a damned about changing their WM/shell/GTK theme/anything. They just want their apps to work and work right. And it would probably help those kinds of people tackle their problem together if they all had the same environment from within which they were working.
So, that should take care of responding to your first two points. As for the third:
I DO NOT advicate hardwiring apps to look/feel the same way. I advicate having a common themeing system that would create a common look and feel. This would cater to your "choice is good" and also provide a common look and feel. By this I mean, every app will have the OK and Cancel buttons in the same place with the same hotkeys. All menu's will have the same defaults, File, Edit, View, whatever, and they will all have the same shortcut keys. All toolbars use the same icons for the basic operations (New, Open, Save, Copy, Print). This would all be themeable, but the theme would make it the same across all your apps. GOD would that be nice.
No respond needed to point 4. We agreed on that one.
Again, you seem to misinterprit my response. Make Workstation installs work so that the default is X w/ GDM or whatever. Most regular people want nothing to do with the command line. You can, of course, still edit/etc/inittab or go to the appropriate config menu to change this if you prefer the command line.
I full well realize that stability has to do with the kernel. AND the kernel modules. BASH doesn't load any kernel modules. X does. Bunches of 'em. That's why I claim the command line is more stable. There is less low-level work going on that has potential to crash your machine. The nCurses library is very well ironed out and isn't prone to crash. NVidia's binary drivers with DRI ARE crash prone, sometimes, depending on the system.
Also, I hope you never ever expect a regular user to boot up into single user mode and vi/emacs their way through/etc/* fixing their system.
Choice is wonderful. Standards are equally wonderful. The two together will make a incredibly wonderful desktop system.
Yes, it is easy to mock those views. They are pretty much exatly against that which linux stands for. Choice. However, consider this:
1. Provides one window manager.
I see no reason a standards body can't decide on a standard default for the window manager. We aren't saying don't make the rest available. Just pick one for the default, regardless of distro, aside from specializied distro's that need to be different. Most non-tech users will stick with the default which would provide a commonality accross various people's installs.
2. Provide one shell.
See above answer. Hopefully the user wont' need the shell, but if they do, it can't hurt to have a standard default.
3. Provide a unified Linux "look and feel"
This one really WOULD be nice. Lack of consistancy in user interfaces drives me nuts in linux.
4. Remove options.
Fine. Make two different sets of config screen. Advanced and simple. Make simple the default. Make it so you can change the default to Advanaced if you so chose. There, done. Newbies and non-techies don't have to worry about it, but with a magical check box we can forever unlock the "Advanced" options. That doesn't sound unreasonable.
5. Stability stuffs...
Yeah, duh. Of course we want stability. But, duh, the command line needs to be a last resort if all else fails. Seems like she was stating the obvious there...
You know what else I would love to see in linux? Kernel hot-patching ala Solaris. That'd be SWEET. Anyone know of any projects around trying to do that right now?
The one phrase you use sums up a whole other set of problems with games on linux:
"Sure, if game writers started making their games available for linux i might try them (not buy them though)... "
I'm not saying you are like this, but a lot of open source people seem to be of the philosophy that software that costs money is evil. EVERYTHING should be free. This is, of course, absolute and total bullshit. But that doesn't matter to them.
So, why would you try and make games for an OS that is:
1) Mostly populated by programmers, not gamers.
2) Has a rep as being a server OS, not a desktop OS.
3) Used by people who don't like paying for software. And prolly wouldn't pay for the games even if they did come out for linux.
Doesn't sound like a very hard decision to me. Just don't make games for it. It's not worth it.
This of course can change if:
1) Non-programmers/hackers/syadmins start using linux.
2) We develop a rep as a desktop OS via gnome/kde
3) Actually buy the comercially available linux software.
No. Actually NVidia came up with the ideas and then forcefed them to microsoft for inclusion in DX8. And, no, not any card maker can make a card that supports those features. If they could, why aren't they? Only ATI and NVidia make cards that support both standards (OpenGL and DirectX) to the letter and are fast.
NVidia, as they pushed microsoft to expand DX, also created new OpenGL extensions for these new features. These are NOT Microsoft's ideas. They are almost soley NVidia's.
That is absolutely hilarious. They will use a bit in the file, the "Copyrighted" field for solving all their problems. Give me 5 minutes and I'll whip up a C util to unset that bit on all my mp3's. Seek, Read, And, Write. Hey, now none of my songs are copyrighted and I can trade them. Problem solved.
I'm young and atheist. So I think that my point is correct but that I am mis-using pretty much every term I use. So, no one understands what I am trying to say. Help me out. My roommate claim to be "Christian." He follows a very literal translation of the bible (King James version). He's very conservative. Is he Catholic or Protestant or neither?
Yes, Catholics are "Christians". They worship the same holy trinity. However, I don't think Catholics are Christians, as in, followers of the current Christian religion. If they were, why are they Catholics and not Chrisitians. There are differences between the two faiths. And I think one of the differences is in how they interpret the bible.
So, I'm judging their mindset based upon what faith they would claim to be. Usually those that claim, first and foremost, to be Christians have a very strict biblical interpritation. Usually those that claim to be Catholics, even though they do agree that Catholics are Christians, have a looser interpretation.
Of course, I currently live in North Carolina. Here, almost every time I've seen, Christian == Fundamental Christian. So, maybe I'm just out of touch with what you consider Christianity to be.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
Boycotting disney WILL NOT help. Oh, wow, THOUSANDS of slashdot readers boycott disney. Oh, MY GOD. There revenues will dip, they'll lay people off, they'll go out of business. Whoohoo!
Do you know how many people there are in the world? Yes, Disney is multinational.
The problem with boycotts is thus:
The general populus just doesn't care. They just don't give a damned. They don't try to or want to understand or help. Unless THEY boycott, this will do no good. And, trust me, they won't boycott.
Justin Dubs
Or better yet, DO type it fluidly. I've typed my password so many times that my fingers just flow from key to key. I type around 160wpm anyway. The timings are no different between a letter and a number than between two letters. Its 14 characters and takes me about 0.4 seconds. Just TRY and reconstruct the password from those keytimings...
Justin Dubs
Better yet. The hole duration of the connection, even when we aren't typing. The ssh client should flood the network with dummy packets to making sniffing impossible. The packets should be as large as possible, maybe 64k, just to keep everyone on their toes.
.1 seconds or whatever. Just block 'em. Done. Problem solved.
Then the ssh client should check the weather and display it in a window on you screen. But first it should open lots of wake windows with dummy weather information so anyone walking by your cubicle can't find out what the REAL weather is. Muahhaha.
Or, better yet. The easy way. Just group characters into blocks before sending them and send the blocks at a regular interval. If 8 keys have been typed in that interval, send 'em all. If only one, send just that one. Encypher the block so no one can tell how many keystrokes are in it. Send them every
Justin Dubs
Here are my problems with what you say:
.01 (1%).
1) If your passwords are dictionary crackable you have problems even without keytiming sniffing. You can crack a dictionary password using the WHOLE dictionary in less than 10 seconds, why should eliminating 95% of the keyspace be that valuable in this case?
2) If your passwords are not dictionary crackable than the keyspace is HUMONGOUS and eliminating 99% of that keyspace (multiplying by a constant) will leave you with another HUMONGOUS keyspace. Multiplying by constants is never a good way to reduce keyspace size, even if it is
3) No, one-handed random blindfolded two-finger backwards DVORAK standing-on-your-head typing will NOT help. NO ONE WILL DO IT.
4) No, this is not as horrible as Telnet. A VERY VERY small percentage of people that might be sniffing your network have the skills, motivation and time necessary to analyze your keystroke timing and use that information to any useful extent.
5) Yes, random jitter WOULD be effective. Random jitters don't even come close to averaging out to the real timings unless someone sits there and types there password over and over for several thousand iterations.
Now, for unrelated points of interest:
Anyone that types with any sizeable ammount of speed will not show enough difference in keystroke timings for it to be helpful in any useful way. And I would guess that most people that SSH on a regular basis are pretty good touch typists.
Fine, sending packets at regular intervals, and, more importantly, grouping keystrokes together, is a good solution. However, the situation is not nearly as dire as you would have us believe.
Justin Dubs
My god man, look at your user id!!! After all this time you are STILL whining about unnoteworthy news. Well, it's okay. Maybe you were confused and thought you were on a different website. This is slashdot, for the love of god! Come on man! Wake up!
Justin
Very good point. Thank you. I am an atheist, but I will procede anyway.
:-). Oh well. It's fun to think about regardless.
I agree that my analogy was invalid. It was merely an example to demonstrate that proving "X can't happen" or "X doesn't exist", can't be done, which I hope we both agree to be true, regardless of my flawed logic.
It could be viewed that the "theoretical model" is yours (and mine), the model that this magical universe of matter just happened to always exist, so that that matter could give rises to life via the big bang scenario. There is, of course, no evidence of where this matter came from as it was, naturally, all lost in the big bang.
The only way I can find around this argument is that of the Many Universe theory of Quantum Mechanics which says that maybe every possible universe exists at the same time and time is merely the felt effect of moving from one universe to another.
Of course, this theory, as with most of Quantum Theory, just doesn't sit well with me.
Thanks for pointing out my erring analogy though.
Justin Dubs
Just FYI, your conclusion was for a separate postulate than your intro stated. You claimed to be rebuking the notion of extraterrestrial intelligence and then went on to show that there was LIKELY not any extraterrestrian intelligence IN OUT GALAXY. These are two completely separate notions.
Also, just cause we can't detect something doesn't mean it isn't there. If we are looking for life in a galaxy 100 million light years away, there is no way to know whether life exists there or not. We can only know that no life existed there 100 million years ago, since it takes that long for info about that planet to get to us.
Either way, we haven't proved it does exist, but there is NEVER any way to prove the converse of this.
ie. You could prove God exists, if he would step down here, wave hi to everyone, work some incredible god-like voodoo magic, and then disappear. That'd be proof that he exists. However, there is NO way to prove that he doesn't exist. Anyway, i degress. I'm done.
Justin Dubs
Okay buddy, I don't know how long you've been reading slashdot for, but you need to run down to the corner store and by yourself a clue.
If you don't want uninformed miscreants spouting anti-microsoft, pro-linux bullshit, then don't read here. On occasion you get some good humor. The content of the articles as well as most of the posts sucks. Don't whine about the "blantant misinformation." That's what slashdot IS. It's what slashdot has BEEN. Read somewhere else if you want real news and real discussion...
Justin Dubs
No source code to a language design? What about BNF, or doesn't that count? That definitly seems like langauge design to me. What about the actual yacc/lex code used to write the official compiler? There is no reason that you couldn't GPL your BNF grammar and your lacc/yex code.
Justin Dubs
As it's theorized that there aren't even 10^100 atoms in the universe, or electrons for that matter (obviously), we're going to have to REALLY shrink our die sizes down to get there...
The New Pentium XXI running on a -.0001mu core.
Justin Dubs
Actually, I don't love FreeBSD either. However, if you want a REALLY great server, try OpenBSD. It's secure. You can get it running in less than 100M. It's fast. It doesn't come with all kinds of bullshit software you'll never use like linux does. It's Minimum install is REALLY a minimum install.
The basic OpenBSD install is around half the size of the basic Linux install. All the software you want is available to install, it just doesn't shove it down your throat like linux does with it's 10 CLI text editors in the minimum install.
I've tried RedHat, Debian, Mandrake, Suse, TurboLinux, Corel Linux, NetBSD, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, and Solaris 8. The one one who's default install I haven't hated is OpenBSD. The only one that's never given me any trouble installing packages is OpenBSD. The only one that I feel comfortable leaving as my server OS is OpenBSD. The only one that can take me from booting off the CD to fully installed and configured in 25 minutes is OpenBSD. It's got the most simple, wonderful installer ever made. Anyway, just ranting...
Justin Dubs
But honestly, I think he has a point. I play a bunch of EA games on the PS2. Mostly Madden 2001 and Knockout Kings 2001. As the PS2 is DVD based, there ARE load times associated with animations, unlike cartridge based systems.
It pissed me off when I have to wait through 8 seconds of loading to see the mandatory EA Sports animation so I can click start and sit through 8 more seconds of loading so I can click start again to skip their fucking intro movie. And then 8 more seconds to the actual main menu.
I mean that's 24 seconds gone. Sit here and count slowly to 24. Can you honestly tell me you didn't stop before you got there? It's a long freaking time...
Justin Dubs
Bullying and teasing are a fundamental truth of life. There is NO WAY to avoid them. They WILL happen. Especially during middle school and high school.
:-).
Depression however is purely voluntary, with the possible exception of chemical/clinical depression.
At some point in your life someone will tease you. You have to realize though, that their teasing does not hurt your feelings. Words can't affect your emotional state. They are not directly related. The way in which your mind processes the words can affect your emotional state however. Notice that extra level of abstraction there. Your brain, of course, is something which you control.
What I am trying to point out is that becoming depressed is a strictly optional side-effect of being teased. I wish more people realized this.
I wish these kids had had parents who had let them know that they were being teased not because they were wrong but because the other kids were immature. And that they had no reason to feel bad about themselves, that instead they should feel bad for the bullies for being emotionally immature enough to do the bullying.
That philosophy is, of course, easier to say than to live. But that's true with everything. Nothings easy anymore... even being a kid.
Justin Dubs
uhhh... she's currently ranked #7 in the WORLD. she may not be as good as hingis or seles or the williams sisters. but they are four of only six people in the WORLD that can say they are better than her. common misconception tho...
Justin Dubs
I'm not sure what definition of "sold out" this is... but AMDZone is far more "sold out" than anandtech. It's got a freaking brand name in it's URL. What do you expect it to say "This chip sucks. It's too fast." These four sites are all also biased, just differently. Everythings biased. Thats one of those fundamental truths of life. People just tend to call "fair" whatever they see that is biased in a way that they find agreeable.
Justin Dubs
I'm a programmer. I want to learn more languages. I realize that C++ is a horribly flawed OO language but it's the only one I know well. What are some good languages that you would suggest learning?
I know: Basic, VisualBasic, Pascal, C, Assembler, C++, Java, Perl, Lisp. In that order chronologically.
Okay, I understand what you are saying better this time. Maybe I was just too tired last time I posted. I do agree with you. Choice IS good. I still feel as though standards are equally good though. Oh, well. I'll just respectfully disagree and leave it at that. Thanks for the viewpoint,
Justin Dubs
I fear that you have lost the ability to think like a new user and you don't realize it. Also, I never ever ever once indicated that choice was bad nor that any choice should be removed. Just that a common set of defaults should be set.
/etc/inittab or go to the appropriate config menu to change this if you prefer the command line.
/etc/* fixing their system.
Make the default WM Sawfish and the default desktop environment GNOME. Make the default shell BASH. They don't have to be those specific options, but some option. If they choose to make Blackbox/KDE/tcsh the defaults, that's fine. Just so that there is a common default.
Leave it just as easy as it is now to change those values if you don't like them. Even encourage it. Most of the people that have no linux experience at this point, on exposure to linux, I don't believe would give a damned about changing their WM/shell/GTK theme/anything. They just want their apps to work and work right. And it would probably help those kinds of people tackle their problem together if they all had the same environment from within which they were working.
So, that should take care of responding to your first two points. As for the third:
I DO NOT advicate hardwiring apps to look/feel the same way. I advicate having a common themeing system that would create a common look and feel. This would cater to your "choice is good" and also provide a common look and feel. By this I mean, every app will have the OK and Cancel buttons in the same place with the same hotkeys. All menu's will have the same defaults, File, Edit, View, whatever, and they will all have the same shortcut keys. All toolbars use the same icons for the basic operations (New, Open, Save, Copy, Print). This would all be themeable, but the theme would make it the same across all your apps. GOD would that be nice.
No respond needed to point 4. We agreed on that one.
Again, you seem to misinterprit my response. Make Workstation installs work so that the default is X w/ GDM or whatever. Most regular people want nothing to do with the command line. You can, of course, still edit
I full well realize that stability has to do with the kernel. AND the kernel modules. BASH doesn't load any kernel modules. X does. Bunches of 'em. That's why I claim the command line is more stable. There is less low-level work going on that has potential to crash your machine. The nCurses library is very well ironed out and isn't prone to crash. NVidia's binary drivers with DRI ARE crash prone, sometimes, depending on the system.
Also, I hope you never ever expect a regular user to boot up into single user mode and vi/emacs their way through
Choice is wonderful. Standards are equally wonderful. The two together will make a incredibly wonderful desktop system.
Justin Dubs
Yes, it is easy to mock those views. They are pretty much exatly against that which linux stands for. Choice. However, consider this:
1. Provides one window manager.
I see no reason a standards body can't decide on a standard default for the window manager. We aren't saying don't make the rest available. Just pick one for the default, regardless of distro, aside from specializied distro's that need to be different. Most non-tech users will stick with the default which would provide a commonality accross various people's installs.
2. Provide one shell.
See above answer. Hopefully the user wont' need the shell, but if they do, it can't hurt to have a standard default.
3. Provide a unified Linux "look and feel"
This one really WOULD be nice. Lack of consistancy in user interfaces drives me nuts in linux.
4. Remove options.
Fine. Make two different sets of config screen. Advanced and simple. Make simple the default. Make it so you can change the default to Advanaced if you so chose. There, done. Newbies and non-techies don't have to worry about it, but with a magical check box we can forever unlock the "Advanced" options. That doesn't sound unreasonable.
5. Stability stuffs...
Yeah, duh. Of course we want stability. But, duh, the command line needs to be a last resort if all else fails. Seems like she was stating the obvious there...
Justin Dubs
You know what else I would love to see in linux? Kernel hot-patching ala Solaris. That'd be SWEET. Anyone know of any projects around trying to do that right now?
Justin Dubs
The one phrase you use sums up a whole other set of problems with games on linux:
... "
"Sure, if game writers started making their games available for linux i might try them (not buy them though)
I'm not saying you are like this, but a lot of open source people seem to be of the philosophy that software that costs money is evil. EVERYTHING should be free. This is, of course, absolute and total bullshit. But that doesn't matter to them.
So, why would you try and make games for an OS that is:
1) Mostly populated by programmers, not gamers.
2) Has a rep as being a server OS, not a desktop OS.
3) Used by people who don't like paying for software. And prolly wouldn't pay for the games even if they did come out for linux.
Doesn't sound like a very hard decision to me. Just don't make games for it. It's not worth it.
This of course can change if:
1) Non-programmers/hackers/syadmins start using linux.
2) We develop a rep as a desktop OS via gnome/kde
3) Actually buy the comercially available linux software.
Justin Dubs
No. Actually NVidia came up with the ideas and then forcefed them to microsoft for inclusion in DX8. And, no, not any card maker can make a card that supports those features. If they could, why aren't they? Only ATI and NVidia make cards that support both standards (OpenGL and DirectX) to the letter and are fast.
NVidia, as they pushed microsoft to expand DX, also created new OpenGL extensions for these new features. These are NOT Microsoft's ideas. They are almost soley NVidia's.
Justin Dubs
That is absolutely hilarious. They will use a bit in the file, the "Copyrighted" field for solving all their problems. Give me 5 minutes and I'll whip up a C util to unset that bit on all my mp3's. Seek, Read, And, Write. Hey, now none of my songs are copyrighted and I can trade them. Problem solved.
Justin Dubs
I'm young and atheist. So I think that my point is correct but that I am mis-using pretty much every term I use. So, no one understands what I am trying to say. Help me out. My roommate claim to be "Christian." He follows a very literal translation of the bible (King James version). He's very conservative. Is he Catholic or Protestant or neither?
Justin Dubs
Yes, Catholics are "Christians". They worship the same holy trinity. However, I don't think Catholics are Christians, as in, followers of the current Christian religion. If they were, why are they Catholics and not Chrisitians. There are differences between the two faiths. And I think one of the differences is in how they interpret the bible.
:-)
So, I'm judging their mindset based upon what faith they would claim to be. Usually those that claim, first and foremost, to be Christians have a very strict biblical interpritation. Usually those that claim to be Catholics, even though they do agree that Catholics are Christians, have a looser interpretation.
Of course, I currently live in North Carolina. Here, almost every time I've seen, Christian == Fundamental Christian. So, maybe I'm just out of touch with what you consider Christianity to be.
Justin Dubs