Are you kidding? Your suspension of disbelief threshold must be high, because my bullshit meter gets set off by the "everyone inexplicably speaks English" problem, personally. The Star Treks were all way better shows than Stargate. Hell even Babylon 5 and Farscape are more consistent and believable than Stargate. Throw in BSG and Firefly and Stargate comes across as third rate.
Many of your criticisms are quite valid, but you're going a bit too far with your criticisms.
Specifically, yes, XUL does make an application not native, and things like Mozilla GTK support is chasing a moving target. But not every application needs to be fully, 100% native. Firefox's Windows support is more than enough, Firefox's GTK support is very, very nice, but could be a bit better. And yes, the Mac support is atrocious. But Safari owns, so no one cares. The point being, the nativeness problem is not a big deal, and the situation will continue to improve anyway.
You said also that writing native code for heavy lifting makes an app not portable, but this is not necessarily true either. C is a very portable language, and as long as you're not using some ass backwards compiler that is tied to a single platform to compile all your code, you really shouldn't have any problems. If you need to do something OS or kernel specific, abstract it. There's probably even a prewritten library out there to do so for you.
So yes, XUL based apps are not perfect, and your criticisms are valid, but the situation is not as bad as you describe.
Microsoft's market share doesn't mean much if the company no longer innovates and takes seven years to release a new version of its flagship product.
Innovation doesn't mean much if it isn't necessary to retain to retain dominant market share. OS X and arguably Linux have been far superior to Windows for a long time, but nobody seems to care because those operating systems don't run Windows apps. It's just as simple as that. Microsoft can continue to produce the most boring OS on the face of the planet so long as they retain that monopoly on the killer app pool.
Linux will continue to gobble up servers, and Windows will continue to sort of lamely deflate in the desktop market.
Statistics show the opposite. Windows servers are becoming more popular and Linux desktop market share is flat lining.
Analysts are actually predicting a massive increase in Apple market share, as much as triple.
At least we can agree on something, but I think you're mistaking the reasoning behind the analysts predictions. VerySoonNow(tm) OS X will be running Windows apps with a not sucking Quartz-native non X11 Darwine, and/or an Apple sponsored Windows compatibility layer, and/or vastly improved solutions like Parallels. Once one of these three solutions works adequately for most people, and it looks like at least one of them will come into fruition soon enough, Apple will see more sales.
It's all about the Windows apps, critical guy. Deprive MS of that gotcha and then your rationalle will start to make sense.
Bio: Ryan j Budke was born with a love for all things entertainment. He got his start as a writer for the television blog TV Squad where he fulfilled one of his lifelong dreams of being paid to watch TV. He\'s known among his group of friends as the gadget guy as he always stays on the cutting edge of technology.
Emphasis mine.
Maybe someone should learn how to use stripslashes(). Yeah, it is beta, but a stripslashes() bug? Very unprofessional.
Amarok is native, but still hideously slow (and crashes a lot). Bashee is a C#/Mono app. Quod Libet, another good example, is a Python app. Point is, a lot of modern media apps are written with features but not performance in mind, and many of them are done in interpreted languages. The kings of all music apps, iTunes and Winamp (or XMMS for Linux) do not suffer from the said performance problems.
Yeah, I realized that thing about Amarok after I posted my comment, but the criticism is still valid. It may not be written in an interpreted language, but it's still ridiculously slow. And it crashes a lot.
Fun fact: Even in non-native apps, the playing itself is usually done by native libraries. (GStreamer, Xine, libmad, etc.)
The non-native code just drives the UI.
Yet these apps still incur a severe performnace hit. Clicking the "next song" button in Quod Libet (a Python app) for example takes up to one or two seconds to load the next song for me. XMMS is instant.
They're appropriate for many tasks. Web development is a good example, along with productivity apps that don't depend on speed. An alarm clock app, or post it notes, or other such small things. But apps making use of binary media or requiring extensive math such as a physics engine on a game or an emulator should use native code.
I know what you mean. In Linux, I used tons of music apps like Banshee and Amarok for their features, but got fed up and went back to XMMS for its speed. JIT languages are NOT appropriate for every task.
I think the moral of the story here is that you can glean no true information as to how many visitors your site really has by unique IPs. This convenient unique visitors = 1/10th of unique IPs idea is no more accurate than simply assuming each new IP is a new visitor. There will be people who visit your site from 10 different locations and thus 10 different IPs, and there will be whole families on one IP visiting your site. Or perhaps one of those 10 different locations one person uses is used by others. Since we have no way of knowing these things, any sort of formula is as inaccurate as the next.
With respect, the contention here is that the Digg admins do this stuff in secret, whereas the Slashdot editors are completely honest about exerting editorial control over stories and sometimes, but rarely, comments.
But there are so many other more interesting names!
Such as "Foudroyant Fox" for when Ubuntu finally conquers Windows. Or "Fringillaceous Finch" for when Ubuntu releases are starting to feel redundant. Or "Fluxional Fly" for when Ubuntu reaches its buggy phase. Or "Fucking Fleas" for when Ubuntu's buggy phase reaches infestation level. Or "Fugacious Fish" for when Ubuntu is under attack by a larger predatory distro. Or "Friable Frog" for the following release when Ubuntu fails to prevail over its predator.
Or we could just grow lots of hemp so that we can make as much methanol as we want for infinite renewable fuel. Gee, do you think marijuana's banning in the US in 1939 had anything at all to do with this 1938 Popular Mechanics article? Methinks corporations with large timber holdings, oil holdings, and tobacco holdings had a vested interest in lobbying marijuana out of existence in the guise of public safety despite the fact that legal drugs were less dangerous.
But hey, what do I know. It's not as if America and those who emulate us have been blindly and needlessly wasting oil for the last near seven decades or anything thanks to organized corporate greed, right? I mean, that would just be a silly thing that the people wouldn't stand for, right? Think about it.
Slashdot Mirror
Are you kidding? Your suspension of disbelief threshold must be high, because my bullshit meter gets set off by the "everyone inexplicably speaks English" problem, personally. The Star Treks were all way better shows than Stargate. Hell even Babylon 5 and Farscape are more consistent and believable than Stargate. Throw in BSG and Firefly and Stargate comes across as third rate.
How about an explanation for why all the human cultures and aliens across three galaxies all speak English? I'd sure like to know...
Then you'd be using the localized version, "GNOME Kokous"
I wish I knew where they're building all those Daedalus class ships...
None of which are music players.
Many of your criticisms are quite valid, but you're going a bit too far with your criticisms.
Specifically, yes, XUL does make an application not native, and things like Mozilla GTK support is chasing a moving target. But not every application needs to be fully, 100% native. Firefox's Windows support is more than enough, Firefox's GTK support is very, very nice, but could be a bit better. And yes, the Mac support is atrocious. But Safari owns, so no one cares. The point being, the nativeness problem is not a big deal, and the situation will continue to improve anyway.
You said also that writing native code for heavy lifting makes an app not portable, but this is not necessarily true either. C is a very portable language, and as long as you're not using some ass backwards compiler that is tied to a single platform to compile all your code, you really shouldn't have any problems. If you need to do something OS or kernel specific, abstract it. There's probably even a prewritten library out there to do so for you.
So yes, XUL based apps are not perfect, and your criticisms are valid, but the situation is not as bad as you describe.
Statistics show the opposite. Windows servers are becoming more popular and Linux desktop market share is flat lining.
At least we can agree on something, but I think you're mistaking the reasoning behind the analysts predictions. VerySoonNow(tm) OS X will be running Windows apps with a not sucking Quartz-native non X11 Darwine, and/or an Apple sponsored Windows compatibility layer, and/or vastly improved solutions like Parallels. Once one of these three solutions works adequately for most people, and it looks like at least one of them will come into fruition soon enough, Apple will see more sales.
It's all about the Windows apps, critical guy. Deprive MS of that gotcha and then your rationalle will start to make sense.
From the link: Emphasis mine.
Maybe someone should learn how to use stripslashes(). Yeah, it is beta, but a stripslashes() bug? Very unprofessional.
iTunes slow? Use Amarok, Quod Libet, or Banshee for a while then tell me iTunes is slower. iTunes is faster in bloody WINE than those apps.
Amarok is native, but still hideously slow (and crashes a lot). Bashee is a C#/Mono app. Quod Libet, another good example, is a Python app. Point is, a lot of modern media apps are written with features but not performance in mind, and many of them are done in interpreted languages. The kings of all music apps, iTunes and Winamp (or XMMS for Linux) do not suffer from the said performance problems.
Yeah, I realized that thing about Amarok after I posted my comment, but the criticism is still valid. It may not be written in an interpreted language, but it's still ridiculously slow. And it crashes a lot.
They're appropriate for many tasks. Web development is a good example, along with productivity apps that don't depend on speed. An alarm clock app, or post it notes, or other such small things. But apps making use of binary media or requiring extensive math such as a physics engine on a game or an emulator should use native code.
I know what you mean. In Linux, I used tons of music apps like Banshee and Amarok for their features, but got fed up and went back to XMMS for its speed. JIT languages are NOT appropriate for every task.
Invalid comparison and an old news discussion. Ars Technica had a thread about this started way back in January which covered all aspects of the discussion. http://episteme.arstechnica.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f /48409524/m/224000827731
I think the moral of the story here is that you can glean no true information as to how many visitors your site really has by unique IPs. This convenient unique visitors = 1/10th of unique IPs idea is no more accurate than simply assuming each new IP is a new visitor. There will be people who visit your site from 10 different locations and thus 10 different IPs, and there will be whole families on one IP visiting your site. Or perhaps one of those 10 different locations one person uses is used by others. Since we have no way of knowing these things, any sort of formula is as inaccurate as the next.
The Amazon people wrote their webpage serverside stuff in C? That's hardcore.
Slashdot and Digg are linking to each other! An endless loop of Slashdot Effect and Digg Effect! Is the internet going to explode?
With respect, the contention here is that the Digg admins do this stuff in secret, whereas the Slashdot editors are completely honest about exerting editorial control over stories and sometimes, but rarely, comments.
But there are so many other more interesting names!
Such as "Foudroyant Fox" for when Ubuntu finally conquers Windows.
Or "Fringillaceous Finch" for when Ubuntu releases are starting to feel redundant.
Or "Fluxional Fly" for when Ubuntu reaches its buggy phase.
Or "Fucking Fleas" for when Ubuntu's buggy phase reaches infestation level.
Or "Fugacious Fish" for when Ubuntu is under attack by a larger predatory distro.
Or "Friable Frog" for the following release when Ubuntu fails to prevail over its predator.
See, and they're wasting their opportunity to use "Extinct Elaphrosaurus" too! It's just not fair.
Slashdot needs an ability to edit posts, I say.
"Despite the fact that legal drugs were less dangerous" should read "despite the fact that legal drugs are arguably more dangerous."
Or we could just grow lots of hemp so that we can make as much methanol as we want for infinite renewable fuel. Gee, do you think marijuana's banning in the US in 1939 had anything at all to do with this 1938 Popular Mechanics article? Methinks corporations with large timber holdings, oil holdings, and tobacco holdings had a vested interest in lobbying marijuana out of existence in the guise of public safety despite the fact that legal drugs were less dangerous.
But hey, what do I know. It's not as if America and those who emulate us have been blindly and needlessly wasting oil for the last near seven decades or anything thanks to organized corporate greed, right? I mean, that would just be a silly thing that the people wouldn't stand for, right? Think about it.
Alas ye olde pinkdot, we barely knew ye. Return unto us hither in a better life, anew.