Yeah, the review doesn't seem to show any marked advantages over VMware. Unless they sell it for $20 or give away the Linux version, I don't see them stealing any of VMware's market share.
Amazingly enough, someone I know tried to convince me of just that. His "proof" was that when he launched IE, his CD drive spun up. Since IE had no business reading his CD drive when he was looking at websites, he concluded that MS was spying on everything he did. He had a similar argument for MSN Messenger and the.NET runtime. Laugh all you want, but some people think that way.
You think the Open Group could say that SCO couldn't use the Unix name any more? Then they'd have to call it "The Operating System Formerly Known As Unix". They could figure out some funky symbol for a logo too!
The version of XMMS I have (1.2.0, from a Gentoo ebuild) lets me press "Q" on a track, and it queues it as the next track, even if it's in random mode. I just tried it, and it went up to 70 before I got tired of pressing the button.
It depends on the demographic you're in. According to some informal scans on my campus network subnet, there's 1 person with Linux (me, with 2 computers), 2 Macs, and approximately 80 Windows boxes, mostly XP. My own experiences with other people's computers agree. The only people I know who use Linux are my programmer friends. A couple other have heard of it, but don't want to run it for various reasons.
Most people I've met don't care about the OS they're running specifically. They don't know enough about Windows to be tied to it. However, they don't perceive any benefits to trying something else. Windows works fine for most of them.
Sure, there's viruses and worms, but let's be realistic. Worms and viruses are a problem of *computers* and their users, not just Windows. Viruses are entirely possible on Linux, and to the average home user, a Linux virus infection would be *just* as bad as a Windows infection. Either one could result in viral spreading, loss of personal information, or system slowdown. The fact that it would only affect one user on the system is *totally* irrelevant. For 99% of home systems out there, there is one primary account, and possibly a few others for family members or other infrequent users. This also ignores the possibility that a virus could use a local root exploit.
Sorry that I kinda went off on the virus thing, but I know some smartass would take exception to my statement that Windows works fine for most people, and there's no reason to switch. Consider it a pre-emptive response. My point is that there really is very little consumer interest in Linux right now. If there was some killer reason to make them switch, maybe. But nothing like that exists now. Linux performs basically the same functions as Windows for the average user.
It's called spherical geometry. The whole geometry is on the surface of the sphere, with no regard for the 3rd dimension. In that geometry, it's impossible to "cut" through the sphere to make a traditional triangle. A line segment on the sphere is perfectly straight *in that geometry*, but would appear curved to someone above the sphere. A triangle would be composed of three such line segments connecting three points. In the geometry of the sphere, it would be three straight line segments connecting three points to form a triangle. That triangle, however, would have a sum of angles greater than 180 degrees/2pi.
You're thinking in Euclidean 3-space, which isn't where the example was taking place. Another interesting geometry is hyperbolic geometry, where all triangles have angle sums of less than 180 degrees/2pi.
Another great game that used a lot of mathematical methods was Daggerfall. It had a world so big that it would take something like a week of real time for your character to walk across it (not using fast travel). All the wilderness parts were fractally generated, so everywhere looked unique without having to pregenerate the layout.
Does Minux have X, OpenGL, and suitable other libraries? This game isn't a standalone work. It makes extensive use of DirectX, and you'd need some pretty heavy support code to make it run on something else. The main "coolness" is the procedurally generated textures. In most games, textures, sounds, and models take up the most space. Code isn't that big.
The nitrogen is environmentally safe. The temperature that you put it at makes it unsafe. You could also say that water isn't environmentally safe, since throwing a few thousand gallons of 99.9 degree Celsius water into a river would probably kill a good portion of the life too. Temperature and extreme amount make your example unsafe, not the actual material
Specifically, we need *binary* backwards compatibility. The ability to install any version of libFoo >= 1.34 and have it work with *any* programs compiled against any previous version.
Also, Windows has lots of inertia thanks to OEMs. Most users are afraid to change their OS. They stick with what came installed, because that's what they bought, and that's what they're guarenteed to get support for from their vendor. A company offering Linux pre-loaded with full support is one of the things that we need to see a *lot* more of.
There's a difference between denouncement and constructive criticism. NanoGator's comments on this thread are definately the latter. I didn't check his complete comment history, but from what I've seen of his posts, he's pretty much on the ball. As a die-hard Windows user myself before I switched a few scant weeks ago, I was pretty vocal about what Linux needed. I was pretty damn good at using Windows, but I wanted to use Linux. I had tried it out several times, and each time I came back to Windows with something that stopped me from using Linux full-time. People who've been using Linux for a long time tend to be blinded to those kinds of issues.
When someone on Slashdot says that Linux is better than Windows for some reason that I don't believe, I argue. When someone on Slashdot says that they can't understand why people don't use Linux more, I tell them why I didn't. I don't do this because I hate Linux, I do this because I want Linux to improve to the point where I can't make those complaints any more. I'd imagine NanoGator posts for similar reasons.
You can download and run software on a Mac by downloading a.DMG file, double clicking on it, and double clicking on the program icon. You can install software by following that same procedure, but opening your Applications folder and dragging the program icon from one window to the other. Uninstallation consists of selecting the icon and pressing Delete. No command line, no typing. I don't know much about dependency management, but I'm guessing that it isn't a big problem. Most apps probably include the specific small libraries they need, and only depend otherwise on Carbon or Cocoa (OS provided).
ISO and DMG mounting is basically transparent. You double click the file, and it shows up as a folder on your desktop, just like old MacOS did with CDs. A lot of downloadable software uses DMG images (which are compressed) to distribute software, since they're so easy to use.
The program moving isn't just moving. If you get a trendy new Solitare game (yeah, I know...) and you want to send it to your buddy Steve, you send him one file over iChat, he double clicks it, and the game runs. It works on the folder level too. I heard a story about a guy who walked into an electronics store, plugged his iPod into one of the demo macs, copied the Microsoft Office folder to the iPod, and walked away with a perfectly functional illegal copy of Office.
Again, this is all my personal understanding of OS X operation, gained through playing in the computer lab. If someone who actually owns a Mac can clarify any of these, go for it.
You know, a lot of us don't like the GPL's terms of redistribution. I choose not to use it in my own software (when possible...), in favor of the BSD license. Does that mean I've sold my soul to Microsoft? I sure hope not, because I didn't even get a receipt.
Standardization does not preclude choice. However, if every company/OEM Computer Vendor/etc. chooses a different standard, then it isn't really much of a standard, is it? Any kind of standardization does not mean you can't install other choices, it just means that you can sit down at any Linux computer and expect a common GUI interface available. Obvious exception for servers.
Right now, the only thing that you can expect on a Linux computer is the console. Since a lot of potential users are turned off by the console, people want to extend this idea by having a common GUI. This DOES NOT mean that the standard GUI should be the only option available. It simply means that someone can become proficient in a common GUI and be able to apply those skills on any Linux computer.
As a practical matter, however, this is gonna be really tough. Lots of people want standardization, but they all want the standard to be whatever their favorite is. My guess is that the first company that really starts to push their Linux distro to home users and gets it used by the major OEMs will dictate the standard. Oh well.
It's not even that they're writing to the registry. The registry has a perfectly fine spot (HKEY_CURRENT_USER) for things like user-install software and settings. There is absolutely *no* reason for software to write to other parts of the reg unless they're doing something administration-related.
Agreed. NTFS has supported ACLs for forever + a week, but nobody uses them. Some Linux filesystems support ACLs too, but unfortunately we're seeing a similar effect. There's tons and tons of programs hardcoded to use stupid rwxrwxrwx permissions, and no amount of work will update all of them.
Agreed. When I ran XP for about a year, I got exactly one worm: Blaster. I plugged in my laptop to the campus network, and got it less than 30 seconds later. Fixed 5 minutes later. Nearly every other virus or worm requires some kind of user intervention to install, or relied on Outlook/IE.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah, the review doesn't seem to show any marked advantages over VMware. Unless they sell it for $20 or give away the Linux version, I don't see them stealing any of VMware's market share.
You think the Open Group could say that SCO couldn't use the Unix name any more? Then they'd have to call it "The Operating System Formerly Known As Unix". They could figure out some funky symbol for a logo too!
The version of XMMS I have (1.2.0, from a Gentoo ebuild) lets me press "Q" on a track, and it queues it as the next track, even if it's in random mode. I just tried it, and it went up to 70 before I got tired of pressing the button.
It depends on the demographic you're in. According to some informal scans on my campus network subnet, there's 1 person with Linux (me, with 2 computers), 2 Macs, and approximately 80 Windows boxes, mostly XP. My own experiences with other people's computers agree. The only people I know who use Linux are my programmer friends. A couple other have heard of it, but don't want to run it for various reasons.
Most people I've met don't care about the OS they're running specifically. They don't know enough about Windows to be tied to it. However, they don't perceive any benefits to trying something else. Windows works fine for most of them.
Sure, there's viruses and worms, but let's be realistic. Worms and viruses are a problem of *computers* and their users, not just Windows. Viruses are entirely possible on Linux, and to the average home user, a Linux virus infection would be *just* as bad as a Windows infection. Either one could result in viral spreading, loss of personal information, or system slowdown. The fact that it would only affect one user on the system is *totally* irrelevant. For 99% of home systems out there, there is one primary account, and possibly a few others for family members or other infrequent users. This also ignores the possibility that a virus could use a local root exploit.
Sorry that I kinda went off on the virus thing, but I know some smartass would take exception to my statement that Windows works fine for most people, and there's no reason to switch. Consider it a pre-emptive response. My point is that there really is very little consumer interest in Linux right now. If there was some killer reason to make them switch, maybe. But nothing like that exists now. Linux performs basically the same functions as Windows for the average user.
It's called spherical geometry. The whole geometry is on the surface of the sphere, with no regard for the 3rd dimension. In that geometry, it's impossible to "cut" through the sphere to make a traditional triangle. A line segment on the sphere is perfectly straight *in that geometry*, but would appear curved to someone above the sphere. A triangle would be composed of three such line segments connecting three points. In the geometry of the sphere, it would be three straight line segments connecting three points to form a triangle. That triangle, however, would have a sum of angles greater than 180 degrees/2pi.
You're thinking in Euclidean 3-space, which isn't where the example was taking place. Another interesting geometry is hyperbolic geometry, where all triangles have angle sums of less than 180 degrees/2pi.
Another great game that used a lot of mathematical methods was Daggerfall. It had a world so big that it would take something like a week of real time for your character to walk across it (not using fast travel). All the wilderness parts were fractally generated, so everywhere looked unique without having to pregenerate the layout.
Does Minux have X, OpenGL, and suitable other libraries? This game isn't a standalone work. It makes extensive use of DirectX, and you'd need some pretty heavy support code to make it run on something else. The main "coolness" is the procedurally generated textures. In most games, textures, sounds, and models take up the most space. Code isn't that big.
DirectX has code for sound, input, music, etc. OpenGL does not. OpenGL is tiny in comparison.
Ever stop to consider that there may be more dialects of English than yours?
The nitrogen is environmentally safe. The temperature that you put it at makes it unsafe. You could also say that water isn't environmentally safe, since throwing a few thousand gallons of 99.9 degree Celsius water into a river would probably kill a good portion of the life too. Temperature and extreme amount make your example unsafe, not the actual material
Amen brotha!
Specifically, we need *binary* backwards compatibility. The ability to install any version of libFoo >= 1.34 and have it work with *any* programs compiled against any previous version.
Also, Windows has lots of inertia thanks to OEMs. Most users are afraid to change their OS. They stick with what came installed, because that's what they bought, and that's what they're guarenteed to get support for from their vendor. A company offering Linux pre-loaded with full support is one of the things that we need to see a *lot* more of.
There's a difference between denouncement and constructive criticism. NanoGator's comments on this thread are definately the latter. I didn't check his complete comment history, but from what I've seen of his posts, he's pretty much on the ball. As a die-hard Windows user myself before I switched a few scant weeks ago, I was pretty vocal about what Linux needed. I was pretty damn good at using Windows, but I wanted to use Linux. I had tried it out several times, and each time I came back to Windows with something that stopped me from using Linux full-time. People who've been using Linux for a long time tend to be blinded to those kinds of issues.
When someone on Slashdot says that Linux is better than Windows for some reason that I don't believe, I argue. When someone on Slashdot says that they can't understand why people don't use Linux more, I tell them why I didn't. I don't do this because I hate Linux, I do this because I want Linux to improve to the point where I can't make those complaints any more. I'd imagine NanoGator posts for similar reasons.
You can download and run software on a Mac by downloading a .DMG file, double clicking on it, and double clicking on the program icon. You can install software by following that same procedure, but opening your Applications folder and dragging the program icon from one window to the other. Uninstallation consists of selecting the icon and pressing Delete. No command line, no typing. I don't know much about dependency management, but I'm guessing that it isn't a big problem. Most apps probably include the specific small libraries they need, and only depend otherwise on Carbon or Cocoa (OS provided).
ISO and DMG mounting is basically transparent. You double click the file, and it shows up as a folder on your desktop, just like old MacOS did with CDs. A lot of downloadable software uses DMG images (which are compressed) to distribute software, since they're so easy to use.
The program moving isn't just moving. If you get a trendy new Solitare game (yeah, I know...) and you want to send it to your buddy Steve, you send him one file over iChat, he double clicks it, and the game runs. It works on the folder level too. I heard a story about a guy who walked into an electronics store, plugged his iPod into one of the demo macs, copied the Microsoft Office folder to the iPod, and walked away with a perfectly functional illegal copy of Office.
Again, this is all my personal understanding of OS X operation, gained through playing in the computer lab. If someone who actually owns a Mac can clarify any of these, go for it.
Problem Exists Between Chair And Keyboard
Also sometimes reversed as PEBKAC: Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair.
You know, a lot of us don't like the GPL's terms of redistribution. I choose not to use it in my own software (when possible...), in favor of the BSD license. Does that mean I've sold my soul to Microsoft? I sure hope not, because I didn't even get a receipt.
I have a nearly perfect memory. Should I tell people "Oh, I'm remembering this!" before every conversation?
Standardization does not preclude choice. However, if every company/OEM Computer Vendor/etc. chooses a different standard, then it isn't really much of a standard, is it? Any kind of standardization does not mean you can't install other choices, it just means that you can sit down at any Linux computer and expect a common GUI interface available. Obvious exception for servers.
Right now, the only thing that you can expect on a Linux computer is the console. Since a lot of potential users are turned off by the console, people want to extend this idea by having a common GUI. This DOES NOT mean that the standard GUI should be the only option available. It simply means that someone can become proficient in a common GUI and be able to apply those skills on any Linux computer.
As a practical matter, however, this is gonna be really tough. Lots of people want standardization, but they all want the standard to be whatever their favorite is. My guess is that the first company that really starts to push their Linux distro to home users and gets it used by the major OEMs will dictate the standard. Oh well.
Also worth mentioning is Filezilla, an excellent free software FTP client *only* for Win32. Don't forget PuTTY either.
It's not even that they're writing to the registry. The registry has a perfectly fine spot (HKEY_CURRENT_USER) for things like user-install software and settings. There is absolutely *no* reason for software to write to other parts of the reg unless they're doing something administration-related.
Agreed. NTFS has supported ACLs for forever + a week, but nobody uses them. Some Linux filesystems support ACLs too, but unfortunately we're seeing a similar effect. There's tons and tons of programs hardcoded to use stupid rwxrwxrwx permissions, and no amount of work will update all of them.
Given the weight and size of the softcover version of Ulysses, I'd guess about 5.
Agreed. When I ran XP for about a year, I got exactly one worm: Blaster. I plugged in my laptop to the campus network, and got it less than 30 seconds later. Fixed 5 minutes later. Nearly every other virus or worm requires some kind of user intervention to install, or relied on Outlook/IE.