Ah yes, I've also been toying with this idea for years.
So what are your plans so far?
I'm currently thinking that something based on an advanced Reiser filesystem or possibly SVN based (but it needs to be faster than SVN is now and handle binary diffs better).
One of my problems with M2 is the same same problem I have with Opera in general: stability. The damn thing just crashes too much and sometimes corrupts data (at least M2 does).
My other problem is that last time I checked it still didn't support S/MIME. And even when it finally supports it then I'm going to want PKCS#11 support (so I can use a smart-card).
It's Firebird/Thunderbird for me. The way M2 organizes is cool though. Mozilla guys, are you listening?
I was thinking the same thing. The top prize is $2000. Over four months that's less than $3 an hour. And that's if you win. Screw that.
Now sure, some people would just do it for the hell of it. However, if they are expecting quality code, it probably isn't going to happen. Anyone with any talent is going to pass this over.
There are tons upon tons of "other" stuff that goes into upgrading the kernel.
For example, no official nVidia drivers for the 2.6 kernel yet. It's patch city for you, good luck.
No VMware modules either. Again, good luck.
Not that it can't be done, but it takes a whole lot of time and your system will be very fragile.
Personally, I'm waiting till the new kernel is supported by the software I use. I actually use my Linux system for real work so I can't have much down time.
It is the whole "previous business relationship" thing. I'm sure companies will just "partner" with each other and then bam, you've directly had business with just about any company that wants to spam you.
The only way to solve that would be to not do business with any company at all (ie. not possible).
I still think that even with this new do-not-call list you're still going to get a bunch of calls. And still, the best thing to do is ask to be put on their do-not-call list because then they really can't call you no matter what previous relationship you've had with them.
True. And even I use GNOME because it's faster than KDE (currently).
And like you, I think Gtk2 is a great improvement. Though QT is becoming more polished also (just look at the planned improvements for QT4).
However, Gtk is not getting any better on any platforms other than Linux. Gtk on anything else sucks badly and is the reason why I don't develop GUI applications using Gtk. It was suppose to be better with Gtk2 but from the tests I've done this isn't true at all. I fear Gtk will never be a good cross-platform GUI API.
Of course it wouldn't matter if everyone was running Linux, but currently only a tiny fraction of desktops run Linux.
Gtk (GNOME) is free and open. It has a "safe" feeling. However, it's not really cross-platform* and is not very polished (the C API sucks and the gtkmm interface is still rough around the edges). It is a valid choice because of it's freeness. Hence the reason why we have GNOME.
QT (KDE) is not free and in fact it is way too expensive for most normal uses*. Not everyone wants to release their stuff as GPL. However, it's the best cross-platform GUI toolkit available and feels polished. The applications made with QT are typically more professional feeling than Gtk applications. It is a valid choice because it works really well (better than Gtk).
So those are the two sides. You have "rough and free" versus "polished and expensive". Because both are equally valid this is why we have the split.
And I agree with you. If I had to pick who will win the GUI war I would say KDE. But only if Trolltech lowers their prices will KDE survive in the commercial market. As I've mentioned many times, Microsoft's developer prices are way lower (for more stuff) and that's part of the reason why they rule the desktop.
* Gtk has always run like crap on Windows and on OSX it has to run in the X11 layer.
* Come on Trolltech, give us a sub-$1000 cross-platform QT.
Duh, holding them back from taking over the world.
Trust me, if QT was reasonably priced they would simply rule the cross-platform market.
And duh, when you don't give customers what they want they use something else and you lose. Not that Trolltech is doing terrible, but they could be so much more.
I don't think we're quite so far along as you think.
This diamond thing is nothing. We've known for a very long time that diamonds can be manufactured. It is the nature of diamonds themselves. Nothing more than compressed/heated carbon (in case you didn't know, carbon is very common; slightly). They were originally expensive because they were rare, pretty, and damn hard. However, there is nothing fundamentally keeping us from making them.
When you can "print up" or otherwise manufacture some Francium, Uranium, or Gold, then you might have something.
As others have mentioned, the problem isn't that we don't want to pay for a license.
I have no problem paying for QT.
I have a MSDN subscription in fact. That MSDN (Professional) was around $1000. Not too bad considering you get every single MS OS and the whole development environment (C/C++, C#, Java, VB, etc.) and all sorts of other bits. For the most part Microsoft is very good to their developers (hey, they make them money).
Compare that with QT which is around $3000+ for all three platforms (or what, $1500 for one platform?!). And it's only a GUI toolkit (sure, with some extra "fluff"). Way, way too expensive for what it does. If QT was $1000 for all three platforms, then I'd own several copies And many, many other people feel the same way. Their license prices are holding them back. They would have so, so many more developers working in QT if their prices were reasonable. That would only help them in the end as I have a strong feeling the world would become more QT-centric (I mean, it is a pretty good GUI toolkit; although the current stuff is rather slow).
I've thought about upgrading since I normally like to run the latest stuff (plus I'm hoping 2.6 will fix the broken SBP2 driver).
However, trying to get all my settings into this new kernel was not so easy (it was quite painful upgrading to 2.4 also). I'm running on a big laptop so I have a lot of special case hardware that had to be tweeked. Now, I've been a Linux user since the kernel was at 0.97 or so and I remember thinking how complicated all those kernel options were. Jump forward to today and damn, TOO MANY OPTIONS is all I can say. 99% of it I don't care about but I have to go through each one to make sure the kernel will work... agonizing. I wish the kernel could configure itself (a la Microsoft's "detecting and installing hardware").
Combine that with trying to get nVidia drivers that work (yes, yes, there are patches and all kinds of crap I can spend time screwing around with).
And then trying to get VMware to work on the new kernel...
And so on...
Well, let's just say I'm just sticking with 2.4 for now.
I should know because in 1993 I was developing smartcard applications to do exactly what their patent covers (multiple accounts, PIN's, credit card info, etc.). And there were many more companies doing it years before that.
In case you didn't know, smartcards are credit card sized computers and I imagine the E-pass patent is for a smartcard or smartcard-like device. The problem is people were doing what the patent covers well before this E-pass garbage came along.
Same here, although not quite as old. I have at least 50 CD's from 6+ years ago and every single one works fine. Most were recorded at 2x and 4x with a HP recorder. All brands of CDR's, everything from cheapo brands to premium stuff.
I know this because I just copied them all onto DVD-R and verified all the data.
I've been noticing that trend and I absolutely hate the look.
When KDE first appeared I remember thinking "ugh, those icons look cartoony; they suck". Then we get XP which is basically refined cartoon crap. Then KDE3 which is more refined cartoon crap. Now Longhorn... ugh, it looks like some kid's scribbling. The colors, blech. The cartoons, too cartoon fuzzy (hard to quickly find what you're lookig for), blech.
Don't get me wrong, I like KDE and Windows is OK, but as far as look and feel go, either copy OS X or invent something better... This cartoon crap blows.
Personally I would hire (and have hired) someone who has an extra 2 years real-world experience over someone with a Ph.D. Any day.
The fact that you're already interested in seriously pursuing a doctorate would already start to make me nervous.
Although theory is nice, I've all too often seen educational types create truely horrible software. Grand pie-in-the-sky designs that have no place in the real world (and rarely function properly anyway). Overdesign is a bad thing (see: PKCS#15, ASN.1, CORBA, GNU "configure" crap, etc).
So unless you're only interested in the research and education fields I would spend the time learning how to write and design good solid software in the real world.
It was my first Linux install ever (wow, 10 years ago). Although, I'm not sure it was 1.0, was there a pre-1.0 version? The Linux kernel wasn't even at 1.0 yet (0.97 or so, I believe).
I remember downloading it at something like 14.4 BPS (the pain) off a local BBS that got the Fido-net feed (or whatever it was). I remember the floppies... Ah, the many, many floppies. I believe the standard small install was like 35 floppies or so. I remember sitting for hours swapping floppies.
All I see it "contact a sales rep" crap. T-e-l-e-p-h-o-n-e, what's that? Fill out a form so you can get back with me if I'm a good enough customer?
What are the prices?
Why can't I just order up a couple machines off their web pages?
I was going to order 3 or 4 machines for a graphics project ohwell... Sorry SGI, you lose 'cause I couldn't get pricing information for even order the machines. Guess I'll stick with Dell or Apple.
(I'm being sarcastic, but I think I made my point)
Yes, the corruptions I had were from either pulling the plug or power-off without unmounting the drive. The filesystem was completely repairable though, but it did need a fschk.
It seems when doing a fschk all the drive accesses (read + write) cause the SBP2 driver to go haywire. Then it starts getting read errors and such (hardware read errors). Seems to a be problem with the driver.
You know, the firewire disk driver. Man that thing has never worked 100%.
Just try corrupting a large (mine was 90GB) partition on a firewire HD and then fschk it. Eventually it'll start getting timeout errors and all sorts of crap, and will eventually trash the filesystem even worse. Then you can't mount the drive at all.
I usually end up having to go to Windows because it's the only place that I can force a massively corrupted partition to mount (and it has better SBP2 support). From there I can copy everything that is still good off and reformat the drive.
This hasn't just happened once. More like 3 or 4 times (both EXT3 and Reiser partitions) over the last year or so.
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Ah yes, I've also been toying with this idea for years.
So what are your plans so far?
I'm currently thinking that something based on an advanced Reiser filesystem or possibly SVN based (but it needs to be faster than SVN is now and handle binary diffs better).
I would love to have something like that.
One of my problems with M2 is the same same problem I have with Opera in general: stability. The damn thing just crashes too much and sometimes corrupts data (at least M2 does).
My other problem is that last time I checked it still didn't support S/MIME. And even when it finally supports it then I'm going to want PKCS#11 support (so I can use a smart-card).
It's Firebird/Thunderbird for me. The way M2 organizes is cool though. Mozilla guys, are you listening?
I was thinking the same thing. The top prize is $2000. Over four months that's less than $3 an hour. And that's if you win. Screw that.
Now sure, some people would just do it for the hell of it. However, if they are expecting quality code, it probably isn't going to happen. Anyone with any talent is going to pass this over.
Quite lame.
And? Are you going to explain how to do it? How much time did you spend getting it working?
That was my whole point, the article doesn't explain how to do any of that.
There are tons upon tons of "other" stuff that goes into upgrading the kernel.
For example, no official nVidia drivers for the 2.6 kernel yet. It's patch city for you, good luck.
No VMware modules either. Again, good luck.
Not that it can't be done, but it takes a whole lot of time and your system will be very fragile.
Personally, I'm waiting till the new kernel is supported by the software I use. I actually use my Linux system for real work so I can't have much down time.
I believe it goes deeper than that as well.
It is the whole "previous business relationship" thing. I'm sure companies will just "partner" with each other and then bam, you've directly had business with just about any company that wants to spam you.
The only way to solve that would be to not do business with any company at all (ie. not possible).
I still think that even with this new do-not-call list you're still going to get a bunch of calls. And still, the best thing to do is ask to be put on their do-not-call list because then they really can't call you no matter what previous relationship you've had with them.
True. And even I use GNOME because it's faster than KDE (currently).
And like you, I think Gtk2 is a great improvement. Though QT is becoming more polished also (just look at the planned improvements for QT4).
However, Gtk is not getting any better on any platforms other than Linux. Gtk on anything else sucks badly and is the reason why I don't develop GUI applications using Gtk. It was suppose to be better with Gtk2 but from the tests I've done this isn't true at all. I fear Gtk will never be a good cross-platform GUI API.
Of course it wouldn't matter if everyone was running Linux, but currently only a tiny fraction of desktops run Linux.
If I had to choose, I would vote for KDE.
Gtk (GNOME) is free and open. It has a "safe" feeling. However, it's not really cross-platform* and is not very polished (the C API sucks and the gtkmm interface is still rough around the edges). It is a valid choice because of it's freeness. Hence the reason why we have GNOME.
QT (KDE) is not free and in fact it is way too expensive for most normal uses*. Not everyone wants to release their stuff as GPL. However, it's the best cross-platform GUI toolkit available and feels polished. The applications made with QT are typically more professional feeling than Gtk applications. It is a valid choice because it works really well (better than Gtk).
So those are the two sides. You have "rough and free" versus "polished and expensive". Because both are equally valid this is why we have the split.
And I agree with you. If I had to pick who will win the GUI war I would say KDE. But only if Trolltech lowers their prices will KDE survive in the commercial market. As I've mentioned many times, Microsoft's developer prices are way lower (for more stuff) and that's part of the reason why they rule the desktop.
* Gtk has always run like crap on Windows and on OSX it has to run in the X11 layer.
* Come on Trolltech, give us a sub-$1000 cross-platform QT.
Duh, holding them back from taking over the world.
Trust me, if QT was reasonably priced they would simply rule the cross-platform market.
And duh, when you don't give customers what they want they use something else and you lose. Not that Trolltech is doing terrible, but they could be so much more.
WTF are you talking about?
It's a developer license for developing software.
You can deploy the applications you develop to anything you want.
I don't think we're quite so far along as you think.
This diamond thing is nothing. We've known for a very long time that diamonds can be manufactured. It is the nature of diamonds themselves. Nothing more than compressed/heated carbon (in case you didn't know, carbon is very common; slightly). They were originally expensive because they were rare, pretty, and damn hard. However, there is nothing fundamentally keeping us from making them.
When you can "print up" or otherwise manufacture some Francium, Uranium, or Gold, then you might have something.
As others have mentioned, the problem isn't that we don't want to pay for a license.
I have no problem paying for QT.
I have a MSDN subscription in fact. That MSDN (Professional) was around $1000. Not too bad considering you get every single MS OS and the whole development environment (C/C++, C#, Java, VB, etc.) and all sorts of other bits. For the most part Microsoft is very good to their developers (hey, they make them money).
Compare that with QT which is around $3000+ for all three platforms (or what, $1500 for one platform?!). And it's only a GUI toolkit (sure, with some extra "fluff"). Way, way too expensive for what it does. If QT was $1000 for all three platforms, then I'd own several copies And many, many other people feel the same way. Their license prices are holding them back. They would have so, so many more developers working in QT if their prices were reasonable. That would only help them in the end as I have a strong feeling the world would become more QT-centric (I mean, it is a pretty good GUI toolkit; although the current stuff is rather slow).
I've thought about upgrading since I normally like to run the latest stuff (plus I'm hoping 2.6 will fix the broken SBP2 driver).
However, trying to get all my settings into this new kernel was not so easy (it was quite painful upgrading to 2.4 also). I'm running on a big laptop so I have a lot of special case hardware that had to be tweeked. Now, I've been a Linux user since the kernel was at 0.97 or so and I remember thinking how complicated all those kernel options were. Jump forward to today and damn, TOO MANY OPTIONS is all I can say. 99% of it I don't care about but I have to go through each one to make sure the kernel will work... agonizing. I wish the kernel could configure itself (a la Microsoft's "detecting and installing hardware").
Combine that with trying to get nVidia drivers that work (yes, yes, there are patches and all kinds of crap I can spend time screwing around with).
And then trying to get VMware to work on the new kernel...
And so on...
Well, let's just say I'm just sticking with 2.4 for now.
Not if you use S/MIME. Outlook has it built in. As do many good e-mail clients (Mozilla, Thunderbird, etc.). I wish Pine had it... :(
PGP, GPG, and the rest of the proprietary mail crypto apps are stupid. S/MIME is an official standard, use it.
Hell, the whole patent is bogus.
I should know because in 1993 I was developing smartcard applications to do exactly what their patent covers (multiple accounts, PIN's, credit card info, etc.). And there were many more companies doing it years before that.
In case you didn't know, smartcards are credit card sized computers and I imagine the E-pass patent is for a smartcard or smartcard-like device. The problem is people were doing what the patent covers well before this E-pass garbage came along.
This is just a plain case of patent abuse.
Same here, although not quite as old. I have at least 50 CD's from 6+ years ago and every single one works fine. Most were recorded at 2x and 4x with a HP recorder. All brands of CDR's, everything from cheapo brands to premium stuff.
I know this because I just copied them all onto DVD-R and verified all the data.
I've been noticing that trend and I absolutely hate the look.
When KDE first appeared I remember thinking "ugh, those icons look cartoony; they suck". Then we get XP which is basically refined cartoon crap. Then KDE3 which is more refined cartoon crap. Now Longhorn... ugh, it looks like some kid's scribbling. The colors, blech. The cartoons, too cartoon fuzzy (hard to quickly find what you're lookig for), blech.
Don't get me wrong, I like KDE and Windows is OK, but as far as look and feel go, either copy OS X or invent something better... This cartoon crap blows.
Oh come on, are you new here?
/. are running Windows right now. Hell, it's a safe bet to say you are running Windows right now.
Have you seen any of the polls on OS/browser???
90% of the people on
Slashdot is just a place where people who have run Linux one time like to talk big...
Posted from a Debian Linux machine using Firebird.
Personally I would hire (and have hired) someone who has an extra 2 years real-world experience over someone with a Ph.D. Any day.
The fact that you're already interested in seriously pursuing a doctorate would already start to make me nervous.
Although theory is nice, I've all too often seen educational types create truely horrible software. Grand pie-in-the-sky designs that have no place in the real world (and rarely function properly anyway). Overdesign is a bad thing (see: PKCS#15, ASN.1, CORBA, GNU "configure" crap, etc).
So unless you're only interested in the research and education fields I would spend the time learning how to write and design good solid software in the real world.
It was my first Linux install ever (wow, 10 years ago). Although, I'm not sure it was 1.0, was there a pre-1.0 version? The Linux kernel wasn't even at 1.0 yet (0.97 or so, I believe).
I remember downloading it at something like 14.4 BPS (the pain) off a local BBS that got the Fido-net feed (or whatever it was). I remember the floppies... Ah, the many, many floppies. I believe the standard small install was like 35 floppies or so. I remember sitting for hours swapping floppies.
All I see it "contact a sales rep" crap. T-e-l-e-p-h-o-n-e, what's that? Fill out a form so you can get back with me if I'm a good enough customer?
What are the prices?
Why can't I just order up a couple machines off their web pages?
I was going to order 3 or 4 machines for a graphics project ohwell... Sorry SGI, you lose 'cause I couldn't get pricing information for even order the machines. Guess I'll stick with Dell or Apple.
(I'm being sarcastic, but I think I made my point)
Well, assuming that's a legitimate question and you're not just being a smart-ass (hard to tell)...
I used rfstool.
Large hard-drives is what I'm referring to. My DVD-R drive works OK on the firewire, and even the hard-drive works most of the time.
It's when it goes into fschk mode (lots of reads and/or writes) on a large partition (which means it's working for a while), then it starts borking.
Yes, the corruptions I had were from either pulling the plug or power-off without unmounting the drive. The filesystem was completely repairable though, but it did need a fschk.
It seems when doing a fschk all the drive accesses (read + write) cause the SBP2 driver to go haywire. Then it starts getting read errors and such (hardware read errors). Seems to a be problem with the driver.
You know, the firewire disk driver. Man that thing has never worked 100%.
Just try corrupting a large (mine was 90GB) partition on a firewire HD and then fschk it. Eventually it'll start getting timeout errors and all sorts of crap, and will eventually trash the filesystem even worse. Then you can't mount the drive at all.
I usually end up having to go to Windows because it's the only place that I can force a massively corrupted partition to mount (and it has better SBP2 support). From there I can copy everything that is still good off and reformat the drive.
This hasn't just happened once. More like 3 or 4 times (both EXT3 and Reiser partitions) over the last year or so.