I like the tabbed window feature, but there are issues with tabbed windows: it's hard to show the windows side by side for example when you're comparing source code.
Also, to be really useful you should be able to save state. Save the grouping of tabbed windows like you can do in Safari or Chimera. In those apps you can add multiple links to a toolbar folder and open them all at once.
Say you work with a GUI in which you could make a link to every document (email, text document, web page) you work with by just dragging and dropping it's icon somewhere. Then you could simulate this idea by making a folder on your desktop for each group/task/situation that you can think of. Say, I get an email from a friend about an article I should read. This article refers to another article I think he should read. I create a new folder on my desktop, name it 'Turning gold into lead', and drag and drop his email, the articles and my email into this folder. Now I've got a nice stack of things that are related to eachother.
It would be even nicer if I opened an item in this folder and the window I had open for that item jumps open. Or if I could open all the items in the folder at once. Or that I could close all the items in the folder that I have open by just clicking on the folder.
Not true, stacking is a way to group things. By grouping things you can track more things at the same time.
The current situation is exactly what you describe, you can't group, so you have to track a lot of things, which slows you down.
Actually this is a really clever idea. The big difference with reality is that you can't stack documents in a virtual desktop. And that is exactly why a virtual desktop gets cluttered, confusing and unpractical.
It would be nice if you could just stack windows on top of each other. Like, this are the emails I should reply to, I'll put them on this stack. These are the web pages I was reading, let's put them on this stack.
I believe Apple has patented something like this, Piles, an icon that represents multiple documents which you could thumb through. But it would be more powerful if you could do it with live windows. And even better if the stacks of live windows were saved when you logged out, so you could start where you left.
But seriously, can you give me a quick pointer to the kernel features that are original and not OSS copies of commercial features? Serious question, no flamebait!
I'm no kernel expert and wouldn't know if a kernel feature was original or not, so that's why I'm asking.
What OSS projects or features of projects do you consider really innovative and original, as opposed to inspired by a commercial original?
Yeah, good. Maybe now I'll fire up Linux again, instead of just working with OS X. If you have worked with Expose, you don't want anything else. It feels so natural.
Don't want to sound like flamebait, but it seems to me like lots of OSS projects just copy things that others (Apple, even MS) invented. This, the whole Windows L&F, Mono. I'm NOT an Apple zealot or apologist, I actually like Linux more than OS X (and don't like Windows at all) and have used Linux for far more than I used OS X. So, please, show me some URLs to OSS projects that you think are really innovative and are not copies of commercial initiatives. Please restore my faith in OSS;-)
Re:Yeah, but will these computational singers...
on
Synthesized Singers
·
· Score: 1
I have a vision where you mount all these laserpointers in a chain and a Gatling type of arrangement that you feed this chain. And as a laser pointer enters the 'barrel' then a mechanism presses the on switch and the laser pointer 'fires':-) Add smoke and gunshot sounds:-)))
Yup. So, SCO's IP is not completely public domain, but they certainly can't accuse IBM of stealing their copyrighted code, I think. So this is the end of SCO's case then? >-)
Especially with this quote (from my other post): "The lawsuit settlement also stipulated that USL would not sue any organization using 4.4BSD-Lite as the base for their system."
So SCO can't sue *BSD at all, since they are the inheritants of the settlement.
Twenty Years of Berkeley Unix From AT&T-Owned to Freely Redistributable
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book/ ki rkmck.html
Describes history of BSD, interesting quote: [...]The newly blessed release was called 4.4BSD-Lite and was released in June 1994 under terms identical to those used for the Networking releases. Specifically, the terms allow free redistribution in source and binary form subject only to the constraint that the University copyrights remain intact and that the University receive credit when others use the code. Simultaneously, the complete system was released as 4.4BSD-Encumbered, which still required recipients to have a USL source license.
The lawsuit settlement also stipulated that USL would not sue any organization using 4.4BSD-Lite as the base for their system.[!] [...]
Corroberation from O'Reilly:
http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2002/02/28/caldera.html
Why Caldera Released Unix: A Brief History
[..]
Things do tend to come full circle. It was Caldera that, on January 23 of this year, disencumbered the entire source code of Unix, up to and including the Seventh Edition (1979) and its VAX port "32V" from which BSD had started the development that led to 4.0BSD. (32V is basically V7, minus some bits that were written in the PDP-11 assembly language, and the remainder was adapted to work on the VAX.) This seems to mean that BSD Unix is, at last, fully disencumbered, even the few parts that couldn't be used in the various BSD systems over the years due to residual AT&T copyrights.
Interestingly, Caldera released it under the original BSD copyright.
[...]
But Indians and Chinese...
If almost all jobs are replaced by robots or 'offshore', who are you going to sell your stuff to?
How would the economy keep running?
Abolutely right. The company I work is outsourcing to India. A colleague of mine is preparing the job and he has to detail the whole functional design and technical design up to the last comma and method.
Suddenly changing requirements was always the big problem here, and technical designs were something you did afterwards. But when outsourcing it seems that it is possible after all to get good requirements and create a detailed technical design after all!
If we had more good, fixed requirements and time to make a good design, then we wouldn't have had any problems here and we'd be much more productive.
OOTH, I got the feeling that this wave of good functional and technical design is just temporary. Within 6 months they'll be back changing requirements on the whim and they won't allow any designing at all. And then they're *really* screwed. Because loaclly we can check thing with our customers, but those Indian certainly can't.
Slashdot Mirror
Academic or commercial, good point. Especially since a lot of academic innovations end up in OSS.
;-)
VM and scheduler good example, *but* really innovative or just a new way of implementing an old idea?
Brings me to the next question, when is something innovative....
A *really hard* question
I like the tabbed window feature, but there are issues with tabbed windows: it's hard to show the windows side by side for example when you're comparing source code.
Also, to be really useful you should be able to save state. Save the grouping of tabbed windows like you can do in Safari or Chimera. In those apps you can add multiple links to a toolbar folder and open them all at once.
Say you work with a GUI in which you could make a link to every document (email, text document, web page) you work with by just dragging and dropping it's icon somewhere.
Then you could simulate this idea by making a folder on your desktop for each group/task/situation that you can think of. Say, I get an email from a friend about an article I should read. This article refers to another article I think he should read. I create a new folder on my desktop, name it 'Turning gold into lead', and drag and drop his email, the articles and my email into this folder. Now I've got a nice stack of things that are related to eachother.
It would be even nicer if I opened an item in this folder and the window I had open for that item jumps open. Or if I could open all the items in the folder at once. Or that I could close all the items in the folder that I have open by just clicking on the folder.
Not true, stacking is a way to group things. By grouping things you can track more things at the same time. The current situation is exactly what you describe, you can't group, so you have to track a lot of things, which slows you down.
Actually this is a really clever idea. The big difference with reality is that you can't stack documents in a virtual desktop. And that is exactly why a virtual desktop gets cluttered, confusing and unpractical.
It would be nice if you could just stack windows on top of each other. Like, this are the emails I should reply to, I'll put them on this stack. These are the web pages I was reading, let's put them on this stack.
I believe Apple has patented something like this, Piles, an icon that represents multiple documents which you could thumb through. But it would be more powerful if you could do it with live windows. And even better if the stacks of live windows were saved when you logged out, so you could start where you left.
Hehe, nice definition ;-)
But seriously, can you give me a quick pointer to the kernel features that are original and not OSS copies of commercial features?
Serious question, no flamebait!
I'm no kernel expert and wouldn't know if a kernel feature was original or not, so that's why I'm asking.
What OSS projects or features of projects do you consider really innovative and original, as opposed to inspired by a commercial original?
Yeah, good. Maybe now I'll fire up Linux again, instead of just working with OS X. If you have worked with Expose, you don't want anything else. It feels so natural.
;-)
Don't want to sound like flamebait, but it seems to me like lots of OSS projects just copy things that others (Apple, even MS) invented. This, the whole Windows L&F, Mono.
I'm NOT an Apple zealot or apologist, I actually like Linux more than OS X (and don't like Windows at all) and have used Linux for far more than I used OS X.
So, please, show me some URLs to OSS projects that you think are really innovative and are not copies of commercial initiatives. Please restore my faith in OSS
LOL!
Synthesized voice doesn't matter, they could also hire a cheap Indian or offshore singing at all.
You didn't think *anyone* was impervuous to outsourcing?
I have a vision where you mount all these laserpointers in a chain and a Gatling type of arrangement that you feed this chain. And as a laser pointer enters the 'barrel' then a mechanism presses the on switch and the laser pointer 'fires' :-) :-)))
Add smoke and gunshot sounds
Hehe, I like that.
:-))
Or, make a laser tag Gatling gun
Yup. So, SCO's IP is not completely public domain, but they certainly can't accuse IBM of stealing their copyrighted code, I think. So this is the end of SCO's case then? >-)
Especially with this quote (from my other post):
"The lawsuit settlement also stipulated that USL would not sue any organization using 4.4BSD-Lite as the base for their system."
So SCO can't sue *BSD at all, since they are the inheritants of the settlement.
More interesting stuff:
/ ki rkmck.html
Twenty Years of Berkeley Unix
From AT&T-Owned to Freely Redistributable
http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/opensources/book
Describes history of BSD, interesting quote:
[...]The newly blessed release was called 4.4BSD-Lite and was released in June 1994 under terms identical to those used for the Networking releases. Specifically, the terms allow free redistribution in source and binary form subject only to the constraint that the University copyrights remain intact and that the University receive credit when others use the code. Simultaneously, the complete system was released as 4.4BSD-Encumbered, which still required recipients to have a USL source license.
The lawsuit settlement also stipulated that USL would not sue any organization using 4.4BSD-Lite as the base for their system.[!] [...]
Corroberation from O'Reilly: http://linux.oreillynet.com/pub/a/linux/2002/02/28 /caldera.html
Why Caldera Released Unix: A Brief History
[..]
Things do tend to come full circle. It was Caldera that, on January 23 of this year, disencumbered the entire source code of Unix, up to and including the Seventh Edition (1979) and its VAX port "32V" from which BSD had started the development that led to 4.0BSD. (32V is basically V7, minus some bits that were written in the PDP-11 assembly language, and the remainder was adapted to work on the VAX.) This seems to mean that BSD Unix is, at last, fully disencumbered, even the few parts that couldn't be used in the various BSD systems over the years due to residual AT&T copyrights.
Interestingly, Caldera released it under the original BSD copyright.
[...]
We reveal major UNIX(TM) IP violations
0 2.html
Caldera released UNIX source code back in 2002.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/4/341
It's a bad idea.
Remember OS/2? No? See? Nobody remembers OS/2 (Bill Gates quote!).
OS/2 ran Win3.1 apps natively, so nobody wrote OS/2 apps, but Win3.1 apps.
The lesson is that as soon as you support somebody else's standard, then nobody has any reason to use your standard.
So, be creative and create your own!
Then again, if your CD breaks, you're also out of luck.
What do they mean with license still has downloads available?
I didn't see them attribute the UNIX trademark to the OpenGroup?
There is a good substitute now!
http://www.apple.com/isight/
Hahahaha LOL! Like Disney suddenly doesn't sell DVDs with it's films in the whole of the UK if the UK bans DRM!! ROFL!!
ROFL!
But Indians and Chinese... If almost all jobs are replaced by robots or 'offshore', who are you going to sell your stuff to? How would the economy keep running?
Abolutely right.
The company I work is outsourcing to India.
A colleague of mine is preparing the job and he has to detail the whole functional design and technical design up to the last comma and method.
Suddenly changing requirements was always the big problem here, and technical designs were something you did afterwards.
But when outsourcing it seems that it is possible after all to get good requirements and create a detailed technical design after all!
If we had more good, fixed requirements and time to make a good design, then we wouldn't have had any problems here and we'd be much more productive.
OOTH, I got the feeling that this wave of good functional and technical design is just temporary. Within 6 months they'll be back changing requirements on the whim and they won't allow any designing at all.
And then they're *really* screwed. Because loaclly we can check thing with our customers, but those Indian certainly can't.
What wages?