Getting the desktop to look like anything except blurry ass requires an hour of reading about how to install your video drivers. Why? Because after installing your package using the really nice script, it still doesn't work. So you google again and figure out you need to edit that ghastly xorg.conf file. And then Google to figure out why the resolution is stuck. And then Googling again to figure out why the refresh is stuck at 54 Hz and giving you a massive headache. Dual monitors? TV out? You may as well just go cry yourself to sleep unless you're an uber-leet nerd, because that stuff takes hours to set up. That shit is a matter of one click in Windows; my mother can do it.
It doesn't help that we have to expend so much energy reverse-engineering the video hardware to figure out how to write drivers for it.
Then there's networking. Support for your wireless adapter may or may not even exist. If it does, it's probably in one of the generic Prism2 drivers or something like that. Great, but it doesn't help me a whole damn lot - mine says Netgear on the front. Back to Google again. It's also intresting to note that Linux's DHCP client and the server in my Linksys didn't get along real well, even on a wired connection. There's no way someone who doesn't know how that crap works would be able to troubleshoot that.
Again, tell the few holdouts like Broadcom and TI to stop being obstinate asses and release the information necessary for us to make drivers. And little incompatabilities like that DHCP problem happen in all products. BTW, there are at least two different DHCP clients that run under Linux, dhclient and dhcpcd. Did you try the other one?
Of course, there's always multimedia playback, right? The install I liked best so far, Unbuntu (sic), couldn't play anything out of the box. I know it should have been able to, but for whatever reason my install was futzed no matter how many times I reinstalled it. I never could figure out how to make it play videos. There were several settings for decoding and such (as well as about 10 different players to choose from), but nothing seemed to change no matter how I tinkered with those settings. Oh, and Unbuntu comes with several options for audio input and output including ALSA and ESD. WTF is the difference? I've heard of ALSA before so I'll use that one. Oh wait, that one doesn't work, but the ESD one does. Well, as long as I hear sound I don't really care. At this point, I don't even want to Google it.
ALSA is a set of drivers and a library for addressing these drivers. ESD is a program that multiplexes sound for those cheap cards and on-board sound that can't do mixing in hardware.
This is why there aren't more Linux desktops: there are severe usability issues. I find it easier to get a webserver complete with PHP and MySQL up and running on Linux than a desktop. Why? Because I don't need video drivers, audio, or wireless networking. I also don't change my server hardware every month or two. Linux makes a great server, for sure. But as great a server as it is, it's a shitty desktop. And you'll please excuse my anger, I just got finished configuring my Linux install and promptly broke it...again.
Again, it sure would help if we received complete documentation from all those hardware companies that currently don't provide it.
Here's what desktop distros should be working on:
-When it says it's installed, it'd better work (video drivers)
Same as above.
-Drop the funny names. Yes it's superficial and shouldn't matter, but it does.
They manage to fuck up the names, even when they're done idiot-style.
-Make the defaults work. If the driver's there, the comptuer should play sound. And it should always be able to play video out of the box. And at least try to support the mouse wheel. I use mine a lot, and they come on every modern mouse. Why do I need to Google to figure out how
You can cite individual revisions in the history of an article.
But yes, encyclopedia-type articles are not for citation.
Re:Maybe an OSS future isn't that bright afterall
on
Nessus Closes Source
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
However, the OSS movement if successful (and I doubt it will be in the long run) will end up making it very hard to make money in software development and maintanence.
The money is made in doing custom modifications of the software.
Anyway, nothing prevents FOSS and proprietary software, sans software patents, from coexisting stabily.
The GPL isn't necessarily the best license for all software, as well. Non-commercial use/commercial dual licensing might have been better for the project.
I wouldn't know for sure, but it sounds like the Nationalist party voted against it for all the wrong reasons (such as it being a directive originating outside of the country).
I argue that by its very nature, it has more artistic merit than regular pornography. It takes talent to draw such figures properly, whereas with porn, all you need are naked people and cameras.
Q: If the author of GPL says "copyright infringement is not necessarily wrong," some people could take code covered by GPL and claim that violating GPL terms is "not necessarily wrong."
A: I've addressed that point in the statement that inspired your question.
The GPL gets its legal force from copyright law, but that is not a source of moral authority, so none can come from there. Why then is it wrong to violate the GPL? Because that tramples other people's freedom or puts it at risk.
I have different anecdotal evidence. My experience shows that especially within the last 3 months, inquiries about free and open source software have noticably increased at the forums I regular, which are not *nix strongholds (Slashdot notwithstanding).
I am cautiously optimistic, both more "optimistic" and less "cautiously" than before.
But again, our accounts are not very scientific analyses.
1) I wonder what His GNUness would have to say about this potential pitfall for GNOME.
2) I know there is some limited work being done to standardize certain things between KDE and GNOME. Check some of the projects on freedesktop.org.
That said: I like some of the GNOME projects, but I think KDE has more going for them; the monolithic nature of their DE is working to their advantage at the moment.
3) Hey, I don't like hearing "we told you so"s, such as the XP N fiasco. If you're going to go after them, be correct and be thourough.
The GIMP has its own interface. If someone is throwing a PS interface onto the GIMP to prove a point about its functionality, I would hardly call that "ripping off".
However, this is not to say that either IE7 or Firefox necessarily cannot coexist as software for the advancement of the greater good. I mean, if this were Firefox, Opera, and Safari we were talking about being in competition, we wouldn't be talking about anyone winning.
Fuck "winning". May all useful software prosper in some fashion. Having a diverse software ecosystem is a precondition to and in of itself more important than a single bout of competition. This isn't an absolute fight to the death; stop treating it as such.
That's funny. I find that when things fail on heavily packaged distros, they fail miserably.
I am in charge of a Gentoo server. I've fucked a service up on it, precisely because I was able to carry out a partial upgrade without knowing what I was doing. Now, the former maintainer is on my ass about it, and even after trying everything I know, short of rebuilding the entire box (on an PII, nonetheless), I am going to end up building a copy of the whole mail system on my own (Slackware) system.
Yeah, as usual, I am to blame for my own problems. But at least Slackware doesn't let me fuck up like that. It's not that much extra work for the added protection against myself.
Ah, but "EMail" is an existing term (does capitalization count). And Apple already patented (sic) the use of the letter "i" in front of all words; good luck with that one.
Semi-OT: Sega is replacing the game voice actors
on
Satisfying Sequels
·
· Score: 1
OK, that the bad news.
The worse news is that they're replacing them with the 4Kids ones from Sonic X. Yuck. Looks like I'll be turning on the Japanese voices as soon as I get these games.
Slashdot Mirror
It doesn't help that we have to expend so much energy reverse-engineering the video hardware to figure out how to write drivers for it.
Then there's networking. Support for your wireless adapter may or may not even exist. If it does, it's probably in one of the generic Prism2 drivers or something like that. Great, but it doesn't help me a whole damn lot - mine says Netgear on the front. Back to Google again. It's also intresting to note that Linux's DHCP client and the server in my Linksys didn't get along real well, even on a wired connection. There's no way someone who doesn't know how that crap works would be able to troubleshoot that.
Again, tell the few holdouts like Broadcom and TI to stop being obstinate asses and release the information necessary for us to make drivers. And little incompatabilities like that DHCP problem happen in all products. BTW, there are at least two different DHCP clients that run under Linux, dhclient and dhcpcd. Did you try the other one?
Of course, there's always multimedia playback, right? The install I liked best so far, Unbuntu (sic), couldn't play anything out of the box. I know it should have been able to, but for whatever reason my install was futzed no matter how many times I reinstalled it. I never could figure out how to make it play videos. There were several settings for decoding and such (as well as about 10 different players to choose from), but nothing seemed to change no matter how I tinkered with those settings. Oh, and Unbuntu comes with several options for audio input and output including ALSA and ESD. WTF is the difference? I've heard of ALSA before so I'll use that one. Oh wait, that one doesn't work, but the ESD one does. Well, as long as I hear sound I don't really care. At this point, I don't even want to Google it.
ALSA is a set of drivers and a library for addressing these drivers. ESD is a program that multiplexes sound for those cheap cards and on-board sound that can't do mixing in hardware.
This is why there aren't more Linux desktops: there are severe usability issues. I find it easier to get a webserver complete with PHP and MySQL up and running on Linux than a desktop. Why? Because I don't need video drivers, audio, or wireless networking. I also don't change my server hardware every month or two. Linux makes a great server, for sure. But as great a server as it is, it's a shitty desktop. And you'll please excuse my anger, I just got finished configuring my Linux install and promptly broke it...again.
Again, it sure would help if we received complete documentation from all those hardware companies that currently don't provide it.
Here's what desktop distros should be working on:
Same as above.
They manage to fuck up the names, even when they're done idiot-style.
Really, anything else isn't too bad. However, if you play any such ad, your ad server gets blacklisted completely.
Only after it becomes a definable entity (read: been worked on for years) do they step in with a C&D.
Would not the doctrine of laches then apply?
The phrase "unique democratizing medium" makes me tingly inside.
You can cite individual revisions in the history of an article.
But yes, encyclopedia-type articles are not for citation.
However, the OSS movement if successful (and I doubt it will be in the long run) will end up making it very hard to make money in software development and maintanence.
The money is made in doing custom modifications of the software.
Anyway, nothing prevents FOSS and proprietary software, sans software patents, from coexisting stabily.
The GPL isn't necessarily the best license for all software, as well. Non-commercial use/commercial dual licensing might have been better for the project.
There needs to be a master list of all such technology MS bought, stole, or otherwise misappropriated.
I second this.
I wouldn't know for sure, but it sounds like the Nationalist party voted against it for all the wrong reasons (such as it being a directive originating outside of the country).
Pity he's batshit insane.
Exactly what I thought, to the word.
I argue that by its very nature, it has more artistic merit than regular pornography. It takes talent to draw such figures properly, whereas with porn, all you need are naked people and cameras.
Pornosec?
Try again.
Q: If the author of GPL says "copyright infringement is not necessarily wrong," some people could take code covered by GPL and claim that violating GPL terms is "not necessarily wrong."
A: I've addressed that point in the statement that inspired your question.
The GPL gets its legal force from copyright law, but that is not a source of moral authority, so none can come from there. Why then is it wrong to violate the GPL? Because that tramples other people's freedom or puts it at risk.
I wouldn't be so quick as to imply that copyright is a definite right either.
Yeah, Diebold would love a face transplant; it's a bit too late for them to save the current one.
I have different anecdotal evidence. My experience shows that especially within the last 3 months, inquiries about free and open source software have noticably increased at the forums I regular, which are not *nix strongholds (Slashdot notwithstanding).
I am cautiously optimistic, both more "optimistic" and less "cautiously" than before.
But again, our accounts are not very scientific analyses.
1) I wonder what His GNUness would have to say about this potential pitfall for GNOME.
2) I know there is some limited work being done to standardize certain things between KDE and GNOME. Check some of the projects on freedesktop.org.
That said: I like some of the GNOME projects, but I think KDE has more going for them; the monolithic nature of their DE is working to their advantage at the moment.
3) Hey, I don't like hearing "we told you so"s, such as the XP N fiasco. If you're going to go after them, be correct and be thourough.
At six times the lifetime per battery, at least it's better than the Game Gear.
I shudder to think about it (I also shudder at M$ in general -- Pinky and the Brain always pops into my head -- if only Pinky had an inside job there)
Brain: Are you pondering what I'm pondering?
Pinky: I think so, Brain, but "Snowball for Windows"?
(Thanks, WikiQuote!)
The GIMP has its own interface. If someone is throwing a PS interface onto the GIMP to prove a point about its functionality, I would hardly call that "ripping off".
However, this is not to say that either IE7 or Firefox necessarily cannot coexist as software for the advancement of the greater good. I mean, if this were Firefox, Opera, and Safari we were talking about being in competition, we wouldn't be talking about anyone winning.
Fuck "winning". May all useful software prosper in some fashion. Having a diverse software ecosystem is a precondition to and in of itself more important than a single bout of competition. This isn't an absolute fight to the death; stop treating it as such.
That's funny. I find that when things fail on heavily packaged distros, they fail miserably.
I am in charge of a Gentoo server. I've fucked a service up on it, precisely because I was able to carry out a partial upgrade without knowing what I was doing. Now, the former maintainer is on my ass about it, and even after trying everything I know, short of rebuilding the entire box (on an PII, nonetheless), I am going to end up building a copy of the whole mail system on my own (Slackware) system.
Yeah, as usual, I am to blame for my own problems. But at least Slackware doesn't let me fuck up like that. It's not that much extra work for the added protection against myself.
Ah, but "EMail" is an existing term (does capitalization count). And Apple already patented (sic) the use of the letter "i" in front of all words; good luck with that one.
OK, that the bad news.
The worse news is that they're replacing them with the 4Kids ones from Sonic X. Yuck. Looks like I'll be turning on the Japanese voices as soon as I get these games.
Sega fucks things up again. What else is new?
source