Recent KDE antialiasing looks worse than before
on
KDE 3.0 Screenshots
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· Score: 3, Informative
The latest versions of Freetype remove a Apple patented method of hinting, which changes the shape of characters to better match the pixels they are displayed on (ensuring that the arms of your `m' character aren't pushed together, for example, despite that at very small resolutions they might render this way).
Most of the recent KDE2 packages are compiled against the newer freetype, whose output is of slightly inferior quality due to the removal of the code for patented hinting method.
Does anyone know if KDE will support the Resize and Rotate extension of Xfree86 4.10 or later?
Its another piece of Keith Packard niftiness that (among other things) allows the X server to notify the toor window and window manager when the resolution changes.
This is mainly used to be provide desktops which keep in sync with the display resolution - i.e, so when you change the screen res, you don't have to pan around an oversized desktop.
There's a fellow on the Xine-devel mailing list who'se already got a working prototype of an app that does exactly this - easily scriptable modified playback, with he ability to cut or subsititute audio and video.
The main use for it is airlines - ever watched an in flisht version of Pulp Fiction and noticed how it didn't offend anyone? That's what he's automating.
Jump on the mailing list and have a chat if you're interested.
I would be pedantic if I used a dictionary definition to define a term that was commonly used differently (since definition in English has been determined by popular use).
But I think everyone I know, technical or otherwise, knows something that's `public domain' is pretty much free for anyone to do whatever they want with anytime. Including you.
But that's fair enough - you're just justifying your position.
I don't think I've misunderstoof what they mean by public domain - I'm comparing the dictionary definition of `public domain' with the Open Source Definition of Free Software Freedoms list.
From Mirriam Webster:
Main Entry: public domain
Function: noun
Date: 1832
1 : land owned directly by the government
2 : the realm embracing property rights that belong to the community at large, are unprotected by copyright or patent, and are subject to appropriation by anyone.
Most OSS and FS does not fall under that definition.
And yes, the papers are of merit. They're very informative and explore useful topic. Its just that a lot of them are about topics other than public domain.
I don't think I'm being pedantic, I'm just following the common definitions of three terms and logically concluding that there is little overlap between OSS / FS and PD.
And saying `no, you are wrong' is very Slashdot. Saying `I think' you are wrong is a little more polite.
I have read the papers - I couldn't find Eben Moglens paper but I've just read Yochai Benklers.
I assure you that Eben Moglen would not have spoken if Free Software were considered irrelevant by the people who organized the conference.
I'm not saying that Open Source of Free Software isn't considered relevant by the prganizers. I'm saying it shouldn't be, because the overwhelming majority of Free SOftware and Open Source is not public domain, including most of the examples Yochai mentions in his paper.
Asides from the fact its factually incorrect, promoting things which aren't public domain as being public domain contributes the the existing misunderstandings people have about Open Source and Free Software and encourages people to ignore the responsibilities required in exchange for use of OSS / FSF applications.
Exactly what does Open Source have to do with IP licensed in the public domain? Very little. GPL and BSD certainly aren't public domain licenses, in fact the only real license that can be considered `Public Domain' is..er...public domain. Of which I know very little currently maintained software (though respond if I'm wrong).
Open Source would be much better suited to a conference on how to word licenses effectively to ensure the intentions of those who wrote the various licenses granting rights and responsibilitities are honored and can be legally protected.
Mike
Re:i'm going to suffer for this but...
on
KDE Wins 3 awards
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· Score: 2
Let me try to address all your points as I think they are all invalid:
Cool, let me respond.
Er, as mentioned in the other reply, you can do this in Windows as well (right click, ctrl-click, etc). In fact Windows is more flexible because you can do it either way.
I'm well aware of this, but the default is not a sensible one and uses a set of very abitrary rules which confuse new users more than they help them. I've known about the right click ability for some time - but I knew because someone told me, not because Windows was intuitive
COULD?
My point isn't could, but IS right not for Acrobat, which is bloody handy, and that KDE will likely have the ability to preview more documents sooner than Windows will.
No, most of the time I want the file on my desktop, not to be the wallpaper.
You're not aware of the action I'm describing./ Fair enough. It doesn't suggest the file ONLY be my wallpaper, it just adds that to the move / copy / link menu. The user isn't forced to do anything they don't want to and the process is no more convoluted than moving of copying the file. if you want to change wallpaper easily though, its much fatser than changing display properties. Another good sensible default.
Even better is make a shortcut in your SendTo and make a SendTo wallpaper. That way again, Windows is better because you can do it any way you want.
Good point, but that certainly doesn't mean Windows is more flexible - it can't do it the way mentioned above, and the SendTo again must be created by the user - and will apply to all files, rather than just wallpaper.
Mozilla, Opera and other browsers have Windows versions.
True, but Mozilla is flaming pile of shit:). I'm not sure if Opera and KMeleon allow control over popups without disabling Javascript. Though Opera is certainly a fine browser.
Don't see this at all. Task manager seems to work fine, what do you mean?
Ctrl alt escape, click the window, it dissappears instantly and the process ids dead. This compares to Ctrl-Alt-Delte where I end the process. Windows decides to take a very long time (fifteen second wait) to check that the process isn't actually responding. Thisis on the Win2KSP2 machine beside me. My experiences with the XP beta have been similar. Regarding being unable to kill Netscape necause you can't see the window, all I can say is the problem has never happened to me in the year I used Netscape on Linux, but I don't use Netscape on Linux anymore either. Still, because of the Ctrl - Alt - Del pauses, opening Ksysguard and killing it should take around the same time as Task Manager does in Unix.
if you're going to criticize at least make valid points.
I think I have. If you're going to respond, please use `I think you're incorrect' rather than `you are not correct'. its much more polite.
Windows isn't all bad.
Of course it isn't, I've said the exact same thing in the post you're replying to and make the exact point in my sig. Thanks for..er...telling me again.
Re:i'm going to suffer for this but...
on
KDE Wins 3 awards
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· Score: 5, Interesting
That's true, and all your points (especially the lack of a good X setup apps - Ximian might fill this in with its own tool if only it would work). Fonts, media playing, network display, and software installation are also areas where Linux desktops currently are behind, but they're also being addressed (KFontinst, MPlayer, DXPC, and Red Carpet). However, there's many points where KDE is ahead of Windows.
* Behaviour of Windows drag and drop depends on whether the destinatio nand source are on the same partition, a new partition, or a shell folder, and what type of application is being dragged. KDE simply asks me when i drop it - copy, move, or link?
* The ability to support document previews is getting even better. XP, for example, don't support previewing Acrobat files (obviously, NIH). Note sure about Word files in XP, but KDE could easily preview Staroffice or KOffice files in Konq too.
* Drag a file to the desktop and it has the brains to suggest I'd like to make that file my wallpaper. This allows me to easily change my desktop, for example, from a pictire of Christina Ricci, to er...another picture of Christina Ricci. How good is that?
* Linux web browsers often have some very useful features their windows counterparts don't - eg, the ability to turn off annoying popups without disabling javascript, stop animation on a page, and handle privacy and cookies in a much more customizable way than IE can.
* Xkill shits all over the windows task manager - so does ksysguard.:D
So yeah, there's good and bad points about both (the point my seemingly inflammatory sig tries to make).
However, in the space of a year, Linux desktops improve faster than their Windows equivalents, and are already ahead in some areas. If this continues (and it seems it will), in 2 years time KDE will blow Windows away. in almost every aspect.
My basis for saying that looking at GPL source is forbidden within Microsoft is people who have worked for Microsoft and told me that `looking at GPL source is forbidden within Microsoft'.
Why bother stealing GPL code when one can legally and ethically use BSD code instead? MS have done this for ages and it works well. I see no significant areas where GPLed software has a major advantage over existing proprietary or BSD licensed software.
Because with Linux, it's usually free and done by the labor of people who figure stuff out on their own, whereas and M$ has proprietary access and money to buy protocls.
That's increasingly becoming less the case, at least with larger Open Source projects, many of which ar commercialy motivated and backed.
If Microsoft gets something years after Linux, it's rather pathetic because the ideas behind it are like RIGHT THERE IN CODE
And using it would be VIOLATE THE LICENSE of the code which MS staff are forbidden by their employer to do.
and they still haven't caught on.
Let me be the first to say it:
on
.biz Open For Biz
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· Score: 3, Interesting
This sucks
Name a business that's not a commercial entity or a not for profit organization. There aren't any. Hence.biz is a redundant domain and a blatant money making scheme for Neulevel.
If namespace limits are a concern, then fix the registration policies in the US. In Au, a clever fellow called Robery Elz banned the registration of generic words, and limited the amount of domains a single company could use. This would go some way towards solving the problem.
So would migrating every.com over to.us or another country code over a five year period. Trademarks are register on a country by country basic and domains should be too.
Or including multipek fields (Apple (computer) as in computer products, Apple (records) as in music) in a new namespace.
Oh well. I think.biz will die in the ass anyway, so my little rant doesn't do anything much any.
Australia's Telecommunications monopoly, Telstra, uses a Linux based system designed by my work (Cybersource) in conjunction with Ericcson to shify very large volumes of video data between different parts of the country, so that television stations can exchange footage.
Try asking any high level Telstra exec if there's any Linux in their company. They might have good business sense, but in terms of their understanding of IT matters they have no clue. If it doesn't have a start button, its unknown.
there is nothing I can go to management and say "We should look to replace Exchange with XXXXXX" (and, before there is a flurry of "sendmails", Exchange is not just e-mail - in fact think of exchange as an enterprise PDA that also does e-mail).
* Bynari Insight Server (seems like your best bet)
* "Exchange compatible server from UK company that starts with an S but whose name I keep forgetting and its fucking hard to search for."
* HP Openmail (though this is being retired soon, so don't really bother)
Show them a bigger company than yours which is running Linux. Most of Australias top ten companies seem to be at some point in their infrastructure, and I'd be durprised if the US is any different.
And introduce them to the concept of digital signatures.
Kdevelop and the recently released kdestudio 3.0 gold is playing hard.
I think I'm a fairly experienced Linux user, on the systems administration and end user level. I think I was one of the first non programmer types to be seriously interested in the OS a few years ago when I started.
I can onviously do shell scripting, and I can also seem to read most C pretty easily. O used to do Pascal and Quattro Pro (!) programming in HS but that's a while ago and I bet I'm rusty. I'd like to get into programming proper.
a) Visually oriented. I'd like to work on both Open and Closed source apps and I think there's much more of a need for GUI apps than yet another CLI text processing tool. I could write the world's first XFree86 setup program which doesn't suck! I'd like to churn out lots of widgets and menus and a RAD tool is desoigned for this purpose. That there's free (beer) versions of these tools makes them appropriate for use on OSS projects.
b) QT based. As an end user my experience of QT apps has been they they are responsive, quick and the APIs are much more stable than their counterparts. I like the speed and crossplatformability of QT, and I'd like to be able to keep a common codebase across Linux, OSX, and Win32. My understanding is that the GTK+ port for Win32 is highly beta and quite limited in ts capabilities. QT, OTOH, works well nad has been used for a number of serious business apps - eg, TOra.
c) Easy to learn and pick up. Enough said.
It seems Kylix offers me what I want, but KDevelop and KDEStudio can, IIRC, also create pure QT apps than should easily work across platforms (correct me if I'm wrong).
Problem: where to start.
* Can I get courses in Kylix aimed at those with a fair amount of computer knowledge?
* Are there any books that anyone here would recommend on the subject of Kylix which? Kylix has only been around a short while.
* Anyone recommend any on line tutorials or web sites with same code I can load into them and get a feel for the various environments?
Stop playing CS and try Q3UT instead. Its got nicer weapons, a better looking engine, much better level design and runs great under Linux (well God - this is Slashdot after all).
See you in Rommel:D
Nailer
That's nice, but its not really news...
on
Kernel 2.4.14 is out
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· Score: 5, Interesting
There's so many interesting userspace apps slashdot could write about. Unless the kernel has some new feature or fixes a major secutiy hole, I personally don't see how interesting each minor release is. Slashdot isn't freshmeat.
If/. is going to write about apps, why not focus on the new and clever ones - like
* MPlayer allowing us to play WMVs under out OS of choice
* Xine, finally maturing into a solid high quality DVD player
* Partimage providng a useful and open source disk imaging system
* Ximian's setup tools beta making an X config tool that doesn't suck
OI don't have anything against the kernel, but we all know there's always goiung to be a new kernel every couple of weeks. There's so many interesting userspace Open Source projects we could be hearing about.
After all, isn't the point of an OS to run *apps*?
Especially when half your links end in.exe rather than.sh:P
Re:Its the squeeky wheel that gets the most attent
on
Interview With Linus
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· Score: 2
How is the job at McDonald's going?:)
Actually, I work for Burger King:)
Re:Its the squeeky wheel that gets the most attent
on
Interview With Linus
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· Score: 3, Flamebait
Do you really believe that the major players in the Linux / free software community don't have complete overthrow of the proprietary software "regime" in the back of their minds when they say such things?
To some extent - the technical ones would like for Linux to replace Windows in every situation, but they don't hate Windows or Windows users on some personal level or see that Linux can replace Windows in every way (hating Microsoft, OTOH,seems fair enough given their busines practices). Ted Tso does brilliant work on making the Linux kernel better but has stated before that his wife will continue to use Quicken for her accounting because its, well, better than the alternatives. Linux, from this interview, doesn't hate MS, the GNOME and KDE people can recognize good ideas from other OSs an integrate them into their respective desktops (and hopefully reject the bad ones).
A follow up poster put it simply: the difference between the silent technical types working away making Linux am even more viable alternative and the ranting `Windows is inferior in every way and must die now' folk is maturity. I'm inclined to agree.
Its the squeeky wheel that gets the most attention
on
Interview With Linus
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· Score: 5, Insightful
Whenever I've met someone of major technical merit in the Linux comunity (AC, Raph Levine, George and Marceij from Eazel, Taj from KDE) they've always been clear headed and non religious about their choice of OS. They don't really like Windows, but they're not `against it' per se and they don't have a problem with Windows users - they just prefer Linux for their own use. Gearing reaports that Linus and Ted Tso have similar attitutes doesn't surprise me.
Unfortunately its the few who do turn a technical argument into a religious one that give the rest of us a bad name and get the attention from the media. I still believe the majority of Linux users choose it because its the best tool for the job, not because Windows is evil and wrong and completely technically inferior (becuase it isn't).
However, that doesn't make much of a story for the media, and doesn't give the trolls something to talk about. Hence the nasty reputation of the ranting Linux zealot. This sucks.
You've just argued that every single packaging system out there, with the exception of Slackware, now has the capability to automatically resolve and download dependencies.
No, I've said they have tools avaliable to do this, whether from third parties or otherwise. THey are almost never handled by the package manager itslef, a distinction many people miss.
Most of the world would say that if you're arguing that "everything else in the world except Slackware does X therefore Slackware isn't an example of the same type of thing", that you're raising your own barrier to entry if you're adding even more things that Slackware doesn't do. But, hey, that's complicated logic. I wouldn't expect anyone under the age of five to understand it.
Is Slackware not a Linux distribution on the SPECIFIC AND ONLY grounds that it does not carry a package management system that resolves dependencies, whereas all other Linux distributions do? YES OR NO?
Of course its a distro. It just has a very limited concept of management.
I'd agree with that logic. But I'd have two problems with saying it's part of package management. The first is that it isn't. Package management is just package management - if a system administrator wants to use it to install, I dunno, Netscape 6.0, or maybe Teardrop, then that's their decision. The package manager shouldn't jump in and say "No!!! Don't do it you fool!"
Thats unrelated and you know it. It has nothing to to with managing installed software and is rather choosing how the system will be used.
The second is that unresolved dependencies do not an unstable system make.
I flatly disagree. I've said why - what's installed at any time on the system should work. In case it isn't bleeding obvious this saves a great deal of time documenting all the still to be installed software, and by checking pre install also provides a common point at which the broken install can be mended, rather than waiting for an arbitrary thing to break.
You don't think there's anything wrong with that and have your little troll rant. I don't care.
("oh, but all the other implementations have it"
And I've said that from the start.
They don't change the English language the moment they're implemented.
Like appending the string pkg to your software install system?
Slashdot Mirror
The latest versions of Freetype remove a Apple patented method of hinting, which changes the shape of characters to better match the pixels they are displayed on (ensuring that the arms of your `m' character aren't pushed together, for example, despite that at very small resolutions they might render this way).
Most of the recent KDE2 packages are compiled against the newer freetype, whose output is of slightly inferior quality due to the removal of the code for patented hinting method.
Does anyone know if KDE will support the Resize and Rotate extension of Xfree86 4.10 or later?
Its another piece of Keith Packard niftiness that (among other things) allows the X server to notify the toor window and window manager when the resolution changes.
This is mainly used to be provide desktops which keep in sync with the display resolution - i.e, so when you change the screen res, you don't have to pan around an oversized desktop.
Anyone know if theres KDE3 support?
There's a fellow on the Xine-devel mailing list who'se already got a working prototype of an app that does exactly this - easily scriptable modified playback, with he ability to cut or subsititute audio and video.
The main use for it is airlines - ever watched an in flisht version of Pulp Fiction and noticed how it didn't offend anyone? That's what he's automating.
Jump on the mailing list and have a chat if you're interested.
I would be pedantic if I used a dictionary definition to define a term that was commonly used differently (since definition in English has been determined by popular use).
;)
But I think everyone I know, technical or otherwise, knows something that's `public domain' is pretty much free for anyone to do whatever they want with anytime. Including you.
But that's fair enough - you're just justifying your position.
Mike
I don't think I've misunderstoof what they mean by public domain - I'm comparing the dictionary definition of `public domain' with the Open Source Definition of Free Software Freedoms list.
From Mirriam Webster:
Main Entry: public domain
Function: noun
Date: 1832
1 : land owned directly by the government
2 : the realm embracing property rights that belong to the community at large, are unprotected by copyright or patent, and are subject to appropriation by anyone.
Most OSS and FS does not fall under that definition.
And yes, the papers are of merit. They're very informative and explore useful topic. Its just that a lot of them are about topics other than public domain.
I don't think I'm being pedantic, I'm just following the common definitions of three terms and logically concluding that there is little overlap between OSS / FS and PD.
And saying `no, you are wrong' is very Slashdot. Saying `I think' you are wrong is a little more polite.
Mike
I have read the papers - I couldn't find Eben Moglens paper but I've just read Yochai Benklers.
I assure you that Eben Moglen would not have spoken if Free Software were considered irrelevant by the people who organized the conference.
I'm not saying that Open Source of Free Software isn't considered relevant by the prganizers. I'm saying it shouldn't be, because the overwhelming majority of Free SOftware and Open Source is not public domain, including most of the examples Yochai mentions in his paper.
Asides from the fact its factually incorrect, promoting things which aren't public domain as being public domain contributes the the existing misunderstandings people have about Open Source and Free Software and encourages people to ignore the responsibilities required in exchange for use of OSS / FSF applications.
Mike
Exactly what does Open Source have to do with IP licensed in the public domain? Very little. GPL and BSD certainly aren't public domain licenses, in fact the only real license that can be considered `Public Domain' is..er...public domain. Of which I know very little currently maintained software (though respond if I'm wrong).
Open Source would be much better suited to a conference on how to word licenses effectively to ensure the intentions of those who wrote the various licenses granting rights and responsibilitities are honored and can be legally protected.
Mike
Let me try to address all your points as I think they are all invalid:
:). I'm not sure if Opera and KMeleon allow control over popups without disabling Javascript. Though Opera is certainly a fine browser.
Cool, let me respond.
Er, as mentioned in the other reply, you can do this in Windows as well (right click, ctrl-click, etc). In fact Windows is more flexible because you can do it either way.
I'm well aware of this, but the default is not a sensible one and uses a set of very abitrary rules which confuse new users more than they help them. I've known about the right click ability for some time - but I knew because someone told me, not because Windows was intuitive
COULD?
My point isn't could, but IS right not for Acrobat, which is bloody handy, and that KDE will likely have the ability to preview more documents sooner than Windows will.
No, most of the time I want the file on my desktop, not to be the wallpaper.
You're not aware of the action I'm describing./ Fair enough. It doesn't suggest the file ONLY be my wallpaper, it just adds that to the move / copy / link menu. The user isn't forced to do anything they don't want to and the process is no more convoluted than moving of copying the file. if you want to change wallpaper easily though, its much fatser than changing display properties. Another good sensible default.
Even better is make a shortcut in your SendTo and make a SendTo wallpaper. That way again, Windows is better because you can do it any way you want.
Good point, but that certainly doesn't mean Windows is more flexible - it can't do it the way mentioned above, and the SendTo again must be created by the user - and will apply to all files, rather than just wallpaper.
Mozilla, Opera and other browsers have Windows versions.
True, but Mozilla is flaming pile of shit
Don't see this at all. Task manager seems to work fine, what do you mean?
Ctrl alt escape, click the window, it dissappears instantly and the process ids dead. This compares to Ctrl-Alt-Delte where I end the process. Windows decides to take a very long time (fifteen second wait) to check that the process isn't actually responding. Thisis on the Win2KSP2 machine beside me. My experiences with the XP beta have been similar. Regarding being unable to kill Netscape necause you can't see the window, all I can say is the problem has never happened to me in the year I used Netscape on Linux, but I don't use Netscape on Linux anymore either. Still, because of the Ctrl - Alt - Del pauses, opening Ksysguard and killing it should take around the same time as Task Manager does in Unix.
if you're going to criticize at least make valid points.
I think I have. If you're going to respond, please use `I think you're incorrect' rather than `you are not correct'. its much more polite.
Windows isn't all bad.
Of course it isn't, I've said the exact same thing in the post you're replying to and make the exact point in my sig. Thanks for..er...telling me again.
That's true, and all your points (especially the lack of a good X setup apps - Ximian might fill this in with its own tool if only it would work). Fonts, media playing, network display, and software installation are also areas where Linux desktops currently are behind, but they're also being addressed (KFontinst, MPlayer, DXPC, and Red Carpet). However, there's many points where KDE is ahead of Windows.
:D
* Behaviour of Windows drag and drop depends on whether the destinatio nand source are on the same partition, a new partition, or a shell folder, and what type of application is being dragged. KDE simply asks me when i drop it - copy, move, or link?
* The ability to support document previews is getting even better. XP, for example, don't support previewing Acrobat files (obviously, NIH). Note sure about Word files in XP, but KDE could easily preview Staroffice or KOffice files in Konq too.
* Drag a file to the desktop and it has the brains to suggest I'd like to make that file my wallpaper. This allows me to easily change my desktop, for example, from a pictire of Christina Ricci, to er...another picture of Christina Ricci. How good is that?
* Linux web browsers often have some very useful features their windows counterparts don't - eg, the ability to turn off annoying popups without disabling javascript, stop animation on a page, and handle privacy and cookies in a much more customizable way than IE can.
* Xkill shits all over the windows task manager - so does ksysguard.
So yeah, there's good and bad points about both (the point my seemingly inflammatory sig tries to make).
However, in the space of a year, Linux desktops improve faster than their Windows equivalents, and are already ahead in some areas. If this continues (and it seems it will), in 2 years time KDE will blow Windows away. in almost every aspect.
Mike
My basis for saying that looking at GPL source is forbidden within Microsoft is people who have worked for Microsoft and told me that `looking at GPL source is forbidden within Microsoft'.
Why bother stealing GPL code when one can legally and ethically use BSD code instead? MS have done this for ages and it works well. I see no significant areas where GPLed software has a major advantage over existing proprietary or BSD licensed software.
Because with Linux, it's usually free and done by the labor of people who figure stuff out on their own, whereas and M$ has proprietary access and money to buy protocls.
That's increasingly becoming less the case, at least with larger Open Source projects, many of which ar commercialy motivated and backed.
If Microsoft gets something years after Linux, it's rather pathetic because the ideas behind it are like RIGHT THERE IN CODE
And using it would be VIOLATE THE LICENSE of the code which MS staff are forbidden by their employer to do.
and they still haven't caught on.
This sucks
.biz is a redundant domain and a blatant money making scheme for Neulevel.
.com over to .us or another country code over a five year period. Trademarks are register on a country by country basic and domains should be too.
.biz will die in the ass anyway, so my little rant doesn't do anything much any.
Name a business that's not a commercial entity or a not for profit organization. There aren't any. Hence
If namespace limits are a concern, then fix the registration policies in the US. In Au, a clever fellow called Robery Elz banned the registration of generic words, and limited the amount of domains a single company could use. This would go some way towards solving the problem.
So would migrating every
Or including multipek fields (Apple (computer) as in computer products, Apple (records) as in music) in a new namespace.
Oh well. I think
Thanks for your post, it was quite useful. Post the Contacts -> LDIF script on Freshmeat when you're done :)
Mike
Australia's Telecommunications monopoly, Telstra, uses a Linux based system designed by my work (Cybersource) in conjunction with Ericcson to shify very large volumes of video data between different parts of the country, so that television stations can exchange footage.
Try asking any high level Telstra exec if there's any Linux in their company. They might have good business sense, but in terms of their understanding of IT matters they have no clue. If it doesn't have a start button, its unknown.
there is nothing I can go to management and say "We should look to replace Exchange with XXXXXX" (and, before there is a flurry of "sendmails", Exchange is not just e-mail - in fact think of exchange as an enterprise PDA that also does e-mail).
* Bynari Insight Server (seems like your best bet)
* "Exchange compatible server from UK company that starts with an S but whose name I keep forgetting and its fucking hard to search for."
* HP Openmail (though this is being retired soon, so don't really bother)
Show them a bigger company than yours which is running Linux. Most of Australias top ten companies seem to be at some point in their infrastructure, and I'd be durprised if the US is any different.
And introduce them to the concept of digital signatures.
Kdevelop and the recently released kdestudio 3.0 gold is playing hard.
I think I'm a fairly experienced Linux user, on the systems administration and end user level. I think I was one of the first non programmer types to be seriously interested in the OS a few years ago when I started.
I can onviously do shell scripting, and I can also seem to read most C pretty easily. O used to do Pascal and Quattro Pro (!) programming in HS but that's a while ago and I bet I'm rusty. I'd like to get into programming proper.
a) Visually oriented. I'd like to work on both Open and Closed source apps and I think there's much more of a need for GUI apps than yet another CLI text processing tool. I could write the world's first XFree86 setup program which doesn't suck! I'd like to churn out lots of widgets and menus and a RAD tool is desoigned for this purpose. That there's free (beer) versions of these tools makes them appropriate for use on OSS projects.
b) QT based. As an end user my experience of QT apps has been they they are responsive, quick and the APIs are much more stable than their counterparts. I like the speed and crossplatformability of QT, and I'd like to be able to keep a common codebase across Linux, OSX, and Win32. My understanding is that the GTK+ port for Win32 is highly beta and quite limited in ts capabilities. QT, OTOH, works well nad has been used for a number of serious business apps - eg, TOra.
c) Easy to learn and pick up. Enough said.
It seems Kylix offers me what I want, but KDevelop and KDEStudio can, IIRC, also create pure QT apps than should easily work across platforms (correct me if I'm wrong).
Problem: where to start.
* Can I get courses in Kylix aimed at those with a fair amount of computer knowledge?
* Are there any books that anyone here would recommend on the subject of Kylix which? Kylix has only been around a short while.
* Anyone recommend any on line tutorials or web sites with same code I can load into them and get a feel for the various environments?
What Do You Do When CS Isn't Fun Any More?
:D
Stop playing CS and try Q3UT instead. Its got nicer weapons, a better looking engine, much better level design and runs great under Linux (well God - this is Slashdot after all).
See you in Rommel
Nailer
There's so many interesting userspace apps slashdot could write about. Unless the kernel has some new feature or fixes a major secutiy hole, I personally don't see how interesting each minor release is. Slashdot isn't freshmeat.
/. is going to write about apps, why not focus on the new and clever ones - like
If
* MPlayer allowing us to play WMVs under out OS of choice
* Xine, finally maturing into a solid high quality DVD player
* Partimage providng a useful and open source disk imaging system
* Ximian's setup tools beta making an X config tool that doesn't suck
OI don't have anything against the kernel, but we all know there's always goiung to be a new kernel every couple of weeks. There's so many interesting userspace Open Source projects we could be hearing about.
After all, isn't the point of an OS to run *apps*?
Isn't there a native shockwave plugin for linux?
No. There's a native plugin for playing Flask / FutureSplash content (Flash 5) but not Director (Shockwave 8.5) content.
Flash is generally used for making web pages be good looking, and Shockwave is used for interactive application, especially in the education industry.
Not karma whoring
.exe rather than .sh :P
Especially when half your links end in
How is the job at McDonald's going? :)
:)
Actually, I work for Burger King
Do you really believe that the major players in the Linux / free software community don't have complete overthrow of the proprietary software "regime" in the back of their minds when they say such things?
,seems fair enough given their busines practices). Ted Tso does brilliant work on making the Linux kernel better but has stated before that his wife will continue to use Quicken for her accounting because its, well, better than the alternatives. Linux, from this interview, doesn't hate MS, the GNOME and KDE people can recognize good ideas from other OSs an integrate them into their respective desktops (and hopefully reject the bad ones).
To some extent - the technical ones would like for Linux to replace Windows in every situation, but they don't hate Windows or Windows users on some personal level or see that Linux can replace Windows in every way (hating Microsoft, OTOH
A follow up poster put it simply: the difference between the silent technical types working away making Linux am even more viable alternative and the ranting `Windows is inferior in every way and must die now' folk is maturity. I'm inclined to agree.
Whenever I've met someone of major technical merit in the Linux comunity (AC, Raph Levine, George and Marceij from Eazel, Taj from KDE) they've always been clear headed and non religious about their choice of OS. They don't really like Windows, but they're not `against it' per se and they don't have a problem with Windows users - they just prefer Linux for their own use. Gearing reaports that Linus and Ted Tso have similar attitutes doesn't surprise me.
Unfortunately its the few who do turn a technical argument into a religious one that give the rest of us a bad name and get the attention from the media. I still believe the majority of Linux users choose it because its the best tool for the job, not because Windows is evil and wrong and completely technically inferior (becuase it isn't).
However, that doesn't make much of a story for the media, and doesn't give the trolls something to talk about. Hence the nasty reputation of the ranting Linux zealot. This sucks.
You've just argued that every single packaging system out there, with the exception of Slackware, now has the capability to automatically resolve and download dependencies.
No, I've said they have tools avaliable to do this, whether from third parties or otherwise. THey are almost never handled by the package manager itslef, a distinction many people miss.
Most of the world would say that if you're arguing that "everything else in the world except Slackware does X therefore Slackware isn't an example of the same type of thing", that you're raising your own barrier to entry if you're adding even more things that Slackware doesn't do. But, hey, that's complicated logic. I wouldn't expect anyone under the age of five to understand it.
Is Slackware not a Linux distribution on the SPECIFIC AND ONLY grounds that it does not carry a package management system that resolves dependencies, whereas all other Linux distributions do? YES OR NO?
Of course its a distro. It just has a very limited concept of management.
I'd agree with that logic. But I'd have two problems with saying it's part of package management. The first is that it isn't. Package management is just package management - if a system administrator wants to use it to install, I dunno, Netscape 6.0, or maybe Teardrop, then that's their decision. The package manager shouldn't jump in and say "No!!! Don't do it you fool!"
Thats unrelated and you know it. It has nothing to to with managing installed software and is rather choosing how the system will be used.
The second is that unresolved dependencies do not an unstable system make.
I flatly disagree. I've said why - what's installed at any time on the system should work. In case it isn't bleeding obvious this saves a great deal of time documenting all the still to be installed software, and by checking pre install also provides a common point at which the broken install can be mended, rather than waiting for an arbitrary thing to break.
You don't think there's anything wrong with that and have your little troll rant. I don't care.
("oh, but all the other implementations have it"
And I've said that from the start.
They don't change the English language the moment they're implemented.
Like appending the string pkg to your software install system?