As a Java developer, I'm getting sick of knee-jerk hating of what is a fast and extremely useful language. You may be able to open a file handle in C with a few less characters, but I can tell you it far easier to understand a complex program written in Java than some bit-twiddling, virus incubating, memory allocating rubbish.
I've had the same experience. I've worked with many extremely competent women during my six years in IT, but not one was what you would call a "geek". To a woman, they have had a more managerial approach to software development*, which in many cases means they are much more effective at getting things done (than me). Once their shift was over, they spent their free time doing Life instead of computers.
I remember some study that showed that men were 4x more likely (just pulling that number out my ass) to spend time configuring their system than women. I think this sums it up; men enjoy technology, the gadgetry of it, where for women the computer is a tool. I would rant and rave about (just one for instance) Clearcase's horrible, inconsistent UI to a female colleague, only to get a blank stare in return. This same rant would elicit a "sing it brother!" from (equally dorky) male coworkers.
And I've never met a woman that hacked anything (I've never met Lorena Bobbit, for the record).
* Managers ask, "Does it work?", engineers ask, "How does it work?"
I use the XML autocompletion and validation available with KEdit as well as the ability to have the text buffer content interact with scripts and terminals and vise-versa.
I'm not much of a power user, but I actually favor the opposite direction. I wish that Gnome chose Leafpad as the default text editor. If I'm editing code, I'm using something much more capable than Gedit/KEdit, so what I really want from the Text Editor is instantaneous startup. I haven't used KEdit much (not a KDE guy), but Gedit can take longer to load than AbiWord.
Feature wise, I was missing the RSS integration, the yellow SSL security indicator on the link bar and some of the FF specific plugins.
Completely agree. Epiphany has a really intergrated feel, but I miss the FF plugins (specifically Scrapbook, Dictionary Search, Plain Text Links... actually there are a lot of them).
I can kinda see where you're coming from. I have openned up a new KDE app on occasion and felt dizzy from the massive array of buttons and widgets thrown at me. Once I spend a little time though, the interface becomes familiar and useful.
My last look at KDE (installed Xandros on my wife's laptop), I felt was too "shiny". Just a preference there, but speaking of preferences, I really missed Gnome's philosophy of get the right default. KDE embodies the other edge of the Open Source sword, Too Much Choice. It's nice to be able to twiddle every last bit of the desktop, but Gnome creates a quiet space where you can actually get stuff done.
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Gnome 2.10 Released
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Insightful? More like a beautiful troll. Inspiring , really, so let me add this: Gnome reminds me of the interior design of a Starbucks coffee shop, tasteful accents and a comfortable atmosphere. My recent look at KDE? WalMart on a Saturday morning.
How _should_ it change? Perhaps a big green jelly bean for a Start menu? Seriously, Gnome doesn't have to market to anyone, and for the vast majority of its users the simple, understated look is extremely pleasing. And if you don't quite care for your distribution's choice of widgets and whatnot, new theme installation is basically a two click operation.
You're not the only one, I feel the same way. I like the crisp look of Windows fonts (I tried and turned off anti-aliasing in XP). The problem is that without AA, Linux fonts look like crap. I'm basically used to the AA now, but for the longest time I just thought the screen was blurry. And flipping back and forth between Windows and Linux partitions, the crispness of the fonts is the one thing I notice every time I log in... it's like a mist has cleared.
Question: Why _is it_ when you turn off AA the fonts look so bad in Linux?
Hardly insightful. I'm not some Linux hardman like the "Enlightened" poster few posts above, but I can say loud and proud, "I love the file selector". I haven't ever pasted into a file dialog, but I can say that the type-ahead find and ctrl+l bash-style completing textbox, plus the handy favorites/mounts buttons are great. It took a while to warm to the file path buttons (being a Windows user by day), but I even find them to be more useful than the textbox+.. (since it remembers down the tree).
They probably should expose the ctrl+l somewhere, but your complaints sound pretty specific, why not submit two bugs (and maybe tone down the rhetoric... two minor complaints for a rather function-full component is hardly grounds declaring incompetence)?
You're getting beat up, but I know what you're saying. I use linux at home, and set up my girlfriend's Dell laptop with Ubuntu (which I'm using) after realizing XP won't run on 256M and a slow hard drive. She is completely computer agnostic, all she wants to do is be able to browse the web, read the email, write the occasional.doc and print a map or whatever. I really dig Ubuntu, but I find myself apologizing a lot. Some recent examples?
No printer driver for her Lexmark x125 (I'm aware of the sourceforge project)
No shockwave
Kernel recompile to get support for her madwifi card
OO.org can't render.docs from work exactly
Firefox exhibited annoying mouse gesture behaviour when using her touchpad
As I say, I like linux and can deal with its warts, but to regular folks, its broken. And they don't care about the politics.
For the record, I support the Free Software philosophy
I think that's great. I love free stuff. Your fine distinction between Free Software and Open Source, however, is completely insignificant to commercial enterprise; to Valve, say, the only thing that matters is that other people are free to copy and distribute the fruits of millions of euros worth of investment. Of course, with Free/Open Source Software they can charge for that first copy, and I hope they charge more than the millions it cost to make it, because that's the only copy they're going to sell. Within moments, the source, binaries, artwork, and what all else would be available via bittorrent worldwide.
This is obvious, of course, which is why (as I mentioned previously) F/OSS game development is eons behind commercial software.
That about sums it up. I don't love ClearCase (I used to be a raving hater, so simple apathy is a huge improvement), but for large, complex projects, there aren't a lot of alternatives. Apparently, writing a version control system isn't easy. I had a lot of hope for Stellation, but development seems to have faltered.
Car engines already are "open source". Once you have bought a car, it is legal for you to take the engine apart, modify it, use parts of it in another machine you build, study how the engine works, even use the thusly gained knowledge to build you own engine. If the enginge breaks, you can try to fix it yourself or have it fixed, and neither action will cause you to be called a pirate.
Ah, Slashdot... It is true that you are allowed to modify your car after you buy it, but, as so many Open Source zealots remind me, the cost of reproducing/distributing software is zero (which is apparently why information "wants" to free). This where analogies between software and hardware (computers, cars, chairs, whatever) breakdown. Even if blue prints are available, the costs of car production prohibit anyone from duplicating it--it's cheaper to have GM make it for you. Obviously, it costs millions to produce games these days, and the quality shows for it. Obviously, noone will buy a game if it is freely available. How will the game company make its money back?
I find it barely interesting that OS zealots who have nothing invested in a software product, are so eager to demand it be given away. Because you give away your weekend hours noodling on a GUI for Gnome does in no way imply that everyone should.
PS - I do my own OS stuff, and cheerfully, but I think the state OS game development speaks volumes more than all the ranting about the usefulness of OS as model for making games.
I would guess that any kind of commercial use of IMDB would require licensing, and that would cut into Tivo's already thin margins. Add to this that IMDB integration is frosting for just a small slice of market (/.ers)--I can't see my father being moved buy because of this or even use this feature if it were included.
Which is not to say I wouldn't appreciate this feature:).
Science is there to try to explain the how (How does a rock fall? How do we procreate? Fact based questions.) Religion is there to explain the why
This is not the salient difference between the two. As another poster mentioned, the difference between science and religion hinges on falsifiability. Science requires that any proposition at least have the possibility of being proven false, while religion, being on faith, has no such prescription.
Real doesn't use original master recordings so the extra 64 kbps is insignificant, virtually meaningless. But why would I expect some drone to comprehend this? I don't, because I don't believe that you're capable of it. What choice are they offering? Use their DRM instead of Apple's. Woo boy, that really opened up the variety that we didn't have available to us before. Thanks for the choice to use your DRM Glaser.
For the sake of argument, I'll grant you the 192kbps chicanery, but how about the choice to buy music at a lower price? Even I, as "some drone" can appreciate the simple fact that 1/2 half off is better full price any day. Will this affect Apple's profitability, or itms's viability? I don't know. And I don't care.
If itms and real music store were to disappear tomorrow, there would be four more rivals to take their place. And who would I be rooting for? The store with the cheapest price, biggest selection, and greatest portability, in that order.
Apple made the business decision to deny Real to have access to their media playing device. That's their decision, not yours and not Reals.
This is true. It is Real's decision to make their DRM format to be compatible with the most popular music hardware. It my decision to "encourage" this openness by voting with my dollars. itms is a lovely interface, it really is, but as I don't worship or tithe to the Apple religion, it's just software and just another option. God bless choice.
What is with you Apple zealots? How is the ability to play Real DRM'd files on a new platform a bad thing? I've bought music from both, and while I like itms, Real has a higher bitrate for the same price. Why wouldn't you want more choice? Oh... that's right! You're zealots!
I absolutely agree. I'm ambivalent about federal testing, but the way schools are funded is totally broken. Tying school funding to property taxes means wealthy kids get a better education, end of story. It may create a certain market force (in that parents choose where they live based on school performance), but this probably serves only to reinforce stratification.
Every school in America should be funded equally (by some measure) from a national pot o' cash.
I raingear looks interesting, but what do you do for next Christmas (birthday, bar mitzvah, etc)? Aren't you afraid your relatives will be saying, "Oh God, not another raincoat!"?
I gave away my desktop machine after I got a laptop and have never looked back (well, once in while, when playing games or the hard drive is slowly grinding). The notebook computer's built-in UPS is just one of a million reasons why a desktop box will never be heating my calves again.
Sing it, brother! I've been ranting since Win95 to people who could care less about "Program Files" and the unnecessary problems it creates. I can only think MS did it to force application vendors into long filename compatibility. "Documents and Settings"? Sheesh.
I've read through plenty of comments, both the idiotic "Valve has no right to require activation!" and the common sense rebuttals, but what I haven't seen is an instance of a wronged user. Again, lots of argument about how you "own the code" (or whatever) after you pay your $60, but nobody who paid saying Valve cut them off.
Honestly, if you don't want to deal with activation, don't use the product. End of story. Free Software will surely produce a game of HL2 quality before you die.
For most of the people that I offer Linux to, their only real question is "will I still be able to do the things important for me".
Ah, there's the rub. Nobody I show Linux to has any complaint when they can find the browser and email icons, and can open their Word doc and it looks the same. The problem comes when they can't use their Winmodem to connect to internet, or their printer/scanner isn't compatible, or it doesn't print/import the right way.
I like Linux, the tinkering and customization and the terminal, but Windows doesn't suck, and for people who actually do work with their computer, it's a very good choice.
This has been said a million times before, but what the heck, so has everything else on this site.
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As a Java developer, I'm getting sick of knee-jerk hating of what is a fast and extremely useful language. You may be able to open a file handle in C with a few less characters, but I can tell you it far easier to understand a complex program written in Java than some bit-twiddling, virus incubating, memory allocating rubbish.
Just sick of the Java haters, that's all.
I remember some study that showed that men were 4x more likely (just pulling that number out my ass) to spend time configuring their system than women. I think this sums it up; men enjoy technology, the gadgetry of it, where for women the computer is a tool. I would rant and rave about (just one for instance) Clearcase's horrible, inconsistent UI to a female colleague, only to get a blank stare in return. This same rant would elicit a "sing it brother!" from (equally dorky) male coworkers.
And I've never met a woman that hacked anything (I've never met Lorena Bobbit, for the record).
* Managers ask, "Does it work?", engineers ask, "How does it work?"
I'm not much of a power user, but I actually favor the opposite direction. I wish that Gnome chose Leafpad as the default text editor. If I'm editing code, I'm using something much more capable than Gedit/KEdit, so what I really want from the Text Editor is instantaneous startup. I haven't used KEdit much (not a KDE guy), but Gedit can take longer to load than AbiWord.
Feature wise, I was missing the RSS integration, the yellow SSL security indicator on the link bar and some of the FF specific plugins.
Completely agree. Epiphany has a really intergrated feel, but I miss the FF plugins (specifically Scrapbook, Dictionary Search, Plain Text Links... actually there are a lot of them).
I can kinda see where you're coming from. I have openned up a new KDE app on occasion and felt dizzy from the massive array of buttons and widgets thrown at me. Once I spend a little time though, the interface becomes familiar and useful.
My last look at KDE (installed Xandros on my wife's laptop), I felt was too "shiny". Just a preference there, but speaking of preferences, I really missed Gnome's philosophy of get the right default. KDE embodies the other edge of the Open Source sword, Too Much Choice. It's nice to be able to twiddle every last bit of the desktop, but Gnome creates a quiet space where you can actually get stuff done.
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Insightful? More like a beautiful troll. Inspiring , really, so let me add this: Gnome reminds me of the interior design of a Starbucks coffee shop, tasteful accents and a comfortable atmosphere. My recent look at KDE? WalMart on a Saturday morning.
How _should_ it change? Perhaps a big green jelly bean for a Start menu? Seriously, Gnome doesn't have to market to anyone, and for the vast majority of its users the simple, understated look is extremely pleasing. And if you don't quite care for your distribution's choice of widgets and whatnot, new theme installation is basically a two click operation.
Question: Why _is it_ when you turn off AA the fonts look so bad in Linux?
They probably should expose the ctrl+l somewhere, but your complaints sound pretty specific, why not submit two bugs (and maybe tone down the rhetoric... two minor complaints for a rather function-full component is hardly grounds declaring incompetence)?
- No printer driver for her Lexmark x125 (I'm aware of the sourceforge project)
- No shockwave
- Kernel recompile to get support for her madwifi card
- OO.org can't render
.docs from work exactly
- Firefox exhibited annoying mouse gesture behaviour when using her touchpad
As I say, I like linux and can deal with its warts, but to regular folks, its broken. And they don't care about the politics.Completely off-topic, but I find your signature compelling... Do you have the attribution for the quote (the last bit is obviously chopped off)?
I think that's great. I love free stuff. Your fine distinction between Free Software and Open Source, however, is completely insignificant to commercial enterprise; to Valve, say, the only thing that matters is that other people are free to copy and distribute the fruits of millions of euros worth of investment. Of course, with Free/Open Source Software they can charge for that first copy, and I hope they charge more than the millions it cost to make it, because that's the only copy they're going to sell. Within moments, the source, binaries, artwork, and what all else would be available via bittorrent worldwide.
This is obvious, of course, which is why (as I mentioned previously) F/OSS game development is eons behind commercial software.
--
Ah Slashdot...
That about sums it up. I don't love ClearCase (I used to be a raving hater, so simple apathy is a huge improvement), but for large, complex projects, there aren't a lot of alternatives. Apparently, writing a version control system isn't easy. I had a lot of hope for Stellation, but development seems to have faltered.
Ah, Slashdot... It is true that you are allowed to modify your car after you buy it, but, as so many Open Source zealots remind me, the cost of reproducing/distributing software is zero (which is apparently why information "wants" to free). This where analogies between software and hardware (computers, cars, chairs, whatever) breakdown. Even if blue prints are available, the costs of car production prohibit anyone from duplicating it--it's cheaper to have GM make it for you. Obviously, it costs millions to produce games these days, and the quality shows for it. Obviously, noone will buy a game if it is freely available. How will the game company make its money back?
I find it barely interesting that OS zealots who have nothing invested in a software product, are so eager to demand it be given away. Because you give away your weekend hours noodling on a GUI for Gnome does in no way imply that everyone should.
PS - I do my own OS stuff, and cheerfully, but I think the state OS game development speaks volumes more than all the ranting about the usefulness of OS as model for making games.
Arrested Development is the closest thing to British humor we have on US TV.
Which is not to say I wouldn't appreciate this feature :).
This is not the salient difference between the two. As another poster mentioned, the difference between science and religion hinges on falsifiability. Science requires that any proposition at least have the possibility of being proven false, while religion, being on faith, has no such prescription.
For the sake of argument, I'll grant you the 192kbps chicanery, but how about the choice to buy music at a lower price? Even I, as "some drone" can appreciate the simple fact that 1/2 half off is better full price any day. Will this affect Apple's profitability, or itms's viability? I don't know. And I don't care.
If itms and real music store were to disappear tomorrow, there would be four more rivals to take their place. And who would I be rooting for? The store with the cheapest price, biggest selection, and greatest portability, in that order.
Apple made the business decision to deny Real to have access to their media playing device. That's their decision, not yours and not Reals.
This is true. It is Real's decision to make their DRM format to be compatible with the most popular music hardware. It my decision to "encourage" this openness by voting with my dollars. itms is a lovely interface, it really is, but as I don't worship or tithe to the Apple religion, it's just software and just another option. God bless choice.
What is with you Apple zealots? How is the ability to play Real DRM'd files on a new platform a bad thing? I've bought music from both, and while I like itms, Real has a higher bitrate for the same price. Why wouldn't you want more choice? Oh... that's right! You're zealots!
Every school in America should be funded equally (by some measure) from a national pot o' cash.
I raingear looks interesting, but what do you do for next Christmas (birthday, bar mitzvah, etc)? Aren't you afraid your relatives will be saying, "Oh God, not another raincoat!"?
I don't know what that is, but gawd it sounds good... (lunchtime here in EST)
I gave away my desktop machine after I got a laptop and have never looked back (well, once in while, when playing games or the hard drive is slowly grinding). The notebook computer's built-in UPS is just one of a million reasons why a desktop box will never be heating my calves again.
Sing it, brother! I've been ranting since Win95 to people who could care less about "Program Files" and the unnecessary problems it creates. I can only think MS did it to force application vendors into long filename compatibility. "Documents and Settings"? Sheesh.
Honestly, if you don't want to deal with activation, don't use the product. End of story. Free Software will surely produce a game of HL2 quality before you die.
Ah, there's the rub. Nobody I show Linux to has any complaint when they can find the browser and email icons, and can open their Word doc and it looks the same. The problem comes when they can't use their Winmodem to connect to internet, or their printer/scanner isn't compatible, or it doesn't print/import the right way.
I like Linux, the tinkering and customization and the terminal, but Windows doesn't suck, and for people who actually do work with their computer, it's a very good choice.
This has been said a million times before, but what the heck, so has everything else on this site.