I too think a desktop isn't necessarly defined by kiddie-eyecandy and all that stuff. I think the defination of desktop is a little skewed too. We have a few office suites, we have many many email programs, fast reliable browsers, Instant Messaging,Calendars, etc. etc. What's the problem? You'd think if you told most people that they could have a desktop that didn't crash every 5 minutes and set them up with 5 desktop icons of the stuff they use the most they'd be more than happy to use it. Nope! The problem is people are so stubborn. I think if you did the same for someone on Mac OSX very few would switch even though the GUI is far superior to Windows. I don't think it's about usability and all that stuff, I think it's people are just too stubborn to use anything else.
I think it's the fact people _think_ they know a lot about computers because they know a lot about windows. When they get onto anything else, they feel like an infant again and they hate it. They will spew out things like "it's too hard to use. It can't do this. It can't do that." etc. etc. You could take a windows user and put them on THE perfect operating system, and they probably wouldn't use it because it's different.
I've personally been using linux on the desktop almost exclusivly for about 4 years now. I can't stand to go back onto windows computers. They are just so slow and crash way too much and why deal with all that when I can use something superior.
I mean look at all the things Windows doesn't have. It doesn't even come with a ram disk driver!! And the one MS lets you download it utter crap. Let's see... no 64-bit chip support, no ability to run windows without a GUI (why should the whole OS crash if the GUI crashes), very weak ssl support (netbios stuff not encrypted), office can't export to PDF's, there's almost no basic scripting ability, updating your OS is a chore and much more complicated than emerge -U World, lack of a decent plain non formatted text editor. You get the picture. It's about perspective.
While this is true, they've also held off on submitting what would be the most crucial parts. AND, they are requesting an additional 90 days. More than anything, this is another stall tactic to make the case run on as long as possible.
It's a shame this money has to be spent in this way and that it couldn't be used to pay for programmers and bandwidth. Hopefully it won't have to be used.
Funny you should bring up language choices. I've read their reports before. Most of the time they pit java/linux against.net/win2k. Well... who the fuck programs in Java???? On top of that, the comparasions are made with expensive Java IDE's. I'd like to see some php or perl (or even C) with mysql or postgre on gentoo or debian TCO comparasions against.net with mssql on win2003.
Flash player on linux is binary only. Last time I checked (which was pretty recently) it was compiled against gcc 2.x. On top of that, it _wasn't_ compiled against 2.95.3 which is the most stable gcc 2.x out. So to install it one must symlink the gcc 2.95.3 libs to the ones flash was compiled against. That's assuming you have gcc 2.x and not a 3.x series gcc on your system (then you've got to install gcc 2.x in a non conflicting location, probably/opt/gcc). That's an awful lot of work to install something that I have no use for.
"I used to be in a band. People either loved us or hated us...or thought we were ok." -Mitch Hedberg
That is about the extent of this prediction. If something doesn't grow, it eventually dies. Well... do we have _any_ reason to believe Linux won't grow ? It has grown steadily every year since the beginning. I think it really is a good prediction... FOR ME TO POOP ON!!!!
The do not call registry doesn't apply to pollsters. So they can still call. You are right though, what kind of freak actually takes phone polls (unless they directly apply to something important to you)? I don't even hang up on them anymore. I take the time out of my day to give them fake information.
"As a Florida resident, what theme park do you most frequent"
"Gatorland!"
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I too think a desktop isn't necessarly defined by kiddie-eyecandy and all that stuff. I think the defination of desktop is a little skewed too. We have a few office suites, we have many many email programs, fast reliable browsers, Instant Messaging,Calendars, etc. etc. What's the problem? You'd think if you told most people that they could have a desktop that didn't crash every 5 minutes and set them up with 5 desktop icons of the stuff they use the most they'd be more than happy to use it. Nope! The problem is people are so stubborn. I think if you did the same for someone on Mac OSX very few would switch even though the GUI is far superior to Windows. I don't think it's about usability and all that stuff, I think it's people are just too stubborn to use anything else.
I think it's the fact people _think_ they know a lot about computers because they know a lot about windows. When they get onto anything else, they feel like an infant again and they hate it. They will spew out things like "it's too hard to use. It can't do this. It can't do that." etc. etc. You could take a windows user and put them on THE perfect operating system, and they probably wouldn't use it because it's different.
I've personally been using linux on the desktop almost exclusivly for about 4 years now. I can't stand to go back onto windows computers. They are just so slow and crash way too much and why deal with all that when I can use something superior.
I mean look at all the things Windows doesn't have. It doesn't even come with a ram disk driver!! And the one MS lets you download it utter crap. Let's see... no 64-bit chip support, no ability to run windows without a GUI (why should the whole OS crash if the GUI crashes), very weak ssl support (netbios stuff not encrypted), office can't export to PDF's, there's almost no basic scripting ability, updating your OS is a chore and much more complicated than emerge -U World, lack of a decent plain non formatted text editor. You get the picture. It's about perspective.
While this is true, they've also held off on submitting what would be the most crucial parts. AND, they are requesting an additional 90 days. More than anything, this is another stall tactic to make the case run on as long as possible.
It's a shame this money has to be spent in this way and that it couldn't be used to pay for programmers and bandwidth. Hopefully it won't have to be used.
I saw the GNAA selling some on 11th Avenue...
Funny you should bring up language choices. I've read their reports before. Most of the time they pit java/linux against .net/win2k. Well... who the fuck programs in Java???? On top of that, the comparasions are made with expensive Java IDE's. I'd like to see some php or perl (or even C) with mysql or postgre on gentoo or debian TCO comparasions against .net with mssql on win2003.
Flash player on linux is binary only. Last time I checked (which was pretty recently) it was compiled against gcc 2.x. On top of that, it _wasn't_ compiled against 2.95.3 which is the most stable gcc 2.x out. So to install it one must symlink the gcc 2.95.3 libs to the ones flash was compiled against. That's assuming you have gcc 2.x and not a 3.x series gcc on your system (then you've got to install gcc 2.x in a non conflicting location, probably /opt/gcc). That's an awful lot of work to install something that I have no use for.
"I used to be in a band. People either loved us or hated us...or thought we were ok." -Mitch Hedberg
That is about the extent of this prediction. If something doesn't grow, it eventually dies. Well... do we have _any_ reason to believe Linux won't grow ? It has grown steadily every year since the beginning. I think it really is a good prediction... FOR ME TO POOP ON!!!!
The do not call registry doesn't apply to pollsters. So they can still call. You are right though, what kind of freak actually takes phone polls (unless they directly apply to something important to you)? I don't even hang up on them anymore. I take the time out of my day to give them fake information. "As a Florida resident, what theme park do you most frequent" "Gatorland!"