I've heard lots of horror stories about the ATI/AMD graphics drivers for Linux (and there are plenty of them in responses to your post), but I'll contribute that I just got a laptop with a FireGL M7740, got "fglrx" out of apt, and everything worked immediately and with good performance. It's a big binary blob, but once you've resigned yourself to that, I don't find it to be any less performant or reliable than the big nVidia binary blob.
It's true. A natural side-effect of a system that came about by a bunch of volunteers dedicating time creating the stuff that they themselves needed/wanted to use. Almost by definition, if you're suited to write the documentation then it's not something you would have a desire for for your own consumption.
> Man pages are only semi-useful if you ALREADY KNOW WHAT COMMAND YOU NEED
-nod- Strongly agree. Something that's long been on my list of "ideas I'll get around to some day" is to build a scaffolding for a vastly more useful "help" command. That's the closest thing to a way of making command-line interfaces discoverable... and the current "help" command is only a reference to Bash internals (at least if you're using that shell, which a novice most likely is)... probably not what the complete beginner is looking for.
Been using Ubuntu since Warty. Haven't seriously tried Fedora since it was named Redhat 7.3. Pulseaudio works fabulously for me. Sorry it doesn't for you =(
> So yeah, it's nice that per-application volume adjustment works for you but I'd hate to > think of how long people (including myself) have spent screwing around with pulse audio > when freeBSD is still offering a better sound experience.
That's just it... for me, it's not a trade-off. Before pulseaudio, lots of problems, especially with flash. After pulseaudio, everything works perfectly AND is as featureful as BeOS. Obviously I'm in the minority. =(
Hope things get sorted for you in future versions.
Good grief, but this comes up a lot. Am I seriously the only person who has absolutely no problems with pulseaudio across a wide variety of hardware? I _love_ this thing, it finally gives me the one feature that always made me weep for BeOS (per-application volume adjustments) and it allows even the most finicky apps (Flash) to play audio without blocking the sound device.
I don't know what it is that I'm doing differently than the Slashdot hive mind, but I think pulseaudio _rocks_ and it's one of the things I use to show off Linux's capability.
> Think of it like Android: sure, it's open source, and there are certainly community projects built around it, but > every cell phone capable of running Android comes with a stock, Google-approved flavor, not some home-spun concoction.
Actually, that's exactly how vendors are distinguishing their Android products; HTC has their Sense-UI, and Samsung just dropped a phone with their customizations called "TouchWiz".
Star Trek Armada and Armada II had a decent approach to preventing early-game rushes; your "town hall" equivalent building (starbase) is armed to the teeth. =)
-nod- I suspect most people who've been using Linux for a while are spoiled by alt-window-dragging, which renders that problem moot. I know I was shocked when I had to start using Windows for some tasks at work after years of only using Linux.
Incidentally, you can get a mostly-working alt-window-drag add-on for Windows here:
Remember, we're dealing with the industry that considers being a victim of domestic violence to be a pre-existing condition and grounds for losing your health care coverage.
> I'm not sure why people are hating on this car so much other than the fact that it's GM and everyone is mad at them for the whole bailout thing right now.
I'm not one of the haters, but I have an inkling what might be behind some of it. GM is treating this as a nigh-insurmountable undertaking and the Volt as completely revolutionary, when in fact it's in many ways a couple steps backward from what they built in the mid-90's. If I were one of the haters, I might be inclined to point out that when the government of California sacced up and basically held a gun on them, they built the awesome EV-1. But once the pressure was off and with the wind of the "free market" 'neath their wings once again (to say nothing of an injection of a few billion taxpayer dollars), they scratched around and finally coughed up the amazingly mediocre Volt, amid a deafening fanfare of self-congratulation.
Any time a person or entity makes a "mistake" that puts extra money (or power) in their pocket, expect them to make that "mistake" again and again and again.
I'll rephrase what I think might have been the GP's point, and what was certainly the point I was sardonically driving at.
Sex is a normal, healthy activity that most well-adjusted adults will and should engage in. Violence, while I grant your point that it's natural, is _not_ something we should expect most well-adjusted adults to be a part of.
That sex should be considered offensive, and in fact more offensive than violence, is to my view a sign of a very sick culture. Personally, I blame religion.
> Do more mature games require a different style controller? Move over Guitar Hero, it's time for Adult Hero.
You might not be from the U.S... things are different here. In the U.S. "mature" means over-the-top, distracting levels of violence. Sex is not allowed at any ratings level.
Slashdot Mirror
I've heard lots of horror stories about the ATI/AMD graphics drivers for Linux (and there are plenty of them in responses to your post), but I'll contribute that I just got a laptop with a FireGL M7740, got "fglrx" out of apt, and everything worked immediately and with good performance. It's a big binary blob, but once you've resigned yourself to that, I don't find it to be any less performant or reliable than the big nVidia binary blob.
You mean you haven't caught on yet ?
This is the mirror universe!
Long live the Terran Empire! Long live the Emperor!
It's true. A natural side-effect of a system that came about by a bunch of volunteers dedicating time creating the stuff that they themselves needed/wanted to use. Almost by definition, if you're suited to write the documentation then it's not something you would have a desire for for your own consumption.
> Man pages are only semi-useful if you ALREADY KNOW WHAT COMMAND YOU NEED
-nod- Strongly agree. Something that's long been on my list of "ideas I'll get around to some day" is to build a scaffolding for a vastly more useful "help" command. That's the closest thing to a way of making command-line interfaces discoverable... and the current "help" command is only a reference to Bash internals (at least if you're using that shell, which a novice most likely is)... probably not what the complete beginner is looking for.
Been using Ubuntu since Warty. Haven't seriously tried Fedora since it was named Redhat 7.3. Pulseaudio works fabulously for me. Sorry it doesn't for you =(
> So yeah, it's nice that per-application volume adjustment works for you but I'd hate to
> think of how long people (including myself) have spent screwing around with pulse audio
> when freeBSD is still offering a better sound experience.
That's just it... for me, it's not a trade-off. Before pulseaudio, lots of problems, especially with flash. After pulseaudio, everything works perfectly AND is as featureful as BeOS. Obviously I'm in the minority. =(
Hope things get sorted for you in future versions.
> Two words: Pulse Audio.
Good grief, but this comes up a lot. Am I seriously the only person who has absolutely no problems with pulseaudio across a wide variety of hardware? I _love_ this thing, it finally gives me the one feature that always made me weep for BeOS (per-application volume adjustments) and it allows even the most finicky apps (Flash) to play audio without blocking the sound device.
I don't know what it is that I'm doing differently than the Slashdot hive mind, but I think pulseaudio _rocks_ and it's one of the things I use to show off Linux's capability.
ONCE AND FOR ALL!
> Think of it like Android: sure, it's open source, and there are certainly community projects built around it, but
> every cell phone capable of running Android comes with a stock, Google-approved flavor, not some home-spun concoction.
Actually, that's exactly how vendors are distinguishing their Android products; HTC has their Sense-UI, and Samsung just dropped a phone with their customizations called "TouchWiz".
Star Trek Armada and Armada II had a decent approach to preventing early-game rushes; your "town hall" equivalent building (starbase) is armed to the teeth. =)
Are you kidding? That thing can't even stand up to a bird with a bagel.
Eh, just convert all the hammer-producing cities to Wealth and then switch civics to Universal Suffrage. We'll be there in no time!
In Antwerp, I would think.
> It's been called X-Windows for a long time. ... incorrectly. It's actually the X Window System.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X11
If anything ever needed to be posted anonymously...
Been nice knowing you.
-nod- I suspect most people who've been using Linux for a while are spoiled by alt-window-dragging, which renders that problem moot. I know I was shocked when I had to start using Windows for some tasks at work after years of only using Linux.
Incidentally, you can get a mostly-working alt-window-drag add-on for Windows here:
http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/get-the-linux-altwindow-drag-functionality-in-windows/
[Citation Needed]
Yeah, but we've got til April of 2063, and we've still got a nuclear world war to contend with between now and then. =/
Thanks. If I see my congressman surrounded by lobbyists in gas masks, I'll know who to talk to.
Remember, we're dealing with the industry that considers being a victim of domestic violence to be a pre-existing condition and grounds for losing your health care coverage.
You'd put this past them?
Wait until a cannonball punches through your roof into your living room and then get back to us.
> I'm not sure why people are hating on this car so much other than the fact that it's GM and everyone is mad at them for the whole bailout thing right now.
I'm not one of the haters, but I have an inkling what might be behind some of it. GM is treating this as a nigh-insurmountable undertaking and the Volt as completely revolutionary, when in fact it's in many ways a couple steps backward from what they built in the mid-90's. If I were one of the haters, I might be inclined to point out that when the government of California sacced up and basically held a gun on them, they built the awesome EV-1. But once the pressure was off and with the wind of the "free market" 'neath their wings once again (to say nothing of an injection of a few billion taxpayer dollars), they scratched around and finally coughed up the amazingly mediocre Volt, amid a deafening fanfare of self-congratulation.
Okay, maybe I am one of the haters after all...
> Bug or on purpose? Who knows.
When in doubt, always remember Bart's Second Law:
Any time a person or entity makes a "mistake" that puts extra money (or power) in their pocket, expect them to make that "mistake" again and again and again.
http://www.bartcop.com/bartslaw.htm
I'll rephrase what I think might have been the GP's point, and what was certainly the point I was sardonically driving at.
Sex is a normal, healthy activity that most well-adjusted adults will and should engage in. Violence, while I grant your point that it's natural, is _not_ something we should expect most well-adjusted adults to be a part of.
That sex should be considered offensive, and in fact more offensive than violence, is to my view a sign of a very sick culture. Personally, I blame religion.
> Do more mature games require a different style controller? Move over Guitar Hero, it's time for Adult Hero.
You might not be from the U.S... things are different here. In the U.S. "mature" means over-the-top, distracting levels of violence. Sex is not allowed at any ratings level.