Linux is NOT obviously more rock solid. People have been saying this for years but it is simply no longer true. Win2k and XP effectively eliminated the stability gap, especially when compared to KDE or Gnome.
I beg to differ. Admittedly, I don't use Windows much nowadays, but the times I have used 2k/XP, I sure have been able to get BSODs. Admittedly not at all as often as when I was running 95/98, but considering I've only got a single kernel panic on Linux in over two years, I'd say the stability gap is still pretty high.
Of course, on the desktop side things are different. Not in stability, but in performance. The latest GNOME and KDE really are awful memory eaters, but that's why I run sawfish instead. Concerning stability, I would still say the GNOME (I don't use KDE, so I can't tell) is also more stable than Windows' GUI shell, which uses lotsa blocking calls and crashes every now and then.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this prevent you from seeing the relevant content on the page? Who in their right mind would use a product that obscures that which you want the users to see?
I don't understand why people mod this as `Funny'. Honestly - whatever is after that NUL char does not matter, because it isn't part of the string. You can't see it any other way. A string in C ends after a NUL char, anything after that is either another string, or in this case when no symbol points to it, it's just garbage. If anoyone licenses something under the GPL, which LinuxAnt obviously has done, they should be prepared to show the source.
Does anyone know if Groklaw or someone else has written about this yet?
NFS will always suck because there's very little focus on integrating it with other related concepts like user and access management.
According to the law of building a tool to do one job and do it right, that's exactly what NFS should do. User management shouldn't be done over a filesystem protocol, but over another protocol, and if you use LDAP as your back-end username directory service, that's taken care of.
I think you may have misunderstood me. I didn't really mean MPlayer specifically, but rather any media player other than WMP.
That's the general problem with Windows. It's not just WMP, but the IE/NS-duel and MSO/OO.o are just yet other examples. Since MS controls the base OS all by themselves (ie. there's no specification for Windows such as eg. POSIX is for UNIX/Linux), of course their applications are better integrated with the rest of the system, since MS can actually integrate the system with the applications instead of the other way around, as all other vendors have to do. Thus, of course people use their programs.
As for your "choice" to use Windows, I'd like to re-run the old quotation (I don't know it natively in English, though...) "I'd kill you for your choice, but I'd die for your right to choose it". Go ahead and use Windows - that doesn't mean that anyone shouldn't be free to try and convince you otherwise.
You have to realize the difference between media playing software and file format. Yes, the Windows Media Player, Real's player and the Quicktime player use different formats, but that doesn't have to be the case.
Take, for example, the open source "MPlayer" (it states to be the media player for Linux, but AFAIK it compiles and runs on Windows as well) - it can play all three formats along with numerous others, and is in my experience much better optimized than any of those three individual players you mentioned. It doesn't have the clutter of WMP's interface as well, nor commercials or "upgrade noticies" etc...
Of course, noone uses MPlayer (on Windows, that is) since Windows Media Player comes with Windows. Why would they take the time to switch, after all, especially when they're not even made aware of MPlayer's existance?
The greatest problem might be that you need an egg cell, though. While you can take an egg cell from a female specimen, it won't help species or human situations when there are no females available.
That's not a problem either. NFSv4 uses a UID mapping daemon, which maps UIDs between the symbolic usernames of different systems. NFSv4 also comes with an `exportfs' program, with which you can create NFSv4 exports `on the fly', just like you can with Windows.
NFSv4 will also, unlike SMB, have support for automatic subdirectory delegations to other servers (not yet implemented, but upcoming), be compatible with Windows (ie. Windows will be able to function both as NFSv4 server and client, not that MS will write the drivers), be able to run over TCP (which is already the default, at least last I tried), and the RPC security layer also has support for several authentication backends, Kerberos just being one of them. Furthermore, NFSv4 includes the concept of a unified tree between servers a la AFS and Coda. Let's just say that NFSv4 is a major improvement over previous versions. Check out the reference implementation's homepage, including a (more) complete feature list here and (especially for Linux) here.
I think SMB sucks much more. Just like so much other Windows stuff, it's a legacy technology from the 80's designed for DOS, and has now been riddled with layering from hell to make up for the base protocol's deficiancies. If not for any other reason, the protocol is just plain ugly to look at.;-)
Unfortunately, that's the case right now. NFS is supposed to be used in secure environments.
However, that's going to change. There is already support for RPC security when using NFSv4 in Linux 2.6. That way, you can use Kerberos authentication and encryption for your NFS exports, and all is well. It's still marked as experimental, but I suspect it to be mature before long.
All that already works on Solaris, of course.
Re:excellent! i have been looking for this
on
Samba 3 By Example
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· Score: 2, Informative
Seriously, Samba isn't easy to set up. I don't consider myself a lesser geek anymore, since I can set up virtually anything else I've tried without trouble (yes, that includes sendmail.cf), but I've more or less given up on Samba.
Of course, the Samba developers shouldn't be blamed for that. I suppose that learning the black arts of Windows networking is about as logical as Windows itself, after all.
I do agree that the desktop is easy to use once it's installed and all set up and ready. However, there are two major usability barriers:
1. The installation in itself is easy, but not remotely as easy as installing Windows, since you don't have to install Windows. Of course, that is a problem that developers cannot solve.
2. Administration and setup - have you ever even tried getting an "average user" to set up a driver that doesn't come with the distro? Just the nVidia binary driver is hard enough since you can't run the X server while installing it. Then try some driver that isn't binary... "Well, see, you have to install the kernel source before you try compiling the driver..." Need I go on?
Yes, they were a monopoly by 1990, and they have essentially been since IBM's invention of the PC.
Have you ever heard of how they crippled DR-DOS in the 80's?
So the new UI is called Aero? We already have Aqua. If only GNOME or KDE could rename themselves to Lito and (lacking anything better) firefox would take the name Ignis, we could move technology even further back in time. Archimedes would be proud.
Slashdot Mirror
Of course, on the desktop side things are different. Not in stability, but in performance. The latest GNOME and KDE really are awful memory eaters, but that's why I run sawfish instead. Concerning stability, I would still say the GNOME (I don't use KDE, so I can't tell) is also more stable than Windows' GUI shell, which uses lotsa blocking calls and crashes every now and then.
The patent is dumb because it is a software patent. There are several very good reasons why you should fight software patents.
Is it just me, or does that sound just like the usual FUD for why {F,OS}S is doomed to fail?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't this prevent you from seeing the relevant content on the page? Who in their right mind would use a product that obscures that which you want the users to see?
...is a non-issue. Just check `everything' in the installation and you'll never have to install anything ever again. ;-)
Does anyone know if Groklaw or someone else has written about this yet?
I thought that was computers running Windows that behaved like that?
That's the general problem with Windows. It's not just WMP, but the IE/NS-duel and MSO/OO.o are just yet other examples. Since MS controls the base OS all by themselves (ie. there's no specification for Windows such as eg. POSIX is for UNIX/Linux), of course their applications are better integrated with the rest of the system, since MS can actually integrate the system with the applications instead of the other way around, as all other vendors have to do. Thus, of course people use their programs.
As for your "choice" to use Windows, I'd like to re-run the old quotation (I don't know it natively in English, though...) "I'd kill you for your choice, but I'd die for your right to choose it". Go ahead and use Windows - that doesn't mean that anyone shouldn't be free to try and convince you otherwise.
Take, for example, the open source "MPlayer" (it states to be the media player for Linux, but AFAIK it compiles and runs on Windows as well) - it can play all three formats along with numerous others, and is in my experience much better optimized than any of those three individual players you mentioned. It doesn't have the clutter of WMP's interface as well, nor commercials or "upgrade noticies" etc...
Of course, noone uses MPlayer (on Windows, that is) since Windows Media Player comes with Windows. Why would they take the time to switch, after all, especially when they're not even made aware of MPlayer's existance?
The greatest problem might be that you need an egg cell, though. While you can take an egg cell from a female specimen, it won't help species or human situations when there are no females available.
NFSv4 will also, unlike SMB, have support for automatic subdirectory delegations to other servers (not yet implemented, but upcoming), be compatible with Windows (ie. Windows will be able to function both as NFSv4 server and client, not that MS will write the drivers), be able to run over TCP (which is already the default, at least last I tried), and the RPC security layer also has support for several authentication backends, Kerberos just being one of them. Furthermore, NFSv4 includes the concept of a unified tree between servers a la AFS and Coda. Let's just say that NFSv4 is a major improvement over previous versions. Check out the reference implementation's homepage, including a (more) complete feature list here and (especially for Linux) here.
I think SMB sucks much more. Just like so much other Windows stuff, it's a legacy technology from the 80's designed for DOS, and has now been riddled with layering from hell to make up for the base protocol's deficiancies. If not for any other reason, the protocol is just plain ugly to look at. ;-)
However, that's going to change. There is already support for RPC security when using NFSv4 in Linux 2.6. That way, you can use Kerberos authentication and encryption for your NFS exports, and all is well. It's still marked as experimental, but I suspect it to be mature before long.
All that already works on Solaris, of course.
Of course, the Samba developers shouldn't be blamed for that. I suppose that learning the black arts of Windows networking is about as logical as Windows itself, after all.
I do agree that the desktop is easy to use once it's installed and all set up and ready. However, there are two major usability barriers: 1. The installation in itself is easy, but not remotely as easy as installing Windows, since you don't have to install Windows. Of course, that is a problem that developers cannot solve. 2. Administration and setup - have you ever even tried getting an "average user" to set up a driver that doesn't come with the distro? Just the nVidia binary driver is hard enough since you can't run the X server while installing it. Then try some driver that isn't binary... "Well, see, you have to install the kernel source before you try compiling the driver..." Need I go on?
Of course they have a cookie - it would be hard to save preferences otherwise. That doesn't mean that they're logging searches using it, though.
Would "Interactive fiction" be anything new? Isn't that exactly what RPGs have been doing for ages now?
Yes, they were a monopoly by 1990, and they have essentially been since IBM's invention of the PC. Have you ever heard of how they crippled DR-DOS in the 80's?
In fact, the partner doesn't matter at all, you can remove it. Only the ex, en and ei parameters matter.
So the new UI is called Aero? We already have Aqua. If only GNOME or KDE could rename themselves to Lito and (lacking anything better) firefox would take the name Ignis, we could move technology even further back in time. Archimedes would be proud.