Well, for one it's pretty buggy even now, and the consequences of it going wrong can be... unpleasant. Plus it flat out doesn't work with the commercial NVidia driver (I have to use the NV driver for when I'm on the go and the NVIDIA one for when I'm at home, fortunately SCPM helps a lot in this area). PCMCIA card support can also be very hit and miss. Faced with a list of caveats like that I'd be reluctant to use it.
Well, I don't think I'm alone in believing RH!=King of Linux.
I use SUSE, I'm lucky enough to work for a company that buys the latest professional release as soon as it comes out (the six-monthly trek down to Micro-Anvika is becoming a little ritual now). I then do a "proper" install, ie. I start from a minimal graphical installation (without KDE) and then add each package as I need it. It may take three hours instead of twenty minutes, but what I'm left with is a machine that has only what I need on it.
I don't have a problem with boot times, and if you spend the time to sensibly configure your machine and configure your runlevels, then you shouldn't either.
I'd rather have a marginally longer boot time, but know that all the services I need come up than go for the WinXP method of slapping the GUI on top of a not-even-half-finished boot process.
That said, I do wish the SSH server wouldn't wait an age to fire up if I boot with no networking... *sigh*
I can't post this in response to the four hundred similar posts in this thread, so I'll post it in this one.
Some. Of. Us. Have. Linux. On. Our. Laptops.
While I keep this beastie on permanently when connected to the mains, I do occasionally have to... oh, I dunno, go to work. With the last update I installed suspend to RAM finally started to work, which I love, but even using that it's just not viable to keep laptops running 24/7.
Parent is typical of a certain class of/. reader: It's not a problem for me, therefore it's not a problem for anyone.
I find myself quite frequently wishing I had an X server on the various windows boxen I'm forced to use in the course of my duties. If nothing else, it would allow me to run Firefox from my box at home and have no easily readable traffic going through other people's networks.
I liked Minidisc. I still do. I have a minidisc desk in my stereo setup so I can record something at short notice off the digital TV or the radio, *and* my wife can do it for me if I'm away, which I doubt she could manage with a hard drive based recorder or a DVD-/+RW setup. Plus minidisc is significantly cheaper.
I don't know if Sony invented it per se, but they certainly championed it (and I believe, still do)
I had a good chance to play with Project Looking Glass at Linux Expo in London this year, and while I was certainly impressed, I realised that it's nothing more than a very very pretty extension of a standard KDE/Gnome-like desktop.
First off, you can shrink things down to the bottom of your window. This is basically a clone of the MacOS X dock. You can also shove things off to the left or right of your workspace, which is the same thing, but sideways. The impressive twist to this is that you can still see what the windows are doing when they are in this state, so if, for example, you have a movie playing, it will continue to play in it's docked state. Basically an up-to-date reworking of an existing concept.
Secondly, you can rotate n degrees clockwise or anti-clockwise to get a fresh workspace. Now bear in mind that the number of workspaces is finite, and you always rotate the same amount of space round, it's not an "analogue" rotation. So basically this is the concept of multiple desktops (as KDE and Gnome and various other WMs have had for years) but made much more pretty. The inclusion of a number of specially created "panoramic" desktop wallpapers help enhance the illusion.
You can't move windows along the Z axis, ie change their "depth" in space, nor can you travel vertically around your 3D environment (think Doom vs Quake here).
So basically, project looking glass is a very impressive, very pretty extension of your standard WM. There will be some next generation desktop features that will be taken from it, but noone's ever going to be able to *use* it.
Think of it as the latest Vivenne Westwood creation strolling down the Milan catwalk. Many of the years line in clothes will be based on elemnents of the design, but noone's ever going to wear it to a business meeting.
I had temporarily forgotten about the Office Space role (um... yeah... I'm gonna have to ask you to come in on Saturday...) but I'm a sad child of the eighties and for me he'll always be Jack Killian.
... for attempting to dictate message board posts for humerous effect. Gave me many hours of amusement. Plus I got a free mic which I now use with Skype:)
You actually have the last two backwards. A Call to Arms set up Crusade (which was canned after one series but I quite enjoyed. I thought Gary Cole made a good captain) and then some time later LoTR was made and was intended to set up a new series that never got off the ground....
Oh yeah, and for those to whom this sort of thing matters, Gary Cole was also Midnight Caller and Sherrif Buck in American Gothic (which I thought was amazing), and Crusade also starred Daniel Dae Kim who has been in pretty much everything including 24 and Angel (he was Gavin Park).
Well, like the XBox, you could put Linux on it. An entirely pointless exercise currently because even if you manage to get it working perfectly you'll be stuck with something that's significantly less funtional than it started out. Although with more penguins. Ultimately though, should the project ever take off, there's the potential of adding Ogg Vorbis playback and who knows what else.
Linux boxes initially are difficult to set up, but are more difficult for novice users necessitating frequent support
I'm sorry but this is absolute shash. A properly configured current KDE installation is just as easy to use as Windows, and why shouldn't it be? All the requisite components are where you would expect them to be (Applications on a menu in the bottom left corner, close, minimise and maximise buttons where you would expect them, trash on the desktop, equivalents of system tray and quicklaunch bar). Visually they are superficially different but that's as far as it goes.
I know this from experience. We support offices running 90% linux desktops and we still have a significantly higher support overhead from the Windows machines.
I still use Rexx, in the form of Regina, on my Linux system. It's a fantastically useful language if you want to do some text munging quickly.
Every year I have to parse a set of logs created from an IRC chat session and make them into a readable webpage. I adapted a variation of a script I had written years ago on OS/2 to create HTML pages from template files. I've created an article (as in news) processing system with it. We have a script involving publishing webpages that runs every five minutes every day, written in Rexx.
Although it appears very much to be an outdated language, someone proficient in it can bang out a script that takes care of some very complex tasks in very little time. Perl just isn't that flexible.
Oh, yes. I spent a while perfecting my Rexx skills on OS/2, and don't have the time or the inclination to learn perl. Using Rexx in conjunction with Bash scripting I can accomplish most of the everyday tasks I face as a sysadmin.
The few must-have applications that are Windows only can be run from a Windows server in the basement. I've seen that done, and it worked.
Yes and no. Terminal Services can be very useful in a Linux environment, but not all applications work this way, and crucially, it's EXPENSIVE. You generally need CALs (Client Access Licences, pretty cheap) and TSCALs (Terminal Services Client Access Licences) which COST MONEY. LOTS.
If you've got a business that can afford it, great. However it has the potential to seriously reduce any costs you may save by switching to Open Source, which for many businesses is a large mitigating factor in choosing to migrate in the first place.
This is an arguement I hear a lot, but to be honest, what your staff put on their future CVs is not a serious consideration for any business. It's nice, but I don't see it as a reason to compromise the stability, security and supportability of your IT infrastructure.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, for one it's pretty buggy even now, and the consequences of it going wrong can be ... unpleasant. Plus it flat out doesn't work with the commercial NVidia driver (I have to use the NV driver for when I'm on the go and the NVIDIA one for when I'm at home, fortunately SCPM helps a lot in this area). PCMCIA card support can also be very hit and miss. Faced with a list of caveats like that I'd be reluctant to use it.
Well, I don't think I'm alone in believing RH!=King of Linux.
... *sigh*
I use SUSE, I'm lucky enough to work for a company that buys the latest professional release as soon as it comes out (the six-monthly trek down to Micro-Anvika is becoming a little ritual now). I then do a "proper" install, ie. I start from a minimal graphical installation (without KDE) and then add each package as I need it. It may take three hours instead of twenty minutes, but what I'm left with is a machine that has only what I need on it.
I don't have a problem with boot times, and if you spend the time to sensibly configure your machine and configure your runlevels, then you shouldn't either.
I'd rather have a marginally longer boot time, but know that all the services I need come up than go for the WinXP method of slapping the GUI on top of a not-even-half-finished boot process.
That said, I do wish the SSH server wouldn't wait an age to fire up if I boot with no networking
I can't post this in response to the four hundred similar posts in this thread, so I'll post it in this one.
... oh, I dunno, go to work. With the last update I installed suspend to RAM finally started to work, which I love, but even using that it's just not viable to keep laptops running 24/7.
/. reader: It's not a problem for me, therefore it's not a problem for anyone.
Some. Of. Us. Have. Linux. On. Our. Laptops.
While I keep this beastie on permanently when connected to the mains, I do occasionally have to
Parent is typical of a certain class of
I find myself quite frequently wishing I had an X server on the various windows boxen I'm forced to use in the course of my duties. If nothing else, it would allow me to run Firefox from my box at home and have no easily readable traffic going through other people's networks.
I liked Minidisc. I still do. I have a minidisc desk in my stereo setup so I can record something at short notice off the digital TV or the radio, *and* my wife can do it for me if I'm away, which I doubt she could manage with a hard drive based recorder or a DVD-/+RW setup. Plus minidisc is significantly cheaper.
I don't know if Sony invented it per se, but they certainly championed it (and I believe, still do)
I had a good chance to play with Project Looking Glass at Linux Expo in London this year, and while I was certainly impressed, I realised that it's nothing more than a very very pretty extension of a standard KDE/Gnome-like desktop.
First off, you can shrink things down to the bottom of your window. This is basically a clone of the MacOS X dock. You can also shove things off to the left or right of your workspace, which is the same thing, but sideways. The impressive twist to this is that you can still see what the windows are doing when they are in this state, so if, for example, you have a movie playing, it will continue to play in it's docked state. Basically an up-to-date reworking of an existing concept.
Secondly, you can rotate n degrees clockwise or anti-clockwise to get a fresh workspace. Now bear in mind that the number of workspaces is finite, and you always rotate the same amount of space round, it's not an "analogue" rotation. So basically this is the concept of multiple desktops (as KDE and Gnome and various other WMs have had for years) but made much more pretty. The inclusion of a number of specially created "panoramic" desktop wallpapers help enhance the illusion.
You can't move windows along the Z axis, ie change their "depth" in space, nor can you travel vertically around your 3D environment (think Doom vs Quake here).
So basically, project looking glass is a very impressive, very pretty extension of your standard WM. There will be some next generation desktop features that will be taken from it, but noone's ever going to be able to *use* it.
Think of it as the latest Vivenne Westwood creation strolling down the Milan catwalk. Many of the years line in clothes will be based on elemnents of the design, but noone's ever going to wear it to a business meeting.
I had temporarily forgotten about the Office Space role (um ... yeah ... I'm gonna have to ask you to come in on Saturday ...) but I'm a sad child of the eighties and for me he'll always be Jack Killian.
... Duck Dodgers in the 25th 1/2 Century?
... for attempting to dictate message board posts for humerous effect. Gave me many hours of amusement. Plus I got a free mic which I now use with Skype :)
You actually have the last two backwards. A Call to Arms set up Crusade (which was canned after one series but I quite enjoyed. I thought Gary Cole made a good captain) and then some time later LoTR was made and was intended to set up a new series that never got off the ground. ...
Oh yeah, and for those to whom this sort of thing matters, Gary Cole was also Midnight Caller and Sherrif Buck in American Gothic (which I thought was amazing), and Crusade also starred Daniel Dae Kim who has been in pretty much everything including 24 and Angel (he was Gavin Park).
In America, yes. Not in many parts of Europe, and increasingly not in the UK.
I don't see ebooks catching on unless there's a sensible way to read them. Reading from a screen just isn't conducive to enjoyment of a book.
Oh, yeah, and my wife says how are you supposed to read an ebook in the bath?
Ugh, that was rubbish. You could only see it if you were exactly the correct height, if you were too short, or too tall, you couldn't see a thing.
Well, like the XBox, you could put Linux on it. An entirely pointless exercise currently because even if you manage to get it working perfectly you'll be stuck with something that's significantly less funtional than it started out. Although with more penguins. Ultimately though, should the project ever take off, there's the potential of adding Ogg Vorbis playback and who knows what else.
I'm sorry but this is absolute shash. A properly configured current KDE installation is just as easy to use as Windows, and why shouldn't it be? All the requisite components are where you would expect them to be (Applications on a menu in the bottom left corner, close, minimise and maximise buttons where you would expect them, trash on the desktop, equivalents of system tray and quicklaunch bar). Visually they are superficially different but that's as far as it goes.
I know this from experience. We support offices running 90% linux desktops and we still have a significantly higher support overhead from the Windows machines.
No, I reckon alt.fan.star-trek would probably be fairly harsh about it too :)
LCARS is an interface, dude
*sob* I just said that, didn't I?
And no - you can't ask yourself questions.
...
Sorry, but I can't resist
Will, if you could ask yourself one question in this interview, what would it be?
Yes. It was a joke. Haha, haha, thud.
SMB?? We want NFS or nothing!
Is it time to really stop all the political games that both sides play?
Yes.
QBASIC? That's for UI spoiled Windows users. You're not serious if you're not au fait with GWBASIC.
I still use Rexx, in the form of Regina, on my Linux system. It's a fantastically useful language if you want to do some text munging quickly.
Every year I have to parse a set of logs created from an IRC chat session and make them into a readable webpage. I adapted a variation of a script I had written years ago on OS/2 to create HTML pages from template files. I've created an article (as in news) processing system with it. We have a script involving publishing webpages that runs every five minutes every day, written in Rexx.
Although it appears very much to be an outdated language, someone proficient in it can bang out a script that takes care of some very complex tasks in very little time. Perl just isn't that flexible.
Oh, yes. I spent a while perfecting my Rexx skills on OS/2, and don't have the time or the inclination to learn perl. Using Rexx in conjunction with Bash scripting I can accomplish most of the everyday tasks I face as a sysadmin.
The few must-have applications that are Windows only can be run from a Windows server in the basement. I've seen that done, and it worked.
Yes and no. Terminal Services can be very useful in a Linux environment, but not all applications work this way, and crucially, it's EXPENSIVE. You generally need CALs (Client Access Licences, pretty cheap) and TSCALs (Terminal Services Client Access Licences) which COST MONEY. LOTS.
If you've got a business that can afford it, great. However it has the potential to seriously reduce any costs you may save by switching to Open Source, which for many businesses is a large mitigating factor in choosing to migrate in the first place.
This is an arguement I hear a lot, but to be honest, what your staff put on their future CVs is not a serious consideration for any business. It's nice, but I don't see it as a reason to compromise the stability, security and supportability of your IT infrastructure.