The scary bit about the problems with Linux and purported IP infringement, is that the people laying claim to parts of Linux go after the users, since there is no real producing company to sue.
I'm about to install Mandrake Linux 10.0 on my laptop tomorrow. If anyone wants to sue me please come right ahead.
In case you missed the point, its not users they're after, its entities with money - they, after all, being organisations whose set purpose is making money. Outlaw money! Its the only solution.
From the article: Everything about it seemed rudimentary and unpolished from the standpoint of a Windows user or a KDE user
This was 6 years ago and - to me - little has changed. I've used GNOME, and it is usable, but its far from polished, and this is its big failing. I'm a KDE user (for the most part, but also a fan of fluxbox) and I find the eye-candy a joy. I know eye-candy isn't a necessary requirement for any UI, but it helps. If its easy on the eye, its easier to understand whats going on and to get things done. Having said that, KDE has way more bugs/quirks than GNOME but its still easier to use.
I know how you feel and I sympathise completely. I hate it when printers do things I do not ask it do, like change my TOC to a list of pr0n actresses names and descriptions of positions they have starred in. And that time clippy printed 3 full A4 sheets of himself right in the middle (around page 450 or thereabouts) of that downloaded copy of Robert Jordans latest book that I printed and then deleted.
I just won $100! I bet my buddy that they couldn't come up with a better investment than a direct financial return to stockholders, and I was right (he thought they were going to buy somebody big).
You may have to pay him back real soon. I heard rumours they just bought Canada. How they could possibly make money from it I'll leave to your buddy to decide.
* A number of people seem to like the editor. I'll concede that it has a reasonably nice interface for completion, but I use xemacs as my editor, and Visual Studio really does not compare, now that I have xemacs set up *just* so. xemacs has similar completion (though without the argument descriptions and with an indexing pass) via etags.
The fact that you had to set up yout IDE *just so* to make it work like VS is a good thing? I agree with most of your points (and I also dislike VS), but fiddling around with arcane configuration to make it *almost* as good as the software that you are trying to put down as an inferior product is not a plus for your own chosen IDE in my opinion. But hey, I too like fiddling with confs, but that doesn't make it easier to use. Now if your configs had been in xemacs by default...
My mum (yes, I am European) bought a PC from the local store recently (against my advice) and got MS Office (cheapskates edition) with it - translated in mother-speak: for free. You and I know better, but the common public don't.
I should finish what I started to say, which is this: the EU doesnt need MicroSoft, whatsoever. They brought them to court because it needed doing. No-one can compete when theres a monopolist in town. The more MS pushes the more you can be sure the EU will trip them up (triping is all it needs to do). And the EU Linux distributors, and software vendors will find themselves on a level playing field (here in the EU), and the US can decide if it wants to play with us or or stay across the ocean all by itself. BY all means feel free to join us, but please put a stop to your monopolist capitalist regimes masquerading as software companies pretending they're helping us out.
Mandrakesoft and SuSe (to name two) are European, ergo EU Operating Systems. I'm running one of them right now - smiling to myself and clasping my monocle while USians just like yourself ponder the future of MicroSoft Inc., your government and your countries fiscal future.
I agree. One big drawback with creating themes for KDE (for example) is that being merely a graphic artist is no real help. I've seen many posts on kde-look.org with concepts that have never been implemented - simply because any themes you create require a programming knowledge for no reason I can fathom. What are APIs for?
Linked article seems more like a rant to me. There are usable applications under KDE (and it seems the whole rant is about KDE, rather than other WMs). In my experience there are perfectly usable and - dare I say - simplistically beautiful UIs for many applications, such as k3b, firefox and thunderbird. In fact, I've yet to see a more user friendly application than k3b. Kudos to its developers.
I've always wondered about that "desktop is clutter waiting to happen" metaphor. I personally never use it in any OS. The desktop is always covered by applications I am currently using. I've never actually got the whole desktop background / image thing either for the same reason. Am I alone here?
No. Buy your first PC. Thats right. Buy one. When you get bored or it gets old start playing with the innards. Read the mobo manual. Unplug stuff to see what the connectors and slots look like. Put them all back in. Do this a few times. When you figure you know what each slot is and looks like and the box still boots after your messing around - take everything apart. Reassemble and consult your manual if its not working. When you finally understand all the components you may be capable of building your own system.
Slashdot Mirror
I hereby present you with this pointy hat type thing I just happen to have lying around. Would you mind standing in the corner??
I don't think MS OSii can operate fast enough to fill a crack^H pipe that big
The scary bit about the problems with Linux and purported IP infringement, is that the people laying claim to parts of Linux go after the users, since there is no real producing company to sue.
I'm about to install Mandrake Linux 10.0 on my laptop tomorrow. If anyone wants to sue me please come right ahead.
In case you missed the point, its not users they're after, its entities with money - they, after all, being organisations whose set purpose is making money. Outlaw money! Its the only solution.
Do not give me "Buffering ... " messages on my phone ... people will be killed
From the article: Everything about it seemed rudimentary and unpolished from the standpoint of a Windows user or a KDE user
This was 6 years ago and - to me - little has changed. I've used GNOME, and it is usable, but its far from polished, and this is its big failing. I'm a KDE user (for the most part, but also a fan of fluxbox) and I find the eye-candy a joy. I know eye-candy isn't a necessary requirement for any UI, but it helps. If its easy on the eye, its easier to understand whats going on and to get things done. Having said that, KDE has way more bugs/quirks than GNOME but its still easier to use.
Its not a troll. Its an opinion.
a) I thought there was only one line of Perl that did everything.
perl -e 42
" ... Breakfast menu includes pastries & breakfast sandwiches ... "
You woke up?
I know how you feel and I sympathise completely. I hate it when printers do things I do not ask it do, like change my TOC to a list of pr0n actresses names and descriptions of positions they have starred in. And that time clippy printed 3 full A4 sheets of himself right in the middle (around page 450 or thereabouts) of that downloaded copy of Robert Jordans latest book that I printed and then deleted.
I just won $100! I bet my buddy that they couldn't come up with a better investment than a direct financial return to stockholders, and I was right (he thought they were going to buy somebody big).
You may have to pay him back real soon. I heard rumours they just bought Canada. How they could possibly make money from it I'll leave to your buddy to decide.
TBH, if they had any sense they would secretly invest in Linux and OSS. *very secretly*. If their plan of world domination fails, they've lost tuppence. If they do fail with the God Plan (TM) they can join Novell and IBM in making huge wads of cash off developers like you and I, same as IBM and Novell did when their Market Domination © plans fell to the ruinous wayside.
* A number of people seem to like the editor. I'll concede that it has a reasonably nice interface for completion, but I use xemacs as my editor, and Visual Studio really does not compare, now that I have xemacs set up *just* so. xemacs has similar completion (though without the argument descriptions and with an indexing pass) via etags.
The fact that you had to set up yout IDE *just so* to make it work like VS is a good thing? I agree with most of your points (and I also dislike VS), but fiddling around with arcane configuration to make it *almost* as good as the software that you are trying to put down as an inferior product is not a plus for your own chosen IDE in my opinion. But hey, I too like fiddling with confs, but that doesn't make it easier to use. Now if your configs had been in xemacs by default ...
My mum (yes, I am European) bought a PC from the local store recently (against my advice) and got MS Office (cheapskates edition) with it - translated in mother-speak: for free. You and I know better, but the common public don't.
People who shout "I'm invincible" have thus far been proved wrong - barring, perhaps, the Monty Python team ...
But till that time the company who has more resources will win.
He who has the most cake never eats humble pie?
"... and all seven of our businesses are growing," said Steve Ballmer
Seven businesses? Can anyone enlighten me on this? OS, Software, Xbox, MSN, selling hotmail addresses to spammers?
My guess is that Santa Claus himself is somehow behind this latest SCO claim
SCO - the Santa Claus Operation?
I should finish what I started to say, which is this: the EU doesnt need MicroSoft, whatsoever. They brought them to court because it needed doing. No-one can compete when theres a monopolist in town. The more MS pushes the more you can be sure the EU will trip them up (triping is all it needs to do). And the EU Linux distributors, and software vendors will find themselves on a level playing field (here in the EU), and the US can decide if it wants to play with us or or stay across the ocean all by itself. BY all means feel free to join us, but please put a stop to your monopolist capitalist regimes masquerading as software companies pretending they're helping us out.
Mandrakesoft and SuSe (to name two) are European, ergo EU Operating Systems. I'm running one of them right now - smiling to myself and clasping my monocle while USians just like yourself ponder the future of MicroSoft Inc., your government and your countries fiscal future.
I agree. One big drawback with creating themes for KDE (for example) is that being merely a graphic artist is no real help. I've seen many posts on kde-look.org with concepts that have never been implemented - simply because any themes you create require a programming knowledge for no reason I can fathom. What are APIs for?
Linked article seems more like a rant to me. There are usable applications under KDE (and it seems the whole rant is about KDE, rather than other WMs). In my experience there are perfectly usable and - dare I say - simplistically beautiful UIs for many applications, such as k3b, firefox and thunderbird. In fact, I've yet to see a more user friendly application than k3b. Kudos to its developers.
I've always wondered about that "desktop is clutter waiting to happen" metaphor. I personally never use it in any OS. The desktop is always covered by applications I am currently using. I've never actually got the whole desktop background / image thing either for the same reason. Am I alone here?
rusticated? They've been made into peasants?
No. Buy your first PC. Thats right. Buy one. When you get bored or it gets old start playing with the innards. Read the mobo manual. Unplug stuff to see what the connectors and slots look like. Put them all back in. Do this a few times. When you figure you know what each slot is and looks like and the box still boots after your messing around - take everything apart. Reassemble and consult your manual if its not working. When you finally understand all the components you may be capable of building your own system.
> Second, I have never -- that means NOT EVER -- seen an IE fix that broke my machine worse than a virus would. NT4 SP6