Mandrake was originally Red Hat + KDE. As far as I know, they don't go get Red Hat and modify it anymore - it's completely stand alone.
Being able to stay afloat a few quarters is pretty meaningless in terms of long-term solvency, and no one can predict if MandrakeSoft will make it even if they get the money they're looking for now. It seems probable, though.
They openly admit that their last leadership was bad - they were steadily burning more and more money. They realized that last year, and they changed. Since then, they've been steadily making money. They already rethought their buisness plan, and it looks damn good so far. With things going as they have, they'll be profitable in a few months. Needing to come up with US$2 million to get matching funds and break even isn't too bad, all things considered - that's about what they were burning during one month last year.
Mandrake has always given back to the community in the form of GPL code - you can download their entire distro free, try that with Xandros or Lindows or whatever else. They're appealing to those that have benefited from this to help them through tough times.
It's amazing the ignorance on Slashdot - "maybe they should make a good product first".
The transcontinental flights I've been on don't have adaptors for use in the regular section, just in buisness class or double-plus good class, whatever it's called now.
WinAmp analyizes the CD and queries the CDDB to get the information about that CD like title, artist, track listing, etc. That's a far cry from sending your life habits to some meglomanic corporation.
I've seen a lot of people comment on how much energy this would use, but no real numbers. I know it's subjective as to where you live, but generally, how much energy does a computer use? How much would this use?
I've had two years of Latin. It has helped me an incredible amount on the verbal parts to standardized testing, mostly the PSAT and the SAT. For those readers not up to speed on the US college game, scores from those tests are almost as important as grades in school in getting into lots of universities.
Would I do it again? Yes. Even though I transferred to Spanish after my requisite two years, it was most certainly not useless or boring - quite the contrary. The literature (if you read primary sources) is incredibly fascinating.
Actually, some of the first uses of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act were to break up the unions that were 'monopolizing labor.' It was passed long before Teddy, and to a greater extent Taft, got his hands on it.
Just because it's easy to use doesn't mean it's only for newbies.
I've been running Gentoo for the better part of a year. I switched to gcc-3x fairly early on and have been assaulted with many problems that have only been fixed in the past couple months. My gentoo works, but it's a bit cobbled together.
I installed 9.0-rc3 the other day for a LUG meeting. I was impressed. Really impressed. Everything worked, and worked well. Little tools like DrakSync just made my life easier going between desktop and laptop. NFS and SMB were no longer minor headaches. Printing actually worked. Fonts are beautiful. I'm keeping it, at least until I get bored with not having anything to fiddle with!
Am I going to replace the server? No way. Gentoo's definitly a keeper there. But Mandrake has re-convinced me that Linux really can be a desktop.
AIDS is not something that just kinda turns up in your system one fine morning; is an epidemic that can be effectively prevented with some very basic safeguards.
Rape is a huge problem in Africa, especially in the kwa-Zulu Natal area that has been described as the 'epicenter of AIDS' now that Uganda has gotten things under control. AIDS really can just kinda turn up in your system one morning without you having any choice in the matter - for many people, it's often not as simple as wearing a condom and not sharing a needle.
You're pretty unfairly ripping WineX. With a sample group of 8, statistics and percentages don't mean much. Check out Transgaming's list of games that work - it's pretty long. And the games they used aren't exactly new or anything - they use different versions of DirectX, and Transgaming has been working hard to provide wrappers for the _current_ version of DirectX, not the one from 3 years ago.
What I find funny is that I can't run the original Fallout under Windows 2000, but can run it under Wine/WineX.
If you're one of those guys who was always shy in high school and wanted to be more social, start right off the bat. The computer can wait - get out and make some friends. You're in a whole new environment with none of the baggage from high school. Whatever you do, don't be shy.
2. Prompting for a filesystem scan. Bad on the desktop, killer on the server. Who in the _world_ wants their bootup process interrupted by this busy work?
_I_ do. And I've never been prompted, either.
3. Printing needs to be easier to configure. Offer fewer choices (such as driver selection), and give easy access to print job control, as well as GUI-based diagnosis and correction of errors such as printer jams.
The user doesn't care what driver they use
Which user is this? He complains about not having enough driver choices - there a plenty, he just didn't pick his finger up to look. Between gimp-print-cups and linuxprinting.org, just about all printers are taken care of. Not to mention KDE3's Windows-like printer wizard.
4. Make it easy for the user to find out how to do things. Most Linux distributions come with a ton of applications, development tools, and support for all sorts of fancy devices. But none of this is very obvious when you boot into KDE or GNOME for the first time. The menu contains a few apps but they are scattered about and don't have names that reveal what they do. The vast majority of tools on the system aren't even in the menus. We need to make it easy for a new user to find out how to do stuff with their shiny new OS, without having to do a web search to find out.
Mandrake has already done this. A while ago.
6. Die stray processes, die!... Possible solution: when in X, WM should keep track of processes and the windows they are attached to. When an app has no windows open (or the main window is not open), the WM should attempt to kill them (first normally, then with -9).
Please kill fetchmail, please?
7. Easy way of sharing files. Ideally a right-click on a directory and chose "share this directory". Be able to pull up a list of all folders you are sharing and change permissions or remove the sharing.
KDE3 has an incredibly easy way of sharing files built in (besides smb) - there's a small little applet daemon that spawns a simple webserver for folders specified. Can't get any easier, takes only a few clicks.
10. No easy way to configure X - especially change resolution on the fly.
What are you doing that you need to change resolutions on the fly? The only possible thing I could see would be presentations and hooking a projector up to your monitor. Seriously, how many people really change thier resolutions on the fly? And in any event, I don't think Mandrake's configuration utility could get any easier - it just says "is this ok?" at the end!!!
Poorly thought-out article. To limit "Linux" to "Red Hat + KDE out of the box" is not only stupid but completely untrue. The vast majority of these "problems" are easily fixable or even already there.
My optimizations aren't exactly conservative, but don't break stuff either (-march=i686 -pipe -O3 -fomit-frame-pointer -mmmx -msse -mfpmath=sse) - you might want to give some of those a run (mine is a P3; yours might not have mmx or sse).
Definitly check the forums (forums.gentoo.org) - they're much more helpful than the mailing lists in my opinion.
I have Evolution 1.0.7 running perfectly on Gentoo. Several machines, in fact. Had a problem with 1.0.0 or somewhere around then, but it was minor and hasn't happened since. Works like a charm. Snappier than Outlook ever was.
I'm using gcc-3, too - no problems. What are your C/XXFLAGS? Overoptimization can be killer. Have you tried the Gentoo Forums? They're a big help.
We've got a Mitsubishi HDTV that's of ungodly size. It has a VGA-in in the back - of course, there's a cable running out so we can use it:) Unfortunately, it's limited to 640x480 - and only 640x480 - and it's not a good idea to leave it on with the same screen over and over because eventually it will burn into the screen, and you don't want a root prompt while watching your high def.
Although I haven't tried using it for anything more than that geeky gratification of knowing that my toy is pretty damn cool, it should work well.
Demolinux (http://www.demolinux.org/) runs Linux + KDE/GNOME off a CD. It can optionally write to the hard drive in what they call an "anchor file".
Devil-Linux (http://www.devil-linux.org/) is a distribution targeted at servers with a need for security. The/etc is a write-protected floppy disk, and all programs are loaded off CD-ROM.
I remember a Slashdot thread that I can't find about floppy-disk distros - some people chimed in about a Super-Rescue CD from kernel.org.
> 1. Why do I need to be told a login is required? Won't I find that out soon enough?
I would waste more time trying to load a slashdotted page than reading a sentence fragment and deciding that since I'm not going to register anyway I might as well just go to the comments and hope someone has whored the story.
I'm of mixed opinion on the reference. On one hand, it's childish and, as you indicated, is trying to be "hip". On the other hand, I'd rather have bad personality than none at all. I view slashdot as a community, not a newsfeed. If I want a newsfeed, I can check out Newsforge or C|Net or CNN's Tech section and get it there. I come to Slashdot because of the (sometimes) insightful commentary coming from people who know more than I do about a subject, and the occasional amusement from some troll who has been modded up. Sense of aquaitance is important. I don't want hemos and cmdtaco and whoever aloof from Slashdot's user base (even though they sometimes seem to be from themselves) - the site looses a lot of its appeal because it becomes just another newsfeed I'll check a few times a day.
Just looked, but couldn't find an older thread about this. The story was detailing that some ungodly number of terabytes were now supported by Linux or someone had made a bazillion-megabyte hard drive.
The question was the same: how am I going to back this thing up?
My girlfriend recently bought the new Eminem CD. Being the geek I am, while she was looking at the DVD it included, I looked over the CD - no official compact disc logo on it. I then check the box - no logo. I told her to not put it in her computer to play or else the computer might die like the other iMacs (maybe a bit of a strech...) - she didn't notice or even know that any harm could come to her computer by simply playing it.
Moral of the story: the graphic was small, and no one payed attention to it anyhow.
Slashdot Mirror
Mandrake was originally Red Hat + KDE. As far as I know, they don't go get Red Hat and modify it anymore - it's completely stand alone.
Being able to stay afloat a few quarters is pretty meaningless in terms of long-term solvency, and no one can predict if MandrakeSoft will make it even if they get the money they're looking for now. It seems probable, though.
RTFA.
They openly admit that their last leadership was bad - they were steadily burning more and more money. They realized that last year, and they changed. Since then, they've been steadily making money. They already rethought their buisness plan, and it looks damn good so far. With things going as they have, they'll be profitable in a few months. Needing to come up with US$2 million to get matching funds and break even isn't too bad, all things considered - that's about what they were burning during one month last year.
Mandrake has always given back to the community in the form of GPL code - you can download their entire distro free, try that with Xandros or Lindows or whatever else. They're appealing to those that have benefited from this to help them through tough times.
It's amazing the ignorance on Slashdot - "maybe they should make a good product first".
The transcontinental flights I've been on don't have adaptors for use in the regular section, just in buisness class or double-plus good class, whatever it's called now.
WinAmp analyizes the CD and queries the CDDB to get the information about that CD like title, artist, track listing, etc. That's a far cry from sending your life habits to some meglomanic corporation.
Check out http://www.freedb.org/
I've seen a lot of people comment on how much energy this would use, but no real numbers. I know it's subjective as to where you live, but generally, how much energy does a computer use? How much would this use?
MandrakeSoft Bugzilla: https://qa.mandrakesoft.com/
I've had two years of Latin. It has helped me an incredible amount on the verbal parts to standardized testing, mostly the PSAT and the SAT. For those readers not up to speed on the US college game, scores from those tests are almost as important as grades in school in getting into lots of universities.
Would I do it again? Yes. Even though I transferred to Spanish after my requisite two years, it was most certainly not useless or boring - quite the contrary. The literature (if you read primary sources) is incredibly fascinating.
Actually, some of the first uses of the Sherman Anti-Trust Act were to break up the unions that were 'monopolizing labor.' It was passed long before Teddy, and to a greater extent Taft, got his hands on it.
Just because it's easy to use doesn't mean it's only for newbies.
I've been running Gentoo for the better part of a year. I switched to gcc-3x fairly early on and have been assaulted with many problems that have only been fixed in the past couple months. My gentoo works, but it's a bit cobbled together.
I installed 9.0-rc3 the other day for a LUG meeting. I was impressed. Really impressed. Everything worked, and worked well. Little tools like DrakSync just made my life easier going between desktop and laptop. NFS and SMB were no longer minor headaches. Printing actually worked. Fonts are beautiful. I'm keeping it, at least until I get bored with not having anything to fiddle with!
Am I going to replace the server? No way. Gentoo's definitly a keeper there. But Mandrake has re-convinced me that Linux really can be a desktop.
That, and the fact that the biggest crime problems aren't shoplifting or speeding but more on the order of hijacking, kidnapping, and rape.
AIDS is not something that just kinda turns up in your system one fine morning; is an epidemic that can be effectively prevented with some very basic safeguards.
Rape is a huge problem in Africa, especially in the kwa-Zulu Natal area that has been described as the 'epicenter of AIDS' now that Uganda has gotten things under control. AIDS really can just kinda turn up in your system one morning without you having any choice in the matter - for many people, it's often not as simple as wearing a condom and not sharing a needle.
You're pretty unfairly ripping WineX. With a sample group of 8, statistics and percentages don't mean much. Check out Transgaming's list of games that work - it's pretty long. And the games they used aren't exactly new or anything - they use different versions of DirectX, and Transgaming has been working hard to provide wrappers for the _current_ version of DirectX, not the one from 3 years ago.
What I find funny is that I can't run the original Fallout under Windows 2000, but can run it under Wine/WineX.
If you're one of those guys who was always shy in high school and wanted to be more social, start right off the bat. The computer can wait - get out and make some friends. You're in a whole new environment with none of the baggage from high school. Whatever you do, don't be shy.
2. Prompting for a filesystem scan. Bad on the desktop, killer on the server. Who in the _world_ wants their bootup process interrupted by this busy work?
... Possible solution: when in X, WM should keep track of processes and the windows they are attached to. When an app has no windows open (or the main window is not open), the WM should attempt to kill them (first normally, then with -9).
_I_ do. And I've never been prompted, either.
3. Printing needs to be easier to configure. Offer fewer choices (such as driver selection), and give easy access to print job control, as well as GUI-based diagnosis and correction of errors such as printer jams.
The user doesn't care what driver they use
Which user is this? He complains about not having enough driver choices - there a plenty, he just didn't pick his finger up to look. Between gimp-print-cups and linuxprinting.org, just about all printers are taken care of. Not to mention KDE3's Windows-like printer wizard.
4. Make it easy for the user to find out how to do things. Most Linux distributions come with a ton of applications, development tools, and support for all sorts of fancy devices. But none of this is very obvious when you boot into KDE or GNOME for the first time. The menu contains a few apps but they are scattered about and don't have names that reveal what they do. The vast majority of tools on the system aren't even in the menus. We need to make it easy for a new user to find out how to do stuff with their shiny new OS, without having to do a web search to find out.
Mandrake has already done this. A while ago.
6. Die stray processes, die!
Please kill fetchmail, please?
7. Easy way of sharing files. Ideally a right-click on a directory and chose "share this directory". Be able to pull up a list of all folders you are sharing and change permissions or remove the sharing.
KDE3 has an incredibly easy way of sharing files built in (besides smb) - there's a small little applet daemon that spawns a simple webserver for folders specified. Can't get any easier, takes only a few clicks.
10. No easy way to configure X - especially change resolution on the fly.
What are you doing that you need to change resolutions on the fly? The only possible thing I could see would be presentations and hooking a projector up to your monitor. Seriously, how many people really change thier resolutions on the fly? And in any event, I don't think Mandrake's configuration utility could get any easier - it just says "is this ok?" at the end!!!
Poorly thought-out article. To limit "Linux" to "Red Hat + KDE out of the box" is not only stupid but completely untrue. The vast majority of these "problems" are easily fixable or even already there.
My optimizations aren't exactly conservative, but don't break stuff either (-march=i686 -pipe -O3 -fomit-frame-pointer -mmmx -msse -mfpmath=sse) - you might want to give some of those a run (mine is a P3; yours might not have mmx or sse).
Definitly check the forums (forums.gentoo.org) - they're much more helpful than the mailing lists in my opinion.
I have Evolution 1.0.7 running perfectly on Gentoo. Several machines, in fact. Had a problem with 1.0.0 or somewhere around then, but it was minor and hasn't happened since. Works like a charm. Snappier than Outlook ever was.
I'm using gcc-3, too - no problems. What are your C/XXFLAGS? Overoptimization can be killer. Have you tried the Gentoo Forums? They're a big help.
I can see it now:
"Free as in ad-sponsored"
Did anyone else read that as "OSI Launches Certification Program with Logo"
Had me befuddled there - OSI initiates thier certification program by choosing that old Windows learn-to-program langauge with the turtle?
Long day...
We've got a Mitsubishi HDTV that's of ungodly size. It has a VGA-in in the back - of course, there's a cable running out so we can use it :) Unfortunately, it's limited to 640x480 - and only 640x480 - and it's not a good idea to leave it on with the same screen over and over because eventually it will burn into the screen, and you don't want a root prompt while watching your high def.
Although I haven't tried using it for anything more than that geeky gratification of knowing that my toy is pretty damn cool, it should work well.
Demolinux (http://www.demolinux.org/) runs Linux + KDE/GNOME off a CD. It can optionally write to the hard drive in what they call an "anchor file".
/etc is a write-protected floppy disk, and all programs are loaded off CD-ROM.
Devil-Linux (http://www.devil-linux.org/) is a distribution targeted at servers with a need for security. The
I remember a Slashdot thread that I can't find about floppy-disk distros - some people chimed in about a Super-Rescue CD from kernel.org.
This article from about two months ago, entitled "Comparative Laptop Reviews", may be of some help, although it's mainly focused on x86.
> 1. Why do I need to be told a login is required? Won't I find that out soon enough?
I would waste more time trying to load a slashdotted page than reading a sentence fragment and deciding that since I'm not going to register anyway I might as well just go to the comments and hope someone has whored the story.
I'm of mixed opinion on the reference. On one hand, it's childish and, as you indicated, is trying to be "hip". On the other hand, I'd rather have bad personality than none at all. I view slashdot as a community, not a newsfeed. If I want a newsfeed, I can check out Newsforge or C|Net or CNN's Tech section and get it there. I come to Slashdot because of the (sometimes) insightful commentary coming from people who know more than I do about a subject, and the occasional amusement from some troll who has been modded up. Sense of aquaitance is important. I don't want hemos and cmdtaco and whoever aloof from Slashdot's user base (even though they sometimes seem to be from themselves) - the site looses a lot of its appeal because it becomes just another newsfeed I'll check a few times a day.
Just looked, but couldn't find an older thread about this. The story was detailing that some ungodly number of terabytes were now supported by Linux or someone had made a bazillion-megabyte hard drive.
The question was the same: how am I going to back this thing up?
The answer: on your _other_ 120 TB drive!
http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=5272
:)
The thread deals with making gcc-2.95 libraries avalible even when using gcc-3.1. It's a way of slowly easing into gcc3.
Although Gentoo doesn't make the older compiler avalible, you can make it avalible
My girlfriend recently bought the new Eminem CD. Being the geek I am, while she was looking at the DVD it included, I looked over the CD - no official compact disc logo on it. I then check the box - no logo. I told her to not put it in her computer to play or else the computer might die like the other iMacs (maybe a bit of a strech...) - she didn't notice or even know that any harm could come to her computer by simply playing it.
Moral of the story: the graphic was small, and no one payed attention to it anyhow.