Nice work... shame about those icons
on
GNOME 2.12 Previewed
·
· Score: 2, Insightful
... s/icons/wrinkles
Bring on the spat of posts telling me I can change the icon theme, as of course I do, but I'll say it again: Gnome needs a new default icon set. The icons in most of those screens are sadly still as dull, muddied, venerable and depressing as they were 6 years ago, when I first tried Gnome.
The forward and back arrows in Nautilus seem to have absoutely no graphical correllation with the rest of Gnome's visual landscape (except the Refresh icon). The ~/ icon still looks like a little squashy mushroom house from a childrens novel and the icons in the menu editor (for menu groups) have no internal correlation other than they exhibit a tongue-and-cheek dig at futurism. Who actually thinks of a typewriter when looking for 'office', let alone a bricklayers tool when thinking about development?. Is this theme targeting a 50+ demographic? For icons so small, that aliasing really eats into their form and lastly the colour space of the icons seems all over the place, as though to solve the lack of a common palette they have simply mixed Khaki greeen into everything. This one thing KDE has really sorted out.
From what I have seen of Gnome desktops over the years, these default icons have a life expectancy of about 2 weeks (especially that home icon). Why not finally lay them to rest - or just move them down the theme list, far away from 'Default'?
Of course OSX is portable to many target architectures, however it just isn't being ported. This is under duress of of Mr. Jobs, whose tactically retentive business agendas are exactly what I'm talking about above.
Five years to x86. Linux is only three times that in age.
This will always be the case for software one doesn't own (the right to modify and pass on), but rents, like OSX and Windows.
Kind of.
While I personally don't find OSX(Tiger) to be the high-performing, uber-intuitive, victoriously user-friendly OS people keep telling me it is, it's impossible to ignore Apple have created an incredibly successful, reasonably brand-loyal consumer base.
And I agree, they are in an advantageous position, however one stricken by a crippling glass ceiling.
OSX simply isn't the kind of platform nomadic OS it needs to be to reach ubiquity. Linux, being non-proprietary, has developed a talent for adaptability innately - arguably a the bulk of Linux kernel development itself is invested in sustaining this critical attribute. While some complain about KDE and Gnome not having the bells-and-whistles of OSX, Linux (if ever one can sum it's parts) has quietly been frying more important fish, and very wisely too.
Nowadays, it's increasingly hard to move data around a network without it being touched by Linux. Now phones, kiosks, ATM's and game consoles.. The word 'Linux', not being publically obliged to carry a brand, increasingly represents the set of robust and future-proof tools a given service provider deploys to get the job done. Now we're seeing it extend to public utility, government and administrative desktops en masse.
'Linux' simply doesn't appear on the kinds of brand-conscious radars we're used to using when tracking technology and culture, yet quietly continues to be the fastest growing operating system in the world. Apple however, is a company built on brand innovation, initially as the 'popular minority'; a vain, techo-arian multinational that has boldy engineered a bridge between the computer (as appliance) and the public space of popular culture. Here, the Apple brand is both a boon and an anchor, something to protect (not just any x86 machine), yet something to wear out (iPod).
In the context of popular operating systems, OSX is thus a social, yet exotic animal. As such it is desired as pet, but quickly dies when transported from it's natural habitat. Comparing OSX to others, outside the context of it's crippling architectural dependence, produces false and unrealistic prospects.
Having done alot of work on high end Linux (Maya, Blender), Windows (3DSMax, Blender) and OSX (Maya, Blender) workstations, it's safe to say one can't look past Nvidia on Linux for raw polygonal churning power. Linux is an industry standard 3D animation platform, renderfarms aside.
Perhaps with a substantial license deal Apple may deliver a distribution of OSX to fit, but out of the box it's a poor performer. Of note is that the proprietary Aqua interface hits the GPU for fast 2D blitting. The last thing you want is a DE that hogs your precious GPU for mere interface beautification. Similarly relative customiseability is important where mission critical work is to be done, for this reason OSX is significantly less viable. As for Windows, it's barely safe for home users let alone dear Gollum.
I read somewhere that there are a ridiculous number of Nvidia developers working on Linux driver support - hundreds comes to mind - and it is largely due to the fact that Nvidia nailed contracts with the feature film industry.
The proprietary Linux ATI drivers (if you want pixel and vertex shader support, this is a must) now perform incredibly well, though are still an annoyance to install for many. Given that ATI seem to be the card of choice for mobile machines, I look forward to the day ATI competes in the feature film market.
Re:I think KDE needs a new default icon set
on
Preview of KDE 3.5
·
· Score: 1
That said, I confess I deeply dislike the 'System' desktop icon, but not for aesthetic reasons primarily. The image suggests 'the computer' is a place on your desktop, so perpetuating regressive and unfortunate folklore about what a computer is, where it is and how it works. 'Home' or 'Files' for ~/ is all that's needed. / can be found from Konqueror if and when needed.
Countless numbers of times I've heard from users that their supposedly lost files are "in the computer", while pointing at that icon. When one opens up Konqueror or win32 Explorer to help them, they say "no, they're not there".
ASUSTeKshipped more than one million notebooks to Apple, the paper indicated. According to sources, the company produced Apple's 12.1-inch iBook and 12.1-inch PowerBook. ASUSTeK also secured orders for the 15.4-inch iBook, which will be launched in 2006, the sources added.
Rather than supporting the same kind of architecture monoculture that countless numbers of Apple customers, and even Jobs, have scorned vehemently for so many years, I wonder how many will rush at Lenovo's PPC workstations or the AMD64?
Seems Intel hardware is nearly as cheap as sentiment these days.
It's an ugly beast, this cannot be denied. To me it looks like a shamelessly rebadged Sager machine. Regardless, there are a few other HP laptops one can order with Ubuntu onboard. Here's a site that covers this lightly (german only).
Strangely I cannot find information about this on the HP page even though there was quite alot of hubbub about it when the news was announced. I think it's an 'on-request' thing, which equates to a tentative commitment to promoting this product on HP's part.
Anyway, there are a ton of companies out there that ship laptops with Linux. I hear very good reports about for instance.
I keep hearing these bizarre generalisations on what constitutes the 'Linux user interface'. Above you say:
..And Linux has a terrible user interface..
First off, Linux is not a 'thing', or a product. Some argue this is part of Linux's 'problem' (I call it an advantage). Not being a singular product, it doesn't have a singular user interface. Thankfully it provides a bunch of blocks from which you can build your own. Some people also think this is fun.
I'll say it again. Fedora will always be buggy, unstable and untested. That is what it was designed to do, serve as a community testing ground for products and services that may or may not make it into the commercially supported enterprise editions.
Stop complaining about Fedora and get a tested, 'stable', desktop focussed distribution. Most importantly, stop encouraging those new to Linux to try it.
wireless itself works fine. AFAIK the 'airport' card is just a repackaged Orinoco. things may be different on very new iBooks i don't know. there's a ton of information about running Linux (esp Debian) on the iBook - a very popular combination.
Apple airport is an apple only 'service' using non-standard, proprietary protocols only required when connecting to an Apple airport AP.
an iBook running Linux makes an ideal unit for wardriving as it is perhaps the only way you'll get monitor mode on the device (Airsnort, Kismet); i hear it's unlikely that a driver for the iBook on OSX supporting monitor mode will ever reach the platform. again, things may have changed since i last looked.
i know many iBook owners with Linux on board (Ubuntu being the prevailing distribution). for the boost in performance you can sack your Airport with little guilt.
It is clear you haven't used Linux in years. why on earth you are compiling applications I don't know.
My sister, someone who hates computers, hated Windows, and simply hates Linux less, types
the keyword of the kind of package she wishes to install in 'kpackage' and then hits the elusively titled 'Install' button to.. you guessed it.
Recently, after 2 years of Linux use she asked "what is the command line?", having heard about it from a friend. When asked how she's going with Linux she replied "i like the way i don't have to go to websites to install programs." That's her experience of Linux, in it's would be blazing, crippled complexity.
The article is on an enterprise Linux related site - there's your converted. The chances of this fabulous, life-saving news reaching Win32 admins is self-defeatingly low.
"a lucrative avenue for IBM in China, where the marriage of the Linux OS to PCs armed with [IBM] PowerPC chips.."
Frankly I've been hoping for this for a long time; especially given the fantastic performance of Linux on PPC in it's current iteration in the 2.6.* kernel range. Lenovo, please provide pre-sales contact details.
..or to start sniffing packets within 10 minutes of identifying a suspicious passenger and getting court approval..
Twice now I've been approached by EU airport security that have looked over my shoulder, seen a collection of terminals open and asked me a plethora of silly questions.
Like many, I was, and still do run a minimal window manager: on one occassion I had to actually start up a browser
(what that proves i don't know). The second incident was relaxed only by showing them that the email I was writing (in mutt) was to my mother. Another absurd situation had me spending 1.5 hours with security staff in Australia who weren't convinced that the kernel boot process wasn't actually some kind of evil hackery - they were routinely checking laptops and asked me to boot. A gigantic bloke came from upstairs, looked at the screen, gave a disturbing smile and said "it's fine."
Time to fly the friendly skies: install cheery ol' KDE with bootsplash.
Interesting.. I ran my own amateur 'benchmarks' on both eMacs and a G5 tower I was given to play around with. Where 3D rendering was concerned (Blender/Yafray) and video encoding, Debian (Ubuntu) PPC came out alot better than on OSX natively, and yes, a bit better than Ubuntu on x86. I didn't toy with the Ubuntu install at all other than installing the proprietary ATI drivers. That said, I've seen OSX rip _and_ encode a DVD faster than anything I've seen on Linux. Perhaps DMA wasn't active for the Linux DVD device, I'm not sure.
Until I read the aforementioned review I was sure that I hadn't turned on/off some feature off in OSX, hence the (comparitively) poor results; that may still be the case I guess. All that aside, is it possible that Apple are consciously slowing down their machines (aka Windows) to drive hardware sales?
My benchmarks were hardly comprehensive, but it does seem that OSX doesn't have anything over Linux where raw video encoding and 3D rendering are concerned. Perhaps Apple should look at some real optimisation to reclaim lost share in the feature film industry; a market where Linux is now very popular.
How many power users here have poked around with the Darwin sources to get their money's worth on the platform (GUI evangelism aside)?
Seems to back up this fairly depressing review of Tiger/G5 I've just finished reading. Say benchmarkers comparing Tiger to Linux on XEON:
Mac OS X is incredibly slow, between 2 and 5(!) times slower, in creating new threads, as it doesn't use kernel threads, and has to go through extra layers (wrappers). No need to continue our search: the G5 might not be the fastest integer CPU on earth - its database performance is completely crippled by an asthmatic operating system that needs up to 5 times more time to handle and create threads.
Top level of the review here. Note this review is really only relevant to high load server applications.
Slashdot Mirror
... s/icons/wrinkles
Bring on the spat of posts telling me I can change the icon theme, as of course I do, but I'll say it again: Gnome needs a new default icon set.
The icons in most of those screens are sadly still as dull, muddied, venerable and depressing as they were 6 years ago, when I first tried Gnome.
The forward and back arrows in Nautilus seem to have absoutely no graphical correllation with the rest of Gnome's visual landscape (except the Refresh icon). The ~/ icon still looks like a little squashy mushroom house from a childrens novel and the icons in the menu editor (for menu groups) have no internal correlation other than they exhibit a tongue-and-cheek dig at futurism. Who actually thinks of a typewriter when looking for 'office', let alone a bricklayers tool when thinking about development?. Is this theme targeting a 50+ demographic? For icons so small, that aliasing really eats into their form and lastly the colour space of the icons seems all over the place, as though to solve the lack of a common palette they have simply mixed Khaki greeen into everything. This one thing KDE has really sorted out.
From what I have seen of Gnome desktops over the years, these default icons have a life expectancy of about 2 weeks (especially that home icon). Why not finally lay them to rest - or just move them down the theme list, far away from 'Default'?
And I'm sure Aqua can run on Linux.
Of course OSX is portable to many target architectures, however it just isn't being ported. This is under duress of of Mr. Jobs, whose tactically retentive business agendas are exactly what I'm talking about above.
Five years to x86. Linux is only three times that in age.
This will always be the case for software one doesn't own (the right to modify and pass on), but rents, like OSX and Windows.
Kind of. While I personally don't find OSX(Tiger) to be the high-performing, uber-intuitive, victoriously user-friendly OS people keep telling me it is, it's impossible to ignore Apple have created an incredibly successful, reasonably brand-loyal consumer base.
And I agree, they are in an advantageous position, however one stricken by a crippling glass ceiling.
OSX simply isn't the kind of platform nomadic OS it needs to be to reach ubiquity. Linux, being non-proprietary, has developed a talent for adaptability innately - arguably a the bulk of Linux kernel development itself is invested in sustaining this critical attribute. While some complain about KDE and Gnome not having the bells-and-whistles of OSX, Linux (if ever one can sum it's parts) has quietly been frying more important fish, and very wisely too.
Nowadays, it's increasingly hard to move data around a network without it being touched by Linux. Now phones, kiosks, ATM's and game consoles.. The word 'Linux', not being publically obliged to carry a brand, increasingly represents the set of robust and future-proof tools a given service provider deploys to get the job done. Now we're seeing it extend to public utility, government and administrative desktops en masse.
'Linux' simply doesn't appear on the kinds of brand-conscious radars we're used to using when tracking technology and culture, yet quietly continues to be the fastest growing operating system in the world. Apple however, is a company built on brand innovation, initially as the 'popular minority'; a vain, techo-arian multinational that has boldy engineered a bridge between the computer (as appliance) and the public space of popular culture. Here, the Apple brand is both a boon and an anchor, something to protect (not just any x86 machine), yet something to wear out (iPod).
In the context of popular operating systems, OSX is thus a social, yet exotic animal. As such it is desired as pet, but quickly dies when transported from it's natural habitat. Comparing OSX to others, outside the context of it's crippling architectural dependence, produces false and unrealistic prospects.
Having done alot of work on high end Linux (Maya, Blender), Windows (3DSMax, Blender) and OSX (Maya, Blender) workstations, it's safe to say one can't look past Nvidia on Linux for raw polygonal churning power. Linux is an industry standard 3D animation platform, renderfarms aside.
Perhaps with a substantial license deal Apple may deliver a distribution of OSX to fit, but out of the box it's a poor performer. Of note is that the proprietary Aqua interface hits the GPU for fast 2D blitting. The last thing you want is a DE that hogs your precious GPU for mere interface beautification. Similarly relative customiseability is important where mission critical work is to be done, for this reason OSX is significantly less viable. As for Windows, it's barely safe for home users let alone dear Gollum.
Weta studios had an absurd number of IBM IntelliStations (Maya, Renderman, Alfred).
Seems a venerable KDE was their desktop of choice. More here.
I read somewhere that there are a ridiculous number of Nvidia developers working on Linux driver support - hundreds comes to mind - and it is largely due to the fact that Nvidia nailed contracts with the feature film industry.
The proprietary Linux ATI drivers (if you want pixel and vertex shader support, this is a must) now perform incredibly well, though are still an annoyance to install for many. Given that ATI seem to be the card of choice for mobile machines, I look forward to the day ATI competes in the feature film market.
Help Yourself
That said, I confess I deeply dislike the 'System' desktop icon, but not for aesthetic reasons primarily. The image suggests 'the computer' is a place on your desktop, so perpetuating regressive and unfortunate folklore about what a computer is, where it is and how it works. 'Home' or 'Files' for ~/ is all that's needed. / can be found from Konqueror if and when needed.
Countless numbers of times I've heard from users that their supposedly lost files are "in the computer", while pointing at that icon. When one opens up Konqueror or win32 Explorer to help them, they say "no, they're not there".
There is a BlenderCad currently in Pre-Alpha. Find it in this page of CAD related software for Linux.
Apple haven't made computers in a long time.
Taiwanese companies do it for them and have for a long time.
You're doing well - keep the faith. It sells.
Right.
Rather than supporting the same kind of architecture monoculture that countless numbers of Apple customers, and even Jobs, have scorned vehemently for so many years, I wonder how many will rush at Lenovo's PPC workstations or the AMD64?
Seems Intel hardware is nearly as cheap as sentiment these days.
It's an ugly beast, this cannot be denied. To me it looks like a shamelessly rebadged Sager machine. Regardless, there are a few other HP laptops one can order with Ubuntu onboard. Here's a site that covers this lightly (german only).
Strangely I cannot find information about this on the HP page even though there was quite alot of hubbub about it when the news was announced. I think it's an 'on-request' thing, which equates to a tentative commitment to promoting this product on HP's part.
Anyway, there are a ton of companies out there that ship laptops with Linux. I hear very good reports about for instance.
If you want everything to work, out of the box.
AFAIK Ubuntu now ships on HP machines if asked also.
I keep hearing these bizarre generalisations on what constitutes the 'Linux user interface'. Above you say: First off, Linux is not a 'thing', or a product. Some argue this is part of Linux's 'problem' (I call it an advantage). Not being a singular product, it doesn't have a singular user interface. Thankfully it provides a bunch of blocks from which you can build your own. Some people also think this is fun.
Here is the 'Linux User Interface' of a person that switched from OSX to Linux, and obviously missed the look and feel of Aqua.
Here is another Linux desktop. This Linux desktop is also popular with many users also.
I'm curious, what is this Linux 'user interface' you talk about?
I'll say it again. Fedora will always be buggy, unstable and untested. That is what it was designed to do, serve as a community testing ground for products and services that may or may not make it into the commercially supported enterprise editions.
Redhat themselves are very clear about this on the Fedora project page
Stop complaining about Fedora and get a tested, 'stable', desktop focussed distribution. Most importantly, stop encouraging those new to Linux to try it.
Moreover, I don't have to give the litigious bastards (Apple, of course) any of my dough!
If they were sensible they'd trademark "Litigious Bastard" and clean up. I can't count the number of times I've heard people call them that.
wireless itself works fine. AFAIK the 'airport' card is just a repackaged Orinoco. things may be different on very new iBooks i don't know. there's a ton of information about running Linux (esp Debian) on the iBook - a very popular combination.
Apple airport is an apple only 'service' using non-standard, proprietary protocols only required when connecting to an Apple airport AP.
an iBook running Linux makes an ideal unit for wardriving as it is perhaps the only way you'll get monitor mode on the device (Airsnort, Kismet); i hear it's unlikely that a driver for the iBook on OSX supporting monitor mode will ever reach the platform. again, things may have changed since i last looked.
i know many iBook owners with Linux on board (Ubuntu being the prevailing distribution). for the boost in performance you can sack your Airport with little guilt.
It's just like a treasure hunt, except you win back the time it would take you to read the article.
The winner is the first to find the word in the following URL that suggests the value of the article it links to:
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2139790/surveys
It is clear you haven't used Linux in years. why on earth you are compiling applications I don't know.
My sister, someone who hates computers, hated Windows, and simply hates Linux less, types the keyword of the kind of package she wishes to install in 'kpackage' and then hits the elusively titled 'Install' button to.. you guessed it.
Recently, after 2 years of Linux use she asked "what is the command line?", having heard about it from a friend. When asked how she's going with Linux she replied "i like the way i don't have to go to websites to install programs." That's her experience of Linux, in it's would be blazing, crippled complexity.
Secondly, why are you doing using redhat's experimental, sandbox OS, one even they admit is purely there as a public laboratory for testing developments that may or may not make it into their stable, supported, enterprise software.
Interesting this was also the case for the vacuous author of the original article.
Frankly I couldn't care either way, Linux is fun, free, powerful and flexible. Since when have computers not been about learning something.
The article is on an enterprise Linux related site - there's your converted. The chances of this fabulous, life-saving news reaching Win32 admins is self-defeatingly low.
Twice now I've been approached by EU airport security that have looked over my shoulder, seen a collection of terminals open and asked me a plethora of silly questions.
Like many, I was, and still do run a minimal window manager: on one occassion I had to actually start up a browser (what that proves i don't know). The second incident was relaxed only by showing them that the email I was writing (in mutt) was to my mother. Another absurd situation had me spending 1.5 hours with security staff in Australia who weren't convinced that the kernel boot process wasn't actually some kind of evil hackery - they were routinely checking laptops and asked me to boot. A gigantic bloke came from upstairs, looked at the screen, gave a disturbing smile and said "it's fine."
Time to fly the friendly skies: install cheery ol' KDE with bootsplash.
Interesting.. I ran my own amateur 'benchmarks' on both eMacs and a G5 tower I was given to play around with. Where 3D rendering was concerned (Blender/Yafray) and video encoding, Debian (Ubuntu) PPC came out alot better than on OSX natively, and yes, a bit better than Ubuntu on x86. I didn't toy with the Ubuntu install at all other than installing the proprietary ATI drivers. That said, I've seen OSX rip _and_ encode a DVD faster than anything I've seen on Linux. Perhaps DMA wasn't active for the Linux DVD device, I'm not sure.
Until I read the aforementioned review I was sure that I hadn't turned on/off some feature off in OSX, hence the (comparitively) poor results; that may still be the case I guess. All that aside, is it possible that Apple are consciously slowing down their machines (aka Windows) to drive hardware sales?
My benchmarks were hardly comprehensive, but it does seem that OSX doesn't have anything over Linux where raw video encoding and 3D rendering are concerned. Perhaps Apple should look at some real optimisation to reclaim lost share in the feature film industry; a market where Linux is now very popular.
How many power users here have poked around with the Darwin sources to get their money's worth on the platform (GUI evangelism aside)?
Seems to back up this fairly depressing review of Tiger/G5 I've just finished reading. Say benchmarkers comparing Tiger to Linux on XEON:
Top level of the review here. Note this review is really only relevant to high load server applications.