regardless of zany SFX, i reckon it's about time gnome does something about it's icons.
there's always been something 'smoked' or 'damp' about them.. themes should be called "Journey to the Mushroom Planet" or "Camping in the Rain". the 'My Computer'(ish) desktop icon is a metaphor so tired it yawns on it's own. this said, the http://librsvg.sourceforge.net/screenshots/gorilla.jpgGorilla theme however is getting somewhere, i don't know why the gnome-devs don't make that the default theme.
is it a case of lagging sentamentalism? gnome itself has evolved into something extremely useable. why are the icons still lost in a pipe-dream?
...errm but OSX isn't free and (for many) has a horrible, confusing, ram and GPU hogging UI. secondly many linux users do miss many applications natively available in popular linux distributions.
regardless there are many real reasons to switch. i know several people that moved from OS9 to OSX and switched to Linux, claiming that OSX was slow, difficult to learn and ugly. i realise that it may be surprising to hear that, given Apple's increased suggestion that they have user-friendliness down to a tee; but for many their particularly rare approach to user-friendliness doesn't suit some people.
even moreso these days given that installing something like Ubuntu linux on a g4 PB takes about an hour and Just Works TM.
Afterall most people just want a clean, easy to install (and maintain OS), to check email, browse, view movies. not one that constantly reminds them of the entire LifeStyle Computing suite offered by the vendor company. and again, they don't have to pay for it. linux feels good, a person can grow into their computer, make it theirs.
Apple (well in fact Asus, IBM and Quanta who make it for them) offer good hardware, second only to Asus in the laptop range. thanks to linux, hardware need not be considered mutually dependent on platform. we should celebrate this fact.
i'd be interested to see the package matchup/difference across native debian and OSX.
that said though, i just can't see any reason to run OSX. the interface is just so horrible and confusing. also being not free, non-portable and all..
benchmarks also seem a bit poor for 3D applications, largely due to the fact that the OS is using the card for fast blitting. albeit 2D, i'd rather be using the card for what i want thanks;)
The EPO is a paper-pushing business- practically a private firm. The last thing they need is more money. Sadly there is alot of under-the-table talk between Parliament members and various corporate (largely US) monopolies. The EU would be much safer with a less 'buyable' source of regulatory control, ideally in the form of a panel of publically nominated experts. This would at least protect the ecology of software development in the EU from rash, uneducated and catastrophic decisions...of course, who watches the watchman..
Software patents themselves make little or no sense as an IP protection mechanism, especially considering the vast capital required to register and 'protect' a patent. Many good ideas come from small places, however swpatents discourage innovation through fear of the possiblity of legal consequences for small to medium size developers. For this reason the GPL does more to protect the interests of the developer, and the quality of software in general. If you have a good idea and you want to protect it, tell someone.. and if someone else implements 'your idea' in a better way or before you.. then clearly you just weren't interested in it enough;)
so given your statement would you say the patents in this list are innovations? can you innovate upon the 'invention' of "Watching Video in a Browser"?.. perhaps "Watch Video in a Car"... hmm
But it means something like half an hour for the official process and about 10 hours to wipe up the broken bits. And that is going to quickly take a person to dependencies, permissions, restores, modules.conf, processes and configuration files. The tough question is how much this can be automated among the programs and the programs that depend upon them.
fedora is poor in this regard.
the fix is use apt or the popular apt-gui synaptic, preferably on a debian system. an upgrade in debian stable is a while-i-make-coffee experience (bandwidth dependent). if i was a little more exciteable i'd almost make it a cronjob.
the rpm package managers of the day really are making life difficult for newcomers, some of which are technology journalists/reviewers (given the marketing clout of many rpm based distros).
one of the ongoing unequated factors in TCO analysis is that of time. this always surprises me. certainly the switch itself is expensive, consider moving house, or training for a new job. however after this period TCO analyses rarely factor that of ongoing maintenance where (and from experience) Windows is prohibitively expensive for a small business, let alone those of any size in developing countries.
once training is complete for staff (or recycling those from a UNIX sysadmin background) ongoing costs will inevitably be be cheaper with a switch to linux on the basis of reduced maintenance.. this is influenced by the fact that M$ products are rarely (and strategically so) independent. each M$ product requiring another proprietary product to make up for it's short-falls; even a well configured wintel box is dependent on antiviralware or firewalls, each with their own licensing paradigms and upgrade agendas. in other words Windows is an OS that encourages the "you get what you pay for" mentality; this inevitably drives the shopping list
with this in mind we ought to ask just how total is this 'cost of ownership'?
Cut Down Windows is simply not an option. how can developing countries expect to compete with stunted software? or maybe that's the idea...
it looks like asus are also making the iPod now.. Asus do make great laptops (at least their current range); a little lighter, cooler and quieter than the apple books. i guess this will reflect in the next round of shipments.
sure i see what your saying. having spent 3 days trying to learn the user-unfriendly OSX desktop environment for a project, i can relate; any new technology presents itself as a difficulty. that said i think we are talking about different sizes of fish.
given the plethora of difficulties one can have with machines, with people, with uninstalling photoshop and with baking pastry, 'modprobe -r usbmouse usbkb && modprobe usbhid' is not too formidable.
if the user of this device is a linux user (as i am), they would find little difficulty in following Perens howto, perhaps it will even come with the product documentation one day..
it is third party hardware, loading a driver is necessary for its use. if one doesn't want to undertake this task, then one shouldn't purchase the device.
aww comeon. if it wasn't the word 'module' but driver there'd be no complaint. you'd just say "ahah, we need the handy new one-driver-fits-all" and be done with it.
what bruce doesn't mention (and not to his discredit) is that the 'driver' usbhid (USB Human Input Device) is already stock with most current kernels, no download, or install CD's required.
i tried to use OSX for a few days with some real intent, but just found the interface so unbearably complex and confusing. a veritable circus of FX and layered, semantic prompts and 'helpers'. it just doesn't talk back to me in a language i can begin to understand.
admittedly i am a longtime fan of the CLI (i like to speak to my computer) but many others i know reject the OSX DE over Gnome or KDE (neither of which I use however) declaring it's easier to understand. Some of these people have come from apple's OS 9.
put simply, apple's flag of useability is not generic, but very particular and specialised; this is contrary to their gross and apparently empirical assumptions that useability can be homogenized and typified.
secondly OSX is itself a specialist OS, built for specialist hardware. for many it is simply too risky to invest in such a rarified OS, hence linux on the PPC can be a wiser choice with more flexibility and less likelihood of feeling that ones growing ability is locked in to a very particular breed of machine.
finally OSX itself isn't free, and thus cannot *actively and integrally* invlove end users in the design process; it's a third part y company designing how i should use a computer based on an economically defined generalisation of statistical information gleaned from user-testing. this conseravtive approach is old fashioned, anti-innovation and on the short way out.
while wed to apt, i have little proof that other distro's are more vulnerable by design. remember the SSL vuln in debian a year or so back? now that was a lurker.
yes i'm aware of this, having been a happy linux user of many years. however this is not a pre-emptive measure against future viruses, so much as a means of dealing with them should they arise.
the emphasis is important; consider the rigorous security testing policies undertaken by kernel developers before a new release for instance. that said, this doesn't apply to agents like viruses that are designed to persistently seek and exploit a variety of vulnerabilities on a system-wide level. it would be interesting to create a proving ground for evaluating the risk of viruses on an off-the-shelf Linux system. even invite Norton's whitehat virus writers to have a crack at it. once done, publish the results (granted existing anti-virus companies will not want to encourage awareness of the relative security of a 'Linux System' as they are reliant on vulnerable systems for their bread and butter - maybe we should do that for them).
certainly what consitutes a 'Linux system' as a singularity becomes difficult given the inherent modular structure, as security is addressed on case by case application and kernel levels. however, part of the problem of promoting the security and benefits of this excellent OS is the general reluctance to make public statements about Linux as a singular entity in comparison to Wintel (which markets it's product very much in this fashion). i am often asked by those considering migration, will there be viruses for Linux when it becomes as popular as Windows? Sure we linux users already know the answer, but who else does?
well the idea is to create a context/culture for evaluating and cornering vulnerabilities, as opposed to the foolish "it's ok until it's not" attitude.
in other words, include viruses as an environmental condition of running a system on a network, and create an inclusive, non-arbitrary context for their development. this may sound ridiculous, but in many ways methods for finding security vulns in FOSS is already performed in this fashion.
linux especially is well setup for this, and already benefits from such an approach in other areas relating to security.
naturally the structure of strict privilege designation in *nix generally makes for an environment unconducive to viruses generally...
just kidding, albeit this would be nice to see. it may put to rest some assumptions that the relative popularity for windows is the pre-emptive reason there are so many viruses for the platform. perhaps Symantec would be the glad sponsor - somehow i doubt it;)
Slashdot Mirror
regardless of zany SFX, i reckon it's about time gnome does something about it's icons.
there's always been something 'smoked' or 'damp' about them.. themes should be called "Journey to the Mushroom Planet" or "Camping in the Rain". the 'My Computer'(ish) desktop icon is a metaphor so tired it yawns on it's own. this said, the http://librsvg.sourceforge.net/screenshots/gorill
is it a case of lagging sentamentalism? gnome itself has evolved into something extremely useable. why are the icons still lost in a pipe-dream?
think i'll just stick with X.org and http://icculus.org/openbox/
damn those elusive < >'s
there, i said it
...errm but OSX isn't free and (for many) has a horrible, confusing, ram and GPU hogging UI. secondly many linux users do miss many applications natively available in popular linux distributions.
regardless there are many real reasons to switch. i know several people that moved from OS9 to OSX and switched to Linux, claiming that OSX was slow, difficult to learn and ugly. i realise that it may be surprising to hear that, given Apple's increased suggestion that they have user-friendliness down to a tee; but for many their particularly rare approach to user-friendliness doesn't suit some people.
even moreso these days given that installing something like Ubuntu linux on a g4 PB takes about an hour and Just Works TM.
Afterall most people just want a clean, easy to install (and maintain OS), to check email, browse, view movies. not one that constantly reminds them of the entire LifeStyle Computing suite offered by the vendor company. and again, they don't have to pay for it. linux feels good, a person can grow into their computer, make it theirs.
Apple (well in fact Asus, IBM and Quanta who make it for them) offer good hardware, second only to Asus in the laptop range. thanks to linux, hardware need not be considered mutually dependent on platform. we should celebrate this fact.
right! very interesting.
i'd be interested to see the package matchup/difference across native debian and OSX.
that said though, i just can't see any reason to run OSX. the interface is just so horrible and confusing. also being not free, non-portable and all..
benchmarks also seem a bit poor for 3D applications, largely due to the fact that the OS is using the card for fast blitting. albeit 2D, i'd rather be using the card for what i want thanks
yes but to install what? i'd miss all the Debian package goodness..
The EPO is a paper-pushing business- practically a private firm. The last thing they need is more money. Sadly there is alot of under-the-table talk between Parliament members and various corporate (largely US) monopolies. The EU would be much safer with a less 'buyable' source of regulatory control, ideally in the form of a panel of publically nominated experts. This would at least protect the ecology of software development in the EU from rash, uneducated and catastrophic decisions.
Software patents themselves make little or no sense as an IP protection mechanism, especially considering the vast capital required to register and 'protect' a patent. Many good ideas come from small places, however swpatents discourage innovation through fear of the possiblity of legal consequences for small to medium size developers. For this reason the GPL does more to protect the interests of the developer, and the quality of software in general. If you have a good idea and you want to protect it, tell someone.. and if someone else implements 'your idea' in a better way or before you.. then clearly you just weren't interested in it enough
so given your statement would you say the patents in this list are innovations? can you innovate upon the ' invention ' of "Watching Video in a Browser"?.. perhaps "Watch Video in a Car"... hmm
fedora is poor in this regard.
the fix is use apt or the popular apt-gui synaptic, preferably on a debian system. an upgrade in debian stable is a while-i-make-coffee experience (bandwidth dependent). if i was a little more exciteable i'd almost make it a cronjob.
the rpm package managers of the day really are making life difficult for newcomers, some of which are technology journalists/reviewers (given the marketing clout of many rpm based distros).
i'm sure compiling X.org for 4 days would impress the manager..
one of the ongoing unequated factors in TCO analysis is that of time. this always surprises me. certainly the switch itself is expensive, consider moving house, or training for a new job. however after this period TCO analyses rarely factor that of ongoing maintenance where (and from experience) Windows is prohibitively expensive for a small business, let alone those of any size in developing countries.
once training is complete for staff (or recycling those from a UNIX sysadmin background) ongoing costs will inevitably be be cheaper with a switch to linux on the basis of reduced maintenance.. this is influenced by the fact that M$ products are rarely (and strategically so) independent. each M$ product requiring another proprietary product to make up for it's short-falls; even a well configured wintel box is dependent on antiviralware or firewalls, each with their own licensing paradigms and upgrade agendas. in other words Windows is an OS that encourages the "you get what you pay for" mentality; this inevitably drives the shopping list
with this in mind we ought to ask just how total is this 'cost of ownership'?
Cut Down Windows is simply not an option. how can developing countries expect to compete with stunted software? or maybe that's the idea...
errm, here's the link with the taiwanese companies that make the apple range.
it looks like asus are also making the iPod now.. Asus do make great laptops (at least their current range); a little lighter, cooler and quieter than the apple books. i guess this will reflect in the next round of shipments.
.. and when it does come, i wonder if we can get it unbadged ;)
i wonder if you can get these iBook G5's unbadged.
or the Quanta Powerbook G5... hmm, apples or oranges.
http://kde-look.org/content/preview.php?preview=1
yes i jest.. but it does reveal another dimension to this discussion
sure i see what your saying. having spent 3 days trying to learn the user-unfriendly OSX desktop environment for a project, i can relate; any new technology presents itself as a difficulty. that said i think we are talking about different sizes of fish.
given the plethora of difficulties one can have with machines, with people, with uninstalling photoshop and with baking pastry, 'modprobe -r usbmouse usbkb && modprobe usbhid' is not too formidable.
if the user of this device is a linux user (as i am), they would find little difficulty in following Perens howto, perhaps it will even come with the product documentation one day..
it is third party hardware, loading a driver is necessary for its use. if one doesn't want to undertake this task, then one shouldn't purchase the device.
sporty, if the only thing that is easy is a '4 function calculator', then our set of all-things-hard has just widened beyond the scope of this thread.
aww comeon. if it wasn't the word 'module' but driver there'd be no complaint. you'd just say "ahah, we need the handy new one-driver-fits-all" and be done with it. what bruce doesn't mention (and not to his discredit) is that the 'driver' usbhid (USB Human Input Device) is already stock with most current kernels, no download, or install CD's required.
linux is easy, don't make it hard
i tried to use OSX for a few days with some real intent, but just found the interface so unbearably complex and confusing. a veritable circus of FX and layered, semantic prompts and 'helpers'. it just doesn't talk back to me in a language i can begin to understand.
admittedly i am a longtime fan of the CLI (i like to speak to my computer) but many others i know reject the OSX DE over Gnome or KDE (neither of which I use however) declaring it's easier to understand. Some of these people have come from apple's OS 9.
put simply, apple's flag of useability is not generic, but very particular and specialised; this is contrary to their gross and apparently empirical assumptions that useability can be homogenized and typified.
secondly OSX is itself a specialist OS, built for specialist hardware. for many it is simply too risky to invest in such a rarified OS, hence linux on the PPC can be a wiser choice with more flexibility and less likelihood of feeling that ones growing ability is locked in to a very particular breed of machine.
finally OSX itself isn't free, and thus cannot *actively and integrally* invlove end users in the design process; it's a third part y company designing how i should use a computer based on an economically defined generalisation of statistical information gleaned from user-testing. this conseravtive approach is old fashioned, anti-innovation and on the short way out.
while wed to apt, i have little proof that other distro's are more vulnerable by design. remember the SSL vuln in debian a year or so back? now that was a lurker.
yes i'm aware of this, having been a happy linux user of many years. however this is not a pre-emptive measure against future viruses, so much as a means of dealing with them should they arise.
the emphasis is important; consider the rigorous security testing policies undertaken by kernel developers before a new release for instance. that said, this doesn't apply to agents like viruses that are designed to persistently seek and exploit a variety of vulnerabilities on a system-wide level. it would be interesting to create a proving ground for evaluating the risk of viruses on an off-the-shelf Linux system. even invite Norton's whitehat virus writers to have a crack at it. once done, publish the results (granted existing anti-virus companies will not want to encourage awareness of the relative security of a 'Linux System' as they are reliant on vulnerable systems for their bread and butter - maybe we should do that for them).
certainly what consitutes a 'Linux system' as a singularity becomes difficult given the inherent modular structure, as security is addressed on case by case application and kernel levels. however, part of the problem of promoting the security and benefits of this excellent OS is the general reluctance to make public statements about Linux as a singular entity in comparison to Wintel (which markets it's product very much in this fashion). i am often asked by those considering migration, will there be viruses for Linux when it becomes as popular as Windows? Sure we linux users already know the answer, but who else does?
well the idea is to create a context/culture for evaluating and cornering vulnerabilities, as opposed to the foolish "it's ok until it's not" attitude.
in other words, include viruses as an environmental condition of running a system on a network, and create an inclusive, non-arbitrary context for their development. this may sound ridiculous, but in many ways methods for finding security vulns in FOSS is already performed in this fashion.
linux especially is well setup for this, and already benefits from such an approach in other areas relating to security.
naturally the structure of strict privilege designation in *nix generally makes for an environment unconducive to viruses generally...
still we hear them cry "Prove it!"
just kidding, albeit this would be nice to see. it may put to rest some assumptions that the relative popularity for windows is the pre-emptive reason there are so many viruses for the platform. perhaps Symantec would be the glad sponsor - somehow i doubt it ;)
i took your advice while shooting crack into my iris. i eventually found my Peaches, my Peruvian Goldfish in /var/log/chrony.
terrible..