Re:They're improving the file dialogs...
on
GTK 2.6.0 Released
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· Score: 1
Don't forget Qt. I've enjoyed beautiful file dialogs in KDE for as long as I can remember....
Agreed on this point (but not on your second one:)) - to the poster asking how to improve GTK's file choosing dialog, I would simply say: Copy QT's One.
Don't be so defensive - you raise a good point. As much as I love Linux (and use it full-time at home), I still can't quite shake off the feeling that using it as my home desktop is roughly akin to being a crazy old man who lives in a hut in the woods eschewing electricity and modern conveniences for purely idealogical concerns - the OS equivalent of being Amish;). Where will the Microsoft ex-patriate flee? Again, as much as I personally like it (and "like" != "run it smoothly and trouble-free") I could not, in good conscience, recommend it to anyone else [unless they were a non-savvy user who simply wanted to browse & e-mail with impunity, like my dear old mum:)], which leaves Macs which, while apparently excellent, are not exactly wallet-friendly.
So we are at something of an impasse; quite a lot of people are sick of Microsoft, but there really (debatably) aren't any credible, cheap alternatives.
This is why I'm always heartened to hear rave reviews of the latest distros like e.g. Ubuntu, whose beta release made substantial strides in useability and "It Just Works"-factor for the "common" (ugh) desktop-user. My own experience is that Linux desktop useability has increased substantially even over the last year, and it seems to be accelerating. Call me an optimist, but by the time Longhorn comes out, Linux will be a very credible alternative. For now, however, (in my opinion) there is a large measure of truth to what you say, and it is a problem.
Oops! Lose the quotes round the URL; also, drop everything after (and including) the first ampersand, as these obviously have a special meaning in *n*x and cygwin (I'm guessing that's why you added the quotes).
Has the OS movement's hatred for Microsoft overwhelmed their perceived goals?
This is a good point. From my point of view, I'd like to see Microsoft dislodged as quickly as possible, as you can bet that they *will* try to crush OSS, or at least marginalise it to the point where it might as well not exist outside of a small circle of hobbyists. Also, technologies such as Palladium may even allow them to accomplish this goal.
Part of the "Microsoft hate" is because Microsoft threatens the very existence of OSS; "winning over" a decent section of the mindshare to OSS will help to prevent this.
The most recent game I bought was Doom 3. Runs great on Linux - took all of 5 minutes to set up following the instructions, and unlike the Windows version, you don't have to put the CD in every time you want to play it.
s/Doom 3/Unreal Tournament 2004/ and this describes my experience exactly - a very pleasant surprise:)
Although there are other areas where Linux excels, this is one problem I have found. Every distribution requires one to go to a different area of the GUI (or even worse, command-line) just to install or uninstall software.
I'm not sure I agree with this (although I obviously agree that the average user wouldn't want to user the command-line to install apps!;)) - I think most people would prefer to have a list of available categorised software for them to browse through, and pick what they want. Say someone thinks "I'd like to play a puzzle game!". They load up the Install Software GUI (you can put a link to this on the desktop, so they don't have to hunt for it), click "Games", click "Puzzle", and then choose any games they want (Mandrake's repositories offer a brief description of all apps, so they will have a reasonably good idea of whether the game sounds interesting to them). They they check the checkboxes next to the ones they want, click the Install button, and do whatever they want until the "Software is installed!" prompt appears. Theire chosen games are then ready to play. To make an admittedley strained anaolgy, it's the difference between going to a restaurant and rooting through their cupboards to decide what to eat, or being given a swanky Menu to choose from:)
Again, the average user does not or is not going to want to have to worry about scripting something together just to install multiple apps at once. At this point it would be alot easier to just use the click-through-installation method (unless of course you are installing on alot of computers, which there are tools available to install on multiple machines).
Perhaps I wasn't clear; it's not necessary to script installation for installing multiple apps (although it is definitely a very nice feature for the power-user, or a guy who builds & installs Linux PCs for other people); you just check off all of the software you want in the GUI, go away from the computer or do something else, and when you come back everything is ready to go. To me, this is immeasurably more convenient than having to download each app individually from disparate sites and baby-sitting it through the install process (choosing paths, ignoring EULAs, etc;)) and I don't really see how anyone could disagree with this.
One of my favourite "Doh!" moments occurred when I was playing Unreal Tournament 2004 and suddenly everything ground to a halt; the frame rate dropped to sub-20fps, and the harddrive was going crazy. After a while it stopped, and I just wrote it off as Linux being lame. When I'd finished playing, I closed UT04 and was surprised to find an entire fucking office suite installed on my computer; I'd forgotten that I'd done an urpmi openoffice [could have done it from the GUI, but it's sometimes slightly more convenient from the command-line, if you're not afraid of it] before playing, and the slowdown occurred when the download had finished and the actual installation had begun. I didn't have to read one crappy License Agreement, or choose one option; everything installed by itself without needing to be baby-sat. I was really very impressed:)
Indeed. When things go right (which, in all honesty, is almost all the time) I find installation of software under Linux to be actually superior to Windows; just bring up the Install Software GUI, browse/ search the categorised list of 1000's of pieces of software for the application(s) you want to install, click Install and go and make a cup of tea while everything is downloaded and installed. Or, if you want to grab one app very quickly, just urpmi/ apt-get/ emerge from the command-line.
It sure beats "google for app name, find download page, download, double-click setup, choose install dir, click through installation" etc, especially when you want to install several apps at once (say, on a clean install). It's even scriptable!
Having said that, when things go wrong and the dependencies are broken, or you want a more up-to-date version than is provided in the repositories, then yes, Windows thrashes the pants of Linux for ease of installation.
avidemux is a pretty good AVI editor, but it can't handle MPEGs, alas.
Re:While this is great for open source advocates..
on
TheOpenCD 2.0 Released
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· Score: 1
I agree about OSS software being oversold. I was repeatedly informed that Linux + OSS was always more stable, more secure, and just plain better than closed-source software + Windows, so I eagerly downloaded and installed Mandrake 9.1.
Christ. What an incredibly painful experience - konqueror would hard-lock every single time I did a file search. Gnome System Monitor would reliably hard-lock everytime I try to kill a root-owned process (actually, now that I come to think of it, this one still happens). I spent an entire evening trying to install some little toy app - the kind you'd download, install, play with once, and forget on Windows - and just got bogged down in the list of unresolved and mismatched dependencies. Annoyances both minor and major, and too many to list. My reaction was hard to describe, but "violent backlash" is pretty close - I hated Linux with a passion, and wiped it and went back to XP a few days later, and would probably not have gone back to it if Windows hadn't started hard-locking on me [I wanted to see if it was some corrupted driver, or a dodgy piece of hardware, so I tried it with Linux - turned out to be a faulty graphics card fan]
This time as I installed Mandrake 10, my expectations were much reduced, and, after a few teething troubles, I decided this Linux lark wasn't so bad. A few days later, I was hopelessy in love with my clean, functional, legal, free machine, and haven't had a Windows install on my desktop since.
In my case, a chance experience led to a happy ending, but the message is clear - the more a product is oversold, the more bitterly disappointed the user will be when it fails to meet his inflated expectations, and the resultant souring can easily last forever.
There's a great example of this in a book I read (unfortunately, I forget which; I think it was either "The Demon Haunted World" or "Higher Superstition"). New labs were to be built somewhere, and the locals protested vehemently. One choice (paraphrased) quote:
"We don't want scientists bringing DNA into our town".
for a little bit about hotmail.
As to why it is not integrated into more clients, I really can't speculate. I seem to recall that the Thunderbird developers were amenable to the inclusion of hotmail support (which, as I stated in the comment above, is going to be less useful once it becomes a "pay-only" feature) but simply don't have enough manpower to add it - odd, as the protocol is well-understood and there are GPL'd solutions already written.
I gather that canines and a felines have recently begun to co-habit.
Re:Features for KDE 3.4 that should be there
on
Preview of KDE 3.4
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· Score: 1
I've had *huge* troubles getting the KDE menu to work right on occasion. The menueditor is slow to start up, "saving" the changes sends the harddrive in to a frenzy (just what the hell is it doing, anyway?), and it will very often fail and keep failing until I restart KDE - hardly convenient (I've heard others report the bug before - something to do with "Failing to attach to DCOP process", or something). Contrast this with Windows, where I can click "Start" and immediately and seamlessly start dragging, copying or deleting menu entries without having to crank up some buggy additional application.
Don't get me wrong; I run Linux + KDE full-time at home, but I genuinely cannot understand how anyone can defend the KDE menu editing system, or say it's "no worse than Windows 95 and above".
You can check hotmail at least using hotwayd (under Linux) and BlueHttpMail (?) under Windows. It uses the exact same WebDav protocol that OE uses to check hotmail, so it doesn't break every time hotmail change their site layout (like, e.g., the gotmail script). Basically, hotwayd acts as a WebDav (-) POP3 translator. BlueHttpMail (or whatever it's called) goes one step further, and acts as a WebDav (-) IMAP converter [damn slashdot filters!]. I think there is something similar for Yahoo.
Unfortunately, MS are soon to remove the WebDav method of access for all but paid accounts, as it is a vector for spam. >:(
I may be wrong, but I believe the extensions (is that what you meant?) can execute arbitray code, with the permissions of the user. The same goes for proper plug-ins, I guess. Not good, but at least you have to jump through a few hoops to install stuff.
Lastly, why is it that American "homies" can't even come up with a decently spelled version of the word "shit" when trying to represent the phonetic "homie" version of the word: 'shee-it.' (or 'shee-ite,' or 'shee-it' if you prefer) The stupidity in writing 'shite' all the time in CounterStrike chat or on websites such as Slashdot drives me crazy!
"Shite" is actually a synonym for shite; it's used reasonably often in Britain. It sounds a little bit classier than "shit":)
http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=shite
I gather that some people, in after hearing about the havoc they can wreak, will fight tooth and nail to keep their copies of Gator, Weatherbug and Bonzi Buddy installed, and protest very loudly if they are taken away.
In the latest versions of Firefox, all.xpi installs are blocked, except from sites included in a very small whitelist. The user is informed that a site has tried to install software, and that you must explicitly add the site to your whitelist if you want it to install. It's not a perfect solution, but it does at least add to the number of steps required for someone to install a.xpi on their system.
In the end, though, the only way to combat user stupidity is through education (an uphill struggle) or by denying them the ability to install any software on their own system (which I balk at). It's a sad state of affairs:(
Perhaps it is more a matter of application start-up time than overall responsiveness, I'm not sure
I understand that most Linux GUI apps do indeed start up more slowly than their Windows counterparts, due to the fact that they must be dynamically linked(?). Pre-linking apparently speeds start-up time considerably. Gentoo is supposed to have excellent support for pre-linking apps (which must be fully recompiled whenever one of their compent libraries is updated, in contrast with the dynamic(?) linking model).
Indeed. xorg have some good things planned, and progress, now that they have thrown off the shackles of XFree, is very swift. I read a post last month on their devel mailing list that says there is a functional X-server layered on top of Open GL - it's currently unstable, immature, and unoptimised, but hopefully it will be able to match or beat Longhorn's vaunted new graphics engine one day.
And a related question: How can I find information on how to program a Firefox extention. I can't seem to find any links about coding one from the Firefox website. (And google didn't help either.)
Slashdot Mirror
Don't be so defensive - you raise a good point. As much as I love Linux (and use it full-time at home), I still can't quite shake off the feeling that using it as my home desktop is roughly akin to being a crazy old man who lives in a hut in the woods eschewing electricity and modern conveniences for purely idealogical concerns - the OS equivalent of being Amish ;). Where will the Microsoft ex-patriate flee? Again, as much as I personally like it (and "like" != "run it smoothly and trouble-free") I could not, in good conscience, recommend it to anyone else [unless they were a non-savvy user who simply wanted to browse & e-mail with impunity, like my dear old mum :)], which leaves Macs which, while apparently excellent, are not exactly wallet-friendly.
So we are at something of an impasse; quite a lot of people are sick of Microsoft, but there really (debatably) aren't any credible, cheap alternatives.
This is why I'm always heartened to hear rave reviews of the latest distros like e.g. Ubuntu, whose beta release made substantial strides in useability and "It Just Works"-factor for the "common" (ugh) desktop-user. My own experience is that Linux desktop useability has increased substantially even over the last year, and it seems to be accelerating. Call me an optimist, but by the time Longhorn comes out, Linux will be a very credible alternative. For now, however, (in my opinion) there is a large measure of truth to what you say, and it is a problem.
Oops! Lose the quotes round the URL; also, drop everything after (and including) the first ampersand, as these obviously have a special meaning in *n*x and cygwin (I'm guessing that's why you added the quotes).
;)
I said it was rough around the edges
Part of the "Microsoft hate" is because Microsoft threatens the very existence of OSS; "winning over" a decent section of the mindshare to OSS will help to prevent this.
Clippy?
One of my favourite "Doh!" moments occurred when I was playing Unreal Tournament 2004 and suddenly everything ground to a halt; the frame rate dropped to sub-20fps, and the harddrive was going crazy. After a while it stopped, and I just wrote it off as Linux being lame. When I'd finished playing, I closed UT04 and was surprised to find an entire fucking office suite installed on my computer; I'd forgotten that I'd done an urpmi openoffice [could have done it from the GUI, but it's sometimes slightly more convenient from the command-line, if you're not afraid of it] before playing, and the slowdown occurred when the download had finished and the actual installation had begun. I didn't have to read one crappy License Agreement, or choose one option; everything installed by itself without needing to be baby-sat. I was really very impressed
Indeed. When things go right (which, in all honesty, is almost all the time) I find installation of software under Linux to be actually superior to Windows; just bring up the Install Software GUI, browse/ search the categorised list of 1000's of pieces of software for the application(s) you want to install, click Install and go and make a cup of tea while everything is downloaded and installed. Or, if you want to grab one app very quickly, just urpmi/ apt-get/ emerge from the command-line.
It sure beats "google for app name, find download page, download, double-click setup, choose install dir, click through installation" etc, especially when you want to install several apps at once (say, on a clean install). It's even scriptable!
Having said that, when things go wrong and the dependencies are broken, or you want a more up-to-date version than is provided in the repositories, then yes, Windows thrashes the pants of Linux for ease of installation.
avidemux is a pretty good AVI editor, but it can't handle MPEGs, alas.
I agree about OSS software being oversold. I was repeatedly informed that Linux + OSS was always more stable, more secure, and just plain better than closed-source software + Windows, so I eagerly downloaded and installed Mandrake 9.1.
Christ. What an incredibly painful experience - konqueror would hard-lock every single time I did a file search. Gnome System Monitor would reliably hard-lock everytime I try to kill a root-owned process (actually, now that I come to think of it, this one still happens). I spent an entire evening trying to install some little toy app - the kind you'd download, install, play with once, and forget on Windows - and just got bogged down in the list of unresolved and mismatched dependencies. Annoyances both minor and major, and too many to list. My reaction was hard to describe, but "violent backlash" is pretty close - I hated Linux with a passion, and wiped it and went back to XP a few days later, and would probably not have gone back to it if Windows hadn't started hard-locking on me [I wanted to see if it was some corrupted driver, or a dodgy piece of hardware, so I tried it with Linux - turned out to be a faulty graphics card fan]
This time as I installed Mandrake 10, my expectations were much reduced, and, after a few teething troubles, I decided this Linux lark wasn't so bad. A few days later, I was hopelessy in love with my clean, functional, legal, free machine, and haven't had a Windows install on my desktop since.
In my case, a chance experience led to a happy ending, but the message is clear - the more a product is oversold, the more bitterly disappointed the user will be when it fails to meet his inflated expectations, and the resultant souring can easily last forever.
There's a great example of this in a book I read (unfortunately, I forget which; I think it was either "The Demon Haunted World" or "Higher Superstition"). New labs were to be built somewhere, and the locals protested vehemently. One choice (paraphrased) quote:
"We don't want scientists bringing DNA into our town".
See my comment here:
c id=10984354
http://linux.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=131547&
for a little bit about hotmail. As to why it is not integrated into more clients, I really can't speculate. I seem to recall that the Thunderbird developers were amenable to the inclusion of hotmail support (which, as I stated in the comment above, is going to be less useful once it becomes a "pay-only" feature) but simply don't have enough manpower to add it - odd, as the protocol is well-understood and there are GPL'd solutions already written.
I gather that canines and a felines have recently begun to co-habit.
I've had *huge* troubles getting the KDE menu to work right on occasion. The menueditor is slow to start up, "saving" the changes sends the harddrive in to a frenzy (just what the hell is it doing, anyway?), and it will very often fail and keep failing until I restart KDE - hardly convenient (I've heard others report the bug before - something to do with "Failing to attach to DCOP process", or something). Contrast this with Windows, where I can click "Start" and immediately and seamlessly start dragging, copying or deleting menu entries without having to crank up some buggy additional application.
Don't get me wrong; I run Linux + KDE full-time at home, but I genuinely cannot understand how anyone can defend the KDE menu editing system, or say it's "no worse than Windows 95 and above".
You can check hotmail at least using hotwayd (under Linux) and BlueHttpMail (?) under Windows. It uses the exact same WebDav protocol that OE uses to check hotmail, so it doesn't break every time hotmail change their site layout (like, e.g., the gotmail script). Basically, hotwayd acts as a WebDav (-) POP3 translator. BlueHttpMail (or whatever it's called) goes one step further, and acts as a WebDav (-) IMAP converter [damn slashdot filters!]. I think there is something similar for Yahoo.
Unfortunately, MS are soon to remove the WebDav method of access for all but paid accounts, as it is a vector for spam. >:(
I may be wrong, but I believe the extensions (is that what you meant?) can execute arbitray code, with the permissions of the user. The same goes for proper plug-ins, I guess. Not good, but at least you have to jump through a few hoops to install stuff.
I gather that some people, in after hearing about the havoc they can wreak, will fight tooth and nail to keep their copies of Gator, Weatherbug and Bonzi Buddy installed, and protest very loudly if they are taken away.
:(
It's depressing
In the latest versions of Firefox, all .xpi installs are blocked, except from sites included in a very small whitelist. The user is informed that a site has tried to install software, and that you must explicitly add the site to your whitelist if you want it to install. It's not a perfect solution, but it does at least add to the number of steps required for someone to install a .xpi on their system.
:(
In the end, though, the only way to combat user stupidity is through education (an uphill struggle) or by denying them the ability to install any software on their own system (which I balk at). It's a sad state of affairs
Indeed. xorg have some good things planned, and progress, now that they have thrown off the shackles of XFree, is very swift. I read a post last month on their devel mailing list that says there is a functional X-server layered on top of Open GL - it's currently unstable, immature, and unoptimised, but hopefully it will be able to match or beat Longhorn's vaunted new graphics engine one day.
This one seems to be very highly regarded: http://extensions.roachfiend.com/howto.php/