if you're an enterprise IT sysadmin, this is a nightmare. How can I check a site is up on a server with a certain domain name before I point DNS to it?
what, on the desktop? Since I've a) not got any icons on it because I don't use it as a file manager and b) completely obscured it with about 5 terminals, I'm not sure what I would want to do to it even if I could get to it without dragging something. Change the background? Not the most common task. My desktop has no context I could imagine would be useful.
Howsabout the ***AUTOHIDING*** taskbar the MS intoduced 17 years ago in Windows95?
The problem with that is that it either pops up and obscures stuff, or resizes anything in its way, which can totally change the formatting of text in there you happen to be reading, which confuses you. In fact, my pet hate with gnome 3 is that the notifications do the former, although they are transparent, and they are improving it for 3.4. But then again, I really don't miss the taskbar. If they added all this stuff to gnome 3 by default rather than through extensions, the first thing I would look for is the option to get rid of it.
However this idea of your only really doing one thing at a time
I'm a sysadmin. Do you think I do only one thing at a time? In the past I had 20 windows on my screen and couldn't find any. Now I have 2/3 per screen, and LOADS of virtual desktops, plus keyboard shortcuts for flipping between them in a variety of ways. In the old days I would just have 4 virtual desktops assigned to certain tasks, although I would always end up opening stuff on the wrong desktop. Now I just have lots and lots of desktops.
gnome ZOOOOOOOOMS out to frankly tiny windows
You've got too many windows on one desktop:-) That's the point and the main thing I had to get used to. Actually using the auto-new-desktop thing to your advantage rather than letting it confuse you.
I don't want to think where I put my windows. I know my personal browser sessions are on 3, along with any game I might be playing, my E-mail and other contact managers are on 1, and my database interface and Eclipse are running on 2.
I used to be exactly the same. then I realised I'm not doing the same activity every day. I used ION for a bit, where you REALLY have to plan ahead. I stuck with that, and the advantage of that 1 second of thinking is that it sticks in your head. I'm a sysadmin with about 20 terminals open at a time. By the end of the day I can't find which terminal is which, and the taskbar is useless, as it just looks like this:
out of the box, it could just come with a "gnome 2/windows 95 extension pack" if people really want a taskbar and icons all over the desktop (which you can't see because there's windows in the way)
I'm one of those rare people who stuck with that piece of shit and actually got the hang of using it efficiently. None of the suggested windows-95 throwbacks in the article are things I WANT back. I install about 5 extensions out of the box, and the only "tweak" I use is turning on focus-follows-mouse and making better keyboard shortcuts for desktop switching. The auto desktop management thing is a really efficient way of working once you get used to it, rather than assigning 4 desktops to different activities, then after an hour of use realising you've been putting the wrong windows on the wrong desktops and that you've got shit everywhere. It makes you think where you put your windows.
I don't need great big things wasting pixels I paid for
The top bar is about 16 pixels high, and with the overview replacing the windows-95-esque taskbar, I've gained about 48 rows from the bottom of the screen. I've got more screen space than ever. I run it on 2 1080p monitors and I'm not aware of anything using the space. Besides, it would need serious work to be a tablet interface. You can move windows round and resize them, while there's no clicky thing to switch desktops. that's either keyboard shortcuts or the top corner. If you want tablet, try metro.
Many extensions do that.. it goes against what gnome say, but they work. I've got my unread mail count in my panel..
desktop launchers
Urgh.. I'm sure someone could write one. I always turn off "file manager on desktop" because having to move a window out of the way to start something is a waste of time. I normally use my desktop space with, er, windows... you can already put files on the desktop. You can turn it on with the tweak tool. KDE got it right by adding a desktop widget, so it didn't take over the entire desktop. If I want to start an app, I go "t..e..r.." ooh, a terminal in 5 key presses!
user control of virtual desktops
There's an extension for that, although once you get used to it, the "new desktop every time you use the last" option is something I really don't want to go back from. It's really efficient once you've mapped better keys to desktop switching. Especially once you have 2 monitors and you CAN'T switch desktops on the other one. It acts like a sort of main work screen while all the web/email crap is the stuff you switch. Of course, there's an app to enable switching on the other screen.
menu alternatives that would remove the need for the overview
there's an extension for that. Although i'm not sure of the "remove the need". I prefer the overview - you don't have to use the mouse in it.
all of these could be added easily as options.
They ARE options. Try http://extensions.gnome.org./ There's even a single click on/off button for each extension to turn them on and off.
Honestly, people use it for 5 minutes and suddenly think they're an expert on desktop design by saying "lets make it like gnome 2!"
The subtext of this story is: it's walled garden time boys and girls, suck it down and like it.
And the sub-sub-text is that the number of "how to hack" sites and people who are getting surprisingly good at reverse-engineering stuff seems to be increasing, while Apple products seem to be an ever-increasing target.
I can't stand all these anti-sandboxing stories that make it sound like selling software over the Internet is so horrible. The app store is not old enough for you to be bitching about not being in the app store. This isn't even selling, it's free software joining the ranks of all the other free software out there.
It's Apple's 1984-esque bullshit like this which is the primary reason why I will never waste my money on an apple product until they change their ways. I don't want to buy a glorified media player, the difference between a computer and a set top box is that a computer has the ability to run any application, but apple are starting to blur this distinction by turning their systems into glorified set-top boxes. I don't care how easy it is to use. To be honest, the laptop we have to use when on-call is a macbook pro, and I'm not really overwhelmed by it - in fact, I don't like it. I want focus-follows-mouse.. oh, that would break the menu. Then again, I'm one of those weirdos who actually likes gnome 3 (yes, on a 1980x1080 screen).
I would lose interest overnight if all I could run on my computer was angry birds and fart apps.
The more time you spend on the road the higher the chance that you'll be involved in an incident
From the insurance company's point of view, that's entirely the point. What about people in urban areas who rarely use their car paying for the accidents of regular drivers?
but to be blind to something like CDE is fairly unforgivable
I'd call that an advantage. I've been trying to erase the horrible memories of running it on an underpowered sparc since 1998, and had almost completely blinded myself of it until this article. "developers are being encouraged to contribute". Here's my contribution: "rm -rf./cde".
CDE came out during the computer Stone Age. At that time, CDE was cutting edge
Was it hell. I remember when our university upgraded from sunos 4 to solaris, and for about a week, my afterstep desktop wouldn't work. Other people were running enlightenment. CDE was also horrifically slow. Oooh, a calculator! It was utterly less useful than AmigaOS 3, which I was happily using at home at the time.
For the record, I code with someone with aspergers in my demo group. I'll ignore the fact you refer to these people as "aspie" because it's not worth it. If it has an effect on his code, it's that it's disorganised and inconsistent, including down to indentation. I think you're mistaking aspergers for OCD.
PS. If you can't adopt the coding standards of the rest of the group, please don't ever apply to work for my company.
Slashdot Mirror
if you're an enterprise IT sysadmin, this is a nightmare. How can I check a site is up on a server with a certain domain name before I point DNS to it?
what, on the desktop? Since I've a) not got any icons on it because I don't use it as a file manager and b) completely obscured it with about 5 terminals, I'm not sure what I would want to do to it even if I could get to it without dragging something. Change the background? Not the most common task. My desktop has no context I could imagine would be useful.
OK, bad example - I have the terminal pinned to alt-m as well. Once you've pinned it to favourites, you can assign a keyboard shortcut to it.
The problem with that is that it either pops up and obscures stuff, or resizes anything in its way, which can totally change the formatting of text in there you happen to be reading, which confuses you. In fact, my pet hate with gnome 3 is that the notifications do the former, although they are transparent, and they are improving it for 3.4. But then again, I really don't miss the taskbar. If they added all this stuff to gnome 3 by default rather than through extensions, the first thing I would look for is the option to get rid of it.
I'm a sysadmin. Do you think I do only one thing at a time? In the past I had 20 windows on my screen and couldn't find any. Now I have 2/3 per screen, and LOADS of virtual desktops, plus keyboard shortcuts for flipping between them in a variety of ways. In the old days I would just have 4 virtual desktops assigned to certain tasks, although I would always end up opening stuff on the wrong desktop. Now I just have lots and lots of desktops.
You've got too many windows on one desktop :-) That's the point and the main thing I had to get used to. Actually using the auto-new-desktop thing to your advantage rather than letting it confuse you.
Because you're not running 3.2 :-)
It was? cripes. In terminals it's up, as it is in IRC. Down would confuse me!
Aren't you telling gnome and its users how to work? Isn't the article doing that?
I used to be exactly the same. then I realised I'm not doing the same activity every day. I used ION for a bit, where you REALLY have to plan ahead. I stuck with that, and the advantage of that 1 second of thinking is that it sticks in your head. I'm a sysadmin with about 20 terminals open at a time. By the end of the day I can't find which terminal is which, and the taskbar is useless, as it just looks like this:
[T..][T..][T..][T..][T..][T..][T..][T..][T..][T..][T..][T..][T..][T..]
Now I have about 6-10 desktops running, and you can always zoom out and see a preview.
I don't buy new clothes every hour.
out of the box, it could just come with a "gnome 2/windows 95 extension pack" if people really want a taskbar and icons all over the desktop (which you can't see because there's windows in the way)
I'm one of those rare people who stuck with that piece of shit and actually got the hang of using it efficiently. None of the suggested windows-95 throwbacks in the article are things I WANT back. I install about 5 extensions out of the box, and the only "tweak" I use is turning on focus-follows-mouse and making better keyboard shortcuts for desktop switching. The auto desktop management thing is a really efficient way of working once you get used to it, rather than assigning 4 desktops to different activities, then after an hour of use realising you've been putting the wrong windows on the wrong desktops and that you've got shit everywhere. It makes you think where you put your windows.
The top bar is about 16 pixels high, and with the overview replacing the windows-95-esque taskbar, I've gained about 48 rows from the bottom of the screen. I've got more screen space than ever. I run it on 2 1080p monitors and I'm not aware of anything using the space. Besides, it would need serious work to be a tablet interface. You can move windows round and resize them, while there's no clicky thing to switch desktops. that's either keyboard shortcuts or the top corner. If you want tablet, try metro.
There's an extension for that..
Many extensions do that.. it goes against what gnome say, but they work. I've got my unread mail count in my panel..
Urgh.. I'm sure someone could write one. I always turn off "file manager on desktop" because having to move a window out of the way to start something is a waste of time. I normally use my desktop space with, er, windows... you can already put files on the desktop. You can turn it on with the tweak tool. KDE got it right by adding a desktop widget, so it didn't take over the entire desktop. If I want to start an app, I go "t..e..r.." ooh, a terminal in 5 key presses!
There's an extension for that, although once you get used to it, the "new desktop every time you use the last" option is something I really don't want to go back from. It's really efficient once you've mapped better keys to desktop switching. Especially once you have 2 monitors and you CAN'T switch desktops on the other one. It acts like a sort of main work screen while all the web/email crap is the stuff you switch. Of course, there's an app to enable switching on the other screen.
there's an extension for that. Although i'm not sure of the "remove the need". I prefer the overview - you don't have to use the mouse in it.
They ARE options. Try http://extensions.gnome.org./ There's even a single click on/off button for each extension to turn them on and off.
Honestly, people use it for 5 minutes and suddenly think they're an expert on desktop design by saying "lets make it like gnome 2!"
Fortunately, he did throw in a good argument which you probably missed while you were masturbating over the latest fart app.
And the sub-sub-text is that the number of "how to hack" sites and people who are getting surprisingly good at reverse-engineering stuff seems to be increasing, while Apple products seem to be an ever-increasing target.
It's Apple's 1984-esque bullshit like this which is the primary reason why I will never waste my money on an apple product until they change their ways. I don't want to buy a glorified media player, the difference between a computer and a set top box is that a computer has the ability to run any application, but apple are starting to blur this distinction by turning their systems into glorified set-top boxes. I don't care how easy it is to use. To be honest, the laptop we have to use when on-call is a macbook pro, and I'm not really overwhelmed by it - in fact, I don't like it. I want focus-follows-mouse.. oh, that would break the menu. Then again, I'm one of those weirdos who actually likes gnome 3 (yes, on a 1980x1080 screen).
I would lose interest overnight if all I could run on my computer was angry birds and fart apps.
no. a turd in a cage.
nobody is forcing you to take the deal after they penalise you. There's other insurance companies. It's worth a punt.
From the insurance company's point of view, that's entirely the point. What about people in urban areas who rarely use their car paying for the accidents of regular drivers?
I'd call that an advantage. I've been trying to erase the horrible memories of running it on an underpowered sparc since 1998, and had almost completely blinded myself of it until this article. "developers are being encouraged to contribute". Here's my contribution: "rm -rf ./cde".
Was it hell. I remember when our university upgraded from sunos 4 to solaris, and for about a week, my afterstep desktop wouldn't work. Other people were running enlightenment. CDE was also horrifically slow. Oooh, a calculator! It was utterly less useful than AmigaOS 3, which I was happily using at home at the time.
I was gonna do that, but I would have to dig up the patio
OK mate. But I'll tell you anyway. It involves goose fat and waders and by the end of it it's hard to tell what's shit and what's chocolate.
not if you're an idiot. there's no law against it. admittedly, it leads to a lot of bugs, especially with 3D graphics
I once saw a tv show about music history and one of the frames was "1989: first email sent across the web". That's wrong on so many levels.
Meanwhile, I had the following conversation with my Aunt once:
Aunt: I just bought a DVD
Me: which one?
Aunt: Panasonic
For the record, I code with someone with aspergers in my demo group. I'll ignore the fact you refer to these people as "aspie" because it's not worth it. If it has an effect on his code, it's that it's disorganised and inconsistent, including down to indentation. I think you're mistaking aspergers for OCD.
PS. If you can't adopt the coding standards of the rest of the group, please don't ever apply to work for my company.