I know some will probably tag this as a troll or a flamebait, however IMHO this is exactly why Linux will never be able to really replace either Windows or Mac OS X for desktop usage.
I feel it's inappropriate to assume that statement is entirely true because of one example. A good example of what I mean is how Beryl forked from Compiz for 3D desktop features in Linux. Beryl ended up with much more eye candy, but was considered less stable by many. Now, however, Beryl merged back in with Compiz to form Compiz Fusion, which provides most of the eye candy from Beryl and the stability of Compiz Fusion. Ultimately, I feel it provided the perfect mix of what users want vs. what users need.
You need to unite your efforts, not work against each others.
The beauty of open source and the example I provided with Beryl and Compiz, is that competition like this can create an end result of the two parties helping eachother. If a party does not wish to bend to the wills of other users, then you end up with a truly free "market" where the best product(s) win.
The whole KDE vs Gnome debate is one of the things that keeps Windows on PCs.
Again, I beg to differ here. The biggest reasons why Windows remains the strongest in the market is: 1. it's what most people are familiar with, and presently what the overwhelming majority of software has been written for, and 2. OEM vendors don't generally offer viable alternatives (this appears to have been changing recently, however). Also, KDE and GNOME are supposed to co-host their "flagship conferences" in 2009. ^_^
What I think is most important to note here is that the egos of individuals should have no relevance what-so-ever in making decisions such as this. A pissing contest between individuals is certainly of no interest to me (though I admittedly don't know how much of what's going on in this instance) or any end-user. What is relevant is the demand of users, which will most likely allow the best product/fork to win in the end, or result in the best result/feature-set to be merged in with the originating project.
Apple is getting the high margin users that want a good desktop experience
I certainly agree with you here
and Linux is getting more and more users that need good value deals
I agree with you here, but disagree with what you might have inadvertently implied (even though you're not explicitly stating Windows provides a better desktop experience). ^_^
A big point used in making the decision of what OS to use is also largely determined from what a person is already familiar with, and what a person is already used to hearing about it. For example, I like to make the "Linux is too difficult to use as a Desktop OS" analogous to the idea that tomatoes are unfit for eating.
Since the post talks about what games the misses dislikes, I'll do my best with that even though no insight about what she does like was provided. Worms Armageddon is a seriously fun game anyone can play. It's an old game, and I want to say there is some hacked version that can run at higher resolutions than it was originally capable of handling, so I would suggest buying the game and looking into that. Also, I would recommend looking into emulators for NES, SNES, and so on. There is a ton of stuff out there for that which could provide a wide variety of games that are tons of fun to play (even if the graphics are far from top-notch).
Even though you can't go spit-screen on this one, if either or both of you likes racing games, GTR2 is a seriously good racing simulator, but keep in mind that the average person might find its realistic physics to be frustrating. The Logitech Momo force-feedback steering wheel works exceptionally well for this and other racing games.
If the misses also likes diablo-style games, Titan quest is a game my wife enjoyed. Again, you can't go split-screen here, but it could provide some good entertainment for both of you. Of course, if you have another PC in the house, you could play together over a LAN. ^_^
Though I love gaming, each month seems to bring me closer and closer to blowing away all three of my windows boxes and replacing them with a distro of Ubuntu or something similar. My lack of knowledge is the one thing keeping that at bay for now.
In case you didn't already know, the next version of Ubuntu comes out Thursday this week (April 24th 2008). Though I would recommend waiting until the initial rush is over and you can actually connect to one of the mirrors (this may take a few days to a week), this new version includes a Windows installer which allows you to install (and uninstall, if you so desire) Ubuntu without having to worry about partitions and other aspects of OS installation you might be uncomfortable with. Here's a link to where it's mentioned on the Ubuntu site.:-)
Not at all. In fact, you might even see (takes a very deep breath) Vista Lite Home Basic, Vista Lite Home Premium, Vista Lite Business, Vista Lite Business Enterprise, and Vista Lite Ultimate, Vista Lite for the Eee PC Home Basic, Vista Lite for the Eee PC Home Premium, Vista Lite for the Eee PC Business, Vista Lite for the Eee PC Business Enterprise, and Vista Lite for the Eee PC Ultimate. =P
Quality is relative. Have you seen the amount of effort McDonalds puts into their menu items? They go through incredibly great lengths and rigorous testing with dishes hoped to be new menu items to ensure they can provide then same end-result through all of their suppliers. Think about the magnitude of such an effort, simply so you don't eat something at one McDonald's and think, "geeze, I thought this tasted much better last time - I won't order this again." While I would firmly agree that the quality of food is incredibly poor, you must admit they go to great lengths to maintain their brand -- you pretty much know what you're going to get when you order from McDonald's. Sure, if something doesn't taste so good, the McDonald's store could tell you it's the supplier's fault, but would you really care? Likewise, if it was a driver (or combination of drivers) and/or some third-party software making Windows crash constantly and/or perform poorly, would that change your perception about Windows being a crappy product? Keep in mind I'm not stating my opinion on Windows, I'm just trying to bring up some good questions to keep in mind when forming your own opinion of it.:-)
I always thought the next generation of prosthetic arms would allow you to store up so much energy, your entire body would appear to blink and make a weird noise. You could then release that energy toward any given direction. Also, you should have a rapid-fire button built into the arm. We would call this the mega-buster.
I can sympathize with you here. I accepted a job for an 'entry-level' position at one point because at the time, anything was better than the hell-hole I was already in. After working for them as a contractor for two years, they offered to hire me permanently. The pay they offered me was measly compared to what everyone else there was getting paid, and they refused to bump me up to the next 'level' position. Their excuse was that it was good money for someone my age. But the real kicker is that I had just as much experience in the field and performed infinitely better than one of their "senior" developers who was so stupid and almost cost the company a $10 million contract. I was the one who ended up cleaning up the mess and saving that contract (with an already full plate, mind you). I feel I asked for a commensurate raise after that (it honestly wasn't much at all -- it's not like I was asking to be bumped up to the senior position or even anything remotely close to it), and got a "but you're making good money for someone your age" response again. So a few weeks after that, I lined up another job, I put in my 2 weeks, and I now work for a (small) company that I'm lucky truly respects and appreciates me. Fact is, what I asked for was still less than fair to me for my level of experience and the level of work I was doing (never mind the amount of work I was doing and unpaid overtime I was putting in).
So while I agree it is entirely wrong for any individual, young or "mature," to lash out in some malicious manner, I can sympathize with the many talented young individuals and how they feel when they make the poor decision to do so. I, and likely many if not most other young professionals, clearly understand that we have to work our way up. However, we do feel some sense of entitlement to respect and appreciation for our work (at least from the employer -- client's are another story ^_^). We understand we have much to learn, but that doesn't make us doormats, and that needs to be understood. I'll reiterate that acting in a malicious manner doesn't entitle anyone any respect or appreciation, as one's talent means nothing without integrity, in my humble opinion.
I'm more of a casual gamer, and like the parent post, I often lean toward the console for gaming. I love using Linux to work, and occasionally, I need Windows for testing. Given that I need to have Windows available anyway, it only seems practical that I install Windows games on Windows rather than hoping the software to run Windows games in Linux works out. Am I wrong to venture a guess that this is likely the case for many (not necessarily most) who use Linux regularly? Between users like me and users who simply prefer consoles for gaming, perhaps there's a good chance many more Linux users are gamers than TFA's author thinks? I get the impression TFA is really trying to inquire as to what may be done to make Linux a more attractive gaming platform. Just for the sake of throwing it out there, I can't help but wonder how profitable it could be to sell a console which uses Linux for it's platform. I'm oblivious as to how competitive this could really be considering how much control console makers presently try to retain.
I don't really know how many people are going to want to play with their gadgets as though they were silly putty
Well, if they bend, stretch, and vibrate, I'd say a pretty good number of people will play with their gadgets (though not quite like silly putty). What really matters at that point is whether or not it's water proof. =P
On a more serious note though, I can really appreciate the additional durability one would expect with this, as parent mentioned. I've actually broken a few phones just from leaving the phone on my pocket and rolling over the wrong way while working on my car. Though I've learned to take my phone out of my pocket before I start work like that, it'll be nice if that's one less worry. On that note, it'd also be nice if it was water proof (and possibly heat resistant) as well in case it gets left in the pant pockets and run through the washer and dryer.
Just imagine if Ford started yanking every eBay Motors posting that had a picture of a Ford automobile. It is their picture, isn't it? I'd like to see how eBay would react to something like that...
The parent post has it right. The difference between news regarding US relations with Cuba and news about Brad and Angelina is the second part of the tag-line (which was conveniently omitted from GP's post): "Stuff that matters."
Or are we/.'ers different from most citizens, and if so, why?
Voluntary Response is the answer to your question. Those who do care voluntarily voice their opinion in various ways, such as posting/. comments. ^_^ Many if not most citizens don't appear care enough to even follow what's going on with government. They're too preoccupied with their own little worlds, and until those bubbles are burst, they will continue living their lives in deliberate and blissful ignorance. Mod me as flamebait/troll for saying it for all I care, but when Britney Spears requiring medical treatment makes front page news, yet Russia resuming cold war patrol flights and threatening to point missiles at Ukraine (I'll refrain from writing a book of my opinions on that matter) is seemingly nowhere to be found (on the larger, more popular American news web sites), I'd say it's pretty difficult to deny this sad truth.
If you've done nothing wrong,you have nothing to fear. Just so long as they don't redifine what's wrong, with retro-active effect.
Though I expect that was posted with the sole intent of stirring up some muddy water, that sort of mind-set is clearly dangerous. The problem here is that we're continuously loosing more and more of our rights which protect us from our government. A false identification of an average citizen or legitimate businessman visiting from another country who happens to closely resemble a terrorist, but actually isn't the real-deal, could lead to false imprisonment for years if not a life-time, and without habeas corpus (because they may not necessarily acknowledge your claimed citizenship is valid), there is no stopping them. Honest citizens do have something to be horribly upset about: being treated like a potential terrorist and having every aspect of ourselves and our belongings intruded upon for a false sense of security.
I'm even going to throw in the good old car analogy too. I happen to still have my old Honda Civic from high school. When I got it (the price was right, so I took what I could get at the time), it had the crappy fart-pipe on it, and it had some shiny designer rims. I ripped the fart-pipe off, but I didn't see any point in removing the rims since even plain steel rims can be relatively costly. When I drive that car, the police see a young Spanish guy in a Honda Civic with after-market rims, and typically follow me for a while, sometimes even until I'm out of their jurisdiction (I cross counties on my way too and from work every day). When I drive my other car, which is a plain Ford Focus, police never pay any mind to me what-so-ever. They clearly profile, no matter how much they try to deny it. If they ran my plate, they'd see I'm 100% clean, so why continue to follow me until I hit the county line only when I'm driving *that* car? The car gets good gas mileage, so there is still good value to driving it rather than selling it, and it's nice to have it as a spare if my primary car has to hit the shop. Still, I sometimes wonder what these guys are thinking. Do they really think I'm some sort of threat? Do they feel I'm doing something retarded like running drugs? Who knows? What I know is that I really loathe being profiled like that every time I drive that car, as I'm a honest citizen who has done nothing wrong. So am I afraid? Not no, but hell no. Am I pissed off, oh hell yes. Don't doubt for a moment that the same thing won't happen when they're eventually watching every step you make, as opposed to periodically patrolling around in a car. You should be pissed off too.
What we really is a National Semen Database just in case the criminal ejaculates all over the scene of the crime.
Nah, what they really need to do is have the ability to identify people by their genitals. See, by doing so, you could be forced to identify yourself in public, thus making you a sex offender, and thus voiding any human rights you had left. Of course, I'm just making random crap up, obviously, but I really feel their intentions are just as absurd.
Haha, you do have a good point there. I remember my initial reaction when I read about the potential speeds behind DOCSIS 3.0. I thought to myself, "wtf would I do with that much bandwidth at home?" The only thing I can think of is delivery of HD media/TV over the Internet, but I just don't seem myself getting into that considering I don't watch much TV presently.
Slashdot Mirror
This is Slashdot... Two minutes is a very generous compliment. ^_^
They could send them shit. Enough of something like that just might get the message across. =P
Is that you, Grandpa? =P
I feel it's inappropriate to assume that statement is entirely true because of one example. A good example of what I mean is how Beryl forked from Compiz for 3D desktop features in Linux. Beryl ended up with much more eye candy, but was considered less stable by many. Now, however, Beryl merged back in with Compiz to form Compiz Fusion, which provides most of the eye candy from Beryl and the stability of Compiz Fusion. Ultimately, I feel it provided the perfect mix of what users want vs. what users need.
The beauty of open source and the example I provided with Beryl and Compiz, is that competition like this can create an end result of the two parties helping eachother. If a party does not wish to bend to the wills of other users, then you end up with a truly free "market" where the best product(s) win.
Again, I beg to differ here. The biggest reasons why Windows remains the strongest in the market is: 1. it's what most people are familiar with, and presently what the overwhelming majority of software has been written for, and 2. OEM vendors don't generally offer viable alternatives (this appears to have been changing recently, however). Also, KDE and GNOME are supposed to co-host their "flagship conferences" in 2009. ^_^
What I think is most important to note here is that the egos of individuals should have no relevance what-so-ever in making decisions such as this. A pissing contest between individuals is certainly of no interest to me (though I admittedly don't know how much of what's going on in this instance) or any end-user. What is relevant is the demand of users, which will most likely allow the best product/fork to win in the end, or result in the best result/feature-set to be merged in with the originating project.
I certainly agree with you here
I agree with you here, but disagree with what you might have inadvertently implied (even though you're not explicitly stating Windows provides a better desktop experience). ^_^
A big point used in making the decision of what OS to use is also largely determined from what a person is already familiar with, and what a person is already used to hearing about it. For example, I like to make the "Linux is too difficult to use as a Desktop OS" analogous to the idea that tomatoes are unfit for eating.
Since the post talks about what games the misses dislikes, I'll do my best with that even though no insight about what she does like was provided. Worms Armageddon is a seriously fun game anyone can play. It's an old game, and I want to say there is some hacked version that can run at higher resolutions than it was originally capable of handling, so I would suggest buying the game and looking into that. Also, I would recommend looking into emulators for NES, SNES, and so on. There is a ton of stuff out there for that which could provide a wide variety of games that are tons of fun to play (even if the graphics are far from top-notch).
Even though you can't go spit-screen on this one, if either or both of you likes racing games, GTR2 is a seriously good racing simulator, but keep in mind that the average person might find its realistic physics to be frustrating. The Logitech Momo force-feedback steering wheel works exceptionally well for this and other racing games.
If the misses also likes diablo-style games, Titan quest is a game my wife enjoyed. Again, you can't go split-screen here, but it could provide some good entertainment for both of you. Of course, if you have another PC in the house, you could play together over a LAN. ^_^
In case you didn't already know, the next version of Ubuntu comes out Thursday this week (April 24th 2008). Though I would recommend waiting until the initial rush is over and you can actually connect to one of the mirrors (this may take a few days to a week), this new version includes a Windows installer which allows you to install (and uninstall, if you so desire) Ubuntu without having to worry about partitions and other aspects of OS installation you might be uncomfortable with. Here's a link to where it's mentioned on the Ubuntu site. :-)
So what would they do if I searched for Hand Banana? Seriously though, people would probably just find alternative words and/or phrases to use.
Not at all. In fact, you might even see (takes a very deep breath) Vista Lite Home Basic, Vista Lite Home Premium, Vista Lite Business, Vista Lite Business Enterprise, and Vista Lite Ultimate, Vista Lite for the Eee PC Home Basic, Vista Lite for the Eee PC Home Premium, Vista Lite for the Eee PC Business, Vista Lite for the Eee PC Business Enterprise, and Vista Lite for the Eee PC Ultimate. =P
Quality is relative. Have you seen the amount of effort McDonalds puts into their menu items? They go through incredibly great lengths and rigorous testing with dishes hoped to be new menu items to ensure they can provide then same end-result through all of their suppliers. Think about the magnitude of such an effort, simply so you don't eat something at one McDonald's and think, "geeze, I thought this tasted much better last time - I won't order this again." While I would firmly agree that the quality of food is incredibly poor, you must admit they go to great lengths to maintain their brand -- you pretty much know what you're going to get when you order from McDonald's. Sure, if something doesn't taste so good, the McDonald's store could tell you it's the supplier's fault, but would you really care? Likewise, if it was a driver (or combination of drivers) and/or some third-party software making Windows crash constantly and/or perform poorly, would that change your perception about Windows being a crappy product? Keep in mind I'm not stating my opinion on Windows, I'm just trying to bring up some good questions to keep in mind when forming your own opinion of it. :-)
I always thought the next generation of prosthetic arms would allow you to store up so much energy, your entire body would appear to blink and make a weird noise. You could then release that energy toward any given direction. Also, you should have a rapid-fire button built into the arm. We would call this the mega-buster.
I can sympathize with you here. I accepted a job for an 'entry-level' position at one point because at the time, anything was better than the hell-hole I was already in. After working for them as a contractor for two years, they offered to hire me permanently. The pay they offered me was measly compared to what everyone else there was getting paid, and they refused to bump me up to the next 'level' position. Their excuse was that it was good money for someone my age. But the real kicker is that I had just as much experience in the field and performed infinitely better than one of their "senior" developers who was so stupid and almost cost the company a $10 million contract. I was the one who ended up cleaning up the mess and saving that contract (with an already full plate, mind you). I feel I asked for a commensurate raise after that (it honestly wasn't much at all -- it's not like I was asking to be bumped up to the senior position or even anything remotely close to it), and got a "but you're making good money for someone your age" response again. So a few weeks after that, I lined up another job, I put in my 2 weeks, and I now work for a (small) company that I'm lucky truly respects and appreciates me. Fact is, what I asked for was still less than fair to me for my level of experience and the level of work I was doing (never mind the amount of work I was doing and unpaid overtime I was putting in).
So while I agree it is entirely wrong for any individual, young or "mature," to lash out in some malicious manner, I can sympathize with the many talented young individuals and how they feel when they make the poor decision to do so. I, and likely many if not most other young professionals, clearly understand that we have to work our way up. However, we do feel some sense of entitlement to respect and appreciation for our work (at least from the employer -- client's are another story ^_^). We understand we have much to learn, but that doesn't make us doormats, and that needs to be understood. I'll reiterate that acting in a malicious manner doesn't entitle anyone any respect or appreciation, as one's talent means nothing without integrity, in my humble opinion.
I'm more of a casual gamer, and like the parent post, I often lean toward the console for gaming. I love using Linux to work, and occasionally, I need Windows for testing. Given that I need to have Windows available anyway, it only seems practical that I install Windows games on Windows rather than hoping the software to run Windows games in Linux works out. Am I wrong to venture a guess that this is likely the case for many (not necessarily most) who use Linux regularly? Between users like me and users who simply prefer consoles for gaming, perhaps there's a good chance many more Linux users are gamers than TFA's author thinks? I get the impression TFA is really trying to inquire as to what may be done to make Linux a more attractive gaming platform. Just for the sake of throwing it out there, I can't help but wonder how profitable it could be to sell a console which uses Linux for it's platform. I'm oblivious as to how competitive this could really be considering how much control console makers presently try to retain.
You can do already.
Well, if they bend, stretch, and vibrate, I'd say a pretty good number of people will play with their gadgets (though not quite like silly putty). What really matters at that point is whether or not it's water proof. =P
On a more serious note though, I can really appreciate the additional durability one would expect with this, as parent mentioned. I've actually broken a few phones just from leaving the phone on my pocket and rolling over the wrong way while working on my car. Though I've learned to take my phone out of my pocket before I start work like that, it'll be nice if that's one less worry. On that note, it'd also be nice if it was water proof (and possibly heat resistant) as well in case it gets left in the pant pockets and run through the washer and dryer.
I was gonna simply say sex, which became an obsolete skill once I got married.
Just imagine if Ford started yanking every eBay Motors posting that had a picture of a Ford automobile. It is their picture, isn't it? I'd like to see how eBay would react to something like that...
The parent post has it right. The difference between news regarding US relations with Cuba and news about Brad and Angelina is the second part of the tag-line (which was conveniently omitted from GP's post): "Stuff that matters."
So how much does excessive talking increase your odds of getting cancer? Seriously, I'd love to have a good excuse to tell certain people to STFU.
Voluntary Response is the answer to your question. Those who do care voluntarily voice their opinion in various ways, such as posting /. comments. ^_^ Many if not most citizens don't appear care enough to even follow what's going on with government. They're too preoccupied with their own little worlds, and until those bubbles are burst, they will continue living their lives in deliberate and blissful ignorance. Mod me as flamebait/troll for saying it for all I care, but when Britney Spears requiring medical treatment makes front page news, yet Russia resuming cold war patrol flights and threatening to point missiles at Ukraine (I'll refrain from writing a book of my opinions on that matter) is seemingly nowhere to be found (on the larger, more popular American news web sites), I'd say it's pretty difficult to deny this sad truth.
How much of that 5% are residential customers and how much of it are business class customers?
Though I expect that was posted with the sole intent of stirring up some muddy water, that sort of mind-set is clearly dangerous. The problem here is that we're continuously loosing more and more of our rights which protect us from our government. A false identification of an average citizen or legitimate businessman visiting from another country who happens to closely resemble a terrorist, but actually isn't the real-deal, could lead to false imprisonment for years if not a life-time, and without habeas corpus (because they may not necessarily acknowledge your claimed citizenship is valid), there is no stopping them. Honest citizens do have something to be horribly upset about: being treated like a potential terrorist and having every aspect of ourselves and our belongings intruded upon for a false sense of security.
I'm even going to throw in the good old car analogy too. I happen to still have my old Honda Civic from high school. When I got it (the price was right, so I took what I could get at the time), it had the crappy fart-pipe on it, and it had some shiny designer rims. I ripped the fart-pipe off, but I didn't see any point in removing the rims since even plain steel rims can be relatively costly. When I drive that car, the police see a young Spanish guy in a Honda Civic with after-market rims, and typically follow me for a while, sometimes even until I'm out of their jurisdiction (I cross counties on my way too and from work every day). When I drive my other car, which is a plain Ford Focus, police never pay any mind to me what-so-ever. They clearly profile, no matter how much they try to deny it. If they ran my plate, they'd see I'm 100% clean, so why continue to follow me until I hit the county line only when I'm driving *that* car? The car gets good gas mileage, so there is still good value to driving it rather than selling it, and it's nice to have it as a spare if my primary car has to hit the shop. Still, I sometimes wonder what these guys are thinking. Do they really think I'm some sort of threat? Do they feel I'm doing something retarded like running drugs? Who knows? What I know is that I really loathe being profiled like that every time I drive that car, as I'm a honest citizen who has done nothing wrong. So am I afraid? Not no, but hell no. Am I pissed off, oh hell yes. Don't doubt for a moment that the same thing won't happen when they're eventually watching every step you make, as opposed to periodically patrolling around in a car. You should be pissed off too.
Nah, what they really need to do is have the ability to identify people by their genitals. See, by doing so, you could be forced to identify yourself in public, thus making you a sex offender, and thus voiding any human rights you had left. Of course, I'm just making random crap up, obviously, but I really feel their intentions are just as absurd.
Haha, you do have a good point there. I remember my initial reaction when I read about the potential speeds behind DOCSIS 3.0. I thought to myself, "wtf would I do with that much bandwidth at home?" The only thing I can think of is delivery of HD media/TV over the Internet, but I just don't seem myself getting into that considering I don't watch much TV presently.
Cheers!
Yep! Big ass tables are the next big thing!