I haven't used ubuntu lately since I'm more of a KDE/Kubuntu fan myself. One thing where I think K/Ubuntu is lacking is security updates. Yes, I know of the little icon and all but there is no way that I can get security updates installed automatically in K/Ubuntu. Windows has been doing this for years but no such luck in my favourite distribution. This goes for security updates only. I don't want new versions or anything that isn't security motivated. Installed automatically that is. I'd like to be able to review the others to see if they are worth upgrading to. I guess I could comment out anything other than the security-repository in the sources file and do a dist-upgrade via cron but that's just an ugly hack.
Is the feature that I'm looking for out there or should I go file a feature request at launchpad.net?
I don't quite get it. Everytime KDE comes up someone mentions bloat and how it wastes cpu-cycles. Well, one mans bloat is another mans features. And all those who complain about the wasted cycles. What are they doing with those cycles? Are they running something like F@H and feel that a few lost microseconds might affect the end result.
Most people I know don't care at all about what OS they're running. Not one bit. That's something that we here at slashdot do. Most people will choose the OS that has the applications that they need. 90% of the time that's windows.
Let me go through the usual "selling points" of Linux and their typical response from a normal user.
Linux evangelist: "Linux is free" Normal user: "So?"
Linux evangelist: "Linux is more secure" Normal user: "So?"
Linux evangelist: "Linux is faster" Normal user: "So?"
Normal user: "Does it run application X that I use?" Linux evangelist: "Well, sort of, and if you combine this app with that and do this random hack then....." by which time the normal user have stopped listening.
In my humble opinion KDE4 is a great step in the right direction for Linux. In KDE4 (from what I understand) there shouldn't be any problems recompiling things for windows. This means that we can first hook them on free, secure, fast applications, and by doing that we have lowered the threshold for them to come over to our free, secure, fast platform.
The server is slashdotted so I haven't read the article. But I can assume that someone sais that "Linux isn't perfect". Fair enough. There are some things that needs work. One way to get things done is to pay for it, and bounties seems like an excellent idea to get "your" idea implemented. Just out of curiosity, is there somewhere I can do this? Sort of a "slashdot for bounties"? Somewhere where I can put some money into fixing a bug that annoys me or pay some money to implement a specific feature, even if I don't have the money to pay for a developer do do something for me. If I can contribute a few bucks to get something fixed, perhaps some others could too? It would add up eventually.
The closest thing I've found is BountyCountry but that doesn't appear to be very much alive. Or is it? And if it's alive, there seems to be an awful lot of projects missing. I have a hard time believing that no one would be willing to pay for some bugfixes or features in KDE or OpenOffice.org.
Anyway, this is just an incoherent rant. I should probably investigate this further and send it in as an article, with proper wording and some kind of structure..haeger
I did the other way around. I went from Kubuntu to Mandriva. While I agree that Kubuntu is great and I'd prefer to run it, I've had problems with it. The major problem is X. Whenever I start X the computer freezes. Nothing works anymore. I haven't reported this as a bug (yet) but I probably should. I tried to get some support from #ubuntu or #kubuntu but noone there was able to help. The odd thing is that it works perfectly when running from a live-cd, it's after the install that things stop working. Annoying as hell. Apparently it's not just Feisty, but both Dapper and Edgy too. I thought that it might be my video card (Radeon 9800) but since it works flawlessly with both XP and Mandriva I'm forced to believe that Kubuntu is the problem.
Also, one of the reasons why I haven't reported this as a bug is that I haven't been able to produce any useful logs. Nothing in Xorg.0.log. I assume that I probably should do a strace on "startx". Any other ideas on how to fix or help me report the problem is appreciated..haeger
From what I remember one of the focus points of MIPS was a low footprint when it came to electrical power. I seem to recall that when AMD's and Intels were about 60W the equivalent MIPS-cpu were about 17W or so. This was some years ago so things are probably different now, but at the time this was a big selling point. Same computing power, lower electrical bill.
The "big" thing about the Losec medication wasn't really the drug itself, but the way it was delivered to the body iirc. And although AstraZeneca eventually 'lost' the patent (ok, it expired) on the active substance, a lot of other patents regarding the drug delivery were still in place, making them tons of cash.
So I do believe this is just a scare from the pro patent lobby. I'm sure there are a lot of companies working on this right now to see if it's possible to make a useful drug out of it. Even if the drug itself can't be patented there's probably a whole lot to be learned from it, possibly to be used in other drugs that can be patented.
I wouldn't worry. If it does cure cancer, we'll get the drug eventually.
...not only fill their own lungs with a cancerous death but also those non-smokers around them.
This annoys me too. I have this urge to fill a spraybottle with water and start spraying it in very very close proximity to smokers. Then proceed to explain to them that it's "just urine, it doesn't cause cancer or is harmful in any other way, quite opposite to what you're posioning me with".
Somehow I don't think they'll appriciate it so I should probably brush up on my wushu before attempting this. In case I need to defend myself.
How much is it worth without Hans Reiser? He's the lead architect isn't he, the one with all the good ideas. Or is he a part of the deal. If aquitted he'll come work for you and if not you'll provide him with a laptop in his cell?
I'm sure someone will tell me why this won't work but can't OpenOffice just send a mail/letter/fax to Microsoft with a polite question about the code. "We've recieved this piece of code and will include this into our software. If you see any problems with this, get back to us within 90 days or we will take your silence as an acceptance and a promise not to take any action against us, legal or otherwise". Or something like that.
I got my FF2 with Edgy and it's a great program. It feels much faster although I haven't benchmarked it. It looks great and it is my preferred browser by far.
Unfortunatly I've had some issues with it. Perhaps it's Ubuntus fault, but still. It's issues with FF for me.
I recently tested Mandriva (LiveCD) on my KUbuntu-box. I must say that I'm very impressed with how polished Mandriva is. KUbuntu isn't bad, far from it but Mandriva is just better. Atleast the latest version. Just like KUbuntu everything just works but there is a consistensy in Mandriva that I don't see in KUbuntu. I really recommend everyone to take Mandriva for a testdrive. It's really impressive. I was going to switch my old Mandriva2006-box to KUbuntu but seeing this new version I don't think I will. I'll just do the normal upgrade-dance and all will be well. One thing that annoys me though is the high price for the retail version. A silver membership will be more expensive than Vista in just 2-3 years. I think.
I might have to re-evaluate running KUbuntu on my laptop. I do however remember that there was something that annoyed me so much about the packages in Mandriva that I just had to switch. I think it was the fact that new packages came to the distribution at such a slow pace.
I did use portage for a few weeks, or months. Mandriva does the same. "urpmi firefox" installs everything you need to run firefox and puts it in the start-menu too. Yum and apt are availible in RedHat/Fedora That can't be what all the portage fans are raving about. I'm sure portage is better in some ways, I mean, it's the youngest of the three (rpm/deb/portage) so it shouldn't have much legacy but what makes it so great.
Someone mentioned USE-flags and that's one part, I'm sure, but is that all?
If you don't fall into the "rpm hell", congratulations, and you are lucky to buy a lottery for youself. Otherwise, Gentoo provides a descent way to maintain, administrate the system.
I hear that a lot. People who swear by portage and how it's the greatest package manager ever created. Having only used it briefly I'd like to ask what's so great about it? What's the benefits over rpm or deb? Yes, rpm-hell is real but that's the package-managers fault. Portage does similar things. I installed something called "darcs" on my gentoo-box and it left a whole lot of build-deps on my system that probably shouldn't have been there. So, is there a comparison somewhere that explains the greatness of portage? Or can you clear things up for me?
Hell yes. As a liberal (no, not the redefined american meaning*) I cry a little every day. People call for harsher punishment, more control and less freedom for the individual. So yes, the terrorists and the gorvernment are laughing at us, in unison. They use and need each other to control us, and they are succeeding at it.
.haeger
(*) Redefined as americans redefined football to mean a game where you use your hands to play with a ball.
I do believe Linux is good enough for mainstream consumption, although I'm not sure if that's enough to make people switch. I mean, why bother. Windows is already on the machine when I buy it, and it too is good enough. For most people. The best distro I've seen lately is MandrivaOne 2007 and that costs 120/year to use, if you want to support it. How many years util it becomes more expensive than the windows I've already bought with the machine?
Oh, and I do believe that the story is a dupe. I'm quite sure I saw this "This is the year of the Linux desktop" for the last 5 years or so. I'd like it to be true but I'm not convinced.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm glad to see I'm not the only old git reading this site.
This goes for security updates only. I don't want new versions or anything that isn't security motivated. Installed automatically that is. I'd like to be able to review the others to see if they are worth upgrading to.
I guess I could comment out anything other than the security-repository in the sources file and do a dist-upgrade via cron but that's just an ugly hack.
Is the feature that I'm looking for out there or should I go file a feature request at launchpad.net?
Well, one mans bloat is another mans features.
And all those who complain about the wasted cycles. What are they doing with those cycles? Are they running something like F@H and feel that a few lost microseconds might affect the end result.
I just don't get it.
Most people I know don't care at all about what OS they're running. Not one bit. That's something that we here at slashdot do. Most people will choose the OS that has the applications that they need. 90% of the time that's windows.
Let me go through the usual "selling points" of Linux and their typical response from a normal user.
Linux evangelist: "Linux is free"
Normal user: "So?"
Linux evangelist: "Linux is more secure"
Normal user: "So?"
Linux evangelist: "Linux is faster"
Normal user: "So?"
Normal user: "Does it run application X that I use?"
Linux evangelist: "Well, sort of, and if you combine this app with that and do this random hack then....." by which time the normal user have stopped listening.
In my humble opinion KDE4 is a great step in the right direction for Linux. In KDE4 (from what I understand) there shouldn't be any problems recompiling things for windows. This means that we can first hook them on free, secure, fast applications, and by doing that we have lowered the threshold for them to come over to our free, secure, fast platform.
The server is slashdotted so I haven't read the article. But I can assume that someone sais that "Linux isn't perfect".
.haeger
Fair enough. There are some things that needs work. One way to get things done is to pay for it, and bounties seems like an excellent idea to get "your" idea implemented.
Just out of curiosity, is there somewhere I can do this? Sort of a "slashdot for bounties"? Somewhere where I can put some money into fixing a bug that annoys me or pay some money to implement a specific feature, even if I don't have the money to pay for a developer do do something for me. If I can contribute a few bucks to get something fixed, perhaps some others could too? It would add up eventually.
The closest thing I've found is BountyCountry but that doesn't appear to be very much alive. Or is it? And if it's alive, there seems to be an awful lot of projects missing. I have a hard time believing that no one would be willing to pay for some bugfixes or features in KDE or OpenOffice.org.
Anyway, this is just an incoherent rant. I should probably investigate this further and send it in as an article, with proper wording and some kind of structure.
I did the other way around. I went from Kubuntu to Mandriva. While I agree that Kubuntu is great and I'd prefer to run it, I've had problems with it. The major problem is X. Whenever I start X the computer freezes. Nothing works anymore. I haven't reported this as a bug (yet) but I probably should.
.haeger
I tried to get some support from #ubuntu or #kubuntu but noone there was able to help.
The odd thing is that it works perfectly when running from a live-cd, it's after the install that things stop working. Annoying as hell.
Apparently it's not just Feisty, but both Dapper and Edgy too.
I thought that it might be my video card (Radeon 9800) but since it works flawlessly with both XP and Mandriva I'm forced to believe that Kubuntu is the problem.
Also, one of the reasons why I haven't reported this as a bug is that I haven't been able to produce any useful logs. Nothing in Xorg.0.log. I assume that I probably should do a strace on "startx". Any other ideas on how to fix or help me report the problem is appreciated.
This was some years ago so things are probably different now, but at the time this was a big selling point. Same computing power, lower electrical bill.
Can't say which one was the last one though.
The link.
The "big" thing about the Losec medication wasn't really the drug itself, but the way it was delivered to the body iirc. And although AstraZeneca eventually 'lost' the patent (ok, it expired) on the active substance, a lot of other patents regarding the drug delivery were still in place, making them tons of cash.
So I do believe this is just a scare from the pro patent lobby. I'm sure there are a lot of companies working on this right now to see if it's possible to make a useful drug out of it. Even if the drug itself can't be patented there's probably a whole lot to be learned from it, possibly to be used in other drugs that can be patented.
I wouldn't worry. If it does cure cancer, we'll get the drug eventually.
This annoys me too. I have this urge to fill a spraybottle with water and start spraying it in very very close proximity to smokers. Then proceed to explain to them that it's "just urine, it doesn't cause cancer or is harmful in any other way, quite opposite to what you're posioning me with".
Somehow I don't think they'll appriciate it so I should probably brush up on my wushu before attempting this. In case I need to defend myself.
"We've recieved this piece of code and will include this into our software. If you see any problems with this, get back to us within 90 days or we will take your silence as an acceptance and a promise not to take any action against us, legal or otherwise". Or something like that.
http://tinyurl.com/ycd5yx
Unfortunatly I've had some issues with it. Perhaps it's Ubuntus fault, but still. It's issues with FF for me.
https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/fire
That's one. The browser just "closes" on some pages. That's the major one actually.
Also, they've changed so that ctrl-tab no longer switches tab (in kubuntu) but changes virtual desktop.
Come to think of it, none of the issues are probably firefox issues.
Hmm...
Forget I said anything. Firefox2 is a great browser. Keep up the good work.
One thing that annoys me though is the high price for the retail version. A silver membership will be more expensive than Vista in just 2-3 years. I think.
I might have to re-evaluate running KUbuntu on my laptop. I do however remember that there was something that annoyed me so much about the packages in Mandriva that I just had to switch. I think it was the fact that new packages came to the distribution at such a slow pace.
You're either good technically or a good artist. Not both. That's the way it's always been.
.haeger
I'd say this guy would disagree with you. Just to name one.
I did use portage for a few weeks, or months. Mandriva does the same. "urpmi firefox" installs everything you need to run firefox and puts it in the start-menu too. Yum and apt are availible in RedHat/Fedora That can't be what all the portage fans are raving about. I'm sure portage is better in some ways, I mean, it's the youngest of the three (rpm/deb/portage) so it shouldn't have much legacy but what makes it so great.
.haeger
Someone mentioned USE-flags and that's one part, I'm sure, but is that all?
If you don't fall into the "rpm hell", congratulations, and you are lucky to buy a lottery for youself. Otherwise, Gentoo provides a descent way to maintain, administrate the system.
.haeger
I hear that a lot. People who swear by portage and how it's the greatest package manager ever created. Having only used it briefly I'd like to ask what's so great about it? What's the benefits over rpm or deb? Yes, rpm-hell is real but that's the package-managers fault. Portage does similar things. I installed something called "darcs" on my gentoo-box and it left a whole lot of build-deps on my system that probably shouldn't have been there.
So, is there a comparison somewhere that explains the greatness of portage? Or can you clear things up for me?
You'd date an it?
As a liberal (no, not the redefined american meaning*) I cry a little every day. People call for harsher punishment, more control and less freedom for the individual. So yes, the terrorists and the gorvernment are laughing at us, in unison. They use and need each other to control us, and they are succeeding at it.
(*) Redefined as americans redefined football to mean a game where you use your hands to play with a ball.
Oh, and I do believe that the story is a dupe. I'm quite sure I saw this "This is the year of the Linux desktop" for the last 5 years or so. I'd like it to be true but I'm not convinced.
"Memory is like an orgasm. It's a lot better if you don't have to fake it."
-- Seymour Cray, on virtual memory.