H264 is industry standard since the day it was proposed/accepted. Industry standards aren't defined by nerds, they are defined by industry, huge boards of professionals and several computing specialists. There are billions (if not trillion) worth of broadcasting equipment, workflows, applications trusting to MPEG standards. Near all HD broadcasts are h264 and you should be thankful that TV industry didn't buy Microsoft's "but VC1 is documented too!" tricks.
They sit, argue, propose and after years, MPEG standards appear. H264, being part of MPEG 4 is more standard than anything you can imagine. It is result of 300 Experts discussions, several universities, companies and even governments.
Of course, it would be wise to wonder around saying "evil patents and mpeg la" but reality is a bit different. Even the reasons of patents are different than you may think.
There are some people remembering the Firefox/Mozilla original mission. It is all about standards. Earliest Mozillas worked like junk but they have always beaten the rest of the market regarding standards support.
They could be reminding their mission. A standard, open web with all standards. Not thousands of hacks to show google something.com fine, to perfect the standards support first and hack later.
BTW, does "So what?" asking Firefox community also say "So what?" to Microsoft/IE regarding standards compliance?
What makes you think Youtube will move to video tag? Youtube's main reason for success was relying on Flash, a plugin which everyone has and trusts to.
Do you really think Youtube would lose that convenience? Do they really care if H264 is patented? I don't really. All I see is a platform neutral, documented standard which was designed with media professionals. I don't see some "evil monster" when I look to Flash or h264. I know what would happen if Flash and h264 didn't exist. We would be arguing about WMV and evil Microsoft not releasing a player/plugin for Linux and threatening some open source developers with lawsuit.
I am all for standards but thinking a proposed thing will replace Flash, even while MS is just being joked with their Silverlight billion dollar failure supposed to rival it...
Coriolis Systems (who produces iDefrag) jokingly referred to that issue on their blog.
" Ironically even SSDs, where you would expect the uniform access time to render fragmentation a problem of the past, still have various problems caused by exactly the same issue(1)'
of course, they add:
1 For avoidance of doubt, we strongly recommend that you don't try to defragment your SSD-based volumes. The fragmentation issue on SSDs is internal to their implementation, and defragmenting the filesystem would only make matters worse.
In case you spot a good friend who got suggested by Microsoft to defrag their drive (Win7 does it even without asking), you better tell it is not the "magnetic disk fragmentation" issue. It is really different and I heard some real bad stories from people who defragmented (!) their SSD drives.
It is all NTFS'es fault. Impossible to turn off journaling, OS doesn't move journal etc.
On HFS+ , journal is also an ordinary file and backwards compatible. In fact theoretically, OS X can even journal FAT if it wanted to.
So, if you turn off journaling, half (or more) of the potential problem is gone. First, there won't be a journal in some area being written over and over. Second, OS X won't enable "hot band" function which puts the most accessed files (hot files) to beginning of disk, a specific area in many strict and fail safe conditions. It won't dare to move files on the fly if journaling is not enabled and hot band makes no sense on SSD anyway. It even erases hotfiles.btree (the database) right when journaling is disabled.
I have a feeling that the issue is mostly a Windows issue, because of the filesystem. How come we never hear horror stories from "Macbook Air" owners who preferred SSD? Could we be arguing something which ActiveWin etc. guys argue about?
The most important point of hard disks are being amazingly multi platform. I didn't like the sound of "Windows driver", "OS support" to perform nicely.
SSD guys really better stick to the standards and never, ever do anything requiring a "driver" on host OS. For example, there are G4 Mac owners who happily upgrades their "old tech" magnetic drives to 500 GB or even 1TB. Who will write driver for them? Apple? SSD vendor? I don't think so.
In fact, HD vendors really better stay away from writing anything except the "smart control" stuff... Or, they better donate to smartctl project and stay away from it too...
You know what? I am not RMS and I don`t give a shit. Real won`t open millions of dollars worth codecs which has been progressing for years. Especially when there are still couple of idiots wondering around as "spyware", proprietary etc.
It is open source, it is not GPL but it is still open source. They also offer their million dollar patents for FREE to open source projects. Realplayer is based on open source Helix code too. Of course, it takes a while to figure why they can`t be GNU like open source, it needs knowledge about real world, real business terms, patents based on other closed patents, acquired codec technology etc.
Why not ask Apple to open their codecs (or their implementation) ? Or Microsoft? Trust me, they can`t even if they wanted to. Of course, it is easier to hit real networks. Always has been.
You know what? I have no clue why they bother with open source, support for other systems (especially linux) in official way etc. either. Such a non thanking community...
That huge framework install with all the functionality still hurts quicktime, in case of Windows Media, you have already got it forcibly installed and it also uses undocumented goods of Windows to perform better. Linux? No official support. Real? Well, people still think it is spyware even while it is open source.
All these tools are in fact superior to Flash for embedding video, especially Real Player is really in 11th generation. Why they fail? Because they don't have Adobe design tools for use of real artists (designers) and they are still STUPID (hear me Apple) to add additional stuff to that already bulky download.
I always feel sad for using Flash to embed videos with the functionality missing from it but as I can't tell people to "download 30 mb application" or "give up your IE and use that open source browser" (sorry!), I embed Flash.
That was my point. Quicktime is a great technology being wasted by couple of idiots at Apple Inc. You know, the idiots insisted on asking $$$ for full screen playback for years. They couldn't seperate the "player" and "recorder"... They owned 80% of video market share back in worst days of Apple, can you believe?
I will (or would) take Silverlight serious if they release 64/32bit plugins AND design tools for Linux, OS X (PPC too!), Symbian, Google thing, FreeBSD.
Not that one coded by that MS trojan. The real thing, with ALL codecs, ALL functionality, releases in sync.
They have to code the design tool, plug into XCode on OS X, plug into Adobe tools, plug into Quicktime and guarantee there will be never, ever any missing updates for any of these non Microsoft operating systems.
That is what Flash is or will be. Adobe actually experiments with a single Flash platform for anything you can imagine. Flash Lite 3 already does lots of desktop Flash functionality and soon, there won't be "Flash Lite", there will be only Flash.
Flash is not that bulky Netscape to kill with same methods. It is one of the most successful applications in computer history, even ATM machines run it right now. Did MS really dream something else? I actually feel ashamed for them since there is no Silverlight for Windows Mobile yet while Symbian owners enjoy youtube videos.
HTML5 can't overtake anything unless they spare time figuring out the reasons why that graphics/UI designer chooses Flash for that specific task, why he/she pays that money to Adobe, why Youtube has become successful etc. They must face the reality. The reality isn't "stupid designer chooses evil proprietary tech". You lose right when you call your "potential customer" as stupid person.
I fail to understand why Java, especially after that really brave GPL move is still called proprietary anyway. Isn't poor thing hit enough with FUD and misinformation, abuse?
That is one thing MS Silverlight team doesn't understand too.
If you want designers/video guys embrace a new technology, you have to plug into Adobe's tools and Apple Quicktime framework in a perfect, seamless way.
Both Adobe tools and Apple quicktime has no problems with stuff plugging into them and in case of Quicktime, it is actually designed for "components adding new functionality". There is no "evil" to whine about, just an ignorant company who aims to give hell to people who dares not to use their operating system. Well guess what? Designers really use Adobe, Apple technologies and Quicktime (on windows too) so there is no point sending them to Eclipse IDE download. Yes, they suggest them to use Eclipse... Designers... Eclipse...:)
Opera PPC OS X is just 12 MB, the actual executable is way below it.
In fact, if you dig deeper, you figure the amazing fact. Core renderer is below 1 MB. Yes, 1 MB of ultra portable pure C is the "Opera". Rest is done via the functionality it already has. E.g. lsof when you use the "bulky" IRC function of Opera, you will see the thing you see as "IRC" is actually a web page along with CSS!
Same with the "Web server". It must be amazingly tiny, even less than the rendering engine since it is clear that they are heading to mobile with this.
Opera and Firefox has different development models, concepts and even targets. Ask Firefox developers if they will remove 80% of code just because they want the exact same binary to run on my horribly outdated, OS dead UIQ3 Sony Ericsson P1i. That is what Opera does.
With Google, Google Backed Mozilla, MS Backed IE, Apple backed Webkit, I really don't think Opera dreams about "World Domination!". Look at these silly people, they want to boycott Opera because MS backed blogs called for it. Why? EU judicial system investigates MS (did you see IE icon's size on Win 7?) and MS pulled one of "I am taking my toys and going home" tricks again by not including IE in EU Windows. So, it is all Opera's fault now (as they can't mess with Google/Firefox) and they want to boycott Opera (as if they ever used!).
I mean, as ordinary user, I can see the stupidity but they can't? I bet they do and they never dreamed of being some 20-30% market share browser because of these facts which aren't really too technical.
Perhaps there are people who would LOVE to set a webserver on their computer but can't figure out Apache which is designed for "real sites".
OS X is the boundary of usability and Apple excels at making a Unix 03 compliant OS "simpler than Windows" right? How many non nerd OS X users do you know who clicks that simple button "Web Sharing" in Sharing prefs? I personally know none. I know a lot of people who will enable/disable the simple personal web server in Opera for some tasks they do, especially via sites they DON"T TRUST. Do you think they really want to share that family/personal photo from a third party site.
It is not targeted at you, it is targeted at ordinary, non techie end user. That is what Opera excels at.
If we really take ISP terms serious, most ISPs disallow running a COMMERCIAL (selling goods etc.) web server on your personal line, they aren't really concerned about personal web hosting especially if your "visitors" are just a bunch of friends.
For ISP router, there is no difference between putting a 1 gig file to rapidshare (with very questionable policies) or directly posting it over port 80.
BTW, soon or later, this thing will hit mobile opera. Nokia has a similar, full function web server already which even uses Python. Thing is, if Opera lacks publicity in that sense, Nokia doesn't even exist! What I mean is, networks and cell phone companies will love this just like they love Opera Mini.
Do you know why I stay away from Gnome even while I have option to run and install it on OS X?
There are some central functionality applications coded by the Gnome camp which requires Mono, that trojan (in my eyes) to compile and function. I think Icaza and the gang somehow convinced them without bothering to explain WHY they have to use Microsoft.NET rather than being poster child of MS intention to multiplatform (heh really!).
Less politely, they are sold out in my eyes and I won't put a byte of MS code on a Windows free environment. I run OS X and I shouldn't have to. Except the fonts Apple paid them for inclusion in OS X which amazingly breaks font rendering in some browsers.
I think Linux users should ask themselves about the decision they made when they reject free (somehow) Windows and install Linux and act accordingly.
At least, Windows users can read some EULA. In Mono case, it is undisclosed terms.
You guys aren't Novell going chapter 11 soon so have to deal with the devil... If you use Linux, use the real thing without trojans and soon to be trojaned desktops.
The cluttered OS you talk about is modeled after the Framework idea and especially re-usable code.
It should be the ''what app should achieve'' instead of the entire GUI etc.
With KDE4, they have even went closer to the real vision and KDE 4 runs in all operating systems, all guis, natively without any hacks. It is the actual idea of NeXT which had to get shaved down because Apple purchased them, they have a hardware business etc.
So dear AC, my equally ''bulky'' OS X built around the very same object oriented idea is way bigger than your monkey boy's Gnome. OS X reached 10% in desktop share and some amazing number on mobile share. Which idea was right? Lets speak when Nokia smart devices come with KDE installed, should we?
If it is just 50 MB ,.NET clone of Linux really lacks some huge functionality.
As I monkey around with 10-15 MB sized Windows virtual machine these days, I can say the real (yea Icaza, real).NET framework weights around 1-2 GB when compiled behind users back after install.
It was going to be way more but some sane people from MS finally figured they are becoming the joke of the decade (bitching about Java size) and slimmed down in 3.5 SP1 release.
Also as I run the original thing on real Windows, I notice you can't just install the latest and be done with it like 99% of Java apps. You should have 1.x, 2.x, 3.x for full functionality of your installed apps.
This thing was designed with the idea of 'killing' java. We see the results. Also, there is no Microsoft.NET for OS X, an OS which has no claim to be ''free'' as in everything. They rely on Icaza guy to ship half ass clone of Mono and expect OS X users who expects the best these days to buy it... They don't. OS X user/developer can't be bothered with a clone of a clone. Perhaps they will send some paypal money to a Icaza friend and he will ship something good requires Mono for some unexplainable reason? Well, it is real hard to race with native, Objective C++ stuff and real C/POSIX stuff on OS X.
You write in something including 'C' in its name right? You write programs so you should know why the C language was invented and designed from start.
So far, it has delivered its promise as the real multiplatform compiled language.
Can you point your apps OS X, Linux, FreeBSD downloadable binaries so I can run them? If I sound like asking too much, Opera which is written in 'bulky' language runs the very same core both on my 8 Gig Quad G5 and Sony Ericsson P1i smart phone having 128MB RAM and also right on this Mac Mini G4.
You can say ''I prefer C# because all my audience is running Windows (Mo)'' but please, please don't even use C/C++ in same context as that Microsoft abuse of C.
IMHO MS has a better plan than patent trolling for future with the Mono project and its puppets paid to work (or simply stupid enough) working on it.
In Helloween docs, specialist reporting for Microsoft puts Linux'es strengths like very advanced command line and how impossible to implement them on Windows.
Of course, the one weakness has been reported. A community which is easy to divide even with political arguments.
Right after that report, first KDE got hit by not being GPL (an argument still being used) or the Library it relies on is not being totally free and Gnome started. Icaza... That is one division still lives and effects Linux today.
After years when Novell had serious issues that even non tech people argued whether they will go chapter 11 or straight out of business, they deal with Microsoft accepting their terms and hire Icaza.
Microsoft does a last attempt to gain back its users giving them something that is claimed to work anywhere but being Windows only. The functionality developers love and rely on starts with 'win' like windows forms. Right while people jokes with the framework and even MS only shops reject to be bound to it, some half ass working thing ships named 'Mono' supposed to be cool open source name of Microsoft.NET. Today, MS.NET is 3.5 SP1 (stable) and 4.x betas started to be talked about, people actually use 3.5 features and Mono is stuck somewhere as 2.x. Guy behind it is Icaza again.
Silverlight ships, becomes industry joke because of the lack of multi platform support while Adobe seriously readies 'one flash for all' concept which will work even on handsets, same guy pops up and pulls the exact Mono scheme. ''1 major version behind but open source (in OUR terms)''. Just like.NET MS also have a good argument when sane people asks ''Shouldn't you be OS neutral when you try to race with Java?'.
As Debian took this decision to allow that trojan to their distro, all my respect to their freedom standards, ethics, perfectionism has all gone. They should join Icaza when he goes to Redmond instead of celebrating their own OpenSUSE major release.
One more thing I can't stand not saying in this long message... Gotta respect to Apple. Even in their darkest days, they have put a boundary, a limit.
For Linux, we still have Volkerding and Slackware to rely on.
and we all know, users really install third party drivers that didn't come with their computer.
If you speak with a browser vendor like Firefox, Opera, you may get surprised about how a huge part of population doesn't install their better application just because it didn't come with computer.
Basically, how many people installed "Intel chipset drivers" (a very small download) to their XP which will make their PC perform way better and compatible?
I wonder if Firewire guys (including Apple) stop telling the true bandwidth of Firewire 1600/3200 and adopt AMD naming scheme?
If USB3 claims 5 gigabit and yet performs same as firewire 3200, Firewire (IEEE1394) should use Firewire 5000 and wait for Intel to say a WORD about it.
Enough with this fake bandwidth scheme by CPU monopoly company really.
Oh I bet the moron at Intel thought exactly like you. Guess what? You don't design the names/logos based on 1-2% of population. You base them on 98% which includes every kind of uneducated, fanatic freak out there.
USB3 "super speed" lame name will transform to "SS" and people will really be bugged about it. Look past browser window displaying slashdot, there is a World out there and they have no clue about the real root of number 666.
We had a USB Bluetooth dongle and it took 3 days until I give up trying and plugged a infra receiver on a XP PC. That is the Widcomm you speak about.
As I never throw away devices, I plugged the same thing to OS X 10.2.7 running on G5, I was amazed to see there is a bluetooth icon appearing instantly. As XP SP2/SP3 has built in bluetooth support, same icon appeared on very same OS when I tried later.
Bundling things doesn't really work. I still have gigantic driver CD in hand and I dare you to make it work in single step on Windows original XP.;)
83 thousand workers all over the globe including Israel and they can't figure out why companies never use anything matching "SS"? Perhaps they should also add original swastika and can explain they used it in terms of original meaning.
We used a stylish logo with "SS" letters once at TV and we had our lesson. If Intel calls their Israel office, they can be surprised.
Remember they jumped to 667 Mhz instead of natural 666 in Pentium since people were already putting "Satan Inside" logos on web? Yes, SS still sounds like the SS from WW2. It will be trouble. That is why companies like Apple, Microsoft have huge databases for naming products and even filenames in their operating systems.
I was planning a iMac 24" and looking for a secondary display solution since I used 2 monitors even back in Windows 98. So, I checked the "real life solution" USB2 scene (e.g. not toasters) a bit.
First stuff to use USB3 will certainly be SSD drives and later, "secondary display" or even "main display" (e.g. opengl 2/3 capable) GPU stuff will start shipping.
So, if USB3 is supported under Linux but the GPU solution, likely from a Taiwan/China company doesn't have driver/GUI app... It will be a really ironic situation. I am not mocking Linux, same thing will likely happen to OS X too. I am somehow sure the actual working USB3 devices will run under Windows first.
Slashdot Mirror
H264 is industry standard since the day it was proposed/accepted. Industry standards aren't defined by nerds, they are defined by industry, huge boards of professionals and several computing specialists. There are billions (if not trillion) worth of broadcasting equipment, workflows, applications trusting to MPEG standards. Near all HD broadcasts are h264 and you should be thankful that TV industry didn't buy Microsoft's "but VC1 is documented too!" tricks.
They sit, argue, propose and after years, MPEG standards appear. H264, being part of MPEG 4 is more standard than anything you can imagine. It is result of 300 Experts discussions, several universities, companies and even governments.
Of course, it would be wise to wonder around saying "evil patents and mpeg la" but reality is a bit different. Even the reasons of patents are different than you may think.
There are some people remembering the Firefox/Mozilla original mission. It is all about standards. Earliest Mozillas worked like junk but they have always beaten the rest of the market regarding standards support.
They could be reminding their mission. A standard, open web with all standards. Not thousands of hacks to show google something .com fine, to perfect the standards support first and hack later.
BTW, does "So what?" asking Firefox community also say "So what?" to Microsoft/IE regarding standards compliance?
What makes you think Youtube will move to video tag? Youtube's main reason for success was relying on Flash, a plugin which everyone has and trusts to.
Do you really think Youtube would lose that convenience? Do they really care if H264 is patented? I don't really. All I see is a platform neutral, documented standard which was designed with media professionals. I don't see some "evil monster" when I look to Flash or h264. I know what would happen if Flash and h264 didn't exist. We would be arguing about WMV and evil Microsoft not releasing a player/plugin for Linux and threatening some open source developers with lawsuit.
I am all for standards but thinking a proposed thing will replace Flash, even while MS is just being joked with their Silverlight billion dollar failure supposed to rival it...
Coriolis Systems (who produces iDefrag) jokingly referred to that issue on their blog.
" Ironically even SSDs, where you would expect the uniform access time to render fragmentation a problem of the past, still have various problems caused by exactly the same issue(1)'
of course, they add:
1 For avoidance of doubt, we strongly recommend that you don't try to defragment your SSD-based volumes. The fragmentation issue on SSDs is internal to their implementation, and defragmenting the filesystem would only make matters worse.
In case you spot a good friend who got suggested by Microsoft to defrag their drive (Win7 does it even without asking), you better tell it is not the "magnetic disk fragmentation" issue. It is really different and I heard some real bad stories from people who defragmented (!) their SSD drives.
It is all NTFS'es fault. Impossible to turn off journaling, OS doesn't move journal etc.
On HFS+ , journal is also an ordinary file and backwards compatible. In fact theoretically, OS X can even journal FAT if it wanted to.
So, if you turn off journaling, half (or more) of the potential problem is gone. First, there won't be a journal in some area being written over and over. Second, OS X won't enable "hot band" function which puts the most accessed files (hot files) to beginning of disk, a specific area in many strict and fail safe conditions. It won't dare to move files on the fly if journaling is not enabled and hot band makes no sense on SSD anyway. It even erases hotfiles.btree (the database) right when journaling is disabled.
I have a feeling that the issue is mostly a Windows issue, because of the filesystem. How come we never hear horror stories from "Macbook Air" owners who preferred SSD? Could we be arguing something which ActiveWin etc. guys argue about?
The most important point of hard disks are being amazingly multi platform. I didn't like the sound of "Windows driver", "OS support" to perform nicely.
SSD guys really better stick to the standards and never, ever do anything requiring a "driver" on host OS. For example, there are G4 Mac owners who happily upgrades their "old tech" magnetic drives to 500 GB or even 1TB. Who will write driver for them? Apple? SSD vendor? I don't think so.
In fact, HD vendors really better stay away from writing anything except the "smart control" stuff... Or, they better donate to smartctl project and stay away from it too...
http://bugreporter.apple.com/
I have a feeling that your bug reports will be handled better than my PPC Mac Leopard problems ;)
You know what? I am not RMS and I don`t give a shit. Real won`t open millions of dollars worth codecs which has been progressing for years. Especially when there are still couple of idiots wondering around as "spyware", proprietary etc.
It is open source, it is not GPL but it is still open source. They also offer their million dollar patents for FREE to open source projects. Realplayer is based on open source Helix code too. Of course, it takes a while to figure why they can`t be GNU like open source, it needs knowledge about real world, real business terms, patents based on other closed patents, acquired codec technology etc.
Why not ask Apple to open their codecs (or their implementation) ? Or Microsoft? Trust me, they can`t even if they wanted to. Of course, it is easier to hit real networks. Always has been.
You know what? I have no clue why they bother with open source, support for other systems (especially linux) in official way etc. either. Such a non thanking community...
That huge framework install with all the functionality still hurts quicktime, in case of Windows Media, you have already got it forcibly installed and it also uses undocumented goods of Windows to perform better. Linux? No official support. Real? Well, people still think it is spyware even while it is open source.
All these tools are in fact superior to Flash for embedding video, especially Real Player is really in 11th generation. Why they fail? Because they don't have Adobe design tools for use of real artists (designers) and they are still STUPID (hear me Apple) to add additional stuff to that already bulky download.
I always feel sad for using Flash to embed videos with the functionality missing from it but as I can't tell people to "download 30 mb application" or "give up your IE and use that open source browser" (sorry!), I embed Flash.
That was my point. Quicktime is a great technology being wasted by couple of idiots at Apple Inc. You know, the idiots insisted on asking $$$ for full screen playback for years. They couldn't seperate the "player" and "recorder"... They owned 80% of video market share back in worst days of Apple, can you believe?
I will (or would) take Silverlight serious if they release 64/32bit plugins AND design tools for Linux, OS X (PPC too!), Symbian, Google thing, FreeBSD.
Not that one coded by that MS trojan. The real thing, with ALL codecs, ALL functionality, releases in sync.
They have to code the design tool, plug into XCode on OS X, plug into Adobe tools, plug into Quicktime and guarantee there will be never, ever any missing updates for any of these non Microsoft operating systems.
That is what Flash is or will be. Adobe actually experiments with a single Flash platform for anything you can imagine. Flash Lite 3 already does lots of desktop Flash functionality and soon, there won't be "Flash Lite", there will be only Flash.
Flash is not that bulky Netscape to kill with same methods. It is one of the most successful applications in computer history, even ATM machines run it right now. Did MS really dream something else? I actually feel ashamed for them since there is no Silverlight for Windows Mobile yet while Symbian owners enjoy youtube videos.
HTML5 can't overtake anything unless they spare time figuring out the reasons why that graphics/UI designer chooses Flash for that specific task, why he/she pays that money to Adobe, why Youtube has become successful etc. They must face the reality. The reality isn't "stupid designer chooses evil proprietary tech". You lose right when you call your "potential customer" as stupid person.
I fail to understand why Java, especially after that really brave GPL move is still called proprietary anyway. Isn't poor thing hit enough with FUD and misinformation, abuse?
That is one thing MS Silverlight team doesn't understand too.
If you want designers/video guys embrace a new technology, you have to plug into Adobe's tools and Apple Quicktime framework in a perfect, seamless way.
Both Adobe tools and Apple quicktime has no problems with stuff plugging into them and in case of Quicktime, it is actually designed for "components adding new functionality". There is no "evil" to whine about, just an ignorant company who aims to give hell to people who dares not to use their operating system. Well guess what? Designers really use Adobe, Apple technologies and Quicktime (on windows too) so there is no point sending them to Eclipse IDE download. Yes, they suggest them to use Eclipse... Designers... Eclipse... :)
Opera PPC OS X is just 12 MB, the actual executable is way below it.
In fact, if you dig deeper, you figure the amazing fact. Core renderer is below 1 MB. Yes, 1 MB of ultra portable pure C is the "Opera". Rest is done via the functionality it already has. E.g. lsof when you use the "bulky" IRC function of Opera, you will see the thing you see as "IRC" is actually a web page along with CSS!
Same with the "Web server". It must be amazingly tiny, even less than the rendering engine since it is clear that they are heading to mobile with this.
Opera and Firefox has different development models, concepts and even targets. Ask Firefox developers if they will remove 80% of code just because they want the exact same binary to run on my horribly outdated, OS dead UIQ3 Sony Ericsson P1i. That is what Opera does.
With Google, Google Backed Mozilla, MS Backed IE, Apple backed Webkit, I really don't think Opera dreams about "World Domination!". Look at these silly people, they want to boycott Opera because MS backed blogs called for it. Why? EU judicial system investigates MS (did you see IE icon's size on Win 7?) and MS pulled one of "I am taking my toys and going home" tricks again by not including IE in EU Windows. So, it is all Opera's fault now (as they can't mess with Google/Firefox) and they want to boycott Opera (as if they ever used!).
I mean, as ordinary user, I can see the stupidity but they can't? I bet they do and they never dreamed of being some 20-30% market share browser because of these facts which aren't really too technical.
Perhaps there are people who would LOVE to set a webserver on their computer but can't figure out Apache which is designed for "real sites".
OS X is the boundary of usability and Apple excels at making a Unix 03 compliant OS "simpler than Windows" right? How many non nerd OS X users do you know who clicks that simple button "Web Sharing" in Sharing prefs? I personally know none. I know a lot of people who will enable/disable the simple personal web server in Opera for some tasks they do, especially via sites they DON"T TRUST. Do you think they really want to share that family/personal photo from a third party site.
It is not targeted at you, it is targeted at ordinary, non techie end user. That is what Opera excels at.
If we really take ISP terms serious, most ISPs disallow running a COMMERCIAL (selling goods etc.) web server on your personal line, they aren't really concerned about personal web hosting especially if your "visitors" are just a bunch of friends.
For ISP router, there is no difference between putting a 1 gig file to rapidshare (with very questionable policies) or directly posting it over port 80.
BTW, soon or later, this thing will hit mobile opera. Nokia has a similar, full function web server already which even uses Python. Thing is, if Opera lacks publicity in that sense, Nokia doesn't even exist! What I mean is, networks and cell phone companies will love this just like they love Opera Mini.
Do you know why I stay away from Gnome even while I have option to run and install it on OS X?
There are some central functionality applications coded by the Gnome camp which requires Mono, that trojan (in my eyes) to compile and function. I think Icaza and the gang somehow convinced them without bothering to explain WHY they have to use Microsoft .NET rather than being poster child of MS intention to multiplatform (heh really!).
Less politely, they are sold out in my eyes and I won't put a byte of MS code on a Windows free environment. I run OS X and I shouldn't have to. Except the fonts Apple paid them for inclusion in OS X which amazingly breaks font rendering in some browsers.
I think Linux users should ask themselves about the decision they made when they reject free (somehow) Windows and install Linux and act accordingly.
At least, Windows users can read some EULA. In Mono case, it is undisclosed terms.
You guys aren't Novell going chapter 11 soon so have to deal with the devil... If you use Linux, use the real thing without trojans and soon to be trojaned desktops.
The cluttered OS you talk about is modeled after the Framework idea and especially re-usable code.
It should be the ''what app should achieve'' instead of the entire GUI etc.
With KDE4, they have even went closer to the real vision and KDE 4 runs in all operating systems, all guis, natively without any hacks. It is the actual idea of NeXT which had to get shaved down because Apple purchased them, they have a hardware business etc.
So dear AC, my equally ''bulky'' OS X built around the very same object oriented idea is way bigger than your monkey boy's Gnome. OS X reached 10% in desktop share and some amazing number on mobile share. Which idea was right? Lets speak when Nokia smart devices come with KDE installed, should we?
If it is just 50 MB , .NET clone of Linux really lacks some huge functionality.
As I monkey around with 10-15 MB sized Windows virtual machine these days, I can say the real (yea Icaza, real) .NET framework weights around 1-2 GB when compiled behind users back after install.
It was going to be way more but some sane people from MS finally figured they are becoming the joke of the decade (bitching about Java size) and slimmed down in 3.5 SP1 release.
Also as I run the original thing on real Windows, I notice you can't just install the latest and be done with it like 99% of Java apps. You should have 1.x, 2.x, 3.x for full functionality of your installed apps.
This thing was designed with the idea of 'killing' java. We see the results. Also, there is no Microsoft.NET for OS X, an OS which has no claim to be ''free'' as in everything. They rely on Icaza guy to ship half ass clone of Mono and expect OS X users who expects the best these days to buy it... They don't. OS X user/developer can't be bothered with a clone of a clone. Perhaps they will send some paypal money to a Icaza friend and he will ship something good requires Mono for some unexplainable reason? Well, it is real hard to race with native, Objective C++ stuff and real C/POSIX stuff on OS X.
You write in something including 'C' in its name right? You write programs so you should know why the C language was invented and designed from start.
So far, it has delivered its promise as the real multiplatform compiled language.
Can you point your apps OS X, Linux, FreeBSD downloadable binaries so I can run them? If I sound like asking too much, Opera which is written in 'bulky' language runs the very same core both on my 8 Gig Quad G5 and Sony Ericsson P1i smart phone having 128MB RAM and also right on this Mac Mini G4.
You can say ''I prefer C# because all my audience is running Windows (Mo)'' but please, please don't even use C/C++ in same context as that Microsoft abuse of C.
IMHO MS has a better plan than patent trolling for future with the Mono project and its puppets paid to work (or simply stupid enough) working on it.
In Helloween docs, specialist reporting for Microsoft puts Linux'es strengths like very advanced command line and how impossible to implement them on Windows.
Of course, the one weakness has been reported. A community which is easy to divide even with political arguments.
Right after that report, first KDE got hit by not being GPL (an argument still being used) or the Library it relies on is not being totally free and Gnome started. Icaza... That is one division still lives and effects Linux today.
After years when Novell had serious issues that even non tech people argued whether they will go chapter 11 or straight out of business, they deal with Microsoft accepting their terms and hire Icaza.
Microsoft does a last attempt to gain back its users giving them something that is claimed to work anywhere but being Windows only. The functionality developers love and rely on starts with 'win' like windows forms. Right while people jokes with the framework and even MS only shops reject to be bound to it, some half ass working thing ships named 'Mono' supposed to be cool open source name of Microsoft .NET. Today, MS .NET is 3.5 SP1 (stable) and 4.x betas started to be talked about, people actually use 3.5 features and Mono is stuck somewhere as 2.x. Guy behind it is Icaza again.
Silverlight ships, becomes industry joke because of the lack of multi platform support while Adobe seriously readies 'one flash for all' concept which will work even on handsets, same guy pops up and pulls the exact Mono scheme. ''1 major version behind but open source (in OUR terms)''. Just like .NET MS also have a good argument when sane people asks ''Shouldn't you be OS neutral when you try to race with Java?'.
As Debian took this decision to allow that trojan to their distro, all my respect to their freedom standards, ethics, perfectionism has all gone. They should join Icaza when he goes to Redmond instead of celebrating their own OpenSUSE major release.
One more thing I can't stand not saying in this long message... Gotta respect to Apple. Even in their darkest days, they have put a boundary, a limit.
For Linux, we still have Volkerding and Slackware to rely on.
and we all know, users really install third party drivers that didn't come with their computer.
If you speak with a browser vendor like Firefox, Opera, you may get surprised about how a huge part of population doesn't install their better application just because it didn't come with computer.
Basically, how many people installed "Intel chipset drivers" (a very small download) to their XP which will make their PC perform way better and compatible?
I wonder if Firewire guys (including Apple) stop telling the true bandwidth of Firewire 1600/3200 and adopt AMD naming scheme?
If USB3 claims 5 gigabit and yet performs same as firewire 3200, Firewire (IEEE1394) should use Firewire 5000 and wait for Intel to say a WORD about it.
Enough with this fake bandwidth scheme by CPU monopoly company really.
Oh I bet the moron at Intel thought exactly like you. Guess what? You don't design the names/logos based on 1-2% of population. You base them on 98% which includes every kind of uneducated, fanatic freak out there.
USB3 "super speed" lame name will transform to "SS" and people will really be bugged about it. Look past browser window displaying slashdot, there is a World out there and they have no clue about the real root of number 666.
We had a USB Bluetooth dongle and it took 3 days until I give up trying and plugged a infra receiver on a XP PC. That is the Widcomm you speak about.
As I never throw away devices, I plugged the same thing to OS X 10.2.7 running on G5, I was amazed to see there is a bluetooth icon appearing instantly. As XP SP2/SP3 has built in bluetooth support, same icon appeared on very same OS when I tried later.
Bundling things doesn't really work. I still have gigantic driver CD in hand and I dare you to make it work in single step on Windows original XP. ;)
83 thousand workers all over the globe including Israel and they can't figure out why companies never use anything matching "SS"? Perhaps they should also add original swastika and can explain they used it in terms of original meaning.
We used a stylish logo with "SS" letters once at TV and we had our lesson. If Intel calls their Israel office, they can be surprised.
Remember they jumped to 667 Mhz instead of natural 666 in Pentium since people were already putting "Satan Inside" logos on web? Yes, SS still sounds like the SS from WW2. It will be trouble. That is why companies like Apple, Microsoft have huge databases for naming products and even filenames in their operating systems.
I was planning a iMac 24" and looking for a secondary display solution since I used 2 monitors even back in Windows 98. So, I checked the "real life solution" USB2 scene (e.g. not toasters) a bit.
First stuff to use USB3 will certainly be SSD drives and later, "secondary display" or even "main display" (e.g. opengl 2/3 capable) GPU stuff will start shipping.
So, if USB3 is supported under Linux but the GPU solution, likely from a Taiwan/China company doesn't have driver/GUI app... It will be a really ironic situation. I am not mocking Linux, same thing will likely happen to OS X too. I am somehow sure the actual working USB3 devices will run under Windows first.