The integration of all kinds of crap isn't good, it's bad! That is the definition of bloat,
Actually, integration, at least as implemented in KDE, is almost the antithesis of bloat. By having a standard, well-defined interface to different apps, they can all load in as modules when required, and display within konqueror if you choose it. If you'd rather they open separate apps, then you can choose that too. Either way, the same underlying API is used, because it's standard, and flexible. That's not bloat. Bloat would be throwing everything into one huge app, like OpenOffice does, because the individual parts aren't well separated or couldn't be integrated without obvious API boundaries.
Agreed. Well said. Also, I think it's important for people in general, but especially great scientists to have the benefit of wisdom too. Often, that's learned through slow, thoughtful processes of ordinary life. Certainly not normally on fast-tracks to greatness.
Oh, and the corollary I meant to include in that is that offices should not be allocated for the purposes of prestige. If highly paid employees get an office for the sake of their vanity, when they're actually not even in the building much, and when they are, they're talking to people in plain sight, while IT guys who need to think are dealing with cleaners vacuuming around them, then I think that says something about the kind of company you're working for.
The best argument I've heard for real offices is that they should be allocated to people who need privacy OR quiet to do their work. With all due respect to secretaries, the last thing you need is a secretary playing some music that drives you insane when you're trying to work out the deep implications of some program code or security issue.
Until GNU/Linux and other Free Software programs can provide the same quality of service for "Normal people", (that is to say your Mum or your Granddad) Commerical Software like microsoft will always be the mainstream.
Ahh, that's good to know. Thanks. I wonder if oolite folks fix GNUStep to port it then, or if they just hacked their app...
OS Upgrades in Debian vs. "Legacy" SunOS
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Debian GNU/Solaris
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· Score: 1
You can "upgrade on the fly", in a way. The concept is you mirror your root disk, split the mirror, perform the upgrade against the inactive mirror, and finally reboot, this time off the upgraded side.
While that sounds like a very stable way to upgrade, it's worth pointing out that Debian is capable of upgrading continuously without rebooting, or upgrading to new releases without rebooting. The OS of course, not the kernel. But still, it's a very valuable feature, and when upgrading between stable Debian releases, quite reliable.
I would be surprised if SunOS can't do this too, but if it has a dumb package manager -- not hard to imagine, thinking of things like BSD ports compared to Debian's APT -- it's quite possible that Debian provides significant advantages there.
Anyway, I for one am looking forward to trying Debian on another SOLID kernel. Debian GNU/kFreeBSD and is a wonderful thing too, and GNU/Hurd-L4 is definitely on my wishlist:)
Well, actually, they all do very similar things, and provide similar tools.
The differences would be in technologies supported, and in ease of programming. From what I've gathered, GNUStep is very object-oriented, which means that it will be easy to develop applications quickly for, without them growing so confusing as they get bigger. Qt and KDE are both similarly object-oriented, and I think it shows in how quickly they develop and evolve.
I know of one game, oolite (an Elite clone), which was quickly ported from OS X to Linux using GNUStep. It did still have issues though, so it wasn't a simple re-compile. Doing that with GTK would be much harder, though, and I don't think of GTK as Object-Oriented at all. It does have extensions to support OOP, but IMHO, that should have been a major design principle, right from the beginning. I think GTK would have developed faster, and been more usable and integrated, if it was.
I'm not sure if GNUStep fully supports m18n, but GNOME and KDE do, and probably E17 too. E17 is the only one to currently support ACLs and EAs in a usable way.
GNU/Solaris sounds like only the kernel is not linux.
Uhh, linux is a kernel, and nothing more.
Precisely. Which is why people wanted to refer to "Linux" distributions as GNU/Linux. Debian now has GNU/Linux, GNU/kFreeBSD, and GNU/Solaris at least. Which means, *gasp* they were right:)
It's a bit more serious than how your computer might get screwed up if you try to undo this. If a staff member innocently tries to play music in their bank, and this introduces security holes that could be used to hack into the bank's systems, then the legal implications are probably quite staggering.
I recall hearing that the AFS guys wanted to include it in Linux early on, and that they couldn't because of licensing issues. They *begged* Linus to accomodate them, and his response was, literally, "I DON'T CARE". I haven't really checked, but I think the AFS code in the kernel now proves that adamantly sticking to a well-thought position can work for the best in the end, even if there are initial problems.
There is also the example Richard Stallman, without whom we wouldn't even be having this conversation. He's famous for bugging people with his uncompromising attitudes. But I for one applaud him completely for that, and thank him sincerely.
It's not always true, but sometimes, insisting can be a good thing.
I don't think Hans is necessarily incorrect to have strong opinions. Some of the things on offer in Reiser4 sound great, and I agree with him that Linux should embrace new ideas more quickly. Hell, we're still trying to get ACLs widely accepted in Linux:(
This is one thing I'd like to see more of on Linux. It has lots of cool device drivers for things like webcams and firewire cards and advanced audio cards, joysticks, etc. But if you want to write a program that supports all those things, then you generally have to spend money on the hardware. If we want lots of developers to be able to contribute, and to develop apps as hardware becomes consumer-priced, then emulation would be a real step in the right direction.
Actually, you don't know what you're talking about. It's really sad that you think I'm discussing communism or socialism, when I'm actually referring to important principles from american law. You should read a Lessig sometime.
*sigh* You've been listening to too much capitalist propaganda.
The fact is, we did own it. Some things, like the ability to communicate with each other without restrictions, are natural parts of human society. Even if technology comes along that makes it easier to communicate over long distances, that does not upset the status quo, unless there are faults in society that create haves and have-nots, or the developers choose to limit things so that some people are excluded.
So yes, "taking it back" is entirely the right term to use.
People have such a negative image of communism. I'll be the first to admit that in practice, it fails horribly due to human nature, but as a concept, it's great.
Well, no. As previously implemented, communism has corruption, but so does capitalism. The USSR competed very admirably with the US on the production of hardware for a long time, considering that capitalism is based on the concept of greed, whereas communism is based on the concept of sharing according to ability and need. The USSR failed because it was in an endless, unproductive war (as they all are), and eventually had it's oil pipelines sabotaged by the US.
Yes, there are a lot of aspects to this move. I think IM is the big one, though: it's IM that keeps kids signed up with one company or another, and google has a chance of taking significant MSN market share without AIM.
Let's hope people start using Google Talk (Jabber-based, of course), Apple's iChat (also Jabber-based) and other jabber accounts before it's too to claw back any sort of free IM market:(
One of the two genes, ASPM, appears to have come under selection only 5800 years ago; but it is now at around 20 percent, with a frequency of near 50 percent in some Near Eastern populations. Whatever this allele does, it had a selective advantage of more than 5 percent. They don't know it necessarily makes people smarter, but it's hard to think what else it might be.
Perhaps it's the ability to step back, see what's going wrong, and quit using addictive substances/behaviour before it kills them. Drugs have been in mainstream use in many historic and modern civilisations, including our own.
Which would be interesting, because I think a lot of western society's problems are based on addictive behaviour: wanting stuff that isn't needed and winding up in jail for trying to get it in the wrong ways, not knowing when to stop drinking, having sexual appetites that land one in trouble, etc.
It would really fit in with the selecting forces of our society, I think.
Slashdot Mirror
Agreed. Well said. Also, I think it's important for people in general, but especially great scientists to have the benefit of wisdom too. Often, that's learned through slow, thoughtful processes of ordinary life. Certainly not normally on fast-tracks to greatness.
Oh, and the corollary I meant to include in that is that offices should not be allocated for the purposes of prestige. If highly paid employees get an office for the sake of their vanity, when they're actually not even in the building much, and when they are, they're talking to people in plain sight, while IT guys who need to think are dealing with cleaners vacuuming around them, then I think that says something about the kind of company you're working for.
The best argument I've heard for real offices is that they should be allocated to people who need privacy OR quiet to do their work. With all due respect to secretaries, the last thing you need is a secretary playing some music that drives you insane when you're trying to work out the deep implications of some program code or security issue.
Ahh, that's good to know. Thanks. I wonder if oolite folks fix GNUStep to port it then, or if they just hacked their app...
While that sounds like a very stable way to upgrade, it's worth pointing out that Debian is capable of upgrading continuously without rebooting, or upgrading to new releases without rebooting. The OS of course, not the kernel. But still, it's a very valuable feature, and when upgrading between stable Debian releases, quite reliable.
I would be surprised if SunOS can't do this too, but if it has a dumb package manager -- not hard to imagine, thinking of things like BSD ports compared to Debian's APT -- it's quite possible that Debian provides significant advantages there.
Anyway, I for one am looking forward to trying Debian on another SOLID kernel. Debian GNU/kFreeBSD and is a wonderful thing too, and GNU/Hurd-L4 is definitely on my wishlist :)
Well, actually, they all do very similar things, and provide similar tools. The differences would be in technologies supported, and in ease of programming. From what I've gathered, GNUStep is very object-oriented, which means that it will be easy to develop applications quickly for, without them growing so confusing as they get bigger. Qt and KDE are both similarly object-oriented, and I think it shows in how quickly they develop and evolve. I know of one game, oolite (an Elite clone), which was quickly ported from OS X to Linux using GNUStep. It did still have issues though, so it wasn't a simple re-compile. Doing that with GTK would be much harder, though, and I don't think of GTK as Object-Oriented at all. It does have extensions to support OOP, but IMHO, that should have been a major design principle, right from the beginning. I think GTK would have developed faster, and been more usable and integrated, if it was. I'm not sure if GNUStep fully supports m18n, but GNOME and KDE do, and probably E17 too. E17 is the only one to currently support ACLs and EAs in a usable way.
It's a bit more serious than how your computer might get screwed up if you try to undo this. If a staff member innocently tries to play music in their bank, and this introduces security holes that could be used to hack into the bank's systems, then the legal implications are probably quite staggering.
The difference is that Xena deliberately wears short skirts to dominate men. So it's OK, and not sexist at all any more :)
I recall hearing that the AFS guys wanted to include it in Linux early on, and that they couldn't because of licensing issues. They *begged* Linus to accomodate them, and his response was, literally, "I DON'T CARE". I haven't really checked, but I think the AFS code in the kernel now proves that adamantly sticking to a well-thought position can work for the best in the end, even if there are initial problems.
There is also the example Richard Stallman, without whom we wouldn't even be having this conversation. He's famous for bugging people with his uncompromising attitudes. But I for one applaud him completely for that, and thank him sincerely.
It's not always true, but sometimes, insisting can be a good thing.
I don't think Hans is necessarily incorrect to have strong opinions. Some of the things on offer in Reiser4 sound great, and I agree with him that Linux should embrace new ideas more quickly. Hell, we're still trying to get ACLs widely accepted in Linux :(
Actually, Pro/Engineer and Solidworks are available for linux. 80% of Solidworks users upgraded from AutoCAD at one time.
There's also the small point of having to mine more metal, which isn't usually the most environmentally friendly practice.
Agreed. I think I remember hearing about all these social features becoming available in Konqueror (SVN) recently, too.
Safari is mostly just KHTML from Konqueror, which is quite portable. Even Atheos has a port.
This is one thing I'd like to see more of on Linux. It has lots of cool device drivers for things like webcams and firewire cards and advanced audio cards, joysticks, etc. But if you want to write a program that supports all those things, then you generally have to spend money on the hardware. If we want lots of developers to be able to contribute, and to develop apps as hardware becomes consumer-priced, then emulation would be a real step in the right direction.
I never said that I'm the owner of an IM system. You misunderstood.
Actually, you don't know what you're talking about. It's really sad that you think I'm discussing communism or socialism, when I'm actually referring to important principles from american law. You should read a Lessig sometime.
*sigh* You've been listening to too much capitalist propaganda.
The fact is, we did own it. Some things, like the ability to communicate with each other without restrictions, are natural parts of human society. Even if technology comes along that makes it easier to communicate over long distances, that does not upset the status quo, unless there are faults in society that create haves and have-nots, or the developers choose to limit things so that some people are excluded.
So yes, "taking it back" is entirely the right term to use.
Yes, there are a lot of aspects to this move. I think IM is the big one, though: it's IM that keeps kids signed up with one company or another, and google has a chance of taking significant MSN market share without AIM. Let's hope people start using Google Talk (Jabber-based, of course), Apple's iChat (also Jabber-based) and other jabber accounts before it's too to claw back any sort of free IM market :(
Also, it's NOT Free, in the GNU sense. If it was, the range of platforms would be expandable.
/.'s readers.
Combined with the other issues that people have already mentioned, this is a dumb advert, with no relevance for most