I love KDE 3 and I'm quite content to use it. I spent about two years sitting very eagerly getting all excited about KDE 4, and now I'm a little apathetic about it. I'm not sure when and if I'll switch.
KDE 4 has a lot of great things going for it like Phonon, Solid, Akondi, Sonnet, SVG rendering, Decibel, multi-platform, etc.
I'm just not crazy about the desktop experience with it.
There are a variety of forks and flavors, but they're not necessarily well maintained. Kubuntu is pretty much a stock KDE put on top of Ubuntu, but it is based on the last Ubuntu release. The Ubuntu devs don't really work with the other spins/flavors/forks to ensure development happens on all of them at the same time. So features of 8.04 make into Kubuntu when 8.10 comes out.
And calling Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu three different spins, when most distros would simply call it one is a bit misleading. With say openSUSE, all the features of 11.0 come out for everyone at the same time, regardless if you run Gnome, KDE 3, KDE 4, XFCE, etc.
Beat up old ladies and just take their bags. It is quick, easy and doesn't require giving up your personal identity. Craigslist is so 2007. Get with the picture.
When I worked for HP I discovered that most of the motherboards, laptops and such that HP sold were actually made by Foxconn. I wouldn't be completely shocked if HP server motherboards were Foxconn since I don't believe HP makes any of their own.
Some distros (like Sabayon and Mint) just preinstall codecs and such. Frankly, I don't understand why distros like openSUSE don't. They will include proprietary stuff like Flash, Acrobat, Sun's Java, RealPlayer, etc. but refuse to package in Nvidia's driver or media codecs.
There are a few people who suggest that including libdvdcss is illegal in the US, but that just isn't the case. The DCMA makes it illegal to circumvent copyright protection for the purpose of making pirate copies. The DCMA does not say it is illegal to enable a player to play media.
Reverse engineering isn't illegal.
If a distro wants to be as pure as possible and not include these things by being "free" (read, free meaning removing choice from users and forcing them into your philosophy of OSS or bust) then so be it. That is your choice as a distro.
Not including codecs when you include other proprietary elements is just poor customer service.
Having used openSUSE 11 for a while now, zypper is extremely faster than old versions. All.rpm packages use LZMA compression which is faster, dependency resolution is faster and better, etc.
zypper works just as well as apt-get as far as I can tell these days. I honestly wouldn't place one above the other.
Business users should be focusing on products like SLED, SLES, CentOS and such. Fedora is unstable because it is a testing community distro with bleeding edge stuff. You can't push people away from RedHat because Fedora is unstable. It is designed to be unstable.
Either way, there are far better enterprise-quality distros rather than Ubuntu. Ubuntu has its place, but I wouldn't replaced SLED with it.
A few things like Wubi to allow you to install it in Windows, Jockey, bullet-proof X, but on the whole I'd say no. Every distro has a few advantages of its own.
I had more problems with Ubuntu than any other distro I've ever tried actually.
Final Cut is the only one I really agree with. However, you have to realize that there isn't even a really good Windows replacement for Final Cut. Photoshop and Illustrator can be replaced quite well with GIMP, Krita and Inkscape. In some ways, the free software is in fact better.
I've long suggested that all major distros should consider working on one package manager and major repository system. The files can be.deb or.rpm or whatever. I don't care.
The openSUSE build service ( https://build.opensuse.org/ ) allows different distros to build packages in one place. It provides an easy search interface for users to get one-click installers for whatever package they want.
I'd really like to see more distros take advantage of it.
Not to mention the reason you get condensation in a fridge is often that a single compressor operates both the fridge and freezer. Systems with different compressors for the two systems are more segregated, and have less condensation problems. Each system stays at a controlled humidity level.
Except Apple is growing big time in market share with first-time adopters right now that have no clue what Apple products are like. They just know they want one.
I'm not saying Apple products are necessarily bad or good. I'm saying they are selling regardless of quality because of good marketing.
My mother owns no music really to speak of and absolutely had to own an iPod. My CEO's kids know nothing about computers, but came in saying they absolutely need Apple computers.
Most people I talk to want an iPhone, but know nothing about them.
The average Windows PC and Mac PC may not come with Office bundled, but every major Linux distro bundles OpenOffice. In fact, you're more likely to find the software you need preinstalled on a Linux box more than Windows.
I've been switching several people to Linux (KDE and openSUSE specifically) and even though they aren't computer savvy and they have reservations, not a single person has asked to go back to Windows. Many have told me they find KDE and Linux to be easier to navigate and operate than Windows.
I could contend a number of distros hold advantages over Ubuntu, but I don't see the need to start a flame-war.
However, I saw a Google-trends breakdown recently (I think it was on planetsuse.org) that showed searches for Ubuntu constantly rise, where as searches for Linux are on the decline. Those two points almost meet in the middle.
Ubuntu is becoming ubiquitous for Linux. People have heard of Ubuntu, and word of mouth is extremely popular. Because it is the most popular distro, that continues to spread. People who don't know much about Linux are likely to immediately gravitate to the one distro they have heard of.
Ubuntu landed deals with companies like Dell, and Mark Shuttleworth has made a huge name for himself. I can't even tell you who is in charge of Mandriva.
For Mandriva to have the same sway, they'd have to sell commercial support (not sure if they do other than their club, which seems to be a turn-off to me), land major deals, and market themselves heavily the way Ubuntu does.
I have people telling me they want Apple computers, and they have never seen the UI of OS X.
They want Apple computers because of marketing and hype. They are becoming trendy status symbols. (Put the flame-throwers away, I'm not commenting on quality here). Linux doesn't have a marketing department. That is why Linux won't take a sizable chunk out of the desktop market.
People draw comparisons to Firefox and its adoption, but Firefox grew when it adopted a marketing campaign. People seem to forget that.
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I love KDE 3 and I'm quite content to use it. I spent about two years sitting very eagerly getting all excited about KDE 4, and now I'm a little apathetic about it. I'm not sure when and if I'll switch.
KDE 4 has a lot of great things going for it like Phonon, Solid, Akondi, Sonnet, SVG rendering, Decibel, multi-platform, etc.
I'm just not crazy about the desktop experience with it.
There are a variety of forks and flavors, but they're not necessarily well maintained. Kubuntu is pretty much a stock KDE put on top of Ubuntu, but it is based on the last Ubuntu release. The Ubuntu devs don't really work with the other spins/flavors/forks to ensure development happens on all of them at the same time. So features of 8.04 make into Kubuntu when 8.10 comes out.
And calling Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu three different spins, when most distros would simply call it one is a bit misleading. With say openSUSE, all the features of 11.0 come out for everyone at the same time, regardless if you run Gnome, KDE 3, KDE 4, XFCE, etc.
Beat up old ladies and just take their bags. It is quick, easy and doesn't require giving up your personal identity. Craigslist is so 2007. Get with the picture.
I'm assuming tickets like those are non-transferrable.
As long as the set doesn't have a couch, they're safe from Cruise.
But the theatre is packed full of chairs, so they have to watch out for Ballmer.
Exactly. When they saw the specific tickets, they'd know who the seller was.
Dell.
I usually buy HP laptops, and for a while I noticed they would never boot Live CD's or installers unless I used a "cheat code" or noapic or acpi=off.
Look up kernel cheat codes and you can usually get around and fix whatever issue is causing the Live CD to hang.
We shipped servers with Linux preinstalled, and these days I believe HP pushes SUSE.
Just being pedantic:
Linux has about 3% of the desktop market, but that is growing and they do have a large chunk of the server market.
And Foxconn does produce laptops and motherboards for HP. I used to work for HP.
When I worked for HP I discovered that most of the motherboards, laptops and such that HP sold were actually made by Foxconn. I wouldn't be completely shocked if HP server motherboards were Foxconn since I don't believe HP makes any of their own.
Exactly my point.
Some distros (like Sabayon and Mint) just preinstall codecs and such. Frankly, I don't understand why distros like openSUSE don't. They will include proprietary stuff like Flash, Acrobat, Sun's Java, RealPlayer, etc. but refuse to package in Nvidia's driver or media codecs.
There are a few people who suggest that including libdvdcss is illegal in the US, but that just isn't the case. The DCMA makes it illegal to circumvent copyright protection for the purpose of making pirate copies. The DCMA does not say it is illegal to enable a player to play media.
Reverse engineering isn't illegal.
If a distro wants to be as pure as possible and not include these things by being "free" (read, free meaning removing choice from users and forcing them into your philosophy of OSS or bust) then so be it. That is your choice as a distro.
Not including codecs when you include other proprietary elements is just poor customer service.
Oh, and you get props for quoting Emerson.
Having used openSUSE 11 for a while now, zypper is extremely faster than old versions. All .rpm packages use LZMA compression which is faster, dependency resolution is faster and better, etc.
zypper works just as well as apt-get as far as I can tell these days. I honestly wouldn't place one above the other.
Business users should be focusing on products like SLED, SLES, CentOS and such. Fedora is unstable because it is a testing community distro with bleeding edge stuff. You can't push people away from RedHat because Fedora is unstable. It is designed to be unstable.
Either way, there are far better enterprise-quality distros rather than Ubuntu. Ubuntu has its place, but I wouldn't replaced SLED with it.
A few things like Wubi to allow you to install it in Windows, Jockey, bullet-proof X, but on the whole I'd say no. Every distro has a few advantages of its own.
I had more problems with Ubuntu than any other distro I've ever tried actually.
Final Cut is the only one I really agree with. However, you have to realize that there isn't even a really good Windows replacement for Final Cut. Photoshop and Illustrator can be replaced quite well with GIMP, Krita and Inkscape. In some ways, the free software is in fact better.
I've long suggested that all major distros should consider working on one package manager and major repository system. The files can be .deb or .rpm or whatever. I don't care.
The openSUSE build service ( https://build.opensuse.org/ ) allows different distros to build packages in one place. It provides an easy search interface for users to get one-click installers for whatever package they want.
I'd really like to see more distros take advantage of it.
Not to mention the reason you get condensation in a fridge is often that a single compressor operates both the fridge and freezer. Systems with different compressors for the two systems are more segregated, and have less condensation problems. Each system stays at a controlled humidity level.
Refrigeration systems use compressors, which are big power drags. The battery drain here can not be overlooked.
Refrigeration systems from desktops exist, and they are called water-coolers.
Except Apple is growing big time in market share with first-time adopters right now that have no clue what Apple products are like. They just know they want one.
I'm not saying Apple products are necessarily bad or good. I'm saying they are selling regardless of quality because of good marketing.
My mother owns no music really to speak of and absolutely had to own an iPod. My CEO's kids know nothing about computers, but came in saying they absolutely need Apple computers.
Most people I talk to want an iPhone, but know nothing about them.
The average Windows PC and Mac PC may not come with Office bundled, but every major Linux distro bundles OpenOffice. In fact, you're more likely to find the software you need preinstalled on a Linux box more than Windows.
I've been switching several people to Linux (KDE and openSUSE specifically) and even though they aren't computer savvy and they have reservations, not a single person has asked to go back to Windows. Many have told me they find KDE and Linux to be easier to navigate and operate than Windows.
I could contend a number of distros hold advantages over Ubuntu, but I don't see the need to start a flame-war.
However, I saw a Google-trends breakdown recently (I think it was on planetsuse.org) that showed searches for Ubuntu constantly rise, where as searches for Linux are on the decline. Those two points almost meet in the middle.
Ubuntu is becoming ubiquitous for Linux. People have heard of Ubuntu, and word of mouth is extremely popular. Because it is the most popular distro, that continues to spread. People who don't know much about Linux are likely to immediately gravitate to the one distro they have heard of.
Ubuntu landed deals with companies like Dell, and Mark Shuttleworth has made a huge name for himself. I can't even tell you who is in charge of Mandriva.
For Mandriva to have the same sway, they'd have to sell commercial support (not sure if they do other than their club, which seems to be a turn-off to me), land major deals, and market themselves heavily the way Ubuntu does.
I'd suggest that Linux has more software than Apple on the whole.
As far as writing tools I use:
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/scr2
and
http://extensions.services.openoffice.org/project/writertools
I love both.
I have people telling me they want Apple computers, and they have never seen the UI of OS X.
They want Apple computers because of marketing and hype. They are becoming trendy status symbols. (Put the flame-throwers away, I'm not commenting on quality here). Linux doesn't have a marketing department. That is why Linux won't take a sizable chunk out of the desktop market.
People draw comparisons to Firefox and its adoption, but Firefox grew when it adopted a marketing campaign. People seem to forget that.