Well as someone who has been awaiting the Apple release to finally replace an aging Toshiba I can say that this and all of the folks who try to say the same thing are not right.
I went to the Apple store and checked out the new Macbooks the day after they were announced. It was OK, the trackpad wasn't very good and certainly seemed like a 1.0 product. The "brick" chassis was OK but nothing super strong, the palm area flexed just as much as my old Toshiba. and then came the processor/HDD issue: to get a reasonable CPU and HDD I had to bump up $200 to the $1499 (with edu discount) model. Oh, and I had to buy the displayport adapter to make it useful for an extra $30.
So I waited and found an Asus X83VM for $899. It has a C2D8400, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, DVDR w/lightscribe, 14.1" widescreen, HDMI, ESATA, 5 USB ports, and most amazingly an Nvidia 9600M with 1GB RAM!
And in fact there were a few Sonys and Toshibas which easily trounced or matched the Macbook starting at $599 right next to it.
This idea that Macbooks are so evenly priced and just "seem" expensive is garbage.
Would be to just reduce the fucking viscosity at the PUMP. If this is so revolutionary then stations could sell regular/premium and low viscosity at a slight premium. However, this is most likely complete crap and full of fail.
For goodness sakes, its a laptop and fairly low-mid specs and the fact that it is playable at all is confirmation enough. Assassin's Creed was the most demanding of the games I listed even and on par with a number of other top titles like Bioshock, Hellgate, etc.
I'm not coming down on you, just responding to your one "argument" which I think even you would agree is fairly thin.
OK, I am a longtime gamer (Atari 2600 onward) and have been building PCs for over 15 years. History has repeated itself time and time again, yet everyone still falls for the same crap. Game's cost a lot to produce, no game maker is going to make a game targeted at some minute fraction of their audience. When 90-95% of the PCs in homes aren't even SLI capable what deludes people into buying such a niche product and then expecting to be catered to?
Tech demo "games" are what people always point to each time SLI tries to enter the market (way back to Voodoo days) and today with a title like Crysis. Everybody spends and spends and builds mammoth PCs to get the highest FPS in it but no one actually *plays* it as a game, it is just a benchmark and eye candy demo. Then they sit back and whine when all of the "blockbuster" games don't utilize a fraction of their uber systems. WoW, Warhammer: AR, GRID, Assassins Creed, Spore, etc. all run fine on systems over 4 years old. Because that is the middle-of-the-road developers are going to target for the most profit. Sure they may throw in an "ultra high mode" for the few bleeding edgers but it is always an afterthought and either buggy or incomplete.
None of this is new. Stop throwing $500 into SLI video cards and $300 mainboards, IT ISN'T WORTH IT. Also, another rule of thumb that has always been proven right over time: If a card (video included) requires 2 slots or more for either cooling or "daughter cards" then it is an immature technology and will be streamlined into a single slot solution soon for much cheaper due to the reduced manufacturing costs.
Maybe I just have really bad luck but this has been my breakdown so far:
Bank - 2 IT VS. 300 Staff at 14 locations ISP - 3 IT vs. 2200 customers (IT even did billing and mailing and support) University - 3 Network staff vs. 10,000+ ports and data center/supercomputing (probably 75 IT total but other departments)
So, yeah, my whole life I've been overworked and underpaid. That's the IT way! What a great life choice I made.
This practice one of the major points of contention I have with my country. Bills should have to be specific and focused on ONE and only one topic. This has to be one of the most corrupt and ridiculous practices, yet it goes on daily and no one is up in arms about it.
This would never fly in any other area of life, yet we allow it to happen blindly over and over again./Oh, BTW we tacked on a bit at the end of your mortgage stating that you can only wear blue shoes and cut your hair every fifth Thursday.
totally digital on a medium which is very susceptible to interference is just silly. You can shield the cable all you want, but the crimped ends can't be shielded and are nearest the audio device and the receiver port where they can still pick up interference.
Plus, Ethernet isn't really the best or most secure connection for db loss.
eh, I guess if suckers have kept companies like Monster in business so long, Denon will sell some of these no matter what.
Audio travelling over thin-ass Ethernet gauge wire has to be one of the dumbest ideas ever in the first place. Optical? fine. It is totally digital, no interference issues, no "directionality," etc.
How exactly do you have a direction arrow, yet it points both ways? How exactly would one direction be different than another? How exactly does tin reduce vibration?
I work with crazy expensive cabling daily that runs entire buildings and 10G+ interconnects... yet none of these need any of this nonsense nor do they even cost $499. But to get your Led Zep to your amp you do. WTF?
Wow, by your username, signature, and response I'm going to lump you into that "egghead" class I spoke earlier of and say that you are reading waaaay too much into an offhand comment on a slashdot story. I think you know what I meant.
I can't tell you how many times totally non-technical people have come up with crazy analogies that actually match a particular complex situation that you would never expect them to even begin to grasp. As much as I hate to admit it, the average scientific/tech type is generally lacking in standard common sense. Having a few "normals" around would probably do us good.
Eggheads (myself included) can do all of these magical things and can produce brilliant ideas and theories... yet fail on such simple concepts.
I still believe that every IT department or science lab/NASA should employ three regular Joes from different common backgrounds. These folks aren't blinded by minute details and generally see the big picture. They would catch dumb shit like metric/imperial measurements, or making a screen totally 1mm without maybe even making a tiny section of it have a couple 2mm holes "just in case." Y'know basic shit that would save your ass when you're millions of miles away and *then* have a D'oh! moment./Just sayin'
Fair enough. The problem is that while you think (or even if you did) properly block that box to say 5 people, more than likely you didn't. You are a busy man with more important things to do than worry about and keep up with the latest patches, updates, and security holes. You probably don't understand vulnerabilities and security to the extent a properly trained/educated IT guy does. So what you THINK is us being one-size fits could be us being understaffed and underfunded and unable to support a bunch of one-off boxes.
I actually love nothing more than facilitating and helping researchers do cool shit, I enjoy that... however many people just want to punch a clock and make things easy and homogeneous. As with anything it is both sides to blame and my idea only illustrates this and shows how my solution benefits everyone if indirectly.
I think the real problem you have is that you are a researcher who has an interest or even a proficiency for computers and THINK that should make you GOD of your own little domain. If you want to be an expert researcher, research and defer the technology side to the experts in their field. If you want to be IT, then leave the research and complete the proper education/certifications and be an expert in IT.
I run into this daily, you are no special case, and again your ignorance shines through. I'm no BOFH, everywhere I've worked I have been liked very well because I am NOT a BOFH. I am secure and well educated and skilled so I don;t need to be defensive or angry or any other hallmarks of an incompetent IT worker.
Umm, right. So all of your arguments fall flat. If you are out of the office you would be connecting one of two ways: VPN or SSH via the Internet, which BOTH would work and are secure. You can't be on Suzy's computer in Accounting though and SSH to yours which is for the better.
Exactly right, YOU CAN'T host a wiki or create an unauthorized server by "just installing LAMP" this is part of the problem. I'm sure you are an expert in each letter of LAMP which would qualify you to do that. "Fighting with IT" is a problem in your corporate/univeristy structure or a problem with the quality of your IT.
Again, why should a whole LABs info be served up from your personal workstation? Tell me again how this is safe, secure, properly backed up, and proper.
A computer hooked to machinery should be treated and protected as a server and yes you would be able to attach to it.
FYI, I *worked* for banks and high security companies, I currently run a University network where I have researchers, machinery with computers attached, labs, etc.
I disagree completely. IM uses a central server. "Impromptu document sharing" is exactly the type of thing that this stops, which is dangerous and circumvents a number of safeguards. Macro viruses, viruses, scattered documents which aren't properly backed up, lost due to a system crash, misplaced, inaccessible once an employee leaves, etc. VOIP and teleconferencing can be handled via QoS or a central server.
It isn't hard. I have actually implemented this idea in labs and test case scenarios/labs and each and every time it amazes people and works perfectly with almost NO interruptions as the knee-jerk reaction is.
I've been a network specialist/admin for a few companies including banks and a univeristy, and my personal idea/solution is a quasi-vlan system where each workstation is unable to talk directly to other workstations within the same LAN/Campus. Think about it, allow workstations to talk to servers and necessary resources but not directly to each other.
There is no need anymore. People need to connect to the Internet and file servers, etc. Rarely if ever is it actually necessary or preferable to have people connect to each other. The servers *should* be the best updated and protected systems and much easier to trust than Joe Sixpacks PC.
You stop worms from impacting you locally, and at worst your Internet pipe gets congested by a big outbreak which can be easier traced and combated when you aren't also fighting a spreading fire.
Sure there is room, I never threatened that... what I am saying is to get a solid foundation from which to build instead of the nebulous base that currently exists.
For the life of me I will never understand the complete knee-jerk reaction against this. Build a house sometime on a moving, fluid foundation of concrete... I'll build mine on a nice solid one.
This isn't a threat to any one distro or platform. All it is is a base choice of WM, text editor, look/feel, UI, libraries, etc. all picked to be the most robust and stable as well as usable right out of the gate. Hell, within each distro there could be two install choices "the standard" or "expert" which allows the current type of install for those who want it.
This isn't something one person or distro can do, it needs to be universally agreed upon (well, universally enough). I honestly think that once the foundation is laid there will be MORE growth and innovation.
Wow, how terribly insightful. YOU are exactly what is wrong with Linux. *I* don't need a fancy OS. I live and work daily in some of the most cryptic operating systems made. I work in low level, I have contributed more to open source than you could hope to. It is people like you and your mentality that deserve to fail and to flounder on another 12 years treading water rather than pushing ahead.
*I* don't need one of everything, Linux does... and even then just out of the box. No one said there can't be choice and 40 half-assed versions of the same app available... but straight away there should be a decided upon set default system which includes one of each. Why exactly do I need 12 text editors on a default install? Imagine for a minute if Windows shipped with 12 text editors and 6 video players, and on and on as Linux does... it would be ridiculous and a waste of space and resources.
But it's Linux so I should give it a pass lest I be labeled a simpleton. Wake the fuck up.
But at some point customization and freedom have to take a back seat to "good enough." It's fine to then take that solid foundation and open it up for people to tweak, change, build upon, streamline, extend, etc... but let's have that one solid base.
I used to have all the time in the world to tinker and tweak, and then the realization that I end up spending most of my time computing tweaking and tuning and NOT actually doing anything. I've been with Linux for over 12 years now, I wish it success but I think the community is misguided.
Why Linus and others constantly state that chaos is good, yet the kernel is presided over and shaped and guided with one vision and goal... and everything else is supposed to magically align for greatness is beyond me. It needs to be treated as a complete package not just a kernel any more.
However, it won't be Elonex. Asus is my personal bet for the one company to take Linux to the true desktop. They have the advantage of being both hardware mfr. and Linux developers, they have great stuff from Apple using them as their vendor.
Linux has needed a single, unified, vision from the beginning to get past all o fthe choice/freedom crap and get on to a unified UI, a solid look and feel, and most importantly ONE of everything that is best in class and 100% working by default. Since the OSS community will never agree to do this, a company is my only hope (as sad as that is). I'm wishing ASUS nothing but luck.
And this is exactly what the hell is wrong with Linux. I've seen this so many times I lost count since 1995 when I started into Linux.
"Sure, there are a hundred wheels, but they are all wrong and I will create a better one from scratch!" - Which in actuality just creates a 101st wheel which is equally screwed up and half-finished.
"It doesn't work right, but we're 1337 so tough" - Very helpful for a fledgling project, I mean who wouldn't want to work on that?
"blah blah blah" - This project will in no way actually better anything but instead fragment and shift resources and people and time away from making what we do have the best it can be.
It is all a joke anymore. All of the delusions and self-propagation of hot air and unattainable idealism has done nothing. Linux was a stable OS that ran Apache damn good 13 years ago, and it still is but unfortunately little else meaningful has happened.
Sure, we have pretty baubles like the other guys except ours are harder to get working, use, and sometimes broken! Yay!
We can write with fire on our desktop and then drag wobbly windows around! Wow!
We have 4,000 apps installed by default and most of them are duplicates or unnecessary for 99% of users! How kewl!
Simple tasks are overly complex! But we are 1337 so that is kewl too!
Jesus Christ! Wake up people! Let's get a unified vision, build a stable and streamlined foundation of a set UI, default apps, and packaging system THEN let's work on taking over the world.
Apple has managed to do this in great speed with limited resources and time because they had a stationary target and hit it often, we have a moving target and we just make new targets rather than bother to knock a few down. FFS.
Seriously, I have been a Linux user since 1995 and all I can say now is it is about time. I honestly don't care anymore about this cry for choice and freedom... no one is taking anything away, just simply standardizing the base distro on one vision.
Unification of the UI throughout all apps and windows is a must. You just simply cannot hit a moving target. Get a solid base foundation built and then have at all of the niche and one-off app and distros you want.
My personal dream day is when a major distro finally comes out with one look, one of each type of app which is as polished and unified as possible, and one window manager. No more ridiculous things in the kernel like IBM PS2 micro channel controller drivers or similar outdated garbage (yes I know they are modularized but still). Give me streamlined, solid, stable, fast, and straightforward.
My only hope right now is that a company like ASUS will continue on their way and accomplish it that way. Which is something I never thought I would say. Lets stop playing games and stupid idealistic crap and make Linux a true contender. Right now as sad as it is to say OS X has matched my wishlist for Linux in a few years as apposed to the past 13 I've spent with Linux.
Slashdot Mirror
Well as someone who has been awaiting the Apple release to finally replace an aging Toshiba I can say that this and all of the folks who try to say the same thing are not right.
I went to the Apple store and checked out the new Macbooks the day after they were announced. It was OK, the trackpad wasn't very good and certainly seemed like a 1.0 product. The "brick" chassis was OK but nothing super strong, the palm area flexed just as much as my old Toshiba. and then came the processor/HDD issue: to get a reasonable CPU and HDD I had to bump up $200 to the $1499 (with edu discount) model. Oh, and I had to buy the displayport adapter to make it useful for an extra $30.
So I waited and found an Asus X83VM for $899. It has a C2D8400, 4GB RAM, 320GB HDD, DVDR w/lightscribe, 14.1" widescreen, HDMI, ESATA, 5 USB ports, and most amazingly an Nvidia 9600M with 1GB RAM!
And in fact there were a few Sonys and Toshibas which easily trounced or matched the Macbook starting at $599 right next to it.
This idea that Macbooks are so evenly priced and just "seem" expensive is garbage.
Would be to just reduce the fucking viscosity at the PUMP. If this is so revolutionary then stations could sell regular/premium and low viscosity at a slight premium. However, this is most likely complete crap and full of fail.
OK guys, so we can't make better apps than what is already out there for free online. Our OS is so bloated with craptastic junk no one wants it.
*light bulb goes off*
We'll take everything OUT of the OS and charge them the same amount! Genius! ???! Profit!
For goodness sakes, its a laptop and fairly low-mid specs and the fact that it is playable at all is confirmation enough. Assassin's Creed was the most demanding of the games I listed even and on par with a number of other top titles like Bioshock, Hellgate, etc.
I'm not coming down on you, just responding to your one "argument" which I think even you would agree is fairly thin.
OK, I am a longtime gamer (Atari 2600 onward) and have been building PCs for over 15 years. History has repeated itself time and time again, yet everyone still falls for the same crap. Game's cost a lot to produce, no game maker is going to make a game targeted at some minute fraction of their audience. When 90-95% of the PCs in homes aren't even SLI capable what deludes people into buying such a niche product and then expecting to be catered to?
Tech demo "games" are what people always point to each time SLI tries to enter the market (way back to Voodoo days) and today with a title like Crysis. Everybody spends and spends and builds mammoth PCs to get the highest FPS in it but no one actually *plays* it as a game, it is just a benchmark and eye candy demo. Then they sit back and whine when all of the "blockbuster" games don't utilize a fraction of their uber systems. WoW, Warhammer: AR, GRID, Assassins Creed, Spore, etc. all run fine on systems over 4 years old. Because that is the middle-of-the-road developers are going to target for the most profit. Sure they may throw in an "ultra high mode" for the few bleeding edgers but it is always an afterthought and either buggy or incomplete.
None of this is new. Stop throwing $500 into SLI video cards and $300 mainboards, IT ISN'T WORTH IT. Also, another rule of thumb that has always been proven right over time: If a card (video included) requires 2 slots or more for either cooling or "daughter cards" then it is an immature technology and will be streamlined into a single slot solution soon for much cheaper due to the reduced manufacturing costs.
Maybe I just have really bad luck but this has been my breakdown so far:
Bank - 2 IT VS. 300 Staff at 14 locations
ISP - 3 IT vs. 2200 customers (IT even did billing and mailing and support)
University - 3 Network staff vs. 10,000+ ports and data center/supercomputing (probably 75 IT total but other departments)
So, yeah, my whole life I've been overworked and underpaid. That's the IT way! What a great life choice I made.
This practice one of the major points of contention I have with my country. Bills should have to be specific and focused on ONE and only one topic. This has to be one of the most corrupt and ridiculous practices, yet it goes on daily and no one is up in arms about it.
This would never fly in any other area of life, yet we allow it to happen blindly over and over again. /Oh, BTW we tacked on a bit at the end of your mortgage stating that you can only wear blue shoes and cut your hair every fifth Thursday.
totally digital on a medium which is very susceptible to interference is just silly. You can shield the cable all you want, but the crimped ends can't be shielded and are nearest the audio device and the receiver port where they can still pick up interference.
Plus, Ethernet isn't really the best or most secure connection for db loss.
eh, I guess if suckers have kept companies like Monster in business so long, Denon will sell some of these no matter what.
Audio travelling over thin-ass Ethernet gauge wire has to be one of the dumbest ideas ever in the first place. Optical? fine. It is totally digital, no interference issues, no "directionality," etc.
How exactly do you have a direction arrow, yet it points both ways? How exactly would one direction be different than another? How exactly does tin reduce vibration?
I work with crazy expensive cabling daily that runs entire buildings and 10G+ interconnects... yet none of these need any of this nonsense nor do they even cost $499. But to get your Led Zep to your amp you do. WTF?
Wow, by your username, signature, and response I'm going to lump you into that "egghead" class I spoke earlier of and say that you are reading waaaay too much into an offhand comment on a slashdot story. I think you know what I meant.
I can't tell you how many times totally non-technical people have come up with crazy analogies that actually match a particular complex situation that you would never expect them to even begin to grasp. As much as I hate to admit it, the average scientific/tech type is generally lacking in standard common sense. Having a few "normals" around would probably do us good.
Eggheads (myself included) can do all of these magical things and can produce brilliant ideas and theories... yet fail on such simple concepts.
/Just sayin'
I still believe that every IT department or science lab/NASA should employ three regular Joes from different common backgrounds. These folks aren't blinded by minute details and generally see the big picture. They would catch dumb shit like metric/imperial measurements, or making a screen totally 1mm without maybe even making a tiny section of it have a couple 2mm holes "just in case." Y'know basic shit that would save your ass when you're millions of miles away and *then* have a D'oh! moment.
Fair enough. The problem is that while you think (or even if you did) properly block that box to say 5 people, more than likely you didn't. You are a busy man with more important things to do than worry about and keep up with the latest patches, updates, and security holes. You probably don't understand vulnerabilities and security to the extent a properly trained/educated IT guy does. So what you THINK is us being one-size fits could be us being understaffed and underfunded and unable to support a bunch of one-off boxes.
I actually love nothing more than facilitating and helping researchers do cool shit, I enjoy that... however many people just want to punch a clock and make things easy and homogeneous. As with anything it is both sides to blame and my idea only illustrates this and shows how my solution benefits everyone if indirectly.
I think the real problem you have is that you are a researcher who has an interest or even a proficiency for computers and THINK that should make you GOD of your own little domain. If you want to be an expert researcher, research and defer the technology side to the experts in their field. If you want to be IT, then leave the research and complete the proper education/certifications and be an expert in IT.
I run into this daily, you are no special case, and again your ignorance shines through. I'm no BOFH, everywhere I've worked I have been liked very well because I am NOT a BOFH. I am secure and well educated and skilled so I don;t need to be defensive or angry or any other hallmarks of an incompetent IT worker.
Umm, right. So all of your arguments fall flat. If you are out of the office you would be connecting one of two ways: VPN or SSH via the Internet, which BOTH would work and are secure. You can't be on Suzy's computer in Accounting though and SSH to yours which is for the better.
Exactly right, YOU CAN'T host a wiki or create an unauthorized server by "just installing LAMP" this is part of the problem. I'm sure you are an expert in each letter of LAMP which would qualify you to do that. "Fighting with IT" is a problem in your corporate/univeristy structure or a problem with the quality of your IT.
Again, why should a whole LABs info be served up from your personal workstation? Tell me again how this is safe, secure, properly backed up, and proper.
A computer hooked to machinery should be treated and protected as a server and yes you would be able to attach to it.
FYI, I *worked* for banks and high security companies, I currently run a University network where I have researchers, machinery with computers attached, labs, etc.
I disagree completely. IM uses a central server. "Impromptu document sharing" is exactly the type of thing that this stops, which is dangerous and circumvents a number of safeguards. Macro viruses, viruses, scattered documents which aren't properly backed up, lost due to a system crash, misplaced, inaccessible once an employee leaves, etc. VOIP and teleconferencing can be handled via QoS or a central server.
It isn't hard. I have actually implemented this idea in labs and test case scenarios/labs and each and every time it amazes people and works perfectly with almost NO interruptions as the knee-jerk reaction is.
I've been a network specialist/admin for a few companies including banks and a univeristy, and my personal idea/solution is a quasi-vlan system where each workstation is unable to talk directly to other workstations within the same LAN/Campus. Think about it, allow workstations to talk to servers and necessary resources but not directly to each other.
There is no need anymore. People need to connect to the Internet and file servers, etc. Rarely if ever is it actually necessary or preferable to have people connect to each other. The servers *should* be the best updated and protected systems and much easier to trust than Joe Sixpacks PC.
You stop worms from impacting you locally, and at worst your Internet pipe gets congested by a big outbreak which can be easier traced and combated when you aren't also fighting a spreading fire.
Sure there is room, I never threatened that... what I am saying is to get a solid foundation from which to build instead of the nebulous base that currently exists.
For the life of me I will never understand the complete knee-jerk reaction against this. Build a house sometime on a moving, fluid foundation of concrete... I'll build mine on a nice solid one.
This isn't a threat to any one distro or platform. All it is is a base choice of WM, text editor, look/feel, UI, libraries, etc. all picked to be the most robust and stable as well as usable right out of the gate. Hell, within each distro there could be two install choices "the standard" or "expert" which allows the current type of install for those who want it.
This isn't something one person or distro can do, it needs to be universally agreed upon (well, universally enough). I honestly think that once the foundation is laid there will be MORE growth and innovation.
Wow, how terribly insightful. YOU are exactly what is wrong with Linux. *I* don't need a fancy OS. I live and work daily in some of the most cryptic operating systems made. I work in low level, I have contributed more to open source than you could hope to. It is people like you and your mentality that deserve to fail and to flounder on another 12 years treading water rather than pushing ahead.
*I* don't need one of everything, Linux does... and even then just out of the box. No one said there can't be choice and 40 half-assed versions of the same app available... but straight away there should be a decided upon set default system which includes one of each. Why exactly do I need 12 text editors on a default install? Imagine for a minute if Windows shipped with 12 text editors and 6 video players, and on and on as Linux does... it would be ridiculous and a waste of space and resources.
But it's Linux so I should give it a pass lest I be labeled a simpleton. Wake the fuck up.
But at some point customization and freedom have to take a back seat to "good enough." It's fine to then take that solid foundation and open it up for people to tweak, change, build upon, streamline, extend, etc... but let's have that one solid base.
I used to have all the time in the world to tinker and tweak, and then the realization that I end up spending most of my time computing tweaking and tuning and NOT actually doing anything. I've been with Linux for over 12 years now, I wish it success but I think the community is misguided.
Why Linus and others constantly state that chaos is good, yet the kernel is presided over and shaped and guided with one vision and goal... and everything else is supposed to magically align for greatness is beyond me. It needs to be treated as a complete package not just a kernel any more.
/that is all
However, it won't be Elonex. Asus is my personal bet for the one company to take Linux to the true desktop. They have the advantage of being both hardware mfr. and Linux developers, they have great stuff from Apple using them as their vendor.
Linux has needed a single, unified, vision from the beginning to get past all o fthe choice/freedom crap and get on to a unified UI, a solid look and feel, and most importantly ONE of everything that is best in class and 100% working by default. Since the OSS community will never agree to do this, a company is my only hope (as sad as that is). I'm wishing ASUS nothing but luck.
No doubt SMIME. I used to be in charge of a large bank's IT/security and SMIME was it.
And this is exactly what the hell is wrong with Linux. I've seen this so many times I lost count since 1995 when I started into Linux.
"Sure, there are a hundred wheels, but they are all wrong and I will create a better one from scratch!" - Which in actuality just creates a 101st wheel which is equally screwed up and half-finished.
"It doesn't work right, but we're 1337 so tough" - Very helpful for a fledgling project, I mean who wouldn't want to work on that?
"blah blah blah" - This project will in no way actually better anything but instead fragment and shift resources and people and time away from making what we do have the best it can be.
It is all a joke anymore. All of the delusions and self-propagation of hot air and unattainable idealism has done nothing. Linux was a stable OS that ran Apache damn good 13 years ago, and it still is but unfortunately little else meaningful has happened.
Sure, we have pretty baubles like the other guys except ours are harder to get working, use, and sometimes broken! Yay!
We can write with fire on our desktop and then drag wobbly windows around! Wow!
We have 4,000 apps installed by default and most of them are duplicates or unnecessary for 99% of users! How kewl!
Simple tasks are overly complex! But we are 1337 so that is kewl too!
Jesus Christ! Wake up people! Let's get a unified vision, build a stable and streamlined foundation of a set UI, default apps, and packaging system THEN let's work on taking over the world.
Apple has managed to do this in great speed with limited resources and time because they had a stationary target and hit it often, we have a moving target and we just make new targets rather than bother to knock a few down. FFS.
Seriously, I have been a Linux user since 1995 and all I can say now is it is about time. I honestly don't care anymore about this cry for choice and freedom... no one is taking anything away, just simply standardizing the base distro on one vision.
Unification of the UI throughout all apps and windows is a must. You just simply cannot hit a moving target. Get a solid base foundation built and then have at all of the niche and one-off app and distros you want.
My personal dream day is when a major distro finally comes out with one look, one of each type of app which is as polished and unified as possible, and one window manager. No more ridiculous things in the kernel like IBM PS2 micro channel controller drivers or similar outdated garbage (yes I know they are modularized but still). Give me streamlined, solid, stable, fast, and straightforward.
My only hope right now is that a company like ASUS will continue on their way and accomplish it that way. Which is something I never thought I would say. Lets stop playing games and stupid idealistic crap and make Linux a true contender. Right now as sad as it is to say OS X has matched my wishlist for Linux in a few years as apposed to the past 13 I've spent with Linux.
I actually use a number of drive recovery companies, and thanks to this slashvertisement I will never use this company nor will I read Geeks.com
The sad part is that I rarely even read Slashdot anymore since it is a sad shell of what it was... Pitiful.