I'd say that this sounds more like a company policy issue more than a problem with the number of Linux Distros. If you're company wanted to have a standard desktop solution for it's employees, it would mandate which distro and desktop environment you were to use.
The ability to have options in your operating envrionment, be it CLI or GUI (KDE; Gnome; etc.) is one of the leading 'features' of Linux that most people the use Linux, actually enjoy.
If you walk into a company that uses a standard MS desktop, you can bet that they don't have users running things from an MS-DOS command line, because that's not what the company has deemed as their standard.
All of the 'popular' Linux distros available today make fine desktop workstation operating systems. And the standardization that you are bringing up, isn't really even to blame on the OS itself, it's all in the desktop envrionment that you have chosen to run on it. Load up Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Workstation, Mandriva, Debian, or whatever you choose on three machines sitting next to each other. Boot them all into an X server with Gnome as the desktop environment and then tell me how different they are. For the most part (with exception of menu items and backgrounds, and possibly some OS specific startup widget...nothing that you won't find on WinXP boxes from different OEM distributers) they are going to be the same.
So where does the responsibility lie, to bring standardized Linux to corporate desktops? I say, that falls on the corporations that are using Linux as desktops, just as it has with corporations using Windows for years. Not on the people developing the OSes and provided the consumers with more than ample choices.
I have a custom built laptop from R3 Technologies. I run Fedora Core 4 on it, and spend a lot of time at a command line instead of in the GUI. The display is a 12" display and I run a 1280x1024 resolution. The laptop weights less than 4 lbs, and that's with an 8 hour battery (less than 3 with the standard battery). This is a highly mobile laptop! I had a Toshiba with a 15" that would run at 1600x1200 resolution. That boat anchor of a laptop weighed in at between 5 to 7 lbs, and was large enough that I had a hard time using it on the plane ride from Southern Indiana to Austin, Texas. That is a problem for business people that need to travel for their jobs, and may spend hours in a plane or at an airport terminal.
I wouldn't trade my laptop for one with a 19" or 20" display if someone was offering it to me for free. This thing is great, who wants to carry around a boat anchor?
I'm guessing that "Portable PC" or "PC Portable" is simple and elegant. It implies that it can be easliy taken from one place to another, but doesn't elude to the fact that it should be as mobile as a laptop. Kind of like when they called the 13" TV a portable TV. One person can move it, but no one caries it around with them.
And where, may I ask, did you gather this information?
I do not doubt at all that there is a "Most Popular," but without doing a large scope poll covering many people from many areas of the world, there is no sound way of supporting any statments that one is more widely used than another. If you know of such a poll, I would very much like to see it's poasted results along with a definition of it's polling scope.
"...(or even only) form of distribution is via download..."
This is where your problem is...it is not possible for downloading to be the ONLY form of distribution of a software package that is freely downloadable on the Internet, especially if there is no required activation key (as in with GPL software and/or anything published as FREEWARE). And for no other reason than that, the number of times it has been downloaded is not a good representation of how many people are USING it.
"What metric exists that you think indicates Gaim is more popular?"
Once again, I am NOT trying to make the argument that GAIM is more popular...how many times, and in how many different ways do I have to say that?
"There can not possibly be more people using Gaim than have downloaded it."
You really think that this is a true statement? I really hope not, because the belief that it is a true statement is the whole reason that we are even having this argument. I assure you that it is a false statement, without doubt.
Do you believe there is a realistic possibility that Gaim is the most popular IM client?
Actually, what I believe is a realistic possibility is that they are all just about equal and the "most popular" arguement is simply marketing hype and publicity attempts. I was not arguing for or against the article about GAIM. I was making a point toward the fact that the number of downloads posted on a website for ANY software package is just that, the number of DOWNLOADS and has very little to do with the actual number of people using that software.
How many people Download the Windows operating system? How many people Download some flavor of Linux operating system? Which one do you think is reported as the most popular operating system used?
That was my point, and I have successfully made it repeatedly to many of you that seem to either fail to grasp that concept, or just prefer to argue to see your screen name on a bunch of/. postings.
Actually, if you read my entire comment, you would have seen that at the end I wrote:
"So you (and really no on else for that matter) have no grounds or solid proof of any "Most Popular" software package, especially OSS packages."
I don't know what is the most popular, neither do I think that the number of downloads of a particular piece of software from the internet is or could be a good representation of the number of users of that piece of software. It is merely how many times it has been downloaded from that specific server. Personally, I prefer GAIM, but many people on my buddy list use the proprietary IM clients from ICQ, AIM, YM, etc.
I agree that all of the AOL subscribers are "running" AIM, but that is because it's built into the AOL client. That doesn't mean that those same people have not chosen to use GAIM as their IM client instead. I know that in my horror days of using AOL, I was using GAIM, and I'm sure that I was/am not the only one.
The whole point from me, was that the number of downloads is not a solid representation of the actual number of people using the software(which is true of any software). That was it, no more, no less. In today's culture of file sharing, that is almost common sense and really needs no further claim support.
I'm sorry if you think that because YOU do not know anyone that uses GAIM on Windows that it must be that way for everyone else on the planet, but I assure you that every Windows machine that I touch on a daily or weekly basis (that has need for an IM client) is using GAIM. I believe that you are the "deluded" one, because you are trying to generalize based on your own singular, personal experience and not logical reasoning.
Thanks to Ediron2's comment for helping further prove my point.
"Given that roughly 95% of personal computing is done on Windows, how can Gaim beat out the standard AIM and Yahoo clients? Gaim 1.5.0 for Windows was only download roughly 600k times."
You do realize that these two sentences mean absolutely nothing, right? The first sentence is voided by the fact that there is a Windows version of GAIM, and the second is voided because we are speaking of GAIM's popularity in total, and not just GAIM's popularity on Windows...
Furthermore, you can not judge a piece of OSS software's popularity or commonality based on it's number of downloads. You think that no one out there would download that software package and then burn it to a CD/DVD and then pass it around to their friends and family...I know I do. That's the beauty of OSS software, sharing with others is encouraged.
The download number of any version of GAIM could be "1" and still the capacity of it being installed on every computer in the world is there. So you (and really no on else for that matter) have no grounds or solid proof of any "Most Popular" software package, especially OSS packages.
GAIM already supports Google Talk accounts. You enter it as a Jabber account because GTalk uses the same protocol that Jabber uses, which GAIM already supported. My GTalk account is currently setup and working on GAIM v.1.5.0-1.FC4 and has been for about a month now.
Ok, here we go...
I didn't call it an "Adventure" game, I called it an "Action/Adventure" game, which it most certainly IS.
Which of the seris have you played? I admit that I have not played them all, but have seen demos of them and have play a couple. The one that I am currently playing (Warrior Within) is far more than "which switch do I pull" and "find the key" puzzles. The entire game revolves around being able to figure out how to get your toon from one place/time to another. Could be around the corner, over a wall, past a pit full of spikes, or three stories up the ouside of a wall where you are just haning on by your finger nails. THEN, once you get to where you are going finally, you can look for your switch/key to open the door/gate and try it all again in the next room. How is that NOT adventure? Just because the action element has been added to increase the difficulty of the game, doesn't mean that the game is not primarily still focused on the adventure aspects and the story line. As a matter of fact, there are numerous cut-scene movies that progress the story line and prepare you for the next set of challenges or bosses.
You are right about the requirement of quick reflexes/thinking though. Getting chased around by the Dahaka is a real pain. Talk about thinking on your toes. That can get the heart pumping(which it needs after playing console games for hours on end).
So, in short, I agree that it's not an "Adventure" game; It's that...and a lot more.:-)
Well, the first true 3D environment game that I played was Mario64 on the Nintendo 64 system. And the game play is almost identical as far as movement in relation to camera angle. Did you play it on GameCube or on a different platform (there is even a PC version). I also was able to get past the first boss without blocking a single attack...I am not a hardcore gamer by any means, but these to issues caused me no trouble at all...I actually thought that the fighting and play control was rather smooth and intuitive.
But now we are off topic of the original post, so I will not reply to this any deeper than it is. The readers are not here for a game review.
If you are looking for a pretty current series of really innovative adventrue games, pick up a console (GameCube is my Recommendation) and try out the Prince of Persia series. Yes, they are semi-remakes of NES-day games, but even then, it was beyond anything else of it's kind.
There is no multiplayer options, and you don't play online, but the action-filled fight sequences, high quality video cuts, wonderful blend of acrobatic maneuvers and puzzle solving, and darkly themed story line, make the series highly absorbing.
I am currently playing Prince of Persia: Warrior Within on GameCube, and imho, there is no better action/adventure game on the market, although, to be fair, I am more of a PC MMORPG player at the moment.
Slashdot Mirror
I'd say that this sounds more like a company policy issue more than a problem with the number of Linux Distros. If you're company wanted to have a standard desktop solution for it's employees, it would mandate which distro and desktop environment you were to use. The ability to have options in your operating envrionment, be it CLI or GUI (KDE; Gnome; etc.) is one of the leading 'features' of Linux that most people the use Linux, actually enjoy. If you walk into a company that uses a standard MS desktop, you can bet that they don't have users running things from an MS-DOS command line, because that's not what the company has deemed as their standard. All of the 'popular' Linux distros available today make fine desktop workstation operating systems. And the standardization that you are bringing up, isn't really even to blame on the OS itself, it's all in the desktop envrionment that you have chosen to run on it. Load up Ubuntu, Fedora, Red Hat Enterprise Workstation, Mandriva, Debian, or whatever you choose on three machines sitting next to each other. Boot them all into an X server with Gnome as the desktop environment and then tell me how different they are. For the most part (with exception of menu items and backgrounds, and possibly some OS specific startup widget...nothing that you won't find on WinXP boxes from different OEM distributers) they are going to be the same. So where does the responsibility lie, to bring standardized Linux to corporate desktops? I say, that falls on the corporations that are using Linux as desktops, just as it has with corporations using Windows for years. Not on the people developing the OSes and provided the consumers with more than ample choices.
Keep your friends close and your enemies closer...right?
I have a custom built laptop from R3 Technologies. I run Fedora Core 4 on it, and spend a lot of time at a command line instead of in the GUI. The display is a 12" display and I run a 1280x1024 resolution. The laptop weights less than 4 lbs, and that's with an 8 hour battery (less than 3 with the standard battery). This is a highly mobile laptop! I had a Toshiba with a 15" that would run at 1600x1200 resolution. That boat anchor of a laptop weighed in at between 5 to 7 lbs, and was large enough that I had a hard time using it on the plane ride from Southern Indiana to Austin, Texas. That is a problem for business people that need to travel for their jobs, and may spend hours in a plane or at an airport terminal.
I wouldn't trade my laptop for one with a 19" or 20" display if someone was offering it to me for free. This thing is great, who wants to carry around a boat anchor?
I'm guessing that "Portable PC" or "PC Portable" is simple and elegant. It implies that it can be easliy taken from one place to another, but doesn't elude to the fact that it should be as mobile as a laptop. Kind of like when they called the 13" TV a portable TV. One person can move it, but no one caries it around with them.
And where, may I ask, did you gather this information?
I do not doubt at all that there is a "Most Popular," but without doing a large scope poll covering many people from many areas of the world, there is no sound way of supporting any statments that one is more widely used than another. If you know of such a poll, I would very much like to see it's poasted results along with a definition of it's polling scope.
"...(or even only) form of distribution is via download..."
This is where your problem is...it is not possible for downloading to be the ONLY form of distribution of a software package that is freely downloadable on the Internet, especially if there is no required activation key (as in with GPL software and/or anything published as FREEWARE). And for no other reason than that, the number of times it has been downloaded is not a good representation of how many people are USING it.
"What metric exists that you think indicates Gaim is more popular?"
Once again, I am NOT trying to make the argument that GAIM is more popular...how many times, and in how many different ways do I have to say that?
"There can not possibly be more people using Gaim than have downloaded it."
You really think that this is a true statement? I really hope not, because the belief that it is a true statement is the whole reason that we are even having this argument. I assure you that it is a false statement, without doubt.
Do you believe there is a realistic possibility that Gaim is the most popular IM client?
/. postings.
Actually, what I believe is a realistic possibility is that they are all just about equal and the "most popular" arguement is simply marketing hype and publicity attempts. I was not arguing for or against the article about GAIM. I was making a point toward the fact that the number of downloads posted on a website for ANY software package is just that, the number of DOWNLOADS and has very little to do with the actual number of people using that software.
How many people Download the Windows operating system? How many people Download some flavor of Linux operating system? Which one do you think is reported as the most popular operating system used?
That was my point, and I have successfully made it repeatedly to many of you that seem to either fail to grasp that concept, or just prefer to argue to see your screen name on a bunch of
Actually, if you read my entire comment, you would have seen that at the end I wrote:
"So you (and really no on else for that matter) have no grounds or solid proof of any "Most Popular" software package, especially OSS packages."
I don't know what is the most popular, neither do I think that the number of downloads of a particular piece of software from the internet is or could be a good representation of the number of users of that piece of software. It is merely how many times it has been downloaded from that specific server. Personally, I prefer GAIM, but many people on my buddy list use the proprietary IM clients from ICQ, AIM, YM, etc.
Whatever, you're just replying in circles now.
I agree that all of the AOL subscribers are "running" AIM, but that is because it's built into the AOL client. That doesn't mean that those same people have not chosen to use GAIM as their IM client instead. I know that in my horror days of using AOL, I was using GAIM, and I'm sure that I was/am not the only one.
The whole point from me, was that the number of downloads is not a solid representation of the actual number of people using the software(which is true of any software). That was it, no more, no less. In today's culture of file sharing, that is almost common sense and really needs no further claim support.
"I don't actually know ANYONE who runs it."
I'm sorry if you think that because YOU do not know anyone that uses GAIM on Windows that it must be that way for everyone else on the planet, but I assure you that every Windows machine that I touch on a daily or weekly basis (that has need for an IM client) is using GAIM. I believe that you are the "deluded" one, because you are trying to generalize based on your own singular, personal experience and not logical reasoning.
Thanks to Ediron2's comment for helping further prove my point.
"Given that roughly 95% of personal computing is done on Windows, how can Gaim beat out the standard AIM and Yahoo clients? Gaim 1.5.0 for Windows was only download roughly 600k times." You do realize that these two sentences mean absolutely nothing, right? The first sentence is voided by the fact that there is a Windows version of GAIM, and the second is voided because we are speaking of GAIM's popularity in total, and not just GAIM's popularity on Windows... Furthermore, you can not judge a piece of OSS software's popularity or commonality based on it's number of downloads. You think that no one out there would download that software package and then burn it to a CD/DVD and then pass it around to their friends and family...I know I do. That's the beauty of OSS software, sharing with others is encouraged. The download number of any version of GAIM could be "1" and still the capacity of it being installed on every computer in the world is there. So you (and really no on else for that matter) have no grounds or solid proof of any "Most Popular" software package, especially OSS packages.
GAIM already supports Google Talk accounts. You enter it as a Jabber account because GTalk uses the same protocol that Jabber uses, which GAIM already supported. My GTalk account is currently setup and working on GAIM v.1.5.0-1.FC4 and has been for about a month now.
Ok, here we go... I didn't call it an "Adventure" game, I called it an "Action/Adventure" game, which it most certainly IS. Which of the seris have you played? I admit that I have not played them all, but have seen demos of them and have play a couple. The one that I am currently playing (Warrior Within) is far more than "which switch do I pull" and "find the key" puzzles. The entire game revolves around being able to figure out how to get your toon from one place/time to another. Could be around the corner, over a wall, past a pit full of spikes, or three stories up the ouside of a wall where you are just haning on by your finger nails. THEN, once you get to where you are going finally, you can look for your switch/key to open the door/gate and try it all again in the next room. How is that NOT adventure? Just because the action element has been added to increase the difficulty of the game, doesn't mean that the game is not primarily still focused on the adventure aspects and the story line. As a matter of fact, there are numerous cut-scene movies that progress the story line and prepare you for the next set of challenges or bosses. You are right about the requirement of quick reflexes/thinking though. Getting chased around by the Dahaka is a real pain. Talk about thinking on your toes. That can get the heart pumping(which it needs after playing console games for hours on end). So, in short, I agree that it's not an "Adventure" game; It's that...and a lot more. :-)
Well, the first true 3D environment game that I played was Mario64 on the Nintendo 64 system. And the game play is almost identical as far as movement in relation to camera angle. Did you play it on GameCube or on a different platform (there is even a PC version). I also was able to get past the first boss without blocking a single attack...I am not a hardcore gamer by any means, but these to issues caused me no trouble at all...I actually thought that the fighting and play control was rather smooth and intuitive. But now we are off topic of the original post, so I will not reply to this any deeper than it is. The readers are not here for a game review.
If you are looking for a pretty current series of really innovative adventrue games, pick up a console (GameCube is my Recommendation) and try out the Prince of Persia series. Yes, they are semi-remakes of NES-day games, but even then, it was beyond anything else of it's kind. There is no multiplayer options, and you don't play online, but the action-filled fight sequences, high quality video cuts, wonderful blend of acrobatic maneuvers and puzzle solving, and darkly themed story line, make the series highly absorbing. I am currently playing Prince of Persia: Warrior Within on GameCube, and imho, there is no better action/adventure game on the market, although, to be fair, I am more of a PC MMORPG player at the moment.