I notice that it doesn't say 'play the new games early if you can stomach waiting in line all day for it'... I wonder how they plan to keep people from being pissed off about spending $75/day (the last 2 days) and waiting in hours-long lines to play for a few minutes? I'd think they should at least warn them ahead of time, so they won't be surprised about it.
Yeah, the music lessons and years of practice don't enter into the equation at all, eh? Not everyone is a musical god and can just look at an instrument and play it. The non-musicians of the world sometimes actually enjoy to pretend to make music in a game environment.
Games are for having fun, and Guitar Hero really hit a chord (haha) with some people. They obviously expect that Rock Band will, too.
I've got news for you: RottenTomatoes is nowhere near the majority of the people. If he were posting that comment at rottentomatoes, he would be in the minority. On slashdot, it's a different group of people.
My experience with RT is that the ratings there are based off how 'artistic' of the film, and not influenced AT ALL by how entertaining it is.
Children of Men was a decent movie, and worth seeing, but it wouldn't get a 9/10 from me.
I can actually still play games as low as 15-20fps without it interrupting my immersion. I count myself lucky that I can't tell the difference between anything 30fps and up. For those than can tell the difference up to 120fps, it must be really annoying to play at the lower fps.
I agree we've gotten spoiled, but it's also true that most newer games rely on the sense of immersion to make a good game, instead of other things like strategy or comedy. Since that's what sells, we're to blame for that.;)
It isn't 'full speed' if you have to turn on frameskip to get it that way. That's like saying 'if you don't mind missing 2/3 of everything, it's all there.'
From TF... I hate to call it an article. From the forum posting: "mario 64 is really good arounf the castle with audio on frameskip 3" 3! That means it's at 1/4 detail for the audio.
"a steady 20fps and sometimes alot higher in mario 64" Yeah, full speed indeed.
No, Mario 64 is now -playable- on the PSP. Not full speed.
He got modded interesting, and you got modded funny... It should be the opposite. What you say is absolutely correct. Maybe just not exactly how you said it.
When Shakespeare was writing his work, do you think he thought 'I'll improve the arts and be known throughout the ages as a great writer' or do you think he merely enjoyed his work and liked the money? At the time, I'm sure nobody thought his work even a fraction as important as we now think it is.
So how are we to judge works of today? We obviously can't know the effect on the future until we get there, so we could be snatching the copyrights from those who would be most worthy of them.
And let's not forget what the point of copyright was: To encourage. If a writer knows he won't be allowed copyright on his work before he even starts it, it's likely he'll find something else to do with his time. It's twice as bad if the system is unfair about it, granting copyrights to some and not others.
No, you can't selectively grant copyrights to those you think are worthy. It's an all-or-none situation.
Have you figured out this whole 'April Fools' thing yet? Let me help you along:
IT IS A JOKE.
Yes, they actually made the game, and yes, it's crap. They did it as a joke. It was never intended to draw any audience whatsoever and it does not have any political statements to make.
Because the same games would have run just fine on DX9 or OpenGL, they simply got paid money by MS (or are owned by MS) to require DX10 instead. It is a demand, not a necessity.
As for 'no choice' but to purchase the games... I never said that. My 'no choice' was to purchase Vista, instead, to get DX10 to PLAY the games I know I'll purchase.
Car analogy time: Let's say you REALLY like cars. But all the new cars have some newfangled feature that requires you to re-take the driver's license test to prove you can drive them safely before buying the new car. You could continue to use the old cars, or use any other workaround you want, like buses, bikes, and walking. Or you could take the test and be back to being able to drive the newest, neatest cars. You'd simply take the test, no matter how annoying or expensive it was, because you -really- like cars.
Games are the same way. Gamers buy the newest consoles and OS's needed to play their games. It's that simple.
Most people have some pointless hobby that relaxes them. Camping, hiking, racing, gaming, sports... Everyone's different, but there's usually something that has no value other than entertainment. If you can manage a life that's got no frills and only has purposeful activities, congratulations. You're one in a million, and I salute you. Take the time to be humble and don't rub salt in the wounds of lesser mortals. If you aren't, and you do in fact have a purposeless activity, everyone else thinks it's stupid! Don't bother telling everyone else that you think theirs is stupid.
Seriously. I -have- a photo printer, and with dealing with low-ink, misprints, misalignments, streaks, etc, I'd -gladly- let them put advertisements on the back of the photo. I'd even promise to look at them. Most of the time, I simply don't print any more, because it's just too much hassle. If a family-member asks me to print a picture, I just glare them down until they give up.
It's too bad this is a joke, because I think it might actually work. -sigh-
Actually, for a 'seamless' dx10 implementation that's open source and works on Linux, I'd be willing to pay a 1-time fee of quite a bit more than that. But I think it would be better to convince game developers that developing for OpenGL is better. I think the problem is that it's not currently enough better/more-profitable to make them want to learn to do it cross-platform.
I think the day is approaching. Cross-platform libraries like Ogre3D/OIS/OpenAL/Newton/etc are quickly approaching the point where they would be considerably cheaper to use, and just about as powerful as the mega-bucks versions.
I subscribed to Cedega for a few months, because I heard how good it was. But then while I was on it, I kept hearing how Wine was just about as good in most ways, and better in others, apparently since Cedega's greed locked them out of Wine updates, but forced them to contribute back. Since Cedega was iffy anyhow, and only played 1 game that I liked, and played it very poorly, I dropped my subscription. Even worse was the changelogs... Wine seems to fix a LOT more each month than Cedega does. Very sad.
Oddly enough, I -DO- read books. Lots of them. I do watch videos, and take walks in a vain attempt to improve my health. I do have a hobby, it's programming. I also happen to like video games and amazingly enough, it's up to ME whether I buy games or not, and whether I buy the consoles or operating systems needed to run them. If I threw in the towel every time some little thing stood in my way, I'd never had any fun. Shelling out a couple hundred for an OS so that I can continue to play the newest games isn't that much different than buying every console that comes out, which I pretty much do. (No PS3 yet, as they haven't bothered to make a decent game yet. It seems I'm in for a long wait on that one.)
So, I turn that back on you: How sad to be so shallow and assume everyone fits your little profiles.
Since I'm a GameTap subscriber... Oh, about 900. -sigh-
Which ones do I have in my house? I dunno... Maybe if someone listed the 5 or so games that DO work on Vista, I could say which ones I don't have.
If I installed Vista, it would be in addition to XP and only for the games that require Vista. Having a third operating system seems asinine, but that's the way it'll have to be.
I -so- hate how right you are. I do -not- want Vista, but once a good game comes out that requires (pointlessly) DirectX 10, I won't have much choice left. At this point, I maintain a Windows installation solely for gaming. Even at that, I haven't booted into it for over a week now.
How in the world do you see this obviously 1-sided court case creating more pirates?
Russia thought it was stupid Russia dismisses case Outside pressure forces case to re-open without legal cause...
How can this possibly end well? If he's acquitted AGAIN the outside pressures will simply increase until he's found guilty, whether he actually did it or not. Not a conducive environment to breed pirates in.
It's more like giving a monkey an unloaded gun and bullets, with an anti-monkey nut making hand-motions. It takes a little work to get there, but it's definitely possible.
Probably should have actually tried the torrent first before karma-whoring. It's a gameupdates.org torrent and won't let you download from mininova. You have to register at gameupdates.org.
I don't see a single comment in your statement that can't be turned around, as well. When Slackware's install mysteriously dies, with a cryptic error message, what help do they have? Exactly the same help as a Windows install does: Google it. Without the internet, 1 of the 2 has a recourse by phone, though I admit it's just about as useless as having nothing.
For instance: I recently tried to install Kubuntu on my PC using only Sata drives. Everything went -great- up until I rebooted. Grub mysteriously failed to boot the drive, with only a very cryptic message about failing. This is -exactly- the same situation you claim Windows did to you. It copied all the files to a drive it 'would never be able to boot from.' After trying 64-bit feisty, 32-bit feisty (assuming bad drivers, 64-bit edgy (assuming feisty had a bug), and 32-bit edgy (assuming all of the above), I finally just installed edgy to an IDE drive to prove everything was working. It of course went well, and I then installed 64-bit feisty and that went well, also. What part of that was user/installer friendly?
Linux is currently neck-and-neck with XP on installing. That's a -hell- of a lot better than it used to be, and it'll pass it shortly. (Especially with the (k|x)ubuntu peeps and the work they're doing.
"If Microsoft had stuck to a simpler model," If Microsoft had stuck to a simpler model, many people would have a harder time installing Windows. If everyone had stuck to a 'simpler model' we'd all still be using text instead of graphics and be using the 80286's instruction set. Improving technology means change and automation.
"Contrast with a standard Slackware install, which is simply done with and usable in an hour. Makes me want to take the next moron who says Linux isn't ready for the desktop and shove his teeth so far down his throat he'll have to stick his toothbrush up his ass..."
Do you think maybe this has a bit to do with familiarity?
As a pc tech, I was used to reinstalling Windows on hosed computers. I was SO used to it that every install took less than an hour and had no issues. The first time I tried to install Slackware (having previous installed Debian with several issues), it didn't take a single hour. In fact, the third and fourth install didn't take only an hour, either.
From a user-only standpoint, Windows is just as easy to install as Linux, and vice-versa. Drivers are harder to find on Linux, but most of them 'just work', so it's kind of a push. Quite a few other issues are the same way. In fact, from a user-only standpoint, both are a freaking nightmare.
I think you may have missed the goal of this project (and others). The ultimate goal in a lot of people's minds right now is to get -everyone- using Linux. That means making it easy enough that major PC OEMs will start installing the system at request, and later, install it by default. Unless they aim at 'easy to use' then there's no way it'll happen.
Linux is perfectly free to continue being a monster powerhouse. It is also free to have a cheezy frontend that looks and acts just like Windows 95. The 2 are not actually mutually exclusive, as evidenced by the number of window managers out there.
I love Kubuntu. It works extremely well right out of the box, and has a few apps that I consider 'killer'. K3B, Quanta Plus, and Yakuake are actually better than ANYTHING I can find in Windows for any price. That's saying a lot!
But I can't convert my mother to it until she can run all her Reflexive.net games and all my niece's games on it and it's 'easy to use'. I can't convert my father until HIS games work on it (not such a hard chore, I could probably find free versions of them, or even just write them) AND it's 'easy to use'. My sister is the only family member that won't require 'easy to use' so much, but she'd need her medical stuff in Linux, and it doesn't exist.
I suspect that the cheezy games my mother and father play would come quickly if Linux was easy to use. (Bejeweled, etc.) So really, what's stopping them is just ease of use.
Oh, and I think this is part of what you were trying to say, but 'easy to use' doesn't mean the same thing as 'easy to use if you already know windows.' I don't think Linux today (with KDE/Gnome/whatever) is any harder to use than Windows 95 was, it's just different.
Maybe you should have read the post above mine before responding to mine. He was saying that the web-based photo editor would be used by people who won't purchase photoshop, download picasa, or even use the free one that came with their camera. This is a person that obviously has absolutely no interest in using a photo application to do -anything- to pictures. You obviously are not in this category and his statement was not aimed at you at all, and so neither was mine.
Your statement doesn't apply to a single person that would use this website, then. So how does it have anything to do with this at all? If they aren't going to use the software that comes with their camera, they surely aren't going to sign up for a web-based service that does the same but is a lot more hassle.
Because if it's going to be the 'holy grail of desktops' it'll have to beat the current champion, now won't it? And that's Windows, like it or not.
"2. cut and paste between ALL applications."
Okay, I'll give you that we can't cut and paste video into a Word doc. But then, you can't paste that video into a spreadsheet or Paint, either. And you said "ALL applications." I could understand wanting to paste video into a word doc, as mistaken as I think it is. Pasting spreadsheet cells into Paint? That's absolute lunacy. Taking a screenshot is a MUCH better method in so many ways.
But point taken. Linux only does text, not other media.
"3. Applications must ALL be uniform in operation of common functions.."
Again, Windows doesn't do this, either. Quite a few apps follow MS's example, but NOTHING is forced.
"5. Easily customizable.."
KDE is just as easy to customize as Windows. It's different, and that means you have to re-learn how, but just as easy.
"Right now, no Linux environment (KDE included) is even remotely close."
To all the impossible features listed, NO environment is "even remotely close." It doesn't need to have all or any of these, just be enough better than Windows to make users prefer working with it.
I won't say there aren't things that bother me about KDE's design. But Windows has plenty of things that bother me as well. I prefer KDE at the moment. If it weren't for the gaming situation, and the need to test apps and webapps on Windows, I might just dump Windows altogether. But then, if Windows had K3B, Yakuake, Quanta Plus, and the KIO Slave functionality (like FISH), I'd probably stick to Windows. It wasn't that long ago that I wouldn't even consider Linux as my main desktop at home, even though I use it at work daily. It's come a long way, and done it quickly.
So you're saying that merely doing everything Windows does it not enough, it's got to be MUCH better.
1. standardized operation for ALL applicatation. Windows doesn't. At all. Even MS apps aren't all the same, especially between generations.
2. cut and paste between ALL applications. KDE does this. See a thread above.
3. Applications must ALL be uniform in operation of common functions.. I assume you mean dialog boxes. Windows doesn't guarantee it, and neither does KDE. It provides the same (and more) functionality that Windows does, though.
4. Uniform operation of input devices (mouse).. Dunno what you mean here... Seems pretty uniform to me. (Heck, X/KDE even assumes every mouse only has 2 buttons. How much more uniform can you get?)
5. Easily customizable.. You might have something here... Too bad KDE is MUCH more customizeable than Windows, especially straight out of the box.
6. Standardized behavour on any local or remote environment.. Windows can't even touch this one.
7. Some kind of direct video support (games, etc...). Windows doesn't do this. It provides an API for it through a non-essential set of libraries. (DirectX) Everything has OpenGL, so this point is moot.
Unless you were talking about Apple's interface... But why KDE would rule the market by only beating Apple, which doesn't rule the market, is byond me.
Slashdot Mirror
I notice that it doesn't say 'play the new games early if you can stomach waiting in line all day for it' ... I wonder how they plan to keep people from being pissed off about spending $75/day (the last 2 days) and waiting in hours-long lines to play for a few minutes? I'd think they should at least warn them ahead of time, so they won't be surprised about it.
You're trolling, but I'm gonna bite anyhow.
Yeah, the music lessons and years of practice don't enter into the equation at all, eh? Not everyone is a musical god and can just look at an instrument and play it. The non-musicians of the world sometimes actually enjoy to pretend to make music in a game environment.
Games are for having fun, and Guitar Hero really hit a chord (haha) with some people. They obviously expect that Rock Band will, too.
I've got news for you: RottenTomatoes is nowhere near the majority of the people. If he were posting that comment at rottentomatoes, he would be in the minority. On slashdot, it's a different group of people.
My experience with RT is that the ratings there are based off how 'artistic' of the film, and not influenced AT ALL by how entertaining it is.
Children of Men was a decent movie, and worth seeing, but it wouldn't get a 9/10 from me.
I can actually still play games as low as 15-20fps without it interrupting my immersion. I count myself lucky that I can't tell the difference between anything 30fps and up. For those than can tell the difference up to 120fps, it must be really annoying to play at the lower fps.
;)
I agree we've gotten spoiled, but it's also true that most newer games rely on the sense of immersion to make a good game, instead of other things like strategy or comedy. Since that's what sells, we're to blame for that.
It isn't 'full speed' if you have to turn on frameskip to get it that way. That's like saying 'if you don't mind missing 2/3 of everything, it's all there.'
From TF... I hate to call it an article. From the forum posting: "mario 64 is really good arounf the castle with audio on frameskip 3" 3! That means it's at 1/4 detail for the audio.
"a steady 20fps and sometimes alot higher in mario 64" Yeah, full speed indeed.
No, Mario 64 is now -playable- on the PSP. Not full speed.
He got modded interesting, and you got modded funny... It should be the opposite. What you say is absolutely correct. Maybe just not exactly how you said it.
When Shakespeare was writing his work, do you think he thought 'I'll improve the arts and be known throughout the ages as a great writer' or do you think he merely enjoyed his work and liked the money? At the time, I'm sure nobody thought his work even a fraction as important as we now think it is.
So how are we to judge works of today? We obviously can't know the effect on the future until we get there, so we could be snatching the copyrights from those who would be most worthy of them.
And let's not forget what the point of copyright was: To encourage. If a writer knows he won't be allowed copyright on his work before he even starts it, it's likely he'll find something else to do with his time. It's twice as bad if the system is unfair about it, granting copyrights to some and not others.
No, you can't selectively grant copyrights to those you think are worthy. It's an all-or-none situation.
lol crap. I fell for it, didn't I?
Have you figured out this whole 'April Fools' thing yet? Let me help you along:
IT IS A JOKE.
Yes, they actually made the game, and yes, it's crap. They did it as a joke. It was never intended to draw any audience whatsoever and it does not have any political statements to make.
IT IS A JOKE.
Because the same games would have run just fine on DX9 or OpenGL, they simply got paid money by MS (or are owned by MS) to require DX10 instead. It is a demand, not a necessity.
As for 'no choice' but to purchase the games... I never said that. My 'no choice' was to purchase Vista, instead, to get DX10 to PLAY the games I know I'll purchase.
Car analogy time: Let's say you REALLY like cars. But all the new cars have some newfangled feature that requires you to re-take the driver's license test to prove you can drive them safely before buying the new car. You could continue to use the old cars, or use any other workaround you want, like buses, bikes, and walking. Or you could take the test and be back to being able to drive the newest, neatest cars. You'd simply take the test, no matter how annoying or expensive it was, because you -really- like cars.
Games are the same way. Gamers buy the newest consoles and OS's needed to play their games. It's that simple.
Most people have some pointless hobby that relaxes them. Camping, hiking, racing, gaming, sports... Everyone's different, but there's usually something that has no value other than entertainment. If you can manage a life that's got no frills and only has purposeful activities, congratulations. You're one in a million, and I salute you. Take the time to be humble and don't rub salt in the wounds of lesser mortals. If you aren't, and you do in fact have a purposeless activity, everyone else thinks it's stupid! Don't bother telling everyone else that you think theirs is stupid.
Seriously. I -have- a photo printer, and with dealing with low-ink, misprints, misalignments, streaks, etc, I'd -gladly- let them put advertisements on the back of the photo. I'd even promise to look at them. Most of the time, I simply don't print any more, because it's just too much hassle. If a family-member asks me to print a picture, I just glare them down until they give up.
It's too bad this is a joke, because I think it might actually work. -sigh-
Actually, for a 'seamless' dx10 implementation that's open source and works on Linux, I'd be willing to pay a 1-time fee of quite a bit more than that. But I think it would be better to convince game developers that developing for OpenGL is better. I think the problem is that it's not currently enough better/more-profitable to make them want to learn to do it cross-platform.
I think the day is approaching. Cross-platform libraries like Ogre3D/OIS/OpenAL/Newton/etc are quickly approaching the point where they would be considerably cheaper to use, and just about as powerful as the mega-bucks versions.
I subscribed to Cedega for a few months, because I heard how good it was. But then while I was on it, I kept hearing how Wine was just about as good in most ways, and better in others, apparently since Cedega's greed locked them out of Wine updates, but forced them to contribute back. Since Cedega was iffy anyhow, and only played 1 game that I liked, and played it very poorly, I dropped my subscription. Even worse was the changelogs... Wine seems to fix a LOT more each month than Cedega does. Very sad.
Perhaps you should have done the same, first.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/require
"3. to ask for authoritatively or imperatively; demand."
Oddly enough, I -DO- read books. Lots of them. I do watch videos, and take walks in a vain attempt to improve my health. I do have a hobby, it's programming. I also happen to like video games and amazingly enough, it's up to ME whether I buy games or not, and whether I buy the consoles or operating systems needed to run them. If I threw in the towel every time some little thing stood in my way, I'd never had any fun. Shelling out a couple hundred for an OS so that I can continue to play the newest games isn't that much different than buying every console that comes out, which I pretty much do. (No PS3 yet, as they haven't bothered to make a decent game yet. It seems I'm in for a long wait on that one.)
So, I turn that back on you: How sad to be so shallow and assume everyone fits your little profiles.
Since I'm a GameTap subscriber... Oh, about 900. -sigh-
Which ones do I have in my house? I dunno... Maybe if someone listed the 5 or so games that DO work on Vista, I could say which ones I don't have.
If I installed Vista, it would be in addition to XP and only for the games that require Vista. Having a third operating system seems asinine, but that's the way it'll have to be.
I -so- hate how right you are. I do -not- want Vista, but once a good game comes out that requires (pointlessly) DirectX 10, I won't have much choice left. At this point, I maintain a Windows installation solely for gaming. Even at that, I haven't booted into it for over a week now.
Okay, I'll bite...
...
How in the world do you see this obviously 1-sided court case creating more pirates?
Russia thought it was stupid
Russia dismisses case
Outside pressure forces case to re-open without legal cause
How can this possibly end well? If he's acquitted AGAIN the outside pressures will simply increase until he's found guilty, whether he actually did it or not. Not a conducive environment to breed pirates in.
Whoot! Bad analogy :D
It's more like giving a monkey an unloaded gun and bullets, with an anti-monkey nut making hand-motions. It takes a little work to get there, but it's definitely possible.
Probably should have actually tried the torrent first before karma-whoring. It's a gameupdates.org torrent and won't let you download from mininova. You have to register at gameupdates.org.
I don't see a single comment in your statement that can't be turned around, as well. When Slackware's install mysteriously dies, with a cryptic error message, what help do they have? Exactly the same help as a Windows install does: Google it. Without the internet, 1 of the 2 has a recourse by phone, though I admit it's just about as useless as having nothing.
For instance: I recently tried to install Kubuntu on my PC using only Sata drives. Everything went -great- up until I rebooted. Grub mysteriously failed to boot the drive, with only a very cryptic message about failing. This is -exactly- the same situation you claim Windows did to you. It copied all the files to a drive it 'would never be able to boot from.' After trying 64-bit feisty, 32-bit feisty (assuming bad drivers, 64-bit edgy (assuming feisty had a bug), and 32-bit edgy (assuming all of the above), I finally just installed edgy to an IDE drive to prove everything was working. It of course went well, and I then installed 64-bit feisty and that went well, also. What part of that was user/installer friendly?
Linux is currently neck-and-neck with XP on installing. That's a -hell- of a lot better than it used to be, and it'll pass it shortly. (Especially with the (k|x)ubuntu peeps and the work they're doing.
"If Microsoft had stuck to a simpler model," If Microsoft had stuck to a simpler model, many people would have a harder time installing Windows. If everyone had stuck to a 'simpler model' we'd all still be using text instead of graphics and be using the 80286's instruction set. Improving technology means change and automation.
"Contrast with a standard Slackware install, which is simply done with and usable in an hour. Makes me want to take the next moron who says Linux isn't ready for the desktop and shove his teeth so far down his throat he'll have to stick his toothbrush up his ass..."
Do you think maybe this has a bit to do with familiarity?
As a pc tech, I was used to reinstalling Windows on hosed computers. I was SO used to it that every install took less than an hour and had no issues. The first time I tried to install Slackware (having previous installed Debian with several issues), it didn't take a single hour. In fact, the third and fourth install didn't take only an hour, either.
From a user-only standpoint, Windows is just as easy to install as Linux, and vice-versa. Drivers are harder to find on Linux, but most of them 'just work', so it's kind of a push. Quite a few other issues are the same way. In fact, from a user-only standpoint, both are a freaking nightmare.
I think you may have missed the goal of this project (and others). The ultimate goal in a lot of people's minds right now is to get -everyone- using Linux. That means making it easy enough that major PC OEMs will start installing the system at request, and later, install it by default. Unless they aim at 'easy to use' then there's no way it'll happen.
Linux is perfectly free to continue being a monster powerhouse. It is also free to have a cheezy frontend that looks and acts just like Windows 95. The 2 are not actually mutually exclusive, as evidenced by the number of window managers out there.
I love Kubuntu. It works extremely well right out of the box, and has a few apps that I consider 'killer'. K3B, Quanta Plus, and Yakuake are actually better than ANYTHING I can find in Windows for any price. That's saying a lot!
But I can't convert my mother to it until she can run all her Reflexive.net games and all my niece's games on it and it's 'easy to use'. I can't convert my father until HIS games work on it (not such a hard chore, I could probably find free versions of them, or even just write them) AND it's 'easy to use'. My sister is the only family member that won't require 'easy to use' so much, but she'd need her medical stuff in Linux, and it doesn't exist.
I suspect that the cheezy games my mother and father play would come quickly if Linux was easy to use. (Bejeweled, etc.) So really, what's stopping them is just ease of use.
Oh, and I think this is part of what you were trying to say, but 'easy to use' doesn't mean the same thing as 'easy to use if you already know windows.' I don't think Linux today (with KDE/Gnome/whatever) is any harder to use than Windows 95 was, it's just different.
Maybe you should have read the post above mine before responding to mine. He was saying that the web-based photo editor would be used by people who won't purchase photoshop, download picasa, or even use the free one that came with their camera. This is a person that obviously has absolutely no interest in using a photo application to do -anything- to pictures. You obviously are not in this category and his statement was not aimed at you at all, and so neither was mine.
Your statement doesn't apply to a single person that would use this website, then. So how does it have anything to do with this at all? If they aren't going to use the software that comes with their camera, they surely aren't going to sign up for a web-based service that does the same but is a lot more hassle.
"1) Nobody said anything about Windows. "
Because if it's going to be the 'holy grail of desktops' it'll have to beat the current champion, now won't it? And that's Windows, like it or not.
"2. cut and paste between ALL applications."
Okay, I'll give you that we can't cut and paste video into a Word doc. But then, you can't paste that video into a spreadsheet or Paint, either. And you said "ALL applications." I could understand wanting to paste video into a word doc, as mistaken as I think it is. Pasting spreadsheet cells into Paint? That's absolute lunacy. Taking a screenshot is a MUCH better method in so many ways.
But point taken. Linux only does text, not other media.
"3. Applications must ALL be uniform in operation of common functions.."
Again, Windows doesn't do this, either. Quite a few apps follow MS's example, but NOTHING is forced.
"5. Easily customizable.."
KDE is just as easy to customize as Windows. It's different, and that means you have to re-learn how, but just as easy.
"Right now, no Linux environment (KDE included) is even remotely close."
To all the impossible features listed, NO environment is "even remotely close." It doesn't need to have all or any of these, just be enough better than Windows to make users prefer working with it.
I won't say there aren't things that bother me about KDE's design. But Windows has plenty of things that bother me as well. I prefer KDE at the moment. If it weren't for the gaming situation, and the need to test apps and webapps on Windows, I might just dump Windows altogether. But then, if Windows had K3B, Yakuake, Quanta Plus, and the KIO Slave functionality (like FISH), I'd probably stick to Windows. It wasn't that long ago that I wouldn't even consider Linux as my main desktop at home, even though I use it at work daily. It's come a long way, and done it quickly.
So you're saying that merely doing everything Windows does it not enough, it's got to be MUCH better.
1. standardized operation for ALL applicatation.
Windows doesn't. At all. Even MS apps aren't all the same, especially between generations.
2. cut and paste between ALL applications.
KDE does this. See a thread above.
3. Applications must ALL be uniform in operation of common functions..
I assume you mean dialog boxes. Windows doesn't guarantee it, and neither does KDE. It provides the same (and more) functionality that Windows does, though.
4. Uniform operation of input devices (mouse)..
Dunno what you mean here... Seems pretty uniform to me. (Heck, X/KDE even assumes every mouse only has 2 buttons. How much more uniform can you get?)
5. Easily customizable..
You might have something here... Too bad KDE is MUCH more customizeable than Windows, especially straight out of the box.
6. Standardized behavour on any local or remote environment..
Windows can't even touch this one.
7. Some kind of direct video support (games, etc...).
Windows doesn't do this. It provides an API for it through a non-essential set of libraries. (DirectX) Everything has OpenGL, so this point is moot.
Unless you were talking about Apple's interface... But why KDE would rule the market by only beating Apple, which doesn't rule the market, is byond me.