When you get over your headache, the answers are...
Yes, you can run KDE apps on Gnome. The first time your package manager will have to install the KDE libraries, but this done under the covers.
Yes, you can run Gnome apps on KDE. Again, the Gnome libraries will be installed for you the first time.
The difference between Gnome and KDE is more than cosmetic. Think back to DOS, where you could run either Windows 3.1 or GEM graphical desktops on it. But in this case they are built to play nicely together, allowing you to run the other's apps for instance.
A particular piece of software will depend on various things, such as the directory layout, sound system, etc. If these dependencies are limited, it will probably work on most distributions; if not, you'll see problems if you try installing from source. BUT you rarely end up doing this - I'm a power user (Ubuntu), and I haven't installed a single thing from source this time round - that means no dropping to the shell to type cryptic commands. One of the great advantages of Ubuntu is that when you want some (say) mind-mapping software, you simply open the Ubuntu Software Center, search for "mind map", click on the one(s) you want (there are currently three to choose from), and it downloads and installs. These packages have been configured for Ubuntu, so they "just work".
As for your problems with dual monitors, how long ago did you try this? I use dual monitors, and haven't had to hack config files for a couple of years now - in particular the latest Ubuntu is very polished, and automatically detects my monitors. Clicking System|Preferences|Monitors lets me arrange monitors where I want them, and to set the resolutions of course. I can say without fear of contradiction that Ubuntu is far easier to install than Windows now. Even those with very esoteric hardware will have more difficulty getting it working under Windows.
I'm a Kiwi, made a submission to the select committee, and have just sent an email to Simon Power suggesting he tread carefully.
Before you all get too het up, I would emphasise that this is New Zealand. We have pretty transparent politics here, even to the level of releasing MP's expense claims (aside: we just had a great little storm in a teacup because one MP booked several porn movies to his hotel bill). Another really healthy thing about our tiny country is how directly you are connected to your representatives - you can usually pop in and have a chat face to face on Saturday mornings.
I remember when our motorways didn't have median barriers, and we kept getting horrendous head-head collisions. After one such, the government came out and said they couldn't afford median barriers at that time. The reaction was pretty obvious - how much is a human life worth? People phoned or visited their MP, and within a week the government had announced funding for median barriers. It's great to live in a country with a government that is small enough that you know you can affect them.
So I know my email will be read by someone who will talk directly to Mr. Power, if not by him. And assuming several other people do the same, he's going to realise he's stirred up a hornet's nest. Watch this space...
It's far better than having MS drive the market, as they have always been far more closed and exploitative than Apple.
Actually they haven't - once Microsoft was very open, and you could argue that that openness was the basis of their success. DOS succeeded at least in part because anyone could write and distribute programs for it, leading to a rich ecosystem of innovative applications.
The current equivalent is Android, and Apple's attempts to totally control (and monetize) which applications run on their platform is already back-firing. Their offering will become the safe but stale option for corporate drones and grandma, but the risky exciting stuff will all be Android. I'm not saying there isn't a market for both, but it's going to be interesting to see how Apple cope with losing their aura of "cool".
Back on topic, the fact that Microsoft has missed both major paradigm shifts (the internet and mobile) is at the root of their fall from grace. Why their shareholders let Steve Ballmer survive is beyond me.
I'll settle for off-topic;)
There are two reasons I'd recommend Python over the existing DOS solution. Number one (by a long way) is maintainability - DOS batch files are relatively opaque (and I'd discount Perl for the same reason). Number two is that python is a cross platform solution - who knows when the PC he's running this on will get replaced with a Mac or linux machine.
I love how everyone is equating the political suppression of a billion people with refusing to advertise a sex site. They are very different things, on many levels.
Dell delivered my new Inspiron 15 three days ago, and I happily blitzed all the pre-installed crap on it with the Lucid release candidate.
First impressions are that everything just works - dual head monitors, webcam, sound, even the audio controls on my wireless keyboard. It asked during install if I wanted the proprietary or open driver for the Broadcom wireless adapter, and it too worked no problem. Installed Skype, again it just works. I don't think I used the terminal for anything to do with the installation at all.
I'm slowly getting used to the buttons on the left, but switched themes to radiance (a lighter one) because I didn't like all the menus being dark. I gave gnome-shell a quick spin because I like the concept, and it is pretty neat and worked fine with the dual displays. But it definitely wasn't ready for the prime time, I had trouble finding how to access settings/preferences.
All up I'm not going to need the license for Win7 that came with the laptop - going cheap if you're interested!
Or just maybe our government actually listened to submissions (including mine) that explained how destructive this would be to our software development industry.
One of the advantages of living in a tiny slip of a country is that we are well connected with our representatives. They aren't hidden behind campaign managers and handlers, and it is easy to phone them up or meet them for a wee chat. Democracy still works here.
Novell has released OpenSuse under the GPL, so cannot sue linux users.
Quite apart from the fact that no-one in all the trials so far has actually managed to prove that anyone owns the copyrights to Unix. Proving that SCOG doesn't own them is not the same as proving that Novell does. My theory is that Novell knows this, but doesn't want to publicise it and so tap-danced around the issue in the trial.
So I'd say we're pretty much safe on the copyright front. Patents are a different matter, but I'm seeing a lot of similarity between SCOG's "We've got evidence of lots of copyright breaches in Linux but we're not going to tell anyone what they are" and Microsoft's "We've got evidence of lots of patent breaches in Linux but we're not going to tell anyone what they are". I think they'll turn out to be very inconsequential - if they weren't, it would be in Microsoft's interests to reveal all now.
Windows Mobile is just another ball that Microsoft dropped, and Windows Mobile 7 isn't going to bounce that ball high enough to catch again. It'll soon be used only by employees of corporates who are trapped in the Microsoft ecosystem, who'll all have their own Apple/Android phone in the other pocket.
Microsoft have had years to catch up to Apple, and failed miserably. Android is evolving faster than either - I have a Nexus One and in my opinion it demonstrates Android has already overtaken Apple. I predict Microsoft will buy RIM to try and bolster their market share, but that it'll soon be a two-horse race between Apple and Android.
So smart move, Mozilla - no point flogging that dead horse.
> Is there really a huge issue with rdbms speeds? Well if there is something there, that's what needs to be looked at. If RDBMSs are not fast enough, that's just an opportunity to work more on them to speed them up.
To my mind, it's scaling rather than speed that is the issue. Having seen an RDBMS web app grow in popularity until we needed two DB machines, I have some inkling of how painful that transition is. So now I use Appengine when I can, which scales completely painlessly. There is a trade-off because you have to un-learn long-held habits (like normalisation), but if my app hits Oprah I'll be listening to champagne corks popping, not processors.
We at the US/Chinese/UK (delete as appropriate) government are impressed at the efficiency with which you are "caring" for your students. We have plans to "care" for our entire population, and would like to employ you as a consultant to aid in our efforts.
If we cast our minds back twenty years, the same choice faced developers - did you make apps for the nice stable hardware-controlled Mac, or for the chaotic IBM PC compatible world?
Two points: first, it's an amazing reflection on Apple's success that they are a player in both of these choices.
Second, I think the relative success of iphone/android will mirror Mac/PC. Just as PC hardware quickly became much cheaper than Macs, Android phones will soon be significantly cheaper than an equivalent iphone. And more manufacturers will push the envelope faster than Apple will be able to, so Android will evolve faster. Cheaper and more features equates to substantially more sales - ten to one if Mac/PC history repeats itself.
Now I don't know about this guy, but most developers will judge the increased complexity of developing for multiple Android devices a small price to pay for access to a much larger marketplace.
If you're at all worried, do it anonymously. Otherwise be brazen - I'd love him to track me down and call my boss (that would be me)!
KG: Hi, one of your employees has been posting the word "pussy" on our site. Me: OMFG! How dare you say that word to me! Pervert! KG: Oh, sorry, but one of your employees did post it to our site from your IP address. Me: Ah that - it's a bot we set up to automatically post comments about animals - it also mentions "beavers", "crotch cockles" and "trouser snakes". KG: But... but... but those are all very rude words! Me: You must have a very sick mind if you think of genitalia every time someone mentions cute wittle animals. Can you put me through to your boss - he needs to know what a moral degenerate he's got on the payroll!
I'm calling you on the OpenOffice/GoogleApps comparison too - since when is a monolithic office suite anything like a lightweight online collaboration app?
You might as well say they shouldn't have bothered with Gmail because there are perfectly good open source email clients available.
"Cloud computing" is only moronic in the sense that it caters for morons. It (delivering applications over a network) has one big win - you don't need a sysadmin. Or rather many people share a sysadmin's services without even knowing it.
Take webmail. I advise all my friends and customers to switch to webmail, because if their disk crashes, I'd much rather be saying "Here, use this PC and there's your mail" than "I told you you should backup your mail - nothing I can do now". We're all sysadmins at heart here on Slashdot, and I think that's why this argument gets so little traction here. But among the great unwashed, it's a win - enough to beat the crappy UI.
But the BIG win is the arrival of mobile devices. If we can't educate people advanced enough to own a PC to back it up, what hope do we have that technically illiterate mobile users will manage their mobile properly? I'm picking that in ten years time even us power users will be using a small pocket device for all our computing needs - when we need to, it'll interface with a big screen and keyboard. And despite the Danger/Microsoft debacle, we'll all back them up on the net.
So to bring this post back on topic, the reason that Windows 7 is creating less excitement is that it's far less relevant than it was. The real action is in mobile operating systems, and Microsoft have dropped the ball here too - Iphone has eaten most of their lunch to date, and Android will eat all of it next year.
Mod parent up. At a mid-sized company who shouldn't remain nameless but will, I built a web service for corporate users. I got redundant servers and mirrored disks past the management, but when it came to backups, they knocked me back and told me to dump everything to the development server each night. I left soon after, and the development server got repurposed as a desktop for the next new salesperson.
I kept the relevant emails from management, and practised a cynical laugh for when they phoned asking me to fix the system when it crashed. But despite three years of complete neglect, the system keeps running - I built the thing too darn well. The sad thing is the management probably would see this as vindicating their decision.
Ballmer has got to be furious. He's getting out-flanked on all sides.
Google effectively gutting IE, the keystone of MS's internet presence. Chrome Frame is compelling enough to be widely installed, and suddenly MS has lost control of another big chunk of internet users.
A surge of low cost netbooks based on ARM coming next year, that CAN'T run Windows even if MS could swing a back-room deal with the manufacturers. Leads to significantly reduced sales to consumers, directly reducing revenue.
Silverlight getting severe setbacks in a market already dominated by Flash, and HTML5 waiting in the wings. Fond hopes of controlling the RIA space receding fast.
Being forced to bring out Office as a web app. Damned if they do it well (cannibalises desktop Office sales), damned if if they don't (Google cleans up with Google Apps).
Becoming irrelevant in the mobile space - Iphone of course, but a flood of Android devices about to mop up the rest of the market.
MS still have their huge corporate market, but they're rapidly losing their grip on the consumer. Historically where consumers go, corporates follow... like the PC that put MS where is is now.
Slashdot Mirror
Innocent question - by "molten salt" do you mean NaCl or sodium/potassium nitrate?
As for your problems with dual monitors, how long ago did you try this? I use dual monitors, and haven't had to hack config files for a couple of years now - in particular the latest Ubuntu is very polished, and automatically detects my monitors. Clicking System|Preferences|Monitors lets me arrange monitors where I want them, and to set the resolutions of course. I can say without fear of contradiction that Ubuntu is far easier to install than Windows now. Even those with very esoteric hardware will have more difficulty getting it working under Windows.
I'm a Kiwi, made a submission to the select committee, and have just sent an email to Simon Power suggesting he tread carefully.
Before you all get too het up, I would emphasise that this is New Zealand. We have pretty transparent politics here, even to the level of releasing MP's expense claims (aside: we just had a great little storm in a teacup because one MP booked several porn movies to his hotel bill). Another really healthy thing about our tiny country is how directly you are connected to your representatives - you can usually pop in and have a chat face to face on Saturday mornings.
I remember when our motorways didn't have median barriers, and we kept getting horrendous head-head collisions. After one such, the government came out and said they couldn't afford median barriers at that time. The reaction was pretty obvious - how much is a human life worth? People phoned or visited their MP, and within a week the government had announced funding for median barriers. It's great to live in a country with a government that is small enough that you know you can affect them.
So I know my email will be read by someone who will talk directly to Mr. Power, if not by him. And assuming several other people do the same, he's going to realise he's stirred up a hornet's nest. Watch this space...
It's far better than having MS drive the market, as they have always been far more closed and exploitative than Apple.
Actually they haven't - once Microsoft was very open, and you could argue that that openness was the basis of their success. DOS succeeded at least in part because anyone could write and distribute programs for it, leading to a rich ecosystem of innovative applications.
The current equivalent is Android, and Apple's attempts to totally control (and monetize) which applications run on their platform is already back-firing. Their offering will become the safe but stale option for corporate drones and grandma, but the risky exciting stuff will all be Android. I'm not saying there isn't a market for both, but it's going to be interesting to see how Apple cope with losing their aura of "cool".
Back on topic, the fact that Microsoft has missed both major paradigm shifts (the internet and mobile) is at the root of their fall from grace. Why their shareholders let Steve Ballmer survive is beyond me.
I'll settle for off-topic ;)
There are two reasons I'd recommend Python over the existing DOS solution. Number one (by a long way) is maintainability - DOS batch files are relatively opaque (and I'd discount Perl for the same reason). Number two is that python is a cross platform solution - who knows when the PC he's running this on will get replaced with a Mac or linux machine.
Oh wait...
I can't believe that Windows still doesn't have the equivalent of software repositories/app store. Why do people still use this broken thing?
I love how everyone is equating the political suppression of a billion people with refusing to advertise a sex site. They are very different things, on many levels.
Dell delivered my new Inspiron 15 three days ago, and I happily blitzed all the pre-installed crap on it with the Lucid release candidate.
First impressions are that everything just works - dual head monitors, webcam, sound, even the audio controls on my wireless keyboard. It asked during install if I wanted the proprietary or open driver for the Broadcom wireless adapter, and it too worked no problem. Installed Skype, again it just works. I don't think I used the terminal for anything to do with the installation at all.
I'm slowly getting used to the buttons on the left, but switched themes to radiance (a lighter one) because I didn't like all the menus being dark. I gave gnome-shell a quick spin because I like the concept, and it is pretty neat and worked fine with the dual displays. But it definitely wasn't ready for the prime time, I had trouble finding how to access settings/preferences.
All up I'm not going to need the license for Win7 that came with the laptop - going cheap if you're interested!
Or just maybe our government actually listened to submissions (including mine) that explained how destructive this would be to our software development industry.
One of the advantages of living in a tiny slip of a country is that we are well connected with our representatives. They aren't hidden behind campaign managers and handlers, and it is easy to phone them up or meet them for a wee chat. Democracy still works here.
Novell has released OpenSuse under the GPL, so cannot sue linux users. Quite apart from the fact that no-one in all the trials so far has actually managed to prove that anyone owns the copyrights to Unix. Proving that SCOG doesn't own them is not the same as proving that Novell does. My theory is that Novell knows this, but doesn't want to publicise it and so tap-danced around the issue in the trial. So I'd say we're pretty much safe on the copyright front. Patents are a different matter, but I'm seeing a lot of similarity between SCOG's "We've got evidence of lots of copyright breaches in Linux but we're not going to tell anyone what they are" and Microsoft's "We've got evidence of lots of patent breaches in Linux but we're not going to tell anyone what they are". I think they'll turn out to be very inconsequential - if they weren't, it would be in Microsoft's interests to reveal all now.
First they blocked the child porn sites,
and I didn't speak up because I abhore child abuse.
Then they blocked all gay sex sites,
and I didn't speak up because I'm not gay.
Then they blocked all the sites that support terrorists,
and I didn't speak up because I forgot that one man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter.
Then they blocked all porn sites,
and I didn't speak up because I like my sex real.
Then they blocked all the all political sites,
and I didn't speak up because who reads those things anyway?
Then they blocked all the web sites complaining about the blocking,
and I couldn't speak up.
(Apologies to Martin Niemöller)
Agree you still need the scroll bar, but it could be very thin - maybe even part of the border. Patent pending!
Windows Mobile is just another ball that Microsoft dropped, and Windows Mobile 7 isn't going to bounce that ball high enough to catch again. It'll soon be used only by employees of corporates who are trapped in the Microsoft ecosystem, who'll all have their own Apple/Android phone in the other pocket.
Microsoft have had years to catch up to Apple, and failed miserably. Android is evolving faster than either - I have a Nexus One and in my opinion it demonstrates Android has already overtaken Apple. I predict Microsoft will buy RIM to try and bolster their market share, but that it'll soon be a two-horse race between Apple and Android.
So smart move, Mozilla - no point flogging that dead horse.
I'd suggest that when you install, you do so with an admin-style username and password. Note these down somewhere to prevent forgetfulness.
Then when you reboot and log in, set up a new user (yourself) with admin rights. Log out and in again as yourself, and continue as before.
That way if you have problems logging in as yourself, you can always revert to the admin login and fix the problem up.
> Is there really a huge issue with rdbms speeds? Well if there is something there, that's what needs to be looked at. If RDBMSs are not fast enough, that's just an opportunity to work more on them to speed them up.
To my mind, it's scaling rather than speed that is the issue. Having seen an RDBMS web app grow in popularity until we needed two DB machines, I have some inkling of how painful that transition is. So now I use Appengine when I can, which scales completely painlessly. There is a trade-off because you have to un-learn long-held habits (like normalisation), but if my app hits Oprah I'll be listening to champagne corks popping, not processors.
Dear Lower Merion School District,
We at the US/Chinese/UK (delete as appropriate) government are impressed at the efficiency with which you are "caring" for your students. We have plans to "care" for our entire population, and would like to employ you as a consultant to aid in our efforts.
For our glorious nation,
Des Pott.
What we REALLY need is a new law that makes it illegal to illegally do illegal stuff!
But wait... I smell recursion...
If we cast our minds back twenty years, the same choice faced developers - did you make apps for the nice stable hardware-controlled Mac, or for the chaotic IBM PC compatible world?
Two points: first, it's an amazing reflection on Apple's success that they are a player in both of these choices.
Second, I think the relative success of iphone/android will mirror Mac/PC. Just as PC hardware quickly became much cheaper than Macs, Android phones will soon be significantly cheaper than an equivalent iphone. And more manufacturers will push the envelope faster than Apple will be able to, so Android will evolve faster. Cheaper and more features equates to substantially more sales - ten to one if Mac/PC history repeats itself.
Now I don't know about this guy, but most developers will judge the increased complexity of developing for multiple Android devices a small price to pay for access to a much larger marketplace.
None actually - Extensions/Modify Path/Color Markers to Match Stroke. Happy now?
If you're at all worried, do it anonymously. Otherwise be brazen - I'd love him to track me down and call my boss (that would be me)!
KG: Hi, one of your employees has been posting the word "pussy" on our site.
Me: OMFG! How dare you say that word to me! Pervert!
KG: Oh, sorry, but one of your employees did post it to our site from your IP address.
Me: Ah that - it's a bot we set up to automatically post comments about animals - it also mentions "beavers", "crotch cockles" and "trouser snakes".
KG: But... but... but those are all very rude words!
Me: You must have a very sick mind if you think of genitalia every time someone mentions cute wittle animals. Can you put me through to your boss - he needs to know what a moral degenerate he's got on the payroll!
I'm calling you on the OpenOffice/GoogleApps comparison too - since when is a monolithic office suite anything like a lightweight online collaboration app?
You might as well say they shouldn't have bothered with Gmail because there are perfectly good open source email clients available.
He has a page showing realtime load, and so far it's handled the load easily, despite handling several other background tasks. Very impressive!
"Cloud computing" is only moronic in the sense that it caters for morons. It (delivering applications over a network) has one big win - you don't need a sysadmin. Or rather many people share a sysadmin's services without even knowing it.
Take webmail. I advise all my friends and customers to switch to webmail, because if their disk crashes, I'd much rather be saying "Here, use this PC and there's your mail" than "I told you you should backup your mail - nothing I can do now". We're all sysadmins at heart here on Slashdot, and I think that's why this argument gets so little traction here. But among the great unwashed, it's a win - enough to beat the crappy UI.
But the BIG win is the arrival of mobile devices. If we can't educate people advanced enough to own a PC to back it up, what hope do we have that technically illiterate mobile users will manage their mobile properly? I'm picking that in ten years time even us power users will be using a small pocket device for all our computing needs - when we need to, it'll interface with a big screen and keyboard. And despite the Danger/Microsoft debacle, we'll all back them up on the net.
So to bring this post back on topic, the reason that Windows 7 is creating less excitement is that it's far less relevant than it was. The real action is in mobile operating systems, and Microsoft have dropped the ball here too - Iphone has eaten most of their lunch to date, and Android will eat all of it next year.
Mod parent up. At a mid-sized company who shouldn't remain nameless but will, I built a web service for corporate users. I got redundant servers and mirrored disks past the management, but when it came to backups, they knocked me back and told me to dump everything to the development server each night. I left soon after, and the development server got repurposed as a desktop for the next new salesperson.
I kept the relevant emails from management, and practised a cynical laugh for when they phoned asking me to fix the system when it crashed. But despite three years of complete neglect, the system keeps running - I built the thing too darn well. The sad thing is the management probably would see this as vindicating their decision.
Ballmer has got to be furious. He's getting out-flanked on all sides.
MS still have their huge corporate market, but they're rapidly losing their grip on the consumer. Historically where consumers go, corporates follow... like the PC that put MS where is is now.