You misunderstand, and I'm not sure how. The context of my post was regarding using the best interface for such a device in order to achieve mass appeal. The evidence I cite for Gnome 3 is based on what is probably by now a conversion of over 2 dozen regular everyday non technical "I just want it to work and be easy to use" types. That number is not an exaggeration - I do this a lot. So my evidence is after leaving them for a week with all the major DEs to try, all but one out of all those people chose Gnome 3. One chose XFCE because of the cute little mouse. That right there should tell you how very common and tech illiterate we are talking. This broad sampling is the bulk of my evidence, and it is very strong within the context of what amounts to market research. And you better believe that when I am demonstrating all the DEs I show them Unity backwards and forwards and I never give opinions to sway to this or that. So yes, I hate the DEs in question. So. Fucking. What. It was a little something called commentary and it was making a point that flew right over your head. I stated I don't have a problem with people who think otherwise. I know some prolific nerds who use Unitity. Do I go over and make fun of them? Do I think less of them? Of course not. To each there own. I like tiling window manages. That puts me in a minority using something most people cringe at. So this isn't about desktops, it's about a tablet. I combine my experience setting up end users who settle on Gnome, with my experience of hating it, only to fall in love with it. And yes I tried to see if I would like UnitUnity as a tablet. Nope. Gnome 3 is practically made for tablets. There was no need at for all this flaming. I swear it's like no read my post. It's dumbfounding. Take an impulse control pill and flip a switch to turn on your objective mind. Fuck.
As a matter of fact, I would very much like to know what draws you to LXDE. Don't worry, not going pull out the flame thrower, I really am just curious. I still believe in an open community around Linux where ideas can be shared without getting attacked. Well, that's how it was a long time ago. BTW I am the OP and I got set on fire by a mob that could not have possibly read the whole post. Personally, I have a thing for Openbox and awesome WM.
Okay, so on the one hand, this should get modded up insightful, simply because if we are dealing with what I hope are rational people capable of being rational and capable of going AWOL then of course it should be so. Too bad Snowden is not all the way around. Still, I suggest you get modded up on fundamental principles of common sense. So I guess there may be only one hand after all. If not and considering the level of sophistication of our our enemy and those whom they employ, I hope we have more Snowdens to rely on, waiting for their moment. You know they must have hackers who are burning in metaphorical terms, ready to go off like a firecracker over what they see. Let's just hope there are and that that they will puts something substantial in motion. As far as all "hats" potentiality working for the NSA are concerned, I would like to be believe they are all waiting to pounce. Time will tell.
We discuss this topic quite frequently and much more passionately than most, and many other topics that can be considered related. I don't think it's far fetched to think that Slashdot is monitored. Shit, there may even be one among us. I want that to sound paranoid, but it would not exactly be a big job. No, I am afraid that does not sound paranoid. I suppose there are many arguments one could form that based on how mass surveillance works, looking at something so small on a very big internet is unlikely. To this I say do not let what sounds unlikely fool you.
Perhaps I should clarify. Within the context of my statement about this device and DEs, I intended to express that if they are aiming at the mass market, which it only makes sense to do and makes no sense not to, the interface is critical. I on board a lot of new Linux users. People who had never used it before. I always present the regular every day type with multiple DE's to choose from. After showing them the ropes I let them hop around between them for a week so they can settle on whatever they are the most comfortable using. I've had one person go with XFCE because the little mouse made them giggle. The rest went with Gnome 3. Interestingly, people seem to find KDE perplexing. So clearly I am not being biased as I routinely and happily set people up with Gnome 3. If someone ever decides the Unity is where it's at? I am fine with that and I never try to sway people.
As far as replacing Unity goes, that simple task is voodoo magic for a lot of people. These same people overall, coming from Windows, will not even understand the concept of completely switching out the interface for something different on this class of a device. They need to be given choice up front. This is of course a different class of device where multiple DE options are in fact likely a bad idea. Referring back to my experience helping people get started with Linux and my own surprise with Gnome 3, I strongly believe it is the best option if there is any success to be had.
But speak for yourself.
I was.
Unity is not a terribly great desktop DE, but it's fantastic for mobile, and lots of people are excited for it.
Opinion noted, but could you maybe back it up with something other than itself?
About a year and a half ago I bought one of those funky convertibles. I found the ability to fold it into a quasi tablet was actually pretty useless with Windows (tent mode did have advantages). So as with most computers that come into my possession it ended up running Linux. Not being in a mood to potentially have to fight it's strange hardware, I used Ubuntu. Before I go any further I need to state for the record that I hate Gnome 3 even for than I hate Unity. Which is to say I hate it a lot. No hate for users, just my person taste.
I was kind of surprised when everything down to the touch screen and changing aspect with orientation worked great. Then it struck me: this thing would be fucking awesome with Gnome 3. Sure as shit it is. Every aspect of Gnome 3 almost seems intentionally designed for a tablet.I have made an effort to show it off to everyone from hackers to people who somehow believe that iOS is the internet and Steve Jobs made it. People are universally impressed. You can even use Google Now, albeit through a browser but even that seems insignificant to the overall experience. So I have been thinking for awhile now that perhaps there is no room for Linux to have a "year on the desktop" and perhaps that's not a bad thing. Perhaps it does not even matter. After all, I know very few people who have desktops and to lesser extent laptops these days.
I think this has massive potential to................... fall flat on it's face. If this ships with not only having Unity as the default, which of course it will, but does not even have Gnome 3 as an option then the crowd the are targeting - everyone - won't give a shit. Canonical has always aimed their sites toward some sort of common consumer legitimacy, but when it comes down to it, they only ever preach to the choir.
After reading reading, "hooting and howling over every word he said", I went and watched it myself expecting to be able to come back and call bullshit over an exaggeration.
Nope, your description was accurate. It was actually kind of strange.
Open kernel. Absolutely. Open hardware...? Dunno. I honestly think for that to happen we will need to print our own hardware. A team of Open Source engineers specializing in CPU design, designing and printing CPUs. Mass storage so on an so forth. Then we buy and sell to each other, perhaps even at cost. Meanwhile we as many people as are willing will through money into funds that can then be disbursed. I really do believe open hardware would need such a scheme. Of course, we will also need to print our printing machines. Us geeks are already losing our grip on being able to build our own computers. That sounds like quite a ways off. It will truly be a geek hardware hacking Renaissance by the time it is possible. Did I just describe something very close to Anarchy?
We already have math for all, which is of course good. But we do not have AP calculus for all, or at least not in some enforced manner, which is also good and very practical. If states approach this in a sane and practical manner, this could be good. A comprehensive but still basic computer literacy would be good. But we can't teach skills that will be utterly obsolete by the time they graduate. Instead of teaching kids the basics in the form of WIndows 10, teach them fundamental concepts as viewed through the history of computing. Want girls to get interested in taking future optional programming courses? Teach them about Ada Lovelace and her legacy. But please don't dump programming on a bunch of kids, which some are trying. The teachers don't understand it and some of the methods are misleading.
A secretary having the ability to reset passwords, especially at a security company is mind blowing. While I've never heard it that way, I am not saying you are misinformed. But if they had his password reset that means they didn't know any passwords to begin with. If one password reset led to computer\domain access and he had a file with his actual and now former domain password, and he was the CEO of a "security" company...? Damn that's dumb. I almost wrote "encrypted file" but I would not even have an encrypted file with passwords.
One of the things I liked about it was the lack but not total absence of in app advertising. For example, I could play Sonic Dash for hours and rarely see an ad. When I came back to Android, I had to watch a full one minute video ad between each level, unless I paid for it. I no longer play that game. I imagine Microsoft must have paid developers a lot for minimal advertising as a failed tactic to advance their platform and that it would have gone away had the had success. All-in-all it had the apps I needed, but I am not as heavy and demanding a user as most, so that's just me.
Enter the home screen interface
While at first I liked that wild and wacky tiled home screen, I recognized right away that the interface would be a major factor in the platforms death (already knew it was dying but I am a very curious nerd so I tried it all the same).
What did I like about the interface? I'll come back to that. First let me say what I think made it platform suicide among but above most others. If you hand any Android phone running any version of Android stock interface or 3rd party to either any other Android users or iPhone users, they will be able to operate it in a matter of seconds if not instantly through intuition. Likewise, if you hand an iPhone to an Android user, they will be able to use it. If you hand a Windows phone to either an Android or iPhone user, the interface will be so foreign and seemingly archaic, they will not want to learn how to use it let alone take to it like a duck to water. So that's that. Back to my love hate situation with the interface.
So as I said at first I liked it. I am a full time geek so it didn't take "too" long to figure out. Over the first few days, I methodically laid out the home screen. At first it seemed very efficient and I perceived clear advantages over other platforms. I was excited. Then I started adding more tiles. It started to become a complex puzzle game, finding the most logical places and sizes for tiles. It got to the point where adding one new tile caused me to rethink the logic and efficiency of the entire I layout. I started to think really hard about anything and everything I felt I needed on the home screen, so one evening I went to town. I spent a good two hours re-arranging everything after adding the rest of what I needed and went to sleep. The number of tiles representing apps was be no means excessive. When I woke up the next day I looked at my home screen and I was absolutely and completely fucking lost.
Nerdy experiment #23,943,284 complete. Back to my Nexus.
No. Not kidding. Fantasizing. I am familiar with the size of both their user base and profits. I am well aware that they are not going away anytime in the foreseeable future. I also believe that they are the personification of moral decay - depravity. So yes, I would like to see those headlines, even though I know I won't.
Please please please get someone else to conduct them. Anyone, I don't care, just get someone else. This is an embarrassment. The people being interviewed must not have watched previous interviews or they would have never agreed to it.
Weed is for the devil, so let's make a synthetic version we don't really know anything about and see what happens! After all, the effects of marijuana have never been studied and are a complete unknown. Right?
Slashdot Mirror
You misunderstand, and I'm not sure how. The context of my post was regarding using the best interface for such a device in order to achieve mass appeal. The evidence I cite for Gnome 3 is based on what is probably by now a conversion of over 2 dozen regular everyday non technical "I just want it to work and be easy to use" types. That number is not an exaggeration - I do this a lot. So my evidence is after leaving them for a week with all the major DEs to try, all but one out of all those people chose Gnome 3. One chose XFCE because of the cute little mouse. That right there should tell you how very common and tech illiterate we are talking. This broad sampling is the bulk of my evidence, and it is very strong within the context of what amounts to market research. And you better believe that when I am demonstrating all the DEs I show them Unity backwards and forwards and I never give opinions to sway to this or that. So yes, I hate the DEs in question. So. Fucking. What. It was a little something called commentary and it was making a point that flew right over your head. I stated I don't have a problem with people who think otherwise. I know some prolific nerds who use Unitity. Do I go over and make fun of them? Do I think less of them? Of course not. To each there own. I like tiling window manages. That puts me in a minority using something most people cringe at. So this isn't about desktops, it's about a tablet. I combine my experience setting up end users who settle on Gnome, with my experience of hating it, only to fall in love with it. And yes I tried to see if I would like UnitUnity as a tablet. Nope. Gnome 3 is practically made for tablets. There was no need at for all this flaming. I swear it's like no read my post. It's dumbfounding. Take an impulse control pill and flip a switch to turn on your objective mind. Fuck.
Thank you.
As a matter of fact, I would very much like to know what draws you to LXDE. Don't worry, not going pull out the flame thrower, I really am just curious. I still believe in an open community around Linux where ideas can be shared without getting attacked. Well, that's how it was a long time ago. BTW I am the OP and I got set on fire by a mob that could not have possibly read the whole post. Personally, I have a thing for Openbox and awesome WM.
Okay, so on the one hand, this should get modded up insightful, simply because if we are dealing with what I hope are rational people capable of being rational and capable of going AWOL then of course it should be so. Too bad Snowden is not all the way around. Still, I suggest you get modded up on fundamental principles of common sense. So I guess there may be only one hand after all. If not and considering the level of sophistication of our our enemy and those whom they employ, I hope we have more Snowdens to rely on, waiting for their moment. You know they must have hackers who are burning in metaphorical terms, ready to go off like a firecracker over what they see. Let's just hope there are and that that they will puts something substantial in motion. As far as all "hats" potentiality working for the NSA are concerned, I would like to be believe they are all waiting to pounce. Time will tell.
She is rather prolific.
We discuss this topic quite frequently and much more passionately than most, and many other topics that can be considered related. I don't think it's far fetched to think that Slashdot is monitored. Shit, there may even be one among us. I want that to sound paranoid, but it would not exactly be a big job. No, I am afraid that does not sound paranoid. I suppose there are many arguments one could form that based on how mass surveillance works, looking at something so small on a very big internet is unlikely. To this I say do not let what sounds unlikely fool you.
Queue the jokes.
Oh, and fuck you NSA man.
Dell Notebook i7347 13-Inch
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00NJNEE3O?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_search_detailpage
Note that it uses a hard drive. It appears that disassembling it is straightforward, but I've never done it.
As far as replacing Unity goes, that simple task is voodoo magic for a lot of people. These same people overall, coming from Windows, will not even understand the concept of completely switching out the interface for something different on this class of a device. They need to be given choice up front. This is of course a different class of device where multiple DE options are in fact likely a bad idea. Referring back to my experience helping people get started with Linux and my own surprise with Gnome 3, I strongly believe it is the best option if there is any success to be had.
I was.
Opinion noted, but could you maybe back it up with something other than itself?
About a year and a half ago I bought one of those funky convertibles. I found the ability to fold it into a quasi tablet was actually pretty useless with Windows (tent mode did have advantages). So as with most computers that come into my possession it ended up running Linux. Not being in a mood to potentially have to fight it's strange hardware, I used Ubuntu. Before I go any further I need to state for the record that I hate Gnome 3 even for than I hate Unity. Which is to say I hate it a lot. No hate for users, just my person taste.
I was kind of surprised when everything down to the touch screen and changing aspect with orientation worked great. Then it struck me: this thing would be fucking awesome with Gnome 3. Sure as shit it is. Every aspect of Gnome 3 almost seems intentionally designed for a tablet.I have made an effort to show it off to everyone from hackers to people who somehow believe that iOS is the internet and Steve Jobs made it. People are universally impressed. You can even use Google Now, albeit through a browser but even that seems insignificant to the overall experience. So I have been thinking for awhile now that perhaps there is no room for Linux to have a "year on the desktop" and perhaps that's not a bad thing. Perhaps it does not even matter. After all, I know very few people who have desktops and to lesser extent laptops these days.
I think this has massive potential to................... fall flat on it's face. If this ships with not only having Unity as the default, which of course it will, but does not even have Gnome 3 as an option then the crowd the are targeting - everyone - won't give a shit. Canonical has always aimed their sites toward some sort of common consumer legitimacy, but when it comes down to it, they only ever preach to the choir.
Just ask this nice lady:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...
Not helping.
Actually no, not welcome. I'll bet there are some great Windows tech support related sites out there. Maybe start here:
https://technet.microsoft.com/...
Or more likely here:
https://www.google.com/
So there's your advice.
I was going to take the opportunity to launch into a full tech-support monologue but it brought back too many old and bad memories.
After reading reading, "hooting and howling over every word he said", I went and watched it myself expecting to be able to come back and call bullshit over an exaggeration.
Nope, your description was accurate. It was actually kind of strange.
I usually read some comments and then read the story. Thank you for that one quote, you saved me from reading the story.
Open kernel. Absolutely. Open hardware...? Dunno. I honestly think for that to happen we will need to print our own hardware. A team of Open Source engineers specializing in CPU design, designing and printing CPUs. Mass storage so on an so forth. Then we buy and sell to each other, perhaps even at cost. Meanwhile we as many people as are willing will through money into funds that can then be disbursed. I really do believe open hardware would need such a scheme. Of course, we will also need to print our printing machines. Us geeks are already losing our grip on being able to build our own computers. That sounds like quite a ways off. It will truly be a geek hardware hacking Renaissance by the time it is possible. Did I just describe something very close to Anarchy?
When your looking at an story, Ctrl + enlarges the text making it easier to spot typos.
We already have math for all, which is of course good. But we do not have AP calculus for all, or at least not in some enforced manner, which is also good and very practical. If states approach this in a sane and practical manner, this could be good. A comprehensive but still basic computer literacy would be good. But we can't teach skills that will be utterly obsolete by the time they graduate. Instead of teaching kids the basics in the form of WIndows 10, teach them fundamental concepts as viewed through the history of computing. Want girls to get interested in taking future optional programming courses? Teach them about Ada Lovelace and her legacy. But please don't dump programming on a bunch of kids, which some are trying. The teachers don't understand it and some of the methods are misleading.
A secretary having the ability to reset passwords, especially at a security company is mind blowing. While I've never heard it that way, I am not saying you are misinformed. But if they had his password reset that means they didn't know any passwords to begin with. If one password reset led to computer\domain access and he had a file with his actual and now former domain password, and he was the CEO of a "security" company...? Damn that's dumb. I almost wrote "encrypted file" but I would not even have an encrypted file with passwords.
It was a slick HTC One8
One of the things I liked about it was the lack but not total absence of in app advertising. For example, I could play Sonic Dash for hours and rarely see an ad. When I came back to Android, I had to watch a full one minute video ad between each level, unless I paid for it. I no longer play that game. I imagine Microsoft must have paid developers a lot for minimal advertising as a failed tactic to advance their platform and that it would have gone away had the had success. All-in-all it had the apps I needed, but I am not as heavy and demanding a user as most, so that's just me.
Enter the home screen interface
While at first I liked that wild and wacky tiled home screen, I recognized right away that the interface would be a major factor in the platforms death (already knew it was dying but I am a very curious nerd so I tried it all the same).
What did I like about the interface? I'll come back to that. First let me say what I think made it platform suicide among but above most others. If you hand any Android phone running any version of Android stock interface or 3rd party to either any other Android users or iPhone users, they will be able to operate it in a matter of seconds if not instantly through intuition. Likewise, if you hand an iPhone to an Android user, they will be able to use it. If you hand a Windows phone to either an Android or iPhone user, the interface will be so foreign and seemingly archaic, they will not want to learn how to use it let alone take to it like a duck to water. So that's that. Back to my love hate situation with the interface.
So as I said at first I liked it. I am a full time geek so it didn't take "too" long to figure out. Over the first few days, I methodically laid out the home screen. At first it seemed very efficient and I perceived clear advantages over other platforms. I was excited. Then I started adding more tiles. It started to become a complex puzzle game, finding the most logical places and sizes for tiles. It got to the point where adding one new tile caused me to rethink the logic and efficiency of the entire I layout. I started to think really hard about anything and everything I felt I needed on the home screen, so one evening I went to town. I spent a good two hours re-arranging everything after adding the rest of what I needed and went to sleep. The number of tiles representing apps was be no means excessive. When I woke up the next day I looked at my home screen and I was absolutely and completely fucking lost.
Nerdy experiment #23,943,284 complete. Back to my Nexus.
No. Not kidding. Fantasizing. I am familiar with the size of both their user base and profits. I am well aware that they are not going away anytime in the foreseeable future. I also believe that they are the personification of moral decay - depravity. So yes, I would like to see those headlines, even though I know I won't.
Or maybe "Facebook: A Postmortem" Now that's a Slashdot title I would like to see.
Cybermorph?
Somewhere on those drones you will find a sticker that reads "Made in China"
Please please please get someone else to conduct them. Anyone, I don't care, just get someone else. This is an embarrassment. The people being interviewed must not have watched previous interviews or they would have never agreed to it.
Weed is for the devil, so let's make a synthetic version we don't really know anything about and see what happens! After all, the effects of marijuana have never been studied and are a complete unknown. Right?