...from becoming a helicopter pilot. In fact, just last night my wife said, "sure honey, you can become a pilot just as soon as they invent the deployable energy absorber."
People who don't want to hand-edit anything can also use Ubuntu Tweak, which has a nice little checkbox you can click for Chrome, in addition to many other nice applications like the OpenShot video editor.
And yet after all that, people still think that, out of the kindness of their hearts, Google will decree that its first ToS for this service is set in stone, and think that somehow a bad ToS is always better than no policy at all. Get real - a ToS is a very malleable document; ask anyone who owns a credit card. Just give Google some time and you'll wonder why on earth you thought their simplified legalese had no loopholes.
>I don't know what you think they'd have to gain from annoying a bunch of nerds (re: people that support and build their whole business)
Uh, does that logic actually work *anywhere*? The nerds are always the ones being stepped on in favor of marketability, business process, etc.
Google's shareholders will, at some point, decide that "being nice to nerds" is just one more way of being conciliatory. And being conciliatory is just one more way of losing money.
Uh, actually it's their service and the ToS changes anytime they want it to. This is also known as a phased takeover, in case you haven't noticed other corporations *starting out* with a beautifully ethical ToS before.
Based on stuff like this, Google seem to be looking for ways to exploit (marketing-wise) every step of the interaction between users and Google (or users and Google customers, i.e., advertisers). Their devious secret is that they actually bring improvements as part of the deal. "No more spam for you! We make the internet fun again!" and while everybody's rolling around in that, they are presenting this huge portfolio of collected user data to megacorps around the world. Or anybody who can afford to hire all that data. Which isn't exactly going to be the small bookstore down the street.
Our programmers are getting a bad rep because of our coding-for-weenies tradition. Can you please run an article that makes Microsoft programmers look like total badasses?
And one size fits all from the ordinary user, which makes up 99% plus of users.
You're talking about the last 10 years. I'm talking about the next 10.
"One size fits all" is definitely at risk. The desktop metaphor itself is in question, and the ground around the Monolith as "main computer" has eroded significantly. Smart phones, eBook readers like the Kindle and Nook, PDAs, netbooks, and the increasing number of network-aware appliances show us that the customizability that Linux offers is here to stay.
Your mistake is thinking that all the Linux customization will be up to the end users. Over the next 10 years, that role will be picked up by middle-man companies who will offer incredibly smooth, efficient experiences via Linux. And most won't even know it's Linux.
If you spent some time working in support, supporting ordinary users, you'd realise that my words are *on the money*.
Are. Now. In the traditional way of thinking, that "end users" being forced to use awkward software for security's sake, to control a monolithic system which itself is a wooly mammoth.
Windows & OS X might be monolithic, but they're just as good as KDE. In fact, OS X is clearly better by a mile. There's a reason why Linux adoption numbers are dropping, and people are leaving Windows, but people are *flocking* to OS X.
You're still talking about the traditional monolithic model for personal computing. The developments you mention here happened over the *last* 10 years. Time is marching forward.
PS and no, I'm no Apple fanboy, I hate the company.
You may be in luck - Apple are in for a bit of bad weather over the next decade. To the consumer's benefit, of course.
Hm, you're looking at next week; my post is looking at next decade. The "support" you offer now will be vastly different, and changing screen resolution will be long obsolete except in enthusiast (read: hacker) markets.
The futuristic thing most closely related to screen resoluation is screen magnification, which will have been abstracted even further from the hardware in 10 years. If you've already used a system that has it, you might know why it's better, and different.
Two? Linux will always have a million+ competing desktops. Linux is there to be customized, man, from the kernel on up. The fact that we currently think of the desktop as some specific thing is messing you up. Think about workflows. Think about a personal brand of work-fu or play-fu that you develop in partnership with your Linux machines. Your workflow is so good, you take on an apprentice to teach it to. He's thanking his lucky stars that someone who can create workflow experiences like you can would be willing to let him in the door to learn the trade.
I've said it before: You talk like Windows(TM) and Mac OS (TM) are these wonderful things because they're monoliths. But we've learned from monoliths and their creators that there is no "clarity" in that direction, only broken promises. One size doesn't fit all. The new landscape of devices and interfaces will give you clarity and specificity in exchange for your old monolith. If you won't trade it in, prepare to be left in the dust.
We'll look back at monolithic desktop computing and wonder what on earth kind of idiots we were to sit in front of this thing all day, all using the same basic type of chair, same keyboard with carpal tunnel syndrome included, and interfaces that worked like something only a masochist would use.
They're in high demand. Especially those who find themselves being treated by a few loosely-connected web teams as their team lead for web services. Suddenly you're busy, making money, and things don't seem like they're gonna slow down.
It's incredibly flattering to be referred to in corporate documents as "our web guy," - being so relied upon - and yet also realize that you are still your own boss.
So a webdev ends up making a comfortable amount while he ignores his less-profitable clients (who would be more profitable if he paid attention to them, but he doesn't need the money). I see this all the time. Joe Web Dev would still go broke if he tried it, but if you've got a decent wardrobe, some people skills, no debt, and a place to live while you sort out your income, it can be accomplished in as little as 5 years. (Ignoring clients is optional)
There are a *lot* of businesses out there that exist most comfortably with a web development budget that won't allow them to use a customized shopping cart.
When I come across one of them that does have a customized shopping cart and is looking for a new web developer because the old one got hit by a bus, or just started ignoring their calls, I do feel really bad for them. Suddenly they're 1) really vulnerable to back-end developers with a God-complex and 2) lacking a cost-effective way to port their previous developer's crappy CSS non-templating system over to new software.
Slashdot Mirror
...from becoming a helicopter pilot. In fact, just last night my wife said, "sure honey, you can become a pilot just as soon as they invent the deployable energy absorber."
C'MON NASA!!!
People who don't want to hand-edit anything can also use Ubuntu Tweak, which has a nice little checkbox you can click for Chrome, in addition to many other nice applications like the OpenShot video editor.
Chrome is going to run on top of Linux...makes me wonder what Malware looks like in the cloud *snicker*
Oy vey
...never had so much meaning.
He is gonna be HUGE.
Outer space.
And yet after all that, people still think that, out of the kindness of their hearts, Google will decree that its first ToS for this service is set in stone, and think that somehow a bad ToS is always better than no policy at all. Get real - a ToS is a very malleable document; ask anyone who owns a credit card. Just give Google some time and you'll wonder why on earth you thought their simplified legalese had no loopholes.
>I don't know what you think they'd have to gain from annoying a bunch of nerds (re: people that support and build their whole business)
Uh, does that logic actually work *anywhere*? The nerds are always the ones being stepped on in favor of marketability, business process, etc.
Google's shareholders will, at some point, decide that "being nice to nerds" is just one more way of being conciliatory. And being conciliatory is just one more way of losing money.
Uh, actually it's their service and the ToS changes anytime they want it to. This is also known as a phased takeover, in case you haven't noticed other corporations *starting out* with a beautifully ethical ToS before.
Based on stuff like this, Google seem to be looking for ways to exploit (marketing-wise) every step of the interaction between users and Google (or users and Google customers, i.e., advertisers). Their devious secret is that they actually bring improvements as part of the deal. "No more spam for you! We make the internet fun again!" and while everybody's rolling around in that, they are presenting this huge portfolio of collected user data to megacorps around the world. Or anybody who can afford to hire all that data. Which isn't exactly going to be the small bookstore down the street.
You're absolutely correct, and I think that a phonebooth analogy ought to do pretty well here.
Gibs
What's up with all the Chrome on ARM astroturfing around here...? It's quite obvious, guys.
C'mon, none of this imagery is in the least bit commercial, let alone exploitative...why set off all the work filters for such a worthwhile topic???
Our programmers are getting a bad rep because of our coding-for-weenies tradition. Can you please run an article that makes Microsoft programmers look like total badasses?
XOXOXO
-Steve B.
You're talking about the last 10 years. I'm talking about the next 10. "One size fits all" is definitely at risk. The desktop metaphor itself is in question, and the ground around the Monolith as "main computer" has eroded significantly. Smart phones, eBook readers like the Kindle and Nook, PDAs, netbooks, and the increasing number of network-aware appliances show us that the customizability that Linux offers is here to stay. Your mistake is thinking that all the Linux customization will be up to the end users. Over the next 10 years, that role will be picked up by middle-man companies who will offer incredibly smooth, efficient experiences via Linux. And most won't even know it's Linux.
Are. Now. In the traditional way of thinking, that "end users" being forced to use awkward software for security's sake, to control a monolithic system which itself is a wooly mammoth.
You're still talking about the traditional monolithic model for personal computing. The developments you mention here happened over the *last* 10 years. Time is marching forward.
You may be in luck - Apple are in for a bit of bad weather over the next decade. To the consumer's benefit, of course.
Hm, you're looking at next week; my post is looking at next decade. The "support" you offer now will be vastly different, and changing screen resolution will be long obsolete except in enthusiast (read: hacker) markets.
The futuristic thing most closely related to screen resoluation is screen magnification, which will have been abstracted even further from the hardware in 10 years. If you've already used a system that has it, you might know why it's better, and different.
Two? Linux will always have a million+ competing desktops. Linux is there to be customized, man, from the kernel on up. The fact that we currently think of the desktop as some specific thing is messing you up. Think about workflows. Think about a personal brand of work-fu or play-fu that you develop in partnership with your Linux machines. Your workflow is so good, you take on an apprentice to teach it to. He's thanking his lucky stars that someone who can create workflow experiences like you can would be willing to let him in the door to learn the trade.
I've said it before: You talk like Windows(TM) and Mac OS (TM) are these wonderful things because they're monoliths. But we've learned from monoliths and their creators that there is no "clarity" in that direction, only broken promises. One size doesn't fit all. The new landscape of devices and interfaces will give you clarity and specificity in exchange for your old monolith. If you won't trade it in, prepare to be left in the dust.
We'll look back at monolithic desktop computing and wonder what on earth kind of idiots we were to sit in front of this thing all day, all using the same basic type of chair, same keyboard with carpal tunnel syndrome included, and interfaces that worked like something only a masochist would use.
Anyway, back to writing another Nautilus script.
They're in high demand. Especially those who find themselves being treated by a few loosely-connected web teams as their team lead for web services. Suddenly you're busy, making money, and things don't seem like they're gonna slow down.
It's incredibly flattering to be referred to in corporate documents as "our web guy," - being so relied upon - and yet also realize that you are still your own boss.
So a webdev ends up making a comfortable amount while he ignores his less-profitable clients (who would be more profitable if he paid attention to them, but he doesn't need the money). I see this all the time. Joe Web Dev would still go broke if he tried it, but if you've got a decent wardrobe, some people skills, no debt, and a place to live while you sort out your income, it can be accomplished in as little as 5 years. (Ignoring clients is optional)
There are a *lot* of businesses out there that exist most comfortably with a web development budget that won't allow them to use a customized shopping cart.
When I come across one of them that does have a customized shopping cart and is looking for a new web developer because the old one got hit by a bus, or just started ignoring their calls, I do feel really bad for them. Suddenly they're 1) really vulnerable to back-end developers with a God-complex and 2) lacking a cost-effective way to port their previous developer's crappy CSS non-templating system over to new software.
...for her birthday. She needed a space heater and also had some problems with needing to use the internet anywhere in the house.
Well, thank goodness they're going to give you a little checkbox to click so you can choose how you get your GIMP on.
...open a can of tuna.
...when you shoot your mouth off on our TV show.