One thing that I would put in my own office is one of those classic couches you see in Shrinks offices. Currently I work from home and my favorite place is on the bed with my laptop.
Sometimes I work on the PC at a desk, and the bed is my absolute fav.
Since a bed in an office would be a nono (unless you have very specific plans for it) one of those couches would be good to work on.
And I have little use for a desk - except when working on a desktop PC from time to time - because I have achieved the paperless office dream. Only time I use paper is when someone else insists I print something out for them.
I have no fax machine, and if anyone wants to send me something I insist on e-mail. Bills sent in the mail are a different matter, some companies insist on sending snailmail to me, but almost all of that is not work related.
Paperless office is a reality if you work a bit on it.
The Debian installer from release 'Etch', which is over a year old, is pretty easy to use. I'm not sure if it's as easy as the ones for the other distributions tested in the original article, but it certainly was much easier than the installer for Woody, Potato, and earlier versions of Debian. Well I find the Opensuse and Fedora installers to be pretty tough-ish too. I would put them on a par with XP ease wise. Lots of reading and deciding. More flexibility though if you know what you are doing, but less handholdy than the ubuntu installer.
From the article it would seem that the tester used a beta version of Ubuntu, and not the full release - so it is even more impressive that it fared so well...
Just the other day on/. everybody was complaining that an early adoption of an Ubuntu release was fraught with problems, my first week with Ubuntu confirmed that for me...
So this comparitive test does not really lend Ubuntu an unfair advantage, if it were done with Hardy a bit matured one would be able to say that...
Disclosure: I am a bit of an Ubuntu fanboi;) (please notice the wink *nudge-nudge*)
Right - One of my first distributions was also Suse - SLED and SLES - got it from the novell stands at Software Freedom Day here in South Africa.
I liked it, but because of some niggles I moved on.
1. I run on limited hardware, and Suse being a bit hardware intensive (my impression here) it was a bit slow - took four hours to install on my pc and five hours on my laptop. Not a fault on the Distro's part I am quick to point out. 2. Everything did not just work in my case, but I enjoy tinkering so that was not a big reason for movin on.
Currently I am using Ubuntu.
1. It contends better with my limited hardware. A clean install takes only about 40minutes to an hour. (Yes my computer/laptop is O_L_D!) 2. It "feels" more intuitive, but that is more personal taste than any real advantage over SUSE. 3. Shipit. This is a real advantage over other distributions. Being able to order a free disk of the latest version is a real plus.
Here are a few critiscisms of Ubuntu:
1. Heavy reliance on the internet to install anything from codecs to extra software. 2. DVD releases that in fact have extra software are not available as boxed sets is a disadvantage wrt boxed sets like Suse. 3 The color scheme - what the heck with the brown? Many distro's look much better - Suse, Linux Mint are just a few examples. Fedora looks great too.
One thing that gives Suse a great advantage is the effort that goes into the Enterprise Desktop package. It makes a lot of effort to be easy to integrate with an office environment - this naturally spills over to the Opensuse version.
I don't think Ubuntu is OVER hyped - it has many good points, and is really a leader in many aspects, just as Suse, PCLOS, Fedora, Mandriva and so on all have areas where they lead. What I really find exciting is that every distro has access to what it lacks and is available in another. Take PCLOS using Synaptic for instance.
THAT is what has handed the lead to Linux, and has placed Windows in second/Third place.
YES: The Linux souce code/kernel is release on release improving, so it could be called a work in progress if you look at the bigger picture - You might draw a comparison by calling "Windows" a work in progress as in progress from 98 to 98se to ME to XP to Vista. Every Windows release has (supposedly - I am not an expert on that subject) a new kernel, architecture updates. Similarly the progress can be shown by comparing the progress from Edgy to Feisty to Gustry to Hardy.
NO: Every release of the Kernel, and every full public release of a distribution is supposed to be a finished product (excluding testing, alpha and beta releases.) Hence Feisty was a finished product, and Gutsy was a finished product and Hardy upon release should be a finished product. Similarly Win98/98se should have been finished products, Me -> XP -> Vista should have been too.
GREY AREA: Now, as to your comment quoted below;
isn't ALL software these days not a work in progress?
There is a gray area in the use of the term "work in progress" that lends some weight to your statement. It is difficult to determine how it is used in each scenario - by Mr Balmer and by you - language by nature can be very fluid, it is actually a beautiful thing but I digress...
Defining the term "work in progress" might go as follows:
To say a Linux release is a work in progress could be defined as I used above - but a detractor might say that the constant refining and bug fixes that takes place after release in the OS, and in any OS (a good example are Microsoft service packs), could point to a "work in progress" scenario. Did Steve Balmer use it this way? If he did, then he is essentially saying the following: Linux is essentially just as good and "desktop ready" as Windows Vista is.
However, the detractors of Linux desktop operating systems are continually saying "Linux is not desktop ready" hence it is still an unfinished work, and thus can be said to be a work in progress. Because this statement is used in a comparative sense with Windows operating systems it infers "Windows is desktop ready" and thus should be a finished work upon release. If it were the case that the term was used thusly it would be a bad thing for Mr Balmer to say that about his own product.
software design can respond to user experience and feedback, and move with the times.
Yes. That is quite correct - that is how it should be. However I contend that the five-year release cycle of Windows hinders this a bit. The service packs might smooth this over a bit, but as I see it response to user complaints - with the possible exception of security alerts - is almost non existent. Bear in mind that as a Linux user my view may be skewed - a lot. Would you think that if enough customers/Vista users complained that DRM is not wanted in Vista that Microsoft would issue a patch to completely remove it? I would think no. In fact when DRM is disabled by a third party "hack" Microsoft is quick to release a patch that disables said "hack", pointing out to me that the wishes of the customer does not come first.
Is Vista a work in progress? Okay - then define exactly where the "progress" is needed. Was it desktop ready when released? Was it user ready when released? Was Microsoft satisfied that it was ready for release when it was released?
I contend that it was not completely desktop ready when released - this might in part be due to the slow reaction of third-party vendors to release drivers so let's set that aside.
I contend that it was not user ready when it was released - partly this is because users needed to "learn the software" before being able to use it properly. This is in part due to newer features, not a bad thing, and (arguably) questionable interface design decisions - lets strike that one because it is really a question open to debate in the end.
Ah - you see I did not actually know that. I see when I put two fingers on my trackpad I let the mouse cursor jump between them and end up where the last of the two fingers land.
Weeelll... I bet people who work with graphics applications could use this. But then again I don't see the Asus EEE being powerful enough to be any real use in the graphic application arena.
I really don't see the point in adding a scroll wheel. It's an unnecessary addition of a mechanical component when existing electronic components should do the job for most people. Well on my (circa 2001) laptop stroking up and down on the right (or left, or top, or bottom [depending on how you set up the sorftware]) area of the track-pad acts the same way a scroll wheel would. So a mechanical component would not actually be necessary.
And it's easier to deal with as a scroll wheel would need to be accompanied with another keystroke to tell the computer that it's a resize and not a scrolling action. Yes. I run Ubuntu and I need to hold down [Alt] in order to zoom. It would make more sense to hold one finger on the pad and stroke the pad with the other - but I am guessing multi-touch works in a similar way.
I wonder how hard it would be to actually write software that would allow multi-touch on any trackpad? On my trackpad tapping with three fingers works as middle-button would on a "proper" mouse, and tapping with two works like right-click, altough I prefer to use one of the corners.
Basically I think scrolling is easy to implement with a trackpad, a third button is harder - depending on your needs...
Yeah I don't know - probably I guess. But what you say is true - sacrifice the cow, and live a little longer. If they bundled MS office I guess that would be grounds for another monopoly investigation, but if they bundle a third party office suite - maybe even an inferior one with an "upgrade option" to MS office that would give them some wiggle room, and allow them to rake in the bucks in any case.
I say this because my observation has been that Monster Cable typically operates in a hit-and-run fashion. Your client threatens litigation, expecting the victim to panic and plead for mercy; and what follows is a quickie negotiation session that ends with payment and a licensing agreement. Your client then uses this collection of licensing agreements to convince others under similar threat to accede to its demands. Let me be clear about this: there are only two ways for you to get anything out of me. You will either need to (1) convince me that I have infringed, or (2) obtain a final judgment to that effect from a court of competent jurisdiction. It may be that my inability to see the pragmatic value of settling frivolous claims is a deep character flaw, and I am sure a few of the insurance carriers for whom I have done work have seen it that way; but it is how I have done business for the last quarter-century and you are not going to change my mind. If you sue me, the case will go to judgment, and I will hold the court's attention upon the merits of your claims--or, to speak more precisely, the absence of merit from your claims--from start to finish. Not only am I unintimidated by litigation; I sometimes rather miss it. I just love this. Especially the bolded part.
jamincolins is correct, and to add to his argument: canonical bundles software that is actually useful to the end user. If MS really was serious about making life easy for the customer they would've bundled MS Office and a decent mailing client to name a few.
Anything and everything bundled with Ubuntu (using it as an example since Canonical was named) is actually useful to most PC users (there are a few apps that some will use and some not), AND all applications can be removed and replaced with something else. Let's look at web browsers as a for-instance: don't like firefox? Uninstall it and load something else, even IE should you wish to do so (it comes with wine) whereas I dare you to try and completely remove IE from a windows installation. You just can't.
The way I see it Canonical makes it as easy as possible for developers of open and proprietary software to add/install their products to a Ubuntu installation.
Disclaimer - I do not work for this company, but I have used this software package(s) extensively.
Softline Pastel.
It is an accounting software, so he will be able to do accounting of everything that has gone through the books, includes a payroll package, tax package and among even more other things: support for P.O.S (Point Of Sale)
What Pastel allows you to do wit P.O.S is:
Every Transaction gets recorded real time. Operates P.O.S drawer. Your Accountant can access what sales are in your P.O.S remotely (via lan, or with an add on via web - IIRC on that last one) Supports "cash up" end of day to a removable drive.
It runs on Windows unfortunately - if you are inclined to run other OS's. Has a server module and can run the server/client on the same machine - ideal for small business.
www.pastel.co.za
Apologies for the spammy post everybody - like I said I am not employed by them, but it is a good piece of software with support for international currencies/tax etc.
I don't believe its fair to bring in development costs considering it was much more of a "look at what we can do" national project than a pure commerical project. True for the Concorde BUT: any project begun now will not fall into that category, so development costs would be an issue.
Slashdot Mirror
Yeah.
One thing that I would put in my own office is one of those classic couches you see in Shrinks offices. Currently I work from home and my favorite place is on the bed with my laptop.
Sometimes I work on the PC at a desk, and the bed is my absolute fav.
Since a bed in an office would be a nono (unless you have very specific plans for it) one of those couches would be good to work on.
And I have little use for a desk - except when working on a desktop PC from time to time - because I have achieved the paperless office dream. Only time I use paper is when someone else insists I print something out for them.
I have no fax machine, and if anyone wants to send me something I insist on e-mail. Bills sent in the mail are a different matter, some companies insist on sending snailmail to me, but almost all of that is not work related.
Paperless office is a reality if you work a bit on it.
How long before I can get one of those on a pen-drive?
I refuse to dump floppies until then.
Unless you are thinking along the lines of a gaming device. Sniping with a 2mm inaccuracy would not be optimal.
Fragging needs accuracy, and 2mm can mean the difference between 1337 and n008...
I rather enjoyed Conan Doyle's first person narrative in Sherlock Holmes.
I would like to see some of his style being introduced in a role playing game some day. Won't ever happen I bet, but there is always hope...
From the article it would seem that the tester used a beta version of Ubuntu, and not the full release - so it is even more impressive that it fared so well...
Well yes and no.
/. everybody was complaining that an early adoption of an Ubuntu release was fraught with problems, my first week with Ubuntu confirmed that for me...
Just the other day on
So this comparitive test does not really lend Ubuntu an unfair advantage, if it were done with Hardy a bit matured one would be able to say that...
I'd Replace CentOS with Linux Mint. There are only two Deb based distros in this lineup (kick me if I am wrong...) and no Debian?
If they include CentOS and RHEL, surely Debian could have made a bow... or is that too advanced for your average Linux Desktop?
Uh... I don't get it. Are you referring to the Chess player?
Yeah when one reads of Robotic surgery the picture of an actual robot operating on a person comes to mind.
...in Soviet Russia, we asimilate BORG!
If that were the case, I would worry that our future robotic adversaries does, in fact, have detailed knowledge of how we work.
But for now the borg will have to wait - we are still in control.
You forgot to add Hairy Hardo... *cough* Hardy Heron to that list.
Disclosure: I am a bit of an Ubuntu fanboi ;) (please notice the wink *nudge-nudge*)
Right - One of my first distributions was also Suse - SLED and SLES - got it from the novell stands at Software Freedom Day here in South Africa.
I liked it, but because of some niggles I moved on.
1. I run on limited hardware, and Suse being a bit hardware intensive (my impression here) it was a bit slow - took four hours to install on my pc and five hours on my laptop. Not a fault on the Distro's part I am quick to point out.
2. Everything did not just work in my case, but I enjoy tinkering so that was not a big reason for movin on.
Currently I am using Ubuntu.
1. It contends better with my limited hardware. A clean install takes only about 40minutes to an hour. (Yes my computer/laptop is O_L_D!)
2. It "feels" more intuitive, but that is more personal taste than any real advantage over SUSE.
3. Shipit. This is a real advantage over other distributions. Being able to order a free disk of the latest version is a real plus.
Here are a few critiscisms of Ubuntu:
1. Heavy reliance on the internet to install anything from codecs to extra software.
2. DVD releases that in fact have extra software are not available as boxed sets is a disadvantage wrt boxed sets like Suse.
3 The color scheme - what the heck with the brown? Many distro's look much better - Suse, Linux Mint are just a few examples. Fedora looks great too.
One thing that gives Suse a great advantage is the effort that goes into the Enterprise Desktop package. It makes a lot of effort to be easy to integrate with an office environment - this naturally spills over to the Opensuse version.
I don't think Ubuntu is OVER hyped - it has many good points, and is really a leader in many aspects, just as Suse, PCLOS, Fedora, Mandriva and so on all have areas where they lead. What I really find exciting is that every distro has access to what it lacks and is available in another. Take PCLOS using Synaptic for instance.
THAT is what has handed the lead to Linux, and has placed Windows in second/Third place.
is linux not a work in progress?
Yes and no.
YES:
The Linux souce code/kernel is release on release improving, so it could be called a work in progress if you look at the bigger picture - You might draw a comparison by calling "Windows" a work in progress as in progress from 98 to 98se to ME to XP to Vista. Every Windows release has (supposedly - I am not an expert on that subject) a new kernel, architecture updates. Similarly the progress can be shown by comparing the progress from Edgy to Feisty to Gustry to Hardy.
NO:
Every release of the Kernel, and every full public release of a distribution is supposed to be a finished product (excluding testing, alpha and beta releases.) Hence Feisty was a finished product, and Gutsy was a finished product and Hardy upon release should be a finished product. Similarly Win98/98se should have been finished products, Me -> XP -> Vista should have been too.
GREY AREA:
Now, as to your comment quoted below;
isn't ALL software these days not a work in progress?
There is a gray area in the use of the term "work in progress" that lends some weight to your statement. It is difficult to determine how it is used in each scenario - by Mr Balmer and by you - language by nature can be very fluid, it is actually a beautiful thing but I digress...
Defining the term "work in progress" might go as follows:
To say a Linux release is a work in progress could be defined as I used above - but a detractor might say that the constant refining and bug fixes that takes place after release in the OS, and in any OS (a good example are Microsoft service packs), could point to a "work in progress" scenario. Did Steve Balmer use it this way? If he did, then he is essentially saying the following: Linux is essentially just as good and "desktop ready" as Windows Vista is.
However, the detractors of Linux desktop operating systems are continually saying "Linux is not desktop ready" hence it is still an unfinished work, and thus can be said to be a work in progress. Because this statement is used in a comparative sense with Windows operating systems it infers "Windows is desktop ready" and thus should be a finished work upon release. If it were the case that the term was used thusly it would be a bad thing for Mr Balmer to say that about his own product.
software design can respond to user experience and feedback, and move with the times.
Yes. That is quite correct - that is how it should be. However I contend that the five-year release cycle of Windows hinders this a bit. The service packs might smooth this over a bit, but as I see it response to user complaints - with the possible exception of security alerts - is almost non existent. Bear in mind that as a Linux user my view may be skewed - a lot. Would you think that if enough customers/Vista users complained that DRM is not wanted in Vista that Microsoft would issue a patch to completely remove it? I would think no. In fact when DRM is disabled by a third party "hack" Microsoft is quick to release a patch that disables said "hack", pointing out to me that the wishes of the customer does not come first.
Is Vista a work in progress? Okay - then define exactly where the "progress" is needed.
Was it desktop ready when released?
Was it user ready when released?
Was Microsoft satisfied that it was ready for release when it was released?
I contend that it was not completely desktop ready when released - this might in part be due to the slow reaction of third-party vendors to release drivers so let's set that aside.
I contend that it was not user ready when it was released - partly this is because users needed to "learn the software" before being able to use it properly. This is in part due to newer features, not a bad thing, and (arguably) questionable interface design decisions - lets strike that one because it is really a question open to debate in the end.
Did Microsoft think it was re
I am guesssing parent was one of the Chinese propagandists trying to tell us something.
/. we believe in a concept called freedom of speech. You might not be familiar with it.
Let me say this, friend, at
Now either fit in with the rest of the world - or hide behind your firewall.
Just don't try and form us into your vision of what the world should look like.
Ah - you see I did not actually know that. I see when I put two fingers on my trackpad I let the mouse cursor jump between them and end up where the last of the two fingers land.
Weeelll... I bet people who work with graphics applications could use this. But then again I don't see the Asus EEE being powerful enough to be any real use in the graphic application arena.
order to zoom. It would make more sense to hold one finger on the pad and stroke the pad with the other - but I am guessing multi-touch works in a similar way.
I wonder how hard it would be to actually write software that would allow multi-touch on any trackpad? On my trackpad tapping with three fingers works as middle-button would on a "proper" mouse, and tapping with two works like right-click, altough I prefer to use one of the corners.
Basically I think scrolling is easy to implement with a trackpad, a third button is harder - depending on your needs...
Yeah I don't know - probably I guess. But what you say is true - sacrifice the cow, and live a little longer. If they bundled MS office I guess that would be grounds for another monopoly investigation, but if they bundle a third party office suite - maybe even an inferior one with an "upgrade option" to MS office that would give them some wiggle room, and allow them to rake in the bucks in any case.
Oh. Wrong forum - so sorry...
jamincolins is correct, and to add to his argument: canonical bundles software that is actually useful to the end user. If MS really was serious about making life easy for the customer they would've bundled MS Office and a decent mailing client to name a few.
Anything and everything bundled with Ubuntu (using it as an example since Canonical was named) is actually useful to most PC users (there are a few apps that some will use and some not), AND all applications can be removed and replaced with something else. Let's look at web browsers as a for-instance: don't like firefox? Uninstall it and load something else, even IE should you wish to do so (it comes with wine) whereas I dare you to try and completely remove IE from a windows installation. You just can't.
The way I see it Canonical makes it as easy as possible for developers of open and proprietary software to add/install their products to a Ubuntu installation.
No way MS does that.
Disclaimer - I do not work for this company, but I have used this software package(s) extensively.
Softline Pastel.
It is an accounting software, so he will be able to do accounting of everything that has gone through the books, includes a payroll package, tax package and among even more other things: support for P.O.S (Point Of Sale)
What Pastel allows you to do wit P.O.S is:
Every Transaction gets recorded real time.
Operates P.O.S drawer.
Your Accountant can access what sales are in your P.O.S remotely (via lan, or with an add on via web - IIRC on that last one)
Supports "cash up" end of day to a removable drive.
It runs on Windows unfortunately - if you are inclined to run other OS's. Has a server module and can run the server/client on the same machine - ideal for small business.
www.pastel.co.za
Apologies for the spammy post everybody - like I said I am not employed by them, but it is a good piece of software with support for international currencies/tax etc.
I wrote that part from memory. I read all about the XB70 as a kid, so I was fuzzy on the details... thanks for the correction...