This is more true than most people realize. Many companies/subdivisions decide on one or two hardware choices (eg. HP G6 BL460C servers) . Redhat can't possibly test every combination of H/W with their S/W. So only a fool would put full trust in them...
After nearly 19 years of near exclusively using Linux, I'm finally giving up on it. Why? Chronic and ongoing problems with:
- Sound
- Video
- Wifi
- Power mgmt (suspend/hibernate/battery life)
- Hardware support in general
- Endless application problems (eg. no iTunes)
- A million applications that only partially work.
And all the distributions seem to be going sideways instead of forward.
Do yourself a favor, just go with Mac or Windows and run Linux in Virtualbox.
As much as I use (and like) Chrome, I can't use it for online purchases!
For that I use Firefox. Chrome 9 (on Ubuntu 10.10)
seems to get confused about half the time.
Er, so the horizontal real estate required remains unchanged?
(close X and window title is still there)
I could see this being useful if the change was to dynamically unhide the
window bar, since we're all being forced into widescreen displays,
but as is, it comes of as a "solution in search of a problem"...
The kernel is probably the smallest change.
It's all the library versions, gnome/kde,
and renamed dependencies. Most of the changes
seem to be GUI related...
The wheel is obvious, in hindsight. Look, i4i managed to convince MS that the idea was good enough to include in Word. But apparently
the idea was not obvious enough that MS thought of it first, independently. In short, theft.
To further clarify, if you need to "draw" advanced features such as antialiased lines/shapes, Tkpath is required.
Otherwise, simple shapes, images and widgets work well in the standard canvas.
For shaped toplevels ala skinned interfaces, see
shaped windows
The choice of OS really depends on what business the 20 person company is involved in.
If it is marketing related, Windows will probably be mandated because "it looks nicer".
However, Windows comes with hidden costs in the form of viruses, botnets and EOL pressures.
Those who installed Mythbuntu learned first hand of the issues with Reiser. The high throughput of myth recording (2gig per hour) exercised bugs that most regular users would never see.
In my case my capacity disappeared slowly over the space of a month or so until my empty disk was full!
So the "most users find it great" endorsement just doesn't mean much anymore.
Really, I hope that Ubuntu has learned by now that ext3 has been hugely tested, in virtually every concievable combination.
Presumably, one puts a binary on their system
because they intend to execute it.
In fact one mainly uses ldd after executing a program,
and getting a missing library message.
If ldd was a virus scanner, this would be a big deal.
But come on, accepting a binary from an untrusted source
onto your system is asking for it, even if ldd didn't do this.
The vast majority of all desktop computers out there
are x86. The vast majority of Linux desktops, ditto.
That said, currently we can't even easily produce binaries that
run on multiple distributions for just the x86.
Generally speaking, unlike Windows/OSX, you can not just get "the Linux Desktop Version"
of a program.
There is no Linux desktop. There is a plethora of them.
For better or worse,
the issues and complexity that arise from this plurality are
due to the lack of central management and control.
I find these glowing reviews of Windows 7 to be, on the whole,
quite humorous. After all,
this is a continuation of the decades old MS tradition of tailoring
software to maximize the demo impact. Specifically, a users
first 5-15 minutes is the most important.
First impressions and all that rot.
Eye candy certainly plays a part in this, but it's more the
subtle hint that the software can do "a lot more than your seeing"
that's important. After all, when it comes to software marketing,
implied functionality is far more important than actual functionality.
But at the end of the day, what are we really looking at.
It looks nicer! For most users, that's about it.
Not to detract from their success. This is a serious psychological
coup to pull off.
Slashdot Mirror
This is more true than most people realize. Many companies/subdivisions decide on one or two hardware
choices (eg. HP G6 BL460C servers) . Redhat can't possibly test every combination of H/W with their
S/W. So only a fool would put full trust in them...
After nearly 19 years of near exclusively using Linux, I'm finally giving up on it. Why?
Chronic and ongoing problems with:
- Sound
- Video
- Wifi
- Power mgmt (suspend/hibernate/battery life)
- Hardware support in general
- Endless application problems (eg. no iTunes)
- A million applications that only partially work.
And all the distributions seem to be going sideways instead of forward.
Do yourself a favor, just go with Mac or Windows and run Linux in Virtualbox.
All true, if detected. Viruses that can evade detection are more likely to attain longevity.
Rhetoric reducing link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cubic_mile_of_oil
Maybe they didn't want to be accused of having their heads stuck in the clouds.
Yes, and claiming they can increase revenue from cracking down on China software pirates is a clear sign of how desperate Balmer has become...
You misunderstand, CMO is used to show energy equivalences. Wind doesn't blow all the time (unlike the hot air on slashdot)...
Lets just face it, not being able to watch a video in the browser and having to open a separate application is just a pain in the butt,
The converse is worse: being forced to use a browser to watch videos, especially via, flash is a pain.
The analogy doesn't hold: a waitress gets paid...
As much as I use (and like) Chrome, I can't use it for online purchases! For that I use Firefox. Chrome 9 (on Ubuntu 10.10) seems to get confused about half the time.
How about the all to common problem of deleted pages leaving a litany of broken links in other wikipedia pages.
I could see this being useful if the change was to dynamically unhide the window bar, since we're all being forced into widescreen displays, but as is, it comes of as a "solution in search of a problem"...
The kernel is probably the smallest change. It's all the library versions, gnome/kde, and renamed dependencies. Most of the changes seem to be GUI related...
The wheel is obvious, in hindsight. Look, i4i managed to convince MS that the idea was good enough to include in Word. But apparently the idea was not obvious enough that MS thought of it first, independently. In short, theft.
Really, these may all be just Ubuntu issues, but kde does not really seem viable to Ubuntu users.
For shaped toplevels ala skinned interfaces, see shaped windows
Beyond basic Tcl/Tk, you might look at Wize, which includes 3 canvas options:
Wize is under BSD licence, has minimal dependencies and offers pre-builts for Linux-i386 and Windows.
Disclaimer: I am a Wize developer
However, Windows comes with hidden costs in the form of viruses, botnets and EOL pressures.
Linux makes sense where "function" trumps "form"
http://www.sqlite.org/cvstrac/wiki?p=ExperimentalMailUserAgent
Those who installed Mythbuntu learned first hand of the issues with Reiser.
The high throughput of myth recording (2gig per hour) exercised bugs
that most regular users would never see.
In my case my capacity disappeared slowly over the space of
a month or so until my empty disk was full!
So the "most users find it great" endorsement just doesn't mean much anymore.
Really, I hope that Ubuntu has learned by now that ext3 has been hugely
tested, in virtually every concievable combination.
9/11 is simply the result of a well organized terrorist group
recognizing:
- Planes are really flying bombs.
- The open cockpit-door policy.
Most other kneejerk "security enhancements" are simply
various power groups capitalizing on 9/11 to advance their
own agendas.
Yeah their licensing terms could change,...
Did you ever consider that maybe this is googles goal? Just the treat of VP8 could be enough to force h.264 to change to a less restrictive licence...
Presumably, one puts a binary on their system because they intend to execute it. In fact one mainly uses ldd after executing a program, and getting a missing library message.
If ldd was a virus scanner, this would be a big deal. But come on, accepting a binary from an untrusted source onto your system is asking for it, even if ldd didn't do this.
The vast majority of all desktop computers out there are x86. The vast majority of Linux desktops, ditto.
That said, currently we can't even easily produce binaries that run on multiple distributions for just the x86 .
Generally speaking, unlike Windows/OSX, you can not just get "the Linux Desktop Version" of a program. There is no Linux desktop. There is a plethora of them. For better or worse, the issues and complexity that arise from this plurality are due to the lack of central management and control.
I find these glowing reviews of Windows 7 to be, on the whole, quite humorous. After all, this is a continuation of the decades old MS tradition of tailoring software to maximize the demo impact. Specifically, a users first 5-15 minutes is the most important. First impressions and all that rot.
Eye candy certainly plays a part in this, but it's more the subtle hint that the software can do "a lot more than your seeing" that's important. After all, when it comes to software marketing, implied functionality is far more important than actual functionality.
But at the end of the day, what are we really looking at. It looks nicer! For most users, that's about it.
Not to detract from their success. This is a serious psychological coup to pull off.