Yes, we are moving into the realm of desktop environments and I have something to say.
Why isn't there a open source project to mimick the apple desktop. This could be based on Gnome.
Why do I say this? I've tried to migrate two non techy friends onto Linux. The one was old, the other was artistic.
They both came back screaming with frustration and asking to be put back on Windows ASAP. (I had used Ubuntu)
Their difficulties: the one couldn't comprehend the unix filesystem standard. And why should he?
I noticed that the apple file manager goes to great lengths to hide the unix filesystem underneath. It is actually quite a mission to get under the bonnet (for me a first timer on OSX).
Secondly, the example of Windows should be followed by using lots and lots of wizards. You could then say, the more wizards a distribution has the more powerful it is. I also think that the choices are way to many.
For the "dumb" users from Windows only the best software should be used, in a highly integrated manner. I think open source is made for this. Perhaps there should be a commercial venture to provide this though.
The problem in achieving this is I think one of the open source rules "respect other peoples ideas"
Okay. But if you are going to create a really fantastic highly integrated but easy to use system you are going to have to toss a lot out.
The complete antithesis to all this is KDE. Sorry, I don't mean to flame. I have just been using KDE the last few days and I am really tired of it already. The problem KDE presents is the enormous amount of choice. I have spent days configuring everything, and at this stage of my life (I'm 34) I think it is a huge waste of time. There are nice aspects of KDE, but it is so untidy, I can't wait to log into Gnome again.
South Africa isn't quite third world. It has a dual economy, which our government is doing its best to merge. Needless to say most of the pharmaceutical companies there have learnt to behave well. Some of them go out of their way to assist indigenous communities, especially if they have assisted in finding useful plants and that sort of thing.
Also, finding a soil bacteria that produces any antibiotic is not so simple. You have to take thousands and thousands of soil samples and eventually, if you are lucky, you might get one sample that is kinda useful.
As a South African, you can regard this as our gift to you, if you think that it is our gift.
We all live in the world, South Africans benefit from antibiotics found in other countries soils, so why shouldn't you benefit from stuff found in our soils.
The pharmaceuticals companies did the grunt here, so they deserve the payoff.
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, we are moving into the realm of desktop environments and I have something to say. Why isn't there a open source project to mimick the apple desktop. This could be based on Gnome. Why do I say this? I've tried to migrate two non techy friends onto Linux. The one was old, the other was artistic. They both came back screaming with frustration and asking to be put back on Windows ASAP. (I had used Ubuntu) Their difficulties: the one couldn't comprehend the unix filesystem standard. And why should he? I noticed that the apple file manager goes to great lengths to hide the unix filesystem underneath. It is actually quite a mission to get under the bonnet (for me a first timer on OSX). Secondly, the example of Windows should be followed by using lots and lots of wizards. You could then say, the more wizards a distribution has the more powerful it is. I also think that the choices are way to many. For the "dumb" users from Windows only the best software should be used, in a highly integrated manner. I think open source is made for this. Perhaps there should be a commercial venture to provide this though. The problem in achieving this is I think one of the open source rules "respect other peoples ideas" Okay. But if you are going to create a really fantastic highly integrated but easy to use system you are going to have to toss a lot out. The complete antithesis to all this is KDE. Sorry, I don't mean to flame. I have just been using KDE the last few days and I am really tired of it already. The problem KDE presents is the enormous amount of choice. I have spent days configuring everything, and at this stage of my life (I'm 34) I think it is a huge waste of time. There are nice aspects of KDE, but it is so untidy, I can't wait to log into Gnome again.
South Africa isn't quite third world. It has a dual economy, which our government is doing its best to merge. Needless to say most of the pharmaceutical companies there have learnt to behave well. Some of them go out of their way to assist indigenous communities, especially if they have assisted in finding useful plants and that sort of thing. Also, finding a soil bacteria that produces any antibiotic is not so simple. You have to take thousands and thousands of soil samples and eventually, if you are lucky, you might get one sample that is kinda useful. As a South African, you can regard this as our gift to you, if you think that it is our gift. We all live in the world, South Africans benefit from antibiotics found in other countries soils, so why shouldn't you benefit from stuff found in our soils. The pharmaceuticals companies did the grunt here, so they deserve the payoff.