Short answer is yes. It's just not a national brand. The problem with distributing pretty much anything to a country with 300,000,000 people is that quality usually suffers in the process. Most towns on the East coast with more than 50,000 people will have a small chocolate maker turning out very good chocolate.
So where's the outrage at Apple for caving to a foreign, repressive government's wishes to hinder the freedom of the country's citizens? I guess they never claimed they'd do no evil. Pretty lame though.
Lots of projects have their own repositories because they update at a higher frequency than the distro updates. For example, Spring has it's own repository. Once you add the repository via Synaptic (or whatever), it's packages are available and get updated right along with every other package. I'm guessing the Debian packages would include the screenshots, or have links to some place in a repository. No (good) reason 3rd party packagers wouldn't be able to do this.
Most Linux systems, on a basic level, are more secure by design. Simply running as a "Limited User" instead of as a full-blown Administrator has major effects on what can and can't be done as far as malware goes. Couple that with AppArmor or SeLinux, which limits the reach of almost any executable, and you're looking at a much more secure system from the get go.
Vista has caught up a bit, mostly by imitating the system that Unix, Linux, BSD and OSX have used for years now, but there are tons of windows users who turn UAC off because it's "annoying" or because some older software needs administrator access to do basic stuff.
Sure, no OS is perfect, and all can be broken into, but you're starting from a much better place with most GNU/Linux OSes.
Maybe because most people find installing an extension a lot less intimidating than monkeying with about:config?
still not have standard behaviour shared by every other web browser in existence when this had been how it was done for years is beyond me
Sounds like changephobic language to me - especially the "how it was done for years" part.
Personally, I love the "awesome bar" (though its name is a tad silly). I visit tons of websites, I can't always remember part of the url, and don't want my bookmarks all cluttered up. The "awesome bar" solves the problem. Regarding your "VERY strong case for why Awesomebar is about as awesome as week old garbage", make it if you can. Most of us don't really give a rats ass if people are seeing what websites we've visited when we're at the coffee shop. Honestly, I doubt all the people coming and going with their $4 cups of coffee really care to look. If I was visiting shady sites, I'd just use Distrust (but God forbid I have to install an extension)
Kernel bugs? Do fscked modules count? I haven't been able to burn or read a CD or DVD since the 2.6.24 kernel series came out. Something about naming IDE cd drives/dev/scd* compared to the old/dev/hd* that worked just fine for me. I know it's not just Ubuntu, since I had Mandriva installed on the same machine and still had the problem. I've got 2 machines with the exact same problem, and none of the workarounds I've seen have helped. It sucks to either have to wait another 4 months for the next Ubuntu release, have to transfer everything I need to burn to another computer, or compile my own kernel. (and if I wanted to do that, I'd still run Gentoo)
Speaking of YouTube, I record off of it all the time. There are a bunch of videos of musicians playing fiddle tunes, and I record them to help me learn the tune.
If it's just straight HTML, you might get away with just testing with Firefox or just testing with Konqueror. Anything beyond that, and they both have their quirks. ALL browsers have their quirks, it's just that the difference between IE and everything else is so huge, the other quirks aren't as noticeable.
I live in Central PA, and we've basically got a duopoly between Comcast and Verizon (and no FIOS, just DSL). There are a few smaller companies like D&E or Commonwealth Telephone that run DSL a few smaller suburban areas, but they only operate where Verizon doesn't. One company that I know of, PA Online, leases bandwidth from Verizon, so they're stuck hoping that their far better customer service is worth the extra $7/month that they have to tack on to Verizon's price. The big question is whether or not skipping the totally aggravating call that you have to make to Verizon every 2-3 years for service is worth the extra cost.
I've got an Nvidia 7300GT video card, and I'm running Kubuntu 7.10. Perhaps you know how to do a TwinView setup that:
1. Gives 1280x1024 on both monitors,
2. When I go to play a video game like Unreal Tournament or whatever, it switches over to only displaying on the left hand screen so my crosshair isn't right on the division between monitors.
3. When done playing the game, it switches back to dual screen mode automatically
I got #1 working, but haven't been able for the life of me to get 2 & 3 working on a Kubuntu system. I used to run Gentoo with an older Nvidia card, and had all 3 working just fine. Possibly, it's doable, but definitely not trivial
Linux is great, and I use it every day. I only boot into Windows every few months or so to see how Internut Exploiter 7 is breaking the website I'm working on. MOST things are really easy, but not all. Don't make it sound easier than it is - that doesn't help anyone.
How about Adept/Synaptic/other graphical package mangers?
You skip the going to the store or website altogether. I want this, this, and this, click install. Yeah, there are programs available on Sourceforge that can't be found in the package manager, but at least 99% of the time, the thing you're looking for is already packaged. No more Googling for an appropriate program to suit your needs, and all the packages are vetted and signed by the distro. No more "media player that's actually malware" for the clueless to worry about.
1) The multiple windows thing
I think this is the most often cited issue so I will list it first. GIMP opens multiple top-level windows which means that normal shortcuts and window navigation doesn't work. (Alt-tab on Windows -- apple-tab on Macs, etc.) The only way to use GIMP is to have multiple virtual desktops, which not everyone likes. The barrage of windows clutters the interface, and windows move around a lot because when you select new tools they resize or change. You can see through to the desktop which is distracting. I know at least on the Windows version, the keys that hide windows so you can get to your image don't really work right. Maybe my experience is skewed though because of the Windows and Mac ports. But IIRC, this same stuff happened on Linux.
Just checked on a Kubuntu Linux System. Alt+Tab cycles through each GIMP window and any other window on my desktop one at a time. Does that not work in the Windoze world, or is that your problem with the interface? I like it just fine.
Uh, has KMail gotten around to composing HTML Mail or making it easy to insert links yet? Last I heard, the developers seemed to have a philosophical thing against HTML for some reason. Yeah, most of my emails are plain text, but I do end up sending links to people quite often, and having to copy a plain text link out of an email client into a web browser is a lot slower than just clicking on a link. It's also nice to send and HTML email from time to time. If you prefer not to write HTML email, that's nice, but I take it as a limit on choice.
On the other hand, Thunderbird has an extension that allows you to directly edit the HTML. I've got other gripes with Thunderbird, but at least I have a choice in what kind of email to send.
One of my favorite things about Free software in general is that the programmers and the people who write the documentation don't feel like they have to keep this "professional" face on their work.
For example, you'll never find George W. Bush's face for the "unsharp filter" icon (Cinelerra) in a closed source program. That would indicate that the programmers were having fun, and that obviously makes the program of lower quality.
Personally, I think that if the developers are having fun, and are in a positive frame of mind, they'll make better software.
I have no real idea if this has any bearing on reality, but...
I'm wondering at what point MS will honestly start to interoperate. For Internet Explorer, they didn't start to make meaningful changes until they started losing market share to Firefox and Safari. Now, we're hearing about IE8 being honest to goodness standards compliant. (and they actually sound like they mean it - not holding my breath, but I remain hopeful)
Is the interoperability threshold 80% market share?
Whatever the number is, I don't expect to see any significant changes until MS starts losing customers. Given their resources, they should have been able to make a better browser in 2002, rather than now in 2008.
A friend of mine is from rural Kashmir (Pakistan side), where all the houses got trashed by the Earthquake in 2005. She's now studying in Cuba, and one of her first remarks about the place was that the economic is really dire. Coming from her, that's really saying something.
Anyway, this article is describing basically what we've done to exchange larger files. I had a friend who was visiting Canada send a book and a few CDs (not sure about DVD compatibility on Cuban computers) for a mere $12 Canadian. Took about 2 months to get there, but hey, it works.
I'm American, but I've spend quite a bit of time in Pakistan (mostly in rural Kashmir and a bit in Islamabad). People over there are very, very gung ho about getting their kids to learn to read. After the 2005 earthquake that flattened most of the homes in the area, the schools were one of the first things to be rebuilt. I got there in less than 2 months after the earthquake, and kids were already back in school. The system is a bit of a mess, and they have very little to work with as far as materials go, but they certainly are desperate to get educated.
Personally, I think we'd have a much better return on our investment if we took the money we're spending in Iraq and put it into building schools and providing learning materials in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. While we're at it, let's bring some of their young men and women over here to our colleges. Based on how many times I was asked about whether or not it's hard to go to school in the USA, I bet they'd jump at the chance.
The only time I saw a Qu'ran while I was over there was when I visited a Mosque. People there read pretty much the same sorts things we do.
What does the White House, et al. want with this? In the previous system, all you had to do was get a warrant to spy on somebody. There was a special court set up just to issue these warrants, and it was completely confidential. If they really, really had to spy on somebody right this very instant, they could, and just had to make sure that they touched base with the court in the next few hours. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
What does Bush want, other than to spy on everyone with no supervision whatsoever?
Oh, yeah, he wants us to not sue Verizon, AT&T, whoever. Well, sorry guys, you had a responsibility, as citizens of the USA, to tell the government no. I mean, WTF, corporations run this country anyway...
Blowing up politicians in a risk-free virtual world? I'm sure most folks would have a great time with this, nutjob or not. Especially if the skins corresponded with real politicians. Specter and Casey just rubber stamped this bill. I'd love a few pot shots at them.
Of course, that player who doesn't seem to be shooting back is really a spook. He's too busy with: "68.119.347.28 just bazookaed the president 117 times in a row - get me a wiretap on that guy"
You're quoting from 1 Corinthians, which is a letter from Paul to the members of the church of Corinth. Remember, the Bible is simply a collection of books and letters that a bunch of religious leaders - a few hundred years after all this was written - decided was useful to have together in one volume. It is NOT a unified work. Both Fundamentalist wackos and bible-bashers seem to always make the same mistake. As far as I'm concerned, Jesus had a lot of great things to say, and Paul was, as often as not, a certifiable nutjob. Feel free to ignore that guy. Read further on in 1 Corinthians, and you'll find: "Let your women be keeping silent in the assemblies, for it has not been permitted to them to be speaking, _but_ to be subjecting themselves, just as also the Law says. But if they desire to learn anything, let them be questioning their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful [or, shameful] [for] women to be speaking in an assembly."
Doing a quick search using GnomeSword, I found the following in 1 Timothy 6:10:
(Analytical-Literal Translation) For the love of money is a root of all evils, of which some by longing for [it] went astray [or, wandered away] from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
(English Standard Version) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
(King James Version) For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
(American Standard Version) For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Looks like it totally depends upon which version you read. (And GnomeSword is handy because you can view up to 5 texts side by side)
Slashdot Mirror
Short answer is yes. It's just not a national brand. The problem with distributing pretty much anything to a country with 300,000,000 people is that quality usually suffers in the process. Most towns on the East coast with more than 50,000 people will have a small chocolate maker turning out very good chocolate.
So where's the outrage at Apple for caving to a foreign, repressive government's wishes to hinder the freedom of the country's citizens? I guess they never claimed they'd do no evil. Pretty lame though.
Lots of projects have their own repositories because they update at a higher frequency than the distro updates. For example, Spring has it's own repository. Once you add the repository via Synaptic (or whatever), it's packages are available and get updated right along with every other package. I'm guessing the Debian packages would include the screenshots, or have links to some place in a repository. No (good) reason 3rd party packagers wouldn't be able to do this.
Working great here too. Now I can actually watch a full-screen HD video on Vimeo without the sound stuttering on me. Compiz running and everything.
You mean like the infamous butterfly ballot?
Most Linux systems, on a basic level, are more secure by design. Simply running as a "Limited User" instead of as a full-blown Administrator has major effects on what can and can't be done as far as malware goes. Couple that with AppArmor or SeLinux, which limits the reach of almost any executable, and you're looking at a much more secure system from the get go.
Vista has caught up a bit, mostly by imitating the system that Unix, Linux, BSD and OSX have used for years now, but there are tons of windows users who turn UAC off because it's "annoying" or because some older software needs administrator access to do basic stuff.
Sure, no OS is perfect, and all can be broken into, but you're starting from a much better place with most GNU/Linux OSes.
Maybe because most people find installing an extension a lot less intimidating than monkeying with about:config?
still not have standard behaviour shared by every other web browser in existence when this had been how it was done for years is beyond me
Sounds like changephobic language to me - especially the "how it was done for years" part.
Personally, I love the "awesome bar" (though its name is a tad silly). I visit tons of websites, I can't always remember part of the url, and don't want my bookmarks all cluttered up. The "awesome bar" solves the problem. Regarding your "VERY strong case for why Awesomebar is about as awesome as week old garbage", make it if you can. Most of us don't really give a rats ass if people are seeing what websites we've visited when we're at the coffee shop. Honestly, I doubt all the people coming and going with their $4 cups of coffee really care to look. If I was visiting shady sites, I'd just use Distrust (but God forbid I have to install an extension)
Kernel bugs? Do fscked modules count? I haven't been able to burn or read a CD or DVD since the 2.6.24 kernel series came out. Something about naming IDE cd drives /dev/scd* compared to the old /dev/hd* that worked just fine for me. I know it's not just Ubuntu, since I had Mandriva installed on the same machine and still had the problem. I've got 2 machines with the exact same problem, and none of the workarounds I've seen have helped. It sucks to either have to wait another 4 months for the next Ubuntu release, have to transfer everything I need to burn to another computer, or compile my own kernel. (and if I wanted to do that, I'd still run Gentoo)
Speaking of YouTube, I record off of it all the time. There are a bunch of videos of musicians playing fiddle tunes, and I record them to help me learn the tune.
Ubuntu Cola's flash based website
If it's just straight HTML, you might get away with just testing with Firefox or just testing with Konqueror. Anything beyond that, and they both have their quirks. ALL browsers have their quirks, it's just that the difference between IE and everything else is so huge, the other quirks aren't as noticeable.
I live in Central PA, and we've basically got a duopoly between Comcast and Verizon (and no FIOS, just DSL). There are a few smaller companies like D&E or Commonwealth Telephone that run DSL a few smaller suburban areas, but they only operate where Verizon doesn't. One company that I know of, PA Online, leases bandwidth from Verizon, so they're stuck hoping that their far better customer service is worth the extra $7/month that they have to tack on to Verizon's price. The big question is whether or not skipping the totally aggravating call that you have to make to Verizon every 2-3 years for service is worth the extra cost.
Yeah, no CMYK or 16 bit TIFF support. Supposedly, this will be changing soon. Otherwise, I'm perfectly happy with GIMP
I've got an Nvidia 7300GT video card, and I'm running Kubuntu 7.10. Perhaps you know how to do a TwinView setup that:
I got #1 working, but haven't been able for the life of me to get 2 & 3 working on a Kubuntu system. I used to run Gentoo with an older Nvidia card, and had all 3 working just fine. Possibly, it's doable, but definitely not trivial
Linux is great, and I use it every day. I only boot into Windows every few months or so to see how Internut Exploiter 7 is breaking the website I'm working on. MOST things are really easy, but not all. Don't make it sound easier than it is - that doesn't help anyone.
How about Adept/Synaptic/other graphical package mangers?
You skip the going to the store or website altogether. I want this, this, and this, click install. Yeah, there are programs available on Sourceforge that can't be found in the package manager, but at least 99% of the time, the thing you're looking for is already packaged. No more Googling for an appropriate program to suit your needs, and all the packages are vetted and signed by the distro. No more "media player that's actually malware" for the clueless to worry about.
Just checked on a Kubuntu Linux System. Alt+Tab cycles through each GIMP window and any other window on my desktop one at a time. Does that not work in the Windoze world, or is that your problem with the interface? I like it just fine.
Uh, has KMail gotten around to composing HTML Mail or making it easy to insert links yet? Last I heard, the developers seemed to have a philosophical thing against HTML for some reason. Yeah, most of my emails are plain text, but I do end up sending links to people quite often, and having to copy a plain text link out of an email client into a web browser is a lot slower than just clicking on a link. It's also nice to send and HTML email from time to time. If you prefer not to write HTML email, that's nice, but I take it as a limit on choice.
On the other hand, Thunderbird has an extension that allows you to directly edit the HTML. I've got other gripes with Thunderbird, but at least I have a choice in what kind of email to send.
One of my favorite things about Free software in general is that the programmers and the people who write the documentation don't feel like they have to keep this "professional" face on their work.
For example, you'll never find George W. Bush's face for the "unsharp filter" icon (Cinelerra) in a closed source program. That would indicate that the programmers were having fun, and that obviously makes the program of lower quality.
Personally, I think that if the developers are having fun, and are in a positive frame of mind, they'll make better software.
I have no real idea if this has any bearing on reality, but...
I'm wondering at what point MS will honestly start to interoperate. For Internet Explorer, they didn't start to make meaningful changes until they started losing market share to Firefox and Safari. Now, we're hearing about IE8 being honest to goodness standards compliant. (and they actually sound like they mean it - not holding my breath, but I remain hopeful)
Is the interoperability threshold 80% market share?
Whatever the number is, I don't expect to see any significant changes until MS starts losing customers. Given their resources, they should have been able to make a better browser in 2002, rather than now in 2008.
A friend of mine is from rural Kashmir (Pakistan side), where all the houses got trashed by the Earthquake in 2005. She's now studying in Cuba, and one of her first remarks about the place was that the economic is really dire. Coming from her, that's really saying something.
Anyway, this article is describing basically what we've done to exchange larger files. I had a friend who was visiting Canada send a book and a few CDs (not sure about DVD compatibility on Cuban computers) for a mere $12 Canadian. Took about 2 months to get there, but hey, it works.
I'm American, but I've spend quite a bit of time in Pakistan (mostly in rural Kashmir and a bit in Islamabad). People over there are very, very gung ho about getting their kids to learn to read. After the 2005 earthquake that flattened most of the homes in the area, the schools were one of the first things to be rebuilt. I got there in less than 2 months after the earthquake, and kids were already back in school. The system is a bit of a mess, and they have very little to work with as far as materials go, but they certainly are desperate to get educated.
Personally, I think we'd have a much better return on our investment if we took the money we're spending in Iraq and put it into building schools and providing learning materials in Pakistan, Iraq, Afghanistan, and Palestine. While we're at it, let's bring some of their young men and women over here to our colleges. Based on how many times I was asked about whether or not it's hard to go to school in the USA, I bet they'd jump at the chance.
The only time I saw a Qu'ran while I was over there was when I visited a Mosque. People there read pretty much the same sorts things we do.
What does the White House, et al. want with this? In the previous system, all you had to do was get a warrant to spy on somebody. There was a special court set up just to issue these warrants, and it was completely confidential. If they really, really had to spy on somebody right this very instant, they could, and just had to make sure that they touched base with the court in the next few hours. Seems pretty reasonable to me.
What does Bush want, other than to spy on everyone with no supervision whatsoever?
Oh, yeah, he wants us to not sue Verizon, AT&T, whoever. Well, sorry guys, you had a responsibility, as citizens of the USA, to tell the government no. I mean, WTF, corporations run this country anyway...
Blowing up politicians in a risk-free virtual world? I'm sure most folks would have a great time with this, nutjob or not. Especially if the skins corresponded with real politicians. Specter and Casey just rubber stamped this bill. I'd love a few pot shots at them.
Of course, that player who doesn't seem to be shooting back is really a spook. He's too busy with: "68.119.347.28 just bazookaed the president 117 times in a row - get me a wiretap on that guy"
You're quoting from 1 Corinthians, which is a letter from Paul to the members of the church of Corinth. Remember, the Bible is simply a collection of books and letters that a bunch of religious leaders - a few hundred years after all this was written - decided was useful to have together in one volume. It is NOT a unified work. Both Fundamentalist wackos and bible-bashers seem to always make the same mistake. As far as I'm concerned, Jesus had a lot of great things to say, and Paul was, as often as not, a certifiable nutjob. Feel free to ignore that guy. Read further on in 1 Corinthians, and you'll find:
"Let your women be keeping silent in the assemblies, for it has not been permitted to them to be speaking, _but_ to be subjecting themselves, just as also the Law says. But if they desire to learn anything, let them be questioning their own husbands at home, for it is disgraceful [or, shameful] [for] women to be speaking in an assembly."
Doing a quick search using GnomeSword, I found the following in 1 Timothy 6:10:
(Analytical-Literal Translation)
For the love of money is a root of all evils, of which some by longing for [it] went astray [or, wandered away] from the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
(English Standard Version)
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
(King James Version)
For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
(American Standard Version)
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil: which some reaching after have been led astray from the faith, and have pierced themselves through with many sorrows.
Looks like it totally depends upon which version you read. (And GnomeSword is handy because you can view up to 5 texts side by side)