* Posts by Beard

8 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Aug 2008

Gnome answers Linux critics with 'big' vision plan

Beard
Alert

Sceptical

Hmmm. Like BlueGreen, I appreciate that there is more to GNOME than just the user interface, but *I like the fact that the interface doesn't change*.

Though I am a Linux advocate, I am not shy about how much I like XP, which is a lot. It made small but significant improvements on NT 4, 2000 and 98. Vista on the other hand, made the turbofail of a very large interface change. I'm not talking about the fancy 3doodahs, which I can do with GNOME 2, but basic layouts, the Start Menu and so on.

I am perfectly happy with GNOME 2. Granted, it could do with pushing its APIs a bit more, to encourage greater levels of interaction with non-GNOME apps, but it works the way I want - no surprises. I used Vista for about a year before switching back to XP and throughout that whole time, I was still being frustrated at every turn. But now, no work is to be done on a version of Windows where I can enforce the XP interface, so I am forced (if I want to continue to use Windows), either to use Windows 7's further messed up interface, or gradually fall further and further behind in consumer hardware support and MS software technologies (Dx11).

Many people have left KDE because of those reasons (albeit to a lesser extent). If GNOME goes that way and totally abandons the GNOME 2 interface, we could see a radical takeover of another desktop environment. Must go and check out how the new Enlightenment is coming on...

Open-sourcers get with the git

Beard

What he said

I agree with confused's post. My knowledge of programming came on in leaps and bounds when other people *were* looking at my code all the time. The way to save embarressment as a programmer is to be better at it, not to hide your code until it gets rushed through, or you have spent way, way too long getting it right before committing it to your archive.

Beard

Why not CVS?

Hi,

Would someone be able to point me in the direction of discussion on *why* cvs and SubVersion are so awful?

Certainly the idea of this distributed control system doesn't wash with me. The *good* thing about centralised source code stores is that everyone can see everyone elses code all the time. It may be that an authoritarian corporate regime can mismanage that and retain too tight a control of the code, but that's a corporate problem, not a software one. Besides, a company with that attitude wouldn't use a distributed system anyway, on the basis that it doesn't retain enough control of the code.

Having only ever really had much experience with SourceSafe, and that almost ten years ago, I would like to know what this is all about.

C dominated 2008's open-source project nursery

Beard

C

I bemoan the lack of definition regarding C and its offspring.

C has always somehow made a lot more sense to me than C++, and it would be good to see how many new projects are using actual C. You've got your memory and your instructions all wrapped up in some nice meaningful words - why would you need more than that?

I have also just recently discovered the joys of Haskell and Lisp. It would be nice to see Haskell get a boost.

Rather suprising how little Python there is in their survey.

Jaunty Jackalope alpha 3 spotted in wild

Beard
Thumb Down

nVidia Problems

For the last three Ubuntu releases, I've found that when I install the proprietary nVidia driver, it stops automatic recognition of the capabilities of my monitors. Even then, if I load the nVidia control centre application from the Administration menu, it doesn't try to run as root by default, so I can't save the config file it generates. It's so frustrating. To me, that's a small fix to make, but to someone else, that means you can't get X working at full resolution and decent refresh rate, without manually changing it each time you log on.

Lame, lame, lame. Small problems like this are a far greater barrier to Linux uptake than not having Photoshop or many native games.

First Windows 7 beta puts fresh face on Vista

Beard
Boffin

Blah, blah, blah

When was the last time Joe User really had any comprehension of the underlying upgrades to a core OS? I'll tell you when - between ME and XP. That's the only time a normal everyday user could point out something that was fundamentally different, other than the GUI and applications.

So, bearing that in mind, the problems that people have had with Vista have _mostly_ been related to UI decisions and app decisions, not the architecture of Vista.

Now, it is perfectly possible to retain many of the bits you liked about XP/2000, on a Vista system, although it demands a lot of effort. That is the main problem - MS simply couldn't give a crap about its long-established users. Where the market for desktop OSs has really taken off is in the world of non-geeks. They've never really had to get that used to XP's interface.

Personally, I like XP's interface. It is less cluttered, more uniform and less 'swirly' than Vista's. I also vastly (and I mean vaaaaaaaastly) prefer the XP Explorer. Yeah, the networking dialogues were crap too, but none of that really impacts on the stability or usability of the core OS.

I downgraded from Vista to XP on a machine that came with Vista, because I didn't like the interface. That's it. All my other problems came from hardware that I'm too skint to upgrade, but which have actually been obsolete for several years anyway. Tough shit for me.

The way to get around this is to use a heavily modified Windows Server platform and coerce it into doing whatever you want. Server's interface hasn't changed that radically from XP, and you can definitely mod it quite a bit.

Microsoft's main failing is in not understanding that by having such an inflexible attitude to the Windows UI, it creates a vast opposition propaganda machine. That is very important not in home desktop territory (where most users are clueless / want the latest thing), but in conservative businessland, where customers want stability and continuity.

Really, the main benefits for most OS users have always been the trimmings. We don't understand enough about OS architecture to know any better. The MS problem is that most people have all the trimmings they want, particularly when it costs SUCH A SODDING HUGE AMOUNT OF MONEY.

Anyways... more when I get the beta.

Wi-Fi: You old new smoothie?

Beard
IT Angle

Really a lot of scope in Wi-Fi

This guy may well be right about a lack of corporate uptake in this area, but really, the possibility for local wireless communications may not be best geared towards a traditional business, no matter its technological credentials.

I see the most exciting possibilities for wireless networking as being in taking very local communications out of central servers and skipping the government / corporation step altogether.

Imagine your phone or whatever walking about a city, in a soup of roving nodes, getting local (as in shop, not as in host) data from those nodes, passing it about, be it phone calls or web pages or whatever. Bandwidth-sharing as a philosophy might not rub with many people, but the cost benefits would be fantastic, particularly to private individuals in leisure time, and business types in a large business centre like Canary Wharf.

Furthermore, there have been several high-profile stories in the wider media recently regarding government and corporate snooping - BitTorrent monitoring, Phorm, ID databases, etc. I think many people will begin to see the benefits in allowing less of this information to pass through machines in companies and governments.

But facilitating a work-around of the corporation is hardly something the corporation will push. There *is* space in hardware and technical level software for an organised enthusiasts' group to push decentralised communications in this way. This is how we have come to mass BitTorrent usage after all.

OpenGL 3.1 promise follows gamer revolt

Beard
Unhappy

Fork

Why can't they fork it? If you've got two totally different industries wanting different things, why not have two different libraries? Why?

Can none of these chumps see the damage this does to Microsoft-independent game development?