"Is Ubuntu an operating system? Last week at EuroOSCON, Mark Shuttleworth gave the closing keynote outlining what he believes are the major struggles faced by the open-source/free-software community. During his talk, it became clear that Ubuntu is trying to achieve a radical shift in the software world. Ubuntu isn't trying to be a platform for mass-market application software: it is trying to be the primary provider of both the operating system and all the application software that a typical user would want to run on his machine. Most Linux distributions are like this, and I think it is a dangerous trend that will stifle innovation and usability."
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Member since:2006-04-21
I've only ever had dependency problems with rpm-based distros. I'm not too hot on them for that reason. I do use and like SuSE, but I keep to the software they have available. I've only got 80Gb on the disk I use in that machine anyway.
Sorry, but I don't accept that "for truly independent software companies it is bad news". If you work on Windows you are at the mercy of Microsoft. Apple may be better than this, but considering they control their architecture even more tightly than MS, I doubt it. The number of software companies that have been double-crossed by MS is legion. Allowing them to get into software like office suites and so on when they already have a monopoly on OSes was a big mistake, in my opinion.
Member since:2005-10-18
If you work on Windows you are at the mercy of Microsoft.
How so? The evil MS will post factum change code in Windows XP, 2000 and 98SE specifically so that your desktop app doesn't work? :-) No, that's not the message they want to send about their OS. On the contrary, they encourage development and proliferation of 3rd party software and make sure it works. And supporting all even relatively modern Linux distro versions out there is surely ten times more difficult that supporting the three or four major versions of Windows.
Edited 2006-10-06 07:55
Member since:2005-11-14
Because it's an extra barrier to entry for independants : costs rise per distro you choose to support. Alternatively you could rely on the distro itself to package as you point out, leaving you at the whim of a third party. Perhaps they prefer another package and work on that while delaying the release of your software. Either way for truely independant software companies it is bad news
Either way it is bad news for your credibility, as what you describe poses no problem to ISV on Unix platforms.
But strangely enough, it is a problem on Linux.
Well on OsX you can be certain you have a broad set of basic software available, so it's not as much of a problem as you think
It's still a big problem. I'd say Linux has even more basic and not basic software, with 15000+ software in repositories.
Not so on Linux even with the LSB, which is practically useless. Installed libraries and versions vary wildly
Which is not a problem at all, as major versions don't vary wildly.
And what if the user updated some library because another package wouldn't install otherwise and now your package won't install (aka welcome to dependancy hell) ? Having multiple version of the same library installed is a frequent occurance even on Linux
The second sentence is the answer to the first question. That's multiple major versions of course. Actually, it's not frequent at all.
Except if you use lots of proprietary stuff, which are never as well supported as FOSS stuff, and always fall behind.
When Nero got out on Linux, it was already worse than nearly anything on my PC (especially K3B). I tried to install it this year to see the difference : it was a pain, I needed very old libraries, and when I made it work, it didn't even detect anything. K3B is far better since then.
Most of the time, the problem with ISV software on Linux is that it's not supported after launch. So stop the BS about problems of installation, this is not the truth at all.
Software repositories are a hack to work around one of the central problems in Linux and they leave independants in the cold
That's BS. Independants are those that leave Linux in the cold. Look at NX software for an example of a good software vendor on Linux.
Now look at Nero, or even Macromedia for very lousy ones. Those are the most common ones. Even Real didn't work without an old gcc (3.3) library (I didn't install the latest version yet, so I don't know if it's still the case).
Meanwhile, my Loki games still work and install without problem (most use OSS instead of ALSA for sound, but it's no problem).
Member since:2005-09-01
That's the main problem. All kinds of sotwares need active and laborous maintinence to be usable on linux few months from introduction. Keep in mind that a simple recompile in slightly different build environment completely voids all previous testing sessions. Paired with still miniscule linux desktop market share and an indifferent (at best) attitude from system vendors it reinforces the chicken and egg effect. The one that makes MS sleep well wrt client stuff.
"In NixOS, the entire operating system - the kernel, applications, system packages, configuration files, and so on - is built by the Nix package manager from a description in a purely functional build language. The fact that it's purely functional essentially means that building a new configuration cannot overwrite previous configurations. Most of the other features follow from this." Interesting approach. A Linux distribution, sure, but with some very refreshing ideas about system configuration.
Google added, among other features, C/C++ support to its new version of AIDE. From Android-IDE, "Now you can write parts of your app or your whole app in C/C++ on your device. AIDE supports the Standard Android NDK toolchain (GCC 4.6 + Bionic, STL, ...). No changes are necessary if you want to build an app developed on a PC with Eclipse. C/C++ development is fully integrated: Build errors appear in the error list and files can easily be navigated to with Go to file. The editor supports C/C++ syntax highlighting."
Ars nails it: "The answer is that Google did announce what amounts to a fairly substantial Android update yesterday. They simply did it without adding to the update fragmentation problems that continue to plague the platform. By focusing on these changes and not the apparently-waiting-in-the-wings update to the core software, Google is showing us one of the ways in which it's trying to fix the update problem."
"It is good for programmers to understand what goes on inside a processor. The CPU is at the heart of our career. What goes on inside the CPU? How long does it take for one instruction to run? What does it mean when a new CPU has a 12-stage pipeline, or 18-stage pipeline, or even a 'deep' 31-stage pipeline? Programs generally treat the CPU as a black box. Instructions go into the box in order, instructions come out of the box in order, and some processing magic happens inside. As a programmer, it is useful to learn what happens inside the box. This is especially true if you will be working on tasks like program optimization. If you don't know what is going on inside the CPU, how can you optimize for it? This article is about what goes on inside the x86 processor's deep pipeline."
"It was the only moment I heard regret slip into Otellini's voice during the several hours of conversations I had with him. 'The lesson I took away from that was, while we like to speak with data around here, so many times in my career I've ended up making decisions with my gut, and I should have followed my gut,' he said. 'My gut told me to say yes.'" The world would've been a much different place - Apple would have been less dependant on Samsung for its chips, which probably would've meant less money for Samsung to develop its Galaxy business.Glass is getting some love at Google I/O as well. New applications have been released - Facebook, Twitter, Evernote, Elle, Tumblr, and CNN. Perhaps more interesting: the newly announced Google Glass Developer Kit will allow offline applications and direct hardware access - great for hacking and expanding Glass' potential. This kit will really allow hackers to put Glass through its paces.
"But Beck and Merrill decided that simply banning toxic players wasn't an acceptable solution for their game. Riot Games began experimenting with more constructive modes of player management through a formal player behavior initiative that actually conducts controlled experiments on its player base to see what helps reduce bad behavior. The results of that initiative have been shared at a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and on panels at the Penny Arcade Expo East and the Game Developers Conference." Absolutely fascinating stuff. I'm a League of Legends player, and to be honest, the community isn't nearly as bad as some make it out to be. I'm happy Riot games has the guts to employ science to address the issue.
"Android and iOS, the number one and number two ranked smartphone operating systems worldwide, combined for 92.3% of all smartphone shipments during the first quarter of 2013 as Windows Phone crept past BlackBerry for 3rd place. According to the International Data Corporation Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker, Android smartphone vendors and Apple shipped a total of 199.5 million units worldwide during 1Q13, up 59.1% from the 125.4 million units shipped during 1Q12." Windows Phone doubles from a few to twice few, iOS loser market share as its growth is slower than that of the overall market. BlackBerry continues slide into irrelevance."According to the latest research from our Wireless Smartphone Strategies service, global Android smartphone profits reached US$5 billion in total during the first quarter of 2013. Samsung dominated and captured an impressive 95 percent share of all Android smartphone profits." Wow."During its Keynote today, Google announced new features coming to its flagship search function - you know, that thing we all started using Google for. VP Amit Singhal spent some time discussing what Google's search functionality will eventually morph into. Google's strategy is summarized by three words: answer, converse, and anticipate. Singhal explained that many of the pieces of these upcoming changes can already be seen in products that Google has recently introduced - namely, Google Knowledge Graph and Google Now, with perhaps a splash of Google Glass, too." I hold on to my hat every time Google changes Search. It's such a vital product in my daily life.
Member since:
2005-07-06
I don't see how it's "bad for business". And distros ship plenty of third-party stuff with their OSes: VMware is available as an ebuild from Gentoo, for example.
Because it's an extra barrier to entry for independants : costs rise per distro you choose to support. Alternatively you could rely on the distro itself to package as you point out, leaving you at the whim of a third party. Perhaps they prefer another package and work on that while delaying the release of your software (eg. a build of bochs available before vmware). Either way for truely independant software companies it is bad news.
As for MacOS-style app-bundles, don't they include everything the author put in to the app, even libraries which might otherwise be available? Who wants six copies of the same library?
Well on OsX you can be certain you have a broad set of basic software available, so it's not as much of a problem as you think. Not so on Linux even with the LSB, which is practically useless. Installed libraries and versions vary wildly.
And what if the user updated some library because another package wouldn't install otherwise and now your package won't install (aka welcome to dependancy hell) ? Having multiple version of the same library installed is a frequent occurance even on Linux.
Software repositories are a hack to work around one of the central problems in Linux and they leave independants in the cold.