"It may be a brave opinion but I predict that Ubuntu Linux and Windows Vista are going to be the two operating systems that will take over the largest chunk of the desktop OS market during the next couple of years. This comparison is based on my experience with both systems during the last couple of weeks on two different computers."
To view parent comment, click here.
To read all comments associated with this story, please click here.
Member since:2006-09-01
Canonical broke the vesa framebuffer in 7.10. Luckily I'm not the first one to have noticed this, so there was a thread about it in the forums. I'm starting to get the impression that Canonical doesn't build on releases. They seem to start out at square zero then see how far they can get on each release.
I don't think many reviewers live with the system for a long time. I suspect that most of them just install a OS under a VM, like VMware or VirtualBox, then write a review after playing with it for five minutes.
I think tech-journalism needs to have more long term reviews of OSes. Living with them day in and out on real hardware brings up a lot more faults. The high level fly-bys that pass as in dept reviews are just crap, and they do nothing for those of use who actually want to further our understanding of the OS.
Member since:2007-03-01
A few command line related observations:
1) as someone already mentioned the command line is the easiest howto you can give, because you don't have to explain anything to a user about complex work that they have to do. Compare a windows howto to an ubuntu howto. Simple networking howtos on windows are pages long, filled with dozens of screenshots of config windows that all looks almost identical. A Linux howto is generally one page culminating in a few CLI commands with instructions "Open a console, and copy-paste" Can it get much simpler or more straightforward then copy-paste?
2. While people have already brought up the cli vs regedit argument, I prefer to reference the mac os 10.5. In a post earlier this week in the "mac osx10.5 is the new vista, the "3d" dock issue was brought up by many people. This was quickly trivialized by mac users with a simple fix:
"To make dock 2D go to terminal and type the following:
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean YES
killall Dock
To make dock 3D
defaults write com.apple.dock no-glass -boolean NO
killall Dock
Granted it should be a preference item, but why does everyone whine so much about this?"
So apparently, it's no big deal to use the CLI is MacOS when setting "Power User" settings, but in Linux using the CLI for anything is immediately viewed as absurd. It's somewhat hypocritical, in that the mac cli, which is just a UNIX cli anyways, is seen as a feature that makes OSX more useful, flexible, and powerful, but the linux cli gets such a bad rap.
Edited 2007-12-05 19:31
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently.
"In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies.
"The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing."The Verge has learned that HTC's Chief Product Officer, Kouji Kodera, left the company last week. Kodera was responsible for HTC's overall product strategy, which makes the departure especially notable on the heels of the global launch of the make-or-break One. It's not just Kodera. In the past three-odd months, HTC has lost a number of employees in rapid succession." I really hope HTC pulls it together.
"It is with huge pleasure that the Debian GNU/Hurd team announces the release of Debian GNU/Hurd 2013. This is a snapshot of Debian 'sid' at the time of the Debian 'wheezy' release (May 2013), so it is mostly based on the same sources. It is not an official Debian release, but it is an official Debian GNU/Hurd port release." Important note: 75% of Debian packages are supported bu Debian GNU/Hurd. Impressive.
"The first killer app was VisiCalc. This early spreadsheet turned the Apple II from a hobbyist toy to a business computer. VisiCalc came with room for improvement, though. In addition, a new architecture and operating system, the Intel-based IBM PC and MS-DOS, also needed a spreadsheet to be taken seriously. That spreadsheet, released in early 1983, would be Lotus 1-2-3, and it would change the world. It became the PC's killer app, and the world would never be the same. On May 14, IBM quietly announced the end of the road for 1-2-3, along with Lotus Organizer and the Lotus SmartSuite office suite. Lotus 1-2-3's day is done." Impressive 30 year run."There's a disconnect between how Apple CEO Tim Cook sees his company's tax strategies and how some members of the US Senate view it. That became clearer than ever today after Cook and two other Apple executives testified before Congress, explaining why they're holding most of their international income in Irish subsidiaries like Apple Operations International, which declare no tax residency anywhere in the world. AOI hasn't filed a tax return anywhere in the world for the last five years, yet it earned $30 billion in income from 2009 to 2012, according to a Senate report released yesterday." Just because something is legal, doesn't mean it's just. Apple, Google, Microsoft, and many more - these companies might not be breaking any laws, but it's obvious to anyone that what they are doing is scummy.
Member since:
2006-06-15
Give examples
- using a Wacom tablet now requires to edit xorg.conf;
- screen rotation (for LCD with panning support) still needs you to edit xorg.conf, then you can install the gnome applet and it will work;
- as usual, if you want to input any language using scim (Chinese, Korean, Japanese, etc...) but you're in an "occidental" locale, you also have to edit some files in addition to using System>Language settings. It's been like that since they broke it from Hoary to Breezy, and even though there's long and documented bug reports in Launchpad, nobody cared about it, except the users - I did set up a wiki to help people like me, but you still have to DIY (see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SCIM).
I love Ubuntu, but these problem have been going on for *years*, have been documented by users, bug report filled and solvable by main devs whenever they'd like to solve them.
However, Ubuntu release notes *never* pointed them, even when they were definite regression and would mess user's system (especially the whole scim fiasco). Reviews (even OSNews reviews) don't talk about them either, even though one is a showstopper (scim) for many people, and one a serious issue (wacom).
Edited 2007-12-04 21:39