It has been one year and four days since X.Org 7.3 was released and a number of months since X.Org 7.4 was supposed to be released, but today X.Org 7.4 is scheduled to finally make it out the door! This release is shipping quite late and with a slimmed down set of features, but in this article we have more details on what this release holds in store for the Linux desktop community and why it may be a short-lived release.
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Member since:2005-06-30
Well, maybe they're not getting it, but you don't seem to get something else: most people just want something that works. They couldn't care less of the development process of their software, they just want to use their computer. It's not because the source is available that you have the time, the will and/or the technical expertise to fix it.
It will only get worse as more people are adopting free software. If the developers can't handle it, perhaps they should stop bragging their environment as a suitable alternative for everyone to proprietary environments, where these companies do cope with whining because it's their bread and butter.
Member since:2005-07-24
What it really comes down to is this inconsistent, and unfortunately common, viewpoint:
"We want and fully expect world domination. And if they don't come flocking to us then, well, they're just stupid. And if anyone criticizes our products or methods then, well, they're just lazy whiners."
Edited 2008-09-12 07:18 UTC
Member since:2005-11-11
Yes most people want something that just works. Most people also want to be rich. Do they get it by whining or do they get it by working hard? It doesn't matter what you say about people "not caring". It still doesn't change anything. I can "not care" about how cars work but that doesn't mean I'm allowed to drive in one until I have a drivers license. They can "not care" all they want, that doesn't mean their demands are reasonable.
Heck, I can even say that I don't care who you are or whether you are a programmer, and that I expect you to deliver a full desktop environment to me within 6 months, for free. Will you listen to me if I said that? If not, then how can you possibly expect others to listen to you? Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.
Why are you complaining to the free workers? Complain to the paid vendors, i.e. RedHat, Canonical, etc. from whom you have bought a support contract. They are the commercial companies here. If you want to complain like a customer, complain to the vendors.
You take open source for granted. You expect more and more free work from open source developers, and if anything isn't to your liking, you flame them. Why are you wasting your time doing all this? Is it because you don't want to pay for a proprietary system? Heck, even most actual users aren't that ungrateful. They usually say something along the lines of
"hey could you implement this and that? that would be awesome. but I understand that you have your own life and that you're probably busy, so if you can't or can't do it immediately then that's cool"
And surprise - developers usually listen to these people. For some reason, you, and many other OSNewsers and Slashdotters, feel the need to act ungrateful, and when developers don't listen to you, you blame them. Hello, what happened to simple social skills?
I'm not arguing about the merits of open source. I'm talking about your attitude to people.
Edited 2008-09-12 08:03 UTC
"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:
2005-11-11
Uhm no. You didn't read the rest of my comment.
It doesn't matter how much you whine about "standard response". Whining doesn't get you anywhere. America isn't built by people who whine. Democracy isn't formed by people who whine. Software isn't made by people who whine. Problems aren't fixed by people who whine.
It's by people who do.
It has got nothing to do with being exempt from criticism or not. Whining isn't going to solve it, regardless of whether it's exempt from criticism. You aren't solving the problem.
I've seen this happening over and over in many places. People complain, whine. And a year later, nothing changed and the problem still exist. Why? Because whining and complaining is all that people have done - nobody actually stepped forward and fixed the problem. People who say "Typical standard FOSS response" aren't getting it. I'm criticizing you for not doing anything useful, not for criticizing.
Edited 2008-09-11 18:00 UTC