Linked by Thom Holwerda on Sun 10th Oct 2010 14:17 UTC, submitted by Extend
Yes, yes, it's that time of the year again - a new Fiona Apple album confirmed (which makes anything that happens between now and spring 2011 irrelevant and annoying), MorphOS 2.6 released (will be the next news item), and, of course, a new Ubuntu release showcasing the best of the best that the Free software world has to offer in the desktop world.
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Member since:2005-06-29
I love these kinds of posts. It didn't fix this, or fix that, it performs like a dog.......and you never get to hear what the problem actually is. It reads more like an excuse for some reason......... I got it installed on a Macbook for crying out loud.
Don't lie. I've written quite clearly what the issue is: Kwin. It might sound like just one component, but the problem with Kwin is that once Kwin has issues, it permeates into everything else. If responsiveness is bad, everything is bad. If, in this day and age, you can't even code a properly responsive desktop (and I've yet to find the magic driver/hardware/distribution/KDE version combination that is responsive), then you've got problems - major problems.
The interesting thing is that I've had KDE developers confirm to me that Kwin simply has a lot of performance problems - so the people who actually code for KDE know there are problems. It's always the armchair folk such as yourself that gets all their panties in a twist because he can't grasp that there is a sizeable number of people who are experiencing problems with Kwin.
From day one, I've been extremely positive about KDE4 as a concept, and the progress has been phenomenal. It's just that Kwin is lagging behind (literally), but because it is such a vital component, it shows in daily use quite clearly. Moving windows around, opening menus, minimising/maximising, resizing - things you do all the time - things that add up.
KDE/Qt is miles ahead of GNOME/Gtk+ (both are miles behind Windows 7, mind) - it's just that when I have to choose between technologically advanced but unresponsive, or crude but responsive, the choice is simple.
Edited 2010-10-11 14:52 UTC
Member since:2005-09-27
Member since:2008-07-25
Member since:2005-07-11
Define "responsiveness", "snappy", "runs like shit", and other subjective terms. 
I can say "Windows 7 runs like a dog for me" just as easily as you can say "KDE 4 runs like a dog for me". But you don't give any information on WHAT runs like a dog.
Dragging windows around? I can do that on a netbook with KDE SC 4.5.1 without tearing. Sure, desktop effects are turned off, but so is Aero on Windows 7 on a netbook.
Resizing windows? Not an issue on a dual-monitor setup with KDE SC 4.5.1 and nvidia graphics. I do this a lot, as I use the drag-to-top-to-maximise feature a lot, especially when dragging from monitor to monitor. Desktop effects enabled, and a handful of effects in use.
Rotating desktops? Not an issue on the dual-monitor setup. And really catches the eyes of the co-workers walking by.
So, until you start defining what your issues are, with examples to back it up, you're really just a whiner we should all ignore.
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 20:46 UTC
"And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 17:32 UTC
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.More News »
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Member since:
2005-07-06
Fix what, exactly?
I love these kinds of posts. It didn't fix this, or fix that, it performs like a dog.......and you never get to hear what the problem actually is. It reads more like an excuse for some reason......... I got it installed on a Macbook for crying out loud.
Fact is that KDE is the only open source desktop today that comes anywhere close to competing with how the proprietary competition has moved on. Like it or lump it, but these Ubuntu releases won't amount to a hill of beans until they use or create a desktop that does what the rest of the world cares about.
Edited 2010-10-11 12:59 UTC