Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 2nd Aug 2012 22:36 UTC
Now that Windows 8 has gone gold, Microsoft can move on to other things. With Windows 8, the most important of these is probably to make sure people know how to actually use it. Metro is filled to the brim with hard-to-discover features, but Microsoft has a plan. Will it be enough?
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RE[5]: Bleh... not enough.
by ze_jerkface on Sat 4th Aug 2012 20:14
in reply to "RE[4]: Bleh... not enough."
Member since:2012-06-22
RE[5]: Bleh... not enough.
by bassbeast on Sun 5th Aug 2012 23:41
in reply to "RE[4]: Bleh... not enough."
Member since:2007-11-11
Except the masses DON"T CARE ABOUT FLEXIBILITY and never have. Never read "the illusion of choice" and how choices tend to make the users frustrated and angry?
The reason linux sits practically off the chart because its so low is because its a mess, pure and simple. the defaults suck, both KDE and Gnome simply don't have enough devs, in fact Gnome Shell is practically a ghost town when it comes to devs, the sound and video subsystems are deep fried poo that break waaaay too damned often, the entire thing from the kernel on up is in constant flux and is frankly in many cases beta quality, its a mess man!
Here read this, and i apologize if the links don't come out right, one is from one of the Red hat devs pointing out how broken and unsustainable the current system is, how there simply aren't enough guys to allow any quality control AT ALL because the thing is just too big and the devs are trying to control too much, and the second is a list of over 100 obvious problems Linux will have to fix before getting any real mainstream support or OEMs to really get behind it. if you are truly open minded and not a FOSS zealot these will illuminate the true situation for you.
https://plus.google.com/109922199462633401279/posts/HgdeFDfRzNe
http://linuxfonts.narod.ru/why.linux.is.not.ready.for.the.desktop.c...
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/20/13 6:17 UTC, submitted by MOS6510
"In the first episode of Microsoft's new film series 'On the Whiteboard', Editor Pamela Woon chats with two-time Oscar winner Randy Thom about the (often underestimated) importance of sound in human-technology interactions. Thom, the lead sound designer at Skywalker Ranch who worked on films such as The Incredibles, Castaway and Forrest Gump, says that people rarely consider the significance of those signature sounds that come from their trusty devices, whether it be a cell phone, a computer or a tablet."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 23:02 UTC, submitted by M.Onty
"Microsoft has sensationally abandoned its controversial plans to restrict the sharing of XBox One games, and has also removed daily online authentication requirements for its forthcoming console", reports The Guardian. They had no choice. Still a good move.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/19/13 22:28 UTC
"A snippet of code in the Steam digital distribution platform has revealed that Valve may be planning to let users easily share their games with friends in the future. The Verge has verified the code's authenticity, which was originally spotted by a member of the NeoGAF gaming forum; the code references a 'shared game library' and a notification that would alert a user when their games are currently in use by a borrower." This would change the, uh, game.
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.More News »
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2010-06-01
I was editing my comment and cleaning it up made massive changes and OSnews refused to accept the edited version, out of time , oh well ..
You think so therefore it must be ? QT is absolutely fine, in fact version 5 will soon be released, its all GPLed so there is no taking it back regardless of what happens to Nokia. It is in fact in a much better state than it ever has been because it is now completely open.
KDE has always been about flexibility, I posted this a while back but this was my kde desktop:
http://img62.imageshack.us/img62/609/desktopkde472kubuntu111.jpg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AIgyGmHH50
It took me a whole half an hour to get it looking like that. Currently it looks pretty much like that but I am running kubuntu 12.10 alpha. Its the way I like it, its the way I work most efficiently.
It may not be to your taste as it ships from the developers but they have built in so much flexibility that it takes a short period of time to make it look the way you want, it gives me the option to download more themes directly from the different theme locations, could it be any more simple ?
It is ultimately down to you, its your choice how you want it to look. Any distributor can hire a graphic designer or 12 and make kde look amazing the development team is doing an outstanding job with it.
The planned KDE 5 changes also are smart are exactly the right things to do.