Linked by Thom Holwerda on Thu 8th Nov 2012 20:54 UTC, submitted by Elv13
"Theme development is a tedious and difficult task, and for the GTK devs to be so careless in breaking their API at every turn disrespects the many hours people put into making themes for it. [...] I was given to believe that this breakage stems from a Microsoft-like climate of preventing users from customizing their systems, and deliberately breaking the work of others so that your 'brand' is the best. Anytime I hear the word 'brand' being used in Linux, I know something valuable is being poisoned." I find the tone of this one a bit too harsh and overly negative at times, but his point still stands.
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RE[3]: Miguel has already spoken about these criticisms.
by renox on Fri 9th Nov 2012 13:59
in reply to "RE[2]: Miguel has already spoken about these criticisms."
Member since:2005-07-06
You're kidding? You can summarize his post as finger pointing: the Linux desktop is a mess (true), but it's not my fault, it's because "the Linux kernel has no internal stable API", really??
He picked THE software in a Linux distribution which has a forward compatible ABI for userspace as the reason why desktops lack stability/compatibility?
I don't remember that when he worked on Gnome he was especially pushing for compatibility, but it must be Linus's fault also.
RE[4]: Miguel has already spoken about these criticisms.
by lucas_maximus on Fri 9th Nov 2012 14:13
in reply to "RE[3]: Miguel has already spoken about these criticisms."
Member since:2009-08-18
Well you suck at reading comprehension.
He was talking about the attitude that is was okay to break APIs, is prevalent because of Linus. While people could argue about whether this is true or not it really doesn't matter whos fault it is.
Breaking APIs is the problem with no path to follow while transitioning. Which is what the blog post is about.
Edited 2012-11-09 14:19 UTC
RE[4]: Miguel has already spoken about these criticisms.
by silix on Sun 11th Nov 2012 23:07
in reply to "RE[3]: Miguel has already spoken about these criticisms."
Member since:2006-03-01
He picked THE software in a Linux distribution which has a forward compatible ABI for userspace as the reason why desktops lack stability/compatibility?
you know that a kernel has one ABI facing userspace AND one facing drivers (or in general, modules), right?
and that OTOH userspace applications are all linked against the standard c library which actually implements syscalls - thus effectively decoupled from the kernel - but there's no decoupling layer between drivers and the kernel?
that on the userspace side, keeping the kernel ABI stable is actually unnecessary (as long as the library is updated accordingly when disrupting changes are made) and it's really enough to maintain compatibility at the library level - but it'd be necessary (and a sign of good sw design and development practice - ie compartmentization) on the kernel side (which ironically is the one ever changing)?
now, linux actually got it backwards in this regard (and also wrt desktop IPC...)...
and although users can adapt to the current situation for them to choose between using a certain kernel version OR supporting a certain piece of hw, and risk breakage/regressions (not that there arent any, see aspm..) updating the whole kernel, is a suboptimal situation
De Icaza may have been too far reaching in that sentence, but he wasnt completely wrong...
Features
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At an event earlier today, Microsoft unveiled the next Xbox - the third model, but confusingly named Xbox One. The big focus was TV, integrated Kinect, and all the other stuff we all expected to be forced down our throats. I think it took them 25 minutes to actually come to what should be the core of the story: gaming. Nothing groundbreaking in the gaming department, except for how Microsoft intends to handle the used games market and borrowing games from friends: pay up, buddy!
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/20/13 11:29 UTC
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Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/18/13 21:33 UTC
Why does Google get so much credit in the technology industry? Why, despite the company's many obvious failings, do many geeks and enthusiasts still hold a somewhat positive view on the all-knowing technology giant? A specific talk at Google I/O this week provides the answer.
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OSNews is a sponsor of this year's O'Reilly OSCON in Portland, Oregon, USA. A lucky OSNews reader will win a free three-day pass, including two tutorials days. To win the pass, post a comment on this story saying something about Open Source Software or OSCON. We'll pick a winner at random next week. If you don't have an OSNews account, you may email us your entry. Part of the conference is the 9th annual Open Source Awards, and today the 16th is the deadline for nominations. If you'd like to nominate an outstanding open source contributor, do it here. Read on for more information about OSCON. Update: The 20% discount code for OSNews readers is "OSN."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/11/13 21:41 UTC
"Windows is indeed slower than other operating systems in many scenarios, and the gap is worsening." That's one way to start an insider explanation of why Windows' performance isn't up to snuff. Written by someone who actually contributes code to the Windows NT kernel, the comment on Hacker News, later deleted but reposted with permission on Marc Bevand's blog, paints a very dreary picture of the state of Windows development. The root issue? Think of how Linux is developed, and you'll know the answer.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/08/13 14:22 UTC
This is one of those news items that's fun to write, fun to read, fun to comment on, and where no one will be able to say anything unkind. It's all just one big ball of awesome fluffiness. TuneTracker, the BeOS radio automation software, has just released something very special: TuneTracker System 5, the first version designed entirely and specifically for Haiku. In fact, it actually includes Haiku in the software package. Better yet, TuneTracker also unveiled several system-in-a-box products - which have Haiku and TuneTracker pre-installed.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 05/02/13 15:28 UTC
Exactly twenty years ago, a document was published that played a huge role in establishing the web as we know it today. Twenty years later, and this simple and straightforward document is proof of an irrefutable fact: while closed technologies can change markets, open technologies can change the world.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/29/13 21:06 UTC
Oh multitasking. That staple of computing that got thrown out the window with many modern smartphones. We got some rudimentary thing in its place - but even as multitasking on phone and tablets improves, its user-visible side remains cumbersome. Windows 8 has a neat implementation, and now it's time Android follows in it footsteps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/24/13 22:24 UTC
They're here! Whether that excites you or not remains to be seen, but the Galaxy S4, which will most likely become the best selling Android smartphone of the year by a huge margin, has been reviewed by all the major sites, and there's lots of interesting conclusions in there - although I think most of you will get the gist.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 04/18/13 11:21 UTC
Nokia has posted its quarterly results for the first quarter of 2013, and just like the quarters that came before, there's not a whole lot of good news in there. The rise in Lumia sales still can't even dream of making up for the sales drop in Symbian phones, and when broken down in versions, the sales figures for Windows Phone 8 Lumias in particular are very disappointing. In North America, Nokia is getting slaughtered.More Features »
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Member since:
2009-08-18
And who was that? Mainly the people he was criticising.
I haven't seen one post rebuttal yet that actually invalidated any of what he said.
Edited 2012-11-09 13:11 UTC