The Open Source Development Labs has voiced cautious optimism that its latest initiative could finally herald a mass-market for Linux on the desktop. OSDL is pushing ahead with Project Portland, to develop a common set of core technical requirements for Linux and open source software on the desktop, following a meeting of 47 companies and organizations it hosted earlier this month. Portland has identified a core set of areas, spanning the interface, plug-and-play, drivers and the kernel, that OSDL members will flesh out.
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Member since:2005-07-06
Oh my god! Which car am I supposed to buy? Ford, Dodge, Chevy, ...? It's too hard for me to decide! Someone help or I'll freak out!
Erm, yes, I must make sure the maker of my open source car gets more market share so that it can crush the really successful car company. I know, I'll buy the car that isn't compatible with the gas hose at 95% of the gas stations and has a completely different set of controls to all the other cars.
Each new release of the car is different to the old one, but hey, who cares about compatibility....
Member since:2005-07-06
non-compatible with the gas hose? that only if you define software as gas. sorry but i dont see it as that. data may well be gas, but software is more like aftermarket mods to said car.
compleatly diffrent set of controls? in a car you have the wheel, some switches, buttons and levers for lights and so on, a gear shit or similar, and a set of pedals.
on both windows and the two major linux desktop you have all the makings of the wimp (windows, icons, menus, pointer) setup.
between diffrent cars, some of the functions change places. like say the way you twist the handle on something to change the lights and similar. what your trying to do is the same for all cars, but the tools to do so may be located in a diffrent place and use a switch rather then a button etc...
the real diff between buying a car and buying a pc is that when you buy a car it have a small set of tasks and requirements. a pc can be molded into just about anything.
i would say that you can compare the install of any hardware or software into a computer as doing after market mods to a car. only entusiasts do so for a car, but why is every user expected to do so for a computer?
i dont expect grandma to be able to check the oil or exchange the entertainment system.
im more and more thinking that a joe user computer should be more like a gaming console. a black box that you feed storage media filled with programs into.
want to write a letter? pop the media that carrys the office software into the machine and choose the word prosessor form the menu that appears.
files should be stored on removable storage units. be them flash based or similar. alltho avoid moving mechanical parts, atleast stuff like reading heads and so on, as part of the storage unit itself. having them as part of the console, sure, but not inside the storage unit itself.
thing is that the console should have enough ram to be able to handle a nice number of apps running at the same time.
im/mail and browsing apps should be part of the main rom of the box. as should video and audio playback. both im and audio/video playback should however be able to handle loadable modules so that you can have the same im support multiple systems. and the audio/video should be able to find the codecs needed alongside the files its supposed to play.
all this should happen automaticaly, so if i insert a movie and the software cant find the codec it needs internaly, it should look around on the media inserted.
the funny thing is that the im bit would allow me to bring my storage with me to a friend. insert it, fire up the im client and expect it to be able to log onto my system of choice, and show my list of contacts (what im system do not allow you to store that on their servers these days? still, one should be allowed to make a offline backup).
Edited 2005-12-16 15:37
Member since:
2005-09-29
Really? And which distro is that? Should they go for Xandros, RedHat, Suse, Mandrake (or whatever it's called), Ubuntu, Slackware or (god forbid) Gentoo?
Oh my god! Which car am I supposed to buy? Ford, Dodge, Chevy, ...? It's too hard for me to decide! Someone help or I'll freak out!