2.6.13 Linux Kernel Released 464
LynuxFre@k writes "Linux Torvalds announced the release of the 2.6.13 Linux kernel. He noted that there was a major change to the x86 PCI code, and that while all bugs from the change were believed to be found during the release candidate phase, it's possible that some devices may have problems. From this release on, it is intended that major changes only be merged into the kernel within two weeks after a major release. The rest of the time will be spent fixing bugs, with the goal of both increasing overall stability and decreasing the amount of time between major releases. Download the latest Linux kernel from a kernel.org mirror."
kernel bug fixes (Score:3, Insightful)
I wish Linus would arrive at a policy and just stick with it instead of all these gyrations of "we'll use this method from now on...no wait...we'll use this one from now on...and by the way I want everyone to switch revision control systems now...oh wait...sigh.
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:3, Insightful)
I wish Linus would just stick with fixing bugs in stable releases and leave major changes to development versions, but I guess that'd take finding him a new toy to play with.
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:2)
Stable-version: 2.6.x.y and vendor-kernels
Maybe things were named differently in the past. But what matters is they way they are named today.
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:2)
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:4, Insightful)
Then again, if it happens too often, more time is spent switching back and forth between the new "great" ideas than doing actual work.
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:5, Insightful)
What exactly is wrong with refining the development process?
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:3, Informative)
It's been hard to get long uptimes with 2.6... the network drivers are leaky/crash, SCSI support sucks.
It's just not been very hot.
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:3, Insightful)
Even if he has reported bugs, with the new features breaking stuff, he would probably find new bugs next release. But the fact of the matter is that 2.6 is less stable and it is the new development method that is to blame. Most people don't have time to track down bugs of this nature, especially in a bussiness environment wher
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:3, Insightful)
We've been using SuSE Enterprise server on H/P DL hardware here and it is absolutely rock solid. We've been replacing HPUX with SuSE, and no matter how these boxes are pounded they handle the load very gracefully and without any hint of trouble. We're pleased to find that the 2.6 kernel sc
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:2)
Sometimes it seems like it's all refining and no development process actually happening. There are plenty of things that seem far more urgent, like releasing a kernel that's actually stable (it's at the stage that I'd go back to 2.4 if my distro didn't have so many things depending on 2.6).
Re: (Score:2)
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:2, Funny)
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:5, Insightful)
Or how would you like them to do it? "We will do things this way, and by god, we will do it like this untill the end of time! Even if better ways of doing this comes along, we will not change our ways!"
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:5, Interesting)
I care about the results, and so far the 2.6 tree has produced a grand total of one kernel that actually works for me (2.6.11). And the obvious cause, rightly or wrongly, seems to be Linus messing around with the development process.
Or how would you like them to do it? "We will do things this way, and by god, we will do it like this untill the end of time! Even if better ways of doing this comes along, we will not change our ways!"
How about "We will change things only when the alternative has been shown to be unambiguously better on a smaller project, and only when changing major versions". I believe in experimentation but the kernel is such an important project that a bit more conservatism is called for.
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:3, Informative)
if you have a kernel that work, why upgrade? And why use the vanilla-kernels at all? Vendor-kernels are the ones that are considered stable these days. And there IS a "stable"-branch of the kernel (the 2.6.x.y).
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:2, Insightful)
But... gee, if it bothers you that much you can point Andrew Morton to your kernel tree, or send him your patches. He does a pretty good job of ensuring things don't clash, and queues it up and merges with Linus, getting initial bug testing and review along the way.
2.6 a year and a half old but... (Score:3, Informative)
This PCI code rewrite doesn't bother me as much as some of the recent 2.6 releases including new drivers for obscure proprietary hardware.
A large number of organizations (as well as Debian Stable and Redhat) still use 2.4. It's pretty pathetic.
Re:2.6 a year and a half old but... (Score:2, Insightful)
Debian Stable = things that have been 'thoroughly' tested for like 2 years or more. Hell, even using Debian Unstable, most of your software is still incredibly out of date.
Red Hat isn't quite as slow. But pretty darned slow.
Re:2.6 a year and a half old but... (Score:2)
Redhat version 4 has been out since May. I'm just about to put one of those boxes into production use, so it had better be stable.
Re:2.6 a year and a half old but... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:2.6 a year and a half old but... (Score:2)
Re:2.6 a year and a half old but... (Score:2)
It's a brain drain if you are in a resource limited environment. The resources working on 2.4 today would maybe not work on 2.6 if the 2.4 work was taken out from them (this is not even possible, given the open nature of the kernel).
All my machines run on 2.6 and I have no issues with it.
Re:2.6 a year and a half old but... (Score:2)
Big companies don't like to change things. They don't want to be on the bleeding edge, due to perceived risk or some other nonsense. At my employer (a mega insurance company) there are still desktops and servers running Windows 2000, because it's too risky to upgrade. "They" are afraid something will break.
None of our servers run the latest Solaris, AIX, DB2, WebSphere, Java VM or anything else for the same reason. No pr
Re:2.6 a year and a half old but... (Score:3, Informative)
Debian didn't care about switching to 2.6 because that would have delayed sarge even more...we all know debian. Redhat Advanced Server 4.0 uses 2.6 not 2.4 [google.com], suse's versions for servers too, so what is your point?
As far as I know, except debian there's no major distro using 2.4 as default kernel.
Right now 2.6 is a lame-duck kernel
Wrong. Ubuntu, redhat, fedora, mandriva, suse, gentoo, knoopix, all of them use 2.6.
Re:2.6 a year and a half old but... (Score:3, Interesting)
What is this nonsense ? You don't want Linux to support hardware ? Linux can not be usable by just supporting standard hardware you know ?
A large number of organizations (as well as Debian Stable and Redhat) still use 2.4. It's pretty pathetic
Isn't that a good thing ?!!! You sound like a troll. What is pathetic with that ?!! And FYI, RH does not use 2.4 as default anymore, and their 2.4 kernel included backports from 2.6.
Re:2.6 a year and a half old but... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm using 2.4 under Debian (Woody, or Old-Stable) for the past 2-3 years.
It works with my hardware, and I consider it a proven kernel.
Why should I upgrade a working kernel?
Re:kernel bug fixes (Score:3, Insightful)
This case is typical of most such "policy changes" in that he's really just voicing something that's been a defacto policy for a while. All of 2.6 has followed the pattern that the biggest changes went in at the beginning of the -rc, with later -rc's being for stabilization, it's just that this hasn't been an explicit policy and has
Linux Torvalds (Score:4, Funny)
I'm not really a grammar/spelling/correctness nazi either, so I can't really complain about slashdot going down hill. I just feel compelled to post.
Uh... I wish my name was Linux?
Re:Linux Torvalds (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Linux Torvalds (Score:2)
I'm sure there is a witty comment to make about the fact that the very first word in the article summary is wrong...
You're right. They should have said GNU/Linux.
Coral (Score:2, Informative)
This is a cool use for the Coral Cache, mirroring files this big: the kernel [nyud.net].
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Re:Coral (Score:3, Informative)
it's kernel.org. they mirror [kernel.org] other people's stuff.
Re:Coral (Score:5, Informative)
Regrds,
Steve
Linus, not Linux (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Linus, not Linux (Score:2, Funny)
New release strategy (Score:3, Interesting)
Ahem... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Ahem... Linux® kernel (Score:2)
Linux® is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.
http://www.linuxmark.org/attribution.html [linuxmark.org]
Hey! It's not Linux Torvalds... (Score:5, Funny)
- RMS
Re:Hey! It's not Linux Torvalds... (Score:3, Informative)
No it's not. We're talking about the kernel.
Re:Hey! It's not Linux Torvalds... (Score:2)
Re:Hey! It's not Linux Torvalds... (Score:2)
Devfs removed (Score:5, Informative)
As they say in osnews [osnews.com], devfs [csiro.au] seems to have been removed from the kernel.
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Re:Devfs removed (Score:5, Informative)
And it's not a surprise, linux's devfs implementation was broken from start, and the idea behind devfs isn't a relly good one. Fortunately, udev is much better...
Re:Devfs removed (Score:5, Insightful)
udev pushes all the device naming policy to userspace. Moving policy stuff to userspace is something that linux developers (and hackers of other OSes too) love because it's a much better design. That was the main reason for udev.
Re:Devfs removed (Score:2)
Re:Devfs removed (Score:3, Informative)
More kernel crashes as of late? (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:More kernel crashes as of late? (Score:2)
Re:More kernel crashes as of late? (Score:2)
As for instability I've been able to boot/run Linux on pretty much anything. Laptops are fairly bad for standards compliance and some cheaper mobos like MSI are not too friendly.
Stick with ASUS or Gigabyte mobos, use dlink or broadcom networking, use nvidia GFX, etc... basically use HW from people who are linux friendly.
Tom
Re:More kernel crashes as of late? (Score:2)
Re:More kernel crashes as of late? (Score:2)
My only complaint with 2.6.12.x is that the timer is poorly based on TSC [hint: cpufreq changes the TSC rate!!!]. So I keep losing time. Fortunately I've mitigated this through a */10 in my crontab and I run rdate.... it's a poor fix but for now will do.
Tom
Re:More kernel crashes as of late? (Score:2)
Re:More kernel crashes as of late? (Score:2)
Hmm, Broadcom haven't been that Linux friendly lately with their wireless chipsets. People I know have bought Linksys gear with Broadcom chipsets, and were forced to use ndiswrapper because neither Broadcom nor Linksys will release drivers or specs.
Re:More kernel crashes as of late? (Score:5, Insightful)
I've recently had networking go south when packets were being written to localhost. Some adaptec scsi stuff was recently messed up, apparently now fixed in 2.6.13 - but no way I'm going to try it until it's been out for a while. I've seen problems with quotas in combination with ext3. I recently started experiencing connection tracking weirdnesses with an iptables setup I've used at home for probably a couple of years. I've seen versions where network latencies would grow ever so slowly until they reached a critical threshold that sent my server(s) spiraling into oblivion. Yes, I file bug reports. Yes, problems get fixed. But at the same time, new ones show up. Sometimes bad ones.
I've become accustomed to rebooting Windows to fix problems, but that's exactly why I use Linux - because it was rock solid. I won't say that anymore, and it bums me out big time. I like new shiny objects too, but not at the expense of stability. Especially not on servers, which is where Linux has made the most headway.
The problem with the current versioning system is that even if there is a bug-fix only decimal release, and even if there is only a two week window to introduce new features, the bug fixing won't get done. Why? Because new features are more fun than fixing bugs. Even if I can't submit a new feature until several months from now, that doesn't mean I won't work on it in leiu of fixing bugs.
Linus should freeze the 2.6 kernel series against *any* new features at all, for a period of about a year. All work should be on increasing stability, ironing out bugs, improving device drivers, and other such menial housekeeping. The kernel contributers who really buck up, get to work, and help with this effort should get big karma bonuses from Linus. Those who hang back and work on their own thing should be pushed down a level in future kernel submission evaluations.
Sorry to be so negative, but I really hope this gets better. I'm a huge fan, but I have been wasting way too much time lately dealing with problems that end up being way beyond my control. When there is a problem with my systems, I want it to be my fault, because then I can do something about it.
Re:More kernel crashes as of late? (Score:2)
And I can also attest that all the kernel panics or lock ups where due to hardware problems : SCSI and IDE disks crashing; IDE cdroms dieing, killing the IDE port entirely; mobo dieing.
Actually, I think this must be due to the fact that my Linux machines run 24/24 7/7 since 2001 and that some components had never been replaced.
Re:More kernel crashes as of late? (Score:5, Informative)
Are these crashes repeatable or do they have any kind of similarity?
I've been using Linux since 0.9x, and its been very stable for me over the years with a few exceptions that were experienced by other people as well.
My first assumption when I have a seemingly random kernel crash with no meaningful data from the OOPs or other messages is that there is a problem with my hardware.
For me, the Linux kernel is more robust than electrical power or hardware.
YMMV.
Re:More kernel crashes as of late? (Score:5, Insightful)
Not me.
But it's very hard to generalize from one person's experience to any general "recent trend of unstability." Most of the bugs are in drivers, so people's experiences tend to be highly dependent on exactly which hardware they have.
--Bruce Fields
Re:More kernel crashes as of late? (Score:4, Interesting)
Have you tried reporting these crashes? I can't find anything about ifconfig triggering crashes. They can't test everything themselves, because they don't have every hardware configuration, so it's important for people who do to tell them when something is wrong.
Summary of new features (Score:5, Informative)
I feel lazy today... (Score:2)
apt-get install kernel-image-2.6-686
No, it won't get the latest kernel, but it will get one that has been tested a bit first.
Perfect Timing... (Score:2, Funny)
Humm...2.6.12 broke... (Score:2)
I'm a bit hesitant to switch from 2.6.11.
Re:Humm...2.6.12 broke... (Score:2)
Well, maybe those bugs have been fixed in 2.6.13, which is why new kernel versions are released in first place
Because you did care about reporting them, yeah?
Did ATAPI/AHCP on SATA become true on default? (Score:3, Interesting)
As of now no SATA DVD drive works well unless you change one line and recompile the kernel.
So many systems are now built as SATA-only (yes, the IDE ports are completely unused), stock kernels break all live-CD distributions - none of them will boot
Obligatory Gentoo post... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Obligatory Gentoo post... (Score:3, Informative)
There! You're all done for another few months, or until you feel the need to upgrade again.
Tannenbaum's Revenge? (Score:3, Interesting)
I also hope it's not going to get modded down to the seventh level of hell, as I'm about to (gasp!) express disagreement with Linus.
First of all, I am vaguely concerned about the Linux kernel development. It's been a long time since there's been major improvements under the hood. I've had Linux desktops freeze on me. In the past, that never happened. Ever. I don't know which kernels are trustworthy anymore. I've read something to the extent that stabilizing kernels is now considered the Linux commercial vendors' job. Excuse me, but WTF?
In the meanwhile, while we Linux types wave our dicks around and gloat over how great we are, the guys at Redmond are happily making it possible to change video drivers in their OS on the fly, and to unload a crashed driver without taking down the system. Will it work? Probably not 100% well right away, but trust me, they WILL make it work or they'll die trying. And Windows 2000 is proof that they can certainly do things well when they put their minds to it.
And Linux is about to become the unstable OS choice and it seriously pisses me off.
A very long time ago, Linus Torvalds and Andrew Tanenbaum had a since famous argument about the core structure of the kernel.
Linus's argument was, if my memory serves, that it all boils down to pushing bits around, and that you should as well push the bits in the simplest way.
And this is where I disagree.
Kernel development is about pushing around the bits that will push bits around. Those are the bits you want to push around in the simplest way. The goal is not simply to produce a good kernel, it's to produce a maintainable, efficiently improvable set of source that will compile into a good kernel. Otherwise, the end product you get is a good kernel for its time that will be a bitch to drag into the future.
Perhaps the state of the Linux kernel development today is but Tanenbaum's schadenfreude.
Assuming that kernel improvements have indeed, as is my admittedly fragmentary view, slowed down worryingly, I find myself wondering if, simply, now is when Tanenbaum should be speaking up, rather than all those years ago. The structural needs then were simple: few consumer devices, reduced architechtural diversity. Today's aren't. And there is STILL no 'just-works' way for third parties to deliver drivers to their customers. The least worse they can do is deliver sources to the kernel maintainers and hope that 1) they will be accepted, and 2) there won't be too many months between now and the moment their customer's OS uses that kernel. Or they can ship scripts that will compile glue code between their driver and the currently running kernel, and hope that the customer has a freaking compiler installed. I'm sorry, I can compile drivers and upgrade kernels manually, but neither are acceptable solutions for the mass market.
In fact, I'll go out on a limb and predict that unless the kernel's structure and development processes are rethought to take into account the use of an OS as a three-party system -- the OS vendor, the user, and the commodity/paraphernalia providers -- Linux will never be a significant player in the desktop market.
Thought on that? Please, please, please prove me wrong. I'm a long time Linux user, I did in my time the mandatory contributions to the kernel that allows me to speak up and bitch now, and from what I can see the future is not looking well for the Linux kernel. So please prove me wrong. Thanks.
Re:Tannenbaum's Revenge? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:5, Interesting)
A) It's been years since I've recompiled a kernel, and I've only compiled a few software packages in years. I use Linux daily at work, and exclusively at home. It may not be as easy to install software as on a Mac, but a good distro is equal to Windows.
B) I agree, but at the same time I find it rare that I have to drop to a command line to do normal computing tasks. I still go there daily, but by choice.
C) I can usually find anything I need online without having to post to a message board myself. However, I do agree that it needs significant improvement. I wouldn't expect non-technical people to search online for their answers.
By the way, you should find other examples to "prove" your technical skill. Ripping videos and using Photoshop aren't too "technical" in nature, especially here. Alternatively, don't try to prove it, just leave it assumed. Note: I'm not calling your knowledge into question, just your examples.
YBT. YHL. HAND. (Score:2)
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:2, Insightful)
Compiling and installing a new kernel isn't for everyone, that's why there are these collections of tested software known as "Linux Distros" where geeks get the software packaged nicely so you can use a GUI to do all your upgrading. If the CLI scares you so much and you want to use Linux, I'd recomend us
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:4, Insightful)
You don't have to. years ago when I used SuSE, I never ever compiled anything, and I had no problems
Linux does have something similar. How about Yast or Synaptic or up2date? True, it's not identical to way things are done in Windows or OS X. But Linux is not Windows or OS X.
I don't think the kernel-developers are to blame if some GUI-tool doesn't do the job. They work on the kernel, not on the GUI.
Failed at what? To satisfy the whims of some random user who propably hasn't paid one dime for the software he's using? Here's a hint to you: they (the developers) don't owe you anything.
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:3, Insightful)
> I don't think the kernel-developers are to blame if some GUI-tool doesn't do the job. They work on the kernel, not on the GUI.
In fact, if some functionality requires a GUI, people like me are mightily upset. The moment I'm forced to drop to a goddamn GUI, you (the grandparent poster) as a whiny user have failed.
[Disclaimer: not a single byte of my code can be found in the official kernel tree, so take my w
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:2)
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:3, Insightful)
"Why do all these lusers keep using crappy Windows? They should use a product that they don't understand and that we refuse to improve for them because it's free and we don't owe them anything!"
Because THAT'S a good sales pitch...
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:2)
Use SuSE or Mandriva. No compilation necessary, pretty user-frontends for config, and a big thick paper manual in the box in SuSE's case. If you don't want to have to make any choices, try ubuntu.
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:2)
B)Anytime there is something I can't do automated, because there is no proper comand line or scripting tool
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:5, Insightful)
B) Fine. You come up with a GUI that can allow me to find files modified on the second Tuesday of every month between May 1, 1946 and June 27, 1978, which contain the words 'secret' and 'report' within 26 characters of each other, sort them by date, and replace any occurence of the word 'anchovie' by 'dead bug'. Some things GUI's just cannot do, some things GUI's do that are just command line interfaces in a fancy coloured textbox, some things GUI's can do once in the time that someone who knows the command can do twenty times.
Secondly, how do you expect a GUI to be able to do stuff like modify computer internals safely? Windows answer to this is usually that settings won't take effect until the next reboot, which makes your computer *stop all it's work* until it's done. X can be restarted with a single keystroke to have the same effect. Maybe a couple of command line edits in between but meanwhile none of your users have been disconnected, no programs have stopped doing what they were supposed to be doing.
Command-lines are not for the faint-of-heart. Then again, last time I touched the command line on my own Linux desktop (not counting other machines that are cmd-line only via SSH) was to run LILO - not something that a "desktop doughnut" should be doing. You obviously have either different ideas of what you should be doing on a normal desktop machine or have not found out how to do them GUI-wise. By the same token, Windows should never expect me to recover in safe mode, or via recovery console, or by running any batch commands ever. Fine for the ordinary desktop user because it very rarely does. Not fine for a power user. An ordinary desktop user wouldn't even notice if you ran a Windows GUI on a Linux machine.
C) Man pages can be a pain in the arse (make it compulsory to include enough examples to demonstrate every option!). HOWTO's are not always up-to-date. Forums are, pretty much, for people who want to know how to install this Linux thing they downloaded. Then again... how much documentation do you get with Windows?
A small booklet showing you how to use a mouse to point at the various icons. An online help system that, even with it's wizard-style help for some items, is next to useless if you don't know the terms to look for (I work support for six schools... that's about 60-100 staff and a few thousand pupils. I have NEVER seen or heard of anyone even bother to try using Windows Help or Help inside ANY program because it's never been useful to them). Annoying dogs, wizards, paperclips that people want me to TURN OFF for them because they can't figure out how.
That's surely Linux 0-0 Windows in terms of help.
If you're an advanced user, you've got to be comfortable with the command-line. I carry a USB key full of cmd-line utils and use them almost every day on Windows and Linux. It's amazing how much quicker "Start, Run, Cmd, ipconfig" is than navigating that poxy GUI network settings. And while I'm there, doing "route print" is the ONLY way to discover Windows network routes.
Anyone who's not going to set up networks or advanced stuff (i.e. users), or home users shouldn't ever NEED to worry about the command line on either OS. And they don't. They pick a distro like Lindows and once the installation is complete, they never see it again. Or they have a decent desktop set up and then never see the command-line again. You, however, are on the border. You are trying to do stuff that NEEDS a command line, stuff that's beyond a GUI point-and-click.
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:2)
A) This is already done by all the people that put together distributions. They typically have one kernel that works on virtually everything. You're right, it's not going to be as streamlined for the particular hardware as a custom compiled kernel. re: ACPI/APM not working, either fix the code, or know that it's not going to work and disable it.
B) "modify computer internals safely"? What are you talking about? You mean mucking with important config files? Great, whatever uses t
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:2)
I'm a debian user. I am very lazy. I install everything with apt. If I don't know what I want installed I use synaptic (graphical installer, click to install). Soooo... `apt-get in
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:2)
Linux DOES has a stable ABI (Score:4, Informative)
Maybe you mean the internal kernel API - which affects to modules, NVIDIA & friends etc. That API is unstable on purpose, as explained here: http://kernel.org/git/?p=linux/kernel/git/torvald
Or maybe you mean "compatibility" WRT gtk & friends, if GTK breaks compatibily thats their broblem
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:2)
I always want to compile EVERYTHING from scratched, tuned to my precise build settings, I NEVER want to install binary-only applications again.
Until Windows and Mac give me this option, I won't consider them.
All this being said, there are Linux distros that are as easy to use and administrate as the Mac or Windows, I encourage you to seek them out and u
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:2, Offtopic)
Linux is perfectly usable as it stands. You can get your command line if you want it, you can get your GUI if you want it, it comes with a slew of drivers for various kinds of hardware, and a typical installation will provide you with everything you need for browsing, email, chat, development, and some light entertainment.
Just because you have to dive into an ed
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:2)
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:2)
Here:
A) Use the package manager that comes with the distro. Don't upgrade your kernel unless you have good reasons. If you do, still use the one packaged by your distro.
B) It's just the preferred way of doing things in Linux (and most Unices). If that bugs you, don't use this method and use the GUI tools available. The major desktop environments like KDE
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:2)
That said, the commandline is an exceptional tool, and while it has some shortcomings that could be adressed, there is no reason to remove it. Microsoft tried, realised their mistake and plan to release a next-generation shell to correct it. Let's not try to copy their mistake, especially not after their indirect admission of this mistake by creating the Monad shell.
Re:How about a stable ABI? (Score:4, Insightful)
Any time I'm forced to drop to a command line, you as a developer have failed.
Without getting into the whole "you have failed" thing and whether or not your particular requirements are some sort of mandatory minimum, it's my opinion that the same thing applies to GUIs. I think every piece of functionality should be available in three different ways:
The common Unix and OSS methodology is to build the command-line tools first, then factor out libraries and add GUI interfaces that use either the libraries or even the command-line tools underneath. So, it's common that features are accessible for a while from the command line, but not from the GUI. In the Windows world, the methodology is to construct the GUI first, then expose functional components via OLE and then, maybe, to create command-line tools. Of course, it's very common in the Windows world to stop after the GUI.
IMO, the Unix and OSS approach is superior because it improves the odds that all three interfaces will be implemented, leading to maximum functionality not only for novices, but also for power users and developers. But I won't clam that Microsoft has "failed" because I understand the difference between my opinion and global Truth.
Sorry (Score:4, Insightful)
Industry standard 3d, compositing and editing tools all run under linux which is the natural progression because of their IRIX legacy.
I've also done some DTP under linux but that probably wasn't professional, since I didn't just bang a series of poorly masked raster images together like most 'professional' agencies we dealt with.
Does this make me a linux fanatic?
Re:Sorry (Score:3, Informative)
Re:How to tell if you are a linux fanatic. (Score:3, Interesting)
Does Microsoft make the keyboards themselves (I doubt it) or do they just outsource the production of them or license their trademark to the company which produces it?
Re: (Score:2)
Re:Windows? (Score:2)
If you just want to run some programs that are designed for MS Windows, look at Wine [winehq.org]. It can be a pain to set up, but it's free and it works.
If you want to run a MS Windows OS, then you need VMware [vmware.com]. This lets you run MS Windows in a virtual machine under Linux (or vice-versa). It's nto free, but works well.
Re:THE NEWEST FEATURE (Score:2)
I mean, here in slashdot we have high-quality trolls, we love to be troll-ized by them.
But your start has been quite poor, really. Continue training...
Re:Why is Linux so great? Please share your reason (Score:3, Interesting)
The problem is in how they're delivered and the lack of 1) a common packaging format and 2) lack of a common "package namespace" (ie: xorg can be called xorg in fedora and xserver-xorg in debian, that makes dependencies fail and can be only fixed by using a common packaging framework where developers and not distros makers package things)
But Linux continue
Re:Why is Linux so great? Please share your reason (Score:3, Insightful)
What's sad is that you see them coming from far far away, but the worst is that their arguments are always flawed.
So they play with emotional things, and don't even get that right (Linux is *not* user friendly, and until it is linux will stay with > 1% marketshare, I suppose they meant < 1 %
And t