Desktop Linux Summit Highlights 416
mo writes "The Desktop Linux Summit has just concluded in San Diego. There were a number of exhibitors, including Novell, AMD, and Mozilla. I've put together a summary of some of the more interesting announcements and booths at the conference. Highlights include a Linux-only 3D game, DRM-free music services, and a new Asterisk GUI."
Games. We need more Games (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Games. We need more Games (Score:3, Insightful)
If you want to attract people who play computer games to use your operating system, that's great. But do not assume that these people are normal Joes. Do not assume that they make up anything other than the tiniest niche market.
Cool -- ring me when they have an SOE I can sell. (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Games. We need more Games (Score:3, Insightful)
Not one to give up easily
Linux needs some new games that can compete directly with the current offerings on the Windows market, or the people we're trying to attract won't care because it's old news to them. Also, they need to be marketed well (good luck!) or else they won't recognize them, and the unfortunate fact of the matter is that people far too often equate unknown names that haven't been played up and down with flashy marketing with crap quality.
Re:Games. We need more Games (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Games. We need more Games (Score:5, Insightful)
True, games are a niche market, although an important one. The best ways for the likes of Suse, RedHat, Mandrake &Co. to get regular users to use Linux is firstly by developing it's desktop capability to the point that one can convince corporations to use it on workstations. That basically means (this will horrify pruists) idiot proof Linux distros that offer all the same software and functionality as the normal Windows workstation plus the same kind of easy intuitive integration into Windows networks as you have got with OS.X. Secondly it would be important to ensure it has a sigificant representation in the student workstation pools of educational institutions from primary school upward. Which is why Microsoft donates computers and software to schools all over the place, they get to look like philanthropists while securing their market share. The 'normal user' will use at home what he/she learned to use at school or uses regularly at work.
Re:Games. We need more Games (Score:1, Insightful)
I'm sure this will be marked at flamebate.
Normal joes want to jack off to downloadable free porn with a facial at the end. If I hear "I want you to cum on my face" one more time I sware i'm going to explode!^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h^h be most annoyed.
Re:Games. We need more Games (Score:5, Insightful)
I haven't tried services like TransGaming's Cedega but I am finding that games like Enemy Territory and UT2004 are running significantly better on my formerly Win2k hardware. Is it Linux or the Nvidia Linux drivers or both? I dunno but it's just another reason that I'm glad I switched back to Linux.
I'm posting a few details on my experiences with games and the switch in general at http://www.johnlittle.org/ [johnlittle.org] in an effort to sway friends and family and lure them into the open source light.
And that concludes my first
Re:Not ready (Score:3, Insightful)
FWIW. I use linux on the desktop and I PREFER the distributions that are the easiest to use, e.g. fedora/ubuntu. That said, I still prefer to use command line toos for many activities because it is simply a more efficient way to accomplish some tasks.
While you are busy trying to defend your predjudice, linux developers have been working to make linux easier and easier for the end user to install and maintain. No, it's not perfect, but it's a far cry from what it was five years ago.
Most people I encounter who use linux fall in between the extremes that you mention. They aren't super geeks who eschew the gui for a command line because it's l33t but they typically aren't afraid of typing a command or two if it is a more efficient way of doing something.
Has it occured to you that what you percieve as archaic and complex is, in fact, neither?
(typed on federa core 3...installed from GUI)
Hey I've got some ideas (Score:2, Insightful)
On to what I originally wanted to say... Linux on the desktop could sure use alot of polish in the following ways. Consider:
1) A common control panel. There are a ton of different config tools which vary by distribution. Even on a single distro you can't configure everything from one place- it's often a mix of various config tools and hand editing of config files.
2) Tell the freakin developers to make GOOD intallation binaries and keep them UP TO DATE. Have a common to all distro's install tool that is very easy to use (perhaps a RPM front end). I am a programmer and yes I do know how to compile stuff but when I'm not programming... I'm also a user and feel I should not have to compile anything myself.
3) KDE vs Gnome wars: put an end to it. I know everyone will disagree with me saying 'choice is good'. I agree... but there needs to be a standard. Without a standard alot of manpowers being distributed where it could much be better focused. Perhaps this is the downfall of Linux in general... everyones got freedom so all they choose to work on something different.
I could go on but I'll leave it at that for now.
Re:Hey I've got some ideas (Score:3, Insightful)
I for one am tired of these old outdated complaints. Nobody has to compile anything unless they want to. With the exception of gentoo no linux distrubitution requires compiling anything.
A common control panel? Wake me up when windows has one. The control panel works for some things, for other things you need to right click on my computer and manage, still others you have to manually load a snap in, and finally you have to muck with the registry for others. With linux everything is in
As for KDE and GNOME I'll say go to F yourself. I hope to hell everybody disagrees with you because I sure as hell do. Linux is about freedom more then anything else. Who are you to shove a desktop down my throat?
Re:Hey I've got some ideas (Score:3, Insightful)
Since your credibility was shot to hell with your rant, there is not really much point in reading your later statements, but I did anyway and saw some tired old ideas that have been trotted out before. Other than the point about "good installation binaries, up to date" (? that problem was solved years ago by all vendors I'm familiar with) the ideas aren't likely to happen, but that doesn't matter since none of those things you mentioned is holding linux back.
Re:Coding in Parallel (Score:5, Insightful)
Admittedly gmplayer isn't the most brilliant interface, but as a gecko plugin it works flawlessly and not only runs happily in-browser but also offers fullscreen playback for stuff you view in-browser. That is a damn useful feature that (IIRC) you won't find in realplayer or MS media player browser plugins.
With regards to your sarcastic take on KDE and Gnome, they are totally different DEs with different approaches, architecture, and language choice. Do you honestly think we'd make faster progress if we pigeon-holed people into one or the other? Half of the development impetus comes from the passion of the developers. Remove the choice for them to work on what they feel is [potentially] the best platform and you remove much of the emotion involved and hence the desire and motivation.
This is not the corporate world when focusing on one thing is best because that's how you make money. The freedom and choice that you deride is not only what makes Free Software so attractive but what provides the reason that most people develop for it; I don't think many people would volunteer their services to Microsoft.
There is more than logistics at work here. You, and others who scorn at Free Software diversity, would do well to appreciate that.
Re:Games. We need more Games (Score:4, Insightful)
2005/6 will see the first real competition for the EAs of the world. I'm going out on a limb and predicting that Open Source 3D games will be the killer app for PCs. If you can buy a game at CompUSA loaded with a ton of high quality PC games or buy a PS3 for $350 with no games people may begin to think twice, especially with the emergence of HDTVs and the home theater PC.
Re:Driving Simulator - Help Wanted (Score:2, Insightful)
I hate to break it to you, but games don't succeed because of 3rd party library use. In the case of a driving simulator, success is two-fold:
Relatively speaking, developing the engine is easy. As you said yourself, the use of third-party libraries lets you concentrate on the important parts. What you really should be looking for are artists that are willing to work pro-bono (good luck finding anyone good!), or finding a way to pay an artist to work for you. From your screenshots, it's obvious that you need major help with models and textures. While you might think it simple to model a car (lots of reference material), you'd be surprised at how difficult it can be. And if you miss a detail here or there, expect to have raving fanboys breathing down your neck about why you put the trim piece from a 2003 Caragon on a 1999 version, or why you have a BBS wheel that's only made in 18" sizes on a car that can only handle 15" wheels.
All of that said, good luck to you. You're entering a market with very stiff competition, and if you can pull it off then more power to you.
Re:Why should I switch to Linux? (Score:3, Insightful)
The zealots won't get this, because they're too blinded by the foam coming out of their mouths. Realisticly though, that's their problem, not yours.
Re:Real unveils features of next version (Score:2, Insightful)
I removed realplayer several years ago, and it will never, and i mean *never* go back in. I make it a point to remove it on any system I come in to contact with too.
I'm probably coming across as rather trollish, but I've had so many bad experiences with realplayer that I'm quite jaded towards it.
Re:Hey I've got some ideas (Score:2, Insightful)
Linux isn't a company. Linux isn't a religion. Linux is a public space where a bunch of people have come and started helping out each other. It doesn't need to change to succeed, It just is.
If you said for a panda to really succeed it should be made like a grizzly bear, would the panda have succeeded? or would we now just be without pandas.
Re:Games. We need more Games (Score:2, Insightful)
It's not a matter of OpenGL vs. Direct3D. Both are very good in their own way. Direct3D has come a long way, and is a hugely different animal than what it was in versions 1 through 3 (btw, Direct3D as a name is dead, and it's just referred to now as DirectX). The more important part is everything else. DirectX is a framework that provides 3D, 2D (though DirectDraw is dead, and only available for backwards compatibility), audio, input management, networking, and a whole lot more. OpenGL is a 3D (and 2D, if you like) framework and nothing more. That's why Loki developed SDL way back when. As good as SDL is now, it still has a long way to go to be on par with DirectX. Even id uses DirectX for input and sound (though they use other libraries for sound management as well).
Re:Coding in Parallel (Score:1, Insightful)
Understatement of the year!
When you consider that the interface is the part people see and use, you realize that it's kind of silly to make claims about the quality of a program, and then qualify it by excluding the interface.
Look at Mac application reviews. Note you never see a comment like "decent program, but the UI needs work". To Mac users, the UI *is* the program. I think Linux apps are going to be kind of lousy until people realize this, and stop talking of "interfaces" separate from "programs".
I'd rather have a program like Totem (which I can figure out) that only plays 80% of the videos I try, than mplayer -- which may play 100% of the videos I've ever wanted to watch, but which is a pain in the ass to get working.
If they were going for "most comprehensive format support", then yay, they succeeded. They don't seem to have been going for "good app", sadly. So it's more of an intellectual curiosity for the hacker in me, than a useful tool.
You would become master of your computer. (Score:3, Insightful)
With windows you are waiting that uncles Bill snaps his fingers to be out of support, need to upgrade or having to agree to draconian EULAs when installing things like media viewers.
With Linux you are free of those inconveniences and you know that the software you use has a better chance to be improved in the benefit of the users that use it, not in the benefit of the company that produces it.
Re:Hey I've got some ideas (Score:3, Insightful)
Being almost Windows is a dead end (Score:3, Insightful)
So instead of playing to Windows strengths why not play to Linux strengths? Make a desktop that can run Windows apps when it needs to but runs the machine in a highly configured, locked down, no spyware, no virus no end user ability to change anything configuration? And run it on cheap hardware? In fact a Linux terminal server starts to look like a nice alternative for a home LAN.
Other than that I'd ask for better support and much much cleaner functional installs of devices that are no longer exotic, like Wireless NICs, scanners, multifunction printer/scanner/fax machines, drawing tablets and USB devices of all kinds. Instead of building the 19th most popular UI for Linux why dont' we build better integrated support for LAN bootable 802.11G NICs?
Linspire (Score:3, Insightful)
Username: root
Hostname: linspire
I don't really think that touting "looks and works like windows" is a good thing, because eventually that just dumbs down to "gets 0WN3D like Windows" as well.
I run as a local user, which works just fine for me (and guess what, my touchpad scroll also works on X.org). For things that need root access (such as installing new software through apt), specific apps are allowed via sudo.