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Linux Software

New York Times on Linux 76

Posted by Hemos from the the-rebel-code dept.
papertiger was the first one to write-in and tell us about the latest issue of the New York Times magazine. The major tech article just happens to be about an OS we're a bit familar with-in this case, Linux, The Rebel Code, as titled here. The link does not require registration but will only be live for the next week.
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New York Times on Linux More

New York Times on Linux

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  • Netscape for linux is about the biggest load of crap that I have ever seen. The fonts are sick looking, it crashes more than any other piece of software I have ever used, it takes longer to load than anything else than any other browser in windoze

    Hmmm... Edit -> Preferences -> Fonts Welp, that fixed that problem. It crashes? How often? Granted it does crash on me some, like once every 3 days or so, but I hardly classify that as an anything more than a minor pain to reclick that icon off my GNOME bar.

    Besides Netscape is not the only web browser. There's lynx for the console loving, there's Arena, and.. uhh... someone help me out here....

  • foo (Score:1)

    by drwiii ( 434 )
    Damnit.. What the hell are they doing hanging that thingy over Torvalds' head.. It could fall and break.

    Oh well. Most of the article was good.. I see they managed to fit another mini RMS rant in there about the whole Linux/GNU thing..

  • Interestingly, this article was almost entirely about the social aspects of Linux, not the technical ones. A bit more technical detail would have been good for the more so inclined readership... Although that would have created more opportunity for mistakes, so maybe it's a good thing. They also should have included a few URLs to Linux-related sites.
  • If you don't like the fonts in Netscape (or X in general) get the True Type font server called xfstt. I now have Arial, MS Comic, and all those other Windows fonts that make for a better browsing experience. Yes it works, and it works very well. There are binary and source RPMS at http://rufus.w3.org/ Try this and stop complaining about fonts.
  • From the point of view of an end-user used to the GUIs of Windows or Macs, it is harder to use. Some aspects are just plain different; for example, the need to have a separate window manager to run X, which in turn involves knowing about the .Xclients or .xinitrc file and what it does and how to alter it so that you can run a different window manager. Not that difficult to understand once you get used to it--but you do have to get used to it. Some aspects are simply flaws. The usefulness and ease-of-use of the GUI tools still needs work. KDE is commonly touted as a user-friendly GUI, but it still has a number of niggling annoying flaws that could make a new user throw up his or her hands. For example, the place for turning off the keybinding for switching desktops, Ctrl-Tab, is in neither in the K menu entries "Settings -> Keys -> Standard" nor "Settings -> Keys -> Global" but in "Settings -> Windows -> Advanced". Drag and drop is still being worked on. When it comes to underlying technical quality, Linux is ahead, but its GUIs are still playing catchup.
  • "Novice users aren't going to be trying to change keybindings."

    Don't be so sure about that. I had to do it because a keybinding from KDE conflicted with a keybinding from my app.

    "For the novice user, a preconfigured machine with KDE/KDM (the latter part is *crucial*), StarOffice, Netscape, KPPP, and a few other goodies is as easy as Windows, and almost as easy as MacOS."

    That's true for starting out. I myself started with Applix and FVWM2 set up in the default Red Hat configuration. But at some point, I had to learn how to mount floppies and CD-ROMs. I had to learn what permissions were. I had to learn how to change my execution path so that StarOffice came up when I typed 'soffice'. I'm no hacker, at least not a software hacker, but I still had to learn things in order to really use my system. Life with Linux is not life with Windows. You can be a technophobe and use Win95 and Mac, but you can't be a technophobe and use Linux.
  • Certainly Linus is not a God, but just as certainly he is the Spider.

    If you follow the kernel development as I do, then you would see that decisions about clean vs unclean, smooth vs ragged, proper vs hack, consistent vs flakly, smooth vs brute force, sanity check vs bloat all fall to Linus to decide in the final analysis.

    Also decisions such as ext3 will be a new, from the ground up development and not a rewrite of ext2. And many many more.

    If these *few* examples do not illustrate that Linus is the spider then I recommend that you review the last 100 kernel comments made by Linus. Nearly every one of them will be a decision about Class in the kernel.

  • Date sent: Wed, 17 Feb 1999 09:27:46 -0800 (PST)
    From: Linus Torvalds
    To: "Stephen C. Tweedie"
    Copies to: Alexander Viro , "Theodore Ts'o" ,
    linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu, Alan Cox
    Subject: Re: fsync on large files



    On Wed, 17 Feb 1999, Stephen C. Tweedie wrote:
    >
    > This is already working. I'm currently extending ext2fs to call the
    > joural API to clearly demarkate the beginning and end of each
    > individual filesystem operation, so that the "patches" (ie. the
    > journaling transactions) correspond to complete transitions from one
    > consistent filesystem state to another.

    Stephen, I'v etold you before: I will not accept these kinds of extensions
    to ext2. Make a new filesystem, and if you want, re-use the code (and the
    layout) of ext2.

    There's not a chance in hell that I will ever release a kernel with these
    kinds of major fs modifications - call it "ext3" and after a year or so of
    in-production use we can drop ext2.

    Linus



  • Eric has a mate!
    We should thank her for the fact he does not need
    to "work" so that he can do his lifes work.
  • I have to agree.

    The name is "Linux", no one is changing it now.
    It refers to the kernel, do whatever you want to the system, including using lcc and lsh, and rewriting ed to be edlin-compliant, I don't care, it doesn't mean we're changing the name of the OS to "Lindos", or "Lindows", and if we use the GNU tools, it won't be "LiGnux"...

    RMS's idea of a "GNU/Linux" system is okay, except that (a) of course he wants "GNU" first, and (b) what's to stop us from calling it a "GNU(GPL'ed) X11(X11/MIT) Wine(Artistic) INSERT_APP_HERE(LICENSE) etc. etc. Linux" system?

    Nope, way too complicated.

    Friggin' Lugnuts...
  • Exactly. This is why the internet is so important to OSS. It lets us do end-runs around the PC Mags of the computer industry. Does anyone think that this kind of article would *ever* appear in a Ziff-Davis publication? Of course not. All you have to do is look at PC Mag for the last year. Lots and lots of hype about NT 5.0/Windows 2000, virtually nothing concering linux or the BSD's. How do I miss the old Compute! magazine. Too bad that got turned into magazine that did nothing but advertise Windows software.
  • The flames are probably being censored because they tend to be off-topic, irrelevant to the article and generally tend to cause inflammatory responses of their own.

    If you disagree with the CONTENT of a post, feel free to respond in a rational manner and make your point. Flames and other useless drivel belong elsewhere.
  • And besides, it's not "censoring", it's "moderating". If you want to see the flames and counter-flames, adjust your threshold to -1, -2 or lower so you can see them.
  • I think they were referring to Molnar Ingo... and that isn't his handle, it's his name! Heh ;).
  • I thought that newspapers generally didn't charge much over the cost of printing and made money on ads, anyway. Since there's no cost of printing on the Internet..

    Daniel
  • Actually, my understanding is that he is responsible for merging patches into the final 'official' kernel. Calling him 'the spider in the middle of the web' is entirely factual and not at all a religious reference. :-)

    Daniel
  • As for window-managers..I wrote a set of scripts that modified the Debian X setup for my parents so that each user had a windowmanager-config file and could tweak it with a cute graphical tool. The same could be done for almost anything.

    Daniel

  • Fine. (Score:1)

    by Daniel ( 1678 )
    If I leave Netscape open for more than 15 minutes, I start thrashing. That monster leaks like a sieve..

    Daniel
  • I wouldn't go that far, but Netscape for Linux is a disgrace to the company that wrote it..it singlehandedly manages to send me deep into my swap partition every time I do something nontrivial with it. Switching windows is like watching paint peel since it almost always has to thrash around to find where it was a moment ago. And there's a really irritating latency in the widget set. But I think I can put up with it till Mozilla comes out.

    daniel
  • ...what continues to impress me is what a well rounded and sane man he is. Cool and calm of character in the midst of this maelstrom we call Linux and he continues to stress that his priorities are all in favor of his family.

    Then the news comes out that he likes zoos and his wife is a karate champion. What he's doing is setting an example for all male geeks. Live a full and active life, be a proper, multi-dimensional person and you won't have any problems finding babes, friends, or followers....

  • Damm good article !!


  • This is what seperates the big boys from ZDNet.

    The readers of the Wall Streat Jurnal and the
    NWTimes and such rags will kick and scream when
    they are told claptrap or FUD.

    Enquirer, Cosmopolitan and Most of ZD dosn't have
    the same kind of apeal.

    Note that "Smart Reseler" who's target is in it's
    name gives realetively FUDless coverage.

  • Overall, probably the best article I've seen from the mainstream press. They got the facts mostly straight except for the bit about usage (the 0x6ACFC0 user count is kinda' old), "copyleft" (is not a "new" kind of license) and use of the word program (the kernel itself could be called a program, but the "Linux-OS" is a collection of programs)

    I was glad to see a historic perspective (most treat linux like it was written yesterday), due credit given to RMS (no flames, please), the brief mentions about Beowulf and Apache and that they didn't try to get technical (which the mainstream always blunders).

    Offtopic: How about linGnuX or liGnuX? If the G was silent(??), you wouldn't even have to pronounce it differently. 8]

  • Duh, I meant it as a joke, so laugh.
    Okay, maybe it wasn't funny, so don't laugh.
    In any event, take a pill and a deep breath.

  • This was orders of magnitude better than the ZDNet and other online articles that usually get linked here. The author actually did some reporting instead of reading an article on CNet and rearranging "Finnish programmer", "free", "geek Unix wizards" and "threat to Microsoft" into a slightly differerent order.

    Also, it's the first mainstream article I've seen that gets what "free" means.
  • > copyleft" (is not a "new" kind of license)

    I had to read that twice when I first saw it. Read it again. It's pretty clear that the author was saying the license was new back when RMS started the FSF, which it was.
    --
    Kyle R. Rose, MIT LCS
  • From the article: "The kernel" -- Linux's most vital code -- "is 1 percent of the entire program," he says. "Of that 1 percent, I've written between 5 and 10 percent. I think the most important part is that I got it started. Then people had something to concentrate on." Indeed, Torvalds places the number of volunteers who regularly contribute to the "kernel" at about 1,000, and thousands more have sent in pieces of code over the years.

    And before you jump all over the Linux's most vital code comment, that was clearly made by the author. My pet peeve is when people use a single, out of context statement to air their pet peeve.

  • Real nerds just fork()...

    hehe.
  • If i hear one more thing about this gnulix/lignux stuff, i'm gonna track the person who said it down, beat h{im,er} over the head with a clue-by-four, draw and/or quarter h{im,er}, ship h{im,er} to redmond, and then REALLY hurt h{im,er}.

    Btw, is the g in gnu silent? No, it isn't. Then why do you think that the g in lignux would be?

    (that felt good. ahh, stress relief.)
  • No one can complain that RMS got short shrift! We'll have to think of something else to bleat about.
  • OK, you can organize one. Non-conformity is, well, non-conformity. I admire the "I'm myself and I don't really care what you think" attitudes that Linux luminaries tend to have. If you are not happy with the appearance of people who represent us, then become a representative. Don't whine about the people who take the trouble to do so.

    I understand what you are saying. If I had my 'druthers', I'd 'ruther' have everyone [in the Linux community] look as conservative as Linus, but it's not my place to criticize the people who have contibuted so much *more* to a cause that I believe in than I have been able or willing to do.
    It's what each person has contributed that counts. I believe that the "Scruffy-Beards" are 'correlational' with the contribution.

    Not a flame, just a heart-felt observation ;-) ,
    -Steve Bergman
    steve@netplus.net
  • Did you catch the last paragraph, about the 2
    Microsoft guys conjoining the Linux protest?

    >> Apparently they had been monitoring the group's
    >> Web site. "What you guys are doing is touching
    >> a lot of people's hearts," one of them told the
    >> group. "We'd love to sit down and talk."

    This clearly leaves the reader (MS stockholder)
    with the warm fuzzy assurance that microsoft is
    on the ball and smart enough to be trying to
    figure out how to *assimilate* the passion shown
    by Linux devotees. They'll analyze it with all
    their IQ and market ruthlessness and so there's
    no need to worry.

    Just my take.
  • Everybody who usually flames the authors of bad articles, write to the NY Times and tell them what a good job they did. This kind of stuff should be encouraged as much as bad journalism should be discouraged.
  • This was actually a very well-informed article. Go NY Times. They even pointed out something about "free speech not free beer". Amazing what decent journalism can do. :)
  • ...mainly because some esoteric (or maybe not) combination of win manager (Window Maker), distro (RH 5.1), and browser (the version of Communicator that shipped with RH 5.1) just didn't want to make nice.

    Particularly, the forms fields would fill with random characters, which meant I couldn't even register for an upgrade when it came time to fill in my info on their web page.

    Happily, I saw someone here who mentioned the glibc-compiled version in the unsupported area, managed to get it downloaded.

    It works better. No more screwy random characters, and it behaves better.

    I don't know if the person who posted this cry of frustration is interested in trying something else out, or if they have already, but if Netscape is all that's standing between you and losing Win98, heck, why don't you try the glibc version out? I was pretty frustrated, too, until I got it.

    Incidentally, the version I ended up pulling down came from Netscape ftp site:

    ftp://ftp.netscape.com/pub/communicator/4.5/englis h/unix/unsupported/linux20_glibc2/ [netscape.com]

    You'll get your choice of the full Communicator package or the standalone browser. If you go to the next directory up, there are a few more OS choices in the "unsupported" branch of the tree.

    As for fonts, Times at 18 points on my 1024x768 S3V-driven display seems to display fine. I know there's a fix for even having to do that, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Don't really need to.

    Anyhow, hope that helps, if help's what you're looking for. If it isn't... well... maybe someone else was.

    Toodles.
    ----------
    pudding_yeti@yahoo.com
    "Give me $20 worth of pudding, or kill me."

  • I found the font thing annoying too, until I got the ttf font server and used it with my windows fonts. Right now, I see all web pages in Arial and it makes things a WHOLE LOT better. So, get xfstt and some fonts from you beloved windows box.
  • This is probably the best written article on Linux that I've seen on real dead trees. I was hoping for a mention of KDE or GNOME but oh well. Yes Linus needs new glasses. And they didn't name Tux!

    Ex Machina "From the Machine"
    xm@GeekMafia.dynip.com [http://GeekMafia.dynip.com/]
  • Well, if your so sick of using gtk, by all means, use something else. But, as it happens, some people, myself included, like using gtk to program. I don't feel like writing tons of code to make a trivial X app. And for the wrappers, I've never had to use any. I suggest you learn a little more object oriented programming, it would make it a lot more understandable.
  • Well, though I can say little about crashing, before Mozilla 1.0 is released, some time ago I too became dissatisfied with the rather lousy X standard fonts just trying to become involved in HTML page rendering.

    So what did I do? I converted a bunch of TTF's, and to make a long story short, NS/X11 on my workstation looks reeeeeeally nice.

    Check out this page [mit.edu], toward the bottom end, for a tarball of .bdf's and some before/after screenshots. One of them's the ZDNet home page; you've got to admit, it's a noticeable difference }:)

    Hope it can make non-W98 browsing a bit more palatable....
  • Linux gets good plublicity!!!
    : - )

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