New York Times on Linux 76
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.
MOSTLY IN WINDOZE (Score:1)
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)
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..
Social, not Technical (Score:1)
xfstt -- get this (Score:1)
"Linux is hard to use" isn't really FUD (Score:1)
"Linux is hard to use" is indeed FUD (Score:1)
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.
Linus Is the Spider (Score:1)
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.
ext3 thread (Score:1)
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
what you all seem to miss... (Score:1)
We should thank her for the fact he does not need
to "work" so that he can do his lifes work.
aUGH!~#$%#%@# (Score:1)
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...
this is quite good. (Score:1)
Who's doing the Censoring (Score:1)
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.
Adjust your threshold (Score:1)
Mingo?! (Score:1)
"Why don't you give me your newspaper for free?" (Score:1)
Daniel
Linus Is *NOT* A God, And I'm Getting Sick of IT. (Score:1)
Daniel
"Linux is hard to use" isn't really FUD (Score:1)
Daniel
Fine. (Score:1)
Daniel
MOSTLY IN WINDOZE (Score:1)
daniel
Yes, but... (Score:1)
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....
this is quite good. (Score:1)
They do RESERCH. (Score:1)
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.
Almost Perfect (Score:1)
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]
liGnux joke (was: aUGH!~#$%#%@#) (Score:1)
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 is quite good. (Score:1)
Also, it's the first mainstream article I've seen that gets what "free" means.
Almost Perfect (Score:1)
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
The article was clear... (Score:1)
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.
Procreation. (Score:1)
hehe.
aUGH!~#$%#%@# (Score:1)
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.)
Oh no!!! (Score:1)
Regurgitation (Score:1)
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
Makes Microsoft Look Good to Investors (Score:1)
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.
So tell them... (Score:1)
this is quite good. (Score:1)
I used to hate NS for Linux too... (Score:1)
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."
MOSTLY IN WINDOZE (Score:1)
Nice! (Score:1)
Ex Machina "From the Machine"
xm@GeekMafia.dynip.com [http://GeekMafia.dynip.com/]
Sick of GTK coding... (Score:1)
Prescription for sick fonts (Score:1)
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
Hope it can make non-W98 browsing a bit more palatable....
Linus Is *NOT* A God, And I'm Getting Sick of IT. (Score:1)
Positive Coverage! (Score:1)
: - )