Comment Re:Haiku will be Linux for the desktop (Score 1) 117
The road to 2.0 (or will it be 3.0?) will be plagued by unsupported hardware issues. That will be a show stopper.
The road to 2.0 (or will it be 3.0?) will be plagued by unsupported hardware issues. That will be a show stopper.
You post as AC and I am the troll???
Look, people need some kind of incentive to use anything, and first impressions are critical. When people see an OS that looks like it's 18 years old, they will not like it, they will most certainly not find any reason to use it.
Even if they do, what about hardware and drivers? Linux fights an uphill battle to support as much hardware diversity as possible, and pretty much succeeds because there is a lot of people working on it. Haiku has a very small community, badly understaffed already. They can't afford to support hardware. That is sure to put a terrible hamper on any "year of the Haiku desktop" idea.
Look at the BSD projects. My Wifi NIC works fine on every Linux distro I have tried with this computer (many), but it won't work on NetBSD. NetBSD has been understaffed for a loooong time.
It's just reality: making an OS, as in a really full and complete OS that works and provides a decent user experience, is a gigantic task. Linux does pretty well because it has a very large community.
And, back to first impressions: projects that are constantly focused "on the future" with little regard for the present don't usually get much love as well. We've been hearing nerds say that BSDs are extremely well planned, solid, clean, made by perfectionists, everything else is crap etc... But what happens every time I try a BSD? There is always something that doesn't work, is not supported, is not complete, is being worked on (for many years, mind you). The day I can actually use it and rely on it without hassles never comes. Holy mackarel, that day never comes! It always is, and seems it will always be an endless promise for the future. Maybe Linux's fart doesn't smell like roses, but heck, it works! At this glacial pace, Haiku has been already sending a bad message for a long time, bad enough that many people will not even bother trying it. Why would they? What's the incentive?
Shenanigans. I tested it a couple of years ago and was definitely unimpressed. It's not godawful ugly, but it's not that pretty either. It is in fact clearly outdated, old-fashioned, obsolete. It is clearly based on Windows 95, only worse. Add little choice in applications and obviously poor hardware support, and this will never be anything more than a hobby for lonely nerds with nothing to do on a Saturday night.
In 10 years, nobody will remember what "Haiku" or "BeOS" is all about.
...unlike today, when hordes of people know what "Haiku" and "BeOS" are all about. Right?
"Walls are dense? Where?"
Must be an American.
QNX is junk, at least in RIM's hands. I've been a BlackBerry user for years, and I got a Playbook recently. It was a gift and I am not in the USA. After one week of very light use, the tablet froze for a couple of minutes. I got tired of waiting and forced a reboot.
The thing never worked again. It kept flashing red for a few days, then it won't even flash anymore. It's dead. Since I don't have the proof of purchase, I get no support unless *I pay* RIM some sort of "incident" fee. They screw up and I have to pay. Right?
I am not the only one. Google for it and you shall find quite a few other people who ran into the same problem. If you have the proof of purchase, you're only eligible for support for 90 days. After that, you're on your own. What a paragon of quality assurance and customer satisfaction.
So THAT is the incredibly amazing rock-stable OS that everyone has been talking about? Really? This paperweight I have here now? Please.
I foresee a string of QNX-based OS10 BB phones going belly up very suddenly, and a legion of irate customers shaking their fists and kicking themselves for still believing in RIM.
And I really raised my eyebrows at this part:
"...which would let them sell devices purely on the strength of the hardware and OS, rather than on the ecosystem."
Strength of the hardware???!!! Look, I've always enjoyed the excellent approach that RIM has always had to certain things, like the keyboard or email. But RIM has a notable history of skimping on hardware. I've ALWAYS had friends and other people around me have phones that had much better camera, better sound and more storage capacity. In fact, everything in other people's phones is usuallly better than my BlackBerry, except email. And those phones range all the way from the expensive iPhone to ridiculously cheap Chinese spin-offs sporting brands llike "Sumsang," "BleckBerry," or "HiPhone," whose operating system no one knows for sure what it is. Strength of the hardware? Please, don't write '"RIM" and "strength of the hardware" on the same sentence.
I'm not here to defend Apple or Jobs, quite the contrary, I am glad that mofo's finally gone (there, I said it). But how did you get modded up so high with such a misguided comment? Apple imposes a lot of lock-in, but that has nothing to do with DRM. In fact, Apple fought against DRM in the iTunes store. And won. Apple never inspired any company to use DRM, companies use DRM because people steal software, resort to piracy, etc. Companies put DRM in their products for the same reason that we all put locks in our doors.
Ah, yes. Android does all that through GMail. Email, calendar and contacts. Excellent! And all your business data is belong to Google. Cos you know, privacy is dead. Schmidt said so. Thanks, but no, thanks.
"I, and many others, could not care less about being the most popular OS in the world- in fact, that'd take the fun out."
You are a fucking mindless idiot. You and everyone who modded you up. I want Linux to be a lot, lot more popular, so:
- more software companies will make versions of their software for it (like TextMaker);
- my bank will make their extra security module available for Linux so I can do online banking like normal people;
- my smartphone manufacturer will make its support applications available on Linux, so I can backup and restore at least my contact data, not type all my 100+ contacts manually when I buy a new phone because some basement-dwelling dipshit thinks that using an unpopular OS is l33t and kewl;
- hardware manufacturers will have more interest in offering drivers for Linux.
Do a favor to the world: die.
Ah yes, recording "What you hear" from the sound system is not "locked down" on Linux. Except it doesn't work. One has to deal with the intrincacies of JACK, which never worked for me on any of the three distros where I tried it.
In fact, any sound working on Linux at all is almost a miracle considering how confusing and feeble all the Linux sound architectures are. Even so, it works, but the last second of a song will be clipped, and you're lucky if you can have two sounds playing at the same time. And it all makes perfect sense, since Linux has always been, still is and shall always be designed for SERVERS. Why in the world would anyone need sound output in a server?
I love the CLI and use the terminal all day every day, but in essence, I have to agree with hairyfeet's assessment wholeheartedly.
Just instead of lashing out at the CLI, I complain that sound in Linux is clumsy and flawed, I still have trouble configuring Wifi, Bluetooth is almost impossible to be made to work decently, clipboard management STILL is an absolute pile of shit, Web browsing is noticeably slower than on Windows, Kon Colivas' patch set is refused over some silly technicality, and most window managers are installed with such abysmally lacking default configurations that I can't deny the whole Free Software case is just hopeless. This thing has always been, still is and shall ever be designed for servers. It is all downright hostile to anyone intending to run a desktop/workstation. If I really want to be honest, I have to admit: I use Linux because I am a hobbyist.
I am definitively not impressed.
Post a story about computer security and people will crack jokes to make fun of Windows right in one of the first comments. Like clockwork. Windows 7 is reported to be pretty secure, but Microsoft can't seem to shake off the bad reputation.
Anyone who has a stake at Apple, the company, should seriously weigh how much actual benefit and damage Steve Jobs' cavalier attitude has been causing to Apple over the last few years. The company's financial health is great, sure, but so is Microsoft's. Its health in terms of reputation, however, isn't so good, and it is likely to get worse over the next few years. Then we will see Apple dealing with whatever reputation it has built, that will be coming back to bite Apple in the ass.
"Mouse not found. Click left button to continue."
With your bare hands?!?