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Poll
When Linux will be ready for the desktop ?
In about 10-15 years time 19%
15-25 years time 0%
25-50 years time 9%
Never. Linux is fundamentally flawed for normal users only autistic geeks and insane zealots will put up with its archaic design. And cut-n-paste is STILL broken 71%

Votes: 21

 I am now a 31337 h4x0r !!!

 Author:  Topic:  Posted:
Sep 08, 2002
 Comments:
Today, against my better judgement, I decided to find out what all the fuss was about.
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So I Installed Red Hat Linux 7.3 Valhalla on my 400mhz Pentium II machine.

What a fucking disappointment it turned out to be. Whilst the install was pretty easy (apart from getting LILO to coexist nicely with Ranish partition manager), I was led to believe that this version of Linux featured Anti-Aliased Fonts using TrueType technology.

Unfortunately I was confronted with the nasty jagged edged characters that made me so against Linux in the first place.

What a let-down.

I will install Sybase Adaptive Server Enterprise 11.9.2 on it, but I will not access it via GNOME. No, I will log in via my XP box.

Whatever the zealots say, don't believe them, Linux STILL isn't ready for the desktop.


The biggest problem with "the linux desktop&q (none / 0) (#1)
by William Franklin Rothman on Sun Sep 8th, 2002 at 01:53:36 AM PST
No matter how much they improve KDE or Gnome, the applications always let them down. KDE looks reasonably snazzy nowadays, until you fire up the shambles that is KOffice. Don't they realise that people are trying to get work done with their computers?

Pretty desktops do not make up for poor applications. KOffice is barely usable, and the only thing consistent about it is the brief time between opening its applications and seeing them crash. OpenOffice isn't even worth mentioning. It's an embarrassment to bloatware.

Let us not forget the 3 years late, overstuffed, unusable dungheap they gave us for a web browser. Mozilla was supposed to demonstrate the effectiveness of the Open Source development model. I'd say it has achieved that goal brilliantly. It's late, it's slow, it's bad, it's a mess. Can someone let me know if the zealots have conceded defeat yet?

Well, (none / 0) (#2)
by Anonymous Reader on Sun Sep 8th, 2002 at 02:22:56 AM PST
I have managed to disable GNOME completely and use blackbox instead. That seems to have tripled the apparent speed of the gui with no noticable loss of functionality. It looks 10 times better too.

GNOME is truly a heap of shit.

Call me old school, but I used to think using tvtwm instead of plain vanilla twm was a little bit soft.

anyone got any good blackbox themes ?

 
Jaggy edged fonts (5.00 / 1) (#3)
by because it isnt on Sun Sep 8th, 2002 at 04:45:16 AM PST
Red Hat are bunch of cheapskates who have been relying on the generosity of Microsoft to give away AGFA Monotype's crown jewels for nothing.

Microsoft paid AGFA Monotype a fuckton of money for their hinted knock-offs of Adobe's core fonts, and were - in the explicit interests of making web browsing nicer - giving away these "core web fonts" for free to individuals who would download them (i.e. Windows 95 users and MacOS 7.x or 8.x users).

AGFA Monotype have recently decided that for-profit Linux companies don't count as individual users, and told Microsoft to do something about it. Thanks to automated scripts and cabextract, commercial Linux customers have been downloading the core fonts by the bucketload. So Microsoft have removed their download section. You now, as an individual (a for-profit Linux company can't bundle a script to do it for you) have to visit some place like here or here to get the core fonts. It's really nice as well, as to buy these suckers as hinted TrueType they're about 50 bucks each.

If you own a legitimate, unused copy of Windows 95 that Microsoft has badgered you into not selling secondhand, you an legitimately extract all the CAB files on the CD and pick out the TrueType fonts (*.TTF) that come with Windows 95.

Incidentally, I have just had to add a feature to cabextract that keeps track of all cabinets extracted by extending to another cabinet, so people who never read the documentation -- documentation which tell them explicitly to only put the first cabinet name down -- will be saved the indignity of cabextract extracting an interconnected set of 62 cabinets a grand total of 62 times.
adequacy.org -- because it isn't

 
If you say so. (none / 0) (#4)
by SpaceGhoti on Sun Sep 8th, 2002 at 04:01:09 PM PST
Linux STILL isn't ready for the desktop.


Oddly enough, a good portion of the world would seem to disagree with you.


A troll's true colors.

Indeed. (none / 0) (#5)
by dmg on Sun Sep 8th, 2002 at 05:08:01 PM PST
These are the very Linux Zealots who I referred to earlier on. Of course, I will be the judge of whether Linux is ready for MY desktop. And my judgement is: NO IT IS NOT READY.

time to give a Newtonian demonstration - of a bullet, its mass and its acceleration.
-- MC Hawking

You're entitled to your opinion. (none / 0) (#7)
by SpaceGhoti on Tue Sep 10th, 2002 at 02:52:37 PM PST
I was just pointing out that some very respectable people disagree with you. I never thought of IBM, CNN and IDG as "Linux Zealots" before.


A troll's true colors.

 
GNOME and KDE is for the lower classes (none / 0) (#6)
by Ortho Normal on Tue Sep 10th, 2002 at 12:02:21 PM PST
Sir,

May I suggest that you have one of your servants operate your computing-box for you? For a modest price you can purchase one with artistic talent, since that is generally undervalued in servants. Mine is able to render fine tube shots in oil-on-canvas, in any font that I desire. You must excuse me now, it is time to tell my servant to focus the spade upon another window.



 
maybe (none / 0) (#8)
by BurntAsh on Tue Sep 10th, 2002 at 04:15:16 PM PST
your right, linux isn't ready to be a desktop yet, but they are getting close. linux has already taken the server niche, and at the rate KDE is going than you can expect linux to pull out. id say within the next couple of years, 5 at the latest, linux will take the desktop. the problem is it doesnt get enough publicity. mozilla would be good if it wasnt so slow. i like konquorer myself.

-

no wonder this is the most controversial site, its full of trolls. :)

Nope. (none / 0) (#9)
by Ernest Bludger on Tue Sep 10th, 2002 at 06:31:45 PM PST
As is often pointed out, trolling is not permitted at adequacy.org. The use of capital letters at the beginning of sentences is, however, strongly encouraged.


 

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