When I started using Free software umpteen years ago, the standard response to a complaint about a bug that wasn't being fixed fast enough or a feature that the developer didn't deem important was "You have the code. You can fix it yourself if you want to."
That answer took a lot of flack with the Linux evangelists because it wasn't very user friendly. It "represents everything that's wrong with FOSS." Maybe. The unfriendliness doesn't change the accuracy. You do have the code. You can make a difference.
Sure. You may not be able to code. I couldn't. There's documentation to write, though, and if you speak a language out of the mainstream, there's plenty of translation work to do. That's how I got started: when Thai wasn't really supprted in early KDE, my name was on some of the translation work. I wrote some documentation. I supported the early FOSS movement in Thailand. I even gave several seminars about implemeting FOSS in schools there. Sometimes it was as simple as editing a definition file to get some hardware working and identified properly.
Could I code? No. Could I help? Of course. It didn't mean that I had to sit in chat rooms or on forums, either. There was (and still is) plenty of work to go around. We should still be able to say "If it's really important to you, you can do it" once in a while.
Showing posts with label Rants. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rants. Show all posts
Friday, April 10, 2009
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Idiotic Move of the Year Award
... goes to me!
A couple of days ago, I got tired of manually inserting the vboxdrv the first time I wanted to test something after a reboot (which happens about five times a week due to an intel driver bug in Lenny) so I typed
Oh, well, I decided that the problem with /etc/init wasn't something I wanted to try to fix inside the system, so I broke out a live CD. The one I had handy was Ubuntu 8.04.1, so I booted and opened /etc/inittab on the proper partition.
Luckily, I just had to boot an old laptop with Lenny, copy the file to a USB key, and move it over to the machine.
Still, it's easily the stupidest thing I've done to a system in a year, maybe in three to four.
A couple of days ago, I got tired of manually inserting the vboxdrv the first time I wanted to test something after a reboot (which happens about five times a week due to an intel driver bug in Lenny) so I typed
# echo vboxdrv > /etc/inittabThat's right, folks, not double GTs! I didn't realize that I had mistyped, though (it was a typo) and went along my merry way until the next reboot when, you guessed it! I got stuck at a prompt I've never actually been at in almost eleven years. Reading the error, there seemed to be a problem with inittab ... something about a limit of four characters. Odd, that.
Oh, well, I decided that the problem with /etc/init wasn't something I wanted to try to fix inside the system, so I broke out a live CD. The one I had handy was Ubuntu 8.04.1, so I booted and opened /etc/inittab on the proper partition.
vboxdrvstared at me, and I immediately realized what I had done. Wow, I felt stupid. Not really a problem, though, because I could just copy over the inittab from the live CD and everything should be workable (though there might be some differences) and I could fix from there. Except, ummm ... Ubuntu doesn't appear to have inittab. I'm going to have to look into that one and write about how they get around it. I didn't realize that Ubuntu was actually using Upstart for anything yet.
Luckily, I just had to boot an old laptop with Lenny, copy the file to a USB key, and move it over to the machine.
Still, it's easily the stupidest thing I've done to a system in a year, maybe in three to four.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
My "Internet friend" asked this question, though not of me
"Hello Alex, thanks for the reply. I wonder with Ubuntu if you could walk into Harvey Norman and choose whatever printer and scanner you like then take them home and get them to work within 15 mins? I wonder if you could find PC games for Linux such as Crysis, F.E.A.R., Half-Life 2, etc? I wonder if you could run every piece of 3rd party software you have now? I wonder with Linux whether you have the massive library of 3rd party software to choose from for your business or personal needs? I wonder if your PS3 can communicate with your Linux PC's MP3 library as a media server? If you answered 'yes' to all those questions, then wow, Ubuntu is better than I thought and I apologise for being mistaken."
Your answers are:
1) No, not any printer or scanner, but if they are supported they will work in about 5 seconds, not 15 minutes. If you run a Linux-based OS, you learn to check your hardware purchases, just the way you check the system requirements on the back of a software box.
2) You can find many great games for Linux, but certainly most games are made for ... consoles and handhelds. Haha. Got you! Windows PCs come in second, but a lot of the FPSes and MMORPGs are there. Linux is MUCH sparser, but there's always Nethack! ;)
3) Yes, I can run all my 3rd-party software I have now. I wonder if I can run every piece of third-party software I have now on Windows. The answer is probably not. It just depends on what you own, I guess. Mac users are in the same boat. They don't seem too unhappy.
4) Linux has HUGE stores of software, including stuff from Unix 30 years ago on forward to this year. Vista can't run stuff thats ten years old and it has had its share of complaints about compatibility. There are, though, lots of niche markets that aren't covered by Linux or any Unix. They may never be covered. It depends on how the market goes.
5) I don't have a PS3, but my PS2 can play MP3s AND movies streamed from my Linux box. Bet you didn't know that the PS2 could operate as a media center, did you? The PS3 can run Linux, so I'm sure it could be a Linux client. The XBox certainly can. LinuxMCE is a cool media solution for your entire house. It does things that Windows really WANTS to do, and that MS shows off, but that never make the release. Watch the video: If you don't want the technical detail and just want the flash, skip forward about ten minutes.
Note: Apparently, you use a uPnP application like MediaTomb to stream to the PS3. How easy is that?
Oh, I know that all those questions were rhetorical and that you didn't really want answers to them. I gave you the straight dope, anyway. Some was positive and some wasn't. Computers are that way.
In reality, my machine's operating system can inter-operate with Macs with no trouble. WinXP, too. It can read any major file system from MS or Apple or Sun or IBM. It can use Mono, ELF, and NeXT applications natively. It can serve as a web and/or file server from a machine with a 200MHz CPU and 64MB RAM (really quite a bit less). It can run on a netbook or a phone. It can run on Itanium or MIPS or Arm. It can boot from the Intranet using only PXE and give me the same experience I have with a regular desktop without even having any disks or Flash ROM. It can boot from a live CD. It can run a supercomputer or a render farm. It can do as much or as little as I please with it, using the resources to match the task. I can install it as many times in as many places as I care to, and it never accuses me of copyright infringement. Can WinVista do those things?
If you answered 'yes' to that question, then wow, Vista is better than I thought and I apologize for being mistaken. :P
You're happy with your Windows machine. Stay on it. I'm not asking you to switch. On the other hand, don't belittle people who donate hundreds of thousands of hours to make an amazing operating system by putting it down for not running Windows applications or using Windows drivers or integrating with your WindowsMCE perfectly. Some people spend all the time they have trying to make it happen. Microsoft puts virtually no time into trying to inter-operate with anyone else. Show some basic respect.
Your answers are:
1) No, not any printer or scanner, but if they are supported they will work in about 5 seconds, not 15 minutes. If you run a Linux-based OS, you learn to check your hardware purchases, just the way you check the system requirements on the back of a software box.
2) You can find many great games for Linux, but certainly most games are made for ... consoles and handhelds. Haha. Got you! Windows PCs come in second, but a lot of the FPSes and MMORPGs are there. Linux is MUCH sparser, but there's always Nethack! ;)
3) Yes, I can run all my 3rd-party software I have now. I wonder if I can run every piece of third-party software I have now on Windows. The answer is probably not. It just depends on what you own, I guess. Mac users are in the same boat. They don't seem too unhappy.
4) Linux has HUGE stores of software, including stuff from Unix 30 years ago on forward to this year. Vista can't run stuff thats ten years old and it has had its share of complaints about compatibility. There are, though, lots of niche markets that aren't covered by Linux or any Unix. They may never be covered. It depends on how the market goes.
5) I don't have a PS3, but my PS2 can play MP3s AND movies streamed from my Linux box. Bet you didn't know that the PS2 could operate as a media center, did you? The PS3 can run Linux, so I'm sure it could be a Linux client. The XBox certainly can. LinuxMCE is a cool media solution for your entire house. It does things that Windows really WANTS to do, and that MS shows off, but that never make the release. Watch the video: If you don't want the technical detail and just want the flash, skip forward about ten minutes.
Note: Apparently, you use a uPnP application like MediaTomb to stream to the PS3. How easy is that?
Oh, I know that all those questions were rhetorical and that you didn't really want answers to them. I gave you the straight dope, anyway. Some was positive and some wasn't. Computers are that way.
In reality, my machine's operating system can inter-operate with Macs with no trouble. WinXP, too. It can read any major file system from MS or Apple or Sun or IBM. It can use Mono, ELF, and NeXT applications natively. It can serve as a web and/or file server from a machine with a 200MHz CPU and 64MB RAM (really quite a bit less). It can run on a netbook or a phone. It can run on Itanium or MIPS or Arm. It can boot from the Intranet using only PXE and give me the same experience I have with a regular desktop without even having any disks or Flash ROM. It can boot from a live CD. It can run a supercomputer or a render farm. It can do as much or as little as I please with it, using the resources to match the task. I can install it as many times in as many places as I care to, and it never accuses me of copyright infringement. Can WinVista do those things?
If you answered 'yes' to that question, then wow, Vista is better than I thought and I apologize for being mistaken. :P
You're happy with your Windows machine. Stay on it. I'm not asking you to switch. On the other hand, don't belittle people who donate hundreds of thousands of hours to make an amazing operating system by putting it down for not running Windows applications or using Windows drivers or integrating with your WindowsMCE perfectly. Some people spend all the time they have trying to make it happen. Microsoft puts virtually no time into trying to inter-operate with anyone else. Show some basic respect.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Is This a Debian or a Gnome Blog? Vacation's over.
I talk about Gnome a lot when I talk about Debian. Why is that? Is my blog really about Debian or is it really a Gnome blog in disguise?
There's one answer, and it's short. Gnome is the default desktop for Debian. It's not all you can use. In fact, Debian is so large and varied that talking about any environment more than 10% of the time would be unfair. I like to stick to the defaults when I give advice, though, because it fits the largest number of people.
I'd like to spend more time exploring other DEs like Openbox (which I do use sometimes), FVWM-Crystal, or even KDE, but I have a lot of work to do and I don't like to spend too much time futzing around. I'll do what I can to get some reviews of the DEs/WMs in Debian up over the next few weeks. Don't expect anything in-depth, though, because I don't use them enough to make those kinds of remarks.
Speaking of getting work done, my week and a half of vacation is over tomorrow, and I'll be a lot quiter than I have been. The time's been good, though. I got Games That Work off the ground with almost 60 games, I finished the pre-seeds and did the site/documentation for it, and I got the first iteration of D2D out the door. I need to improve my scripting and packaging skills. Now that's a place to spend that spare time I don't have.
There's one answer, and it's short. Gnome is the default desktop for Debian. It's not all you can use. In fact, Debian is so large and varied that talking about any environment more than 10% of the time would be unfair. I like to stick to the defaults when I give advice, though, because it fits the largest number of people.
I'd like to spend more time exploring other DEs like Openbox (which I do use sometimes), FVWM-Crystal, or even KDE, but I have a lot of work to do and I don't like to spend too much time futzing around. I'll do what I can to get some reviews of the DEs/WMs in Debian up over the next few weeks. Don't expect anything in-depth, though, because I don't use them enough to make those kinds of remarks.
Speaking of getting work done, my week and a half of vacation is over tomorrow, and I'll be a lot quiter than I have been. The time's been good, though. I got Games That Work off the ground with almost 60 games, I finished the pre-seeds and did the site/documentation for it, and I got the first iteration of D2D out the door. I need to improve my scripting and packaging skills. Now that's a place to spend that spare time I don't have.
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