Thursday, November 20, 2008

Rants and Laughs 8

Alright, I know I just did a Rants and Laughs a few days ago. It is nearly the end of the semester, and I am quite busy. Anyway, here is some more fodder for all of you.

Well, it looks like the Indrema clone may have a few problems. and it is shipping with Windows as well, but the developer hopes that this will provide a 'stepping-stone for Linux EVO gaming.' Suuuuurrrrre it will. Score one for Linux gaming!

Linux Journal posts a message from a 'clueless Linux user.' One of the major problems with Linux is that it is a piece-meal system, so if someone complains, the organization that receives the complaint can just say 'not our fault; it is the fault of that other organization whose software we use.' Yes, I know he should not have called a magazine, but still.

Some luser asks if there are any good Linux video editors that do not crash. You got me there!

Some peter-puffers discuss the link between opening-up and decline in share price. It looks like open sourcing really is the Hail Mary Desperation Pass of software.

Some luser thinks that good things are on the horizon. WTF?! It just looks like a bunch of distro releases to me. Big fuckin' deal!

Finally, here are two user-submitted rants.
My rant about the "it's free, but download the add-in yourself" mentality :

"In Indonesia, personal internet connection is much worse compared to
Singapore's or Australia, and rarely used due the relatively expensive
tariff and slow speed. So, having a software that require a direct
internet connection is such a burden. For example, antivirus software
that don't have offline update functionality is doomed to fail in most
Indonesia's rarely connected computer user.
That's one of the reason I use Mint. Instead of painstakingly
connecting to my university internet connection, all I have to do is
install it, and forget it. MP3, FLV, WMA, name it. I don't have to use
repository disc or other cumbersome methods.
The same things applies to Novell's Go-OO fork. After installing Sun's
OpenOffice, I found that there's no spelling checker in Indonesia.
Great. There's no extension available in their site either. But all
Go-OO releases I've tried and love, include Indonesian and many others
by default. And there's also that hybrid PDF export that should be
very useful, presentation minimizer and report builder (developed by
Sun but they don't include it in their own release, strange), directly
integrated in Go-OO. All I have to do is install and forget.

How long will this continue? Even if I have a fast internet
connection, I'll prefer releases that include useful stuff by default,
not the one that give no clue how to add those."

Is there any other field with this mentality in Linux-related?
Here is another rant by thepld:
Found this gem on Amarok's blog:
http://amarok.kde.org/en/node/570
After some discussion, we have decided to extend Roktober since we are so far away from our goal and we think that maybe part of the problem is not enough promotion, so if we extend a few weeks maybe we can get this going. Not everyone follows the developer blogs, so if anybody missed the blog entry put up by our treasurer regarding Roktober, here are some highlights (or read the full entry):
  • we have seen a huge fall-off in donations from outside the EU and we're wondering why this is;
  • we are planning on giving two prizes this year so we are giving entries in the drawing based local currency;
  • towards the end of last year we spent over €2000 to send 12 people to aKademy;
  • the project spent about €1500 on technical and administrative items like server hosting, domain administration, develop resources (books) and hardware;
  • in addition to aKademy, we spent over €3500 attending free software conferences around the world
  • each developer/contributor team member was given two t-shirts. A small thank you for the large amounts of time put into the project by volunteers who are doing this for fun, not profit.

Apparently, they're having problems getting pity money to finance their software. Please note that they spent over €5500 to send people to FOSS conferences. What the hell do they even do at these conferences? Oh wait, I remember: Pat each other on the back about how wonderful free software is, and celebrate the advent of the Year of the Linux Desktop ™. In fact, only €1500 was actually spent on anything relating to actual software development.

I also enjoyed the subtle jab at non-EU countries. I think I know why no one is donating: We actually have our priorities straight and recognize there are more problems facing the world than having a fucking open source media player that can't even do replay gain. And hey, weren't OSS projects supposed to make money by selling support? They must have missed the memo.

6 comments:

oiaohm said...

Please go to a Linux conference some time.

Most of it is not patting people on back. Its like a huge open planning meeting. Its a rare cases that all key developers of a project can be physically in 1 place and exposed to end users in the flesh.

Yes aKademy is a conference that anyone who wants can go to. That money just makes sure the developers are there to face the public. Ie if there ticket is paid for not going is little harder.

Now be truthful Linux Hater's Redux you held a conference for Linux Haters with a fully public invite so Linux supporters could turn up. You really would try anything to get out of it.

Haters are just as invited as anyone else to Linux conferences.

Developers are not different. Paying ticket cuts down a excuse not to be there.

OpenOffice. Sun Microsystems still has final say of what will be and what will not be in the OpenOffice installer.

http://distribution.openoffice.org/cdrom/iso_downoad.html Ok has not been updated for 3.0.0 yet. This is the second form of OpenOffice. Distrobution form of iso with large section of the third parties included.

Download from net version presumes you have a connection to get the extras. ISO distribution form presumes you don't so you borough a disk. Come on lets be truthful downloading 100 meg on dialup sux's.

Its another case of complaining about the wrong things. Number 1 magazines that ship only the online version. Number 2 ISO images not updated yet.

PS Ubuntu video editor crashes are what I talked about lot before.

Application detect X lib installed. But X lib has been altered by distribution to remove some feature like mpeg encoding. No mpeg encoding no dvd production. Only one problem distrobutions do some of these alterations in a nasty undetectable way. Ie function still there just as soon as you call it you application goes splat.

Now you might say remember for next time. Ok problem what happens if the user corrects the lib or distrobution? Yes undetectable rock and hard place problem.

Lack of understanding of cause is a problem.

Anonymous said...

Haters are just as invited as anyone else to Linux conferences.

Why wasting time and money with such a crappy piece of OS.

Better write a post on LHR blog.

Anonymous said...

That Amarok thing is really great...

First, they make "free software" and annoy everyone by shouting in their faces how great it is and why it is superior.

Then, they find out that software development and distribution actually generates real cost which has to be paid with real money (what a surprise!).

So, obviously, they start to whine why the world doesn't just give them money. Makes me wonder why they didn't develop it as shareware or something like that in the first place. Oh right, that's because free software is so "superior". But what's the big difference there?

Shareware: You can test the software for free (usually for a trial period) and if you want to continue using it you register it for a (usually small) amount of money.

"Free" software: You can use it for free, but you will have to donate a (usually small) amount of money to it, because otherwise they will make you feel morally bad about it.

kerensky said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

i tried Songbird today..
on first program opening.. it was using 75 MB of memory with no playlist loaded.

foobar2000 with a shit ton of plugins installed and a total interface overhaul is using 8 MB with a playlist of 3,000 songs.

gg no re

thepld said...

Speaking of Songbird: it was one of the projects that disillusioned me with oss. I was a tester since the 0.1 release. About at the time of the 0.5 release, I realized this software wasn't getting much better. Trying 1.0, I find it uses double the memory of Winamp with only 1/4 of the features.