CodingExperiments.Com - Latest Comments

Re: Which Linux Distributions Are Dying?

lulz — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 12:40:45 -0000

Well... Ubuntu IS Debian by and large :P

Re: Which Linux Distributions Are Dying?

Name — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 02:29:03 -0000

you missed Archlinux. Its growing really fast!

http://www.google.ca/trends?q=archlinux%2C+slac...

Re: Which Linux Distributions Are Dying?

David — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 21:52:36 -0000

You might want to look into the difference between correlation and causation. You can't infer that fewer search terms in Google equate to a distro dying off and expect to be taken seriously. You need to find better sources of data, otherwise your findings are meaningless. For instance, you could look at the number of downloads in a given period of time. But Google Trends in this case is useless data, as it can only possibly show a correlation, and even then, there may be no actual correlation to reality. For all you know, people are changing their search engine of choice, or simply don't feel the need to plug the term into a search engine any longer as they know where to go for help or information. There's no way to tell without solid statistics to back up your claims.

Re: Which Linux Distributions Are Dying?

zspace — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:22:34 -0000

Got to love those biyearly jumps in searches for ubuntu.

Re: Which Linux Distributions Are Dying?

moran — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 11:44:29 -0000

you are retarded if you think that Google trends is any indicator of how popular something it. get a brain moran!

Re: Why I Dislike C++

PierreGau — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:37:21 -0000

The current trend is Web Applications (PHP is seen as 'sexy').

But plain-old C can bring one thing or two in this area:

TrustLeap G-WAN is a Web Application Server which is faster (in user-mode) than IIS 7.0 (in the kernel).

G-WAN ANSI C89 ('edit & play') scripts are 5x faster than ASP.Net C#.

G-WAN C scripts are 120x faster than PHP.

G-WAN is up to 38x faster than Apache.
G-WAN is up to 25x faster than Nginx.

One of the reasons CPUs sold well was bloated code.

No longer: with the CPU frequency halt, inefficient code will not longer scale on new CPUs because by using more Cores they are more powerful, but not faster, see:

http://trustleap.ch/en_scalability.html

So, whether the world (including youngs) will learn how to code properly or, well, they will have to buy twice as much servers to make their Web Applications work twice faster.

Just adding CPUs (or CPU Cores) is a much less expensive proposition.

As a result, skilled C programmers have a bright future: the 'sexy' PHP will not survive without C.

Re: Prediction: Android Gains Strength against iPhone in Late 2009 to 2010

gauravM — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 04:23:35 -0000

Nice post. i like the information you have provide for iPhone. Thanks for sharing.

Re: Five Reasons FriendFeed Has Made Reading Personal Blogs Interesting

k2seo — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 05:53:57 -0000

What a nice piece of information. It's good to read such a valuable article for beginner like me. Some of the points from this article are very useful for me as I haven’t considered them yet. Thank You very much for sharing.

Re: Prediction: Android Gains Strength against iPhone in Late 2009 to 2010

bloggingis — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 09:55:37 -0000

I completely agree with you when you talk about the iPhone's App Store policies.
But I personally feel that it would make a potential advantage to Windows Mobile than for Andoid, atleast at this point of time i.e. in 2009! Check out this link to my blog where I mention the reasons for Windows to succeed
http://future-mobilez.blogspot.com/2009/08/why-...
Also, looking at its latest GUI here
http://future-mobilez.blogspot.com/2009/08/wind...
I feel that Microsoft has come a long way in taking on iPhone.

Re: Prediction: Android Gains Strength against iPhone in Late 2009 to 2010

k00pa — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 09:33:54 -0000

That looks so awesome that I think I will buy that. Only problem is that I am not sure if there is any delivery to Finland. :(

Re: Which Linux Distributions Are Dying?

harrybarracuda — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 06:46:45 -0000

It's an interesting article. Personally I try many distributions for fun as and when they come out. I discard anything that doesn't support the hardware OOTB (I include Live distributions and ones you have to install). Generally speaking, Ubuntu and its derivatives do, and the rest don't.

It's my humble opinion that this is what gives it the legs. The developers of Fedora, OpenSUSE, Mandriva, etc., should really put effort into broadening the base of hardware supported, and simplifying its installation. I boot up a live CD of something or other and it doesn't support my wifi, or I have to p*ss about to get the graphics card working, I'm not going to bother.

Re: Four Must-Do’s for Giving CDs to Potential New Linux Users

possible248 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:11:30 -0000

Thank you for your very informative comment.

While I'm not quite sure about Wubi specifically--I have never personally gotten the installer to not crash--I think that virtualization in general would probably be a good idea first. :)

Also good point about not removing Windows immediately. Setting up a dual-boot, even if the user plans on never using Windows again if things go well, is probably most advisable--like you suggest.

Re: Four Must-Do’s for Giving CDs to Potential New Linux Users

seoworkgroup1 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 07:34:36 -0000

Very good article, nice piece of information, I really like it. Thank you for sharing.

Re: Four Must-Do’s for Giving CDs to Potential New Linux Users

conradtheart — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 05:17:47 -0000

Great post. I'd tell them about the Wubi function on some distro's like Ubuntu that allows you to install it like any other program inside of Windows.

Also tell them not to remove Windows from the start, so that they can move over to Linux slowly. If a newbie wipes everything and completely moves over to Linux from the start, it might frighten them so much that they move back to Windows and never come back.

Re: Debunking Myths That Say Linux Won’t Reach the Desktop

Yaro — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 14:56:07 -0000

"The default UI - Why oh why does every linux distro I've tried look like it was designed for children? huge icons, even bigger ugly text in menus, it almost feels as if I've dropped down a screen resolution or 2."

Sounds to me like there's something wrong with your display. Are you using really old hardware? Or really obscure hardware? Maybe you're using nVidia cards without proprietary drivers? TRUST me, there's no reason why text and icons should be so large, so if it feels like you've lost resolution, you probably have. I'm able to use my full 1680 by 1050 resolution. To make things even smaller, I adjusted my text pitch to only about 88 DPI. Works really well.

As for the rest of the interface... it is EASILY changed.

"Sound - I have yet to get a distro that has good sound support, we have ALSA, OSS, the newer ones which I forget, seems like a mini-battle for sound support."

Actually, we just have ALSA... OSS is usually not even compiled into the kernel and OSS apps just get rerouted to ALSA. Sound usually works perfectly on Linux thanks to ALSA, but there is a new "kid" on the block that screws it all up called "Pulse Audio" that some distributions foolishly bundle by default. Ubuntu, SuSE, and Fedora do it. The others don't.

If you use those that install it by default your best bet is to remove it and get ALSA reconfigured. Believe me, ALSA works perfectly unless the distributor screws it up with PA.

"Until linux allows me to download and install a new program as easily as XP I doubt linux will make the mainstream, if I want to install a new application under linux, I download the equivalent of a zip file, extract it, look through for some kind of install instructions, create directories, change permissions and a bunch of messing about. With windoze you download to desktop and double click... if only linux was that easy."

What? Searching through tools like Synaptic is harder than picking through hundreds of spyware, shareware, commercialware and manually resolving libraries like .NET is easier than the one-command wonders that are apt-get, yum, and pacman? Perhaps you were left totally unaware of Linux package managers? Because trust me, most your Linux distros have massive software repositories that do ALL of that for you, so it sounds like you completely forgot about them or just weren't aware of them to begin with.

Trust me, with package managers and respositories, most Linux distros beat the software installation practices of Windows hands down.

Re: Debunking Myths That Say Linux Won’t Reach the Desktop

rev668 — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 10:21:09 -0000

I dual boot XP and whatever flavour of linux I'm playing with at the time (currently ubuntu due to all the 'hype')

I've used linux from SuSE 6.4 and even in the latest distro's there are still many things that make me choose XP at boot time...

The default UI - Why oh why does every linux distro I've tried look like it was designed for children? huge icons, even bigger ugly text in menus, it almost feels as if I've dropped down a screen resolution or 2.

Sound - I have yet to get a distro that has good sound support, we have ALSA, OSS, the newer ones which I forget, seems like a mini-battle for sound support.

Until linux allows me to download and install a new program as easily as XP I doubt linux will make the mainstream, if I want to install a new application under linux, I download the equivalent of a zip file, extract it, look through for some kind of install instructions, create directories, change permissions and a bunch of messing about. With windoze you download to desktop and double click... if only linux was that easy.

Having said all that, I love linux and it's quirks (sound support apart). and use it regularly when not gaming :)

Rev

Re: Five Reasons FriendFeed Has Made Reading Personal Blogs Interesting

possible248 — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:29:43 -0000

He must have predicted my remorse and forgiven me in advance.

Re: Five Reasons FriendFeed Has Made Reading Personal Blogs Interesting

DGentry — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:11:05 -0000

Louis did tweet a link to this post, BTW. I only mention it here because, having hidden him, you probably wouldn't know otherwise. Heh.

Re: Five Reasons FriendFeed Has Made Reading Personal Blogs Interesting

possible248 — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 17:00:21 -0000

Oh noes! What a disaster!

Please reconsider! I made sure to un-hide the entry right after taking the screenshot.

(Another one for the Louis Gray Facts room.)

Re: Five Reasons FriendFeed Has Made Reading Personal Blogs Interesting

louismg — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 16:52:01 -0000

Hey! Wait a minute! (Bans you from the Internet)

:)

Re: Debunking Myths That Say Linux Won’t Reach the Desktop

Yaro — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:21:26 -0000

On the contrary, Linux has made *significant* inroads to being a good desktop option. Like the argument above made by the LDP: In only ONE year, Linux went from having few drivers to having the MOST drivers. Dell, Lenovo, and Asus decided that it was time to make Linux desktop PCs.

As for 200 standard actions? Hardly. I'd say maybe ten, which is a nice number: You install any drivers missing (Not bloody likely to BE missing in the first place.), codecs, and your favorite apps with one command, even in power distros like Arch this can all be done with one command. Uno. One single command.

My experience has always been Linux taking a fraction of the time Windows does to be ready for regular use. There will be exceptions, like Arch only having the core so you have to set EVERYTHING up, to Gentoo taking a weekend to install purely because it's a source distribution.

But then take Ubuntu, which has just about everything set up for you, or Mint, which even has all codecs set and ready to go, which even Windows doesn't have.

Re: Debunking Myths That Say Linux Won’t Reach the Desktop

Yaro — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:14:22 -0000

"Though, I could see Linux surpassing Mac OS X in marketshare if Apple does not lower the cost of Macs."

Won't ever happen, of course. Apple is too convinced that their computers are somehow worth 20%-70% more than PCs, despite Macs being nothing but PCs now with the same hardware and everything.

See, the reason I don't buy the "Macs are going to take over argument" is primarily that reason. By switching to Linux I don't spend ANYTHING. I keep my perfectly good hardware and I get to use a superior alternative to BOTH Windows and Mac OS X.

When switching to Macs, you are effectively doing more than just an operating system change, you're spending more money on entirely new hardware. That costs a lot of money, and I see that's primarily why Macs will never take a significant market share.

Re: Debunking Myths That Say Linux Won’t Reach the Desktop

Yaro — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:09:33 -0000

I believe one person debunked the idea Windows is so insecure because of market share simply by pointing out how many LAMP stacks there are that ware in a "better" position to be exploited, and yet the WISA stacks (Windows, IIS, SQL Server, ASP.net) which get nowhere close to a majority share are still targetted.

Re: Debunking Myths That Say Linux Won’t Reach the Desktop

Yaro — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:05:42 -0000

Well, while Linux supports more hardware out-of-box than Windows, remember that all across the Internet and driver distribution sphere, Linux has way more drivers than Windows.

The issue is how to get them. While most ethernet I've used works flawlessly with Linux out of the box, what if there's a more "fringe" ethernet card only a userspace driver that doesn't come with your distro works with?

It PAYS to have a separate stream for drivers. My best option would be to just boot into Windows if it has ethernet working, look up my network interface, and find the driver for Linux.

This has not happened to me yet, though, since ALL my drivers are available if not already ready to use with my distribution. The only driver I have to explicitly download is my proprietary nVidia driver. Back when I used Ubuntu it was because they wanted to avoid actually putting anything proprietary ("non-free") in the defalult desktop. I use Arch now. And the reason THAT isn't preinstalled and fully ready is for the same reason NO OTHER video drivers except for vesa are installed: In Arch, X and anything that uses it purely an extra, and the virtual consoles (The TTYs.) have no use for drivers more advanced than vesa.

Re: Debunking Myths That Say Linux Won’t Reach the Desktop

Yaro — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 16:56:42 -0000

This is not a strong disadvantage if it takes only a few months. Think of how slowly things take to release between markets by geography, for example. Rarely is, say, a video game released globally on one date, it's more region released.

Cross-platform releases are effectively the same way. New hardware? Wait for its actual Linux "release."

I have noticed nVidia is *very* good at havign drivers ready for all supported platforms FAST though. Note how quickly their drivers are out, supported and set for each new Xorg release.