4 ms·

Sigh. Why submit this pointless troll of an article when the LWN article it cites has actual information, content and details?

unalone 18y ago
Because it makes good points. This is one of my favorite blogs to get articles from. The guy is a ranter, absolutely, but he isn't just trolling. He's almost certainly a long-time Linux user with experience developing. His blog isn't so much Linux hatred as it is hatred for a lot of the stupid stuff that gets thrown about in its name. I used to use Linux, but left because it really wasn't stable. It messed up repeatedly, I couldn't get sound to work after a week's trying to fix it, and in the end I decided that Vista was worth keeping around. The Compiz argument is one of the ones that I most hate: the people who like Compiz are the people who think that people use other operating systems for flashy effects. Not true. The best effects are only minimally flashy, but the real flash comes from doing something meaningful. (Case in point, the way OS X has a search bar in Help that will take you directly to menu commands. It wows friends that I show, but it's not graphic-intensive at all.) Sometimes it's good to have open hostility in a blog post, especially if it does cite its sources. This isn't about the news of Compiz closing. This is about how awful a lot of core Linux groups are, and how the Linux masses preach stupid, wasteful things instead of the parts of Linux that really matter. That's a message the community needs.
- rbanffy 18y ago
  "I used to use Linux, but left because it really wasn't stable. It messed up repeatedly" I have to ask: have you really ever used Linux after, say, 1998? I ask that because in my experience (I moved to Linux by 2000) it is a rock-solid OS. It won't work with every hardware I throw at it, of course, because not all hardware is documented enough for people to write drivers for it. I have had my troubles with cheap sound cards and cheap motherboards, but, all in all, the system never, ever, gave me any headache.
  - unalone 18y ago
    I have Ubuntu installed through VMware right now, to try it. Exact same problem I had with previous versions: the audio card doesn't work and I've tried but it won't fix. In 2005, Ubuntu fried my computer and I had to hard-reset everything. So it's hard feelings.
    - rbanffy 18y ago
      I guess the VMWare audio-card problem is more a VMWare problem than a Ubuntu one. What kind of computer did you have back in 2005? I have never heard of anything like it.
- Tichy 18y ago
  But the Linux masses DON'T preach stupid wasteful things. So some developers decided that compiz matters, and they poured some time into it. Doesn't make them "the Linux masses".
  - unalone 18y ago
    See what I said to your other reply. Compiz is a Big Thing when it comes to promoting Linux (especially Ubuntu) as an operating system. It's always said something to the effect of, "Do you like that Vista and OS X look fancy! Look at Ubuntu! We wobble your windows! We have a spinning cube!" I once reinstalled Linux just to try it out, because a blog post that I read said that it set the standard for all operating systems. Compiz is a big name, and it's stupid wasteful, and it gets preached. There are good Linux things, and the blog has actually focused on some of them before. But for every darling project that works well (say, Firefox), there are a ton that are either bloated (OpenOffice) or broken (Pidgin) or just wasteful (Compiz).
    - Tichy 18y ago
      Some people care for compiz and spinning effects - and look at the market share of Apple... But I simply don't like your generalizations. I agree that efforts on effects would be better spent elsewhere - or at least they should do it right. Maybe if the compiz effects would actually look good and be useful, they would make people switch to Linux. I don't know, but you yourself admit to having tried Linux just because of compiz. So maybe it matters after all.
      - unalone 18y ago
        Apple doesn't make wobbly windows! For the most part, they don't include effects without actual, right-there performance impact! I don't want to debate this here, because I've debated it far too many times, but the genie effect lets you see where your window's headed, the bouncing icon on the dock shows you what program needs your attention, and the only irrelevant special glitzy feature I've ever seen on my Mac was the ripple that Dashboard shows you when you add an app, and I have Dashboard disabled. Also? When Apple does add a feature, they have a team working on it, so that if somebody were to quit their job it wouldn't fall apart. Maybe if the compiz effects would actually look good and be useful, they would make people switch to Linux. I don't know, but you yourself admit to having tried Linux just because of compiz. So maybe it matters after all. No. You should not market an OS based on a pointless feature that adds nothing but strain. You should sell your OS on what it lets you do. For Linux, advertise the application repository, how easy that is. Advertise the multiple desktops. You probably know better than I do what's good in Linux. But don't advertise a feature that adds nothing functional, wastes graphic space, and apparently was dependent on one person anyway. That would be like when Apple released their "web clips" for Dashboard, if they hadn't actually added the clipping feature and had only added the feature that lets you pick what the clip looks like, and then touted that as a big feature.

unalone 18y ago

Because it makes good points. This is one of my favorite blogs to get articles from. The guy is a ranter, absolutely, but he isn't just trolling. He's almost certainly a long-time Linux user with experience developing. His blog isn't so much Linux hatred as it is hatred for a lot of the stupid stuff that gets thrown about in its name. I used to use Linux, but left because it really wasn't stable. It messed up repeatedly, I couldn't get sound to work after a week's trying to fix it, and in the end I decided that Vista was worth keeping around. The Compiz argument is one of the ones that I most hate: the people who like Compiz are the people who think that people use other operating systems for flashy effects. Not true. The best effects are only minimally flashy, but the real flash comes from doing something meaningful. (Case in point, the way OS X has a search bar in Help that will take you directly to menu commands. It wows friends that I show, but it's not graphic-intensive at all.) Sometimes it's good to have open hostility in a blog post, especially if it does cite its sources. This isn't about the news of Compiz closing. This is about how awful a lot of core Linux groups are, and how the Linux masses preach stupid, wasteful things instead of the parts of Linux that really matter. That's a message the community needs.

rbanffy 18y ago
"I used to use Linux, but left because it really wasn't stable. It messed up repeatedly" I have to ask: have you really ever used Linux after, say, 1998? I ask that because in my experience (I moved to Linux by 2000) it is a rock-solid OS. It won't work with every hardware I throw at it, of course, because not all hardware is documented enough for people to write drivers for it. I have had my troubles with cheap sound cards and cheap motherboards, but, all in all, the system never, ever, gave me any headache.
- unalone 18y ago
  I have Ubuntu installed through VMware right now, to try it. Exact same problem I had with previous versions: the audio card doesn't work and I've tried but it won't fix. In 2005, Ubuntu fried my computer and I had to hard-reset everything. So it's hard feelings.
  - rbanffy 18y ago
    I guess the VMWare audio-card problem is more a VMWare problem than a Ubuntu one. What kind of computer did you have back in 2005? I have never heard of anything like it.
Tichy 18y ago
But the Linux masses DON'T preach stupid wasteful things. So some developers decided that compiz matters, and they poured some time into it. Doesn't make them "the Linux masses".
- unalone 18y ago
  See what I said to your other reply. Compiz is a Big Thing when it comes to promoting Linux (especially Ubuntu) as an operating system. It's always said something to the effect of, "Do you like that Vista and OS X look fancy! Look at Ubuntu! We wobble your windows! We have a spinning cube!" I once reinstalled Linux just to try it out, because a blog post that I read said that it set the standard for all operating systems. Compiz is a big name, and it's stupid wasteful, and it gets preached. There are good Linux things, and the blog has actually focused on some of them before. But for every darling project that works well (say, Firefox), there are a ton that are either bloated (OpenOffice) or broken (Pidgin) or just wasteful (Compiz).
  - Tichy 18y ago
    Some people care for compiz and spinning effects - and look at the market share of Apple... But I simply don't like your generalizations. I agree that efforts on effects would be better spent elsewhere - or at least they should do it right. Maybe if the compiz effects would actually look good and be useful, they would make people switch to Linux. I don't know, but you yourself admit to having tried Linux just because of compiz. So maybe it matters after all.
    - unalone 18y ago
      Apple doesn't make wobbly windows! For the most part, they don't include effects without actual, right-there performance impact! I don't want to debate this here, because I've debated it far too many times, but the genie effect lets you see where your window's headed, the bouncing icon on the dock shows you what program needs your attention, and the only irrelevant special glitzy feature I've ever seen on my Mac was the ripple that Dashboard shows you when you add an app, and I have Dashboard disabled. Also? When Apple does add a feature, they have a team working on it, so that if somebody were to quit their job it wouldn't fall apart. Maybe if the compiz effects would actually look good and be useful, they would make people switch to Linux. I don't know, but you yourself admit to having tried Linux just because of compiz. So maybe it matters after all. No. You should not market an OS based on a pointless feature that adds nothing but strain. You should sell your OS on what it lets you do. For Linux, advertise the application repository, how easy that is. Advertise the multiple desktops. You probably know better than I do what's good in Linux. But don't advertise a feature that adds nothing functional, wastes graphic space, and apparently was dependent on one person anyway. That would be like when Apple released their "web clips" for Dashboard, if they hadn't actually added the clipping feature and had only added the feature that lets you pick what the clip looks like, and then touted that as a big feature.