linguae

40 ms·

451.
by linguae 2y ago
I am a big fan of NeXT and I agree that OPENSTEP (the name of NeXT's operating system at the time of purchase) was superior to BeOS. However, I don't think OPENSTEP vs. BeOS was the main factor that led to Apple's revitaliza
452.
by linguae 2y ago
This is a nice document, and many of the suggestions dovetail with my own ideas for a component-based operating system, which I wrote about in 2020 ( http://mmcthrow-musings.blogspot.com/2020/04/a-proposal-for-... )
453.
by linguae 2y ago
I agree. In my opinion, the problem is that Microsoft and Apple discovered more lucrative markets, making their desktops less important. For Apple, the iPhone’s revenue completely dwarfs the Mac’s, and even services bring in more revenue
454.
by linguae 2y ago
There are other reasons to buy an iPhone. I loathe the App Store’s restrictions, and this is a showstopper for me regarding the iPad, which would’ve been Alan Kay’s Dynabook if it weren’t for being limited to the App Store. However, I’m w
455.
by linguae 2y ago
I would LOVE to build a modern-day operating system using a high-level programming language, even if it were just a pedagogical toy. I love Unix, but it’s not (and shouldn’t be) the final word on OS design. In the meanwhile, Project Oberon
456.
by linguae 2y ago
The luxury isn’t in the taste, it’s in the convenience. Sometimes I get hungry, but I didn’t plan ahead and I’m too busy to cook. Sometimes cooking isn’t an option, such as while traveling, or some mishap happens while cooking. Thus it’s
457.
by linguae 2y ago
Yup. I recently read a fascinating article about Apple selling a Mac emulator (similar in usage to the open source Basilisk and SheepShaver emulators) for Solaris back in the mid-1990s. There actually was a market for Unix workstation use
458.
by linguae 2y ago
I’m a ex-Mac user who switched to Windows a few years ago due to Apple’s soldered RAM and storage. I am considering making a switch to FreeBSD for my Framework laptop (contingent on driver support; otherwise I’d use Linux) and my daily-dri
459.
by linguae 2y ago
Some good resources to start with: - OSDev.org ( https://wiki.osdev.org/Expanded_Main_Page ) is a great starting point for writing an operating system - Three Easy Pieces ( https://pages.cs.wisc.edu/~remzi&
460.
by linguae 2y ago
I feel the exact same way. I wish FOSS desktop advocates in the 1990s either rallied behind the development of GNUstep, or I wish that during the time when Qt had a non-FOSS license, the Harmony project ( https://en.wikipedia.org
461.
by linguae 2y ago
This is true. I’m thinking about contributing to open source projects, perhaps even starting one, to further help with developing alternatives to “Big Tech” and their increasing levels of control on personal computing.
462.
by linguae 2y ago
I said commercial OS market to distinguish proprietary desktop operating systems (Windows and macOS) from Linux, the BSDs, MINIX, Haiku, Plan 9, OpenSolaris, FreeDOS, and other alternative operating systems. Windows and macOS is a duopol
463.
by linguae 2y ago
I wholeheartedly agree with you. Unfortunately, the commercial desktop OS market is a duopoly. Either we must deal with Windows and its shenanigans, or we must deal with macOS and its drawbacks (the chief ones being limited hardware choic
464.
by linguae 2y ago
My usual recommendation is to work through K&R, which is how I learned C nearly 20 years ago as a high school senior taking an introductory C course at a community college. I still think this is a well-written book that will teach you
465.
by linguae 2y ago
I would imagine that for some games there is still a lot of money to be made making the most out of 95-year copyright lengths, and while open sourcing games per se is definitely not a relinquishment of copyright, it could affect the profita
466.
by linguae 2y ago
I’m curious about how these empty homes are distributed? Take California for example, where there are 19 empty homes per homeless person according to the link provided. But where are these empty homes in California? If they are dispropor
467.
by linguae 2y ago
I have a theory: perhaps the reason programmers may peak in their 30s has to do with programmers changing their roles later in their careers to where they spend less time coding and more time doing other tasks. For example, junior- and sen
468.
by linguae 2y ago
During Bell Labs’ heyday, it was the beneficiary of AT&T’s nationwide monopoly. AT&T was a monopoly subject to various restrictions by the US government as part of a series of legal cases. When a lab is part of a monopoly, whether
469.
by linguae 2y ago
1. Convenience usually transfers to less development time, which means less cost. Unless the performance is so poor that it’s unacceptable to a majority of users, many companies are willing to ship less-performant software if it means sav
470.
Apple apologizes for iPad 'Crush' ad that 'missed the mark'(theverge.com)
667 points by linguae 2y ago|1518 comments
471.
by linguae 2y ago
I was also disappointed by this ad when I first saw it, but I wasn’t shocked. In fact I think it’s symbolic of the direction Apple took since the passing of Steve Jobs. Apple, even during its “beleaguered” mid-1990s era, was a champion of
472.
by linguae 2y ago
When I said "nationalism," I was thinking in the context of the cultural aspects, such as immigration policy, assimilation vs. multiculturalism, how history is taught in public schools (especially when it comes to conflicts betwee
473.
by linguae 2y ago
This dis-alignment of global values is happening within the West where the fortunes of world-class "winner" cities like New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, London, and the like have diverged from the fortunes of second- and thir
474.
by linguae 2y ago
Unfortunately a lot of proprietary software packages require either Windows or macOS, with no option for Linux users. Windows has its annoyances, but using macOS requires purchasing a Mac (I’m ignoring Hackintoshes). Since Apple is the
475.
by linguae 2y ago
What areas of computing do you find exciting? I personally find AI, operating systems, programming languages, and databases exciting, but everybody has different interests. I would start from there. Next, graduate-level courses are typica
476.
by linguae 2y ago
Yup. In addition, a large number of California’s African American population consists of descendants of the Second Great Migration from the South. Many African Americans moved to California in the 1940s and 1950s for job opportunities. I
477.
by linguae 2y ago
There is much more to the abortion debate than unwanted babies. A woman could want to carry a pregnancy, only to discover that the baby is unviable or suffer a miscarriage. There are also cases where there’s a complication in the pregnanc
478.
by linguae 2y ago
“Leetcode grind” means solving Leetcode problems. Interviewing for many software engineering positions in Silicon Valley these days require doing well on Leetcode-style coding exercises where one has a limited amount of time to solve a pro
479.
by linguae 3y ago
The printer driver situation was RMS’s last straw, but he was already saddened by the demise of the sharing culture of the MIT AI lab once Symbolics and Lisp Machines, Inc. were founded, and he spent a considerable amount of effort reimplem
480.
by linguae 3y ago
Interestingly enough, the free software movement came about due to Richard Stallman’s frustrations with Symbolics, one of the Lisp machine companies that came from the same MIT AI lab he worked in. It’s just that RMS chose to reimplement U

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