I agree with a lot of what Stallman says. He's talking about improving society. Unfortunately, society just wants to play games.

Christ, have you seen what they're doing to Nautilus, the file manager in Gnome? Features are being hacked away, to enable it to fit the tablet/mobile paradigm. Personally, I think the Gnome team has lost the plot. I don't really have a problem with Gnome 3 generally, but removing functionality like this is crazy. Maybe in ten years when I've done away with my clumsy old desktop PC then yeah, but right now? Mental.

Yeah, I saw that. Too many developers are focusing less on functionality and more on mobile platforms. I hate that, I want a desktop OS/application to be fit for desktop with all the features I want to use. If they want to develop a separate version for tablets etc, that is fine but don't make them one and the same.

What a load of bull.

Also what the hell is wrong with society wanting to play games?

Sorry but i thought the great thing about linux was that it was open source, and if you didn't like it you could write it how you want it?

There was a day when linux users could actually code themselves and contributed to the community. Now it seems people just want an OS for free with out contributing themselves .

Don't tell me off. Blame Ubuntu.

There are more ways to contribute than programming though. I am no programmer but I can contribute through testing releases and reporting bugs.

To be honest you do not have to look hard to come across this point of view in the Linux world. Many long term users of Linux find the current trend of attempting to attract regular users distasteful and counter-productive. Perhaps I can understand it, after all who wants demanding users trampling all over your hobby? I think perhaps if Linux distros only want users who can code, then they should do everyone a favour and say so on your main web page, so us plebs will know clearly to stay away and use something else. It works for Fedora.

I didn't mean to come across all ranting as much as i may have then.

I'm in two minds tbh, i can see both sides.

It just winds me up a bit when people winge about stuff they buy, and i just think stop buying the bloody product then. But when its free, how dare people winge about it when it was free. People have worked hard implementing this stuff, and it might be for the fun of it (as a hobby), but you didn't have to install it did you?

In a paid society, developers make what people will buy and play.
In a free society, developers make what developers want to make, often driven buy what people want to play.

Both these paid and free societies are actually just simple economic models. I aint no economist, i'm a games programmer, but it doesn't stop it being true. I make games that sell, and games that get downloaded for free on mobile platforms.

The thing I take issue with is when people like Stallman come out with things like this.


The who idea of computing and networking is to make one's life easier by using a computer in what ever way you see fit. It shouldn't matter what type of software is used if it does what the user needs.

Is anyone else following the Elementary OS project? I have been eagerly awaiting the Luna release for a while now and anticipation just keeps building

It's nice to see that the developers are taking their time to get things right but, my God, the waiting is torture

He must have been confused. Even the GPL has conditions, so is not "free" in the almost anal sense he's using the word. The BSD license is freer.

Where much of one's day to day work still can not be done in a completely open source environment, the only alternatives are to use proprietary stuff, or achieve less.

We now have a Unity lens that helps us access Pirate Bay

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/08/u...y-for-uk-users

At the risk of upsetting some of us here: Linux Mint forks Nautilus into Nemo.

Now I'm using KDE, so you won't find me with any complaints, but for the Gnome fans - is this a good thing? What on earth is happening? My personal feeling is that this constant forking of Gnome 3 components is a waste of time. Gnome is no longer aimed at desktops, hence the removing of functionality to fit smaller portable devices. These things do not fit the mobile/tablet touchscreens they are aiming at running on.

So with this in mind, why make work for yourself forking bits and bobs of Gnome? I don't get it. Why not just switch to whatever is doing it right for you, such as XFCE or MATE or KDE or whatever? Why the need to shoehorn Gnome into something it isn't designed to fit any more? Is this not too much like hard, and mostly unnecessary work?

Ay dear. Funny times for Gnome indeed...

I Dropped Gnome when Gnome3 and variants started to appear. Guessed it would all turn into a big mix up, and seems it is.

http://www.osnews.com/story/26227/GN...nto_the_abyss_

Mint seem to me, to be taking a big gamble with all this customizing of Gnome.

At least the likes of kde xfce etc are getting more publicity

Does all this mean I'm going to have to buy another computer from Linux Emporium and dump my netbook? Currently running preinstalled 10.04.4LTS on it - and if t's all being screwed up.. I hope these functional changes are stopped by the Ubuntu release Managers...

I wouldn't know how to change OSs safely - I bought all my kit preinstalled... and just accepted the updates as they come down.. always used the Ubuntu repos...

I think Ubuntu has it's own idea of what Gnome will be like on its OS. That's how we ended up with Unity. I'm pretty sure they won't remove functionality with future editions of Ubuntu. You'll be fine foe now though with your 10.04. It won't affect that of course. The only thing you'll have to watch is support ending in approx 9 months time. After that, I expect things will have settled down a bit with Gnome. KDE had a similarly difficult and public switch from KDE3 to 4, but they got over that. Gnome will be the same. It couldn't hurt you to look into Kubuntu though.

Blatant bump as its slow on the Linux news front

This is amazing, a complete OS

http://macpup.org/

Using 164MB
Just released

164Mb!! Enlightenment never ceases to amaze.

Hmm ... see youre profile says youre back on Ubuntu, thought you had converted to KDE?
Or are you waiting for the release of KDE 5

I've got everything installed now. Decided it's silly going back and forth, so installed Gnome 3 from the Gnome Team PPA, Cinnamon from the PPA, and also have Unity and KDE too. There, problem solved, and if fickleness rears it's head, as it no doubt will, it won't involve a re-install. I'm using Cinnamon at the moment though. I just can't settle on one desktop!

We've just lost Blinkbox - they're going over to Silverlight...

Oh - this is bloody unfair - BLINKBOX now locking out Linux users
Hi folks,

got the following email from Blinkbox...

Dear Alex,

Here at blinkbox, we’re always trying hard to deliver the best movie experience for our customers. As part of this we wanted to let you know that from the 28th August we are switching from Adobe Flash Player to a new video player called Microsoft Silverlight when you use blinkbox.com on your computer.

We believe this will provide you with a better movie service, because:

• Silverlight will improve the viewing experience for our PC and Mac users
• It will deliver a ‘smooth streaming’ video service, meaning a higher quality picture for you
• It provides greater security than Flash against piracy, ensuring we can continue to show you great movies and TV shows.

You will probably already have a version of Silverlight installed on your computer, but if not you will need to install new software from the Microsoft website. Alternatively, simply follow the onscreen instructions when you visit blinkbox.com from the 28th August.

If you do get stuck or have any questions then please feel free to contact us at support@blinkbox.com.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you, but we really think it’s worth it and hope that you continue to enjoy great movie experiences at blinkbox.

Kind regards,

Michael Comish
CEO, blinkbox


I've emailed them back, asking..

hi folks,

I'm disappointed to hear about your changes - does this mean I can no longer test or play content on my Linux equipment?

Will my LG 32LV550T-ZC TV still be supported?

Please reconsider - as you are locking linux users out of your platform.

---
This is bloody sick..

What happened to the Linux equivalent, Moonlight?

Doesn't have PlayReady - the DRM. Devs offered to add it, the studios told them to take a hike.

Stephen Fry uses Ubuntu

http://www.omgubuntu.co.uk/2012/08/s...y-i-use-ubuntu

Shame this isnt still being worked on...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KkWDEmgt9qY

http://www.cyberciti.biz/tips/linux-...r-windows.html

http://xpenguins.seul.org/

Just loaded it and its great fun