12 Sep 2002
Thu, 12 Sep 2002
Mandrake 9.0 RC2 - Best Laptop/Wireless Install
I'm speechless. After moaning about how bad most linux wireless installs are, I'm pleased to report that, at least on my Dell Inspiron 3700, the latest Mandrake 9.0 release candidate - RC2, is flawless. How flawless? Well, I was able to run the 3 CD install and the installer powered up my PCMCIA Orinoco Gold card and detected it properly. Then the installer displayed the configuration for the card and told me it was assigned to eth1. I made a single change to the configuration which was to set the card's connection type to auto. After the install had finished, the box booted into X Windows, I logged into KDE, started Mozilla 1.1 and was thrilled with 11 Mbps of wireless titillation. A year ago, I was still fairly skeptical about desktop Linux. After seeing this, I'll be getting out my checkbook to support the mandrake effort since I'd like to see them succeed and prosper.
Update: I just realized that Mandrake is now installing open office 1.0 out of the box and they include a built-in JVM so that it starts up cleanly out of the box meaning that it's about as user-friendly as any piece of java code I've seen. I'd been saying for a while that the missing link in this whole equation was a platform that distributed the JVM such that distribution of java apps was a no-nonsense download like it is with a windows executable. Now, all they need to do is put java web start in the distro and configure it to work by default with mozilla and this bad boy's cookin' with gas.
For the first time in my life, I can honestly say I'm ready to move my personal computing experience full-time into the Microsoft-free zone. I've been running my server-side on linux for years, but the desktop move has been elusive, mostly due to my concerns with either device driver support (PCMCIA, USB, etc) or usability. In my case, it's not hatred of Microsoft products that motivates me to do this nearly as much as it is the hatred of Microsoft licenses. From this point forward, I'll endeavor to document my experience so that there's a clear record of just how successful one can be with such an effort.
In the long term, Redmond should be worried - very worried.
Posted at: 07:58 | permalink
Zeldman Gets C++ And Java All Wrong
Zeldman's article is sure stirring up a lot of controversy: Digital Web Magazine - Features: 99.9% of Websites Are Obsolete But when I read this, I couldn't remain silent: "Languages like C++ and Java don't merely encourage proper coding practices, they demand them." And that's when my BS detector went off. This is where you have to emulate the sound of the buzzer going off on your favorite game show. Then imagine Alex Trebec in his most condescending voice saying, "I'm sorry Zeldman, have you ever used a C++ compiler before? Neither C++ nor Java do much of anything to demand proper coding practices." Need evidence? Here's the C++ indictment, and here's the java indictment. Articles aren't enough? Pick up a book. Need surefire ways to hurt yourself in C++? Two words: void star. In Java, it's a little tougher, but I can still write this heinously monolithic pig of a program that's incomprehensible to mere mortals. How those languages demand proper coding practices is opaque to me. Maybe somebody could expound on that for me. Is there anybody out there that agrees with Zeldman?
Posted at: 00:08 | permalink
