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Living Room / Re: Real Life Tron on an Apple IIgs
« Last post by f0dder on October 20, 2008, 03:10 PM »That was a cute read 
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I said configurability (as in --without-package or --with-feature), I didn't mean tweaking the compiler flags. For most applications, you don't really get any kind of performance increase from doing that. Heck, you could end up with slightly slower performance in some cases.Btw, gentoo isn't made superfluous by advances in hardware, it's just as much about having configurability options.-f0dder
Agree. But to what point? If you're looking to improve performance, it becomes somewhat pointless to spend dozens of hours researching what compilation flags to set in order to squeeze a 5% improvement in efficiency on a specific platform. You could just invest in more RAM or a faster processor.-40hz (October 20, 2008, 12:05 PM)
Where Gentoo really would (and does) shine is when you use it as the basis for an application appliance. But again, that is a specialized situation where there are pragmatic reasons for wringing every last ounce of performance out of your product - because if you don't, the competition in the marketplace will kill you. And there are two other good reasons. First, once you create a fully optimized Gentoo "gold master" you can just keep cloning it until you change your hardware configuration. And second, because you're going to be responsible for support, it also makes sense to get everything "just right" before you ship out 5000 boxed products.If I was to do an appliance, and especially something that'd run on a system with limited performance and storage, I'd probably go linux-from-scratch instead of using a distro - even something that can be as minimal as gentoo.-40hz (October 20, 2008, 12:05 PM)
I'm thinking enabling/disabling individual features from individual programs. But sure, I do tend to do custom kernel builds as well.but a feature I need isn't enabled - and I end up having to do those messy from-source installs after all.I don't know of any supported 'feature' for a distro that isn't found in its repositories and installable via the preferred package manager. If you're doing source compiles for a core function, I suspect you're either hacking the kernal, or getting into something that hasn't been fully tested and approved for distribution.-f0dder-40hz (October 20, 2008, 12:05 PM)
Redmine's hassles were the result of a change to the SQlite-3 database table_info pragma that was made by the SQLite development team. The change was made in response to what they thought was a request from the RubyCore team. Such was not the case, and the change that got made broke all Ruby on Rails apps that were using SQLite-3. What makes this story really tragic is the fact that the problem didn't come about through an arbitrary program change, but rather by SQLite's genuine effort to be accommodating and responsive to a request it thought was from the Ruby community.I opted for MySQL instead of SQLite for exactly that reason. But that was only part of it - you also had to make sure you got the right ruby verson, the right rails version, et cetera. Lots of manual configuration. Pretty sucky and not up-to-date documentation, etc.-40hz (October 20, 2008, 12:05 PM)
On a related note, Redmine is a web-based project management application. If you go over to SourceForge you will find there are something like 1700 packages that are tagged "project management." A cursory look at a few dozen will show several that duplicate, and in some cases exceed, the functionality of Redmine. Many are also out of beta.Haven't found any other that I like, though. Looks, usability, etc.-40hz (October 20, 2008, 12:05 PM)
It's nice that Linux has made provisions for you to compile an application from source. But unless you have a very specific reason for doing so (or you just plain want-to-do-it*), why bother?For me, it's about getting the features I want, but also not getting the features I don't want. For instance, my server doesn't run X11 and I don't print from it. I want to have as few services running as possible, since there's then less things to worry about wrt. updates, following security issues, et cetera. There's also less dependencies that can break when a stoned developer checks in a patch that messes up other things.-40hz (October 20, 2008, 12:05 PM)
)Are there any functional advantages to these? i.e. besides looking cool and the widgets etc. If you run explorer (the file manager), use the file open/save dialog from any app, or run IE, you are effectively running explorer.exe, so I don't see how using a different shell will save any memory or resources. Quite the contrary in fact.Using many of the same DLLs yes, using explorer.exe no.-MrCrispy (October 20, 2008, 02:40 AM)
Personally, I just tend to head for another world voluntarily, no help from the friendly smiling steroid-pumping baldguys in the doorwayGood luck finding champagne in some of my old haunts, or Guinness in others, depending on which part of towna man of many worlds-cranioscopical (October 15, 2008, 03:53 PM)-tomos (October 15, 2008, 04:42 PM)
Indeed he is. (I've been kicked out of both at one time or another.)-40hz (October 16, 2008, 01:27 PM)
Is there any way to test the game before actually buying it ?I believe there is (or is going to be) a demo version featuring the first episode of gameplay.-ak_ (October 16, 2008, 10:30 AM)
Hmm, that could be an option. I sorta prefer getting small games through STEAM (single point of failure, sure, but also means not having to make purchasing accounts at a zillion places). I might take a look at other purchasing options later today, since I do want to support a good causeI hate regional locks and artifical release delays.-f0dder (October 16, 2008, 08:34 AM)
The copy I got was just an exe installer, no codes or DRM. I think you can get that same version by buying direct from their web site.-Eóin (October 16, 2008, 09:32 AM)
[f0dder]:I know that "linux" is the kernel and that you should say GNU/Linux to refer to the system, and use a fully qualified distro name, and use SI-approved units like MiBiBytes etc... but I refuse to take part in that sillyness.Linux is not great code. Kernel and other parts might be OK, but when you start digging into the other components that make up a distribution....Ah, but there's the rub. You're confusing Linux per se with any distribution. Two very different animals.-zridling (October 16, 2008, 12:28 AM)
This confuses me. By "filesystem hierarchy standard" do you mean a particular one, such as Ext3, RFS, ZFS, Ext4? FAT, NTFS, or the traditional filesystem structure:Since I say hierarchy, obviously it's the layout/structure. And no, this hasn't been properly standardized. Yeah yeah, there's the FHS, but that doesn't stop distros for doing things slightly differently. True, there's some differences between Windows versions, but at least you can look up paths in the registry. On linux, only the distribution's own tools knows where things go.-zridling (October 16, 2008, 12:28 AM)
The mere choice of file system is great to me, and for my old data. Microsoft never got around to implementing a new FS for Vista, if you recall.And I'm glad they didn't - all that SQL junk ontop of NTFS sounded like a trainwreck to me. NTFS by itself is a pretty decent and well tested FS. Sure, some of the newer filesystems like XFS or ZFS or BTRFS could be interesting - but it's not like anything stops you from porting those to Windows. People just don't seem to have much interest in doing so.-zridling (October 16, 2008, 12:28 AM)
Linux lets you spread the file system over as many different hard drives and partitions as you want but still appear like a seamless whole.NTFS junctions...-zridling (October 16, 2008, 12:28 AM)
Which software are you trying to replace? Isn't Visual Studio a Microsoft coding product for its OSes only? If it does C, then it should work, right? (I really don't know; I'm dropdead ignorant about programming.)It's a pretty well-polished programming IDE with features that aren't useful just for windows development. I've looked at code::blocks, anjuta, kdevelop and eclipse, but many are slightly buggy or outdated, and arent't really in the same league.-zridling (October 16, 2008, 12:28 AM)
For myself, freedom works in my favor:I snipped the list. But yes, some of those points are reasons why I wouldn't mind having a working alternative to Windows. I think the unconformity of distros is a problem, though, and I don't get viruses or BSODs on Windows (except for bad hardware or drivers, but that would cause kernel panics on linux anyway-zridling (October 16, 2008, 12:28 AM)
). The registry is a good thing, btw, and it's a shame linux is stuck with a cluttered mess of config files with different formats.
Waste of time and money is the least of my concerns.1) friends don't let friends use SpinRite. Just thought I'd have to add it since it was mentioned.-f0dder (October 15, 2008, 06:20 PM)
I'll second this. From the play around I've had with SpinRite it's a seriously large waste of time IMHO, (and money).-4wd (October 15, 2008, 07:01 PM)
Hobgoblin is an impressive ale as wellI like it's taste - just wish it didn't carry the import beer premium though, because it's not that special. Problem is that the major Danish beer brands are pretty boring (and I pity the fools paying import premium for Carlsberg og Tuborg-Darwin (October 15, 2008, 05:22 PM)
). One of my favourites that I don't mind paying a bit extra for would be draught Double Chocolate Stout (I think from Young?) - that's seriously tasty stuff. And I usually don't fancy stouts ).