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My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

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Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#291
Family has been linux for the past 10 years... I would say about 3/4 years ago the complaints completely stopped with ubuntu 9.10. Since then there has been some pain with unity (which we disabled for a year or two). Older computers run either older versions of ubuntu or Elementary OS or Chrunchbang OS #! http://crunchbang.org/.

Occassionally people still need help with LibreOffice oddities. Also I've had intercompatibility issues with MS Office with powerpoint.

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#292

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The desktop is now irrelevant -- less than 10% of computing devices people use are desktops or laptops: it's all gone mobile frighteningly fast. It's ironic that you probably typed that with a desktop or laptop. Irrelevant? Hardly.

Dirty little secret: most people aren't content creators, even for values of "content" such as discussion topic comments.

That's very true. And this is the very reason why tablets and smartphones are so popular - most people need only a screen with the Internet access to consume content, but those who produce the content will still need a bigger device.

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The desktop is now irrelevant -- less than 10% of computing devices people use are desktops or laptops: it's all gone mobile frighteningly fast. It's ironic that you probably typed that with a desktop or laptop. Irrelevant? Hardly.

Dirty little secret: most people aren't content creators, even for values of "content" such as discussion topic comments.

I think that's the point. While ~10% of computing devices are keyboarded, traditional machines,.. >>10% of content is created on them; which makes them hardly 'irrelevant'

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

25 and no time to learn something new? You're doing life wrong.

You're right, why don't I have a paper published in every possible field of academic inquiry? Seriously, just because you had too much free time doesn't mean I do. I appreciate your nonsensical condescension.

Oh, p'shaw! 20-something, and you're already complaining about not having enough time on your hands? Lets talk about it again when you hit 40 and have gained a little real wisdom ..

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

PowerShell

Powershell, Powershell, Powershell! Seriously, people, if you have to use a windows system, put some time into learning Powershell. * Most simple grep and sed commands are entirely do-able. Bit more verbose syntax, but that comes with a hell of a lot of easy-to-access power * It's all about objects, rather than plain text. This can often be a pain, but Import-Csv and Export-Csv are utter LOVE. Adding additional new p…

I can get used to the verbosity, but the archaic block editing copy/paste makes Powershell painful to use for anything more than the basics. Copying multiline text in Powershell first requires pasting it into an intermediary text editor and fixing up the new lines. And since the commands are so verbose, more often than not a command will span multiple lines.

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dirty little secret: most people aren't content creators, even for values of "content" such as discussion topic comments.

That's very true. And this is the very reason why tablets and smartphones are so popular - most people need only a screen with the Internet access to consume content, but those who produce the content will still need a bigger device.

I actually noticed this story on my phone during a movie break last night but waited to read it until I could get on my PC (running Ubuntu BTW) so I could read it more comfortably.

Further, I dislike the touch interface of phones. I may connect a mouse to it so I can see if it's more usable. Then I'd need a Bluetooth keyboard too of course. And since my older eyes strain a bit with the tiny screen I'll probably get a SlimPort so I can read the screen on my regular monitor. Wait! My phone is now a PC!!

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#298

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I never got about Windows and especially Windows devs. How can you get anything done with all that clicking and no unix tools?

IDEs and Stockholm syndrome.

IDE's rock. Eclipse anyway, it runs wherever I need it, runs finr with ssh -X. Eclipse gives me the same solid user experience on Windows and any Linux I've ever tried it on. I can't remember arcane keystroke combinations and the refactoring in Eclipse can't be beat. How about Navigating to the Implementation for a method? Eclipse makes this easy. This isn't Stockholm syndrome it's programmer nirvana.

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The desktop is now irrelevant -- less than 10% of computing devices people use are desktops or laptops: it's all gone mobile frighteningly fast. It's ironic that you probably typed that with a desktop or laptop. Irrelevant? Hardly.

Dirty little secret: most people aren't content creators, even for values of "content" such as discussion topic comments.

But 90% of content is made on them and is hardly changing anytime soon.

Re: My dad unexpectedly uses my Linux laptop to get real work done

#300

Microsoft's desktop supremacy hasn't been down to "it's got a nice, easy to use interface" for at least 20 years. Rather, Microsoft is (or was, in the pre-post-PC world) everywhere because of (a) licensing stitch-ups with hardware vendors and (b) network externalities: get into Corporate IT departments with Office, then people will want (or need) to use the same OS at home, and then you can strong-arm hardware vendor…

Android's prevalence isn't the victory for Linux that you say it is. Linux is much more about a culture of openness and freedom than it is about the specific kernel used. I—a diehard Linux fan—would be much happier to have a BSD flavor on my phone than the locked-down, carrier-controlled Linux-kernel-based operating system I currently use.
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