Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Elementary OS Freya Released

elementary.io

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

51–60 of 95 posts

Re: Elementary OS Freya Released

#51

Post by lazaroclapp »

tywkeene wrote: post #29
Trufa wrote: post #25

Only negativity in this thread. You're being offered a desktop environment for free, and all you can do is point out its problems. I think it looks pretty slick, and will give it a try, why are people so nitpicky here?

It's things like [1] that really irk me. Yes, they're working 'hard', yes they deserve compensation, no, there isn't any license conflicts (that I'm aware of) that would make selling eOS illegal, it's the fact that they wrote this justification to make you feel like a thief. Really, it's just an ubuntu clone with a pretty osx-like gui. This isn't really anything amazing or new, and it makes it seem like they're tryin…

You mean like actual Ubuntu? http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/contribute/?version=1...

If you don't see much difference between the UX of the two DE's, I don't think the difference between the "request for donations" UX is that big either. Perhaps there should be some smallish text saying "$0 is a valid custom amount", but that's it.

Now, there are of course issues to be discussed about this kinds of donations requests, such as, for example, how much of the funds received make it upstream to the developers whose software distros are repackaging. But I have nothing against the idea that you might be asked whether you'd like to pay for the software or get it for free, with the understanding that both are equally valid options, even if the website is designed to suggest that they'd much prefer if you paid them for their service (added software and distro maintenance). I see nothing there that implies that I am a thief, or even a free loader, if I decide to pay null dollars for their distro. You can view it as either a free project that emphatically asks for donations (which sounds OK), or a paid free-as-in-freedom software project that allows you to get it for free if you don't want to pay (that is also valid, it's like Fedora and Red Hat, except in this case it's the exact same distro, as opposed to "practically the same").

Not saying their site is useful, btw, I had to dig through their blog to even know what ElementaryOS was. But I don't think asking for (optional) payment is the issue there.

Re: Elementary OS Freya Released

#52

Post by detaro »

lazaroclapp wrote: post #51
tywkeene wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's things like [1] that really irk me. Yes, they're working 'hard', yes they deserve compensation, no, there isn't any license conflicts (that I'm aware of) that would make selling eOS illegal, it's the fact that they wrote this justification to make you feel like a thief. Really, it's just an ubuntu clone with a pretty osx-like gui. This isn't really anything amazing or new, and it makes it seem like they're tryin…

You mean like actual Ubuntu? http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop/contribute/?version=1... If you don't see much difference between the UX of the two DE's, I don't think the difference between the "request for donations" UX is that big either. Perhaps there should be some smallish text saying "$0 is a valid custom amount", but that's it. Now, there are of course issues to be discussed about this kinds of donations…

A lot of upset came from the original version of that blog post, especially the now absent sentence

> We want users to understand that they’re pretty much cheating the system when they choose not to pay for software.

Re: Elementary OS Freya Released

#53

Post by pekk »

tywkeene wrote: post #36
ics wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> tap into the elitist osx market I think it would be more accurate to say that they are trying to expand the Linux market by wooing those whose main barrier to using Linux is the UI/UX. Whether or not you find the endeavor to be "noble", the attempt is worth something to the Linux landscape even if your takeaway is "don't run it quite like them".

Well whatever it they're doing guilt tripping people into giving them money for something that's free everywhere else isn't helping.

OS X is hardly free

Re: Elementary OS Freya Released

#54

Post by Mikeb85 »

krick wrote: post #26

> open replacement for Windows and OS X It sounds like promising a lot. So after confirming the suspicion of it not being something that would actually allow to run some essential software we still don't have replacements for (AutoCad, Native Instruments stuff, Ableton Live, etc.), but simply yet another Linux distro with custom DE I wonder if this lack of information on the website is on purpose.

> So after confirming the suspicion of it not being something that would actually allow to run some essential software we still don't have replacements for (AutoCad, Native Instruments stuff, Ableton Live, etc.)

Because the average user totally uses those programs...

Anyhow, I've installed Ubuntu for 'average' users with old, virus riddled machines and they love it. I use Linux every day for University stuff, and have for nearly 4 years. My wife uses it for her computing needs. Linux, any Linux distro, is 'enough' for the average user. Elementary OS is enough too, just a little prettier out of the box (I don't use it, my laptop has openSUSE, but eOS does look pretty).

Re: Elementary OS Freya Released

#55

Post by Intermernet »

imron wrote: post #37
evanrelf wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It doesn't matter who it's handled by, the fact is that credit card numbers are being transferred over regular, non-encrypted HTTP.

Actually, it does matter. The webpage might be http, but the Stripe Javascript library connects to Stripe's servers over https . The website never sees your card number and your card number and info is never transmitted over a non-encrypted connection.

Yes, but how do you know you're looking at the correct payment page?

The page that sends the POST request should also be verifiable as owned by the domain, otherwise I could inject a different "payment system" library, that looked like stripe to the user (unless they analyzed the traffic), but actually sends me the CC details.

From https://stripe.com/help/ssl

> Do I need to use SSL/TLS on my payment pages?

> Yes, for a couple of reasons:

> - It's more secure. In particular, it significantly reduces your risk of being exposed to a man-in-the-middle attack.

> - Users correctly feel more comfortable sharing their payment information on pages visibly served over SSL. Your conversion rate is likely to be higher if your pages are served over SSL/TLS, too.

Re: Elementary OS Freya Released

#56

Post by [deleted] »

tywkeene wrote: post #29
Trufa wrote: post #25

Only negativity in this thread. You're being offered a desktop environment for free, and all you can do is point out its problems. I think it looks pretty slick, and will give it a try, why are people so nitpicky here?

It's things like [1] that really irk me. Yes, they're working 'hard', yes they deserve compensation, no, there isn't any license conflicts (that I'm aware of) that would make selling eOS illegal, it's the fact that they wrote this justification to make you feel like a thief. Really, it's just an ubuntu clone with a pretty osx-like gui. This isn't really anything amazing or new, and it makes it seem like they're tryin…

[deleted]

Re: Elementary OS Freya Released

#58

Post by cubano »

Overall; disappointing.

I am looking for a lightweight linux OS for some old laptops I am refurbishing and giving away to homeless people, so I was interested in this.

The price thing threw me for a moment...paying for software without knowing its value?

I did the $0 hack and downloaded the iso. Stuck the USB in my worse-case system (totally broken screen, low memory etc) hooked to an external monitor, and...

Nothing, except for a screen full of mountains, which was odd because every other lightweight distro I've tried worked fine.

I think maybe it detected two monitors and used the external one without the taskbar, but I couldn't really tell. The OS definitely loaded as I tried to log off and the screen for that popped up.

An OS targeting low-end machines should definitely default to dupe-ing the display on boot.

[edit] ok...can someone clue me into what I've done wrong with the explanation of my experience with trying to use it?

Re: Elementary OS Freya Released

#59

Post by imron »

Titanous wrote: post #43
imron wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, it does matter. The webpage might be http, but the Stripe Javascript library connects to Stripe's servers over https . The website never sees your card number and your card number and info is never transmitted over a non-encrypted connection.

Since the page is loaded over plaintext, there's no easy way for a normal user to know that the credit card isn't being intercepted by a malicious script. It's not safe to serve a payment page over plaintext HTTP, even if it POSTs to a HTTPS endpoint as it could be modified in transit. Stripe explains that TLS is required in their docs: https://stripe.com/help/ssl

If you read a bit further, the Stripe documentation explains that it is recommended, but not required.

You can make live transactions just fine from a regular HTTP page - whether that's a good idea or not is another issue, but making Stripe payments from an HTTPS payment page is not required from an API point of view.

Re: Elementary OS Freya Released

#60

Post by zer0rest »

cubano wrote: post #58

Overall; disappointing. I am looking for a lightweight linux OS for some old laptops I am refurbishing and giving away to homeless people, so I was interested in this. The price thing threw me for a moment...paying for software without knowing its value? I did the $0 hack and downloaded the iso. Stuck the USB in my worse-case system (totally broken screen, low memory etc) hooked to an external monitor, and... Nothing…

Any linux distro running LXDE should be fine, take a look at Lubuntu.
Post reply on HN