Linux and Mac are screwed

[PreferLinux]

It seems all the "big players" are going for the mobilesque interface.. by big players, I mean GNOME and Microsoft..

It's said that Win8 will be able to run on ARM chips. Maybe Microsoft is trying to create a unified windows OS that runs on mobile devices as well as the typical desktop? But will they be able to beat Debian at being the "Universal OS?"

GNOME is only a big player for two reasons: it is what Ubuntu (which seems to be the Linux distro with the largest market share for some stupid reason) used to use, and that KDE originally wasn't licensed in a way that was liked.

[PreferLinux]

Steve Ballmer has already showed it running on Tegra and Texas Instrument chips. Office has been recompiled for ARM. Intel has spread FUD about nothing working due to x86 programs.

No fud. The truth. It is not possible to run x86 software on a different architecture without full virtualisation or recompilation. Why else do you have different versions of Linux software for different architectures?

[ninez]

And no Apple and Gnome do suck when it comes to actual real usability.

I couldn't imagine a more true to life interface than Windows 8. I realy can't, sorry. I think it's dead brilliant. And I don't care if it's a kiosk interface that has been around for ages if this makes computers actually useful for people so that they stop coming to me with "How do I do this stupid simple thing?".

PS: I'm extremely convinced that Microsoft is going to be very, very, very successful with this. They might even steal back some iCrapple converts. I'm also worried about Linux. This is going to take back marketshare.

Apple sucks for usability??? lol.. that's laughable dude, and nothing more than your personal opinion, and that also tends to be the attitude of people who've never actually owned a Mac. i would actually have to say the opposite, and i know i'm not the only one. Take Adobe CS5 (and any previous versions) they are much nicer to use on a Mac than in Windows. on a MS machine, when editing graphics/photos you can't even be sure that the color is 'true" to how it will look on paper/billboard/etc. Color management is superior on a Mac, and is correct. this isn't true for windows or linux...

many pro-audio suites such as Protools - i would never ever ever - use in Windows, i have, but in comparison - on a Mac, it's much more robust, and reliable in a "production" environment. That is why sooo many designers/artists/musicians/etc PREFER Apple to microsoft. Many of these types of users, are not necessarily super-tech-savvy or extremely computer literate - but even if they are tech-savvy, they still prefer a platform that works as expected, and that doesn't introduce problems (like viruses, amlware,etc) that users like myself don't want to deal with and shouldn't have to when we are being creative and want to stay productive... i only want to deal with that crap if i am being paid to @ work...no windows on any of my machines at home (other than win7 in vmware). My Mac and linux machines only

MS is a gamer's platform or for office work. Macs have almost ZERO viruses and spyware (much like linux). the end-user doesn't have to worry about crap like that. Windows uses 2x the resources to run, than MacOSX Snowy does. Lion also looks much more integrated than windows8 - switching between the various UIs in OSX is simple and not divided into two seperate interfaces.... which in my opinion makes windows LESS usable than a Mac.

I also don't know a single "apple convert" who wants to go back to Windows. lol. ...and i know a lot of apple converts. My dad and I are both sysadmin's (Windows networks and Linux networks) and we both prefer Apple over Microsoft (and for me, linux over Apple, i use my Mac mainly for CS5).

as for the interface being genius or brilliant. it is neither, there's nothing new here. as other people have said that type of interface has been around for a really long time - so where is the genius then?? it might be "nice" or interesting - but thats about it.

saying it's brilliant or genius - requires it to have some innovation or outside-of-the-box approach, or maybe being different/original. - but it's not. MS is just following current trends, nothing more.

cheerz

[Ex-Cyber]

It is not possible to run x86 software on a different architecture without full virtualisation or recompilation. Why else do you have different versions of Linux software for different architectures?

You only need full virtualization to run kernel code that expects to run on the bare metal. A regular unprivileged app can have its code interpreted/translated and standard library/system calls intercepted and executed in native code. This approach is neither new nor hypothetical, even for x86 Windows apps (see e.g. Digital's FX!32). There's a performance hit, but there's a world of difference between "not as snappy as I'd like" and "doesn't run at all".

[PreferLinux]

You only need full virtualization to run kernel code that expects to run on the bare metal. A regular unprivileged app can have its code interpreted/translated and standard library/system calls intercepted and executed in native code. This approach is neither new nor hypothetical, even for x86 Windows apps (see e.g. Digital's FX!32). There's a performance hit, but there's a world of difference between "not as snappy as I'd like" and "doesn't run at all".

OK, not full virtualization, but it is still virtualization.

[deanjo]

OK, not full virtualization, but it is still virtualization.

It would be more emulation then virtualization akin to what apple did with Rosetta with the PowerPC to x86 transition.

[Ex-Cyber]

It would be more emulation then virtualization akin to what apple did with Rosetta with the PowerPC to x86 transition.

That's not even Apple's first time, since they did something similar for the 68K to PowerPC transition.

Anyway, a ton of R&D was done on this sort of thing in the 90s, when everyone was convinced that RISC was going to crush everything (which it did, after a fashion). There are companies that specialize in it. I'm sure that ARM and/or Microsoft could find someone to write a very nice emulation layer.

[jcgeny]

the current problem with your hd 5xxx is not free driver or using the "game only shaders (lol here)(use wikipedia plz)" but the fact that gnome 3 use some feature not yet stable on many drivers (remember gnome 3 is only few weeks out of the oven)....

Note: the same happened with vista (first 6 month drivers after release were a nightmare).

maybe fedora made a mistake including gnome 3 too early, so for now upgrade your graphic stack to a more actual 7.11 code

i never used vista and after few weeks of w7 x64 , i am back to xp with my main pc , i have a touchsmart hp that was with w7x64 and i installed w7x86 on it

i agree it seems they used it too early , the new "video driver" should be the cause .
linux kernel should load ati/nv drivers and work from that point , all these drivers "nouveau" or M$ are unable to handle games and as bad as the other one .

this is the lolest comment on phoronix since a long time, you know one of the most nicer features of Linux vs windows or in less case Mac is the strong level of security that the OS provide including the ability to stop the security bug in front of the monitor (yes you, i know it sound harsh but is the truth) to do something stupid that could affect the integrity of the OS, Like installing a firmware that you may have googled from who knows where and made from some unknown random dude that says that is a driver with root privileges in your kernel.

i agree in 1 thing with you, the average joe shouldn't have under any circunstamce root access to anything and this should be handled only from certain applications using your package manager and some sandbox magic. with a nice GUI ofc so average joe won't complain about "rooty thingies" and it become just a nice gui asking a password to install stuff

average joe has nothing to hide , like some terrorista$ of the usa pentagon or white-house that still do some secrets bombings in all "islamic country" to save the jew$ from a "possible attack"[by the way that should end soon usa are ruined 65 years after ww2...]
i have to add a firmware for my hvr2200 . the file is loaded by kernel itself , the stupid is that i must be root to install this file . becoming root is not easy , so is to have my card working ....and i searched a lot before having it showing tvs .


@V!NCENT
i wonder if you computer has as many gpu as mine and is still as cold as mine


that is an A$$ ..["8



the web server inside showing temperatures

the dual chipset watercooling...


an intel board , that i never used because it is not solid enough

[kraftman]

i saw that "aero" update with f15 or ubuntu11 , most of the time gnome3 failed to load despite i have a hd5k
my opinion about these aero thingies is not that good , shaders are made for 3d games and some mplayers use them very well with movies rendering.

Then I'm sorry, this explains everything nicely. However, keep in mind there's stable and usable KDE, too. It's going to stay stable even after Qt5 arrives.

may be you think some clever people create some good softwares for linux and i agree , but linux is very boring with all its "roots rules" that are not needed by most users and impeach them of doing changes example : adding a firmware in the lib folder ...

It's disputable, but such tasks should be just simplified and the root privileges should be still requirement, imho.

[kraftman]

you do realize Apple is a bigger player than Gnome right?????

Yes, I do. I didn't say Gnome is a big player.

gnome is just one DE for linux. iOS in it's first year of existence has more users than Linux does.... Obviously MacOSX has more users too. (somewhere around 10X the userbase).

Gnome are only a big player, if you omit ALL other platforms.lol..you have to remember linux only holds 1-2% of the market, making gnome a very small player in the grand scheme of things, and also gnome is no longer the default DE for the most popular linux distribution <ubuntu>...

it is silly to think that gnome are big players - they aren't even close to being that.

cheerz

Like I said, I don't consider Gnome is a big player and I think it will become smaller and smaller. I thought I was clear. Btw. Linux has far more users than ios now.