[TAG] Re: [Lgang] linuxgazette.net down......

[Jimmy O'Regan]

Thomas Adam wrote:

>On Sun, 23 May 2004 23:05:06 +0100
>"Jimmy O'Regan" <jimregan at o2.ie> wrote:
>
>  
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>>Like I said, I think there are a lot of people who are new to Linux
>>who have difficulties, but want solutions which are aesthetically
>>pleasing. Now, I'm talking about the sort of person who is technically
>>competent, albeit within a GUI environment, the sort of person who is
>>using Linux because the desktop is sufficiently advanced that they
>>don't have to go to the command line to get things done.
>>    
>>
> 
>That's all well and good, but one should not shy away from the fact
>there there are just some things that _cannot_ be done from Kprettyapp,
>and so an awareness of the CL is *still* a necessity -- but I'm going to
>say no more on the matter (see previous editions of the LG with regards
>to that).
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I'm not disputing that, I'm saying that category is getting smaller and 
smaller.

>>Well, I need to see some sort of explicit notice whether or not it's
>>OK to send in tips about the aesthetic side, because, frankly, the 
>>impression I get is that it isn't. Not in that it's not OK to talk
>>about it, but in that it's not the sort of thing that ends up in the
>>2c tips or TAG.
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>
>Oh? That really is something that is a factor Heather and I decide, and
>thus far we do a good job of it. The danger with using GUI-tips is that
>more often than not, it can lead to a "teaching X to suck eggs"
>scenario. But we publish more-or-less what we receive.
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Well, sorry about the tone I used there, but I couldn't find a better 
way of putting it (and I spent the whole day trying). "Teaching X to 
suck eggs" is a matter of opinion though, and you've provided me with a 
good example lower down.

>Talking of apps, I've been running something on my local LUG --
>so-called "App Of The Week" that I can probably and should send LG's
>way. All I do, is take an app (be it CL or GUI) and describe what it
>does. It's proven to be quite popular with a lot of the people at my
>LUG.
>  
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Sounds great.

>>Basically, I want to see articles and tips about eye candy, and I
>>think I'm in the majority on this one. My next article, which I had
>>started before this thread came up (on TAG anyway), is about Mozilla
>>extensions, and I'm researching my next, which is about GDesklets and
>>Super Karamba. If eye candy stuff is welcome in the regular mail
>>sections, so much the better, but if not, I'll incorporate it.
>>    
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>I'll have my FVWM article kick-starting by next month's edition as well.
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This is a great example of the difference of opinion I mentioned. To 
you, having, say, GNOME with countless GDesklets, panel applets etc. 
etc. would "suck eggs". You can get pretty much the same basic 
functionality with FVWM--pager, clock etc.

To me, using FVWM would be a step into the past, and would make X suck 
eggs for me. I'll accept higher overhead in return for a desktop that 
doesn't, IMO, look wretchedly ugly.

I'll give you another example. I'm a Mozilla user, you've mentioned a 
preference for Dillo. I have no doubts that Dillo renders pages faster. 
It would ultimately slow down my browsing, though. Things like the 
Google toolbar, bookmarklets, tabbed browsing extensions etc. speed up 
my use of the browser--with a sufficiently fast PC and net connection, 
the user is the bottleneck.