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you were talking about how linux was immature
As a desktop platform. I was refering to windoze, that windoze is cryptic and illorganized is a point that I more than agree with.
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try removing mspaint with the add/remove programs in windows. or notepad... it cant be done. what doesn't the add/remove programs work well with? works fine for me.
Programms that you install independantly from source, or in odd directories are not necissarly picked up by it.
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i think it's necessary to be able to add and remove programs.
Belive it or not, an Add/Remove utility is not necessary on OSX, since everything is self contained. You drag an app to the trash it's gone. Any files the app may have used is kept in the system->library directory. That's it, no hunting around for obscure files, and no depndancy on a separete program to keep track of it for you. Its consistent, no hastle, allways easy, and 100% guaranteed to work.
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and on a mac it does? you are telling me that there are no shortcuts for programs? that a user has to navigate to them?
On the Mac, makeing an "Alias" as they are called is as simple as clicking on the application icon, and selecting make alias. Put said alias werever you want, anywere, at any time, and it ALLWAYS knows what it points to. Not only that, but you can move around whatver it is it points to to anywere on your hardrive and not only will that application work flawlessly, all of the aliases will too.
But aliases are not allways necisary, considering that programs are totaly self contained in their own folders, or icons. You can drag them to the desktop if you use them often, or you can put them anywere else on your hardrive for that matter, bury them six levels deep in a folder, they will still work, the aliases will still work, and nothing is disturbed.
Windoze dosen't even have this right yet.
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as it is with linux, perhaps you just dont like any of the desktop managers you've used.
I have used KDE, GNOME, WindowMaker, IceWM, and Enlightenment. And I beg to differ, you do need to know at least a little bit about how the files are named and organized in Linux to use any of the window managers.
I recal a case in KDE were I had to actually add a \zip folder under my usr\dev directory, and then add a few things to some .conf files to get it to recognize it. Same goes for my vfat partition. This occured in Redhat 8, but Mandrake 9 and Redhat 9 recognized both with no problem so kudos there
Yet, Im sure I will run into a similar situation down the line.
On a Mac, storage devices, are not kept in an obscure folder. They are universal system icons. and are represented as what they are. I don't need to make folders to representthem or shortcuts to them for that matter.
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something i'm not too familiar with. What are the benefits of this?
WYSIWYG, What you see is what you get.
Meaning that if I see an application icon, that icon IS the application, not some symbolic alias to a grupe of files scattered across my directory tree. I can move that icon around anywere I want, and it is not dependant on a dozen little files in it's directory, and it knows how to access whatever it needs anywere else in the system. If I see a hardrive, that IS the hardrive, not a folder witha funny name under dev.
That sort of thing, it liberates one from having to memorize and get your brains around abstractions. Makes things simple and imediatly understandable.
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install the rpms using synaptic
Never used it. Ill look into it thanks
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i haven't had rpms fail in a long time, not since i got apt-get. compiling from source doesn't suck. it takes about 3 commands to do. and i'm making a tool to make it easier.
Remember, teh command line makes joe blow run in the other direction. And usually it takes 3 commands, unless there is some sort of conflict, and then you have to pass some extra flags, or maybe even open some headerfiles and edit some macros. It can get harry. But a tool to make it easyer sounds fantastic!
Again Im not knocking any of this stuff, just pointing out that it's pretty rough around the edges, Joe Blow dosn't care if it works %90 percent of the time, if he has a hard time once, hes running the other way.
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and everyone just loves wordpad in windows? no reason to go get a better word processor huh?
heh. I use openOffice under windows
and on my Mac, the TextEdit app is a fully fetured lightweight word processor. It's actually a pretty darn good program.
I just ment that the stuff in the personal install is pre-picked so you can never be sure if the stuff you get works to your likeing etc.
So it becomes hard for a newb to figure out what he wants in teh first place.
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that has nothing to do with the operating system, doesn't support "linux isn't mature" at all.
As far as I see it, an OS is only as good as the software for it. If teh variety of software does not meet the majorities needs or is to plentifull to sort thrugh the junky stuff, then it becomes overwhelming for the first time user.
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most .conf stuff is for serious system settings and server settings... nothing a normal user will have to mess with. programs do tend to have preferences dialogs.
I had to edit one when X11 unexpectedly keeld out.
...
Darn my girlfriend is on the phone
Ill be beack