Viable Linux Destop?

[mbpark]

My background before I got into Oracle development and administration was in embedded. I learned how to program on XT's using a Serial Port debugger to PLCs. That's why I've never been too big on debuggers, because I'm always using judicious print statements. Plus, I'm used to things being small. Which doesn't explain why most of my hard drive here is Oracle 9i (all 2GB of the base install plus 2GB of databases. Yikes!). I like vt100, small command lines, and shells.

However, I got used to the Visual Studio IDE after being exposed to it, Codewarrior, Forte for Java, and a few other graphical editors. It just feels a bit more intuitive for my needs than anything else I used. It's not the only IDE I use, either. The other one is SQL-Programmer 2001, and that resembles it.

Notice I didn't mention that everyone should use it . We have more than enough people who swear by anything in a set of Pico, vi, vim, emacs, elvis, notepad, ultra-edit 32, and the rest. I respect them and let them make their choices. Personally, I use what's available, and my favorite editor is cat.

I actually use the command line quite a lot. spool on and spool off in SQLPLUS (which actually does qualify as a shell IMHO, albeit a small one without the cool features of csh, ksh, or bash) are good when I run scripts, because I don't use GUIs for running my scripts at all. Cygwin is also another favorite tool of mine.

However, I've had a lot of issues with Linux apps copying and pasting objects, not text. Other than Konquerer finally getting most of it right in KDE2.x.x, it's just not there for me to do a lot of my text work, or to drag and drop data (which I do a lot of as prelim analysis work). Interoperability for apps to do cool things like that isn't there yet, and it is mostly an app issue.

And the Oracle client...the only time I've really seen an Oracle component crap itself really bad has been with their ODBC drivers, which get clobbered the most on any Win32 system because they use MFC. 8i on Solaris needs about three hours of serious OS setup before you even TRY to install it, and let's not even get into how broken Advanced Security is during the linking phase. genclntsh and relink all are not your friends when you've got Oracle on Solaris . JDBC can be really fun too to set up. However, their ODBC drivers are crazy. If you install anything else, chances are they'll crap themselves. The solution is to put a copy of MFC42.DLL in your ORACLE_HOME\bin directory. Worked for me after it blew out on a test machine after we installed Visual Studio 6 Service Pack 5.

Oracle got on that Java kick too. They turned Enterprise Manager into something I will never run again unless I have to. That's why I'm running DBArtisan, which lets me have all my servers at one nice console and doesn't eat all my RAM like OEM does.

However, settling on one standard (KDE ) for apps would make Linux more viable. It would allow all the happy things I like to do, and a shell interface for what I want. It would also allow others to have a good happy GUI that plays well.

That's Windows' main strength. I can copy and paste darn near anything and have it work. Well, too .

[jaguar]

My well.....
I've just decided I?m not going to Oracle. Ever. =)

Linux is an OS designed by programmers, FOR programmers (and power users). If you don't like writing shells scripts, or spending a significant portion of your time at the command line, then Linux is just not for you.

Hmm, while it is dangerous I?d say Linux can be all things to all people that are the beauty of it. I mean you can install Slackware and choose not to install Glibc if you want, or you can install mandrake with a pretty GUI installer. That's my ultimate OS world, a unified base across all systems but everything else being variable. Shove Debian on the server, Mandrake on the Desktop, OSX on the Graphics box and Something cut down on the Palm and be able to port apps between them will little work. It?s this kind of widespread appeal that could get Linux the market share it needs to start being a real competitor to windows. It?s a catch 22, Linux needs more apps to get more users but needs more users to get more apps. When it hits critical mass it *will* be interesting. I?m thinking .NET is going to be a huge boost, it?s basically wipes out piracy as we know it and may help push people (particularly home users who aren't used to paying) into rethinking.

jaggy's right. we need more users to get the apps. we need more apps to get the users.

so we write apps, so that we'll get the users... so that we'll get the BIG apps...

i, personally, am a fan of diversity. i collect computers and the operating systems that make them work. i am fiendishly addicted to mac os x right now, but my true love is linux. and i want to see it succeed. i don't know why i love it so much. there's just something satisfying about plopping down in my aeron and firing up mozilla. or a gnome-terminal and work on my .bash_profile with vim (vi sucks - vim rules). or switching to the second desktop and firing up mozilla (which is getting *really* good these days) and browsing the web. and when it breaks (generally because of something silly i did), i can fix it. that's one of the things that irritates me about os x - there's this bug with the mouse sensitivity, and it keeps getting set down - well, i like it up pretty high. and i set it, quit out of "system prefs"... and it's fine... for a while. and then back to this low-ass sensitivity. drives me nuts. anyway, i can't fix that. in linux, i could. and it just *works*. i know a lot of people rag on it for being hard to set up, but man... once it's set up, it's like a rock. i have a slackware box that has an uptime in the viscinity of a year (it was 300 days a couple months ago). it sits there, doing its thing... never crashes. and that box gets stressed easily too - it's a 486/33 with 12 megs of ram. but it sits there, cranking out the clock cycles. my main box, syphon , is like a rock too. and i use it *every day*. i stress it all the time - whether i'm recompiling X or playing quake for 4 hours like i did last night. it just works.

as far as gnome vs kde... kde probably is the better user environment. that having been said, it doesn't fit me. and that's one of the things i like about linux. if i don't like it, i can change it. is this bad if our goals are understood to be "have everyone using linux on the desktop"? yes. but they're not. the goals are "make linux better." i like to have my cake and eat it too. that's why i use linux. nothing else fit quite right.

anyway. i'm rambling. and i gotta get back to work. but yeah. thanks for reading. i'll catch you g's later.

[Undertoad]

Dave man, you have an $800 Aeron to sit on, but the 'puter gets the $49 table from Staples? That's not right!

(I know because I had that same ghastly table for about a year.)

[jaguar]

dhamsaic

me thinks u have a point. Diversity is the key but also the weakness. Its not hard to port stuff between *nix's, if everything but windows has a nix base Linux should get the critical mass to make it viable to port big apps. Ill be curious to see waht Adobe does, could OSX Photoshop be ported to linux?

Already the wide range of distros make linux sueable for people of pretty much every level. Only thing i'd majorly like to hcange is have either all .deb, or all .rpm, no arballs, no dual formats. Linux needs to be able to install and uninstall apps with windows-like ease.

(be gentle i *am* posting at 1:15am here, i hate my school)

Tony - the chair was free. The table was $15 @ Micro Center. Here's the story on that:

I moved to Virginia in February. My desks were (and still are) back in Maryland. I didn't have my first paycheck yet, so I needed a CHEAP desk to put my computer on. I walked into Micro Center, which is 3 minutes from my house, looking for this cheap desk. My dad's girlfriend has the same one, only wooden finish. She got it for $50. It looked reasonable, so I looked for it. I didn't find it, but I asked the manager. He said "I think we have one in the back." They brought that one out, and he said he'd give it to me for $30 since it was a return. I looked at it, saw it was scuffed up and the piece that holds the keyboard tray was bent a little. I said "how about $15, 'cause it's not in great shape?" and he goes "Okay."

The chair is "borrowed" from my dad's employer. See that 19" Sony FD Trinitron monitor there? That was free too. Same place. Look at this picture - newer shot of my desk - see that Jornada 720? Free.

Here's how: My dad is Director of Engineering at a major DC-area television station (hint: I've slept on the discussion table for the McNeil/Lehrer Newshour). He is really good friends with his boss. His boss, being a Vice President of the station, is also the boss of the Director of Computer Services. The Director of Computer Services knows this, and so he tries real hard to stay on my dad's good side. Just the other day I got a 15" flat panel NEC monitor. We also have an 800MHz PIII Presario and a HP LaserJet 8150N. And that's just off the top of my head - I'm sure there's more laying around.

Anyway, I'd like to get a better desk for it, but that one seems to work well. The only thing I really hate is that it's up too high. The keyboard is at the right level, but the mouse is too high, and it's a pain in the ass to play Q3 that way. When I have some more money (saving up for more computers - hehe), I'll get a better desk. Or build one into the wall. We'll see...

[juju]

Is that bubble tape I see next to your monitor?

Yes. I can eat that shit like it's candy.

[jaguar]

it is candy =P

Originally posted by jaguar
it is candy =P

No, it's GUM.

And I can EAT it like it's CANDY.

Of course, I feel sick after about 2 rolls of it...

PS - I'm writing this from my iBook, wirelessly, while sitting on the mattress out in the den area. It's going through a computer to computer network I set up with my PowerMac G4, which I set up running NAT so it would act as a router for this box. But when I plug it back into the home network, it automatically switches back to the 100 MBit connection. Neat, huh? I can post while I poop. But I won't.

[jaguar]

hm....its considered candy here, you dumb americans *laughz
(joking for refrence)

[juju]

hehe..it must be pretty darned good, if you buy 4 rolls at a time!

BTW- the wireless network thing kicks ass!