Re: Huh.

"Which you have to do from the CLI. Epic fail, right there."

Assuming you're talking about Ubuntu upgrades - no, you can also use software centre. So FAIL yourself, idiot.

Re: Huh.

"A normal user will panic when they have to decide what filesystem, what size of partitions, what DE, what..."

Good job the 'auto' buttons on the installers work these days huh?

The ubuntu install and windows install are now very similar. It's just that most people will never see either one becaue their computers come preconfigured.

Re: Linux Desktop ? Yes

"When I need to install some program i also need to google for the inevitable ridiculous name, and google or that apt-get command. Please, no non-techie would put up with this. Linux is geared towards programmers and system builders, it always will be."

Seriously, "I need to google for a program" is a negative point?

Isn't this what you do to find software on *every* platform? Or have Microsoft invented some sort of direct brain-to-installer tech they haven't told us about? At least with linux you don't the have to then go to a random web page and download some untrusted binary from an unknown source and hand it the keys to the kingdom. And if you have trouble with apt on the command line I have two things to say to you -

1) Menu->Ubuntu Software Centre

2) If you genuinely can't handle command line apt then you're incompetent and should not be in a technology related career. I'm really not kidding here. What are you even doing reading the register? Doesn't it just fly over your head? You might be more comfortable going back to AOL.

On that last point I'm quite serious - if you're involved in technology in any way and you *genuinely* have trouble with modern linux, it might be time to rethink your career choice. It really is not hard.

Re: It's the brain drain

If you want the money you need to either strike out on your own or (as you say) head for management or another country.

Striking out on my own has worked quite well so far, and I hope to start selling hot air before long. I shall need to increase the bean-quotient in my diet :)

Abso-Fracking-lutely

When UK and Euro tech salaries catch up with those in the rest of the developed world, then I'll be quite happy to listen to their whining. All this is, as ever, is a plea for more cheap labour.

Tech careers are paid above average, but in general aren't compensated at anything like the value brought to the company and the money offered would be an insult to anyone in the US or Australia.

Re: While electronics is great fun

Useful for reverse engineering of all-in-one systems - use a multimeter to probe around for a likely looking serial/TTL-port, a soldering iron to attach some form of adaptor, see what the bootloader's up to....

Actual creation of stuff, no idea.

Re: And this, gentlemen, is why…

"if you don't understand what it's asking for and why, then say no"

That's easy enough for me, as a software engineer with an eye on security. Less so for the man on the street, or my mum (for instance). Not that she believes in these new-fangled mobile-telephones anyway.

Re: "Developers, developers, developers"

"Not to mention the engineering clusters in the Midlands which make Derby the biggest exporter per capita in the entire UK."

[edited]

Misread your post first time round there, as saying there was a big tech-cluster in Derby, now I see you mean there's a big engineering cluster and it could do with some complementary tech investment. Couldn't agree more. There are loads of places round the country that could benefit from this investment far better than London, which already has massive investment in tech in the form of the city (whether you agree with its aims or not).

I'm also sure there are more areas round the country than the ones I mentioned that are producing both new stuff and hard-working day-to-day useful software, in case I've offended anyone by missing them off :)

Re: Samsung is getting too dominant

I love their stuff but I must admit I'm starting to look for excuses not to buy Samsung any more, for this very reason.

No I'm not going to buy Apple either, but I will be looking out for opportunities to buy good stuff from neither of them as I really don't like the idea of any tech firm owning the whole landscape.

Re: "Developers, developers, developers"

Don't be silly Chris, by the time the government funding runs dry, they'll have prepared enough marketing material and bought enough bubbly to secure the next round of VC funding. And when that starts to run dry, why they'll sell themselves to some big, established tech firm that's trying to lose its stodgy old-tech image, so the founders get a successful 'exit' and everyone goes away happy.

I mean apart from anyone who was expecting any useful, sustainable or profitable business from the arrangement.

Meanwhile the Cambridge area is spawning the actual high-tech innovation, and the M3 corridor continues to produce most of the software and services that actually get deployed and used.

But they're not cool so f*ck them.

Re: And this, gentlemen, is why…

I agree wholeheartedly. Installing apps on google play should not be a case of "this app needs access to <huge list of things that most folks don't understand at all>, continue or cancel?"

You obviously don't want to get into a Windows vista-esque game of popping up boxes every two minutes to ask for new permissions, but there's got to be a way to stop apps asking for the moon on a stick and the only other option being that you can't install them.

I know if you install cyanogen mod and some other thing (can't remember off the top of my head) there is a way to take perms away after install, and just live with the resulting stability, but this isn't for the non tech-inclined either.

What they really need is a better review process for the play store. I know, I know, this means there might be some delay getting the latest fart app published, but I think it might be worth it. At the very least you want someone semi-technical to cast their eye over the permissions list. Why does this wallpaper app need to be able to make calls? Why does this crappy game need access to your address book? Why does skype need to read my SMS inbox...?

Re: Questions (@Robert E A Harvey)

4) If you're referring to the Samsung/Google ARM chromebook and it's annoying sticky-out SD slot, and you're looking for a solution that doesn't stick out, may I recommend something like this - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-3-1-USB-Multi-functional-Adapter-Card-Micro-SD-Card-SDHC-USB-UK-/181076395412

(No, I'm not the seller)

You can cut the USB end off (it still works) and you end up with a half-length SD adaptor you can stick any old micro-sd into.

Re: Questions (@ThomH)

You are correct that it does depend how the SD slot is wired up. For instance ARM SoCs tend to have a dedicated SDIO bus that the slot is attached to, so it doesn't go via USB at all. My cheap-ass Exynos based Chromebook is wired up this way. (It also has USB 3 but I didn't want USB sticks jutting out the side)

I have no idea about the internal wiring of the new chromebook-pixel and what speed is available on the SD bus. To me it's far to expensive for a browser driven device anyway....

Re: Gondwana

Strictly they were all part of Rodinia as it was a previous supercontinent that significantly predates Pangaea...

But yeah, the article was confused and frankly whatever press release this lot and the beeb have picked up on was probably equally as confused because Rodinia was supposed to have broken up about 750 million years ago, not 80, so this landmass was likely also part of the other supercontinent(s) in between.

It probably sounds boring if you just say "sunken landmass with rock dating from Proterozoic times discovered".

Re: Nokia NEVER learn

The 15 euro 105 is a series 30 phone, not a winphone at all. The 109 is a series 40 phone. The reason the 105 is notable at all is that it is their new bottom-of-the-line featurephone and it has a colour screen, not because it's a windows device.

Which is a shame, at 15 quid I might have got one to have a look...

Re: Puzzled

My old N900 had the whole world on it, not just a few choice sections. It was really useful when in the remote outback areas of Australia with no signal or data connection for days or weeks at a time. Can you do that with any other map system?

That said, they weren't so good at keeping up to date with new roads in Oz, and there were a lot of false positives in some of the more remote areas - tracks I was relying on that turned out to be old or 'management -only'

The insurance ones always amuse me.

We've tracked you looking at a bunch of car insurance sites so we've decided to advertise car insurance at you for the next two weeks.

Except of course that I was looking at car insurance sites because I was buying car insurance there and then. I am now the least likely person to care about your ads. Well done.

But didn't you know?

Teenagers can DIE if they're exposed to female flesh. This woman is as bad as a murderer!

With your support citizen, America will win the War on Tits!

Re: Do no Evil

Of course, any action taken to protect business interests must necessarily be good, eh?

My computing device. I get to decide what it downloads and displays. Don't want to serve me content? Go ahead and block me, I'm cool with that. Just please don't try to tell ME what to do with MY device.

Re: Get some mad skillz peeps.

"I however disagree at the 58k number. I'd rather see age / exp versus av. salary in the field. I reckon this is so high because the majority of linux admins are oldies (no offence to the oldies <3)."

I've said it in several other places so I'll say it here too:

This is not a UK survey, it's an international one. Wages for tech work are *very* depressed here compared to the US where most respondents are likely from. I got a 50% raise just by moving abroad a few years ago. Then they gave me another 10% a couple of months later because they thought I was underpaid and would leave. And I was on an apparently decent salary for London.

Re: How Do You Know ?

That's the top end for linux IN THE UK. For the nth time - this is not a UK survey. In other countries decently experienced people wouldn't get out of bed for that much.

Re: Fiction

"City != London != UK"

Well it also wasn't a UK survey, it was global, and likely with a huge bias for the US, where $60K would be an insult to anyone with a bit of experience, but £40k seems to be regarded as a 'pretty good salary' here by a lot of folks (outside The City of course).

Re: German Employment Agency

I have had load of agents get in touch re: Germany recently. There does seem to be a big demand for it over there. One or two from Poland too.

But I've only just moved back to the UK so I have no intention of going anywhere for the forseeable.

Re: Fiction

Places that are not London, or the UK (or maybe Europe?)

IT/Software Salaries here are very deflated compared to other places. In the US and Australia they wouldn't stand for the sort of money employers get away with paying in the UK. The only way I've found to match it is to go contracting.

Re: Yes but,...

Surely the reason these things are barely mentioned is because there are no devices? They may as well be vapourware until something appears, so who's going to bother developing apps for them?

That doesn't mean much in terms of potential. Also it may be better to eat each other's sales in the bottom five percent than bother with WP8 which makes up far less...

Re: People who buy Chromebooks for Linux are doing it wrong

I wanted it.to hack. I have something of an ARM fetish going on at the moment, so a chromebook with an exynoz SoC was exactly right.

AFAICT there is no equivalent to that. It runs ubuntu at the moment but I'm sure I'll be able to debootstrap wheezy onto it sooner or later.

Re: A couple of things

Reading that back, I'm not sure how the fella had such a tough time installing an alternate OS on the Samsung. There's a guide here - http://chromeos-cr48.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/so-you-want-chrubuntu-on-external-drive.html

It's got some, err, hiccups at the moment (battery indicator in Xfce is a bit unpredictable in terms of whether it even runs or not) but combined with a half-length microsd adaptor it really is good. Beats the pants off my old eee901 with debian.

Re: A couple of things

Weird, coulda sworn that was the case, the 3 series was a precursor to the 5s.... Oh well, been wrong before, I'll be wrong again!

Re: Sneaking in with the Raspberry Pi

You can tell they had no idea linux existed before because of the proliferation of 'How to do <really obvious linux thing> on Raspberry Pi' blog posts.

It's most entertaining, like a bunch of teenagers who think they invented music, or kissing or something. Still, good that they're learning about it one way or another.

Re: I'll jump to Linux when...

Did you miss the title, that he said that he'll jump to linux WHEN... 100% compatible?

Because it seems like you missed it and in fact the whole point of the post, in your eagerness to find something to argue against in a post that actually entirely agrees with you. Muppet!

(BTW, OO/LO compat is as good as word's own compatr between versions IMHO)

Re: I love these posts about how it will never take off.

"Really????? This is about the DESKTOP environment for mr & mrs joe public."

Not really, when people (probably people like you) keep muttering this misguided nonsense about it being a niche OS that only crazy hobbyists contribute to or would ever run. That's demonstrably false, it's ubiquitous.

Android is not the same thing as GNU/Linux, no, but it is yet another example of the linux kernel (and a few other parts of the system) getting out there and getting things done. It's in cars, it's in network equipment, it's in tvs, it's in everything.

"Equating embedded versions of an OS with desktop versions does you no favours in the credibility stakes."

It's not a version, it's the same OS, which is why I can install firefox on my NAS and run it via remote desktop if I want to (not that that would be useful). I'm not sure how this affects anything in 'the credibility stakes', but it certainly doesn't do the assertion that it's never going to take off any favours either.

If there isn't a consumer UI that struck it big in the desktop space, so what? That's not even the growth market any more.

Re: The Truth

" I don't want to spend time outside of work fiddling on my computer just for the fun of it."

Then you are not the employee I am looking for! Why are you even reading a tech site?

Also the circular trap (no games->no users->no audience->no games) is slowly coming to an end with the advent of linux Steam.

Re: Another example of why Linux fails to gain market share

"The app stores of Android and iPhone (does Win8 have one too?) are showing it's all about the user experience of getting apps installed and working so people can get on with real-world tasks. Linux needs an equivalent but developers can't even agree between .deb or .rpm! Perhaps Steam can sort it out - at least they have a financial incentive to make it work."

This is about the most ignorant thing I've ever read.

Linux has had app stores (repos) for years, way ahead of the likes of Android or iOS.

The distro devs can't *and don't need to* decide between deb and rpm because it's irrelevant. Users should never, ever have to deal with a deb or an rpm. They just install software by name straight from the repo. Years ahead of the competition. Installing new stores is trivial too.

Re: Not actually fussed about Gib either way but...

"If you or anyone objects so strongly then you could ask for a refund?"

Right, because when Jimmy Wales says some part of wikipedia is going a bit wrong, he should just shut up and/or ask for his money back then?

*ultra facepalm*

Re: Space Monkeys

In the deep long-term we do absolutely have to get off this rock.

The Sun will continue to (ever-so-slowly) output energy at higher and higher rates, burning up its fuel faster and faster. 5.4 billion years down the line and the Sun will expand and engulf the earth. But well before that, 800 million years in fact, the increased output will mean the earth is too hot for liquid water to exist and life as we know it will have to come to an end at that point.

So.... 800 million years to come up with a decent spaceship design... best get started!

When did you try the DLNA stuff?

Because I agree it was a failure for quite some years, but recently I've been quite impressed.

Only quite impressed, not fully. There's some bug (protocol related AFAICT) that means my phone will only play one song at a time on the various audio renderers we have in the house, but it does mostly work now.