Guess I'll play the 'Apple apologist' for this thread.;) - The dock. What a hideous piece of crap this is. My trash can is on the dock. So are my running applications. So are my non-running applications.

Shop, Compare, and Save!Upgrade Mac Os X 1068 To 1074 windows 2003 resource kit photoshop for mac os x 107 free download buy adobe creative suite 6 design & web premium cheapApple Mac Os X Lion 1074 Download windows 8 system builder iso windows 7 home premium 32 bit drivers intuit quickbooks enterprise 2015Os 1074 upgrade 2008 server to 2012.

But not all of my non-running applications. To get to those, I have to go into the applications folder, which has a nice alias on the desktop that Apple didn't create. Those useful programs that you only use once in a blue moon?

Go dig for them. How is this different from any other.

Well, he'd probably still be with SGI, except they silently imploded 4-5 years ago, which is why he went to Linux. Also, he was a big proponent of the whole 'open source' thing through his work with Mozilla, and chose to eat his own dog food.

Honestly, he should get credit for sticking with it for this long. He's a guy who has work he needs to have done, and Linux wasn't cutting it.

More importantly, it wasn't cutting it and the 'linux community' refused to accept that it had any failures at all. Well, maybe some token words of acknowledgement, before going off and reinventing the desktop or package manager again. I like Linux just fine as a server. I wouldn't bother with the desktop at all, and haven't for more than 6 years.

I can't believe I even have to think about this shit. What year is it again? This frustration highlights a failing of the Linux-based desktop platform. Put generally, Linux systems often require the user fuss with (and be aware of!) highly technical system tweaks to satisfy some really basic end-user scenarios.

The blog's thread has lots of people going on about ways to fix this particular problem, but frankly I'm on JWZ's side: it's a damn waste of time! At least it is for those whom, the computer is a tool for getting work done, instead of an end in and of itself.

Put another way, I'm all for some degree of tweaking in my day-to-day usage. I find and install new tools, write helpful scripts/plugins/etc., and do other 'meta-work' to make myself more productive. This process is kinda fun, too. But having to screw around for hours figuring out what to do just to get more than one app to play audio is insane. And the real killer is that the solution is probably not to just roll up the ol' sleeves and write some software to 'scratch the itch'. This isn't a software problem, it's a real world problem of fragmented design and developer effort and a lack of a seamless out-of-box experience for Linux-based systems. Getting fed up with that is hardly 'throwing [your] toys out of the pram' -- it's called cutting your losses.

My logitech usb mouse has a windows driver I don't quite understand why you're using Windows as a reference, when I was clearly talking about Mac. I plugged the mouse in and it just worked. Oh, I know, it needs you to know what you're doing, and that usually needs some brainwork. Ah yes, the tired old 'If Linux is not good enough for you, it's because you're not good enough for Linux' argument.

Ten years ago I used to spout that elitist bullshit, too. I've lost the count of how many Linux computers I've built.

I've set up and maintained Sun and DEC Alpha boxes (running both DEC Unix and Linux) and, quite frankly, I feel like I've done my share of tweaking. Now, all I want is a desktop computer that works for me -- not vice versa -- and Linux just doesn't cut it. Just because it works for you doesn't mean it works for everybody and that is exactly the problem. Linux developers get things working just well enough, that if you have the right hardware, and the right amount of tinkering things will work for you. Hell, you may even be one of the lucky few who have the exact same setup as the original devs and don't have to tinker at all. Unforutnately, for the rest of us, I have better things to do with my time that mess around with asoundrc files. All I want is for every freakin program to properly output over my SPDIF channel.

Is that really too much to ask for? Apparently it is, and I've almost switched back to windows on numerous occasions because of this.

In fact, the ONLY thing keeping me on Linux right now is MythTV. If it wasn't for MythTV, all my servers would probably be OSX by now and my Media box would be Windows.

I think it is pretty telling that someone who has a lot of technical expertise has the same problems that a lot of us have had with desktop Linux. The problem is real, folks. Nsimsun font. If Linux on the desktop is to survive, I really think there needs to be a major coordinated effort to get lots of things in line. Maybe some type of consortium that would facilitate dialog between different groups and/or state a common direction. It is really hard to build a solid desktop OS when you've got thousands of developers operating independently or in small groups. You might get a few good solid apps, but the OS itself is going to be a patchworked hodge-podge.