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- tvanwyk, on 09/28/2008, -15/+167"Ever wished you had a Mac only because it looks beautiful?"
No.
If I want to oggle at something, I'll google for some porn. - Anfidurl, on 09/28/2008, -8/+92Ever wished you had a Mac only because it looks beautiful? Ever wish you could hide the ugly looking Ubuntu's default appearance? EVER WISH YOU COULD MAKE A DATABASE CONNECTION?
/facepalm - repruhsent, on 09/28/2008, -25/+82Back in the day when I had a Pentium 3 running Windows 98 (so 1998-1999 ish), I used to look at screen shots of Linux and thought "wow, that looks really cool." One day, I had a chance to pick up a Red Hat install disc from a teacher of mine, and I took it. I put it on an older computer at home.
I couldn't get anything to run. No instant messenger, none of the pretty eye candy, nothing. Now, this was my first experience with Linux so I wasn't exactly a pro, but still, I was an above average user and thought I should be able to get it to run. We didn't have the internet back then at my house (which I imagine would have helped me get started), so the concept that I could hack up a bunch of files in /etc or whatever wasn't obvious to me, but the point is that the usability was lacking.
Fast forward to today. I can get Ubuntu to run very easily - it's mostly just load the disc in a drive, install it and you're done - but it still looks ugly and the software is still primarily crap. I've seen many, many more apps crash under Ubuntu than I have on a Mac or even in Windows. This, I think, is going to be the layman's reaction to Linux - sure, it looks pretty, but most of the software is crap. It's much easier to get quality software on a Mac or (dare I say it) under Windows.
I would say this is because of the zealots involved in the "Linux movement" if I can coin a term - you guys spend so much time debating political ideologies involving code that you don't spend much time creating quality software people will use. I won't even mention the constant tug of war between parties like Ubuntu/Canonical that seem to want to increase usability of their system and the beard-wearing types who want to keep the system as hard to use as possible to keep the "n00bs" out (RMS is particularly intolerable to most people, including me, and I'm a programmer).
I'm getting a little off topic here so I'll summarize - a pretty system like Ubuntu with xgl, compiz et al. installed is practically useless if the software it runs is crap, and you can't deny the fact that a lot of the packages in Ubuntu's repositories are at best inconsistent and at worst total garbage. Nobody wants that. To steal a phrase from American politics, you can put lipstick on a pig, but it's still a pig. - astrobela, on 09/28/2008, -6/+50"I wish I was Mac"
I have bad news for you, you're neither hardware or software, you're a human being. - Spawn2105, on 09/28/2008, -0/+35EDIT: I had to rehost the image somewhere since the website is now apparently completely overloaded.
Here is whats written on the page in case you cant access it. The links he talks about are listed also.
Picture: http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=screensho ...
"Ever wished that you had new mails notifications right on your desktop? Ever wished you knew the weather info right on your desktop? Ever wished you had your hardware information right on your desktop? Ever wished your desktop was productive and beautiful at the same time? Ever wished you didn’t have to use Mac4Lin theme to hide the ‘ugliness’ of Ubuntu’s native appearance? Ever wished you had a desktop that looked as beautiful as mine? Let’s fulfil your wish:
I have already talked about how to make your Ubuntu desktop look beautiful and productive. This time I will focus mostly on Conky. Conky is a lightweight system monitor for X. Not only monitoring system, with a little bit of scripting, it can be useful to know your new mails, weather info etc.
Here I’ve attached all the required files, attached my Conky configuration file and explained how to make your desktop look similar to mine.
1. Read my previous post about AWN and Gnome-Do. ( http://www.quicktweaks.com/2008/04/11/three-little ... )
2. Install Conky:
$ sudo apt-get install conky
3. Download this file and save in your home directory (Right-click, Save Link As…save the file as .conkyrc) ( http://www.quicktweaks.com/wp-content/uploads/2008 ... )
4. Make a directory scripts in your home directory. Download these scripts, extract and copy them inside the directory you just created. ( http://www.mediafire.com/?oij1m2xmryb )
5. Download all these fonts, extract and copy them inside .fonts directory in your home directory. If you don’t have the .fonts directory, you need to create it. You might need to have administrative privileges to create this directory.( http://www.mediafire.com/?bjnyljmhmm1 )
6. Open .conkyrc file. Look for this line:
${execpi 300 python ~/scripts/gmail_parser.py yourgmailusername yourgmailpassword 3}
7. Replace yourgmailusername with your username and yourgmailpassword with Gmail password.
8. To monitor your hard disk and CPU temperature install lm-sensors and hddtemp
9. $sudo apt-get install hddtemp
$sudo apt-get install lm-sensors
10. Now you need to know the location id for your location for weather info. Head to http://weather.yahoo.com. Enter city or zip code for your location and click go. Copy the location ID from the adress bar. For examples the location id for Geneva, Switzerland is SZXX0013, for Kathmandu, Nepal is NPXX0003
11. Create a new file in your home directory. Name it weather
12. Bring Run Application dialog box (Alt+F2) type conky to launch it
13. If everything goes right, your desktop should be looking much ‘cooler’ - brstilson, on 09/28/2008, -2/+36Why is it that as soon as everybody gets Ubuntu, they immediately try to make to look and act like OS X and/or Windows? Granted, the default Ubuntu is pretty ugly, but every time I go to gnome theme sites, more than half of what's available is some Mac or Windows look-alike theme. All the others seem to throw out all inklings of good design practices (like making the buttons extremely small) and end up looking good but barely being functional. Either that, or they're just tacky.
- silentforest, on 09/28/2008, -1/+30I wish I was a server cluster, but unfortunately I'm just a VPS.
"Error establishing a database connection"
Now for a mirror... - andsalvatierra, on 09/28/2008, -1/+2966 diggs and It's dead already. Mirror?
- Vadi0, on 09/28/2008, -1/+28idk, my ubuntu doesn't look like a mac, but it certainly isn't the default theme ether.
- commieboy, on 09/28/2008, -3/+27Not a Human Doing, Not a Human Thinking, A Human Being.
- TeacherOfHeroes, on 09/28/2008, -0/+21@Koppie
Maybe you need to learn to think different[ly].
I couldn't help myself. - Waterrat, on 09/28/2008, -8/+29 I so hate those Linux docks...
But sure,you can pretty up Gnome or KDE very easily. It's not rocket science.
Do I wish i had a mac instead of Linux?
Nope. - naugrim, on 09/28/2008, -1/+20Considering this article died around 70 diggs, and it's now been dugg up to 150+ .... what gives? People sure must really like looking at a "500 internal server error" so much they decided to digg it for later.
- ArthurSucks, on 09/27/2008, -3/+21I don't know what this has to do with Mac, but I sure do like conky.
- Kamujin, on 09/28/2008, -5/+23If I got an overpriced, notebook with old technology, that's missing basic things like a dvd player... I would have everything?
Please elaborate on your definition of "everything"?
Putting Ubuntu on a DELL XPS 1330 or Lenovo X300 seems like it be much closer to "everything". - Disease, on 09/28/2008, -2/+20Vista computers all have at least 2 GB. You can run all the pretty Linux effects with 256 MB.
- Codes02, on 09/28/2008, -1/+19GET GOOGLE ADS FREE? AWESOME.
- diggerpleez, on 09/28/2008, -3/+19Let's just put this out there once and for all.
*IT LOOKS LIKE WHATEVER YOU WANT IT TO LOOK LIKE*
There is no fixed theme for *any* distro other than the fact they give you something to start out with. Other than that, Gnome, KDE, Enlightenment, Fluxbox or whatever else are blank canvases for you to make look like whatever the heck you want. You can make it look like Mac if the Apple marketing department has really penetrated your heart, Windows (if you are retarded). Go out to places like www.gnome-look.org or www.kde-look.org and put some cool combinations together, or better yet get inspired to create something totally unique. - astrobela, on 09/28/2008, -2/+17"I wish I was Mac but now I am happy that I am Ubuntu"
I wish I was Leopard but now I'm PC.
I wish I was PC but now I'm Windows.
if hardware=software
Bill Gates = Windows? - doug22, on 09/28/2008, -9/+22Beauty wastes RAM
- mizike, on 09/28/2008, -10/+23ubuntu made to look like osx gives me the urge to say something about lipstick on a pig....
- TriZz, on 09/28/2008, -2/+15I dugg it after it died so I can look in my profile later and see the site after it chills out...I can undigg it if it sucks.
- lemcoe9, on 09/28/2008, -1/+14No
- thedeadwalrus, on 09/28/2008, -4/+17"I wish I *were* a Mac..."
The subjunctive, people. Learn it. Use it. Live it. - tHeSiD, on 09/28/2008, -1/+14mac pwns? pwns wat? 8086?
- Rysac1, on 09/28/2008, -1/+14How to get a story on the front page of Digg: add the words "Mac" and "Ubuntu" to your title
- mikey2dope, on 09/28/2008, -3/+15Looks like a "page cannot be displayed" to me. Looks ugly no matter what OS is running.
- TeacherOfHeroes, on 09/28/2008, -1/+13No, I've never wished you had a mac for any reason.
- commieboy, on 09/28/2008, -1/+13Spyware, Try Ubuntu?
- se1zure, on 09/28/2008, -4/+16Even if that screenshot looked as nice as osx, it's all about how unified the software design is. If you develope for linux, you don't know what interface people are using and so you design what looks good. This makes for a horribly non-unified interface. Look at Amarok. That program would stick out like a sore thumb with this interface.
THe real issue is not having a good interface out of the box. OSX does it, Vista does it, why can't ubuntu/otherlinuxdistros?
And don't feed me some compiz makes ubuntu better than osx, because compiz is a useless toy with glitchy effects. The animations are choppier on my core 2 windows box than the animations on my 5 year old imac which has an onboard video card.
Unify your interfaces developers, or you will always have a mishmash of ugly over a desktop that looks decent. - roebeet, on 09/28/2008, -2/+14Dugg for conky.
- twiztidsinz, on 09/28/2008, -3/+15That's like saying lighting a home wastes electricity....
Or heat in the winter wastes oil.... - Koppie, on 09/28/2008, -3/+14Yeah . . . apparently ugly wastes ram even more.
- postvivace, on 09/28/2008, -0/+10The title of this story would be a good Facebook group.
- inactive, on 09/28/2008, -3/+13Hi there. People have been asking this *exact* question for at least the last ten years, probably more. No one has ever been able to answer it in a way that satisfies everyone involved. That said, here is the answer:
Because people don't really want to change. People want what's familiar, but they want to appear to be clever and free-thinking. So it goes: Linux to be clever and free-thinking (because that's what you're told that clever and free-thinking people choose), and a familiar GUI because really you just want to use windows/OS X and for everyone to leave you alone.
Which they should, I mean who are we kidding. People who get upset about what OS *you're* using cannot possibly be too happy with their own. - simpleboy, on 09/28/2008, -2/+12bcoz for many people Mac 'looks' great and Ubuntu looks ugly. they spend hours on Internet searching for ways to make their Ubuntu appearance look like Mac. The point here is if, with a little bit of effort, Ubuntu looks so great, why you want to make Ubuntu look like Mac?
- tupperbacharach, on 09/28/2008, -5/+14Ubuntu is not Linux -- it is only *one version* of Linux. Don't pass judgment on the whole of Linux from a single, brief experience with Ubuntu. There are hundreds of other Linux distros that run well and don't have same stability problems that Ubuntu had for a short period.
In regards to software, please don't generalize -- to support your argument, please give specific examples of the "superior" OSX/Windows apps along with their "inferior" Linux/BSD counterparts. - quarkie, on 09/28/2008, -2/+11who cares. diggs is related to traffic, so using it as a way to measure usage is fine.
It would be like me saying I drove for two hours and i'm already out of gas. - vinceislegend, on 09/28/2008, -0/+8So, wait. What you're telling me is that Linux is customizable?
Whoa. - PixelEater, on 09/28/2008, -0/+8CAPSLOCK!
I don't really know why. - Jeffler, on 09/28/2008, -2/+10In regards to software, please don't generalize -- please give specific examples of the "superior" OSX/Windows apps along with their "inferior" Linux/BSD counterparts.
Are you serious? We can go on for days on that regard and you know it. - Nadinengland, on 09/28/2008, -3/+10Duh... you can? http://gizmodo.com/5049756/review-efix-dongle-perf ...
Also 500 Internal Server Error, yay. - AhniTipesh, on 09/28/2008, -1/+8Nope.
- MrChunks, on 09/28/2008, -2/+9Photoshop > GIMP
Final Cut Pro > Cinelerra
Illustrator > Inkscape
But like Jeffler says, we could go on for days but those are just what I currently have open. - skinflute, on 09/28/2008, -0/+7That's actually a really good idea to share if you want a front page filled with dead links, but a bad one if you want sites to "chill out".
- Biznarie, on 09/28/2008, -1/+7Where is all this bad quality software everyone is seeing? Everything I've used has had more options and less crap then the windows counterpart (might not be as pretty but that doesn't make it low quality).
- inactive, on 09/28/2008, -2/+8Amarok is based around the KDE look, there are other players that look more gnome like such as Banshee.
- TheWindBlows, on 09/28/2008, -2/+8he's using almost 600 MiB of RAM so if i had to guess he's running compiz fusion and from the window appearance emerald theme manager along with some other apps on a different virtual desktop.
- drgruney, on 09/28/2008, -2/+8If you had no internet connection why did you care about your copy of Red Hat not including an instant messenger?
- carterx, on 09/28/2008, -3/+8Am I the only one checking in to see if a mirror has been posted yet
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