I have temporarily stepped back from OSNews due to health issues (nothing serious). I’m cutting down my computer usage to the absolute minimum, which includes this weblog. This might take a few weeks, I don’t know.

I needed a break anyway.

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Regarding OSNews… I became the managing editor (whatever the hell that means) of OSNews in June of 2005, so it’s been three years already. During those three years, I’ve published stories on a nearly daily basis, with only a few breaks here and there because I was away for the weekend or too busy with life beyond my laptop’s lid. I have my priorities straight, you know.

We also introduced some massive, massive changes. We released a completely new version of OSNews, with a completely overhauled website both internally and externally, and it took us a few graphical revisions to get it right - and I believe we are on the right track there. As far as looks go, I find the ‘new’ OSNews to be highly pleasing, comfortable on the eyes, readable, and free from clutter. Great work by mostly Adam, mystery designer Britney, and OSNews reader Kroc.

In addition to that, I personally made some hefty changes to our editorial policy. Most importantly, I introduced something we merely refer to as ‘new style’ items: items with more background information, more details, some context, and an opinion or two. Despite cold feet here and there concerning our readership’s response, they seem mostly positive. I’m quite happy with how that turned out.

A partially successful addition was Focus Shift, the OSNews comic. Quite a few people genuinely liked the comics I drew, but as was to be expected, quite a few hated them too. As some may have noticed by now, Focus Shift is no more - I liked doing it, but I simply lacked the time, and when it comes down to it, I obviously find OSNews itself more important than a comic. So, yeah, we shifted our focus away from Focus Shift (I owe you a punch in my face for that lame joke).

That’s all in the past now, so on to the future.

I have a certain vision in my head for how our editorial staff should function. I want to move away from the situation where OSNews was effectively Eugenia’s or my own weblog, and have a larger editorial staff where each member has his or her own speciality and areas of interest, so that we can offer more detailed and accurate stories. This will also allow for a more diverse stream of opinions coming from OSNews, which is something I’ve been really struggling with. Doing OSNews all by myself is doable at a glorified-RSS-feed-level, but with the new style items, my personal opinion just gets a little too obvious simply because there’s no counterweight. I want to combat that, and hence our quest to find more editors.

So, that’s how I envision OSNews’ future: multiple editors writing more detailed items about their personal areas of interest. Yes, that sounds a lot like Ars Technica. That’s because Ars Technica is a really, really good website. However, Ars has an entirely different focus than we do, and I believe that OSNews has a lot more opportunity to grow as sort of the “Ars of the OS world” than it has as the “glorified RSS feed of the OS world”.

However, we’ll obviously need everyone’s help to get there. If you believe you would be a welcome addition to the staff, let us know by sending an email to OSNews’ owner David Adams, or, when submitting a news item, try to write a bit more, give some background, make it a few paragraphs longer with links back to other relevant OSNews publications.

But most importantly, bear with us. Running a website about a field with so many personal opinions and conflicting interests is very, very difficult, and more than once have I failed to balance properly on the tight rope. Having more editors will certainly diminish my personal reflection on the news that gets posted on OSNews, and that’s a good thing for all of us.

Thanks for commenting on and reading OSNews.

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Meanwhile, in #haiku:

[05:43] Thom_Holwerda: link
[05:43] Thom_Holwerda: god im waking up at 5am just to update osnews
[05:43] DeadYak: hah
[05:43] absabs: :D
[05:43] Thom_Holwerda: i should be getting paid for this nonsense
[05:44] Thom_Holwerda: cant these guys do their thing according to old-world time
[05:44] Thom_Holwerda: GMT, you know.
[05:44] Thom_Holwerda: my cat sure is cheerful at 5.44am

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Two big announcements on OSNews during the night. We rolled out OSNews v4.1, a completely new look built upon the already well-tested and stable v4.0. It looks awesome, I just want to hug it, and call it pet names. The work was done by mystery designer Brittney, and of course our own Adam. I’m really happy with it - it looks professional, 2008, and consistent, without being overly annoying or a visual overload.

The other thing is that we also officially launched the OSNews comic, Focus Shift. Adam integrated it into OSNews seamlessly, and again, it looks awesome. The comics will come out tri-weekly, doodled by me, and you can treat them as normal stories; comments, recommendations, moderation, everything.

I’m proud of everyone who helped v4.1 come to realisation - which basically comes down to Adam and the mystery designer. Good job, guys!

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As a general rule, 15% of any online community is comprised of ninnies, fools, and jerks. On some sites, this percentage is much higher, and for others, it's slightly lower. But every community has them and too often, they are impossibly loud and attention seeking.

On the whole, I find OSNews to be way above average. The noise ratio is generally low, so it's really only the trolling - both intentional and unintentional - that gets people riled up. But the rule still applies.

Recently, I had a user incredibly angry at me because I "forced" him to use the mobile site on his mobile device. I reminded him that it's been that way since the first day Eugenia rolled out the code, but he was having none of that. I told him that most devices won't support the site and he said his did. Finally, he uploaded a video of his usage and saw him using... an iPhone! The best part? The iPhone is not served the mobile version. So he was going to mobile.osnews.com and them complaining that we served him the mobile version!

Then yesterday, in an admittedly heated discussion about KDE4, I was discussing how I am disappointed with the release as a 4.0 release and some got incredibly angry. They pounded upon me that the only proper thing to do is release the code and let users find the bugs. But I didn't relent when I probably should have just ignored it, I was a bit too salty at worst, I should have just moved on and stayed above it, but alas, I didn't, and it ended with a bang.

A lot of people think that by being a part of the OSNews staff, we're not allowed to have any opinions. They forget that we're software users too, and that we participate in our own community.

So, anyway, in this KDE4 "ready or not" discussion, I insisted that it was naive to suggest that the average user would follow the development or news closely enough to know that the KDE team suggested that 4.0 is not ready for users, I was called "stupid" by one user and "an ejit" by another. It's a fatal flaw for IT people to assume everyone is like them, that everyone is subscribed to 400+ RSS feeds and knows the news before it's even cooled off. But the battle waged on. In retrospect, I really don't think anything I said was wrong or off base, so I'm not really regretting this interchange.

While digging through the responses, I found a user misusing his mod points - a clear violation of OSNews rules - by modding down every comment that disagreed with his (not just mine) and modding up every comment that agreed. A cursory review showed that every up-mod he's handed out in the last few days was to pro-KDE posts, while every down-mod in the last several days dared to question them. This is a cleare violation: this doesn't help us prevent forum misuse, it just filters out differing opinions, which leads to groupthink. I was tempted to reverse all of his recent moderations straightaway, but I witheld and swallowed his downmods of even my own comments. You stay classy, K-------- (name redacted).

Yes, even the best communities have a few bad apples, a few sour pusses who want only to be stroked and reinforced in their own opinions, and when there is any challenge, they lash out. They're present in every community, real life included.

Tags: OSNews, Rant, Web
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Got some cool new gear.

A brand new TV, LCD, 83cm, HD, superawesome, scaringly large. Review on OSNews soon.

A Nikon D70 digital SLR camera. It’s actually not mine; I get to loan it from Adam and his wife Beth (thanks!) while I’m at OSNews. I took my first few pictures with it just now, without having dived into the manuals or other photography jargon yet. They already look a whole lot slicker than any previous photos I made.

More to come.

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Update: Huilie huilie dikke boehoe. Buhbye now!

—

I may be a fine specimen of the human race (arrogant? I? What gave you that idea?), but even I can get a little… Upset every now and then. While it is a whole lot of fun ‘doing OSNews’, and being ‘the OSNews guy’, OSNews, or more specifically the people using it, can be a real bunch of idiots.

The problems all stem form the idea that some have in their heads that somehow, OSNews exists solely for them, and that we serve only them, and them alone.

That’s not exactly the case. OSNews is a hobby for me, I do it for fun, I don’t get paid, nor does anyone else on the team. In other words, demanding we publish something, or demanding we don’t publish something is a bit like telling a floor tile to flip. Not only is it futile, it also looks a bit silly for passers by.

Today we had a regular Apple fanboy crying foul over the fact I published the Think Secret story. His complaints were something along the lines of “why are you publishing this Apple story, and not the other ten articles in the submission queue” (which were all submitted hours after I published the TS story) - I had it up to here, and I snapped.

Snapping, however, is always a thin line to walk. It can go horribly bad, but it can also fall really well. This time, it was the latter. I wrote:

What’s keeping the other ten articles on the submission queue?”

MY LIFE?

In case you haven’t noticed, contrary to you, possibly, I have a LIFE to run, a job to go to, a social life to manage, a university study to complete, parents to help, a home to maintain and keep clean, an ass and a couch to sit on, tea to drink, a cat to pet, a car to maintain, a party at my place saturday eve to organise, …, ….

I don’t sit behind my computer all day long just to please YOU, I do it to PLEASE MYSELF.

I’m sorry for the snappage, other people, but I can’t help it. This morning, I emptied the submissions queue by removing those I don’t want to publish, and by publishing the remainder (two in this case). After clearing the queue, I did a quick round along my favourite few websites, including the Dutch Mac website I visit daily, where I encountered this story. I posted it because not only is it a follow up to an earlier story I wrote, but also because people are clearly interested in this stuff.

There is no conspiracy here, you annoying little Apple fanboy, just what I always do: clear the queue, post whatever’s worthy, and then do a round to see what other stuff you readers missed/did not submit. I’ve had it up to HERE with your nonsense, meianeriogn, just go get a goddamn life instead of annoying me with your pointless little “oh-my-god-Thom-is-anti-apple-and-eats-babies” nancying around. Conspiracy idiot. Go spot black helicopters or get abducted by aliens or something.

Glad I got that off my chest. Sorry to everybody else.

Babies do taste nice, though.

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Eugenia and I discussing getting a new TV for me for review (via IM). My current one is a 17″ widescreen LCD, which supposedly is small.

“I’m happy with the current size, but when even Renate complains it’s too small (she has never complained about ANY materialistic thing ever since I’ve known her), it really must be small.”

“…and god be darned if someone takes THAT line out of context.”

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There’s a geek soap opera going on over at Planet GNOME, with the center of attention being Jeff Waugh and his (non?) work for GNOME. Since I really don’t give a rat’s ass about the people behind the software I use (really, I don’t. I care about the product or art, not the programmer or artist), and I only had one run-in with Waugh, I really cannot comment on this stuff. That run-in was perfectly resolved, and he didn’t come across me in a way that resembles whatever Cumming is claiming.

In the end, this is all useless political blabber. GNOME is falling apart. As I have said many times before on this blog as well as on OSNews, GNOME is dead. Dead, dead, dead. If you, as a major software project in a fast-changing world, do not have a well thought-out plan for the future, then you are dead. Cold, harsh, but reality. People have flamed Eugenia and I for saying it, but if a strong leader does not step up soon, a leader that dares to make the hard decisions needed to set a viable plan for the future, than GNOME is doomed to insignificance. It won’t be able to adapt. And we all know what happens to things that do not adapt.

KDE had the guts to make the tough decisions, and despite delays and setbacks, they are slowly but surely seeing the fruit of their labour. I may not like everything coming out of KDE 4, but at least they are trying. And I commend them for it.

I do want KDE 4.0 to be released after December 31st, 2007, though. I want to win my bet with Aaron.

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There are a few things about being the OSNews guy that really rock. Apart from having the superpower to be pro and anti everything at the same time, I also got the superpower that lets me get free stuff from companies.

Apple has loaned me a brand new MacBook (2.2Ghz Core 2 Duo/1GB of RAM/Intel GMA x3100/120GB HDD/SuperDrive) with Leopard on it so I can review it for OSNews. Obviously, the device has to go back to Apple when I’m done, and we’ve set a four week window; this gives me enough time to properly review the thing. Right before the Apple MacBook goes back, I will buy my own so I can transfer settings and such - or maybe they will let me buy the one they sent me, who knows. I want the OSNews review to be done in about three weeks. December 1st is my birthday (I’m turning 23), and somewhere soon after that, I will buy my own MacBook.

So far, I like the MacBook. One thing though, Apple: would it kill you to include the mini-dvi-to-vga adapter by default?

Thank you.

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I have a Dell Inspiron 6000. It’s a gift from OSNews’ owner, David Adams. It’s 18 months old now.

And it’s a complete and utter disaster, from a quality point of view. The screen hinges are broken. The paint is chipping off everywhere, even though the laptop never leaves my apartment. Keys on the keyboard are coming off. The battery started losing its strength within a few months, and since about 8 months, it’s been dead completely. And now, the power adapter is broken. Dead. Useless.

Conclusion: I have a dead laptop, and buying a new battery and adapter is all I can do - a total of 180 EUR. I don’t think I’ll be spending such an amount of money on this laptop.

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And so Apple decided to turn up the heat under satisfied PowerPC owners by (most likely) dropping support for 800Mhz and lower PowerPC G4 Macs from Leopard. For me, this sucks major balls.

I have a PowerMac G4 Cube, with a 450Mhz PowerPC G4 with 1Mb L2 cache, 768MB of pc133 SDRAM, and an nVIDIA GeForce 2MX with 32MB of video RAM. It has a nice 128GB hard drive, AirPort Extreme, and of course a DVD drive. It’s a completely silent machine, and serves me extremely well as my main machine. It runs the latest OSX just fine (except for Flash). I can do a lot of stuff simultaneously, and therefore, am perfectly happy with the system’s performance.

And, lest we forget, it’s the best-looking computer man has ever conceived, and is a great fit for my living room.

Apple’s reasons for this decision are clear: financial gains. By cutting off a whole bunch of G4 owners, they will force them to upgrade to Intel Macs if they wish to continue to run the latest and greatest. On top of that, this cut off is completely arbitrary - I have received many reports from Leopard testers that Leopard ran just fine on machines similar to mine, including the new fancy effects. So, it’s obvious Apple wants to please their stockholders - which is fine by me, but that doesn’t make it nicer to its customers. Once again Apple is showing that it is not a single bit better than every other company out there - Apple is just like Microsoft. Make no mistake about it.

I wish Apple would go about this the same way as Microsoft: set minimum specifications, but let customers decide *shock gasp horror* for themselves if they are willing to run the OS slightly slower than His Steveness intends. Give us customers the freedom to do whatever the fcuk we deem acceptable. I have run Vista on machines way below the minimum specifications, and I could get acceptable performance out of them, simply because Microsoft allows me, as a customer, to have the freedom to actually try it.

Anyway, as OSNews’ managing editor, I find that I ought to always run the latest and greatest (software-wise), in order to make informed decisions as to what news items to publish, and to have good knowledge on what’s available on the market - knowledge I need for writing informed editorials and reviews. Apple is making that impossible for me.

You see, despite claims to the contrary, OSNews ain’t making any of us money. All our ad money goes to hosting, and whatever’s left goes to David to give us the odd present here and there. Oh, and of course, the company DB9 we all drive. So, in other words, I ain’t rich. I simply cannot afford to spend a 1099 1199 EUR on a new iMac (no, I don’t want a Mini, I don’t like it, it’s ugly, and it’s a toy, and in The Netherlands, way overpriced), just because His Steveness wants me to.

I’m genuinely pissed off about this one.

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This is Amarok 1.4.x, the current tree.

On OSNews, for the past few days, some discussions have centered around Amarok being ‘the best music player hands down’. I beg to differ, and based on this main window’s screenshot alone, I can point to various major flaws in this application that will prevent me from ever using it. Please note that these are just my personal concerns (that’s why they call it a personal weblog, boys and girls), and they do not reflect the opinions of my employer.

In the top left corner of the window, you see the Music/Lyrics/Artist tabs. This indicates that this row (yes, even modern graphical user interfaces can be divided up into textual rows) is a tab bar. Great, but, then, why are there file/navigation buttons on the same row, only a few pixels east?

The reason for this is clear: the Amarok developers are trying to cram so much information into the main window, they were forced to split the window up in two sections: a contextual section (left) and the actual section that matters to this kind of application, the playlist/buttons (right). You could argue that the play/pause/stop/etc. buttons in the right section ought to be on top (seeing they are the most vital buttons for a music player) but alas, I’ll let that one pass.

Let’s focus on the left section. The Amarok developers were so hell bent on cramming as much information as possible into this limited space, that they were not only forced to add a vertical scrollbar (and sometimes, a horizontal one too), but also not one, not two, but three (!) tabs.

The above leads to this ridiculous situation where you have two completely different types of sections crammed into one window, where rows switch their function (tab to button), simply because they wanted to cram way too much (pointless, in my book) information into a single window. The end result is that the actual part that matters (playlist, play/pause/stop/etc. buttons) is now demoted to that side of a window that receives the least focus (the right side). On top of that, as said (can’t let it pass by, I’m sorry), the most important buttons (play/pause/stop/etc.) are now rendered somewhere at the bottom right, far away from the focal area of a window (which is the top-left).

The ever-growing hunger for more functionality and information forced the Amarok developers to take even more drastic measures. The left section of the main window needed to function not only as a three-tabbed contextual tab (read that aloud five times if the ridiculousness doesn’t sink in immediately), but also as a devices tab. And a Magnatune tab. And a collection tab. And a files tab. And a playlists tab.

And in order to cram all that information and functionality into one single window, they did what makes Amarok, to this very day, the most ridiculous application ever written, UI wise: vertically text labeled tabs, with normal horizontally oriented icons. This is wrong on so many different levels, it’s just not funny any more. Whoever thought of that brilliant idea ought to never be allowed to “design” a graphical user interface, ever again.

Amarok is not the only audio player that suffers from functionality and information creep. Windows Media Player, iTunes, they all suck major balls because they all try to present their users with so much goddamn pointless information it almost makes my head spin. Every part of Amarok except for the parts that matter are just screaming “Look at me! Over here! I got boobs!”.

That’s why I refuse to take anyone seriously who says “Amarok is just about the cleanest as it gets UI wise”.

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Some… Interesting responses to the big QNX news and interview today.

I have been called ‘unethical’ for saying “QNX is opening up its source code”. A reader on OSNews claims that with that, I am “redefining” the meaning of open source - and that’s what he calls unethical. Ridiculous, of course. The code is open. You can look at it. Compile it. Change it. Alter it. For personal use. You can keep those changes for yourself. You can share those changes with the QNX community. You just can’t sell those changes - you can’t exploit your work commercially. In order to do that, you need to pay royalties to QNX.

Which makes total sense.

Unlike other companies such as IBM and Sun, QSS is actually quite a small company. The only stream of revenue the company has is its operating system and the services it provides. Compare this to a big shot like Sun, who does not only sell a boatload of software and services, but also has an extremely important hardware business. Sun can afford to be ‘more’ open source than QNX simply because to Sun, Solaris is financially actually fairly irrelevant. It’s by far not their greatest source of income.

QSS (QNX Software Systems) has done the right thing by their hybrid software model. They allow everyone to look at the code, download it, compile it, change it, share it with their peers or keep it to themselves, heck, they can even make a distribution and put that online - they are just not allowed to sell it. Which is logical, because else the ‘altered’ QNX versions would directly compete with QSS, and seeing those altered versions would leech for 99% off QSS’s hard work, they would be infinitely cheaper (if not free).

On top of that, by choosing this model, they made sure that their biggest competitors (VxWorks, Microsoft, and commercial Linux ‘embedders’) are forced into a ‘???????? torture‘ - they can look at it all they want, but they cannot use it for their own good.

I’m sure a healthy community can be built around QNX. I sure hope it can, in any case.
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My dream operating system would have BeOS’ kernel, responsiveness, and soul. Mac OS X’ attention to detail and polishedness. Windows’ industry support. Linux’ price tag. VMS’ stability. OpenBSD’s security. My nightmare operating system would have the Linux kernel. Windows’ attention to detail and polishedness. SkyOS’ industry support. Vista’s pricetag. Windows 98’s stability. BeOS’ security.

Just saying.

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