Comments on: A pile of books, and a single dialog box better than all of them http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/67 A blog about Ubuntu, Wine, and the occasional other interest Sat, 27 Feb 2010 01:59:23 -0800 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Dr. Neal Krawetz http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/67/comment-page-1#comment-179 Dr. Neal Krawetz Fri, 22 May 2009 22:01:49 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=67#comment-179 @YokoZar: You wrote "I refuse to accept that this [not writing the index] is the absolute standard in the publishing industry, especially for technical books - the author is clearly more qualified to make a list of what readers might be looking for than the publisher is." You might want to bring this up to the American Society for Indexing (www.asindexing.org) and the Society of Indexers (www.indexers.org.uk). While Academic and self-publishers usually write their own, bigger publishing houses usually employ their own indexers. You might also be surprised to know that most of the technical books in Border's have titles that were not chosen by the author, descriptions (inside cover flaps and back) not by the author, and even cover art not by the author. "Don't judge a book by its cover" is true because the author didn't create the cover. @YokoZar: You wrote “I refuse to accept that this [not writing the index] is the absolute standard in the publishing industry, especially for technical books – the author is clearly more qualified to make a list of what readers might be looking for than the publisher is.”

You might want to bring this up to the American Society for Indexing (www.asindexing.org) and the Society of Indexers (www.indexers.org.uk). While Academic and self-publishers usually write their own, bigger publishing houses usually employ their own indexers.

You might also be surprised to know that most of the technical books in Border’s have titles that were not chosen by the author, descriptions (inside cover flaps and back) not by the author, and even cover art not by the author. “Don’t judge a book by its cover” is true because the author didn’t create the cover.

]]> By: GNUix http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/67/comment-page-1#comment-164 GNUix Thu, 21 May 2009 10:37:45 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=67#comment-164 @Rodney Orpheus: You demonstrate a perfect example of why one shouldn't focus on using GNU/Linux to run windows applications. We do not (repeat: DO NOT) need "Gamers" to move to GNU/Linux, they are already there. We need game developers to move to GNU/Linux. Build it and they will come. @YokoZar: I read the whole article and agree that a dialog box informing people of the existence of WINE if they try to run a windows applications would most likely be useful to a lot of people, however the negativity (and frankly naiveness) of the review (if you can call it that) of the books makes me frown upon the whole thing, especially considering you have not published a book. Try to stay on the positive side. @Rodney Orpheus: You demonstrate a perfect example of why one shouldn’t focus on using GNU/Linux to run windows applications. We do not (repeat: DO NOT) need “Gamers” to move to GNU/Linux, they are already there. We need game developers to move to GNU/Linux. Build it and they will come.

@YokoZar: I read the whole article and agree that a dialog box informing people of the existence of WINE if they try to run a windows applications would most likely be useful to a lot of people, however the negativity (and frankly naiveness) of the review (if you can call it that) of the books makes me frown upon the whole thing, especially considering you have not published a book. Try to stay on the positive side.

]]> By: Michael http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/67/comment-page-1#comment-162 Michael Thu, 21 May 2009 06:08:14 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=67#comment-162 Your absolutely right. I like your idea of when users click on a windows installer they are automatically prompted to install wine. I guess the problem with this is that it almost encourages using Windows applications, but I guess your warning message/dialog box kind of covers that. Perhaps adding a link to add or remove programs to search for native Ubuntu apps with similar functionality which be a good addition. Your absolutely right. I like your idea of when users click on a windows installer they are automatically prompted to install wine. I guess the problem with this is that it almost encourages using Windows applications, but I guess your warning message/dialog box kind of covers that. Perhaps adding a link to add or remove programs to search for native Ubuntu apps with similar functionality which be a good addition.

]]> By: Rodney Orpheus http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/67/comment-page-1#comment-157 Rodney Orpheus Wed, 20 May 2009 22:15:43 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=67#comment-157 An excellent and well-overdue post. I second your idea of the dialog box, it really needs to be in there. The suggestion to add a More Info... button is a good one too. As regards the comment from someone about WINE not working very well, I have Guild Wars running in another window right now, which is an extremely high performance DirectX 9 Windows game, and it's running BETTER under WINE than it does on Windows Vista natively. We need gamers to move to Linux. WINE is the ONLY way we can make that happen. It should be considered an essential part of any good Linux distro. An excellent and well-overdue post. I second your idea of the dialog box, it really needs to be in there. The suggestion to add a More Info… button is a good one too.

As regards the comment from someone about WINE not working very well, I have Guild Wars running in another window right now, which is an extremely high performance DirectX 9 Windows game, and it’s running BETTER under WINE than it does on Windows Vista natively.

We need gamers to move to Linux. WINE is the ONLY way we can make that happen. It should be considered an essential part of any good Linux distro.

]]> By: YokoZar http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/67/comment-page-1#comment-156 YokoZar Wed, 20 May 2009 21:47:07 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=67#comment-156 Astron: The code behind the dialog was heavily influenced by Gnome-Codec-Install. I've got a roughly working version on my local machine now. Also the plan isn't to put Wine in the default install, but rather to put this dialog and a few other things there. A user who never downloads any Windows application won't notice any difference, but a user who does (and thusly likely needs Wine) will have a much easier time. Astron: The code behind the dialog was heavily influenced by Gnome-Codec-Install. I’ve got a roughly working version on my local machine now. Also the plan isn’t to put Wine in the default install, but rather to put this dialog and a few other things there. A user who never downloads any Windows application won’t notice any difference, but a user who does (and thusly likely needs Wine) will have a much easier time.

]]> By: YokoZar http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/67/comment-page-1#comment-155 YokoZar Wed, 20 May 2009 21:24:29 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=67#comment-155 Peter: I'll talk about security with the next dialog (the one that occurs when you actually open the application). There's nothing particularly unsafe about installing Wine; rather risks come from running applications with it. Of these, the only preventable risks we really have are the ones where the user runs an application without meaning to. We have a discussion scheduled for just how to address this at UDS, but the general idea is to make Wine (and other interpreters eg Java) respect the executable bit, and warn/prompt the user if it isn't set. Peter: I’ll talk about security with the next dialog (the one that occurs when you actually open the application). There’s nothing particularly unsafe about installing Wine; rather risks come from running applications with it. Of these, the only preventable risks we really have are the ones where the user runs an application without meaning to. We have a discussion scheduled for just how to address this at UDS, but the general idea is to make Wine (and other interpreters eg Java) respect the executable bit, and warn/prompt the user if it isn’t set.

]]> By: YokoZar http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/67/comment-page-1#comment-154 YokoZar Wed, 20 May 2009 21:21:57 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=67#comment-154 Dr. Neal Krawetz: You should ask to write your own indexes, because whoever wrote yours doesn't know enough to do it well. I refuse to accept that this is the absolute standard in the publishing industry, especially for technical books - the author is clearly more qualified to make a list of what readers might be looking for than the publisher is. Anyway, I updated the blog post, sorry for the mixup. Next time I get back to Border's I'll take another picture ;) Dr. Neal Krawetz: You should ask to write your own indexes, because whoever wrote yours doesn’t know enough to do it well. I refuse to accept that this is the absolute standard in the publishing industry, especially for technical books – the author is clearly more qualified to make a list of what readers might be looking for than the publisher is.

Anyway, I updated the blog post, sorry for the mixup. Next time I get back to Border’s I’ll take another picture ;)

]]> By: Peter http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/67/comment-page-1#comment-151 Peter Wed, 20 May 2009 16:00:57 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=67#comment-151 Shouldn't the dialogue also make some mention of security? Making it easier for folks to run programs which are not part of the distribution seems risky, without some warning that not only might it not work, but it could be insecure. Shouldn’t the dialogue also make some mention of security? Making it easier for folks to run programs which are not part of the distribution seems risky, without some warning that not only might it not work, but it could be insecure.

]]> By: Astron http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/67/comment-page-1#comment-150 Astron Wed, 20 May 2009 15:39:15 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=67#comment-150 a) Maybe you can reuse the dialogue that shows up when trying to open an unsupported media file (like MP3's on a fresh install). b) It's nice that Wine is out there, but it's never done anything useful for me, which is usually, because Wine either lacks (proper) IE or WMP or because it needs to access USB or virtually anything else. The only things you can actually run with Wine are games and open-source software (which generally is also natively available on Linux). So, concluding, I'd say including it in the default install is probably not a good idea, especially since, on its own, Wine does nothing (there are no preinstalled Windows programs). a) Maybe you can reuse the dialogue that shows up when trying to open an unsupported media file (like MP3’s on a fresh install).
b) It’s nice that Wine is out there, but it’s never done anything useful for me, which is usually, because Wine either lacks (proper) IE or WMP or because it needs to access USB or virtually anything else. The only things you can actually run with Wine are games and open-source software (which generally is also natively available on Linux). So, concluding, I’d say including it in the default install is probably not a good idea, especially since, on its own, Wine does nothing (there are no preinstalled Windows programs).

]]> By: Omar http://yokozar.org/blog/archives/67/comment-page-1#comment-149 Omar Wed, 20 May 2009 15:31:15 +0000 http://yokozar.org/blog/?p=67#comment-149 I like it. Ubuntu needs that dialog box exactly as you worded it. I like it. Ubuntu needs that dialog box exactly as you worded it.

]]>