Iosif's Profile

Member since May 24, 2001

  • Name

    Iosif Stalin

  • Location:

    UK

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Recent Posts

  1. Review - Microsoft Internet Explorer for Windows XP

    7.0.5450.4 Beta 3 (Jun 29, 2006)

    (review of beta2)
    The user interface is an improvement, but the core browser is still horribly broken.
    The same old bugs are still there. A dead loss. I hope they will at least make some attempt to fix it before release.

  2. Review - GNOME

    2.8 (Sep 15, 2004)

    After some time testing both KDE and Gnome on Linux, i have recently been impressed enough with the latest Gnome to actually switch from Windows permanently. I have to admit that I am impressed with the quality of both gnome and kde, but there remain things about both that I dislike. KDE has better file dialogs (open / save). Some distributions i have used have replaced the defaults open/save in Gnome, and i think new Open/Save dialogs would contribute much to usability. Also, I don't much like the default theme, but fortunately this is easily fixed. The speed of the file browser could still use some improvement, but overall, i find GTK apps more resposive than their QT equivelents. This version of Gnome is excellent, and very high quality. I recommend that you try it.

  3. Review - SphereXP

    0.76.67 (Jun 9, 2004)

    Basically this program provides a primitive 3D file browser, and snapshots of windows that do not have focus that can be dragged about (probably it just gets a bitmap of the current window and renders it as a texture). To actually be useful, this program needs to allow usage of windows that have focus in the 3D environment - something that is doesn't presently do, and something that is probably isn't actually that easy to do without writing a substitute DLL for the graphics related MS APIs. As it stands, what this does is relatively primitive, but it still is an interesting demonstration of a concept that may be applicable to future desktop systems.

  4. Review - The GIMP

    2.0 pre3 (Feb 4, 2004)

    A big improvement - particularly with the new user interface enhancements. GTK now looks good on Windows. Some of the filters could do with progress bars, rather than looking as if they have hung, online help could be better for those of us who are not graphic artists, but an excellent application which i use occasionally to do image editing at work for the software i have to develop.

  5. Review - webcamXP 2007

    1.07.056 (Jan 27, 2004)

    Never seen this before - I've been looking for a webcam program with the ease of use that this has. Looks good from what i've seen so far. Not sure what the frame rates are like for connected users (when compared to other programs). Hopefully this is the software i need. There are programs like TeVeo that do similar, and you can use as free webcam software (with java client), but so far, this looks more refined.

  6. Comment - The Truth About Windows Genuine Advantage

    1.07.056 (May 13, 2005 - 5:55 PM)

    Windows product activation was what convinced me to ditch Windows when XP was released. There is NO way I am being treated like a criminal by a company that I am paying for a product. There is no way that I should be expected to 'activate' a product, or that Microsoft should be allowed to collect any informationa about how I use that product. Now that I have switched to Linux, I will never return return to Windows. There are features that I miss from Windows, but in general, I have found Linux to be a less obtrusive, more customisable platform, and with significantly better development tools.

  7. Comment - CherryOS Drama Ends, Product Retired

    1.07.056 (May 9, 2005 - 2:32 PM)

    No company would seriously abandon an expensive to develop software product if there was not something to hide - particularly at the stage where the product was becoming genuinely useful. To write an emulator of this type is not cheap, and requires many hours of very skilled labour from its programmers. PearPC is testament to the talent and determination of the individuals who contributed to it. The open source community should push ahead with lawsuits against these common criminals, and set a precedent against this type of theft. It appears that other products by this company are based on stolen code also. The Xvid team may be interested in looking at the streaming video Pirateware that this company is selling.

  8. Comment - CherryOS Mac Emulator Resurfaces

    1.07.056 (Mar 9, 2005 - 1:04 PM)

    This looks like a clear violation of the GPL. Try doing strings ppc, and comparing to output of strings PearPC.exe. I will be comparing the actual object code soon. Might need to build pearpc with the same compiler that was used for PearPC.exe to do a decent comparison though. Many of the strings are however the same internally.

  9. Comment - Microsoft Widens Download Checkpoint

    1.07.056 (Nov 1, 2004 - 1:43 PM)

    It was Windows Product Activation that originally convinced me to switch to Linux. Now I am glad that I did. This kind of snooping on users is unacceptable. Offering bribes to allow Microsoft to check if your copy is legal is doing nothing more than preparing legal users for acceptance of such tactics in the future, and is as morally bankrupt as 'pirating' your copy of Windows. Illegal users are hardly likely to submit to this check - even if Microsoft can't legally gather additional details about them. I still have Windows as a dual boot OS, but after the recent security nightmare, I think it should be the other way round - users having access to Microsofts QA plans and source to check the quality of what they have paid a significant amount of money for.

  10. Comment - Linux Beats XP to the Itanium

    1.07.056 (May 31, 2001 - 9:21 AM)

    There's a big difference between porting something like Win2k and porting Linux. Win2k has a whole library of drivers that you have to port, Linux has only a few. Win2k is regression tested to improve reliablity, Linux really isn't. Linux is more basic. Microsoft deliberately hasn't released a (final) 64bit Win2k, they are holding off for a more polished XP. I'm told that one of the significant problems with the 64bit port of Win2k was stability of DirectX. I think before you pass judgment of Microsoft's ability to deliver a product, you have to consider the final quality of what you are obtaining. Linux is still too buggy, it needs to ditch X, it needs a new memory manager, a proper robust transaction based file system, refinements to the way drivers are dealt with... Still, it's good for some things, and I look forward to the day when it is good enough use in preference to Windows. Personally, I would very much like an Itanium system, and if they become a little more affordable, IA64 will be a wonderful platform for software development with both NT and Linux.