My beef with Open Source Software

Life Technology
1

I recently tried to put Linux on my old 3G iPod. Being able to read the Wikipedia or play Doom on it sounded sort of cool. So I downloaded the installer and installed the Linux firmware with no problems. Then I rebooted the iPod, saw the penguin splash screen, a bunch of boot-up gibberish, and then…nothing. The screen was completely blank. Press the buttons and the backlight went on, but there was no text.

After searching through some online fora, I found that sometimes the default contrast level with the Linux is so low as to render text invisible. The solution was to find the Contrast settings menu by ear by slowly scrolling through the menus and listening to the clicks. Two clicks down, enter, five or six clicks down, enter again, and then you should be able to adjust it. After ten very frustrating minutes of click-listening, I was able to make the text visible.

So the first thing I tried to do was play some music. Went back to the main menu, then the music folder, then…it crashed. Rebooted it, tried again, and once again it crashed in the music folder. Back to the help fora, and what do you know. Linux crashes your iPod if there are any podcasts on it. Though there’s been all sort of development to port games and other useless junk over to the iPod, nobody’s updated the actual music playback part of the program in years.

I’m guessing that this is a metaphor for OSS or something.

Then I tried to install Gimp on my Mac. Instead of downloading an actual installer, I tried to be hardcore and compile it myself. In short, after a couple of days of futzing around and downloading God knows what sort of developer crap, I was able to get it compiled and running.

But my God, the interface is ugly. It’s like they took the Photoshop interface and repeatedly hit it in the crotch with an ugly stick. It appeared to have the same sort of functionality as PS, but I couldn’t even get Curves to work.

What a piece of crap.

The irony of this pointless rant being that I’m writing this in an obscure, open-source browser (Camino) that I much prefer to Safari.

2

[quote=“alidarbac”]
I’m guessing that this is a metaphor for OSS or something. [/quote]

The internet exists because of open source software.

3

Not only that. You are posting onto a forum based on open-source (phpBB), via a webserver (Apache) which is open-source running on an operating system (RedHat) that is open-source.

Making generalizations about quality of open-source software is about as meaningful as making generalizations about closed-source. I’ve seen plenty of pieces of closed-source crap, but that doesn’t mean I’m surprised when i see some good closed-source software …

4

[quote]Then I tried to install Gimp on my Mac. Instead of downloading an actual installer, I tried to be hardcore and compile it myself. In short, after a couple of days of futzing around and downloading God knows what sort of developer crap, I was able to get it compiled and running.

But my God, the interface is ugly. It’s like they took the Photoshop interface and repeatedly hit it in the crotch with an ugly stick. It appeared to have the same sort of functionality as PS, but I couldn’t even get Curves to work.

What a piece of crap. [/quote]

those who know, do. those who don’t…

5

The problem is not that the software is open-source, but that you didn’t pay for it. If you had paid, there would be a help desk available. However, it’s my experience that the help desk isn’t always so helpful. At least with open source you may be able to correct the problem yourself. Many of the corporate forums delete messages after two or three months because if the many posts about bugs and problems stayed there, it would tarnish their image.

6

The [i]only[/i] good software customer service I’ve [i]ever[/i] received was from Auto Fx and Sun Microsystems in the US.

Microsoft? Adobe?

:roflmao:

7

Not only that. You are posting onto a forum based on open-source (phpBB), via a webserver (Apache) which is open-source running on an operating system (RedHat) that is open-source.

Making generalizations about quality of open-source software is about as meaningful as making generalizations about closed-source. I’ve seen plenty of pieces of closed-source crap, but that doesn’t mean I’m surprised when I see some good closed-source software …[/quote]

Yeah, my ramblings were completely pointless to OSS in general. I just wanted to whine about how many hours of my life I wasted on these two programs (Linux for the iPod, Gimp) that placed such a ridiculously low value on usability and design. Considering the widespread adoption of Apache, phpBB, Firefox, etc. of course it’s pointless to tar them all the same.

What’s one thing I can do in Gimp that I can’t do more reasonably in Photoshop? I’m genuinely curious.

8

[quote]Quote:
those who know, do. those who don’t…

What’s one thing I can do in Gimp that I can’t do more reasonably in Photoshop? I’m genuinely curious.[/quote]

i was referring to your beef with Open Source Software in general. you tried to put linux on an ipod and complain it doesnt work fine :bravo: please do your homework and read release notes before testing stuff that can be beta or a work in porgress withtout complete features.

if you are used to ps/psp, stick to it (and pay your license of course) :wink:

9

Gimp does everything I need it to. And it’s about 24,000NT less than Photoshop.

Some things take a little more messing around with in Gimp, but it’s easy to find online tutorials.

10

[quote=“alidarbac”]Then I tried to install Gimp on my Mac. Instead of downloading an actual installer, I tried to be hardcore and compile it myself. In short, after a couple of days of futzing around and downloading God knows what sort of developer crap, I was able to get it compiled and running.

But my God, the interface is ugly. It’s like they took the Photoshop interface and repeatedly hit it in the crotch with an ugly stick. It appeared to have the same sort of functionality as PS, but I couldn’t even get Curves to work.

What a piece of crap.
[/quote]

Gimp is a pretty good application, but in your special case you might want to try Seashore (which is a cocoa fork of Gimp) instead.

11

How silly of me to assume that an alternate, Linux version of the iPod firmware could actually play music. That sort of insistence on basic functionality gives me away as a total neophyte.

If I were to complain about, say, OpenOffice not being able to print documents, but developers spending the past year really jazzing up its art clip collection, would you tell me to read the release notes? Or better yet, would you tell me to fix the source code myself?

And I could appreciate all the stuff that does come with Gimp. But for me personally, I can’t consider switching until Gimp comes out with a Shadows/Highlight tool (which I specifically checked the release notes for, but which they don’t have) and a lens perspective/distortion corection tool, and maybe then I’ll consider putting up with its clunkiness.

12

I know what you mean…i use PTLens under Photoshop for lens correction. Under Linux or OS X you can use clens.

panotools.sourceforge.net/