HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

xrqvt

11 karma · joined September 9, 2017

submissionscomments
xrqvt··on Wal-Mart Offers Linux as Windows Alternative (2003)
> Anyone else here remember LindowsOS...

I don't just remember, I ordered the desktop!

Linspire's attempt at low-cost did Linux a lot of harm. The desktop was under-powered, their software manager lacked too many apps and... it still suffered from dependency hell - leading to breakage.

While it looked nice, the polish wasn't there. Eventually, I found Mepis and everything just worked but I didn't have enough knowledge & (especially) time to stick with it. It was years before I attempted to go full-time Linux again. I still did lots and lots of distro-hopping though

I'm happy to report that I've been a full-time Linux user the last three years (Mint, for the curious). The entire landscape has changed enough that I have even effortlessly transitioned three users. Most users aren't heavy downloaders like me, so once they have their core apps, they're happy. It literally is click-n-play as far as usage now with the benefit of tremendous built-in hardware support when doing installs.

xrqvt··on Category 5 Hurricane Irma Brings 180-MPH Winds to Bear on Caribbean Islands
windy, ventusky and some of the others do NOT get wind speeds correctly. At no time during the last three days did they even have winds for Hurricane Irma over 80mph.

Discussion on their forums[0], most upset that these 'visualizers' are more fiction than fact. Also worth noting... getting wind speeds wrong can cost lives.

[0] https://community.windy.com/topic/4415/why-is-wind-speed-in-...

xrqvt··on RSS Still Beats Facebook and Twitter for Tracking News
> I tend to stop visiting sites that don't support RSS

Same here. If the site is interesting enough, I'll try and contact the owner and explain why RSS matters. Basically.. few people have the time to visit and sort through individual sites on a daily basis.

xrqvt··on RSS Still Beats Facebook and Twitter for Tracking News
Also, look at a site's source code. The RSS button may not be displayed but I often find the rss link buried in the html. Publishers may not even realize that their plug-n-play blogging platform is automatically creating feeds for them.
xrqvt··on RSS Still Beats Facebook and Twitter for Tracking News
Hmm... this looks really interesting. Gonna' try this with a few reddit links (/r/sub1+sub2...) to see how it handles that. For some reason my current reader is now having problems.