[geeks] Can't decide on an OS

[Mouse]

>> Part of the problem there is that it's difficult to get anything
>> even vaguely like agreement on what constitutes "usable".
> I think that if your basic premise that the computer should support
> content creators first and content consumers second, you have a

...good example of what I mean, because such systems are rarely usable
for me.  I'm not sure what "content" is, but the meanings I infer from
the ways I've seen the word used are things I have low-to-negative
interest in creating.

>> Furthermore, even that angel investor isn't going to help much until
>> a significant fraction of users actually start telling manufacturers
>> "no, I won't buy that, because the hardware is undocumented".
> It's my understanding that AMD and nVidia both document their
> graphics cards at the register level these days.

That may or may not be enough - but, given the rants I've heard about
the tension between wanting to use open-source rendering engines and
wanting to use high-performance rendering engines, I suspect it is not
enough.  "At the register level" can mean just "here's where you stuff
the command packet address, here's where you put its length" but
complete silence on what goes _in_ the "command packet", in which case
it is of little-to-no use.

The documentation I'm talking about is the stuff someone building an
OpenGL implementation, or a game engine, or the like, for the card
needs.  My understanding is that it hasn't been available.  If it now
is, that would be wonderful.

> The documentation is not particularly friendly, and it requires
> subject-matter expertise to digest, but, the docs are there.

Excellent.  Where?  (I suck at finding things on the Web, and these
days I have zero hope that they'd be made available any other way.  I
can fetch stuff when I know where it is, but finding it is quite
another story.)

> I feel for the hardware manufacturers.  The patent system in the US
> is so hostile towards anyone who actually builds something (as
> opposed to someone who just files patent paperwork and sells the
> rights to attorneys), and every published specification is an open
> invitation for a patent troll to file suit.  With the US courts
> seeming to know no bounds, it almost doesn't matter where the tech is
> developed if it's sold here.

Yeah, the US has made that bed and is having to lie in it.  That
wouldn't be a problem, really, except that so much of the rest of the
world seems to consider the US indispensable.

I have very little pity for hardware manufacturers in this regard.
Large companies are among the first to want stronger IP rights, because
that weights the system even more heavily in favour of richer entites
(especially in the Litigous States of America, where the legal sistem
is much less about justice than it is about who can afford better
lawyers and longer-running litigation).  A hardware manufacturer that
actually wanted to provide usable hardware to people outside the USA
could simply refuse to sell it into the USA.  But, of course, providing
useful hardware or good customer service takes a back seat to
immediate-term profit.

> I think if that got fixed, we'd see better documentation, as there'd
> be literally no reason for for companies to hide that from end users.

Not quite - if documentation is not available, you have much better
customer lockin for the vendor-provided software.

>> So am I, so am I...to the point where I'm trying to think of
>> something I could do for a living that would let me never touch
>> computers again.
> I'm seriously considering getting into machining.

I think in my case it would be music.

I don't know whether I could make a living at it, but it's getting to
the point where I have to get out of the hostile system computing has
become even if it means walking out onto the ice floe.

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