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lproven
8,777karma·4,928submissions·December 30, 2013
about
Tall dark black-clad atheist skeptic biker SF fan; writes, mainly about computers, for a living.
# Work
Currently the FOSS & cloud correspondent for the Register.
https://www.theregister.com/Author/Liam-Proven
Work email: lproven+hn@sitpub.com
# Personal
Comments here (or anywhere else, unless otherwise stated) are personal opinion and not on behalf of any employer.
Based in Douglas, Isle of Man.
Quick info:
https://about.me/liamproven/
Personal blog:
http://lproven.dreamwidth.org/profile
Tech blog:
http://liam-on-linux.dreamwidth.org/profile/
Socials:
https://social.vivaldi.net/@lproven
https://bsky.app/profile/lproven.bsky.social
https://x.com/lproven
https://meet.hn/city/im-Douglas
recent activity (4,928 total)
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Heh. OK, I concede, I gave in to a tiny trollette there. I've been using *nix professionally since 1989. I work for a Linux vendor. I know my way around. But for the last 25 years, I've main…
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[OP/article author here] RISC OS recently changed ownership and it is now fully open-source. The new owners have sponsored an improved version with more bundled software, called RISC OS Direct:
…
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[OP/article author here] Well, that was sort of my point. If you follow the link to the ROUGOL talk on its history, it explains some of the reasons why. It's important to consider that the h…
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Ha! My main (non-tech) blog is on there too and it's 18 years old now. I have just been too lazy to move so far.
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Heh. :-) I aspired to an Amiga as a student in 1986 or so, but by the time I could afford such a thing, I had the option of something much faster... ;-)
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Sorry about that. I'm on a free account. A good ad-blocker is important. :-(
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[OP/article author here] Yes, that was entirely intentional. :-) I used to be the staff technical writer at PC Pro magazine. Ian Betteridge was a colleague on the staff of our sister magazine, Ma…
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[OP/article author here] You could not pin icons to the taskbar in Windows 98, no. Windows 98 integrated IE4, which contained a feature called "Active Desktop". This was not a Win98 inn…
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[OP/article author here] No, not really. Remember that Windows 1.0 was a primitive sort of tiling window system, because Microsoft was afraid of being sued by Apple and did not dare implement ove…
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Only the file manager -- not the whole desktop environment. The desktop manager is called ROX-Session and provides an icon bar, a pinboard and so on as well as the filer windows.
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OP here. As I commented elsewhere: this is not the title that I submitted to HN, and it's not the title on the target page. Someone edited it and I am not sure why.
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I submit that it's not just about performance. Both Linux and Windows still take a _lot_ more maintenance than macOS. If you have a room full of creative video artists, who are not techies, then …
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OP here. For reasons I do not understand, HN seems to have re-titled my submission. The original title is:
«
Why Wait For Apple? Try Out The Original ARM Desktop Experience Today With A Raspberry Pi F…
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I facilitated a talk at the London RISC OS user group by the lead architect of RO, Paul Fellows:
http://www.rougol.jellybaby.net/meetings/2012/PaulFellows/ From what he…
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I really wish someone would pick up and modernize the ROX Desktop -- which is the Acorn RISC OS UI, on top of Linux. http://rox.sourceforge.net/desktop/ It would partner really w…
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[OP here] 4096 colours. :-) Otherwise, yes, pretty much. I bought a 2nd hand A310 in 1989 and it easily outperformed the fastest machines my employer sold (e.g. the IBM PS/2 Model 70-A21, a blazi…
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If you fancy a modern take on this environment, RISC OS Pico is the 32-bit ARM version of BBC BASIC on top of the 32-bit ARM version of Acorn MOS: https://www.riscosopen.org/wiki/…
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Personally, no, but you are in the best company:
https://www.quora.com/Why-did-John-von-Neumann-work-best-in-... …
1 pts
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Look to the East. I applied for some 3¾ thousand jobs between 2009 (age 42) and 2013. I averaged less than one interview per year and worked 2 months full-time in that period. In 2014 I landed a rol…