My 100Mbps switch rocks. I'm ripping a few CD's for Janna, and I noticed that one of them was The Matrix soundtrack. No problem -- I already have it ripped, so why bother ripping/encoding it again? So I scp'ed it from my router machine (where the big MP3 hard disk is), and it shot across my LAN like a bat out of hell. And especially considering that it was The Matrix soundtrack, shooting like a bat out of hell is probably quite appropriate.
Not only was it way faster, it confirmed my beliefs that on my old hub, collisions were killing my performance (from watching the throughput and collision lights). With every collision, there would be a delay before transmission started again (binary backoff and all that). Hence, performance sucked.
But no longer. Wooo hooo!!
The new GNU Mailman (2.0b6) came out last night. Good stuff! Anyone who's running Mailman -- go update.
Perhaps its coolest new feature (IMHO) is that it now inserts special headers in the messages that it sends across lists that some mail clients (including pine, of course) understand. These special headers tell the mail client how to subscribe, unsubscribe, port to the list, etc. For example, at the end of a message with these headers in it, pine provides a link to "email list management functions". Selecting that link provides a bunch of links to subscribe, unsubscribe, post, etc., etc.
Way cool.
I'm still trying to get used to 6 virtual desktops in KDE. I finally made the switch from 4 desktops earlier this past week when I found myself [shrudder] overlapping windows just because I had too many things actively running at once.
You wouldn't think that this would be a major change -- I've been running tvtwm for years at Notre Dame with 8 desktops. However, I didn't use the linear key bindings for next-virtual-desktop and previous-virtual-desktop to switch between desktops with tvtwm. I do this all the time with KDE. Hence, I now sometimes have to hit next/prev 2 more times to get to where I want to go. Takes a bit of getting used to. But it's all for the best.
I've considered switching to other desktops -- SawMill, for example. But why? Everyone complains that KDE is huge and sluggish (and indeed, on Solaris, it was way too slow for me -- I stuck with tvtwm for that very reason. I think tvtwm is about the most bare-bones virtual-desktop-enabled window manager that you can get), but on my 800mhz machine, I don't notice it being slow at all.
That may well be a chicken/egg problem -- since it's a fairly hefty machine, KDE's slowness is not evident. But I've been using KDE on my little 233 laptop for quite some time (a year or two?), and haven't found it to be too bad.
So I think I'm reluctant to change mainly because I don't want to have to learn new key bindings. That is, I'm not impressed with new, cool features in a window manager. I want it to be fast --
that's the most important feature for me. And now, since I've started using KDE, key bindings for just about everything are important (it really bothers me in tvtwm that I can't use key bindings between windows. I've used key bindings in tvtwm to switch between virtual desktops for years, but tvtwm does have key bindings for switching between windows, but they're global --
not per virtual desktop -- which is useless, IMHO). That is, I rarely use the mouse with KDE; I only use it for selecting and pasting things in non-emacs environments (xterm, pine, netscape). And of course for GUI programs (like grip) that don't have command line or key bindings equivalents.
So here's what I look for in a window manager:
- Virtual desktops. This is a must. I can't work in a single desktop anymore. I am inherently multi-tasking; while something is running in a window that take more than 5-10 seconds, I will likely go to something else.
- Speed. If the window manager can't keep up with me, forget it. I only discovered that this was a prerequisite when I tried to use KDE under Solaris. It was so slow that it would sometimes lag my actions by multiple keystrokes, which was completely unacceptable.
- Key bindings for navigation. i.e., using key bindings to switch between windows and desktops. This is now just about a must as well
-- I'm so acclimated to KDE's key bindings that it has become a part of the way that I work.
Things that do not impress me in a window manager (admittedly, some of these are functionality items which can be turned off. KDE, for example, has many of these. I turn them all off):
- 6 billion widgets and gadgets. I won't use them.
- 6 billion options for how my background and windows and displays and ... look. I won't use those, either. A plain color or gradient color background is fine. Most default color schemes are fine. I'm trying to work, not customize up the wahzoo.
- Animated events. Scrolling title bars really annoy the crap out of me. And who needs to wait for windows to appear and disappear? When I dismiss or iconize a window, I want it gone -- I don't want it swirling around the vortex of an imaginary drain in the center of my screen for the next 30 seconds.
- Non-arrow pointer icons. These also annoy the crap out of me. If it's not an arrow, there's always the question of "which side is actually pointing?" i.e., what part of the icon do I have to have over a widget to be able to click on it?
- Sounds that accompany window manager functions. I don't need noises to tell me that I just opened or closed a window -- I just did it, I don't need an audio queue to remind me of what I just did.
It has been my experience that all of these things simply waste time, not just in the time that you have to wait for them to execute, but in the time that you spend setting them up. And then, a week later, when you are tired of all of them, you spend more time setting them up again, or perhaps you'll make or go download a new theme. Who needs it?
To be fair, I haven't tried KDE under Solaris in quite a while --
there have been quite a few releases since then. Indeed, KDE 2.0 is on the horizon, which may make it worthwhile on Solaris now. I'll probably give it a whirl in the not-too-distant future.