The OS X problem

[Erebus the Black]

alt: "Smilodon fatalis" narrowly edged out "Tyrannosaurus rex" to win this year's Most Badass Latin Names competition, after edging out "Dracorex hogwartsia" and "Stygimoloch spinifer" (meaning "horned dragon from the river of death") in the semifinals.

 

(both the strip and the alt are from the online comic XKCD)

[Aran]

Ubuntu took Ocelot last year, and Lynx in 2010. These were clearly well-calculated moves.

 

Instead of operating system, Macbook contained bobcat. Would not buy again.

[Tracer Bullet]

 

Of course, I'm stopping this before I end up on every FBI watchlist ever.

[Erebus the Black]

There, fixed.

[Alorael at Large]

This is the sort of thing that can and probably should be discussed on the xkcd forums. Because with its readership here, we could easily just talk about every xkcd comic. And why stop there? Girl Genius has plenty of drama as well, and it's not going to analyze itself!

 

—Alorael, who imagines that Apple is aware of the impending crisis and their genetic engineers are working overtime to create new cats so they can make more awesome names.

[Dikiyoba]

Quote:

—Alorael, who imagines that Apple is aware of the impending crisis and their genetic engineers are working overtime to create new cats so they can make more awesome names.

Eh, there are plenty of cool cats with awesome appellations out there already, they just need to be popularized. Clouded leopard, caracal, serval, jaguarundi, even the kodkod. They may be small, but that doesn't make them any less cool.

Also, Dracorex is the most overrated dinosaur ever. It's a freakin' pachycephalosaur, which are the much less awesome cousins of ceratopsians (think Triceratops), and it doesn't even have the ridiculously domed skull that's about the only thing pachycephalosaurs have to make them seem cool. All it has is tiny spikes on its head. At least Stygimoloch (another pachycephalosaur) has at least a small dome and big spikes to go with it.

Dikiyoba.

[keira]

Personally, if Apple released an OSX titled "Saber-tooth" I would purchase it, just because that's about a billion times more awesome than "Vista" or "Karmic Koala".

 

Really, Ubuntu did good with using Narwhal. What an awesome mascot. Then they threw in Unity

[Aran]

Quote:

Then they threw in Unity

Agreed. I tore that out and switched to Gnome Shell.

[keira]

I just switched to Debian

[Actaeon]

Originally Posted By: no such thing as light artillery

Because with its readership here, we could easily just talk about every xkcd comic. And why stop there? Girl Genius has plenty of drama as well, and it's not going to analyze itself!

We used to discuss practically every Order of the Stick over at Shadow Vale. I trust that the next big satellite will have a section devoted to webcomics.

[Tracer Bullet]

Originally Posted By: no such thing as light artillery

This is the sort of thing that can and probably should be discussed on the xkcd forums. Because with its readership here, we could easily just talk about every xkcd comic.

Don't see what's wrong with that...

[nikki.]

Originally Posted By: Actaeon

We used to discuss practically every Order of the Stick over at Shadow Vale. I trust that the next big satellite will have a section devoted to webcomics.

In fact, I only ever remembered to check OOTS by seeing responses in that thread. I should probably go and read some now, but considering I've about two years to catch up on, I might wait until a less ungodly hour.

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: Khothee and TV

Originally Posted By: Actaeon

We used to discuss practically every Order of the Stick over at Shadow Vale. I trust that the next big satellite will have a section devoted to webcomics.

In fact, I only ever remembered to check OOTS by seeing responses in that thread. I should probably go and read some now, but considering I've about two years to catch up on, I might wait until a less ungodly hour.

It's probably only updated like two, three dozen times in the past years. It's super slow now.

I think his disease is starting to catch up with him. Unfortunate.

[Nioca]

Originally Posted By: Dantius

Originally Posted By: Khothee and TV

Originally Posted By: Actaeon

We used to discuss practically every Order of the Stick over at Shadow Vale. I trust that the next big satellite will have a section devoted to webcomics.

In fact, I only ever remembered to check OOTS by seeing responses in that thread. I should probably go and read some now, but considering I've about two years to catch up on, I might wait until a less ungodly hour.

It's probably only updated like two, three dozen times in the past years. It's super slow now.

Also, it's less "The Order of the Stick" now and more "Look at how awesome Tarquin is!". I've been pruning webcomics from my reading list recently, and OotS is just about off of it because of the whole desert arc.

[Kelandon]

Originally Posted By: Dantius

Originally Posted By: Khothee and TV

Originally Posted By: Actaeon

We used to discuss practically every Order of the Stick over at Shadow Vale. I trust that the next big satellite will have a section devoted to webcomics.

In fact, I only ever remembered to check OOTS by seeing responses in that thread. I should probably go and read some now, but considering I've about two years to catch up on, I might wait until a less ungodly hour.

It's probably only updated like two, three dozen times in the past years. It's super slow now.

This is an underestimate by a factor of a few. The average update rate this year has been a little over once a week (29 in 5.5 months).

[Dikiyoba]

Originally Posted By: Nioca

Also, it's less "The Order of the Stick" now and more "Look at how awesome Tarquin is!". I've been pruning webcomics from my reading list recently, and OotS is just about off of it because of the whole desert arc.

I mean, the party is making progress, but yeah. The plot needs to move a bit faster.

Dikiyoba really liked Tarquin up until he joined the Linear Guild. It just didn't seem in character; Nale's just too much of a loser.

[Alorael at Large]

Compare the number of panels, and how much happens in them, and OotS is updating plenty. It just comes in bigger lumps, which makes people unhappy because of fallible human psychology. I think the comic isn't at its highest point now, but it's not at its nadir, either. It's doing okay, and I think it'll have more great moments later.

 

—Alorael, who figures its time to make this a general webcomics discussion. He's just noticed that Girl Genius has now spent half its run in Mechanicsburg. Eventually, to be sure, but he's getting tired of that wacky Castle Heterodyne. And this reminds him to once again plug Schlock Mercenary for having relatively self-contained story arcs (books) with a beginning, middle, and end. There's an overarching plot, but you don't spend years in plot limbo.

[Dantius]

Originally Posted By: GlaxoTimeGoogle

—Alorael, who figures its time to make this a general webcomics discussion. He's just noticed that Girl Genius has now spent half its run in Mechanicsburg. Eventually, to be sure, but he's getting tired of that wacky Castle Heterodyne. And this reminds him to once again plug Schlock Mercenary for having relatively self-contained story arcs (books) with a beginning, middle, and end. There's an overarching plot, but you don't spend years in plot limbo.

The reveal in Dr. McNinja today was somewhat shocking.

I don't know if anyone else here reads Evan Dahm's stuff (Rice Boy and Order of Tales), but his latest comic is really not up to snuff. It seems more "Look at how good of an artist I am! Here's twenty updates with no dialog!" now rather than telling the whole "epic, yet whimsical yarn" thing he had going the first two comics.

[Actaeon]

Well, he's been back since episode 39. It stands to reason that he's been doing SOMETHING in the mean time. Apparently, that's going incognito.

[Randomizer]

I'm waiting for Mel White to finish her dissertation so she can go back to the promised book 4 of Duncan and Mallory.

[Lilith]

objective fact: gunnerkrigg court is the best webcomic

[Nioca]

Originally Posted By: GlaxoTimeGoogle

Compare the number of panels, and how much happens in them, and OotS is updating plenty. It just comes in bigger lumps, which makes people unhappy because of fallible human psychology. I think the comic isn't at its highest point now, but it's not at its nadir, either. It's doing okay, and I think it'll have more great moments later.

Eh, I'd argue that. Between Tarquin-Sue being oh-so-awesome and the entire party feeling like they've dropped several IQ points (exemplified at its worst in this comic), and the comic relying more and more on graphic violence (the soldier getting disembowled and implosion depiction come to mind), it really feels like it's been floundering. I mean, I follow Goblins, so it's not like I'm going to play moral guardian and take up arms against it because it's a little violent, but it still feels out-of-place here. The fact that Burlew was magically able to crank out one strip a day for a whole week when there was Kickstarter money backing it did nothing to help my opinion of the comic; it makes it look like the poor update schedule is less "Debilitating Disease" and more "Debilitating Laziness".

All of this combined makes me feel like Burlew's really wanting to move on from this comic but can't, so he's just going through the motions. Your mileage on this may vary, however; it's just my opinion on it.

While we're plugging comics, I'd also like to make a plug for Bug, a (mostly) SFW gag-a-day comic that I've been particularly fond of. If you like gag-a-day comics, especially ones utilizing rapid-fire comedy about random and bizarre topics, then you'll probably like this one.

[Dintiradan]

Originally Posted By: Lilith

objective fact: gunnerkrigg court is the best webcomic

This (at least, it's my favourite comic that's still being updated). Though the current chapter is probably too bewildering to a newcomer, because has a lot of call-backs, and is pretty surreal.

Another recommendation is Sam and Fuzzy. There's a 'soft reboot' available, if you don't want to read the first thousand or so strips.

EDIT: Objective fact: City Face is the ultra triple best character ever, yes.

[VCH]

Yeah, I don't understand what's happening in Gunnerkrigg. Maybe I need to start at the beginning.

[Sudanna]

Quote:

the comic relying more and more on graphic violence

I don't think that OotS's art style is capable of graphic violence. Violence, sure, but graphic violence requires better graphics. And you seem to be forgetting that it's a comic strip. As in humorous. The strip you linked is just that; humor, not plot.

[Alorael at Large]

Again, I don't think Rich Burlew is updating all that much less than many M-W-F comics. He's been reliably good for hundreds of comics. I can give him a few less than enthralling ones without leaving.

 

I read Gunnerkrigg Court, and I like Gunnerkrigg Court, but I'm a little baffled by the outlandish praises heaped upon it. The art is outstanding, but the comic itself is dark, humorous, and full of intimations of plot that don't resolve. He's had enough time to start giving away a little more of what's going on. I'm sure Tom Siddell knows, and I'm sure he intends to leak it out bit by bit, but the pacing of bits seems too slow to me. So I'll call it a great comic, but not the greatest comic.

 

—Alorael, who can't imagine even trying to understand it without starting from the beginning. Granted, you still won't understand a lot of it, including what's going on right now, but at least you'll know what's deliberately opaque and what you, personally, don't understand.

[Student of Trinity]

For quite a while now I've been reading Girl Genius, OotS, Looking for Group, Erfworld, xkcd, and Dilbert. I still like them all enough to keep looking, but now that I think about it, they've all slowed down quite a lot lately.

 

Webcomics are clearly here to stay as a new medium. Their popularity may rise and fall, but they're possible, so they'll be around. Unfortunately I kind of think that the medium lends itself to stalling and vamping. If text stalls, it's intolerably boring. It's hard for a film to completely stall, because as long as the actors keep moving, something is happening. But a webcomic can let the plot stall, and keep readers minimally interested with nice artwork. You can get away with it up to a point, especially if you're already established, so I think it's bound to happen.

 

I did start Gunnerkrigg Court at one point, but somehow lost interest. I think it was that there was simultaneously too much happening, and not enough. Not enough sense was being made quickly enough for me; I lost hope that the story would really go anywhere soon.

 

More recently I started following Next Town Over. Steampunk meets magic meets the western; yep, all three, though to be honest the steampunk part is a little thin. The mix would still be just too much, I expect, except for the way the comic actually works. The art is good, but the structure is minimalist. The entire plot, so far, is a chase; but yet the story hardly even pretends to have momentum. A lot of pages have no dialog, and it's often a little hard to follow. But somehow it has been established, at least for me, that it's supposed to be that way. The comic itself is the nameless stranger who doesn't talk much, but can pull a gun out from under that poncho in the blink of an eye.

[Tyranicus]

I hadn't been ridiculously impressed with OotS recently, but then I read this strip.

[Actaeon]

THAT was a big reveal. I actually seem to remember excitedly chatting you about it, which isn't something the average webcomic makes me do.

[SamSniped]

...and SatW hasn't been mentioned yet? Someone get a link to it up!

[keira]

oglaf

 

just kidding, that's not a webcomic that is very not-family-friendly. it doesn't exist. don't look for it.

 

in related news, there was this neat webcomic i was reading a year or so ago. all i remember was that it was neat, in comic-book style and featured a nifty casino in space in one 'book'. any help?

[Slawbug]

you know, I really didn't want to like that as much as I seem to.

[Erebus the Black]

Originally Posted By: Tyranicus

I hadn't been ridiculously impressed with OotS recently, but then I read this strip.

Well someone has to still be alive in there, remember the floating eye in the desert?

[Soul of Wit]

http://basicinstructions.net/

 

That is all.