Microsoft's Technical Glitches at CES Explained

Thomas Hawk writes "Sean Alexander is one of the guys on the Media Center Team at Microsoft who was involved in the CES presentation with Bill Gates. Sean also runs a very interesting blog called Addicted to Digital Media. Gates and Microsoft have taken a lot of heat over the course of the last two days for the technical glitches in Microsoft's presentation at CES. Sean offers us the rare glimpse on why the glitches happened and what it's like to be backstage at the big Microsoft presentation at CES. Very good follow up on Sean's part." Update: 01/08 19:03 GMT by T : Hawk writes with a static link to Alexander's story.

Comments

Re:Read the article before flaming

[Trelane]

Communism is based on the "from each by ability, to each by his need" idea, and free software is simply a direct application of this idea.

First off, while both Communism and Free Software may be derived from the same base class (more on this in a sec), that does not imply that they are the same class, to put it in Object-oriented terms. :)

According to Stallman, each programmer should work on software for his own personal enjoyment and give it to the community.

Incorrect. Stallman simply claims that end-users should have the right to modify software as they need, and re-distribute the changes as they need. That is the basis of all other claims. You may be interested in borrowing Free Software, Free Society from your local library and reading it. While even I don't agree with everything he says (and you most certainly won't if I don't), some things may strike a chord with you, as it's definitely interesting thoughts, even if wrong. Simply discarding the other side as too simplistic/naiive (or fascistic, on the other side of the fence) is almost always a bad idea.

Then the community will pay him back with modifications and the rich people will pay him money, generously satisfying all his needs because he's just such a great and unselfish fellow.

Well, this is the way things work, your apparent cynicism aside (if I read things correctly; facial expressions and vocal tone is hard to read from html ;). Well, only partially. The community does indeed provide bug reports, bug fixes, documentation, web site support, new code, and so forth. But not only rich people give money to the developers; companies do when they buy software from companies that employ FOSS developers, end-users do in gratitude or because they want to support the development, and so forth. Charity works; many people are employed and benefit from charity, without being forced to pony up. (This also apparently depends on your definition of "rich", as those with little or no money can still benefit from FOSS without having to pay up, or they can give two cents if they want (see also, the widow's two pennies). There's a lot more subtlety to the business model than you seem to be giving it credit for.

You have apparently drunken deep from the Microsoft Kool-Aid during your tenure at Redmond; it'd be well worth it to also take a draught from our pitcher as well (i.e. look at it with an open mind).

No insults, just friendship. Sorry the other guy offended.