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Intel Head Recommends Apple
pboulang writes "noted in this
article in the WSJ:
Pressed about security by Mr. Mossberg, Mr. Otellini had a startling confession: He spends an hour a weekend removing spyware from his daughter's computer. And when further pressed about whether a mainstream computer user in search of immediate safety from security woes ought to buy Apple Computer Inc.'s Macintosh instead of a Wintel PC, he said, "If you want to fix it tomorrow, maybe you should buy something else.""
Why not Linux? No spyware, or viruss to worry about. Its secure and stable. You can use what ever hardware you want. Maybe Apple is going to use intel hardware...
As far as I know, the most secure machine a home user can have right now would be a no-OS computer with a Knoppix disk in the CD drive. Nothing would be stored on the hard drive but user files. Updating software would mean updating Knoppix. That'd work, right?
Do _you_ have a daugther? Or a little sister?
Its hell. Kill spyware once a week, format once every 3 months.
The system had the verbosity of HTML combined with all the readability of compiled assembly viewed as bitmap images
- Way more respect for Mr. Otellini. I had assumed he got the job due to mob ties.
- Hardly the point of his talk, or the article
Oh, and: "D" sounds like it was hella boring this year.There are no trails. There are no trees out here.
I spent an hour today at lunch trying to remove spyware from my 13yo cousins computer.
With the reboots, multiple programs (lavasoft and spybot) updated, still couldn't get rid of pop-up windows. This computer hasn't been online yet a week. :(
Don't worry, I have a plan.
Sure a Windows PC's security sucks. ... But with Microsoft turning to Power PC chips for its XBOX and with Apple in talks with Intel, is this just a sign that sign that the Wintel alliance is fraying
I'm trying to blast the Spyware and Trojan Horses and Ad Ware off of my cousins computer but the dirty blighters stick to Winblows PC's like a rabid barnacle on the Titanic, reboot and their back!.... to be truly honest I am completely sick of fixing Windows PC's and would gladly install SuSE would my cousin let me. Unfortunately fear and "needing games" stops him...
Resident of Skara Brae since 1985
Crossed into my mind, too. But I still don't think that Apple would switch to x86. Do people actually see any sense in it, if Intel would also jump into PPC bandwagon and start making those chips? After all, the required documentation is publicly available.
“Wait for Hurd if you want something real” –Linus
You can create shortcuts that integrate runas
/user:ieuser /savecred "C:\Program Files\Internet Explorer\IEXPLORE.EXE"
I have a user on my machines called IEUSER with very little privleges. You can create a shortcuts to replace your normal IE shortcuts to start IE as that user automatically with:
C:\WINDOWS\system32\runas.exe
Of course you can start any progam in this manner.
The problem is when links are clicked from other applications, it starts IE being the default browser with my credentials. I have not figured out that one yet. On a side note, I leave IE as the defualt browser but have Kerio personall firewall set to request permission before allowing IE network access. This way, if a virus/spyware tries to call IE or the IE rending engine which is my default URL handler, I will be prompted by my firewall to allow access. If I did not actively click something to start this, I know something fishy is going on and investigate.
Bad boys rape our young girls but Violet gives willingly.
More entertaining is Scott McNealy's section
... For another $2.4 billion maybe I won't say that."
Sun's decision to make peace with Microsoft Corp. more than a year ago gave Mr. McNealy's company some $2 billion in cash...
*snip*
Mr. McNealy compared Sun's agreement with Microsoft to a pair of boxers who shake hands by tapping gloves and "promise not to bite each other's ears off." But he got in at least a nip, telling the audience that while Sun does run Windows to ensure interoperability, employees who aren't in engineering aren't allowed "to connect Windows to our network for security and viruses reasons.
The four different desktop machines (well, 3 dt and one laptop) in this household all run Mandrake Linux. Sound worked on all of them OOTB. Only this desktop has a special sound card (Yamaha 744), the rest are Intel or PC'97. Everything shares sound nicely through artsd.
Occasionally the Flash plugin goes wild, but VeryNice fixes that automagically after a few minutes (and later Konquerors also offer to fix it for you on the spot if set to do so).
OTOH my book-keeper plugged a Win2k-based laptop into his LAN yesterday, and after much farting around (nothing as neat as MCC here) finally managed to get the internal firewalling shut down, and Norton's internet security thing, and the laptop still won't read the shares on the one (98SE) machine he wants it to, and nor will any of the other machines (98SE, 95, XP) read the laptop - but Samba reads it just fine, both the old version on the gateway and the new version on his LOB server. None of the other machines have any problems with each other (including Samba, both ways). Yes, the workgroup, authentication etc are all correct and consistent. Yes, he did reboot them all. The laptop is happy to talk to the chosen machine using WinSCP and the CygWin SSH server.
That's my definition of "difficult to understand". And so much of Windows is like that. Case in point: all of the network settings for Win2k are in the network control panel - except for the machine identity, which is part of the properties on My [Bill's] Computer.
People only think it's normal because they're used to it. Linux is not difficult, just different.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
I didn't say that I got Mac OS X to play sound on a Dell. I said that Linux couldn't play sound on a Dell. Mac OS X works just fine on my three PowerBooks, 2 iMacs, and iBook. Windows networking works on my Macs right out of the box. I'll have to spend time to figure out how to make Linux work.
And that's the problem with Linux. It's like a TR7 that a friend used to have; it's a great car if you want to spend more time working on it than driving it. He would drive from New Jersery to Virginia to see his girlfriend, and then spend all weekend working on his car so that he could get back home.
This is a silly argument.
What possible motivation is there for Microsoft to move to a different ISA? Almost all of the world's software is written for x86. Moving to a different ISA would seriously weaken Microsoft's monopoly position because all of the tools and infrastructure (drivers, compilers, debuggers etc...) are build around x86. Microsoft would commit financial suicide if this happened not only because the ISVs would be pissed, but for another reason - There simply isn't enough capacity to supply NON-x86 silicon to meet global demand (computers would start costing $5000 again - not a good thing for Microsoft).
Intel supplies 80% of the worlds microprocessors. Nobody else has the fab capacity to do this. It takes a few years to put up a fab and each one costs about 3 billion dollars (which keep getting even more expensive for each process generation). IBM/AMD/others simply don't have the capital structure to build all the fabs necessary to meet global demand. Who is going to put up the capital? Microsoft? Why? The already enjoy monopoly pricing. How would moving to a different ISA give them any kind of a return on investment given the costs?
Building microprocessors is so expensive that DEC-Alpha, HP-PA RISC and SGI-MIPS have all thrown in the towel yeilding to Intel. SPARC will be the next to go. If Apple goes with Intel, expect POWER to be the next to die (sorry but console profits are tiny).
Here's my prediction. In 10 years, everything will run on x86. Yes, even PDAs and cell phones. The risk to Intel is that more competitors start building x86 processors (AMD is too small). Maybe Samsung or some other company with the capital requirements and semiconductor expertise necessary to build out fabs.
In fact, I think that Microsoft is more at risk.
They are at risk on the desktop/laptop side from Apple and Linux. Both of which run x86 (Admittedly, the Apple thing is still a rumor).
Let's say the market moves away from the PC to a more server/thin-client model. Microsoft gets cut out of the picture (think Google already running their software services on x86-Linux and upstarts like RIMM/Blackberry running their software on the clients). Google runs on Intel. RIMM does not, but Intel is already a leader in the handheld space (think ARM).
Now let's consider the diversification argument by listing the markets that require computing power.
PCs/Desktops? No question here. Intel has a dominant market share in both processors and chipsets.
Graphics? Intel is #1 in graphics marketshare with their integrated graphics solution.
How about notebooks? Intel is the clear leader in that rapidly growing space. Transmeta tried to compete and got crushed. AMD is all but invisible with their one-trick opteron pony. The market is moving here and Intel is there to capitalize.
PDAs? Intel inside with StrongARM.
Cell phones? Intel inside (with their flash chips).
Servers? Intel is again very big here with over a 90% share of x86 servers.
Embedded? No Intel there. The reason? There's no money there...
Consoles? No Intel there. There's very little money to be made with silicon. All of the value is in the software. NVIDIA only made about 30 million on XBOX (Intel made something similar). ATI is reported to make about 2$ per console on XBOX360. To put it into perspective, Intel makes about 600 million every single week.
Diversification has worked beautifully for companies like IBM and GE. 10 years ago, I do not think that IBM would have been able to dump its PC business without significantly damaging themselves.
IBM is valued less than Intel by about 30%. GE has been around for 100 years, Intel is only 30.
In the 80s Intel was concentrated on making memory chips but were getting killed by the Japanese, and in a heartbeat, diversified into microprocessors. Until the demand for microprocessors diminishes, Intel will keep making them. It's hard to stop when you still have 60% gross margins. If there's value and growth in silicon, Intel is well positioned to take advantage with their enormous fab capacity and their army of skilled engineers.