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Novell Expects Vista to Spur Linux Adoption
It doesn't come easy writes "According to the Register, Novell expects the cost of upgrading to Vista will encourage many companies to turn to Linux instead. From the article: 'Jack Messman, chief executive of networking software vendor Novell says that 2006 will see widespread adoption of Linux on the corporate desktop. According to Messman the catalyst will be the release of Microsoft Windows Vista and the high costs associated with upgrading. Obviously, if they're right Novell hopes that turn will be toward SUSE Linux.'" We touched on this issue late last month, as well.
They've been saying this each time Windows releases something. Hasn't come true yet. So you decide, is Linux adoption "10 Years Off" or will it become mainstream with Vista's release? Or are they one in the same? All of this is merely speculation.
And that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be bannana-shaped.
What makes him thing that anyone cares about updating? Even after the release of XP, look at all the 2000 and 98 boxes still in use. Why is the release of Vista going to have any more of an effect?
Assuming microsoft is not discontinuing support for Win2k or XP for some time, why would businesses be inclined to change what currently works for them?
Could of easily been Apple on the receiving end of the influx.
However Apple does not seem interested in corporate clients past the Xserve.
With the lack of licensing problems a company can just make thousands of copies of a hard drive to be put in the company's desktops and say goodbye to a 3 week wait to get a crashed computer back up. (Assuming they use a standard computing platform throughout the company.)
Marky Mark Killed Jason Bourne!
Its not like Linux has a billion versions for each distro of Linux, they have versions that make sense, and fit the needs of the end user. What if Red Hat had: Red Hat Home Users, Red Hat Professional Home Users, Red Hat For Porn Users, yada yada... People wont know what the hell they are getting!! But besides all that, Im happy to say that the Linux community has made some major breakthroughs lately with such vast compatibility ports to many commercial products used today for those who are "stuck" on Windows Desktops.
Just me
I guess it's time for me to learn how to do gui programming C++ and GTK? I've been spoiled with C# and VB for so long... I know unix based C++ and C, but not gui programming. This should be fun!?
self fullfilling prophecy
This could easily turn into a self fullfilling prophecy. The more the meme is repeated now, two years before Vista launch, the more it will grow in peoples minds. The more it grows there, the more thinking and the more planning.
IOW, keep repeating this! Windows Vista will make business switch to Linux. Say it enough and it becomes truth.
But I read a review of SUSE 9.3 in Linux User the other day. I seem to recall the words "bloat" and "tedious" appearing a number of times in the two page review.
And there still has to be substantial per seat savings up front and integrated migration tools.
If they can pull off that package, yeah, they might a shot.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
This'll spur movement towards Linux? Why wouldn't users just keep the OS they already have? If the point is to avoid retraining, migrating to Linux is one of the more ironic moves a man could make.
TLoM: Nerds + DDR + Rednecks for the win!
It might be that Novell has got a point. All the other options (linux, thinclient, windows desktop, webbased) are evaluated by now. And for big corporate networks the license costs could be the key factor. And in the end al Microsoft development, marketing and support had to be paid for and for Linux the major part has been done by a generous but still very clever 'programming society'.
jouwnieuws!
You can read *any* TCO study sponsored by Microsoft and you'll find that the upgrade to Windows Vista won't cost anything. There are *never* upgrade costs if you stick with Windows. Sheesh.
Also, there won't be any retraining costs if you stick with Windows.
Microsoft buys a lot of good research, you folks should read it more often.
Do you have ESP?
"Jack Messman, chief executive of networking software vendor Novell says that 2006 will see widespread adoption of Linux on the corporate desktop."
Just like 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, 2001...
The real problem is (still) lack of applications and games. My home PC can't switch until Dreamweaver and Photoshop run on Linux. My office PC can't switch until Quickbooks and VersaCheck run on Linux. Honestly, I've seen more Windows->Mac and Linux->Mac migrations than anything else these past few years... and little to no evidence that shows that Linux is gaining popularity on desktop PCs, other than these "wishful thinking" articles from Linux company CEOs.
Something else to think about: The upgrade cost to Vista, for most companies, is effectively $0 because it comes with new PCs. Contrast this with yearly application updates for Photoshop, Quickbooks, anti-virus, anti-spyware, et al. which can run thousands of dollars. Microsoft isn't the only cost center on a typical PC; in fact, I'd say they're one of the smallest costs involved with a typical office PC.
Simpli - Your source for San Jose dedicated servers and colocation!
According to the Register, Novell expects the cost of upgrading to Vista will encourage many companies to turn to Linux instead.
More like "wishful thinking". More than likely companies will do 1 of the following 3 things.
1) Stick with what they have.
2) Wait until Vista comes bundled with their new hardware.
3) Consider Linux and then take the super-saver deal that M$ will suddenly offer.
where i work they're still like a year away from switching to XP. whats going to make them rush to Vista?
Wasn't there some talk a while back that some patches and fixes to IE were only going to happen to XP and nothing else? Maybe that was their first stage of alientating the Win2k users too in a move to get people in the mood to upgrade to something else?
Just my own speculation of course...
my geeklog
Won't happen on corporate desktops until installing packages becomes something my mother can do. There just isn't any distro right now that compares to Windows' ease of use for installing software and getting updates. Linux is getting a lot better (my debian-based Mepis is pretty cool), but I'd never let it near my boss for mission-critical daily use.
linux will always be 10 years off as long as the majority of linux developers stay the way they are... software elegance in C and/or the commandline is fine and dandy, but it is pretty much the anti-thesis of the business world.
They'll eventually change what currently works for them when Microsoft stops issuing fixes for new security holes in the software they are using. But in the meantime, yes, they'll continue using their old versions of Windows, just like half the Windows users out there are still using versions older than XP. Since Vista has been designed to suck on current hardware, and upgrading the OS is beyond the capabilities of most computer users, probably 99% of Vista sales will be as a preinstalled OS on new computers sold. (Of course, this preinstalled market is precisely the market the Linux vendors should be going after as well.)
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
The problem with this view is that with big deployments, the Microsoft "price per seat" is always negotiable, especially when you bring a possible Linux migration into the equation. In fact we have seen this: XYZ government or company makes noise about moving to Linux, and Microsoft simply negotiates a lower price. When migration cost is the key issue, Microsoft has the upper hand. However, when other issues such as "open standards" are the issues, Microsoft can't compete. The problem is not selling lower TOC, it'' selling the benefits of "open standards". It's too bad that many Linux "evangelists" frame Linux migration arguments in the context of ideology, because governments and companies are rarely interested in these things, they have budgets to meet and people to serve.
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
From TFA:
Messman argued that Linux, having somewhat less desktop functionality, is a bonus for businesses as it discourages staff from wasting time engaging in non-productive activities, such as web browsing.
What is exactly less functional? I agree that removing the browser can increase productivity, but the fact that it can be removed doesn't mean linux has inherent less functional, but quite the opposite.
So i should believe Novell because they are alway right... I need to call my Broker and buy M$ now! With this latest declaration from Novell Vista will probably increase M$ lead over Linux and OSX. Just saying, who would you bet on?
May I remind you, the question isn't why am I, the question is why are you.
Company that Sells Linux thinks Linux will Succeed
Oh well. At least it's good to hear the company that owns the copyright to UNIX is so gung ho about Linux.
Novell is right but even before any Vista release we are seeing a huge migration to Linux. Our company and most of our partners and clients have switched to Linux already on both, servers and desktops.
We've hesitated about Linux for the longest time but we simply can't afford to take the risks associated with Windows anymore e.g. someone breaking into our systems or a virus infestation that wipes out our data. Linux is just a better platform in terms of security, cost efficiency, etc. It is working great for us and we are highly satisfied with it.
This reads like one of those "Hey, just reminding you we're still here" press releases.
Could this be the first sighting of "2006 will be the year of the Linux desktop?"
First...
"The requirements for Windows 9.x will make people turn to OS/2"
- Result, OS/2 is dead.
"The ridiculous requirements for Windows NT will increase adoption of NetWare"
- Result, NetWare died soon after.
"Novell expects the cost of upgrading to Vista will encourage many companies to turn to Linux instead."
-Result ?
It's been more than 10 years of these? Haven't we had enough?
Linux has its own niche; it is not meant to replace windoz boxes, and it will not replace them in the near future. So, who cares ?
Then again, they said the same thing about Windows XP. We saw heaps of pundits insisting that the combined force of considerable hardware requirements and draconian product activation scheme would push Linux head-first into the desktop arena.
Obviously, that didn't happen.
While Linux has made great strides since the launch of XP, it hasn't even come close to putting any kind of dent in the prevalence of Microsoft on the business desktop. As much as I hate to say it, I don't see the situation changing much with Vista. When Microsoft says jump, most of the I.T. departments in the world start bouncing around like buffoons.
I have just now downloaded OpenSuse 10. I'll install it and hope to see some improvements.
If Novell / Suse wants to get real desktop adoption, these are the things they need to do:
- The system needs to be more stable. Take a deep breath, slow down on the new features, and make it stable.
- THERE SHOULD BE ONLY ONE APPLICATION FOR EVERY TASK! This is so obvious and people have been saying it for years. On my Suse 9.3, if I want to control the volume, I go to Multimedia -> Volume control and I see NINE DIFFERENT VOLUME CONTROL APPLICATIONS, all of which work or don't work to varying degrees, and none of which are simple and easy to use and understand. That's crazy. That's on drugs. That's lame. Say whatever you want about how great Linux is but if my desktop has NINE DIFFERENT VOLUME CONTROL APPLICATIONS that is horrific. I bring up volume control, but the same problem exists in all the other application categories, but volume control is by far the worst offender. If users want to go crazy and install a dozen different word processors, fine, let them do it, but the default installation should have ONE and exactly ONE application in every category.
- There needs to be a good media player that is well-integrated and WORKS. I should be able to pop in a DVD which I got from Blockbuster and play it, with GUI controls, subtitles, everything, with no messing around. I should be able to go to CNN.com and look at video, with no messing around.
The first two items are not rocket science. They're not technology problems. They are management problems. Someone who is a technical manager high up in Novell should lay down the law on these two issues and make them happen. Say to the dev team, "If you think that such-and-such should be the ONE application for such-and-such task, make your case, and we'll have a decision process and at the end we'll pick one, and go with it."The media player part is more difficult because it's wrapped up in all kinds of legal licensing problems. They need to solve these problems. They are solvable with money, lawyers and time. Guess what, time to do it Novell!
In reading the posts I'm seeing extremes of the continuum: those who say yes, this is finally the straw that bows the camel's back; and those who say, yeah, like they said last year, and the year before, blah, blah, blah.
I think reality is somewhere in between. Yes, Microsoft continues to hold sway in their dominance and yes, every time they make a new release (less and less often, by the way) the silence of people rushing to linux is deafening.
But there is ample evidence of chinks in Microsoft's armor and a soft underbelly starts to show. Consider the high profile of large customers lately deciding to at least pressure Microsoft by making public their decision or pseudo-decision to go with open source alternatives (consider MA, and some foreign countries).
Historically no company can dominate forever, and eventually I think critical mass will be achieved and linux will gain the foothold and purchase it probably deserves. At least I hope so. I used to be gungho in my knowing linux would waltz over Microsoft but I know better now. It's more complicated, and Microsoft is a juggernaut and will be difficult to knock from the top of the hill.
Be patient, be faithful, Linux has legs and is learning to walk.
I'll bet they said the same thing about OS/2 when Windows 95 came out.
org.slashdot.post.SignatureNotFoundException: ewg
you have to remember the system requirements and the drag to replace things, that plus the world market for the OS.
It's like Ford/GM/etc pushing bigger SUVs on a market that is dealing with gas prices doubling in months, while someone else (Toyota/Honda) is selling cheaper faster hybrids that are mass-manufactured.
At some point, the OS price and the total price point goes beyond what the consumer is willing to pay - nowadays it's all about the Net bandwidth and you're frequently better off buying a cheap laptop or PC or just using the PS3 or Nintento whatever instead.
When PCs and laptops cost $2000 for entry and $4000 for premium, the OS cost was only a fraction, and you could raise the OS price and people would eat it up. But now that the PC retails for around $300 and a laptop comes in around $1000, the OS cost becomes noticeable.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
Microsoft will deftly dodge this attack by changing the name and throwing in an additional API. We can't compete with that.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
As great as this may seem, some companies may find this difficult. There would be a lot of proprietary software that would need to be ported.
I know, I know.. There's WINE and other similar software packages, but I highly doubt companies would want to resort to that.
One good example I can tell you of is an enviromental software package that my dad has to use at Eli Lilly, it's written in FoxPRO, and already they're having problems porting it to WinXP.
$fortune
Tomorrow has been canceled due to lack of interest.
I think it's not a problem of Vista "per se", but the outrageous hardware requirements it seems Vista will need.
Microsoft better add a Low Spec Machines (with "low" meaning in fact meaning "normal") to the miriad of versions they have announced.
--
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Kunowalls!!! Random sexy wallpapers (NSFW!).
Hosting 20G hd, 1Tb bw! ssh $7.95
there won't be a shift away from windows as long as Best Buy and Dell sell windows machines. if they started selling linux machines, they would sell. loads of consumers don't even know that their computer is running (and they don't care either).
as long as these companies start selling vista machines, consumers will buy them. when vista comes out, typical consumers aren't going to rush out and buy it. they will get it when they get a new computer.
-- lol pwned
Even when there's a better alternative, people don't always choose it.
It's more likely that they will stay with WinXP for as long as they possibly can. Linux is still too far out there.
cameo wood
Absolutely true. And this is an issue that is falling on deaf ears because developers, by and large, do not want to compromise from their individual opinions on how to handle dependencies, and other package handling issues, in favor of a more unified front. Basically, for an enterprise level group to migrate they have to have "vender lock-in" anyway, just to make sure that they have some unified way to install apps. This, by the way, is why many enterprises that have migrated have chosen Red Hat or SuSE (Novell).
"Who are in control, they are not in control of anything - they don't even control themselves!" - Glen Beck
My home PC can't switch until Dreamweaver (Wine APP ID 183) and Photoshop (Wine App ID 17) run on Linux.
The upgrade cost to Vista, for most companies, is effectively $0 because it comes with new PCs.
Most of the companies I've worked for don't buy mass software licenses that way, the upgrade cost may be the same as their annual windows license costs + time to upgrade.
thank God the internet isn't a human right.
If there are significant changes that are seen as positive, Windows Vista could well solidify Microsoft's hold on the corporate desktop. And a quick glance at the Office 12 screenshots ought to disprove the people who think that Microsoft isn't innovative. Although I'll withold judgement on whether this particular innovation is good or bad until I've actually used it. Which is likely what corporations will do when considering Windows Vista versus Linux, as well.
Whoever corrects a mocker invites insult;
whoever rebukes a wicked man incurs abuse.
--Proverbs 9:7
More is less.
People fear change, especially rapid, drastic change, and especially dumb IT managers and CIOs....and we all know there's no shortage of them. Adoption of Vista may be slow at first, but eventually they'll pony up and fork out the dough.
just like half the Windows users out there are still using versions older than XP
Your statement is not true:
Win XP 66.3%
W2000 17.5%
Win 98 3.2%
Linux 3.3%
Mac 2.9%
Those are recent OS statistics from w3schools. So half of all windows users are not using versions older than XP. In fact the obvious majority of people appear to be using Win XP. I am sure that most of it is because of all the Dell, Gateway, eMachines, etc sold with WinXP preinstalled. So anyways I agree with your point about most people using whatever OS comes with their system, I just disagree with thinking that over half of windows users are not using XP.
...the users find out that the open office is a the counter part of ms office the companies say the heck with it we'll spend the extra money.....
then the linux guy says hey wait a minute did u see desk top pager..
sorry bud too late.....
This sounds like a marketing fabrication. Everybody knows that the release of Vista will not increase Linux adoption. The release of the first Vista virus is what will do that.
Open Source Sushi
who says companies WANT to use another os? heaps of big corporations still use win2k, without any problems... vista is designed for the home market, not corporate life
me and my thinkpad, sittin' in a tree, c-o-d-i-n-g...
You don't have to buy a new monitor. What you would get is a less than good version of the media played on your current one. No, I'm not defending MS (nor am I a MS fan) or anything, but we'll have to stick to facts.
If Novell plays their cards right then they can eke some minor wins out of Vista. I suppose RH and other Linux vendors can get some small but tasty slices of pie of it too. I think Novell's management knows this but are just hyping their wares same as any other business.
I've tried recent versions of SuSE, Mandrake, and Xandros, and I have to say that Xandros is the closest thing yet to a usable, decent, Linux distribution. In the past I've been a little more willing to overlook the blemishes in free distributions, but they're basically a re-badged copy of all the software that has floated to the top of the open source world. I expect a little more from an operating system, and efficiency, expediency, and stability are foremost among my list of requirements.
If Windows Vista comes with an improved ability to make it look just like Windows 98/2000 insofar as file browsing, etc, goes then the chances of me sticking with it are greatly improved. The last time I tried Vista, file browsing was a complete abomination. They've candified it to such an extent that only the dumbest moron would feel at home using it.
Linux needs a little more polish and better integration. No more klipper workarounds for different clipboard standards. One volume control. Configurable file browsers that aren't big and chunky and as slow as an old jaloppy, either!
Did we hear this same statement from NT -> 2000 from 2000 -> XP and now from XP -> Vista? You guys just don't get the hint.
With "Vista" and esp. M$ turning their Office "12" upside down userinterface-wise, people will be forced to re-learn everything from scratch (and I'm not talking about those smart IT persons we are here). So I think that's another reason to switch to a stable OpenSource operating system with a decent set of functionality and OpenOffice.org!
=> www.NetBSD.org, www.OpenOffice.org
You saw the article, read parts of it, wrote a reply (that you had to think up first) and posted it, all in 4 minutes.
Let's see...
Your reply has 315 words. That's 78.75 words per minute, ASSUMING you started typing as soon as the article was posted. We all know this is unrealistic.
What I'm trying to say, Maria, is that you are a troll. You're an obsessed person posting all over the Internet. I hope you're getting paid for this.
Cheerio!
Uh oh, a post that conflicts with the slashdot collective. Quick, everyone, get your "troll" mod points out!
I think it's retarded that someone modded a non-inflammatory post, written from someone's personal experience, as a troll because they disagreed with.. with what? How do you disagree with someone's personal experience?
Poster: My company had a really hard time with Linux.
Slashdot: WRONG!
Irritating.
Since the article indicates this was mentionned during a meeting of some sort and there is no mention of this "strategy" on the Novell site, it would seem that this "news" is "non-news" and the information was released by a PR firm to press bureaus to get their client some coverage.
Anyways, corporate desktops have a lot of custom apps. Simply switching to Linux doesn't make sense. If the apps are tested and work with Windows, why change? I could see if they buy new machines, and are forced to get Vista, but I don't see why Windows 2000 or XP should not be a problem. In the next year or two, there shouldn't be any radical technology changes that can't have a 2k or XP driver made for it.
Microsoft's roadmap shows Win2K currently in the 'extended' support phase, which means that they won't be adding new functionality, but will continue to offer paid support, and release bug fixes. Support will be dropped altogether 10 years after the initial launch. (Microsoft's current support roadmap & timelines were in part released due to the backlash after their intial rather short notice that Win98 would be end-of-lifed. They then extended support for it a bit, and released a roadmap so people knew what to expect for their other product lines.) Their current standard policy is 5 years mainstream support, 5 years extended support, then you're on your own.
I don't know which is funnier, the joke itself or the fact that it was modded 5+ informative! Haha, those /. moderators, what a bunch of kidders. :)
To the person who modded this down: It should've been modded Funny (or possibly Insightful). There is no such thing as Linux 7.0, which proves that the original post was written by someone clueless.
IT people familar or expert with linux....and as long as u don't have idiots who take jobs that say things such as "red hat expert" $15.00 an hour...Orange County, CA USA."
then again maybe along with the supposed migration will come the workers that live the open source life style and are happy to do things for free or next to nothing....
hmm...i thought learning linux would pay big $$$.
employement ads would go something like this....
"if u r and an open sourcer and u refuse to run our systems at open source wages ($000.00000000 and hour) ur name will be posted on slashdot. all open sourcers are required to insure that linux os runs smoothly. remember all open sourcers must stick together and hate what microsoft loves...$$$$money, money money.
remember we are the noble open sourcers and like junk cars, maximizing old 486 processors, old isa cards, and trying to convince ourselves Gimp is better than Photoshop...(both together is great especially on a Cindy Margolis booty shot imposed on a Martian landscape with rivers of flowing Gimpizations)we are free!!! we are the future...we will, we will, rock u!
no wonder geeks don't get girls....they are not concerned with money......
Linux desktops are almost ready for the average user. The problem is the "almost" part.
/etc/fstab, or smbmount it myself - anyway I need a terminal. Now isn't this a bit average-user-UNfriendly? Here's an idea: just like /media/ exists for removable media, make /network/ or /shares/ or such for SMB shares. Once you start browsing the SMB network in nautilus, and open a share, have it automatically mounted. Then, to umount, simply right-click the folder in /media/, press "Disconnect" or "Unmount" or whatever. Easy & intuitive filesystem integration, and even easier than in windows.
Example: Ubuntu. Excellent distro, with a few flaws in its GNOME Desktop:
I can browse a SMB network with nautilus, nice. However, I cannot access the data I see in nautilus with another program since the SMB folders arent actually mounted. Now that may confuse people. In Windows is simple network sharing REALLY simple. Click on folder, press "share", set the permissions, click OK. In Ubuntu, once I actually want to *mount* an SMB share, I have to use the terminal and edit
Also: I wanted to start downloading a trailer, but then I noticed how BIG it actually list. Having a traffic volumen, I quickly decided to abort download. Ok, aborted, but the default settings in Firefox is to always download to ~/Desktop, thus the partially downloaded video arrived there. Now Nautilus tried to create a preview thumbnail out of the partially downloaded api! As a result, nautilus hung up, eating hundreds of MB, then the swapdisk started to work, only solution hard reset - pretty, huh?
Of course Windows isnt free of cases like these; however, to actually prevail against Windows Linux has to be *better*, not just "as good". So, Linux also has to avoid the errors that plague XP.
This sig does not contain any SCO code.
Vista will make Linux departure even quickier, and with Mac OS X for Intel behind the door, there will be no place for Linux on mainstream PC desktop.
How can you possible drag-in people againts this quality OS competitors like Microsoft vs. Apple. The "free" tag is the only Linux advantage and it falls short on every other aspect. Finally the most important thing: "trust", "support" and "quality" that come with latest OS X and Windows.
PC hardware vendors, game developers, commercial software makes.. they all will support these corporations, not Linux.
Oh look a Minesweeper Consultant and Solitaire Expert! Everyone, bow your heads in respect.
They should really start to put in all meanings of the word hacker in those TestKings.
The company I work for just purchased 8 new computers, guess what OS they had preloaded? Windows 2000. A lot of companies haven't updated to WinXP, why should they upgrade to Vista? The major upgrade market is really the home user base, and the majority of non-tech people will upgrade when they buy new hardware with pre-installed OS
People will use whatever comes with the PC in the shop.
Oh well, what the hell...
Only Notepad and Wordpad come included with Windows. Word and Publisher are separate products.
I do agree that I've never understood why *both* wordpad and notepad are available. I *never* use Notepad.
-- Andyvan
Guess again, fuckers. Linux's worst enemy isn't Microsoft, but Linux itself. You can thank one Richard M. Stallman for that.
remember w3schools is fairly techie so i'd expect a higher proportion of newer PCs there than in general.
XP has been out long enough now that anyone on a 3 year or shorter replacement cycle and not specifically selecting an older OS will be using it.
that doesn't mean older pcs aren't out there just that most heavy users will have upgraded by now.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
No need to assume anything when Microsoft has posted their product lifecycle information. FYI Windows 2000 Pro is no longer covered under Mainstream Support, that ended on 30/06/2005. Extened Support will end on 30/06/2010. Service packs do not have any date posted. However sp4 came out over 2 years ago...and since service packs are not part of Extended Support there will not be any new support packs for Win2k. Security hotfixes will be made available.
So in some ways Win2k is already not supported. Is there any evidence that lots of users of Win2k are going to Linux? If not then maybe there is no real incentive for the user to migrate just because Microsoft has stopped 'supporting' it.
Here are some recent news items about Novell's recent growth:
Open Source Community Embracing Novell's openSUSE project
Novell Fuels Linux Growth in the Data Center
Novell Making Gains in Europe on the Desktop
Novell Sees Strong Momentum in Linux Workgroup Solutions
This kind of performance seems to have gotten some investor's attenttion.
We always knew Comcast was corrupt, here's the proof: http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1909890&cid=34545432
XP is used on 73% of computers according to TheCounter.com which tracks OS usage on 50 million web surfer's computers, so please stop making up bullshit.
Did you notice that the person managed to type that entire post in only about 4 minutes? Gosh, you don't think they had this pre-prepared to post to a related article, do you?
Irritating, indeed...
/.: why the hell am I here?
For years, Novell's NetWare made PCs running MS OSes (like DOS and Win16) worth using, especailly for businesses. Novell was the network game for MS apps for most of the 1990s, even after Win95 for a while. Especially as a file/print/authentication server, anyone using MS for anything serious, from small offices to enterprises, used NetWare, especially as a gateway to any serious mainframe/mini network.
MS blew them out of the water with their unprecedented marketing of NT as a "network OS". NT was good enough to back up those claims, though not necessarily as good as NetWare. A combination of timing, marketing budget and general media infatuation with MS killed Novell in the market. For a while.
But Novell's been playing a great catchup game. Refusing to die, refusing to cash in sleazily on Linux (like their evil spinoff, SCO), refusing to get sucked down with the old Unix leviathan, Novell has arrived at the upcoming "Vista" juncture with great alternatives to MS apps. OpenGroupware is better than Exchange; Evolution is better than Outlook. NDS is better than ActiveDirectory. Their TCP/IP is better than the MS stack. SuSE is better than XP (except perhaps in overall desktop useability, so far). Of course each of those judgements is subjective, depending on one's priorities, but they're close enough for everyone, in the aggregate.
Novell has bought extremely viable techs with Ximian and SuSE, as well as others, that also integrate well into Novell's superior homegrown techs. They arrive on the scene with a brand long trusted for reliability, for "we'll still be around next year", for interoperability with Windows and others (Linux, Unix, etc). And their committment to open source seems complete, consistent and highly productive. When users get a chance to question their MS installations, due to an "upgrade now" marketing barrage from MS, Novell will be ready to catch some of the runoff. Many of which could be important beacheads inside larger MS organizations. When businesses see how well "Novell" Linux plays with MS systems, and how reliable is Novell's support (especially compared with MS), we might in fact see Novell turning the tables back on MS. People might again start to think about MS systems being "toys" until made serious by Novell business tech.
--
make install -not war
Why is it that every time an article is posted about Linux, Slashdot readers feel that they have to somehow deride it? Presumably this is in order to demonstrate that although they are staunch advocates they're not biased and their opinion still counts. What a load of crap. I see it in writing all the time - people going against their own convictions in order to seem fair and balanced, and it pisses me off. Writing should always have some hint of the authors bias, if it doesn't then there's something wrong. And considering most of the recent comments from Slashdot readers regarding Linux have only served to belittle it, even though this is (was?) an OSS-friendly site, there's some kind of anomaly here.
...-1, Offtopic
I always wondered why Linux is not more widely deployed in workplace workstations. With the greatly reduced threat of virii and spyware, seems like a no brainer to me, especially for IT workers.
I wrote an article about this topic a while back, it can be seen at: http://ensode.net/linux_workplaces.html
Expert Java EE Consulting
... leave Windows 98, or whatever, running on their PCs.
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
To anyone complaining about the parent post, please check out all his other posts. I think I see a pattern developing...
/.: why the hell am I here?
And then your mod went away because you posted to the thread...
Im a Network Engineer who specialises in Medical Practices, all their Clinical & Practice Management software is all in Windows, and they have invested significant funds and time in setting up these applications which serve highly sensitive data & have taken staff a lot of time to train.
These practices are completley reliant on Windows because there isn't an alternative on Linux and even if there was, the migration costs would not make the switch viabale.
These practices will continue with Windows because their application developers only develop in Windows, Im sure there are a lot of other specialised fields who's applications only come in Windows who will be in the same position.
Its easy to say its cheap to move to Linux/Netware, but when you factor in Application migration & re-licencing & training its an awful lot of money
n/t
"and release bug fixes"
Nope. The policy shows that they will NOT release bug fixes - unless you pay for a contract to fix a specific bug just for your use of the product.
However they will release Security fixes. Similar, but not the same...
Because some slick salesman from redmond dropped by and gave them "inside news" that they'll discontinue support for Win 2000 "any day now"?
To be fair, there probably quite a few reasons someone might see for upgrading to Vista, but businesses who see those *will be upgrading to Vista*, not Linux. So I guess this will have minimal effect, but when they discontinue W2K support, it will be quite dramatic.
http://www.google.com/search?lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8 &q=Maria%20Quansett
maria qaunsett posts all over the internet with the title or words "Converting to Linux was a disaster for my company." check the title of the first link.
* don't believe everything you read - even on slashdot! *
What seems even more obvious to me is that they would continue to market Novell Desktop Linux as their corporate desktop solution, and eventually relegate SUSE to the status of free, open, community supported desktop for home users and enthusiasts.
All that we see or seem is but a dream within a dream.
Linux and Apple takes more and more of Microsoft market share. Long process? Not now! VISTA DOES KILL Microsoft, and much faster! Waw, that's right! Cool!
Just trying to run RHEL WS 4 today, and for some reason, my /dev/mouse gets moved to /dev/mouse0 (no clue as to why). So, naturally, X barfs and I get asked to run the mouse configurator and make things happy again. No problem. I choose the appropriate wheel mouse configuration (the same that worked before). Barfo. The only solution was to kill graphical login, go to the shell and use vim to edit /etc/X86config. Big deal? Hell, I'm a decades Unix veteran, so that's no biggie to me. But your typical Windoze user will NEVER figure that out, or even where to look.
FIX THE DAMN WINDOW MANAGERS. THEY ARE BROKE!
Please listen to Andy Hertzfeld on Bob Cringely's NerdTV. He started Easel, and his insight into "what's wrong with Linux on the desktop" is spot on.
There exists no way of exchanging information without making judgments. --Bene Gesserit Axiom
Consider for example all of the copies of MS Windows in Iraq where it was theoretically illegal to sell it due to weapons resrictions (I'm no making this up). It was possible to install copies of it anyway without paying for it.
That is a troll, and you are a fucking idiot.
Google is your friend
a school where a friend works were planning a phased migration from netware to samba (new users get samba accounts rather than netware ones and netware is dumped after everyone with a netware account leaves).
that in itself is not very interesting, what is interesting is the reason, they are running netware 3.x and they simply can't buy more client access licenses for it with the result that user limits are often hit.
refusing to sell licenses for older software seems a very good way to make people consider switching to me. Even MS offers downgrade rights with its bulk licensing packages.
note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
Week attempt to "change the story" and take the focus off the company's lack of performance. See CNET coverage of USB analyst Jason Maynard's "Castigation" of Novell Leadership. http://news.com.com/2061-10795_3-5854831.html UBS owns 1% of the company. Here's a quote: "We believe the current management team has been afforded ample time to produce results and turn Novell into a sustainable and profitable business, yet has provided little evidence of progress and does not instill confidence in their ability to execute. Without a change at the top we believe the company will continue to languish."
While I don't think Microsoft will be crying "Oh true apothecary, thy drug is quick" when vista comes out, I do think it will help the giant's slow tumble that it has been preforming over the past few years as people get fed up with the hassles, instability, and DRM inherent in Windows (esp when they are told that vista won;t let them play HD-DVD on their non-HDMI compliant early-adopter HDTV)
As an example of Microsoft's slow decline, I give the example of my good friend Anthony, who asked me what a good distro of Linux an average user should switch to on the sole basis was that he was quote: "fed up" with windows. (to get an idea of how average of a user, he had plugged his router into itself and couldn't figure out why it wasn't working).
P.S. i suggested he look into Mandrake, Fedora, and Ubuntu and choose which one he thought looked best)
P.S.S. disturbing thought: if Microsoft is playing Romeo, who is Juliet?
Microsoft has totally forgotten about their consumers with Vista and it shows. Off the top of my head I cannot think of a single feature that Vista has that a business or home user would\should shell out cash for. WinFS had me pumped, but it's MIA. 64 bit OS should be good (Win XP 64 edition is pretty horrible to be blunt, hopefully driver support will improve with the release of Vista), but Linux vendors (Novell included) have been doing it for atleast a year and are finally hitting their stride.
Don't get me wrong, Novell definitely will not become a market leader anytime soon (if ever). However, I think there's a huge opportunity for a Linux vendor to grab a respectable 2-3% of the market. I've been using SUSE 10.0 RC1 and while it's missing the polish of the 9.x series, it has two things going for it: it's fast and it's stable. I can't wait to see how things unfold.
The plan to have so many versions of Vista with different costs for each and different capabilities will confuse everyone.
Of course the names of the new versions of Vista will cause additional confusion:
Debian
Fedora
RHEL
Suse
Mandrake
Gentoo
Googling your name, Maria Quansett, it seems that pretty much this exact text has been posted to several Linux forums, not just here on /.
This has all the signs of a troll, and a spamming one at that. You've probably exceeded your Breidbart Index across all these forums.
Can we go back to calling it Longhorn? Seriously, Vista still draws up images of a Pinto being rear ended and exploding due to a faulty gas tank.
Slashdot.. Land of nerds, trolls, and FlameBait..
Warning-warning danger Will Robinson!!
For those outside the federal gov't this may seem bizarre, but the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is now MANDATING the conversion to IPv6 by 2008 for all federal networks.
Some networking profressionals may applaud this, but the people pushing it are deeply in the pocket of M$.
Windose Vistah will ship with IPv6 on by default, and M$ is adding "value-added" protocols to extend ACLs to applications and provide encrypted channels for windows to "phone home" and report you for license violations. Linux may soon be unable to function in an M$ network due to inability to get permission to open sockets through M$ controlled authentication servers. This is a major end-around-run that is going to catch the open source community napping if they aren't careful.
"Sic Semper Path of Least Resistance"
As a moderator for the Ubuntu Forums, I feel compelled to give you the correct information.
Ubuntu does not consider joining the DCCA because part of the purpose of that group is to keep things compatible with Debian Sarge. The group intends to rally around the newly released Debian stable and remain compatible with it. Ubuntu cannot and will not do this, because Ubuntu uses packages from Sid to form its distro.
I quote a member of the Ubuntu's Community Council governance board:
"I don't think Ubuntu is a "fork" of Debian, at least not in the traditional sense. A fork suggests that at some point we go our separate way from Debian and then occasionally merge in changes as we carry on down our own path. Our model is quite different; every six months we take a snapshot of Debian's unstable distribution, apply any outstanding patches from our last release to it and spend a couple of months testing and bug-fixing it."
Therefore Ubuntu could not even join the DCCA even if it wanted to, because using Sarge (even testing) as a base instead of Sid would break the development model. Ubuntu will stay as compatible with Sarge as Sid does, maybe less.
Have a nice day.
Open Source Sushi
You are not looking hard enough. There's hardly a person in tech that has not heard of Linux and want to play with it if they have not already done so. Most people who give free software a real chance discover for themselves how good it is and don't go back, ever. There are lots of average people, like myself, who no longer have anything to do with M$ junk on their desktops.
The upgrade cost to Vista, for most companies, is effectively $0 because it comes with new PCs. Contrast this with yearly application updates for Photoshop, Quickbooks, anti-virus,, anti-spyware, et al. which can run thousands of dollars
Now I know you have your head up your ass because the above is self contradicting. The upgrade cost to Vista is the cost of Vista and everything else that has to be replaced for few real feature gains, like computers that work just fine. M$ Office division has a 70% profit to earnings ratio, do you think that comes from home sales? The cost of upgrading to Linux is much smaller.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
First off, you are not forced to get a new monitor unless you want to play HDCP content at full resolution. Most home users won't upgrade the OS until they get a new computer, and thus won't care. Most corporate customers don't care about HDCP.
Furthermore, if you do want to play HDCP content legally you either need an HDCP compliant monitor or HDCP compliant software which will degrade the video. Yes this applies to Windows, but it also applies to Linux, Mac OS X, and any other OS or stand-alone device that plays HDCP content.
While individual users (and some non-USians) can go ahead an use an illegal implementation, this is not an option for the corporate and educational markets that Novell targets. So linux has no advantage over Windows whatsoever in this regard.
You have obviously never seen a Winblows upgrade at a Fortune 500 company. Novel, actually does have good package management, even for Windoze, with their Zen system. The problem is that the Windoze registry requires most applications to be installed from scratch. The net result is gangs of low grade techs running to and spending about 1 hour on each and every PC in the building. That hour includes time spent on the inevitable 20% of systems that are so virused up that nothing works on them. Grid and cluster computing show that the free software world mastered moving software to hundreds of PCs automatically decades ago. Upgrades away from Windoze will end the package management nightmare forever. Companies that don't move on will continue to suffer high costs and low reliability.
The case has already been proven by companies like Chrysler, Lowes, and on and on that have ended their Windoze nightmare. They are not going back and the rest of the world is running right behind them.
Winblows is finally over.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
IMO the only way to know for sure would be to take a survey of folks from different parts of the country and see what they've got.I've got 5 myself running from Win98 all the way to WinXP SP2.As long as they don't have WinME i usually don't bother switching the OS.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
I used SuSE 8-9 for about 10 months. My first real install of Linux. Installing software was my biggest challenge - yes, installing software. RPM's not being built with your filesystem defaults, compilers not installed by default, and even some binary only programs that wanted an older version of glibc. About 2 months ago I tried Kubuntu and synaptic (yes I install both kde and gnome) was just beautiful. Almost made me cry ;). Anyway I did switch back to Windows about a month ago because a graphics library I needed was only available for it.
Shh.
Telltale Games: Bone, Sam and Max
Working right will do it. People have become accustomed to certain things just working. Drivers, multimedia, software bundled with digital cameras, etc. If you give someone a PC that doesn't let them do some of these basic things they've come to expect you're not going to make them very happy.
I use Linux on my home system *and* in my work, I have to go through a lot of hoops still just to get my Linux PC to function on par in a Windows world. Fortunately I like a good challenge and the power use pays in spades, but 99.99% of the users don't/won't care about that, and they shouldn't have to.
Quack, quack.
They want the year of Desktop Linux back.
Join the anonymous, help develop the network: http://www.i2p2.de
I suggest you look up Sabayon for a description of the problem that it has been created to solve. It's a move to make gnome useful in a multi-user networked environment - we never had to worry about this sort of stuff with simpler file formats.
You mean, like this?
I don't think it will lead to a *huge uptake* in Linux at least not right away. I say that XP will continue to be used commonly for at least 8 years after Vista is released (Note that Microsoft has pushed back the end of their paid support offerings for Windows 98 until June of 2006). More likely 10 years. This represents a huge problem for Microsoft and I don't think they can easily solve it.
However, I think that organizations will seriously look at Linux on the desktop and compair offerings. I think that within 2-3 more years, you will see substantial interest in Linux-based desktops for general information workers, and such transitions will take at least 4 years to complete. So I think that we are maybe 6-7 years from widespread use on the desktop (but maybe only 2-3 for widespread acceptance in corporate desktop environments).
The corporate desktop market is the key market. If people feel comfortable using Linux at work, they may use it at home. Otherwise it will mostly be hobbyists or those who were migrated because they didn't want to spend $100 on a replacement copy of XP.
Depends on your meaning of the term massive, doesn't it? I see linux growing in two areas on the desktop: Cheap NEW internet terminals with 1/3rd the power of what Vista needs just to run, and people who run organizations that live off of charity (like schools) that need an OS that will run on older hardware and has cheap licensing.
You haven't used the latest GNOME release, have you? It is very similar to Vista in its requirements and unerlying technology due to the move to Cairo.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Looks like Windows will become what Cobol used to be, people to scared to move on to a new system because of the legacy problems. Wonder how many NT 4 workstations will be around in say 15 years that are still being nursed, and more importantly, will those doing the nursing look anything like the old fogies still doing Cobol today.
You never catch me alive
I'm quite familiar que gconf. Of course, you have no way of knowing that. ;-)
My comment originated from your saying that gconf is a clone of the windows registry, and sort of equating it with a file format. While it is certainly not the perfect solution to all problems, it is not none of those two things, either.
If you look at the way Sabayon works, you'll notice that it is made possible by the rather clever way gconf was designed (which is rather orthogonal to the particular file format it uses), at least in so far as Sabayon deals with gconf changes---it looks at changes in mozilla profiles and other stuff in a different way.
The XML file format doesn't prohibit getting information out even by methods as brute force as cut and paste, but the implementation makes it difficult to do anything with more than single keys with even the native gconf tools. The documentation is woeful and hard to find (the gnome project do not believe in even writing the sketchiest of man pages) and going through the source and reading postings by the developers show that getting anything portable out of this configuration manager is difficult.
Several years on and gnome does not have some funtionality we came to expect with even fvwm - to be able to export desktop icons and launchers to everyone's desktop by some means other than a few hundred mouse clicks.
The people at the company I work for uses only a browser, IM and text editing soft on their computers: IE/Firefox, Yahoo Messenger, Word and Excel. Though there is no big difference in using similar programs in Linux I could not convince them to switch to Linux. It doesn't really matter if it costs or it's free but they are used to work in Windows.
However, it gave me headache even convincing them to switch to Firefox. I succeeded only when some viruses invaded the network and they lost some data. I said it's because they used IE and if they switch to Firefox this won't happen again. Now they are happy with Firefox and having a hard time when they have to use IE for some reason.
The same with Linux: once convinced to spend a few days / weeks with getting used to Linux, they would be happy with it. But I need a good argument to convince them... and I need a stable and much more user friendly Linux desktop than the ones on the market.
Oh well. I will not insist.
(Btw, you can render the docbook pages that the gnome project does believe in writing into man pages if you like manpages)
Companies interested in upgrading their Windows systems are going to upgrade to Windows Vista. Companies not interested in upgrading their Windows system are not going to upgrade period. Novell Linux is irrelevant to the equation.
I have Windows XP. The Office 2000 suite covers my needs regarding document editing, spreadsheet and presentation. Java keeps me happy on the development front, along with Eclipse as the IDE. I've got tons of freeware games, and some good commercial ones. I keep my files organized in folders...Google Desktop Search does a fine job of indexing and searching. Widgets don't have many effects, but so what? when I work, I need no stinking effects...the first thing I do is switch off menu and window animations when I first install WinXP.
Tell me again...why should I switch to Vista or Linux?
You mean like Fry's does? For $400 less than a compariable Wintel System?
They look like the same price to me. Got a link?
It is quite funny to see Microsoft after spending who knows how much money lambasting the Linux arena for such a thing and turn around and do the samething themselves. I think the phrase I'm looking for includes the words pot, kettle and black.
Unlike the Linux arena and the ability to choose a distro that feels right to you. The bonus of which ever choice you do make does not in any form limit what you can do with your distro of choice. You can still run a print server, web server, mail server, etc all the while enjoying the goodness of it as a desktop environment.
Now with Microsoft's choices you have first think long and carefully what you intend to do with that box of yours. Else you make the wrong choice it will cost you money. Well that's good for Bill because as I see this setup. It's sole intention is maximixing the number of dollars Bill can and will suck out of your pocket.
My karma is not a Chameleon.
Does anyone really expect one of the big hitters of the Linux world to say anything different. I mean, he's not very likely to say "The introduction of Vista means the death of Linux. My fellow Tuxers, we are about to go to hell in a handcart. I advise anyone who still has one to go home and prepare for death."
Novell is in terrible financial shape. Perhaps a more interesting bet is whether Vista will come out before or after the hyenas of Wall Street have descended on Novell and started to reconstruct or dismember it. Awful cackling howls are already coming from analysts' reports bewailing Novell's continued losses and scarily high share price relative to its assets.
Las qué passoun
tournoun pas maï
After MS ends supports of Windows XP, but there is a long way to go. Customs have more power than Linux.
I don't even understand why I would want to control sound volume with software when I have a very intuitive knob that I can turn to adjust sound volume. (What I would like to do, though, is to be able to disable sounds for good for some software, like Firefox and Flash unless I really really want to hear something from my web browser)
Or, people will just stick with an older version of windows like they have been doing for the last 10 years every time a new version comes out! seriously, who comes up with this crap?
This comment does not represent the views or opinions of the user.
harddrives of old machines they donated to schools.
The clearing was accomplished by writing random
data over the whole drive seven times. They
understandably didn't want who-knows-what internal information just being sent off to the outside. I've got to believe that everyone's doing this nowdays.
And in any case, larger companies lease licenses in bulk, and cannot transfer them. So the receiving charity
would lack the license to use the installed Windows (or Office, etc) anyways.
So if I go buy a Windows XP license today, do those 5 years of mainstream support and 5 years of extended support start today, or from the introduction of XP?
But I imagine (not my experience) that medium-sized companies can't afford to build their own customized setup, and then your comments apply.
Microsoft no doubt writes off such "donations" as a tax-deductible marketing expense. I work at a nonprofit, and we got 50 licenses for Office and WinXP Pro each for something like $20. The staff would rather use MS Office than OpenOffice, I guarantee you. They couldn't care less about the OS.
I misread that as "People will use VM and run BOFH!" Now, that would be interesting to see....
"Teleporting Rodents with D-Cell Battery Displacement" theory -- IgnoramusMaximus (692000)
For what it's worth, the BSA is increasing activity in Sweden where most people are still running Win98 or NT. Presumably, it's to prevent a mass exodus from MS.
considering the fact that most PCs that shipped w/ Win95 can run XP just fine
Actually that is a bit of a mis-statement, because by the time machines that meet the minumum requirements for XP were widely available, the current version of the MSDOS-line was Windows 98, NOT Win95. The minimum requirements are 266 MHz with 64MB of RAM. Before Win98 came out a computer of that performance and capacity would be cost-prohibitive for desktop use. Low-end servers where I worked at the time were 133 to 200 MHz with 64 to 128 MB RAM. If they ram a Microsoft OS they'd be running NT-based Windows rather than an MSDOS-based OS anyways.
As for the system requirements for Microsoft OSes, in my experience the minimum requirements are what is needed to merely boot up the system--after that all you could really do is run notepad and solitare and at the outside IE. The "recommended" requirements MS states are typically double the minimum ram and one step up in CPU speed--thus for XP they are 300 MHz and 128 MB RAM. INHO THAT should be the minimum requirements (I've seen XP Home running on such a system...you have to be quite patient at times but it is usable for basic tasks.
The "real" recommended minimums I have made for years (with anything NT-based anyways--NT4, 2K and XP) are 150% to 200% higher clock speed and 400% more memory than what MS states for minimum reqs. For XP that is 533MHz with 256MB RAM, which in my practical experience is quite usable for normal office-type use.
If MS' track record proved true, then Vista will be a horrendous resource hog. Using my rule of thumb, a minimum Vista system will be the following:
* 1 Gigabyte of RAM
* 3.0 GHz P4-class CPU (I'm making a generous guess here that a 1.4-ish GHz P4 and higher is considered "modern" by MS standards--in reality this may approach 4GHz)
* High-performance SATA-connected hard drive
* Graphics subsystem typically more powerful than those integrated on the motherboard, with a good 256MB RAM dedicated to it.
This is a HUGE leap in requirements. Such a system available BRAND NEW now is definitely NOT a budget PC, so even by next year when Vista is released a lot of relatively new PCs will need upgrading to get acceptable performance. Furthermore, to be truly "vista ready" the requirements will be even higher! More RAM and you'll have to get a new video card! I'll make a bold prediction and say that retail sales of Vista upgrades will be dismal--the bulk of Vista installs will be OEM/factory installed on new PCs.
The reasons things are different today for Linux fortunes with this new upgrade are several...not the leat of which are:
* Linux is a much more mature, user-friendly system for desktops today than it was 7 to 10 years ago. My nephew was visiting and saw my GNOME desktop and remarked "is that a Mac?"...speaks volumes about how far the UI has come.
* In the vast majority of cases it is actually easier to install than Windows since you don't have to take as many precautins about connecting an unpatched system to the 'net. Vista will probably not suffer the installation hangups of XP but it will be a very large install, and you still have "product activation" to contend with, which still makes a modern Linux distro easier to install.
* There is better driver support for Linux than in the past--and in the case of slightly older hardware driver availability for Linux will actually be BETTER than for Windows too.
* MS promises that Vista will be the most substantial OS upgrade since MSDOS6.22 w/ Win3.x shell was supplanted by Win95--including dramatic enhancements to the UI. The next release of Office promises dramatic changes too. Vista and MSOffice will look more different from the XP versions than most Linux desktops with OpenOffice will. MS could get away with it in 1995 because Linux GUIs at the time were primitive, and Apple had lost its way (and wouldn't run on the same hardware). Today, there is a competitor in Linux that will run on the same hardware pl
On and off for five years, I've seen a range of people from grade schoolers to retirees come into the library and use various linux distros without noticing. For a few years now, the distros are set up to detect and mount floppies and flash drives automatically. Unmounting the drives is actually easier than on MS-Windows.
Try it. I recommend Mandriva or Ubuntu for that purpose. Linux distros are there. The only thing lacking is either 1) OEM installations on new machines and/or 2) consumer awareness. And you know the obstacle with those already ...
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
Err, hybrids are anything but cheap. Ford is also one of the big players in the hybrid market.
As even a casual reader of the Wall Street Journal could tell you, the hybrids that Ford is pushing are hand-turned, not mass production like Toyota. I think Honda licensed the tech from them, and possibly some of the new GM hybrids are using this higher-thruput hybrid production.
Which is why the Ford hybrids are so much more expensive. Automation is cheaper.
Pretty much Toyota is betting the farm on hybrids, and so is Honda, but none of the Big Three are.
-- Tigger warning: This post may contain tiggers! --
> 2006 will see [stuff] ... the catalyst will be the release of
> Microsoft Windows Vista
Umm, does anyone at this point really believe Vista is going to make it out in 2006?
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
Maybe the only wrong part of this article is SuSE Linux. Why SuSE only ?
After all, linux is becoming more and more a viable alternative to Windows, which IMHO was not the case when XP got released. More and more companies (Intel for the kernel, IBM in various parts, Apple in KDE, Sun for OOo) are contributing code to the community.
The problem is that the cost of information is too high. A government agency (assuming it is perfectly benevolent, which is another failing of communism)
More in keeping with the original purpose of this site- to me you've really hit upon the main problem in basic capitalism or communism (the only difference in capitalism is that you replace the perfectly benevolent government agency which has never existed with perfectly benevolent rich people in the stock market, which is an oxymoron). A large amount of data about needs to be sorted, combined with a lack of objective measurement of "need" to ensure benevolence (if anything, what we've currently got is subjective).
Here's my answer to both- computer networks. You can use widespread wide area networks to gather the data. You can use the new huge storage devices (I hear somebody's already started a petabyte project based on Hitachi half-terrabyte drives) to gather, sort, and compare in a way never before known. It's now possible for an agency, whether corporation or government, to collect every public piece of information about you, your neighbors, etc and split you into a hundred or even a thousand classes- and treat you appropriate to your class.
And it's possible to make that government agency or corporation have no human beings in charge at all- just expert systems based on serving to needs.
What do you think of that possibility?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
I know for a fact that they firmly believe in that. If you know of anything that is not up to date, you should report it, and if you think you can write documentation, well, I know there is lots for you to do.
Things do not improve with time: they improve with work.
Consider that gconf is a way to store configuration information - surely it should be editable in multiple ways (doesn't quite work) and be portable (doesn't quite work).
gconf is a way to store information, and a way to find out about changes in that information. What you want is apps for presenting and manipulating that information in ways you (and others, including myself) find useful. I can understand your complaining about those apps not existing. But you are barking at the wrong tree if you think that is because of gconf.
I have to say that I really have lost interest in you. In any case, I sincerely hope you find something better than gconf and are able to leave it behind as a bad memory.
It's not even really his fault; it's just human nature.
Just because it's human nature doesn't mean that there's no fault. Humans are capable of learning and discipline. Humans are also capable of attempting objectivity as to not be blinded by passionate bias. The OP's remarks regarding Vista's requirement of a new type of computer monitor shows that the OP lacks emotional discipline. He could not see past his feelings about something so that he could understand the facts. The OP's ignorance is most definitely his own fault.
There is no longer anything that can be done with computers that is nontrivial and clearly legal. -- Paul Phillips