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Forbes Says Vista Not People Ready
Diomedes01 writes "Daniel Lyons has an opinion piece up on Forbes.com about a recent press conference held by Microsoft, and the results are anything but flattering."
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Let's take my three sisters. Each has a degree in biology. Each considers me their personal tech support when anything "breaks." It sucks.
I've gotten phone calls from them about the behavior of Windows XP on multiple occasions. Once they thought all their windows kept closing if they opened too many. As it turns out, they had the "grouping" feature enabled for windows of the same type on the toolbar.
*sigh*
Now Vista will have a new 3D effect to window grouping. Sweet Jesus, I am turning my cell phone off. I can imagine it now, "All my windows are turning sideways! Make it stop!"
Aside from "Ease of Use," I don't think any of the advertised features are going to meld well with any of my sisters. The new 'Aero' technology is no match for my sisters' Airhead logic.
I plan to make up some story for them about how Vista is the devil and if you install it, it will slowly begin to ruin your computer. Oh, and if you try to save your biology notes, it especially hates the medical sciences so it will delete them instantly. Not to mention that its new 'AI' abilities allow it to call you names if it perceives you to be an unqualified user. That should stop them from buying it.
The worst part is that Microsoft can smell this potential market in young people who don't know what they need: That's exactly the kind of publicity stunt that would cause all three of my sisters to run out and buy Vista. *shudders* He's an fucking fashion designer! What the fuck would he know about computer software?!?!
And what is with this part of the article: This article brought to you by Forbes Magazine's Daniel Lyons, owner of stock in AAPL.
Thanks, Dan, I was with you there until that last paragraph where your Apple sales pitch kicked in.
My work here is dung.
Vista not People Ready
But, but, but... "When you combine people and technology, you have a very powerful combination." Fashion designer (and part time Microsoft shill) Tommy Hilfiger said so! So it MUST be true! Vista is the future! Viva la Vista!
Seriously, though. A voice command from your cellphone to check email? What are these guys smoking?
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
People reject OpenOffice and reject even Mac, because they don't know any different. They have been "programmed" to use Microsoft Windows, therefore, until they are told different, they will continue to use Microsoft Windows.
We can sit around all we want and say stuff like "when people get tired of (malware|viruses|spyware|whateverelse)" they will switch to (Linux|Mac).
It's just not true. People will switch when they are told to. Nothing else. Until Companies FORCE people to switch, there will be no switching.
...fall.
"We reject kings, presidents and voting. We believe in rough consensus and running code." Dave Clark, IETF
FTA: Microsoft execs also talked about "Impacting People," then they dragged out fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger, who seemed very "impacted" as he sang praise for Microsoft programs ...
"When you combine people and technology, you have a very powerful combination." Think about that. Just let it sink in for a minute.
I for one welcome our new Vista powered overlords.
I hate to add fuel to the fire but these sound like indications of a flawed design & development environment...
Since when has an Opinion piece become a piece of tech news? Oh right this is Slashdot. As long as the opinion piece is Anti-MS then ya'll can just pat yourselves on the back and bash MS till there is no end in sight and feel good about yourselves.
He's a troll, and an inconsistent one at that.
The final paragraph of the linked articleReally explains alot. I presumed this guy (with his anti IBM, Novell & Linux stance) was an MS shill. Turns out he's just another Apple fanboy.
My pics.
wow. what is going in the minds of MS execs heads? dont they realize they are quickly losing ground, prestige and time to open source and apple?
... no seriously im asking, i figure microsoft has some experience with this question. /honest frustation
just wow.
i mean how long does it take to quickly put together some new code for the same functions, a brand spanking new GUI and lots of "cool" new "features"?
Mike
I heart the RIAA & MPAA, im sure its mutual...
Dan Lyons saying something bad about a Microsoft product is about like FoxNews (you know, "Fair and Balanced") saying something good about a liberal politician. Next thing you know, Dan will be saying good things about Linux and FoxNews will endorse Hillary for President.
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
The new 'Aero' technology is no match for my sisters' Airhead logic.
I feel your pain.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
I can hate Microsoft as much as the next guy. But seriously, I think I must be one of the few on here who's actually had it with all the M$FT bashing in spite of hatred of Microsoft. Why? Because it seems that Open Office and Macs get a free pass on here, while there is a serious bias towards Microsoft being negatively reviewed. Meanwhile any inferiority in Mac OS X and Apple monopolistic tactics are openly defended by an army of fanboys. A lot of Windows users simply DO NOT LIKE the Mac. And rather than figure out why, the Mac elitists claim the fault must lie with the user.
"Find Open Office hard to use? You must be a moron."
I've had it with the love fest with anything that is not M$FT. Can we stop putting "I hate M$FT" opinion pieces on here. And also let's have REVIEWS, and not unbalanced free passes for Mac OS X and Open Office. IE7 does have some cool features like Quick tabs, and the leaner interface etc.
Before the IE7 hate dogs talk about security, let's not forget Mac OS X does have issues too, they have had remotely exploitable security holes they had to fix. Except none of the fanboys were even aware.
Windows hasn't had a wormable network exploit since SP2 (thanks to the firewall).
I have used the Vista betas, they're fine. If someone is going to go on a hate M$FT bash fest, that's fine.. but I don't care about it. I want scientific analysis.
Vista and MS Office 2007 are the two headline-grabbing cash cows of the business and Microsoft has nothing to show until next year. Folks can scent blood behind the scenes with rumours of massive rewrites, etc. Microsoft is a big business with lots of products, but these are the two everyone focuses on, in the pop press at least. And the press and Wall Street have the whole of the rest of this year to stick it to Microsoft, if they so choose, and get a little payback for all the uppity treatment they've received over the years. And with nothing in the locker except more press announcements that no one really believes, Microsoft will just have to stand there and take it on the chin.
:):)
2006 could turn out to be Microsoft's annus horribilis, since the chances must be very high they'll soon have to fess up and say Janaury 2007 is a bad time to launch Vista. And with every day that passes, more folks will get pissed off with the XP malware explosion. Couldn't have happened to nicer guys
Las qué passoun
tournoun pas maï
Windows Vista - People Ready. Just the tool you need to leverage your agile interpersonal synergy to streamline the digital solution engineering process.
A load of arm-waving to distract people from the added lockdown technology? According to this reporter, yes.
> Instead, we got a demo that was about as compelling as a root canal followed by a 15-minute press conference with Ballmer, the Microsoft chief executive who seems incapable of speaking at any level softer than a bellow.
>[...]
>I wonder if Ballmer ever feels like the guy in Groundhog Day, reliving the same press conference, over and over. I know I do.
Developers. Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers, Developers.
Gee, I wonder why it feels like Groundhog Day.
(I was in the Virgin Islands once. I met Natalie Portman. We ate hot grits and drank pina coladas from tikis made of petrified wood. At sunset we made love like sea otters. *That* was a pretty good day. Why couldn't I get that day over and over and over...)
As I understand things, many Software Assurance Plans, which were essentially forced on customers with the claim that Longhorn would be available, expire as of 12/31/06.
I wonder if there may be issues with claims salesmen made and this date slippage.
Forbes Says Vista not People Ready
That's because only tools work with windows, right? Is it tool ready?
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
...people will just have to twist their ways until it fits. "To open the CD-Rom you just have to press ALT+E+P with you hands then Num Lock with your nose and it will eject"
SolarVPS - Quality Windows and Linux Virtual Servers
So Balmer says IBM doesn't innovate anymore?
/.
Hmmm... check out a couple posts down on
Something about nanotubes and stuff... hardly innovation.
You see, this is an example of where the article goes wrong. Daniel Lyons didn't realize they were talking about this kind of impaction.
Obviously the owner doesn't use a MiniMac. I keep a paper list of the three- and four-key magic keypresses you need to reset memory, kill hung programs (especially anything with Java) and force a shutdown taped to mine.
----------------------------------- My Other Sig Is Hilarious -----------------------------------
It things keep this pace, I will predict a scene similar to when Krusty was trying to entertain a group of people; he asked if they wanted to know about some dirty infection he was suffering and then realized that nobody was interested, he then shouted and said:
Krusty: You are the worst public I have met!
The crowd shouted back: and you are the worst clown!
Krusty: Oh Yeah?, in that case, we will just stay here for 30 minutes without saying a word.
As SciFi has clearly pointed out, this is not a good idea...
Goodness. There's a frightening thought. Armies of hostile chav cyborgs in their Tommy Hilfiger jackets, slaughtering their way through the human race...
Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
This is why I hate blogs. I see a story on slashdot, and click through to the article expecting to find news. You know, a simple reporting of some facts. Only after reading the article do I realize this isn't news, its just some asshole bitching about Microsoft, and I really don't give two shits what he has to say. The only real news I can gather from this article is that Microsoft held some press conference or tech demo of some sort, and this guy hated it.
Slanted, one sided, inaccurate and biased blog entries are not news. Please stop subjecting us to them.
Check out the cave on the east side of lake Hylia. Strange and wonderful things live in it.
It's a good sign, I think.
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
"Windows Vista -- Get The Facts"
"Windows Vista -- A Powerful Combination Of Combined Powers"
"Windows Vista -- Sheep Ready"
"Windows Vista -- Because The Richest Bloke In The World Says So"
"Windows Vista -- Almost Ready"
"Windows Vista -- Or I Hit You With This Chair"
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
It seems like Microsoft's internal memo saying that they would try to make sure some significant news on Vista came out each day is alive and well on Slashdot. Every god damn day, we have a Windows Vista story on here and every day is the same old comments. Can we please vote for a Vista free day please?
Thanks, Dan, I was with you there until that last paragraph where your Apple sales pitch kicked in.
.. your window grouping example is their "Expose" competitor .. you have to keep pressing Ctrl-alt-tab or something to keep it that way. It's not like you can move the windows into a diagonla position permanently .. if they do get it stuck in that way ask them to lift their hands from the keyboard and ask how they dialed your number without using
Yeah I expected some sort of reasons WHY Vista wasn't people ready in his vent fest. But he didnt give any. So basically he said "Vista sucks, fuck you. Kiss kiss muaah Apple I love you." Guess Forbes needs the money.
Now, I already know Microsoft sucks. And yeah Steve Jobs loves you and me. But quite frankly I'm not super happy to read someone's rant unless they justify why they think something.
By the way
their hands.
Armies of hostile chav cyborgs in their Tommy Hilfiger jackets, slaughtering their way through the human race...
:)
Let's sell it to Utah!
I work for a large biotech company. Upper management uses Windows-based systems, as does manufacturing.
However, I work in research. Until recently the systems were about 50-50 Windows / Mac with the exceptions of bioinformatics (mostly Linux), and cheminformatics (mostly Irix). However, more recently, vendors have been phasing out the use of Windows for instrumentation control in favor of Linux. Nearly all the structural chemistry applications have moved to Linux, and most genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics software is now Linux-based (and, frequently, runs just fine on Macs too). Macs are still pretty popular, but the use of Windows in research is pretty much considered "legacy" at this point.
If you come from an academic environment in contemporary biology, you were probably weened on Mac OS, or Solaris (when I was in grad school). If it's more recent, it's most definitely OS/X or Linux. It's also clear that Linux is rapidly becoming the platform-of-choice for apps in biotech and pharamceutical research, but with a heavy emphasis on WEB-based technologies.
That's not to say that there aren't users that use nothing but Excel and Word, but that's not so common anymore in research (at least were I work and in my previous job). This poses a big problem for our IT department -- they aren't prepared to support Linux desktops and Mac OS/X, yet those are the platforms where most of our applications run.
Biolgists either don't do computers at all (particularly "old school" biologists), or, if they do, Windows is not what they have the most experience with...
Dude, if it's coming out of you yellow, then you need to see a doctor, now.
Splendid discernment. Simply splendid.
Let's take my three sisters. Each has a degree in biology. Each considers me their personal tech support when anything "breaks." It sucks.
OK, you clearly have issues.
What you haven't realized is your hostility towards your sisters is a form of transferance. You are transferring your need to show your mother that you are a competent adult (and thus worthy of regard) onto your sisters, and projecting your own infantile dependency onto them. It is worth noting that while you must constantly demonstrate your expertise and competence in computers to them, they have no compulsion to retern the favor by offering you help in their area of expertise. Likely this difference is due to insecure paternal attachment on your part. Could this be unresolved castration anxiety? Certainly that would explain the difference between you and you sisters. In any case, the underlying assymetry in your relationship reinforces your infantile anxiety, which creates rage, part of which is displaced onto Microsoft, the balance of which is sublimated in the form of further demonstrations of technical competence. Naturally, such heroic (dare I say histrionic?) demonstrations of technical finesse that only exacerabate your problem.
What you need to do is to address the imbalance in your relationship to your sisters. A few concrete suggestions:
* Encourage them to install the beta of Vista. Then when they have problems, throw up your hands and confess you don't know anything about Microsoft operating systems.
* Develop a stock response to technical question and consistently use it for every problem no matter how trivial e.g., "Try reformatting your hard drive and reinstalling the operating system." This will encourage your sisters to be less dependent on you.
* Demand that your sisters provide you with equivalent services in their areas of expertise. For example, why did your last batch of homebrew beer come out sour? What can you do about the crabgrass on your lawn? When you are going out on a date after work, how can you avoid having body odor even if you've showered in the morning (claim you are allergic to deoderant)?
Follow this strategy, and you cannot help but develop a more adult, mutually satisfying relationship with your siblings.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Microsoft keep aiming too high. In the end, it's as simple as that.
The executives who are driving the show like to promote corporation-wide initiatives (.Net springs to mind) but they lack the clarity of vision and coherence of presentation to get their message across. This is, of course, assuming that they're clear themselves about what their initiative seeks to achieve, which I doubt in many cases. Once you're detached from clear goals and clear plans to achieve them, and you descend into corporate initiative, business imperative, growth driver, buzzword buzzword zzzzz territory, you'll sink right to the bottom in no time.
The next level down - the guys who are basically running the show for Windows, or Office, or the more minor products like Visual Studio - are constantly in a state of flux because they don't know where the corporation-wide initiatives are driving them. Worse yet, they don't know where they're driving each other, but it's surely somewhere: if you want a radical new UI in Vista, you've got to have the tools to write programs that use it in Visual Studio, and your next version of Office has to fit in with the style, for example.
Now, the guys working on the products keep coming up with revolutionary new features that require dramatic changes in a single version. These are always a risk, and if things don't work out, it's rare that you can half-implement the good bits and scrap the rest, so you get cancellation of the entire feature if bad stuff happens. Combine that with the constant changes in high level business plans and such, particularly pressure to get a release out in time for this or that shareholder meeting (that means you, VS2005 team) and you can see why often these things do suffer catastrophic failure.
So, if your next release is based on three Big Features(TM), as was the case with Vista originally, and these then start falling to the wayside under business pressures, what do you do? You can't cancel them all, or you've got no product and your reputation is mud, but if you can't get them ready in time either, then your release dates keep slipping and your reputation is a different colour of mud. Such is the price you pay when you decide to go for the big features and not across-the-board, incremental improvements, and that's the mistake they keep making.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
... of bashing Microsoft and promoting Apple.
He also isn't a big fan of Linux.
This guy is widely considered a hack.
I've been using Vista build 5308 for almost a month now as my primary "home" machine. At first I was a little taken back by some of the UI changes, but overall I really do like it. In fact, when I move back to XP it really hurts because of things I miss from Vista.
This guy's critcisms of Vista are so vague it's hard to even know what parts of Vista he is talking about.
"The new programs are phenomenally complex, with scores of buttons and pull-down menus and myriad connections among various applications."
Huh? Which new applications? In most case, Microsoft has decreased, not increased, the number of UI elements.
Interestingly enough, when I was 17 I was asked by an attractive 22 year old woman what the difference between sperm and semen was. I cowardly responded by explaining the differences using technical language, rather than the slightly contrived situation involving a "practical lesson" that I ususally tell my friends.
When Argumentum ad Hominem falls short, try Argumentum ad Matrem
Don't be the stingy brother, especially if your siblings are coming to you for 100% of their computer support. Rather than turning of your mobile phone, just shell out for a Macintosh or two. Then time spent with your siblings will be spent on someting other than computer repair.
My mother was constantly complaining about her MS Windows machine and even about my brother in-law's support. Finally I just bought an iMac for her, put it on her desk and showed her where Thunderbird, Firefox and OpenOffice were and how to copy files to the net and to USB flash drives. She's been happy as a clam since and support calls have gone down to more or less nothing.
The one big grip left, which keeps that other machine around with its antiquated MS technology is that f*ing card sorting program. Where can a free, exact look-alike for MS Solitaire be downloaded.
puts on my laptop. I'm a sheep. Aren't we all?
Right now it's XP and Office 2003.
As long as I can hook it up to a projector and bore the crap out of a room full of people with 83 Powerpoint slides, The Bossman is happy.
I don't see big corporations being first in line for a shiny new OS that practically triples the minimum hardware requirement.
At Home I'll use whatever Valve software tells me to use so I can Play Half-Life 3. Sheep, remember?
"When you combine people and technology, you have a very powerful combination"
Yeah, its called the Borg.
RESISTANCE IS FUTILE!!!!
XBox 360 and Games are all MSFT has going for it now. But why don't people switch? The answer is obvious XP works well enough for most people, of course that doesn't help Vista either. To me the place where open source will make up the most ground is on the application side. Linux may not gain ground for a long time, but Mozilla, Thunderbird, and Open Office will, as can many other closed apps.
Onward to the Aether Sphere!
It seems MS missed the basics of press relations. When you call the press out to a dog and pony show, we (yes, I am one) generally try to give a fair representation of what happened. Events and press conferences are generally one sided, IE good for the people putting on the act. So are trade shows, you get to see the shiny happy things, and there is no time or forum to dig in and see all the warts.
This leads to almost universally good news on all the applicable outlets. If the show is interesting, all the better, we will sit there and smile, taking notes and pictures.
Now, if you bore us to tears with stupid, irrelevant and wrong info, we will sit there for 60-90 minutes and think up ways to make your life pain, usually in the form of an article. We sit there, turn to the guy next to us and crack jokes about everything and anything, relevant or not. Nothing tends to be sacred.
Yep, the MS people botched this one bad, and the Lyons piece is a good example of this. They promised the moon, gave nothing, and did it in a way that from the sound of it was thoroughly unpleasant to watch.
And they are wondering why they got hammered. Duh. If you are going to take up our time, don't waste it. If you do, you almost guarantee your product will be panned.
As a corolary to this, fill the press section with syncophantic or bribed tame press, then do what you want. This is a time honored tradition that works well, but if you do it too often with sucky presentation, it will bite you, your costs will go up. Look at... well, that would be telling.
-Charlie
P.S. Take this article with a big grain of salt. Anyone still defending SCO is pretty suspect in my book, but that is just one reporter's opinion.
I won't purchase Vista, nor will I purchase a PC if I am forced to take it with Vista on it.
/all/ of the software I either need to run is available for OSX and/or Linux.
I'll still use Windows XP and/or 2000 as a dual-boot, either on an Ubuntu AMD system (after converting my HP AMD laptop to Ubuntu), or on an Apple OSX dual boot with XP on it. This is only until
I've already moved the other PC's in the house - those used by my wife and son - to Ubuntu. Regardless of the OS - XP or Ubuntu - all PCs are running Open Office, Firefox, etc.
I mention Ubuntu for a reason - its the strongest Linux desktop OS that I've encountered thusfar, easy to install, and easy for non-techies (like my wife) to manage on their own (download/install other apps, configure ones already running, use peripheral devices, use already installed apps for communication/productivity, etc.).
Let's take my three sisters. Each has a degree in biology.
How did you end up in IT then?
Impact me harder baby
http://rareformnewmedia.com/
haven't read someting funny like this for a long time
Asta la Vista to windows baby!
Reason #32767 not to use VB6: Integers are 2 bytes... Think about it!
But, of course they can! They're a monopoly, and there's nothing that Steve Jobs, the Open Source community or anybody else can do about it (well, the US Justice Dept. tried before Bush stopped 'em).
Unfortunately, Microsoft's customers (i.e. most of the world) are willing to wait a really long time before they give up on the Redmond giant. It's that damned critical mass that they've built up over the years: everything's geared to supporting Windows before anything else, from hardware manufacturers to ISVs to ISPs to media companies, etc. Even Google doesn't support anything but Windows for Google Earth! (okay, there's a Mac beta for it now too, but you get my drift).
Therefore, I figure that Microsoft's monopoly position can only be threatened if one of their next new operating systems turns out to be a total failure. If Microsoft aren't able to dump it and replace it soon enough with something better, only then will significant numbers of their customers begin to loose faith in them and move on to alternative operating systems.
Let's hope Vista turns out to be that dog.
But there are so many forces working against it. Steep learning curve. So many documents shipped out for modification already in MS Office format. So many people that require you send them documents in MS Office format.
But, on the flipside, it must mean that commenters actually RTFA!
Penny - plain text accounting
Let me tell you big secret: Most people don't want to switch. They hate to have to learn a new system, new UI and new buttons. It's bad enough as it is. Think about 60 years old, who is struggling with office, e-mail and web, and calling his/her free tech-support(children) whenver he/she accidentally minimize window. Those people stay with XP as long as MS provide minimal support, that is fixing exploits. And may be even longer. So many people are actually happy of Vista delay, as long as it means longer support for XP. It would be even betted if Vista cancelled at all.
It was an interesting read, the comments on Mini Microsoft the other day when it was made public that Vista was delayed once more. What is the difference between Mac OS X and Vista? Microsoft employees are excited about Mac OS X! was one of the comments.
What is even more interesting is that there might be a connection between Apple pushing their World Wide Developer Conference back to September and the new delivery date of Vista. Too close in time for Microsoft to be comfortable in the chance of having Vista look like a silly copy of Mac OS X 10.4 after Mac OS X 10.5 was introduced. More on the story in my blog entry written a couple of days ago.
The future is in beta
The author states that now the alternative operating systems now have their chance to try to topple microsoft but really what has any of the linux ditributions tried to do with the time between XP and vista? The only company I think that has taken the opportunity is apple where they first implement features that rival vista into OS X and then switch their entire line over to intel while microsoft is just trying to put out an OS. I guess Sun came out with backend stuff (zones, janus) and open sourced their os.
So your computer is broken. Get it fixed, already.
You DO NOT TALK about Forbes. Second rule, well you can guess.
Forbes is responsible for more wrong-headed ideas about technology in the executive suites than any other publication. Pay them no heed. Ignore them. They do not have a clue.
They may even be right this time, but that wouldn't make up for the multitude of times they've made technologists lives worse.
the major advances in civilization are processes which all but wreck the societies in which they occur - A.N. White
To be perfectly honest, next time my parents need to upgrade, which won't be for awhile, if things don't change it's going to be Apple products... tired of providing tech support for stupid things, while Apple's seem to just work, and just work right. Even simple stuff like sharing a printer seems to be nothing but a headache in Windows. Who knows, my dad need's Office for compatability with his clients, but maybe I should look at CrossOver or whatever the Wine port for Office is and have them run a locked down version of Linux.
Unix and its variants cater to the technical minded people. Written by programmers for programmers. For example well behaved programs don't babble on success, very terse documentation geared towards like minded people who know and are willing to research concepts further. A technically superior product for people that program and maintain networked systems and infrastructures..
Windows has a different value system. Windows caters to the non-technical minded people like the average Joe Sixpack, Grandma, etc. For example, user feedback by dialog boxes and progress indicators to let Grandma know the "doo-hickey" she clicked on will eventually open her e-mail, plus knows the average Joe will not read help page after help page for the most part so documentation is geared towards people who won't remember the contents of the previous page of information. A technically superior product for the average person with no technical computer skills that are task oriented.
To say Vista is "not people ready" would indeed be a true statement if security and stability are at the core of Vista unlike any other attempt Microsoft as made. To put it simply you can't have Windows with Unix power and vice versa without compromising some of the core principles of where these platforms came from. An example is the MacOS X - they have taken parts of Unix and meshed with the working parts of Windows excluding the suck parts of Unix and Windows; but it doesn't behave like either to the Unix power user nor to the Windows power user.
This is the biggest challenge Microsft faces now with healthy competition. If Joe Six pack and Grandma have to get smarter then why wouldn't they consider Macs or some Unix variant at some point? Reminds me a lot of how AOL works in conjunction with people as they "mature" about internet usage...
BSD is designed. Linux is grown. C++ libs
So he's advocating the use of Linux in one breath, then complaining about how complicated Windows is for ordinary users in the next? He must not have much experience with Linux if he thinks it will SIMPLIFY things for Windows users.
I can hear it now: "Don't worry grandma, this will be an easy fix compared to that complicated old Windows. Now let's start by un-taring your source, recompiling your kernel, and compiling new modules. What distro are you using, grandma?"
-Eric
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
Opinion pieces like this crack me up.
This dude hides nothing about being anti-MS, which is fine by me. I've got a bazillion reasons to be annoyed with MS. What I am amazed by is how he, in not so many words, just does not get why the masses aren't rising up to CRUSH MICROSOFT (emphasis his)! Where's the righteous rage, where are the sit-ins and love-ins and the fuming invective and the placards and the riots?! Kill the monster! Kill the monster!
I dunno, maybe we're not as angry as he is. Maybe we don't want to crush Microsoft. I know that's hard to believe, but it's an operating system, not a political stand.
*lays on the long sofa and closes his eyes*
... just ... urinating all over it. I know it sounds gross and I don't know why it's happening, I just keep going and laughing the whole time.
I keep having this dream where I'm standing up and towering over Redmond, WA and I'm just
Maybe you can help me with this, it gets really confusing now. My sisters are seated at computers. And when they touch them, they turn into toilets full of excrement--not working at all. But as I walk down the line, my mere touch turns them into golden Alienware desktops running at the speed of light. They get on their knees and start to worship me and again I'm laughing maniacly.
I know this sounds kind of gross and I have issues, but what does it all mean, doc?
My work here is dung.
With support from Tommy, Steve is the man now, dog.
Join Tor today!
Then OS X came out. And it improved. And improved. Today, it is a beautiful and wonderfully designed system. Easy to use, powerful, and if you want to get down and dirty with UNIX, it's there, too. They did a spectacular job on that software.
And I bought a few Macs. But what ultimately prevented me from switching all my systems? Lack of availability of VMware on the Mac. This was due to VMware being a virtualizer, not an emulator, so it can't run x86 programs on those G4 processors. So here I was, using Linux and FreeBSD, running VMware on Linux, and not switching to the Mac, which I like better for its user interface and overall experience.
But now they've switched to x86. Quite frankly, there should be no reason within the next year to switch to the Mac. I'm sure there will be a native VMware soon, as they'd be crazy to ignore the market for that. And I'm sure that many of the "big apps" that we use here at work will become available on the Mac, because more people than ever are asking for them. It's only a matter of Mac gaining a critical mass of market share, and then Microsoft will fall. And their "people ready" garbage that I'm so sick of using will be lost to the ether forever, and good riddance.
haha, you don't sound very convincing when you can't even get the name of the computer right. no, Austin, MiniMe is your other nemesis.
reset memory? what are you talking about? kill hung programs with opt-cmd-esc, not any harder than the Windows ctrl-alt-delete is it? and it shouldn't be needed very often. and when it is needed, it shouldn't affect anything else.
anyway, if you are actually for real and not just trolling, you should have your computer looked at. though first off i'd recommend starting from your install disk and running disk utility. all computers need this kind of thing periodically... not just Macs.
there is only the door, the door, the door.
All empires ...fall.
*ahem*
The Longhorn bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down...
So Vista won't be ready for another year. Or two. Or three. Novell Netware lost the race to a vaporware NT5, but it was Linux and then Active Directory that killed it. Microsoft has a habit of delivering late, and poorly. But they are bringing onnovation to the (mainstream) desktop. Yes, Unix is a better architecture. But Windows is so much more featureful than Gnome, KDE, or *especally* Mac OS X. Office is 10 years ahead of any of it's clones. Granted, the main reason Star Office is so far behind is because most of their energy is spent on compatibility. But they shouldn't worry too much about it. Like Word Perfect shouldn't have. Microsoft saw a collaboration suite where everyone else saw desktop publishing. Office 2003 is a credible competitor to the browser for application development. With a growing .NET library and the push to port decent scripting languages (like python & php5) to the CLR, it's a compelling platform. Infopath is the new Visual Basic form, only backed by SQL Server and XML instead of Access.
I'm not praising MS unconditionally. They still have weird, arcane ways of doing things. And lots and lots of bugs -- and security issues. But they're offering more in functionality than anyone else. Ajax isn't a competitor to OLE.
I'm simply noting that unless an *alternative* to MS Office integration is offered, alot of open source zealots (like myself) will be switching over. I'd love to see an open source web framework tied to Windows and Office automation, but I don't see it happening.
I wrote a list of Microsoft technologies I'd need to learn to be as productive as I am using open source. It was a long list and it was ugly, too, with words like "Exchange", "IIS", and "VBA" on it. I don't want to learn to use Active Directory (but at least it's not NT Domain Controllers), and it is a pretty good LDAP server, too. I don't want to learn VB, VB.net, and C#. (and maybe I won't have to, at least no more than necessary to translate api's to Python or Ruby.)
But Office and Exchange are unmatched in the open source world, and there's really not a reason they should be.
"Windows Vista -- A Powerful Combination Of Combined Powers"
A phrase which relates Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer and Captain Planet CANNOT POSSIBLY be any good.
A fellow geek posts about his three sisters and no one asked if they were hot/available/would settle for a pathetic nerd that lives in his parents' basement
You know at lease 80% of readers imediately thought at least one of those questions.
---
If you didn't chuckle, you work too hard.
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear." - Every fascist, ever
It's not required to be divested of any such "conflicts", you just have to be open about them. It's called disclosure, and allows people to determine your biases as a source (every source is biased, it's unavoidable). Sometimes people state very clearly that they have no related biases, and this done to make it clear that there is no relation.
Make sure everyone's vote counts: Verified Voting
Daikavista.
My humor is probably your flamebait
You've never used LinkedIn, have you? I'm "colleagues" with a yak herder in Siberia.
"Windows Vista -- Or I'll f'n kill you, too!"
Dumb it down for me, doc, I'm a freaking Slashdot poster for Christ's sake!
My work here is dung.
I have so many questions! Why can't I hold a stable relationship with a female?! Why do I organize my compact discs by increasing Fourier coefficients modeled from their music? Why do I wake up crying every night? Why do people call me "an engineer" and how can I cure myself of this horrible affliction?
Help me doc, you've got to help me! My life (or lack thereof) is falling apart!
My work here is dung.
HAHAHaHahahaha. I wondered what he was doing lately.
I use XP Pro daily, and am (mostly) satsified with MS products ... but that article made me laugh out loud. And ... hmmm ... maybe I should investigate Linux more thoroughly ...
Frammin' on the jim-jam, frippin' at the krotz!
Apple isn't as my boss would say "thinking big enough". Microsoft has provided plenty of opportunities for Apple to step in and offer a better solution. But, Apple for one is protecting large margins that limits them to market to businesses. They don't offer cheap no frills systems that businesses would like. So, Mac OS X can never make an impact even though it is arguably better than XP and way ahead of Vista. Moreover, OS X can't be showcase to people at their work because business won't adopt it. So, they will lose out on an opportunity to market to consumers as well and, consequently, not be able to push their market share up. Apple should despite it logic think about partnering with Dell to offer Mac OS X business solutions. They are not going to sell PowerMac or Powerbooks to businesses, so why not test the waters of a software only business solution. A lot of companies make money this way.
You don't have to be smart to use a Mac, you just have to be smart enough to buy one
It all comes down to the fact that most people would rather stick with the inconvenience they know than risk starting over on something that might not be worth the effort.
In other words, whatever they're switching from has to get really bad, and whatever they're switching to has to offer a major improvement.
You could look at it in terms of neophobes and neophiles, or the devil you know vs. the devil you don't know, or just plain inertia.
Thank you, clickety6. How I didn't think of that myself, I'll never know. Frickin' Borg indeed.
>Why can't I hold a stable relationship with a female?!
Because you post on Slashdot.
"Windows Vista - because if you can't trust convicted monopolists with the ethics of a Chicago ward-heeler, who can you trust?"
The Independent: Reverend Spooner Arrested in Friar Tuck Incident - ISIHAC, Historical Headlines
They are switching to the Unreal engine?
New vocabulary word for today: teleology: Belief in the idea that history or nature has a purpose towards which it progresses.
Back in the late 1980s, the hottest new technology was the relational database, which had just barely begun to be usable. Utopia was in the air. Soon, everything an organization did would raptured up into New Jerusalem of seamless data integration.
Many of us who passed through that millenial hysteria have seen its dark side: useful projects stalled indefinitely as organizations were seduced by the vision of an all encompassing union of systems, a blessed state in which somehow we will be washed clean of all our porblems. The mechanism by which this would happen was somewhat vague, being far in the distance and bathed by the blinding radiance of synergy. But the road in front of them was clear and they set their feet on it, resolutely denying the temptations of opportunism.
Those of us for whom this vision is no longer our polestar, we who live in a world of practical trade offs and time dependent opportunities, we are apostates. But others have never lost faith. Their spiritual home is Microsoft. Microsoft has a teleolgoical view. They are convinced that they will overcome, because while the technological arc of the universe is long, it tends towards integration. This framework justifies their existence and everything they do becomes not only a moral right, but a positive duty.
In this framework, a mere invention isn't an innovation, unless it somehow, in itself, brings us closer to the world of seamleslly integrated data.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
Can anyone supply a single link to a positive review of Microsoft technology from Forbes ?
How those guys manage to maintain their position as informative, insightful, industry analysts when they bag out Microsoft for 10 years and yet to date they're phenomenally successful and yet they still predict doom for them. I think I'll make a prediction here and say Forbes is pretty much irrelevant when it's so clearly incapable of being impartial.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayer_Amschel_Rothsch ild_family
Isn't this the same guy who said "what SCO wants, SCO gets"? Isn't this the same guy who told all the Linux "crunchies" to get a life? Isn't this the same guy who wrote an entire series of pro-SCO articles? What credibility does he have even mentioning Linux in a favorable light now, after all that bashing?
This guy's such a waffler I'm surprised no one's thrown a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth's at him.
Is it just me, or does Steve Ballmer look exactly like... Satan!?
...whatever Microsoft wants him to say. And in fact, this article is written to look unbiased and maybe pokes at MS just a bit, but really just repeats the same crap. He's also the journalist who found nothing wrong with Sara Radicatti's group making predictions the same way and calling them unbiased, then astroturfing their own article in the blogsphere.
I won't even open the Forbes website any more. The last time I did, was to count how many blocked ads there were once I'd installed a dns based ad-blocker. It was 36 on the home page.
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
Industrial/factory sewing machines and fabric cutters/makers, etc are highly computerized,(You should see some of them, I used to work the "Bobbin" tradeshow, it is googleable) and most even entry level home machines are computerized and programmable now. I just bought one for GF last Christmas binge buying season, it has a PC interface. Only the very cheapest bottom rung machines *aren't* programmable now.
"Windows Vista -- It just works"
"Windows Vista -- Heh heh"
"Windows Vista -- What choice have you got ?"
"Windows Vista -- Where do you think you're going ?"
Not shilling for them? Who said pigs aren't aerodynamically designed?
That article was a Chuck Norris/Jack Bauer/Superman Smackdown....
MadOgre.com
You are a far more imaginative (and brave) man than I am, Sir!
sig? Oh, that sig...
... and expecting otherwise is the real travesty. I've always kind of thought we just kind of patted promotion on the head and said "how precocious", you know annoying, but of no real substance. Some people actually buy this, though. Yikes.
kinda like the forbes webpage? if you can only fit an average of 6 words per line, you have too much crap.
yea sure M$oft is evil ... but somehow most of us and i mean MOST is using it ... and there is nothing we can do... why ? lets get back to these tree sisters example: would you like explain to women how to use linux or try to explain them how to update drivers through phone, or you would prefer try to do that on windows ?
fasion designer ? dont tell me that coders can actualy make good UI for every new user around ?
and let me hmz werent there same buzz about winxp and its design ?
stop it and lets just w8 for finished product ...
"When you combine people and technology, you have a very powerful combination."
The Borg No?
You will be assimilated. Eventualy.
..not directly geared toward Microsoft's message. That's not going to come close to making him or anything he writes worth my respect.
f /d6plinks/RSCZ-6DFH52J E5ER
Maybe he just likes dumping on as many products as possible. His "Linux is for loosers" article sure was a brilliant piece of journalistic skill -- oh, no, wait a minute, I'm confusing it with journalism. I mean to say a steaming pile of shit.
Ref:
http://wiki.vowe.org/DanLyons
http://www.rhs.com/web/blog/poweroftheschwartz.ns
http://www.billbuchan.com/web.nsf/d6plinks/DOMM-6
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
Maybe he just likes dumping on as many products as possible. His "Linux is for loosers" article sure was a brilliant piece of journalistic skill -- oh, no, wait a minute, I'm confusing it with journalism. I mean to say a steaming pile of shit.
The Dan Lyons wiki
Ref: http://wiki.vowe.org/DanLyons
The problem with quotes on the internet, is that nobody bothers to check their veracity. -- Abraham Lincoln
Just have a kid or three.
Then when someone calls for tech support, say "Let me get my calendar and see when I can come over and help you out. BTW, can you babysit for me on...."
No more tech support. But then there's "child support".
On second thought, just help them out and be happy!
Why is the new Windows version called Vista ???
...
Because its always in the distance!
I'm really looking forward to all the DRM implementations in vista ick!
Photo Journal of my animal interactions
stereoscopic multimedia pioneer view3d.tv
Time to burn a little karma. So far 50% of the replies to my original post have attacked my sig as opposed to commenting on the post. Strangely enough, both of the off-topic posts complaining about my sig were from liberals who objected to the content of the sig. Of the two posts that actually had anything to say about the content of my post, neither of them had anything to do with Dan Lyons and whether he should be listened to or not either. But at least they were commenting on the content.
Come on folks. Most signatures are just lame attempts to be funny with a few political comments (like mine) that may or amy not overlap the commedy category. They are analogous to and about as deep as bumper stickers. Ignore sigs and reply to the post content.
BTW, for news I usually go to http://news.bbc.uk.co/ (international version). Tends to have a lot less noise in either direction than U.S. newsertainment outlets and a lot better depth.
Cheers,
Dave
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither safety nor liberty.
Ben
Lawyer: Patents!
Marketing: FUD!
MS Research: Interesting yet utterly useless innovation that will never ever be used anywhere!
Bill: Money!
Steve: Chair!
Captain Vista By your combined powers I am Captain Vista 2007 Professional World Edition!
USE HOT GRITS WITH STATUE OF NATALIE PORTMAN (NAKED AND PETRIFIED)
Windows Vista - It Just Works (in the next service pack, trust us!)
Windows Vista - It's Secure (Only the NSA has the key! You trust Bush, don't you?)
Windows Vista - Are You People Ready (for the ass-raping we're going to give you?)
Windows Vista - The Road Ahead (Where Linux will make us road-kill!)
Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
Oooh, it's a bug.
Vista has been released. It looks great, and is stable and secure. It's shipping in huge numbers. The server edition continues to increase Microsoft's share of that market. Programmers everywhere are using .Net.
I'm a software visionary. I don't code.
Sheesh! All you got to do is write perl script! Edit text files and end up with a PDF! I can see explaining that to the marketing people in my company.
When you combine people and technology, you have a very powerful combination." Think about that. Just let it sink in for a minute
This is so banal it's ludicrous. I mean, what about all that technology that just comes into being without people, huh? This is a typical example of trotting out a "celeb" (I use the word in its loosest sense) who spouts some garbage and all the people are meant to go "oh wow, man, that's so deeeep!!!". C'mon, won't somebody stick their hand up and say the emperor's got no clothes? It's just another tech gadget that really nobody needs, actually doesn't do a whole lot more that the old version doesn't do, and if it weren't for the godawful mess that the old version actually is, with all its spyware and viruses and bugs, nobody would give a flying fuck about.
This must be something known amongst Slashdotters, then, because you act like it is common knowledge, but I'm afraid I didn't get the memo and I do more during the day than surf for the latest OS opinion pieces. Well, thanks for the heads up:
Daniel Lyons is a known Microsoft shill.
So noted.
Just FYI, I have no vested interest in the OS wars that go on here at Slashdot. Personally, I think it's hands down the stupidest thing any person at ALL serious about technology can engage in. Seems to me, it's just a choice. I'll leave the idiocy up to the fanboys and get to better matters.
Anyway, the idiot comment was quite lovely, even though logic dictates (in the obvious vacuum of pop opinion about Daniel Lyons I seem to be in) that maybe he's not the shill you think he is.
Off topic here, but who's Rob Enderle? Wait, nevermind, I just don't care.
Since the spread sheets are being used for analysis you get an added advantage being able to easily parse the data with other programs and scripts. OpenDocument is basically zipped XML and, unlike one high profile competitor, is fully documented and can be used without restrictions. Sorry for plugging something as esoteric as a data format, but being able to mix and match between an off the shelf spreadsheet applications and homemade scripts with the same data files has been something long overdue.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.