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Windows 7 Likely Going Modular, Subscription-based
Microsoft CRM writes "When Windows 7 launches sometime after the start of 2010, the desktop OS will be Microsoft's most 'modular' operating system to date. That's not necessarily a good thing, of course; Windows Vista is a sprawling, complex OS. From Microsoft's perspective, though, there are many possible benefits. The OS's developers can add/remove functionality module by module. New modules could be sold post-launch, keeping revenue streams strong. A modular approach could also allow the company to make functionality available on a time-limited basis, potentially allowing users to 'rent' a feature if it's needed on a one-off basis. Microsoft is already testing 'pay as you go' consumer subscriptions in developing countries."
Their primary concern is probably far more to be able to ditch or unbundle a feature as soon as they feel a threat from Anti-Thrust agencies or something of the kind: they learned the hard way that saying "but its so integrated, we can't separate it!!" doesn't work, so there's no point to program their OS like crap on purpose anymore, and they can deal with the real problems instead.
No matter how horrible a business model they use, it still can't be worse than Vista.
Commodore64_love: I don't comprehend people who're so frightened of death that they'll bankrupt themselves to stay alive
Considering Microsoft has, in the past, been accused of artificially bundling components together (IE+Windows, DirectX10+Vista, etc), I'm going to remain skeptical on this plan. It seems like Microsoft can get much higher revenue from a several-hundred-dollars major upgrade than a pick-n-choose bundle of features. The only way I see them breaking it apart is if their monopoly really does begin to be challenged and they have to start selling in a truly competitive market.
E pluribus unum
Once again, Microsoft is making fantastic promisses that have little to do with their last set. I wonder how many current features will evaporate.
This is not a good way to make money. Vista is a failure and Windows 7 will be an even bigger failure. At a minimum, the next three years belong to GNU/Linux. Users and hardware makers alike know better than to buy into Vista now and people looking for new hardware and software are going to go Linux. By 2010, Microsoft's base will be erroded. The Microsoft game, at long last, is over.
No calls now, I'm
So that will be around the release of Ubuntu 10, right? Glad I know which OS I'll be using :)
are we going to need hardware usb dongles like is needed with CAD software in order to control what features are turned on or off?
Once that becomes possible, less microsoft-friendly jurisdictions (like say the EU) might demand they open up the interfaces so competitors can use them. People buying chunks of OS from non-microsoft vendors probably isn't in microsoft's best interest...
Microsoft seems to be hell bent on making their product harder to use, and at its own peril.
What Microsoft doesn't get is that operating systems and computers, in general, are just appliances. Yes, people like to tinker, but, when one opens up the box, they want everything. This fascination with dynamically installed and dynamically loaded modularity has been the ruin of Microsoft ever since Windows 3.1 began prompting me for Disk 5 when I tried to do something, and it continues to this day. All the Windows versions continually ask for the CD/DVD, whatever, Visual Studio defaults to online help - which sucks when you are on the train, and now they want to make Windows even more modular?
By contrast, I put in a Linux DVD, and I install everything. If I want to install something more, I can do the insanely difficult exercise of typing "sudo apt get install [programname]".
This is my sig.
I wonder if this will backfire. A modular OS means that each component is easier to replace, as it's not intrinsically linked with the rest of the OS.
If you can replace a component, and choose which pieces to run piece by piece, people might make choices that aren't in Microsoft's interest.
--
$tar -xvf
...how that more & more Windows looks like *nix sometimes.
Since NT 3.5 we've had:
True multi-user (Terminal services, fast-user switching), sudo (UAC), headless servers (server core), decent scripting (PowerShell), and now more modularity?
Yeah I know, some of these aren't exactly the same, but you see my point.
throw new NoSignatureException();
Microsoft intends to reverse the mistake of Vista by making an operating system that continues in the direction of Vista even further, and force users to pay continuously for the privilege. All this and they don't plan to release it until 2010 giving Mac OS X and Ubuntu a chance to chip away at their market dominance for two years whilst their current top of the range OS flops.
If we can put a man on the moon, why can't we shoot people for Apollo-related non-sequiturs?
... if you haven't started your plans for moving away from Windows, now would be a good time.
I think Microsoft is starting to realize the gig is up. In Vista, the whole "we'll just produce a mound of crap, and people will have to buy it" model is starting to dwindle. Unfortunately, it looks like the new model is "we'll only force half the amount of crap we used to, and you can pay for the rest when it's released."
I honestly like using Windows 2000 and Windows XP. I don't like it as much as my Ubuntu installation, but it isn't terrible... at least, not after SP2. I simply just can't tolerate Vista, though. I was somewhat hopeful for Windows 7, but news like this (albeit far from 100% sure to happen) puts a big dimmer on it.
Proudly supporting the Libertarian Party.
That's the same rhetoric that's been said by the anti-MS crowd for the past 10 years. What makes the next 5 any different?
How sad.. I really liked the promise of WinFS for a file system. How cool would it be to be able to type something along the lines of "Select * from ALL_DOMAIN_COMPUTERS where file = "x.dll" and version = "2.33.5" Not to mention being able to do updates!
What are we going to do tonight Brain?
From what I've understood from the /. crowd, Microsoft have had their last '3 years minimum' for at least 10 now, which naturally would explain their sky-rocketing share-price.
throw new NoSignatureException();
So I wonder if this will be some high level granularity or some true kernel level modularity like Apples quasi-mach kernel. Or even go all the way to a Objective-C message passing interface at the code level.
It's interesting to note that Apple's OS is ultra-modular at the lowest levels but is sold monolithically. Apple has always done well by specing out it's hardware and software at a maximum consistent level for every machine. Thus developers could assume that firewire exists or this or that OS feature exists. etc...
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
How is this any different to what they have done all along, where custom installations allow you to pick and choose components? I remember doing that all the way back in the mid-90s.
I guess what I'm saying is: what separates a "module" from an application or a library? There appears to be no meaningful difference.
Bogtha Bogtha Bogtha
One reason Vista is more secure than XP is due to Vista's design being more modular than XP. If you uninstall IIS from Vista, it is gone, unlike XP where the files are still sitting there waiting to be exploited.
But I know that doesn't matter here, if Microsoft did it, it's evil regardless of it's benefits.
George Bush + Linux = "I will not let information get in the way of the fight against Windows"
...when I "rent" features in my personal OS, running on my own personal computer. Fark off, Microsoft, seriously.
It is by my will alone my thoughts acquire motion; it is by the juice of the coffee bean that the thoughts acquire speed
Losen up, will ya? Their not that bad. You just can't let it effect you.
Michael Hart (of Project Gutenberg) has it right. He's been saying for about a decade now that publishers, music companies, software companies, etc. are trying to move us into a world where ownership as we know it will no longer exist; nothing will be owned (at least not by consumers), everything will be rented. E.g. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/bparchive?year=2003&post=2003-01-22,3>here
This is an issue that both liberals and conservatives should be united on. The desire to own stuff goes deep in the human psyche. The person who rents everything is utterly dependent on a high, steady stream of income can't survive even a short interruption or reduction in that stream. It's a very insecure and anxiety-provoking way to live.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Sort of; http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=890cd06b-abf8-4c25-91b2-f8d975cf8c07&displaylang=en
throw new NoSignatureException();
that "object file system" is gonna rock
Microsoft secretly wants you to switch to Linux. Really, they do.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
This is a perfect example of why Windows looks less appealing over time, and why I started shifting everything I do to be inherently platform agnostic (e.g. if I'm going to learn a new piece of software, I preferentially find programs that work on any OS).
Basically, they are redesigning Windows not so much for engineering reasons, but for marketing reasons. Having a modular OS could be a very good idea, if done properly. However if this is just artificial fragmentation so that they can nickel-and-dime their customers, then this means the software is going to get worse.
Why? Because it's hard enough to optimize software just to do its job properly. You can't optimize for every constraint simultaneously, so if you add requirements like "separated into marketable modules" or "resistant to user tampering" then the coders will necessarily have to compromise on other optimizations, like "speed of operation" or "flexibility" or "reliability" or whatever.
Software is becoming more and more of a commodity... which means that open-source software is rapidly catching up (in those fields where it wasn't already the leader), and also that companies like Microsoft who are still caught in the "must sell proprietary code in boxes" mindset have to add more and more user-hostile features.
It would be nice to have Windows act in a modular fashion. Think of being able to extend the ability of your computer one function at a time! If Windows were truly a general purpose OS with an well documented API, we could load binary modules to add user demanded functions like web browsing or media playing. What a wonderful future these "modules" could provide. Cue singing birds, butterfly flapping and fluffy white clouds over grassy knolls.
Ripppppp ..... what bullshit.
Microsoft's promise of modules is no different from what an ordinary program is already supposed to do and calling it a module won't make any difference. If you need a WMP module to play media and Microsoft sabotages all other modules, nothing has changed. If you need an IE module to browse the web and many other programs are dependent on it, your favorite browser will be sabotaged just the same or harder because Microsoft can "unify" browsing preferences into the IE "module".
No calls now, I'm
Keep a copy of the Windows setup folder locally and setup from there; that'll solve that problem. Visual Studio asks you if you want to use online as default first time you goto help, and it's in the options.
But yeah, a apt/yum for Windows would be tasty.
throw new NoSignatureException();
Have you ever wanted to install a single perl application? On an otherwise clean Linux system you can end up in module hell, downloading module after module and having to be extra carefull with versioning.
The last time I had to do this it was about 30 modules and they had to be specific versions because more recent ones had incompatibilities. It took forever to get them all.
Now, what does this have to do with Microsoft? I think they see profit in this model!
Now, instead of paying a couple hundred dollars for windows, it'll add up to three times as much if you want 70% of the capabilities. And your applications are going to dictate which modules you need.
The difference is Vista's poor sales and Microsoft's imploding cash reserves. No cash, no control, end of story.
No calls now, I'm
I've got one of those modular operating systems, can just have a bare-bones core for appliance or add things until it turns into a desktop or server or supercomputer node.
but what I'm scared of is I've been hitting the shopping cart too often, apt-get this and apt-get that.
I'm dreading the day the bill for all these nifty modules comes in the mail.
!"#"$% so their solution for developing countries is to make us pay more and it would work like if you are renting a computer from MS, great MS, thank you!
Copyright infringement is "piracy" in the same way DRM is "consumer rape"
After Vista, you have to wonder what Microsoft thinks it can do to revive its fortunes. A modular OS? Hello, meet *nix.
I've been an exclusive linux user for ~10 years. I know more than some, less than many. But friends, relatives, and co-workers are suddenly coming up to me and asking about "Ubuntu." And three days ago I read an article in CIO magazine posing the question, "Is is time to dump Vista?" to which many replied, "switch to Ubuntu."
That's significant. I've been happy to be ahead of the curve in terms of usability, stability, and security. And I can't lie--it gives me pleasure still to hear about people having problems with Windows issues while knowing I'm immune. But when people who've previously given me blank stares when I extolled the virtues of FOSS come to me and ask about a distro whose name is based on an African language, I can't help but wonder at the exigency that drove them to such extremes.
I look forward to the era of the 2nd coming of Apple, and the underlying gospel of *nix. For a time, Apple will collect those who have money and favor dead-easy implementation. But eventually they too will succumb to the ineluctable realities of *nix.
Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.
Okay, there is no way in hell that I'm going to run any OS as my main OS that requires a fucking *subscription*.
What happens when you're late with a payment? You windows will refuse to let you log in?
I've been using Linux pretty exclusively at home for the past year (my wife does OSX on her new intel macbook). The more I use it, the more I can envision a completely MS free life. Now this news just gives me a date to go along with that vision
I'm going to say it: 2010 will be the year of the Linux desktop! Thanks to MS!
"It's a tarp!" -- Dyslexic Admiral Ackbar
I'd rather they just provide support for other already developed File systems like EXT3. If you could use EXT3 for windows, most Linux users would just use that for windows, and stop trying to get NTFS to work at all.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
Anybody remember Vista Ultimate edition? The one that promised Ultimate Extras - regular extras that you could download through Windows Update? They released 3 things through that: an small card game, DreamScene (sucks up CPU to animate your desktop background), and Bitlocker full drive encryption. That was all just a little after RTM - nothing since then.
When they came up with the idea I thought it might be interesting, but they've shown they can't follow through. If this is at all similar I'm sure it will fail. Microsoft won't be overthrown just from this, certainly not by 2010, but I'm sure it will pave more of the Disappointment Road that Vista started.
When they say "subscription" I get kind of worried. Valve carefully calls their Steam games "subscriptions" to remove your right of resale.
The ridiculous escalating hardware requirements of Windows?
Look at Win95, Win98, and WinME. Very similar hardware requirements. Even Windows 2000 and Windows XP didn't have as drastic of an increase in hardware requirements as the difference between XP and Vista. There's just no reason an Operating System should require that level of hardware. Sure, for a game engine you'd expect it, but not for the base OS.
Furthermore, with the economy in a downturn, a lot of people aren't going to want to drop money for a new PC when their current one works just fine. They'll either stick to XP and their current application set, or, they'll switch to Linux.
What they REALLY mean is that they are going to be taking out huge chunks of functionality, and then charging you separately for each of those chunks.
I *fully* expect that the first version of Office that runs on "Windows 7" will have formerly free features that no require you to pay for add-ons to Windows before they will work.
I actually like Microsoft for the most part, but their push towards software-as-a-service is really turning me off. If anything is going to bring them down, it will be this. I don't think they understand just how much of a backlash their is going to be. No one wants to be nickeled-and-dimed to death. Business won't do it, and consumers won't care.
Modular, on the surface, is a good thing. But is this just an excuse to create lots of versions with confusing pricing (and poor user experience)?
They're looking for ways to crash and burn in a more spectacular way.
You should aim that rocket up instead of on a level trajectory. Someone could get hurt. Ouch, is that even keeping up with inflation? Don't you wish you had bought into Google instead? MSFT should stand for, "MicroSoft? Fuck that!"
No calls now, I'm
Sorry but this is just backwards.
One version! Just one version of the OS people. That is one of the things that Apple got right.
I work with support at my company everyday. It was bad enough when we had to deal with Windows XP and XP home. Now we have XP, XP home, and goodness knows what version of Vista.
Now we will have to deal this mess!
Maybe we need a new idea in Operating systems. They should be invisible! They should just work and get out of your way.
I like eye candy the as much as the next guy but really the less I see on the screen that I am not working on the more that I like it.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
what will happen once microsoft make a package management similar to linux??
:(
right now this is one of the "selling" points of most distros, but theres also a darkside, each distro has their own way (whats new) there is: yast, smart, apt-get, yum, rpm and so on
sigh
1. Post statement bashing Microsoft/Vista.
2. Don't provide any evidence
3. Predict the downfall of Microsoft in X years.
4. [optional] Add reference to glorious "Year of the Linux desktop".
5. Profit?!
throw new NoSignatureException();
Thy are finally allowing you to install just a shell, just GUI, etc. The basis for this is already in place. It makes sense for thetech crowd, but not so much for home users. I know my mother isn't going to be looking at a menu of options and thinking it is easy.
did someone say "year of the linux desktop"?
Not to be "that guy", but OS X has had this feature for years: mdfind.
Developers: We can use your help.
They call me the wookie man, I guess that's what I am
Die
Screw a subscription model. It is the one thing that would likely make me want to crack the OS as soon as possible. The closest thing to a subscription model I would accept is one like Apple's: they sell an upgraded OS with new features, improvements et al., every year or so for a reasonable price and I get tempted to put my money down.
The problem with a lot of subscription models is that you pay, get the initial copy of the software and then get pissed because its been three years since you got something for your money.
There are subscription models that work, but unfortunately they seem to be the minority.
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
Many slashdot posters speak english as their second or third language. We should always remember that English is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn; it is an order of magnitude less regular and its working vocabulary is far larger than the Romance languages. All rules about spelling, punctuation, pluralization, etc. are wrong at least 1 or 2% of the time. There are over 30 vowel sounds represented by 5 1/2 letters. There is quite simply no logic to the use of prepositions in idiomatic phrases, and idiomatic phrases are all over the language, even in basic tourist / shopkeep speaking.
That said, "no" "hello" and "OK" are just about universal words at this point. If people are forward and the other party isn't made uncomfortable by foreign language speakers (Americans, for fairly obvious reasons I think -- isolation and power -- are the rudest first worlders about people who don't speak their native language. It isn't just waiters and store owners who are blatantly rude to non-English speakers, it's about everyone. A really high percentage of Americans will simply shrug or outright lie to someone requesting help to get them to shut up and go away.
Anyway, don't pick at peoples grammar. They're a stranger and you know nothing about them. Plus, given the way education generally works, it's classist as all hell.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
And here I thought they were called "applications". And I believe they already are sold separately. And can be added/removed at whim. Hell, my Windows XP even has a friendly UI to help me keep track of, and add/remove any that I want.
Now imagine, if you will, a trojan/virus/worm which, rather than being an application or code running on top of ones operating system, can fool the system into embedding itself as part of the operating system.
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
It could go Pyramid, Matrix or 8 ball, I don't really care. K.
What we're seeing is the end of Microsoft--not as a company, but as the monolithic OS vendor that they've been for years. It's much like IBM in the 1980s. IBM went from the monolithic vendor of PCs to a company that had to compete with the "IBM compatible" clones. The reasons are the same in both cases:
Corporate Culture: IBM, like Microsoft, had the "IBM way" of doing things. They had a corporate culture that stifled real innovation and was all about maintaining revenue streams above all. They weren't willing to take risks, they weren't willing to sell products at less cost, and they were all about promoting their own ecosystem. Just like Microsoft. There have been plenty of rumblings about the way in which Microsoft is becoming a less and less hospitable place to work, and the erosion of the corporate culture is one of the biggest signs of a failing company.
Erosion of Markets: Microsoft depends on a Microsoft ecosystem. Windows on the server, Vista on the desktop, Windows Mobile, SharePoint, etc. The second there becomes a viable alternative to anything, they lose revenue. If people don't upgrade to Vista, they lose revenue. If people stay with Office 2003 rather than Office 2007, they lose revenue. Don't even get them started on Linux servers, Macs, or iPhones. Microsoft's real biggest competitor, though, is Microsoft. The reason why they're moving to a subscription model is because they have to keep people on the upgrade cycle. If their old stuff works well enough that people don't need Vista, 2008, and the latest Windows Server, they lose their chief revenue stream. That's the wall they're running into today.
Stronger Competition: The iPhone is set to eat Windows Mobile's lunch. Macs are taking the educational market back. Linux is gaining more and more acceptance. Firefox has taken browser share from IE. Why pay $100 for a Windows license for a device like a $299 eeePC? As computing becomes a commodity, Windows loses relevance. The rise of the web has taken 15 years to start breaking the MS stranglehold, but it's doing what we said it would back then. You don't need Windows to use Facebook, Myspace, Twitter, Flickr, or Gmail. Every web app challenges Microsoft's OS dominance. If those web apps run on commodity UNIX servers, even more so. Microsoft is competing for the market space of 5 and 10 years ago, while Google and Apple are creating their own market spaces where Microsoft isn't dominant.
This doesn't mean that Microsoft will go away, but it does mean that their days of dominance are over. The OS market will fragment, and we're already seeing that happen now. It isn't nearly as quick as some had predicted, but it is happening. Microsoft won't go out of business any time soon--but they can forget about being the only player that really matters anymore. It's the business cycle in action, and this was bound to happen sooner or later.
Does this mean we might see drivers for most devices that aren't part of the kernel itself? A stock Windows XP install is surprisingly robust, but add even one crappy driver to the mix (Yeah, ATI, I'm looking at you!) and soon the computer's gone on a one-way vacation to Reboot City.
They're not doing it for your convenience. They're out to make it more difficult for the cra>0rs who, instead of having to crack one pirate install, will have to crack 20 at a time! Will somebody please think of the pirates? Arrr.
The United States has been going to war with regularity since their Revolution. Only a few times have they been attacked directly. Warmonger is hardly an apt term for them. It's more like warMAKER.
Fascism trolls keeping me up every night. When I starts a preachin', he HITS ME WITH HIS REICH!
Is Windows 8 going to be the COS - Collectible Operating System - sold in stores beside the CCGs? Open a booster pack and see how long it takes to build a complete OS. Just gotta hope that the components needed to connect to the 'net aren't one of the ultra-rares...
...[long list of
Need to get 36.77GB of archives and give us $499 with 9.99/month service fee.
After this operation, 62.87GB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]?
Yeah, it would be an improvement but the dependencies would still suck life. Xandros has gone down that road with honest intentions. It's simply impossible to weld non free software together when one player throws a money wrench.
DMCA, Hollings, Palladium. What might have sounded like paranoia is now common sense.
Vista is a treat next to ME.
It's all about the money. Gates has been fuming for years that people sign up and pay for monthly services for ISP accounts, Cell Phones, etc... He wants that monthly revenue (remember back in the late 90's with "Software as a service"?). So he wants to convince someone to pay $15 per month for an OS, (or $150 per year which would be a 20% discount) Of course if you want to network or use MS word on a monthly basis that will be a little extra.
The bad part is that after M$ does it, everyone will want to do it from Virus protection to Media players, etc...
Show me the money!!
It sounds like how AT&T broke Unix two and a half decades ago. So once again, they are reinventing the past. Of course, it's their own fault for cramming so many things into what they've called an O/S.
Does Microsoft management know any history whatsoever?
On the other hand, will this mean I will be able to walk into a US store selling computers, buy a computer with either no O/S or the O/S of my choice on it and end up not paying Microsoft a dime if I do not wish to subscribe to any of this Microsoft Windows 7?
that wasn't the only thing Ultimate offered. I can tell you, I didn't buy Ultimate for those "extras" you can download through WU.
I think you're right, but I wouldn't agree to "English is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn", seeing the struggle of native English speakers in learning French or Spanish and, to a lesser extent, German, languages that are all related to each other. If you count Chinese and the like, well, we're all equally buggered. On the other hand, Europeans aren't too bad at English if only at a basic level (after all it's taught at school), specially in the Nordic area. And yes, as you've guessed, English is not my native language :)
Your head a splode
Last time I checked, /. is as US based, English speaking (or written) website. If you want to post in Russian, go ahead. I'll check the grammar on that as well, and mod up for proper usage. Not because I speak Russian and am qualified to check it, but because I post on Slashdot and reserve the right to be an asshole.
Enlightenment is a pipe dream. So where's the pipe?
Can I just say, "Holy crap!"? On the surface, my first response was - "Huh. Actually, that sounds pretty cool. I'm tired of getting Windows installs with all the extra shit I don't want."
Then I put on my developer hat, and reached the aforementioned "holy crap" conclusion. The best thing that Windows has going for it from a development perspective is its consistency. (I know enough people disagree with this, but just let it ride for argument's sake.) What I mean by that is that you know, for a target OS version, exactly what is available to you. If you have Windows 2000+, various security APIs work. If you have win98+, various common controls are available, etc.
This obviously isn't ideal, but it does work well; and IMO it makes Windows easier to develop for than Linux (yes, I've done both). You know exactly what to expect for a given version of the OS, and for most of the functionality you want, you don't have to worry about a large number of external dependencies.
Now... enter subscription components. Let's say I build something that expects to use the Mail API that MS provides. Oops! the customer hasn't subscribed to the mail option! Does MS get the call? Nope, but I sure do...
Marketing will work out how best to charge the customer to maximise revenue for a product. There is a lot of wisdom in that - however - the best companies repect their customers for a reason.
Selling crippleware is an artifact of really poor thinking. It is much more sane to either sell the feature, or not. All those versions of Vista are confusing the market right? Well, perhaps M$ sees themselves selling "Windows", and you add on the features you want. In this way they might get more revenue by selling to customers precisely what they want... effectively having many *hundreds* of price-points, suitable for all of their customers.
None of your suggestions will fly, so long as OS X, Linux-desktop and friends are around the corner.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
"Once again" a MS bashing post is made that says in just 19 months the Windows base will erode in the face of the mighty Linux. Get over it. It's not going to happen. Hardware makers like HP, DELL, and the like will continue to ship Windows - Vista specifically. Erode? In 19 months? Maybe .1%. Saying you think their game will be over by 2010 exposes your argument as nothing but troll.
SAP already holds the patent on this business method. Let's just hope Microsoft can at least make it's modular product usable.
One of our competitors trademarked the term "hypothesis". From now on, we will call them "boneheaded ideas".
apologies to the late Arthur C. Clarke.
~men are from earth. women are from earth. deal with it.~
Sorry, but there's no way to link to RoughlyDrafted and maintain one's credibility in the same post. It simply isn't possible.
I'm glad to see this come about. This could be the death knell for Microsoft as they go greed and try to control every facet. Keep tightening the grip around your user base will eventually push a competitor with more opportunities to the front line.
Keep going Microsoft!
Theres a reason only a very small amount of people use the services of Rentacenter (furnature rental place) and others. Its more expensive in the long run and people would rather own their own stuff. Just because something is "on teh internet!" doesn't mean the economics should be different.
Even those who arrange and design shrubberies are under considerable economic stress at this period in history.
Not a pretty picture.
I'm not so sure; the context matters.
The one compelling argument I have seen for not outright prohibiting DRM-style tactics in law is that such tactics allow businesses to experiment with new business models such as on-line rentals, where consumers can have a one-off viewing of something for a much lower price than buying a permanent copy. There is a danger that such models will become the default, removing the option for buying a permanent copy altogether, which is clearly not in consumer interests. However, if this threat can be reliably neutralised (and there's no reason it can't from a legal perspective) then it's likely that introducing the rental model as an additional choice will work in consumers' favour, and market forces will sort out the relative pricing.
Similarly, if Microsoft wanted to sell little more than a kernel as "Windows 7" but then provide additional modules at extra cost for parts of the market that would want them, this again may work out in consumers' favour. They would have to sell a useful core very cheaply, of course, but given the rampant piracy that goes on despite all the product activation mess, that might well be a more economically viable long-term business model for them anyway. There's a whole new upselling market to be had where PC vendors are fighting over the best combinations of hardware and software options, with Microsoft sitting in the background and raking in a little extra from every extra upgrade.
I don't think the kinds of limitation you're describing (actively and arbitrarily disabling parts of the basic system hardware) would ever fly, in the same way that it didn't take long for chip manufacturers to give up on trying to prevent overclocking. But providing basic Windows and then offering things like Media Player or IE as genuine, paid-for add-ons presumably heavily marketed on convenience grounds might go somewhere. Actually, those are probably the two things they wouldn't want to do that with, because of the competition for media formats and web space and because of the high quality, freely available competition, but you get the idea.
Bottom line: modularity would be bad if the baseline was expensive as what we have today and then you had to pay more on top to get the equivalent functionality, but that's not likely to fly in the market. Modularity where you pay little for the baseline but then a few relevant top-up costs for what you actually need might be in both Microsoft's and consumers' interests in the long run.
If you disagree, post your argument. (-1, Overrated) isn't your personal censorship tool for views you don't like.
This also means they need to make their 'Windows Genuine Advantage' checking really good: When they want monthly payments for all the separate modules, they sure can't let piracy happen.
This time it's not once that they need to check for validity but they constantly need to keep checking. (I do know WGA does this at the moment.)
That must be quite horrific to code though, they had enough trouble with XP and Vista. Now they need to start checking those modules in multiple configurations
Does this also mean the end of specific 'roles' of windows such as home premium, business and ultimate?
Dependency hell? =>
They'll will put up one very simple road block. The EULA will forbid such tomfoolery. Sure whatever scheme they come up with will be cracked. But Microsoft wouldn't collect much in the way of revenue from an illegitimate customer anyway.
Instead of coming up with schemes to allow one to run an OS that fewer and fewer people can actually afford to run legitimately, how about switching to an OS that you can afford to run legitimately?
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
So if they are going to be charging me for using Windows 7, can I expect to get refunds when it doesn't work ?
Salesman: Here are the keys to your new car!
Customer: Thanks, and just in time its starting to rain. (gets in car and buckles up)
Salesman: Are you sure you don't want any upgrades?
Customer: No, a million times no. Just the basic car!
Salesman: Your choice. Have a nice day!
Customer: Hey! Why won't the widow roll up?
Salesman: Oh, You wanted a Window?
Customer: Of course I wanted a Window!
Salesman: But you said you didn't want any upgrades.
Customer: Well I NEED a window, my car is getting wet inside.
Salesman: Ok, that will be another two thousand dollars.
Customer: TWO THOUSAND!!?? Are you crazy? Why that much.
Salesman: That particular option package is bundled with the expensive model radio.
Customer: Thats crazy! Why would you bundle the window with a radio option.
Salesman: Now that would be silly to put an expensive radio in a car if its just going to get wet now isn't it?
Customer: Ok, Ok, just give me the window now.
Salesman: (reaches in his pocket, click click) There you go, you can put the window up now.
Customer: What about the radio? You said I get a radio with that option!
Salesman: You already have the radio installed, it should be activated now.
Customer: But wouldn't the radio get wet without the window?
Salesman: Thats why its bundled with the Window. If you don't have the good sense to put your window up we are certainly not going to waste a good radio by leaving it out in the rain.
Customer: That still makes no sense!
(Salesman reaches in his pocket again; click, click, Window rolls up automatically, sprinkler on the roof turns off, engine starts, and the tires start laying rubber through the parking lot.)
Salesman: (shouting) Are you still sure you don't want any other options? We have a great deal on breaks today!
Since Windows ME, I have always felt somewhat stuck with Microsoft being a monopoly for interoperability requirements, but I think having to pay as I go for a full operating system would remove this in my mind as a concern. I think I would immediately move to Linux or Mac to avoid the feeling of being part of participating in the ever increasing money suck. It is starting to feel expensive for what I really get. How much does it cost for Windows Vista Ultimate and then Office Pro? Linux and OpenOffice are starting to feel like a better solution to me.
JohnE
jobbank.com - Search jobs, post resume,
"Modular" is a tenet of good programming; it's not a dirty word. Modularity in the various Windows operating systems isn't nearly as much a problem as bloat.
Besides, this isn't about programming practises or about providing something that the customer has asked for. This is a new attack vector in MS's ongoing battle against piracy. The more the product shifts to online management and control, the easier it is for MS to cut loose individuals or organizations (or countries...) that it suspects are not fulfilling their subscription requirements. It also lets them offer value packages that have the same core OS without gimping the product.
I don't like this development, but MS is going to go this way regardless of what the customer wants.
When Google will give you one for free. Exactly!
In the meanwhile...
Linux is coming like gangbusters.
Apple is cashing in NOW....
And I couldn't be more happy ever since Microsoft forgot who the customer was.
For the House that Gates built it's a race to the bottom.
Of course Apple is poised to be the New Microsoft, perhaps even worse if they attain significant market share which they will.
And the problem with Google was hashed out here yesterday. Everything being a shared asset.
So where does that leave Linux?
In lawsuit hell just as soon as the OS starts gaining significant traction in user space.
This one will be fun to watch.
If you have little tolerance for people with partial English fluency, do yourself a favor and get out of tech.
Every site has to pick a primary language. Nowhere do I complain that Slashdot is English-only. I'm just saying individuals can stand to be less judgemental of each other.
Conservatives complain constantly (just turn on the radio and listen) but any complain they don't share is "whining." I suppose it's a human response, and liberals certainly ignore a lot of legitimate conservative complaints, but it doesn't particularly encourage me to take the rest of their opinions as anything other than total personal bias. I'm sure you're different though.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
Linux has had this approach forever. It's "modular". I can put in what pieces of the OS I want and remove what I don't like relatively easily. This is Microsoft borrowing another idea, rebranding it, calling it their own, and trying to turn a profit.
geek n performer who performs morbid or disgusting acts, as biting off the head of a live chicken
I think that "the most difficult language to learn" varies from culture to culture. If you speak French then learning Spanish or English isn't too much of a stretch, but learning Japanese is going to be challenging. Similarly, I think that a Japanese person would find almost any western language very challenging to learn in comparison to say, Chinese, which at least has a similar "alphabet" (Kanji obviously, not hiragana and katakana).
Additionally, I don't see anything wrong with correcting people. If people are, in fact, on here and speaking non-native English then we're doing them a disservice if we ignore their errors and they assume they're doing things correctly. When I was learning Japanese I jumped at the chance to correct my grammar, improve my vocabulary and fix my verb conjugation.
Finally, those claiming that grammar correction is "classist" should realize the irony of their statement. If I'm taking the time to tell you you're wrong and giving you an opportunity to learn the correct way then I'm hardly promoting some social hierarchy. Far from it. I'm trying to bring everyone up to the same level. If I sat here and silently judged your inability to differentiate "their" from "there" - THEN I would be "classist".
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
What was the article about again? Oh, right. Boo hiss MSFT. Or something.
There's a perfect xkcd for my sig but I'm too lazy to look it up. sudo someone go find it.
Microsoft was created under the concept of getting away from the big time-sharing mainframes because they were 'evil'.
:) Eventually we will go back to the central data center that hosts your apps too, for a fee per use.
I guess at the least the billing weren't so evil afterall
What is old, is new again. And the people will buy into it like sheep eating infected grass.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Thank you!
... let alone asian and arabic languages (for obious reasons to us westerners).
I do speak 4 languages, english ist not my mother tongue. I find it often annoying that (especially) those nations with very few incencitive to learn a foreign language are rude towards foreign sounding people.
However, I have to disagree with you about the difficulties about learning english, you might never have tried to learn german or french
Cheers,
-S
PS: It's really the editors job to rectify the most obvious errors, why are they needed otherwise ?
I'm still waiting for that closing parenthesis ...
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
Microsoft has filed for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection!
I wonder how much they will charge for the Recycle Bin module.... and the BSOD module. They are my favorites. Or perhaps Microsoft has decided to do away with the BSOD?
Nah!
I am open source, and Linux baby!
New modules could be sold post-launch, keeping revenue streams strong. A modular approach could also allow the company to make functionality available on a time-limited basis, potentially allowing users to 'rent' a feature if it's needed on a one-off basis. Microsoft is already testing 'pay as you go' consumer subscriptions in developing countries."
This just in: Microsoft gives us even more reasons not to upgrade past Windows XP. Film at 11.
> English is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn
Bullshit. English is so damn easy compared to, for example, Polish. Polish is the Perl of spoken languages. I speak both, and am a native speaker of Polish, so I guess I can say so.
Sadly, practically every single time I've seen someone confuse loose/lose, they're/their/there or its/it's, they were American English speakers for whom English is a first language. Foreigners tend to get those things right.
You probably can do that...it just requires some scripting knowledge to accomplish it.
My Sysadmin Blog
In 2010, the EU rules Windows still not modular enough, tells Microsoft, "All these desktops are yours, except Europe. Attempt no installations there."
It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
Because, in the next 5 years, Linux will really be ready for prime time. Trust me.
Modern copyright is theft of culture from everyone and it retards the progress of the useful arts and sciences.
Also, you can't really know what's in Win2010, because MS itself doesn't yet know - not until Steve Jobs unveils his plans for OS X 10.9 or whatever the current version in late 2009 is going to be. ("widgets, gadgets - totally different things").
Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
- Installation of Windows 7: the OS communicates with the TPM and 'takes ownership' of the TPM. (The tech docs can't spell it out any clearer: the programmer controls the computer, not the user.) When taking ownership of the TPM, Windows provides the public key of Microsoft to the TPM.
- Booting the computer: During installation, Windows installs a hash of the bootloader code and the OS code into the TPM. The bootloader performs a sanity check using the TPM to ensure that it has not been compromised. The bootloader then verifies the OS against the TPM and only loads 'genuine' copies of Windows. Note that the definition of genuine is entirely up to MS; at any time the TPM can be instructed, only by its owner, to invalidate any credentials. It's perfectly possible, and in fact designed into the specs, for the TPM owner to completely disable TPM protected software at any time. Irreversibly, because the binaries are encrypted and require the TPM's cooperation to run.
- Updating Windows: Before updating, the OS instructs the TPM to provide a guarantee that it is a genuine TPM (using information manufactured into the chip), and the TPM signs MS's public key. This cryptographically proves that the computer has a TPM and that Microsoft owns the TPM. Microsoft then transmits the update to the computer, encrypting it with the TPM's key to prevent the native code from being revealed to the user or installed on a non-authenticated machine.
- Installing a module: Similar to updating, but more insidious. The user purchases a certificate to run a module, then the module is securely transferred to the machine. The certificate is stored by the TPM itself to prevent it from being read from disk or RAM by a third party. This is done for all the TPM's information. The module is then installed if and only if it is authenticated by Microsoft. This may seem to have some flaws, but that's taken care of with the following...
- Running a binary executable: The OS can require that every single binary be signed by a person who is authenticated by the owner. The TPM verifies this, and then either provides the OS with the decrypted binary or a failure notice. 'Configuration states' are a key principle here; at any time the state of the system (all programs that are running) can be saved into the TPM. This can be used for example by Windows update. The updater saves a configuration where only the core OS and the updater are running, and then can ensure that it will not update if not in this configuration. This keeps any on-the-fly memory editors out.
A lot of very smart people put a lot of effort into this system; it works. It's just been waiting for that 'killer app' to use it...n/t
"they are redesigning Windows not so much for engineering reasons, but for marketing reasons" ... And that is the worst possible of all reasons for developing or producing software, marketing is, I find generally cynic le.
The problem is that people who learn it as a second language learn the difference between "loose" and "lose". It's people who learned English phonetically and spell that way that can't spell for shit. I've actually found that most ESL-types that bother to write in English to participate have learned from reading, which typically highlights the usages of words, whereas if you're learning by listening and speaking you can't tell the difference between homonyms as easily.
My blog. Good stuff (when I remember to update it). Read it.
They keep making a crappy product worse because they cannot imagine they can ever be replaced. GM and Ford did this until people eventually bought Toyotas and Hondas... Linux keeps getting better and Windows keeps getting worse. Someday Linux win the desktop if this keeps up. Like Ford and GM, they will find it almost impossible to get those customers back.
Couldn't happen to a nicer corporation.
While I agree with what you are saying, I think it misses the point. My experience has been that the worst grammar and spelling comes from native English speakers. When I hear a (presumably) college educated teacher say, "Him and me are going to the store," I want to beat him or her with a stick. Most Europeans and Asians that I hear speaking English as a second or third or fourth language are much better at it. I think it has to do with working at it and wanting to be better. Although I speak Italian and French (not fluently yet), it is hard to practice even in Europe, because everyone wants to practice his English on you.
So, if someone makes grammatical errors, mispronounces common English words, and fractures the sentence structure, they're probably a Yale grad, not a foreigner.
Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
My main problem in this is that I have to allow Windows 7 to access the Internet on its own.
Allowing Microsoft to collect all kinds of data about myself. Forcing me to have an active internet connection when using Windows.
Not. Interested.
Free PC version of ChipWits at http://www.breueronline.de/klaus/chipwits/
Japanese grammar is actually very uniform. There are only 1 or 2 verb conjugation exceptions or something like that. The hard part is reading/writing the Chinese characters, which does include knowing which pronunciation to use (Japanese or "Chinese"). And actually I've spoken with Japanese people that felt Romance languages weren't too bad, particularly Spanish, especially because of the conjugation system, and the somewhat similar tones.
A German guy once told me that he felt his language was one of the hardest in the world, and all the reasons he described reminded me of English to be honest (which makes sense considering English is Germanic, with lots of Romance vocab bolted on).
english is the hardest language to learn? in that case you're going to have a lot of problems just surviving on this planet. english is one of the EASIEST languages to learn.The only problem in the english language are the "few" special words that don't follow the same spelling rules as one would expect.And even if that's 100-200 words it still makes english one of the more simple languages to learn. Go learn spanish...or slovene or freaking italian or hell...russian. English is simple and that's why it has succeeded.Simplicity will alaways triumf.The fact that it sounds good when used in lyrics is probably a good plus as well...
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
Is this news? I mean Windows is already available for distribution as modules - just look at Windows XP Embedded, its simply XP broken out into modules that you can select to install on your embedded device. There are core modules and you can see dependencies fairly easily.
Easy.
Works really well and is rolled out on kiosks,public terminals etc etc
"mother tongue" sounds semantically marked, use "native language" instead. Also "incentive" is not a mass noun so it needs to be made plural. As a matter of style, "foreign-sounding" should be hyphenated.
</sarcastic repartee>
+5, Truth
You forgot your mood ring.
Seriously, modularization has been around for a long time. As opposed to 'integration', i.e. a spaghetti of dependencies which creates buggy unmaintainable code bases.
putting the 'B' in LGBTQ+
Many Japanese can make sense out of written Chinese, but that doesn't mean they find the spoken language easy to learn. From their point of view, it seems to be every bit as devoid of logic as English. Despite having borrowed a lot of words from Chinese, the underlying language is very different from Japanese.
A multilingual Japanese once told me that Spanish is the easiest foreign language for Japanese speakers to learn. Its grammer is regular and it uses about the same set of sounds that Japanese does.
You can't see ANYTHING from a car, You've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk...Edward Abbey
I really, really, REALLY hope Linux gets its act together soon. At least for us non-technical types who don't have time to throw out all the stuff we learned a little at a time about the Windows environment.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Spoken like a true window user. If something doesn't work on the first click it must be broken. Unix Apps and particularly Firefox are easy to upgrade. Most of them just involve deleting the directory they are installed in and unzipping or untaring a new version. You don't even need to edit a registry. Plus if I want to try a new version and keep the old version that is allowed even encouraged. Try that with IE6, 7, or 8
It's appalling that I find myself agreeing with the National Realtors Ass. when it comes to which OS I want to use.
). There you go.
http://www.apple.com/
Meanwhile, business models that focus on what the customer wants will continue to grab market share. In 2010 I imagine OSX, Redhat, Ubuntu and maybe others will have really refined their OS to make them even more enjoyable and easy to use than they already are.
We've lately seen Microsoft's focus away from the customers with Vista and the whole "Vista Ready" sticker fiasco. This is a long, expensive path they're headed down and once it starts there's no getting off. It's good news for Linux and Apple.
What is different now from 5 years ago is that MS is facing heavy weather on a number of fronts: OOo is really growing up, with a certified, fully open document format with multiple other implementors; Google is one hell of a competitor; Ubuntu is improving faster than MS' offerings; MacOS X market share is rising, even more on laptops; Neelie Kroes (EU) is watching MS' every move; dirty MS politics are more well-known (ISO); all of MS' 'visionary products' are nowhere to be seen (tablets are but a small niche); and last but not least: joe sixpack reads everywhere that vista sucks.
And especially this last one may be very interesting: it is now fashionable to say that MS does not deliver good software. When the first features will be dropped from Win7 (which as we all know is inevitable for almost any reasonable sized project) there will probably be articles in the media comparing the dropping features from Vista (maybe even back to 'Chicago' / Win95, which was to have the new winfs filesystem) with the dropping of Win7 features.
Wenn ist das Nunstueck git und Slotermeyer? Ja! Beiherhund das Oder die Flipperwaldt gersput.
I wonder what will happen with Windows Piracy share MS holds. Are they going MAC, Linux, stick with their old OSes or giving in to MS?
Probably has to do with the fact that foreigners deal a lot more with written word and a lot less with everyday speech.
heh.
Mein Englisch ist besser als Dein Deutsch! Parlez vouz français, je ne comprende pas!
Ciao,
-S
Yeah, modular. Except that everyone will need most of the modules to get something that works, and all the ones that people don't care about will be free anyway. E.g., IE will be free, even though most people would happily do without because there are a lot of replacements. I bet media will be free as well, because most people can find replacements.
I just booted into XP because Linux stopped seeing my video card (happens every few boots for no reason) and wireless card (happens whenever the wireless router hiccups, then because wireless support in Linux is fundamentally broken at the design level the simplest option is a reboot).
It had to reinstall USB keyboard drivers because, presumably, the keyboard was in a different USB slot.
MS share price is down the drain.
If they buy Yahoo ( a dubious business choice to say the least) their once famous cash reserves (or their equivalent in shares) would be gone.
A technical company that is tinkering with business models instead of adding or improving features to their core products surely will not improve into its recent history.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Buckle your ROFL belt, we're in for some LOLs.
Decided over 5 years ago that Windows wasn't worth the disk space it was taking up on my dual-boot machine; haven't had a minute of regret. Total spent of software: $0. Spyware, malware, crapware: 0. Problems requiring tech support: 0. Downtime: 0. Knowing my machine is working for me and not someone else's recurrent revenue model: Priceless.
You can keep your "prime time"; just don't let go of those ankles.
And they think they have piracy issues now? They can't keep people from cracking a single OS. How do they propose to keep them from cracking the OS and all the modules? They're going to end up so paranoid that they bankrupt themselves trying to combat the piracy of all these different modules....hehehe.
In the short term, Apple is a powerful force for eroding Microsoft's monopoly. But in the long term, Apple is just as prone to lock-in as Microsoft. In fact, Apple has been hugely successful at creating lock-in and selling incremental upgrades. Moreover, if trusted computing scares you, then the idea of a single vendor being in control of both the hardware and OS design is very scary indeed: Apple can make sure that they only ship devices where the trusted-computing enforced lock-in is already firmly in place (and not removable).
In the long term, the only salvation from such initiatives is software that is truly open and Free. In cases where the OS actually makes the capabilities of the trusted computing chip available to the end user, then everything changes: we can use the chip as a guard against viruses and malware by authorizing trusted keys (e.g. Debian's or Red Hat's). As long as the end user is in control, they can bypass the authentication when required (e.g. to run code they wrote themselves).
Obviously this all breaks down if the hardware manufacturers only ship computers with pre-loaded certifications for big-name vendors (Microsoft) and no way for the user to add new certs. In such a world, the end-user can't be said to "own" the hardware they buy in any meaningful way. Luckily I think that dystopia isn't realistic: running Linux servers is important (and profitable!) so there will always be a market for commodity gear that we can use to run Free operating systems.
I have little tolerance for anything.
Especially you. Get off my Slashdot!
evil adrian
Here is what I think they want to do. Bundle super cheap windows basic to combat the OEM's bundling Linux for free. But if you want to take full advantage of your hardware you have to immediately upgrade for $$$ unlike Linux.
I'm a lot more interested in the content than the minor errors that could merely be typos.
PS - I do find it funny that people can't spell the word "mabey".
Check the historic share price of the company. That tells you the confidence of people investing their money have in the company, which is diminishing and completely stationary as off recently (i.e: company is losing value in real terms).
The amount of cash reserves is a published figure: it is dwindling.
Retailers are staying with XP for as long as practically possible, some PC manufacturers offer "upgrades downwards" to XP. Oh yeah, and you can't get a Eee PC (Linux based) for love or money, this means people are playing with Linux now.
Add to this that the only money coming to MS is Office+Windows (i.e.: MS is innovating zilch) and I find very difficult to understand how anybody could be optimistic about this company.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Regardless of whether you agree with the article itself, what's with the blatant quote mangling in the summary?
"When Windows 7 launches sometime after the start of 2010, the desktop OS will be Microsoft's most "modular" yet. Having never really been comfortable with the idea of a single, monolithic desktop OS offering, Microsoft has offered multiple desktop OSes in the marketplace ever since the days of Windows NT 3.1, with completely different code bases until they were unified in Windows 2000. Unification isn't necessarily a good thing, however; Windows Vista is a sprawling, complex OS."
became
"When Windows 7 launches sometime after the start of 2010, the desktop OS will be Microsoft's most 'modular' operating system to date. That's not necessarily a good thing, of course; Windows Vista is a sprawling, complex OS."
Which completely alters the intent of the original (unification not necessarily being a good thing, as opposed to modularization).
For quite a while now, they've had a clause saying you can't work around any "technical restriction" in Windows. I don't know what that means, exactly, but I assume it was meant to say that you can't uncripple XP Home with software that would let it do the things XP Pro or the Server editions can do.
If Windows goes modular, some part of me suspects they'd try to use it (or at least FUD that it) restricted you from using non-Microsoft modules. Anti-trust might not like that, but Microsoft tends to worry about business much more than whether what they're doing is legal.
We are not talking about functional modularity achieved by good programming practices. We are talking about a finished product that is later on "modularized" under the auspices of the marketing department.
They would not be selling you a service, they would be acting as rackets extracting protection money.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Perhaps the problem is with you, not these people making the mistakes. Let me explain, many people agree that what matters in communication is the ability to understand the other person, I'd say 90% of the time when a common language mistake is made the listener or reader can understand what the speaker or writer meant.
Grammar and spelling change, if enough Yale grads begin using "him and me" that will likely become acceptable. Besides people are very smart and we're very good at finding patterns, most of the so-called common mistakes come from a divergence in the normal patterns of grammar and spelling. If a child says "the cat runed away" it's not because the child is dumb, it's because they discovered a pattern and attempted to normalize it.
Win a signed Stephen Carpenter ESP Guitar from the Deftones: http://def-tag.com/?r=0008781
>We should always remember that English is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn;
I don't think that it's possible to classify languages this way: as a French, I think that learning English is easier for me than learning Chinese (didn't try to learn Chinese though), for a Japanese it's probably the reverse..
Plus there's the difference about speaking and reading/writing: it's unbelievable the amount of efforts that people in Asia need to spend just to learn the various kanji, it's as if we were doing math with roman numbers..
That's more to do with it being taught at school at an early age rather than how difficult it is to learn. In Scotland we only start learning a secondary language once we're about 12, it's pretty stupid. It's nice to hear that english is difficult to learn, though since I already know it then it seems pretty simple to me ;) I've recently been studying a little bit of gaelic, and the whole language seems pretty basic compared to english. I don't see the need for masculine/feminine cases for words in other languages (gaelic, german, french, presumably spanish and italian too..) - I fail to see why non living things can't just be 'it'.
which is totally what she said
Unification isn't necessarily a good thing, however; Windows Vista is a sprawling, complex OS. The submitter tries to compare a modular OS to Vista, thus turning this into a negative story. The reality is that Vista is the exact opposite of modular, and this should be a great improvement (as long as it doesn't drain us of money).
When the rabble on Fark have figured this out.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
You are a joke. Honestly Linux people, sit down and have a talk with this guy, he's making you look bad.
So this means that when I reformat my computer every couple months, ON TOP OF downloading over 100 gigs of fucking updates from Microsoft, I'll also have to re-download and install over 100 gigs of FUCKING PROGRAMS!?!?! I hate my life. If I could get Team Fortress to actually work on Ubuntu, I'd say FU to Windows.
Perhaps I wouldn't go as far as to say Microsoft is over at last.
But, you have to consider that while Vista IS indeed a failure, office 2007 is not particularly fantastic either... One of the big reasons often mentioned by someone sticking to windows is the obligation of supporting Office and Photoshop, etc. With the introduction of the docx(and the like) formats of office 2007, it seems like Microsoft provides a greater opportunity for those wishing to distance themselves from MS to finally take the leap.
In fact, a lot of "key" apps have become so bloated and changed so much for the sake of "upgrading" that they are slowly driving customers away (ie: CS3 is the first photoshop I really loathe).
While I do not pretend to know what is going to happen, I've a feeling this is all very good for the world of software. Perhaps the "bloatware" era is slowly at an end, and we'll see slimmer more optimized solutions thrive once more?
Does anybody honestly believe Windows 7 will be out in 2010? Especially with all these changes? Microsoft will probably still be scrambling to fix Vista SP2 in 2010...
Geeks like to think that they can ignore politics, you can leave politics alone, but politics won't leave you alone.-rms
Well, the fact that now a lot more people is happily using GNU/Linux in their everyday lives than 10 or 5 years ago. Linux is evolving, and becoming mainstream really fast.
I rember reading about how this stuff would happen back in 1995 when I first heard about paladium (fore runner to "trusted" computing). At the time my attitude was nah never... but now graphics cards are activly marketed on their DRM support (HDCP)and MS wants to rent you an OS. I do hope slashdot is able to build there own computers? anyway here are some links with scematics and such like you may want to save to your hard disks before all non TPM hardware is outlawed: http://www.zxdesign.info/indexPage.shtml http://www.hanssummers.com/computers/newz80/index.htm http://www.homebrewcpu.com/ btw does anyone have the specifications for PCI? as you apear to have to pay a huge huge sum of money to get them and be connected to the right people.
Find/replace: win2000->vista; winxp->windows 7, 2004->2010. The anti-MS crowd is nothing if not efficient.
The world is made by those who show up for the job.
The funniest common mispelling now, which is really more of a conceptual problem, is how many people don't have an understanding of "-have" contractions. It's really common now to see people type "should of" or "could of" instead of "should've" or "could've."
It sounds like now is the right time for gaming on linux to really get pushed.
I have no use for linux right now because I play games. I like games. I use very few programs other than games. There are a LOT of gamers out there just like me. If you really want to pull people to your operating system, make it a game maker/game player paradise.
I know, it's not that easy.
Still, with windows becoming some kind of subscription based model according to the article, this sounds like Linux's big chance. With Vista being a big pile of crap there's like a 2-10 year window for someone else to take over.
I know I'd prefer it be linux. I'd love to have a real reason (games!) to start using it.
With a non integrated non integration tested bundle of software that's still closely coupled under the covers? I can just see the matrix of patches required by different combinations of components. It's going to be a nightmare.
They have to go GPL first, then modular.
except that Apple ships TPM-based machines, and has already modified OSX to work with the TPM to do exactly what the parent poster described - signed apps.
I seem to recall talk about modularizing the OS before..... um.... around the time they were talking up vista oh 5 years ago as they're end goal of an OS. Seriously is this really what anyone wants, needs, or will pay for?!
.NET, etc... is installed but taken to the next level, what OS modules are missing? How did this help me? System level APIs shouldn't come and go, its micro management at its worst and will only make my job that much harder. But hey its what MS is good at keeping the rest of us scrambling around trying to catch up and use the next best thing rather than just focusing on what works for us. Now I'm not against patches/updates/service packs, you can test against it to a degree, but depending on how much they break the OS down into modules the interdependency issues are just going to be a pain. Also how goes this get me the developer to want to code against APIs/modules that may or may not be there. I'm beginning to like OS X's single OS all APIs there all the time, new versions have bug fixes and new features as expected, much easier to know hey this app requires 10.5.1 and I can trust that parts of the OS aren't going to drop out from under me. Speaking of which what happens after installation? I'm assuming there's going to have to be a dependency tracker in place so the user can't uninstall modules that my app needs, or at the very least be warned about it. Either way the app will have to check on startup to make sure everything still exists.
1. Consumer
I get a new computer and after looking around decide to see what other apps/components/etc.. can be installed/uninstalled so I start up Add/Remove Programs and hey hasn't this been there since Win95? To the end consumer modularizing the OS means nothing at all, adding and removing applications will still be like it is, or like linux, dependent libraries will either be bundled in the install or set as requirements to download. As an end user I want click click install done, the internals don't matter to me. Oh and click click uninstall done too! Once my OS holds me for ransom I'm done, it shouldn't be getting in my way or preventing me from doing my day to day tasks. This was something I found a bit odd with OS X at first, there just wasn't things that demanded tweaking or reconfiguring like XP did. I found that it wasn't getting in the way and wasn't demanding attention, that I was left to just run my apps.
2. Programmer
Isn't this the same old thing, what version of MDAC, DirectX,
MS seems hell bent on making the OS a major app that gets needer and needer.
screw it, I'm done ranting.
You should try Russian out. English is quite simple to learn compared to Russian -- and I'm a native Russian speaker... :)
No, the funniest thing is that it has started migrating to other structures that don't even have contractions. For example, someone might write "I of mine keys in my pocket".
Actually, that's just sad...
My Sig: SEGV
This is excellent news as it will push even more people to migrate to Linux.
Your mind is clear / The things that you fear / Will fade with how much you / Believe what you hear
"Losen up, will ya? Their not that bad. You just can't let it effect you."
I hope one day I'm so smart that I can't comprehend what you just said. Heh.
"I like to lick butts!" by MobileTatsu-NJG (#32700246) (Score:5, Informative)
Promise me that if you get included in a focus group about Windows 7 that you will say the exact opposite of how you actually feel about the matter.
"Yes, I would *LOVE* a subscription model!"
"I think I would continue my subscription for at least *10 years*, or until Microsoft brought out something even better!"
"I can't wait to *rent* features, so I can try them before I buy them!"
All the while, you're downloading the latest Ubuntu, and handing out copies to your friends and family.
I call it the Sharpening Stone effect; if Microsoft is intent to slit it's own throat, the least you can do is help to sharpen the knife so the death throes aren't so bad. Come on, at least think of Microsoft's (neglected) children!!
A multilingual Japanese once told me that Spanish is the easiest foreign language for Japanese speakers to learn. Its grammer is regular and it uses about the same set of sounds that Japanese does.
Makes sense - not that I speak or know a lick of Japanese, but I watch too many subtitled cartoons. And in Bleach, the characters all use Spanish for "technical" terminology - like "Hueco Mundo" for hollow world.
I don't like this trend. I speak Spanish, and their pronunciation is better than mine. It's funnier to hear Japanese characters pronounce English words. (And funnier to hear Japanese bastardized in English dubs!).
DATABASE WOW WOW
And people who learned English from reading have a very hard time knowing how to pronounce words.
Stack overflow averted. *whew*
Program Intellivision!
It's all about generating revenue, forgot all this BS about anti-trust and the like.
Microsoft wants software to go to the Cellphone model.
You essentially 'rent' or lease 'your' cellphone, and pay a 'small monthly fee' for basic service, use it or not.
Want to send a text message? pay a small fee.
Want to send a picture? pay a small fee.
Want to use application X, pay a small fee.
This basically ensures a constant rate of revenue, plus all those little 'small fees' that add up.
Stop paying, everything gets turned off.
Consoles are a test-bed for this idea, look at the Microsoft X-Box.
What's coming next?
-Network (Internet) storage, the 'Digital Vault'..want to store your files, pay us a 'small fee'
-Network Applications 'want to write a document, spell check, etc, pay us a small fee'
-Why buy a computer? let us [Microsoft] lease you one, for a 'small fee'
The next step, when broadband and fiber are more prevalent, is to have small mainframe running everywhere. Want to run an application, thats 0.05/CPU_HR and other 'small fees'
Get ready to kiss 'your' PC's goodbye.
Most MS feature promises are just rhetoric to keep people from jumping ship until they forget about the said rad feature. Then, when they announce the next big OS of the future, Microsoft can just update and change the "features" planned for the next release so it matches the palettes of the people of the time period. Oh marketting, thy name it Microsoft. There is little connection here to actually implimenting the feature.
Once you start despising the jerks, you become one.
FWIW, there are currently hardware level resets and overrides built into the TPM system, but that's of questionable value. Unless the motherboard manufacturer disables or neglects to enable the resets, a user can clear ownership from the TPM by verifying physical presence (i.e. motherboard jumper). The reason it may not be of much value is the same reason that OpenOffice isn't more used today; I can assert ownership over my machine, but it is well within the trusted computer specifications for Microsoft to arrange it such that non-trusted (non-Windows) computers simply cannot access data created by Windows trusted computers. There are even a number of politically viable justifications that take advantage of the confused image that the general public has/will have about 'trusted computing' ("This is sensitive data, we can't allow you to send it to un-trustworthy people, can we?").
There are a good number of legitimate powerful uses for the TPM, and I really hope that the situation I'm describing doesn't occur. However, it would be the essence of naivety to not realize that this is exactly what the system is designed for. It's the ultimate trump card for cementing lock-in. To quote the great Zapp Brannigan: "If we can hit that bull's-eye, the rest of the dominos will fall like a house of cards. Checkmate."
If you cannot understand windows ACLs, it is time for you give up your job as a sys admin, and joing the ranks of computer ignorant masses
You might get a chuckle outta this.
I've heard anecdotes (from two different people independently) that English is the only "level 6" language, but I don't know on what scale this is measured and I can't find a reference offhand.
Program Intellivision!
Ihren Deutsch, you insensitive clod!
"IBM did actually ship hardware more valuable then what was paid for. Hardware that they could otherwise have sold to someone else."
Not always. An example was one of IBM printers. When you paid for the upgrade the tech came out and moved the belt from one pulley to the other. You now had the faster printer.
I am pretty sure that IBM does the same thing today with it's mainframes. You buy a system with X performance and if you need it IBM can unlock more performance for you. No new hardware required. I could be wrong about modern mainframes since I have not kept up. with them.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Sorry for offtopic, but...
:).
I've always thought that being native English speaker is somewhat bad, because if you travel abroad, most of people understand your mother tongue. So it's hard to talk some secret talk with you companion. For example, I am native speaker of language what isn't related to English and if I'm in foreign country I can safely talk behind natives back when I have to
Read radical news here
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
The jump to Cyrillic is already too big a jump for me. :-)
Program Intellivision!
Me taughter teeched I good.
What if the modules have to be signed to be loaded?
I'm still trying to figure out the correct pronunciation of my own name!
Program Intellivision!
But that begs the question: Should you use those constructions for all intensive purposes? I could care less.
(ow, that hurt my brain.)
Program Intellivision!
nice generalization on Americans - what are you, French? (sorry, in advance for that)
Maybe it's where I'm from, but I don't see that at all here from the people I know - most people are glad to help a foreigner, even if they don't speak the language. About the only bad thing I have to say about my Mexican neighbors that speak almost no English is they have terrible taste - the tacky plastic swans and puce house painted siding makes me want to barf. I have nothing but praise for the Hmong family that lives across the street from them (they speak no English, so all conversation is through their 10 year old, but I've lent them my snowblower after a bad snowstorm so they didn't have to shovel, although they did shovel and brush what didn't get blown). I admit, I'm not living in an English Only Movement state, and I doubt my state will ever be, but even then that movement is usually only meant for official documentation.
Incidentally, I don't think it's bad that someone pokes fun at bad grammar, because if someone didn't point it out, the person with bad grammar would continue to make the same mistakes. It didn't sound like the poster was trying to be malicious, just trying to be funny and unfortunately someone was the butt of the joke. If they had posted "lern gramar sp3lling and you f*cking piGdoG id10t forinner! 1337!," I'd find it insulting and offensive and troll them.
America is a large country and just because you hear of some restaurant owning ass in Philly says "if you're in America and come into his restaurant you need to speak English" (incidentally, Pennsylvania has no such law), it doesn't mean everyone in the country or even that state thinks that way. In fact, as the US becomes more global I see just the opposite, at least at the "white collar" (desk job) level - I personally work for Germans and the majority of my coworkers are Indian and Chinese, which doesn't leave a lot of room for intolerance.
I do believe it's important to learn English if you're living in America, but if I were in Germany I'd say it's important to learn German (even though it really isn't, in my experience). My Hmong and Mexican neighbors basically speak through their kids but my Mexican neighbors are trying to learn English and my Hmong neighbors aren't. I worry about the Hmong family - if their kids move out (like my Hmong high school friend in nearly the same situation, but at least his dad spoke some English) they will probably have some problems.
so you need the TCP/IP module? Too bad...
The development pace of open source is increasing at a higher rate then MS's rate. I am generally amazed at the new features every time I upgrade to a new version of Linux. Because of the open nature of the development model, MS's ~80k employees will never be able to compete with the large number of the CS students in the world. Right now Linux is good enough (for me) for just about everything except excel. Maybe in a few years OpenOffice will be good enough and I will be able to kill my MS partition.
Essentially there was a solution that was off-the-shelf (or appeared to be) and was good enough to get by. ... is a bit stretched. But not too far.)
Then there was the "familiar" solution: unix, linux, windows, mac-os? Fuck it, I stick with where I can get around even if my monitor is (physically) dead and I urgently need to get VNC server running by reconfiguring DHCP to static IP (ok, this
Now there is familiar stuff with clear benefits spelled out all around for doing things in a different way. In a reasonable manner. Good.
But - don't be mistaken even for a second that this endangers microsoft position even for a second. Linux/unix/whatever will take loong years to get GUI layer right. Anything that depends on X11R(whatever) is an automatic turn-off for me. And not only me, as far as I know. It is a messy layer to deal in, idealistic X11 really tries it best, but for f* j* c* sake:
BeOS got it right
TranssexualOS X - got it damn close
NT3.5 got it spot on
Linux? Remember Windows 3.1? Dos + fancy wannabe GUI? This is where linux is now. 17 years later.
Really? Followed up on office 2007 sales recently? I am quite sure their next financial statements (adjusted for market) will not be so imploding after all...
Given their track record, it seems more likely it won't be out before 2011, increasing the impact of the Vista flop. Otherwise, I agree. But it is still a comparatively good move in market that is becoming tougher every year.
blow your mind already
The main reason for Microsoft's imploding cash reserves and flat stock price is an abundance of zero cost alternatives to their flagship money makers. Only a fool would pay Microsoft sized money for an Office suit anymore and vendors like Asus have discovered the joy of free software.
Google's rise is just the wedge end of the rise of Linux, so you can say that we have had The Decade of Linux already.
I won't make a dime off these electrons but preservation and promotion of software freedom is priceless. While you are apparently infatuated with karma, and might consider it an expensive commodity purchased by gaming Slashdot, it means nothing to me.
They make it out as if I'm the one making close-minded, stereotypical decisions.
I went to eat some animal crackers and the box said, "Do not eat if seal is broken." I opened the box and sure enough..
There's ONE version, and it's free.
You are right that only the free "express" version of MS SQL Server limits database storage size, but you are missing the point. ALL versions except for the big bad $25,000 "enterprise" version processor license version place artificial limitations on operation at some level by disabling parts of what is largely identical code ("golden screwdriver" engineering). The "workgroup edition" is definitely not free in any sense and is VERY crippled.
* express and workgroup ($740) editions disable 64-bit support
* express and workgroup editions are artivicially limited to using 1 and 3 GB of RAM respectively
* Only developer and enterprise are free from restrictions on number of CPU cores (others limit to between 1 and 4)
* ALL versions place artificial limitations on connectivity ('x' number of users simultaneously via CALs) even if the hardware supports far more.
These are artificial limitations that are ADDED to these versions to cripple functionality; there are no cost savings whatsoever (development, code, packaging, etc) to MSFT by placing these limitations on the lower-cost editions. They are cripple-ware solely to enhance revenue streams of higher-margin editions. THAT is the point he is making.
Modularity in and of itself is hardly a new innovation (MSFT is a very late arrival at that party). Given MSFT's established practice of selling cripple-ware it looks like this is as much (or more) about modular LICENSING than the more modular architecture of the next version of Windows (ie. the prime motivator of making the OS more modular is to facilitate the licensing module). If you have DRM'ed modules for things like "memory management" and "peripheral communications" and whatnot they can drop in/activate crippled versions of those modules, and the DRM in combination with modular architecture could be used to make it easier to enforce subscription models too (for example, you can be dialed back to "Windows Basic" mode if your "ultimate subscription" expires).
SQL Server is the water that made the MSFT slope slippery...
It's interesting to me, maybe, that this approach is real similar sounding to Vista or XP Embedded. The only thing that makes those "embedded" is that you can add and remove components and slim down the OS, as well as build it with only the drivers you need to run your system. You can kind of do all of this stuff right now with XPe and add/remove OS chunks through Configuration Manager (essentially, MS's package manager that does updates, remote installs, pxe/OS image install stuff, and a bunch of other probably easily security hole-exploitable things). Then again, /.'rs would rather comment on poor grammar, so I should just pipe down now.
That would be "Parlez vous Français? Je ne comprends pas.". :)
Dein Englisch ist besser als mein Deutsch, aber, meine Franzosen ist überlegen.
hehe
Microsoft "saying" and "doing" are 2 different things. Much like a hand is much different than the foot. If you think that they are going to make a modular base for it's OS..... then the lulz is all over you.
As others have pointed out, this 'unbundling' could very well translate to 'charging for what used to be for free', while the 'subscription' part translates to 'and you keep paying for it even though the price is the same as before'.
.Net without breaking compatibility for too many popular programs. It still ended up breaking more than they'd wanted. To do this, they would need to re-write virtually the entire codebase for Windows - while still remaining backwards-compatible. I don't see Microsoft finishing that project any time before the heat death of the Universe.
However, this is hardly a new thing. IBM pulled this same trick in the 1960s (back when they were The Empire, before Bill and Paul wrote their first BASIC interpreter), after a 'consent decree' forced them to allow third-party software and hardware on their mainframes. Interesting how times change so much, and yet so little.
Also, people are forgetting that this was the original plan for Vista, too. That plan ran aground of the sheer size of the installed base; they could not convert the whole system to
In any case, how much does it matter? Given the way the three major camps in the field are converging, by the time 2010 rolls around the only way the average user would be able to tell the difference between operating systems is to look at the logo. The limits if Windows emulation on Linux and MacOS are, by some not-at-all surprising coincidence, roughly the same as the limits of backwards compatibility on Vista - because on some level, Vista itself is only emulating the older versions of Windows. If the user interfaces and basic tools are all similar and growing moreso, what is to keep the average user - whose only interest in the thing is to write documents, send e-mail, browse porn, etc. and who neither knows nor cares about the geeky details we here love - from jumping from one platform to another when their only concern is whether they can read the right files and run the right videos?
While this has worked in Microsoft's favor in the past - because it meant that there was no incentive to replace Windows with Linux - it has been hurting them ever since XP came out. The only time most people upgrade to a new version is when they replace their hardware, which has become less frequent as the pace of hardware improvements drops, and the relevance of raw power decreases. To most people, it doesn't matter how slow it goes as long as it runs Word without crashing (and just about any modern system will run Word at about the same speed - the major speed limit these days on Windows systems comes from malware infections, not CPU speed or the amount of memory). Now that some of the major hardware vendors are backing Linux in earnest (because they can sell systems for less money while clearing more per sale), it is possible that users will start buying Linux boxen for the lower price without realizing the difference - even after the system is up and running.
You might be right, but *which* linux will it be? Why don't the linux distros all combine power to have 1 base where people can choose. KDE or X, gnome or konq, etc etc. This retarded split just confuses people. And what about Starcraft II, and other games?
You can say what you want, but I still don't see the difference. Vista blows, don't get me wrong, but Linux is not being marketed or built the right way to be "sold" (i don't mean for money) to the public.
Sorry to burst your bubble, but many if not most errors regarding they're/their, it's/its etc. are committed by people whose first language is American. I don't know really why this happens.
Foreigners tend to pay more attention to orthography as they know they're dealing with a ****-** language and have to be careful.
Speaking English is a different game altogether. I bet you didn't detect my heavy accent from the sentences I just wrote.
In 2000, or thereabouts, Microsoft toyed with the idea of releasing versions of Office apps that would run through a browser (IE via ActiveX of course) so that people in internet cafes (remember those?) would be able to use Office apps anywhere, anytime, but would have to pay per hour of use. This was also the time that Microsoft brought the new software licensing called Open Licensing (which it certainly wasn't), whereby, an enterprise customer would pay one price for three years and get any software updates within those three years free.
Open License was greeted with heavy suspicion by the enterprise community, who saw it, rightly, as Microsoft trying to lock them into a constant revenue stream. Microsoft gave enterprise customers essentially no other choice as both Windows and Office eventually were only sold through this option for volume licensing. Open License (if it is/was called that) turned out to bite those enterprise customers in the ass a few years later, when the licenses expired and Vista was turning out to be the fiasco that it eventually was. It was during these years that the first big customers and nations started turning to alternatives like Linux, as the pain of migration was sometimes deemed less expensive than continuing to pay enormous sums for software that just wasn't coming.
Microsoft countered this by releasing Office 2003, which was only minimally different to Office XP.
But, for consumers, charging extra money for essential system components might or might not work. It works for XBox Live, but I think Microsoft might be facing a few class action law suits when customers find that after not having paid the rental fee their system no longer works. This is very similar to one of the reasons why iTunes, despite its bad Windows interface, was so successful: You owned the music you paid for.
It'll be interesting to see how it turns out.
Huh? No, English is dominant now because of U.S. economic and military hegemony since WWII. If simplicity did really...erm..."triumf", Esperanto would be the language of offices.
So basically, they will un-bundle all software coming with windows. Then they'll make prepackaged bundles for those who want to get specific features right away. This will be called Basic (kernel only), home, premium, business, ultimate (all the modules they already have plus free access to future modules). Also, you will have the possibility to add and remove new software (we'll call them modules) so that you can have more features. Sometimes you'll have to pay, other times it'll be free. Funny how this thing will be different! But really, the only thing will be that you wont need to buy ultimate just to get the animated background feature (you'll be able to buy it by itself!). Quite interresting!!! As a side note, pay as you go or pay for a while software licenses already exists.
Linux is modular as well as other Unix implementations. Microsoft is trying to compete with that. It is much easier to write a modular design from scratch than it is to rewrite something not modular. Microsoft will be throwing away everything they've worked on. Sure Vista is bloated, slow and expensive, but that is not what windows developers care about. They care about using debuggers instead of printf or printk. They care about Visual Studio, managed code and C#.
The marketing folks at Apple must be busting a gut at this news. For anyone who watched the keynote where Leopard pricing was announced, or has talked to anyone who is not an IT admin lately, you know that most common folk just want their computer to work. Remember the uproarious applause when Jobs announce the three different tires for OS X 10.5? "The home version: $129. The business version: $129. The ultimate version: $129. And they all have everything included."
This was clever satire of MS by Jobs a Co. but it's funny because it's true. Why wouldn't you want all the features? Even if they wouldn't use them all, people want to know they are there if they need them SO THAT they don't have to worry about installing something new. Remember RPM dependency hell? Why not just get everything you could need?
I think this move by MS is going to push Apple market share even higher. As their computers get more business friendly, IT puchase decision makers worth their salt are going to consider management cost more and more. As a consultant, I see a dramatic drop in what I make from a particular company when they get away from MS. This is only going to further the trend.
Here we go again. (
... English is one of the hardest languages in the world to learn; it is an order of magnitude less regular and its working vocabulary is far larger than the Romance languages... Really?No one cares what your captcha was
Houston TX, USA
No, the next few years belong to the Mac. Linux is still to hard to use for the average computer user (Copy and Paste more than text between apps, etc) and is way to obscure. Everybody is now familiar with Apple, you can walk into an Appke retail store and walk out witha Mac or easily order one online and not have to fuss with convincing the hardware vendor to install some OS other than Windows. Apple has the momentum. Linux ok the desktop is talked about year in and year out and every year the results are the same. Nobody, outside of geeks and thief friends and family, runs Linux. At the end of the day, Microsoft will remain on top because the are so entrenched, but there is no doubt that Mac's will see a larger consumer market share increase than Linux in the coming years. Linux lacks the marketing to make a real dent.
Obligatory statement... I took 4 years of Japanese at university, forming the minor to my double major degree in Philosophy and Linguistics. English and French are my first languages, Japanese is number 5, after Spanish and German. There's also a smattering of Greek and Latin in there, remnants from a time when I thought that learning those languages would make learning other European languages easier.
I can tell you that spoken Japanese is probably the easiest language to learn on the planet. I can also tell you that it's a language isolate, and is not related to any other language on the planet. The reason it's partly written with Chinese characters (and in fact, the Katakana and Hiragana writing systems are derived from Kanji) has to do with an influx of Chinese in the last two thousand years. The Japanese language itself, and underlying grammar, predates the introduction of the Chinese writing system by thousands of years.
There's two main verb tenses, and you can count the number of irregular verbs on one hand. (There's actually a whole bunch more, but the overwhelming majority of them are formed as noun + the verb "suru" meaning "to do". For example, the verb for driving a car is "untensuru", literally meaning "to do driving"). The grammar is particle delineated... it really doesn't matter what order you get the nouns in when forming a sentence, because their function is indicated by a particle. Finally, there's exactly 5 vowel sounds.
Contrast that to English, which takes vocabulary and grammar from at least 5 major donor languages, and has over 30 vowel sounds. No language has more cases where you "just have to know" than English. *shrugs* One of the hardest languages there is, IMO.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
Thanks God we can do it right!
"he drew his sword Ringil that glittered like ice... and he wounded Morgoth with seven wounds..."
Ye gods, having modules optional, or even present but enabled or disabled depending on what you have licensed, is almost as old as the computer business.
I'm calling BS. I live in DC, where we have millions of foreign tourists come through every year. Store employees, transporation workers, even people on the street typically as friendly and helpful as they can be. While the U.S. may not have the most popular government right now, as a people we are well-known for our friendliness and openness.
Most Americans are not powerful at all--they are regular folks who try their best. If you disagree with U.S. foreign policy, fine. So do many Americans. But it's not fair to extend that perception to individual Americans. The U.S. has a long-standing reputation as a great tourism destination--the recent tarnish is a reflection of international government policies, not personal nastiness.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
"Yelling at the Teller Fee: $15.00"
"Complaining before being asked a question: $23.75"
"Stamping around and huffing at the product speed: $63.55"
"Asking for features and embarrassing the company in the process: 75.55"
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
Expect a tremendous uproar from non-tech-savvy people about their pricing scheme. And sales drop, too. And lawsuits. It looks like they didn't do a good enough job of killing their company with their current OS. Well, at least they're trying.
Now if I was building a voting terminal, POS register or a heart monitoring PC, these secure features should be mandatory. On my desktop or a general business PC, I don't think it has any place. But Hey, OSX gets away with it 8)
Bush lost the popular vote. He won because of the electoral college.
"We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security." Dwight Eisenhower
8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
The only legitimate need for trusted computing is in situations like that. Here's the thought I had: every federal computer ought to run trusted computing to ensure that records are kept and government transparency upheld. Politicians are the employees of the people, we should require them to behave.
... funnier to hear Japanese bastardized in English dubs
Which ones? Might be interesting to hear, I find some of the English pronunciations in subtitled anime really funny too.
As for Bleach names using Spanish, I think that's just whatever the author (Kubo Tite iirc?) decided on. Just like some manga might use Latin (Negima), French (Noir?) etc.
Ur totally right 'bout us writing ur lang. /me thinks my en. skillz are teh bomb.
:D
ktnxbai
And at least your name has only one "Z".
I'm told it's silent, which makes my username here even funnier.
Program Intellivision!
Actually, I would argue that Indonesian is far easier to learn than Japanese. Indonesian (or Bahasa Indonesia) is a language that has been constructed after WWII out of Malaysian and some Javanese dialects. Indonesian doensn't have any grammatical or lexical ireggularities and no verb conjugation at all. Verb tenses are constructed by adding words that meaning something like 'future' or 'past'. Plural nouns are either not mentioned if the context is clear or by repeating the noun (child = 'anak', children = 'anak anak'). The only real challenge Indenesian poses for a non-native speaker is finding the right word sequence. Almost every sequence has a distinct meaning, but the difference may be subtle or unexpected. The javanese languages it has been constructed out of, in contrast, are extremely irregular and vary with the social position of the person speaking it. Malaysian is a simpler language, it has functioned as a lingua franca for centuries in the region.
You can't use since you never started with . Be sure next time if your tag doesn't require a close to use
See the Pictures of the Flood of '08
Make that: You can't use since you never started with . Be sure next time if your tag doesn't require a close to use/>.
Even I forget my lts and my gts now and then. :P
See the Pictures of the Flood of '08
The English dubbing on the first intro song to Rurouni Kenshin was pretty funny, but because it was actually good.
The Trigun voices are painful - the villains sound badass in Japanese, flip the audio to English, and... it's just kinda sad.
The English dubs of Bleach are pretty bad, too.
There were some that were laugh-out-loud funny, but they escape me atm.
DATABASE WOW WOW
You speak Perl? Wow, what a coincidence! @P=split//,".URRUU\c8R";@d=split//,"\nrekcah xinU / lreP rehtona tsuJ";sub p{@p{"r$p","u$p"}=(P,P);pipe"r$p","u$p";++$p;($q*=2)+=$f=!fork;map{$P=$P[$f^ord($p{$_})&6];$p{$_}=/ ^$P/ix?$P:close$_}keys%p}p;p;p;p;p;map{$p{$_}=~/^[P.]/&&close$_}%p;wait until$?;map{/^r/&&<$_>}%p;$_=$d[$q];sleep rand(2)if/\S/;print
You see? You see? Your stupid minds! Stupid! Stupid!
I, like many on slashdot, use *nix systems which are already modular. I don't pay for each upgrade/bundle/change. Maybe more people will jump off the Microsoft ship when they have to pay monthly just to use their computers the way they see fit.
So, how exactly did they justify that as a business practice? If they charged the upgrade the same as a new machine, the money that would typically be funnelled into replacing the now redundant hardware could go directly to the company's bottom line. On the other hand, better hardware (typically) = greater cost. Did just about everyone clamour for an upgrade back then, or what?
You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
Hmmm... On the West Coast we just silently fume and then plot our revenge by finding some obscure environmental premise for ruining your life.
You are using English. Please learn the difference between loose and lose; they're, there, and their; your and you're.
The engineers at microsoft aren't that bad. Most of the REAL developers aren't even bad programmers. Managment is the problem at Microsoft, and a cry from them for modularity will be a boon to the engineers.
But as most of Slashdot has noticed, the management at Microsoft tends to be a bit . . . off.
Can I get a pirated copy?
Must folk neer heear strugle wiv it an' ain't get no sustificate in it iva. (Gloucester, UK - and yes, people say sustificate and WHA-SSPS (the capitals are necessary to get the short, aggressive sound) for "wasps"). Dialect is great :)
To paraphrase Sneakers, control isn't about who has the most guns or money anymore, it's about the information - little ones and zeros. I'm sure anyone who has had the task of trying to convert documents from an old format belonging to an application/company that has gone out of business would agree.
As long as Microsoft is still standing and still has so much important data locked up in its own proprietary formats, there isn't going to be any miraculous rise of Linux to power. Even if they ceased to exist right now everyone would continue to churn along in Windows-land for another 5 years or more because what they have now is already working for them, and the poor sales of Vista show they really don't need anything else at this time.
Imploding cash reserves? Look how SCO continues to exist with little/no money at all, and almost no real products anymore. Watch AOL continue to flounder years after they should have evaporated. Microsoft has it's fingers in too many pies to disappear from a lack of Windows license sales.
Twitter says...
Twitter does...
...have at least four accounts (Twitter, Erris, gnutoo, and Mactrope), which he uses to circumvent karma-related posting restrictions and shill his own posts. He's admitted as much. The "Mactrope" identity is also an impostor of one of his critics, Macthorpe.
Twitter says...
Twitter does...
...have that journal entry marked Friends Only, so nobody can bother with it. (The posting window has closed anyway.)
Twitter says...
Twitter does...
...mark controversial journal entries Friends Only, thus denying critics the right to reply and suppressing dissent.
Twitter says...
Twitter does...
...far more harm than good by believing that his seething hatred for Microsoft is somehow helping to evangelize Free and Open Source software.
(Americans, for fairly obvious reasons I think -- isolation and power -- are the rudest first worlders about people who don't speak their native language. It isn't just waiters and store owners who are blatantly rude to non-English speakers, it's about everyone.
Well guess what? If I know I am not wanted in a foreign country, and that I will not be kindly treated if I go there... guess what I do about that? That's right -- I don't go there! DING DING DING We Have A Winner!! Get over yourself, lose the (fucking annoying) entitlement mentality and realize that a foreign country does not owe you a good time.
Seriously, if foreigners don't like how they're treated here, they can go the fuck back home. I like that option much better than having them come here to the USA and expect us to accommodate them (really - WHY do we have government-operated public schools that teach in Spanish? Learn the language and understand that you are a guest whom we did not have to allow to come here, or fuck off).
Anyway, don't pick at peoples grammar. They're a stranger and you know nothing about them. Plus, given the way education generally works, it's classist as all hell.
What I know about these "strangers" with shitty grammar is that most of them are native English speakers. Most of them are perfectly capable of getting it right, they're just too goddamned lazy. That's fine. They are free to be lazy. When they freely choose to be lazy, I am equally free to tell them how I feel about this. Also, relying on other people to educate you or your children is a sign of your lack of personal responsibility. Show me hard evidence that anyone is actively stopping you from hitting the books and doing your own research to learn anything you want to learn and then you can talk to me about "classism". Let's also dispel this myth that the purpose of a public school is to promote education and intelligence. It isn't. The purpose of a public school is to teach children from a young age to be productive little citizens who don't question authority too deeply and to rely on government and various institutions to take care of aspects of their lives that they should be able to take care of themselves.
As if Windows wasn't already enough of a creaky, rumbling juggernaut of a Borg cube, now we'll have to rent it, instead of just paying once.
Thank Goddess I use Linux.
Frankly, these things are just easy to screw up. It's like making typos. I never had a trouble understanding the difference and used to laugh at people who did - but I actually make these errors once in a while when writing in a hurry or when riding on top of that "self-righteous wave of common sense" I sometimes feel I'm on when I get carried away. :-P
Granted, I'm not a native speller. Point valid still are.
Ever tried to speak Dutch?
System and method for delivery of a modular operating system
Abstract
An operating system and method for use include a core function module, or basic kernel, providing fundamental operating system support and one or more add-on modules that allow customization of the operating system as desired. Add-on modules may provide support or extended capability to the computer including hardware, applications, peripherals, and support. A digital signature may be used to confirm the integrity of an add-on module prior to installation. Certification may be verified to determine if installation of the add-on module is authorized. By withholding certification, a service provider may manage illegal or undesired modifications to a provided computer. Digital rights management may be used to enforce terms of use of the add-on module in keeping with licensing arrangements.
more at:
http://appft1.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-Parser?Sect1=PTO1&Sect2=HITOFF&d=PG01&p=1&u=%2Fnetahtml%2FPTO%2Fsrchnum.html&r=1&f=G&l=50&s1=%2220060282899%22.PGNR.&OS=DN/20060282899&RS=DN/20060282899
Like in windows 2008 server core? Where you have the same exact interface but without the functionality behind it? Yep, you have a browse button, and all of those other buttons, but they don't do anything. That's their definition of modularity I guess.
Tech support on MS OS will be hell.
........
Do you have the OS with the network stack module?
Do you have the OS with the file manager module?
Do you have the OS with the command prompt module?
Can you imagine the hell that may happen when doing phone tech support
I like it! MS shooting itself on the foot!
Vista sales have been quite good, and MS doesnt have any problems with 'imploding cash reserves'.
If you really think they're running out of cash, go read the last couple year's SEC filings to catch you up to speed.
I see this modulariy thing a way of making Windows hard to crack. If Windows 7 will be harder to pirate, this will only mean that Linux market share will grow. Nice.
That's why I Ubuntu...
It's like... a 1. Mandarin Chinese is a 4 and Japanese is a 3, and Japanese is easy for me to learn grammar structure in just by listening to the bits and pieces barely used in my dojo and watching gestures. Some people have Mandarin as a first language and can barely speak it.
Support my political activism on Patreon.
You think English is hard?
;)
Try Hungarian.
Good idea in fact. Give us a cheap windows version without the bloat. I will pay for the core version and install my own tools of choise.
How about uninstalling DRM, or region code or Macrovision "crappy half baked" protection so that I can watch a DVD I actually paid for? My DVD player did not complain about it, but so far XP and my DVD burner said "no disc in drive".
I had to search and locate firmware and instructions to remove region protection on my DVD burner. After that, still no go. Only after using a combination of software, I could actually read the disc and play it with Media Player Classic or PowerDVD.
I dont see such limitation of freedom is going anytime soon. No, I did not even mention Blueray.
Mein Luftkissenfahrzeug ist von den Aalen vol (according to Babelfish)
You should try learning Danish. Even the Danish children are having trouble learning to write that. I have heard somewhere that they are among the latest to learn to write their own language. Not so strange considering that the spoken language almost only consists of vowels :)
"This message was brought to you by Sarcasm and Troll Feeders United (or STFU, for you un-hip people)."
Well, unless hardware tools become prohibited as "circumvention devices", we will always be able to hack machines in our physical possession. Soldering iron is not even hard to improvise. OTOH, many of controlled objects of today were once commodity products (vehicles, firearms, ...) so it is not unthinkable that some class of equipment (for electronics/programmable devices development and repair) could be regulated and prohibited for general public to own/use.
A bit of philosophical stance is in order there: confronted with ultimate choice between freedom and computer usage, what would a (previous to that moment) computer geek chose? Do you remember "Fahrenheit 451" movie? In the end, "the geeks of reading" rebels gave up protecting the physical books and started memorizing them instead, for better protection of their content. Perhaps under elevated oppression we'll abstain from all of computing as "evil" and use our abilities to develop "Mentat" skill sets? Many mind-enhancing tricks were quite popular prior to personal computing proliferation.
Sometimes, when you are parasite-driven, you have to starve the parasite, even if it means nearly starving yourself in the process. Those familiar with ancient history will recognize the pattern in Christian toppling of Roman rule and recent Gandhi toppling of British imperial rule of India: "If you can't beat them and won't join them, make it not worthwhile for them, don't cooperate with them."
Therefore, the only viable and sensible way of protecting freedom is raising everyone's awareness of all the ways through which we are (increasingly) subdued, manipulated and enslaved.
Or, more likely, the obvious reason.
(Surprisingly, this is the answer to a lot of questions posed here on slashdot. Try it sometime.)
Hmm, theoretically, what stops a malware program (a trojan) from communicating with TPM and taking ownership of my machine NOW? It probably just needs to breach some kind of cryptographic protection, that's not something that just NEVER happened before.
My point exactly. It's just been waiting... also a huge action suit storm awaits when it happens.
They STILL don't get it.... people don't want to buy the same old features any more. They
are trying to get blood out of a stone.
Module at a time, or all together, pay up front or rent by the week... people don't want to
pay any more until there's something new and compelling to pay for.
It's like some guy who's held a patent on the wheel for the last 20 thousand years, still trying
to get people to pay. They made their money on Windows, now it's time to come up with a
new idea.
They still aren't listening to their customers.
English hard? Are you kidding? Try to learn Portuguese of French where each verb has at least 30 different forms. English verbs have 2, 3 at most?
...Windows XP + open source (firefox, thunderbird, gcc, open office, etc). Personally, I am going to stick to it because it satisfies all my computing needs (Linux does too, so it's either XP or Linux). As for games, there is a tremendous amount of free games out there, that's equally entertaining with the latest DX10 games. If I ever need to see Crysis in all its glory, I'll go down to my nearest Internet/gaming Cafe and see it (because it only has 10 hours of gameplay, it does not worth to buy an ultra high end PC just for it).
But that begs the question:
This thread is about misusing elements of language. Abuse of logical expressions is next week! Read your damn memo next time!What does the number of speakers have to do with the language being regular?
Regularity is a matter of grammar, not popularity. Taking verbs alone, for instance.
Spanish has about 20 irregular verbs, which are verbs that are not conjugated by "standard" rules.
English has over 450.
It's called foreshadowing. Cue the organist!
Program Intellivision!
English is a piece of cake. A regular student can learn to speak it fluently in less than a year. The vocabulary will expand over time, but the working set of language is dead easy. Now compare that to French with its confusing gender system (and German even more so), or try the Finno-Ugric languages, such as Hungarian, Estonian and Finnish, where there are 14 to 20 cases in active use and Hungarian uses possessive suffixes exclusively... Or Polish with its endless array of fricatives. Welsh is a bastard, too. Lithuanian, the most archaic language and the closest thing to Sanskrit there is? Oh shit. It has stuff going for it that I don't wanna know.
No, English is easy. There is no logic to its pronunciation, that is true, but it has not stopped too many people. While its dictionaries tend to be thick, little of its vocabulary is in active use or indeed original. Try Romance languages for that.
Agreed! Simplicity has nothing to do with language success. A couple thousand years ago, Latin was the dominant language, and nobody ever called Latin simple. It ruled because of the military/economic clout of the Roman Empire.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
Nie, Perl jest popaprany. Zdecydowanie wolę Pythona, ostatecznie może być Java. Nawet czasem wolę gadać ze znajomymi po angielsku niż po polsku. Poza tym w moim kraju rządzą jebane kaczki. Ma ktoś pożyczyć parę groszy na bilet na samolot? Boże, jak ja chcę stąd spierdalać...
Finally, those claiming that grammar correction is "classist" should realize the irony of their statement. If I'm taking the time to tell you you're wrong and giving you an opportunity to learn the correct way then I'm hardly promoting some social hierarchy. Far from it. I'm trying to bring everyone up to the same level. If I sat here and silently judged your inability to differentiate "their" from "there" - THEN I would be "classist".
Oh man, I don't mean to pick, but there's a kind of amazing irony in what you're saying here. "I'm not being classist... I'm trying to bring everyone up to the same level." If you believe certain people are on a higher level than others to begin with, that's classism.
In Capitalist America, bank robs you!
Microsoft's imploding cash reserves. No cash, no control, end of story.
Imploding cash reserves? Microsoft has, and is continuing to spin off, gobs of cash from Office and Windows.
- Cash Flow Statement
- Microsoft's cash position
- Microsoft Looks Mighty
Still around $20 billion in free cash flow per year. That is simply incredible. They buy billion dollar companies for cash, several times a year. They started paying dividends a few years ago, which began to decrease their ABSOLUTELY ENORMOUS cash reserves in the early 2000s. Holding $40 bn in cash (as they used to) is an inefficient use of capital, and so the owners are better for them having done something with it.
IIRC, Vista adoption numbers are actually better at this point in its product life-cycle than XP was, contrary to the (somewhat) public perception that Vista's sales are terrible.
If you have facts and analysis to support that Microsoft's cash position is imploding, I'm certainly interested in seeing them. Actually, what I'd like to see a very high-level summary of Microsoft's financials over time, related to their product offerings, seismic industry developments, the Internet, XBox, etc. You know, "look at the revenue spike when the XBox360 was released" or "see how a certain expense line varied with new OS releases." (hypothetical)
It's all fine to object to the Bush administration, but I'm talking about individuals. You're an American--are you rude to foreigners if they approach you for help? How many of your friends and family are? The question is not about politics, although I appreciate your point of view on that. The issue is interpersonal friendliness. I know a lot of people I disagree with on politics and we get along very well. A person can think the Iraq invasion was a great idea, and yet be friendly and helpful to someone they meet on the street who does not speak English well. Again--I know some.
Build a man a fire, he's warm for one night. Set him on fire, and he's warm for the rest of his life.
As someone who is fluent in Japanese (spoken and written) and proficient in Korean, I can say that you are not entirely correct regarding the simplicity of the language and its isolation.
With regards to the simplicity of the spoken language, it is interesting that you completely avoid mentioning levels of respect. Conjugations and actual word selection change dramatically when speaking to someone in a respectful manner -- forms of speach even change when you are refering to yourself, your audience or even a third person.
Additionally, there are more than two main verb tenses. I count 4 without thinking much: past perfect (e.g. "shimashita"), past continuous ("shiteimashita"), present ("shiteimasu") and future ("shimasu").
(For exercise, all these verb forms basically mean the same thing: "yaru", "suru", "shimasu", "itashimasu", "nasaimasu", "shiteitadakimasu", etc. Yeah, that is easy, right?)
Also, you are just plain wrong if you believe you can place the nouns anywhere in a sentence. Sure, you can do anything you like, and the Japanese will most likely make sense of your mangled sentence, but if you want to speak as the Japanese do, you will have to follow grammatical rules.
Regarding Japanese as an isolated language, Korean and Japanese grammar are almost identical, and they share a vast amount of vocabulary inherited from Chinese.
Entschuldung, aber ich glaube dass "Dein" nicht gross geschrieben werden sÃllte, ausserdem dass es als erste Wort einer Satz ist. :) Aber so hast du so vielen recht... Mit fast jedem Amerikaner kann man solche Dinge sagen: "Mein Englisch ist besser als deine ."
:)
Es sind nur die Einige (von dem bin ich eine), die sagen kÃnnen: "so, kÃnnen wir aber nicht kennen, denn ich spreche Deutsch bei C1... und wie gut sprichst du English?"
WARNING! This girl exceeds the MAXIMUM SAFE standards established by the FDA for BRATTINESS