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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?
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
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!
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.
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.
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
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.
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)?
It's the business model that's different. Technically, they're doing little more than selling/renting out DLLs. (Well, .Net assemblies, most likely)
Care about electronic freedom? Consider donating to the EFF!
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();
Die
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.
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.
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...
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!!
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
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...
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? =>
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!
"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.
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.
I'm still waiting for that closing parenthesis ...
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.
> 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.
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.
- 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...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.
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).
// MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
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
). There you go.
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.
Dammit Microsoft! You're making it harder and harder to pirate your damn OS. Why do you isolate your users like this?!?!? I'm fed up! You've been reducing the capability to pirate since XP came out, and i'm damn tired of it!!!!! If you keep this sh*t up, we might just move to linux, or worse, Mac OS
All your 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0 are belong to us
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
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.
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
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.
"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)
Stack overflow averted. *whew*
Program Intellivision!
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
I'm still trying to figure out the correct pronunciation of my own name!
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.
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..
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