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Ballmer Admits Google Apps Are Biting Into MS Office
twitter points out coverage of a discussion between Steve Ballmer and two Gartner analysts in which the Microsoft CEO admits that Google Apps is enjoying an advantage over Office by users who want to share their documents. He points to Office Live as their response to Google, and adds, "Google has the lead, but, if we're good at advertising, we'll compete with them in the consumer business." Whether or not they're good at advertising is still in question, if their recent attempts are any indication. Ballmer also made statements indicating some sort of arrangement with Yahoo! could still be in the works, but Microsoft was quick to step on that idea. Regarding Windows Vista, he said Microsoft was prepared for people to skip it altogether, and that Microsoft would be "ready" when it was time to deploy Windows 7.
Linux and OS X are light years ahead of Windows
Like what? And why should customers care about it? Your responses will show if you're a troll, or if you have anything technical reasoning behind it.
Pre-emptive response:
* Viruses - THis is not a OS problem, its a user problem. I could create a .sh file that deleted .config files or something equally evil and tell your grandma to run it and she will. (You get the point... ) (SELinux? Apparmour? Who configures profiles for each app? In anycase this wont stop 'all' evil apps. You can access the phonebook,calender to either display and insert new entries or to delete it. The 'intent' is whats the issue here, not permissions per se.)
* Malware - Again not specific to Windows.
* Crashes - Yeah, comeback with real proof. Prove conclusively, once and for all that X percentage of crashes are because of MS code, Vs. X percentage of crashes on Linux. If you want to blame poor design, again proove conclusively with real proof - Papers, OS research(Maybe a bit much to ask, but then you're claiming a 'bit much' too). How many System admins look at crash dumps and just blame the OS?
* Drivers - Add all the drivers to the kernel? So the manufacturers of devices have to wait till the kernel maintainer decides on his own sweet time when to integrate patches. AND THEN wait till picks them up downstream. Nice solution. Doesnt scale, buddy.
* Applications - All the software in the world at a single spot. i.e. Google for applications. Who addresses commercial software? Who handles payments for this? Who will handle updates? Do users want to download Multi GB Games/Applications? Who pays for the massive bandwidth? What if you're not connected online,etc ,etc. Again. Doesnt scale, buddy.
I'll wait for some real responses now...
Macs are very cool for playing World of Warcraft, but for getting real work done, give me any decent Linux distro with KDE and XEmacs
I won't take issue with your point about KDE - different strokes and all that - but I always find it a bit hard to comprehend the attraction of XEmacs. I am a big fan of (the basic GNU) Emacs, because it's so easy to edit with a nice blank screen rather than all having those superfluous menubars and whatnot cluttering up the workspace. (My perspective is of one who remembers when Emacs was a bunch of macros for TECO, so I never got into the habit of using a menubar.) And now that GNU Emacs can render fonts nicely in X11, XEmacs has become even more otiose.
You're right. If what Windows 7 is supposed to be were possible from Microsoft we would already have it. They started with a fundamentally good system with XP took five years and came up with a train-wreck that adds nothing useful but requires 5 times the hardware to run. Does anything things in only two years they can turn that mess into something people would want.
Microsoft is done. They are irrelevant as a source of anything new. They will remain for many years by sheer dint of the tens of billions of dollars and a group of sons-of-bitches at the top with no morals or scruples, but they will never be relevant again in terms of technology, only in terms of the damage they can cause. We have entered the phase were Microsoft's sole raison d'etre is the damage the rest of the industry as much as possible in order to keep their pathetic state-of-the-art. Much like the socialist government the U.S. is about to elect, they will maintain the status quo by dragging everyone down to the same level.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.