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HP's Fury At Vista Capable Downgrade

More documents are coming out in court proceedings over the Vista Capable debacle. Internetnews.com has good coverage of HP's fury over Microsoft lowering the requirements for a Vista Capable sticker, at Intel's request. "Intel officials may have been pleased that Microsoft lowered standards for obtaining the company's Windows Vista Capable logo program sticker, but the same can't be said about HP's execs. 'I can't be more clear than to say you not only let us down by reneging on your commitment to stand behind the [device driver model] requirement, you have demonstrated a complete lack of commitment to HP as a strategic partner and cost us a lot of money in the process,' said one e-mail from Richard Walker, the senior vice president of HP's consumer business unit, to [Microsoft executives]." PCPro.co.uk follows the trail of accusatory emails inside Microsoft from there: "HP's email prompted then Microsoft co-President, Jim Allchin, to send a furious email of his own to company CEO Steve Ballmer. Allchin's email suggests the decision to lower the requirements was made in his absence by Ballmer, following 'a call between you and Paul [Otellini, Intel CEO].' 'I am beyond being upset here,' Allchin wrote to Ballmer. 'What a mess. Now we have an upset partner, Microsoft destroyed credibility [sic], as well as my own credibility shot.' Ballmer, in turn, blamed another Microsoft executive, Will Poole, in a rather erratically typed reply to Allchin."

499 comments

  1. SUSE laptops by Enderandrew · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Many users don't feel comfortable doing an OS install themselves. HP in the past used to sell laptops with SUSE preinstalled. If you're pissed at Microsoft, a letter won't do anything. You're still preinstalling Vista on every computer.

    Offer a new line of openSUSE laptops with all the hardware configured and working out of the box (wireless, webcam, etc) and that will send a message to Microsoft.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    1. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      You forgot one thing - make it VISIBLE (*cough*Ubuntu*cough*)! If there isn't sufficient marketing push from %OEM%, no matter what you offer pre-installed it'll never gain sufficient foothold against Windows, not even enough to send a message to the MS execs.

    2. Re:SUSE laptops by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Interesting

      If you're pissed at Microsoft, a letter won't do anything. You're still preinstalling Vista on every computer.

      I totally agree. HP sells more Windows boxes than any other single vendor, and MS still fucked them they like they do all of their business partners. HP was neutered by Carly, they need to grow a pair back start getting self-sufficient again. They've clearly been fooled (at least) once now, will they let themselves be fooled twice?

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    3. Re:SUSE laptops by Archangel+Michael · · Score: 1

      But being "upset" doesn't require any action beyond a temper tantrum, or a nasty email, or some other inconsequential pseudo action.

      Only when people TIRE of the WINTEL Cabal enough to SEARCH for a replacement will the stranglehold they have be broken. Not before. Too many people aren't "there" yet.

      --
      Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
    4. Re:SUSE laptops by zappepcs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That won't just send a message to Microsoft, it would also send a message to the population in general. That message being: Microsoft is fucked, and we have your solution right here. No need to pay the MS tax, we have Linux pre-installed for just a few dollars more, you can sign up for our Linux class. It takes 4 hours for orientation, you get a free training CD, and 3 months support for $75.00

      If they do any two or more of the things I've just hinted at, MS might have a really bad year. Redmond is blowing it. They have no back-out strategy from the strong-arm tactics they have been using on manufacturers and retailers. If those deals go sour Redmond will not be an easy place to get a job in IT.

    5. Re:SUSE laptops by Dogtanian · · Score: 1

      Offer a new line of openSUSE laptops with all the hardware configured and working out of the box (wireless, webcam, etc) and that will send a message to Microsoft.

      MS's overwhelming dominance (if not monopoly) in the desktop market means that they can force companies to dance to their tune by- for example- threatening to charge those who do such things more for Windows. Which would of course damage HP's competitiveness and/or profitability since- like it or not- most people will still want Windows on their computer.

      Whether such behaviour is legal or not is highly questionable. No doubt they'd weasel it such that HP simply weren't given a "discount" that all the other major players got rather than being overtly charged more. Anyway, it's irrelevant if MS can get away with it or if the consequences for them would be minimal, which is probably the case.

      --
      "Slashdot - News and Chat Sites Deviant". (Click "homepage" link above for details).
    6. Re:SUSE laptops by Enderandrew · · Score: 2, Insightful

      With Ubuntu, and with netbooks, Linux is gaining some recognition with the public. A big name like HP offers a Linux laptop that you can buy on Amazon.com and in BestBuy, and then suddenly the public will see Linux in a very different light.

      HP is in the best position to push a Linux laptop since HP also offers very good Linux printer drivers. One product purchase can drive a complimentary sale.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    7. Re:SUSE laptops by Lonewolf666 · · Score: 1

      No need to pay the MS tax, we have Linux pre-installed for just a few dollars more, you can sign up for our Linux class.

      Shouldn't that be "a few dollars less", because even OEM Windows costs some license fees (which HP would save)?

      --
      C - the footgun of programming languages
    8. Re:SUSE laptops by lupis42 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Seriously, why doesn't HP simply add Ubuntu, OpenSUSE, and CentOS to the list of versions of Windows Vista, and list the price for each choice. Mark up every option by 10$ to offset the money they've lost. I'm sure the point will get across.

    9. Re:SUSE laptops by Enderandrew · · Score: 4, Insightful

      HP is still responsible for technical support and drivers for every OS they want to support. If HP offered Linux, it would likely be one distro. They went with SUSE in the past, and I happen to dig on openSUSE so that is why I suggested it.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    10. Re:SUSE laptops by Thadd.Isolas · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The average consumer doesn't want to take a Linux class or sit down and watch a training CD. They just want it to work.

    11. Re:SUSE laptops by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      Dell started offering Ubuntu on desktops, and I'm assuming Microsoft hasn't started charging Dell more for the move. HP is large enough that they should be able to pull the same move.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    12. Re:SUSE laptops by lupis42 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Make the prices equal, and use the money from the sales of various Linuxes (linuxi? linuxies?) to drive the support and driver development. The price of linux will fall over time, and HP will be essentially transferring money from MSFT to themselves, to offset the amount of money they lost by depending on Microsoft.

    13. Re:SUSE laptops by Lumpy · · Score: 0

      NO.

      Ubuntu preloaded WITH basic tech support and al systems working.

      Make the laptops $100.00 cheaper than the Windows one.

      That sill make MSFT crap and get off the pot.

      Problem is that HP is a lap dog, there is no way in hell they are interested in innovation or being a leader anymore. They want to be a Dell and nothing more.

      --
      Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
    14. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      "The average consumer doesn't want to take a Linux class or sit down and watch a training CD."

      You need training on any system. My mom called and asks how to copy stuff to a CD. I guess having Windblows didn't save her from needing any training.

    15. Re:SUSE laptops by jabithew · · Score: 1

      Well done on producing one of the most concise and insightful posts I've ever seen on Slashdot.

      Writing a letter is just throwing a temper tantrum.

      --
      All intents and purposes. Not intensive purposes.
    16. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Since HP has corporate offices in Texas, this seems apropos...

    17. Re:SUSE laptops by Free+the+Cowards · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Bingo. The main problem with proclaiming that Linux isn't ready for the desktop is that it misses the fact that Windows isn't ready for the desktop either. The technically literate can use both, and the technically illiterate can't use either.

      --
      If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
    18. Re:SUSE laptops by Respawner · · Score: 2, Funny

      Unfortunately they'll probably use the Suse vouchers from Microsoft

    19. Re:SUSE laptops by MasterOfMagic · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I nominate this post for the "Most Insightful Post Ever Made in an 'Is Linux Ready For the Desktop?' Topic" award.

    20. Re:SUSE laptops by plague3106 · · Score: 1

      Right. And that's why Linux outsells Windows on Dell's offerings.

    21. Re:SUSE laptops by MasterOfMagic · · Score: 1

      Easy idea - pull a Saturn. Set up a company whose only job is to sell Linux laptops, and make sure that HP has a large ownership interest in them. Then the only risk is making sure that those laptops sell without worrying about Microsoft shafting you on Windows licensing prices. If they sell well, then re-absorb the company and tell Microsoft to pound sand.

    22. Re:SUSE laptops by miffo.swe · · Score: 1

      While i think it would be nice with preloaded linux i dont think preloaded Winlux is the answer. I have used SUSE extensively on servers, desktops and it does really suck lama compared to most other distributions out there. Its package management system (the depenancy resolution, not RPM) have bitten me badly over and over again. My HP 2133's broke down totally when i tried to upgrade them for example.

      I would much rather see Ubuntu being offered on the machine or really just about any distribution BUT SUSE.

      --
      HTTP/1.1 400
    23. Re:SUSE laptops by BrotherJustin · · Score: 1, Insightful

      The average consumer shouldn't be operating a computer.

    24. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      They've clearly been fooled (at least) once now, will they let themselves be fooled twice?

      There's an old saying in Redmond - I know it's in Palo Alto, probably in Redmond - that says, fool me once, shame on - shame on you. Fool me - I can't get fooled again.

    25. Re:SUSE laptops by lorenlal · · Score: 1

      Actually, MS's anticompetitive^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H incentive based pricing for Windows makes it so the OEM cost for Windows goes through the roof if they implement that. So, HP would take a nasty hit on Windows sales since their pre-installed Windows systems would go up by $100 or more.

      Then the competition says "Save $100 over HP!"

      That's an enormous risk to take for an open source vendor. Yes, it might be a great thing for the consumer to have a choice, but the provider can't put themselves that far out on the limb.

    26. Re:SUSE laptops by lorenlal · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Is that why that Video Professor guy never sells a CD "How to use Windows XP/Vista/Excel/Word/PowerPoint/Internet Explorer/on and on?"

      For most home users, i.e. those who don't want to play WoW or other games, Linux certainly provides the services that are expected... It all comes back to that games issue.

    27. Re:SUSE laptops by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      I'm going to have to disagree with you there, linux does a lot of things very differently from windows and anyone moving from one to the other is going to have to do quite a lot of re-learning to regain thier previous competance level.

      Some geeks enjoy this but most people don't, they have spent time (either voulenterally or more likely forced by an employer or eductional institution) in learning windows/office/whatever specialist windows app thier particular field uses and see no reason to move to anything else.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    28. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      Do big players like HP or Dell etc. really pay for MS products? Or do they just balance it's cost with third party shitware?

      Shitware paying them as much as Vista license would seem rather sensible idea..

      If it weren't for the HP etc. no one would be buying office and other MS crapware.

    29. Re:SUSE laptops by lupis42 · · Score: 1

      If HP, Dell, and Gateway got together and (a) exposed their Windows per unit cost, while (b) offering Linux, with paid support plans, Microsoft wouldn't have dominance within a few years. Simple really. But Gateway, HP, and Dell have to be convinced by us, the consumer, that this will not hurt their sales. Microsoft is only dominant because people *want* Windows, and most people only *want* Windows because the other options are too much work.

    30. Re:SUSE laptops by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This comment makes me wish I hadn't blown my mod points on the gender gap article. Nailed it. For those of us endlessly doing uncompensated helpdesk work for relatives, the truth of that statement is painfully obvious. I could more easily walk my mother through burning something to CD on Debian than I could on Vista, at this point. I use Debian. Don't use Vista much.

    31. Re:SUSE laptops by Hadlock · · Score: 1

      Yeah but copying a file is a different skill set than wordprocessing or emailing. It's trivially easy to change your car's oil, but many people have never done it so they need you to walk them through it once or twice. If you've never copied a file you're not going to have any idea of how to do it. There's no real analog to copying a file in a GUI except maybe a copy machine, and i've never seen a copy machine icon in any contextual menu. I wouldn't expect a n00b to know how to copy a file.

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
    32. Re:SUSE laptops by lupis42 · · Score: 1

      So get on the horn with Dell and Gateway, and talk about how much money they lost, and how if they all went the same route on this, they could reduce their dependence on a vendor that clearly has no regard for their welfare. After all, it's almost always bad news for any large company to be that dependent on a single vendor.

    33. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly, your mom didn't want to go to a class, she just wanted it to work. Just because Windows is broken doesn't mean that Linux isn't.

    34. Re:SUSE laptops by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 4, Insightful

      And when they shift from XP to Vista? What's the difference? Both Vista and Linux (assuming either GNOME or KDE) do things differently from XP. Why does Vista get a pass, while Linux doesn't?

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    35. Re:SUSE laptops by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      Lets take a look at what vista costs to system builders (those who build a few PCs) who buy from newegg

      home basic http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116480 $89.99
      home premium http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116485 $99.99
      buisness http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116475 $139.99
      ultimate http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116213 $169.99

      Given those prices and the fact that it is widely belived (MS and the OEMS won't release the information publically unfortunately) that the big brand OEMs pay far less than the system builders do I find it unlikely that HP is paying as much as $100 for any edition except ultimate.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    36. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      As someone who has worked for HP and that has joined their internal Linux mailing lists and discussion groups I can tell you without a doubt that you are dreaming if you think that will ever happen.

      There are people inside HP (VPs) *cough* Tony Redmond *cough* that lobby so hard for MS that you would think MS is actually paying their salary.

      Besides HP is not about to ditch one of their number one sources of revenue any time soon. MS could pull this and any other amount of similar stunts and HP will still be there.

      For this new HP it is all about the money.

    37. Re:SUSE laptops by hmar · · Score: 1

      What strikes me about SUSE, and I use both Suse Enterprise and RedHat in a Windows Domain, is that, compared to other distros I have played with, it seems to interact much more nicely in a Windows world than, say, Ubuntu. If you want to make inroads into MS dominance, than what we need is the enterprise users. This means the ability to make a gradual shift from Windows to Linux, and that can't happen with an OS that does not interact nicely with Windows. SUSE plays much nicer in a Windows domain than Ubuntu, at least from my limited trials.

    38. Re:SUSE laptops by Rary · · Score: 3, Insightful

      That could just come right back to bite them on the ass, because it might just piss off Microsoft, and the thing is, Microsoft holds all the cards.

      HP needs Microsoft because, Slashdot horde notwithstanding, HP's customers are generally not in the market for a Linux computer, they're in the market for a Windows computer. Offering a Linux option is all well and good, but most customers simply aren't interested.

      Most Linux users are happy to install it themselves, and most people who want a pre-built computer complete with OS and software want one that works just like their old one, and just like the one they have at work, and just like every other computer they've ever seen -- which means it runs Windows.

      --

      "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein

    39. Re:SUSE laptops by Areyoukiddingme · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The parent is referring to the people who haven't learned the system at all. A great many computer "users" are functionally illiterate. They've learned a rote sequence of clicks, and can get confused even when a window comes up in a different location, because they don't actually read the contents of the dialog box, or understand what it means even if they do read it. They just click where they learned to click by size and location. The slightest variation in the expected sequence totally throws them off. For such people, the OS truly is irrelevant. They aren't familiar with the OS. They're familiar with their 3 applications that they use. (Or 2. Or 1.) There are a LOT of such people in the world nowadays. Forced there, as you said, by their employer or educational institution.

    40. Re:SUSE laptops by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 1

      Problem there is, you completely lose your own brand recognition.

      Dell selling Ubuntu is a hell of a lot more powerful than, say, Foss Notebooks (a Dell spinoff) selling Ubuntu.

      Or am I misunderstanding -- could they keep the name, and be a separate company? Wouldn't that make it really easy for Microsoft to see through the ploy?

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    41. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Or maybe they are familiar with their OS, but aren't familiar with yours. Maybe they just want to install a program that isn't in the library and don't know about distributions, command line interfaces, and sudo...

    42. Re:SUSE laptops by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      Actually Mac sales keep climbing and climbing, and Linux adoption rates are up. The average end-user doesn't know much about operating systems. They don't know that choice exists. Provide that choice and see what happens.

      Either way, if you're pissed at Microsoft, this is how you let them know.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    43. Re:SUSE laptops by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      That could just come right back to bite them on the ass, because it might just piss off Microsoft, and the thing is, Microsoft holds all the cards.

      Only because companies like HP voluntarily hand their cards over to MS.

      Somebody has to take the lead, and while they may suffer for it in the short term, the long term looks a whole lot brighter without being beholden to one company that holds are the cards.

      Most Linux users are happy to install it themselves, and most people who want a pre-built computer complete with OS and software want one that works just like their old one,

      You are definitely describing yesterday's market. Nowadays many, many users are happy with a fully functional web browser. Not a majority, yet, but a significant minority. Look at just how well the linux-based netbooks have been selling as just one example.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    44. Re:SUSE laptops by catdriver · · Score: 2, Interesting

      A big name like HP offers a Linux laptop that you can buy on Amazon.com and in BestBuy, and then suddenly the public will see Linux in a very different light.

      As a matter of fact, they already do.

    45. Re:SUSE laptops by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      Put 100 grandmas in the room and put them to the grandma test. Give them a Vista PC and ask them to perform certain tasks. Them them a decent Linux PC (say openSUSE 11 with KDE 3) and ask them to perform the same tasks. See which take longer.

      I've been switching several people to Linux specifically because they aren't computer savvy, and they find KDE more intuitive and user-friendly than Windows.

      For the truly naive and terrified, you're right, they'd need training regardless if they're using Windows or Linux, but one can contend that Linux is closer to being "ready for the desktop" than Windows these days.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    46. Re:SUSE laptops by mpapet · · Score: 1

      MS might have a really bad year. Redmond is blowing it.

      Many slashdotters agree with your post, but that's typically not Microsoft's customer. Microsoft's customer is the person with the power of the purse. Most techs have had an experience where they recommend one thing and the company makes an entirely different purchase regardless of the issues the techs have with the purchased product. Microsoft's customer is the group that made the bad decision and spent the money, not the tech.

      They have no back-out strategy from the strong-arm tactics

      They don't need one. They are still price and market makers, so they don't have to care one bit about their customers because there is no other place for them to go. That's monopoly power in action.

      Regarding HP's position, what I find particularly intolerable with this personality type is their indifference to screwing others until they themselves are on the wrong end of a situation.

      Finally, what most fail to understand is HP's products are planned +/- 24 months out. Microsoft screwed HP over for two years of planning and unknown, but large expenditures on products with changes to Vista capable.

      --
      http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
    47. Re:SUSE laptops by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So get on the horn with Dell and Gateway, and talk about how much money they lost, and how if they all went the same route on this, they could reduce their dependence on a vendor that clearly has no regard for their welfare.

      Surely you're aware that what you're suggesting is a violation of antitrust laws?

      I know, it'd be weird for Microsoft to be on the winning side of an antitrust suit for once, but is that what you really want?

    48. Re:SUSE laptops by quanticle · · Score: 1

      Its true that Linux does a lot of things differently than Windows. Its also true that a modern Linux interfaces (e.g. KDE, Gnome, etc.) are doing a better job of hiding that sort of stuff.

      What are the two most common uses of personal computers these days? Browsing the internet and running productivity applications. As long as you provide those two things, lots of people won't care that Linux is different - they can still do what they need to do.

      Besides, its becoming more and more apparent that Microsoft may actually be driving away consumers in their attempt to make their interfaces more "elegant" (i.e. more Apple-like). I've heard numerous people tell me that the new Office 2007 interface is horrible, and that they actually like the OpenOffice.org interface because it continues the UI tradition of Word 2003.

      --
      We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
    49. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Don't you think that has more to do with "on the desktop" than "ready for the desktop"?

    50. Re:SUSE laptops by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      Relearning is an issue for the intermediate Windows user because they go from feeling like they really know what they're doing to suddenly not knowing as much.

      The truly computer illiterate who just barely know how to operate a web browser don't struggle with Linux because they don't have to unlearn and relearn. Linux is more intuitive and largely works as they expect it to.

      I've found the hardest group to turn around to Linux is fellow SysAdmins who know Windows intimately, and aren't contend to barely use an OS. If you convince them to play with Linux, they won't just accept distro defaults. They're going to really get in there and break their box a few times.

      This group will appreciate the merits of Linux the most, but only if they are willing to take the time to learn it. However inertia keeps them from changing in the first place.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    51. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If you did any research and weren't talking out of your ass, you'd know this isn't true as a result of the antitrust lawsuits over the years.

    52. Re:SUSE laptops by smoker2 · · Score: 1
      No, he had the wrong punctuation. It should read

      No need to pay the MS tax. We have Linux pre-installed and for just a few dollars more you can sign up for our Linux class.

      Maybe us grammar nazis have a point.

    53. Re:SUSE laptops by quanticle · · Score: 1

      Depends on the context, of course. Yes, if you have very little experience with computers, I can understand if you don't immediately get how to copy files. On the other hand, I see people my age (22-ish) who have trouble with the very same things. These are people who have grown up with technology and computers, yet never really bothered to learn how to do even the basics to accomplish their tasks. There's really no excuse for those people.

      --
      We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
    54. Re:SUSE laptops by LWATCDR · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I am a Linux fan and yes I do agree for the most part but I would go with your granny test if you let me set some of the tasks.
      Go to BestCircutMartDepot and.
      1. Buy an all in one printer.
      2. Buy a webcam.
      3. Buy a Game.
      4. Buy Tax Software.
      The problem is a lack of over the counter software and the lack of a stable binary driver interface.
      The whole document it and they will write it is a good idea but having the option to stick in on a CD in the box is very handy.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    55. Re:SUSE laptops by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      It depends, if you can quickly afford to establish the new brand while informing the consumer of the parent company (most people know Saturn is GM, and Scion is Toyota for instance) then go ahead.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    56. Re:SUSE laptops by HigH5 · · Score: 1

      I agree, it's those half-literate I have to usually worry about. (does anyone remember the quote or a proverb about that?)

      --
      Ceterum censeo Microsoft esse delendam.
    57. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bingo. The main problem with proclaiming that Linux isn't ready for the desktop is that it misses the fact that Windows isn't ready for the desktop either. The technically literate can use both, and the technically illiterate can't use either.

      Pretty much sums up the reason why Mac users just sit on the sidelines smiling at the bloody fray going on in front of them...

    58. Re:SUSE laptops by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      Here is the problem why Linux laptops aren't cheaper.

      HP pays Microsoft for a Windows license (lets say in the range of $50-$100 and I'd honestly guess more in the $50 range given then offer Vista on a $400 computer). HP gets money back however from Google, AOL, MSN, Norton or whomever wants their crap preinstalled. That money buys down the cost of the PC.

      With a Linux computer, there is no AOL preinstall, so HP loses out of money which in turn offsets the savings of not purchasing Windows. There is also the additional cost of support and development for Linux laptops/desktops.

      I still think HP should do it, but don't expect the laptops to be cheaper just because they use Linux, especially if they have to pay to license libdvdcss, codecs, etc.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    59. Re:SUSE laptops by CrackerJackz · · Score: 1

      The problem is that lots of vendors pay big$ to install their crapware on new PCs. So in reality you save 30$ by not having Windows installed, and then pay 70$ more because NortonWare and JoeBobFirewall, etc (both 30 day evals BTW :) ) are no longer subsidizing the cost.

    60. Re:SUSE laptops by D'Sphitz · · Score: 4, Informative

      Here's the emails the story mentions but fails to link

    61. Re:SUSE laptops by sydney+troz · · Score: 0

      I second that.

    62. Re:SUSE laptops by zappepcs · · Score: 1

      Crap! I love that one argument about sudo

      Yes, running live on the Internet with no protection as system administrator is soooooo much better than sudo and learning to use it. Remember that probably more than 50% of viri and damage done by them is thanks to that problem.

      Trust me, learning sudo and surfing with locked down accounts is not that difficult to learn and deal with. I have two computer illiterates in my house who do just fine with it. A third is partially literate and she does fine also even though she sometimes finds it inconvenient.

      None of them care about command line interfaces, nor does Ubuntu require they use one.

      And on to DLLs, when you install one app and it brings with it an older system DLL, all is good till you go to use a program that needed the updated version. ALL systems have dependency problems... get over it.

    63. Re:SUSE laptops by Enderandrew · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Dell already offers Ubuntu, and HP historically has supported SUSE.

      SUSE in the past has had package manager issues, but seriously check out openSUSE 11, or the openSUSE 11.1 beta 5. The package manager is GREATLY improved. It searches and resolves packages considerably better, packages are smaller files (LZMA compression), and dependency issues are solved much better now.

      The thing I really like about Novell/openSUSE is the development efforts to make improvements themselves and push them upstream. They also backport features. openSUSE packages are just good packages. I could find a decent KDE desktop in Mandriva, PCLinuxOS, etc. but alongside the Arch KDEMod team, openSUSE arguably puts out the single best KDE desktop I've seen.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    64. Re:SUSE laptops by cowscows · · Score: 4, Insightful

      No kidding. I work with people who can efficiently use AutoCAD, which has one of the most complicated and poorly designed interfaces I've ever seen. But at the same time they can't even change their desktop background without help.

      An understanding of how a tool actually works is not always important to being able to use that tool well enough to get their job done. To use the dreaded car analogy, understanding how a manual transmission is built and functions might help you use one more effectively and squeeze some extra performance out of your car, but even someone with absolutely no idea of the actual mechanics of a transmission can learn to use one pretty well.

      Getting people like this to change their routine is sometimes difficult, and they'll resist it. But once you get them to accept that the change is going to happen (Either because their boss forced them, or their old option is no longer available, or the new choice is 30% cheaper, etc.) They can learn the new stuff.

      --

      One time I threw a brick at a duck.

    65. Re:SUSE laptops by mewshi_nya · · Score: 2, Informative

      I just bought a laptop from Compaq (HP spelled differently) and Ubuntu works out of the box with everything except the little button to uh... turn off the touchpad I think...?

      I don't know; I never ran Vista long enough to find out.

    66. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
      Here are the links the submission missed:
    67. Re:SUSE laptops by powerlord · · Score: 1

      Microsoft is only dominant because people *want* Windows, and most people only *want* Windows because the other options are too much work.

      Actually, most people don't really care about (or even think about, or in some cases even know) what OS runs their computer.

      They want their computer to do things for them:

      1. play games
      2. read their email
      3. browse the web
      4. pass "office" documents back and forth
      5. watch movies
      6. interact with their other devices (printer, scanner, iPod, XBox, PS3, whatever)
        1. The problem points on this list are (1) and possibly (6), and unless a "computer" can do these tasks, a lot of people think its broken.

          1 is disappearing to some degree as more and more people are turning to console gaming and web based games.
          6 is disappearing as more devices support and are supported by Linux.

      --
      This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
    68. Re:SUSE laptops by Free+the+Cowards · · Score: 1

      No granny I have ever met has been capable of installing any hardware or software on her own, whether on Windows or anything else. Either you have an exceptional grandma or you don't know what you're doing when you're trying to rig this test.

      --
      If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
    69. Re:SUSE laptops by Enderandrew · · Score: 2, Interesting

      1 - I'm going to go on a limb and guess HP is still the number one printer seller. HP printers are easier to install in Linux than in Windows. My mom just bought a new all-in-one and hplips got everything installed right away. No driver downloads, no fuss. It just worked in under 60 seconds, including fax, scan and copy functionality.
      2 - I personally have yet to come across any major webcam that doesn't work in Linux. I buy HP laptops, and every webcam in an HP laptop has worked for me in Linux. Regardless an OEM preinstall of a distro on a laptop like I suggested would mean the webcam would be setup and working out of the box.
      3 - Games aren't a big part of the laptop market. However, I think we can all agree that Windows games count as a point for Windows and a mark against Linux.
      4 - Tax software? Every major company has a website where you e-file online without the need for any additional software. I e-file in Firefox on Linux with no problems.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    70. Re:SUSE laptops by VoltCurve · · Score: 1

      record profits. RECORD PROFITS. yeah, Microsoft is fucked! OpenSUSE for life. Get real, this is why FOSS people aren't taken seriously.

    71. Re:SUSE laptops by pembo13 · · Score: 1

      Please no, too much fragmentation. If HP is going to do this, just add Ubuntu. I am a Fedora person myself. But Ubuntu at least has some infrastructure in place for regular users of this nature.

      --
      "Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
    72. Re:SUSE laptops by thepotoo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I hate to be the one to bring reality into this little discussion, but for HP to dump Windows and start selling Linux (or any other OS) instead is really, really stupid.

      I admit, I'd buy one. You'd probably buy one, too. But almost everyone else in the known universe wants Windows on their computer. Those that don't are buying Macs. This means that if HP wants to stay alive, they need to sell Vista.

      I especially like this piece:

      while they may suffer for it in the short term, the long term looks a whole lot brighter

      I'd like to see the company that could actually look that far ahead. Investors demand short term profits, and especially in the computer world, a couple of bad years might be enough to kill HP altogether.

      It's the unfair result of Microsoft's lock-in, but for the foreseeable future it seems to be pretty much an all or nothing Windows vs. Linux (OK, Dell has Windows vs. [hidden on the back page behind a sign reading "beware of the penguin"], but you get the idea).

      --
      Obligatory Soundbite Catchphrase
    73. Re:SUSE laptops by Trillan · · Score: 2, Funny

      I like this version:

      Fool me once shame on you
      Fool me twice shame on me
      Only the folks in Palo Alto will fall for number three.

    74. Re:SUSE laptops by aethogamous · · Score: 1

      The average consumer shouldn't be operating a computer.

      There is a problem with the logic of not allowing individuals to do things they are naturally inept at; if you follow it to it's conclusion you get that the average slashdotter should not be allowed to breed....

      Come to think of it, maybe there is nothing wrong with the logic after all.

    75. Re:SUSE laptops by Hadlock · · Score: 1

      There's no excuse for these people, but my girlfriend can't check, let alone change her oil or change a flat, even though those things are required (to be taught not practiced) to get your licence

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
    76. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My wife has a mac. As someone who is intimately familiar with Windows and Linux, I find it really confusing. I'll throw my cursor into the corner to get it out of the way (because it doesn't disappear on its own), and all of a sudden I'm staring at a dashboard or panel of miniature windows. What the hell is that? Or I'll try to Alt-Tab through windows only to remember that what I wanted was Alt-` (I wanted a different window in the same program). I'm still explaining to "veteran" mac users that you can get to the right-click menu by Ctrl-clicking. Useful, when all you've got is the touchpad and that one lonely button. Seriously, since when did Ctrl-click become more intuitive than right-click? My wife can figure out how to burn CDs, but she does it infrequently enough that she has to relearn it every time. I stopped trying to help her when I figured out the interface isn't supposed to make sense. And don't get me started on iTunes. There is nothing worse than iTunes. That makes sense, though, because if someone came out with a program that was worse than iTunes, why would anyone use it?

    77. Re:SUSE laptops by BrotherJustin · · Score: 1

      I'm just tired of everyone going around erasing learning curves. Yeah, it takes some training, so does everything else.

    78. Re:SUSE laptops by twakar · · Score: 1

      I second that nomination.. It was staring us all in the face, and yet we missed it..
      Forest.. meet trees!

      --
      Progress is man's ability to complicate simplicity!
    79. Re:SUSE laptops by quanticle · · Score: 2, Informative

      Really? I've checked my oil and changed flat tires, but I learned both of those things by reading the owners manual for my car, not from the driver's education classes that I was required to take to get my license.

      --
      We all know what to do, but we don't know how to get re-elected once we have done it
    80. Re:SUSE laptops by Kjella · · Score: 1

      I know, it'd be weird for Microsoft to be on the winning side of an antitrust suit for once, but is that what you really want?

      If their lawyers are as good as Microsoft's, they might be forced to unbundle Linux sometime around 2018 when Linux has long since taken over with that funding, soo... clearly not, it would be an abuse of the legal system.

      --
      Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
    81. Re:SUSE laptops by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      The problem with that idea is this: Soon after they will be fielding huge amounts of tech support calls from the Joe and Jane users that buy them. Why? Because 90% of the hardware that they will pick up at Walmart,Best Buy,Staples is a royal bitch to get working,and that is if you can get it working at all. The only way that idea would work is if you either sell a top-to-bottom solution,with webcam and printer/scanner/fax included and ready to go out of the box,or if the large corps like HP put pressure on the cheap home gear manufacturers to release drivers and/or specs.

      Because as someone who has tried selling Linux machines in the past I can tell you that selling Linux to home users is a nightmare. The ALWAYS assume that the gear that worked before should work now,and if it doesn't the new PC is broken. At least Apple has built up the "A Mac is NOT a PC" hype long enough that a home user doesn't expect his other gear to work with his Mac. But with Linux they expect to be able to plug in their funky $20 webcam,or even worse,their Lexmark all in one(trying to get THAT piece of hellgear to work with Linux should be banned as torture) and it should just go,or at least go after sticking in a CD. Personally I hope if enough of the big boys like HP and Dell lean on them than the big home peripheral manufacturers will release Linux drivers. But until they do it is just easier to keep the average home user on Windows.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    82. Re:SUSE laptops by lupis42 · · Score: 3, Interesting

      IANAL, but AFAIK if Dell and Gateway and HP communicate, but not set prices, that's not inherently anti-competitive. They are agreeing to stop colluding with Microsoft by all snubbing the discount simultaneously. If they talk prices, that's a whole other story.
      Any lawyers want to call BS?

    83. Re:SUSE laptops by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 0, Redundant

      *sigh*

      Nevermind that others, myself included, have said more or less exactly the same thing?

    84. Re:SUSE laptops by aethogamous · · Score: 1

      Fair enough. I tend to be split on the issue. The lazy average person in me feels pissed off that I have to learn something, while the geek in me enjoys it.

    85. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes, HP should start selling OpenSUSE laptops. Those should do real well. Not only will a majority of people not want them, but most clueless users who do end up buying one will expect to be able to have full windows support for software and hardware. You think the returns were bad before? Just watch the shitstorm HP would get into when they start selling Linux as if it was mainstream.

    86. Re:SUSE laptops by mrbcs · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The average user is an idiot and should have never bought a computer. There, I said it. You know you were thinking it too.

      --
      I'm not anti-social, I'm anti-idiot.
    87. Re:SUSE laptops by BlackSnake112 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Maybe since one can change vista to look like XP? The classic interface.

      I have deployed over 20 vista machines with the classic start menu and only one person asked why the log on screen was different. They did not ask for any other question. These people have already seen office 2007 on XP so that was the same. these are not major computer programmers or engineers. these are regular secretaries. They use the computer, as long as they have their email, web browser, and can open the documents they are happy.

      I did deploy three linux machines with crossover and office 2003 installed. Those people were a little more confused. Once they knew where to start the applications they knew they were fine. So I would say that as long as the OS can run the applications the users are used to, those users could care less what the OS is.

    88. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I couldn't agree more.

      Until the desktop applications that people want to use run on Linux there will never be a "year of the desktop" for Linux. It's just geek wishful thinking that somehow having a better operating system matters.

      The average user simply does not care about the operating system. They want to run Photoshop, Cubase, Word, Excel, Access because that's what they know to "get their shit done".

      Hell some of 'em don't even know what an operating system is.

      If a laptop comes preconfigured with Suse, Ubuntu, Vista etc. etc. then most likely it'll be wiped by a "geek friend" and replaced with a pirate copy of XP after which the old familiar apps will be installed on it.

      The operating system is irrelevant to a desktop user. People use computers to run applications.

    89. Re:SUSE laptops by Creepy · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Oh, where to begin. I'll just stick with graphics since that is the heart of this debacle, anyway.

      Vista Basic is a software context, just like XP, XWindows on UNIX + likes, or non-Quartz Compositor (formerly Quartz Extreme) accelerated MacOSX contexts. Gnome and KDE are traditionally software based, but there has been some effort to add hardware acceleration on both fronts and I haven't kept up on where exactly they are at (I have Ubuntu and SuSE and neither are hardware accelerated AFAIK).

          Vista Aero uses Desktop Window Manager (DWM) hardware context (specifically a DirectX 9 context) and offloads much of rendering responsibility to hardware. This is actually the root of the hardware issue where MS eased up on requirements for Vista. From what I've read, the story is something like this: originally, Vista Capable machines had to have graphics acceleration, but not necessarily hardware transformation and lighting (T&L), so Intel continued to develop software T&L in their GMA 3000 series of chips released in 2006. However, Microsoft failed to disclose that Vista would also require a hardware accelerated timer and because T&L on these Intel chips was in software, the timer also needed to be in software. Intel believed they had met all the requirements and suddenly had millions of chips they wouldn't be able to sell because MS didn't disclose one piece of necessary info and was pissed at MS, MS couldn't believe anyone was still making software T&L in 2006, and everyone was pissed at everyone else.

    90. Re:SUSE laptops by BrotherJustin · · Score: 1

      The lazy average person in me feels pissed off that I have to learn something, while the geek in me enjoys it.

      Sounds like my own personal struggle to get off windows and onto Linux.

    91. Re:SUSE laptops by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      Linux has better hardware support than Vista overall, and Macs are in the same boat that people buying Windows peripherals or software won't be able to install it.

      I'm curious where you estimate that 90% of hardware won't work on Linux comes from. The biggest problem with hardware support in Linux right now seems to be specific wireless chipsets, but a pre-built OEM Linux laptop won't have that issue.

      My webcams, headsets, gamepads, printers, mice, speakers, etc. all work out of the box, and in some ways work better on Linux than on Windows.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    92. Re:SUSE laptops by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      I just tried incredibly hard to get a 64-bit CPU order done via AMD, for anti-monopoly reasons as well as technical ones. I was overruled by a middle manager whose last job was all HP and that's all he'll sign orders for. It's a shame, really, I could have gotten us a lot more capacity and a better price, at the sacrifice of HP integration tools which no one onsite knows how to use.

    93. Re:SUSE laptops by BlackSnake112 · · Score: 1

      Where do you live? I have yet to see on a written test for a driver's license that you needed to change a tire, check or change the engine oil. On the road test, I have yet to see anyone pop the hood. Most people will ignore the check engine light until the car will not move or is making sounds that cannot be drowned out by the radio.

      It would be a great thing to have them on the tests but I have yet to see it. I have moved quite a bit, so I have had to take the written test a few times when I turned in my old license for that state's one.

    94. Re:SUSE laptops by Fjandr · · Score: 1

      Though, to be fair, if they want one that works like their old one, and their old one ran XP, moving to Linux isn't much different from moving to Vista.

      Note, I'm only half serious with this one.

    95. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      zappepcs, That is an outstanding and intelligent idea, it would ease peoples fears of changing from ms if there was assistance as you suggested, and adding 3 mos support would be the icing on the cake, well done!

    96. Re:SUSE laptops by the_womble · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'd buy one. You'd probably buy one, too. But almost everyone else in the known universe wants Windows on their computer.

      I have installed Linux for other people. I think an earlier comment was right - Linux's biggest problem is lack of consumer awareness, which comes down to lack of marketing.

      Look at the reasons Mac owners say they prefer Macs. No malware is one of them. Linux is at least as good on that count. I actually think Linux GUI's are pretty good and better than Windows: but that is a matter of opinion. The examples here work for me (Mandriva 2008.1 KDE).

      Of course having said that marketing is the problem, I do not have a solution. No one owns Linux, so no one has an incentive to pay the bills - the same reason that colas get better marketing than fruit juice.

    97. Re:SUSE laptops by node+3 · · Score: 1

      If you're pissed at Microsoft, a letter won't do anything. You're still preinstalling Vista on every computer.

      Yes it will. It will let MS know you are pissed and that while you may be pre-installing Vista now, you may be promoting something other than Windows in the future.

      What's more interesting to me here is not that HP is mad (although that is very interesting indeed). What's most interesting is that all the people that are blaming third parties for a poor Vista reception are pointing their fingers at the wrong parties. MS controls those little "Designed for Vista" stickers, and they're the ones that dropped the ball.

      According to MS themselves, an abysmal Vista experience was entirely intended. Now we have proof that it wasn't merely an honest mistake. Instead, they explicitly and knowingly lowered their requirements to what they were fully aware is unacceptable.

    98. Re:SUSE laptops by prennix · · Score: 1

      heh, you mean like my VAIO?

      or my wife's Dell? Wait, I needed to enable a couple non-OSS packages for that.

      It's easier to install opensuse or ubuntu than it is to opt out of all the crap that is preinstalled on a window$ box.

    99. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And on to DLLs, when you install one app and it brings with it an older system DLL, all is good till you go to use a program that needed the updated version.

      This hasn't been a significant problem since Windows 2000 introduced WFP, except in a few uncommon cases:

      - MS itself hoses DLLs in a patch, SP, or redistributable MSI (it does happen)
      - The user futzes around with WFP or the file cache, in which case it's their own fault
      - Malware exploits a security hole to overwrite or wrap a system DLL (not sure if there are any of these around)

      - T

    100. Re:SUSE laptops by Hadlock · · Score: 1

      I live in texas. Its required to teach in drivers ed, but not tested on.of course if you're over 18 you don't even have to take a test in texas (I believe)

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
    101. Re:SUSE laptops by thtrgremlin · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Ok, I am confused. What message do we want to get to Microsoft? My only message is "Go away", but I have a strong feeling they won't care any more than I do about the "amazing new features" of Windows 7. Microsoft has their own way of doing things. I think the message needs to be to consumers that freedom is worth the little bit of work to learn something different. Just my opinion.

      I am more interested in changing attitudes of consumers than how a company easily manipulates them.

      --
      Want Big Business out of government? Take away the incentive and start by getting government out of big business!
    102. Re:SUSE laptops by lupis42 · · Score: 1

      The return rates on linux netbooks suggest that people want their computer to look and behave in a somewhat familiar manner. Since most are used to Windows, that means they want Windows. You're talking about what they *need*, which is different from what they say they want, which is also different from the wants that are inferred when one looks at purchasing stats.
      Also, (1) isn't going anywhere, as consoles have as many haters as supporters, and web based gaming really won't be likely unless internet bandwidth magically starts to approach disk transfer rates, or gamers stop wanting things to improve in ways that use more computing power. Until then, anything that cares at all about system-performance will be written in HAL specific compiled languages, and anything that uses a large quantity of data will be stored locally.

    103. Re:SUSE laptops by Stormwatch · · Score: 1

      Car analogy time...

      "What's the point of a driving school? It should be really easy to drive: the big wheel turns to the left and the right, the pedal thingies make it go or stop. So intuitive!"

      See, that is how most people use computers: they find the wheels and pedals, and never bother to learn anything else. Of course, something goes boom, or they run out of gas or oil, so they call a mechanic to save them - that is, a nerd friend or relative.

    104. Re:SUSE laptops by hairyfeet · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Uh,sorry,but he is dead on the money. I have been working repair shop for nearly 15 years now and I have seen it happen. Their printer dies so they go to Wally World and grab whatever is on sale. They take it home,pop in the CD,and a really cute animation pops up that says "Hi! Congratulations on the purchase of your new super duper all in one from Lexmark! Let us take a few moments to set it up for you!" And then it walks them through with really simple pictures or drawings that show them where to plug it in and what to do.

      You see,this is why I gave up on selling Linux Pcs in my shop. Because they get brought back along with a mad customer because it is "broken" because the little animation didn't play with the little helpful lady that walks them through it. Until your average user can walk into ANY Walmart/Best Buy/Staples and pick up ANYTHING on sale there and put in the CD and have the little animation work it is simply too hard for them. And have YOU ever tried getting the crap they sell at Walmart to run in Linux? After spending nearly two damned days trying to get a Lexmark x1270 to print/scan/fax in Linux I just gave up and gave them their money back. There is just too much home junk that works in Windows that is impossible to get to work in Linux.

      And nearly all of it if there isn't an installed driver you get told "Bring up Bash" WRONG. The second they have to bring up a CLI you have lost. In all the years I have been working on Windows machines I can count the number of times I have needed to bring up the CLI to fix a problem on one hand. While I often use the CLI to save time,there is almost always a GUI way to do it in Windows. With Linux at the slightest problem you are told "bring up Bash and..." sorry,but if I gave that advice to the average home user the machine would be on my desk the next day. While Linux works in a corporate environment,and it rocks as a server OS,it just doesn't cut it at this time for the SMB and home user markets,which is the markets that corporations like HP consider their bread and butter. Sorry.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    105. Re:SUSE laptops by node+3 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That could just come right back to bite them on the ass, because it might just piss off Microsoft, and the thing is, Microsoft holds all the cards.

      MS will not cut off their #2 OS customer.

      HP's customers are generally not in the market for a Linux computer, they're in the market for a Windows computer.

      Let's say MS were to cut HP off such that HP would have to buy OEM copies of Vista/XP at full price. HP is one of the few companies that could actually make a non-geek oriented Linux PC. They could offer it as a whole new line, and make a huge push, and sell both Linux PCs and Windows PCs.

      In fact, you can be sure that HP is considering this very thing (among many other scenarios), and with distributions like Ubuntu becoming very user-friendly, and the Mac weaning people from thinking they must have Windows, such a scenario is becoming more and more reasonable.

      In fact, unless Windows 7 (aka Mojave 2) is a home run, I wouldn't be surprised to see something like this happen during its reign.

    106. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I hate to be the one to bring reality into this little discussion, but for HP to dump Windows and start selling Linux (or any other OS) instead is really, really stupid.

      Who said that? You are just making up a strawman argument.

      People are saying that if HP had the cojones, they would push to sell good consumer-grade linux systems.
      But they are not saying to "dump Windows."

    107. Re:SUSE laptops by Archimonde · · Score: 1

      And the sad truth is that they expect to pay the mechanic for the car, but generally don't expect to pay the nerd to repair their computer (which can take much more time to do it anyway)...

      --
      Trolls are like broken clocks. They show the truth two times a day. The rest of the day they talk nonsense.
    108. Re:SUSE laptops by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      The 90% is very simple. Take a piece of paper and a pen and go into any Walmart. Write down the makes and models of their 5 lowest priced Printers/webcams/cameras/scanners/wifi cards,etc and then look them up online. You will find one headache after another as folks try to get those damned things to work. I can tell you exactly which one killed my selling Linux desktops and laptops if you are curious:

      The Lexmark X1xx series all in ones. Trying to get the thing to even print a B&W page is about 3 days worth of CLI and banging your head against the wall. And you will NEVER get it to scan or fax. At all. Ever. After the fourth machine being brought in because it was "broken" and telling them to bring it what wasn't working and seeing a Lexmark X1xx series being brought through the door ended it for me.

      But I had hell with the wifi cards,about half the webcams,and of course having to explain to the customer that all the "cool features" that are advertised on the box were things they couldn't have because the software that gave them the "cool features" was Windows only wasn't a fun conversation either. Windows users are used to picking up stuff at Wally World and having it "just work" after they put in the CD and follow the little animation. Which is why my local Wally World has employees telling any PC customers they'll be happy to downgrade the machine to XP before it leaves the store. because they have heard enough of "It's broken!" from Vista and it's crappy backwards compatibility that is less of a headache for them to just give them XP. Which I learned the hard way trying to sell Linux boxes. It just isn't worth the hassle and the risk of pissing off your customers.

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    109. Re:SUSE laptops by ianare · · Score: 1

      Depends where you are ... in Florida you don't even leave the parking lot to pass the driving test, in France they can ask you to change a tire on the side of the highway.

    110. Re:SUSE laptops by cerberusss · · Score: 1

      The technically literate can use both, and the technically illiterate can't use either.

      Why do you think you've covered the spectrum with just these two? There's a whole lot in between and for people somewhere on that line, Linux is too much of an investment to learn anew.

      --
      8 of 13 people found this answer helpful. Did you?
    111. Re:SUSE laptops by MikeBabcock · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Most importantly however is the fact that most computer users don't actually know how to use their PCs for anything beyond 2 or 3 basic tasks, and they find learning how to do new tasks too tedious to be bothered.

      Sitting those people in front of Linux, I find they more quickly grasp how to do things than they do with Vista, and feel more comfortable doing things because most everything acts the way they expect it to when they experiment.

      The best part about sitting a Windows user in front of my Linux desktop is saying "go ahead and play around, you won't break anything."

      The average Windows user is so accustomed to rebooting Windows and having driver updates, etc. screw up their system that they've become afraid to do anything new. The new users who aren't jaded yet also aren't trained enough to be afraid of change, its the power users who notice all the little tweaks and changes that make Linux not work the same as their Windows desktop.

      --
      - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
    112. Re:SUSE laptops by MikeBabcock · · Score: 1

      Any or all of the above may also crash or disable your Windows PC. Enjoy that.

      Webcam? Does it have Vista drivers? haha, sucker.

      Or the other way; How about the printer? Whoops, not supporting old OSs, the scanner won't work on your PC running XP, upgrade to Vista.

      The Game? Yeah, sorry, made for DX10, wont' run on your video card anyway.

      Tax software? Why on earth would you use tax software? (never did figure that out).

      I had a friend install Fedora 9 on his laptop and loved it, but wanted to install a program. I told him to go to 'add/remove programs' and search for what he wanted, then just install it. He was amazed at the amount of available free software to install directly without fear of compatibility or uninstallability (made that up). Off the shelf software becomes irrelevant quickly.

      --
      - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
    113. Re:SUSE laptops by ianare · · Score: 1

      I would say that for 80-90 % of people out there, ( 6 ) is not an issue anymore. I haven't had an issue with poor driver support in Linux in a few years now, and this includes home & professional use. Even with getting 'el cheapo' hardware at times, or old hardware, or even brand new graphic cards. I've set up a bunch of Linux boxes for friends/relatives with never a hardware problem.

      But ( 1 ), yeah that's the big problem. Hopefully Wine will help out there, as some people (like me) refuse to give up their PC games - consoles just don't feel right ...

    114. Re:SUSE laptops by King_TJ · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think you're right, but the big name hardware makers all wanted that "symbiotic relationship" with Microsoft. EG. You supply the OS/software, and we'll supply the hardware. Together, we'll both PROFIT!

      It may not be all "love and roses" these days, with Vista not living up to its promises and all. But can you really imagine HP, Dell, or any of that lot suddenly coming out with their OWN operating system, this late in the game, and doing a decent job of it? You know the ONE company who had a shot at it, right? That was IBM, with OS/2, but they blew it too - out of greed, and the attraction of the "simplicity" of just letting Microsoft handle it for them instead.

      Say what you will about Apple, but they're the last standing hold-out from the era when all "personal computers" ran operating systems designed by and supported solely by the same companies that made the hardware. (Commodore, Atari, Tandy/TRS-80, etc. etc.)

    115. Re:SUSE laptops by d3ac0n · · Score: 1

      I've found the hardest group to turn around to Linux is fellow SysAdmins who know Windows intimately, and aren't contend to barely use an OS. If you convince them to play with Linux, they won't just accept distro defaults. They're going to really get in there and break their box a few times.

      Best thing to do with these guys? Toss them a Linux Distro in a V-Machine. Most of them will probably already have VMWare Workstation installed. Then they can play with the distro as much as they want and not worry about deep-sixing a production machine by fiddling with it too much.

      --
      Official Heretic from the "Church of Global Warming". Proven right thanks to whistle blowers. AGW = Flat Earth Theory
    116. Re:SUSE laptops by HiThere · · Score: 1

      I'm not so sure.

      HP would need to put a bit of muscle behind it, and buy some proprietary drivers (until it managed to coerce the driver mfg. to make decent support for Linux), but I really think that HP *could* turn out a product that would be desirable to end users and not just to techies.

      I might not need to point this out, but I expect that this would offend purists mightily. What HP would probably need to do would be to maintain it's own repositories ala Debian or Ubuntu, and ONLY support software from those repositories. One of them could be for commercial partners, where companies could sell GPL incompatible products. So there would be a base system which would be pure GPL, and there would be the extras repositories. Including the HP Store where you could buy software.

      This is something they *could* do, and do profitably. Will they? Probably not. It would require becoming a systems house rather than a hardware vendor, and they seem to be moving away from that direction (which they used to use with HP UX). It's adopting an approach more like that of Apple, but with low end (i.e., largely free) components. If HP still had the engineers in charge I think they could run with this and make dynamite systems that everyone would want at below the cost of the MS-based competition. I don't know if the current company could do anything. The (second or third hand) reports that I've been getting aren't very favorable.

      But this is an approach that ANY good engineering company with good name recognition could easily succeed at. Especially one with a heavy background in Unix/Linux.

      OTOH, it may well be that in the current market nothing would succeed. Sigh. A good product and good marketing combined won't succeed when the customers are hunkering down and cutting their budgets. Then the only things that can work are things that don't cost money, even in the short run.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    117. Re:SUSE laptops by Dare+nMc · · Score: 2, Interesting

      with linux the odds of complete success are lower, but the odds of complete disaster (computer no longer working) are much much lower also. Failure on linux, is take back the new device it didn't work. Failure on windows is, PC no longer reboots, so she sticks in the recovery CD, and everything is gone. (linux need recovery from this unlikely, but also data in a different partition with no default re-format.)

      EG most have no idea if its 98/XP/XP SP1/2/Vista. Wrong choice could be very bad for the computers Windows OS (some crappy installers out their.)

      The game has a very high risk of complete failure on windows (assuming she buys a decently challenging one with DRM, if not linux is likely OK too, assuming installed a package with wine, and autolaunch)

      The one that I would challenge, is the replacement computer. IE she has the mp3,webcam, MF printer, and a few programs, and replaces the computer. If she goes linux -> linux all is good (except in both cases needs help moving data.) If she has windows (say XP to Vista, or even XP to XP) no chance the hardware will work without downloads, and no idea what to download (why can't it ask for the driver by name?). chances are good the software can't be installed, or will corrupt something in the PC is decent their as well.

    118. Re:SUSE laptops by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Yea that is pretty much it. Until hardware vendors can create Linux binary install disks Linux is in trouble.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    119. Re:SUSE laptops by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 1

      You missed the point. The GP was saying that switching to Linux caused users to go "WTF?". My point was that Vista is sufficiently different from XP for the same thing to be true.

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    120. Re:SUSE laptops by Bootsy+Collins · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I hate to be the one to bring reality into this little discussion, but for HP to dump Windows and start selling Linux (or any other OS) instead is really, really stupid.

      Who said that? You are just making up a strawman argument.

      People are saying that if HP had the cojones, they would push to sell good consumer-grade linux systems. But they are not saying to "dump Windows."

      They're equivalent, since if HP started pushing quality consumer-grade Linux systems, MS can respond by simply no longer providing HP with OEM Windows to pre-install. After all, there are many other computer manufacturers that can fill the market space; there's only one MS to get Windows from.

    121. Re:SUSE laptops by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      "1 - I'm going to go on a limb and guess HP is still the number one printer seller. "
      What about Lexmark, Cannon, Kodak, and Brother? Hey people often buy what is on sale and I don't think you will find any of them that says they will work with Linux.
      "2 - I personally have yet to come across any major webcam that doesn't work in Linux."
      What about that one on sale for $10? And not every PC comes with a Webcam and none of them say they will work with Linux on the box.
      "4 - Tax software? Every major company has a website where you e-file online without the need for any additional software. "
      They why all the TurboTax and TaxCut boxes I see every year? Somebody is buying them.

      But the killer thing is if that Printer you bought doesn't work on Windows you call the support number and they help you fix it or you go to RentaFireGeek and pay them to fix it. Same for the webcam. If your on Linux....
      As I said I like Linux and use it but those are the hang ups.
      If HP put Supports Linux on every printer and offered support for it then that would be great.
      If some company setup a Linux version of ITunes for software and got Quicken and the Game makers to put software on it that would also be great.
      Right now it is an issue.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    122. Re:SUSE laptops by Zaiff+Urgulbunger · · Score: 1

      Dumping Windows _would_ be silly. But, pushing hard with a Linux alternative would make a huge amount of sense given the current economic climate, and HP are a big enough vendor to be able to handle the additional work that would entail. In fact, I'd almost go as far as to say that it would be stupid of HP *not* too look seriously to Linux at this time.

    123. Re:SUSE laptops by Machtyn · · Score: 1

      I do believe that most of HPs customers are not the home customer, but the business customer. Business clients want support. If HP is willing to support linux desktops for these business's users (including the secretary who needs your basic office suite, calendar, web browser and solitaire to the engineers, artists, etc class of users) then the businesses will likely roll up their sleeves and say, OK.

      HP just needs to realize that they do have the power to do that. IBM have done this. Dell could do it, too.

    124. Re:SUSE laptops by Machtyn · · Score: 1

      If you've got to learn a new system anyway, why not learn a flavor of Linux or BSD? Vista has done more for Mac sales than Apple ever could have done. People are willing to learn a new system and are doing so.

    125. Re:SUSE laptops by HiThere · · Score: 1

      That's a choice that would be reasonable, but it's not the one that would be best for HP.

      The best choice for HP would be to do an Apple, only start with an existing distro, say Debian or Ubuntu. Then customize it for their own hardware, including in a separate repository any necessary proprietary drivers (which are included in the purchase price).
      Then add another repository which is the HP store, where they sell additional software. Possibly that could be broken into two sections, one of which is supported by HP, and the other of which isn't.

      Note that what we're doing here is essentially separating the repositories by license. The base repository would be GPL. The other repositories would be commercial in one way or another. Possibly included in the price of the system and possibly not. Differs by repository. They could also have the equivalents of Ubuntu's Universe and Multi-verse repositories.

      But this is assuming that they are still the engineering company that they used to be. That's not the way I read the rumors that I've been hearing. It's certainly not what the last couple of HP products I bought indicate. Based on that I'm not even sure that they *HAVE* a quality control arm anymore.

      --

      I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
    126. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No they couldn't, at least not just like that; Remember anti-trust regulations? And now there isn't a MS sock-puppet in the white house anymore. I think Microsoft will have to tread a lot more lightly in the coming years.

    127. Re:SUSE laptops by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      Two of the people I converted to Linux in the past week were because of printers. They have a printer, but Vista doesn't provide drivers for their older printer, and the manufacturer isn't making new Vista drivers for older printers. But they both just worked in Linux. I know Brother makes their own dedicated Linux drivers, but Lexmark, Cannon and Kodak are supported by CUPS and Gutenprint I believe.

      Routinely I come across older printers without new drivers on Windows. I don't have that problem in Linux.

      As far as cheap/random webcams, my ISP gave some cheap ones away. The manufacturer had Windows 98 drivers and that was it, hence the massive give away. They work in Linux however.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    128. Re:SUSE laptops by jmorris42 · · Score: 1

      > Go to BestCircutMartDepot and.
      > 1. Buy an all in one printer.

      I assume you mean multi-function? Yea, everything on the shelves works with Windows. But that doesn't stop Apple now does it. Same thing here, If there ain't a penguin on the box check the Internet before hooking it up. We do need easier ways to do that checking.

      2. Buy a webcam.

      This situation is quickly changing. Many do work these days. And yet again, see above.

      3. Buy a Game.

      Again, why do people who buy Macs have no problem with the concept that Windows software doesn't run. I know Mac people, they aren't noted for coming from the clueful side of the bell curve for the most part. Average to slightly below is typical. And we have Wine/Crossover/Transgaming/etc to partially offset the problem. Beyond that, both Linux and current Mac folk having the option to dual boot if that is easier than just buying a Playstation.

      4. Buy Tax Software.

      Online.

      Longterm, once we get the penguin beyond critical mass those cheap printers and webcams, etc. WILL have penguins onb the box. Mass marketed consumer electronics is low margin and sensitive to returns, get a critical mass of Linux installs and if some return the printer instead of the eeePC they manufacturers will change quick. Short term the people selling Linux preloads need to see the problem as an opportunity to sell accessories known to work with what they are preloading.

      --
      Democrat delenda est
    129. Re:SUSE laptops by jmorris42 · · Score: 1

      > You see,this is why I gave up on selling Linux Pcs in my shop.

      Sounds like you shouldn't be in sales and marketing. Apple has thrived for decades in a world where 'everything' is built and sold for Windows. Their customers don't have a problem realizing that unless a product says on the box that it works with a Mac that it probably doesn't. They understand that if they tried to return a Mac to the store months after purchase because a piece o' crap Walmart special winprinter didn't work they would get laughed at.

      Apparently you do give em their money back, perhaps becuse you realize it WAS your fault. You didn't make it clear that they were NOT buying a Windows PC, that like the Mac they were buying 'something different.' That Linux has advantages, lower cost, higher realibility and immunity to malware and vast amounts of software either preloaded or a click/download away yet it also has a few disadvantages, like a smaller subset of supported hardware (but larger than Apple for example) and that it generally doesn't run Windows or Mac software.

      --
      Democrat delenda est
    130. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      Look at the reasons Mac owners say they prefer Macs. No malware is one of them.

      This needs to change and soon.

      I should learn to code to do just this.

    131. Re:SUSE laptops by networkBoy · · Score: 1

      I don't know if it would be a violation.
      They can talk about it, and implement it, just have to cross t's and dot i's carefully.
      Pay Cannocial to support your platform out of the box (and the drivers will propagate such that you're not tied to ubuntu if you don't want to be.
      -nB

      --
      whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
    132. Re:SUSE laptops by Free+the+Cowards · · Score: 1

      The relevant population is those people who are capable of purchasing and installing new hardware on their own, but who aren't capable or willing to do any research beforehand. My experience, yours may be different, is that this population is really small. Most computer users are either so incapable that they cannot install it at all, and therefore the "easier" path provided by Windows does not help them, or they are capable enough that they will look for Linux-compatible printers if they have a Linux machine. It's possible that this middle segment is actually really huge and so this is a big deal, but basically every computer user I've ever encountered falls into one of the two outer categories that I describe.

      --
      If you mod me Overrated, you are admitting that you have no penis.
    133. Re:SUSE laptops by Bootsy+Collins · · Score: 1

      When it comes to MS, anti-trust regulations have been toothless in the past; why would they have any more teeth in the future? Colleen Kollar-Kotelly was a *Clinton* appointment.

    134. Re:SUSE laptops by hairyfeet · · Score: 0

      Apple is able to pull that because of their BRANDING,nothing more. Believe me I have known plenty of Mac heads and a snobbier bunch has never been on the earth. It is EASY for Apple to do this. Why? Because you don't see OSX being sold on a Dell,that is why. When folks see the Dell,HP Gateway,etc label on their machine they expect it to work like every Dell,Gateway,HP etc that they have ever owned.

      And if I go Whitebox and build the whole damned thing from scratch anyway,then why would I bother putting Linux on it? I can make more profit with a copy of WinXP Home. Because with WinXP Home I KNOW that whatever tech junk they have at home will work,period. Because XP has been on the market long enough that nothing in the past 5 years has been sold to Joe consumer that doesn't have XP drivers. With the Linux ABI trying to keep drivers going after a kernel update is like trying to hit a dartboard with a live bumblebee. Not fun

      And THAT is why you won't see Linux on the home user's PC anytime soon,if ever. netbooks are a completely different market,as the user looks at them as a "toy" and a "browser in a box" and don't expect anything that didn't come with it to work. And even with those 4 times the return rate for Linux Netbooks over XP,according to MSI. So you tell me,Mr. Morris,if a company with the resources of MSI has to deal with a 400% higher return rate on a product that folks have had no previous experience with,how am I supposed to convince Joe and Jane consumer that the Dell they buy from me shouldn't work with anything they buy at Walmart and they should be happy with that because they saved $100?

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    135. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Maybe us grammar nazis have a point.

      Maybe grammar nazis like us have a point.

    136. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      isn't it great to see a pdf file with emails that were printed out and then badly scanned.

    137. Re:SUSE laptops by Amazing+Quantum+Man · · Score: 1

      That was my point.

      --
      Fascism starts when the efficiency of the government becomes more important than the rights of the people.
    138. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

      I disagree...My wife wanted to know what Linux meant and why Ubuntu is different. Stupid me started explaining what an OS was, and she glazed over, so I handed her my Ubuntu laptop and told her to download one of her games and play. She opened firefox, went to big fish games, downloaded an exe, and for some strange reason she couldn't install it. She may not know what a kernel is and really what an OS is but she manages to get around on the WINDOWS computer, download games, play them, and do what she likes to do...Then I told her you need to download Wine apply the animated cursor patch then go to to terminal type in wine....well no I didn't really do that last part...but you get the point.

    139. Re:SUSE laptops by jmorris42 · · Score: 1

      > When folks see the Dell,HP Gateway,etc label on their machine they expect
      > it to work like every Dell,Gateway,HP etc that they have ever owned.

      Which would be a good reason to prequalify your customer before you ring up the sale. If I were selling Linux on a branded PC like that (I assume these are old off lease machines or something?) I'd make sure they understood their options. Have some good point of sale material posted and be ready to answer questions. That they can take Linux with the pros and cons I mentioned in the previous post clearly spelled out or get Windows XP at an additional charge.

      > And if I go Whitebox and build the whole damned thing from scratch anyway,then why
      > would I bother putting Linux on it? I can make more profit with a copy of WinXP Home.

      Of course you can make more profit that way.... if you make the sale. Linux allows you the option to do exactly the same thing Dell is doing with their netbook. Offer a low advertised sticker price and sell Windows as an upsale option. Some customers will indeed either need Windows (specific software) or believe they do (comfort of the familiar) enough to pay the extra fee. For those Linux was a bait & switch loss leader and you don't care because you got em into your store instead of Best Buy. Some will take a chance to either save some coin or because they have reinstalled Windows to get rid of a virus one time too many or whatever reason.

      As a small screwdriver shop (that is the impression I get from your posts) generally flying under the radar you would have a third grey option available to you. You could offer to let em change their mind. Tell em to take the Linux load home and give it a try and if they change their mind they can bring it back within the first X days, pay the difference (plus perhaps a small bench fee) and get Windows loaded. Add leverage to the low price to get em to close by offering them a safe way to change their mind. Work it right (you DO have your Windows imaging down to a science where you could do it while they wait, right?) and if they do come back you come out ahead of where you would have been selling it with Windows outright plus you get back in your store where you have an opportunity to sell again.

      --
      Democrat delenda est
    140. Re:SUSE laptops by Abreu · · Score: 1

      I hate to be the one to bring reality into this little discussion, but for HP to dump Windows and start selling Linux (or any other OS) instead is really, really stupid.

      Not dump it, just offer the option, like they used to.

      My Acer netbook comes in Linux and Windows flavors and runs like a charm

      --
      No sig for the moment.
    141. Re:SUSE laptops by ChienAndalu · · Score: 1

      I'd buy one. You'd probably buy one, too. But almost everyone else in the known universe wants Windows on their computer.

      I have installed Linux for other people. I think an earlier comment was right - Linux's biggest problem is lack of consumer awareness, which comes down to lack of marketing.

      Well, I was thinking exactly the same when I read the post. But think about it: you installed it, and installing Linux is the tricky part. Once Youtube and mp3s are working, nobody complains, but you have to do some command line magic until you get there. Even with Ubuntu.

    142. Re:SUSE laptops by msuarezalvarez · · Score: 1

      Meet ^W.

    143. Re:SUSE laptops by Molochi · · Score: 1

      I kinda fell into that last catagory. I'd been wanting to use linux on a desktop since slackware 3.5 (really). My problems were I like wizbang hardware in my desktop,I want ALL of it to work, I get to spend very little time outside of windows or cisco stuff at work, and I have only a few hours a week to just devote to fixing something I broke. Every system I've built for myself for the last 10 years or so has had a decent videocard, and (until this last build) a pricey sound card. But until fairly recent distros (say the last year an a half), the time investment to get a working desktop (or the lack of hardware support) far outweighed the advantages of Linux.

      Nowadays, I DO have a powerful, daily use, linux desktop system and I'm about to redistro my older Opteron GF6800 system. I may even try again on my notebook. Because Linux now usually works on initial install well enough to use on a day to day basis, I have had the ability and the opportunity to learn more about the OS as a desktop.

      --
      "The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
    144. Re:SUSE laptops by GaryPatterson · · Score: 1

      I supported your point, but you have to go and take a cheap shot for no reason:

      "Apple is able to pull that because of their BRANDING,nothing more. Believe me I have known plenty of Mac heads and a snobbier bunch has never been on the earth."

      So now while I still support your point, but know that you're an arse.

      Here's fun for you - spend 15 years being told your platform of choice is a toy (despite not having the games released for it) and that you're obviously stupid because you prefer not to deal with command lines. Look in any popular media and see the insults reinforced by pundits.

      When you've done that, come back and I'll call you an elitist, a snob, someone who can't think through a marketing slogan without whipping out your credit card. I'll call you a follower, a slave to fashion, a flavour-of-the-month purchaser. I'll tell you that you don't understand anything about computers, and the whole BSD system is lost on you because you don't think.

      Hell, I'll probably call you gay, just for fun.

      I'll keep calling you those things for another 8 years.

      Which is where we are today. Forgive me if your cheap shot is all I need to realise you're an arse.

      You probably didn't mean it, and I'm normally a bit thicker-skinned, but I'm tired of bozo comments from people who should have some clue.

    145. Re:SUSE laptops by ConceptJunkie · · Score: 1

      So in reality you save 30$ by not having Windows installed, and then pay 70$ more because NortonWare and JoeBobFirewall, etc

      And save more than that in the value of your time and your machine's performance without having a nice OS installation polluted with a bunch of crappy software.

      --
      You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
    146. Re:SUSE laptops by Molochi · · Score: 1

      I think the difference is the mechanic expects to be payed and says so, while the nerd does not and prefers to sulk about it.

      --
      "The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
    147. Re:SUSE laptops by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

      When it comes to MS, anti-trust regulations have been toothless in the past; why would they have any more teeth in the future? Colleen Kollar-Kotelly was a *Clinton* appointment.

      Well, for one thing, claiming that IE was mandatory to the operation of the OS was technical bullshit that only technical people could easily recognize as bullshit.

      Denying their largest single customer OEM sales of windows will (a) hurt MS in the short term with 100% certainty and (b) be blatantly obvious as an anti-trust violation because it requires no technical acumen to understand.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    148. Re:SUSE laptops by Molochi · · Score: 1

      I think the difference is the mechanic expects to be payed and says so, while the nerd does not and prefers to sulk about it. The mechanic knows that his skills have value and has the conviction to make others recognize that, the nerd does not have the confidence for that.

      When friends and family members of "mechanics" are gifted with free service they know it and are required to show difference, appreciation, and some form of reciprocation. But it's a subtle negotiation, you have to be willing to need their skills and recognize they have value too.

      --
      "The Adobe Updater must update itself before it can check for updates. Would you like to update the Adobe Updater now?"
    149. Re:SUSE laptops by mgblst · · Score: 1

      while they may suffer for it in the short term, the long term looks a whole lot brighter

      This would work if everybody did it. If only one company does it, it won't.

      It would be the equivalent of a car company coming out with a new car, that while better in every way, wouldn't run on normal roads.

    150. Re:SUSE laptops by mgblst · · Score: 1

      An idiotic statement, expecting them to drop Microsoft.

      What they could do, is spend more money improving Linux support, ensuring all their hardware works with Linux. This would hurt microsoft. They could even spend money on improving Linux in other ways, looking at using it in other areas (ipaq, etc...).

    151. Re:SUSE laptops by mgblst · · Score: 1

      How is this against anti-trust regulations? This is two companies co-operating, nothing bad there.

    152. Re:SUSE laptops by davolfman · · Score: 1

      Which is the problem with Vista: It works just enough different than XP in many parts to piss people off.

    153. Re:SUSE laptops by hairyfeet · · Score: 1

      Oh yeah,I have got pre-built XP Home and pro images that I simply drop the drivers onto and hit burn,so that isn't a problem. I will certainly give your ideas a try. Having a "loss leader" to lure more customers in the door is always a good thing. Thanks for the advice!

      --
      ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
    154. Re:SUSE laptops by davolfman · · Score: 1

      I always heard HP's linux inkjet drivers tended to be a little lacking compared to Epson's pretty much universal support. And your average consumer doesn't give a rats ass about the postscript support on the laser printers he never buys.

    155. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      At least MS and Redhat recognize onboard raid when you install them. Ubuntu doesn't; you have to download a text installer and even then it doesn't always work. Ubuntu also doesn't support wireless technology worth a shit; it's easier to get it working on fedora for shits sake, even with the rpm hell. You need to suggest a credible alternative to Windows. You may not like it, but MS does have way more driver support and no need to worry about what is GNU compliant, and no weenies yelling "It's not open source!!!" every time they offer a driver that will make using your computer a load easier. The problem is dogmatic dickheads more concerned with some unreachable idea than with letting people be able to use their tools instead of insisting on knowing how to build them.

    156. Re:SUSE laptops by rabbit994 · · Score: 1

      What technical reasons for AMD? Everything I read and experience in RL has Intel thumping AMD just about any shootout except price and most companies are going to haggle over a few hundred dollars in most cases. If I was a middle manager and you came in talking about AMD because of some monopoly reason, I would have not signed the paper work.

    157. Re:SUSE laptops by Rary · · Score: 1

      Which is the problem with Vista: It works just enough different than XP in many parts to piss people off.

      But not as different from XP as switching to Linux -- which means more than just a new operating system, but all (or at least mostly) new applications as well.

      --

      "You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein

    158. Re:SUSE laptops by xous · · Score: 1

      Maybe us grammar nazis have a point.

      Maybe grammar nazis like us have a point.

      Maybe grammar Nazis like us have a point.

    159. Re:SUSE laptops by Cor-cor · · Score: 1

      Wasn't there a story on here some time ago about HP looking into developing their own flavor of Linux?

      I'd venture that they're taking a harder look at it now. Doesn't have to be their only offering, but it would definitely get Microsoft's attention to see it get implemented. Especially if they make it price-competitive with their Windows line.

    160. Re:SUSE laptops by Cussin_IT · · Score: 1

      Actualy, a much better analogy would be a car company producing a car that is better in every way, but wouldn't run on ordanary fuels.

      Say...... That souds farmiliar, I'm thinking alchahol, hydrogen, eletric.... nah, that's just the last party I went to.

      --
      Read my blog you know you want to
    161. Re:SUSE laptops by Cor-cor · · Score: 1

      And have YOU ever tried getting the crap they sell at Walmart to run in Linux?

      I find this comment particularly interesting. A couple years back I got an all-in-one printer that was on sale at Walmart. HP's friendly little installation guide got it installed, for the most part, on my (then) Windows box.

      The problem was it didn't stay installed. Every time it got unplugged or powered off and reconnected the software would pop up, reinstall the printer, and give it a new name (of course no the default). It caused me all kinds of problems, sometimes preventing me from using the printer, and while I admit I'm no IT expert, I consider myself fairly computer savvy.

      Eventually some other problems with the Windows box convinced me to bite the bullet and give Linux a whirl. I was dreading the printer install, but to my surprise, it worked immediately upon plugging it in, with no further issues on any of the functions it has. The same goes for all peripherals I have tried, with the exception of my mp3 player that syncs with Amarok easily enough.

      I would say the average user is intelligent enough to at least match up the plugs Sesame Street-style. (cue IT horror storries) If that's all the setup required in Linux, as it seems to be, I think most would even prefer it to the bullshit some peripherals put you through because of the GUI.

    162. Re:SUSE laptops by davolfman · · Score: 1

      And a LOT of half functional GUI config tools.

    163. Re:SUSE laptops by the_womble · · Score: 1
      It does need some fiddling, but nothing as intidating as command line magic.

      Enabling some repos and installing some codes does it.

    164. Re:SUSE laptops by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

      An idiotic statement, expecting them to drop Microsoft.

      An idiotic poster, reading things that I did not write and then writing things that I wrote and claiming them for his own.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    165. Re:SUSE laptops by Mex · · Score: 1

      "They've clearly been fooled (at least) once now, will they let themselves be fooled twice?"

      Oh, no, not at all. After all, remember:
      There's an old saying in Tennessee I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee that says, fool me once, shame on shame on you. Fool me you can't get fooled again.

    166. Re:SUSE laptops by atraintocry · · Score: 1

      In the real world, they have no reason to do any of that.

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Usage_share_of_desktop_operating_systems

      What would they gain? The ire of the shareholders?

      If they could push linux on the desktop in a significant way, and come out ahead, they would. One day, they probably will. That's business. They've been around much longer than Microsoft, and seeing on how Microsoft is not as diverse a company as HP, maybe they'll outlast MS as well.

      But, for the time being, their customers want Windows. I think that the linux push, if there is one, has to come from the community for quite a while longer before it makes financial sense for the OEMs to throw out their MS discounts.

      That, or MS could stop pulling bullshit like subverting the ISO, and we wouldn't have to treat proprietary software stacks like they're a contagious disease.

    167. Re:SUSE laptops by atraintocry · · Score: 1

      Maybe we "grammar Nazis" have a point.

    168. Re:SUSE laptops by atraintocry · · Score: 1

      Speak for yourself :)

    169. Re:SUSE laptops by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 1

      OK, Dell has Windows vs. [hidden on the back page behind a sign reading "beware of the penguin"], but you get the idea).

      Check Dell's site again. (allow dell.com through noscript) Over there on the side... among the checkboxes.

    170. Re:SUSE laptops by argiedot · · Score: 1

      I had a HP Compaq NX 7300. It was a good laptop, everything worked perfectly in Ubuntu. In fact, the touchpad was better in Ubuntu than in Windows XP.

    171. Re:SUSE laptops by Antique+Geekmeister · · Score: 1

      It depends on the price point you're at. Power consumption versus performance remains good with AMD at the lower end, and when you have racks full of them, power consumption and price adds up, especially when you're expanding into a limited space with no budget for more cooling and switching to quad-core and using virtualization to economize.

    172. Re:SUSE laptops by atraintocry · · Score: 1

      I have heard these arguments from you before. I agreed with them then and I agree now. Though, like I said before, I don't think there's much *technology-wise* that keeps street-corner linux support from becoming financially viable, just that there's not much of a market for it at present.

      You speak from experience. It's always enjoyable to hear from such people. These "armchair OEMs" shouldn't be telling you how to run your shop, or that you don't know how to market because you decided not to lopsidedly cater to what's, at best, 2% of the market.

      But then there's this...

      Believe me I have known plenty of Mac heads and a snobbier bunch has never been on the earth.

      Maybe I just have good friends, but if we drool over gadgets, we don't look at the brand first. I know plenty of people who not only use Apple but work for them (Apple stores, not Cupertino) and even they know not to argue with people about, of all things, what brand of computer they use.

      I know the stereotype is Macheads are snobs, but I've just never ever experienced it. To the contrary, what I get is people looking for ways to knock my computer, like it actually offends them that I'm not on a PC. Then they go fishing for something to insult with. Now that Apple is back in the public eye, they flip to the index card marked "it's faddish". (If having a well-thought-out OS on decent hardware is a fad, then I hope it continues for as long as possible.)

      But we are defined by our actions, not by what brands we consume. If somebody wants to infer something about me based on my computer, I will infer that they believe that they were gullible enough to buy into this "brand = lifestyle" thing the ad goons have stuck us with. Their loss.

      My one extremely mild caveat: I know one Mac user who basically told me, "I caught a deal on a PC and tried Windows for a while, and I don't understand why people like it." Not exactly what I'd call snobbishness, just an honest but uninformed question. I made sure I answered it though, or at least made him understand that most people feel the opposite way, since there's a lot that's good about Windows.

    173. Re:SUSE laptops by atraintocry · · Score: 1

      Because over 90% of their desktop customers still want Windows, and because Microsoft is probably giving them a lot more than a $10 discount for playing nice.

      I'm not saying it wouldn't be nice, it's just not realistic right now. Now, if Windows 7 tanks, we might start to see some nice-looking linux systems.

      Then again, are you sure we want HP doing this? HP thinks it's acceptable to spackle their own media center on top of Microsoft's, because selling you the machine is not enough, and because apparently Microsoft's doesn't take long enough to load.

    174. Re:SUSE laptops by jonaskoelker · · Score: 1

      hidden on the back page behind a sign reading "beware of the penguin"

      Hey, don't omit the crucial fact that it's in a disused lavatory in the cellar with no lights and no stairs.

    175. Re:SUSE laptops by MadMidnightBomber · · Score: 1

      I was thinking "the average user is an idiot and should have bought a Mac so they don't come and bother me."

      I don't know if Macs have fewer issues, or if I just don't get to hear about them. Either way, I win.

      --
      "It doesn't cost enough, and it makes too much sense."
    176. Re:SUSE laptops by daveime · · Score: 1

      Fool me once shame on you
      Fool me twice shame on me
      Only the folks in Palo Alto will fall for number seven.

      There, fixed that for you.

    177. Re:SUSE laptops by daveime · · Score: 1

      Yes, but in the real world, you don't want your significant other/spouse/concubine/granny (DELETE INAPPROPRIATE), making demands on your time at all hours to do a 5 minute (or possibly longer) "sysadmin" job, just so she can install and play some daft Flash game.

      They just want it to work how they expect it to.

      Technology is supposed to set us free, not bind us in slavery.

    178. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      OS/2 was ahead of it's time in some respects and behind in others.
      Technically superior to windows NT in almost every way, the first version sucked as it did not have native networking, and you had to add lanmanger to get it to talk to anything, and it was still pretty slow even on a fast 486, but you really needed 8MB RAM to get any real performance.
      Warp fixed the networking side of things, but by then IBM had given the farm away to NT4 as the native Win32 support in NT4 took off and the easier to understand Program Manager shell prevailed over the much more flexible Presentation Manager shell in OS/2
      Then Microsoft got all the hardware manufacturers on side so they wrote drivers for NT, while most epople on OS2/ had to make do with standard VESA drivers for graphics, which again crippled Presentation Manager based apps.

      Then from a developer point of view, OS/2 and NT4 support Win32 APIs. If I'm going to write software I'll do it in the format that will work on both systems. Then eventually because NT4 was just easier to set up, if there was a choice, most people just bought NT4 as the apps often just worked better.

      Linux desktops - still too many things are glitchy on the deksop in linux. I like using my Mac desktop because it really is just a UNix with a nice aqua shell, and most things just work. I have yet to have an odd or unexplained graphical crash, the GUI always starts, I've never been left at the >login: prompt after changing graphics resolutions etc and for home the parental control configuration is just unparalleled and I have seen nothing like it working out of the box for Linux (restrict login time (elapsed and login hours), restrict apps, simplify the doc bar etc. But for my server, I can run that on any hardware, Linux runs well virtualised inside VMWare server, or Xen etc and almost never needs to be rebooted for patching unlike Windows and OS X (which will make you restart even if it is only updating quicktime or iphoto)

    179. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I agree. My wife call the other day needing a DVD burner app installed. She was using my linux desktop as her Vista machine was poked (some bad app on facebook had killed her)

      Conversation on phone: Wive:I need to burn this file onto DVD to send to XXXXX by the end of today.
      Me: Double click on the ion that looks like an old screen with a small arrow in it... yes ... Terminal.
      Wife: OK, now what?
      Me: type sudo apt-get install k3b.
      Wife: It's asked my for my password.
      Me: enter it.
      Wife: It says it's done.
      me: enter k3b.
      Wife, is that it, no software to download, no next, next, next OK?
      Me: Nope you'r ready to burn.

      She would have been more lost in Windows looking for some DVD burning app, and even then if she had managed to find something like Nero on the net, she would have no idea how to download and install it. It would have taken a much longer and more detailed phone conversation.

    180. Re:SUSE laptops by Weedlekin · · Score: 1

      "Linux's biggest problem is lack of consumer awareness, which comes down to lack of marketing."

      It isn't a lack of marketing so much as the fact that the majority of computer buyers haven't got any real idea of what an OS is, let alone what it does, hence the fact Apple's geek-annoying advertising campaigns go on about Macs and PCs, not OS X and Windows. This is why Linux is making significant inroads on netbooks, which are a relatively new type of device that people don't necessarily think of as "a computer", just as they don't think of their mobile phones as computers despite the fact that many of them can browse the Internet and send and receive various types of EMAIL, which are two of the most common things they use computers for. It's also notable that netbooks are where MS has responded to a perceived threat from Linux by offering a low-cost version of XP to manufacturers for the foreseeable future despite their announced plans to end-of-life it on "real" computers.

      --
      I'm not going to change your sheets again, Mr. Hastings.
    181. Re:SUSE laptops by Weedlekin · · Score: 1

      A quick perusal of the reviews reveals that (a) most people bought the version with Vista business on; (b) the Linux (Suse Enterprise 10.X) which comes with it machine doesn't work at all well with its hardware; and (c) many customers with both Vista and Linux pre-installs ended up putting XP on their machines.

      Add the above to the bad experiences a lot of customers have reported with the various less-than-salutary Linux systems on some other netbooks, and you have a situation where the fact that Linux is being offered at all may end up being a mixed blessing in the long term due to do insufficient commitment from hardware vendors, who seem to expect the FOSS community to do most of their hardware compatibility work for them so they don't have to spend any money doing it themselves.

      IMO Linux won't gain many converts among ordinary users while hardware manufacturers continue to treat it as an option for cheapskates who will put up with a substandard experience to save a little money, and geeks that solve problems for themselves and then put the results on the Internet where the manufacturer can take advantage of them without spending anything.

      --
      I'm not going to change your sheets again, Mr. Hastings.
    182. Re:SUSE laptops by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      But you see that is the problem.
      OLDER stuff works on Linux. But if you buy new then you may run into problems.
      What people on slashdot don't understand when it comes to the Granny test is this.
      You have to just open the box, plug it in, and maybe stick in the CD and have it work.
      And actually Lexmark has pretty spotty support for Linux at best last time I checked. That is why I stay clear of them.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    183. Re:SUSE laptops by islandstifle · · Score: 1

      I had to check my oil on my driving test. (I could do that, but failed for driving too slowly.)

    184. Re:SUSE laptops by Ant+P. · · Score: 2, Insightful

      The problem is a lack of over the counter software and the lack of a stable binary driver interface.

      First one is a non-problem. Windows doesn't have a package manager with 10000 programs either.
      Second statement is false. Linux can still run a.out programs from 1991. Last time I checked Win64 still couldn't run a 32-bit browser plugin from last week.

    185. Re:SUSE laptops by Ant+P. · · Score: 0, Troll

      The problem is not that you sell Linux PCs, but that you sell Lexmark printers.

    186. Re:SUSE laptops by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Okay you don't get it. As I am said I am a Linux user and I do like but what you are describing is the problem and not a solution.
      Buying a Printer.
      Windows
      1. Go to store.
      2. Find printer you like.
      3. Buy printer.
      4. Go home and stick in the install disk and it works.
      Linux
      1. Go to the store.
      2. Find the printer you like
      3. Go home.
      4. Google the printer plus Linux.
      5. Find an up to date link.
      6. If printer not supported to go 1.
      7. Buy printer.
      8. Go home.
      9. Download the driver and configure cups and hope it works.

      Of course you could just buy HP. Also Epsons tend to work. But even then it is best to check.

      I don't care that Linux can not run Windows software. I understand that. What is a pain is the lack of Software you can buy for Linux. Yes there is a ton of great free software but there is also 90 tons of crap free software. Gimp, OO.org, and Firefox are all great but it would be nice to have an outlet for none FOSS software for Linux. I would buy every Game that I currently boot into Windows to play for Linux If I could.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    187. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yup. Another problem with the Ubuntu line from Dell is that they aren't significantly powered machines. Sure they can do what most users do, but I'm a developer and I want Linux for the performance boost and platform stability, not to save a few bucks because the GUI will run on cheaper hardware.

    188. Re:SUSE laptops by Creepy · · Score: 1

      Ah, true - I read this from a technological standpoint, but really I wanted to find a nice happy place to talk about why this happened in the first place.

      I personally don't advocate any OS - I say learn them all and let the ignorant masses sort out which one is dominant. I also prefer to educate - every time I see one of those "Use a Windows Media PC to replace your DVR!" commercials I point out if you just want to use a PC for that, install Linux and MythTV and you get a much cheaper solution that has (IMO) a better interface. Macs can also be used as a DVR, though I've never personally used one (my brother has this setup on his mini, but he likes pretty much only sports and I like pretty much the opposite of that, so I've never used it).

    189. Re:SUSE laptops by Trillan · · Score: 1

      More accurate, but loses the rhyme and cadence.

      Maybe I should have said "eighty." :)

    190. Re:SUSE laptops by seebs · · Score: 1

      The difference is this:

      If I have to tell a user to bring up a CLI and type something, I have lost -- I have no longer presented a seamless experience.

      On the other hand, if I can't, this often means that the thing I want to do CANNOT BE DONE AT ALL. And then not only have I lost at providing a seamless experience, I have lost at providing any experience at all.

      The users I support would be a lot happier with "open a CLI and type fix_it_please" than they are with "well, maybe if we remove the driver, reload it, and then reconfigure the firewall, it'll start working again."

      --
      My blog: http://www.seebs.net/log/ --- My iPhone/iPad app: http://www.seebs.net/seebsfrac/
    191. Re:SUSE laptops by Twisted64 · · Score: 1

      Regarding the shift, it's just a question of compatibility. Accounting software, tricky little apps that log your calls... we can't guarantee any of this under linux, and it's still cheaper for the customer to pay for and train themselves to use Vista rather than pay for ridiculous amounts of support time just to get their applications running. If their applications won't work under Vista, then they might find themselves facing a choice, but that's only the case with older unsupported apps now.

      As somebody on the internet once said, "Linux is free if your time is worth nothing."

      --
      Consciousness is a myth. Trust me.
    192. Re:SUSE laptops by GWBasic · · Score: 1

      I hate to be the one to bring reality into this little discussion, but for HP to dump Windows and start selling Linux (or any other OS) instead is really, really stupid.

      Intel sprang ahead in the x86 market by making a "stupid" decision and refusing to 2nd source* the 386 chip. It really pissed off IBM, who was the largest buyer of x86 chips at the time.

      Needless to say, all of the clone makers were drooling at the opportunity to come out with a 386 before IBM.

      HP deciding to drop Windows could be a tipping point. I doubt it will happen, but, as demonstrated, the entire industry dynamic changed based on a "stupid" decision.

      * In the early days of the semi-conductor industry, no one would buy a large order of chips from one manufacturer unless another manufacturer could produce identical parts. AMD rose to power because Intel let them manufacture the 8088 and x286 as a 2nd source for IBM.

    193. Re:SUSE laptops by GWBasic · · Score: 1

      It takes 4 hours for orientation

      And that's where you'll loose people.

    194. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, what you should do is go back to /g/, where you can remain as ignorant as you are.

    195. Re:SUSE laptops by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      That isn't really a troll, Lexmark printers are known for their poor Linux support.

  2. Email from Steve by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Jim,

    I most certainly did not... *picks up chair*
    It was *throws chair* Will Poole who made the decision. Blame him.

    Sorry I have to run. My anger management class starts in 5 minutes.

    Steve

    1. Re:Email from Steve by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Jim,

      I most certainly did not... *picks up chair*
      It was *throws chair* Will Poole who made the decision. Blame him.

      Sorry I have to run. My anger management class starts in 526 minutes.

      Steve

      FTFY

  3. DRA-MA by Taibhsear · · Score: 4, Funny

    This sounds more like high school than execs and CEOs... Sounds like you guys lost credibility a long time ago.

    1. Re:DRA-MA by Shadow+Wrought · · Score: 2, Funny

      This sounds more like high school than execs and CEOs

      It's supposed to be a major plot point in High School Musical V(ista)

      --
      If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
    2. Re:DRA-MA by jornak · · Score: 2, Informative

      I'd say it's a bit more like preschool. I didn't do much finger-pointing and tattling in high school.

    3. Re:DRA-MA by mcgrew · · Score: 1

      It seemed to me around the time of the ENRON debacle that today's leaders of all kinds - business, clergy, political - are acting like selfish, spoiled children.

      I thought it was just me getting old. But now that it looks like we're in for an economic depression thanks to the selfish spoiled brats that run things, maybe it ISN'T just me getting old.

      Hmmm....

    4. Re:DRA-MA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, I had to think about what the [sic] was for: a grammar problem or the fact that they didn't have credibility to lose. I'm still not sure.

    5. Re:DRA-MA by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Oops...meant to mod as funny, not overrated. Sorry about that.

    6. Re:DRA-MA by StikyPad · · Score: 1

      Hmm.. sounds a lot like most of the _[_]O's I've heard, at least before their nonsense gets parsed by someone with a brain taking dictation. Unfortunately it seems that the achievement of such a position is based more on assertive/aggressive behavior, showing off, and/or taking credit rather than any actual competence, as so elegantly demonstrated in just about any Dilbert cartoon, ever.

    7. Re:DRA-MA by powerlord · · Score: 1

      I think I'd have 2 or three chances to send absurd emails like this before I got a stern "talking to" at work. I'm amazed that these are CEOs in charge of multi-billion dollar companies.

      You or I would get a "stern talking to" by our boss. Who is the boss of these childish CEOs who is both in the position to give them that stern talking to, and is aware of the childish memos they are sending around?

      The only people who MIGHT be in that position are the Board of Directors, and even they might not be able to fulfill both requirements.

      --
      This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
    8. Re:DRA-MA by Xtravar · · Score: 1

      The older I get, the more I realize that nobody ever really grows up. Most people are still acting out insecurities that they developed when they were children.

      --
      Buckle your ROFL belt, we're in for some LOLs.
    9. Re:DRA-MA by hey! · · Score: 1

      One thing I've learned in twenty five years in this business: the urge to do stupid things can be almost irresistible when it gets you an immediate reward. Ship the product broken and get management off your back; promise the moon and sort out the details later; send a customer away happy by doing something that makes ten customers walk away quietly.

      Perhaps one of the reason that business executives should have ethical training is that its practice in thinking about doing the right thing when the wrong thing "seems like the right thing at the time." The more I hear about this story, the more it sounds like management that makes impulsive, undisciplined choices.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  4. the Blame Game by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Point your finger harder!

  5. Amusingly Enough by daveatneowindotnet · · Score: 1

    The advertisement directly under this story reads "HERE'S TO LESS DROPPED BALLS. with Microsoft Visual Studio" you can't make this stuff up.

    1. Re:Amusingly Enough by MasterOfMagic · · Score: 1

      Microsoft Visual Studio - catering to newborn developers and their lack of descended testicles since 1997!

  6. haha! by apodyopsis · · Score: 1

    haha! with delight! I will be reaching for the popcorn whilst I read what promises to be an amusing article and linked mails.

    This will haunt them.

    I suspect they will get little sympathy from the /. crowd.

  7. Credibility? by TRex1993 · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wait...Microsoft had credibility with system-requirements to destroy?!?

    1. Re:Credibility? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No kidding. The real headline should have been "People working at Microsoft Believed it had credibility"

    2. Re:Credibility? by sheepweevil · · Score: 1

      Microsoft destroyed credibility [sic]

      [sic] here doesn't refer to only the misspelling. They also had no credibility to be destroyed.

  8. Balmer could have gone another route... by HerculesMO · · Score: 3, Funny

    And thrown a chair at Allchin.

    At least he's emailing now.

    --
    The price is always right if someone else is paying.
    1. Re:Balmer could have gone another route... by powerlord · · Score: 1

      True. We should credit him for learning to "use his words".

      Now I hope he learns "how to share" and "how to play nicely with others".

      --
      This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
  9. Somebody help me understand this . . . by mmell · · Score: 2, Interesting
    What is it about Intel's 915 chipset which made it unsuitable for Windows Vista?

    What did Intel do to make it suitable?

    1. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by lupis42 · · Score: 5, Informative

      It doesn't have the graphics power to run Aero. Intel instructed Microsoft to remove that as a requirement for the "Vista Capable" sticker. Microsoft agreed, despite previously telling ATI, Nvidia, and HP that they would not remove that requirement, even for Intel.

    2. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by Dr.+Hellno · · Score: 1
      From the article:

      The technology, known as the Windows Device Driver Model, or WDDM, was dropped in part because a widely used Intel "915 chipset" would not support it,

      I'm not very knowledgeable technically so that's all I can tell you

    3. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Intel did nothing, here's the analogy as it is.

      No child left behind : lower the standard of education so everyone can pass it...

      Intel's chip set couldn't run vista very well but could do it with "certain restrictions and some lost features" so Windows lowered the requirement standard to incorporate that chip set, thus deceiving the public that assumed it could run everything that came with Vista instead of an expensive version of XP.

    4. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      I don't run Vista but I'm going on a limb and guessing the graphics card struggles with the Aero interface. Otherwise I don't know why the chipset would be a big factor.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    5. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by EVil+Lawyer · · Score: 1

      It doesn't have the graphics power to run Aero. Intel instructed Microsoft to remove that as a requirement for the "Vista Capable" sticker. Microsoft agreed, despite previously telling ATI, Nvidia, and HP that they would not remove that requirement, even for Intel.

      And why did this suck for HP, exactly?

    6. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by AndGodSed · · Score: 1

      One thing.

      Intel might be Microsofts biggest partner (I might be wrong here, but still) and HP bought the lie.

      I am guessing that the HP tantrum is not only about being cheated, but also about being suckered, and they knew they bought a lie before it came to light.

      Fool me once, shame on me, fool me twice shame on you?

      Question is, will there be a "fool me twice" in this relationship? Will Microsoft get the chance?

    7. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 5, Informative

      And why did this suck for HP, exactly?

      Because HP had already made an investment in a more expensive (capable) product line based on the promises of MS. Now HP would have to compete against vendors offering less-powerful systems that could be also advertised as "Vista Capable", even though not actually capable according to the original definition.

      --
      It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
    8. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      HP had to provide more powerful hardware ($$$) in their computers in order to meet Microsoft's requirements than Intel.

    9. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      HP made one of the classic blunders and believed something that Microsoft had promised them. They then spent all sorts of money to engineer all their low end systems so they would be get the vista capable sticker. After HP had spent all the money, then Microsoft lowered the requirements so all of HP's competitors would also get the vista capable sticker with out having spent all of the money.

      The moral of the story is never believe anything anyone who currently works for Microsoft says to you. It might be wise to never believe anything anyone who has ever worked for Microsoft says.

    10. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by phatvw · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Presumably HP invested resources in more recent chipsets like Intel i945 to support Vista. HP then worried that their sales and/or unit profits would decrease because cheaper Intel i915-based systems would also qualify for "Vista Capable".

      Suppose Dell offers a i915-based system for $500, but HP offers a i945-based system for $550. Both have a Vista-capable logo - which one is the unenlightened customer gonna buy?

    11. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by hagardtroll · · Score: 1, Offtopic

      They placed it into the orthogontric manufacturing process. Three sheets to the wind on the Tranya supplies. Once they garantulate wildly, the machines are configured to support their minimal power supplied outcomes. We never cease to see from Intel, the various supply side ergonomics we seek from time to time. Never underestimate the power of free radical electrons to cogitate your display device on even intervals. When in doubt, there is always the forceful inclusion of semiconducted forest derivatives. Be vigilant, and some day you will have the freedom to encode entertainment streams through your house.

    12. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by yoshi_mon · · Score: 1

      Both have a Vista-capable logo - which one is the unenlightened customer gonna buy?

      I would however submit that Vista is not exactly a huge concern for even unenlightened customers. Given how many 'downgrade' to XP given a chance.

      --

      Really, I know what I'm doing...Ohhhh, look at the shiny buttons!
    13. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by PitaBred · · Score: 1

      Because HP sold machines that weren't based on the 915 because they were told that it wouldn't be Vista capable, and then lost a lot of business they would have otherwise had because Microsoft changed their mind in a backroom deal that ended up harming consumers overall by encouraging them to buy lower-spec machines that actually couldn't run Vista?

    14. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by vux984 · · Score: 1

      I have been using Vista Ultimate for about 6 months and I think that Aero is the least important new feature. In fact, I turned off Aero on one of my boxes even though it can technically run it.

      On machines with enough video horsepower that exceed 'can technically run it' Aero on is markedly faster than Aero off.

      Leveraging your video cards hardware acceleration to compose your desktop is a good idea, after all.

      I do admit that Aero is pretty but the transparency can actually be distracting too. Overall I don't miss it when I turn it off.

      If its just transparency that distracts you, you can just turn off Transparency.

      With Aero on, right click the desktop, select personalize, then Window Color and Appearance, and uncheck the 'enable transparency' box.

    15. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by Rakishi · · Score: 1

      Which is mostly irrelevant to the problem at hand. The requirement could have been about some absurd feature only 1 user in the world uses and it wouldn't have changed things. The discussion of this being a good or a bad idea would have mattered had it been made when vista was still not out. Now it's a moot point comapred to the problem of MS going back on requirements and promises that likely will results in many companies losing a lot of money.

    16. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      George, is that you?

      It's "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me."

    17. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      Aero is a massive beastie that won't run properly on intel's integrated graphics.

      Note that both Aqua and the various GPU rendering desktops available for Linux run happily on 915s.

    18. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! The most famous is, "Never get involved in a land war in Asia," but only slightly less well known is this: "Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!"

    19. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They placed it into the orthogontric manufacturing process. Three sheets to the wind on the Tranya supplies. Once they garantulate wildly, the machines are configured to support their minimal power supplied outcomes. We never cease to see from Intel, the various supply side ergonomics we seek from time to time. Never underestimate the power of free radical electrons to cogitate your display device on even intervals.

      When in doubt, there is always the forceful inclusion of semiconducted forest derivatives. Be vigilant, and some day you will have the freedom to encode entertainment streams through your house.

      What he said.

    20. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by mgblst · · Score: 1

      Don't be idiotic. Microsoft and HP have a long history of working together, they have both made loads of promises to each other and kept them. Microsoft has made HP billions of dollars, and vice versa.

    21. Re:Somebody help me understand this . . . by daveime · · Score: 1

      Well why didn't HP just make that a marketing campaign ?

      "HP, actually DOES work with all the Aero bells and whistles !!".

      A simple features comparison chart, HP vs Intel (basically Vista Ultimate vs Vista Basic) feature set would have done it.

      Who the hell buys a computer on the basis of a sticker ?

      Even my wife who is tech-illiterate, wants to know the comparitive features of a cell-phone or gadget she buys, not just whether it has a sticker or not.

      I think HP missed a golden opportunity to trounce the inferior competition with a kick-ass advertising campaign, and instead prefer to gripe about it in the courts.

  10. So.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Furries were involved. I knew it!

  11. "HP recommends Windows Vista Something" by Harri+Hammerhand · · Score: 1

    HP should stop moaning about its own (obviously unqualified) recommendations.

  12. Heh by Trailer+Trash · · Score: 1

    Microsoft destroyed credibility...

    Sorry, Jim, that train left the station back in the 90's, if not earlier.

    1. Re:Heh by jo42 · · Score: 1

      Isn't "Microsoft creditability" an example for the definition of Oxymoron in the dictionary?

    2. Re:Heh by jornak · · Score: 3, Funny

      No, that's "Microsoft Works".

    3. Re:Heh by hotdiggitydawg · · Score: 1

      I thought it was funny, even if the mods didn't...

    4. Re:Heh by s4ltyd0g · · Score: 1

      hahaha The day Microsoft makes a product that doesn't suck, it will be a vacuum cleaner...

  13. Re:Ooh for pete's sake by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Is there a mod for both "lacks reading comprehension" and "is exceptionally offensive"?

  14. Ring around the blame game... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Hard to argue with HP for being pissed off about this one. The PC market is cutthroat, so making an investment in higher priced integrated and/or discrete graphics chipsets, only to discover at the last moment that your competition has just been given the green light to undersell you with relaxed requirements has got to hurt.

    MS was in a lousy position there, with no way to please everybody; but their handling of the situation was surprisingly inelegant. Lots of confusion and behind-one-another's-back talking to partners. I wonder if they messed up, or if they figure that HP et al. will just have to suck it up. One also wonders, at this point, if it wouldn't have been better for MS to just pay Intel to dump the 915s(either literally, or into low-end "emerging markets" products).

    1. Re:Ring around the blame game... by MightyMartian · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It sure is looking to me like Microsoft was in panic mode, different managers and departments were all over the place. The whole thing obviously turned into a feeding frenzy. What this shows you is just how vile and inept the unholy alliances between Microsoft, Intel and the big-name PC manufacturers are. But you know what, these guys long ago sold their souls to Microsoft, basically letting the tail wag the dog, so it's hard to feel sorry for HP. If HP had some serious balls it would simply have said "If you don't step on this shitty Intel chipset, we're going to start pushing in a big way Ubuntu and OpenOffice, and maybe we're even going to throw some R&D dollars at it." HP is a large enough PC maker to make a threat like that quake Redmond's boots.

      Instead, while they may have privately bitched, at the end of the day, John Q Consumer was still buying equipment with "Vista Ready" stickers on it, unaware that, whatever the reason, a fair chunk of those computers were anything but.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:Ring around the blame game... by troll8901 · · Score: 1

      Anyone want to explain to me, whose side are we on?

      Maybe if you'd point out to me so I'd understand better: Who's the victim, villain and hero?

    3. Re:Ring around the blame game... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, Schadenfreude is alive and well in the human heart(and I don't much like MS anyway) so I'm doing some fairly serious smirking about their pain right now. The fact that this is all internal emails from high level guys, loaded with confusion and a downright adolescent level of spelling and grammar, coming out in discovery, just makes it better.

      In a slightly more emotionally distanced view, you have to admit that MS's position kinda sucked. They had to make a call, and whichever way they made it, some of their partners stood to lose big. In the end, I think they fucked up and make the wrong(and unethical) call, for which they are being sued. Your level of sympathy for HP depends largely on how much you see them as a willfully blind, idiotic enabler of MS vs. how much you see them as a victim of MS. As for heroes, none available. Everybody here was just grubbing at the money trough. Some were more unethical about it than others; but that is about all you can say.

    4. Re:Ring around the blame game... by jbolden · · Score: 1

      side: more of this coming out

      victim: people who buy the non-HP laptops to run vista. HP to some extent.

      villain: Microsoft people who changed the rules

      hero: Microsoft people who wrote the original rules. Possible Jim Alchin

    5. Re:Ring around the blame game... by Kent+Recal · · Score: 1

      Amen. I, for one, certainly don't feel sorry for HP who used to make excellent products (printers) but have long degraded into just another maker of mediocre "everything". I consider HP a noname brand nowadays as I have seen better printers from kyocera (how is that even spelt), better laptops from ASUS and better desktops from just about anybody.

      Moreover I have to cheer in on the sheer disgust over the storyline and style of communications here. These are multi billion dollar companies, yet they fail to sort out a trivial issue like this without resorting to dog-eat-dog and almost calling each other names? It's indeed an enlightening insight into the real reasons for why the world economy is tanking. Way too many mouthbreathers have bubbled up to the top, let's hope at least that part of the problem gets sorted out during this crash...

    6. Re:Ring around the blame game... by Anomalyst · · Score: 1

      MS was in a lousy position there, with no way to please everybody; but their handling of the situation was surprisingly inelegant.

      their handling of the situation was typically inelegant
      There, fixed that for ya.

      --
      There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
    7. Re:Ring around the blame game... by sjames · · Score: 1

      Even worse, by lowering the stated minimum requirements without doing anything to reduce the actual requirements, they managed to make Intel look bad, annoy HP, and piss off customers who relied on their stated requirements.

      "Everything I needed to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" may be an overstatement, but I was read cautionary stories about trying to please everyone, boasting, and lying. Apparently nobody at the executive level within MS remembers those.

    8. Re:Ring around the blame game... by laddiebuck · · Score: 1

      I admit I don't understand the full situation. But it seems to me that if Microsoft had to make a contradictory choice between two partners, then they must have at one point knowingly lied to one (or both) of the partners about what they could deliver in the future.

    9. Re:Ring around the blame game... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm glad HP got shafted in this. Every single HP computer I have ever owned has been problematic, their support non-existent and their quality absolute crap.

      Fuck HP. I hope this really hurts them.

  15. Re:Ooh for pete's sake by jornak · · Score: 1

    If I understand you correctly... Microsoft = Huge Black Cocks?

  16. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by ImOnlySleeping · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    If you've got a gripe, I suggest keeping it brief, because really, nobody read all that. Also post it under your user name. From the bits I read, my answer would be that there is no mind control as such. It just happens that people that people with similar view points are attracted to the existing group of people that share those views.

    --
    Everybody seems to think I'm lazy I don't mind, I think they're crazy
  17. Re:Ooh for pete's sake by afidel · · Score: 1

    I think he's talking about the fact that they couldn't jack up the barrier to entry for a Vista capable system and thus increase revenue and profit. Vista was an opportunity to stop the steady decline in average unit cost and hence revenue for the consumer product division.

    --
    There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  18. Popcorn anyone? by Etrias · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is anyone else enjoying this or is it just me? I mean, this is like some kind of geek bitch-slap fight.

    1. Re:Popcorn anyone? by hagardtroll · · Score: 1, Funny

      Down your popcorn with a nice tall glass of Tranya.

    2. Re:Popcorn anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hear hear. If I understand this right, HP is butthurt that they could have been selling piece of shit Intel 915 equipped laptops at a higher margin than whatever their low end piece of shit that met the original requirements would sell at. Basically they're mad that they actually had to make a genuine effort to deliver a usable Vista machine for their customers. Poor bastards.

      Cry me a fucking river HP.

      Meanwhile, Microsoft come out looking like the insufferable cockholes that they always are deep down. So basically we have whiny asshole HP against manipulative asshole Microsoft.

      I'll take mine with extra butter please.

    3. Re:Popcorn anyone? by jassa · · Score: 1

      Yeah, it sounds like something I'd read about on Encyclopedia Dramatica. Except with CEOs of huge IT companies instead of creepy obsessive anime fanboys/girls.

    4. Re:Popcorn anyone? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Whoever loses...WE WIN!

  19. Microsoft has no strategic partners by genner · · Score: 5, Insightful

    only stepping stones on the path to more money.

    1. Re:Microsoft has no strategic partners by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      only stepping stones on the path to more money.

      And when the stones are stupid enough, anything flies.

    2. Re:Microsoft has no strategic partners by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      anything flies.

      ... especially chairs

  20. Re:Ooh for pete's sake by JamesP · · Score: 1

    They could have shipped XP instead.

    Ooh, MS won't sell them? Fine, sell them with Linux or FreeDos (that's what Lenovo does, or did, btw)

    --
    how long until /. fixes commenting on Chrome?
  21. Re:Ooh for pete's sake by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Then you should have stuck for what you believe and refused to sell underpowered vista machines.

    You don't seem to understand what HP "believes in" -- it is making a profit.

    When all the other vendors are able to sell underpowered and consequently underpriced vista machines with the same labeling as yours, then hardly anyone is going to buy your comparatively overpriced system. The majority of consumers are not capable of distinguishing between the intel 915 and 935 motherboard chipsets at the retail level. But they are able to recognize a $50 price difference.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  22. What does this all mean? by iMouse · · Score: 1

    Does HP cite loss of sales because consumers are not purchasing computers? Or computers with Linux? Or Macs? Or what?

    How does Windows Vista hurt HP's sales? HP, Dell, Lenovo, Compaq/Gateway, etc are all selling similar systems with similar specs and Windows Vista pre-installed.

    Unless users are just not buying computers to dodge Vista, are switching to Linux or the Mac, I don't see how HP can cite that this is due to Vista.

    How can this not be due to the recession that that is occurring in the United States?

    1. Re:What does this all mean? by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Informative

      It's not sales that were hurt, it was the bottom line. HP clearly is indicating that they were following an earlier, more rigorous set of hardware requirements as they pushed out their new lines, and then suddenly Microsoft changes the rules and a low-end video chipset is given the thumb's up, meaning HP's competitors can push out cheaper computers with that precious "Vista Ready" sticker on them, undercutting HP (not that HP didn't push out some pretty crappy notebooks that perform underwhelmingly under Vista).

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  23. Would have stuck with XP. by 787style · · Score: 4, Insightful

    What's even more ironic, is that if they hadn't come up with Vista-Capable, these notebooks would have been stuck on XP. Seeing how a large number of users specifically downgraded to XP on a Vista purchase, I can't see how selling these machines with XP only wouldn't have been (truly) a feature.

    1. Re:Would have stuck with XP. by arkhan_jg · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Unfortunately, most people didn't know Vista (especially vista basic) stunk at the original launch. I know quite a few people who looked at laptops and specifically went for vista ones because they were being advertised heavily and were the 'new shiny thing'. Putting XP on those underpowered laptops would have been the right thing for everyone involved, but vendors who did lost out to those sellers who had lower scruples.

      --
      Remember kids, it's all fun and games until someone commits wholesale galactic genocide.
  24. There would be no problem.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    .. if Intel just had quit making the effing joking graphics cards they make.

    If they had competent people making something which resembles more to a modern graphics card instead of the GMA turd that they have - they would not have to be in this mess. And sure as hell they could invest lots of money if they wanted to be in that position. There is NO excuse to make crappy graphics cards - as NVidia and ATI have shown they can make darn fast integrated GPUs that do not drain the battery and do not take more space than anything else.

    Incompetence is the new root of all evil.

  25. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by sirdisc · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    This is a joke and nonsensical.

  26. Re:Ooh for pete's sake by compro01 · · Score: 3, Informative

    Then you should have stuck for what you believe and refused to sell underpowered vista machines.

    I believe that's what they did. Problem being, MS lowered the bar at the last moment after HP was already selling their machines, and everyone else undercut them with less-than-adequate machines. And being as Joe 40oz doesn't know the difference between the systems, he's likely to go with the latter, thus HP loses a ton of money.

    --
    upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
  27. Eating Their Own by maz2331 · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    So, let me see if I understand this...

    HP is beyond angry that MS listened to other manufacturers' concerns, and made a change that prevented HP from being able to basically corner the early-adoption market, or at least a huge chunk of it.

    The saying "sucks to be them" comes to mind. Especially since I'm pretty sure that HP needs MS more than MS needs HP. What choice does HP have besides going with MS - switching to exclusively Linux pre-loads? Write their own OS? Good luck.

    While I can understand HP's position to a point, I can't escape thinking that maybe, just maybe, they should have been improving their product to the maximum extent possible anyway, regardless of what MS did or didn't say or promise. Unless there is a hard written contractural committment, HP is basically SOL.

    I guess I just can't get too fired up watching a spat between companies using corporate politics and marketing departments to dictate engineering.

    1. Re:Eating Their Own by Bigjeff5 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Uhhh... I believe there was a contractual agreement. I don't know how much you know about contract law, but even verbal agreements are contracts; they are simply more difficult to nail down if there is a problem than written contracts. That's why verbal agreements are usually just a few words and a handshake, something along the lines of "HP promises to use Vista, and Microsoft promises to not lower the requirements for the Vista Capable logo." shake hands, and done. It's completely binding, but chances are it was done in written form anyway.

      Hence the reason they are in friggin court dude.

      --
      Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
    2. Re:Eating Their Own by PitaBred · · Score: 3, Informative

      HP is angry that they listened to MS on hardware specs initially, and then MS changed it's mind in backroom deals with Intel, which ultimately convinced people to buy computers that weren't actually ready for Vista. HP got bit hard because they invested in a higher level of hardware than Intel was providing, and all the other manufacturers could undercut it by going with the cheaper stuff leaving HP to scramble.

      Just because it wasn't necessarily illegal to screw over HP like that doesn't mean HP has any less right to be angry at backroom deals.

    3. Re:Eating Their Own by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      It's more complicated than that. As a business agreement between a vendor and customer, MS originally told ATi, nVidia, HP, Intel, and others that Vista would require WDDM capable graphics chipsets (Intel 915 would not meet this requirement). HP based their engineering of their new line of computers based on this. It's the same relationship when Intel provides specifications to HP about their new CPUs regarding power, pins, etc. When Vista launched, HP wanted to make sure that their computers would be "Vista Capable" and sell this fact to the consumer. This meant however that their computers cost slightly more than those that used the Intel 915 chipset. Changing the meaning of "Vista Capable" from requiring WDDM to not requiring WDDM meant that HP's competitors could now undercut them because they used the cheaper 915 chipset. The average consumer would not know the true difference and HP would lose sales because all the consumer would see: HP "Vista Capable" costs more than Brand X "Vista Capable". They would go with Brand X and would not understand the difference until they tried to use something besides Vista Home Basic.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    4. Re:Eating Their Own by tristanreid · · Score: 1

      they should have been improving their product to the maximum extent possible anyway, regardless of what MS did or didn't say or promise

      I disagree.

      First of all: not every product is 'top of the line', there are trade-offs made between performance and price. By requiring HP to have a feature, MS required them to spend more money, even if HP didn't necessarily believe consumers would spend more money to buy that particular feature.

      Secondly: The consumer didn't request this feature, MS requested it. If they wanted to improve hardware, HP could have selected a different dimension on which to upgrade.

      HP and other companies are competing for customers. They each try to invest in a card that they believe will maximize (what consumers will pay - their costs). Some consumers will only look at a product that has MSs Vista Blessing attached, other consumers will use different criteria. HP is trying to appeal to both crowds. Every dollar they spend on a Vista criterion is a dollar less to spend on features that will differentiate them in other ways.

      -t.

    5. Re:Eating Their Own by ekimminau · · Score: 1

      I think HP, in response to this flagrant disregard for the over priced perceived partnership, should make the decision to eliminate all MS OS, drivers and support, should back open office and should only deliver Linux and Apple OSX distributions on their Intel platforms. They should offer free Linux support and reject all connections to HP websites with Windows Explorer browsers and only accept non-Explorer browsers, suggesting Mozilla as their preferred browser of choice. I also think their should brand their hardware "Windows non-compatible". I challenge the /. community to assist HP with creating their "Windows non-compatible tm." logo. Now wheres my popcorn...

      --
      Armaments, 2-9-21 And Saint Attila raised the hand grenade up on high, saying, 'O Lord, bless this Thy hand grenade' N
    6. Re:Eating Their Own by MadMidnightBomber · · Score: 1

      HP builds and sells boxes to MS specs which will actually run Vista. MS cuts specs and everyone else sells el cheapo shitboxes which don't run Vista very well, but by the time anyone finds out, it's too late.

      I've got a Compaq Presario with Intel 945 and Vista kind of sucks on that. I pity the fool trying to run it on anything less.

      --
      "It doesn't cost enough, and it makes too much sense."
    7. Re:Eating Their Own by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      I can't escape thinking that maybe, just maybe, they should have been improving their product to the maximum extent possible anyway,I can't escape thinking that maybe, just maybe, they should have been improving their product to the maximum extent possible anyway,
      It sucks but in the consumer PC market place "improving your product" doesn't really count for much. Afaict what counts are

      1: highest headline specs (CPU and ram) possible
      2: lowest price possible
      3: compliance with the latest MS marketing initiative (IMO theese initiatives are a good thing for customers because they impose reasonable minimum standards on the stuff consumers don't understand)

      So being told you have to do expensive stuff to your lineup to participate in "vista capable" only to have your competitors told later that they can have the sticker without doing that expensive stuff is quite a blow.

      Whether it was legal for MS to do it I dunno (HP obviously doesn't think so since they are taking the matter to court) but it is certainly another clear example of microsofts abusive behaviour towards thier partners.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  28. Note to ballmer: by geekoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The person at the top is ultimately responsible.

    Ballmer is the Ringo star of the software industry.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    1. Re:Note to ballmer: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, Ringo can play drums. Which means that Ringo actually did do something.

      I guess throwing chairs and sniveling can earn you top $$$.

      Microsoft is the Titanic, sinking because of hubris and collapsing under it's own weight.

      Stallman and Torvalds don't need to do a thing. Linux will win by default with a know-nothing jerkoff like Ballmer in charge.

      This is really hilarious, btw. Microsoft has some karma coming. I've got my popcorn... :)

    2. Re:Note to ballmer: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "The person at the top is ultimately responsible."

      And the Captain is suppose to go down with the ship. But today's CEO's get all the money for the responsibility the position has but take no responsibility for any mess that happens on their watch. It is always some other person's fault when they stand before Congress or the Court system. Go figure.

  29. Re:Marketing rules technology by gstoddart · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As has always been the case and the #1 reason Microsoft products suck in general, marketing makes the product technology decisions.

    Are you under the impression that MS is the only place where this happens? Personal experience tells me that absurd requests for features from high-profile customers, and sales guys who over promise is a problem most anywhere else.

    I just don't think most places have the luxury of having a well planned, development driven process.

    As much as I'm usually pretty down on MS, I'm just not convinced they're any different in this case.

    Cheers

    --
    Lost at C:>. Found at C.
  30. First Post by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Frist Post

  31. "credibility [sic]" ?? by tkjtkj · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Pray tell why the " [sic] " follows "credibility" in the article? ref: ".. Allchin wrote to Ballmer. 'What a mess. Now we have an upset partner, Microsoft destroyed credibility [sic], as well as my own credibility shot.' " Is it that you think its misspelled? (It isn't.)

    --
    "There are 11 kinds of people: those who know binary, those who don't, and those who could not care less!"
    1. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by ctid · · Score: 1

      I had to read it twice too: "Now we have an upset partner, Microsoft destroyed credibility [sic]". When you read the whole section, you can see why they have put "[sic]" there.

      --
      Reality is defined by the maddest person in the room
    2. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by Willis13 · · Score: 1

      I think it is intended as:

      (Microsoft destroyed credibility) [sic]

    3. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by werdnam · · Score: 1

      Because "Microsoft destroyed credibility" is not grammatically correct in this context. He should have said "Microsoft's credibility destroyed;" the [sic] is letting the reader know that the error was Allchin's, not due to whoever quoted Allchin.

    4. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by ColonelPanic · · Score: 1

      It's not a misspelling, it's incorrect grammar.

      We don't know whether Allchin intended to use the word "destroyed" as an verb in that clause ("Microsoft destroyed [its] credibility") or as a verbal adjective ("Now we have ..., Microsoft[-]destroyed credibility, ...").

      "[Sic]", Latin for "thus", is generally used as a convenient notation for "yes, the dumbass did write it this way, and we know it's not English."

      --
      "Skill shows through where genius wears thin." -Wittgenstein || Religion: uniting aviation and architecture.
    5. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by internerdj · · Score: 1

      [sic] - strafing incoming chair

    6. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by spook+brat · · Score: 1

      I think the editors felt that the clause "Microsoft destroyed credibility" wasn't grammatically correct. I agree with you that the "[sic]" wasn't necessary, though; it may have been clearer if he said "destroyed Microsoft credibility" instead, but I understand it fine either way.

      --
      Travel the Galaxy! Meet fascinating life forms... ...and kill them - http://schlockmercenary.com
    7. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by jassa · · Score: 1

      Well played.

    8. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 2, Informative

      It has [sic] after it because the fragment is unclear. Who's credibility did Microsoft destroy; it's own, it's partner's, or someone else's? The fragment should have an object such as "Now we have an upset partner, Microsoft destroyed their credibility." or "Now we have an upset partner, Microsoft has destroyed it's credibility, as well as my own credibility is shot."

      Basically, that sentence has a number of grammar issues.

      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
    9. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by WillDraven · · Score: 1

      My assumption would be the grammatical error in saying "Microsoft destroyed credibility." Within the context of the sentence it would have made much more sense to say "Microsoft's credibility destroyed."

      --
      This is my sig. There are many like it but this one is mine.
    10. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by greenskin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Now, to quote you, I have to say "Microsoft has destroyed it's [sic] credibility." Recursive [sic]ing. Happy?

    11. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 1

      Yes, for various values of happy.

      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
    12. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by bendodge · · Score: 1

      Now we have an upset partner, Microsoft destroyed their credibility.

      It's still wrong. You've upgraded it from fragment to comma splice.

      --
      The government can't save you.
    13. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by AnfieldSierra · · Score: 1

      Pray tell why the " [sic] " follows "credibility" in the article? ref: ".. Allchin wrote to Ballmer. 'What a mess. Now we have an upset partner, Microsoft destroyed credibility [sic], as well as my own credibility shot.' "

      I would hazard a guess that it would be more gramatically correct to have said "Microsoft's credibility destroyed"

    14. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by thethibs · · Score: 1

      "Microsoft has destroyed it's [sic] credibility." Recursive [sic]ing. Happy?

      Not recursive at all, given that the [sic] clearly refers to the erroneous "it's".

      --
      I'm a Programmer. That's one level above Software Engineer and one level below Engineer.
    15. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by thredder · · Score: 1

      Maybe it's a comment on that fact that many people believe that Microsoft already lost its credibility a long long time ago, and therefore has none left to destroy now.

    16. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by elysiana · · Score: 1

      It has "[sic]" after it because the fragment is unclear. Whose credibility did Microsoft destroy; its own, its partner's, or someone else's? The fragment should have an object such as "Now we have an upset partner, Microsoft destroyed their credibility," or "Now we have an upset partner, Microsoft has destroyed its credibility, and my own credibility is shot as well."

      Basically, that sentence has a number of grammar issues.

      Pot, or kettle? (Fixed those grammar issues for you.) ;)

    17. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 1

      nag nag nag.

      It is not like I am a grammar nazi. I just answered a question

      --
      There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
    18. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by tkjtkj · · Score: 1

      i still dont see the appropriateness of the 'sic' thing

      --
      "There are 11 kinds of people: those who know binary, those who don't, and those who could not care less!"
    19. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by tkjtkj · · Score: 1

      right. tnx.

      --
      "There are 11 kinds of people: those who know binary, those who don't, and those who could not care less!"
    20. Re:"credibility [sic]" ?? by tkjtkj · · Score: 1

      of the 11 replies i got, yours is the most interesting ;))) the others were merely excercises in pedantism. tnx!

      --
      "There are 11 kinds of people: those who know binary, those who don't, and those who could not care less!"
  32. Re:Ooh for pete's sake by fahrbot-bot · · Score: 2, Informative

    Then you should have stuck for what you believe and refused to sell underpowered vista machines.

    It wasn't that, but (paraphrasing TFA) MS had promised that a higher graphics capability was required for Vista and HP structured their offering around this. Then MS backpedaled for Intel and said the lower-powered 915 chipset (w/integrated graphic) would quality as "Vista Capable" allowing other vendors to sell cheaper systems advertised as such (that could really only run Vista Basic) which would compete against HP models that were really Vista Capable - in the truer sense.

    HP had already made the investment in a more expensive product line based on the original MS promise. Now they would have to market against vendors offering cheaper, less-capable systems that could be advertised identically as "Vista Capable".

    --
    It must have been something you assimilated. . . .
  33. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by jabithew · · Score: 1, Insightful

    The moderation system is a form of mind control, in a way. It works well when there is some balance, as there is, for example, in the capitalism/socialism debates that crop up every now and then. It is also good for dragging people back to reality as a good hard link trumps most other considerations.

    We do need to be aware that the Slashdot mod system can sometimes promote groupthink. For example, because the vast majority of Slashdotters are freethinkers (atheists, agnostics, irreligious etc.), as indeed am I, it does tend to drive away or silence those who aren't.

    I'm glad someone even skimmed that rambling tirade to find interesting points. The less concise you are, the crazier you sound. Though ranting on about the 'power' of Slashdot does make you sound even more nuts, as it basically has none.

    --
    All intents and purposes. Not intensive purposes.
  34. Geeks rules technology. by Ostracus · · Score: 1

    Thankfully in FOSSs case. Decisions are engineer-driven all the way.

    --
    Shai Schticks:"You don't make peace with friends, you make peace with enemies"
    1. Re:Geeks rules technology. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thankfully in FOSSs case, Decisions are made be ego driven aggressive socially inept programmers so it evens out in the end.

  35. MS Execs taking a beating by frog_strat · · Score: 5, Informative

    Their own managers got screwed by this. From Information Week:

    http://www.informationweek.com/news/windows/operatingsystems/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=212100310

    In another e-mail, Microsoft Windows product manager Mike Nash said even he was fooled by the campaign: "I personally got burned by the Intel 915 chipset issue on a laptop that I personally" bought "with my own $$$." Nash said he purchased the Sony laptop "because it had the Vista logo and was pretty disappointed."

    "I now have a $2,100 e-mail machine," Nash complained.

    Nothing new here. Another day. Another episode demonstrating that there are no ethics or leadership at the top of this company. Just a bunch of ignorant whores.

  36. i915 = No hardware scheduler = no WDDM by phatvw · · Score: 5, Informative

    According to Intel, the i915 chipset does not have a native hardware scheduler and hence cannot fully support the WDDM design. I believe there were alpha versions of WDDM drivers for i915 but they only supported a subset of WDDM features and were scrapped early in the project.

    I reckon it is actually possible to have full WDDM on i915, but the performance would be absolutely horrible because the scheduling would have to be done in the driver - and we all know how zippy Intel drivers are :)

    1. Re:i915 = No hardware scheduler = no WDDM by mallow95 · · Score: 1

      During the Vista beta, the 915 was perfectly capable of doing Aero Glass using XPDM drivers. Then MS toggled on the WDDM requirement (at Intel's request?), and now it is where it is.

    2. Re:i915 = No hardware scheduler = no WDDM by Penguinoflight · · Score: 1

      That doesn't change the fact that the i915 chipset has no business running vista anyway. The processor configurations that it supports won't benefit from vista's hardware support, and they aren't generally fast enough to provide an experience similar to windows XP.

      I have been dissappointed with other feature drops from the beta to the final release however. Microsoft still has no bluetooth headset support after scrapping their profiles for the vista final.

      --
      "And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
      1 John 4:14
    3. Re:i915 = No hardware scheduler = no WDDM by phatvw · · Score: 1

      Oh yeah, you're right, I had it reversed. It had an alpha XPDM driver which could run Aero; not a alpha WDDM driver.

      But yeah either way, performance sucked.

  37. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by conlaw · · Score: 1

    I'm sorry I don't have mod points right now; it's nice to hear a voice of reason among some of these rants. I think that a tiff between a major computer maker and a major software vendor really is "news for nerds."

  38. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  39. What really fucking sucks by Moryath · · Score: 4, Insightful

    When the vendors are starting to play the "Vista yay" games while everyone else is rolling back Vista to XP at first opportunity.

    Example: NVidia fucked over the consumer by making their newest stereo3D drivers not just Vista-only, but also by removing LCD shutter support (meaning you're limited to color-distorting anaglyph red/blue glasses, or really crapass zalman monitors).

    check it out.

    Next time I upgrade, unless they fix this, NVidia will not even be considered.

    1. Re:What really fucking sucks by phanboy_iv · · Score: 1, Troll

      OH NO!! NO STEREO 3D SUPPORT! I MUST USE 3D GLASSES! VISTA IS A DISASTER!

    2. Re:What really fucking sucks by Moryath · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ironically, that's not what I was saying at all, you insufferable little troll.

      I don't consider Vista a "disaster" due to this. If you'll notice, Vista is getting the support instead of Windows XP all of a sudden.

      THAT is what I consider to be a disaster.

      Now, if you want to know why you shouldn't use Vista, I'm sure a million Slashdot readers will be happy to help you understand.

    3. Re:What really fucking sucks by nostriluu · · Score: 2, Funny

      It is a frigging disaster. I want monsters, bullets, and landscapes jumping out of my flat monitor in Windows XP. It is not longer possible. That sucks.

    4. Re:What really fucking sucks by phanboy_iv · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Vista is getting support instead of XP for the same reason XP got support instead of Windows 2000.

      It's next in line. What did you expect?

      Microsoft can and will make you move forward. Forward being a relative term when we're talking Microsoft.

      And I'm perfectly aware of the reasons not to use Vista. Which is why I removed it from my computer.

    5. Re:What really fucking sucks by erroneus · · Score: 4, Insightful

      A non-OpenSource operating system of any origin or maker is prone to being end-of-life'd leaving people very much obsoleted out of the use of otherwise very good hardware. To some degree this is also true of OpenSource software, but not nearly to the same degree.

      In terms of sheep numbers, Linux supports more hardware than any one Windows version. But starting with Windows and every closed-source-only vendor out there, it is at their individual discretion to decide whether or not they want to continue to support any given OS at any time of their choosing ultimately making their old hardware unusable at a moment's notice. If every hardware vendor who does not publish their specs or have open source drivers available decided to pull driver support for WindowsXP, you could whine and complain all day long but there is little you can do about it while you are under their control and influence due to the closed source nature of their drivers and software. "But they would never do that!" you say? Yeah they would at the very moment they believe it would be to their advantage to do so. They don't exist for your pleasure, they exist for your cash. It really is as simple as that.

      Open Source is more about being free from a single vendor than anything else as far as I am concerned. I don't compile tarballs... not any more. I pretty much get all binaries and use those as they are these days. But in the event that one Linux distro displeases me too much, there is always another out there.

    6. Re:What really fucking sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting
      "A non-OpenSource operating system of any origin or maker is prone to being end-of-life'd"

      horse shit. MS supports it's products about 4 times as long as any other OS you care to name, and unless you expect everyone to write their own security patches for linux, please STFU about "you can see the source"

    7. Re:What really fucking sucks by erroneus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      RedHat beats that. Learn about what you are speaking before committing your assertion to print.

    8. Re:What really fucking sucks by couchslug · · Score: 2, Funny

      "In terms of sheep numbers, Linux supports more hardware than any one Windows version."

      This metric is new to me.

      --
      "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    9. Re:What really fucking sucks by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 2, Funny

      "In terms of sheep numbers, Linux supports more hardware than any one Windows version."

      This metric is new to me.

      It refers to the number of units you can count before falling asleep.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    10. Re:What really fucking sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IIRC, RedHat's support window is 5 years, while Microsoft's is 10 years.

      But RH is relatively new to the enterprise support market, so that might change in the future.

    11. Re:What really fucking sucks by jonaskoelker · · Score: 1

      It's next in line. What did you expect?

      That there would be support for existing and widely deployed platforms that are going to stay alive and well for a considerable amount of time?

      That NVidia wanted to reach a fairly large market segment? That NVidia would understand their gamer audience who might want to stay on XP for performance reasons?

      Just some thoughts...

    12. Re:What really fucking sucks by daveime · · Score: 1

      And you would be the same one who complains about windows being so bloated because they still insist on legacy code for their products build 20 years ago.

      64 bit drivers kludging 32 bit drivers which patch 16 bit drivers designed for an 8 bit processor with a 4 bit bus ... and the punchline "2 bit operating system" ... was never truer.

      If you want solid stable O/S, stick with Windows XP ... it's served me well for years ... if you want all the latest shiny addons and widgets, upgrade like the rest of the sheep. I can't see the sense in saying in one breath "Vista Sucks Donkey Balls", and then in the next breath complaining because those same "Donkey Balls" aren't available as an addon for XP ?

    13. Re:What really fucking sucks by daveime · · Score: 1

      "A non-OpenSource operating system of any origin or maker is prone to being end-of-life'd"

      So when I want hardware RAID, I'll have to upgrade my Redhat, as the kernal I have only supports software RAID ?

      When I download AN::Other module from CPAN, I'm told I need perl 5.8 (or worse 5.10), because my 5.0 is "not supported" ?

      When something I tarballed up years ago suddenly won't untar because TAR has changed it's file format ?

      Everything is prone to being end-of-lifed, not just closed source ... it's the nature of innovation that you cannot support legacy hardware / software forever (unless of course you are M/S, and look at the shit they get for it).

    14. Re:What really fucking sucks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I found this out with Creative Labs Soundblaster Pro. My Win 3.11 machine with a creative labs sound card worked well, but eventually I upgraded to Windows 95. Well guess what, my perfectly fine and still working sound card, only 2 years old was instantly obsolete as Creative had no Win95 drivers for my particular card, but I could go out and buy a new one of course. So I did, but not a creative card and I never bought a Creative Labs product ever again.

    15. Re:What really fucking sucks by raju1kabir · · Score: 1

      A non-OpenSource operating system of any origin or maker is prone to being end-of-life'd leaving people very much obsoleted out of the use of otherwise very good hardware. To some degree this is also true of OpenSource software, but not nearly to the same degree.

      RedHat loves to EOL its distributions, leaving no upgrade path that doesn't involve rebuilding the machine from scratch. I have since started switching all our machines to Debian, which is more open source and apparently more sensitive to the realities of the server room (as opposed to the bullet points of the conference room next to the CIO's office).

      --
      "Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it." -- GBS
    16. Re:What really fucking sucks by red+crab · · Score: 1

      I have a Creative SoundBlaster Pro card on my P-II 350 MHz machine. Up till Win98, I had to install separate Creative drivers for it. Windows XP has built-in drivers for legacy cards and Creative cards work fine on that. Also on every flavor and version of Linux I've installed so far on that machine (RedHat/Fedora, Debian Sarge, Open SUSE), the card works perfectly well. In particular, I've never heard anyone so far cribbing about SoundBlaster drivers. Did you ever try to get it work on Linux or Windows XP?

    17. Re:What really fucking sucks by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      If every hardware vendor who does not publish their specs or have open source drivers available decided to pull driver support for WindowsXP, you could whine and complain all day long but there is little you can do about it
      Practically speaking most people whether using windows or linux are going to be stuck with drivers that work with thier version of thier OS with minimal to no tweaking.

      In general in terms of running old versions of the OS on new hardware I would say windows does far better than linux. Yeah there are some laptops on which getting XP to run is a pain but there are plenty of manufacturers still supporting thier machines with XP. Try installing a linux distro of similar vintage on modern hardware sometime ;)

      If all else fails there is always vmware and ebay ;)

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
    18. Re:What really fucking sucks by phanboy_iv · · Score: 1

      They did understand that.
      Which is why they still offer drivers for XP. They just figured there aren't enough Stereo3D XP users for it to matter if they pull support.

  40. Re:Ooh for pete's sake by jabithew · · Score: 1

    It's their new marketing strategy.

    --
    All intents and purposes. Not intensive purposes.
  41. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by philspear · · Score: 1, Troll

    If you've got a gripe, I suggest keeping it brief, because really, nobody read all that.

    Reading just the last part
    "If we're wrong and Slashdot does not try to let scornful chiselers serve as our overlords, we'll be relieved," we can see that it's complete gibberish, not an actual complaint. Overlords? Chislers? I swear, there should be some type of test before posting to weed out those people who are apperantly on LSD. Maybe "Did Dick Cheney initiate the 9/11 attacks y/n" and those who answer yes automatically get posted on the "insane/inane shadow slashdot."

  42. Re:Hot dog, OH DADDY! by Calydor · · Score: 3, Funny

    How did you fail THIS badly?

    --
    -=This sig has nothing to do with my comment. Move along now=-
  43. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  44. intel 915 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    the 915 was a piece of junk and never should have been given the go-ahead to be vista capable

    1. Re:intel 915 by argent · · Score: 1

      The 950 is junk too. What was intel going to do, license a chipset from ATI or nVidia?

  45. Vista Capable specs are given by *management*!? by Radium_ · · Score: 1

    I fail to understand how a technical compatibility list (which is what the "Vista capable" logo is all about) can be modified by management.
    Did Microsoft execs magically increased the processing power of all the Intel 915 chipsets on earth?

    1. Re:Vista Capable specs are given by *management*!? by poot_rootbeer · · Score: 1

      I fail to understand how a technical compatibility list (which is what the "Vista capable" logo is all about) can be modified by management.

      The "Vista capable" logo is Marketing and has never been anything more than that.

      It's not as though you get a kernel panic if you try to run Vista on a machine with an i914 chipset -- the OS will run, but some optional graphical capabilities may perform poorly or not at all. Does that mean the OS and the machine are compatible, or incompatible? Depends on the specifics of what the user wants to do, and what the Marketing department wants to define "compatible" to mean.

  46. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 2, Informative

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  47. Re:Hot dog, OH DADDY! by Psmylie · · Score: 3, Funny

    How did you fail THIS badly?

    I'm guessing lots of practice

    --

    psmylie's dictionary: Godzillion (noun) Any number large enough to destroy Tokyo

  48. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  49. More good news! by www.blogLinux.org · · Score: 1

    Keep it up Microsoft. You and Apple are showing more and more the tight grips you squeeze on the consumers you serve. Betraying even your own honor system to sell more. Every giant public outrageous greed-driven corporate-minded move you make drives more and more users away from the licenses and ideals that give you the power to do so.

    That means more and more users will use Ubuntu. Which means lots of them will move on to Fedora and the like. Which means some of them will continue on and eventually a few will actually end up being real linux and unix users and developers.

    So thanks for the help and enjoy your success! Just remember what happens when the grip gets too tight and too monopolistic - we break your fingers.

    1. Re:More good news! by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      You and Apple are showing more and more the tight grips you squeeze on the consumers you serve.

      Woah now. You might accuse Apple of being higher priced and their customers a bit snooty, but "squeezing customers"? Please cite some examples.

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    2. Re:More good news! by www.blogLinux.org · · Score: 1

      example #1: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/industry/4272628.html
      I would not venture to prove apple was worse than many other wasteful corporate money machines (though I believe in many ways it is). I would argue that it is just as bad as several.

    3. Re:More good news! by cowscows · · Score: 1

      Microsoft's grip is not getting more monopolistic. While they certainly aren't entirely reformed and friendly now, they don't hold the same level of power and influence over the industry that they did back in the late 90's.

      Linux proponents should talk less about why they think the other guys suck and talk more about why they think Linux is great.

      --

      One time I threw a brick at a duck.

    4. Re:More good news! by UnknowingFool · · Score: 1

      The authorization chip is not an issue for more generic accessories, such as USB connection cables--and prices tend to reflect that. Data-only USB connectors for iPod and iPhone can be easily replicated by third-party manufacturers, and sell for as low as $2 online.

      That's one example which deals with 3rd party cabling for video. The list of MS abuses are far longer: ASP, Outlook, Windows API

      --
      Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
    5. Re:More good news! by www.blogLinux.org · · Score: 1

      I agree. Microsoft is worse than Apple in many ways. Both are significantly worse than many others. I happen to not be a fan of either and what either stand for as I interpret it.

    6. Re:More good news! by www.blogLinux.org · · Score: 2, Insightful

      'Guys' as you put it may mean companies, since both Microsoft and Apple are companies. If that is what you mean then the answer is, Linux is not a company and therefore it's not really an apples to apples comparison.

      I like Windows. I like lots of products all over the place. I simply don't like the release terms and the fees and legal threats and the "you don't like it? well that's kind of too bad" attitude many consumers will encounter.

      I have the strangely old fashioned view that if I pay someone for something, I should be treated better for it than before I was paying them. In many instances with Microsoft or Apple, the customer may experience restrictions which can be quite insulting and frustrating.

    7. Re:More good news! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dude. You're obviously replying to a twitter sock puppet. YHTB. HTH. HAND.

  50. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    I occasionally receive inquiries from people who have read my previous letters and want to know why I insist that Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator is eminently incoherent. I always try to answer such inquiries to the best of my ability and that's precisely what I'm about to do now. I assume you already know that I was sincerely appalled when I first learned that Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator's stooges want to lower this country's moral tone and depreciate its commercial integrity, but I have something more important to tell you.

    Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't it true that Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator should be in better control of its hormones? Nice try to step on other people's toes, Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator. I find that stuck-up adulterers are no different from mindless bloodsuckers. Let me explain. People tell me that Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator's putrid rejoinders do not comport with my policy always to build a world overflowing with compassion and tolerance. And the people who tell me this are correct, of course.

    I feel no shame in writing that Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator is still going around insisting that it's okay to leave the educational and emotional needs of our children in the ghastly hands of contemptuous nebbishes. Jeez, I thought I had made it perfectly clear to it that its spokesmen don't represent an ideology. They don't represent a legitimate political group of people. They're just flat headlong. It is never easy to judge what the most appropriate or effective response to Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator's backwards sermons is but one unfortunate fact remains clear: Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator has a natural talent for complaining. It can find any aspect of life and whine about it for hours upon hours.

    This moral issue will eventually be rendered academic by the fact that to get even the simplest message into the consciousness of the most insincere tyrants you'll ever see it has to be repeated at least fifty times. Now, I don't want to insult your intelligence by telling you the following fifty times, but Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator will stop at nothing to understate the negative impact of simplism. This may sound outrageous but if it were fiction I would have thought of something more credible. As it stands, one of the goals of absolutism is to render meaningless the words "best" and "worst". Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator admires that philosophy because, by annihilating human perceptions of quality, Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator's own mediocrity can flourish. Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator's unimaginative half-measures can be quite educational. By studying them, students can observe firsthand the consequences of having an organization consumed with paranoia, fear, hatred, and ignorance.

    It's not a question of if but only of when Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator will steal the fruits of other people's labor, but I won't linger on that. While we all despair over Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator's polyloquent, muzzy-headed quips, we must also remember the principles that will guide our better behaviors and higher aspirations. This may sound like caricature, but the pen is a powerful tool. Why don't we use that tool to balkanize Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator's chauvinistic junta into an etiolated and sapless agglomeration? I can't possibly believe Scott Pakin's automatic complaint-letter generator's claim that coercion in the name of liberty is a valid use of state power. If someone can convince me otherwise, I'll eat my hat. Heck, I'll eat a whole closetful of hats. That's a pretty safe bet because anyone who hasn't been living in a cave with his eyes shut and his ears plugged knows that you should never forget the three most important facets of Scott Pakin's automa

  51. Comedic genius by thePowerOfGrayskull · · Score: 1

    as evidenced by the way that in a recent essay, Slashdot stated that it is the most recent incarnation of the Buddha

    How can you read that and /not/ chuckle?

  52. Not to mention to the retailers and resellers ;) by Moraelin · · Score: 1

    Not to mention the message it will send to HP's retailers and resellers ;)

    Apparently one problem Asus faced with their original Linux-only Eee was that a lot of them got returned as "broken" by some dolts who tried to install MS Office and the likes on them, and concluded that the laptop is broken if they can't. The Windows XP line offered at least a way to say "well, ok, but we can offer this one instead."

    Additionally, _SUSE_? I'm writing this on a SUSE machine, and while it's great for work, Novell stripped it of all useful codecs. You can't even play an MP3 or a DVD on it, without downloading and/or compiling your own libraries and media players. Kaffeine as shipped with SUSE, will just give you an error message that it can't due to IP issues, when you try to play a DVD with it.

    So, yeah, imagine the joy of Joe Sixpack when he buys a SUSE-only HP computer and it doesn't play his MP3s, it doesn't play that rented DVD, it doesn't really play anything. Great home theatre platform, eh? A lot of those will really be Joe Sixpack types who don't even have a flipping clue what SourceForge or Freshmeat are. They'll see just that their new computer doesn't play DVDs or music. While the Joneses down the street have no problem playing theirs on their Dell computer, and the yuppie down the street with his Apple computer and iPod even less so.

    Can you say "return"? I knew you could.

    So, um, yeah, if you want to convince your retailers and resellers that your computers get disportionately more returns, by all means, start a SUSE-only line. That'll send them a message :P

    --
    A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
  53. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Arthur+Grumbine · · Score: 1

    . Slashdot is the one who decides whether or not to fuel inquisitions

    Only when least expected...

    --
    Now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure everything I just said is completely wrong.
  54. This is rich by IcyHando'Death · · Score: 1

    FTFA:

    By noon, anger from HP was reaching Microsoft, which had planned to communicate its changes the next day. Poole wrote to Ybarra and Allchin at 12:16 p.m.: "Intel leaked this despite my explicit agreement with [an Intel senior vice president] that we would communicate together."

    I'm sure those poor betrayed Microsoft execs were wondering "what did we do to deserve this?"

  55. Re:Marketing rules technology by evil_aar0n · · Score: 1

    Plenty of that type of poo to go around. I see it all the time, here at Gigantor Medical Co. Of course, we can't do _anything_ to fix the real problems; we don't have the time or resources. Doing things the right way to begin with is somewhat like witnessing a miracle.

    --
    Truth, Justice. Or the American Way.
  56. I read it as.. by Misch · · Score: 1

    I read it as:

    said one e-mail from Richard Walker, the senior vice president of HP's consumer business unit, to [Microsoft expletives]

    --

    --You will rephrase your request for me to go to hell. Goto statements are not acceptable programming constructs
  57. Am I missing something? by jfinke · · Score: 1

    Where is the link for the second quote of the story?

    1. Re:Am I missing something? by mihalis · · Score: 1

      Yes, you're right. The second link is missing. Actually so is the first. The only link provided is to the Seattle Times coverage, whereas the excerpts appear to be from http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/10791_3785611_1

      So we can deduce that almost nobody even tried to RTFA. No surprise there.

  58. Re:Marketing rules technology by cowscows · · Score: 1

    No kidding. This isn't a phenomena limited to Microsoft, or even to the IT industry in general. In pretty much any situation where one person is trying to sell something to another person, you'll get some degree of this sort of feature creep, or stretching of truth. And sometimes it's just honest mistakes.

    And it's not just the marketing and sales guys who are always to blame. MS had to cut out a bunch of stuff that they originally said was going to be in Vista. So they oversold their capabilities. But chances are that somewhere along the line, an engineer told management that they could have the new file system integrated and working on time. I don't know why that particular feature didn't make it in time. Maybe management didn't staff it properly. Maybe there was too much arguing on how to implement it. Maybe the engineers were just plain wrong about how hard it would be to get it up and running.

    I'm not trying to say that Microsoft does a particularly good job at producing their products, but missing deadlines and having to scale back intentions happens to 99% of all projects out there anywhere in the real world. The reasons are many, and even the best and brightest people in the world can't predict and plan for everything that could go wrong. Development of Windows is not an easy task, and there are probably hundreds if not thousands of distinct situations in the development of each version where things get screwed up. You can't blame it all on the sales people.

    --

    One time I threw a brick at a duck.

  59. 20/20 hindsight by UnknowingFool · · Score: 2, Insightful

    In retrospect, we can ponder what would have happened if MS had stuck with the WDDM requirement. In order to appease Intel and sell more copies of Vista, MS lowered the requirement. According to internal emails this WDDM requirement would mean Intel's exposure of hundreds of millions of dollars (200-400 according to various sources) that they could not sell. This estimation was based on the assumption that consumers would not buy computers with the Intel 915 chipset because they could not upgrade. However, the launch of Vista was less than ideal and this requirement change helped to mar Vista's image. Ironically, those customers that bought computers that were not really Vista Capable probably don't really want Vista anyways because of the problems. In the long run, this decision (with the resulting lawsuit) may have cost Intel and MS more than the original exposure. I guess this is all hindsight but most consumers don't care. They just want their OS to work. Vista/XP/2000/98 whatever it is called.

    --
    Well, there's spam egg sausage and spam, that's not got much spam in it.
  60. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dude, the person you a replying to is clearly either

    a) schizophrenic, or
    b) trolling.

    HTH HAND

  61. Re:Marketing rules technology by mlwmohawk · · Score: 1

    Are you under the impression that MS is the only place where this happens?

    Are you kidding?

    Personal experience tells me that absurd requests for features from high-profile customers, and sales guys who over promise is a problem most anywhere else.

    True, but, in the end, not an excuse.

    I just don't think most places have the luxury of having a well planned, development driven process.

    I wouldn't go that far.

    As much as I'm usually pretty down on MS, I'm just not convinced they're any different in this case.

    I've been dealing with microsoft crap since there was a microsoft. microsoft is one of the worst offenders, if not the prototype.

  62. Trouble is by thewils · · Score: 1

    Whatever judgment goes against M$ they simply tack the cost of it onto the next version of Windoze and their customers wind up paying for it. I don't really see how this would trouble M$ beyond the bad PR, and even that would be lost in all the other bad PR they are getting - over Windoze 7, for instance Link

    --
    Once I was a four stone apology. Now I am two separate gorillas.
    1. Re:Trouble is by Cerium · · Score: 1

      I can't tell which is worse: The fact that you're probably right or that you actually took the time to make sure you typed out "M$" and "Windoze."

      Is it really so hard to have a discussion involving Microsoft that doesn't consist of excessive uses of the dollar sign and the letter z? Really?

  63. Ballmer's reply by BJH · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "I had nothing to do with this Will handled everything I received a message that paul was going to call Will said he would handle it Paul called I had not even had a chance to report his issues when Will told me he had solved them (it did not sound like he had) I am not even in the detail of the issues. You better get will under control thanks."

    Anybody want to bet that was typed on a Blackberry or equivalent?

  64. Re:Ooh for pete's sake by JohnBailey · · Score: 1

    It's their new marketing strategy.

    Yes.. But it tends to run tight.

    --
    It is difficult to get a man to understand something when his job depends on not understanding it.
  65. Re:Not to mention to the retailers and resellers ; by Enderandrew · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Dell pays to license codecs and such and includes them in their Ubuntu install. I'm sure HP would do the same.

    For a traditional openSUSE install you are literally a one-click installer away from having all the codecs and packages you need for every major "restricted" format.

    And while a retailer dealing with an Asus netbook can't provide technical support, when it comes to a big name like HP, they can provide technical support for their products.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  66. Re:Marketing rules technology by twicesliced · · Score: 1

    Agreed. Reminds me of a salesman we had at this independent Apple Partner where I used to work a number of years ago (I was the PC service manager). He'd promise the moon to customers spending well under $1000 on used machines. Luckily, I was able to deliver enough features by installing various FOSS to keep customers from being too disappointed; they all thought they were getting Symantec security software, MS Office, Photoshop, and hardware upgrades for free after talking to that salesman. The guy was eventually fired when he went too far and we ended up losing money on one particular sale. Anyway, my point is that yeah, this happens all the time, all over the place.

  67. Progress by Joebert · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    See Dick.
    See Dick run.
    See Dick run Linux.

    --
    Wanna fight ? Bend over, stick your head up your ass, and fight for air.
  68. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by fugue · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Good point. I'd like to see the moderation system change: when you get mod points, you also get set to browse without seeing anyone else's moderations of articles (threaded still, perhaps, but no sorting by moderation, and ideally without author names or sigs). And of course a "I'm not moderating today" button so you can benefit from the wisdom of others.

    On a side note, I take issue with your example. When faith, not reason, influences a thought, that thought should be mocked. Holding people of faith to a lower intellectual standard exemplifies the worst side of Affirmative Action. But I agree with your point--the thought should be mocked because it is ridiculous, not because of groupthink.

    --
    "The biggest problem with communication is the illusion that it has taken place."
  69. Re:Not to mention to the retailers and resellers ; by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mind you, I tried to play a DVD on a Windows machine, and guess what? It didn't have the right codecs either. And it led me to a Microsoft site with list of places where I could BUY one. I think it's easier to play a DVD on a Linux machine, actually.

  70. Re:Not to mention to the retailers and resellers ; by turtledawn · · Score: 1

    You solve that by a pre-configured browser popup on first boot going to the distributor's codec repository, where the user sees a big banner that says, if you want to play MP3s and videos, *click here*. Seems like an easy solution to me.

    --
    Uh, "if it looks roughly mouse-shaped according to my infra-red sensitive pit, eat it"? --Chris Burke 09-08-10
  71. I don't care about MS passing the buck internally by mr_mischief · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't care about Microsoft passing the buck internally, and I doubt HP does either. What's important is that it's HP's buck that MS is passing.

    Intel and Microsoft both got more cash by selling out companies trying to sell computers that were actually Vista-ready in favor of more and cheaper units from other vendors whose boxes weren't.

  72. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  73. HP is guilty as well by PCM2 · · Score: 1

    Hard to argue with HP for being pissed off about this one. The PC market is cutthroat, so making an investment in higher priced integrated and/or discrete graphics chipsets, only to discover at the last moment that your competition has just been given the green light to undersell you with relaxed requirements has got to hurt.

    Is that what HP is claiming? That it was forced to add higher-end components to be able to ship Vista machines, only to be undercut by competitors later?

    If that's the case, then why on Earth did the HP 2133 Mini-Note, HP's (rather pricey) entry into the "netbook" market, ship with Vista? It's not like they went all-out to add high-end components to it. To my knowledge, it is the only netbook that does ship with Vista, and Vista is its biggest Achilles heel. You cannot activate Aero Glass on it, so forget about that. You probably don't want to activate most of the gee-whiz Vista desktop features, because the Via processor is really poky. Its Windows Experience index is 1.7, fer chrissakes, and that's because of the processor rating. Why, HP? Why??

    --
    Breakfast served all day!
  74. Remember folks;... by jskline · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Anything. Anything at all; emanating out of the orator Ballmer, is total rhetoric and has absolutely no basis in fact, fantasy or reality. He is a total illusion to the stakeholders of Micro$oft, and all that it stands for. He has in a phrase; gone completely over the other end.

    Anything you hear from him is complete fiction. Not to put any credence to.

    Having personally tried this myself in several areas, I concur with the likes of many test sites that have stated Vista is a joke. It is solely designed for NEW HARDWARE ONLY, and nothing else. That new hardware better damn well be very fast, with lots of memory, cache, and multiprocessor. The performance index of 1.0 sucks rocks. Even XP loaded with junk in the browser and temp cache runs faster than this beast.

    Now show me Windows 7. Lets see what that is supposed to be.

    --
    All content in this message is copyright (c) 2008. All rights reserved. RIAA is prohibited here.
    1. Re:Remember folks;... by Stormwatch · · Score: 1

      Now show me Windows 7. Lets see what that is supposed to be.

      Vista with some rough edges trimmed. Seems they'll just polish the turd a bit.

    2. Re:Remember folks;... by Creepy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Windows 7 is built on top of the Server 2003 codebase, same as Vista, so don't expect a miracle.

      Vista Basic can run on fairly low specced machines if you don't have too many services running - I bet it would run on my 8 year old desktop PC (which does have a gig of RAM and a $25 DX9 capable card, so it probably could even run Aero). The requirements skyrocket is if you want to run everything and want Aero.

      Windows 7 will likely have a smaller base memory footprint unless you run older applications on it because they plan to move to the virtual machine paradigm (like how OSX machines could run OS9) to support legacy applications. Legacy libraries won't be hogging memory unless they're needed and there should be less compatibility issues because developers will be forced to work with the same API functions rather than falling back on legacy ones when writing new code.

      The performance of XP vs Vista is not really that huge of difference - maybe 2%-5% for most things (I get about an 80% hit for OpenGL in a Window, however, which is odd because context switches should only give about a 20% hit at most, but I haven't checked recently and it's possible new drivers and/or SP1 fixed this). Part of that is likely more services running or tuning that needs to be done on the OS. I don't think it's that big of deal. My main problem with Vista is other issues (it nags too much, I've had to reinstall Vista 5x now due to it not liking updates, some things like network shares are painful to configure, some things that shouldn't have been changed or renamed were, etc - I have not had driver issues, but some people have).

    3. Re:Remember folks;... by orkysoft · · Score: 1

      Now show me Windows 7. Lets see what that is supposed to be.

      If you have been paying any attention in the last decade-and-a-half, it'll be more of the same.

      --

      I suffer from attention surplus disorder.
    4. Re:Remember folks;... by 7+digits · · Score: 1

      At each new windows version, it is the same story: "it is going to run faster, it will run on older hardware, etc, etc". I remember that for win95 (was supposed to run on ridiculously low end hardware), NT4 ("with graphics in the kernel it will be faster and lighter"), XP ("if you turn off the fisher-price UI, you;ll get a faster 2k"), etc, etc.

      And, at the end, windows7 will be a bigger and bloated os.

      Wanna bet ?

    5. Re:Remember folks;... by cbhacking · · Score: 1

      Just thought I'd comment on this quickly: have you tried Vista's System Restore feature? It's so much bette than XPs they arguably should have renamed it. Not only can you easily undo a botched update, but you can do it from either the boot menu or the install disk (as well as within the OS) making it possible to revert problems that rendered the system totally unbootable (this hasn't ever happened to me, but I've had a couple things that came close going back to beta2).

      The feature works well, too; in every case I've had to use it the problem not only got fixed, but it only took 10-15 minutes including reboot and showed no issues or side effects when it came up again. On XP I didn't even bother, but with Vista it's well-worth trying a System Restore.

      --
      There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
  75. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I doubt that post had anything to do with Slashdot moderation system or Slashdot groupthink. It looks to me a like a cut-and-paste of some pol with %s/Hated Individual or Group/Slashdot//g

  76. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Hurricane78 · · Score: 1

    You can complain all you want, but...

    TLDR ;) ...nobody will hear you then.

    --
    Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  77. Point of order. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Remember that probably more than 50% of viri and damage done by them is thanks to that problem.

    viri - Latin, meaning "man".

    viruses - plural form of "virus".

  78. No, that's not it at all. by maillemaker · · Score: 1

    >While I can understand HP's position to a point, I can't escape thinking that maybe,
    >just maybe, they should have been improving their product to the maximum extent possible anyway, regardless of what MS did or didn't say or promise.

    No, you are missing the point entirely, as has already been stated.

    HP doesn't go out and just build the most awesome computers they can. They build a whole array of systems, from low-end to high-end, so that customers with different amounts of money to spend have a product to choose from.

    The problem here is that Microsoft set the low-end benchmark requirement at a certain level, which HP built to, and then Microsoft lowered the requirement for the benefit of Intel. Now Intel can undercut HPs low-end systems with its cheaper, even less powerful systems.

    HP has every right to be extremely pissed off.

    --
    A work that expires before its copyright never enters the public domain and thus enjoys eternal copyright protection.
  79. OBVIOUS FAKE! by toby · · Score: 1

    Yours was grammatical and properly punctuated.

    The email in Exhibit F looks like it was written by a 2nd grader... who is failing English. Ballmer is a pathetic spectacle. If that is his standard of communication, Mircosfot is truly doomed.

    Well, they're doomed anyway! Hooray!

    --
    you had me at #!
  80. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by genner · · Score: 1

    If we're wrong and Slashdot does not try to let scornful chiselers serve as our overlords, we'll be relieved. If we're right and it does, we'll be prepared..

    You should put that on a T-shirt.

  81. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Ethanol-fueled · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    My thoughts exactly. I had to read it twice before I realized that it was about Slashdot and not the Bush Administration!

  82. it was somewhat gratifying to learn by toby · · Score: 2, Funny

    That Ballmer is close to illiterate. Unsurprising, though.

    --
    you had me at #!
    1. Re:it was somewhat gratifying to learn by Intrinsic · · Score: 1

      I hear he's great at throwing office chairs though, maybe he should join a baseball team. They have shown, time and time again that they dont have an integrity. I have no respect for Microsoft and if you work for Microsoft I have zero respect for you also. Grow some balls and drop them like a bad habit. Find a company you can be proud of.

  83. It's all money for nothing anyway by toby · · Score: 1

    No incentive to innovate, act ethically, or even to be civilised.

    Therefore - they don't bother.

    Why does anyone find this surprising? But it's all going to come grinding to a tremendously deserved final collapse. Pass the popcorn!

    --
    you had me at #!
  84. Re:Ooh for pete's sake by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    HP, Intel, et al, missed an opportunity here. The Windows Experience Index in Vista. While intel could flood the market with cheap "vista capable" 915 chipsets, HP could have turned around and advertised the fact that their Vista experience was much better.

    Heck-- crank up the competition for expereince index ratings, and the MFGs might actually start paying more attention to their drivers.

  85. Hmm, Gates sold 18million shares this month? by Marrow · · Score: 1

    Does that seem like a lot to anyone else?

    And its selling pretty cheap right now too....

    This according to google-finance. Its just curious, I am no expert.

    1. Re:Hmm, Gates sold 18million shares this month? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Bill Gates routinely sells millions of shares every few months. This is done for a couple of reasons.

      1) By spreading out his selling he gives the market time to absorb his sales before selling more. If he dumped his whole lot to cash out he would temporarily ruin the value of the stock and get pennies on the dollar for what he owns.
      2) By semi-regularly selling about the same amount of stock (10+ million shares) he protects himself from any accusations of insider trading. If the stock is up he sells, if the stock is down he sells. He doesn't change strategy regardless of what the company's stock is doing.

    2. Re:Hmm, Gates sold 18million shares this month? by Marrow · · Score: 1

      Thats very informative. Thanks!

  86. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Right and for people who believe in a supreme beings they're forced into posting anonymous comments as to not be chided about it i.e. "You actually believe in the Spaghetti monster and his noodly appendage?" (come on guys that joke is so old now) I am not religous, consider myself logical and open minded, but I believe in a supreme being... soo!

  87. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by powerlord · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    For example, because the vast majority of Slashdotters are freethinkers (atheists, agnostics, irreligious etc.), as indeed am I, it does tend to drive away or silence those who aren't.

    I'm not sure I'd agree with the "Freethinker" moniker. Being open to all possibilities is practically required when you're dealing with computers or troubleshooting any complex system (which I believe the majority of Slashdot members do/did regularly). This doesn't necessarily imply "Aetheist, Agnostic, Irreligious, etc.", anymore than a science degree implies it.

    --
    This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
  88. Great use of [sic] by ChinggisK · · Score: 1

    Microsoft destroyed credibility [sic]

    This part made me laugh.

  89. Steves... by NoobixCube · · Score: 3, Funny

    I've noticed there are an awful lot of Steves in the industry. Ballmer, Wozniak and Jobs, plus a handful of others that I probably don't know about. I think Jobs and Wozniak (and others) should hold a vote to make Ballmer change his first name to something else. I'm sure he embarrasses them.

    --
    Admit it. You post strawman arguments as AC so you get modded Insightful for refuting them, rather than Troll
    1. Re:Steves... by mjwx · · Score: 1

      I've noticed there are an awful lot of Steves in the industry. Ballmer, Wozniak and Jobs, plus a handful of others that I probably don't know about. I think Jobs and Wozniak (and others) should hold a vote to make Ballmer change his first name to something else. I'm sure he embarrasses them.

      No. Woz should just change his name so he isn't associated with the other Steves.

      --
      Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  90. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by MikeBabcock · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    My freethinking is what empowers me to believe in God. Being a techy who cares about geeky science stuff should require me not to, but that would be submitting to the status quo "just because".

    I'm free to think for myself, and I do so, religiously. I slam science geeks for not believing in God just because their peers don't when they haven't put any good thought into it themselves from the same angle I'd slam someone for not believing in evolution when they haven't put any good thought into it either.

    --
    - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
  91. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    You actually believe in the Spaghetti monster and his noodly appendage?

    Consider yourself chided, sir.

    --
    "But this one goes to 11!"
  92. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by OshEcho · · Score: 0

    So, who all read that very long post? :)

    --
    -Echo
  93. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    My boss believes in god, so so do I.

  94. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 1, Offtopic

    Do you ever have any of the science geeks you slam turn it around and accuse you of only believing in God because your parents/peers do and you haven't put any good thought into it yourself? If so what is your reaction? If not, how would you react? That train of logic goes both ways on the tracks...


    (I know you will probably reply that you HAVE put a good deal of thought in it yourself. Then I would ask you - how do you know they haven't done the same as well?)

    --
    "But this one goes to 11!"
  95. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Hucko · · Score: 2, Funny

    so in a group of free thinkers someone that doesnt think like the rest is not a free thinker? That is rather limited thinking.

    --
    Semi-automatic amateur armchair Australian philosopher; conjecture ready at any moment...
  96. Does Vista really matter? by jwillis84 · · Score: 1

    I think Microsoft did HP a favor. Have you tried Mojavie? Intel is biting off the wrong bark... once the low-end laptop users get a load of the UAC they will never buy a Microsoft product again. I mean this is actually a much sadder day for Microsoft and Intel as a couple than HP. HP will survive.

  97. Vista disc burning by Anomalyst · · Score: 1

    Your example is even worse than you suspect, Vista, by default, uses some screwy M$ format instead of ISO and you will be able to read the disc that was burned ONLY on another Vista machine, unless they are led thru the extra steps to get a a properly portable disc.

    --
    There is no right to feel safe thru security vaudeville at the expense of everyone's freedom, privacy and tax money.
    1. Re:Vista disc burning by Jamie's+Nightmare · · Score: 1

      The default format is the "Live File System", which is a nice option but isn't comparable with machines prior to Visa. This can be changed by clicking the "formatting options' button beneath the disk title input field, which is the very first step. Vista's integrated CD burning is no more difficult than it was on XP, assuming you have used either one at all.

      --
      "When you see a unixer brainwashed beyond saving, kick him out of the door." - Xah Lee
  98. Re:Ooh for pete's sake by eddy · · Score: 1

    >Heck-- crank up the competition for expereince index ratings, and the MFGs might actually start paying more attention to their drivers.

    Yes, in no time at all we'd have special drivers that would detect being called for calculating the index, and just returning directly doing no work.

    --
    Belief is the currency of delusion.
  99. HP picked up the snake by wardk · · Score: 1

    you mean the snake bit the entity that carried it across the river?

    nothing to learn from this, move along

  100. Linux by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    openSuse will solve all. end of story.

  101. Re:Not to mention to the retailers and resellers ; by ianare · · Score: 1

    I had no problems getting openSuSE to play DVDs, mp3s, etc ... no compiling needed, just needed to enable some repos.

    I agree though, Ubuntu makes it so much easier - the first time you atempt to play one it asks you to download the proper codec.

  102. Re:Marketing rules technology by hey! · · Score: 1

    As has always been the case and the #1 reason Microsoft products suck in general, marketing makes the product technology decisions.

    That's like the theory that the world rides on the back of a giant turtle; it doesn't explain what the turtle is standing on. You've just moved the locus of incompetence from engineering to marketing. A competent marketing department would know the limits of its capabilities, and would probably have a pretty good seat of the pants understanding of engineering if that was essential to their job.

    --
    Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
  103. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nobody expects the ./ inquisition!

  104. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by QRDeNameland · · Score: 1

    Then I would ask you - how do you know they haven't done the same as well?

    Because they're WRONG, obviously. /sarcasm

    --
    Momentarily, the need for the construction of new light will no longer exist.
  105. Which is precisely why... by jc364 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    This kind of thing is precisely why a third party should decide on hardware requirements for an operating system. Otherwise, marketing is sure to get in the way of the facts. If only Microsoft had realized this sooner... not only would they have avoided ticking off a business partner, but they may have been more inclined to improve some of Vista's benchmarks so that more machines were "actually" capable of running Vista. But now, they are left with a failed OS and a few less friends. Better luck with Windows 7. HP shouldn't be complaining too much though... they sold plenty of machines as "Vista capable" that had no business running Vista. Selling a machine with half a GB of RAM, and running Vista? There's no excuse for that.

    1. Re:Which is precisely why... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Isn't that the problem that occured here? Intel (a third party) lobbied hard for certain hardware requirements to be set. And they got it. Which then pissed off other third parties (HP).

  106. Microsoft on the brink by Nefarious+Wheel · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Year after year, I maintain the feeling that Windows is teetering on the brink. The immense army of Microsoft's R&D organisation is employed to add "differentiators", i.e. more features, rather than less, so you'll always have planned obsolesence. This is inconsistent with getting the price per unit down to where it's competitive in the TCO equation they're selling to. At the Enterprise back office, it's still perceived by most of our customers that a Windows server solution is easier to plug together in a scalable way with the fewest possible high-end engineers. Because of this perception (aided by a very good single-source support portal in MSDN with a lot of expensive polish) many of our Enterprise customers see a Windows desktop -- at whatever level of evolution -- is the client of least resistance. This amounts to a lot of technology knitted together with a glue consisting of 1 part content, 1 part support, and 1 part marketing polish.

    As far as overall quality and ease, well, you and I know different.

    To make Linux prevail across the Enterprise will require a differentiator, something that can compensate for the immense marketing engine that is MSFT. This will have to be not just a convincing alternative, but a convincing argument that is driven home.

    A couple of holdouts keep MSFT on the cliff instead of off it. A diminishing yet prevalent feeling of product consistency across the board (reinforced by their consistent portal graphics, I kid you not), the immense momentum of the installed product base and the fact that the users' home devices can run World of Warcraft on that platform and no other.

    The cost equation is at present very much in favour of a Linux desktop + **Nix back end. Unless we somehow counter that marketing engine, however, we'll never be able to give the beast that last push over the cliff. And we'll need to do it in some other way than they do -- remember, it took a year-after-year consistency for Volkswagen to break the tailfin aristocracy of the 1950's car makers. Of course by that time planned obsolescence had reached absurd levels and people were ready for the change.

    Maybe that's our marketing message -- "Do you really need the tailfins? Or would a simple, economical desktop do the job?"

    If any marketing types out there have the links, it would be great to see some of the old VW beetle adverts. Inspirational simplicity.

    --
    Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
    1. Re:Microsoft on the brink by ChromaticDragon · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well... World of Warcraft isn't the greatest example here.

      It runs JUST FINE on Linux!

      I'm sure it's partially because I had a lot of services running in Windows which I've since moved off onto a separate Linux box. But WoW seems snappier for me in Linux. But then, I was running via OpenGL on Windows as well. Your mileage may vary.

      Linux vs. Windows is still a difficult question of tradeoffs for many. I've finally switched from multi-booting primarily in Windows to staying on Linux most of the time. Still cannot get any number of things working. As much as possible, knocking them out one by one slowly. But this is offset by compiz, PulseAudio and any number of nice things. Finally the pros have outweighed the cons by enough margin to keep me here.

      The real problem is how ignorant the masses are. Most people just cannot believe you can get applications such as OpenOffice for free. Most have NO IDEA of the wealth of applications available. There will always be many people who cannot, will not or do not want to shoulder the responsibility of managing your own system that really is a part of running Linux. But I really feel there are TONS of folk who'd switch if they knew what was there.

    2. Re:Microsoft on the brink by mizzouxc · · Score: 1

      Apparently stability, speed and choice aren't good enough differentiators for Linux. Who needs a fast, stable OS anyways?

    3. Re:Microsoft on the brink by Vancorps · · Score: 1

      While I agree with your principles there's also the problem that a lot of end-user applications lack the polish people expect. Open Office for one is not nearly as functional or well support as regular MS Office. I create dynamic data-driven spreadsheets for reporting on the fly with Excel. To keep all this functionality I run Windows inside a VM as it's just easier that way. Battery life is also atrocious with Ubuntu at least from what I'm seeing.

      While the tools are getting better unless it's a scaled down interface like in a netbook scenario it's just not going to be sufficient for an end-user. I like that Aspire One with the built in webcam stuff but the chat app it comes with won't work with Windows Live or AIM video so other people have to change their clients to support it.

      Naturally I don't blame the developers of say Pidgin for the lack of support for something that is completely out of their control, as long as users lose any functionality they won't be interested in switching.

      Personally I love it, but for a general purpose workstation it's not ready.

      Worth noting that every IT shop with more than 40 machines should be prototyping machines so come deployment time all the little bugs should be worked out so you can find the cad replacement program, the email alternative, you can integrate Active Directory authentication and provide single-sign-on. These are all actually quite difficult challenges that took me several days to properly nail down and I've had Linux experience. For Windows shops converting it's a whole lot of pain for very little gain considering for the most part, computers come with Windows so it doesn't cost extra.

      Server wise is where Linux will continue to make gains as that is what it has proven it can do very well. At some point the threshold will get high enough that moving to Linux as a client will start to make a lot of sense.

    4. Re:Microsoft on the brink by atraintocry · · Score: 4, Funny

      Year after year, I maintain the feeling that Windows is teetering on the brink.

      Reading a lot of Slashdot will do that to you :D

    5. Re:Microsoft on the brink by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I've made it my policy to install dual-boot on every PC I am asked to administer (very much aided now by the fact that the Ubuntu 8.10 livecd contains ntfsresize!). I install Ubuntu with auto-login, and place shortcuts on the desktop named Firefox and Word processor.

      Any time someone calls me and says that they've hosed their Windows and urgently need to do some tasks, I tell them to boot that other thingy. At least it helps raise awareness. Too bad most of them are hooked (locked in) on live messenger...

      Now if only grub would have some eye-candy, and support two-levels menus so that the first menu only needs two entries: Windows and Linux...

    6. Re:Microsoft on the brink by DrLang21 · · Score: 1

      I recently switched to Ubuntu at home and I love it. But Linux still lacks support for a number of specialized industry standard software like CAD software. This is slowly starting to change (LabVIEW now works in Linux), but a more broad range of support will be required before it becomes feasible for most of industry to switch to the general purpose Linux workstation. For the work I do, Linux distributions are available for all of my key applications (except MS Outlook, which I assume there are alternatives to that can sync with an Outlook server), and if permitted, I would love to make the switch.

      --
      I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
    7. Re:Microsoft on the brink by DrLang21 · · Score: 1

      I think the real problem is a lack of, or a perceived lack of, necessary software. In some cases this is justified (such as with industry standard CAD software) and in some it is not. I think a good corporate move might be to switch to a general Linux workstation except in specialized cases where someone needs software that has no acceptable Linux alternative.

      --
      I see the glass as full with a FoS of 2.
    8. Re:Microsoft on the brink by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 1

      and the fact that the users' home devices can run World of Warcraft on that platform and no other.

      Really? (second paragraph)

    9. Re:Microsoft on the brink by Tubal-Cain · · Score: 1

      Now if only grub would ... support two-levels menus so that the first menu only needs two entries: Windows and Linux...

      Grub boots Windows by calling Window's boot loader. Maybe you can have two installations of Grub: one to chose between Windows and Linux. The Linux option then loads the second grub install for more options. It would probably be very slow, though.

    10. Re:Microsoft on the brink by Jthon · · Score: 1

      I guess WoW runs "JUST FINE" on Linux, but it doesn't run WELL.

      Last time I tried to get WoW working in Linux (about a year ago) it was a PITA to install and patch. And even once I got it running and the proper tweaks setup to fix a couple OpenGL problems I still couldn't get the game to play sound properly. It either started to stutter, or required a huge buffer such that sound latency was pretty noticeable. I also had problems changing video options, as any changes in that menu caused a crash.

      This on a computer that could run WoW at 1920x1200 with all the details cranked up on Windows.

      Sadly I now stick with Windows since I mostly just use my Desktop for gaming. Some day I might try Linux on my Desktop again but not anytime soon. It's just not worth the hassle of trying to get X and Wine tweaked the way I want it to find out the games I want to play don't work (more native ports please...)

      On the other hand my Linux server is working great and I'm glad I don't use Windows on that box.

  107. Re: Sounds like a 6 year old!! by TaoPhoenix · · Score: 1

    Richard Walker(HP): Microsoft ate the Cheapie Cookie from the Cheapie Cookie Jar!
    Jim Allchin (MS) Who, Me?
    Richard Walker(HP) Yes, You!
    Jim Allchin(MS) Couldn't Be.
    Richard Walker (HP) Then Who?

    (Internal MS)
    Jim Allchin: Ballmer! Ballmer ate the Cheapie Cookie from the Cheapie Cookie Jar!
    Steve Ballmer: Who, Me?
    Jim Allchin: Yes, You!
    Steve Ballmer: Couldn't Be.
    Jim Allchin: Then Who?

    Steve Ballmer: Poole! Poole ate the Cheapie Cookie from the Cheapie Cookie Jar!
    Will Poole: Who, Me?
    Steve Ballmer: Yes, You!
    Will Poole: Couldn't Be.
    Steve Ballmer: Then Who?

    (Fade out, Name mentioned by Will Poole not audible)

    --
    My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
  108. What's the problem? by rantingkitten · · Score: 1
    From TFA:

    Microsoft is accused of deceiving consumers who bought PCs in 2006 labeled "Vista Capable," but which could only run a basic version of the operating system.

    Most of the laptops used by the sales team at my company are HP 6710 series, purchased between late 2006 and mid 2007. They all have the Vista sticker on them. Some of them have Intel 915 video, and some have.. some other Intel chip, I forget which, but they all run Aero okay on Vista Business. (They also came with one gig of memory which just isn't enough, but that's neither here nor there.) So, I'm confused -- what, exactly, is the problem here?

    --
    mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
    1. Re:What's the problem? by Fulcrum+of+Evil · · Score: 1

      They apparently relaxed the vista requirements to help intel out so they could sell 915 video chipsets as 'vista capable', well after HP had spent a lot of money upgrading their stuff to meet the higher bar. Basically, HP wouldn't have had to spend nearly as much on upgrades if they'd known the requirement would be lower.

      --
      "We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
    2. Re:What's the problem? by rantingkitten · · Score: 1

      Even coming close to defending Microsoft leaves a bitter taste in my mouth, but I still don't get it. The laptops to which I refer are nothing special -- Core 2 Duo 1.6ghz processors, fairly standard these days. Gig of memory. That's more than enough to run Vista (though, try running some applications on top of that, with that limited memory, and you're in for a world of hurt). The big factor seems to be the video card, but I've personally witnessed several dozen of these machines with 915 chips running Aero fine -- with all the asinine bells and whistles. So, where's the loss to HP here? On what were they spending all this extra money to be "Vista Capable"? Was HP originally planning on going with an even worse video chip? How much lower could they possibly go these days?

      All that being said, I have essentially the same laptop -- an nx7400 -- which runs Ubuntu with compiz just beautifully, almost never taxes the available RAM, starts applications quickly, never crashes unless I'm deliberately screwing with stuff I shouldn't be touching, doesn't need a seperate "recovery CD" for basic drivers, and is immune to all the retarded little shitware and trojans I am forever helping the salesteam remove from their machines. Maybe someone at HP should wake up.

      --
      mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
    3. Re:What's the problem? by Fulcrum+of+Evil · · Score: 1

      No, HP built one with a better chipset because that was the requirement. After they spent all that money, MS relaxed the requirement so intel could sell the 915 as vista capable or whatever they called it.

      --
      "We returned the General to El Salvador, or maybe Guatemala, it's difficult to tell from 10,000 feet"
    4. Re:What's the problem? by rantingkitten · · Score: 1

      Ah, okay, now that makes sense. Now I dont' have the cognitive dissonance of almost having defended Microsoft.

      --
      mirrorshades radio -- darkwave, industrial, futurepop, ebm.
  109. When they can earn cash by DrYak · · Score: 1

    it is at their individual discretion to decide whether or not they want to continue to support any given OS at any time of their choosing ultimately making their old hardware unusable at a moment's notice. {...} "But they would never do that!" you say? Yeah they would at the very moment they believe it would be to their advantage to do so.

    And usually, said moment is when they can use this as an argument to make you purchase more hardware (sorry the old one isn't supported anymore).
    Every major release of an OS (like the coming of Windows Vista) is an excellent pretext to drop support for older hardware and ask you to buy newer

    Even if sometimes the "new" hardware is more of the same, simply rebadged as "new", painted a different colour, with hardware ID string slightly changed and packaged with compatible drivers (this can very easily happen with webcams as there only so few popular chips out-there).

    For a different example of proprietary driver-makers abusing their position, see graphic cards manufacturers who voluntarily drop support of older models in their latest drivers, simply to push users on the upgrade treadmill, even if the old models are largely still good enough for simple desktop (and even some linux compiz & some unambitious Windows gaming).

    At least AMD put some effort into collaboration with opensource projects and you're not completely left alone with your older GPU.

    --
    "Sufficiently advanced satire is indistinguishable from reality." - [Tips: 1DrYakQDKCQ6y52z6QbnkxHXAocMZJE61o ]
  110. TTY practice by Dolda2000 · · Score: 4, Funny

    [...]MS's anticompetitive^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H incentive[...]

    Are you aware that you can erase an entire word with ^W instead?

  111. short attention span investors by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who cares, I am all for those sorts of investors and companies to go bellyup, with no bailout. Look at GM now, hat in hand begging for a loan because collectively, management, labor and investors are all loons in that company.. Screw em, let em sink. I wish they had done it for those casino skimming banks as well, let em sink and sue each other over those ridiculous paper financial pseudo products that are mostly worth nothing, they are frauds. Ya, the overall economy would tank for a year, because globally we need it, we need to cut the rot and stupidity and greed out, and a lot of investors will lose their shirts, tough noogies, that's the point of assessing risk and paying attention to what your corporate hired stooges and elected hired stooges are doing, and any investor who is only worried about one quarter profit-who cares? We don't need to keep rewarding overt stupidity, greed and laziness. If some retarded computer company wants to go down while microsoft pisses on them, who cares? Demand will still be there for computers, and some smaller and smarter and faster moving companies will take their place, and be smart enough to offer some real choice beyond the borg of mediocrity and stupid and forced totally unnecessary so called "upgrades".

    If some idiot company goes under because they can't function without the latest MS office "product"..let em sink! If some over priced office typists can't deal with OMG a very slightly different program, let em go broke, look for another job, stop with wasting time on movies and sports and reality Tv shows and videogames and actually try to learn something just a little bit different. Or fail, two choices now.

    The economy is morphing rapidly now, the stupid and lazy and the ones who are panicking over one quarter ahead, and who have never really dealt pass that sort of time frame are going down, fullstop. Soup kitchen, bankruptcy, no more cushy job. Trying to do things the old way just isn't going to work for most companies out there anymore, because stuff is just changing too fast right now.

    Evolve, adapt to changing times and realities, or go extinct chose one. MS was last century's behemoth, but not in this century, and anyone who can't see that coming is living on the banks of the river de-nile. Microsoft=General Motors, allegedly "too big to fail" Boolsheet, seen any 100 foot long dinosaurs around lately? MS is going down. They are still huge, giant.but reality is, they are going down eventually and most likely fast once they start to tumble. Alternatives are in too many products now, more and more people are becoming aware of the alternatives, and they are plenty good enough to function for 99% of the computer using public out there right now, let alone within another few years. MS took seven years to come out with something that looks to be around 6 months worth of work in the alternative OS side, a normal half a year upgrade release. They just can't cut it anymore. And tons of people think it sucks so bad they refuse to budge from the seven year old model. That's more than a single clue. If HP or Dell won't adapt, guaranteed some upstart Chinese or Taiwanese or Indian company will, heck maybe even some new US company. There's a lot of investor cash out there now looking for someplace that isn't *stupid* to invest in, and it is now cheap as Vc capital goes to do a computer assembly startup operation, even at huge scales. This isn't 1995, this is 2008, a whole lot of things have changed since MS became dominant and then decided to just milk things out.

    And we've hit a plateau on just so many ways an office document can be arranged on a page, or needs to have what was a supercomputer a few years ago in order to type that thing up. Not needed, forced software upgrades that cost serious money are starting to look pretty stupid to more and more people, just to do exactly what they were doing the day previously. And paying more for that software than the hardware, for office memos?? heh..road to eventual bankruptcy, becaus

  112. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 1, Funny

    Actually, the proper response would have been "Because God told me they didn't."

    --
    "But this one goes to 11!"
  113. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by jabithew · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    believing in evolution

    Evolution is not a belief, it is a scientific fact which can be tested. I'm sorry, but I get edgy when people start using belief to refer to things which are falsifiable.

    --
    All intents and purposes. Not intensive purposes.
  114. It's paback time! by wshwe · · Score: 1

    Microsoft sold out and now is paying the heavy price. Windows 7 will expose Vista as a load of crap.

  115. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by jabithew · · Score: 1

    I think you're confusing a free thinker with someone who disagrees with everyone around them, as opposed to one who forms an independent judgement. Otherwise no more than 50% of the population could ever be freethinkers, a self-obvious nonsense.

    --
    All intents and purposes. Not intensive purposes.
  116. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by jabithew · · Score: 1

    Oh, no, I see what you're getting at. Yeah, it was wrong of me to use it as a synonym, but I can't think of another good one.

    Besides, is it possible to be a free-thinker and a member of organised religion? Even if you do believe in god and decide to 'submit' to him, isn't that sacrificing any claim to being a freethinker? cf. the story of Abraham and Isaac, where Abraham is glorified for sacrificing intellectual and moral independence to god, a classic example of Nietzsche's so-called slave morality. Hardly free-thinking.

    --
    All intents and purposes. Not intensive purposes.
  117. Re:Not to mention to the retailers and resellers ; by BlackSnake112 · · Score: 1

    Install VLC.

    It is free, I have yet to have it not play an MP3 or DVD. It plays most (if not all) video files. There may be some new video files that I have not played, but all the .avi, .mpg, .mov, .wmv play fine that I have tried. It works under linux, xp, vista, and OSX I believe too.

    Now watch Apple, and microsoft change their video files to not work in VLC.

  118. Blame the intern! by Radical+Moderate · · Score: 1

    " Ballmer, in turn, blamed another Microsoft executive"
    When I first read the summary, I read that as "Ballmer blamed another Microsoft intern". And my reaction was, "Well, that explains so much about Vista!"

    --
    Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
  119. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by jesterzog · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm free to think for myself, and I do so, religiously. I slam science geeks for not believing in God just because their peers don't when they haven't put any good thought into it themselves from the same angle I'd slam someone for not believing in evolution when they haven't put any good thought into it either.

    I think it's fair to criticise people for believing something entirely because other people happen to believe it, but isn't this also exactly how organised religion works? Why do you believe in God if it's not simply because other people, family, preachers, society, a book, etc, have told you that God exists? Do you see this as different somehow from people who don't believe in God because those around them don't?

    I can see how one might come to a conclusion that there's a lot we still don't know about the universe, but I have trouble seeing how that space can be filled with the views of any particular organised religion unless it's as a direct consequence of deciding to do so based on faith.

    At least from what I've heard, advocates of religion and Christianity in particular tend among the first to agree that it's based on faith and on making assumptions about things. I accept people's right to make assumptions, but where possible I personally prefer to acknowledge what I don't know and leave it at that.

  120. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by dimeglio · · Score: 2, Informative

    Since we're waaaaay off topic anyways... You probably mean evolution through natural selection. Hopefully you'll reproduce in sufficient quantity to prove this theory is right.

    --
    Views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the author.
  121. Exactly! by camperdave · · Score: 1

    So I would say that as long as the OS can run the applications the users are used to, those users could care less what the OS is.

    This is exactly right! An application should not know or care what OS it is running on. A user shouldn't care either. An OS should be an interchangeable commodity software. Applications don't care what network card, or mouse, or keyboard, or hard drive, or printer you have. Neither should they care which filesystem, or desktop, or kernel version they're running on.

    --
    When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
  122. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by beav007 · · Score: 2, Informative

    Evolution is not a belief, it is a scientific fact

    No, it is a scientific theory.

  123. Now that HP is furious with M$, by CustomDesigned · · Score: 1

    does that mean they will now sell me a low end laptop without Windows? (Preferably with FreeDos and diagnostics, but Ubuntu would be Ok, since that is popular.)

  124. And Dell . . . . . by bogidu · · Score: 1

    Laughs all the way to the bank.

  125. HP in trouble? by Trogre · · Score: 1

    This is the same HP that tried to charge me $65 for a recovery CD to re-install Windows XP after a hard drive in my clients HP computer died. A recovery CD that did not come with the computer originally.

    I've no sympathy at all.

    --
    "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
  126. So what will the spring linux line be like? by smchris · · Score: 1

    Seriously. If HP is going to play the abused housewife to Microsoft's wife beater and they don't come up with an intervention, screw 'em.

  127. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Hucko · · Score: 1

    No, I was confusing free thinking with the ability to consider alternatives in spite of the common prejudices of those around them. My understanding of free thinking originally didn't rely on disagreement just had the ability to. I apologise.

    --
    Semi-automatic amateur armchair Australian philosopher; conjecture ready at any moment...
  128. Re:HP picked up the scorpion by mjwx · · Score: 1

    Actually the story is about a scorpion not a snake, but the moral rings true, understand the nature of those with whom you make bargains.

    --
    Calling someone a "hater" only means you can not rationally rebut their argument.
  129. Of course! by Randall311 · · Score: 1

    Collusion to stop the colluding! Makes perfect sense to me!

  130. Obama needs to solve this one. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Obama needs to get involved. On his first day in office, he should issue an executive order that defines exactly what is and what isn't Vista capable. Since everyone likes Obama and agrees with him, his involvement will end this debacle once and for all to everyone's satisfaction.

  131. Re:Ooh for pete's sake by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 1

    While intel could flood the market with cheap "vista capable" 915 chipsets, HP could have turned around and advertised the fact that their Vista experience was much better.

    Could they? Anybody with crappy ratings would just fail to publicize the fact. So, HP would be out there with a number and no one else would mention that number. It would be as useful as price-match guarantees on mattresses.

    --
    When information is power, privacy is freedom.
  132. forget the year of the linux desktop.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    ...I'm desperately yearning to see the Year Of Regular People Getting A Fucking Clue About Computers Already.

  133. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Iamthecheese · · Score: 1

    Some kind of rant generator. Please don't feed the trolls.

    --
    If video games influenced behavior the Pac Man generation would be eating pills and running away from their problems.
  134. Re:Not to mention to the retailers and resellers ; by the_womble · · Score: 1

    Apparently one problem Asus faced with their original Linux-only Eee was that a lot of them got returned as "broken" by some dolts who tried to install MS Office and the likes on them, and concluded that the laptop is broken if they can't.

    Citation? The last thing I read on this said that return rates were similar - it was MSI that got higher return rates for Linux.

  135. Re:Hot dog, OH DADDY! by inKubus · · Score: 1, Funny

    They just can't catch a break since His Emperor Gates III stepped down from the Red, Green, Yellow and Blue throne. Enter the same internal bickering and power struggles that nearly destroyed IBM in the 90's. They'll pull through, we'll probably all be better off because of it, but Gates had a certain perfection in business that I'm going to miss.

    --
    Cool! Amazing Toys.
  136. Vista doesn't get a pass by Latent+Heat · · Score: 1

    I don't see Vista used much of anywhere except in the Office Depot computer showroom.

  137. ^Seconded. by ShadowSystems · · Score: 1

    I just got finished installing Ubuntu 8.10 to a customer's laptop (Dell Latitude D600) today.
    Took the HD out, slipped it into an external case, plugged it into my laptop (Compaq), made a dd .ISO image of the drive, then put it back in his system.
    Popped in the Ubuntu dvd, & told him to hit the power switch.
    "If you feel you need any help, I'll be sitting right here."
    The ONLY question he had was about the partition manager, and that was "If we've already backed up all my stuff, then I can just let it have the whole drive, right?"
    After that, he was able to answer all the questions himself, & effectively set up his own system withOUT my help.
    Once it had ejected the DVD & rebooted to the HD, he spent a few moments looking at his desktop.
    Without asking, he clicked "Applications", browsed what had already been installed, noticed the "Add/Remove Programs" option, & was browsing the Synaptic repositories shortly there-after.

    He figured out that clicking the little box beside the program's name meant "I'd like this", and "Apply" meant, well, to do what he'd asked.
    The system grabbed the files he'd checked, and finished without a hitch.
    He sat there looking at me funny & asked "Doesn't it need to, like, reboot, or something?"
    "Nope. You can close out that screen, and your program will be listed in the appropriate section of the Application menu."
    He closes Synaptic, checks the App menu, and is suitably impressed that, sure-enough, his programs are right there.

    [Him] "Wait a minute... Don't I have to PAY for those?"
    [Me] Nope, they're free. Unless you take them from the "Non Free" sections, which are clearly marked and require you to activate them before you can use them, you don't HAVE to pay for any of it. If you WANT to give them money in thanks, and it's highly recommended you do, there are usually links to the program author's website in the Help section of the program's menu bar.
    [Him] What kinds of things are in the 'Non Free' sections?
    [Me] Let's authorize them & I'll show you. Mostly it's things like the Adobe Flash & PDF programs, & the bits needed to play DVD's, but it's rare that a Linux program REQUIRES you to pay for it first. It's nice to give them a few bucks, though, because these are normal people, writing programs as a hobby, that people like us find useful. Like that tax software? Enjoy that game? Think that paint program is the bee's knees? Then send the Author a letter & a cheque thanking them for their efforts. You'll probably get a letter back thanking YOU for helping keep them going doing what they love.
    [Him] So, what about Office docs? Can I do them?
    I showed him OOo, imported a MS Doc off a USB key (my resume), & double-clicked it in the file manager.
    It opened in OOo, scanned it for spelling errors, & then gave him a cursor.
    He sat there smiling & said "That's good enough for me."

    He found Firefox, Thunderbird, and Pidgin all on his own, and the only questions he had were how to import his email & bookmarks from his old system.
    Since I had copied them to my USB key, it was a snap to move them back to the HD & show him the Import functions.

    His HP PSC1315 (Printer/Scanner/Copier) worked out of the box.
    Totem downloaded the needed codecs & then played the DVD he'd popped in.
    And except for the video "maxing out" at 1024x768 (which he was fine with, but I would've fixed had it been my system) on the generic drivers, his system was ready-to-go without me having to DO much of anything.

    Yes I realize many people have issues with hardware on the multitude of systems out there, but if it installs properly (which is a problem with ANY operating system), Linux not only CAN outshine Windows on the same hardware, it makes Windows look like a diseased pile of feces compared to a 100 carat diamond.

    Oh, and the customer?
    He turns 87 tomorrow & is a self described "computer idjit".
    So if an "idjit" can install Ubuntu,

    1. Re:^Seconded. by MikeBabcock · · Score: 1

      The hardest part to explain to Windows users is that they don't need to Google for the software they want, just grab it off the package manager's menu.

      Sure you can do all those complicated command-line things if you want, and I know people who know very little about computers who just type the instructions (./configure, make, make install) and make the software they want work without much effort anyway.

      The best part is that it works. The packages are designed to work together on the system because they're packaged together by a distro, and for the most part its well done.

      --
      - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
  138. Moron ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    But if you install any hardware or software for an Apple, then the installation program will walk you through the process or just a window will pop up with "Drag application icon to applications folder icon".

    In the most optimistic, user friendly case for Linux, you would have to do some dpkg --install your-app-v456-67.8736c.deb and then get 50 error messages because "libgrablewops4" not installed. An average user cannot deal with this.

    You see, people don't want to think about the inner workings of an operating system or a computer not because they are stupid, but because they don't care. For ost people a computer is a tool which is used to achieve a function and not a cause in itself.

  139. That is nonsensical. by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    What you are advocating is not to bring ever products to a market once it is inhabited by a big player.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  140. How are you so sure? by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    Hardware manufacturers can put a different OS on their wares and go to the market with that.

    If MS alienates hardware houses as big as HP, do you honestly think they will be winners?

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  141. Uh? You are a good repairman, a crap salesman. by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    My relatives running Ubuntu know it will not run neither Windows or OSX software.

    I make clear that unless the software is not specifically labelled as running on Linux it will not run on their computers.

    I mention my relatives, because they are clueless when it comes to computing, nevertheless they can understand the issue at hand, my clients require no explanation about this because they are computer literate.

    If you are having irate clients it is not Linux's fault, it is yours for not providing correct pre-sales advice.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  142. Don't keep defending your ineptitude. by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    There are people out there making money selling Linux machines to people that are not necessarily computer literate.

    People doing this *cough, cough* understand the market and that users need more hand holding, people are not as stupid as you want them to be, if you explain things for a couple of minutes they will understand that the sticker in front of the computer means pretty much nothing when it comes to the inner workings of the machine.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  143. Well, that is how it is supposed to work. by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    The third party is called Intel.

    The problem is that these companies now live in a symbiotic situation in which one can't live without the other.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  144. MS abuses business partner! by jotaeleemeese · · Score: 1

    Shock! Horror!

    News at 11, sorry at 10, we are in the UK.

    --
    IANAL but write like a drunk one.
  145. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by samjam · · Score: 1

    MAYBE, but how many people "believe" in it without testing it?

    (Interestingly how many "testers" falsify the results? Is that answer a belief?)

    For all practical purposes most things come down to belief, and for the few that DO the tests they have to believe that they did it right and that their peers (doing the review) and sucking up.

    Sam

  146. The world upside down by garisan · · Score: 1

    Shoudn'd be an operating system a piece of software aimed to take full advantage of a hardware and give easy control to the user ? Why we have here hardware companies building chipsets in a way to satisfy an operating system ? Garisan

  147. Burned by hesaigo999ca · · Score: 1

    Finally ....one big greedy company burning another. Where's my popcorn!

  148. MS, Ever wonder why Apple Rocks? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They don't pull this sort of crap to please someone.

    Once Apple (Steve?) decides on the experience they want to provide, they stick to it.

    Didn't Steve ask the RIAA companies to suck it up when they wanted to up ITune prices as well?

    He wanted a sub dollar track price as part of the experience, he stuck to it.

    He wanted OSX to run well on whatever they ship it with - they gave it decent hardware.

    They want the IPhone to be locked no matter the unhappiness around geek circles - cos of the experience they wanted to provide to the average end user.

    They stick to what they believe in - no what the "long term partner" wants.

    They though PPC chips are not enough for what they wanted to show the customers, and jumped to intel.

    If they think intel is not providing what they want, am sure they will jump again.

  149. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    WRONG.

    That evolution happens, and has happened is a scientific fact.

    The exact sequence of events is the theory.

  150. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by MikeBabcock · · Score: 1

    Yes, I have, and usually its self-evident based on the arguments given.

    Just look at some of the anti-religious comments made on Slashdot (or most of them) -- they're knee-jerk unthought rationalizations with no real personal freedom of thought reflected at all but rather an application of anti-superstition group-think.

    --
    - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)
  151. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 1

    One could make the exact argument about organized religion. That was exactly my point about this entire thread. If a person can't at least see the possibility of that, one could argue that they may be a victim of "groupthink".
    And hey, Slashdot is not the real world. In the real world, it is completely opposite, and the Slashdotters get to enjoy "knee-jerk unthought rationalizations with no real personal freedom of thought reflected at all" by good old "Christians" anytime they voice their views. So let me ask you, would you rather have it be the opposite? Or is not having the upper hand in reality still not good enough?

    --
    "But this one goes to 11!"
  152. Re:My complaint about Slashdot by MikeBabcock · · Score: 1

    Well-said, and thanks. MOST people 'believe' by 'faith' most everything they deal with mentally in their day-to-day lives. They do not test, nor check the testing of the beliefs they have, and therefore its faith, whether its in Religion or Science, its faith.

    --
    - Michael T. Babcock (Yes, I blog)