""Before the M$ bash fest starts let's make this clear. These companies are not using Linux distros because they hate Microsoft or any of that other nonsense. It is purely a financial decision. They can make more money with Linux while at the same time offer the consumers a product that can be judged by its functionality and other merits. Not by a third party having their branding all over it.""
Making more money, or with a lower price point tapping into a new market of buyers ? At $150 - $250 it can temp folks to buy their first mobile PC --- for techies its a chance to pickup an additional mobile device for work - travel - hacking... at a low cost.
I see this as about financial and new opportunity... the standard price point markets are also nearing saturation
""Since the notebooks are low-end, we expect them to have relatively poorer specs. So, Windows (and everything) will take longer to boot--a minute seems reasonable.""
First off, keep in mind that his years killer cpu/chipset is next years mainstream cpu/chipset and 6 months later is a value cpu/chipset. So many of todays "low-end" machines are quite capable for most daily uses. Unless you want to play the latest games or do 3D fluid simulations - a low cost laptop is fine.
On the OS end - MS just keeps patching holes and adding code they are not aggressively optimizing the kernel. On the Linux front the kernel is on a regular development / optimization cycle. Hence faster boot times and less power usage with Linux.
I spent over 16 yrs with Intel as a HW engineer. I saw many good decisions and a lot of bad ones too. Same goes for opportunities taken and missed. But their focus on cpu development cannot be faulted - they stumbled a few times but always found their focus again.
The other big success is their constant work on making the entire system architecture better, and basically giving that work to the industry for free. PCI - USB - AGP - all directly driven by Intel.
Its a bizarro place to work but my time their was not wasted
Once again those who "live and breathe" technology attempt to predict how technology will affect the average worker who "doesn't get" the basics of technology or care about it.
I support over 180 teaching staff and 30 administrative staff + 2000 HS students using about 700 computers.
Many of the staff are quite comfortable users - but 98% of them have their real job focus "teaching students". Yes they use technology but their focus is staying abreast of new trends in Math - science - History... and creating engaging content. NOT DESCRIBING SOME TECHNICAL ISSUE TO SOME "CLOUD BASED SUPPORT GEEK IN THE NEXT TIME-ZONE".
Local support will not go away for a long time... and yes students are tech savvy - but tech savvy at using applications and devices does not give you the deductive skill needed to solve problems.
This issue is a main element in Richard Clarke's latest book - Breakpoint. Clarke is the terrorist guru from the late '90s in the Clinton administration... and the guy the Bush administration chose to ignore. Bottom line is if you let your key silicon + hardware be exclusively built in forgien countries ( i.e. China) you're at risk of hardware level "back doors". Published in '06 - Clarke again signals a warning for the US.....
By dirty I mean it will have to include a lot of non-open source code and apps.
Average folks don't give 3 shits about the "purity of a code base" or open-source in general. They want to buy a computer (really a computing appliance) and have it play their iTunes - MP3's - video files - games - do their email - and taxes. Thats it !!!
I see in the future something like Ubuntu releasing 2 versions: - Open source clean and free to the public - An altered version to OEMs or "OS Providers" who use internal modules / code hooks to load all the non-open source goodies. I would also see players like Nvidia providing a full blown driver for their latest card(s)..... however the tasty fully functional (and supported ) Hybrid-OS would not be free. You would pay $25 - $50 for this
Time will tell but I believe Linux will have to adapt to what average users want and expect in an OS - versus some philosophical "free as in beer" point of view
Average users don't buy or install OS's ! In fact they can't keep straight disk size versus DRAM size.
In fact - if normal folks did install OS's we would already be using Linux because 95% of the time a modern Linux distro will load all the typical drivers for you. XP is so fucking brain-dead you have to go to the computers manufacturers web site to get the damn drivers and install them manually.
The masses will adopt a Linux based platform when it is spoon-fed to them and mass marketed by Dell - HP etc.
It is crucial that the Linux community / developers keep moving the OS and desktop forward showing leadership to both MS and Apple.
I stopped believing a long time ago in some "magic conversion" point for Linux to go commercial.
Unless your boss or daddy is buying it for you... $300 - 400 is the sweet spot. At $500 you're almost talkin' real money - or at least enough to make you think twice. Which means fewer adopters initially. I've played with an eePC - very nice... if the kybd was 10-15% bigger I'd have one. There will be many sub-notebooks in the future to bridge the crackberry / laptop gap
Unfortunately mules are too smart and have a "survival instinct" --- when one mule steps on a mine (or the in-coming rounds start) the mules will scatter... this thing will just keep marching on as its other "pack members" are shredded. Yes it may change its tactical mode when under fire -- but it ain't gonna run away.
Its gonna be a different world in 15-20yrs... I'll be really old and you young bucks will be dealing with "K9 patrols". Good luck with that - holy crap
but needs to be contextually focused and very minimal. Contextual refers to the OS controlling which set of "voice commands" are relevant. And in 90 percent of the cases the commands would be one word. If you are installing SW or transferring files (i.e. doing OS level things) then the system switches to a very focused set of commands: yes - no - all (for replace all) - agree ( for SW agreement) - typical ( for typical install) -... so the system would still pop up a box asking for Typical Install / Minimal Install / Custom Install --- you could still pick via the mouse click or just say "Typical"
By focusing on a specific set of voice inputs - recognition success is much higher - and in the example above operations are completed with less "mousing around". And the system would recognize that you just clicked on a photo-editor -- switch context libraries -- and is now ready for simple commands like: crop - enlarge - enhance...
I don't really want a conversation with my computer... just the ability to work in a smoother more efficient way. Such a system should be fairly easy to implement and would be a great way for Linux to add a new and relevant feature set.
""How can a company that can afford to pony up $44.6 bn possibly be described as being "on the ropes"?!""
I hardly find this comment "insightful" --- both MS and Intel were at the right place at the right time when the PC was born. Now to be fair both companies also did some good work in the '90s and up to around 2001 (2001 saw the release of XP and the Pentium 4). Thus leading to their 80% - 90% market share positions today. And with that 80%-90% comes a ton of profit so frankly $44 billion is a chunk of change but by no means is a "sign of good health or innovation".
However both had major fuck-ups or major missed opportunities during the earlier years - and continue to struggle today to see the trends - make the right choices - or make the hard choices.
For MS alone: - Remember Netscape ? MS totally missed the whole Internet trend - Windows ME - Their inability to grasp the net as a business model (i.e. Google) - Making big promises while not focusing on fixing problems - doing neither and producing Vista
And these are just some of the biggies --- now both Apple and Linux are nibbling away at the market space
Healthcare reform, acting on global warming, tax reform, ending a meaningless war, supporting the middle class, fighting terrorism at its roots ( in the Madrases ) and local Muslim populations (versus invading random countries like Iraq or Iran), energy independence........ on and on
Since a teenager I've been at least tuned into the issues / politics - and would get wrapped up with one candidate or another.... now in my 50's I see that this just a bunch of horse-shit. I'll still vote (as I have since I turned 18).... but to invest any time, money, or emotion in the political process ----- fuck that shit.
So this total propeller head who's teaching the class says "Perl is the easiest language to learn - very natural and logical syntax"...... I lasted until the morning break - then went back ot my office to get some work done.....
The issue with M$ is not that they make money or that they are the dominate OS ---- When you combine incompetence + arrogance + Ruthless Biz practices --- not just once - but over and over.... people tend to catch on and come to resent this.
A "new technology" coming up from the bottom (low cost) is the traditional way to upset a market. And M$ knows this.
Programmers don't need to work for free -- low cost PC devices will still require lots of programming (integration of SW and improved applications + continual OS tweaks) from cradle to grave. They will be employed by the OEM and 3rd party support companies. Just because you (a tech head) can get Linux for free has no correlation to selling a product that has a tailor made + polished SW load. It just means the total SW + OS package needs to be awesome and under say $35 per machine. And many people would pay some sort of a very modest ($8) subscription fee for the latest tweaks + upgrades + support.
Last week I got to play with an EEPC --- very neat device for $300
I live in the Portland-Metro area and can confirm we (as in the Pacific NW) had a doozy of a storm. Mist - rain - horizontal rain - and rain like a cow pissing on a flat rock.
This is basically a repeat of what we got in 1996 which I believe was rated as a hundred year flood -- so within 10yrs we have another event. Wonder how all this maps into the whole climate change picture.
And yes - thanks to the Hams for helping out as they always do. In any major disaster where public communications infrastructure will be damaged --- independent radio operators can make critical connections
but the war is lost as we lost control of the country - and then lost the hearts and minds of the people.
Rummy and the Pentagon wanted to test out Transformation --- that being total information integration between all the military branches right down to the soldier on the ground. And it actually worked pretty good ---- even though the total resistance to the invasion was light ---- the country was over thrown by a moderate military force.
Unfortunately - once all existing civil authorities are gone... you need about 300,000 to 400,000 troops spread across the country to enforce military law until a new civil government is running. This is especially true in a country where factional populations live that were being held in check by a strongman ---- once unshackled anything can happen.
Bush and Rummy were warned by several Generals that they needed "a lot of boots" on the ground. Apparently they thought that was "old school".
Wife and I took trains from Hiedelberg to Paris -- the German trains were nice - at the German / French border we switched to the TGV. What a sweet ride --- and yes there is a "little bump" called the Alps we had to go over. So at that point we were only traveling 60-70MPH -- as we got into the rolling hills (farm land) you could feel the acceleration as the engineer(?) rolled on the speed. For long stretches we were really cooking along.
TGV trainsets travel at up to 320 km/h (200 mph) in commercial use. ----- Wikipedia
And the rails / rail bed very smooth -- no clickty-clack. I agree that such trains in the US make the most sense in a regional setting..... but they will make the most sense as the price of fuel continues its upward spiral.
And if you're going to do propaganda then make it good AND make it digital.
No doubt some legal hassles will ensue for the "Discovery Institute" -- however any legal dust-up just allows them to get publicity ect.
The motive here IMHO was to create this video and get it out on the web - where hundreds of thousands of their devout followers can download it for their own use. Case closed - this video will now live on as a "educational" tool to be shown in bible clases etc for years to come. Bits are bits - and if you can steal them and "repurpose them" you now have the web as your world wide delivery system.
Slashdot Mirror
Case closed .....
Now I can get SPAM from fucking Jupiter ... bloody wonderful.
""Before the M$ bash fest starts let's make this clear. These companies are not using Linux distros because they hate Microsoft or any of that other nonsense. It is purely a financial decision. They can make more money with Linux while at the same time offer the consumers a product that can be judged by its functionality and other merits. Not by a third party having their branding all over it.""
... at a low cost.
... the standard price point markets are also nearing saturation
Making more money, or with a lower price point tapping into a new market of buyers ? At $150 - $250 it can temp folks to buy their first mobile PC --- for techies its a chance to pickup an additional mobile device for work - travel - hacking
I see this as about financial and new opportunity
""Since the notebooks are low-end, we expect them to have relatively poorer specs. So, Windows (and everything) will take longer to boot--a minute seems reasonable.""
First off, keep in mind that his years killer cpu/chipset is next years mainstream cpu/chipset and 6 months later is a value cpu/chipset. So many of todays "low-end" machines are quite capable for most daily uses. Unless you want to play the latest games or do 3D fluid simulations - a low cost laptop is fine.
On the OS end - MS just keeps patching holes and adding code they are not aggressively optimizing the kernel. On the Linux front the kernel is on a regular development / optimization cycle. Hence faster boot times and less power usage with Linux.
I spent over 16 yrs with Intel as a HW engineer. I saw many good decisions and a lot of bad ones too. Same goes for opportunities taken and missed. But their focus on cpu development cannot be faulted - they stumbled a few times but always found their focus again.
The other big success is their constant work on making the entire system architecture better, and basically giving that work to the industry for free. PCI - USB - AGP - all directly driven by Intel.
Its a bizarro place to work but my time their was not wasted
Once again those who "live and breathe" technology attempt to predict how technology will affect the average worker who "doesn't get" the basics of technology or care about it.
... and creating engaging content. NOT DESCRIBING SOME TECHNICAL ISSUE TO SOME "CLOUD BASED SUPPORT GEEK IN THE NEXT TIME-ZONE".
... and yes students are tech savvy - but tech savvy at using applications and devices does not give you the deductive skill needed to solve problems.
I support over 180 teaching staff and 30 administrative staff + 2000 HS students using about 700 computers.
Many of the staff are quite comfortable users - but 98% of them have their real job focus "teaching students". Yes they use technology but their focus is staying abreast of new trends in Math - science - History
Local support will not go away for a long time
don't they know about not messing with Texas
This issue is a main element in Richard Clarke's latest book - Breakpoint. Clarke is the terrorist guru from the late '90s in the Clinton administration ... and the guy the Bush administration chose to ignore. Bottom line is if you let your key silicon + hardware be exclusively built in forgien countries ( i.e. China) you're at risk of hardware level "back doors". Published in '06 - Clarke again signals a warning for the US .....
By dirty I mean it will have to include a lot of non-open source code and apps.
..... however the tasty fully functional (and supported ) Hybrid-OS would not be free. You would pay $25 - $50 for this
Average folks don't give 3 shits about the "purity of a code base" or open-source in general. They want to buy a computer (really a computing appliance) and have it play their iTunes - MP3's - video files - games - do their email - and taxes. Thats it !!!
I see in the future something like Ubuntu releasing 2 versions:
- Open source clean and free to the public
- An altered version to OEMs or "OS Providers" who use internal modules / code hooks to load all the non-open source goodies. I would also see players like Nvidia providing a full blown driver for their latest card(s)
Time will tell but I believe Linux will have to adapt to what average users want and expect in an OS - versus some philosophical "free as in beer" point of view
Mod the original poster up to 5!
Average users don't buy or install OS's ! In fact they can't keep straight disk size versus DRAM size.
In fact - if normal folks did install OS's we would already be using Linux because 95% of the time a modern Linux distro will load all the typical drivers for you. XP is so fucking brain-dead you have to go to the computers manufacturers web site to get the damn drivers and install them manually.
The masses will adopt a Linux based platform when it is spoon-fed to them and mass marketed by Dell - HP etc.
It is crucial that the Linux community / developers keep moving the OS and desktop forward showing leadership to both MS and Apple.
I stopped believing a long time ago in some "magic conversion" point for Linux to go commercial.
Unless your boss or daddy is buying it for you ... $300 - 400 is the sweet spot. At $500 you're almost talkin' real money - or at least enough to make you think twice. Which means fewer adopters initially. I've played with an eePC - very nice ... if the kybd was 10-15% bigger I'd have one. There will be many sub-notebooks in the future to bridge the crackberry / laptop gap
Unfortunately mules are too smart and have a "survival instinct" --- when one mule steps on a mine (or the in-coming rounds start) the mules will scatter ... this thing will just keep marching on as its other "pack members" are shredded. Yes it may change its tactical mode when under fire -- but it ain't gonna run away.
... I'll be really old and you young bucks will be dealing with "K9 patrols". Good luck with that - holy crap
Its gonna be a different world in 15-20yrs
but needs to be contextually focused and very minimal. Contextual refers to the OS controlling which set of "voice commands" are relevant. And in 90 percent of the cases the commands would be one word. If you are installing SW or transferring files (i.e. doing OS level things) then the system switches to a very focused set of commands: yes - no - all (for replace all) - agree ( for SW agreement) - typical ( for typical install) - ... so the system would still pop up a box asking for Typical Install / Minimal Install / Custom Install --- you could still pick via the mouse click or just say "Typical"
...
... just the ability to work in a smoother more efficient way. Such a system should be fairly easy to implement and would be a great way for Linux to add a new and relevant feature set.
By focusing on a specific set of voice inputs - recognition success is much higher - and in the example above operations are completed with less "mousing around". And the system would recognize that you just clicked on a photo-editor -- switch context libraries -- and is now ready for simple commands like: crop - enlarge - enhance
I don't really want a conversation with my computer
A large predatory animal can be quite dangerous once wounded (by lack of CD sales) and will attack anything
""How can a company that can afford to pony up $44.6 bn possibly be described as being "on the ropes"?!""
I hardly find this comment "insightful" --- both MS and Intel were at the right place at the right time when the PC was born. Now to be fair both companies also did some good work in the '90s and up to around 2001 (2001 saw the release of XP and the Pentium 4). Thus leading to their 80% - 90% market share positions today. And with that 80%-90% comes a ton of profit so frankly $44 billion is a chunk of change but by no means is a "sign of good health or innovation".
However both had major fuck-ups or major missed opportunities during the earlier years - and continue to struggle today to see the trends - make the right choices - or make the hard choices.
For MS alone:
- Remember Netscape ? MS totally missed the whole Internet trend
- Windows ME
- Their inability to grasp the net as a business model (i.e. Google)
- Making big promises while not focusing on fixing problems - doing neither and producing Vista
And these are just some of the biggies --- now both Apple and Linux are nibbling away at the market space
Can I get horns with that ?
can effect any type of meaningful change.
........ on and on
.... now in my 50's I see that this just a bunch of horse-shit. I'll still vote (as I have since I turned 18) .... but to invest any time, money, or emotion in the political process ----- fuck that shit.
Healthcare reform, acting on global warming, tax reform, ending a meaningless war, supporting the middle class, fighting terrorism at its roots ( in the Madrases ) and local Muslim populations (versus invading random countries like Iraq or Iran), energy independence
Since a teenager I've been at least tuned into the issues / politics - and would get wrapped up with one candidate or another
buy a shotgun. One of those shorter pistol-gripped 12ga ----- I be blasting these mofos out of sky when I retire
This was a class offered internally by Intel --
...... I lasted until the morning break - then went back ot my office to get some work done .....
So this total propeller head who's teaching the class says "Perl is the easiest language to learn - very natural and logical syntax"
The issue with M$ is not that they make money or that they are the dominate OS ---- When you combine incompetence + arrogance + Ruthless Biz practices --- not just once - but over and over .... people tend to catch on and come to resent this.
A "new technology" coming up from the bottom (low cost) is the traditional way to upset a market. And M$ knows this.
Programmers don't need to work for free -- low cost PC devices will still require lots of programming (integration of SW and improved applications + continual OS tweaks) from cradle to grave. They will be employed by the OEM and 3rd party support companies. Just because you (a tech head) can get Linux for free has no correlation to selling a product that has a tailor made + polished SW load. It just means the total SW + OS package needs to be awesome and under say $35 per machine. And many people would pay some sort of a very modest ($8) subscription fee for the latest tweaks + upgrades + support.
Last week I got to play with an EEPC --- very neat device for $300
I live in the Portland-Metro area and can confirm we (as in the Pacific NW) had a doozy of a storm. Mist - rain - horizontal rain - and rain like a cow pissing on a flat rock.
This is basically a repeat of what we got in 1996 which I believe was rated as a hundred year flood -- so within 10yrs we have another event. Wonder how all this maps into the whole climate change picture.
And yes - thanks to the Hams for helping out as they always do. In any major disaster where public communications infrastructure will be damaged --- independent radio operators can make critical connections
each one slapping around one of the others:
...
wub-wub-wub-wub-wub!
Ow !
Oh Yeah !
Only now countries can do this to each other digitally - guess thats progress. Its all fun and games until someone's hard drive gets formatted
but the war is lost as we lost control of the country - and then lost the hearts and minds of the people.
... you need about 300,000 to 400,000 troops spread across the country to enforce military law until a new civil government is running. This is especially true in a country where factional populations live that were being held in check by a strongman ---- once unshackled anything can happen.
Rummy and the Pentagon wanted to test out Transformation --- that being total information integration between all the military branches right down to the soldier on the ground. And it actually worked pretty good ---- even though the total resistance to the invasion was light ---- the country was over thrown by a moderate military force.
Unfortunately - once all existing civil authorities are gone
Bush and Rummy were warned by several Generals that they needed "a lot of boots" on the ground. Apparently they thought that was "old school".
Wife and I took trains from Hiedelberg to Paris -- the German trains were nice - at the German / French border we switched to the TGV. What a sweet ride --- and yes there is a "little bump" called the Alps we had to go over. So at that point we were only traveling 60-70MPH -- as we got into the rolling hills (farm land) you could feel the acceleration as the engineer(?) rolled on the speed. For long stretches we were really cooking along.
..... but they will make the most sense as the price of fuel continues its upward spiral.
TGV trainsets travel at up to 320 km/h (200 mph) in commercial use. ----- Wikipedia
And the rails / rail bed very smooth -- no clickty-clack. I agree that such trains in the US make the most sense in a regional setting
And if you're going to do propaganda then make it good AND make it digital.
No doubt some legal hassles will ensue for the "Discovery Institute" -- however any legal dust-up just allows them to get publicity ect.
The motive here IMHO was to create this video and get it out on the web - where hundreds of thousands of their devout followers can download it for their own use. Case closed - this video will now live on as a "educational" tool to be shown in bible clases etc for years to come. Bits are bits - and if you can steal them and "repurpose them" you now have the web as your world wide delivery system.