There are people replying about how freedom will be affected negatively as if true freedom were some academic absolute. If you have absolute freedom, then you have anarchy. In an anarchial system, nobody is then free. The OS and source code should be free in Linux. The choice of the user to decide what he chooses to pay for or not should also be free. But this means relative freedom. Why are people even asking this question? Geez.
Some of the belligerent and rude comments on/. get to me sometimes. But I would rather have freedom of speech and hear the unvarnished truth than require proper etiquette. I think we might see more politeness and get lied to more often if real names were required.
I didn't know if this company had ever shipped a product. I like playing PC games and I had not heard of them, so I thought I would investigate. I discovered they released a game called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. So, I decided to look into what it was all about. It's another elves and demons knockoff of the Lord of The Rings books or The World of Warcraft game. There are a bunch of games like that. It appears to me a "Me Too" game. I found nothing to make me choose it over World of Warcraft and I read all those books and saw the movies already. I already own WOW and a few other similar titles given to me as gifts.
Yawn. Sorry, I have to conclude that they sure picked a difficult genre with lots of other similar titles to develop as a first product. I hate to see anybody fail after trying so hard, but they picked a pretty risky road to travel.
The comments venturing over into partisan politics are getting lame and mean spirited. This is a story about a tech failure and an unqualified CEO. Comments about that are interesting. All the "Republican this" or "Democrat that" replies are irrelevant and pointless.
In the Lost Decade narrative, there has been much said about Microsoft's unprofitable investments and purchases. But in the last decade there have also risen to prominence competitors that were previously non-existent or irrelevant. I can name Google, Apple for a couple. But there are many more. Microsoft is playing a game with them all to win. Now back to those unprofitable purchases. I liked playing the board game of Monopoly with my family for years. Often times I would buy something I knew I couldn't make money on just to deny it to another player. This made it harder for them to win. It also occasionally made my wife or kids made at me. I think to a great degree this is what Microsoft has been doing with some of those purchases. Even if I did win it all, I survived.
Microsoft has not done badly for itself. I think the expectations put on many tech companies are unrealistic. Some tech companies have come from nowhere to mega enterprises. There are those that will think a company has not done well if they no longer sustain their early growth rate. Of course these expectations are arithmetically absurd. A small company can become a global force. Then where do they go? Take over the galaxy? This is also happening to Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and others. To be sure, Microsoft does have some challenges ahead of them. The sudden turn Microsoft made when they suddenly discovered the Internet is almost happening again with the rise of mobile computing. Whether they succeed this time again will have to be seen.
I don't think they are stupid, evil, or lost people. I like Windows 7 just fine. I don't like Windows 8. I wouldn't even bother with MS Office 2010 if I did not have to run Outlook because of Exchange.
We're seeing some huge paradigm shifts in the tech world as well as company consolidations. I still say Microsoft is moving towards becoming just like Apple. But I think people's expectations on them are always high. They can hardly win a a good press analysis lately.
I also still prefer Linux as a desktop, mobile and server platform. I don't feel as controlled or constrained by it. There are also lofty expectations imposed on Linux and there will be more. Sometimes I think that Microsoft by their aggressive behavior has invited these expectations on themselves too. That for sure will probably continue.
Just because it hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it's not going to. Linux has no large marketing department to grab "Man of The Street" mind-share like other companies. Nor does any other quality FOSS package. I was asked by a friend, "If Linux is so good, why doesn't everybody know about it?". My answer, no consumer magazine commercials or TV ads. But when Dell, HP, Asus, Lenovo, etc. start delivering nice boxes or tablets with Linux installed, the awareness will increase. Have you seen all the developers finally hiring people to port their stuff to Linux lately? This isn't happening for no reason.
If I'm wrong the universe will continue. But catastrophism has often been the major agent of change in the universe.
While many might have Microsoft Derangement Syndrome, I do not. I certainly am not saying you do either. I like Windows 7. It's not bad. I use MS Office 2010 at work right now. I think it's pretty good. But I like Linux and LibreOffice better. It also think Outlook 2010 is the best email client I have ever used.
While much of your MS history is accurate, the conspiracy theories are not reasonable. Microsoft is not the Illuminati. This kind of speculation is not helpful.
In times past Microsoft would find a nice add-in product for their software and then bundle a cloned version of it for free. Remember Stac Electronics? The disk compression Microsoft put in the next version of MSDOS was not better than Stac's, but it was free. Stac only won some money in a lawsuit, but was essentially destroyed. I think to this day developers are still mindful of this predilection. Now this same thing is happening to the cash cows of Microsoft: Windows and Office. Linux and LibreOffice are the nemesis of Microsoft's flagship products. Another product for the server world is Exchange. Exchange virtually forces the use of Outlook. No other Windows or Linux client can properly work with it. This is a strategy MS uses to delay the inevitable. Don't you think/. is read by MS employees? They can read the signs of the times. They just can't show their strategy to carry them through this. This lost decade is the decade of dealing with free alternatives. Microsoft is reaping what they have sown. You can't perpetuate the monopoly on Windows and Office alone anymore. I'll say it again:
There already was a Microsoft branded phone. It was a failure called the Kin. I don't know anybody that ever bought one of those. But MS usually does better the second time around. Now they have been putting their hope in Nokia. Nokia has hit an iceberg and is rapidly sinking. But this time Microsoft will swallow them if for no other reason than patents.
Here is an apocalypse. First Microsoft kills all the other OEM's that were buying Intel CPU's to make PCs, notebooks and tablets. Then they buy AMD. What do they get? Radeon graphics and control of their CPU destiny. Then Apple buys Intel and Nvidia. Then many of the surviving OEM's buy ARM and Via processors to run Linux. I know it sounds unlikely. But it could happen.
At one time Microsoft could have eaten Apple's lunch. They even bailed them out with a loan. Now look how things have changed. Microsft can clearly see where Apple has been a success and they think they can emulate it. A little envy?
If the DOJ now gives Apple a pass on this business model, why wouldn't they do the same for Microsoft?
Not only the Surface, but the Xbox can be a full blown PC with an interface just like Win8. What about the Microsoft Store? Sounds like the Apple store doesn't it? Just wait till Microsoft comes out with their own phone. This is another reason OEM's and deveopers are giving Linux another serious look. There is no viable alternative for them.
My father's WinXP installation was completely hosed. I didn't want to bother with all the add-ins, drivers and other issues that would have made a re-installation take a whole day. Trying to fix WinXP can actually take longer than a re-install too. So Dad now has Linux Mint 12 with Cinnamon installed. I did it a few months ago, but I would have used Mint 13 KDE were I to do it today.
That is a great point. I have had friends and family ask for free support in building a PC, upgrading hardware, installing and/or fixing software. I have told them, I will do it for free, but if they run into big trouble because they changed something or could not figure something out, to hire paid support. Invariably, I get the call for more free service anyway. So I don't do it anymore or I tell them I need to charge them.
There are a few things we would need to remember about asking people to change. They are going to be naturally resistant to it and they will complain when they have to use effort to accomplish change.
I would choose Linux Mint 13 KDE. Why?
(1) It works right out of the box.
(2) KDE's appearance is very much like Windows
(3) KDE is very easy to customize
(4) There is enough eye candy to impress, but not overwhelm
(5) Mint is likely to continue in business for the foreseeable future
I do not work for or have any financial interest in any Linux company either. But Mint 13 Cinnamon also has many of these same attributes. I just think KDE does it better.
From what I understand, Windows 8 will run on most contemporary hardware. I installed it on a 3.8GHz P4 system and it ran fine. But it looks like if you want Microsoft Certification, then you need a BIOS that contains the UEFI code. But what if a manufacturer doesn't care about Microsoft Certification and elects to install Windows 8 on a PC with a UEFI BIOS? Then Linux or other operating systems should have no problems dual booting with Windows 8. I conclude that market conditions may cause some PC OEM's to eschew this BIOS extension altogether. Especially if it annoys their potential customer base.
Darn, I meant "But what if a manufacturer doesn't care about Microsoft Certification and elects to install Windows 8 on a PC without a UEFI BIOS? " Then they will be able to dual boot Windows 8 without Microsoft issuing a UEFI license.
Slashdot Mirror
There are people replying about how freedom will be affected negatively as if true freedom were some academic absolute. If you have absolute freedom, then you have anarchy. In an anarchial system, nobody is then free. The OS and source code should be free in Linux. The choice of the user to decide what he chooses to pay for or not should also be free. But this means relative freedom. Why are people even asking this question? Geez.
Some of the belligerent and rude comments on /. get to me sometimes. But I would rather have freedom of speech and hear the unvarnished truth than require proper etiquette. I think we might see more politeness and get lied to more often if real names were required.
I didn't know if this company had ever shipped a product. I like playing PC games and I had not heard of them, so I thought I would investigate. I discovered they released a game called Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning. So, I decided to look into what it was all about.
It's another elves and demons knockoff of the Lord of The Rings books or The World of Warcraft game. There are a bunch of games like that. It appears to me a "Me Too" game. I found nothing to make me choose it over World of Warcraft and I read all those books and saw the movies already. I already own WOW and a few other similar titles given to me as gifts.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdoms_of_Amalur:_Reckoning
Yawn. Sorry, I have to conclude that they sure picked a difficult genre with lots of other similar titles to develop as a first product. I hate to see anybody fail after trying so hard, but they picked a pretty risky road to travel.
The comments venturing over into partisan politics are getting lame and mean spirited. This is a story about a tech failure and an unqualified CEO. Comments about that are interesting. All the "Republican this" or "Democrat that" replies are irrelevant and pointless.
This loss reminds me of an old Disney cartoon as saw as a kid. Casey at The Bat.
http://youtu.be/erfSed2MUsA
In the Lost Decade narrative, there has been much said about Microsoft's unprofitable investments and purchases. But in the last decade there have also risen to prominence competitors that were previously non-existent or irrelevant. I can name Google, Apple for a couple. But there are many more. Microsoft is playing a game with them all to win. Now back to those unprofitable purchases. I liked playing the board game of Monopoly with my family for years. Often times I would buy something I knew I couldn't make money on just to deny it to another player. This made it harder for them to win. It also occasionally made my wife or kids made at me. I think to a great degree this is what Microsoft has been doing with some of those purchases. Even if I did win it all, I survived.
Microsoft has not done badly for itself. I think the expectations put on many tech companies are unrealistic. Some tech companies have come from nowhere to mega enterprises. There are those that will think a company has not done well if they no longer sustain their early growth rate. Of course these expectations are arithmetically absurd. A small company can become a global force. Then where do they go? Take over the galaxy? This is also happening to Facebook, Google, Yahoo, and others. To be sure, Microsoft does have some challenges ahead of them. The sudden turn Microsoft made when they suddenly discovered the Internet is almost happening again with the rise of mobile computing. Whether they succeed this time again will have to be seen.
I don't think they are stupid, evil, or lost people. I like Windows 7 just fine. I don't like Windows 8. I wouldn't even bother with MS Office 2010 if I did not have to run Outlook because of Exchange.
We're seeing some huge paradigm shifts in the tech world as well as company consolidations. I still say Microsoft is moving towards becoming just like Apple. But I think people's expectations on them are always high. They can hardly win a a good press analysis lately.
I also still prefer Linux as a desktop, mobile and server platform. I don't feel as controlled or constrained by it. There are also lofty expectations imposed on Linux and there will be more. Sometimes I think that Microsoft by their aggressive behavior has invited these expectations on themselves too. That for sure will probably continue.
Just because it hasn't happened yet, doesn't mean it's not going to. Linux has no large marketing department to grab "Man of The Street" mind-share like other companies. Nor does any other quality FOSS package. I was asked by a friend, "If Linux is so good, why doesn't everybody know about it?". My answer, no consumer magazine commercials or TV ads. But when Dell, HP, Asus, Lenovo, etc. start delivering nice boxes or tablets with Linux installed, the awareness will increase. Have you seen all the developers finally hiring people to port their stuff to Linux lately? This isn't happening for no reason.
If I'm wrong the universe will continue. But catastrophism has often been the major agent of change in the universe.
While many might have Microsoft Derangement Syndrome, I do not. I certainly am not saying you do either. I like Windows 7. It's not bad. I use MS Office 2010 at work right now. I think it's pretty good. But I like Linux and LibreOffice better. It also think Outlook 2010 is the best email client I have ever used.
I don't really like Windows 8 though.
While much of your MS history is accurate, the conspiracy theories are not reasonable. Microsoft is not the Illuminati. This kind of speculation is not helpful.
Nokia will be purchased by Microsoft for their patent portfolio as soon as Microsoft starts shipping their own mobile phones.
In times past Microsoft would find a nice add-in product for their software and then bundle a cloned version of it for free. Remember Stac Electronics? The disk compression Microsoft put in the next version of MSDOS was not better than Stac's, but it was free. Stac only won some money in a lawsuit, but was essentially destroyed. I think to this day developers are still mindful of this predilection. Now this same thing is happening to the cash cows of Microsoft: Windows and Office. Linux and LibreOffice are the nemesis of Microsoft's flagship products. Another product for the server world is Exchange. Exchange virtually forces the use of Outlook. No other Windows or Linux client can properly work with it. This is a strategy MS uses to delay the inevitable. Don't you think /. is read by MS employees? They can read the signs of the times. They just can't show their strategy to carry them through this. This lost decade is the decade of dealing with free alternatives. Microsoft is reaping what they have sown. You can't perpetuate the monopoly on Windows and Office alone anymore. I'll say it again:
It's hard to argue with free.
There already was a Microsoft branded phone. It was a failure called the Kin. I don't know anybody that ever bought one of those. But MS usually does better the second time around. Now they have been putting their hope in Nokia. Nokia has hit an iceberg and is rapidly sinking. But this time Microsoft will swallow them if for no other reason than patents.
If the OEM's making stuff with Intel CPU's are killed, Intel's market will decline. Thnn they would be ripe for the picking.
I just read this article on Forbes. It looks like they've come to the same conclusion I have.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericsavitz/2012/06/21/microsoft-first-branded-tablets-next-their-own-cell-phone/
Here is an apocalypse. First Microsoft kills all the other OEM's that were buying Intel CPU's to make PCs, notebooks and tablets. Then they buy AMD. What do they get? Radeon graphics and control of their CPU destiny. Then Apple buys Intel and Nvidia. Then many of the surviving OEM's buy ARM and Via processors to run Linux. I know it sounds unlikely. But it could happen.
Microsoft's Market Cap
http://ycharts.com/companies/MSFT/market_cap
Apple's Market Cap
http://ycharts.com/companies/AAPL/market_cap
At one time Microsoft could have eaten Apple's lunch. They even bailed them out with a loan. Now look how things have changed. Microsft can clearly see where Apple has been a success and they think they can emulate it. A little envy?
If the DOJ now gives Apple a pass on this business model, why wouldn't they do the same for Microsoft?
Linux has already won. It has won the server and the mobile market.
I agree with you in a way. But a full blown win will be when you can ask any guy on the street what Linux is and get an answer..
Not only the Surface, but the Xbox can be a full blown PC with an interface just like Win8. What about the Microsoft Store? Sounds like the Apple store doesn't it? Just wait till Microsoft comes out with their own phone. This is another reason OEM's and deveopers are giving Linux another serious look. There is no viable alternative for them.
I told ya so. Microsoft: Okay, Maybe We Are Alienating PC Makers With Surface http://allthingsd.com/20120727/microsoft-okay-maybe-we-are-alienating-pc-makers-with-surface/
My father's WinXP installation was completely hosed. I didn't want to bother with all the add-ins, drivers and other issues that would have made a re-installation take a whole day. Trying to fix WinXP can actually take longer than a re-install too. So Dad now has Linux Mint 12 with Cinnamon installed. I did it a few months ago, but I would have used Mint 13 KDE were I to do it today.
That is a great point. I have had friends and family ask for free support in building a PC, upgrading hardware, installing and/or fixing software. I have told them, I will do it for free, but if they run into big trouble because they changed something or could not figure something out, to hire paid support. Invariably, I get the call for more free service anyway. So I don't do it anymore or I tell them I need to charge them.
There are a few things we would need to remember about asking people to change. They are going to be naturally resistant to it and they will complain when they have to use effort to accomplish change. I would choose Linux Mint 13 KDE. Why? (1) It works right out of the box. (2) KDE's appearance is very much like Windows (3) KDE is very easy to customize (4) There is enough eye candy to impress, but not overwhelm (5) Mint is likely to continue in business for the foreseeable future I do not work for or have any financial interest in any Linux company either. But Mint 13 Cinnamon also has many of these same attributes. I just think KDE does it better.
Hey, Adam. Do you actually have any friends? You have such a nice disposition.
From what I understand, Windows 8 will run on most contemporary hardware. I installed it on a 3.8GHz P4 system and it ran fine. But it looks like if you want Microsoft Certification, then you need a BIOS that contains the UEFI code. But what if a manufacturer doesn't care about Microsoft Certification and elects to install Windows 8 on a PC with a UEFI BIOS? Then Linux or other operating systems should have no problems dual booting with Windows 8. I conclude that market conditions may cause some PC OEM's to eschew this BIOS extension altogether. Especially if it annoys their potential customer base.
Darn, I meant "But what if a manufacturer doesn't care about Microsoft Certification and elects to install Windows 8 on a PC without a UEFI BIOS? " Then they will be able to dual boot Windows 8 without Microsoft issuing a UEFI license.