Clueless users don't know what browser they're using, and often don't even know the difference between a browser and "The Internet" (If you haven't had a user tell you they just double clicked on "The Internet", you haven't done much support). Giving them one option if often the only way to get them to use the one that you're supporting. If the user isn't clueless, they'll just put FF back on 5 minutes after the guy leaves and they'll know enough to use IE for any apps FF has issues with and not bother support.
Making the assumption of some kind of Microsoft site license and clueless users (and honestly, what place doesn't have those), this honestly just sounds like a pretty decent management scheme to keep their support focus as narrow as possible. If they've already got a blanket license for MS it doesn't make sense to go with a mixed OS environment, and honestly most small IT shops don't have the resources or knowledge base to convert to OSS whole hog. Also, only having to deal with 1 browser eliminates a pretty big troubleshooting step for their support people.
Management often don't have the luxury of being idealists, because they're the one's who are accountable for your paycheck.
Even if you just look at what's still in support you have:
OS:
2000
XP Home/Pro - (And if you don't just look at desktop you have Starter/MCE/Tablet/XP Pro 64-bit link)
Vista and all its sub-editions
7 and all its sub-editions
Ref: link
Then if you consider IE6/7/8 since so many apps these days interact with the browser in some way (even what people wouldn't consider web apps), you get a huge number of possible permutations.
You'd never say "Windows is Windows" if you've ever had to do any kind of development/support for a large, diverse group of Windows users.
Yeah, I've had issues with DLink routers specifically with wireless being picky about working with non-DLink cards, and WPA2 not working correctly. I always go with Linksys. Although I'm sure there's multitudes of people here who've had issues with Linksys as well, I've had nothing but good experiences. My Linksys 4 port wireless router is going on 6-7 years old now and still working perfectly.
USB 2.0 just isn't up to snuff (not with the equipment I use, anyway)
While Firewire > USB 2.0, it really only matters to people who are using fairly high end A/V equipment and need the dedicated bandwidth. So for "ordinary" users USB 2.0 should be just fine. For the high end users that require it, Firewire is still available on the Macbook Pro. I can see this as annoying for people who need Firewire but don't want to have to shell out for the Pro, but it's not going to affect the majority of users.
Yeah. Queue lawsuit from Airbus against Australian Airlines in 3...2...1...
Trying to shift blame when the blame belongs somewhere else is one thing. Trying to shift blame onto the company who supplies you with your airplanes using a moronic excuse is just bad business. You're saying you're moronic enough to buy a plane that can be crashed with a mouse, and that your supplier was moronic enough to build a plane that can be crashed with a mouse. Nothing good is going to come out of this.
In what circumstances might conventional brakes have an advantage over ABS? There are some conditions where stopping distance may be shorter without ABS. For example, in cases where the road is covered with loose gravel or freshly fallen snow, the locked wheels of a non-ABS car build up a wedge of gravel or snow, which can contribute to a shortening of the braking distance.
No! From early commercials, it may have looked like you could stop on a dime. That instantaneous stop is not realistic. When braking on dry or wet roads your stopping distance will be about the same as with conventional brakes.
You should allow for a longer stopping distance with ABS than for conventional brakes when driving on gravel, slush, and snow. This is because the rotating tire will stay on top of this low traction road surface covering, and effectively "float" on this boundary layer.
A non ABS braked vehicle can lock its tires and create a snow plow effect in front of the tires which helps slow the vehicle. These locked tires can often find more traction below this boundary layer.
ABS is designed to give more steering control while breaking, not to stop more quickly (although it may sometimes do that as well). I also saw a show where they tested professional and "normal" drives with/without ABS in different road conditions. Normal people stopped more quickly with ABS in almost all circumstances. Professional drives were able to stop more quickly with conventional breaks in almost all circumstances, but especially in adverse road conditions.
Saying ABS is simply better/quicker than conventional breaks (or vice versa) is simply untrue.
And again, if these PC users are willing to shell out a few hundred bucks on dongles and a copy of the OS to try it out, they can buy a slighly used mac mini, or an older ibook.
So instead of trying out the OS on hardware I already own, I can spend the money on extra hardware I don't want that will potentially require me to swap around cables and/or get a KVM. Top that off with the fact that you're saying they could instead get a used mac mini or ibook that potentially has hardware problems... gee, where do I sign up. The cheapest "official" refurbished mac from apple that a person could be reasonably assured of the hardware's condition is over $1000
Hardware choice is a convenience. Convenience is a benefit people are often willing to pay for.
I've had the chance to use OSX at work. But if I hadn't had that opportunity and someone told me I could run it on my current hardware for $300 (including a copy of OSX), I can understand how that would appeal to people.
Slashdot Mirror
Occasionally while I'm surfing the web and a pop-up ad opens, my Norton Anti-Virus will alert me that it blocked an "attack" on my computer
Wait a second... he has a computer powerful enough to get pop-up ads while running Norton Anti-Virus?
Clueless users don't know what browser they're using, and often don't even know the difference between a browser and "The Internet" (If you haven't had a user tell you they just double clicked on "The Internet", you haven't done much support). Giving them one option if often the only way to get them to use the one that you're supporting. If the user isn't clueless, they'll just put FF back on 5 minutes after the guy leaves and they'll know enough to use IE for any apps FF has issues with and not bother support.
Making the assumption of some kind of Microsoft site license and clueless users (and honestly, what place doesn't have those), this honestly just sounds like a pretty decent management scheme to keep their support focus as narrow as possible. If they've already got a blanket license for MS it doesn't make sense to go with a mixed OS environment, and honestly most small IT shops don't have the resources or knowledge base to convert to OSS whole hog. Also, only having to deal with 1 browser eliminates a pretty big troubleshooting step for their support people.
Management often don't have the luxury of being idealists, because they're the one's who are accountable for your paycheck.
.cn is the country code top-level domain for China. He was making a joke. /whoosh
Question: why not simply use the random crap we all have on our PCs to generate random numbers? Say...choose 5 folders at random on a PC.
To understand recursion one must first understand recursion.
Windows is Windows.
Even if you just look at what's still in support you have:
OS:
2000
XP Home/Pro - (And if you don't just look at desktop you have Starter/MCE/Tablet/XP Pro 64-bit link)
Vista and all its sub-editions
7 and all its sub-editions
Ref: link
Then if you consider IE6/7/8 since so many apps these days interact with the browser in some way (even what people wouldn't consider web apps), you get a huge number of possible permutations.
You'd never say "Windows is Windows" if you've ever had to do any kind of development/support for a large, diverse group of Windows users.
No, but EO (earth orbit) and LO (low orbit) are both available.
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso-3166-1_decoding_table
highly-greased QA monkey
Your ideas intrigue me and I wish to sign up for your newsletter.
Your dream of buying a cheap personal printer that will last you two generations of Windows is simply impossible.
You mean today's printers can't last more than three years?
I think he, like most of us, denies the existence of ME and Vista.
If an intelligence officer in the government hated a particular SlashDotter... her friends... her adulterous lover
A female SlashDotter with friends and a lover... it would take a top tier spy tool to find that unicorn.
Things like Guantanamo Bay, the Iraq War... simply do not happen in other countries.
There are no words to describe how awesome of a geographical "lolwut?" this is.
I find your lack of faith... disturbing.
Dale, "I say let the world warm up...we'll grow oranges in Alaska."
I know you said you didn't want to replace the screen, but this isn't exactly in that line of thought...
Cheap monitor, keyboard and mouse = great kids machine.
I'll create a GUI interface using Visual Basic and see if I can track down where the tubes are clogged.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygB0ZviqXac
Application Fee: $185K .ass domain....
Annual renewal: $25K
Owning the rights to the entire
PRICELESS
Inconceivable!!!
You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.
That's not completely true any more. I've been running into more and more store bought CDs that are burned, not stamped & pressed.
Yeah, I've had issues with DLink routers specifically with wireless being picky about working with non-DLink cards, and WPA2 not working correctly. I always go with Linksys. Although I'm sure there's multitudes of people here who've had issues with Linksys as well, I've had nothing but good experiences. My Linksys 4 port wireless router is going on 6-7 years old now and still working perfectly.
USB 2.0 just isn't up to snuff (not with the equipment I use, anyway)
While Firewire > USB 2.0, it really only matters to people who are using fairly high end A/V equipment and need the dedicated bandwidth. So for "ordinary" users USB 2.0 should be just fine. For the high end users that require it, Firewire is still available on the Macbook Pro. I can see this as annoying for people who need Firewire but don't want to have to shell out for the Pro, but it's not going to affect the majority of users.
For Vista they had it turned up to 11.
Unless they're making multiple lawsuits and they're treated as FIFO by the court system... yeah that's a stretch. :-)
Yeah. Queue lawsuit from Airbus against Australian Airlines in 3...2...1...
Trying to shift blame when the blame belongs somewhere else is one thing. Trying to shift blame onto the company who supplies you with your airplanes using a moronic excuse is just bad business. You're saying you're moronic enough to buy a plane that can be crashed with a mouse, and that your supplier was moronic enough to build a plane that can be crashed with a mouse. Nothing good is going to come out of this.
In what circumstances might conventional brakes have an advantage over ABS? There are some conditions where stopping distance may be shorter without ABS. For example, in cases where the road is covered with loose gravel or freshly fallen snow, the locked wheels of a non-ABS car build up a wedge of gravel or snow, which can contribute to a shortening of the braking distance.
From http://www.mucda.mb.ca/aboutabs.htm
Is the stopping distance shorter with ABS?
No! From early commercials, it may have looked like you could stop on a dime. That instantaneous stop is not realistic. When braking on dry or wet roads your stopping distance will be about the same as with conventional brakes.
You should allow for a longer stopping distance with ABS than for conventional brakes when driving on gravel, slush, and snow. This is because the rotating tire will stay on top of this low traction road surface covering, and effectively "float" on this boundary layer.
A non ABS braked vehicle can lock its tires and create a snow plow effect in front of the tires which helps slow the vehicle. These locked tires can often find more traction below this boundary layer.
ABS is designed to give more steering control while breaking, not to stop more quickly (although it may sometimes do that as well). I also saw a show where they tested professional and "normal" drives with/without ABS in different road conditions. Normal people stopped more quickly with ABS in almost all circumstances. Professional drives were able to stop more quickly with conventional breaks in almost all circumstances, but especially in adverse road conditions.
Saying ABS is simply better/quicker than conventional breaks (or vice versa) is simply untrue.
And again, if these PC users are willing to shell out a few hundred bucks on dongles and a copy of the OS to try it out, they can buy a slighly used mac mini, or an older ibook.
So instead of trying out the OS on hardware I already own, I can spend the money on extra hardware I don't want that will potentially require me to swap around cables and/or get a KVM. Top that off with the fact that you're saying they could instead get a used mac mini or ibook that potentially has hardware problems... gee, where do I sign up. The cheapest "official" refurbished mac from apple that a person could be reasonably assured of the hardware's condition is over $1000
Hardware choice is a convenience. Convenience is a benefit people are often willing to pay for.
I've had the chance to use OSX at work. But if I hadn't had that opportunity and someone told me I could run it on my current hardware for $300 (including a copy of OSX), I can understand how that would appeal to people.