My first Linux box was before TCP/IP worked reliably on it... before X Window worked. ST-506 drive (hundreds of MB!) and 256KB memory modules.
My first Mac box was a Mac Plus (well, I also had an Atari ST that had the Mac emulator running on it).
I've always liked the Mac software, but got drawn in (and still am drawn in) to the Open Source / freeware / "All Software Has To Be Free" mantra.
For fourteen years, I did my damnedest to make my Linux desktop experience as good as it could be.
Then, I decided to go Mac again. Mac Mini... 512MB.
It's not the fastest platform, nor is it the most programmable. However, it is the most consistent one that I've found. I'm back with a Mac, and use Linux as a server O/S and firewall.
I wonder what would happen if I got a G5 system, or, peraps, should I wait until the Intel Macs arrive?
If I have to design my own system (motherboard, case, RAM, etc.) then it's a no-brainer... Linux wins. If I have to purchase a complete system (or one for a non-computer person), it would almost definitely be a Mac.
I'm really happy that the state of the art has gotten us here!
OpenOffice's Present module can give a customer with PowerPoint software something they can use. Likewise, Visio can be replaced with any of a bunch of drawing programs (xfig with transfig can export to a number of formats).
If you don't want to run Windows, you'll find that there's few business reasons really compelling you to do so.
If your company runs Exchange, then Evolution (Linux) or Apple Mail (Mac OS X) can run as a client just fine.
If your company requires Office, then OpenOffice is a great tool (Linux--try NeoOffice for Mac OS X).
Your argument worked a few years ago, but the offerings for non-Windows systems have improved remarkably. Macintosh graphics software has always been great, and Linux has had a few of its own great programs as well. However, some great software is now available multi-platform, and the reason for sticking with Windows (or Linux or Mac) is no longer as compelling.
You can now make a business justification for using any operating system nowadays. If you want to keep shoveling money to Microsoft, fine. If you want a great desktop experience, there's Apple ready to sell you some really sexy hardware and software. If you want to go dirt cheap, there's Linux. It's all a matter of taste... and saying that "your business requires you to use Windows" only works if your only customer is Microsoft.
Living in NH (Live, Freeze, and Die) has its benefits, among them no state sales tax. I cannot see how any e-tailer can possibly levy any such tax on me, since there is no sales tax in my jurisdiction that would apply... unless the "tourist tax" (hotels and restaurants) applies.
I'm interested in this only in an academic sense. I think sales taxes in general are regressive and hurt the poor hardest. Income taxes with varying rates based on income are more fair, but could be taken to extremes, such as how Britain used to require 95% withholding on the richest people. Property taxes, luxury taxes, estate taxes (let's not go into that stupid term "Death Tax") and every other tax you can think of each have their own share of problems.
We'll need to face it, there isn't any way that governments can make money that somebody isn't going to consider unfair. The days when the government could survive simply by collecting customs duties (NO TAXES!) are long gone.
Most of LaCie's drives are intended for Macs, therefore don't have a Windows file system on it, hence the need for formatting. That shouldn't take a long time, though.
I've never had the power lead fall out of my LaCie drive, but my example is probably just as anecdotal as yours.
Be that as it may, the parent post that says to beware large externals is still a good point. It's a single point of failure. Sure, you have 250 gigs of video/music/etc. but if that drive goes...!
It's not so simple to write a grammar checker. I know... I've written one.
In my spare time, I write fiction. I've done it for years, and the tools that I use are simple: a text editor (not word processor), ispell, and a self-written output formatter written in Perl in order to get things looking nice or to reformat into HTML/XHTML or other presentation formats.
I'm not a perfect writer, and it's difficult to self-edit when you are proof-reading your own work: you tend to read what you INTENDED to say, rather what you ACTUALLY wrote.
I found that there weren't any proofreading tools available for the platforms I was using (Unix), so I tried to figure out what common mistakes I tend to make (duplicated words, etc.) and wrote a program in Perl to find these things. It started simple, and in the couple of years since I wrote this processor, I've added additional checks, which now include:
Mismatched quotes (uneven number of " in a paragraph)
Doubled words (this is an an example)
Un-spelled digit at start of a sentence
Missing capitalization at start of a sentence
Misuse of a/an (THIS was tough, since "a unique item" and "an uninteresting item" can't both be determined out in a simple pattern!)
Doubled punctuation (ellipses are legal, though)
Missing punctuation at the end of a paragraph
Incorrect capitalization of the word "I"
Right now, I'm wondering what to do with this. This program works as a filter that simply generates "error lines" that my text editor can read and use to pinpoint where in my text the error occurred (using built-in features like "find next error"). This suits my needs, and I can add new checks as I think of them. How useful would it be to others? How many others even write the way I do? It's not as extensive as the grammar checker in Word and it works on an entire (text) document at a time.
The obvious place that could use this would be the OpenOffice.org project, especially since OOo has no grammar checker. However, it doesn't use just plain text, so I'd have to make a lot of changes to remove formatting, etc. before checking the patterns. Still, I've played around with the idea that I could "port" my Perl script into a plug-in for OOo. The problem is, I don't really use word processors all that much... it wouldn't be something I'd be using extensively, and therefore I wouldn't have the incentive to keep it up to date.
In addition, OOo is not an English-specific project. My grammar checker, even if it was ported to be used within OOo, doesn't have the rules for French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Swahili, or any other language... such support would require quite a lot of dedicated individuals.
All that being said, and relating to the parent post, even using my grammar checker isn't a replacement for having a flesh and blood person looking over your shoulder. How can a program know that you are overusing the word "had" or using "like" when you should be using "as if" or another better phrase? Even writing a rule like "Never start a sentence with 'because'" isn't sufficient, because there are some times when that rule shouldn't be applied ("Because the food was so good, it was eaten in a matter of minutes.").
I find it very misleading to state that the speed of a quad system (4 1.7 Ghz processors) is the speed of each processor multiplied by the number (4 * 1.7 = 6.8).
After reading that portion of the specification, I find it difficult to read the rest of it without laughing openly.
Nice try.
Let me play: I have a 1.4 Ghz Thinkpad, a 2.8 Ghz HP Presario laptop, and a 500 Mhz iBook. Using the logic from the specifications at that site, those three laptops mean that I have a single 4.7 Ghz laptop? If so, please tell me how I can get Tiger to run at that speed on that 500 Mhz iBook!
You might want to think about a certain bit of technology that HP (as Compaq) sold to Intel called "Spike." Spike was an interesting post-link optimizer that made Alphas run faster, and there were few published benchmarks of Alphas that did use Spike (or its predecessor OM) during the post-link phase of code generation, because it made software run significantly faster.
The sad part is that Intel was using that technology to try to increase performance of its Itanium line...
Well, being a long time Linux user, I can say that I've already switched my main workstation to OS X.
Why?
Graphics on that platform are nothing short of amazing. Important Linux applications are already available for OS X as native apps... Audacity, OpenOffice (as NeoOffice/J), Firefox, and Thunderbird come immediately to mind. Gimp runs under X, but the latest version of X runs almost like a native application.
In addition to the open source applications, I now also have GarageBand, iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, Mail.app and all those other iLife applications that Apple bundles with the Mini and Tiger that are not available for Linux or Windows.
Last month, I had $500 to spend on a new box. I could have purchased an x86/AMD motherboard, case, RAM, and other stuff and then installed Linux. For the same amount of money, I purchased a Mini which came with Tiger (I did have to "upgrade" from Panther to Tiger, but that wasn't difficult at all).
If my kids HAVE to have Office--and NeoOffice/J just won't suffice--then I can just purchase Microsoft's version for the Mac. I can't do that with Linux! If my kids HAVE to have Photoshop or Illustrator or any of the other mainstream apps, then they are more likely to have Mac versions than Linux versions.
OS X on the x86 platform will be great! If will definitely require special hardware to run properly, but I cannot see why Apple won't sell a version of OS X that runs on generic PC's, albeit with performance issues. That's money to them and there's a big market already out there! Since Apple is also a hardware company, there's no reason that Apple cannot sell hardware that's especially "tuned" for--and bundled with--Mac OS X, and still find a ready audience.
How much would a Mini cost today if it used the more available x86 chipset components rather than PowerPC? I think it would be cheaper, and Apple could still make money.
I can easily imagine a $399 x86-based Mini complete with OS X running at 2.5-3.5 Ghz. If that's possible, then what would be the incentive to roll your own machine? Apple's a major player and could supply such a machine to any school, student, home user, or corporation that wants one... or one hundred?
I don't see Apple gunning for Linux right now; they're looking for mind share--from existing Mac users and existing PC users who are curious. If Windows and OS X are both available for your next purchase, people will make their decision based on what else runs on the OS. Microsoft can continue to make their Office and Works applications available as software add-ons to OEMs, and Apple will do the same with its own hardware, bundling AppleWorks, iLife, and perhaps iWork. Microsoft has a head start on compatible applications, but as the new guy in town, Apple has no direction to go but up.
Relatively few people purchase systems bundled with Linux installed on them, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon. Linux won't suffer at all in the short run--the same people installing it today because of its perceived cost/benefit proposition will continue doing so tomorrow. OS X/86 will probably appeal to a few of those people, especially if it's available for generic systems. If not, there will still be some that will switch if the price is right, if only to satisfy their curiosity about what all the fuss is about.
Linux is still superior to Windows as a server system, and Apple doesn't seem to be pushing their Mac platform to appeal to people buying such systems. Eventually, though, if OS X/86 catches on, people will notice that it's not limited to just workstation chores. Despite that, Linux can still continue to advance and stay ahead in this direction if it wants, provided people continue improving its capabilities.
Apple has got this one right. There is NO "OS X Light." There's just one O/S to serve them all...
OS X comes with web server (Apache), SSH server (where's that in XP anything?), a SQL database, and many other things that you can't get without XP Professional or even Win2000/2003 Server.
Now, most of those "advanced" services are turned off by default, but they are there if you want to use them, and don't cost anything (other than the space they take up) if you don't ever configure them.
I think Microsoft's OS strategy sucks, because it generalizes: I need Win2003 Server Standard Edition--or is it Enterprise Edition?--to get some of the services I need, but need XP (Home,Professional) to get the desktop bubblegum that my kids want. I can't pick and choose--Microsoft does it for me and I don't get a say in their selections!
Of course, you can always get freeware/shareware or commercial add-ons, but that ups the price of the OS.
So... the proper comparison is OS X would be to purchase XP Professional with bits of Windows 2003 Server (total cost, mucho dinero!).
Who wants to bet that Microsoft will continue this silly strategy with Longhorn? I can see it now: Longhorn Home, Longhorn Professional, Longhorn Advanced Server, Longhorn Lite, Longhorn Media Edition, Longhorn Tablet Edition, Longhorn Pocket Edition... And what will developers target? (This requires Longhorn Home, with some bits of Longhorn Server, but is incompatible with the display driver in Longhorn Tablet...)
As Alan Sherman points out in his book, Rape of the A*P*E, if you think you own private property, try doing any of the following:
Smoke marijuana on your private property Dance about naked on the front porch of your private property Commit murder and bury the body on your private property Take your private property and sell it to the government of another country Build a 100 foot wall around your private property Put up a toll booth and charge admission to the tax collector when they visit your private property
(These are all from memory; my copy of the book has long since self-destructed from all its anti-government and free-love spouting, and its hilarious "Short Chapter, Long Footnote."
NH is listed as a state with repressive laws to prevent municipal WiFi, but that's not really the case. The bill that was passed was actually written to ENCOURAGE such things. http://www.manchesterwireless.org/ is one example of a Citywide Muni net in the state that's famous for its slogan as well as its (in)famous pledge of No Taxes!
Other commnunities should be able to provide free access like this, but if you let the Comcasts and Verizons have their way, they will destroy this kind of thing before it gets off the ground.
Now, cable modems and DSL have a lot going for them, and their associated access speed and throughput are useful. But allowing ANYBODY with an old laptop and a wireless card to at least get on the network is very helpful.
There's a price point where it just doesn't make economic sense to sell a product at a lower price. Even if yields in today's LCD displays succomb to the two-year 50% price drop.
For instance, as LCD screens get cheaper, perhaps the displays will start going from 1024x768 to 1152x962, 1280x1024, etc., requiring more intricate and complex LCD technology than can be had at present.
Those cheaper LCD's won't be used for notebooks in two years, but would be picked up by bargain basement people wanting a better display on their toaster. Or whatever. Maybe a few notebooks. [smile]
Look at the prices of Notebooks and Hard Drives today. They are the same today as they were 10 years ago. Of course, in 1995, it was a sub-100 Mhz 486 processor with an LCD screen at 640x480. Today, they run 2+ Ghz with 1024x768 and higher resolution. If the parts get too cheap to make a profit, simply increase capability/speed until you have the same price.
Try going into a CompUSA today and look for a 2 Gb disk drive. You can't find one. Maybe at a second hand shop, or on eBay, but not in the main stream shops. What was exhorbitant disk space ten years ago is passe' today.
I first found out about ZipCar from an advert in a T station (subway for those of you not in New England) in Boston. This had to be a few years ago--possibly 2001.
Since I live in NH, it wasn't available to me at the time, but I thought it was intriguing, especially for people that don't drive that often.
NitNit: I don't follow the project; I simply install it on any Windows box that I may need to use. If something doesn't work, I run "setup.exe" again, and update everything that I have already installed. I don't need to bother with it much more than that.
I think Cygwin32 was its original name, before Cygnus was purchased by RedHat, which is why I stand corrected.
You'll notice that my program list strongly reflects my programming background. I install gcc, perl, Java, and other languages on my wife's machine for when she inevitably asks, "Honey, can you write me a something to do this for me?"
As to the person that seemed surprised that my wife would even touch a computer, I'll have you know that she's been using computers for quite a long time. Her first laptop was a TRS-80 Model 100!
I just spent a weekend setting up my wife's new laptop. In doing so, I added a lot of free and Spyware-free software. Here are some things you missed:
1. Editors! There are a lot of freely available (open source, freeware, etc.) editors out there. EMacs, Jove, VIM, Elvis, VILE/XVile/WinVile, NVI, Scintilla, and others too countless to name. I haven't seen ANY of these encumbered by SpyWare.
2. MultiMedia: RealPlayer and QuickTime both avoid spyware, if I'm not mistaken.
3. Blender and DIA are missing. They appear on TheOpenCD.org, which seems to be a similar project to yours.
4. Cygwin32 -- Essential for any Linux user that needs to occasionally run Windows. With laptops with humongous drives, you can have an entire development system with GCC, perl, python, etc.
5. ActiveState has freeware implementations of a few useful languages, such as ActivePerl.
6. Tcl/tk comes to mind as not on your list.
7. Sun's Java is almost a requirement nowadays and integrates into IE, Opera, and the Mozilla-based browsers.
8. PaintDotNet was mentioned on Slashdot recently.
Now... for the site...
If you wish to use this as a service for users, then you should have a "This Just In!" section that shows items and when they are added. This way, a person can visit every couple of weeks and keep abreast of the things that have changed since they last left. This is also a good use for cookies--remember the last visit and highlight things that have changed since then.
It can also be financed by commercial donations. Since you'll have to login in order to get access, the login screen and initial home page can serve advertisements.
Health groups? Manchester NH has a good part of its city set up as a hotspot (check its web site, and its main transmitter is near Elliot Hospital!
If you live in the downtown area, you can set up a repeater in your home (you can get one at CompUSA for less than $100) and you have web access for just the cost of an AirPort card (Mac) or 802.11b card (everybody else). It's not a panacea... you can't park a domain name there, nor can you set up a web server or any of those other interesting things, but if you are a parent with kids in school, web mail and Google are two tools that can be very useful!
I don't hear anybody complaining about health risks. The 2.4 Ghz spectrum is license free, and these citywide hot spots are very useful!
If you look at the typical television line-up, you will notice that there's more comedy programming shown than violent programming. I have yet to hear people complain that there is too much "comedy in the streets."
Since I was a kid, I have heard all sorts of claims about television: It can hurt your eyes (even make you go bline!). It will lower your grades in school. It will make you a cop killing dope addict. It will turn you into a serial rapist.
Quite a lot of power for a little box that just sits there showing shadows.
Personally, I despise about 90% of everything that is on television today, from endless infomercials to rehashed mindless 60's and 70's era sitcoms, to movies that have been edited and reformatted to be vastly different from their theatrical releases, to "excercise shows" that do nothing but show the female form in tight fitting spandex. But I don't sit in a crystal palace and claim that watching television will do anything other than waste your time.
Business don't have to vote--voting is too unpredictable and the results can be skewed by those pesky PEOPLE that might actually come out and vote as well.
Instead, it is much more effecient if businesses just purchase enough congress-critters and senators. And guess what, this strategy works!
Now, if I could find a handy US Senator or two on eBay... [smile]
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I'm one of those "Linux users converted to Mac."
My first Linux box was before TCP/IP worked reliably on it... before X Window worked. ST-506 drive (hundreds of MB!) and 256KB memory modules.
My first Mac box was a Mac Plus (well, I also had an Atari ST that had the Mac emulator running on it).
I've always liked the Mac software, but got drawn in (and still am drawn in) to the Open Source / freeware / "All Software Has To Be Free" mantra.
For fourteen years, I did my damnedest to make my Linux desktop experience as good as it could be.
Then, I decided to go Mac again. Mac Mini... 512MB.
It's not the fastest platform, nor is it the most programmable. However, it is the most consistent one that I've found. I'm back with a Mac, and use Linux as a server O/S and firewall.
I wonder what would happen if I got a G5 system, or, peraps, should I wait until the Intel Macs arrive?
If I have to design my own system (motherboard, case, RAM, etc.) then it's a no-brainer... Linux wins. If I have to purchase a complete system (or one for a non-computer person), it would almost definitely be a Mac.
I'm really happy that the state of the art has gotten us here!
In a word: BULLSHIT.
OpenOffice's Present module can give a customer with PowerPoint software something they can use. Likewise, Visio can be replaced with any of a bunch of drawing programs (xfig with transfig can export to a number of formats).
If you don't want to run Windows, you'll find that there's few business reasons really compelling you to do so.
If your company runs Exchange, then Evolution (Linux) or Apple Mail (Mac OS X) can run as a client just fine.
If your company requires Office, then OpenOffice is a great tool (Linux--try NeoOffice for Mac OS X).
Your argument worked a few years ago, but the offerings for non-Windows systems have improved remarkably. Macintosh graphics software has always been great, and Linux has had a few of its own great programs as well. However, some great software is now available multi-platform, and the reason for sticking with Windows (or Linux or Mac) is no longer as compelling.
You can now make a business justification for using any operating system nowadays. If you want to keep shoveling money to Microsoft, fine. If you want a great desktop experience, there's Apple ready to sell you some really sexy hardware and software. If you want to go dirt cheap, there's Linux. It's all a matter of taste... and saying that "your business requires you to use Windows" only works if your only customer is Microsoft.
This is an urban legend, and I'm surprised it was included in the CNN story. You can find more information on this on DVDTalk.
There are deleted scenes from OZ, but all the released versions of the movie, including on television, since its release are said to be identical.
Living in NH (Live, Freeze, and Die) has its benefits, among them no state sales tax. I cannot see how any e-tailer can possibly levy any such tax on me, since there is no sales tax in my jurisdiction that would apply... unless the "tourist tax" (hotels and restaurants) applies.
I'm interested in this only in an academic sense. I think sales taxes in general are regressive and hurt the poor hardest. Income taxes with varying rates based on income are more fair, but could be taken to extremes, such as how Britain used to require 95% withholding on the richest people. Property taxes, luxury taxes, estate taxes (let's not go into that stupid term "Death Tax") and every other tax you can think of each have their own share of problems.
We'll need to face it, there isn't any way that governments can make money that somebody isn't going to consider unfair. The days when the government could survive simply by collecting customs duties (NO TAXES!) are long gone.
Most of LaCie's drives are intended for Macs, therefore don't have a Windows file system on it, hence the need for formatting. That shouldn't take a long time, though.
I've never had the power lead fall out of my LaCie drive, but my example is probably just as anecdotal as yours.
Be that as it may, the parent post that says to beware large externals is still a good point. It's a single point of failure. Sure, you have 250 gigs of video/music/etc. but if that drive goes...!
In my spare time, I write fiction. I've done it for years, and the tools that I use are simple: a text editor (not word processor), ispell, and a self-written output formatter written in Perl in order to get things looking nice or to reformat into HTML/XHTML or other presentation formats.
I'm not a perfect writer, and it's difficult to self-edit when you are proof-reading your own work: you tend to read what you INTENDED to say, rather what you ACTUALLY wrote.
I found that there weren't any proofreading tools available for the platforms I was using (Unix), so I tried to figure out what common mistakes I tend to make (duplicated words, etc.) and wrote a program in Perl to find these things. It started simple, and in the couple of years since I wrote this processor, I've added additional checks, which now include:
Right now, I'm wondering what to do with this. This program works as a filter that simply generates "error lines" that my text editor can read and use to pinpoint where in my text the error occurred (using built-in features like "find next error"). This suits my needs, and I can add new checks as I think of them. How useful would it be to others? How many others even write the way I do? It's not as extensive as the grammar checker in Word and it works on an entire (text) document at a time.
The obvious place that could use this would be the OpenOffice.org project, especially since OOo has no grammar checker. However, it doesn't use just plain text, so I'd have to make a lot of changes to remove formatting, etc. before checking the patterns. Still, I've played around with the idea that I could "port" my Perl script into a plug-in for OOo. The problem is, I don't really use word processors all that much... it wouldn't be something I'd be using extensively, and therefore I wouldn't have the incentive to keep it up to date.
In addition, OOo is not an English-specific project. My grammar checker, even if it was ported to be used within OOo, doesn't have the rules for French, Spanish, Chinese, Japanese, Swahili, or any other language... such support would require quite a lot of dedicated individuals.
All that being said, and relating to the parent post, even using my grammar checker isn't a replacement for having a flesh and blood person looking over your shoulder. How can a program know that you are overusing the word "had" or using "like" when you should be using "as if" or another better phrase? Even writing a rule like "Never start a sentence with 'because'" isn't sufficient, because there are some times when that rule shouldn't be applied ("Because the food was so good, it was eaten in a matter of minutes.").
I find it very misleading to state that the speed of a quad system (4 1.7 Ghz processors) is the speed of each processor multiplied by the number (4 * 1.7 = 6.8).
After reading that portion of the specification, I find it difficult to read the rest of it without laughing openly.
Nice try.
Let me play: I have a 1.4 Ghz Thinkpad, a 2.8 Ghz HP Presario laptop, and a 500 Mhz iBook. Using the logic from the specifications at that site, those three laptops mean that I have a single 4.7 Ghz laptop? If so, please tell me how I can get Tiger to run at that speed on that 500 Mhz iBook!
Maybe a language option: "La clicque!"
Dialects: "Oy! Ve are scrolling again. And you never write!"
Music: "When I saw her clicking there!"
Apple Events: "WA-HOOO!" (When somebody walks on mouse cord)
Sound Effects: = Mouse Click
Political: "Right! Why must you always pick the right button!" "Don't listen to that pinko tree huggin' button!"
Then again, maybe that's not such a good idea...
You might want to think about a certain bit of technology that HP (as Compaq) sold to Intel called "Spike." Spike was an interesting post-link optimizer that made Alphas run faster, and there were few published benchmarks of Alphas that did use Spike (or its predecessor OM) during the post-link phase of code generation, because it made software run significantly faster.
The sad part is that Intel was using that technology to try to increase performance of its Itanium line...
Well, being a long time Linux user, I can say that I've already switched my main workstation to OS X.
Why?
Graphics on that platform are nothing short of amazing. Important Linux applications are already available for OS X as native apps... Audacity, OpenOffice (as NeoOffice/J), Firefox, and Thunderbird come immediately to mind. Gimp runs under X, but the latest version of X runs almost like a native application.
In addition to the open source applications, I now also have GarageBand, iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, Mail.app and all those other iLife applications that Apple bundles with the Mini and Tiger that are not available for Linux or Windows.
Last month, I had $500 to spend on a new box. I could have purchased an x86/AMD motherboard, case, RAM, and other stuff and then installed Linux. For the same amount of money, I purchased a Mini which came with Tiger (I did have to "upgrade" from Panther to Tiger, but that wasn't difficult at all).
If my kids HAVE to have Office--and NeoOffice/J just won't suffice--then I can just purchase Microsoft's version for the Mac. I can't do that with Linux! If my kids HAVE to have Photoshop or Illustrator or any of the other mainstream apps, then they are more likely to have Mac versions than Linux versions.
OS X on the x86 platform will be great! If will definitely require special hardware to run properly, but I cannot see why Apple won't sell a version of OS X that runs on generic PC's, albeit with performance issues. That's money to them and there's a big market already out there! Since Apple is also a hardware company, there's no reason that Apple cannot sell hardware that's especially "tuned" for--and bundled with--Mac OS X, and still find a ready audience.
How much would a Mini cost today if it used the more available x86 chipset components rather than PowerPC? I think it would be cheaper, and Apple could still make money.
I can easily imagine a $399 x86-based Mini complete with OS X running at 2.5-3.5 Ghz. If that's possible, then what would be the incentive to roll your own machine? Apple's a major player and could supply such a machine to any school, student, home user, or corporation that wants one... or one hundred?
I don't see Apple gunning for Linux right now; they're looking for mind share--from existing Mac users and existing PC users who are curious. If Windows and OS X are both available for your next purchase, people will make their decision based on what else runs on the OS. Microsoft can continue to make their Office and Works applications available as software add-ons to OEMs, and Apple will do the same with its own hardware, bundling AppleWorks, iLife, and perhaps iWork. Microsoft has a head start on compatible applications, but as the new guy in town, Apple has no direction to go but up.
Relatively few people purchase systems bundled with Linux installed on them, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon. Linux won't suffer at all in the short run--the same people installing it today because of its perceived cost/benefit proposition will continue doing so tomorrow. OS X/86 will probably appeal to a few of those people, especially if it's available for generic systems. If not, there will still be some that will switch if the price is right, if only to satisfy their curiosity about what all the fuss is about.
Linux is still superior to Windows as a server system, and Apple doesn't seem to be pushing their Mac platform to appeal to people buying such systems. Eventually, though, if OS X/86 catches on, people will notice that it's not limited to just workstation chores. Despite that, Linux can still continue to advance and stay ahead in this direction if it wants, provided people continue improving its capabilities.
So... Good luck, Apple--and long live Linux!
Hardly XP Home.
Apple has got this one right. There is NO "OS X Light." There's just one O/S to serve them all...
OS X comes with web server (Apache), SSH server (where's that in XP anything?), a SQL database, and many other things that you can't get without XP Professional or even Win2000/2003 Server.
Now, most of those "advanced" services are turned off by default, but they are there if you want to use them, and don't cost anything (other than the space they take up) if you don't ever configure them.
I think Microsoft's OS strategy sucks, because it generalizes: I need Win2003 Server Standard Edition--or is it Enterprise Edition?--to get some of the services I need, but need XP (Home,Professional) to get the desktop bubblegum that my kids want. I can't pick and choose--Microsoft does it for me and I don't get a say in their selections!
Of course, you can always get freeware/shareware or commercial add-ons, but that ups the price of the OS.
So... the proper comparison is OS X would be to purchase XP Professional with bits of Windows 2003 Server (total cost, mucho dinero!).
Who wants to bet that Microsoft will continue this silly strategy with Longhorn? I can see it now: Longhorn Home, Longhorn Professional, Longhorn Advanced Server, Longhorn Lite, Longhorn Media Edition, Longhorn Tablet Edition, Longhorn Pocket Edition... And what will developers target? (This requires Longhorn Home, with some bits of Longhorn Server, but is incompatible with the display driver in Longhorn Tablet...)
Try this: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0114614/combined
Already answered: Asus Pundit
As Alan Sherman points out in his book, Rape of the A*P*E, if you think you own private property, try doing any of the following:
Smoke marijuana on your private property
Dance about naked on the front porch of your private property
Commit murder and bury the body on your private property
Take your private property and sell it to the government of another country
Build a 100 foot wall around your private property
Put up a toll booth and charge admission to the tax collector when they visit your private property
(These are all from memory; my copy of the book has long since self-destructed from all its anti-government and free-love spouting, and its hilarious "Short Chapter, Long Footnote."
NH is listed as a state with repressive laws to prevent municipal WiFi, but that's not really the case. The bill that was passed was actually written to ENCOURAGE such things. http://www.manchesterwireless.org/ is one example of a Citywide Muni net in the state that's famous for its slogan as well as its (in)famous pledge of No Taxes!
Other commnunities should be able to provide free access like this, but if you let the Comcasts and Verizons have their way, they will destroy this kind of thing before it gets off the ground.
Now, cable modems and DSL have a lot going for them, and their associated access speed and throughput are useful. But allowing ANYBODY with an old laptop and a wireless card to at least get on the network is very helpful.
Won't happen.
There's a price point where it just doesn't make economic sense to sell a product at a lower price. Even if yields in today's LCD displays succomb to the two-year 50% price drop.
For instance, as LCD screens get cheaper, perhaps the displays will start going from 1024x768 to 1152x962, 1280x1024, etc., requiring more intricate and complex LCD technology than can be had at present.
Those cheaper LCD's won't be used for notebooks in two years, but would be picked up by bargain basement people wanting a better display on their toaster. Or whatever. Maybe a few notebooks. [smile]
Look at the prices of Notebooks and Hard Drives today. They are the same today as they were 10 years ago. Of course, in 1995, it was a sub-100 Mhz 486 processor with an LCD screen at 640x480. Today, they run 2+ Ghz with 1024x768 and higher resolution. If the parts get too cheap to make a profit, simply increase capability/speed until you have the same price.
Try going into a CompUSA today and look for a 2 Gb disk drive. You can't find one. Maybe at a second hand shop, or on eBay, but not in the main stream shops. What was exhorbitant disk space ten years ago is passe' today.
That one divided by zero equals eternal life or, in some obscure numeric base, forty-two.
I first found out about ZipCar from an advert in a T station (subway for those of you not in New England) in Boston. This had to be a few years ago--possibly 2001.
Since I live in NH, it wasn't available to me at the time, but I thought it was intriguing, especially for people that don't drive that often.
NitNit: I don't follow the project; I simply install it on any Windows box that I may need to use. If something doesn't work, I run "setup.exe" again, and update everything that I have already installed. I don't need to bother with it much more than that.
I think Cygwin32 was its original name, before Cygnus was purchased by RedHat, which is why I stand corrected.
You'll notice that my program list strongly reflects my programming background. I install gcc, perl, Java, and other languages on my wife's machine for when she inevitably asks, "Honey, can you write me a something to do this for me?"
As to the person that seemed surprised that my wife would even touch a computer, I'll have you know that she's been using computers for quite a long time. Her first laptop was a TRS-80 Model 100!
I just spent a weekend setting up my wife's new laptop. In doing so, I added a lot of free and Spyware-free software. Here are some things you missed:
1. Editors! There are a lot of freely available (open source, freeware, etc.) editors out there. EMacs, Jove, VIM, Elvis, VILE/XVile/WinVile, NVI, Scintilla, and others too countless to name. I haven't seen ANY of these encumbered by SpyWare.
2. MultiMedia: RealPlayer and QuickTime both avoid spyware, if I'm not mistaken.
3. Blender and DIA are missing. They appear on
TheOpenCD.org, which seems to be a similar project to yours.
4. Cygwin32 -- Essential for any Linux user that needs to occasionally run Windows. With laptops with humongous drives, you can have an entire development system with GCC, perl, python, etc.
5. ActiveState has freeware implementations of a few useful languages, such as ActivePerl.
6. Tcl/tk comes to mind as not on your list.
7. Sun's Java is almost a requirement nowadays and integrates into IE, Opera, and the Mozilla-based browsers.
8. PaintDotNet was mentioned on Slashdot recently.
Now... for the site...
If you wish to use this as a service for users, then you should have a "This Just In!" section that shows items and when they are added. This way, a person can visit every couple of weeks and keep abreast of the things that have changed since they last left. This is also a good use for cookies--remember the last visit and highlight things that have changed since then.
Good attempt, and good luck!
It can also be financed by commercial donations. Since you'll have to login in order to get access, the login screen and initial home page can serve advertisements.
It's been been done before.
Health groups? Manchester NH has a good part of its city set up as a hotspot (check its web site, and its main transmitter is near Elliot Hospital!
If you live in the downtown area, you can set up a repeater in your home (you can get one at CompUSA for less than $100) and you have web access for just the cost of an AirPort card (Mac) or 802.11b card (everybody else). It's not a panacea... you can't park a domain name there, nor can you set up a web server or any of those other interesting things, but if you are a parent with kids in school, web mail and Google are two tools that can be very useful!
I don't hear anybody complaining about health risks. The 2.4 Ghz spectrum is license free, and these citywide hot spots are very useful!
SCO doesn't seem to have any employees other than lawyers and mouthpieces at present.
I doubt that anybody looking for a job in the software field would have SCO from May, 2003 on their resume.
If you look at the typical television line-up, you will notice that there's more comedy programming shown than violent programming. I have yet to hear people complain that there is too much "comedy in the streets."
Since I was a kid, I have heard all sorts of claims about television: It can hurt your eyes (even make you go bline!). It will lower your grades in school. It will make you a cop killing dope addict. It will turn you into a serial rapist.
Quite a lot of power for a little box that just sits there showing shadows.
Personally, I despise about 90% of everything that is on television today, from endless infomercials to rehashed mindless 60's and 70's era sitcoms, to movies that have been edited and reformatted to be vastly different from their theatrical releases, to "excercise shows" that do nothing but show the female form in tight fitting spandex. But I don't sit in a crystal palace and claim that watching television will do anything other than waste your time.
Business don't have to vote--voting is too unpredictable and the results can be skewed by those pesky PEOPLE that might actually come out and vote as well.
Instead, it is much more effecient if businesses just purchase enough congress-critters and senators. And guess what, this strategy works!
Now, if I could find a handy US Senator or two on eBay... [smile]