However, based on MS's past behaviours, I think we can look forward to a "good enough" replacement for PeopleSoft to be built into the next version of Windows. MS will forbid OEM's to remove it because they don't want a "confusing user experience." Oh, and it will increase the "Microsoft tax" on your new PC that you were only going to load Linux on.
You have no idea what business PeopleSoft is in do you?
PeopleSoft makes Enterprise Resource Planning software. Microsoft has very little to compete in this segment of business. The big king here is SAP, the German ERP software maker that has 29% of the market. Oracle has bought PeopleSoft after 18 months of intense and hostile negotiation. Microsoft is eyeing PeopleSoft customers for it's Microsoft Business Solutions productline - which is hardly competition in near future.
and just to point out that you are utterly full of shit, this service is only available at Calcutta, right now, so no possibility of asking someone at Punjub and geting a correct response. Calcutta telephones have been a pioneer within its own corporate entity (BSNL) to provide newer options for the last few months now.
DIAS is not yet popular but is one of the new initiatives by this corporate entity to fight against the private telephony operators in Calcutta like VSNL (Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited), earlier Govt company but now owned by the Tatas after privatization. Baby steps in the ultimate aim of being a completely independent private entity. So I don't think such a company will be considered by anyone as being a government entity. Also, people and corporations in India, unlike in US, blame individuals for their acts, not the government. BTW, India has one of the best governance model in the world, only to be let down by nepotism and corruption in all government sectors. However, inspite of that, the fact that India still exists and is successful as a country is because of its liberal and adaptable constitution.
Sorry to comment of this, but I'm one of those people who is replacing your job from offshore in India.
End of the day, it comes down to the fact that you (like most people) also like it when the price of things come down, hell my computer costs much less than it used too. That's progress, right, in capitalistic sense.
You adapt by learning new skill or developing new technologies that others don't have, not by legislation. People have always found ways around legislation, that's why, even in India, we find more and more things Made in China. So please compete by the terms of the game you laid down yourselves..
Unfortunately, the above comments are very much US centric and the author has no ideas on the systems outside US. For example, in India, where I come from work for the largest outsourcing company and reside (and read Slashdot daily), there are very very stringent labour laws. The laws are sometimes more restrictive that corresponding laws in US. Infact, many of the services companies as now asking for a labour laws compatible with US:).
The main reason for these companies to to do better business is
Smaller wage packet requirement: India has a disparate Purchasing power wrt it's currency strength. So people can live on $ 500 per month where $ 2000 would be minimum requirement in US
Hunger for work: Indians would tend to work more hours to better their living conditions. And this is valid for all strata of people not only the lower rung but also the VPs and CEOs
US or Western Companies cannot be stopped from using such advantages to their benefits. All the activities suggested will just make sure that those companies become uncompetitive, and other non-US companies will make sure that they leverage on this fact.
Well, to be correct, GPL doesn't stop you from selling licenses for the stuff... GPL doesn't mean the software needs to be free. GPL just ensures that you can't sell the stuff without the source code. I guess, Microsoft is providing the source code, the link has already been provided by one of the other Slashdotters.
M. Gandhi's (and not Gandi or Ghandi) full name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was called Mahatma (Maha (Great) + Atma (Soul)), by Rabindranath Tagore, India's first Nobel laureate and greatest poet from India in early 20th century (any one of its all-time greats, considering India's nearly 3000 yr history).
(Slightly offtopic, but replying to what Cerlyn said)
As an Indian, I can verify that you comments are right no track. My father worked for 30 years, and he a decent job. When I started office, he was nearing the end of his carrer and I joined at a salary which would suit my job. However, once the software boom happened, and people like me started to come to US and start working here, we earn more than 10 times what my Dad used to, at the height of his carreer.
Adobe may feel that by stoopping their Asian version of the software they are actually saving money, they are wrong. They are creating a market by selling the product at a loss, so that when people are asked for software skills, they would be talking about Adobe. This is very similar to what MS did with their product. You have absolute mindshare and control of the market.
Regarding piracy, the only point is, if you are not able to price a adopted version properly (like making it too costly for the market to afford), you'll always have piracy. Price it for the consumer's pocket properly, and you have a winner.
Well, Hindu is definitely NOT a language, Hindi is more close to the target. And with my meagre language of Hindi (I'm from the same country, India but speak Bengali) there is no such word. I may be wrong, but I think I'm not.
why don't we instead treat them as a public asset and auction them off to the highest bidder?
In that case, who collects the revenue out of this patent? Will it be US Govt? If so, then what about the other countries? They may not respect a patent sold to someone by US govt. Or, they may even decide to sell it to someone else in their own country. Then the same patent will be held in different countries by different people. The current agreements and treaties on Patents will fail, if such a scheme goes thru IMHO.
Outlook does a lot of nice stuff, but it won't let me read the headers (at least I haven't figured out how), things like that. Too much hand holding.
Well, if you open a mail in Outlook and click menu File->Properties, you'll fidn the complete message header.
On other note, I believe this (ie Line) may be a good idea for people who use both Linux and WIndows can use the same stuff irrespective of the operating system they are using.
But that is what the commercial products need to do to be ahead of its competitors. It has to increase its value addition to the users, so that it can increase its market share and thus profits. And commercial entities ARE for-profit organizations, they are not charities. SO while there must be "Standards Compliance" you'll always have browsers with these cool and new features, which you're going to love. Compare the situation iwth RDBMSs, where all these vendors have databases which can run SQL (read Standard), but have thier own implementation of scripting language (PL/SQL, Transact-SQL etc.), cool ways of administering them, or integrating them with other products and languages.
You're right. This is not a problem with SQL Server. But this is definitely a problem with ODBC and how ODBC interacts with any database. And you know who created ODBC in the first place.
I belong to a company which believes in ISO 9001 and CMM. It is one of the big Indian shops with most of its offshore centers certified under both these management / quality methods. I've personally been involved with both these activities for a long time as a Project Leader and later as a Project Manager, and I found that there are both good and bad aspects of these certifications. The methods are extermely useful in a large (or very large, say 20,000 people) company, with a high turnover rate at it is in this industry. Unless you have properly planned or written down things methodically, you're going to die when your key designer leaves the job. In big projects (with 50 - 100 people), this planning is essential. And these management methods enforce that planning and documentation. And if you are a big organization, this also enforces code and concept reuse. This really increases productivity, which I can personally vouch for. So that is the reason the management wants to implement these methods. However, there is a trap in this. If not properly implemented, this can cause severe problems. People may stop being productive or may leave. But on a whole, I found this to a useful thing. You can compare it with a knife - it is quite useful, but if wrongly used, can cause mayhem.
Slashdot Mirror
However, based on MS's past behaviours, I think we can look forward to a "good enough" replacement for PeopleSoft to be built into the next version of Windows. MS will forbid OEM's to remove it because they don't want a "confusing user experience." Oh, and it will increase the "Microsoft tax" on your new PC that you were only going to load Linux on.
You have no idea what business PeopleSoft is in do you?
PeopleSoft makes Enterprise Resource Planning software. Microsoft has very little to compete in this segment of business. The big king here is SAP, the German ERP software maker that has 29% of the market. Oracle has bought PeopleSoft after 18 months of intense and hostile negotiation. Microsoft is eyeing PeopleSoft customers for it's Microsoft Business Solutions productline - which is hardly competition in near future.
and just to point out that you are utterly full of shit, this service is only available at Calcutta, right now, so no possibility of asking someone at Punjub and geting a correct response. Calcutta telephones have been a pioneer within its own corporate entity (BSNL) to provide newer options for the last few months now.
Calcutta Telephones (or Kolkata Telephones) is a part of BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited), that was formed when part of the Department of Telephones, Govt of India was corporatized last year.
DIAS is not yet popular but is one of the new initiatives by this corporate entity to fight against the private telephony operators in Calcutta like VSNL (Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited), earlier Govt company but now owned by the Tatas after privatization. Baby steps in the ultimate aim of being a completely independent private entity. So I don't think such a company will be considered by anyone as being a government entity. Also, people and corporations in India, unlike in US, blame individuals for their acts, not the government. BTW, India has one of the best governance model in the world, only to be let down by nepotism and corruption in all government sectors. However, inspite of that, the fact that India still exists and is successful as a country is because of its liberal and adaptable constitution.
and would these 40 people have a hard disk each which they can detach and take home and work from home at home PC?
Sorry to comment of this, but I'm one of those people who is replacing your job from offshore in India.
End of the day, it comes down to the fact that you (like most people) also like it when the price of things come down, hell my computer costs much less than it used too. That's progress, right, in capitalistic sense.
You adapt by learning new skill or developing new technologies that others don't have, not by legislation. People have always found ways around legislation, that's why, even in India, we find more and more things Made in China. So please compete by the terms of the game you laid down yourselves..
The main reason for these companies to to do better business is
Smaller wage packet requirement: India has a disparate Purchasing power wrt it's currency strength. So people can live on $ 500 per month where $ 2000 would be minimum requirement in US
Hunger for work: Indians would tend to work more hours to better their living conditions. And this is valid for all strata of people not only the lower rung but also the VPs and CEOs
US or Western Companies cannot be stopped from using such advantages to their benefits. All the activities suggested will just make sure that those companies become uncompetitive, and other non-US companies will make sure that they leverage on this fact.
Well, to be correct, GPL doesn't stop you from selling licenses for the stuff... GPL doesn't mean the software needs to be free. GPL just ensures that you can't sell the stuff without the source code. I guess, Microsoft is providing the source code, the link has already been provided by one of the other Slashdotters.
M. Gandhi's (and not Gandi or Ghandi) full name is Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He was called Mahatma (Maha (Great) + Atma (Soul)), by Rabindranath Tagore, India's first Nobel laureate and greatest poet from India in early 20th century (any one of its all-time greats, considering India's nearly 3000 yr history).
(Slightly offtopic, but replying to what Cerlyn said)
As an Indian, I can verify that you comments are right no track. My father worked for 30 years, and he a decent job. When I started office, he was nearing the end of his carrer and I joined at a salary which would suit my job. However, once the software boom happened, and people like me started to come to US and start working here, we earn more than 10 times what my Dad used to, at the height of his carreer.
Adobe may feel that by stoopping their Asian version of the software they are actually saving money, they are wrong. They are creating a market by selling the product at a loss, so that when people are asked for software skills, they would be talking about Adobe. This is very similar to what MS did with their product. You have absolute mindshare and control of the market.
Regarding piracy, the only point is, if you are not able to price a adopted version properly (like making it too costly for the market to afford), you'll always have piracy. Price it for the consumer's pocket properly, and you have a winner.
When are my mod points when you really need them???
Someone please mod up the parent post.... please please please
We want IBM reliability, IBM support, and IBM accountability.
But in the long run, aren't we looking at a situation where the niche currently covered by unices like Solaris and AIX to be taken over by Linux?
I think this is a valid question, and we all should be working towards that as our goal for developing GNU/Linux going forward.
Well, Hindu is definitely NOT a language, Hindi is more close to the target. And with my meagre language of Hindi (I'm from the same country, India but speak Bengali) there is no such word. I may be wrong, but I think I'm not.
cheers.
why don't we instead treat them as a public asset and auction them off to the highest bidder?
In that case, who collects the revenue out of this patent? Will it be US Govt? If so, then what about the other countries? They may not respect a patent sold to someone by US govt. Or, they may even decide to sell it to someone else in their own country. Then the same patent will be held in different countries by different people. The current agreements and treaties on Patents will fail, if such a scheme goes thru IMHO.
Outlook does a lot of nice stuff, but it won't let me read the headers (at least I haven't figured out how), things like that. Too much hand holding. Well, if you open a mail in Outlook and click menu File->Properties, you'll fidn the complete message header. On other note, I believe this (ie Line) may be a good idea for people who use both Linux and WIndows can use the same stuff irrespective of the operating system they are using.
You can also read the coverage by Yahoo! here/a& gt;.
<<>>
But that is what the commercial products need to do to be ahead of its competitors. It has to increase its value addition to the users, so that it can increase its market share and thus profits. And commercial entities ARE for-profit organizations, they are not charities. SO while there must be "Standards Compliance" you'll always have browsers with these cool and new features, which you're going to love. Compare the situation iwth RDBMSs, where all these vendors have databases which can run SQL (read Standard), but have thier own implementation of scripting language (PL/SQL, Transact-SQL etc.), cool ways of administering them, or integrating them with other products and languages.
You're right. This is not a problem with SQL Server. But this is definitely a problem with ODBC and how ODBC interacts with any database. And you know who created ODBC in the first place.
I belong to a company which believes in ISO 9001 and CMM. It is one of the big Indian shops with most of its offshore centers certified under both these management / quality methods. I've personally been involved with both these activities for a long time as a Project Leader and later as a Project Manager, and I found that there are both good and bad aspects of these certifications. The methods are extermely useful in a large (or very large, say 20,000 people) company, with a high turnover rate at it is in this industry. Unless you have properly planned or written down things methodically, you're going to die when your key designer leaves the job. In big projects (with 50 - 100 people), this planning is essential. And these management methods enforce that planning and documentation. And if you are a big organization, this also enforces code and concept reuse. This really increases productivity, which I can personally vouch for. So that is the reason the management wants to implement these methods. However, there is a trap in this. If not properly implemented, this can cause severe problems. People may stop being productive or may leave. But on a whole, I found this to a useful thing. You can compare it with a knife - it is quite useful, but if wrongly used, can cause mayhem.