Any company which has gone it head-to-head against Microsoft has lost (Novell, Borland/Inprise, Corel, Lotus etc. etc.). If MS is going into the home entertainment area, then it's time for Sony etc. to get worried. Don't think Microsoft won't destroy you.
Novell used to think that supporting DOS was a good idea... then came NT.
Borland used to think writing compilers for DOS/Windows was a good idea. Then came Visual Studio.
WordPerfect used to think that writing a word processor for DOS/Windows was a good idea, then came Word (for Windows).
Lotus used to think that writing a spreadsheet for DOS/Windows was a good idea, then came Excel.
Sony use to think that making stereos/playstations/etc. was a good idea, then came HomeStation.
How can we stop this?
OOps, my mistake. Two different products... As different as 95 and NT!!
Linux vs Microsoft and vice versa
on
Microsoft vs. Ximian
·
· Score: 5, Informative
I think the Gnome people have got the right idea. But, I'm not sure they're there yet. It is important to focus on the HCI. Apple did just that. The result a superior user experience which has generated fanatical support from its users (OTOH Apple has made many many mistakes which is why Apple Macintosh is a niche market). By focusing on the user interface, the Gnome people counter the biggest single critisism of Linux: usability. In a rather different market, the embedded market (where Linux has already made a significant impact), Microsoft, I see have released thier 2nd beta preview of Windows XP Embedded code named Talisker. See the article in PC World. (Talisker as you may or may not know, is a town on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, famous for its rather distinctive whisky.)
And ClearType isn't?! I was under the impression that Apple used "ClearType" technology on the Apple IIe but dropped it from the Macintosh because the Mac had a better display. In fact Apple had the technology patented... until recently when the patent expired. I'm sure there's a/. post to this...
Re:Where does this leave SUN?
on
HP Buys Compaq
·
· Score: 1
The HP/Compaq combined company will be very close to Intel. Sun will benefit if the Itanium doesn't perform as well as Intel would have us believe. The other factor is whether HP/Compaq can unite thier Unices onto the IA-64 platform into coherent platform that people are willing to trust. This is where Linux might play a part. I can see HP/Compaq positioning a Linux for IA-64 ahead of either HP-UX and Tru64. The bottom line... it's all down to Intel.
Import/Export Filters, StarOffice and Gobe
on
Linux Office Suites
·
· Score: 1
The original poster states that the biggest problem for the Linux office suites is (has been) the lack of MS import/export filters. Personally, I've always found the filters in StarOffice 5.2 pretty good. A bigger problem (IMHO) is that there is no universal import/export filter engine. I've used Macs for a long time and the XTND system where any app can use a common set of filters is very useful. This brings me to Gobe. It appears that Gobe is being devloped by the team that developed ClarisWorks.... This means that GobeOffice will probably be very good for general day-to-day stuff, but useless for anything scientific! Strangely, GobeOffice will be for Windows and Linux but not Mac. Is this a plot against Apple? Anyway, would then the Gobe developers be in a position to promote the devlopment of OS independent system-wide import/export filters?? I hope so. As a starting point they could do a lot worse than using the filters from OpenOffice (assuming the filters in OpenOffice are from StarOffice).
I think perhaps this is an argument for diversity more than it is an argument against Microsoft.
From my point of view, an argument for diversity is an argument against Microsoft. My beef with Microsoft is not I don't like their stuff-- it's that I can't choose to use something else and have the pleasure of completely ignoring them. People still send me attachments in Word format, or require that presentations be in PowerPoint format. Web extentions still work on Windows only. I can freely ignore the Mac in everything I do. Windows users can freely ignore Linux in everything they do. But nobody can completely ignore Microsoft, simply because it's so prevalent.
Very true. It is a measure of Windows' success in the market place that it is the target of so many virii and worms. Worms in particular prefer to use security holes in the most "polular" (as in populous) OS. If (when) Linux takes a significant proportion of the market, then we should expect Linux to be the target of many more attacks of this nature. But (and it's a big but!) the stategy of Micro$oft towards security is also partly to blame: they actively produce products which are fundementally flawed in terms of security. They can do this because they have a monopoly. They push new features in order to "force" people to upgrade ($$) and then worry about the security aspects later. As has been mentioned later. As it stands, Linux is not 100% secure (far from it), but the approach of the leading developers leads towards a system which is inherently more secure.
I'm a little paranoid myself. When I leave my house, I often stop, turnaround, go back an rattle the front door handle in order to make sure I locked it, and then have another quick look at the windows to remake sure I shut them all. This is the sort of testing we all need to make on our houses and cars etc. to help to protect ourselves from attack. We need to be able to do the same thing with our computers. The big problem is: we are not capable of simply "looking" to see if we've left a window open... we actually have to test them... all of them. The only way of doing that is to use the "cracking" tools which are currently available. It's worose than that... I've got (that is, my computer has) windows I didn't even know existed... and still more! To deny users the tools to test thier own computers for open "windows and doors" is to allow CRACKERS free access. The reason that so many worms and virii can spread so easily is because so many people don't check the integrety of thier computer systems.... Instead of trying to block these utilities, governments should be _requiring_ people to have them installed and regularly updated! Perhaps there is a market oportunity for "cracker protection" software, much as there is a market for virus protection? In the meantime, keep up-to-date with anything you can get from SecurityFocus.
My computer has a virus. At some point, I installed a piece of software... during the process, another program was installed as well. The second program appears to be a back-orifice style program which possibly allows other people access to my files. I don't seem to be able to remove either piece of software. I can't uninstall the first program even if I wanted to and I can't simply delete the second. I have found the executable file, it's a file called msimn.exe. I have tried to delete it, but it comes straight back again. I've tried dropping in a replacement file with the same name, but that file get overwritten with the unwanted file.
My virus scanner doesn't seem to recognise it as a virus (I have updated my virus definition file so that its up-to-date).
While the behaviour of this program is not exactly covered by the term "virus" - it doesn't replicate by embedding its code "DNA" into other programs to reproduce. But having infected my machine, it then allows secondary "infections" to circulate. I think it's more like an abscess... an infected sore.
The name of the virus? Outlook Express. I don't want it. I can't delete it. I can't uninstall it.
I would say that you're being rather unfair to Motorola.... but on the other hand you're quite right!!! Moto appear to be concentrating on the embedded market rather than the desktop. One question: The processor in the Gamecube is a "embedded" PowerPC right? But it's IBM's beast right? Does that processor support AltiVec? But I thought IBM was dead set against AltiVec?! I'm a bit confused! (Sorry for being a bit OT.)
Might this mean that Apple could have the chance of playing the MHz game itself? They would of course have to subtly change their current advertising campaign...."Oops sorry we were wrong! MHz do matter after all. Silly us."
Seriously, does the Motorola announcement say when we are likely to anything actually made using this new technique?
I wouldn't use a PC with a Trident chipset anyway. They just lost one more customer that they didn't have anyway. On a more general point, companies who underestimate the future market importance of Linux are shooting themselves in the head. Once lost, custom is hard to regain. They may also be closing themselves off from a large part of the mobile internet revolution which will be happening in the next two to five years where Linux has a possibility of being a big player. Not a good move Trident.
Has anyone put the bootloader situation forward as an example of Microsoft abusing its monopoly situation? This is the situation where Microsoft can DEMAND that OEM's put Windows and only Windows on PC's. Microsoft explicitly forbids them from dual-booting... allegedly. This point has been raised recently with regards to the BeOS case. The problem is that there is little evidence because the licenses between Microsoft and the OEM's are secret. This is the real scandal, not the browser, media player issue.
I didn't now about this one until today, but there
is a company called HancomLinux which apparently has an office suite for KDE. It's not free software though. Has anyone tried it? Version 2.0 screenshots look impressive (it must be good it's got loads of buttons!). Comments anyone?
The simple fact is that this strategy won't work. If AMD try to hide the GHz rating, then people will simply ask what it is. The average person has come to believe that that's how you measure processor speed. If on the other hand, AMD tries to market 1.4GHz chips by implying a higher clock speed, then they might fall foul of advertising and marketing law. It's certainly a shame the average person believes that the important factor is the MHz, but it's the chip manufacturers fault in the end. It's the manufacturers that have always pushed the clock speed as the measure. It's just that at the moment Intel has the higher numbers.
While many will see this annoucement as proof that the GNU camp has finally "beaten" the commercial
Unices, I think we should concentrate on what can be gained from the release of some or all of the official "UNIX" code. I think one positive aspect is that now we (the GNU/Linux community) have access (possibly) to the real/bin/sh and real/bin/csh and (hopefully) many other "real" Unix commands, it may be possible to create a Linux which *IS* Unix (not just a clone). I think the blurring between Linux and other Unices will help to reinforce Linux as a mainstream Unix (and so get support from major software producers, the sort of people who currently support HP, IRIX and Solaris but not Linux). We should also be thinking about what we can do to add back into the Unix source... This should be a two-way path! I think the announcement by Caldera is a positive move, and should be generally welcomed. Persoanlly, I wonder what effect this might have to the BSD camp? Might it be time to "heal" those old wounds and reunite Unix. I accept there are now GNU<->BSD license issues, but the chance for a unified Unix must me one step closer!
One of the reasons C++ was C++ and not D, was that it was supposed to be a superset of C, such that any C that compiled using a C++ compiler should work and do exactly what it should have done if compiled using a C compiler. The idea being that C++ programmers would have a good place to start from (i.e. C). However since the early days of C++, C++ has grown such that the subset of C++ which is C is a rather small subset. The problem is that C++ suffers many limitations which stem from its C heritage. It might be a good time to write a *new* language which is similar to C++ but where in cases where backwards compatibility with C conflist with clarity, that clarity should win-over. If D does this, then it is a welcome addition to the tool set of programmers.
"That Linux and Apache are not compatible"? Compatible with what? What then is Windows "compatible" with? Itself? That doesn't seem make sense. Linux as a server platform is now well established... Linux as a mainstream desktop platform is still someway off. Don't worry, it'll happen. Eventually.
The reason Micro$oft removed Java from XP was because they weren't allowed to "extend" Java with thier own incompatible extensions. The court ruling would have make Microsoft support Sun's java implementation. Rather than support an open standard, they have decided to try and kill java. Thier strategy will probably work as well.
> If you use Windows, you can install a
> Postscript printer driver and select "print to
> file" (you might have to remove PCL headers,
> etc. from the produced file, I don't know the
> specifics - does anyone know which drivers work > well for this?).
The Apple LaserWriter drivers are a good choice. The HP Drivers produce an extra three lines at the start and an extra line at the end if the postscript which set the postscript language interpreter. The Apple drivers produce pure postscript.
then? Seriously though,
as I understand it, software errors have been the cause of a number of aeroplane crashes and near-crashes. Wasn't the Paris airbus crash software related? In fact I just did a quick Yahoo search and came up with
Airbus 320 crash at the Paris Airshow, 1988.
What's wrong with RS232 anyway? IMHO the best communications protocol by far! How many other systems have such diversity in wiring configuration? Evolution will ensure that RS232 will go on for a very long time yet.
Slashdot Mirror
Any company which has gone it head-to-head against Microsoft has lost (Novell, Borland/Inprise, Corel, Lotus etc. etc.). If MS is going into the home entertainment area, then it's time for Sony etc. to get worried. Don't think Microsoft won't destroy you.
Novell used to think that supporting DOS was a good idea... then came NT.
Borland used to think writing compilers for DOS/Windows was a good idea. Then came Visual Studio.
WordPerfect used to think that writing a word processor for DOS/Windows was a good idea, then came Word (for Windows).
Lotus used to think that writing a spreadsheet for DOS/Windows was a good idea, then came Excel.
Sony use to think that making stereos/playstations/etc. was a good idea, then came HomeStation.
How can we stop this?
We can't. AfxMessageBox("You're Screwed!")
OOps, my mistake. Two different products... As different as 95 and NT!!
I think the Gnome people have got the right idea. But, I'm not sure they're there yet. It is important to focus on the HCI. Apple did just that. The result a superior user experience which has generated fanatical support from its users (OTOH Apple has made many many mistakes which is why Apple Macintosh is a niche market). By focusing on the user interface, the Gnome people counter the biggest single critisism of Linux: usability. In a rather different market, the embedded market (where Linux has already made a significant impact), Microsoft, I see have released thier 2nd beta preview of Windows XP Embedded code named Talisker. See the article in PC World. (Talisker as you may or may not know, is a town on the Isle of Skye, Scotland, famous for its rather distinctive whisky.)
Got it! The /. article is:
here. It's a post about a link to a discussion about ClearType and Apple at pcworld (of all places)!!
And ClearType isn't?! I was under the impression that Apple used "ClearType" technology on the Apple IIe but dropped it from the Macintosh because the Mac had a better display. In fact Apple had the technology patented... until recently when the patent expired. I'm sure there's a /. post to this...
The HP/Compaq combined company will be very close to Intel. Sun will benefit if the Itanium doesn't perform as well as Intel would have us believe. The other factor is whether HP/Compaq can unite thier Unices onto the IA-64 platform into coherent platform that people are willing to trust. This is where Linux might play a part. I can see HP/Compaq positioning a Linux for IA-64 ahead of either HP-UX and Tru64. The bottom line... it's all down to Intel.
The original poster states that the biggest problem for the Linux office suites is (has been) the lack of MS import/export filters. Personally, I've always found the filters in StarOffice 5.2 pretty good. A bigger problem (IMHO) is that there is no universal import/export filter engine. I've used Macs for a long time and the XTND system where any app can use a common set of filters is very useful. This brings me to Gobe. It appears that Gobe is being devloped by the team that developed ClarisWorks.... This means that GobeOffice will probably be very good for general day-to-day stuff, but useless for anything scientific! Strangely, GobeOffice will be for Windows and Linux but not Mac. Is this a plot against Apple? Anyway, would then the Gobe developers be in a position to promote the devlopment of OS independent system-wide import/export filters?? I hope so. As a starting point they could do a lot worse than using the filters from OpenOffice (assuming the filters in OpenOffice are from StarOffice).
Very true. It is a measure of Windows' success in the market place that it is the target of so many virii and worms. Worms in particular prefer to use security holes in the most "polular" (as in populous) OS. If (when) Linux takes a significant proportion of the market, then we should expect Linux to be the target of many more attacks of this nature. But (and it's a big but!) the stategy of Micro$oft towards security is also partly to blame: they actively produce products which are fundementally flawed in terms of security. They can do this because they have a monopoly. They push new features in order to "force" people to upgrade ($$) and then worry about the security aspects later. As has been mentioned later. As it stands, Linux is not 100% secure (far from it), but the approach of the leading developers leads towards a system which is inherently more secure.
I'm a little paranoid myself. When I leave my house, I often stop, turnaround, go back an rattle the front door handle in order to make sure I locked it, and then have another quick look at the windows to remake sure I shut them all. This is the sort of testing we all need to make on our houses and cars etc. to help to protect ourselves from attack. We need to be able to do the same thing with our computers. The big problem is: we are not capable of simply "looking" to see if we've left a window open... we actually have to test them... all of them. The only way of doing that is to use the "cracking" tools which are currently available. It's worose than that... I've got (that is, my computer has) windows I didn't even know existed... and still more! To deny users the tools to test thier own computers for open "windows and doors" is to allow CRACKERS free access. The reason that so many worms and virii can spread so easily is because so many people don't check the integrety of thier computer systems.... Instead of trying to block these utilities, governments should be _requiring_ people to have them installed and regularly updated! Perhaps there is a market oportunity for "cracker protection" software, much as there is a market for virus protection? In the meantime, keep up-to-date with anything you can get from SecurityFocus.
My computer has a virus. At some point, I installed a piece of software... during the process, another program was installed as well. The second program appears to be a back-orifice style program which possibly allows other people access to my files. I don't seem to be able to remove either piece of software. I can't uninstall the first program even if I wanted to and I can't simply delete the second. I have found the executable file, it's a file called msimn.exe. I have tried to delete it, but it comes straight back again. I've tried dropping in a replacement file with the same name, but that file get overwritten with the unwanted file.
My virus scanner doesn't seem to recognise it as a virus (I have updated my virus definition file so that its up-to-date).
While the behaviour of this program is not exactly covered by the term "virus" - it doesn't replicate by embedding its code "DNA" into other programs to reproduce. But having infected my machine, it then allows secondary "infections" to circulate. I think it's more like an abscess... an infected sore.
The name of the virus? Outlook Express. I don't want it. I can't delete it. I can't uninstall it.
How can I lance this boil?
I would say that you're being rather unfair to Motorola.... but on the other hand you're quite right!!! Moto appear to be concentrating on the embedded market rather than the desktop. One question: The processor in the Gamecube is a "embedded" PowerPC right? But it's IBM's beast right? Does that processor support AltiVec? But I thought IBM was dead set against AltiVec?! I'm a bit confused! (Sorry for being a bit OT.)
Might this mean that Apple could have the chance of playing the MHz game itself? They would of course have to subtly change their current advertising campaign...."Oops sorry we were wrong! MHz do matter after all. Silly us."
Seriously, does the Motorola announcement say when we are likely to anything actually made using this new technique?
I wouldn't use a PC with a Trident chipset anyway. They just lost one more customer that they didn't have anyway. On a more general point, companies who underestimate the future market importance of Linux are shooting themselves in the head. Once lost, custom is hard to regain. They may also be closing themselves off from a large part of the mobile internet revolution which will be happening in the next two to five years where Linux has a possibility of being a big player. Not a good move Trident.
Has anyone put the bootloader situation forward as an example of Microsoft abusing its monopoly situation? This is the situation where Microsoft can DEMAND that OEM's put Windows and only Windows on PC's. Microsoft explicitly forbids them from dual-booting... allegedly. This point has been raised recently with regards to the BeOS case. The problem is that there is little evidence because the licenses between Microsoft and the OEM's are secret. This is the real scandal, not the browser, media player issue.
I didn't now about this one until today, but there
is a company called HancomLinux which apparently has an office suite for KDE. It's not free software though. Has anyone tried it? Version 2.0 screenshots look impressive (it must be good it's got loads of buttons!). Comments anyone?
The simple fact is that this strategy won't work. If AMD try to hide the GHz rating, then people will simply ask what it is. The average person has come to believe that that's how you measure processor speed. If on the other hand, AMD tries to market 1.4GHz chips by implying a higher clock speed, then they might fall foul of advertising and marketing law. It's certainly a shame the average person believes that the important factor is the MHz, but it's the chip manufacturers fault in the end. It's the manufacturers that have always pushed the clock speed as the measure. It's just that at the moment Intel has the higher numbers.
While many will see this annoucement as proof that the GNU camp has finally "beaten" the commercial /bin/sh and real /bin/csh and (hopefully) many other "real" Unix commands, it may be possible to create a Linux which *IS* Unix (not just a clone). I think the blurring between Linux and other Unices will help to reinforce Linux as a mainstream Unix (and so get support from major software producers, the sort of people who currently support HP, IRIX and Solaris but not Linux). We should also be thinking about what we can do to add back into the Unix source... This should be a two-way path! I think the announcement by Caldera is a positive move, and should be generally welcomed. Persoanlly, I wonder what effect this might have to the BSD camp? Might it be time to "heal" those old wounds and reunite Unix. I accept there are now GNU<->BSD license issues, but the chance for a unified Unix must me one step closer!
Unices, I think we should concentrate on what can be gained from the release of some or all of the official "UNIX" code. I think one positive aspect is that now we (the GNU/Linux community) have access (possibly) to the real
One of the reasons C++ was C++ and not D, was that it was supposed to be a superset of C, such that any C that compiled using a C++ compiler should work and do exactly what it should have done if compiled using a C compiler. The idea being that C++ programmers would have a good place to start from (i.e. C). However since the early days of C++, C++ has grown such that the subset of C++ which is C is a rather small subset. The problem is that C++ suffers many limitations which stem from its C heritage. It might be a good time to write a *new* language which is similar to C++ but where in cases where backwards compatibility with C conflist with clarity, that clarity should win-over. If D does this, then it is a welcome addition to the tool set of programmers.
"That Linux and Apache are not compatible"? Compatible with what? What then is Windows "compatible" with? Itself? That doesn't seem make sense. Linux as a server platform is now well established... Linux as a mainstream desktop platform is still someway off. Don't worry, it'll happen. Eventually.
The reason Micro$oft removed Java from XP was because they weren't allowed to "extend" Java with thier own incompatible extensions. The court ruling would have make Microsoft support Sun's java implementation. Rather than support an open standard, they have decided to try and kill java. Thier strategy will probably work as well.
> If you use Windows, you can install a > Postscript printer driver and select "print to > file" (you might have to remove PCL headers, > etc. from the produced file, I don't know the > specifics - does anyone know which drivers work > well for this?). The Apple LaserWriter drivers are a good choice. The HP Drivers produce an extra three lines at the start and an extra line at the end if the postscript which set the postscript language interpreter. The Apple drivers produce pure postscript.
Hey! FORTRAN isn't obsolete!! It's still the prgramming language of choice for a large number of scientists and engineers!
Yeah, that would be:
#include <sdtio.h>
void main(} {
printf("Hello, wrold\n)
return 0;
)
then?
Seriously though, as I understand it, software errors have been the cause of a number of aeroplane crashes and near-crashes. Wasn't the Paris airbus crash software related? In fact I just did a quick Yahoo search and came up with Airbus 320 crash at the Paris Airshow, 1988.
What's wrong with RS232 anyway? IMHO the best communications protocol by far! How many other systems have such diversity in wiring configuration? Evolution will ensure that RS232 will go on for a very long time yet.
Better still, don't buy this CD becuase it's Country. Do you need another reason?