That's my take on it as well. You can kill the demand for any product by pricing it high enough.
Most of these providers are run by folks with the old time telephone company mind set: if it's more than tip and ring, charge for it. The less it's like tip and ring, the more you charge for it. To them, that much bandwidth must be for business use, so charge'em business rates.
In the 90s, GTE was thinking about offering the ability to check your account and pay your bill online. They had the ability but were stumped about how much to charge the customer to do so. They were thinking about charging the customer $8.95 a month for the privilege of checking and paying for their account online. They finally dropped the idea as their studies showed no interest in accessing accounts online for that price. It never occurred to them to offer it as a benefit of being a GTE customer.
Most of those folks are still running the industry in that manner: everything not basic should be offered as a premier option.
Okay, insert obligatory "One more reason not to use Windows" comment here, after all, this is Slashdork.
Yup, Linux and OSX can get infected as well, but it's harder to do so. Especially if you approach it from the point of view that it can happen to you. If you just have to use a Windoze tool, do it via a VM of some sort, pick your fave brand of VM to do so. Some tools (native VMware VI management tools) are only available for Windoze, so I use a VM to run those tools. Other than that, there are options, even for those poor admins that are CLI challenged, for managing stuff without using Windows.
If you just have to use Windoze because all us Linux g33ks are really l4m3rz and Windoze really is the sh1tz, then Obi Wan, use your mastery of that platform and show us that you're not just all hat and no cattle. Put in the extra time and effort to use your platform of choice without contributing to the delinquency of those less enlightened than you who think that your site is safe.
Just called their customer service folks and was told that after investigation they find the issues mentioned in the article "unsubstantiated". We'll see. I'll contact my card company and warn them, then see what happens.
Absolutely! It's all about the Benjamins for this article, as evidenced by the Mission Statement. My favorite part of the article is "promise new revenue generation dialogues with end users." This isn't about helping or empowering the end user, this article is about items that will help you, the Value Added Resaler, to make money. These products are their picks to help you do that. And, having played with Vista some already, it will surely help generate revenue opportunities for this articles target audience. Our point of view, looking for a stable OS that is secure and empowers the end user is antithical to these people and this article. I'm looking to set up the OS and move on, not keep coming back. But, there are plenty of bad IT shops out there doing small business support and this will enable them to fasten themselves firmly to their customers, like a tick on a hound. For them, this is the best OS. For us, it's a shame. Then again, if you insist on running a MS OS, call them to help you with it. If you really want to set it up and just use it, we'll put a *nix distro on for you.
I hope it's a labor of love where they replace the crude effects with superior ones without letting themselves get carried away. Hopefully they won't go the Hollywood route and let the effects overwhelm and upstage the episodes. The real test will be if the episodes look better, but someone has to point out the changes.
I would be fascinated to see what the results of a visit from the BSA to all of these concerned businessmen would turn up. Somehow, in their greedy obsession with squeezing every last sou from anybody that they think could possibly owe them, I suspect that their licensing of Microsoft products is lacking. Hmmm, come to think of it, I'd be just as fascinated to see the results of a sweep through the RIAA and MPAA offices by the BSA.
I've been a broadband cable customer before and it wasn't really an issue with them and co-ax has much less bandwidth than single-mode fiber. I'll be interested to see if it's really an issue with Verizon any more than with Charter or Brighthouse. By staking out a chunk of the bandwidth, Verizon has clearly let others know not to try to engineer their bandwidth for them. So, don't look at their 1GB of bandwidth and figure that it's available for everyone to use as they see fit.
As well, it also depends on where this applies. As long as they meet their contractual obligations, it's a moot point. I'm a FIOS customer and I expect my bandwidth to remain unchanged. I'm on for the 15 mps service and I'll drop it if I don't see that bandwidth even if I am watching a movie. Fortunately, I live in an area where there's a choice so if they drop the ball I can go back to cable broadband.
One of my friends went with VOIP a couple of years ago. It went fine until Charter started offering a competing VOIP service. Shortly afterwards, after more than a year of near perfect service, his voice service started dropping out periodically. He'd be on a conference call and get dropped. He had Charter cable and 10 mps service, at home, during the day working from home and started having problems. He finally had to switch back to SWBell for a landline to continue working from home without interruption.
It's not a case of just the telcos so much as it appears to be the broadband providers that are looking to muscle the competition on their networks. Whatever the telcos get away with, look for the cable companies to follow in those footsteps. If they build 8 lanes to my house and I'm paying for 2 of them, I want my 2 lanes worth of traffic. What they do with the other 6 is up to them. Google pays for multiple 8 lane interstates to the 'Net and they should get that access. But if they want to offer video service, either we're going to move it on the 2 lanes to my house that I pay for, or they're going to have to buy some of those other 6 from whoever is providing them. As long as I get my 15 mbs, how I use it should be up to me.
I feel the same way. I look to see if a component supports Linux, then how well. I currently have no need for a component that does not support Linux, preferably support it well. Nvidia chipsets are my preferred choice and I also I don't even consider ATI products anymore.
Granted, many of the denizens here are active to rabid gamers and any review of the hottest cards is valid grist for the mill here.
As a Slashdotter, I'd be much more interested in seeing this comparison, especially with an emphasis on their video performance, running on Linux. With both open and closed drivers. My main concern is running these well on Linux as that is my workstation, server and PVR at home.
Having raised a couple of them, I know that we only get to enjoy them for a few years, then they are their own people. Free to make the choices that they want. The last crew was post-Challenger. They had seen the dangers, weighed the risks and found them acceptable. You could not have pried them out of that orbiter. When they died, they were where they wanted to be, doing what they wanted to do, knowing that something like that might happen, but doing it anyway. After losing two orbiters now, I'm willing to bet that the current crew all celebrated their chance to do this. Once again, they have weighed the risks and decided to go ahead anyway. And if something happens to them, once again, they will have died doing what they wanted to do.
The people that do this aren't looking for a space Volvo. They're not looking for a safe, guaranteed flight. They're intelligent people, pushing the envelope, weighing their options and taking a calculated risk. My son is in an Air Force ROTC program right now, looking to be a pilot. One day something may happen to him while flying. And I'll know that he died being where he wanted to be, doing what he wanted to do. The question isn't if, but when we'll die. I'd rather die beta-testing a space system than from a drunk driver.
Hmmm, isn't this the time for Adobe to bring the power of the DMCA to bear on M$? Hit them for reverse engineering their product? Circumventing copy protections? Or just using the DMCA general purpose club "DMCA say you no can compete with me!!!!!" to beat on them with? For once, I want to see two of the big guys beating each other up with the DMCA club, not just see the giants pounding the little guys into submission with that club.
1) See the article preceeding this one "YRO: Software Piracy will get worse"
2) When you treat your customers badly enough, they'll stop being your customers.
When this sh*t gets too onerous, something else will arrive and steal the customers away. Piss people off badly enough and they go back to VHS, or switch to copies on DAT. Or the MPAA and crew will just put themselves out of business. One way or another, people will find their way around it to the point where it becomes moot. When the average person (like my mom and dad, etc) gets fed up with it, the MPAA will either get lambasted in Congress or lose their customer base. I'm ready for them to finally go over the top and bring their empires down around their heads so we can move on.
Is it just me or do others see some issues with the people who provide the cure also providing the pictures documenting the severity of the infection? Symantec, for one, has already been slammed for sounding the alarms and hyping the dangers in order to elevate the demand for their product. Now I'm to trust their software that shows dramatic footage!! of these insidious worms assaulting the world as we know it.
Next you'll probably want me to go ask the Bush camp if we should invade Iran or the Democrats if we should repeal the two term law and re-elect Clinton again. On my way I'll stop by the car dealership and see if my current car is okay or if I should get a new one just to be safe.
It's like the The Very Secret Diaries of Cassandra Claire http://www.livejournal.com/users/cassieclaire/ meets Star Wars. This one went well, can there be another? Perchance a Very Secret Star Logs site?;)
I can only hope that this piece of legislation is considerably less effective than the CANSPAM Act. Compliments of the CANSPAM Act, spam is worse. We don't need another cure like that. If the U.S. Congress is our only hope of rescue from spyware, just shoot us now rather than prolong the misery. After all, this crew is the same one that brought us the DMCA and we all know what a resounding success that has been!
Well, I'm pretty sure I've got that port blocked already, but . .. I stood up MySQL on a Linux box and on a Win2k box to show that, unlike MSSQL, MySQL ran on more than one platform. One database could be deployed to both platforms with the ability to keep the application running even if one goes down. Instead of having the app be entirely offline, you can bring the other over very quickly. Did this just after the first MSSQL worm to show that there are alternatives and that entire sites don't have to go down because of one bug. Now we're working on deploying some Linux clusters.
I'm in the Tampa area and will have it by the end of the month. I'll pay less for over 3 times the download speed than I'm currently getting with cable. 15 down and 2 up with my fiber connection. And I don't have to install any special software on my computer to use their service, like my cable provider insisted on.
Is it perfect? No, but it'll do until perfect comes along.
Hmmm, bright as all those wonderful people over at Apple are, how many of them have run such a succesful web site for so long. Especially having started at age 13? Instead of putting the hammer down on him, they should be harnessing him as an asset to help them with product development and checking the buzz on Apple and it's products. Unless, Steve and Co. have abandoned their beginnins completely and opted for the "Emperors New Clothes" style of product development. Only keep those who agree with you on your staff. If that's the case, then they should be raiding Bush's staff for people who know how to sit and nod.
If they think about it, he probably has a much better idea of where they're really headed and where their market is. As a consultant, he could be of more use to them, if they really care more about their market than their bonus' and stock options. If he can do this well for this long from outside the company, he has something that Apple can use. Unless they've become the people on the screen instead of the one smashing it.
But, for your $8 a month, you get the option to store it - for now, and watch it when you want. However, there are already moves afoot to change that so that you can only keep your copy of 6 Feet Under for 6 days or so before your rented PVR erases it. There is more money to be made in selling seasons of TV shows on DVD as boxed collections and even though most of the people using rented or "owning" PVRs have no real interest in burning it to DVD to keep them for later, the companies already percieve that miniscule market share as a threat and are moving to eliminate your ability to store those programs until you want to get rid of them.
My coworkers and I have been discussing this for several months now and we represent several of the available options. One is doing the renting thing for the exact reasons that you are. One has hacked his Tivo box to add drive space and abilities to it (like networking). He's also looking at building a Windows MCE box to expand his options over that of his Tivo box and leverage his knowledge of Windows. I've assembled the parts to build a Linux based Myth TV box. It's more expensive to a degree, but:
- No broadcast flag issues
- No removing of capabilities without my knowledge or consent
- Full control over the system software
- Full control over the system hardware
While there will be issues that will come up that I will not be able to control, many issues will remain within my control. I will be able to continue to exercise my rights as supported in the Betamax decision without my PVR reporting me to Microsoft, the RIAA or the MPAA everytime I burn something to DVD or VCD. My PVR will take it's orders from me on what to record and what not to record as well as how long to keep it. So, when your PVR won't let you skip commercials, just think of the money you're saving. When you go to watch your episode of Friends again and it's gone now, think of the money you're saving. When you try to record Harry Potter, for whatever reason you had, and your PVR won't record it, just think of the money you're saving.
As for me? Don't bother me, I'll be busy watching recordings of my favorite shows.
They don't want to CHARGE you to fix it, they want to CHARGE you to keep it from getting broken. It's like buying a house with no locks and the builder then wants to charge you to put a security service around your house to keep from being broken into. Oh, and it's your fault, you bought the house!
BUT FOR GOD'S SAKE, DON'T GO TO ANOTHER BUILDER!!!!!!!!!!
You might get the house that you want, affordable, comfortable and safe. C'est la vie -insert gallic shrug here-
A similar, though not the same, track was tried with OS/2. However, one of the main differences was that more energy was spent showing how to run Windows apps on OS/2 and less time was spent writing apps for OS/2 and then porting to Windows. My fear is that we'll pave over the rough spots in Windows with OSS apps and "enable" people to stay on Windows past where they would have left - - if they would leave.
As a paratrooper, the decision to leave a burning airplane was easy for me to make. Aircrews however, almost universally wanted to ride it to the ground. That's all they knew and they would rather take a chance on dying in the crash than try something different. I place many Windows users into that category, they'd rather ride it to the ground and die than do something different.
However, there are marked differences between the Linux and OS/2 conversion stategies.
- Linux has apps, lot's of them. OS/2 had few apps and apps are why people use a platform.
- There are apps that work well on Linux and are then ported to Windows, causing people to take notice that would not have otherwise. That is largely the opposite of what happened with OS/2 where the apps were mainly ported to OS/2 from Windows (though not exclusively, there were some good OS/2 apps that crossed over)
- When it came to OS/2, IBM didn't or wouldn't market it. They're marketing at the time wouldn't have sold a snow shovel to an eskimo, let alone OS/2 to new users.
- Linux not only has apps, it has useful ones. Open Office, Gimp, Mozilla, Firefox, multiple email clients with ease of use yet secure.
- Linux has lots of trivial, but fun apps. The kind that secretaries like to put on their desktop. The kinds that are fun to use even if not real usefull. And on Linux (at least for now) they don't necessarily mean spyware comes with it too.
As long as we continue to develop on Linux and then port to Windows, we're gaining more than we're losing. The assumption here is that we don't waste time working on issues related to porting KDE for Windows when there are still issues that need to be addressed on the Linux side. And not everything that we develop on Linux needs nor should be ported to Windows. If that's what you want, come on over. But porting some apps will bring over the converts. For what it's worth.
Slashdot Mirror
That's my take on it as well. You can kill the demand for any product by pricing it high enough.
Most of these providers are run by folks with the old time telephone company mind set: if it's more than tip and ring, charge for it. The less it's like tip and ring, the more you charge for it. To them, that much bandwidth must be for business use, so charge'em business rates.
In the 90s, GTE was thinking about offering the ability to check your account and pay your bill online. They had the ability but were stumped about how much to charge the customer to do so. They were thinking about charging the customer $8.95 a month for the privilege of checking and paying for their account online. They finally dropped the idea as their studies showed no interest in accessing accounts online for that price. It never occurred to them to offer it as a benefit of being a GTE customer.
Most of those folks are still running the industry in that manner: everything not basic should be offered as a premier option.
Okay, insert obligatory "One more reason not to use Windows" comment here, after all, this is Slashdork.
Yup, Linux and OSX can get infected as well, but it's harder to do so. Especially if you approach it from the point of view that it can happen to you. If you just have to use a Windoze tool, do it via a VM of some sort, pick your fave brand of VM to do so. Some tools (native VMware VI management tools) are only available for Windoze, so I use a VM to run those tools. Other than that, there are options, even for those poor admins that are CLI challenged, for managing stuff without using Windows.
If you just have to use Windoze because all us Linux g33ks are really l4m3rz and Windoze really is the sh1tz, then Obi Wan, use your mastery of that platform and show us that you're not just all hat and no cattle. Put in the extra time and effort to use your platform of choice without contributing to the delinquency of those less enlightened than you who think that your site is safe.
Just called their customer service folks and was told that after investigation they find the issues mentioned in the article "unsubstantiated". We'll see. I'll contact my card company and warn them, then see what happens.
Absolutely! It's all about the Benjamins for this article, as evidenced by the Mission Statement. My favorite part of the article is "promise new revenue generation dialogues with end users." This isn't about helping or empowering the end user, this article is about items that will help you, the Value Added Resaler, to make money. These products are their picks to help you do that. And, having played with Vista some already, it will surely help generate revenue opportunities for this articles target audience.
Our point of view, looking for a stable OS that is secure and empowers the end user is antithical to these people and this article. I'm looking to set up the OS and move on, not keep coming back. But, there are plenty of bad IT shops out there doing small business support and this will enable them to fasten themselves firmly to their customers, like a tick on a hound. For them, this is the best OS. For us, it's a shame. Then again, if you insist on running a MS OS, call them to help you with it. If you really want to set it up and just use it, we'll put a *nix distro on for you.
I hope it's a labor of love where they replace the crude effects with superior ones without letting themselves get carried away. Hopefully they won't go the Hollywood route and let the effects overwhelm and upstage the episodes. The real test will be if the episodes look better, but someone has to point out the changes.
I would be fascinated to see what the results of a visit from the BSA to all of these concerned businessmen would turn up. Somehow, in their greedy obsession with squeezing every last sou from anybody that they think could possibly owe them, I suspect that their licensing of Microsoft products is lacking. Hmmm, come to think of it, I'd be just as fascinated to see the results of a sweep through the RIAA and MPAA offices by the BSA.
I've been a broadband cable customer before and it wasn't really an issue with them and co-ax has much less bandwidth than single-mode fiber. I'll be interested to see if it's really an issue with Verizon any more than with Charter or Brighthouse. By staking out a chunk of the bandwidth, Verizon has clearly let others know not to try to engineer their bandwidth for them. So, don't look at their 1GB of bandwidth and figure that it's available for everyone to use as they see fit.
As well, it also depends on where this applies. As long as they meet their contractual obligations, it's a moot point. I'm a FIOS customer and I expect my bandwidth to remain unchanged. I'm on for the 15 mps service and I'll drop it if I don't see that bandwidth even if I am watching a movie. Fortunately, I live in an area where there's a choice so if they drop the ball I can go back to cable broadband.
One of my friends went with VOIP a couple of years ago. It went fine until Charter started offering a competing VOIP service. Shortly afterwards, after more than a year of near perfect service, his voice service started dropping out periodically. He'd be on a conference call and get dropped. He had Charter cable and 10 mps service, at home, during the day working from home and started having problems. He finally had to switch back to SWBell for a landline to continue working from home without interruption.
It's not a case of just the telcos so much as it appears to be the broadband providers that are looking to muscle the competition on their networks. Whatever the telcos get away with, look for the cable companies to follow in those footsteps. If they build 8 lanes to my house and I'm paying for 2 of them, I want my 2 lanes worth of traffic. What they do with the other 6 is up to them. Google pays for multiple 8 lane interstates to the 'Net and they should get that access. But if they want to offer video service, either we're going to move it on the 2 lanes to my house that I pay for, or they're going to have to buy some of those other 6 from whoever is providing them. As long as I get my 15 mbs, how I use it should be up to me.
I feel the same way. I look to see if a component supports Linux, then how well. I currently have no need for a component that does not support Linux, preferably support it well. Nvidia chipsets are my preferred choice and I also I don't even consider ATI products anymore.
Granted, many of the denizens here are active to rabid gamers and any review of the hottest cards is valid grist for the mill here.
As a Slashdotter, I'd be much more interested in seeing this comparison, especially with an emphasis on their video performance, running on Linux. With both open and closed drivers. My main concern is running these well on Linux as that is my workstation, server and PVR at home.
Of course! Oh what would we do without our benevolent M$ masters looking out for us?
Having raised a couple of them, I know that we only get to enjoy them for a few years, then they are their own people. Free to make the choices that they want. The last crew was post-Challenger. They had seen the dangers, weighed the risks and found them acceptable. You could not have pried them out of that orbiter. When they died, they were where they wanted to be, doing what they wanted to do, knowing that something like that might happen, but doing it anyway. After losing two orbiters now, I'm willing to bet that the current crew all celebrated their chance to do this. Once again, they have weighed the risks and decided to go ahead anyway. And if something happens to them, once again, they will have died doing what they wanted to do.
The people that do this aren't looking for a space Volvo. They're not looking for a safe, guaranteed flight. They're intelligent people, pushing the envelope, weighing their options and taking a calculated risk. My son is in an Air Force ROTC program right now, looking to be a pilot. One day something may happen to him while flying. And I'll know that he died being where he wanted to be, doing what he wanted to do. The question isn't if, but when we'll die. I'd rather die beta-testing a space system than from a drunk driver.
Hmmm, isn't this the time for Adobe to bring the power of the DMCA to bear on M$? Hit them for reverse engineering their product? Circumventing copy protections? Or just using the DMCA general purpose club "DMCA say you no can compete with me!!!!!" to beat on them with? For once, I want to see two of the big guys beating each other up with the DMCA club, not just see the giants pounding the little guys into submission with that club.
How about if I just send a pie?
1) See the article preceeding this one "YRO: Software Piracy will get worse"
2) When you treat your customers badly enough, they'll stop being your customers.
When this sh*t gets too onerous, something else will arrive and steal the customers away. Piss people off badly enough and they go back to VHS, or switch to copies on DAT. Or the MPAA and crew will just put themselves out of business. One way or another, people will find their way around it to the point where it becomes moot. When the average person (like my mom and dad, etc) gets fed up with it, the MPAA will either get lambasted in Congress or lose their customer base. I'm ready for them to finally go over the top and bring their empires down around their heads so we can move on.
Is it just me or do others see some issues with the people who provide the cure also providing the pictures documenting the severity of the infection? Symantec, for one, has already been slammed for sounding the alarms and hyping the dangers in order to elevate the demand for their product. Now I'm to trust their software that shows dramatic footage!! of these insidious worms assaulting the world as we know it.
Next you'll probably want me to go ask the Bush camp if we should invade Iran or the Democrats if we should repeal the two term law and re-elect Clinton again. On my way I'll stop by the car dealership and see if my current car is okay or if I should get a new one just to be safe.
It's like the The Very Secret Diaries of Cassandra Claire http://www.livejournal.com/users/cassieclaire/ meets Star Wars. This one went well, can there be another? Perchance a Very Secret Star Logs site? ;)
When they pry my music from my cold, dead, fingers.
I can only hope that this piece of legislation is considerably less effective than the CANSPAM Act. Compliments of the CANSPAM Act, spam is worse. We don't need another cure like that. If the U.S. Congress is our only hope of rescue from spyware, just shoot us now rather than prolong the misery. After all, this crew is the same one that brought us the DMCA and we all know what a resounding success that has been!
Or not. Your mileage may vary.
"The enemy of my enemy is my friend" seems like a good fit in this instance. Then again, your mileage may vary.
Well, I'm pretty sure I've got that port blocked already, but . . .
I stood up MySQL on a Linux box and on a Win2k box to show that, unlike MSSQL, MySQL ran on more than one platform. One database could be deployed to both platforms with the ability to keep the application running even if one goes down. Instead of having the app be entirely offline, you can bring the other over very quickly. Did this just after the first MSSQL worm to show that there are alternatives and that entire sites don't have to go down because of one bug. Now we're working on deploying some Linux clusters.
While it is understandable that one wants to be careful with the cashcow, you should at least immunize it.
I'm in the Tampa area and will have it by the end of the month. I'll pay less for over 3 times the download speed than I'm currently getting with cable. 15 down and 2 up with my fiber connection. And I don't have to install any special software on my computer to use their service, like my cable provider insisted on.
Is it perfect? No, but it'll do until perfect comes along.
Hmmm, bright as all those wonderful people over at Apple are, how many of them have run such a succesful web site for so long. Especially having started at age 13? Instead of putting the hammer down on him, they should be harnessing him as an asset to help them with product development and checking the buzz on Apple and it's products. Unless, Steve and Co. have abandoned their beginnins completely and opted for the "Emperors New Clothes" style of product development. Only keep those who agree with you on your staff. If that's the case, then they should be raiding Bush's staff for people who know how to sit and nod.
If they think about it, he probably has a much better idea of where they're really headed and where their market is. As a consultant, he could be of more use to them, if they really care more about their market than their bonus' and stock options. If he can do this well for this long from outside the company, he has something that Apple can use. Unless they've become the people on the screen instead of the one smashing it.
But, for your $8 a month, you get the option to store it - for now, and watch it when you want. However, there are already moves afoot to change that so that you can only keep your copy of 6 Feet Under for 6 days or so before your rented PVR erases it. There is more money to be made in selling seasons of TV shows on DVD as boxed collections and even though most of the people using rented or "owning" PVRs have no real interest in burning it to DVD to keep them for later, the companies already percieve that miniscule market share as a threat and are moving to eliminate your ability to store those programs until you want to get rid of them.
My coworkers and I have been discussing this for several months now and we represent several of the available options. One is doing the renting thing for the exact reasons that you are. One has hacked his Tivo box to add drive space and abilities to it (like networking). He's also looking at building a Windows MCE box to expand his options over that of his Tivo box and leverage his knowledge of Windows. I've assembled the parts to build a Linux based Myth TV box. It's more expensive to a degree, but:
- No broadcast flag issues
- No removing of capabilities without my knowledge or consent
- Full control over the system software
- Full control over the system hardware
While there will be issues that will come up that I will not be able to control, many issues will remain within my control. I will be able to continue to exercise my rights as supported in the Betamax decision without my PVR reporting me to Microsoft, the RIAA or the MPAA everytime I burn something to DVD or VCD. My PVR will take it's orders from me on what to record and what not to record as well as how long to keep it. So, when your PVR won't let you skip commercials, just think of the money you're saving. When you go to watch your episode of Friends again and it's gone now, think of the money you're saving. When you try to record Harry Potter, for whatever reason you had, and your PVR won't record it, just think of the money you're saving.
As for me? Don't bother me, I'll be busy watching recordings of my favorite shows.
They don't want to CHARGE you to fix it, they want to CHARGE you to keep it from getting broken. It's like buying a house with no locks and the builder then wants to charge you to put a security service around your house to keep from being broken into. Oh, and it's your fault, you bought the house!
BUT FOR GOD'S SAKE, DON'T GO TO ANOTHER BUILDER!!!!!!!!!!
You might get the house that you want, affordable, comfortable and safe. C'est la vie -insert gallic shrug here-
A similar, though not the same, track was tried with OS/2. However, one of the main differences was that more energy was spent showing how to run Windows apps on OS/2 and less time was spent writing apps for OS/2 and then porting to Windows. My fear is that we'll pave over the rough spots in Windows with OSS apps and "enable" people to stay on Windows past where they would have left - - if they would leave.
As a paratrooper, the decision to leave a burning airplane was easy for me to make. Aircrews however, almost universally wanted to ride it to the ground. That's all they knew and they would rather take a chance on dying in the crash than try something different. I place many Windows users into that category, they'd rather ride it to the ground and die than do something different.
However, there are marked differences between the Linux and OS/2 conversion stategies.
- Linux has apps, lot's of them. OS/2 had few apps and apps are why people use a platform.
- There are apps that work well on Linux and are then ported to Windows, causing people to take notice that would not have otherwise. That is largely the opposite of what happened with OS/2 where the apps were mainly ported to OS/2 from Windows (though not exclusively, there were some good OS/2 apps that crossed over)
- When it came to OS/2, IBM didn't or wouldn't market it. They're marketing at the time wouldn't have sold a snow shovel to an eskimo, let alone OS/2 to new users.
- Linux not only has apps, it has useful ones. Open Office, Gimp, Mozilla, Firefox, multiple email clients with ease of use yet secure.
- Linux has lots of trivial, but fun apps. The kind that secretaries like to put on their desktop. The kinds that are fun to use even if not real usefull. And on Linux (at least for now) they don't necessarily mean spyware comes with it too.
As long as we continue to develop on Linux and then port to Windows, we're gaining more than we're losing. The assumption here is that we don't waste time working on issues related to porting KDE for Windows when there are still issues that need to be addressed on the Linux side. And not everything that we develop on Linux needs nor should be ported to Windows. If that's what you want, come on over. But porting some apps will bring over the converts. For what it's worth.