I'm reading the comments on this story and it seems no one has actually explained what the "relaunch" is about. Basically all it is that they have hired a new editorial staff, changed the interface, and added some new stuff like ability to see what other people are downloading. The "new" eMusic is simply a marketing push for an existing service that's been going for quite a while.
That said, I've been a subscriber of theirs for a couple years now, and I've been very happy with it. I had an account back when it was still unlimited downloads, and while I was a little pissed when they changed over to the more limited model, I stuck with the service. I don't know their reasons for dropping the unlimited service, but I assume it was because bandwidth isn't free and they couldn't afford to continue like that.
I've seen comments complaining that eMusic's selection is crap. If you mean it has no major labels, then yes, it's crap. However, that's not what they're aiming for. From their site:
"eMusic is the only digital music service entirely focused on serving the needs of independent music fans and independent labels. "
With that in mind, they have an excellent selection and they frequently pick up new labels. I have yet to run out of things I want to download, and I'm on the highest plan (90 songs a month). For me it's boils down to the ability to get music in the mp3 format and to find new interesting music.
Anyway, just wanted to put in a slightly more informed 2 cents...
I have to take issue with the idea he puts forth about functionality vs. useability. (I'm interpreting his idea of useability as a GUI, he mentions GNOME and KDE). He says in the article that functionality is innovation - implying that usability is something tacked on for the masses, involving no innovation. Personally, I think that some of the most interesting innovations in the past 20 years have been in the area of the GUI.
There seems to be the idea in much of the open source community that if something uses a GUI, it's not as powerful and flexible as the command line. While the command line is a powerful tool, and will always be necessary for coding(and whoever wants to use it), I think many open source programmers need to start thinking outside the box. This is all not to say that open source can't come up with a good GUI, I think that many open source GUI projects have the potential to be much more flexible and usable than many commercial projects. A good example of this is XMLterm.
It seems to me that some of the reasons that older programmers might have problems getting jobs are ones that aren't exclusive to the software field. Younger employers are much more willing to work ridiculously long hours, while older people have already been through that sort of thing. Also, if you're older you may be thinking about retirement. Employers don't want to have to deal with paying for someone's retirement. Chances are, if you hire someone at 22, by the time they retire, the company won't even exist anymore.
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I'm reading the comments on this story and it seems no one has actually explained what the "relaunch" is about. Basically all it is that they have hired a new editorial staff, changed the interface, and added some new stuff like ability to see what other people are downloading. The "new" eMusic is simply a marketing push for an existing service that's been going for quite a while.
That said, I've been a subscriber of theirs for a couple years now, and I've been very happy with it. I had an account back when it was still unlimited downloads, and while I was a little pissed when they changed over to the more limited model, I stuck with the service. I don't know their reasons for dropping the unlimited service, but I assume it was because bandwidth isn't free and they couldn't afford to continue like that.
I've seen comments complaining that eMusic's selection is crap. If you mean it has no major labels, then yes, it's crap. However, that's not what they're aiming for. From their site:
"eMusic is the only digital music service entirely focused on serving the needs of independent music fans and independent labels. "
With that in mind, they have an excellent selection and they frequently pick up new labels. I have yet to run out of things I want to download, and I'm on the highest plan (90 songs a month). For me it's boils down to the ability to get music in the mp3 format and to find new interesting music.
Anyway, just wanted to put in a slightly more informed 2 cents...
There seems to be the idea in much of the open source community that if something uses a GUI, it's not as powerful and flexible as the command line. While the command line is a powerful tool, and will always be necessary for coding(and whoever wants to use it), I think many open source programmers need to start thinking outside the box. This is all not to say that open source can't come up with a good GUI, I think that many open source GUI projects have the potential to be much more flexible and usable than many commercial projects. A good example of this is XMLterm.
It seems to me that some of the reasons that older programmers might have problems getting jobs are ones that aren't exclusive to the software field. Younger employers are much more willing to work ridiculously long hours, while older people have already been through that sort of thing. Also, if you're older you may be thinking about retirement. Employers don't want to have to deal with paying for someone's retirement. Chances are, if you hire someone at 22, by the time they retire, the company won't even exist anymore.