I see all these posts ab having your own data, could you not run a web based client but still store date on your personal hard drive? I would think so.
I realize this is different than how web-based apps work as they store your data in a server database but this new kind of web-based operating system would probably be a new paradigm where you could have data stored remotely of course but probably also store data locally.
And of course the apps and OS are going to have to be smart enough to work offline. Microsoft already has some technically for things like live excel spreadsheets where it syncs itself up when you online - I think under this new paradigm your apps would behave in a similar way.
I can't agree more that the low bar for entry into the web development world allows for much fragmentation. There's a lot of crappy code out there by ppl who should not be coding. However a lot of more creative minds have been able to contribute in recent years, I think your ruby on rails type frameworks and whatnot have demonstrated that. I think we need to rally around more existing technology and rely less on trying to create the next new thing from scratch. And I think we're going that way.
This sounds like the common argument of the worker bees vs management, who needs who more?
I don't get CEO pay just bc it seems like the market would eventually normalize salaries but in the wacky world of wall street it doesn't seem to follow logic. I guess companies get all this capital raised and then pay a ransom to get some hot name to run the company and it perpetuates itself - I just can't imagine it will always be as redicilous as it is now. I wonder how much of the salary is actual cash and how much of it is stock options which is much easier to give away in that it's the currency of the company - just print shares and in the stock market world where share holders think they own something when they really only own.00000000001% of the company they don't have much say in that matter.
In college everyone is looking for the job that pays a lot where you don't have to do much and you get a lot of time off. Thus far I'm not sure such a job exists. I think an earlier comment was correct in that what ends up happening is young ppl bounced around traveling and picking up short term jobs that amuse them for a bit and eventually when they need MONEY they end up having to settle down and pick up a real job. And who's to blame them? I spent 2 years in China after college, didn't make any money and I think I've done alright for myself.
It would decrease our dependence on oil bc like others are saying many homes are still powered by oil. Also home energy prices are on the rise as well. That story is getting buried by the gas price hikes, but energy prices all over the country are going up.
Well I think in this world there's no such thing as a free lunch. If apple makes good software and good hardware, then I'll keep paying. When they stop doing so then I'll go elsewhere, no one's pointing a gun at me when I buy a mac or upgrade the software. There's nothing wrong with proprietary products if they offer something I want to consume I'll keep buying. Linux is free, the hardware isn't free though. Blackboxes come with OS's for not much more than the hardware, and all other software is optional. If you don't want MS Office, you can use OpenOffice. Software is the same as hardware. We could all be running programs on 486's if we want, many still work but we want better, faster, more reliable so we shell out more money. Same with software. I don't mind paying for it. I write software for a living so I guess it makes more sense to me. It's not a tangible thing you can hold and touch and it can be reproduced much easier than tangible products but effectively it's still the same in my mind--if you want to run Office 98 on Windows 98 on a Pentium II you can, but most don't, most people will pay for good products.
Ya and why does it matter? Why does it matter if it's proprietary? It's the wrong question. The question is can I use something that's affordable, easy to use that will make me more productive and perhaps let me have some fun too (I refer you to Mac vs. PC commercials).
I can get a macbook or a mini for the price of your average PC. OK maybe you want to whitebox a PC and save a few bucks and put Linux on it. That will do you fine, tho you'll still need a license for XP as you mentioned there's rarely a way to escape XP entirely.
I don't know why Linux ppl fight so feverishly? Habit? I don't know and I don't want to know so please spare me. I don't have anything against Linux and I would use a Linux distro with XP on a partition if there were no Mac, but since there is why bother? Better hardware, better software -- and I actually have fun with my computer. And so much less frustration.
Ya I think a big part of the market does care if it's better. Even the most "user friendly" distro I've played with is hard to set up and hard to configure. People just want something that works. Today you can get a macbook for $1100, take it home and get started. No mess. You don't have to compile anything, you don't have to look in forums for compatibility issues with your PC and that distro, it just works.
I think linux servers are great, but the year of the linux desktop isn't ever coming, it just isn't. It's also great for public computers bc as you said it's cheap and you can configure it to only allow the user access to certain things like a web browser. In a coffee shop or library all you really need is access to a web browser. It's great for stuff like that and cheap.
But as my personal computer I like me some Mac. It has UNIX and all the great UNIX command line programs I need for programming and then it has all of these wonderful intuitive apps, many of them free (quicksilver is my favorite), and supports office. I work in the real world where ya it's a big deal to send someone a word doc that opens funny in their word, or open up a doc on my machine in openoffice that looks weird bc it's not quite word. For others who don't have to mess with it that much it's not a big deal. And as we move towards more collaborative tools that are hosted online it becomes even less of a deal. But right now it is.
If I wasn't running Mac I would probably run Ubuntu and Windows on a lesser PC laptop and I'd be decently happy with it. I'd still have to work with Windows more than I want to but I could do most things on Linux (hopefully I could set up wireless which has been quite an endeavor in the past). But I live in a world where I can have my cake and eat it to and it's called Mac. So why look anywhere else?
I am definately late on the Mac OS X bandwagon but I couldn't be happier. I think both the hardware and OS have won me over. And Mac has MS Office support which in the biz world is a must have. That's the only app I really have to have (please don't tell me ab Open Office or I will throw up in my mouth). I think google docs might help on that end and reduce the dependency on office into the future. I'm a programmer and I just want my OS to work. I don't need to tinker with it or hack anything, I just want it to help me be productive. I want my wireless to work without reading a bunch of message boards and configuring a lot of things. I like more modern distros like Ubuntu and Suse but the pail in comparison to Mac OS X. I realize I'm opening myself up to hate mail here from avid Linux fans but I love me some Mac OS X and love me some macbook.
You make some valid points. It does evolve, but in a thousand different directions. I've played with a bunch of distros and they're not bad tho setting up wireless has been a challenge. Anyways it doesn't matter now bc my love is Mac. And it has office and the programs I really need. I hope that there are more cross platform apps in the future and certainly the web helps make that possible. I think linux and google and IBM help push the momentum towards more open platforms. I just think it's folly to think that Linux is one day going to "take over." It's just not going to happen.
We have the perfect Unix based desktop already and it's called Mac OS. It's not free but it's better than any of the crap Linux ppl put out. Linux found it's place as great server software and that's where it will remain.
The problem with Linux was also it's strength, the fact that ppl can make their own 'version' of linux distro. The problem is that the community is so fragmented that the uniting factor is going to be Microsoft going forward, not necessarily bc it's hands down the best but bc it's united.
Linux ppl give up on ppl throwing away their Windows OS for Linux. The only thing that can really help Linux is the growing independence from OS apps and the web is becoming more the one app that we all use. That makes it possible to use the same apps no matter what OS, but again we have our OS ppl it's Mac! Get one! -J
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I see all these posts ab having your own data, could you not run a web based client but still store date on your personal hard drive? I would think so. I realize this is different than how web-based apps work as they store your data in a server database but this new kind of web-based operating system would probably be a new paradigm where you could have data stored remotely of course but probably also store data locally. And of course the apps and OS are going to have to be smart enough to work offline. Microsoft already has some technically for things like live excel spreadsheets where it syncs itself up when you online - I think under this new paradigm your apps would behave in a similar way.
I can't agree more that the low bar for entry into the web development world allows for much fragmentation. There's a lot of crappy code out there by ppl who should not be coding. However a lot of more creative minds have been able to contribute in recent years, I think your ruby on rails type frameworks and whatnot have demonstrated that. I think we need to rally around more existing technology and rely less on trying to create the next new thing from scratch. And I think we're going that way.
This sounds like the common argument of the worker bees vs management, who needs who more? I don't get CEO pay just bc it seems like the market would eventually normalize salaries but in the wacky world of wall street it doesn't seem to follow logic. I guess companies get all this capital raised and then pay a ransom to get some hot name to run the company and it perpetuates itself - I just can't imagine it will always be as redicilous as it is now. I wonder how much of the salary is actual cash and how much of it is stock options which is much easier to give away in that it's the currency of the company - just print shares and in the stock market world where share holders think they own something when they really only own .00000000001% of the company they don't have much say in that matter.
In college everyone is looking for the job that pays a lot where you don't have to do much and you get a lot of time off. Thus far I'm not sure such a job exists. I think an earlier comment was correct in that what ends up happening is young ppl bounced around traveling and picking up short term jobs that amuse them for a bit and eventually when they need MONEY they end up having to settle down and pick up a real job. And who's to blame them? I spent 2 years in China after college, didn't make any money and I think I've done alright for myself.
It would decrease our dependence on oil bc like others are saying many homes are still powered by oil. Also home energy prices are on the rise as well. That story is getting buried by the gas price hikes, but energy prices all over the country are going up.
I am a Drupal homer too. Drupal has a nice book btw. I think Drupal has similar issues of not have a cohesive set of docs. Pro Drupal Development: http://www.amazon.com/Pro-Drupal-Development-John-VanDyk/dp/1590597559/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1213215314&sr=8-2 is a nice book to fill in the gaps. I used drupal for a few years before I got my hands on that book. I still don't get Joomla or Mambo.
Well I think in this world there's no such thing as a free lunch. If apple makes good software and good hardware, then I'll keep paying. When they stop doing so then I'll go elsewhere, no one's pointing a gun at me when I buy a mac or upgrade the software. There's nothing wrong with proprietary products if they offer something I want to consume I'll keep buying. Linux is free, the hardware isn't free though. Blackboxes come with OS's for not much more than the hardware, and all other software is optional. If you don't want MS Office, you can use OpenOffice. Software is the same as hardware. We could all be running programs on 486's if we want, many still work but we want better, faster, more reliable so we shell out more money. Same with software. I don't mind paying for it. I write software for a living so I guess it makes more sense to me. It's not a tangible thing you can hold and touch and it can be reproduced much easier than tangible products but effectively it's still the same in my mind--if you want to run Office 98 on Windows 98 on a Pentium II you can, but most don't, most people will pay for good products.
Ya and why does it matter? Why does it matter if it's proprietary? It's the wrong question. The question is can I use something that's affordable, easy to use that will make me more productive and perhaps let me have some fun too (I refer you to Mac vs. PC commercials). I can get a macbook or a mini for the price of your average PC. OK maybe you want to whitebox a PC and save a few bucks and put Linux on it. That will do you fine, tho you'll still need a license for XP as you mentioned there's rarely a way to escape XP entirely. I don't know why Linux ppl fight so feverishly? Habit? I don't know and I don't want to know so please spare me. I don't have anything against Linux and I would use a Linux distro with XP on a partition if there were no Mac, but since there is why bother? Better hardware, better software -- and I actually have fun with my computer. And so much less frustration.
Ya I think a big part of the market does care if it's better. Even the most "user friendly" distro I've played with is hard to set up and hard to configure. People just want something that works. Today you can get a macbook for $1100, take it home and get started. No mess. You don't have to compile anything, you don't have to look in forums for compatibility issues with your PC and that distro, it just works. I think linux servers are great, but the year of the linux desktop isn't ever coming, it just isn't. It's also great for public computers bc as you said it's cheap and you can configure it to only allow the user access to certain things like a web browser. In a coffee shop or library all you really need is access to a web browser. It's great for stuff like that and cheap. But as my personal computer I like me some Mac. It has UNIX and all the great UNIX command line programs I need for programming and then it has all of these wonderful intuitive apps, many of them free (quicksilver is my favorite), and supports office. I work in the real world where ya it's a big deal to send someone a word doc that opens funny in their word, or open up a doc on my machine in openoffice that looks weird bc it's not quite word. For others who don't have to mess with it that much it's not a big deal. And as we move towards more collaborative tools that are hosted online it becomes even less of a deal. But right now it is. If I wasn't running Mac I would probably run Ubuntu and Windows on a lesser PC laptop and I'd be decently happy with it. I'd still have to work with Windows more than I want to but I could do most things on Linux (hopefully I could set up wireless which has been quite an endeavor in the past). But I live in a world where I can have my cake and eat it to and it's called Mac. So why look anywhere else?
I am definately late on the Mac OS X bandwagon but I couldn't be happier. I think both the hardware and OS have won me over. And Mac has MS Office support which in the biz world is a must have. That's the only app I really have to have (please don't tell me ab Open Office or I will throw up in my mouth). I think google docs might help on that end and reduce the dependency on office into the future. I'm a programmer and I just want my OS to work. I don't need to tinker with it or hack anything, I just want it to help me be productive. I want my wireless to work without reading a bunch of message boards and configuring a lot of things. I like more modern distros like Ubuntu and Suse but the pail in comparison to Mac OS X. I realize I'm opening myself up to hate mail here from avid Linux fans but I love me some Mac OS X and love me some macbook.
You make some valid points. It does evolve, but in a thousand different directions. I've played with a bunch of distros and they're not bad tho setting up wireless has been a challenge. Anyways it doesn't matter now bc my love is Mac. And it has office and the programs I really need. I hope that there are more cross platform apps in the future and certainly the web helps make that possible. I think linux and google and IBM help push the momentum towards more open platforms. I just think it's folly to think that Linux is one day going to "take over." It's just not going to happen.
We have the perfect Unix based desktop already and it's called Mac OS. It's not free but it's better than any of the crap Linux ppl put out. Linux found it's place as great server software and that's where it will remain. The problem with Linux was also it's strength, the fact that ppl can make their own 'version' of linux distro. The problem is that the community is so fragmented that the uniting factor is going to be Microsoft going forward, not necessarily bc it's hands down the best but bc it's united. Linux ppl give up on ppl throwing away their Windows OS for Linux. The only thing that can really help Linux is the growing independence from OS apps and the web is becoming more the one app that we all use. That makes it possible to use the same apps no matter what OS, but again we have our OS ppl it's Mac! Get one! -J