"got killed"? Apple didn't buy them, and Microsoft encouraged VARs to not sell it pre-installed, but the simple fact is that it wasn't really valuable enough for most people to want to buy it. Windows 95, Windows 2000, linux and MacOS 9 were "good enough" for most folks across most market segments.
I think someone is doing a little revisionist history here. Microsoft didn't just "encouraged VARs to not sell it pre-installed" they illegally leveraged their monopoly to prevent anyone from wanting it, even for free!
Consider some of the hoopla that's gone around lately about SpashTop, the ASUS Bios based Linux distro that boots in seconds... Now tell em that some of these benefits couldn't have been reached by having the BeOS installed in a dual boot, as was planned and agreed upon before Microsoft squashed the whole deal by threatening to pull the licenses of any company who tried?
Did Gassée drive the final nails in the coffin when he demanded 400 million from Apple? Yes, certainly. Was the whole focus shift a really stupid mistake? Obviously, but then again hindsight is always 20/20. At the time we're talking about the Internet Appliance looked to be the next big thing. Did Microsoft's blackballing Be make it impossible to stay in business? I think anyone who looks into the history of things would be hard pressed to say anything different.
With that logic...everybody that peruses porn will become rapists.
You my friend have just discovered the endgame for these sex repressed fools. This isn't really an attack on perverts so much as it is an attempt to expand perversion until everyone fits the diagnosis.
So whats the next step? Any man that is over a certain weight and uses the net more than X amount of hours is now profiled to be something that they are not?
Yup! And that's why X must be regulated--for your own good of course....
...Darl McBride CEO of SCO Group has been heard repeatedly sending messages to Steve Chang, CEO of Trend Micro, offering to sell the rights to Linux for use in this litigation. Quote McBride, "It's a real steal..."
I wrote this for a different forum I frequent when the discussion turned on this issue, I think it says exactly what I feel when it comes to WGA as clearly as possible, so I repeat it here:
I agree about the guilty until proven innocent mentality, but I am a bit confused about the having "to jump through countless hoops" to get the updates...
I mean things like having to download and run a new WGA verifier every month or so, and then when installing something like IE7 or the latest WMP, having to rerun validation all over again.
I mean how many times do we have to confirm these days?
1) WPA: After installing for the first time you must do Windows Product Activation....okay.... No problem now that I've got an internet connection right? WRONG!
a)Start WPA, connect to internet, wait as the #### thing fails due to activating too many times...
b)Call up Microsoft, speak liiiikkkkeeee thhhhiiiiissss for the machine, so it can understand me and submit the information I'd already sent via internet AGAIN.
c)Wait for available customer service representative, give her the same information I'd just submitted twice now, yet a third time...
d)Confirm to skeptical CSR that YES I bought my own copy of XP, NO I haven't been installing it on every PC in the neighborhood, YES I am installing it on the same machine, NO I would not like a slurpy, YES I agree the portrayal of "Apu" on the Simpsons(TM) is an insult to Indians everywhere...wait wut?? Could I please just have my damn Windows activation code already???
e)read off the NEW activation code I'm given by the CSR, making this the fourth time I've played the read the numbers game...
2)Windows is activated! Huzzah! Now for the updates...
a)What's this...WGA needs to be installed? Didn't I just go through this for WPA?? Whatever...
b)It needs to restart, okay, do the restart and go to the Windows Update site again, now I have something close to 100mbs of updates to install, grab them all... This looks like it'll take awhile, I'll goi have a cup of coffee while I wait...
c)What's this?? IE7* needs to check the WGA again???
d)Restart the system after it finishes auto installing IE7 hidden updates...
3) Oh wait, I need to update the Windows Media Player to the latest version in order to see video on certain sites, alright I can do that...Wait what's this? MORE WGA???
Altogether I've had to reconfirm myself not to be a pirate a grand total of--go ahead and count them--seven times!!! And I'll have to reconfirm to Microsoft I'm not a pirate the next time I need to do updates, all over again because Microsoft wants to check me out again with the latest WGA version...
--bornagainpenguin (who wishes the software industry would take a page from the video game industry and stop punishing their customers to get at the few pirates who will always exist..)
The rootkit fiasco may be well-known and unpopular amongst Slashdot readers, but I'm really not convinced that it's had that significant an impact amongst the public in general.
I bet that the majority haven't heard of it, or at least have forgotten most of the details (including Sony's involvement), and that most of the others don't consider it that big a deal, even though they should.
That's okay, so long as the rest of us are willing to constantly remind people never to buy SONY because they'll 'break' your computer.;)
Slashdot Mirror
I think someone is doing a little revisionist history here. Microsoft didn't just "encouraged VARs to not sell it pre-installed" they illegally leveraged their monopoly to prevent anyone from wanting it, even for free!
Consider some of the hoopla that's gone around lately about SpashTop, the ASUS Bios based Linux distro that boots in seconds... Now tell em that some of these benefits couldn't have been reached by having the BeOS installed in a dual boot, as was planned and agreed upon before Microsoft squashed the whole deal by threatening to pull the licenses of any company who tried?
Did Gassée drive the final nails in the coffin when he demanded 400 million from Apple? Yes, certainly. Was the whole focus shift a really stupid mistake? Obviously, but then again hindsight is always 20/20. At the time we're talking about the Internet Appliance looked to be the next big thing. Did Microsoft's blackballing Be make it impossible to stay in business? I think anyone who looks into the history of things would be hard pressed to say anything different.
--bornagainpenguin
Access *is* now the owner of the BeOS code (not Palm) and have made it clear they have no intention of giving it away.
--bornagainpenguin
You my friend have just discovered the endgame for these sex repressed fools. This isn't really an attack on perverts so much as it is an attempt to expand perversion until everyone fits the diagnosis.
Yup! And that's why X must be regulated--for your own good of course....
--bornagainpenguin
...Darl McBride CEO of SCO Group has been heard repeatedly sending messages to Steve Chang, CEO of Trend Micro, offering to sell the rights to Linux for use in this litigation. Quote McBride, "It's a real steal..."
--bornagainpenguin
I mean things like having to download and run a new WGA verifier every month or so, and then when installing something like IE7 or the latest WMP, having to rerun validation all over again.
I mean how many times do we have to confirm these days?
1) WPA: After installing for the first time you must do Windows Product Activation. ...okay.... No problem now that I've got an internet connection right? WRONG!
b)Call up Microsoft, speak liiiikkkkeeee thhhhiiiiissss for the machine, so it can understand me and submit the information I'd already sent via internet AGAIN.
c)Wait for available customer service representative, give her the same information I'd just submitted twice now, yet a third time...
d)Confirm to skeptical CSR that YES I bought my own copy of XP, NO I haven't been installing it on every PC in the neighborhood, YES I am installing it on the same machine, NO I would not like a slurpy, YES I agree the portrayal of "Apu" on the Simpsons(TM) is an insult to Indians everywhere...wait wut?? Could I please just have my damn Windows activation code already???
e)read off the NEW activation code I'm given by the CSR, making this the fourth time I've played the read the numbers game...
2)Windows is activated! Huzzah! Now for the updates...
b)It needs to restart, okay, do the restart and go to the Windows Update site again, now I have something close to 100mbs of updates to install, grab them all... This looks like it'll take awhile, I'll goi have a cup of coffee while I wait...
c)What's this?? IE7* needs to check the WGA again???
d)Restart the system after it finishes auto installing IE7 hidden updates...
3) Oh wait, I need to update the Windows Media Player to the latest version in order to see video on certain sites, alright I can do that...Wait what's this? MORE WGA???
Altogether I've had to reconfirm myself not to be a pirate a grand total of--go ahead and count them--seven times!!! And I'll have to reconfirm to Microsoft I'm not a pirate the next time I need to do updates, all over again because Microsoft wants to check me out again with the latest WGA version...
--bornagainpenguin (who wishes the software industry would take a page from the video game industry and stop punishing their customers to get at the few pirates who will always exist..)
*places a hand over evilviper's mouth*
Yes He is! (You ALWAYS say 'yes' to that question!)
--bornagainpenguin
That's okay, so long as the rest of us are willing to constantly remind people never to buy SONY because they'll 'break' your computer. ;)
--bornagainpenguin
I had to re-read the headline a couple of time because the first few times I thought I read "Russia to search for Intelligent Life on *Europe*" LOL..
--bornagainpenguin