I often think that Microsoft Research is a way for MS to keep the top researchers away from the competition. Microsoft themselves doesn't have anything to do with them, so they simply let them to their research while ignoring their results.
They spend a lot on R&D, and they actually innovate quite a bit. I think Apple is more trendy right now and that is the reason they're making so much money with little investment. They're investing more into advertising, branding, and image than they are into technology. It seems that Microsoft is making a little more effort to do this these days, but it will be difficult for them to totally turn things around in this respect.
In terms of technology and innovation though, Apple takes what it can from open source, and contributes back exactly as much as they're legally obligated to. They didn't design the operating system, and a lot of their original system APIs come from the NeXTStep heritage (and thus are implemented in Objective-C, which is not hugely popular but was probably the fastest way for them to take NeXT's stuff and start selling it).
This isn't really accurate. You do realize that the list of original inventions by Apple is huge. Those of us who have been using Apple stuff since the early 80s really appreciate this in a way that someone who started paying attention to Apple recently can't. In fact in the 90s, Apple was teeming with great "Apple first" technology, but nobody knew about it or used it because they couldn't market it effectively. Newton anyone?
In fact, the long running joke is that Apple *is* MS R&D dept.
Apple does use and contribute to OSS, but thats honestly the whole point of OSS. You can't knock them for that. As far as them not inventing the technology in OSX, thats not correct either. Its not like OSX was available in the OSS community and they just put it in a box. They have spent years developing the technology that sets OSX apart from other UNIX based systems. Quicktime, Core Audio, Quartz, the whole OSX GUI, the search technology that is now Spotlight, etc.. And even the tech they got from NeXT technically is "Apple" because Apple bought NeXT and all of their employees and IP. So the Mach kernel, Cocoa, WebObjects, etc.. are all now "Apple". OSX is a mixture of original "Apple" and "NeXT", but its all Apple now, and there is nothing else quite like it on the market...
Just because Apple is "trendy" now doesn't mean they aren't and haven't been innovative. These things aren't mutually exclusive. And in fact, you'd want the most innovative companies to be the most popular. Its a shame it doesn't happen that way more often.
You have to know thats not typical. According to http://www.amtrakdelays.com the average delay on the 8am Acela from NY to Boston over the past month has only been 6 minutes. Most trains taking just over 3.5 hours. I never once was delayed more than 10 minutes taking the Acela from DC to NY and back in the 2 years I lived there... it can happen, but its not typical. Outside the NEC, its a different story though..
Actually commuter rail does work. And it works really well, in areas that are dense enough to support it. Ever been to NYC? Most people take the train to work every day. The tri-state area supports 3 commuter railroads (LIRR, NJ transit, and Metro North) in addition to a subway system and Amtak. Boston supports a subway and a commuter railroad, as does Phila, Baltimore and DC. The issue is what to do with the rest of the country that isn't so densly populated. But "the majority" of the population does live in or near urban areas that are or could be served by commuter rail ie the Northeast, Chicago, and California.
Actually, thats only half true. Many trucks are used for long distance trucking, which doesn't make sense as far as efficiency is concerned when compared to railroads.
And yet people still take it... and the Metro subway lines, because its better than sitting on the Beltway or 66 for 5 hours in the morning on the way to work.
GM made locomotives since the 1950s. Any locomotive that is an "EMD" stands for General Motors "Electro Motive Division". The famous streamlined "F" series and "E" series locomotives were made by GM, and so is the commonly used SD70 series. Only recently did GM sell their locomotive business (I think in 2005). BTW, most locomotives that are "deisel" are really "electic" with a diesel engine providing power generation. The electic motor provides the torque that drives the wheels, a gas powered engine would have a hard time starting a freight train.
v8 hemis are fun, but they aren't neccesary, even for a car that size. I had a fleet Chrysler 300 with the base 2.7L v6 (the 300 is very similar to the charger) and I got near 27mpg. It wasn't too fun to drive, but it adequately powered the car. It just goes to show you, you don't *need* a large engine to power a larger car.
WRT MDS, my dad has an accord hybrid. It tells you when it turns off 3 cylinders and also when it uses the electic motor. It basically runs on 3 whenever the computer thinks you aren't going to need to accelerate. So basically, if you put it on cruise control, it will run on 3 - or if you are very careful to not be too "jumpy". I am not sure how the chrysler system works, but I'd expect its similar.
- Accelerate to your target speed quickly. Spending time slowly accelerating up to it wastes fuel.
Unless of course you have a Prius, in which if you punch the accelerator it switches to the gas engine much quicker. If you accelerate at a slower, constant rate, you can milk the electric engine until about 30mph.
Really, we must be talking of different seed programs then, because they definately had a message board when I did it. The ADC program doesn't, but the customer seeding program does. http://appleseed.apple.com check it out...
Of course, the biggest limitation to their serious server implementation is that there is not apple provided forum for users to be able to discuss their issues with beta release software. Let alone a publicly searchable bug tracker (right now we search by submitting bugs and waiting to see how long until the ticket is closed as either "by design" "we will get on it" or "duplicate"). So why should I bother to actually install a beta build of apples stuff to test, I can't really give any feedback, and there isn't any documentation out there floating around on how AD binding works in 10.5 vs 10.4. Which is a great example, apple's implementation of 10.5's ad plugin did not take into account that there could be multiple servers available, and that the first record returned for the ldap service may not be the same server as what was returned for the KDC. Why? probably because they only tested this with a single windows server in their test lab. So their engineers never even thought this was a problem. Of course, if we could test such things in beta, and they could see a group of folks bitching on the forums (all under NDA) about it, then they could probably even post a hot patch to the people with the issues and get faster feedback as a communication between the engineers and the people who are actually USING their code.
You *can* apply for the OSX Server customer seed program and get beta releases of the OS. IIRC they provide a discussion forum (under NDA) for beta testers. You can also provide feedback through your company's Apple reps/System Engineers.
Don't kid yourself, schools have considerable IT infrastructure that would make most run of the mill businesses server rooms look like a joke. Don't forget that many Universities have more computers to manage and IT services to provide than many large corporations. A decent amount of them have large populations of Mac OS X machines, including servers...
And while I don't mind having to take my iMac in to get it fixed (even though I can do it myself), a commercial web server is another story.
You don't have to take your web server down to the genius bar to get it fixed if it breaks. Apple offers service contracts that include on site parts replacement...
Mac OS X Server provides services akin to the services provided to windows via Active Directory and various supporting tools such as directory based client management for Mac OS X (standalone or in conjunction with a 3rd party directory server), Software update services (like WSUS), and Remote/Network Install services for imaging/deoploying new workstations. These features can't be had by using a Linux distro or Windows server and they dramatically simply the management of Mac OS X clients on any network.
There is also podcast producer, which is an end to end solution for creating, compressing, and distributing audio and video podcasts. At first glance this might seem simple, but if you are a TV studio or run a website that produces a lot of content, having and optimized end to end solution for this makes your life much easier.
As for the other services such as DNS, Web Server, File Services, etc.. the main value proposition is the Apple GUI. For some customers this might not be a selling point, and those people rightfully look elsewhere. However, don't underestimate the value of easy setup wizards and GUIs for "typical" services. Windows SBS didn't become the sucess it is without exploiting this angle. Mac OS X server makes a pretty darn easy to setup and robust SBS type machine...
Apple stopped making their hardware FC RAID box which to be quite honest was woefully out of date at the time. They chose to certify 3rd party storage with their SAN filesystem instead of building another box. The Promise solution performs way better than the Xserve RAID ever did, has more features, and is in the same price range per GB that the Apple offering was in. Overall, I think it was a good move. And who knows, they may certify other storage vendors in time, which is something customers have been asking about for a very long time.
As far as OSX Server requiring a skillset beyond that of the "apple faithful", I'm not sure what you were expecting. Its still a server. Just because it has a shiny Apple GUI, doesn't mean you can just blindly check a bunch of boxes and hope your network works. There is no subtitute for training, documentation, and understanding of how the services work and how to manage a network. Fortunately, Apple offers some very good training classes, and there are some good resources out there for learning the stuff (mailing lists, forums, books, docs, etc..)
The above is probably a disappointment to the ASIP crowd, but in general, the capabilities of OSXS are far greater than those of ASIP, and no matter how easy Apple tries to make it, it is a considerably more complex product and that comes with a more substantial learning curve.
It also offers services for Managing Mac OS X clients above and beyond what is available if you used a Linux server, such as Managed Client (GPO like management), software update service, network imaging and install services, etc... So perhaps if you are just going for a Samba server or a Web server, it really doesn't make your life easier. But if you are managing a network of OSX machines, it gives you a much greater level of control than any other solution.
I am curious about the performance of Samba/Netatalk on CentOS with a Storenext backend? Is it really better than Samba/AFP on OSX server? I always thought it was Stornext itself that just didn't work well with small files, not the OS providing NAS services that was the issue. Do you have any numbers?
This kind of stuff will sink them. They can't even use the info you *do* volunteer correctly to target ads, and they are trying to sneak around and get data that you *don't* volunteer... hmmm
"maybe even a MBA if you're not the world's brightest"
OK so I get the general dislike of PHBs around here, but not all MBAs "aren't the world's brightest". There are some real geniuses working on Wall Street, in VCs, Consulting, and yes, even marketing. Many of these people were engineers at one point on their career, but decided to leverage their skills in business. This doesn't make them stupid, or bad people... It is very difficult to get into a top 10 MBA program.
In the "real world" they don't enforce this policy. If you show up to an Apple store with a MBP that doesn't work, they don't refuse service because you used 3rd party RAM. They just won't replace the 3rd party RAM for you under warranty if it turns out to be the faulty component. The first thing they do is yank the ram and try an "Apple" set, then they try to boot it from an external HDD to see if its the HDD.
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I often think that Microsoft Research is a way for MS to keep the top researchers away from the competition. Microsoft themselves doesn't have anything to do with them, so they simply let them to their research while ignoring their results.
This sure seems like the case...
They spend a lot on R&D, and they actually innovate quite a bit. I think Apple is more trendy right now and that is the reason they're making so much money with little investment. They're investing more into advertising, branding, and image than they are into technology. It seems that Microsoft is making a little more effort to do this these days, but it will be difficult for them to totally turn things around in this respect.
In terms of technology and innovation though, Apple takes what it can from open source, and contributes back exactly as much as they're legally obligated to. They didn't design the operating system, and a lot of their original system APIs come from the NeXTStep heritage (and thus are implemented in Objective-C, which is not hugely popular but was probably the fastest way for them to take NeXT's stuff and start selling it).
This isn't really accurate. You do realize that the list of original inventions by Apple is huge. Those of us who have been using Apple stuff since the early 80s really appreciate this in a way that someone who started paying attention to Apple recently can't. In fact in the 90s, Apple was teeming with great "Apple first" technology, but nobody knew about it or used it because they couldn't market it effectively. Newton anyone?
In fact, the long running joke is that Apple *is* MS R&D dept.
Apple does use and contribute to OSS, but thats honestly the whole point of OSS. You can't knock them for that. As far as them not inventing the technology in OSX, thats not correct either. Its not like OSX was available in the OSS community and they just put it in a box. They have spent years developing the technology that sets OSX apart from other UNIX based systems. Quicktime, Core Audio, Quartz, the whole OSX GUI, the search technology that is now Spotlight, etc.. And even the tech they got from NeXT technically is "Apple" because Apple bought NeXT and all of their employees and IP. So the Mach kernel, Cocoa, WebObjects, etc.. are all now "Apple". OSX is a mixture of original "Apple" and "NeXT", but its all Apple now, and there is nothing else quite like it on the market...
Just because Apple is "trendy" now doesn't mean they aren't and haven't been innovative. These things aren't mutually exclusive. And in fact, you'd want the most innovative companies to be the most popular. Its a shame it doesn't happen that way more often.
Yeah, but the question is, are they making money on the Xbox? It doesn't matter how many units you sell if you don't make a profit on it.
You have to know thats not typical. According to http://www.amtrakdelays.com the average delay on the 8am Acela from NY to Boston over the past month has only been 6 minutes. Most trains taking just over 3.5 hours. I never once was delayed more than 10 minutes taking the Acela from DC to NY and back in the 2 years I lived there... it can happen, but its not typical. Outside the NEC, its a different story though..
Actually commuter rail does work. And it works really well, in areas that are dense enough to support it. Ever been to NYC? Most people take the train to work every day. The tri-state area supports 3 commuter railroads (LIRR, NJ transit, and Metro North) in addition to a subway system and Amtak. Boston supports a subway and a commuter railroad, as does Phila, Baltimore and DC. The issue is what to do with the rest of the country that isn't so densly populated. But "the majority" of the population does live in or near urban areas that are or could be served by commuter rail ie the Northeast, Chicago, and California.
Actually, thats only half true. Many trucks are used for long distance trucking, which doesn't make sense as far as efficiency is concerned when compared to railroads.
And yet people still take it... and the Metro subway lines, because its better than sitting on the Beltway or 66 for 5 hours in the morning on the way to work.
GM made locomotives since the 1950s. Any locomotive that is an "EMD" stands for General Motors "Electro Motive Division". The famous streamlined "F" series and "E" series locomotives were made by GM, and so is the commonly used SD70 series. Only recently did GM sell their locomotive business (I think in 2005). BTW, most locomotives that are "deisel" are really "electic" with a diesel engine providing power generation. The electic motor provides the torque that drives the wheels, a gas powered engine would have a hard time starting a freight train.
v8 hemis are fun, but they aren't neccesary, even for a car that size. I had a fleet Chrysler 300 with the base 2.7L v6 (the 300 is very similar to the charger) and I got near 27mpg. It wasn't too fun to drive, but it adequately powered the car. It just goes to show you, you don't *need* a large engine to power a larger car.
WRT MDS, my dad has an accord hybrid. It tells you when it turns off 3 cylinders and also when it uses the electic motor. It basically runs on 3 whenever the computer thinks you aren't going to need to accelerate. So basically, if you put it on cruise control, it will run on 3 - or if you are very careful to not be too "jumpy". I am not sure how the chrysler system works, but I'd expect its similar.
Most hybrids recognize when you are coasting and grab some of that too... or at least my Prius does. And IIRC the hondas do too...
- Accelerate to your target speed quickly. Spending time slowly accelerating up to it wastes fuel.
Unless of course you have a Prius, in which if you punch the accelerator it switches to the gas engine much quicker. If you accelerate at a slower, constant rate, you can milk the electric engine until about 30mph.
Yeah it looks like I can get around it by@*&^^^ Thread 0 Crashed: ...com.macromedia.Flash Player.plugin...
Really, we must be talking of different seed programs then, because they definately had a message board when I did it. The ADC program doesn't, but the customer seeding program does. http://appleseed.apple.com check it out...
Did you call enterprise support? Or did you call 1-800-HALPMYIPODRBROKE? I doubt the tier one consumer support reps would know anything about this..
Of course, the biggest limitation to their serious server implementation is that there is not apple provided forum for users to be able to discuss their issues with beta release software. Let alone a publicly searchable bug tracker (right now we search by submitting bugs and waiting to see how long until the ticket is closed as either "by design" "we will get on it" or "duplicate"). So why should I bother to actually install a beta build of apples stuff to test, I can't really give any feedback, and there isn't any documentation out there floating around on how AD binding works in 10.5 vs 10.4. Which is a great example, apple's implementation of 10.5's ad plugin did not take into account that there could be multiple servers available, and that the first record returned for the ldap service may not be the same server as what was returned for the KDC. Why? probably because they only tested this with a single windows server in their test lab. So their engineers never even thought this was a problem. Of course, if we could test such things in beta, and they could see a group of folks bitching on the forums (all under NDA) about it, then they could probably even post a hot patch to the people with the issues and get faster feedback as a communication between the engineers and the people who are actually USING their code.
You *can* apply for the OSX Server customer seed program and get beta releases of the OS. IIRC they provide a discussion forum (under NDA) for beta testers. You can also provide feedback through your company's Apple reps/System Engineers.
Don't kid yourself, schools have considerable IT infrastructure that would make most run of the mill businesses server rooms look like a joke. Don't forget that many Universities have more computers to manage and IT services to provide than many large corporations. A decent amount of them have large populations of Mac OS X machines, including servers...
And while I don't mind having to take my iMac in to get it fixed (even though I can do it myself), a commercial web server is another story.
You don't have to take your web server down to the genius bar to get it fixed if it breaks. Apple offers service contracts that include on site parts replacement...
Mac OS X Server provides services akin to the services provided to windows via Active Directory and various supporting tools such as directory based client management for Mac OS X (standalone or in conjunction with a 3rd party directory server), Software update services (like WSUS), and Remote/Network Install services for imaging/deoploying new workstations. These features can't be had by using a Linux distro or Windows server and they dramatically simply the management of Mac OS X clients on any network.
There is also podcast producer, which is an end to end solution for creating, compressing, and distributing audio and video podcasts. At first glance this might seem simple, but if you are a TV studio or run a website that produces a lot of content, having and optimized end to end solution for this makes your life much easier.
As for the other services such as DNS, Web Server, File Services, etc.. the main value proposition is the Apple GUI. For some customers this might not be a selling point, and those people rightfully look elsewhere. However, don't underestimate the value of easy setup wizards and GUIs for "typical" services. Windows SBS didn't become the sucess it is without exploiting this angle. Mac OS X server makes a pretty darn easy to setup and robust SBS type machine...
Apple stopped making their hardware FC RAID box which to be quite honest was woefully out of date at the time. They chose to certify 3rd party storage with their SAN filesystem instead of building another box. The Promise solution performs way better than the Xserve RAID ever did, has more features, and is in the same price range per GB that the Apple offering was in. Overall, I think it was a good move. And who knows, they may certify other storage vendors in time, which is something customers have been asking about for a very long time.
As far as OSX Server requiring a skillset beyond that of the "apple faithful", I'm not sure what you were expecting. Its still a server. Just because it has a shiny Apple GUI, doesn't mean you can just blindly check a bunch of boxes and hope your network works. There is no subtitute for training, documentation, and understanding of how the services work and how to manage a network. Fortunately, Apple offers some very good training classes, and there are some good resources out there for learning the stuff (mailing lists, forums, books, docs, etc..)
The above is probably a disappointment to the ASIP crowd, but in general, the capabilities of OSXS are far greater than those of ASIP, and no matter how easy Apple tries to make it, it is a considerably more complex product and that comes with a more substantial learning curve.
It also offers services for Managing Mac OS X clients above and beyond what is available if you used a Linux server, such as Managed Client (GPO like management), software update service, network imaging and install services, etc... So perhaps if you are just going for a Samba server or a Web server, it really doesn't make your life easier. But if you are managing a network of OSX machines, it gives you a much greater level of control than any other solution.
I am curious about the performance of Samba/Netatalk on CentOS with a Storenext backend? Is it really better than Samba/AFP on OSX server? I always thought it was Stornext itself that just didn't work well with small files, not the OS providing NAS services that was the issue. Do you have any numbers?
This kind of stuff will sink them. They can't even use the info you *do* volunteer correctly to target ads, and they are trying to sneak around and get data that you *don't* volunteer... hmmm
"maybe even a MBA if you're not the world's brightest"
OK so I get the general dislike of PHBs around here, but not all MBAs "aren't the world's brightest". There are some real geniuses working on Wall Street, in VCs, Consulting, and yes, even marketing. Many of these people were engineers at one point on their career, but decided to leverage their skills in business. This doesn't make them stupid, or bad people... It is very difficult to get into a top 10 MBA program.
In the "real world" they don't enforce this policy. If you show up to an Apple store with a MBP that doesn't work, they don't refuse service because you used 3rd party RAM. They just won't replace the 3rd party RAM for you under warranty if it turns out to be the faulty component. The first thing they do is yank the ram and try an "Apple" set, then they try to boot it from an external HDD to see if its the HDD.
Isn't this essentially what webobjects was? Cocoa for web based apps, with a browser interface?
Well, they could build a solar field. I mean it is the middle of the frickin desert.