The flattening of Microsoft's profits is long overdue; it is a sign of a company reaching middle age
Do you realize that if we apply a "mature company" multiple to MS's earnings their share price should be around $11, not $27 as is today? MS shareholders, think on this.
OO may be good, but when it comes to documents which have been edited by dozens of people and have hundreds of pages with different formatting everywhere, only the same version of Word that created that document opens it without any errors.
What planet are you talking about? The overwhelming home office/small bussines document is a le1 or 2 pages letter. MS Office is dead in the home, unless pirated.
All else being equal ( which I don't think it is at the moment ) in a global economy things will balance out and all the participants will reach the same level.
Do you realize that this level equalizing you talk about is happening right now, but with your standard of living going down to third world levels?
But even worse that those idiot children gave the media that excuse to chase the sensational and avoid covering the real issues.
My friend, if you think we give one shit for the media's opinions, you're not aware of the force of the backlash that's brewing right now.
We know that Usians are OK people as individuals, but the strengh of hate that your obnoxious corporations and their puppet government are creating will surprise you.
Your stupid DRM laws won't apply to us, the rest of the World. We don't care for them. We'll buy non-DRM hardware and run non-locking software on top of it. The large hardware companies would be mad to turn against us since we outnumber you, ooo, by about 32 to 1 or so.
It can be said that KDE and Gnome are actually "following desktops", in that they're both following Windows. I tend to think that they both passed the point of following Windows awhile back and are both leading desktops, now.
As a matter of fact, it seems that mainstraem desktops (KDE, Gnome, Windows and Apple's) have been stuck in the mud for a long while, with no real innovation except for eye candy.
The changes are small, and each one copies ^H^H^H^H is inspired by the best of the others (as they should do), so we are stabilizing in a generic, accepted metaphore. This model is understood by almost everybody, so there's a lot of social inertia working against change.
Real innovation will happen in fringe desktop projects, but they'll have a hard time being incorporated in the mainstream. And that's good, I should add.
You're right if you're talking about size of the economy, global influence, and power of the war machine.
On the other side, what happened to Argentina was rather common, and happened to the USA in 1929: a massive bank collapse, then a very deep recession.
This sequence of events: bank collapse, depression, default, happens every few years to some country (think Mexico, Russia, Turkey). I don't know why people here seems so mystified by what happened to Argentina, as it were a Martian invasion.
In our case, it was caused by mismanagement of the budget, and an enormous public debt. When it was evident we were not going to be able to serve the debt, our bonds collapsed, then our banks, and the rest is history.
For the looks of your budget, you're in the first steps on the same road, the difference being that you have more than enough time to change direction.
But you'll also notice in those works that a smaller army can easily defeat a numerically superior and more powerful army through smarter use of the resources at their disposal. Much like how open source software methodologies have been cutting into Microsoft and Oracle more and more for the past 10 years.
I'd rather think that the advantege of OSS was the vastly bigger army, even if loosely coordinated, and sometimes fracticious.
At the beginning of the year there was excitement about parts 2 and 3 of The Matrix triology, X-Men 2, and of course, LOTR: Return of the King.
For any near normal human being, these would be strong candidates for the worst film sight unseen. Was there any doubt? Or are we just talking about childish nonsense movies?
Or maybe we could just tax the companies that do the outsourcing. Want to hire a foreign worker for $10,000 a year. Fine, but then you gotta pay $15,000 in outsourcing taxes to the US government.
There's nothing you or I can imagine that hasn't been tried centuries ago. Know what? Never worked. Never. This is as old as humanity. Live with it.
"Average" here refers to a statistical average among the universe of computer users, not to a skill level of average. And that statistically average user doesn't know much of anything at all. More importantly, he doen't want to care about how the system or the GUI works. He just wants to get his work done and not have too much hassle
Aren't you underestimating the skills and desire to learn of your "average" user?
I guess you and I aren't exposed to the same kind of users, but I've found that after an initial period of panic (Am I going to break the computer?) and beffudlement (you mean I have to click twice?) most people gain confidence and tries to learn.
Agreed there's a minority that neither wants nor does learn, but at least in my experience, is really a minority.
As in everything else, YMMV.
Perhaps the way out is to implement different sets of options, like a beginner's control panel and a master's config utilities?
People who like simplified desktop environments (like those offered by Windows and Mac) liked GNOME 2.0+ more than GNOME 1.4-. People who don't care about newbi usability prefer GNOME 1.4- and KDE to GNOME 2.0+, Windows and Mac. The catalyst for the change was usability tests administered with [lay-]users.
I'm usually in KDE. Nothing religious, just habit. In order to see your point I installed Gnome 2.4 (yes, it's true). I'm presently in Gnome.
A little faster, yeah, but I miss the options!.
As a matter of fact, I've discovered that for me, at least, the more options the better.
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The flattening of Microsoft's profits is long overdue; it is a sign of a company reaching middle age
Do you realize that if we apply a "mature company" multiple to MS's earnings their share price should be around $11, not $27 as is today?
MS shareholders, think on this.
Cheers,
You're making the rather brazen assumption that users must stop using their already-installed base of software.
P.R., for MS's bottom line (don't forget that's we're talking about),
switching and not upgrading are the same thing.
Cheers,
Microsoft will provide the bleeding edge, user-friendly stuff, and will leave the old, tried-and-true, commodity software alone.
And they will keep their stock price artificially high exactly how?
Cheers,
OO may be good, but when it comes to documents which have been edited by dozens of people and have hundreds of pages with different formatting everywhere, only the same version of Word that created that document opens it without any errors.
What planet are you talking about?
The overwhelming home office/small bussines document is a le1 or 2 pages letter.
MS Office is dead in the home, unless pirated.
Cheers,
All else being equal ( which I don't think it is at the moment ) in a global economy things will balance out and all the participants will reach the same level.
Do you realize that this level equalizing you talk about is happening right now, but with your standard of living going down to third world levels?
Didn't thought so.
Cheers,
But even worse that those idiot children gave the media that excuse to chase the sensational and avoid covering the real issues.
My friend, if you think we give one shit for the media's opinions, you're not aware of the force of the backlash that's brewing right now.
We know that Usians are OK people as individuals, but the strengh of hate that your obnoxious corporations and their puppet government are creating will surprise you.
Best wishes,
Get your priorities straight buddy because you sound like a real idiot.
No, he doesn't.
You wish he did, but he doesn't.
Cheers,
Your stupid DRM laws won't apply to us, the rest of the World. We don't care for them. We'll buy non-DRM hardware and run non-locking software on top of it. The large hardware companies would be mad to turn against us since we outnumber you, ooo, by about 32 to 1 or so.
+1, Insightful.
Cheers,
Your post is both
1) Correct
and
2) Totally off mark.
Please go back and read what the other guy said.
Cheers,
If Philip K. Dick resurrects and watchs Total Recall he would commit suicide. Twice.
No, he would erase the film from his memory.
Cheers,
It can be said that KDE and Gnome are actually "following desktops", in that they're both following Windows. I tend to think that they both passed the point of following Windows awhile back and are both leading desktops, now.
As a matter of fact, it seems that mainstraem desktops (KDE, Gnome, Windows and Apple's) have been stuck in the mud for a long while, with no real innovation except for eye candy.
The changes are small, and each one copies ^H^H^H^H is inspired by the best of the others (as they should do), so we are stabilizing in a generic, accepted metaphore.
This model is understood by almost everybody, so there's a lot of social inertia working against change.
Real innovation will happen in fringe desktop projects, but they'll have a hard time being incorporated in the mainstream. And that's good, I should add.
Cheers,
Argentina was never like the US.
You're right if you're talking about size of the economy, global influence, and power of the war machine.
On the other side, what happened to Argentina was rather common, and happened to the USA in 1929: a massive bank collapse, then a very deep recession.
This sequence of events: bank collapse, depression, default, happens every few years to some country (think Mexico, Russia, Turkey). I don't know why people here seems so mystified by what happened to Argentina, as it were a Martian invasion.
In our case, it was caused by mismanagement of the budget, and an enormous public debt. When it was evident we were not going to be able to serve the debt, our bonds collapsed, then our banks, and the rest is history.
For the looks of your budget, you're in the first steps on the same road, the difference being that you have more than enough time to change direction.
Cheers,
Argentina was a relatively small country without global clout.
Well, I looked out the window and we still are.
A little chaotic, perhaps, but we're used to it.
For a moment, you made me wonder!
Cheers,
Thought so.
Cheers,
Do we?
Cheers,
Basically, it looks like Larry has put Oracle into the position where the second he leaves they will be screwed.
I have the suspicion that, for Larry, this is not a bug, but a feature.
Cheers,
But you'll also notice in those works that a smaller army can easily defeat a numerically superior and more powerful army through smarter use of the resources at their disposal. Much like how open source software methodologies have been cutting into Microsoft and Oracle more and more for the past 10 years.
I'd rather think that the advantege of OSS was the vastly bigger army, even if loosely coordinated, and sometimes fracticious.
Chhers,
It failed in the past, so let's give up. Great plan.
It failed in the past, so let's try it again. Greater plan.
Cheers,
At the beginning of the year there was excitement about parts 2 and 3 of The Matrix triology, X-Men 2, and of course, LOTR: Return of the King.
For any near normal human being, these would be strong candidates for the worst film sight unseen.
Was there any doubt?
Or are we just talking about childish nonsense movies?
Cheers,
I just cited the word 'niggardly' from the original post because it was the most obvious inflammatory word.
Even I know the difference, and English isn't my first language!
Neither the second, thinking on it.
Cheers,
Or maybe we could just tax the companies that do the outsourcing. Want to hire a foreign worker for $10,000 a year. Fine, but then you gotta pay $15,000 in outsourcing taxes to the US government.
There's nothing you or I can imagine that hasn't been tried centuries ago.
Know what? Never worked. Never.
This is as old as humanity.
Live with it.
Cheers,
I wouldn't believe Forrester can predict next day's weather, let alone levels of employement in decades.
Cheers,
"Average" here refers to a statistical average among the universe of computer users, not to a skill level of average. And that statistically average user doesn't know much of anything at all.
More importantly, he doen't want to care about how the system or the GUI works. He just wants to get his work done and not have too much hassle
Aren't you underestimating the skills and desire to learn of your "average" user?
I guess you and I aren't exposed to the same kind of users, but I've found that after an initial period of panic (Am I going to break the computer?) and beffudlement (you mean I have to click twice?) most people gain confidence and tries to learn.
Agreed there's a minority that neither wants nor does learn, but at least in my experience, is really a minority.
As in everything else, YMMV.
Perhaps the way out is to implement different sets of options, like a beginner's control panel and a master's config utilities?
Completely agree.
Cheers,
People who like simplified desktop environments (like those offered by Windows and Mac) liked GNOME 2.0+ more than GNOME 1.4-. People who don't care about newbi usability prefer GNOME 1.4- and KDE to GNOME 2.0+, Windows and Mac. The catalyst for the change was usability tests administered with [lay-]users.
I'm usually in KDE. Nothing religious, just habit.
In order to see your point I installed Gnome 2.4 (yes, it's true).
I'm presently in Gnome.
A little faster, yeah, but I miss the options!.
As a matter of fact, I've discovered that for me, at least, the more options the better.
Cheers,
The test administrators then take that feedback and analyse it with the gurus to produce the UI that reflects the feedback.
and what Sun did with Gnome that led to the big philosophical change from 1.4 -> 2.0 that caused people to jump over to KDE.
Pyros, aren't you refuting yourself?
Cheers,