But - price IS one advantage. While you seem to declare the price as being negligible, price matters to a lot of people. Photoshop is costly!
The only individuals who care about price are new-fascists / socialists. They all expect something for nothing, yet they will gladly pay $50+ for a carton of cigarettes. Any true professional will purchase only the best equipment to complete their project.
Tell me, would you use cardiac surgeon "A" because he/she charges less than surgeon "B" although "B" is a world renowned doctor and "A" is a country bumpkin?
Because they released Flash? How about Photoshop and ImageReady for Linux?
That's the only reason I keep an XP machine...
GIMP is, well, GIMP, and not suitable for professional use.
The problem is probably purely economic. They can charge Window's users for Photoshop, etc. I know, because I use PhotoShop; its price is certainly in-line with the features it offers. However, the *.nix & *BSD communities with demand that it be released sans cost. That is just not economically feasible.
Your ID proponent people lied to you. Flat out lied.
If they're friends, dump them ; if they're family, try to get their thinking straightened out. There are deprogramming camps and things for curing religion.
You do realize that my post was not to be taken seriously I hope.
After having listened to those enlightened "Intelligent Design" proponents, I was informed that dinosaurs are really just part of a conspiracy plot by those pesky "Evolution" theorists whose sole purpose is to steal your soul for Satan.
What really needs to be done is the elimination of "Anonymous Coward" AKA "Douche Bag" postings. These pathetic, under achievers are responsible for 90+ percent of the trash posted on this forum.
You conveniently forget that it is Microsoft's OS. Microsoft is not the first, nor will it be the last to have undocumented calls/procedures in its code whether it is an operating system or a simple application. Microsoft spent upwards of 2 million dollars to develop a better spreedsheet/word processor while others where either wasting their time in court or engaging in internal corporate in-fighting. Plus, Microsoft made the applications work seamlessly together. Something at that stage of program development (90's) that was virtually unheard of. What really burns your ass is that the best the FOSS in over a dozen years could produce is a poor clone of Word 97, aka Open-Office. Spreedsheet development is a joke. Maybe that is why nobody takes you seriously. You give away a product for free and Microsoft charges hundreds of dollars and yet they still control 90+% of the market. You can try and mumble any cavorted logic you want; however, the bottom line is nobody is buying what you are selling.
Sort of like Microsoft forcing everybody but MS Office out of the word-processing and spreadsheet markets.
You really should learn a little more about what you are talking about. Lotus screwed themselves with numerous law suits against competing spreadsheet makers. "Lotus petitioned the United States Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. The Supreme Court affirmed the circuit court's opinion in a 4-4 anonymous tie vote, with Justice Stevens recusing.[6] Lotus's petition for a rehearing by the full court was denied. By the time the lawsuit ended, Borland had sold Quattro Pro to Novell, and Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet had emerged as the main challenger to Lotus 1-2-3."
In the case of Word Perfect, they simply failed to stay current. If you read the entire account of Word Perfect, not just the documentation post at Wikipedia , its sale, etcetera, you will discover that Microsoft spend millions on creating a product that was superior to Word Perfect. At one time it was a well know fact that the Microsoft help line could give you better advice on the use of Word Perfect that the Word Perfect help line. Microsoft taught their help desk employees Word Perfect inside and out so that they could assist any called who wanted to learn how MS Word work in comparison to Word Perfect. You might want to check our . Not the best report ever written; but it does point out some real problems with Word Perfect. Once it was sold to Novell it was effectively done in.
Microsoft never forced (how could they) anyone to use MS Office. They simple created a far superior product. Both Lotus and Word Perfect were basically one dimensional. Microsoft created a multi-dimentional product and the rest is history.
I have read over 100 virtually useless comments on the events that transpired at Wordpress, yet not one individual, not even the nefarious "Anonymous Coward" has come forward and blamed Microsoft for this dastardly deed. This had led me to the only logical conclusion, a cold day in Hell has finally arrived.
configure OO with a database trying to configure a custom mailing list with documents and envelopes. In MS Office it is a simple process
It looks like you might be talking about Exchange. Like to have a cookie or abbreviation with that?
I am referring to the mail merge feature in MS Word. Obviously you are not familiar with it or else you would never have made such a totally asinine comment. I can only conclude that you are an Open Office user and therefore not familiar with more advanced word processing techniques available in MS Word.
And the only reason Office still exists is because of Microsoft's monopolistic legacy. There's no way that hopelessly cryptic, archaic, bug-ridden monstrosity could have survived the last decade on its own merits.
Seriously, have you forgotten to take your meds today? MS Office is simply the finest Office Suite currently available. OO tried for years but was never able to clone anything even as functional as Word 97.The open-source community has never been able to conjure up anything that is even remotely is as fully functional and integrates word processing, spreed sheets, calendar, mail program and all of the other applications available in the Office Suite as fully or easily. In addition, the wealth of third party programs available for the Suite itself is something that the open-source community has never even come close to accomplishing. I have seen grown men and women brought to tears trying to configure OO with a database trying to configure a custom mailing list with documents and envelopes. In MS Office it is a simple process.
Open Office and it minions are best left for the casual home user. However, out of morbid curiosity, exactly what is the last version and suite of MS Office are you familiar with?
The old interface was fine, the new one is slow and is not sortable.
I found the new interface quite responsive using IE 9 with Windows 7. On a comparable PC running FreeBSD-8.2 and Firefox 4, the whole experience was much slower. This could definitely be a browser issue.
Threatening the President of the United States is a class D felony under United States Code Title 18, Section 871. It consists of knowingly and willfully mailing or otherwise making "any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States". The United States Secret Service investigates suspected violations of this law and monitors those who have a history of threatening the President. Because the offense consists of pure speech, the courts have issued rulings attempting to balance the government's interest in protecting the President with free speech rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. According to Stalking, Threatening, and Attacking Public Figures, "Hundreds of celebrity howlers threaten the President of the United States every year, sometimes because they disagree with his policies, but more often just because he is the President." The United States Attorneys' Manual states that the Terrorism and Violent Crime Section has supervisory authority over Section 871 cases.
The prototype for Section 871 was the British Treason Act 1351, which made it a crime to "compass or imagine" the death of the King. Convictions under 18 U.S.C. 871 have been sustained for declaring that "President Wilson ought to be killed. It is a wonder some one has not done it already. If I had an opportunity, I would do it myself."; and for declaring that "Wilson is a wooden-headed son of a bitch. I wish Wilson was in hell, and if I had the power I would put him there." In a later era, a conviction was sustained for displaying posters urging passersby to "hang [President] Roosevelt". There has been some controversy among the federal appellate courts as to how the term "willfully" should be interpreted. Traditional legal interpretations of the term are reflected by Black's Law Dictionary's definition, which includes descriptions such as "malicious, done with evil intent, or with a bad motive or purpose," but most courts have adopted a more easily-proven standard. For instance, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that a threat was knowingly made if the maker comprehended the meaning of the words uttered by him. It was willingly made, if in addition to comprehending the meaning of his words, the maker voluntarily and intentionally uttered them as a declaration of apparent determination to carry them into execution. According to the U.S. Attorney's Manual, "Of the individuals who come to the Secret Service's attention as creating a possible danger to one of their protectees, approximately 75 percent are mentally ill."
MS has not announced how exactly they will change Skype, but you can bet it will involve monetization in all forms. Don't expect any of the currently free Skype services to continue. Asterisk already lost Skype support.
This is a great opportunity for Google to roll out a multi-platform competitor.
Excepts from: http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Skype-dumps-Asterisk/ Skype has terminated its partnership with Digium, effectively killing Skype for Asterisk, which integrated Skype's VOIP service with the open source PBX/telephony platform. While some analysts see Microsoft's impending acquisition of Skype as the source of the schism, others argue that Skype has never been an open source supporter, and had already been backing away from the Asterisk product.
AND While it may be easy to pin down Skype's decision as yet another example of Microsoft trying to shut down the open source community, Tim Panton, a Skype developer, pointed out on his WordPress blog posting that Skype for Asterisk has been dying slowly for awhile now because of issues with scalability and maintenance. Skype had "hobbled" the product with a number of license restrictions, and the company delayed development, according to Panton.
"Skype probably never envisaged renewing, so when it came due, they pulled the plug," Panton wrote.
Blaming Microsoft for the demise of Asterisk is just another example of FUD constantly being spread by those who lack any factual information on the subject to which they attach their ideas.
If version numbering in Linux resembled the method used in FreeBSD, they would be at be version 50 by now. FBSD bumps their major version number every time someone dots an "I" or crosses a "T". Code improvement is not a requirement. More than 5 years since the original wireless "N" draft was released and still the FreeBSD developers have failed to produce drivers for devices that support that protocol. The developers are too busy bumping version numbers to be concerned.
Until you need technical support or drivers for new devices.
I know math is hard--but let's see if I can break it down for you. Microsoft is $259 per incident. Ubuntu us $320 per year.
I know the Ubuntu number looks bigger until you realize that you can call 50 times for that same price. Calling 50 times for Windows would cost you just under $13,000.
But who calls for tech support for Linux anyways? I build and maintain ubuntu-based firewalls, spam filters, mail servers, virtual servers, and VoIP servers. I've never had to call for support.
Actually, support starts at $195 per incident and there are several different plans.
There is no charge if Microsoft is unable to rectify the complainant's problem..
You have conveniently failed to address what I was stating in my original post; ie, the "free" factor evaporates once support is required. In effect both Microsoft and any allegedly "free" OS, the cost is the same for support as long as it is not required.
In 20 years I have never called MS for any technical support. I am able to read and comprehend technical manuals, etcetera rather well. Plus, when a new device is released I do not have to wait for months (years, never) for support for that device with Microsoft. I have customers that demand high quality service.
Now, I do have a FreeBSD server at home. It is a nice hobbyist toy and I do enjoy playing around with it from time to time. However, I would never use it in a mission critical environment.
If you do not have cutting edge devices on you system, FreeBSD might be a good choice. It is quite stable although the number of devices it supports is somewhat limited. It also offers a fairly good support system.
I for one will recommend to everyone to not use Bing until this is mothballed.
You would be recommending that users not use Bing whether this feature were present or not. Now, if a non Microsoft browser initiated this feature, you would be claiming it was the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel.
I for one am advising my friends not to use Firefox or Chrome since from the first of this year, they have both been shown to have more exploitable flaws than IE9.
According to the early news releases I have seen from Microsoft regarding this purchase, they intend to integrate Skype into their X-Box and Outlook products. There is no mention of discontinuing any present services or changing of any protocols. This sounds like a real improvement over its present operational state. In any case, Skype does not function correctly under FreeBSD anyway. All I have seen so far in this entire thread is a lot of FUD. Why the sudden search for an alternative when there is no reason too?
Yeah, good thing RedHat is still supporting all their releases... Oh... wait... no they're not. RedHat 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 - all gone. RedHat Enterprise Linux 1, 2, 3 & 4 - all gone. Gee, maybe retiring old versions of software is just... universal?
FreeBSD has dropped support for all versions 6.x and older also. Maybe Microsoft has the right idea. At some point you do have to move on.
I'm excited about the poisonitions offered by Microsoft.
I want to work for a technology company run by a CEO with no technology experience, or interest in technology.
Think of the wonder of working for the company that produced Windows ME and Windows Vista.
I seriously doubt that the CEO of GM has ever rebuilt an engine. Some of the best CEOs come from diverse environments. In any case, Microsoft does control 90% of the desktop market. Obviously, they are doing something right. Now, take FreeBSD, which over 4 years since the initial release of 802.11n wireless routers has still not developed drivers for them.
Slashdot Mirror
But - price IS one advantage. While you seem to declare the price as being negligible, price matters to a lot of people. Photoshop is costly!
The only individuals who care about price are new-fascists / socialists. They all expect something for nothing, yet they will gladly pay $50+ for a carton of cigarettes. Any true professional will purchase only the best equipment to complete their project.
Tell me, would you use cardiac surgeon "A" because he/she charges less than surgeon "B" although "B" is a world renowned doctor and "A" is a country bumpkin?
Because they released Flash? How about Photoshop and ImageReady for Linux?
That's the only reason I keep an XP machine...
GIMP is, well, GIMP, and not suitable for professional use.
The problem is probably purely economic. They can charge Window's users for Photoshop, etc. I know, because I use PhotoShop; its price is certainly in-line with the features it offers. However, the *.nix & *BSD communities with demand that it be released sans cost. That is just not economically feasible.
Your ID proponent people lied to you. Flat out lied.
If they're friends, dump them ; if they're family, try to get their thinking straightened out. There are deprogramming camps and things for curing religion.
You do realize that my post was not to be taken seriously I hope.
After having listened to those enlightened "Intelligent Design" proponents, I was informed that dinosaurs are really just part of a conspiracy plot by those pesky "Evolution" theorists whose sole purpose is to steal your soul for Satan.
What really needs to be done is the elimination of "Anonymous Coward" AKA "Douche Bag" postings. These pathetic, under achievers are responsible for 90+ percent of the trash posted on this forum.
You conveniently forget that it is Microsoft's OS. Microsoft is not the first, nor will it be the last to have undocumented calls/procedures in its code whether it is an operating system or a simple application. Microsoft spent upwards of 2 million dollars to develop a better spreedsheet/word processor while others where either wasting their time in court or engaging in internal corporate in-fighting. Plus, Microsoft made the applications work seamlessly together. Something at that stage of program development (90's) that was virtually unheard of. What really burns your ass is that the best the FOSS in over a dozen years could produce is a poor clone of Word 97, aka Open-Office. Spreedsheet development is a joke. Maybe that is why nobody takes you seriously. You give away a product for free and Microsoft charges hundreds of dollars and yet they still control 90+% of the market. You can try and mumble any cavorted logic you want; however, the bottom line is nobody is buying what you are selling.
Not even the Senate could reach a human at Google.
Ain't that the truth. Talk all you want about Microsoft; however, at least they have a real, live, functioning telephone number.
Sort of like Microsoft forcing everybody but MS Office out of the word-processing and spreadsheet markets.
You really should learn a little more about what you are talking about. Lotus screwed themselves with numerous law suits against competing spreadsheet makers.
"Lotus petitioned the United States Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. The Supreme Court affirmed the circuit court's opinion in a 4-4 anonymous tie vote, with Justice Stevens recusing.[6] Lotus's petition for a rehearing by the full court was denied. By the time the lawsuit ended, Borland had sold Quattro Pro to Novell, and Microsoft's Excel spreadsheet had emerged as the main challenger to Lotus 1-2-3."
In the case of Word Perfect, they simply failed to stay current. If you read the entire account of Word Perfect, not just the documentation post at Wikipedia , its sale, etcetera, you will discover that Microsoft spend millions on creating a product that was superior to Word Perfect. At one time it was a well know fact that the Microsoft help line could give you better advice on the use of Word Perfect that the Word Perfect help line. Microsoft taught their help desk employees Word Perfect inside and out so that they could assist any called who wanted to learn how MS Word work in comparison to Word Perfect. You might want to check our . Not the best report ever written; but it does point out some real problems with Word Perfect. Once it was sold to Novell it was effectively done in.
Microsoft never forced (how could they) anyone to use MS Office. They simple created a far superior product. Both Lotus and Word Perfect were basically one dimensional. Microsoft created a multi-dimentional product and the rest is history.
I don't know how this one made it through the slashdot filters to be published.
Are you serious? If there is any way any article can be slanted against Microsoft, it will be heralded on Slashdot.
I have read over 100 virtually useless comments on the events that transpired at Wordpress, yet not one individual, not even the nefarious "Anonymous Coward" has come forward and blamed Microsoft for this dastardly deed. This had led me to the only logical conclusion, a cold day in Hell has finally arrived.
configure OO with a database trying to configure a custom mailing list with documents and envelopes. In MS Office it is a simple process
It looks like you might be talking about Exchange. Like to have a cookie or abbreviation with that?
I am referring to the mail merge feature in MS Word. Obviously you are not familiar with it or else you would never have made such a totally asinine comment. I can only conclude that you are an Open Office user and therefore not familiar with more advanced word processing techniques available in MS Word.
And the only reason Office still exists is because of Microsoft's monopolistic legacy. There's no way that hopelessly cryptic, archaic, bug-ridden monstrosity could have survived the last decade on its own merits.
Seriously, have you forgotten to take your meds today? MS Office is simply the finest Office Suite currently available. OO tried for years but was never able to clone anything even as functional as Word 97.The open-source community has never been able to conjure up anything that is even remotely is as fully functional and integrates word processing, spreed sheets, calendar, mail program and all of the other applications available in the Office Suite as fully or easily. In addition, the wealth of third party programs available for the Suite itself is something that the open-source community has never even come close to accomplishing. I have seen grown men and women brought to tears trying to configure OO with a database trying to configure a custom mailing list with documents and envelopes. In MS Office it is a simple process.
Open Office and it minions are best left for the casual home user. However, out of morbid curiosity, exactly what is the last version and suite of MS Office are you familiar with?
The old interface was fine, the new one is slow and is not sortable.
I found the new interface quite responsive using IE 9 with Windows 7. On a comparable PC running FreeBSD-8.2 and Firefox 4, the whole experience was much slower. This could definitely be a browser issue.
Excerpts from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Threatening_the_President_of_the_United_States
Threatening the President of the United States is a class D felony under United States Code Title 18, Section 871. It consists of knowingly and willfully mailing or otherwise making "any threat to take the life of, to kidnap, or to inflict bodily harm upon the President of the United States". The United States Secret Service investigates suspected violations of this law and monitors those who have a history of threatening the President. Because the offense consists of pure speech, the courts have issued rulings attempting to balance the government's interest in protecting the President with free speech rights under the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. According to Stalking, Threatening, and Attacking Public Figures, "Hundreds of celebrity howlers threaten the President of the United States every year, sometimes because they disagree with his policies, but more often just because he is the President." The United States Attorneys' Manual states that the Terrorism and Violent Crime Section has supervisory authority over Section 871 cases.
The prototype for Section 871 was the British Treason Act 1351, which made it a crime to "compass or imagine" the death of the King. Convictions under 18 U.S.C. 871 have been sustained for declaring that "President Wilson ought to be killed. It is a wonder some one has not done it already. If I had an opportunity, I would do it myself."; and for declaring that "Wilson is a wooden-headed son of a bitch. I wish Wilson was in hell, and if I had the power I would put him there." In a later era, a conviction was sustained for displaying posters urging passersby to "hang [President] Roosevelt". There has been some controversy among the federal appellate courts as to how the term "willfully" should be interpreted. Traditional legal interpretations of the term are reflected by Black's Law Dictionary's definition, which includes descriptions such as "malicious, done with evil intent, or with a bad motive or purpose," but most courts have adopted a more easily-proven standard. For instance, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that a threat was knowingly made if the maker comprehended the meaning of the words uttered by him. It was willingly made, if in addition to comprehending the meaning of his words, the maker voluntarily and intentionally uttered them as a declaration of apparent determination to carry them into execution. According to the U.S. Attorney's Manual, "Of the individuals who come to the Secret Service's attention as creating a possible danger to one of their protectees, approximately 75 percent are mentally ill."
MS has not announced how exactly they will change Skype, but you can bet it will involve monetization in all forms. Don't expect any of the currently free Skype services to continue. Asterisk already lost Skype support.
This is a great opportunity for Google to roll out a multi-platform competitor.
Excepts from: http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Skype-dumps-Asterisk/
Skype has terminated its partnership with Digium, effectively killing Skype for Asterisk, which integrated Skype's VOIP service with the open source PBX/telephony platform. While some analysts see Microsoft's impending acquisition of Skype as the source of the schism, others argue that Skype has never been an open source supporter, and had already been backing away from the Asterisk product.
AND
While it may be easy to pin down Skype's decision as yet another example of Microsoft trying to shut down the open source community, Tim Panton, a Skype developer, pointed out on his WordPress blog posting that Skype for Asterisk has been dying slowly for awhile now because of issues with scalability and maintenance. Skype had "hobbled" the product with a number of license restrictions, and the company delayed development, according to Panton.
"Skype probably never envisaged renewing, so when it came due, they pulled the plug," Panton wrote.
Blaming Microsoft for the demise of Asterisk is just another example of FUD constantly being spread by those who lack any factual information on the subject to which they attach their ideas.
If version numbering in Linux resembled the method used in FreeBSD, they would be at be version 50 by now. FBSD bumps their major version number every time someone dots an "I" or crosses a "T". Code improvement is not a requirement. More than 5 years since the original wireless "N" draft was released and still the FreeBSD developers have failed to produce drivers for devices that support that protocol. The developers are too busy bumping version numbers to be concerned.
Until you need technical support or drivers for new devices.
I know math is hard--but let's see if I can break it down for you. Microsoft is $259 per incident. Ubuntu us $320 per year.
I know the Ubuntu number looks bigger until you realize that you can call 50 times for that same price. Calling 50 times for Windows would cost you just under $13,000.
But who calls for tech support for Linux anyways? I build and maintain ubuntu-based firewalls, spam filters, mail servers, virtual servers, and VoIP servers. I've never had to call for support.
Actually, support starts at $195 per incident and there are several different plans.
There is no charge if Microsoft is unable to rectify the complainant's problem..
You have conveniently failed to address what I was stating in my original post; ie, the "free" factor evaporates once support is required. In effect both Microsoft and any allegedly "free" OS, the cost is the same for support as long as it is not required.
In 20 years I have never called MS for any technical support. I am able to read and comprehend technical manuals, etcetera rather well. Plus, when a new device is released I do not have to wait for months (years, never) for support for that device with Microsoft. I have customers that demand high quality service.
Now, I do have a FreeBSD server at home. It is a nice hobbyist toy and I do enjoy playing around with it from time to time. However, I would never use it in a mission critical environment.
I come here multiple times daily, I have no idea what the Borg reference is, Im also 24 years old. I'm either an utter failure or your comment was.
Yes
If you do not have cutting edge devices on you system, FreeBSD might be a good choice. It is quite stable although the number of devices it supports is somewhat limited. It also offers a fairly good support system.
Can you imagine the licensing costs of Windows bullcrap(tm)? At least with Linux it's free...
Until you need technical support or drivers for new devices.
I for one will recommend to everyone to not use Bing until this is mothballed.
You would be recommending that users not use Bing whether this feature were present or not. Now, if a non Microsoft browser initiated this feature, you would be claiming it was the greatest thing since the invention of the wheel.
I for one am advising my friends not to use Firefox or Chrome since from the first of this year, they have both been shown to have more exploitable flaws than IE9.
According to the early news releases I have seen from Microsoft regarding this purchase, they intend to integrate Skype into their X-Box and Outlook products. There is no mention of discontinuing any present services or changing of any protocols. This sounds like a real improvement over its present operational state. In any case, Skype does not function correctly under FreeBSD anyway. All I have seen so far in this entire thread is a lot of FUD. Why the sudden search for an alternative when there is no reason too?
brown hat
what, like "shit-head" ?
Brown Hat, Brown Shirt, Shit Head; are we discussion the EC again?
Yeah, good thing RedHat is still supporting all their releases... Oh ... wait ... no they're not. RedHat 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 - all gone. RedHat Enterprise Linux 1, 2, 3 & 4 - all gone. Gee, maybe retiring old versions of software is just ... universal?
FreeBSD has dropped support for all versions 6.x and older also. Maybe Microsoft has the right idea. At some point you do have to move on.
I'm excited about the poisonitions offered by Microsoft.
I want to work for a technology company run by a CEO with no technology experience, or interest in technology.
Think of the wonder of working for the company that produced Windows ME and Windows Vista.
I seriously doubt that the CEO of GM has ever rebuilt an engine. Some of the best CEOs come from diverse environments. In any case, Microsoft does control 90% of the desktop market. Obviously, they are doing something right. Now, take FreeBSD, which over 4 years since the initial release of 802.11n wireless routers has still not developed drivers for them.