You're just trolling because it's popular to hate on Microsoft and currently on Vista.
Oh grow up. Not everybody who disagrees with you (or with GWB) is a subscriber to fashionable hate. In point of fact, I'd dearly like to upgrade my tablet to Vista, because of the improved handwriting recognition. But even if Vista were utterly stable (and there's plenty of evidence that it's not) I don't have the time or money to deal with all the application compatibility issues.
Do some Googling. Read some of the other comments to this story. Hell, RTFA, and don't skip over the parts that don't support your rosy scenario. Vista is a disaster.
You seem to think that debate consists of reciting cherry-picked data and insulting those who disagree with you. Didn't work for Rumsfeld either.
I never doubted that you had good reason. I was just curious because, despite all my flaming of Vista, I have to consider installing it on my tablet. My problem is that XP handwriting recognition thinks that "training" means "getting the user to write a certain way". Microsoft finally admitted that this was a bad approach and came up with tools for training the software. Except that the only way to get the trainable handwriting recognition is to upgrade to Vista.
... he had enough of its instability and the countless updates that automatically installed themselves on his computer--often at inopportune times, like when he was in the middle of a presentation.
Which is why I use the "not recommended" setting where it asks me before installing updates. That way I can postpone anything that requires me to reboot. (It boggles the mind that nobody at Microsoft realized that this would be an issue!) The downside is that every few days it asks my permission to install signature updates for Windows Defender. Which is completely pointless: Defender is perfectly capable of handling its own updates.
Maybe you saw a lot of reason to upgrade from 98 to 2000. But a lot of people didn't. The fact is, most people just run whatever their PC came with, and put up with its shortcomings. The difference this time is that buyers are insisting on installing the old Windows on their new systems.
Not a bad OS? Have you been following the news? Spontaneous reboots, driver problems, VPN compatibility issues, application compatibility issues, USB device corruption...
If XP's only advantage over Vista was that "it doesn't suck enough", then you'd be seeing a repeat of the XP rollout. In that case, a few people upgraded their 2000 and 98 machines to XP. But mostly, people got XP when they got new computers.
This time, it's not just the old systems that are not getting upgraded. Brand new systems are still mostly shipping with XP. People don't trust the beast, and with good reason.
Especially when the ISP is also the colo provider. Which is usually the case. Nobody is going to move their servers to a new data center without a lot of motivation. Like a meteor headed towards the old data center.
I'm amazed that we're still talking about black lists at this late date. On top of all the nonsense with punishing innocent folks, screwing up legitimate email, increasing user costs, and accusations of extortion, there's one little detail everyone keeps forgetting to mention: it doesn't f***king work! Most spam now comes from botnets, and stopping those by blacklisting IP blocks is like fighting off locusts with a flyswatter.
Sure, a lot of people buy SUVs because they need a truck. But most don't. The vast majority of SUV sales go to urban drivers who think all that extra metal makes them safer. Which is an illusion, but hey, illusions sell cars.
No offense taken — but you're wrong. An abortion is something that didn't (methaphorically) finish gestating. Since Patterson knew nothing about writing operating systems (it didn't, for example, occur to him to make his code reentrant) I think "abortion" is pretty apt.
So he started the company with his parents money. That didn't automatically make him a major player. Quite the opposite, in fact: the fact that Bill had avoided the usual venture capital gauntlet probably counted against him with potential customers.
What we're discussing right now is whether BG3 had an unfair advantage over any other small company when he landed the famous IBM consulting contract. Starting the company with Dad's checkbook is not that big an advantage.
Well, yeah. If Patterson was stupid enough to create such an abortion, why shouldn't he be stupid enough to claim credit for it? But where he gets really creative with his stupidity is trying to sue somebody for saying it's a bad piece of software!
Well, quality of the end product is not irrelevant to market viability. But basically, you're correct. What's particularly irritating about QDOS/MS-DOS is that it's success was pure blind luck. Bill Gates himself wanted to use CP/M — he may not be the genius he's marketed as, but he knew a de-facto standard when he saw one. QDOS, by contrast, barely deserved to be called an OS.
TFA gets many facts wrong. One is the reason CP/M didn't get the favored OS status from IBM: Kildall thought the standard IBM NDA was to restrictive, so they couldn't even ask him for the product. It's true that IBM did offer CP/M (and also the p-System as alternatives, but their official choice was "PC DOS", and that's what made Patterson's insane kludge the de facto standard.
As they say, it's better to be lucky than to be smart.
The ACLU unfortunately has an agenda and is known to cherry pick cases that further this. It has less to do with blanket Civil Liberties than it does with promoting a particular political agenda.
Absolutely. That's why represent such die-hard liberal groups as the American Nazis and the Klan.
OK, sarcasm aside, I'm tired of folks attributing dark motives to everybody they disagree with. (Or, as in this case, they're forced to agree with but don't like being on the same side.) It's agenda this, FUD that, you're a troll. It's intellectually lazy. Grow up, and admit the possibility that people who disagree with you are sometimes as smart and honest as you are. If not more so.
Binary compatibility isn't the only kind of compatibility. Many Linux folk try Solaris, only to lose interest when they see that familiar tools aren't provided.
I recently implemented a TWiki on an old Sun x64 system. When I got it, the system had Solaris installed on it. I would have preferred to stick with Solaris, but it was just too difficult to install all the Perl modules I needed. Perl itself is well supported on Solaris, but too many Perl library modules have dependencies on software that isn't included in Solaris, on is included and works differently. Finally replaced Solaris with Fedora, which eliminated all the strange little compatibility issues.
Use FAT32. Yes, it sucks as a file system. But it's fine for your stated goals (backup and transfer), and it has universal compatibility. Don't discard an optimal solution just because it makes you feel uncool.
The last time we heard from him, he was going underground on Romulus. No update since then. Like a lot of minor TNG, characters the writers just forgot about him.
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Do some Googling. Read some of the other comments to this story. Hell, RTFA, and don't skip over the parts that don't support your rosy scenario. Vista is a disaster.
You seem to think that debate consists of reciting cherry-picked data and insulting those who disagree with you. Didn't work for Rumsfeld either.
I never doubted that you had good reason. I was just curious because, despite all my flaming of Vista, I have to consider installing it on my tablet. My problem is that XP handwriting recognition thinks that "training" means "getting the user to write a certain way". Microsoft finally admitted that this was a bad approach and came up with tools for training the software. Except that the only way to get the trainable handwriting recognition is to upgrade to Vista.
OK, I'm curious: what convinced you that Vista was junk?
Maybe you saw a lot of reason to upgrade from 98 to 2000. But a lot of people didn't. The fact is, most people just run whatever their PC came with, and put up with its shortcomings. The difference this time is that buyers are insisting on installing the old Windows on their new systems.
"There are issues with any OS rollout"? Get real. Next you'll be saying, "You can't expect every night at the theater to be a success, Mrs. Lincoln."
Not a bad OS? Have you been following the news? Spontaneous reboots, driver problems, VPN compatibility issues, application compatibility issues, USB device corruption...
If XP's only advantage over Vista was that "it doesn't suck enough", then you'd be seeing a repeat of the XP rollout. In that case, a few people upgraded their 2000 and 98 machines to XP. But mostly, people got XP when they got new computers.
This time, it's not just the old systems that are not getting upgraded. Brand new systems are still mostly shipping with XP. People don't trust the beast, and with good reason.
I'm amazed that we're still talking about black lists at this late date. On top of all the nonsense with punishing innocent folks, screwing up legitimate email, increasing user costs, and accusations of extortion, there's one little detail everyone keeps forgetting to mention: it doesn't f***king work! Most spam now comes from botnets, and stopping those by blacklisting IP blocks is like fighting off locusts with a flyswatter.
Sure, a lot of people buy SUVs because they need a truck. But most don't. The vast majority of SUV sales go to urban drivers who think all that extra metal makes them safer. Which is an illusion, but hey, illusions sell cars.
No offense taken — but you're wrong. An abortion is something that didn't (methaphorically) finish gestating. Since Patterson knew nothing about writing operating systems (it didn't, for example, occur to him to make his code reentrant) I think "abortion" is pretty apt.
So he started the company with his parents money. That didn't automatically make him a major player. Quite the opposite, in fact: the fact that Bill had avoided the usual venture capital gauntlet probably counted against him with potential customers.
What we're discussing right now is whether BG3 had an unfair advantage over any other small company when he landed the famous IBM consulting contract. Starting the company with Dad's checkbook is not that big an advantage.
OK, "Nobody" is a bit extreme. My point was simply that he wasn't a big player that IBM felt obliged to listen to.
I'm sorry, who are you ranting against here? Both Patterson and Gates were nobodies when this happened.
Well, yeah. If Patterson was stupid enough to create such an abortion, why shouldn't he be stupid enough to claim credit for it? But where he gets really creative with his stupidity is trying to sue somebody for saying it's a bad piece of software!
Well, quality of the end product is not irrelevant to market viability. But basically, you're correct. What's particularly irritating about QDOS/MS-DOS is that it's success was pure blind luck. Bill Gates himself wanted to use CP/M — he may not be the genius he's marketed as, but he knew a de-facto standard when he saw one. QDOS, by contrast, barely deserved to be called an OS.
TFA gets many facts wrong. One is the reason CP/M didn't get the favored OS status from IBM: Kildall thought the standard IBM NDA was to restrictive, so they couldn't even ask him for the product. It's true that IBM did offer CP/M (and also the p-System as alternatives, but their official choice was "PC DOS", and that's what made Patterson's insane kludge the de facto standard.
As they say, it's better to be lucky than to be smart.
Which basically says the same thing I did: rental rates are absurd, but they did replace old/broken phones for free.
Sorry, very wrong. I'm probably older than you. How old? Without getting specific, I will say I once met Harpo Marx.
Oh, you do? Then you value privacy. You don't need to be a criminal to value privacy.
OK, sarcasm aside, I'm tired of folks attributing dark motives to everybody they disagree with. (Or, as in this case, they're forced to agree with but don't like being on the same side.) It's agenda this, FUD that, you're a troll. It's intellectually lazy. Grow up, and admit the possibility that people who disagree with you are sometimes as smart and honest as you are. If not more so.
Binary compatibility isn't the only kind of compatibility. Many Linux folk try Solaris, only to lose interest when they see that familiar tools aren't provided.
I recently implemented a TWiki on an old Sun x64 system. When I got it, the system had Solaris installed on it. I would have preferred to stick with Solaris, but it was just too difficult to install all the Perl modules I needed. Perl itself is well supported on Solaris, but too many Perl library modules have dependencies on software that isn't included in Solaris, on is included and works differently. Finally replaced Solaris with Fedora, which eliminated all the strange little compatibility issues.
That's easy to wonk around. (Hint: split.) Easier to do that to hassle with the drivers needed to make a "better" file system work with everything.
Use FAT32. Yes, it sucks as a file system. But it's fine for your stated goals (backup and transfer), and it has universal compatibility. Don't discard an optimal solution just because it makes you feel uncool.
Been there. Done that.
The last time we heard from him, he was going underground on Romulus. No update since then. Like a lot of minor TNG, characters the writers just forgot about him.