Who gives a fuck? Ubuntu is a train wreck. If you're going to promote Linux, at least promote a good distro.
There isn't one. Linux on the desktop has always been a failure due to fragmentation.
If you're going to promote Linux, talk about servers, not desktops.
I take it you never went to any Apple events while Jobs was alive then?
The rest of us just like functional devices.
Functional like, being able to add memory, replace your battery, choose your own apps, modify your device as you see fit etc? That type of functionality?
The rest of us realize Jobs didn't really matter,
Wow, even Apple most haters admit Steve Jobs was an exceptional person, just not a god that's all.
except that he had a talent for creating teams with amazing people.
Not to belittle that talent, but since his team is the reason Apple succeeds Apple will do fine without him.
We'll have to agree to disagree with that. The Apple juggernaut has seen it's best days. The smart phone/tablet revolution has had it's best days, Apple led the charge, made a ton of cash, but consumers are fickle. When you replace your device every couple of years and have no driving reason to stick with a brand, people will buy whatever is latest or greatest. It only takes one missed product cycle and Apple will go down the toilet. I was out last night with a group of techy mates who all jumped on the iPhone band wagon a few years ago. Now they all have Androids because it does more and cost less, and doesn't break when you look at it sideways. I can't see how with Apple's restrictive environment can maintain enough innovation to stay competitive.
I'm in the process of shifting our 2000 accounts from our own mail server to google apps for education.
Running your own mail server is a pain in the ass these days. With the massive torrent of spam - including pornographic spam - that gets ever harder to filter, without also blocking legitimate mail. RBLs on SMTP, greylisting, bayesian filters, image-to-text converters to then run bayesian analysis on... it's not even close to enough.
It always amuses me when people blame the product when they aren't using it properly.
Running a mail server these days (assuming your using the best of breed solution which everyone in here seems to have a religious hatred for) requires next to no maintenance. This is why people buy commercial solutions, because spending money upfront generally saves a lot of money later on by not having to patch together a whole bunch of 'free' tools which you spend the rest of you life tweaking to keep it working. It's no surprise you'r having issues managing spam, I never seen it done effectively in-house, I wonder why anyone even tries to do this, which is why I outsource this to the best of breed mail filtering companies. Again, I've never had any issues and maintenance is next to nil. Cost/Benefit sells itself if you done your analysis properly.
All of your issues seem to stem from poor design and religious choice rather than anything technical. And don't try to sell Google Docs as a solution. It may work in mum and dad shops or education where your users are kids who have no productivity requirement, but in the real world where time is money, there is a reason the #1 corporate email server is #1.
And this whole article seems to have missed the driver behind these numbers. Android is the top cell phone OS and it uses gmail accounts natively, hence the popularity of gmail accounts right now. Nothing more nothing less. If WP8 kicks off as all the experts are claiming, then you will see hotmail come back.
no thunderport/USB 3 support, no trim in SSDs mean life ends in weeks to month on XP,
shineyness that is not required
crappy wifi support and so on exist if you stay with XP.
My wi-fi works fine thanks
If you are tied to IE then
I'm not
No you can't manage FF or Chrome from the Microsoft Management Console with full Active Directory Support so they do not exist.
What management? I install a browser and it works? I can only assume you work somewhere where you IT dept treats you user like children, locked down to the hilt so that can't scratch themselves. My users are adults and I bet they are a lot more productive than yours even with a 10 year old OS.
Worse if you have McCrappy on 2006 era hardware then your workers will sit around running 1 app at a time or taking extended lunch hours as their pcs will be unusable. There is some very crappy security software and IE 6 addons that will slow a computer with less than 4 gigs of ram down easily.
Don't use either. Endpoint security is a con
What has changed is not computers being fast enough. It is the bad economic environment taught accountants not to upgrade and view computers as costs rather than investments. It is now cool to run outdated hardware/software to save money.
Lol what has not changed is suckers who think you need to feed the upgrade monster because the marketing guy told you to.
We upgrade when there is a reason to upgrade not because our account manager needs a new car.
but at this point in time too many companies still feel compelled to have Outlook and Exchange Sever compatibility.
Maybe because Exchange and Outlook and head and shoulders above the competition for messaging/collaboration (or whatever category they call it nowadays)?
Seriously, when is someone going to try and compete in that space? Nothing else even comes close (and don't even try to argue with this).
Another point not taken into consideration, is that the driver for change in the 90's and early 00's was rapid hardware improvements with necessitated OS upgrades for support. Around about 2006 we reached a plateau where CPU, RAM, storage, video, USB etc all reached a level where it satisfied most people's requirements. Dual core CPU's were available to user for the first time, the MHz race had ended, RAM and storage was of sufficient size to never really have to think about it again, and most devices were USB plug and play for the first time ever. Since then there is no real reason to upgrade other than for shinyness (rather than for productivity). I still have my laptop from 2006 and it still does everything my brand new one does, it even has higher res screen.
The major changes since then have all been in the mobile space, which obviously MS is trying play catch up with Apple and Google. This is great if you want an MS phone or tablet, but for those of us that just want a cheap and reliable desktop experience, WinXP is still does the job, and I don't see how the UI can really be improved much. Corporates don't need flashy graphics, or pinch and swype touch interfaces. We need a simple desktop that is easily managed and is compatible with everything and supports all our apps. A keyboard and mouse are still the most efficient and productive input methods for a desktop. Right now, today, XP still does all that, so what is the driver behind the need to change?
I'm a IT Manager. I still have XP in my fleet because it still does everything we need it to do.
MS got it right with XP, it has enough features to be useful, but not too much fluff to be painful. I still rate XP as the best desktop OS in existence (features, UI, compatibility, support). Vista and 7 just made corporate SOEs harder and more complex to implement. The Win8 UI looks great for tablets and phones, but doesn't look likely lend itself to productivity. In a corporate environment you generally have only a handful of apps which you use every day, some of which are custom written, and mostly you have multiple windows open side by side that you work with. I am yet to see this simple function demonstrated in Win8 which has me a little concerned.
I remember when I first starting going to LAN parties. We'd organise an all night session so we could maximise game time, but even with a room full of IT nerds we very rarely got half of the allotted time dedicated to playing. There was always issues with setup, or some one forgot something and needed to borrow something, or someone's PC wasn't working right, or had different version of drivers/software/apps. It would take a good couple of hours just to get everything working right. I pity the poor teacher that has to rely on all 25 kids in the classroom turning up with their tablets in the same condition with the same apps, and the same config before any lesson can begin.
I agree with Bill. And in my experience it goes for Corporate too. Everyone in my dept has a tablet, but I've never seen them used for much more than killing time.
The PC still wins the productivity contest by a long, long way.
All of you must be a bit new here, or a bit on the whipper-snapper end of the age scale.
Gates destroyed a lot of companies through anti-competitive business practices which had very real potential to offer choice and alternative in the market. No, most people don't care about that because "look at the Gates Foundation!!".
I'm not young, but I don't care about it because a lot of those companies deserved to die. Clearly if you know what you are doing you can take on MS and win (Google, Apple etc), so it's a safe conclusion that the companies that died simply weren't good enough to compete
Netscape had a great product before Microsoft ruined that company.
Netscape ruined themselves. I distinctly remember the day IE4 was released, the company I worked for had an MS guy come in and do a demo. No Netscape guy ever showed up, and after using both browsers for a few months, it was clear that IE did more and cost less. When Firefox came out, IE got dropped, and when Chrome came out it Firefox got dumped. No MS conspiracy, just the best product wins (Best judged by the market, not by what some nerds in their mum's basement think should be better)
and The whole SCO, Novell and Microsoft Linux thing a Gates effort to ruin Free software.
When you watch some really great companies, and products, get decimated by corporate strong-arming over 20+ years you tend to become a bit bitter towards anything Microsoft or Gates. Even the philanthropy. I wouldn't be surprised to find he's making shady money on it.
Again who cares. If the products really were good they would stick around (see Chrome, Android, Dropbox, Facebook or any of the other myriad of free apps that are popular and aren't MS). You are just making excuses. Everyone is playing to win, Bill is just better at it.
Now that Bill is doing charity, he will do that better than everyone else too.
And let me correct you even just a little bit more...
Everyone discriminates. Not just race but anything. It is part of your ability to problem solve that when faced with a large number of objects, you naturally group objects into smaller more manageable subsets to help analyse them. This could be height, weight, colour of skin, colour of shirt, width of trouser legs etc. Everywhere you go your brain performs this grouping function to help it work stuff out. It happens everywhere and everyone does it in some form or another.
Contrary to the Apple Fanboy mantra, the iPad is not the be-all and end-all of everything electronic. Any gamer will tell you that there is no substitute for tactile buttons. Sure touch screens and motion sensors have their place, but when you want quick and responsive interaction, you can't go past physical buttons.
What party are you talking about? Are you expecting the smartphone/tablet/IT market about to dry up this year? Will consumers all of a suddenly stop choosing new products and stick with whatever device they have in 2012 and keep that for the rest of their lives?
The mobile/tablet market is still in its infancy like the PC circa 1991. MS was late then too and we all know what happened that time around.
I've had the Ericsson, the Nokia, the BB, the iPhone and now on Android. If MS get WP8 right I'd be willing to give it a go, and I'll bet real money they take a fairly reasonable chunk of the mobile market in the next couple of years. Don't believe this post PC era rubbish. MS own the corporate space so have an awful lot of leverage to get a lot of their mobile integrated devices into that space. Gartner are predicting MS to take #2 spot off Apple by 2015, and only a fool would believe they couldn't do it.
If anything is going to create a monoculture in the computing industry it will be the relentless drive from consumers that says PCs must be cheaper cheaper cheaper!
You forgot to mention how this is bad? I prefer computer prices AND quality today than 10 years ago. Same goes for airline tickets. Win! Win! Win!
A lot of cheaper flights?
I just bought some flights to Singapore, normally $900+, down to $400 with one of the major carriers new LCC. I've flown lots of airlines in all the classes and unless someone else is paying, I'm happy to take the cheapest ticket I can get.
But with a growing hole being left open as RIM dies, someone will want to step in to fill that void and exploit that market opportunity. Will it be Apple?
It will be MS. WP is a good product, and MS already has the corporate market sewn up, so assuming they don't royally fuck the Win8 , Phone/Tablet/PC/Console/Server integration piece, my prediction is that MS will clean up in the mobile space in the next year or two.
Apple has locked themselves into a corner so won't be able to keep up with the rapidly changing market (again - hello 1991), Android like Linux is flexible but fragmented (I'm a huge Android fan but the laggy UI and version support is disgusting), RIM is dead, so MS has the perfect opportunity to repeat their success of the mid 90's. Offer a product that is 'good enough', but offers a ubiquitous UI across the board (enterprise, corporate ad consumer) and customers will fall in your lap.
QandA is a fantastic format. It somehow gets the perfect mix of political interrogation and causal commentary with a bit of relaxed humour all rolled into one. It generally paints an accurate picture of of the subject matter at hand within an hour's easy viewing.
the widespread exposure of your favorite bands that allows them to play huge halls and arenas and charge $100 per ticket is purely a result of broadcast and recorded music.
True, but this not paying for it won't change this.
you're also dismissing any band that isn't famous enough to play those huge halls or charge those large amounts of money.
Bands will still be famous whether you pay for recorded music or not. Radio stations and Music videos will still exist.
to imply that we can simply "go back to the way it was before" is disingenous. This is a new playing field with new rules.
Not exactly the same, but actually better. Musicians will still record music, distribution will be free via the internet, radio or TV, and people will pay for concerts and merchandise. I don't see much changing apart from a bunch of fat rich guys in the middle suddenly losing their jobs.
I don't have any faith that Corporate America has very much intelligence.
When you say stuff like this it makes you look stupid. MS owns the corporate *western world* because MS is the only company that offers the complete suite of server and desktop apps with full integration. Apple doesn't do it. Linux doesn't do it (not without a whole lot of homebrewing). ServerOS, DesktopOS (with policy based control), email (with full collaboration calendar, contacts etc), database and Office this is what every business needs. Every company I've worked for (over 20 including some big players) all run MS as their base back-office platform, then add some apple/linux/unix where appropriate. Until someone else offers someone even remotely competitive as a complete suite with the same ease of use and smoothness of interface, MS will remain embedded in the corporate world.
because of the OS' bloat and the need for AV on Microsoft products. Nothing sucks your computing power like McAfee or Norton. Except for maybe being part of a botnet, that would really slow your machine down!
I stopped using AV about 5 or 6 years ago because of repeated performance issues. A fresh build of XP fully patched works a treat and I still rate it the best desktop OS around. Haven't had any issues since. I also have an Acronis image on separate partition and every now and again simply re-image my machine. The process takes about 15 minutes and makes the whole system good as new.
As for the endless barbs about windows security in here, the last major virus was Blaster back in 2003 there hasn't really been anything of note since. The main security risks are user related or not patching, both of which have little to do with which OS you use.
When are you guys going to accept that Linux on desktop/laptop is dead? It went from nowhere to next to nowhere and is heading back that way quickly. If you hate Windows, go Apple, or if you hate Apple go Windows. Most kids are not interested in programming, You owe it to them to teach them something that they'll actually see and use out in the real world.
Instead of asking yourself what Linux laptop you can afford, you should be asking yourself what serves your customers - the kids - best given your budget?
Hey this is a Linux crusade, your logic is not welcome here.
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Who gives a fuck? Ubuntu is a train wreck. If you're going to promote Linux, at least promote a good distro.
There isn't one. Linux on the desktop has always been a failure due to fragmentation. If you're going to promote Linux, talk about servers, not desktops.
Only Apple Haters care about Steve Jobs.
I take it you never went to any Apple events while Jobs was alive then?
The rest of us just like functional devices.
Functional like, being able to add memory, replace your battery, choose your own apps, modify your device as you see fit etc? That type of functionality?
The rest of us realize Jobs didn't really matter,
Wow, even Apple most haters admit Steve Jobs was an exceptional person, just not a god that's all.
except that he had a talent for creating teams with amazing people.
Not to belittle that talent, but since his team is the reason Apple succeeds Apple will do fine without him.
We'll have to agree to disagree with that. The Apple juggernaut has seen it's best days. The smart phone/tablet revolution has had it's best days, Apple led the charge, made a ton of cash, but consumers are fickle. When you replace your device every couple of years and have no driving reason to stick with a brand, people will buy whatever is latest or greatest. It only takes one missed product cycle and Apple will go down the toilet. I was out last night with a group of techy mates who all jumped on the iPhone band wagon a few years ago. Now they all have Androids because it does more and cost less, and doesn't break when you look at it sideways. I can't see how with Apple's restrictive environment can maintain enough innovation to stay competitive.
I'm in the process of shifting our 2000 accounts from our own mail server to google apps for education.
Running your own mail server is a pain in the ass these days. With the massive torrent of spam - including pornographic spam - that gets ever harder to filter, without also blocking legitimate mail. RBLs on SMTP, greylisting, bayesian filters, image-to-text converters to then run bayesian analysis on... it's not even close to enough.
It always amuses me when people blame the product when they aren't using it properly. Running a mail server these days (assuming your using the best of breed solution which everyone in here seems to have a religious hatred for) requires next to no maintenance. This is why people buy commercial solutions, because spending money upfront generally saves a lot of money later on by not having to patch together a whole bunch of 'free' tools which you spend the rest of you life tweaking to keep it working. It's no surprise you'r having issues managing spam, I never seen it done effectively in-house, I wonder why anyone even tries to do this, which is why I outsource this to the best of breed mail filtering companies. Again, I've never had any issues and maintenance is next to nil. Cost/Benefit sells itself if you done your analysis properly. All of your issues seem to stem from poor design and religious choice rather than anything technical. And don't try to sell Google Docs as a solution. It may work in mum and dad shops or education where your users are kids who have no productivity requirement, but in the real world where time is money, there is a reason the #1 corporate email server is #1. And this whole article seems to have missed the driver behind these numbers. Android is the top cell phone OS and it uses gmail accounts natively, hence the popularity of gmail accounts right now. Nothing more nothing less. If WP8 kicks off as all the experts are claiming, then you will see hotmail come back.
2006 era hardware can't fun Vista well at all.
What?
Security holes galore
FUD
no thunderport/USB 3 support, no trim in SSDs mean life ends in weeks to month on XP,
shineyness that is not required
crappy wifi support and so on exist if you stay with XP.
My wi-fi works fine thanks
If you are tied to IE then
I'm not
No you can't manage FF or Chrome from the Microsoft Management Console with full Active Directory Support so they do not exist.
What management? I install a browser and it works? I can only assume you work somewhere where you IT dept treats you user like children, locked down to the hilt so that can't scratch themselves. My users are adults and I bet they are a lot more productive than yours even with a 10 year old OS.
Worse if you have McCrappy on 2006 era hardware then your workers will sit around running 1 app at a time or taking extended lunch hours as their pcs will be unusable. There is some very crappy security software and IE 6 addons that will slow a computer with less than 4 gigs of ram down easily.
Don't use either. Endpoint security is a con
What has changed is not computers being fast enough. It is the bad economic environment taught accountants not to upgrade and view computers as costs rather than investments. It is now cool to run outdated hardware/software to save money.
Lol what has not changed is suckers who think you need to feed the upgrade monster because the marketing guy told you to. We upgrade when there is a reason to upgrade not because our account manager needs a new car.
but at this point in time too many companies still feel compelled to have Outlook and Exchange Sever compatibility.
Maybe because Exchange and Outlook and head and shoulders above the competition for messaging/collaboration (or whatever category they call it nowadays)? Seriously, when is someone going to try and compete in that space? Nothing else even comes close (and don't even try to argue with this).
Its time to let things go and move on.
We don't use IE.
Another point not taken into consideration, is that the driver for change in the 90's and early 00's was rapid hardware improvements with necessitated OS upgrades for support. Around about 2006 we reached a plateau where CPU, RAM, storage, video, USB etc all reached a level where it satisfied most people's requirements. Dual core CPU's were available to user for the first time, the MHz race had ended, RAM and storage was of sufficient size to never really have to think about it again, and most devices were USB plug and play for the first time ever. Since then there is no real reason to upgrade other than for shinyness (rather than for productivity). I still have my laptop from 2006 and it still does everything my brand new one does, it even has higher res screen. The major changes since then have all been in the mobile space, which obviously MS is trying play catch up with Apple and Google. This is great if you want an MS phone or tablet, but for those of us that just want a cheap and reliable desktop experience, WinXP is still does the job, and I don't see how the UI can really be improved much. Corporates don't need flashy graphics, or pinch and swype touch interfaces. We need a simple desktop that is easily managed and is compatible with everything and supports all our apps. A keyboard and mouse are still the most efficient and productive input methods for a desktop. Right now, today, XP still does all that, so what is the driver behind the need to change?
I'm a IT Manager. I still have XP in my fleet because it still does everything we need it to do. MS got it right with XP, it has enough features to be useful, but not too much fluff to be painful. I still rate XP as the best desktop OS in existence (features, UI, compatibility, support). Vista and 7 just made corporate SOEs harder and more complex to implement. The Win8 UI looks great for tablets and phones, but doesn't look likely lend itself to productivity. In a corporate environment you generally have only a handful of apps which you use every day, some of which are custom written, and mostly you have multiple windows open side by side that you work with. I am yet to see this simple function demonstrated in Win8 which has me a little concerned.
I remember when I first starting going to LAN parties. We'd organise an all night session so we could maximise game time, but even with a room full of IT nerds we very rarely got half of the allotted time dedicated to playing. There was always issues with setup, or some one forgot something and needed to borrow something, or someone's PC wasn't working right, or had different version of drivers/software/apps. It would take a good couple of hours just to get everything working right. I pity the poor teacher that has to rely on all 25 kids in the classroom turning up with their tablets in the same condition with the same apps, and the same config before any lesson can begin. I agree with Bill. And in my experience it goes for Corporate too. Everyone in my dept has a tablet, but I've never seen them used for much more than killing time. The PC still wins the productivity contest by a long, long way.
All of you must be a bit new here, or a bit on the whipper-snapper end of the age scale.
Gates destroyed a lot of companies through anti-competitive business practices which had very real potential to offer choice and alternative in the market. No, most people don't care about that because "look at the Gates Foundation!!".
I'm not young, but I don't care about it because a lot of those companies deserved to die. Clearly if you know what you are doing you can take on MS and win (Google, Apple etc), so it's a safe conclusion that the companies that died simply weren't good enough to compete
Netscape had a great product before Microsoft ruined that company.
Netscape ruined themselves. I distinctly remember the day IE4 was released, the company I worked for had an MS guy come in and do a demo. No Netscape guy ever showed up, and after using both browsers for a few months, it was clear that IE did more and cost less. When Firefox came out, IE got dropped, and when Chrome came out it Firefox got dumped. No MS conspiracy, just the best product wins (Best judged by the market, not by what some nerds in their mum's basement think should be better)
and The whole SCO, Novell and Microsoft Linux thing a Gates effort to ruin Free software.
When you watch some really great companies, and products, get decimated by corporate strong-arming over 20+ years you tend to become a bit bitter towards anything Microsoft or Gates. Even the philanthropy. I wouldn't be surprised to find he's making shady money on it.
Again who cares. If the products really were good they would stick around (see Chrome, Android, Dropbox, Facebook or any of the other myriad of free apps that are popular and aren't MS). You are just making excuses. Everyone is playing to win, Bill is just better at it. Now that Bill is doing charity, he will do that better than everyone else too.
And let me correct you even just a little bit more... Everyone discriminates. Not just race but anything. It is part of your ability to problem solve that when faced with a large number of objects, you naturally group objects into smaller more manageable subsets to help analyse them. This could be height, weight, colour of skin, colour of shirt, width of trouser legs etc. Everywhere you go your brain performs this grouping function to help it work stuff out. It happens everywhere and everyone does it in some form or another.
Contrary to the Apple Fanboy mantra, the iPad is not the be-all and end-all of everything electronic. Any gamer will tell you that there is no substitute for tactile buttons. Sure touch screens and motion sensors have their place, but when you want quick and responsive interaction, you can't go past physical buttons.
Because MS is 5 years too late to the party...?
What party are you talking about? Are you expecting the smartphone/tablet/IT market about to dry up this year? Will consumers all of a suddenly stop choosing new products and stick with whatever device they have in 2012 and keep that for the rest of their lives? The mobile/tablet market is still in its infancy like the PC circa 1991. MS was late then too and we all know what happened that time around. I've had the Ericsson, the Nokia, the BB, the iPhone and now on Android. If MS get WP8 right I'd be willing to give it a go, and I'll bet real money they take a fairly reasonable chunk of the mobile market in the next couple of years. Don't believe this post PC era rubbish. MS own the corporate space so have an awful lot of leverage to get a lot of their mobile integrated devices into that space. Gartner are predicting MS to take #2 spot off Apple by 2015, and only a fool would believe they couldn't do it.
Their "Screw the user, unless they have a credit card" attitude back with the Windows Mobile phones are what drove me to Apple in the first place.
Did you actually read what you just wrote? When it comes to customer's money, Apple is MS on steroids.
I just bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab 7.7 32GB (wifi only) for $360AUD*. $600 is ridiculous. *on special, sold out now sorry :)
If anything is going to create a monoculture in the computing industry it will be the relentless drive from consumers that says PCs must be cheaper cheaper cheaper!
You forgot to mention how this is bad? I prefer computer prices AND quality today than 10 years ago. Same goes for airline tickets. Win! Win! Win!
A lot of cheaper flights? I just bought some flights to Singapore, normally $900+, down to $400 with one of the major carriers new LCC. I've flown lots of airlines in all the classes and unless someone else is paying, I'm happy to take the cheapest ticket I can get.
But with a growing hole being left open as RIM dies, someone will want to step in to fill that void and exploit that market opportunity. Will it be Apple?
It will be MS. WP is a good product, and MS already has the corporate market sewn up, so assuming they don't royally fuck the Win8 , Phone/Tablet/PC/Console/Server integration piece, my prediction is that MS will clean up in the mobile space in the next year or two. Apple has locked themselves into a corner so won't be able to keep up with the rapidly changing market (again - hello 1991), Android like Linux is flexible but fragmented (I'm a huge Android fan but the laggy UI and version support is disgusting), RIM is dead, so MS has the perfect opportunity to repeat their success of the mid 90's. Offer a product that is 'good enough', but offers a ubiquitous UI across the board (enterprise, corporate ad consumer) and customers will fall in your lap.
QandA is a fantastic format. It somehow gets the perfect mix of political interrogation and causal commentary with a bit of relaxed humour all rolled into one. It generally paints an accurate picture of of the subject matter at hand within an hour's easy viewing.
The real answer is because they are actually from Nigeria. I think the researchers are over-thinking this problem.
the widespread exposure of your favorite bands that allows them to play huge halls and arenas and charge $100 per ticket is purely a result of broadcast and recorded music.
True, but this not paying for it won't change this.
you're also dismissing any band that isn't famous enough to play those huge halls or charge those large amounts of money.
Bands will still be famous whether you pay for recorded music or not. Radio stations and Music videos will still exist.
to imply that we can simply "go back to the way it was before" is disingenous. This is a new playing field with new rules.
Not exactly the same, but actually better. Musicians will still record music, distribution will be free via the internet, radio or TV, and people will pay for concerts and merchandise. I don't see much changing apart from a bunch of fat rich guys in the middle suddenly losing their jobs.
I don't have any faith that Corporate America has very much intelligence.
When you say stuff like this it makes you look stupid. MS owns the corporate *western world* because MS is the only company that offers the complete suite of server and desktop apps with full integration. Apple doesn't do it. Linux doesn't do it (not without a whole lot of homebrewing). ServerOS, DesktopOS (with policy based control), email (with full collaboration calendar, contacts etc), database and Office this is what every business needs. Every company I've worked for (over 20 including some big players) all run MS as their base back-office platform, then add some apple/linux/unix where appropriate. Until someone else offers someone even remotely competitive as a complete suite with the same ease of use and smoothness of interface, MS will remain embedded in the corporate world.
because of the OS' bloat and the need for AV on Microsoft products. Nothing sucks your computing power like McAfee or Norton. Except for maybe being part of a botnet, that would really slow your machine down!
I stopped using AV about 5 or 6 years ago because of repeated performance issues. A fresh build of XP fully patched works a treat and I still rate it the best desktop OS around. Haven't had any issues since. I also have an Acronis image on separate partition and every now and again simply re-image my machine. The process takes about 15 minutes and makes the whole system good as new. As for the endless barbs about windows security in here, the last major virus was Blaster back in 2003 there hasn't really been anything of note since. The main security risks are user related or not patching, both of which have little to do with which OS you use.
When are you guys going to accept that Linux on desktop/laptop is dead? It went from nowhere to next to nowhere and is heading back that way quickly. If you hate Windows, go Apple, or if you hate Apple go Windows. Most kids are not interested in programming, You owe it to them to teach them something that they'll actually see and use out in the real world.
>
Instead of asking yourself what Linux laptop you can afford, you should be asking yourself what serves your customers - the kids - best given your budget?
Hey this is a Linux crusade, your logic is not welcome here.