IF AOL/TW has one recurring, bankable asset of note, its intellectual property. Their profits from IP far outweigh the ISP profits. This is the company that brought you Harry Potter and LOTR.
Really, you can't have any expectation that this guy is going to promote free content distribution.
Re:Congrats to the Brits
on
The Euro
·
· Score: 3, Insightful
Being in the Euro zone with all these other countries UK and USA products are getting slighly more expensive but guess what? The other Euro zone countries also produce a lot of these products so maybee I will buy them instead of somthing from the US/UK
Really? Name a major manufacturer of computing equipment that in the EU that is not a foreign conglomerate.
Get used to paying more for the products you really want.
No, more like the Soviet Union
on
The Euro
·
· Score: 2
The oversight committees and policy boards of a conglomerate-state EU are completely beyond the oversight of individual voters in the respective member nations. Progress? Sure, if you consider bureaucracy progress. Once again, the Americans got it right here - a weak President, with the real power resting on locally elected officials.
The EU on the other hand is governed by the same socialist leftovers who fled from elected politics in member nations years ago.
Congrats to the Brits
on
The Euro
·
· Score: 1, Interesting
For having the brains to let the rest of Europe muck around with the Euro before they bother with it. They have the facts on their side - the Euro has drifted lower and lower with regards to the greenback since it was introduced.
Until the EU can get the Euro some value, the Brits are much better off using Sterling for a few more years.
Don't start by replacing people's desktop's - go on the server end and let linux shine where is truly can compete with the other solutions out there and demonstrably come out ahead.
Use common sense on the desktop - people can still use Windows and get the power of linux off the server - ssh client tools are available for secure access.
Don't try replacing Windows on the desktop...you will find that the vast majority of people aren't nearly as obsessed with monopoly politics as they are with using their favorite plugins.
The point is that the apps people would most desperately want to see migrated to linux are Microsoft apps - Office in particular (thats the point of all these Excel ripoffs, isn't it???). Guess what? It ain't gonna happen.
The true reality, the one that bites, is that linux users need to realize that linux is utterly useless as a desktop platform. Deal with it! The userbase is so small that no one is ever going to waste time migrating apps that aren't precisely vertical in nature (like Maya). In fact, linux only has one modern, competitive general market desktop app - Mozilla. The rest of the apps are useless or outdated (yes, StarOffic included).
Stick to using linux for serving and web development - thats one market linux can win.
Being a profitable desktop computer maker has little to do with technology these days - its all about operations, logistics, and cost controls. Dell has simply outmoded the usual suspects, HP, Compaq and IBM, kaing it simply too costly to stay in the market.
For IBM, this is a smart move as commodity electronics is not closely related to their new profit centers - research, services, and high end computing.
For Compaq and HP, continuing to go up against Dell is simply going to result in more layoffs and downsizing.
The fucntions you desire already exist - they are the range-checking standard functions. Yet few people use them in favor of the unsafe originals.
In the end, the ultimate issue is the use of a programming language (C or C++) that provides no memory management or garbage collection. Memory management issues lurk behind a vast number of the bugs and exploits you hear about, and on that fine day when people start executing their code in memory-managed sandbox environments, the world will be a safer place. Unfortunately C will likely be in heavy use for the next twenty years and exist in legacy code until you die, so maybe learning how to find overflow exploits is a good career move.
Its fairly obvious at this point that there is little to no commercial support for the Transmeta product line.
Power consumption and heat dissipation are issues to consumers and manufacturers, but clearly not enough to warrant employing a lower performance architecture at this point. Added to which, it appears that competitors were capable of rolling out competing technology far too quickly - Transmeta never hada chance to get support.
At this point it seems that the smartest thing Transmeta can do is start shopping its assets around to possible suitors.
FreeBSD will have a native Java. FreeBSD will also have a native port of C# tools through Corel. Linux will have to wait for Ximian to code up Mono. Looks like its linux playing catch-up now. Oh wait, they linux has real databases. Forget I said any of this.
Its just a numbers game. You don't port code for which it is unlikely that the costs of making the port will not be recovered through sales. Given the number of desktop BeOS users, you would have been insane to port software to that platform.
Now you can turn that argument around on me and say that a platform isn't worth porting to until there is a set of ported apps existing that make it worthwhile, so someone has to take the risk at some point, with the possible benefits of being first-mover.
That may be true if it weren't for nearly total sautration in the desktop OS market. Everyone in the US who wants a desktop PC already has one (or two). There is very little grwoth in this market, in fact it is arguably flat. Couple this with the fact that 95% of desktop users use Windows, and that is why you will never get ROI on an alternative desktop system at this point.
AOL has been screwed since day one. They have painted themselves into a very colorful corner and can't get out. Think about this: They're whole business is based on software that is tied to their executioner - Microsoft.
BZZZT! The Time Warner in AOL Time Warner now is the biggest revenue contributor. Yes AOL's online service is beholden to MS, but this is not the "whole" business for them, not by a longshot. Arguably AOL is now more of an intellectual property arbiter with the huge assets Time Warner brought to the table. Look who is succeeding Gerald Levin - Parsons from Time Warner, not Pittman from AOL. Hint hint.
SBC has been in talks to acquire AT&T for months. Losing the cable business was the provision for the deal to go forward. I expect AT&T to be part of SBC by March at the latest.
AT&T, since Armstrong became CEO, has been an ongoing tale of poor decisions and huge losses. Its worth noting that AT&T lost money owning the cable business - Armstrong was paid an astounding amount to build the cable empire at AT&T only to sell it for less than it cost him. Pathetic. Armstrong clearly needs to go, but at this point its unlikely AT&T will survivce in any case - they will almost certainly be swallowed by SBC.
As for the cable business, Comcast can only be an improvement. AT&T service was dismal, but typical of this truly out of date corporate dinosaur.
PLease point me at one business or individual that needs (not wants, because those people will drop the subscription at the first juncture) to download RPMs thirty minutes faster than the rest of the world. Admit it- this makes no sense!
It makes perfect sense for Ximian, a startup, to cut costs. It helps level the path to profitability
They have a inherent revenue target to justify the overhead of taking on the project in the first place. You don't spend money to cut costs. You spend money to grow revenue. If cost cutting is your gig (which is shouldn't be for a company as young as Ximian, and I'm talking Business 101 here), then you simply don't assume the overhead of the project at all.
But their business decisions (Evolution, the Mono.NET platform, and Red Carpet) all have been strategically designed to further that goal
Evolution and Mono are designed ot make sure Linux becomes an perpetually eighteen-months-out-of-date open clone of Windows. Red Carpet, by your own admission, is not designed to make money. So where is the business?? Before you answer, look up previous posts defending Eazel and you'll hear your same args.
The more companies begin to deploy GNOME desktops (particularly as HP and Sun move in that direction), the more you'll see Ximian being paid for partnerships
Sun and HP desktop markets? These are potentially even smaller than the x86 linux markets.
When the only thing most linux programs share in common is stdlib, you can pretty much expect very little in the way of design. Hell, the linux community can't even decide on a base GUI toolkit to use, something MS and Apple solved over a decade ago.
145 Excell docements sitting in a global "My Documents" folder on an NT SP6 'server' does not a business mangment system make.
Anyone who cuts their grass with scissors is an idiot. Therefore scissors are useless and scissor manufacturers are evil and scissor users are stupid.
Your explanation makes it even less compelling
on
Ximian Adds Subscription
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
Red Carpet Express is not a sign that we're backing away from our free Red Carpet service.
Red Carpet Express is not a sign that we're backing away from our mirror network.
So who are you actually appealing to? Red Carpet on its own in any form is only going to appeal to a fraction of users - those who perform their own major upgrades between distro versions. Now take this audience and reduce to only those who depserately need the highest bandwidth....so who exactly is this?
As it stands, it is incredibly easy to spoof your model - just sign up for one account and use it to distribute to free mirrors. The free sites would potetnially only be a half hour behind the paid update.
Ximian desperately needs a REAL business model
on
Ximian Adds Subscription
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Subscriptions will not support Ximian. Red Hat already offers a more compelling product - they'll update your entire OS, not just the UI.
I don't really see how Ximian is going to make it. At the end of the day they are really just another Eazel - a company with a neat product that you can obtain for free. There simply is not a compelling reason to give Ximian money.
The best advice I could give them at this point is to develop some truly useful and unique linux apps and sell them. People will pay for something they cannot get elsewhere if it truly enhances the utility of their system.
For example, I would pay for a Real JukeBox type system that united all of the functions of the various linux music programs in one nice package.
Bullshit. Anybody who creates documents/reports for a living wants the computer to do all of the work of formatting/typesetting for them. Unix has ALWAYS shined at this (troff, nroff, LaTeX, etc.)
Find me three business executives who use nroff to format documents on a regular basis.
And (although they do) no business should EVER be using spreadsheets for day-to-day information gathering, storage, and retrieval
The point of the spreadsheet is data analysis and presentation.
Given the proper distro, you can pretty much use KDE apps to whip up business documents quickly. I'm not saying that this is what most business people are likely to do, but it can be done.
In any case, I think its been fairly well concluded and beaten to death that Linux is unlikely to ever give Microsoft any real competition in desktop business apps, and everyone seems to be at peace with this, so it really is a dead issue.
Slashdot Mirror
Really, you can't have any expectation that this guy is going to promote free content distribution.
Really? Name a major manufacturer of computing equipment that in the EU that is not a foreign conglomerate.
Get used to paying more for the products you really want.
The EU on the other hand is governed by the same socialist leftovers who fled from elected politics in member nations years ago.
Until the EU can get the Euro some value, the Brits are much better off using Sterling for a few more years.
Use common sense on the desktop - people can still use Windows and get the power of linux off the server - ssh client tools are available for secure access.
Don't try replacing Windows on the desktop...you will find that the vast majority of people aren't nearly as obsessed with monopoly politics as they are with using their favorite plugins.
The true reality, the one that bites, is that linux users need to realize that linux is utterly useless as a desktop platform. Deal with it! The userbase is so small that no one is ever going to waste time migrating apps that aren't precisely vertical in nature (like Maya). In fact, linux only has one modern, competitive general market desktop app - Mozilla. The rest of the apps are useless or outdated (yes, StarOffic included).
Stick to using linux for serving and web development - thats one market linux can win.
For IBM, this is a smart move as commodity electronics is not closely related to their new profit centers - research, services, and high end computing.
For Compaq and HP, continuing to go up against Dell is simply going to result in more layoffs and downsizing.
In the end, the ultimate issue is the use of a programming language (C or C++) that provides no memory management or garbage collection. Memory management issues lurk behind a vast number of the bugs and exploits you hear about, and on that fine day when people start executing their code in memory-managed sandbox environments, the world will be a safer place. Unfortunately C will likely be in heavy use for the next twenty years and exist in legacy code until you die, so maybe learning how to find overflow exploits is a good career move.
Power consumption and heat dissipation are issues to consumers and manufacturers, but clearly not enough to warrant employing a lower performance architecture at this point. Added to which, it appears that competitors were capable of rolling out competing technology far too quickly - Transmeta never hada chance to get support.
At this point it seems that the smartest thing Transmeta can do is start shopping its assets around to possible suitors.
FreeBSD will have a native Java. FreeBSD will also have a native port of C# tools through Corel. Linux will have to wait for Ximian to code up Mono. Looks like its linux playing catch-up now. Oh wait, they linux has real databases. Forget I said any of this.
Now you can turn that argument around on me and say that a platform isn't worth porting to until there is a set of ported apps existing that make it worthwhile, so someone has to take the risk at some point, with the possible benefits of being first-mover.
That may be true if it weren't for nearly total sautration in the desktop OS market. Everyone in the US who wants a desktop PC already has one (or two). There is very little grwoth in this market, in fact it is arguably flat. Couple this with the fact that 95% of desktop users use Windows, and that is why you will never get ROI on an alternative desktop system at this point.
BZZZT! The Time Warner in AOL Time Warner now is the biggest revenue contributor. Yes AOL's online service is beholden to MS, but this is not the "whole" business for them, not by a longshot. Arguably AOL is now more of an intellectual property arbiter with the huge assets Time Warner brought to the table. Look who is succeeding Gerald Levin - Parsons from Time Warner, not Pittman from AOL. Hint hint.
When did this happen?
SBC has been in talks to acquire AT&T for months. Losing the cable business was the provision for the deal to go forward. I expect AT&T to be part of SBC by March at the latest.
As for the cable business, Comcast can only be an improvement. AT&T service was dismal, but typical of this truly out of date corporate dinosaur.
PLease point me at one business or individual that needs (not wants, because those people will drop the subscription at the first juncture) to download RPMs thirty minutes faster than the rest of the world. Admit it- this makes no sense!
They have a inherent revenue target to justify the overhead of taking on the project in the first place. You don't spend money to cut costs. You spend money to grow revenue. If cost cutting is your gig (which is shouldn't be for a company as young as Ximian, and I'm talking Business 101 here), then you simply don't assume the overhead of the project at all.
But their business decisions (Evolution, the Mono .NET platform, and Red Carpet) all have been strategically designed to further that goal
Evolution and Mono are designed ot make sure Linux becomes an perpetually eighteen-months-out-of-date open clone of Windows. Red Carpet, by your own admission, is not designed to make money. So where is the business?? Before you answer, look up previous posts defending Eazel and you'll hear your same args.
The more companies begin to deploy GNOME desktops (particularly as HP and Sun move in that direction), the more you'll see Ximian being paid for partnerships
Sun and HP desktop markets? These are potentially even smaller than the x86 linux markets.
Remember I said "unique" product. Email clients already exist by the dozen. The added features of Evolution don't merit a price tag.
If all you are trying to do is save money on bandwidth, simply go out of business, your bandwidth costs will be zero.
An easily spoofable model means lost revenues. Are you trying to grow revenues or just cut costs? You're a startup. Grow like one.
When the only thing most linux programs share in common is stdlib, you can pretty much expect very little in the way of design. Hell, the linux community can't even decide on a base GUI toolkit to use, something MS and Apple solved over a decade ago.
Anyone who cuts their grass with scissors is an idiot. Therefore scissors are useless and scissor manufacturers are evil and scissor users are stupid.
Red Carpet Express is not a sign that we're backing away from our mirror network.
So who are you actually appealing to? Red Carpet on its own in any form is only going to appeal to a fraction of users - those who perform their own major upgrades between distro versions. Now take this audience and reduce to only those who depserately need the highest bandwidth....so who exactly is this?
As it stands, it is incredibly easy to spoof your model - just sign up for one account and use it to distribute to free mirrors. The free sites would potetnially only be a half hour behind the paid update.
I don't really see how Ximian is going to make it. At the end of the day they are really just another Eazel - a company with a neat product that you can obtain for free. There simply is not a compelling reason to give Ximian money.
The best advice I could give them at this point is to develop some truly useful and unique linux apps and sell them. People will pay for something they cannot get elsewhere if it truly enhances the utility of their system.
For example, I would pay for a Real JukeBox type system that united all of the functions of the various linux music programs in one nice package.
BZZZT. Dell offered it. Very few people bought it.
Find me three business executives who use nroff to format documents on a regular basis.
And (although they do) no business should EVER be using spreadsheets for day-to-day information gathering, storage, and retrieval
The point of the spreadsheet is data analysis and presentation.
In any case, I think its been fairly well concluded and beaten to death that Linux is unlikely to ever give Microsoft any real competition in desktop business apps, and everyone seems to be at peace with this, so it really is a dead issue.