Steve Jobs said this before he returned to Apple - when he was still in charge of NeXT - he said "I would milk the Mac for all it's worth and then move onto the next big thing". Looks to me like he's doing that.
microsoft's strategy with windows has always been integration - everything in one box, tied together. They are desperately trying to turn that around - hence Microsoft "Shoe" and SPOT and so on.
They will still dominate in "computers" but "computers" won't be as important as they are now. Bill Gates has already conceded the mobile phone market, saying that Windows Mobile will be just one of many platforms.
whenever I see the words "de facto standard" it makes me think of Epson printers in the late eighties. If you had a (dot matrix) printer it had better be "epson compatible" otherwise your (DOS) word-processor probably won't be able to talk to it. Epson controlled the printer codes and everyone else was playing catch up - and the other manufacturers couldn't break the stranglehold, because to do so you would have to persuade everyone who wrote software to support your printer.
But today, Epson are just another manufacturer. Why? Because the world around them changed - specifically Windows 3 came along. Now you didn't have to persuade the whole world to support your printer; you only needed to write a single driver for Windows. And with that one change, the period of domination was over for Epson.
Likewise, today, if you want to write software it pretty much has to be for Windows if you want it to be widespread. But the shift is coming - people thought it was the web that would provide this shift, but it will actually be the death of the general purpose computer. Microsoft banked everything on making the PC the centre of the world - and it worked for fifteen years, but that time is coming to an end. Hence the XBox and Media Centre and NT Embedded - all ways that Microsoft is desperately trying to take their everything in one box vision and hammer it into this new world.
cos Next/OpenStep/Cocoa are based upon Objective C, which is a small step from Smalltalk. And that is too weird for the majority of developers who are used to curly braces, for loops and if statements.
Cos the old API is crap. And the new features and capabilities are security and reliability - things that need to be built in from the bottom up rather than being built on sand.
Carbon was a port of the OS 8 (via Quicktime) APIs to OSX - it's just that the APIs were such a mess they took the decision to clean them up before porting (breaking compatibility).
Hence you get Classic applications (OS 8/9), Carbon applications (OS 9/X) or Cocoa applications (OS X). (And the Classic environment isn't an emulator - it's more like running a copy of Win95 in VMWare inside WinXP).
But that's irrelevant. I'm not saying do away with Win32 - just that they should have made.NET totally separate from it. Otherwise you get implementations from the underlying layer creeping into the supposedly clean API (why else would you have access to HWNDs and WndProcs in.NET?)
Win32 is one of many possible APIs to the NT kernel - it just happens to be the one with the most development against it and (most importantly) is backwards compatible with Windows 9X.
If they are going to have a whole new API (which is what.NET really is) then why build it on top of the flaky and ugly Win32 API, when it could be inserted as a peer to the Win32 API (in the same way that Carbon and Cocoa are on OSX).
exactly, all the stuff was already there, but MS repackaged it so that people wanted it. and i say that as someone who preferred most of the alternatives listed above.
depends who you are selling to... my company sells to a few (UK) local government authorities and SQL Server is a "tick in a box" on their checklists. Sybase currently isn't, but being a "brand name" will probably help it there. Postgres doesn't even come into the equation
one major difference is that ZombieSpamBot.exe can open port 25 without admin rights; Zombie Spam Bot.app cannot.
I am interested to see what security Apple will introduce around Dashboard widgets/gadgets - simple to write and (probably) freely downloadable, but with access to Cocoa and AppleScript sounds like a nightmare to me.
I'm in the UK and rely on Sainsbury's to deliver my food - the delivery charge is not a problem. I look on it as saving two hours of my time per week (what with driving through traffic on a saturday or sunday, trying to find parking and chasing after the kids) - so 2.50 an hour is well worth it.
yes you can really say that to your clients when they are so busy bringing in thousands of pounds worth of business every week that they don't have the time or the inclination to learn computer esoterics. MOST PEOPLE SIMPLY WANT TO EARN THEIR PAY AND GO HOME. The computer just gets in the way
You've obvioulsy been to an office and had people say "i didn't know you could do that" when you right-click. and then go back a month later and have the same people say "i didn't know you could do that". Most people simply do not remember things like right-click menus because they have more important things to think about (like getting their jobs done and going home) - which is why a right-click menu should NEVER be the only way of accessing functionality.
It's not the fact that they're a monopoly - it's a remedy for them previously ABUSING their monopoly position. Apple doesn't have a monopoly position to abuse.
It's like ruling that a burglar is not allowed to carry a crowbar in the street and the burglar's riposte being "I should be allowed to carry whatever I want". Well, ordinarily you can, but you broke the law and this is the remedy to prevent you doing it again.
Slashdot Mirror
Yet I've missed calls because I've been listening to my iPod and not heard the phone (vibrate doesn't help when you're being pushed about on a train).
Normally I'd agree about convergence being a bad thing, but I only have a couple of pockets and most of the time they're full.
Steve Jobs said this before he returned to Apple - when he was still in charge of NeXT - he said "I would milk the Mac for all it's worth and then move onto the next big thing". Looks to me like he's doing that.
you want realbasic then
you make one major assumption - that the margin on selling an iMac G5 is similar to the margin on selling an OEM copy of OSX.
I have no idea what the figures are, but I would guess that it is several hundred dollars on the iMac and break even, or maybe a loss, on OSX.
when did i ever mention linux?
microsoft's strategy with windows has always been integration - everything in one box, tied together. They are desperately trying to turn that around - hence Microsoft "Shoe" and SPOT and so on.
They will still dominate in "computers" but "computers" won't be as important as they are now. Bill Gates has already conceded the mobile phone market, saying that Windows Mobile will be just one of many platforms.
Absolutely bollock all to do with Linux.
whenever I see the words "de facto standard" it makes me think of Epson printers in the late eighties. If you had a (dot matrix) printer it had better be "epson compatible" otherwise your (DOS) word-processor probably won't be able to talk to it. Epson controlled the printer codes and everyone else was playing catch up - and the other manufacturers couldn't break the stranglehold, because to do so you would have to persuade everyone who wrote software to support your printer.
But today, Epson are just another manufacturer. Why? Because the world around them changed - specifically Windows 3 came along. Now you didn't have to persuade the whole world to support your printer; you only needed to write a single driver for Windows. And with that one change, the period of domination was over for Epson.
Likewise, today, if you want to write software it pretty much has to be for Windows if you want it to be widespread. But the shift is coming - people thought it was the web that would provide this shift, but it will actually be the death of the general purpose computer. Microsoft banked everything on making the PC the centre of the world - and it worked for fifteen years, but that time is coming to an end. Hence the XBox and Media Centre and NT Embedded - all ways that Microsoft is desperately trying to take their everything in one box vision and hammer it into this new world.
Apple announced their fast filesystem search as part of the never released Copland OS in about 1994
nothing. if the user trusts your app the user trusts your app - just that it's that bit more difficult to spoof users
Although the official one does inform you of which app is asking (if you expand the disclosure triangle)
cos Next/OpenStep/Cocoa are based upon Objective C, which is a small step from Smalltalk. And that is too weird for the majority of developers who are used to curly braces, for loops and if statements.
Cos the old API is crap. And the new features and capabilities are security and reliability - things that need to be built in from the bottom up rather than being built on sand.
Carbon was a port of the OS 8 (via Quicktime) APIs to OSX - it's just that the APIs were such a mess they took the decision to clean them up before porting (breaking compatibility).
.NET totally separate from it. Otherwise you get implementations from the underlying layer creeping into the supposedly clean API (why else would you have access to HWNDs and WndProcs in .NET?)
Hence you get Classic applications (OS 8/9), Carbon applications (OS 9/X) or Cocoa applications (OS X). (And the Classic environment isn't an emulator - it's more like running a copy of Win95 in VMWare inside WinXP).
But that's irrelevant. I'm not saying do away with Win32 - just that they should have made
Win32 is one of many possible APIs to the NT kernel - it just happens to be the one with the most development against it and (most importantly) is backwards compatible with Windows 9X.
.NET really is) then why build it on top of the flaky and ugly Win32 API, when it could be inserted as a peer to the Win32 API (in the same way that Carbon and Cocoa are on OSX).
If they are going to have a whole new API (which is what
Download Tinker Tool, select "Show hidden files", click the button to relaunch the Finder.
Or you the Find option (in the Finder) and select "show hidden files"
all the best things about ruby (and java and object programming and AOP) all come from Smalltalk.
So why not just use Smalltalk?
exactly, all the stuff was already there, but MS repackaged it so that people wanted it. and i say that as someone who preferred most of the alternatives listed above.
depends who you are selling to ... my company sells to a few (UK) local government authorities and SQL Server is a "tick in a box" on their checklists. Sybase currently isn't, but being a "brand name" will probably help it there.
Postgres doesn't even come into the equation
With a projector instead of a screen, the ability to use bluetooth keyboards and mice, built in phone, radio, music player and dual G5 processors.
Office for Mac still includes a port of VB and a full COM interoperability layer so big chunks of it can work the same across both platforms
one major difference is that ZombieSpamBot.exe can open port 25 without admin rights; Zombie Spam Bot.app cannot.
I am interested to see what security Apple will introduce around Dashboard widgets/gadgets - simple to write and (probably) freely downloadable, but with access to Cocoa and AppleScript sounds like a nightmare to me.
I'm in the UK and rely on Sainsbury's to deliver my food - the delivery charge is not a problem. I look on it as saving two hours of my time per week (what with driving through traffic on a saturday or sunday, trying to find parking and chasing after the kids) - so 2.50 an hour is well worth it.
Is this not like the "red button" programmes and adverts on Sky Digital?
A red circle appears at the top of the screen and if you want to know more, hit red and it takes you into a whole "interactive" section?
yes you can really say that to your clients when they are so busy bringing in thousands of pounds worth of business every week that they don't have the time or the inclination to learn computer esoterics. MOST PEOPLE SIMPLY WANT TO EARN THEIR PAY AND GO HOME. The computer just gets in the way
You've obvioulsy been to an office and had people say "i didn't know you could do that" when you right-click. and then go back a month later and have the same people say "i didn't know you could do that". Most people simply do not remember things like right-click menus because they have more important things to think about (like getting their jobs done and going home) - which is why a right-click menu should NEVER be the only way of accessing functionality.
It's not the fact that they're a monopoly - it's a remedy for them previously ABUSING their monopoly position. Apple doesn't have a monopoly position to abuse.
It's like ruling that a burglar is not allowed to carry a crowbar in the street and the burglar's riposte being "I should be allowed to carry whatever I want". Well, ordinarily you can, but you broke the law and this is the remedy to prevent you doing it again.