The answer is, companies pay for the expertise of the consultant FIRST and then will pay the yokels and doctors and other user test groups to come in and kill a day with the product mockup.
If you pay a consultant for their expertise in usability first, you stand a better chance of getting the product right when you present it to the yokels^H^H^H^H^H^H Users.
Remember, the users in the test group get paid for coming in... would you rather pay for one consultant and one user test group, or several user test groups each getting close to the mark and missing?
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Darwin and Xfree4.0.2 work on x86.
now it's fair to ask, what's the point of running Darwin and Xfree on x86 when you can run Linux, but then it comes down to what you like in kernel performance, and bsd vs. linux.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Apple takes on an arguably bigger responsibility than RedHat and the others combined when it puts out the first commercial *nix we've seen in a while.
By commercial I mean, non-at&t, non BSD (not *BSD). They're PRE-INSTALLING unix for home users. Anyone else would have said they were mad, but they've gone and made it usable for grandmothers with no-button mice.
Wasn't making linux usable for grandmothers one of the proposals that gets bounced around every now and again?
Reason why OsX will out do Linux: It's preinstalled and has support of Apple, which ain't small cookies.
Reason why Linux will keep advancing, regardless: it's free/Free and runs on just about any hardware you throw it at, all the while performing useful, if mundane functions. Firewall, router, print server....cheap internet appliance, etc... netatalk....
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
M$ forced deals where distributors and manufacturers of computers had to sell every machine of theirs with Windows on it, or else they couldn't sell any machines with windows on them. If they wanted to sell a machine without Windows loaded, they still had to pay for the license.
This put a lock on manufacturers to only use Windows. Then, M$ levered this agreement to declare what software would be allowed in the preload of those computers.
M$ and IBM fought tooth and nail, and M$ threatened to charge IBM more for Windows, because IBM included Netscape and Lotus Millenium Suite in their software preload.
That's M$ taking illegal advantage of monopolistic power.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Actually, no.
I drive and preserve these so-called "30-year-old land barges."
They are a beauty to behold, a pleasure to drive, and part of our history worth preserving.
Do I think everyone should be driving one? Not so. Do I think you have the right to legislate that I can no longer drive mine? Definately not.
I'm doing more for the environment in two ways by driving my two 38-year-old cars.
First of all, I'm doing my part to keep from adding to landfills and junkyards.
Second of all, my "dinosaurs" as you call them, when well-tuned and maintained, put out less emissions than computerized emissions-controlled autos.
Even more importantly, when a computer-emissions controlled car does begin to pollute, it pollutes WAY more than my 38-year-old cars do when poorly tuned.
People who stand behind this elimination of grandfather clause notion have a few motivations for it, and the environment isn't one of them, typically. They want me to junk my perfectly suitable automobiles not because it's good for the environment, but because it's good for the economy.
First, they get money pumped into the auto manufacturer's pockets. Then they get higher vehicle taxes. Then they get to charge high prices for emissions testings, not to mention fines if a part fails on the many-component emissions equipment. (EGR, catalytic, o2 sensor, computer, solenoids, etc...)
It's far more economical and evironmentally considerate for everyone if I keep driving old vehicles and keep them finely tuned.
Sometimes, older is better. If I can help avoid buying into new technologies, I can continue to live in the fashion I prefer. No exhaust tests, no dynamometer, just lights, horn and wipers.
No accutest sniffer-mobiles to flag me down and fine me.
Older is better: no CPRM, no HDTV with copy controls.
Some technologies have too steep a price.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Actually, I inquired to the head of the Wake Co. Public Libraries why we have so many romance novels and so few reference books in our libraries. I was told that they want to encourage use of the library, and that's what gets checked out most frequently.
So they DO track the reading habits of patrons. Okay, maybe not on an individual level, but they do know what they're checking out most frequently. And they're computerizing more, so they should be able to track patrons on an individual level.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
IBM declined to get involved in voting mechanisms in the 50's under Thomas J Watson, and declined again this past year, when Lou V Gerstner was approached about the matter.
Voting is too important, and IBM has always chosen to keep their hands clean of ethical quandries, where possible. Besides, it's bad for business if fraud is committed on your machines.
What are the ramifications here? That if fraud is committed on a MS box, all/. will say, "yes, we knew it would happen, " the rest of the world will say "How could this happen?" and because MS is ubiquitous, it won't really hurt their bottom line, proving that they are a monopoly, regardless of what Judge Jackson's pursuit of them results in.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Adobe is already ticked at Apple, for two products.
iMovie and Final Cut Pro. These two dig into Adobe's Premiere product.
Otherwise, Apple and Adobe have a healthy relationship. This could change, depending on the Next Big Thing Jobs introduces. If it's *another* product that will ship bundled and eat into Adobe's marketspace, watch out.
It seems to me that Jobs is borrowing a page from the browser wars by pre-installing Appleworks and iMovie... you don't have to buy MSOffice or Premiere...
Now, if GIMP is brought over to osX (this has been done, by the way... a guy with the nic of proclus (?) has Darwin running Xfree and GnuStep with Gimp up and running.) Then the only thing making it less attractive than Photoshop is, what's the stability/speed of the X layer. (Xfree versus Tenon's X implementation?)
(Okay, I know that people who live and die by Photoshop will not switch to Gimp, claiming something about Human Factors and testing.)
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
belkin http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process ?Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=1614&pcount=&Product_Id= 77&Section.Section_Path=%2FROOT%2FMacintosh%2F Adap ters%2F
has a adb to usb adaptor that works with winders and apple. if usb under 2.4.0 is decent, you'll have no problem using the old pro keybd.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
you must have never used Be.
Be doesn't do a scandisk or fsck. It's a true journaled files system, and always always always boots in 10 seconds or less. It recognizes its hardware on boot time, and even when I take the hard drive from one machine to another with very different hardware, it still boots in under ten seconds. This makes it perfect for a web device. In fact, if I had an 802.11b pcmcia driver for it, it would be on my thinkpad right now. as it is, it's debian which is too slow to boot.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
I won a WebTV in a drawing. What do I need with one? Nothing.
So I gave WebTv to my Grandmother. She loves it! It does one thing well, it has a infrared remote and infrared keyboard. She shows off the pictures we take with our digital cameras to her friends.
She is responsible for all the webtv sales in her old-folks home, and a few of her friends bought hp printers with glossy paper to print out the pictures of their grandkids.
So, yes Virginia, there is a market for these devices. Whether or not that market will wither and die when it gets saturated is another question.
First, you have to convince people like my Grandmother that they can use this new-fangled device.
Second, you have to convince them they need it.
Third, you have to convince them that it won't be outdated junk and not work well in a few months.
Now, if it's not going to be outdated junk, how can the companies expect to stay in business? They sell a device, saturate the market, and *then* where do their new customers come from?
This is the contradiction: a device sold as an appliance cannot be rendered useless by obsolesence. (by using drop frame time code, people were able to watch color tv broadcasts on black-and-white televisions. You don't alienate your entire installed user base, as a rule. (exception: lousy h/dtv where everyone has to throw out their tv's.))
My in-laws use windows. The email/web browse, and use it for printing and retouching their digital photos. I'm not about to ask them to use linux (hebrew support isn't there yet, and they don't need to learn "configure:make:make install" anytime soon.) They also want to edit their own home movies. I'd convince them to buy a Mac, but very few people in Israel know the Mac (other than a few graphics arts shops.)
I'd have to make the same pitch that I made to my Grandmother: This will do what you need it to, easily. You can use it. It will work when you want it to. You won't need to call me to figure it out. Obsolete? There will always be a faster, newer computer, but if this one will do what you want it to today, it can do that for years to come.
I'm glad to see Be back in the news. My desktops run linux, macosX PB, and winders localized in Hebrew. If Be had a 802.11b pcmcia driver, my laptop would be running Be 5 pro. it does everything else right, it just doesn't have either of my pcmcia network cards as an option.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
The osr2 number differences are due to the various download-updates for USB patches.
there was a 1212b release as well as a 1311(?) level, and they all came about from USB fixes for win95.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Yes, it's too bad Apple killed the clones, or else we'd all have PPC boxen on our desks.
But the good thing about the death of the clones is the exact reason why to buy a PPC box:
Yes, there are less peripheral choices for pci cards (tho you really don't need to worry about that: the pci cards I had to buy for my pc are integrated devices on my powermac mobo.) and all the periherals for mac work... compatibility is a non-issue for mac.
Considering that one of the values I cherish most when discussing machines is compatibility and reliability, Apple wins everytime.
besides, the public beta rocks.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Come, explore scenic North Carolina,
where we were first in flight, home of RedHat, and large mysterious government complexes deep in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Surely there's a connection in there....
Victor in Raleigh
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
I don't defend redhat 7 for releasing something that wasn't perfect, but I don't believe for a minute that it looks inviting to businesses to become a part of the community when we roast the companies that are a part of the community.
Redhat was very professional, fixed the problems, or explained why they made the decisions they made, and moved on. Slashdot continued to rail against it longer than necessary, and made it into a brief holy war.
Why would any other company want to expose themselves to that kind of nonsense?
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
IBM's open-source credentials come from the devotion of it's SWG (software group) to write apps for linux.
IBM's hardware dept. (PC company) has no such cred, yet.
Yes, the ignorant community may decide that because hardware follows the lemmings into a secure ATA standard (I don't want this either), that the whole company is evil, but this is far from the truth.
One portion of the company may not follow what the other portion of the company decides.
I don't speak for IBM.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
The linux group (software) is separate from the PC company group (hardware).
Remember, in a great giant company, these two separate worlds may not see eye to eye.
I had the opportunity to speak to one of the higher-ups in the pc company, and he said to me that he's looking to linux, because they hate Microsoft, but that the community still appears small and splintered. (Look at how/. beat up RH on the 7.0 release, talk about eating one's own family!)
The point is, Software Group is embracing Linux. PC company (which has been bleeding money for years) is scratching their heads wondering how to make a buck at it, like any good business should.
(I don't speak for IBM. my opinions are my own.)
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Slashdot Mirror
here I am responding to troll:
The answer is, companies pay for the expertise of the consultant FIRST and then will pay the yokels and doctors and other user test groups to come in and kill a day with the product mockup.
If you pay a consultant for their expertise in usability first, you stand a better chance of getting the product right when you present it to the yokels^H^H^H^H^H^H Users.
Remember, the users in the test group get paid for coming in... would you rather pay for one consultant and one user test group, or several user test groups each getting close to the mark and missing?
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Darwin and Xfree4.0.2 work on x86.
now it's fair to ask, what's the point of running Darwin and Xfree on x86 when you can run Linux, but then it comes down to what you like in kernel performance, and bsd vs. linux.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Apple takes on an arguably bigger responsibility than RedHat and the others combined when it puts out the first commercial *nix we've seen in a while.
By commercial I mean, non-at&t, non BSD (not *BSD). They're PRE-INSTALLING unix for home users. Anyone else would have said they were mad, but they've gone and made it usable for grandmothers with no-button mice.
Wasn't making linux usable for grandmothers one of the proposals that gets bounced around every now and again?
Reason why OsX will out do Linux: It's preinstalled and has support of Apple, which ain't small cookies.
Reason why Linux will keep advancing, regardless: it's free/Free and runs on just about any hardware you throw it at, all the while performing useful, if mundane functions. Firewall, router, print server....cheap internet appliance, etc... netatalk....
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
I know you're trolling me, but I can't resist.
M$ forced deals where distributors and manufacturers of computers had to sell every machine of theirs with Windows on it, or else they couldn't sell any machines with windows on them. If they wanted to sell a machine without Windows loaded, they still had to pay for the license.
This put a lock on manufacturers to only use Windows. Then, M$ levered this agreement to declare what software would be allowed in the preload of those computers.
M$ and IBM fought tooth and nail, and M$ threatened to charge IBM more for Windows, because IBM included Netscape and Lotus Millenium Suite in their software preload.
That's M$ taking illegal advantage of monopolistic power.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Actually, no.
I drive and preserve these so-called "30-year-old land barges."
They are a beauty to behold, a pleasure to drive, and part of our history worth preserving.
Do I think everyone should be driving one? Not so. Do I think you have the right to legislate that I can no longer drive mine? Definately not.
I'm doing more for the environment in two ways by driving my two 38-year-old cars.
First of all, I'm doing my part to keep from adding to landfills and junkyards.
Second of all, my "dinosaurs" as you call them, when well-tuned and maintained, put out less emissions than computerized emissions-controlled autos.
Even more importantly, when a computer-emissions controlled car does begin to pollute, it pollutes WAY more than my 38-year-old cars do when poorly tuned.
People who stand behind this elimination of grandfather clause notion have a few motivations for it, and the environment isn't one of them, typically. They want me to junk my perfectly suitable automobiles not because it's good for the environment, but because it's good for the economy.
First, they get money pumped into the auto manufacturer's pockets. Then they get higher vehicle taxes. Then they get to charge high prices for emissions testings, not to mention fines if a part fails on the many-component emissions equipment. (EGR, catalytic, o2 sensor, computer, solenoids, etc...)
It's far more economical and evironmentally considerate for everyone if I keep driving old vehicles and keep them finely tuned.
Sometimes, older is better. If I can help avoid buying into new technologies, I can continue to live in the fashion I prefer. No exhaust tests, no dynamometer, just lights, horn and wipers.
No accutest sniffer-mobiles to flag me down and fine me.
Older is better: no CPRM, no HDTV with copy controls.
Some technologies have too steep a price.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Actually, I inquired to the head of the Wake Co. Public Libraries why we have so many romance novels and so few reference books in our libraries. I was told that they want to encourage use of the library, and that's what gets checked out most frequently.
So they DO track the reading habits of patrons. Okay, maybe not on an individual level, but they do know what they're checking out most frequently. And they're computerizing more, so they should be able to track patrons on an individual level.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Don't you mean, Hail to the chief.wma ?
or hailtoch~1.wma?
.asf?
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
IBM declined to get involved in voting mechanisms in the 50's under Thomas J Watson, and declined again this past year, when Lou V Gerstner was approached about the matter.
/. will say, "yes, we knew it would happen, " the rest of the world will say "How could this happen?" and because MS is ubiquitous, it won't really hurt their bottom line, proving that they are a monopoly, regardless of what Judge Jackson's pursuit of them results in.
Voting is too important, and IBM has always chosen to keep their hands clean of ethical quandries, where possible. Besides, it's bad for business if fraud is committed on your machines.
What are the ramifications here? That if fraud is committed on a MS box, all
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
I liked aqua the way it was!
It wasn't mac classic, it was something new, a hybrid between *nix and mac, and better than any of the themes I had on my linux boxen...
I'm not sure... if the PB doesn't break in March, I may just keep using it, debug code and all.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
please. like fdisk is a good example of a capable program.
use Ranish Partition Manager.
if that doesn't get it, use debug to really wipe it.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
the cinema display can be used on things other than a mac. First buy the belkin adc-dvi-d cable.
:}
Second, install a dvi-d equipped video card. (I have a number nine card in my box at work with this output.)
viola (that's french)
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Adobe is already ticked at Apple, for two products.
iMovie and Final Cut Pro. These two dig into Adobe's Premiere product.
Otherwise, Apple and Adobe have a healthy relationship. This could change, depending on the Next Big Thing Jobs introduces. If it's *another* product that will ship bundled and eat into Adobe's marketspace, watch out.
It seems to me that Jobs is borrowing a page from the browser wars by pre-installing Appleworks and iMovie... you don't have to buy MSOffice or Premiere...
Now, if GIMP is brought over to osX (this has been done, by the way... a guy with the nic of proclus (?) has Darwin running Xfree and GnuStep with Gimp up and running.) Then the only thing making it less attractive than Photoshop is, what's the stability/speed of the X layer. (Xfree versus Tenon's X implementation?)
(Okay, I know that people who live and die by Photoshop will not switch to Gimp, claiming something about Human Factors and testing.)
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
belkin http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process ?Merchant_Id=1&Section_Id=1614&pcount=& ;Product_Id= 77&Section.Section_Path=%2FROOT%2FMacintosh%2F Adap ters%2F
has a adb to usb adaptor that works with winders and apple. if usb under 2.4.0 is decent, you'll have no problem using the old pro keybd.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
is busy, hung, or dead.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
you must have never used Be.
Be doesn't do a scandisk or fsck. It's a true journaled files system, and always always always boots in 10 seconds or less. It recognizes its hardware on boot time, and even when I take the hard drive from one machine to another with very different hardware, it still boots in under ten seconds. This makes it perfect for a web device. In fact, if I had an 802.11b pcmcia driver for it, it would be on my thinkpad right now. as it is, it's debian which is too slow to boot.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
I won a WebTV in a drawing. What do I need with one? Nothing.
So I gave WebTv to my Grandmother. She loves it! It does one thing well, it has a infrared remote and infrared keyboard. She shows off the pictures we take with our digital cameras to her friends.
She is responsible for all the webtv sales in her old-folks home, and a few of her friends bought hp printers with glossy paper to print out the pictures of their grandkids.
So, yes Virginia, there is a market for these devices. Whether or not that market will wither and die when it gets saturated is another question.
First, you have to convince people like my Grandmother that they can use this new-fangled device.
Second, you have to convince them they need it.
Third, you have to convince them that it won't be outdated junk and not work well in a few months.
Now, if it's not going to be outdated junk, how can the companies expect to stay in business? They sell a device, saturate the market, and *then* where do their new customers come from?
This is the contradiction: a device sold as an appliance cannot be rendered useless by obsolesence. (by using drop frame time code, people were able to watch color tv broadcasts on black-and-white televisions. You don't alienate your entire installed user base, as a rule. (exception: lousy h/dtv where everyone has to throw out their tv's.))
My in-laws use windows. The email/web browse, and use it for printing and retouching their digital photos. I'm not about to ask them to use linux (hebrew support isn't there yet, and they don't need to learn "configure:make:make install" anytime soon.) They also want to edit their own home movies. I'd convince them to buy a Mac, but very few people in Israel know the Mac (other than a few graphics arts shops.)
I'd have to make the same pitch that I made to my Grandmother: This will do what you need it to, easily. You can use it. It will work when you want it to. You won't need to call me to figure it out. Obsolete? There will always be a faster, newer computer, but if this one will do what you want it to today, it can do that for years to come.
I'm glad to see Be back in the news. My desktops run linux, macosX PB, and winders localized in Hebrew. If Be had a 802.11b pcmcia driver, my laptop would be running Be 5 pro. it does everything else right, it just doesn't have either of my pcmcia network cards as an option.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
The osr2 number differences are due to the various download-updates for USB patches.
there was a 1212b release as well as a 1311(?) level, and they all came about from USB fixes for win95.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Yes, it's too bad Apple killed the clones, or else we'd all have PPC boxen on our desks.
But the good thing about the death of the clones is the exact reason why to buy a PPC box:
Yes, there are less peripheral choices for pci cards (tho you really don't need to worry about that: the pci cards I had to buy for my pc are integrated devices on my powermac mobo.) and all the periherals for mac work... compatibility is a non-issue for mac.
Considering that one of the values I cherish most when discussing machines is compatibility and reliability, Apple wins everytime.
besides, the public beta rocks.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Come, explore scenic North Carolina,
where we were first in flight, home of RedHat, and large mysterious government complexes deep in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Surely there's a connection in there....
Victor in Raleigh
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
I don't defend redhat 7 for releasing something that wasn't perfect, but I don't believe for a minute that it looks inviting to businesses to become a part of the community when we roast the companies that are a part of the community.
Redhat was very professional, fixed the problems, or explained why they made the decisions they made, and moved on. Slashdot continued to rail against it longer than necessary, and made it into a brief holy war.
Why would any other company want to expose themselves to that kind of nonsense?
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
Lotus never listens to anyone from within IBM anyway. They all think they know better than the rest of the regular IBM employees.
It'll take an outside-of-IBM appeal to get a notes client for Linux, or a Hand-of-God from on high in IBM to make this happen.
(I don't speak for IBM, these are my own opinions.)
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
You haven't looked at alphaworks.ibm.com lately, have you?
& am p;/a w.nsf/techmain/AF74C5941F557778882566F300703F5B
http://alphaworks.ibm.com/aw.nsf/frame?ReadForm
ViaVoice, for linux with Java.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
IBM's open-source credentials come from the devotion of it's SWG (software group) to write apps for linux.
IBM's hardware dept. (PC company) has no such cred, yet.
Yes, the ignorant community may decide that because hardware follows the lemmings into a secure ATA standard (I don't want this either), that the whole company is evil, but this is far from the truth.
One portion of the company may not follow what the other portion of the company decides.
I don't speak for IBM.
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
The linux group (software) is separate from the PC company group (hardware).
/. beat up RH on the 7.0 release, talk about eating one's own family!)
Remember, in a great giant company, these two separate worlds may not see eye to eye.
I had the opportunity to speak to one of the higher-ups in the pc company, and he said to me that he's looking to linux, because they hate Microsoft, but that the community still appears small and splintered. (Look at how
The point is, Software Group is embracing Linux. PC company (which has been bleeding money for years) is scratching their heads wondering how to make a buck at it, like any good business should.
(I don't speak for IBM. my opinions are my own.)
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close
The answer is,
Officially, many IBM products support SuSE, RedHat, Caldera, and TurboLinux.
The particular project I worked on was regression-tested on Debian as well.
IBM has people whose job it is to see that we aren't completely distribution specific.
(I don't speak as a representative for IBM, these are my own opinions based on my personal experience.)
A host is a host from coast to coast, but no one uses a host that's close