Even if Sun does make OpenSolaris truly Free, there's no reason to assume it will take marketshare away from the various Linuxes (Linuces?).
The *BSD operating systems are as free as Linux, freer, maybe, depending on your definitions. They're also more elegant an cohesive examples of the Unix design philosophy, at least according to BSD advocates.
So why does Linux have the lion's share of the free-Unix market, and BSD have comparatively little? I don't know all the causes, but I'm certain 'momentum' is among them. And barring the entry of anybody other than Microsoft or Apple into the Free OS market, Linux is going to continue to have the momentum.
Confusing consumers with multiple hardwares hasn't worked well for other companies in the past.
Like the Nintendo Entertainment System, which came out with a "basic" package with the deck, 2 controllers, and Super Mario Bros., an "intermediate" package that added on a light gun and Duck Hunt, and a "deluxe" package that added on R.O.B. the Robotic Operating Buddy and Gyromite?
Yeah, the NES was a huge failure, he says sarcastically.
(And yet, there is an element of truth to your statement -- because the baseline for the system was the "basic" package, very few titles were ever released that used the Zapper, and only one other R.O.B. title saw the light of day. I imagine we can expect something similar with regards to the 360 Deluxe's bonus devices.)
as long as there's enough sites out there that require IE, users will switch to IE, even from "better" browsers.
How many sites ARE there that require IE and/or fail miserably in Firefox, though? I keep seeing people cite this as a major factor in IE's retention of so much browser market share, and yet outside of a few shameful intranet pages at work, I don't think I've encountered an IE-only page in the wild since I made the switch to Mozilla Phoenix, over two years ago.
Has anyone compiled a list of public web sites that truly are IE-only? I'd like to know how big a problem this really is.
But how many of you have ever registered a copyright? If you haven't, isn't it a little disingenuous to write to the Copyright Office complaining?
Not at all. Just because I haven't yet registered copyright on a work I have created, doesn't mean that I will not want or need to do so in the future.
it does not mean that a BBC employee's actions are automatically the BBC's actions as well.
Actually, that's PRECISELY what it means. When you work for a company, and you perform an action using company resources, on company, time, the company has performed that action. How could it be anything other?
Does it mean that a solitary employee's actions are representative of a company's POLICY? No.
The old architecture is a dinosaur, harkening back to the 8088 and rather inefficient in many respects, where RISC processors were supposed to trump it. Which is still around?
Well, PHP has ten years' worth of installed code out there (some good, some bad, some ugly). Ruby on Rails has the buzz among progressive web developers, but how many job postings are there asking for RoR experience? How many major web sites are built on RoR?
Not that I think vanilla PHP is a very good solution for anything but rapid prototyping. But add in some extensions like Pear::DB, Smarty, and php.MVC, and PHP becomes not only a reasonably elegant development platform to use, but also one you can make a living working with.
Mostly because PROfessional will not need PHP at all...
Oh good, I was hoping this book review could serve as a springboard for Yet Another Language Advocacy Flamewar. Thanks for not letting me down, SolitaryMan.
Everything that musicians need to produce, promote and distribute music is cheap.
Everything except TALENT.
The music industry has an enormous number of talented musicians, talented producers, talented promoters, and talented salesman at their beck and call. Just because CD-R's are ten cents apiece these days doesn't mean that you have the resources to compete against the industry juggernaut. No matter how cheap it is to create YOUR album, it's not going to get airplay on the radio, while the RIAA-backed artist's IS.
Of course it was. But since the story submission was a leading question to which we were supposed to assume the answer was "Microsoft", we're all being contrarian and naming very unlikely "borg-like" OS companies.
Myself, I'm pretty sure he was referring to Be, Inc.
I'm still trying to figure out how the Blu-Ray consortium is planning to spin "devices may stop working for no apparent reason" as a selling point to consumers.
Even if they try to keep it quiet, there's still going to be a devastating word-of-mouth campaign against it once users start having to return "dead" units to the store because they suddenly "stopped working" the day after they tried to play that $5 disc we bought from the street vendor over in Chinatown...
It's a new option that they're offering. If you think hardcopies offer a better value, keep using them.
Exactly. No one's forcing students to abandon their hardcover texts here.
I predict that the market is going to reject this plan anyway, just like it has with every other attempt to sell DRM'd eBooks in the past. By Spring semester 2007, I don't think the Princeton bookstore will be offering this anymore.
Oh gosh, I remember Pinball Construction Set. I used to have hours and hours of fun with that on my 4.7MHz IBM PC/XT, with 12" CGA display and internal PC speaker, building pinball tables and playing them.
That was software that was truly ahead of its time. Sad to think of how EA has evolved into a company now that is one step behind the times, and PROUD of that.
(An interesting side note about PCS -- it did not run from DOS. You booted directly from the floppy disk, which contained its own micro-OS that handled all the underlying BIOS calls).
If little Timmy doesn't have to buy Halo, Half-life and Doom sequals he can buy 3 "not sequal" games. Which then means they make the same amount of money
It means they COULD make the same amount of money, but will they? There's no guarantee little Timmy will buy ANY games if he doesn't see something he knows he'll like on the shelves. And because he liked Halo 1, he knows he'll like Halo 2. He doesn't know anything about the non-sequel titles offered for sale, so why risk his money on something he might hate?
Come to think of it, the game publishers probably wouldn't even make the same amount of money PER UNIT on a new game concept as they would on a re-hash. Sequels come with (at the very least) most of the game design already done, and most likely a good portion of the game engine, artwork, and music as well. It might take only 3/4 the manpower to develop a sequel as it would to develop a new game, meaning the studio can release more games per year.
The game industry is simply not configured to reward innovation. Few industries are.
How much more difficult will it be to write a multitasking phone operating system when such disparate things as mail applications and radio transmissions are handled on the same chip?
Probably a LOT more difficult. But then, there's no reason to expect true multitasking from an embedded OS on a $20 device, is there?
For the Slashdotters who wish for a mobile phone that "just makes phone calls"... this may be what you're looking for.
My GF is a graphics designer who specializes in print media.
Your GF probably shouldn't be trying to get by with a cheapo desktop printer, then.
Now I'm not suggesting that she fill her home office up with commercial reprographics equipment, but for something so crucial to her business I think purchasing a top-of-the-line office printer is entirely justifiable.
Slashdot Mirror
Even if Sun does make OpenSolaris truly Free, there's no reason to assume it will take marketshare away from the various Linuxes (Linuces?).
The *BSD operating systems are as free as Linux, freer, maybe, depending on your definitions. They're also more elegant an cohesive examples of the Unix design philosophy, at least according to BSD advocates.
So why does Linux have the lion's share of the free-Unix market, and BSD have comparatively little? I don't know all the causes, but I'm certain 'momentum' is among them. And barring the entry of anybody other than Microsoft or Apple into the Free OS market, Linux is going to continue to have the momentum.
Why exactly is this terrifying?
Plentiful food + obesity + spandex = dystopia
Confusing consumers with multiple hardwares hasn't worked well for other companies in the past.
Like the Nintendo Entertainment System, which came out with a "basic" package with the deck, 2 controllers, and Super Mario Bros., an "intermediate" package that added on a light gun and Duck Hunt, and a "deluxe" package that added on R.O.B. the Robotic Operating Buddy and Gyromite?
Yeah, the NES was a huge failure, he says sarcastically.
(And yet, there is an element of truth to your statement -- because the baseline for the system was the "basic" package, very few titles were ever released that used the Zapper, and only one other R.O.B. title saw the light of day. I imagine we can expect something similar with regards to the 360 Deluxe's bonus devices.)
Actually, you didn't do jack shit because you were too busy blogging and trying to reconcile it as something other than vanity.
Oh, the irony of a Slashdot commenter denigrating blogging...
Go back to whittling your stick on the porch, grandpa. We'll happily stay off your lawn if it means you'll shut the hell up.
as long as there's enough sites out there that require IE, users will switch to IE, even from "better" browsers.
How many sites ARE there that require IE and/or fail miserably in Firefox, though? I keep seeing people cite this as a major factor in IE's retention of so much browser market share, and yet outside of a few shameful intranet pages at work, I don't think I've encountered an IE-only page in the wild since I made the switch to Mozilla Phoenix, over two years ago.
Has anyone compiled a list of public web sites that truly are IE-only? I'd like to know how big a problem this really is.
Because you like designers to use not activex applications.
Wait... do we LIKE XMLHttpRequest today, or do we HATE it? I can't keep track anymore.
But how many of you have ever registered a copyright? If you haven't, isn't it a little disingenuous to write to the Copyright Office complaining?
Not at all. Just because I haven't yet registered copyright on a work I have created, doesn't mean that I will not want or need to do so in the future.
it does not mean that a BBC employee's actions are automatically the BBC's actions as well.
Actually, that's PRECISELY what it means. When you work for a company, and you perform an action using company resources, on company, time, the company has performed that action. How could it be anything other?
Does it mean that a solitary employee's actions are representative of a company's POLICY? No.
The old architecture is a dinosaur, harkening back to the 8088 and rather inefficient in many respects, where RISC processors were supposed to trump it. Which is still around?
A: Both.
The ARM architecture is RISC-based, after all...
Isn't PHP obsoleted by Ruby On Rails?
Well, PHP has ten years' worth of installed code out there (some good, some bad, some ugly). Ruby on Rails has the buzz among progressive web developers, but how many job postings are there asking for RoR experience? How many major web sites are built on RoR?
Not that I think vanilla PHP is a very good solution for anything but rapid prototyping. But add in some extensions like Pear::DB, Smarty, and php.MVC, and PHP becomes not only a reasonably elegant development platform to use, but also one you can make a living working with.
Mostly because PROfessional will not need PHP at all...
Oh good, I was hoping this book review could serve as a springboard for Yet Another Language Advocacy Flamewar. Thanks for not letting me down, SolitaryMan.
You jackass.
Everything that musicians need to produce, promote and distribute music is cheap.
Everything except TALENT.
The music industry has an enormous number of talented musicians, talented producers, talented promoters, and talented salesman at their beck and call. Just because CD-R's are ten cents apiece these days doesn't mean that you have the resources to compete against the industry juggernaut. No matter how cheap it is to create YOUR album, it's not going to get airplay on the radio, while the RIAA-backed artist's IS.
IBM, Novell, HP always put out the "cheaper" argument which is seen as "less value".
Seen by idiots, maybe.
"Value" is a ratio of performance and/or features to cost. Given a static level of performance/features, as cost decreases value must INCREASE.
How can somebody be capable of making technology decisions without even a basic grasp of mathematics?
Apple was an extremely bad example of yours.
Of course it was. But since the story submission was a leading question to which we were supposed to assume the answer was "Microsoft", we're all being contrarian and naming very unlikely "borg-like" OS companies.
Myself, I'm pretty sure he was referring to Be, Inc.
I'm still trying to figure out how the Blu-Ray consortium is planning to spin "devices may stop working for no apparent reason" as a selling point to consumers.
Even if they try to keep it quiet, there's still going to be a devastating word-of-mouth campaign against it once users start having to return "dead" units to the store because they suddenly "stopped working" the day after they tried to play that $5 disc we bought from the street vendor over in Chinatown...
It's a new option that they're offering. If you think hardcopies offer a better value, keep using them.
Exactly. No one's forcing students to abandon their hardcover texts here.
I predict that the market is going to reject this plan anyway, just like it has with every other attempt to sell DRM'd eBooks in the past. By Spring semester 2007, I don't think the Princeton bookstore will be offering this anymore.
First of all, if you're using FreeBSD chances are you know how to configure an X11 environment. It's easy.
1. What about people who AREN'T using FreeBSD yet? That seems to be the target market for this new distro.
2. If configuring an X11 environment is so easy, then make the frickin' computer do it for me. Don't waste my time on it.
Oh gosh, I remember Pinball Construction Set. I used to have hours and hours of fun with that on my 4.7MHz IBM PC/XT, with 12" CGA display and internal PC speaker, building pinball tables and playing them.
That was software that was truly ahead of its time. Sad to think of how EA has evolved into a company now that is one step behind the times, and PROUD of that.
(An interesting side note about PCS -- it did not run from DOS. You booted directly from the floppy disk, which contained its own micro-OS that handled all the underlying BIOS calls).
If little Timmy doesn't have to buy Halo, Half-life and Doom sequals he can buy 3 "not sequal" games. Which then means they make the same amount of money
It means they COULD make the same amount of money, but will they? There's no guarantee little Timmy will buy ANY games if he doesn't see something he knows he'll like on the shelves. And because he liked Halo 1, he knows he'll like Halo 2. He doesn't know anything about the non-sequel titles offered for sale, so why risk his money on something he might hate?
Come to think of it, the game publishers probably wouldn't even make the same amount of money PER UNIT on a new game concept as they would on a re-hash. Sequels come with (at the very least) most of the game design already done, and most likely a good portion of the game engine, artwork, and music as well. It might take only 3/4 the manpower to develop a sequel as it would to develop a new game, meaning the studio can release more games per year.
The game industry is simply not configured to reward innovation. Few industries are.
With the deployment of the XBox 360 in mass quantities in '06, content producers will have the ability to content lock their movies.
Yes, of course. The deployment of tens of thousands of Xbox360en are going to make the market that serves millions of DVD player owners disappear.
What's next? Will IBM stop selling mechanical adding machines?
How much more difficult will it be to write a multitasking phone operating system when such disparate things as mail applications and radio transmissions are handled on the same chip?
Probably a LOT more difficult. But then, there's no reason to expect true multitasking from an embedded OS on a $20 device, is there?
For the Slashdotters who wish for a mobile phone that "just makes phone calls"... this may be what you're looking for.
As for (2), bad actors tend not to follow rules anyway
You geeks are STILL hung up on William Shatner gaming the Kobayashi Maru, aren't you??? Sheesh.
My GF is a graphics designer who specializes in print media.
Your GF probably shouldn't be trying to get by with a cheapo desktop printer, then.
Now I'm not suggesting that she fill her home office up with commercial reprographics equipment, but for something so crucial to her business I think purchasing a top-of-the-line office printer is entirely justifiable.
I can't afford to blow that much on a color laser.
Color lasers can now be had for under $300. That's the cost of a decent color inkjet plus two or three sets of ink refills. Are you sure you can't afford that?