Who cares if UnitedLinux will stop providing binaries?
You only need the binaries if you want to install a commercial software package that "works best" and is supported on those binaries. So in that case you ante up the 50 bucks for the binary distro.
However, there will binary knockoffs of UnitedLinux based distros that contain the same exact software compiled on a different machine using the UnitedLinux source.
Anyone notice what the report said about increasing Linux desktop use in the Asia region. MS should be scared as shit about this.
Reviewing MS earnings by region leads to one solid conclusion: in the past 3 years MS has only managed to achieve any growth in the Americas region.
MS has recorded ZERO APPRECIABLE GROWTH in income in the Europe/Middle East/Asia in the past 3 years. Their Asia earnings have been stuck around 700 million per quarter, and their EU/Middle East earnings between 1.2 and 1.4 billion.
The writing is clearly on the wall for MS. Its game over from a global perspective for this company. China and Taiwan's investment in Linux and the countries like Norway and Germany edging away from MS paint a sour picture for Microsoft.
The real story for the XBox will be can it be the only console in gaming history to be sucessful and survive as a respected gaming platform in only 1 of the major 3 gaming markets.
-- US --
XBox has managed to take to number 2 slot in this market, although closely followed by the GameCube.
-- Europe --
Recent figures show XBox has only managed to sell 500,000 units throughout the entire EU.
GameCube has managed 800,000 in a much shorter time period.
-- Japan --
In the most recent weekly sales period, XBox sold 2,400 units, PS2 90,000, GC 27,000.
With the Japanese developers quickly jumping ship on the XBox, its future is bleak at best.
"Investors and analysts want an aggressive, cutthroat control freak, and that's what they're going to get, too."
What do you bet that a majority of Microsoft investors do not want an immature asshole like Gates running the company? If they knew the true Gates and the true harm, injury and cost of acquiring a meaningless 90% browser market share.
Perhaps the investors didn't want hundreds of millions wasted on attorneys?
Perhaps investors didn't want the ego-manical Gates to ruin the reputation of the company as a trust worth business partner?
And now that the Microsoft stock bubble has begun to bust, the investors will begin to wonder why Microsoft has NEVER paid a divendend when they are sitting on billions in cash reserves?
However, you can't honestly say that this article was well written. Sure it wasn't the worst piece of MSNBC trash that comes out but when you see sentences like this:
"Until recently, interacting with Linux was almost entirely text-driven -- much like Windows' precursor, DOS."
You have to wonder about the competency of these MSNBC "journalists".
And then the guy devotes four paragraphs at the end of his article basically hyping the work that MS has done on the tablet PC. Right, we all know that the tablet PC is going to save the PC industry cause MS has told us so.
Wrong. I said XBox exclusives. Games that run on all three systems don't count. And don't actually make Microsoft very much money.
XBox: How long can it defy the laws of economics?
on
XBox + UltimateTV for $500
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
The XBox really really is amazing. Here we have a product that defies the laws of economics. At this point its just a matter of how much money Gates and Ballmer can stand to lose. Its an ego thing. Every other company on the face of the planet would drop a money losing project like the XBox as fast as possible. The world is filled with companies that are not named Microsoft which have stock holders and corporate boards that actually have influence over the decisions of executive management. Not so with Microsoft.
We all know that XBox is finished in Japan. If Microsoft is lucky they will manage to sell their original shipment of 250,000 Japanese XBoxes before the end of this year.
http://www.the-magicbox.com
The XBox is in the process of dying in Europe. Just look at the European software charts. The XBox has just one exclusive game in the top 20:
http://www.elspa.com
And now one of MS game developer partners has pressured MS into allowing it to publish title for the Nintendo GameBoy:
Is there anyone out there who will force Gates and Ballmer to come to their senses? Or would dropping the XBox at this point be such a face losing position for Microsoft that they have no choice but to keep throwing money at it?
Where did I say I didn't like Ep. 4 - 6. Those movies for the most part did have good writing, acting and dialog. Ep. 1 and 2 did not.
Overall my writing is good. I save the really bad stuff for Slashdot when I'm typing as fast as I can and don't give a shit how it comes out unlike anal retentive assholes such as yourself.
Who gives a shit about Star Wars. There are important elements in movie making that distinguish good movies from bad movies. Things like writing, dialog, acting. AoTC fails in all of these categories.
You are simply one of those fuckwit denialist who is simply counter-reacting to the huge wave of disgust with the bad movie making of George Lucas.
12. A Republic with thousands of star systems that has endured from thousands of years will have no standing army or plan to defend the seat of government when attacked by a quickly assembled army of droids.
Well if major portions of the conbatants turn out to be clones then perhaps the term Clone Wars might be somewhat plausible.
Even with the accelerated growth, it still took some time to clone 1.2 million. Thousands of star systems at war. Billions or trillions of citizens potentially affected. And a measely 1.2 million foot soldiers from an obscure planet mean anything?
Yeah sure its fantasy. The problem is Lucas picked a fantastical sounding name but then he didn't back it up with at least a modicum of plausibility.
The problem here is the political correctness of George the Has Been Lucas. He didn't want to put forward a story where thousands of "real" people die. So he made do with armies of droids and clones.
But from a historical perspective it still makes zero sense to call the conflict The Clone Wars. That name gives NO MEANING to the conflict. They might have named it the The Sithian War of Secession.
There were 1.2 million clones which took many years to produce. There are thousands of star systems participating in this war. Why would you name the conflict The Clone Wars because a minute number from a galactic perspective of the combatants were clones?
During the American Revolution (that's a good name for a war), the British hired numerous Heshian mercenaries. Notice that historians did not later refer to that conflict as The Heshian Wars.
You confused the UN with a governing body that can be in anyway compared to a Republic. The UN is nothing like that. Your analogy simply falls flat on its face. The United States of America is a governing body. It is also a Republic. It has an army.
You have no understanding of what a Republic is. Governing bodies that wish to maintain any type of unity simply do not exist without armies. Its simply unbelievable that the Stars Wars Republic could have existed for thousands of years with no army and only a few jedi to hold it together.
Even if there was a plausible reason for the Republic to have no army and hence be at the mercy of a few hastily assembled droids, then THAT should have been mentioned. Lucas is an idiot for not doing so and putting forward a story that is so obviously unbelievable.
Wrong. Any graduate of Political Science 101 will tell you that large governing bodies must have armies.
My only question at this point is why you are so deluded that you will defend an obviously flawed piece of shit like AoTC.
If you small mind can manage to apply the same analogy to the United States of America, then a small light will shine on the dark barrenness of your tiny intellect.
The point was it makes absolutely no sense that only planets have armies and the Republic does not. Its the most glaringly unrealistic flaw in AoTC. Even the most basic understanding of political interaction of a governing body the size of the Republic, necessitates the existence of an army.
The name makes no sense. It ain't realistic. Get it?
The clones are not plentiful. They stated that there were 1.2 million of the suckers. That is a tiny amount compared to the amount of citizenry of the Republic. If they aren't special, then why bother with clones. Get 1.2 million Joe Blows and hand them laser rifles and storm trooper helmets.
When did the aliens steal the George Lucas who managed to write the script for Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope and replace him with the brainless twit who comes up with sh*t like this.
(1) A giant inter-stellar (who knows how many star system) governmental body like the Republic has no standing army? The best that the Republic, which has trillions of citizens, can do to defend itself is an army of 1.2 trillion clones?
Ok, lets briefly forget the imaginary notion that any governmental body can exist without the ability to defend itself or prevent internal strife. Did the leaders of the Republic consider placing a public notice that unless the common guy on the street wants to see himself at the mercy of an attacking army of droids, he should grab a laser rifle and seek to defend his freedom?
(2) The Clone Wars. Where did the name come from? Wars generally are named by (1) Cause (2) Where they are fought. Wars are not named simply because a good portion of one side of the combatants happens to be clones.
What was so special about the Clones? Absolutely nothing. Their preferred method of attack that was shown in the movie's battlefield footage was swarming assault on foot into heavy laser fire.
This is just simply pathetic and incredibily lazy thinking on the part of Lucas. Having previously detailed a period of history that was referred to as "The Clone Wars", his attempts at realistically meshing plot with his previously detailed Star Wars history were just pathetic.
50 Bucks per user per year. 50 bucks per year isn't enough to cover basic infrastructure much less anything else. They are sinking money in data centers and support. Then they have to give a cut to the game makers.
Lets say 10% (an overly hopeful figure) of XBox owners sign up. If we come up with another hopeful figure of 6 million total XBox owners in 3 months time.
600,000 x $50 = 30,000,000 million revenue.
Heh, that isn't even enough to pay for the yearly bandwidth costs. This is nothing but another giant earnings hole for MS. MS is going to put 2 Billion into developing this?
Microsoft compares XBox Live to Disneyland? Microsoft is touting games such as counter-strike and halo and in the same breath comparing that bloody fragmire to Disneyland? The real counter-strike players of the world already have their playgrounds. Even though those playgrounds are frequently home to cheating, the advantages of open and player controlled servers far outweigh whatever disneyland-effect that MS is hoping for. That market is taken. And don't even get started on the hopelessness of playing FPS shooter with a console gamepad.
Could MS have anymore disregard for the concerns of their stockholders? This is a pure financed by the desktop monopoloy blackop against Sony and Nintendo in a last ditch effort to save the XBox (2.5 million sold) which at this point has been outsold by the GameCube (4.2 million sold) nearly 2 to 1.
The attraction to the Sims is really quite simple: SEX.
The people who purchase the game enjoying having all of the little Sim people copulate like sex crazed bunnies. They get those poor little Sims into all sorts of intriguing of love triangles and trysts.
The Sims builds upon the its cultural antecedents: TV Soap Operas and Barby Dolls.
You might think that until you realized that the XBox is a 3rd party game developer's nightmare.
A recent Microsoft press release tells us this:
"As for games in the U.S., Bach said five games have sold more than 500,000 units and 20 games have sold more than 100,000 units."
Its well known in the gaming industry that on average a game needs 200,000 units to break even on costs. So only 5 (most of which are owned by MS) of any the XBox exclusives have reached that point on the XBox.
And considering that the GameCube (4.2 million sold) has nearly outsold the XBox (2.5 million sold) 2 to 1, then the next logical choice would be the GameCube.
Slashdot Mirror
The partitioning screen and the package screen are for people who choose "expert" mode. You don't have to see those screens if you don't want to.
That's functionality that has been denied by Microsoft to its users based simply on the fact that they don't want you to have that level of freedom.
Who cares if UnitedLinux will stop providing binaries?
You only need the binaries if you want to install a commercial software package that "works best" and is supported on those binaries. So in that case you ante up the 50 bucks for the binary distro.
However, there will binary knockoffs of UnitedLinux based distros that contain the same exact software compiled on a different machine using the UnitedLinux source.
Anyone notice what the report said about increasing Linux desktop use in the Asia region. MS should be scared as shit about this.
Reviewing MS earnings by region leads to one solid conclusion: in the past 3 years MS has only managed to achieve any growth in the Americas region.
MS has recorded ZERO APPRECIABLE GROWTH in income in the Europe/Middle East/Asia in the past 3 years. Their Asia earnings have been stuck around 700 million per quarter, and their EU/Middle East earnings between 1.2 and 1.4 billion.
The writing is clearly on the wall for MS. Its game over from a global perspective for this company. China and Taiwan's investment in Linux and the countries like Norway and Germany edging away from MS paint a sour picture for Microsoft.
" They later payed, what was it, $20M or something in damages because of it. "
I don't have the exact figures but the MS/Caldera settlement which was partly related to MS screwing over DRDOS was over a hundred million.
This is speculation but I think the the only reason that Caldera still exists is because of the bank roll that they received from that settlement.
Actually in the EU they had to resort to giving away (bundling) games with each purchase of an xbox.
They also gave away games to anyone who had purchased an xbox prior to their price drop.
The real story for the XBox will be can it be the only console in gaming history to be sucessful and survive as a respected gaming platform in only 1 of the major 3 gaming markets.
-- US --
XBox has managed to take to number 2 slot in this market, although closely followed by the GameCube.
-- Europe --
Recent figures show XBox has only managed to sell 500,000 units throughout the entire EU.
GameCube has managed 800,000 in a much shorter time period.
-- Japan --
In the most recent weekly sales period, XBox sold 2,400 units, PS2 90,000, GC 27,000.
With the Japanese developers quickly jumping ship on the XBox, its future is bleak at best.
"Investors and analysts want an aggressive, cutthroat control freak, and that's what they're going to get, too."
What do you bet that a majority of Microsoft investors do not want an immature asshole like Gates running the company? If they knew the true Gates and the true harm, injury and cost of acquiring a meaningless 90% browser market share.
Perhaps the investors didn't want hundreds of millions wasted on attorneys?
Perhaps investors didn't want the ego-manical Gates to ruin the reputation of the company as a trust worth business partner?
And now that the Microsoft stock bubble has begun to bust, the investors will begin to wonder why Microsoft has NEVER paid a divendend when they are sitting on billions in cash reserves?
Obviously, Taco is trolling here.
However, you can't honestly say that this article was well written. Sure it wasn't the worst piece of MSNBC trash that comes out but when you see sentences like this:
"Until recently, interacting with Linux was almost entirely text-driven -- much like Windows' precursor, DOS."
You have to wonder about the competency of these MSNBC "journalists".
And then the guy devotes four paragraphs at the end of his article basically hyping the work that MS has done on the tablet PC. Right, we all know that the tablet PC is going to save the PC industry cause MS has told us so.
Wrong. I said XBox exclusives. Games that run on all three systems don't count. And don't actually make Microsoft very much money.
The XBox really really is amazing. Here we have a product that defies the laws of economics. At this point its just a matter of how much money Gates and Ballmer can stand to lose. Its an ego thing. Every other company on the face of the planet would drop a money losing project like the XBox as fast as possible. The world is filled with companies that are not named Microsoft which have stock holders and corporate boards that actually have influence over the decisions of executive management. Not so with Microsoft.
We all know that XBox is finished in Japan. If Microsoft is lucky they will manage to sell their original shipment of 250,000 Japanese XBoxes before the end of this year.
http://www.the-magicbox.com
The XBox is in the process of dying in Europe. Just look at the European software charts. The XBox has just one exclusive game in the top 20:
http://www.elspa.com
And now one of MS game developer partners has pressured MS into allowing it to publish title for the Nintendo GameBoy:
http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/020625/tech_thq_microso
Is there anyone out there who will force Gates and Ballmer to come to their senses? Or would dropping the XBox at this point be such a face losing position for Microsoft that they have no choice but to keep throwing money at it?
Where did I say I didn't like Ep. 4 - 6. Those movies for the most part did have good writing, acting and dialog. Ep. 1 and 2 did not.
Overall my writing is good. I save the really bad stuff for Slashdot when I'm typing as fast as I can and don't give a shit how it comes out unlike anal retentive assholes such as yourself.
Who gives a shit about Star Wars. There are important elements in movie making that distinguish good movies from bad movies. Things like writing, dialog, acting. AoTC fails in all of these categories.
You are simply one of those fuckwit denialist who is simply counter-reacting to the huge wave of disgust with the bad movie making of George Lucas.
12. A Republic with thousands of star systems that has endured from thousands of years will have no standing army or plan to defend the seat of government when attacked by a quickly assembled army of droids.
Well if major portions of the conbatants turn out to be clones then perhaps the term Clone Wars might be somewhat plausible.
Even with the accelerated growth, it still took some time to clone 1.2 million. Thousands of star systems at war. Billions or trillions of citizens potentially affected. And a measely 1.2 million foot soldiers from an obscure planet mean anything?
Yeah sure its fantasy. The problem is Lucas picked a fantastical sounding name but then he didn't back it up with at least a modicum of plausibility.
The problem here is the political correctness of George the Has Been Lucas. He didn't want to put forward a story where thousands of "real" people die. So he made do with armies of droids and clones.
But from a historical perspective it still makes zero sense to call the conflict The Clone Wars. That name gives NO MEANING to the conflict. They might have named it the The Sithian War of Secession.
There were 1.2 million clones which took many years to produce. There are thousands of star systems participating in this war. Why would you name the conflict The Clone Wars because a minute number from a galactic perspective of the combatants were clones?
During the American Revolution (that's a good name for a war), the British hired numerous Heshian mercenaries. Notice that historians did not later refer to that conflict as The Heshian Wars.
You confused the UN with a governing body that can be in anyway compared to a Republic. The UN is nothing like that. Your analogy simply falls flat on its face. The United States of America is a governing body. It is also a Republic. It has an army.
You have no understanding of what a Republic is. Governing bodies that wish to maintain any type of unity simply do not exist without armies. Its simply unbelievable that the Stars Wars Republic could have existed for thousands of years with no army and only a few jedi to hold it together.
Even if there was a plausible reason for the Republic to have no army and hence be at the mercy of a few hastily assembled droids, then THAT should have been mentioned. Lucas is an idiot for not doing so and putting forward a story that is so obviously unbelievable.
Wrong. Any graduate of Political Science 101 will tell you that large governing bodies must have armies.
My only question at this point is why you are so deluded that you will defend an obviously flawed piece of shit like AoTC.
The United Nations is a republic? Bzzzzt. Wrong.
If you small mind can manage to apply the same analogy to the United States of America, then a small light will shine on the dark barrenness of your tiny intellect.
Questions not answered.
The point was it makes absolutely no sense that only planets have armies and the Republic does not. Its the most glaringly unrealistic flaw in AoTC. Even the most basic understanding of political interaction of a governing body the size of the Republic, necessitates the existence of an army.
The name makes no sense. It ain't realistic. Get it?
The clones are not plentiful. They stated that there were 1.2 million of the suckers. That is a tiny amount compared to the amount of citizenry of the Republic. If they aren't special, then why bother with clones. Get 1.2 million Joe Blows and hand them laser rifles and storm trooper helmets.
correction... thats 1.2 million clones
When did the aliens steal the George Lucas who managed to write the script for Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope and replace him with the brainless twit who comes up with sh*t like this.
(1) A giant inter-stellar (who knows how many star system) governmental body like the Republic has no standing army? The best that the Republic, which has trillions of citizens, can do to defend itself is an army of 1.2 trillion clones?
Ok, lets briefly forget the imaginary notion that any governmental body can exist without the ability to defend itself or prevent internal strife. Did the leaders of the Republic consider placing a public notice that unless the common guy on the street wants to see himself at the mercy of an attacking army of droids, he should grab a laser rifle and seek to defend his freedom?
(2) The Clone Wars. Where did the name come from? Wars generally are named by (1) Cause (2) Where they are fought. Wars are not named simply because a good portion of one side of the combatants happens to be clones.
What was so special about the Clones? Absolutely nothing. Their preferred method of attack that was shown in the movie's battlefield footage was swarming assault on foot into heavy laser fire.
This is just simply pathetic and incredibily lazy thinking on the part of Lucas. Having previously detailed a period of history that was referred to as "The Clone Wars", his attempts at realistically meshing plot with his previously detailed Star Wars history were just pathetic.
What you really want is the Gamespot impressions from guys who have actually played these games:
Impressions
Perhaps its best the Zelda comes out next year. More time for Metroid and Mario.
What is the MS business plan for XBox Live?
50 Bucks per user per year. 50 bucks per year isn't enough to cover basic infrastructure much less anything else. They are sinking money in data centers and support. Then they have to give a cut to the game makers.
Lets say 10% (an overly hopeful figure) of XBox owners sign up. If we come up with another hopeful figure of 6 million total XBox owners in 3 months time.
600,000 x $50 = 30,000,000 million revenue.
Heh, that isn't even enough to pay for the yearly bandwidth costs. This is nothing but another giant earnings hole for MS. MS is going to put 2 Billion into developing this?
Microsoft compares XBox Live to Disneyland? Microsoft is touting games such as counter-strike and halo and in the same breath comparing that bloody fragmire to Disneyland? The real counter-strike players of the world already have their playgrounds. Even though those playgrounds are frequently home to cheating, the advantages of open and player controlled servers far outweigh whatever disneyland-effect that MS is hoping for. That market is taken. And don't even get started on the hopelessness of playing FPS shooter with a console gamepad.
Could MS have anymore disregard for the concerns of their stockholders? This is a pure financed by the desktop monopoloy blackop against Sony and Nintendo in a last ditch effort to save the XBox (2.5 million sold) which at this point has been outsold by the GameCube (4.2 million sold) nearly 2 to 1.
The attraction to the Sims is really quite simple: SEX.
The people who purchase the game enjoying having all of the little Sim people copulate like sex crazed bunnies. They get those poor little Sims into all sorts of intriguing of love triangles and trysts.
The Sims builds upon the its cultural antecedents: TV Soap Operas and Barby Dolls.
You might think that until you realized that the XBox is a 3rd party game developer's nightmare.
A recent Microsoft press release tells us this:
"As for games in the U.S., Bach said five games have sold more than 500,000 units and 20 games have sold more than 100,000 units."
Its well known in the gaming industry that on average a game needs 200,000 units to break even on costs. So only 5 (most of which are owned by MS) of any the XBox exclusives have reached that point on the XBox.
And considering that the GameCube (4.2 million sold) has nearly outsold the XBox (2.5 million sold) 2 to 1, then the next logical choice would be the GameCube.
Links:
XBox lackluster Sales
Now if MS can sell ~1 million boxes in 10 days they can make the low end of their 3.5 million box target by June!
1.8 N America
.2 Japan
.5 Europe
.1 ? Australia