Heck I have a hard time to get people to used Stored Procedures in their SQL, needless to say trying to get them to use the more advanced features.
Stored procedures are BAD BAD BAD, I'm glad you have a hard time promoting those. Why?
- You can't easily migrate to another database-vendor. Maybe you want to switch. Maybe you have to because of technical reasons. Maybe you have to because your company is being bought by another, which uses a different system and wants to maintain only one platform. Whatever the reason, your stored procedure is going to really, really hurt.
- Usually, there is only one database but several application servers. You want to take load off the database because it scales not as well as the application servers, of which you can always add another rack full of. So maybe it takes twice as long on the application servers to do what your stored procedure do - but you have a dozend application servers running and only one database. You really, really want to avoid the bottleneck on the database.
They take a look at how many mA/h are left in the battery, how much the machine has to do at the moment and apply a magic formula to come up with the number, IIRC. Without that formula (which they don't have if they're still testing battery life), the time displayed will be bogus. It would have been more interesting to know if the estimate dropped at a rate of a second per (real time) second, of more or of less than that. If it showed 2:30 for a couple of minutes... need I say more?
You know, sometimes a dump or refusal to work really is the best option.
MS seems to assume that installing Windows(tm) on a machine that will cause it to hang frequently is a bad idea. Powerusers will bed to differ (as in "as long as it stays up long enough for me to download that driver..."), but IMHO, Windows is *NOT* for powerusers. It's for dummioes who will go out and buy a new drive in your situation.
That's from a french queen, I think it was Marie Antoinette of France. She was born in Austria, so the saying was originally in German.
She was saying that if the masses don't have Bread to eat ("Brot"), they should eat cake ("Kuchen"). However, this is a mistranslation from German to... German. Many dishes have different names in Austria and in Germany, although in both countries, German is spoken. In Austria at the time "Kuchen" was a kind of very simple, cheap bread. No delicacy, but enough to keep you going. In Germany, "Kuchen" was (and still is) a cake, although one with not too much cream. Cream-based cakes are called "Torte".
It's easier for the average German today to read the menu in a chinese restaurant than in a restaurant in Vienna, trust me.
Do I sound like a know-it-all? Hell, this is a site for geeks, right?
photos that reflect something that occurred X million light years ago - a light year is a distance, not an amount of time. It's not like a bud lite, that's still a bud but with less of what makes beer interesting in it.
Non-technical people look at it and go, meh, another sensationalist story - let me know when we have a guy on Mars. - let's face it: most people wouldn't find the sandy place their kids are sent to on a map, let alone mars. Also, most people are not relevant to the truth. The truth about the universe is, contrary to popular belief, not something that's voted upon. Also, it's not something that can be settled by finding a compromise. It's what can eventually be proven.
Earlier you say: And we wonder why "intelligent design" is popular in some circles. No, I don't wonder about this anymore. People are stupid in most respect. All of them. Including myself. The hard part is to know when you're stupid (or clueless) and when to stand by one's views.
If Linux were so easy to install, wouldn't there be someone in your circle of friends who tried it, was surprised how easy it is and recommends Linux because of its ease of use?
Funny, but I never met anyone like this, even though I know a lot of people who tired Linux. I do know people who recommend Apple for ease of use and was convinced to try a Mac by this myself.
If Linux was so easy to install and use, wouldn't it be hard to find people who tried Linux and then switched to Windows or to an Apple?
Well, the opposite is true. Of all the people I call friends, noone still uses Linux at this point in time. One close friend (programmer, uses a lot of Open Source Software in his work) is now using Windows 2000, another (musician) is now on XP, I personally left Linux for an Apple, my girlfriend's brother switched from Ubuntu to XP.
I know noone personally who "switched back" from Apple to Windows, let alone Linux. Yes, these folks exist, but I know more Apple-Users now than I had Linux-users among my friends at the same time, and none of them regretted getting a Mac.
If Linux is so easy, and if people use to recommend an OS because of its ease of use, why is Linux never seen in that light?
Hard to tell, isn't it? Can it really be that most people who use Linux try to keep the public in the dark about its qualities? Can it really be, that Linux users pretend to use other OSs while sticking with Linux in secret? Even less likely. Could it be, that Linux is in fact not as user friendly as Windows or MacOS X? Is that really so unthinkable? All evidence I have points towards this.
Think about installation
I'm not talking about the distro of your choice or the software that came with it. I'm talking about drivers and applications that you want and that you had to download. Wellcome to package-hell.
Think about uniformity
No two applications look the same, configuration of the OS and let's say, the UI (e.g. KDE) are not unified... the list goes on.
Closing your eyes and saying "If I ignore these issues they'll go away" won't help.
bordering on unusable
on
Office 12 Exposed
·
· Score: 1, Interesting
After looking at various word-screenshots for a while, it still looks cluttered. Let's have a look at the first word-screenshot.
In the menubar, a selection of "Table Tools is positioned to reach into the titlebar. The selection "Write" which is also in the titlebar uses a different colour but also a different style.
The frames and borders are incoherent. There's a white frame around "Document actions", grey lines between different button-fields and a third style that seperates the "File"-menu from the others.
The highlighting inside the "Text formatting" box has a style of its own, again.
The titlebars of the various buttonfields are different from the titlebar of the "Document Actions".
And this is from one screenshot alone. Totally cluttered, horribly inconsistent and bordering on unusable.
If some users seem to need dozens of keys... I mean, buttons on their mice, why not add an optical sensor to the bottom of the keyboard?
All you than need are left and rightclick and a scrollwheel.
Personally, I'm still using my one-button bluetooth-mouse (Apple), because I simply have to push the upper shell down. No need to worry about the position of the buttons, about which finger to move, just klick. With a good user interface, it can be that easy. I rarely ever have to reach for the control-key to get a context-menu. When I need to scroll, there's usually a scrollbar to be found. And since I use the entire hand to hold down the mouse "button", I'm not getting a cramp in the index-finger while slowly scrolling a webpage, either.
Oh, BTW - why is it, that if a webpage has more than one scrollbar (like thew one I type this on), the focus is always on the wrong element and it never scrolls where I want? Using the scrollbar, this does not happen. (This is written on a WinXP-machine I have to use, I didn't choose to.)
Honestly, having the main user non-priviledged just doesn't make sense for most people. Try using Mac OS X a while with the box popping up and asking for your root password all the time. That's not good either, and as soon as worm writers decide to take advantage of it, we'll see that it's a false sense of security.
I do work on Mac OS X all the time and there's a number of things plain wrong about this assertion:
- You don't get that popup all that often. I can install software in/Applications and don't get the popup. I can change settings and don't get the popup. I can work on my machine and don't get the popup.
- Because the popup comes up so rarely, I really do hesitate before I type my password. Do I trust that application? Why would such an application need root? Do I really need that application?
As a result, I sometimes refrain from installing some freeware I found somewhere on the net. A small tool or application as a installer package? Why? I install everything except OS-tools via drag & drop! Of course, the topic being Windows Vista, I could understand the drones getting annoyed they have to type something, not just click "OK". Soon, magazines will show them how to leave the password blank in order to get around this problem. Next, a registry-hack will be in one of those "tune your windows"-articles that switches the feature off completely.
By that time, I'll still be using OS X. And propably, I still won't have any problems with Virii etc.
And what else do you expect to happen when you host a site named "mp3s4free"?
Right, if I name a site like this, I can expect to attract the lawyers of the music industry. Because they think that "all recordings of sound are belong to them."
Howeevr, this is not true, there is even quite some music out there for free that's entirely legit.
You say that the claims don't have much in common with the abstract/summary. Might be. But in my opinion, if the abstract/summary have nothing to do with the claims, the patent should be rejected on technical reasons.
Patents are there so that others learn from what you did, and only in return for this, you are being granted a temporary monopoly on it. If you try to hide your innovation from others, why should you be given the reward for sharing it?
And hiding it you are, if the abstract/summary don't match the claims.
"A method and system for placing an order to purchase an item via the Internet."
OK, it's about e-commerce.
"The order is placed by a purchaser at a client system and received by a server system."
Client-server. Could be the web.
"The server system receives purchaser information including identification of the purchaser, payment information, and shipment information from the client system."
You have to tell the web-shop who you are etc.
"The server system then assigns a client identifier to the client system and associates the assigned client identifier with the received purchaser information."
The server remembers who you are, e.g. IP-address or whatever.
"The server system sends to the client system the assigned client identifier[...]"
A cookie.
"[...]and an HTML document identifying the item and including an order button."
The browser receives a confirmation page. ("you wanted to order X?")
"The client system receives and stores the assigned client identifier and receives and displays the HTML document."
Cookie stored, HTML displayed.
"In response to the selection of the order button, the client system sends to the server system a request to purchase the identified item."
An HTML form.
"The server system receives the request and combines the purchaser information associated with the client identifier of the client system to generate an order to purchase the item in accordance with the billing and shipment information whereby the purchaser effects the ordering of the product by selection of the order button."
Once the server gets the OK, it proceeds as normal.
The motor isn't that much of a problem. It's the batteries. Nice to know that there's a miniature motor that can transform the output of a nuclear power plant into movement. But how do you transport all that energy?
I know, my favourite mouse (Apple wireless) is no use for gaming, it lacks a second mouse-button... hey wait. It lacks a second mouse-button. That's great!
Really, I have trouble typing on anything but a "natural" keyboard. However, I'm forced to use a 3-button-mouse at work, and it hurts. I keep my fingers stretched apart so I can use different buttons with them, but it just doesn't feel natural. On my Mac, I only have one button - the top of the mouse. For me, that's the most ergonomic layout possible. I just place my hand on the mouse the way *I* want and press the whole hand down when clicking. What a relief compared to my 3-button-"monster" at work.
Nice review. But for me it's pretty worthless. But I'm not much of a gamer anyway.
Right. NOONE in my family has EVER had sex so far. Not my brother, certainly not my Parents or... shudder... my grandparents.
No, that's something totally unthinkable.
Since I trust other families are just like mine, we see that sisters - especially little ones - will never, ever get... um... intimate with anyone or... argh... anything.
If you happen to have a partner, you know that (s)he was born as an orphan, no parents or family involved. And so were you. They just adopted you and will deny to be related to you behind your back.
The fact that we as a race exist even though everyone knows their family never did anything to ensure the prolongued existance of mankind proves, BTW, that there is an intelligent designer involved who constantly spawns humans without a family (that would be disgusted by them having sex). Although, on second thought, looking at most humans, it must be quite some dumb designer.
The conclusion should be simple: People get used to it. They learn how to hdeal with it. They deploy SPAM-filters and don't get to see the SPAM anymore.
And so the problem dissolves.
Personally, I get 150 Spam per day. 1 or 2 of them appear in my inbox and are quickly deleted. SPAM isn't much of an issue for me.
"Will mobile OS companies, like desktop OS makers, have to start an automatic update system, or will the OS creators have to start making their software secure?"
Both. Or maybe... isn't it far better for socializing that you're able to talk about how Windows didn't work and you fixed it than to own a machine / gadget / technology that simply works.?
Yes, the version number seems to indicate it's not a new version but only an update. You have to simply ignore the leading "10.". It ain't that hard.
Yes, this is actually like Microsoft charging you for XP (NT5.1) after you already bought Win2000 (NT5.0) or NT4.0 or NT3.51 - the leading "10." is like the leading "NT" from Microsoft.
Yes, this is old news, but the issue comes up every time Apple releases a new version of OS X.
Same as "Re-Imagining Apple" Posted by Zonk on 24/
on
What's Next At Apple
·
· Score: -1, Flamebait
There was an article about this mentioned earlier on
slashdot.
So this is worse than yesterday's news. What new insights should this discussion bring according to CmdrTaco?
So far I never regretted my choice to switch to Apple / OS X. I havn't had any security-related trouble at all and very few problems whatsoever.
Now, three major PC-vendors make the Apple even more appealing. If you don't like the idea that those who sell content to you trust your spyware anf trojan-ridden hardware more than you, this might be the time to by a Mac.
If on the other hand Apple joins the tree mentioned in the Article, they might lose a very satisfied customer who converted a number of Windows-drones to OS X during the last year alone.
Spotlight is just a dressed up version of the Mac's old "find by content" indexing and searching
Really? I'm eagerly awaiting 10.4 if only for the smart folders. People know them and many love them from using them in iTunes. If that's just dressing up, then I want that dress!
It's the software, it's OS X. That's why I bought a powerbook.
So, Apple took a freely available UNIX and built on it to release a great operating system. Of course, they had all their old software that could still run in "classic" until replaced by native apps.
So, what should Intel do? Hire designers for boxes?
No, the painpoint is the OS. They should hire Linus (or msome team with knowledge about UI-design and operating systems) and build an Intel-Linux that does away with the major roadblocks for the adoption of Linux on the desktop:
Installing Software: On the Mac, it's drag and Drop one icon and the software is installed. Find an alternative for Packages or make it insanly simple to use them.
Choice: Sounds stupid, why take away choice? Because your dad doesn't want to chose between KDE and Gnome. He wants one application that does the job easily and smoothly, not five that all fall short on what he needs in different aspects.
Compatibility: Either make sure that people like your and my dad can install MS-Office on the new OS as easily as on Windows or offer an alternative that's 100% compatible. People want to be compatible to Word, no matter what.
Intel has the deep pockets for this. They should give it a try.
Why Linux?
OK, BDS would also do the job. They could even try Darvin. What's important is, that they have a platform with tons of applications. Apple had OS9 and the classic-mode. Intel doesn't have that. They need a base to build on.
Why ditch Windows?
Because they don't control it and they don't collect the Microsoft-tax. They should try to lock in their customers, maybe by putting a frontend and API on top of the kernel that they control. Then put together a team that choses OSS-applications for the major uses - hey, mirror iLife for starters! - and ports them to the easy installer I mentioned above and to the new UI-API they should create, thereby making them unusable on any other version of the underlying OS.
Is it likely?
Sadly, no. They already have most of the stuff above, it's called Windows. But if the pain of using Windows increases (viruses, trojans, worms, adware, spyware... you name it), what I've outlined might come as a great relief for their huge existing customer-base. It could be like running OS X on your cheap x86-hardware.
Of course, they'd have to find a way to stop it from running on AMD...
Yes, I tried the demo. Nice but... I don't know. I never really thought I had a good overview.
What about recursive structures? Two webpages linking to each other recursively, and you can scroll in indefinitely. Do this scripted and it's almost DoS?
What, if I don't *want* some content to be on constant preview, like my smut and porn?
Slashdot Mirror
Stored procedures are BAD BAD BAD, I'm glad you have a hard time promoting those. Why?
- You can't easily migrate to another database-vendor. Maybe you want to switch. Maybe you have to because of technical reasons. Maybe you have to because your company is being bought by another, which uses a different system and wants to maintain only one platform. Whatever the reason, your stored procedure is going to really, really hurt.
- Usually, there is only one database but several application servers. You want to take load off the database because it scales not as well as the application servers, of which you can always add another rack full of. So maybe it takes twice as long on the application servers to do what your stored procedure do - but you have a dozend application servers running and only one database. You really, really want to avoid the bottleneck on the database.
2:30 or 1:50... estimated how?
They take a look at how many mA/h are left in the battery, how much the machine has to do at the moment and apply a magic formula to come up with the number, IIRC. Without that formula (which they don't have if they're still testing battery life), the time displayed will be bogus. It would have been more interesting to know if the estimate dropped at a rate of a second per (real time) second, of more or of less than that. If it showed 2:30 for a couple of minutes... need I say more?
You know, sometimes a dump or refusal to work really is the best option.
MS seems to assume that installing Windows(tm) on a machine that will cause it to hang frequently is a bad idea. Powerusers will bed to differ (as in "as long as it stays up long enough for me to download that driver..."), but IMHO, Windows is *NOT* for powerusers. It's for dummioes who will go out and buy a new drive in your situation.
Any maybe for them, it's the best thing to do.
That's from a french queen, I think it was Marie Antoinette of France. She was born in Austria, so the saying was originally in German.
She was saying that if the masses don't have Bread to eat ("Brot"), they should eat cake ("Kuchen"). However, this is a mistranslation from German to... German. Many dishes have different names in Austria and in Germany, although in both countries, German is spoken. In Austria at the time "Kuchen" was a kind of very simple, cheap bread. No delicacy, but enough to keep you going. In Germany, "Kuchen" was (and still is) a cake, although one with not too much cream. Cream-based cakes are called "Torte".
It's easier for the average German today to read the menu in a chinese restaurant than in a restaurant in Vienna, trust me.
Do I sound like a know-it-all? Hell, this is a site for geeks, right?
photos that reflect something that occurred X million light years ago - a light year is a distance, not an amount of time. It's not like a bud lite, that's still a bud but with less of what makes beer interesting in it.
Non-technical people look at it and go, meh, another sensationalist story - let me know when we have a guy on Mars. - let's face it: most people wouldn't find the sandy place their kids are sent to on a map, let alone mars. Also, most people are not relevant to the truth. The truth about the universe is, contrary to popular belief, not something that's voted upon. Also, it's not something that can be settled by finding a compromise. It's what can eventually be proven.
Earlier you say: And we wonder why "intelligent design" is popular in some circles. No, I don't wonder about this anymore. People are stupid in most respect. All of them. Including myself. The hard part is to know when you're stupid (or clueless) and when to stand by one's views.
Funny, but I never met anyone like this, even though I know a lot of people who tired Linux. I do know people who recommend Apple for ease of use and was convinced to try a Mac by this myself.
If Linux was so easy to install and use, wouldn't it be hard to find people who tried Linux and then switched to Windows or to an Apple?
Well, the opposite is true. Of all the people I call friends, noone still uses Linux at this point in time. One close friend (programmer, uses a lot of Open Source Software in his work) is now using Windows 2000, another (musician) is now on XP, I personally left Linux for an Apple, my girlfriend's brother switched from Ubuntu to XP.
I know noone personally who "switched back" from Apple to Windows, let alone Linux. Yes, these folks exist, but I know more Apple-Users now than I had Linux-users among my friends at the same time, and none of them regretted getting a Mac.
If Linux is so easy, and if people use to recommend an OS because of its ease of use, why is Linux never seen in that light?
Hard to tell, isn't it? Can it really be that most people who use Linux try to keep the public in the dark about its qualities? Can it really be, that Linux users pretend to use other OSs while sticking with Linux in secret? Even less likely. Could it be, that Linux is in fact not as user friendly as Windows or MacOS X? Is that really so unthinkable? All evidence I have points towards this.
Think about installation
I'm not talking about the distro of your choice or the software that came with it. I'm talking about drivers and applications that you want and that you had to download. Wellcome to package-hell.
Think about uniformity
No two applications look the same, configuration of the OS and let's say, the UI (e.g. KDE) are not unified... the list goes on.
Closing your eyes and saying "If I ignore these issues they'll go away" won't help.
And this is from one screenshot alone. Totally cluttered, horribly inconsistent and bordering on unusable.
All you than need are left and rightclick and a scrollwheel.
Personally, I'm still using my one-button bluetooth-mouse (Apple), because I simply have to push the upper shell down. No need to worry about the position of the buttons, about which finger to move, just klick. With a good user interface, it can be that easy. I rarely ever have to reach for the control-key to get a context-menu. When I need to scroll, there's usually a scrollbar to be found. And since I use the entire hand to hold down the mouse "button", I'm not getting a cramp in the index-finger while slowly scrolling a webpage, either.
Oh, BTW - why is it, that if a webpage has more than one scrollbar (like thew one I type this on), the focus is always on the wrong element and it never scrolls where I want? Using the scrollbar, this does not happen. (This is written on a WinXP-machine I have to use, I didn't choose to.)
I do work on Mac OS X all the time and there's a number of things plain wrong about this assertion:
- You don't get that popup all that often. I can install software in /Applications and don't get the popup. I can change settings and don't get the popup. I can work on my machine and don't get the popup.
- Because the popup comes up so rarely, I really do hesitate before I type my password. Do I trust that application? Why would such an application need root? Do I really need that application?
As a result, I sometimes refrain from installing some freeware I found somewhere on the net. A small tool or application as a installer package? Why? I install everything except OS-tools via drag & drop! Of course, the topic being Windows Vista, I could understand the drones getting annoyed they have to type something, not just click "OK". Soon, magazines will show them how to leave the password blank in order to get around this problem. Next, a registry-hack will be in one of those "tune your windows"-articles that switches the feature off completely.
By that time, I'll still be using OS X. And propably, I still won't have any problems with Virii etc.
This will only delay things a bit. It can't take long for someone to swap the kernel under the hood to an unencumbered Darwin.
Right, if I name a site like this, I can expect to attract the lawyers of the music industry. Because they think that "all recordings of sound are belong to them."
Howeevr, this is not true, there is even quite some music out there for free that's entirely legit.
Patents are there so that others learn from what you did, and only in return for this, you are being granted a temporary monopoly on it. If you try to hide your innovation from others, why should you be given the reward for sharing it?
And hiding it you are, if the abstract/summary don't match the claims.
"A method and system for placing an order to purchase an item via the Internet."
OK, it's about e-commerce.
"The order is placed by a purchaser at a client system and received by a server system."
Client-server. Could be the web.
"The server system receives purchaser information including identification of the purchaser, payment information, and shipment information from the client system."
You have to tell the web-shop who you are etc.
"The server system then assigns a client identifier to the client system and associates the assigned client identifier with the received purchaser information."
The server remembers who you are, e.g. IP-address or whatever.
"The server system sends to the client system the assigned client identifier[...]"
A cookie.
"[...]and an HTML document identifying the item and including an order button."
The browser receives a confirmation page. ("you wanted to order X?")
"The client system receives and stores the assigned client identifier and receives and displays the HTML document."
Cookie stored, HTML displayed.
"In response to the selection of the order button, the client system sends to the server system a request to purchase the identified item."
An HTML form.
"The server system receives the request and combines the purchaser information associated with the client identifier of the client system to generate an order to purchase the item in accordance with the billing and shipment information whereby the purchaser effects the ordering of the product by selection of the order button."
Once the server gets the OK, it proceeds as normal.
Now, where exactly was the innoivative part?
The motor isn't that much of a problem. It's the batteries. Nice to know that there's a miniature motor that can transform the output of a nuclear power plant into movement. But how do you transport all that energy?
I know, my favourite mouse (Apple wireless) is no use for gaming, it lacks a second mouse-button... hey wait. It lacks a second mouse-button. That's great!
Really, I have trouble typing on anything but a "natural" keyboard. However, I'm forced to use a 3-button-mouse at work, and it hurts. I keep my fingers stretched apart so I can use different buttons with them, but it just doesn't feel natural. On my Mac, I only have one button - the top of the mouse. For me, that's the most ergonomic layout possible. I just place my hand on the mouse the way *I* want and press the whole hand down when clicking. What a relief compared to my 3-button-"monster" at work.
Nice review. But for me it's pretty worthless. But I'm not much of a gamer anyway.
Right. NOONE in my family has EVER had sex so far. Not my brother, certainly not my Parents or... shudder... my grandparents.
No, that's something totally unthinkable.
Since I trust other families are just like mine, we see that sisters - especially little ones - will never, ever get... um... intimate with anyone or... argh... anything.
If you happen to have a partner, you know that (s)he was born as an orphan, no parents or family involved. And so were you. They just adopted you and will deny to be related to you behind your back.
The fact that we as a race exist even though everyone knows their family never did anything to ensure the prolongued existance of mankind proves, BTW, that there is an intelligent designer involved who constantly spawns humans without a family (that would be disgusted by them having sex).
Although, on second thought, looking at most humans, it must be quite some dumb designer.
And so the problem dissolves.
Personally, I get 150 Spam per day. 1 or 2 of them appear in my inbox and are quickly deleted. SPAM isn't much of an issue for me.
Both. Or maybe... isn't it far better for socializing that you're able to talk about how Windows didn't work and you fixed it than to own a machine / gadget / technology that simply works.?
So maybe the answer truly is Neither.
No, this is nothing new.
Yes, the version number seems to indicate it's not a new version but only an update. You have to simply ignore the leading "10.". It ain't that hard.
Yes, this is actually like Microsoft charging you for XP (NT5.1) after you already bought Win2000 (NT5.0) or NT4.0 or NT3.51 - the leading "10." is like the leading "NT" from Microsoft.
Yes, this is old news, but the issue comes up every time Apple releases a new version of OS X.
So this is worse than yesterday's news. What new insights should this discussion bring according to CmdrTaco?
So far I never regretted my choice to switch to Apple / OS X. I havn't had any security-related trouble at all and very few problems whatsoever.
Now, three major PC-vendors make the Apple even more appealing. If you don't like the idea that those who sell content to you trust your spyware anf trojan-ridden hardware more than you, this might be the time to by a Mac.
If on the other hand Apple joins the tree mentioned in the Article, they might lose a very satisfied customer who converted a number of Windows-drones to OS X during the last year alone.
Really? I'm eagerly awaiting 10.4 if only for the smart folders. People know them and many love them from using them in iTunes. If that's just dressing up, then I want that dress!
So, Apple took a freely available UNIX and built on it to release a great operating system. Of course, they had all their old software that could still run in "classic" until replaced by native apps.
So, what should Intel do? Hire designers for boxes?
No, the painpoint is the OS. They should hire Linus (or msome team with knowledge about UI-design and operating systems) and build an Intel-Linux that does away with the major roadblocks for the adoption of Linux on the desktop:
Installing Software: On the Mac, it's drag and Drop one icon and the software is installed. Find an alternative for Packages or make it insanly simple to use them.
Choice: Sounds stupid, why take away choice? Because your dad doesn't want to chose between KDE and Gnome. He wants one application that does the job easily and smoothly, not five that all fall short on what he needs in different aspects.
Compatibility: Either make sure that people like your and my dad can install MS-Office on the new OS as easily as on Windows or offer an alternative that's 100% compatible. People want to be compatible to Word, no matter what.
Intel has the deep pockets for this. They should give it a try.
Why Linux?
OK, BDS would also do the job. They could even try Darvin. What's important is, that they have a platform with tons of applications. Apple had OS9 and the classic-mode. Intel doesn't have that. They need a base to build on.
Why ditch Windows?
Because they don't control it and they don't collect the Microsoft-tax. They should try to lock in their customers, maybe by putting a frontend and API on top of the kernel that they control. Then put together a team that choses OSS-applications for the major uses - hey, mirror iLife for starters! - and ports them to the easy installer I mentioned above and to the new UI-API they should create, thereby making them unusable on any other version of the underlying OS.
Is it likely?
Sadly, no. They already have most of the stuff above, it's called Windows. But if the pain of using Windows increases (viruses, trojans, worms, adware, spyware... you name it), what I've outlined might come as a great relief for their huge existing customer-base. It could be like running OS X on your cheap x86-hardware.
Of course, they'd have to find a way to stop it from running on AMD...
Whoever's working on MONO should start seriously asking themselves when, not if this or something similar will happen to them.
Yes, I tried the demo. Nice but... I don't know. I never really thought I had a good overview.
What about recursive structures? Two webpages linking to each other recursively, and you can scroll in indefinitely. Do this scripted and it's almost DoS?
What, if I don't *want* some content to be on constant preview, like my smut and porn?