The moment that on-screen girl smiled, I realized that HL2 will kick Doom III ass big time.
What an incredibly nerdy response - if all it takes for a girl to smile at you to think a product is good, you sure must have a lot of useless crap lying around the place.
I don't see Microsoft denying people choice in the operating system market, except obviously by forcing OEMs to package Windows with their hardware, which I'll agree sucks.
I dispute the fact that they're leveraging their monopoly to force people to keep buying Windows. Discriminating users can still buy PCs without a Microsoft operating system and then run whatever they want.
People should be getting annoyed at the software developers that are still making products exclusively for Windows. For me, it is a simple choice - I'll rarely use a non-Microsoft Operating System for my desktop functionality, because I like knowing that there are applications out there that will cover 99.99% of things I might want to do with my computer - applications I don't have to download, compile, tweak source, recompile, repeat ad nauseum, to get working. I go out, I buy the CD, I put it in, it works. If it doesn't work, I take it back and get my money back or swap it for a competing product.
I'm a discriminating user, and I use operating systems like tools - whatever one is right for the job. Sure, Microsoft might be in a monopolising position, but it is because they wanted to be, and no-one else tried to stop them. It isn't like overnight they took over 95% of desktops - it happened gradually over a period of a few years, during which time - if anyone was even capable of competiting - they could have launched their own commercial operating system and outfitted with a variety of quality apps, and tried to get developers onside to make it worth switching.
You don't like Microsoft because of their monopoly, that is fine - don't use their products. Make a stand, install Red Hat, and convince other people to do it. But until there is a wide variety of commercially supported applications that are easy to install and set up, don't require intimate knowledge of an obfuscated operating system to get working, and above all are easy for users to use, I can't see it happening.
Microsoft aren't a monopoly because they had to battle their way through a horde of other operating systems and applications, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. They're a monopoly because no-one else is there to compete.
Any time anyone wants to drop a few billion in investing in a new operating system and application suite for mainstream use on PCs, be my guest - I'm sure you'd find heaps of willing employees looking to bring it to Bill and co. If MS are the only ones prepared to invest the money and time in making a decent commercially supported operating system and application suite, then hey - it ain't no wonder.
So, you want free music from bands that aren't paid for their work, to be distributed for free over a network that is free to download media files from, with none of those horrible websites that use banner ads to make money (so are thus "free" to view) involved, using a free format from which no-one gets royalties for using?
I'm sorry?? Some game developers are cool enough to release versions of their software that runs on other operating sytems, and we applaud that. They run a games server service and they encourage developers who only develop for windows? Sheesh!
Huh? It says that the developers that release versions of their software that runs on OTHER operating systems get applauded.
Oh, real technical language used there I see. I am wondering:
We use Windows Media on our hosting network, and it is great - in fact, I'd go so far as to say its one of the best products Microsoft has made. Using a combination of Media Encoder and the actual streaming software, we've got thousands of streams churning away happily all the time. The uptime of these boxes are incredible: we recently found out that one of our encoder boxes (Windows NT 4) has an uptime of over 500 days (!).
Windows 2000, out of the box, has excellent support for streaming media services. My only compaint would be that the interface to manage streams is a little icky - it would be great if it had a command line or script interface to it.
Afaik, for NT4 its available for free, so its pretty hard to beat on price. Real (from memory) is fairly expensive - and just about everyone that has Windows has Media Player. If your target audience for your streaming is primarily Windows based, your best bet is Windows Media services.
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Gotta feel sorry for them - all the effort they must have gone to for this 'exclusive'.
I don't see Microsoft denying people choice in the operating system market, except obviously by forcing OEMs to package Windows with their hardware, which I'll agree sucks.
I dispute the fact that they're leveraging their monopoly to force people to keep buying Windows. Discriminating users can still buy PCs without a Microsoft operating system and then run whatever they want.
People should be getting annoyed at the software developers that are still making products exclusively for Windows. For me, it is a simple choice - I'll rarely use a non-Microsoft Operating System for my desktop functionality, because I like knowing that there are applications out there that will cover 99.99% of things I might want to do with my computer - applications I don't have to download, compile, tweak source, recompile, repeat ad nauseum, to get working. I go out, I buy the CD, I put it in, it works. If it doesn't work, I take it back and get my money back or swap it for a competing product.
I'm a discriminating user, and I use operating systems like tools - whatever one is right for the job. Sure, Microsoft might be in a monopolising position, but it is because they wanted to be, and no-one else tried to stop them. It isn't like overnight they took over 95% of desktops - it happened gradually over a period of a few years, during which time - if anyone was even capable of competiting - they could have launched their own commercial operating system and outfitted with a variety of quality apps, and tried to get developers onside to make it worth switching.
You don't like Microsoft because of their monopoly, that is fine - don't use their products. Make a stand, install Red Hat, and convince other people to do it. But until there is a wide variety of commercially supported applications that are easy to install and set up, don't require intimate knowledge of an obfuscated operating system to get working, and above all are easy for users to use, I can't see it happening.
Microsoft aren't a monopoly because they had to battle their way through a horde of other operating systems and applications, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake. They're a monopoly because no-one else is there to compete.
Any time anyone wants to drop a few billion in investing in a new operating system and application suite for mainstream use on PCs, be my guest - I'm sure you'd find heaps of willing employees looking to bring it to Bill and co. If MS are the only ones prepared to invest the money and time in making a decent commercially supported operating system and application suite, then hey - it ain't no wonder.
So, you want free music from bands that aren't paid for their work, to be distributed for free over a network that is free to download media files from, with none of those horrible websites that use banner ads to make money (so are thus "free" to view) involved, using a free format from which no-one gets royalties for using?
Uh, for some reason it put an extraneous space in the URL; the id number is supposed to be 3332
http://files.ausgamers.com/?agn=details&id=333 2
We use Windows Media on our hosting network, and it is great - in fact, I'd go so far as to say its one of the best products Microsoft has made. Using a combination of Media Encoder and the actual streaming software, we've got thousands of streams churning away happily all the time. The uptime of these boxes are incredible: we recently found out that one of our encoder boxes (Windows NT 4) has an uptime of over 500 days (!). Windows 2000, out of the box, has excellent support for streaming media services. My only compaint would be that the interface to manage streams is a little icky - it would be great if it had a command line or script interface to it. Afaik, for NT4 its available for free, so its pretty hard to beat on price. Real (from memory) is fairly expensive - and just about everyone that has Windows has Media Player. If your target audience for your streaming is primarily Windows based, your best bet is Windows Media services.