Come on, even studies funded and published by Microsoft show good sides about Linux? Windows is becoming a harder sell every day.
Also just look at Microsoft's "strategy", it's merely prolonging the status-quo, they don't even try to sell Windows to for example the 80% of webmasters who don't run it. They know that every customer lost won't come back because in the long run Linux is a lot cheaper.
The history of Microsoft will be:
80's: Establishment of domination(DOS)
90's: Massive growth and huge profits(Windows)
00's: Stagnation and decline in non-core markets (like webservers)
10's: Decline in all marketsand end of domination
It will take some time, but Microsoft won't be able to stop Linux.
I'm sure you realize the problems inherent in throwing out the current system wholesale, then trying to reimplement it on a completely foreign platform to which the original code was in no way tailored.
First: Yes I do realize these problems, but it's no way certain that they cost more than 1 billion USD.
Second: You don't have to throw out everything completely at once. For example first switching to Mozilla and OpenOffice and later switching to Linux can be done. If you insist on cross-plattform development in the meantime (for example Qt) you can phase out one application at a time and have no or almost no transition problems.
If they have a deadline, which they obviously do, to have a system that works without any disturbance to the current system, then it makes much more sense to extend whatever contract they already have with their current vendor rather than toss it all out in the hopes that they can have something working "soon".
Correct, stupid management decisions (like putting up a too early deadline) are likely to blame for this kind of waste.
So Bleasdale, open source advocate in UK, gets it absolutely right. The current system is already based on MS products, and to try to replace that with Linux all at once would cost more than the half a billion pounds that the new Microsoft license costs.
Sorry to ask so harsh, but are so dumb not to realize how much 500 Million GBP (= almost 1 billion USD) is?
With that kind of money you can hire hundreds of technicians, programmers and support staff.
I think finally Microsoft has succeeded in their mantra: "No matter how expensive MS is, switching to Linux is more expensive". Some people are actually dumb enough to believe it.
However, if Adobe wants to survive in the long term, they might also care about not losing customers.
If they wait so long until Gimp is "good enough", it will be too late. Everybody on Linux will just use Gimp because it's free and more importantly, because it comes with the distribution. If on the other hand they port Photoshop soon, they will build a userbase on Linux and probably will not lose those who migrate from Windows to Linux.
Because of network effects, development isn't the only thing needed to make a browser great.
IE-only sites are getting rarer and rarer, and with advertisments like these, they will dissappear completely. - Which will mean a better browser experience for ALL Firefox users.
AFAIK, the keyboards and mice are also doing losses (although small ones, not the billions that XBox is causing) and MS sees them as a means of getting customer recognicion - When they see the "Microsoft" logo everytimt they use the computer, they are more likely to buy software from them than from another vendor.
Perhaps it's just that Red Hat realized that one size fits all solutions aren't.
Just because RedHat always was a mediocre desktop (Gnome) doesn't mean that you can't provide a package that works on both servers and desktops very well.
It's software after all and with DVDs there's almost no limit on what you can ship.
I was also thinking about trying to get into the scam-baiting hobby, but I haven't received any 419-scams lately (at least AFAIK from scanning subject lines when deleting spam), and I get loads of spam.
I think there are so many people trying to scam the scammers, that they have given up. By now, I guess there are maybe 100 people trying to trick the 419-scammer into something for every idiot actually gullible enough to fall for them.
With boot times getting longer and longer (my system needs 30 seconds just to get to the bootmanager), eventually we're going to spend hours waiting for the damn thing to start up!
Type in "fish://myuser@any_remote_Linux_box/" in and fall in love.
It works over ssh, which means it will work with just any Linux distro out of the box. (Because AFAIK ssh is installed and active on almost all Linux distros)
You will never use FTP again. FTP is insecure, a hassle to set up and generally outdated.
BTW, the "fish:" links work everywhere in KDE, not just in Konqueror.
I don't know wether it will help you, but you can run Mozilla without installing from an USB-stick or a CD. As soon as you take out the CD or remove the USB-stick, there won't be a single trace of Mozilla left on the machine.
That's not true. Any script kiddie with a WYSIWYG tool can generate a website that has hideous code but will be grokked by browsers. Making a standards-compliant website requires someone with actual knowledge and a certain passion, and likely needs to be hand-coded. This obviously costs a lot more.
Well those sites work equally bad with Mozilla and IE, so there is absolutely no IE-only element here.
that all those obnoxious web developers who make their sites IE only "because it's got 99% of the market" will have to stop telling us to "just use IE" and learn to develop standards compliant websites?
Actually I see fewer and fewer IE-only sites. From time to time I see a couple that work only with Gecko and IE (and don't work with Konqueror), but I haven't found any IE-only site lately.
Slashdot Mirror
IIRC, in 2000 Florida was won by 500 votes.
So essentially you say that the US elections is merely a big lottery [and it's good that way].
Also just look at Microsoft's "strategy", it's merely prolonging the status-quo, they don't even try to sell Windows to for example the 80% of webmasters who don't run it. They know that every customer lost won't come back because in the long run Linux is a lot cheaper.
The history of Microsoft will be:
It will take some time, but Microsoft won't be able to stop Linux.
First: Yes I do realize these problems, but it's no way certain that they cost more than 1 billion USD.
Second: You don't have to throw out everything completely at once. For example first switching to Mozilla and OpenOffice and later switching to Linux can be done. If you insist on cross-plattform development in the meantime (for example Qt) you can phase out one application at a time and have no or almost no transition problems.
If they have a deadline, which they obviously do, to have a system that works without any disturbance to the current system, then it makes much more sense to extend whatever contract they already have with their current vendor rather than toss it all out in the hopes that they can have something working "soon".
Correct, stupid management decisions (like putting up a too early deadline) are likely to blame for this kind of waste.
Sorry to ask so harsh, but are so dumb not to realize how much 500 Million GBP (= almost 1 billion USD) is?
With that kind of money you can hire hundreds of technicians, programmers and support staff.
I think finally Microsoft has succeeded in their mantra: "No matter how expensive MS is, switching to Linux is more expensive". Some people are actually dumb enough to believe it.
However, if Adobe wants to survive in the long term, they might also care about not losing customers.
If they wait so long until Gimp is "good enough", it will be too late. Everybody on Linux will just use Gimp because it's free and more importantly, because it comes with the distribution. If on the other hand they port Photoshop soon, they will build a userbase on Linux and probably will not lose those who migrate from Windows to Linux.
Actually Quanta (included in KDE and included in pretty much any distribution) seems to fit your needs.
AFAIK Florida used them and Bush won this swing state by a comfortable (but not too large) margin....
Maybe we can compare where electronic voting machines were used and who won.
IE-only sites are getting rarer and rarer, and with advertisments like these, they will dissappear completely. - Which will mean a better browser experience for ALL Firefox users.
It would put the level of legal stupidity on an entire new level.
You aren't supposed to drink it without checking temperature first, either.
And of course the mouth has higher temperature tolerance than the normal skin, too.
If I spill hot coffee on myself, I expect a mild scald. I don't expect to lose skin and have nerve damage. If it's that hot, it's TOO hot.
May I ask you what you expect when you run over a street without looking? Will you also complain that cars are TOO fast?
If you akt stupid, it will sometimes hurt.
AFAIK, the keyboards and mice are also doing losses (although small ones, not the billions that XBox is causing) and MS sees them as a means of getting customer recognicion - When they see the "Microsoft" logo everytimt they use the computer, they are more likely to buy software from them than from another vendor.
That's the only reason for it.
Just because RedHat always was a mediocre desktop (Gnome) doesn't mean that you can't provide a package that works on both servers and desktops very well.
It's software after all and with DVDs there's almost no limit on what you can ship.
"Wait a minute, is version 4.07-SP2 with hotfixes 78302, 78748, and 79391 now safe from exploit 17293-B or not?"
The thought alone gives me the shivers.
I think there are so many people trying to scam the scammers, that they have given up. By now, I guess there are maybe 100 people trying to trick the 419-scammer into something for every idiot actually gullible enough to fall for them.
419 is no longer profitable, I guess...
Is that your personal opinion or the official Republican partyline?
I can't go to http://www.georgewbush.com/, so I can't find out myself.
Well that solely depends wether it's bombs or letters that are sent.
That's why distributors are giving you the possiblity to recue the system with the installation CD.
With boot times getting longer and longer (my system needs 30 seconds just to get to the bootmanager), eventually we're going to spend hours waiting for the damn thing to start up!
Type in "fish://myuser@any_remote_Linux_box/" in and fall in love.
It works over ssh, which means it will work with just any Linux distro out of the box. (Because AFAIK ssh is installed and active on almost all Linux distros)
You will never use FTP again. FTP is insecure, a hassle to set up and generally outdated.
BTW, the "fish:" links work everywhere in KDE, not just in Konqueror.
Actually, I display a "get firefox" button for every IE-visitor (and only for IE-visitors, no need to bother anybody else)
I don't know wether it will help you, but you can run Mozilla without installing from an USB-stick or a CD. As soon as you take out the CD or remove the USB-stick, there won't be a single trace of Mozilla left on the machine.
Well those sites work equally bad with Mozilla and IE, so there is absolutely no IE-only element here.
Actually I see fewer and fewer IE-only sites. From time to time I see a couple that work only with Gecko and IE (and don't work with Konqueror), but I haven't found any IE-only site lately.