DVD for movies is great, but the way the
entertainment companies are treating their
customers is sort of annoying. I'm a German
citizen, my wife is Italian and we both talk
English very well. If I go to buy a DVD in Germany
it often happens that the soundtrack is only
German. If we buy DVD in Italy the soundtrack
is usually Italian and sometimes also English.
The most annoying thing so far was "Terminator 2"
which has an English soundtrack, but with
italian subtitles that can't be turned off.
Do the entertainment firms think that the
customer is so stupid that he really needs
subtitles. If I use the original soundtrack,
then I do it for a reason of course and if I
would like to have subtitles in my native
language I would turn them off. But forcing
you to do it in a way you don't want to do
is really annoying. Customers are treated like
kids in the kindergarten.
Well, at least my problem with DVD is not the
price (that is pretty high of course) but the
availability of languages (even when all are
using the same region code).
A few days ago a similar story appeared on the
german news forum "Heise Newsticker". The original
article can be retrieved here.
The funny thing was that the german page at
Microsoft was just the summary. And on the bottom
of that page there was a link to download the
complete whitepaper. That link never worked, it
always resulted in a 404 - Not found.
After a while with lots of comments on that newsticker even the summary on the microsoft site
disappeared. And now its surfacing on the english
part of Microsoft Europe:-)
I guess that commenting the lies in that whitepaper would only be a waste of resources. But maybe that's what Microsoft is up to: Spreading out lies and putting "comment load" on the experts. Like a little "Denial of Service" attack. Linux experts that have to comment our rubbish can't develop in the meanwhile:-)
For me the behaviour of Microsoft is really
interesting: Putting an anonymous whitepaper (who really believes in the competence of an author
called "Microsoft") and then removing it if the
reaction to it is not what they obviously expected it to be.
Needless to say that direct feedback via the
Microsoft website wasn't answered yet, despite they say "we usually answer within 72 hours":-)
First of all: Is Linux really so much at risk that
we have to think "how will it survive"? I honestly
think that nobody can make Linux extinct.:-)
Now let me try to comment a bit the major patterns
that she suggested:
Linux needs easy to install
From my point of view that is really nonsense. Ok,
everybody would appreciate an easy installation, but the installation is a thing that you do once in your life. So it would be a bit
waste of resources to optimize that job. And if its to difficult then you could ask a service provider to do the job. For example not many people would have the idea to install a new heating system in their houses, but installing computer software (which is maybe at the same complexity level) has to be done by everyone..? And of course modern distributions address this issue very well. From my experience its much more
easier to install than Windows.
Linux must end beta
Also funny. Tell me one software in the world that doesn't has to be patched (except "hello world"). Indeed the thing that I love with Linux is that the patches are well documented. And they are for free. I don't have to buy Version xy of the product to get a bug fixed. And I always can decide if a bug is affecting me so much that I need this fix or if the bug will never occur in my environment. Programs that I use frequently I will upgrade if necessary, programs that I only use from time to time I use them as they are (unless its a too big pain without patching).
Linux Must Have Documentation Human Beings Can Consume
Are users reading manuals? From my experience they don't and so the manuals you get with every
new version of windows are thinner and thinner. Not so for Linux. I've never got so many manuals available on my system. And I mean really helpful manuals and not fancy looking "help files" which only give me lots of distracting links but no solutions. Yes, it requires some time to read all that stuff, but with every man page I've read my knowledge increases and its a knowledge that I can even use in the next version. And the more knowledge I have the easier it is.
Linux Must Have A Unified User Experience
Why? Would you as a human being really like to live in the very same type of house as your neighbor does and drive the same model of car in the same color ("of course the customer can have any color as long as it is black" - Henry Ford about the Ford T)? I'm happy that I have to choice to select the Windowmanager that suites my needs best and that I can use different shells and tools for different tasks. There is no need and no use in providing one solution that should serve every customer. Even the car industry provides different cars, one sports car if you want to impress women, one family car if the sports car was successful and one van if you have to move to a new house after starting a family. Just imagine if you would ask a car designer to put all those capabilities (fun, many seats for kids, transport capacity) in only one car.
No, I think Emily didn't get the point or she's not and individualist.:-)
Slashdot Mirror
DVD for movies is great, but the way the
entertainment companies are treating their
customers is sort of annoying. I'm a German
citizen, my wife is Italian and we both talk
English very well. If I go to buy a DVD in Germany
it often happens that the soundtrack is only
German. If we buy DVD in Italy the soundtrack
is usually Italian and sometimes also English.
The most annoying thing so far was "Terminator 2"
which has an English soundtrack, but with
italian subtitles that can't be turned off.
Do the entertainment firms think that the
customer is so stupid that he really needs
subtitles. If I use the original soundtrack,
then I do it for a reason of course and if I
would like to have subtitles in my native
language I would turn them off. But forcing
you to do it in a way you don't want to do
is really annoying. Customers are treated like
kids in the kindergarten.
Well, at least my problem with DVD is not the
price (that is pretty high of course) but the
availability of languages (even when all are
using the same region code).
The funny thing was that the german page at Microsoft was just the summary. And on the bottom of that page there was a link to download the complete whitepaper. That link never worked, it always resulted in a 404 - Not found.
After a while with lots of comments on that newsticker even the summary on the microsoft site disappeared. And now its surfacing on the english part of Microsoft Europe :-)
I guess that commenting the lies in that whitepaper would only be a waste of resources. But maybe that's what Microsoft is up to: Spreading out lies and putting "comment load" on the experts. Like a little "Denial of Service" attack. Linux experts that have to comment our rubbish can't develop in the meanwhile :-)
For me the behaviour of Microsoft is really interesting: Putting an anonymous whitepaper (who really believes in the competence of an author called "Microsoft") and then removing it if the reaction to it is not what they obviously expected it to be.
Needless to say that direct feedback via the Microsoft website wasn't answered yet, despite they say "we usually answer within 72 hours" :-)
Now let me try to comment a bit the major patterns that she suggested:
Linux needs easy to install
From my point of view that is really nonsense. Ok, everybody would appreciate an easy installation, but the installation is a thing that you do once in your life. So it would be a bit waste of resources to optimize that job. And if its to difficult then you could ask a service provider to do the job. For example not many people would have the idea to install a new heating system in their houses, but installing computer software (which is maybe at the same complexity level) has to be done by everyone..? And of course modern distributions address this issue very well. From my experience its much more easier to install than Windows.
Linux must end beta
Also funny. Tell me one software in the world that doesn't has to be patched (except "hello world"). Indeed the thing that I love with Linux is that the patches are well documented. And they are for free. I don't have to buy Version xy of the product to get a bug fixed. And I always can decide if a bug is affecting me so much that I need this fix or if the bug will never occur in my environment. Programs that I use frequently I will upgrade if necessary, programs that I only use from time to time I use them as they are (unless its a too big pain without patching).
Linux Must Have Documentation Human Beings Can Consume
Are users reading manuals? From my experience they don't and so the manuals you get with every new version of windows are thinner and thinner. Not so for Linux. I've never got so many manuals available on my system. And I mean really helpful manuals and not fancy looking "help files" which only give me lots of distracting links but no solutions. Yes, it requires some time to read all that stuff, but with every man page I've read my knowledge increases and its a knowledge that I can even use in the next version. And the more knowledge I have the easier it is.
Linux Must Have A Unified User Experience Why? Would you as a human being really like to live in the very same type of house as your neighbor does and drive the same model of car in the same color ("of course the customer can have any color as long as it is black" - Henry Ford about the Ford T)? I'm happy that I have to choice to select the Windowmanager that suites my needs best and that I can use different shells and tools for different tasks. There is no need and no use in providing one solution that should serve every customer. Even the car industry provides different cars, one sports car if you want to impress women, one family car if the sports car was successful and one van if you have to move to a new house after starting a family. Just imagine if you would ask a car designer to put all those capabilities (fun, many seats for kids, transport capacity) in only one car.
No, I think Emily didn't get the point or she's not and individualist. :-)