"As an independant artists I would like to know how/if we could contribute music to these kiosks. If so it would be a great distribution medium for us indy artists"
Good points about piracy, but since most games now cause to you register, to download patches, and a ton are going to a monthly fee, piracy is becoming less of an issue.
I used Doom3 because the example above used Halo.
I don't know if I agree that the owner of a console is going to buy one game a month. I have heard that the avearage Xbox owner owns less than 5 games. Now granted that is because it hasn't been out as long as the PS2, but if your statistic was correct then the average owner of an Xbox would have around 20+ games now. That seems a bit high.
Let me ask you this, if they release HaloXXX for the Xbox and the PC at the same time, AND the version on the PC can take advantage of a better monitor and processor, which would you buy? Now let me add that if you decide to play online people with PC's will have a big advantage over the Xbox, because they will be able to "see" further.
My main point still stands. The Xbox and the PC are going after the same market. ~14-35 year old males. The problem for Xbox is that most of the gamers in that market own good to great PC's.
To answer your question I will just look at stats.
PC's > 150 Million Xbox total sales 30 Million.
I will agree that Halo was/is a good game. Now put that game at 1280X1024 on a new(er) ATI or Nvidea card, or better yet look at it at 1600X1200 resolution. Now do the comparison to a TV and Xbox.
Most people that own an Xbox also own a decent high end PC. They will buy the PC version if it is better, which in almost every case it is. There are a few exceptions. So if you are a development shop why would you spend time porting to an Xbox? You won't. They are the SAME market! Now there are a lot of people who own PS2's and GameCubes that don't have high end PC's, and since your market for PS2's is > 30 Million, then that is a market worth a port.
A better question is to ask is what about games like: Doom3, Star Wars Galaxies, and even WarCraft III. Why will/are those games not ported to the Xbox on day one. The reason is the Xbox weak market share AND the fact that they are competing in the exact same markets as the PC game. The people that would buy one of those games would buy it for their PC first.
I am willing to bet that Doom3 will sell many times more copies than there are Xboxes. Does that mean that Microsoft won't lock up some development shops (i.e. Halo) no. Sony and Nintendo both do that also.
You paint a bad picture for the PS2/3. I will counter that with a bleak picture for the Xbox.
Xboxes currently being built are being sold below cost. One core reason is that Microsoft can't force (easily) Nvidia and Intel to lower the price of their hardware. So while Sony combines chips to lower manufacturing cost, Microsoft must still pay the higher cost, and loose money on each Xbox sold. Nintendo and Sony don't.
Xbox sales are WAY below what Microsoft had hopped they would be. Understand that Microsoft generally sets extreemly low expectations for their products, and then brag about how great it is selling! Their shareholders were kinda pissed about 40Billion in the bank and no dividends being paid. Microsoft paid some, but now those same shareholders don't want Microsoft loosing money.
Microsoft has been trying to get developers to ONLY develop for the Xbox. Very few companies have done this. The core problem is that Sony owns a HUGE chunk of the console market, those developers don't want to exclude that market.
Now the biggest issue. The Xbox is just a Inter/Windows PC. Software development companies that "port" their games to the Xbox from the PC because it is "easy" find out that 95+% of their sales comes from the PC market. The Xbox generally competes against another Microsoft product... the pc. The customers that have an Xbox seem to also have a great PC, and the games play much better on their PC. There are a few exceptions, specifically sports games.
A HUGE mistake Microsoft made was giving up the younger generation market to the GameCube and only going after the ~15-35 year old males. So the way I see it the maket kinda breaks down as follows: Kids and family gamers - Nintendo 14-40 year old males without a good PC - Xbox Everyone Else Sony.
That is a HUGE everyone else!
I believe that Microsoft will probably not develop an Xbox2 for a LONG time if at all. If they put in a new Intel and Nvidea combination, then what would that buy them? The games run at 720X512 resolution? How much more is a P4 3GH and new Gforce going to give you, at that resolution? Yes 4X anti-aliasing is nice, but the current Gforce does a fine job at that low resolution. Now if HDTV becomes more mainstream, this may change things... but that will be a LONG way out.
I honestly believe that Microsoft is going to get out of this market, but it will take a few years, and they will continue to support the current Xbox for at least 3-4 more years. Their primary concern is getting Intel and Nvidia to lower the cost of their chips!
It has been said before, but it is the truth. When Microsoft can't leverage it's OS, it doesn't do well. I don't see Office for the Xbox any time soon.
Another mistake is betting heavy on online games with the Xbox. Sony is kinda falling in to this trap to some degree. Nintendo is the smartest in this one... This is a topic for another day though... Just imagine letting your 6 year old play "Mario Online" and having them ask you what all those cuss words mean.
While I agree with you somewhat, I want bluetooth because I can then use it with my Ipaq and connect from anywhere in the world via SSH to admin my Linux boxes.
Currently I have a VoiceStream wireless PCMCIA card that does that. It makes the Ipaq huge and also cost me around $20/month for service.
That to me is a valid good reason for bluetooth in a phone.
He has a valid point. It would be fair to compair it to the best chips out now. I don't care what AMD + rating it has or what MHZ Intel has it running, just the best chips out. It would also be good to see how the best sparc chip, Xeon, (whatever SGI uses), etc compared.
I realize that this is just ONE benchmark and a lot goes in to a system, but it would still be interesting to see.
Well put, I switched "most" of our servers over to Linux and have a policy that Linux is our prefered server platform (over NetWare and Windows). It was a scarry switch because like you we had very little experience with Linux and had CNE people on staff.
What issues with Linux have you had? When we started switching to Linux from NT we had a few SAMBA issues, but those were solved quickly. Even the Mac's went smooth.
If you believe that the Microsoft JVM was fast then you will LOVE the 1.3 or 1.4 JVMs. ALL of them that I have tested soundly beat Microsoft's JVM. SWING is even fast now!
It is called HotSpot technlogy, and it has two version. One for the client and one for the server.
The JVM client is still only around 5MB. I hardly call that huge. The JVM takes less than 16MB or RAM, and in some cases way less than that.
You need to give Java another look if you are considering.NET. I have a similar machine to yours and the Java stuff I run rocks! Heck my IDE is even written in Java and for an IDE it runs well.
If speed is a major concern (I doubt it will be) then you can even compile Java down to executables on most platforms.
Now if you are going to tell me that you do a bunch of complex math operations, then I would say that Java isn't for you.
You have the promise of Java now. Java runs well on the following systems Linux - Got it. Mac - Got it. Windows Got it. NetWare - Got it. OS/2 - Got it. Solaris - Got it. AIX - Got it. Mainframe OS/390 - Got it.
I am sure that I am forgetting a few... Oh yeah the small devices. Sharp Zaurus - Got it. Pocket PC handhelds - Got it. Palm Platforms - Got it but doesn't run well yet. A ton of new cell phones - Got it.
I am sure that I am still missing a few... like the Amiga platform and probably BE OS.
What more do you want? Oh how about Open Source. Well Sun is now allowing a complete open source JVM to get certified now.
It is a bad idea for the government to dictate what we the consumers should and shouldn't be buying. I do agree that ANY tax on gas is a bad idea. I believe that the government shouldn't try and play God by using taxes, or tiered taxes as you suggest.
I understand that a rail system requires long term planning, but it doesn't have to be some project to hook up New York with L.A. It could start small and grow. I believe that this is going to happen in the U.S.A. but it will take GAS getting to ~4-5 dollars a gallon (taking in to account inflation).
I don't agree with creating a law that says any vehicle should get X milege per gallon. I think supply and demand will take care of that for us. However I have a question. I live in the U.S.A. and have visited Europe on occasion. Why don't we (the U.S.A) have a decent rail system like Europe? I would rather see a mandate that we would get something like that.
Do you people in Europe like your rail system? It seemed great to me, but I only used it on vacation.
Also everyone talks about a different source of energy. What type are they talking about? It appears to me that there are serious cons about all type of energy creation.
I am not trying to start a flame war, but inovation does mean a LOT in the server business. Take the insight manager boards from Compaq. Or take their EISA bus (bad at this time, but great in their time).
My point is this. You bought a glorified PC if you bought a Dell. Except for the motherboard, what isn't some over the counter part? It is some cobbled together machine that DELL thought was a "server class" machine.
I am glad that you work for some company that can afford to replace ALL their servers every three years! Man I am envious. I have worked in 50,000+ node networks and quite a few 2000+ node networks and we couldn't do that. You must work for Merc or Lilly to be able to have that kind of desposible income.
A last question. Are you forced to buy Dell and or do you work for Cendant?
My main point is that if you are going to go cheap and commodity then go all out, and try to stay "standard". Otherwise buy from someone who has an R&D department. I find it hard that you don't like Compaq/HP better than Dell; and if you are really focused on quality then why don't you use Sun? Cost doesn't seem to be a factor?
I am glad that you had good luck with Dell Servers. My question is how many other servers have you used? Dell doesn't inovate anything! So if you used a server like a Compaq and had an Insight management board installed, there was NO Dell counter to that. They MAY have one now, but I can guarentee that they didn't make it.
You mention replaceing the motherboard. Have you tried replaceing it with a STANDARD ATX motherboard? You won't be able to. Now if you owned a SUN or IBM or Compaq, then I would say that you are getting proprietary because they need to engineer quality. However, Dell is a "best of breed" company. They don't engineer much of anything. They could easily use a standard ATX motherboard. How much do you think that a new motherboard will cost you in 4-5 years. Just so you have an idea, it will cost you 5-6X what a standard ATX one would cost. This is their way of getting you to upgrade to a new server.
The Dell PC's are ok. The company I use to work for orderd around 2,000 of them and around over 5% were bad on arrival. My issue with Dell isn't about their ability to deliever a PC at a low cost, but the fact that we the consumers are cutting off real inovation by buying Dell. When you get a SCSI card in your server it will probably be an Adaptec card (good card), but all Adaptec focuses on is that card. They don't care about overall system performance. They sell SCSI cards.
What in your PC or Server has any real inovation in it? Now I could live with Dell IF they used totally standard parts. They don't. They say that they do, but they don't.
I say this after I finally convinced our business to buy pre-built "standard" machines from http://www.micro-xpress.com. I can't tell you how nice it is to replace a processor in our server (because of a new load), and know that it will work. It is also great to be able to replace a motherboard for $150 and get new features (DDR 333, extra RAM slots, new gen processor ect). Oh and the server cost LESS than a DELL server! Yes there is NO inovation from this type of server BUT at least you get a standards based system. The reliability has been very good.
Lastly when you calculate your server cost don't forget to add in your support deal. You either needed a "Hot spare" to replace that motherboard in 5 min OR you needed a great support deal. When/if you replace it, you got the EXACT same motherboard as before.:-(
While I agree with your post, Compaq and HP have invented quite a bit. Compaq had a bunch of patents and HP was the king of scientific equipment for a long time. In some areas they still are.
Now Dell is another story... I understand their approch of using "best of breed" equipment, but couldn't they use industry standard ATX motherboards? NOOOOOOOOO! They want to be "best of breed" and proprietary. All this with spending little to nothing on R&D. Now they are in the server business. Well, kiss any new inovation away in that market now...
Actually what will happen is that the cable companies will start to offer some of their "Movie" packages on HDTV. Those will probably be 16X9 ratio as well. Then next will come sports, then most of the "clasic" movie channels and some Disney stuff. You and the consumers that wait (myself included), will start to notice that the stuff we want to watch is only on HD. Kinda like a ton of our local college basketball games are not only on ESPN, not on local channels any more.
Personally I plan on getting a HDTV that does 1080i and 720p when the price goes below a grand for a fair sized set. Something equivilant to our 27" set now.
The other thing that will move people is that the price difference will start to errode. This has already started. I expect by next Christmas that good HDTV sets with HDTV tuners will be under $1,7.000.00
The reason that some people like hardware RAID over software is that it only cost around $300.00 more AND most implement HOT SWAP features. This is kinda nice. The ONLY downside is that you need to use the vendors driver as apposed to a standard IDE driver.
The other thing you get is the ability to add drives on the fly.
I would agree that if I didn't have the $300.00 for a 3ware RAID controler then I would try software RAID again. My first experience with it (RED HAT 7.3) sucked big time. I couldn't get the thing to install and be stable. This brings up another point. Your OS doesn't know that it is being RAIDed. In some cases that is nice.
It kinda comes down to this. If you believe that employers will not screw their employees to make a profit, and that those employees could "just find another job"; then you also believe that these laws are a bad idea. However, if you believe that employers will screw their employees at the drop of a hat for a profit, then you want protection laws.
There is a balance somewhere. In the U.S. there have been MANY instances where employers have screwed their employees, and that has lead to child labor laws and unions. Unfortunately quite a few lazy people seem to want to take advantage of companies. The real problem is greed.
I kinda laugh at some of the companies around here that talk about "retirement" benifits. Yeah RIGHT!
I saw many times Dow Chemical move "older" employees around the country when they started to get close to retirement. They tried hard to get them to quit... I could go on.... Like how the automotive industry actually killed people who wanted to start up a union... But on the other hand I see union auto workers today that make a slug look like the greatest worker in the world...
I use to have the same opinion as you, and was a avid Palm user, but I bought an Ipaq 39xx series. The Ipaq offered one feature that I needed, that the palm didn't offer. I personally can't stand PocketPC 2002 compared to the palm BUT I have found that I use the Ipaq for a LOT more that I ever used my palm for. This is not to say that modern Palms can't do the same, but to compare it to my Palm V... 1. I use a 802.11b card to check email in the living room of my home. 2. I use the "small" and $20.00 month wireless modem (VoiceStream cart) to connect to the Internet from about anywhere. (NOTE: not $40.00/month like the Sharp product) 3. I actually read Word and Excel documents from work. 4. I took Video from my wedding and show it to people via PocketTv. It works well.. 5. The games are not too bad. 6. I use it as an MP3 player when cutting the grass. 7. I SSH in to work from about anywhere.
Now I used my Palm for a glorified daytimer, and sometimes used it to catch up on email. It did a great job of that but nothing more for me.
Now here is what I don't like about the Ipaq that the new Sharp seems to have addressed.
1. Resolution of 640X480. This would be great for browsing and terminal windows!
2. Good keyboard. The IPAQ sucks.
3. Expandable battery. Sometimes I don't care about the extra weight (flights..)
What it doesn't appear to have though...
1. Backing by most PCMCIA hardware vendors... So drivers and software will be hard to find. You would be limited to using their "wireless modem" and their $40/month service...:-(
My main point is that all most people use to use a computer for was a glorified typewriter, but over time they used them for a LOT more. This is no different.
In my opinion it comes down to cost. If an "Average" user that buys Dell, HP, IBM or Gateway had to pay say $100 more for a computer with Microsoft XP on it AND pay $500 more for Office, then they would probably try something else. Now if the computer cost say $3,000.00 then the additional cost of Microsoft isn't too noticable, but a computer that cost under $1,000.00 it becomes more of an issue. Computers that are under $700, it would become a HUGE issue.
A lot of people here have complained that Linux doesn't have this or that app or feature, and I agree it would be nice to have those (My list is at the bottom), but it generally comes down to cost. If an average user has to jump through a few hoops to save >40% of a computer cost then they will.
Yes I understand that the OEM cost of WindowsXP isn't $100.00. But my point still remains, as computers get cheaper the cost difference will come in to play more.
Software I would like to see for Linux 1. DreamWeaver 2. All in Wonder Video capture. 3. Wine support for ATI Radeon drivers 4. HP Scanjet USB driver support 5. Good looking fonts for Mozilla 6. Microsoft Access equivilant GUI + DB 7. Viso Equivilant 8. Red Hat to ship Linux with Directory Service installed and a good tool to admin it with
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I just read one of your other post.
"As an independant artists I would like to know how/if we could contribute music to these kiosks.
If so it would be a great distribution medium for us indy artists"
Indpendant artists in indy...
Your asking me if I AM RETARDED!?
Thanks for the laugh.
Good points about piracy, but since most games now cause to you register, to download patches, and a ton are going to a monthly fee, piracy is becoming less of an issue.
I used Doom3 because the example above used Halo.
I don't know if I agree that the owner of a console is going to buy one game a month. I have heard that the avearage Xbox owner owns less than 5 games. Now granted that is because it hasn't been out as long as the PS2, but if your statistic was correct then the average owner of an Xbox would have around 20+ games now. That seems a bit high.
Let me ask you this, if they release HaloXXX for the Xbox and the PC at the same time, AND the version on the PC can take advantage of a better monitor and processor, which would you buy? Now let me add that if you decide to play online people with PC's will have a big advantage over the Xbox, because they will be able to "see" further.
My main point still stands. The Xbox and the PC are going after the same market. ~14-35 year old males. The problem for Xbox is that most of the gamers in that market own good to great PC's.
To answer your question I will just look at stats.
PC's > 150 Million
Xbox total sales 30 Million.
I will agree that Halo was/is a good game. Now put that game at 1280X1024 on a new(er) ATI or Nvidea card, or better yet look at it at 1600X1200 resolution. Now do the comparison to a TV and Xbox.
Most people that own an Xbox also own a decent high end PC. They will buy the PC version if it is better, which in almost every case it is. There are a few exceptions. So if you are a development shop why would you spend time porting to an Xbox? You won't. They are the SAME market! Now there are a lot of people who own PS2's and GameCubes that don't have high end PC's, and since your market for PS2's is > 30 Million, then that is a market worth a port.
A better question is to ask is what about games like:
Doom3, Star Wars Galaxies, and even WarCraft III. Why will/are those games not ported to the Xbox on day one. The reason is the Xbox weak market share AND the fact that they are competing in the exact same markets as the PC game. The people that would buy one of those games would buy it for their PC first.
I am willing to bet that Doom3 will sell many times more copies than there are Xboxes. Does that mean that Microsoft won't lock up some development shops (i.e. Halo) no. Sony and Nintendo both do that also.
You paint a bad picture for the PS2/3. I will counter that with a bleak picture for the Xbox.
Xboxes currently being built are being sold below cost. One core reason is that Microsoft can't force (easily) Nvidia and Intel to lower the price of their hardware. So while Sony combines chips to lower manufacturing cost, Microsoft must still pay the higher cost, and loose money on each Xbox sold. Nintendo and Sony don't.
Xbox sales are WAY below what Microsoft had hopped they would be. Understand that Microsoft generally sets extreemly low expectations for their products, and then brag about how great it is selling! Their shareholders were kinda pissed about 40Billion in the bank and no dividends being paid. Microsoft paid some, but now those same shareholders don't want Microsoft loosing money.
Microsoft has been trying to get developers to ONLY develop for the Xbox. Very few companies have done this. The core problem is that Sony owns a HUGE chunk of the console market, those developers don't want to exclude that market.
Now the biggest issue. The Xbox is just a Inter/Windows PC. Software development companies that "port" their games to the Xbox from the PC because it is "easy" find out that 95+% of their sales comes from the PC market. The Xbox generally competes against another Microsoft product... the pc. The customers that have an Xbox seem to also have a great PC, and the games play much better on their PC. There are a few exceptions, specifically sports games.
A HUGE mistake Microsoft made was giving up the younger generation market to the GameCube and only going after the ~15-35 year old males. So the way I see it the maket kinda breaks down as follows:
Kids and family gamers - Nintendo
14-40 year old males without a good PC - Xbox
Everyone Else Sony.
That is a HUGE everyone else!
I believe that Microsoft will probably not develop an Xbox2 for a LONG time if at all. If they put in a new Intel and Nvidea combination, then what would that buy them? The games run at 720X512 resolution? How much more is a P4 3GH and new Gforce going to give you, at that resolution? Yes 4X anti-aliasing is nice, but the current Gforce does a fine job at that low resolution. Now if HDTV becomes more mainstream, this may change things... but that will be a LONG way out.
I honestly believe that Microsoft is going to get out of this market, but it will take a few years, and they will continue to support the current Xbox for at least 3-4 more years. Their primary concern is getting Intel and Nvidia to lower the cost of their chips!
It has been said before, but it is the truth. When Microsoft can't leverage it's OS, it doesn't do well. I don't see Office for the Xbox any time soon.
Another mistake is betting heavy on online games with the Xbox. Sony is kinda falling in to this trap to some degree. Nintendo is the smartest in this one... This is a topic for another day though... Just imagine letting your 6 year old play "Mario Online" and having them ask you what all those cuss words mean.
While I agree with you somewhat, I want bluetooth because I can then use it with my Ipaq and connect from anywhere in the world via SSH to admin my Linux boxes.
Currently I have a VoiceStream wireless PCMCIA card that does that. It makes the Ipaq huge and also cost me around $20/month for service.
That to me is a valid good reason for bluetooth in a phone.
Wow guy take it easy!
He has a valid point. It would be fair to compair it to the best chips out now. I don't care what AMD + rating it has or what MHZ Intel has it running, just the best chips out. It would also be good to see how the best sparc chip, Xeon, (whatever SGI uses), etc compared.
I realize that this is just ONE benchmark and a lot goes in to a system, but it would still be interesting to see.
Well put, I switched "most" of our servers over to Linux and have a policy that Linux is our prefered server platform (over NetWare and Windows). It was a scarry switch because like you we had very little experience with Linux and had CNE people on staff.
What issues with Linux have you had? When we started switching to Linux from NT we had a few SAMBA issues, but those were solved quickly. Even the Mac's went smooth.
If you believe that the Microsoft JVM was fast then you will LOVE the 1.3 or 1.4 JVMs. ALL of them that I have tested soundly beat Microsoft's JVM. SWING is even fast now!
.NET. I have a similar machine to yours and the Java stuff I run rocks! Heck my IDE is even written in Java and for an IDE it runs well.
It is called HotSpot technlogy, and it has two version. One for the client and one for the server.
The JVM client is still only around 5MB. I hardly call that huge. The JVM takes less than 16MB or RAM, and in some cases way less than that.
You need to give Java another look if you are considering
If speed is a major concern (I doubt it will be) then you can even compile Java down to executables on most platforms.
Now if you are going to tell me that you do a bunch of complex math operations, then I would say that Java isn't for you.
You have the promise of Java now.
Java runs well on the following systems
Linux - Got it.
Mac - Got it.
Windows Got it.
NetWare - Got it.
OS/2 - Got it.
Solaris - Got it.
AIX - Got it.
Mainframe OS/390 - Got it.
I am sure that I am forgetting a few...
Oh yeah the small devices.
Sharp Zaurus - Got it.
Pocket PC handhelds - Got it.
Palm Platforms - Got it but doesn't run well yet.
A ton of new cell phones - Got it.
I am sure that I am still missing a few...
like the Amiga platform and probably BE OS.
What more do you want? Oh how about Open Source. Well Sun is now allowing a complete open source JVM to get certified now.
Well he sure talked a lot to say that a free market will not work because we will pollute ourselves to death.
I don't agree that we will do that. I hope and pray that he is wrong also.
It is a bad idea for the government to dictate what we the consumers should and shouldn't be buying. I do agree that ANY tax on gas is a bad idea. I believe that the government shouldn't try and play God by using taxes, or tiered taxes as you suggest.
I understand that a rail system requires long term planning, but it doesn't have to be some project to hook up New York with L.A. It could start small and grow. I believe that this is going to happen in the U.S.A. but it will take GAS getting to ~4-5 dollars a gallon (taking in to account inflation).
I don't agree with creating a law that says any vehicle should get X milege per gallon. I think supply and demand will take care of that for us. However I have a question. I live in the U.S.A. and have visited Europe on occasion. Why don't we (the U.S.A) have a decent rail system like Europe? I would rather see a mandate that we would get something like that.
Do you people in Europe like your rail system? It seemed great to me, but I only used it on vacation.
Also everyone talks about a different source of energy. What type are they talking about? It appears to me that there are serious cons about all type of energy creation.
I am not trying to start a flame war, but inovation does mean a LOT in the server business. Take the insight manager boards from Compaq. Or take their EISA bus (bad at this time, but great in their time).
My point is this. You bought a glorified PC if you bought a Dell. Except for the motherboard, what isn't some over the counter part? It is some cobbled together machine that DELL thought was a "server class" machine.
I am glad that you work for some company that can afford to replace ALL their servers every three years! Man I am envious. I have worked in 50,000+ node networks and quite a few 2000+ node networks and we couldn't do that. You must work for Merc or Lilly to be able to have that kind of desposible income.
A last question. Are you forced to buy Dell and or do you work for Cendant?
My main point is that if you are going to go cheap and commodity then go all out, and try to stay "standard". Otherwise buy from someone who has an R&D department. I find it hard that you don't like Compaq/HP better than Dell; and if you are really focused on quality then why don't you use Sun? Cost doesn't seem to be a factor?
I am glad that you had good luck with Dell Servers. My question is how many other servers have you used? Dell doesn't inovate anything! So if you used a server like a Compaq and had an Insight management board installed, there was NO Dell counter to that. They MAY have one now, but I can guarentee that they didn't make it.
:-(
You mention replaceing the motherboard. Have you tried replaceing it with a STANDARD ATX motherboard? You won't be able to. Now if you owned a SUN or IBM or Compaq, then I would say that you are getting proprietary because they need to engineer quality. However, Dell is a "best of breed" company. They don't engineer much of anything. They could easily use a standard ATX motherboard. How much do you think that a new motherboard will cost you in 4-5 years. Just so you have an idea, it will cost you 5-6X what a standard ATX one would cost. This is their way of getting you to upgrade to a new server.
The Dell PC's are ok. The company I use to work for orderd around 2,000 of them and around over 5% were bad on arrival. My issue with Dell isn't about their ability to deliever a PC at a low cost, but the fact that we the consumers are cutting off real inovation by buying Dell. When you get a SCSI card in your server it will probably be an Adaptec card (good card), but all Adaptec focuses on is that card. They don't care about overall system performance. They sell SCSI cards.
What in your PC or Server has any real inovation in it? Now I could live with Dell IF they used totally standard parts. They don't. They say that they do, but they don't.
I say this after I finally convinced our business to buy pre-built "standard" machines from http://www.micro-xpress.com. I can't tell you how nice it is to replace a processor in our server (because of a new load), and know that it will work. It is also great to be able to replace a motherboard for $150 and get new features (DDR 333, extra RAM slots, new gen processor ect). Oh and the server cost LESS than a DELL server! Yes there is NO inovation from this type of server BUT at least you get a standards based system. The reliability has been very good.
Lastly when you calculate your server cost don't forget to add in your support deal. You either needed a "Hot spare" to replace that motherboard in 5 min OR you needed a great support deal. When/if you replace it, you got the EXACT same motherboard as before.
While I agree with your post, Compaq and HP have invented quite a bit. Compaq had a bunch of patents and HP was the king of scientific equipment for a long time. In some areas they still are.
Now Dell is another story... I understand their approch of using "best of breed" equipment, but couldn't they use industry standard ATX motherboards? NOOOOOOOOO! They want to be "best of breed" and proprietary. All this with spending little to nothing on R&D. Now they are in the server business. Well, kiss any new inovation away in that market now...
Sir, if I had any mod points, you would get them.
Well put.
:-)
What was I thinking... It was late.
I meant 1,700 dollars. U.S. dollars to be exact. Well I guess that would mean that new Euro thing also...
Sorry about the confusion.
Actually what will happen is that the cable companies will start to offer some of their "Movie" packages on HDTV. Those will probably be 16X9 ratio as well. Then next will come sports, then most of the "clasic" movie channels and some Disney stuff. You and the consumers that wait (myself included), will start to notice that the stuff we want to watch is only on HD. Kinda like a ton of our local college basketball games are not only on ESPN, not on local channels any more.
Personally I plan on getting a HDTV that does 1080i and 720p when the price goes below a grand for a fair sized set. Something equivilant to our 27" set now.
The other thing that will move people is that the price difference will start to errode. This has already started. I expect by next Christmas that good HDTV sets with HDTV tuners will be under $1,7.000.00
The reason that some people like hardware RAID over software is that it only cost around $300.00 more AND most implement HOT SWAP features. This is kinda nice. The ONLY downside is that you need to use the vendors driver as apposed to a standard IDE driver.
The other thing you get is the ability to add drives on the fly.
I would agree that if I didn't have the $300.00 for a 3ware RAID controler then I would try software RAID again. My first experience with it (RED HAT 7.3) sucked big time. I couldn't get the thing to install and be stable. This brings up another point. Your OS doesn't know that it is being RAIDed. In some cases that is nice.
Cool. Thanks.
It kinda comes down to this. If you believe that employers will not screw their employees to make a profit, and that those employees could "just find another job"; then you also believe that these laws are a bad idea. However, if you believe that employers will screw their employees at the drop of a hat for a profit, then you want protection laws.
There is a balance somewhere. In the U.S. there have been MANY instances where employers have screwed their employees, and that has lead to child labor laws and unions. Unfortunately quite a few lazy people seem to want to take advantage of companies. The real problem is greed.
I kinda laugh at some of the companies around here that talk about "retirement" benifits. Yeah RIGHT!
I saw many times Dow Chemical move "older" employees around the country when they started to get close to retirement. They tried hard to get them to quit... I could go on.... Like how the automotive industry actually killed people who wanted to start up a union... But on the other hand I see union auto workers today that make a slug look like the greatest worker in the world...
I noticed on their status page that they don't support printing. This seems like a kinda huge issue.
Did I mis-read it?
I use to have the same opinion as you, and was a avid Palm user, but I bought an Ipaq 39xx series. The Ipaq offered one feature that I needed, that the palm didn't offer. I personally can't stand PocketPC 2002 compared to the palm BUT I have found that I use the Ipaq for a LOT more that I ever used my palm for. This is not to say that modern Palms can't do the same, but to compare it to my Palm V...
:-(
1. I use a 802.11b card to check email in the living room of my home.
2. I use the "small" and $20.00 month wireless modem (VoiceStream cart) to connect to the Internet from about anywhere. (NOTE: not $40.00/month like the Sharp product)
3. I actually read Word and Excel documents from work.
4. I took Video from my wedding and show it to people via PocketTv. It works well..
5. The games are not too bad.
6. I use it as an MP3 player when cutting the grass.
7. I SSH in to work from about anywhere.
Now I used my Palm for a glorified daytimer, and sometimes used it to catch up on email. It did a great job of that but nothing more for me.
Now here is what I don't like about the Ipaq that the new Sharp seems to have addressed.
1. Resolution of 640X480. This would be great for browsing and terminal windows!
2. Good keyboard. The IPAQ sucks.
3. Expandable battery. Sometimes I don't care about the extra weight (flights..)
What it doesn't appear to have though...
1. Backing by most PCMCIA hardware vendors... So drivers and software will be hard to find. You would be limited to using their "wireless modem" and their $40/month service...
My main point is that all most people use to use a computer for was a glorified typewriter, but over time they used them for a LOT more. This is no different.
Sun has more servers to offer than apple.
Three.
In my opinion it comes down to cost. If an "Average" user that buys Dell, HP, IBM or Gateway had to pay say $100 more for a computer with Microsoft XP on it AND pay $500 more for Office, then they would probably try something else. Now if the computer cost say $3,000.00 then the additional cost of Microsoft isn't too noticable, but a computer that cost under $1,000.00 it becomes more of an issue. Computers that are under $700, it would become a HUGE issue.
A lot of people here have complained that Linux doesn't have this or that app or feature, and I agree it would be nice to have those (My list is at the bottom), but it generally comes down to cost. If an average user has to jump through a few hoops to save >40% of a computer cost then they will.
Yes I understand that the OEM cost of WindowsXP isn't $100.00. But my point still remains, as computers get cheaper the cost difference will come in to play more.
Software I would like to see for Linux
1. DreamWeaver
2. All in Wonder Video capture.
3. Wine support for ATI Radeon drivers
4. HP Scanjet USB driver support
5. Good looking fonts for Mozilla
6. Microsoft Access equivilant GUI + DB
7. Viso Equivilant
8. Red Hat to ship Linux with Directory Service installed and a good tool to admin it with