I agree. I didn't own either system, but if I had the choice back then, I would have taken the Genesis in a heartbeat. Years later when I tried out Genesis and SNES games using PC emulators, I was bored with the Genesis games. They seemed to be just a bunch of side-shooters with "okay" graphics. The SNES won me over with a handful of GREAT games like Super Mario World and Super Punchout. It's strange how your perceptions can change when you get older.
They might be lost though. If it turns out to be really easy to modify an
X-Box enough to run Linux and play your MP3's, DIV-X movies, do email, etc, then
people might buy an X-Box and never spend a penny on an X-Box game.
Since Microsoft, as with most console companies, are selling the console at a
loss, and making up for it with game sales, this can't be a good thing for them.
Their choice of almost-standard components might cost them in the long run.
I don't think Microsoft cares too much about X-Box profits in the short
term. They are trying to establish their own semi-unique brand of hardware
as a game console. Their plans are to extend this into the home computer
market, providing a cheap engine that can become an all-in-one home
entertainment system.
Sony realizes this; that's why they are going to be pushing the Linux
add-on. I'll wager the X-Box 2 will have a Tuner/capture card giving it
TiVo capabilities.
Don't forget, he could also write ~7K or so about how all of the cool
software up there was windows based, so he couldn't use it on the machines he
plays windows-only games on.
He can always borrow that Divix playing Commodore 64 from the Afghanis to keep
him entertained.
Yes, some companies that have fallen to Microsoft did, at least in part,
because they made stupid mistakes. However, if it weren't for Microsoft being
there to stomp on them and squish them out of existence, they might've picked
themselves up and carried on, learning from their experience, and maybe becoming
better for it.
This is a very fair statement. Some things, like when Microsoft
stole the code from Stac Electronics to make DiskSpace compression were
outright wrong. Stac won the lawsuit, but by then it was too late.
(Microsoft had to pull DiskSpace out of DOS 6.2, but almost immediately provided
a replacement in DOS 6.2.2 with a slightly modified code and a new name:
DriveSpace.) However, there are plenty of other companies that just plain
dropped the friggin ball. WordPerfect is a great example. They just
sat by and let Microsoft develop a good WYSIWIG word processor while they kept
shoveling the same tired old text based product (version 5.1) down our
throats. Yeah, yeah; I know all about how unfair it was for Microsoft to
use undocumented Windows API code to get a leg up on other companies like Lotus
and WP. That's not the reason why companies like WordPerfect didn't get a
decent GUI-based product out the door. The main reason was that they
figured they owned the market and were untouchable. Why develop a new
Windows-based version when you can milk your existing product for a few more
years, right?
What's more, Word 2.0 was actually a better word processor than WordPerfect
5.1. A beginning typist didn't have to worry about "Reveal
Codes" just to type a letter. Yeah, later versions of WordPerfect for
Windows were superior to Word (6.0) in many ways. But again, it was too
late by then to make an impact. The MS Office juggernaut was already full
steam ahead.
Why hasn't any other company or open source project completely
reverse-engineered the Microsoft Word DOC format?
That reminds me... Why don't people compress their files before attaching them? Aside from the Outlook "ban" on certain file extensions, the file size is going to be a lot smaller. It's not a big deal when you are connected to the network directly through an ethernet cable, but for cry-not-loud, have some mercy on dial-up users trying to retrieve their mail on the road.
Ugh. Not all visually impaired people are 100% sightless. Most of
them have partial vision. A GUI can be extremely beneficial. An no,
Braille is not the answer as most visually impaired people cannot read Braille.
Yeah sure. I bet you you know lots and lots of "blind"
Linix users. I bet you you're such good friends with them, they don't even
mind it when you call them "blind" instead of "visually
impaired." Yeah, that command line interface is real easy to
use. Although if you're blind, I have to wonder how much easier
"text" is to read on a CRT than a GUI.
Oh really? That must have been a very advanced class of visually impaired individuals.
According to the American Printing House for the Blind, approximately
10% of blind students primarily use Braille. In fact, most
visually impaired students can't even read Braille. I think your
tutoring claim is highly suspect. Regardless, most visually impaired
people are not blind! Therefore a GUI can be very helpful even to
those classified as legally blind. But of course, I'm sure you
understood that distinction being a tutor of "blind" people and all.
If it's any consolation, at least you didn't claim to teach the German Shepard
to type.
Just because you can run a Linux game on a PS2 doesn't mean you should. That is, unless you don't care about performance...
Oh yeah, OpenOffice and KOffice are burning up the sales charts at CompUSA. People love them. Look at how many business are switching to non-MS Word solutions.
Oops...Sorry, I forgot to use sarcasm tags for that last paragraph.
A lot of it could work, but there is no way in hell you are gonna fit those NeoGeo games in 32 MB or RAM. Sad. A PS2 would fit nicely in an arcade cabinet. Oh well, there's always PacMan.
Because we are getting to the point where the technology in all of the individual
components of a home entertainment center (DVD player, CD player, video game console, VCR, TiVo, etc.) are all run by an inexpensive "computer" using a general purpose CPU.
If you ask "Joe Sixpack" what he uses his home computer for, he will
most likely answer:
Surfing the Internet
Playing Games
Word Processing
E-mail
Chat
So why buy a home computer? The modern video game console has all the
power it needs to run a web browser and Word processor. What's holding it
back is the lack of software and storage space.
You're not gonna run games on top of Linux and expect them to run well on a
PS2, are you? Leave the PS2 games to the PS2 game developers.
Anyway, if Sony could make a deal with AOL and somehow get a decent Word
Processor going under Linux, this thing has a shot at competing with the
eventual XBox home computer add-on. What add-on you ask? Just
wait...
It's been done before. Apple has always gone after the educational market.
It never amounts to anything in the long run. Go do a google search for
old news stories about iMac sales to universities. There's always some
"rah-rah" press release done about Apple and education every couple of
years. Sorry for sounding defeatist, but this is just history repeating itself.
Apple has always gone out of their way to win school bids. I remember when
I was a kid I wanted an Apple ][ just because that's what the school had, and
that my friend, is what Apple wants!
I agree. Apple's strategy has always been, "Let's get them while
they're young. That way, they'll stick with us when they're grown
up!" IBM's plan for success during their rise in the PC industry was,
"Let's push our products to the business world. They hate
change. Once we get in, they won't be able to get rid if us."
<rhetorical>Which do you think was a better strategy?</rhetorical>
Of course the downside is that the winner can't scrap their existing technology
and start anew. Apple shit-canned their 8-bit computer line and developed
the Macintosh. That's all good and well, except that they ended up
screwing all of their loyal IIe/IIc users by creating a new computer that can't
run any of the old software. You think that's gonna fly in the corporate
world? Try telling Goldman Sachs that their new PC can't run any of their
legacy software (and by legacy, I mean last year's software) and see what kind
of a reaction you get.
Funny, Apple still goes for school bids rather than corporations. *sigh*
Take a look at names Microsoft gives it's technology vs Linux. Active
Directory, Intellimirror and other catchy names is what sell it. Who want to
surf the Internet with Konqueror? Sounds like a death metal band.
Whos said anything about Outlook. There are other e-mail solutions. Ofcourse, they aren't free, but sometimes you gotta pay for software if you want quality. Oh right...Linux. Nevermind.
Slashdot Mirror
Doom creating the market for "add-in sound and graphics cards" was the final straw.
Holy crap! I'm glad somebody remembers the existence of Wolfenstein 3D!
I don't want to get into a holy war over which game created "the market for add-in sound and graphics cards," but my vote goes to The 7th Guest.
I agree. I didn't own either system, but if I had the choice back then, I would have taken the Genesis in a heartbeat. Years later when I tried out Genesis and SNES games using PC emulators, I was bored with the Genesis games. They seemed to be just a bunch of side-shooters with "okay" graphics. The SNES won me over with a handful of GREAT games like Super Mario World and Super Punchout. It's strange how your perceptions can change when you get older.
They might be lost though. If it turns out to be really easy to modify an X-Box enough to run Linux and play your MP3's, DIV-X movies, do email, etc, then people might buy an X-Box and never spend a penny on an X-Box game.
Since Microsoft, as with most console companies, are selling the console at a loss, and making up for it with game sales, this can't be a good thing for them. Their choice of almost-standard components might cost them in the long run.
I don't think Microsoft cares too much about X-Box profits in the short term. They are trying to establish their own semi-unique brand of hardware as a game console. Their plans are to extend this into the home computer market, providing a cheap engine that can become an all-in-one home entertainment system.
Sony realizes this; that's why they are going to be pushing the Linux add-on. I'll wager the X-Box 2 will have a Tuner/capture card giving it TiVo capabilities.
MPEG 4 allows you to put lots of things inside the stream, all of them can be platform specific, or hardware specific or whatever.
Does this mean it will work on a Commodore64? Maybe Katz was right?!
DivX is also inferior to Sorenson by a mile. It gets used because there's better AVI tools on 'doze.
You mean Microsoft gained market dominance of their codec because it's cheaper and more accessible, albeit technically inferior, to Apple's product?
So what else is new?
Don't forget, he could also write ~7K or so about how all of the cool software up there was windows based, so he couldn't use it on the machines he plays windows-only games on.
He can always borrow that Divix playing Commodore 64 from the Afghanis to keep him entertained.
Go Go Gadget! Wait...what were we talking about again?
You hit the nail on the head. That's why I had hoped that the US Gov't was going to break up MS into smaller pices. Alas...
Yes, some companies that have fallen to Microsoft did, at least in part, because they made stupid mistakes. However, if it weren't for Microsoft being there to stomp on them and squish them out of existence, they might've picked themselves up and carried on, learning from their experience, and maybe becoming better for it.
This is a very fair statement. Some things, like when Microsoft stole the code from Stac Electronics to make DiskSpace compression were outright wrong. Stac won the lawsuit, but by then it was too late. (Microsoft had to pull DiskSpace out of DOS 6.2, but almost immediately provided a replacement in DOS 6.2.2 with a slightly modified code and a new name: DriveSpace.) However, there are plenty of other companies that just plain dropped the friggin ball. WordPerfect is a great example. They just sat by and let Microsoft develop a good WYSIWIG word processor while they kept shoveling the same tired old text based product (version 5.1) down our throats. Yeah, yeah; I know all about how unfair it was for Microsoft to use undocumented Windows API code to get a leg up on other companies like Lotus and WP. That's not the reason why companies like WordPerfect didn't get a decent GUI-based product out the door. The main reason was that they figured they owned the market and were untouchable. Why develop a new Windows-based version when you can milk your existing product for a few more years, right?
What's more, Word 2.0 was actually a better word processor than WordPerfect 5.1. A beginning typist didn't have to worry about "Reveal Codes" just to type a letter. Yeah, later versions of WordPerfect for Windows were superior to Word (6.0) in many ways. But again, it was too late by then to make an impact. The MS Office juggernaut was already full steam ahead.
Why hasn't any other company or open source project completely reverse-engineered the Microsoft Word DOC format?
That reminds me... Why don't people compress their files before attaching them? Aside from the Outlook "ban" on certain file extensions, the file size is going to be a lot smaller. It's not a big deal when you are connected to the network directly through an ethernet cable, but for cry-not-loud, have some mercy on dial-up users trying to retrieve their mail on the road.
Ugh. Not all visually impaired people are 100% sightless. Most of them have partial vision. A GUI can be extremely beneficial. An no, Braille is not the answer as most visually impaired people cannot read Braille.
Yeah sure. I bet you you know lots and lots of "blind" Linix users. I bet you you're such good friends with them, they don't even mind it when you call them "blind" instead of "visually impaired." Yeah, that command line interface is real easy to use. Although if you're blind, I have to wonder how much easier "text" is to read on a CRT than a GUI.
Oh really? That must have been a very advanced class of visually impaired individuals. According to the American Printing House for the Blind, approximately 10% of blind students primarily use Braille. In fact, most visually impaired students can't even read Braille. I think your tutoring claim is highly suspect. Regardless, most visually impaired people are not blind! Therefore a GUI can be very helpful even to those classified as legally blind. But of course, I'm sure you understood that distinction being a tutor of "blind" people and all.
If it's any consolation, at least you didn't claim to teach the German Shepard to type.
Just because you can run a Linux game on a PS2 doesn't mean you should. That is, unless you don't care about performance...
Oh yeah, OpenOffice and KOffice are burning up the sales charts at CompUSA. People love them. Look at how many business are switching to non-MS Word solutions.
Oops...Sorry, I forgot to use sarcasm tags for that last paragraph.
I wonder if the XBox's BIOS is flashable? Hmmmmm....
A lot of it could work, but there is no way in hell you are gonna fit those NeoGeo games in 32 MB or RAM. Sad. A PS2 would fit nicely in an arcade cabinet. Oh well, there's always PacMan.
If you ask "Joe Sixpack" what he uses his home computer for, he will most likely answer:
So why buy a home computer? The modern video game console has all the power it needs to run a web browser and Word processor. What's holding it back is the lack of software and storage space.
You're not gonna run games on top of Linux and expect them to run well on a PS2, are you? Leave the PS2 games to the PS2 game developers.
Anyway, if Sony could make a deal with AOL and somehow get a decent Word Processor going under Linux, this thing has a shot at competing with the eventual XBox home computer add-on. What add-on you ask? Just wait...
Yes! It is an idea great! Dyslexics of the world untie!
Or better yet...
Employer: I see on your resume you have some experience with computers.
Graduate: Yes, we used Macintoshes in school.
Employer: Oh, well we run Windows XP here. Are you familiar with that?
Graduate: Er...kinda. It's got a trashcan and finder like OSX, right?
Employer: Uh...(stuttering trying to think of something to say in order to hide the fact he's not computer literate) Sort of.
Graduate: And I have lots of experience with software applications!
Employer: Word XP?
Graduate: Um, no.
Employer: Visio?
Graduate: No.
Employer: Outlook?
Graduate: No.
Employer: Internet Explorer?
Graduate: Yes! Well, not version 6.0...and the version I used on the Mac crashed a lot and had loads of compatibility problems, but I...
Employer: That's too bad.
Graduate: Uh...Anyway, the point is that all computers are the same nowadays. As long as you can use a mouse...
Employer: That's great! I love using my mouse.
Graduate: Yeah, me too.
Employer: And I just discovered that little trick of using the right mouse button. It makes using Word so much easier!
Graduate: Right mouse button? What's that?
Employer: You know...that other button?
Graduate: Huh? Mice only have one button.
Employer: Hmmmm... Thank you for your time. We'll be contacting you shortly if there are any positions available. Next!
It's been done before. Apple has always gone after the educational market. It never amounts to anything in the long run. Go do a google search for old news stories about iMac sales to universities. There's always some "rah-rah" press release done about Apple and education every couple of years. Sorry for sounding defeatist, but this is just history repeating itself.
Apple hasn't had any kind of serious marketing blitz since the Apple ][...
What about the greatest Super Bowl commercial of all time?
Apple has always gone out of their way to win school bids. I remember when I was a kid I wanted an Apple ][ just because that's what the school had, and that my friend, is what Apple wants!
I agree. Apple's strategy has always been, "Let's get them while they're young. That way, they'll stick with us when they're grown up!" IBM's plan for success during their rise in the PC industry was, "Let's push our products to the business world. They hate change. Once we get in, they won't be able to get rid if us."
<rhetorical>Which do you think was a better strategy?</rhetorical>
Of course the downside is that the winner can't scrap their existing technology and start anew. Apple shit-canned their 8-bit computer line and developed the Macintosh. That's all good and well, except that they ended up screwing all of their loyal IIe/IIc users by creating a new computer that can't run any of the old software. You think that's gonna fly in the corporate world? Try telling Goldman Sachs that their new PC can't run any of their legacy software (and by legacy, I mean last year's software) and see what kind of a reaction you get.
Funny, Apple still goes for school bids rather than corporations. *sigh*
Take a look at names Microsoft gives it's technology vs Linux. Active Directory, Intellimirror and other catchy names is what sell it. Who want to surf the Internet with Konqueror? Sounds like a death metal band.
Close enough...
Whos said anything about Outlook. There are other e-mail solutions. Ofcourse, they aren't free, but sometimes you gotta pay for software if you want quality. Oh right...Linux. Nevermind.