Does anyone else think sales are going to soar?
on
The Death of Windows XP
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· Score: 2, Insightful
Given that the article sites June 30 as the cut-off date for pre-installed XP from the likes of HP and Dell, does anyone think that these guys are going to see a bunch of sales right before that date? I know that my brother's business needs about three more laptops and that when he hears that June 30 is the drop-dead date for XP machines from Dell, he's probably going to start ordering.
I wonder if XP will get a reprieve before or after the 30th of June. It _will_ get a reprieve. That's my bet. I just don't know for sure when.
Of course, I'm feeling a bit smug typing this on an Eee PC without Windows and knowing that my wife is about to buy a MacBook. I use Windows at work, but in every place where we make the decisions, we've given up on it.
I don't think that most people put that much thinking into which computer they buy. A friend said that she wants a PC instead of a Mac because, "I'm used to them and don't want to relearn." Another bought a Mac because, "I'm sick of viruses and it looks cool." I bought an Eee PC because it was cheap an kind of cool.
But here's the thing with Linux and bear in mind that I love running Linux and have been tinkering with it off and on since 1999: I still can't get my HP printer to work with the damn thing! Perhaps if I sat down and put several hours into learning the CUPS system I might, but I just want the damn thing to work. So, for now, when I want to print something I use my XP laptop.
The Eee PC is a good start at getting Linux out there--it's small, it's different, it's cool--but the problem isn't some mindset of "Linux feels less valuable to me" but one of "does this work out of the box?"
If they could somehow get Gore to do this, how cool would that be. And it would be the ultimate take on a Mac - PC ad with Rush as the big fat idiot and Al as the uber cool guy who knows what to do. I can hear it now:
"Hello, I'm a Mac bored member."
"And I'm a big fat idiot."
let him have them. The man deserves more problems than simply computer trouble.
Maybe Jesus wants his computer to give him trouble. Maybe it's those darned illegal immigrants who are keeping his Mac down. No, wait, it must be the Clintons and that Obama guy.
Screw Rush Limbaugh. Preferably with a post-hole auger.
As a high school teacher I'm all for this program.
That's why I downloaded it over bittorrent, made fifty copies and am selling the curriculum to other teachers for $50 a copy (digital). I'm so glad that Microsoft has found a way for me to make some money.
My brother still has his VAIO picturebook (model C1) and it still runs. It was his favorite machine of all time. The advantage it had over the Eee was hard disk space. The disadvantage is that I think it cost almost $3K (US). He's pretty impressed with my Eee 8G. If only it ran AutoCad, he would be all set.
Wow! I've read this whole thread (more than I've read of/. comments in months) and the two finger tap trick just made my day. I've had this for six days and that's been one of the few annoyances I haven't overcome. Great, great tip.
The thing about this machine over that Dell is that if I buy the home edition of such a machine I'm stuck with Vista which will need way more overhead than this, will require antivirus software, uses software that is not free, and will slow down starting the first time I use it. That was what happened with the last Windows PC I bought (and I mean the last one I'll buy).
I was going to get a MacBook but it too is pretty big and portability was a big factor for me. I got this on a whim thinking that if it wouldn't work I could give it to my six year old (who is now trying to pry it out of my hands). It works. It works very well and the keyboard is pretty easy even for a guy with giant hands like mine.
Running Linux (pre-installed) is great. It has worked better for me than my Windows laptop. And even when the screen is a bit small, I hook up a monitor. Simple. For the price, and for my tastes, it can't be beat.
My first PC had two floppy drives, a standard 5-1/4" and a high density 5-1/4". There was no hard drive. I don't remember what there was for memory. It was a Zenith and it was presented to me upon entering Clarkson University (here in the states). Alas, they took it back when I failed out.
I sent a message to them this morning and then sent an email to thirty people who will likely also contact them. They can be reached here and it would be great if they received a whole lot of well-thought and considered messages from all over the world (either in support of their decision or against it--I'm not here to say which way you should lean).
In my message I complained that neutrality is a strange term in this argument since it's not an either/or thing. This is a case of apples and oranges.
Now, if someone wants to put up a scientific theory counter to evolution, well, then I'll listen and wait for someone to test it. As for Creationism/ID, the Kitzmiller v Dover Case took care of that for me.
This is one of the first people I've seen to say that Google Docs is as useful as I'm finding it to be. I teach high school and am having my students use it for many reasons including that it's much more difficult for their dogs to eat their homework and because we can collaborate on documents. It really is a powerful thing. Yes, there are things that OpenOffice can do much better (and Word too though I've never used it), but there are things that Google Docs does much better than any of the offline word processors. I'm very impressed. I'm also happy with how often the thing gets updated.
I worry that I'm selling my soul to Google, but so far, if loving Google is wrong, I don't want to be right.
Even if there is a new version coming, this is the least reliable source of information about it. I mean, for Pete's sake, pig latin? We're going to trust that Google really needs this translated into pig latin in order to make it accessible to users?
By the way there's a giant that's been unearthed in Cardiff, NY. It looks to be proof that giants once roamed the Earth and maybe still do. Check it out. It's true for sure.
Oh come on, let's not loose site of the things that defiantly matter here. We can play fast and lose with the little facts so much as we get the big ones write everyday. I wonder if alot of people woulda even noticed the affect of a little mispelling like that.
Paul Graham's article "Microsoft is Dead" may be applicable here. For me, I'm no longer worried about buying another Windows machine (yes, I'm on XP right now) because I no longer use apps that are tied to Windows. In fact, as things go, I use fewer and fewer apps that aren't web based. I just don't need them any more. Beyond that, most of the apps I use have free alternatives and I use them.
The one proprietary application I still use is iTunes with my iPod. So a Mac machine might work for me next time around. I want one because they are so well designed, unlike this HP piece of junk whose battery doesn't make it an hour, and because friends and family have all had very good experiences.
Then again, I might just throw the whole lot out and buy something cheap and put Ubuntu on it.
Whatever the case, there's more to the equation than Bill Gates's relative worth.
I was trying to be funny. Oh well. Does this mean that I'm going to have to punctuate all my sentences with exclamation points and smiley faces? Sheesh
Consider that I have documents in WP5.1 format, a text-editor from Clarkson University, Yeah Write files, some IBM PC-Write docs, and both MS Word and, lest we forget, MS Works files.
Now, if any of these were in Open Doc format, I would have full access to them.
Finally, consider that in the past I have said some really stupid things, and I'm not even a politician. I certainly don't want anyone to be able to figure out what I have said. Thus, I am in favor of closed source formats that go way, way out of date just so I can be sure that what I say today will be rendered even more incomprehensible in the future.
Thank you. -- This post best read before July 18, 2015 when it will become unreadable.
To all the compact disc store owners who blame downloaders for the closing of their businesses: I'll take exactly one-third of that rap. Yes, I download music from many sources including iTunes. Yes, I borrow music from my friends. Yes, I take music out of the library. As a kid I did none of these these. I cherished albums (yes, records) and listened to music as a social activity. I loved to go to the record stores on the university campus near my house and find odd titles, smart store managers who wanted to talk about great music, and fellow patrons who were into searching out great music.
The record industry saw to it that all of these stores have closed near me. They did just as the authors of this op/ed piece said. Thus, the record industry gets at least one-third of the blame.
The remaining record stores stocked fifty copies of Britney and all the other flavors of the month. They employed idiots who knew nothing about music. They sold bad products at very high prices. Thus, record store owners get one-third of the blame.
Because it was no longer a pleasant experience to buy, because it was too expensive, and because the stores didn't have what I wanted, I began buying from Amazon. At least they had what I wanted. But the prices were still, to my mind, awfully high. There's my one-third
Along comes downloading and the story is over.
I wish that artists would set up websites where I could send them a voluntary donation AFTER I have downloaded their album and listened to it. Brad Mehldau, The Bad Plus, Tragically Hip, and a few others would get ten bucks from me every time. But I have no interest in funding the RIAA and record companies.
Do I feel bad for two guys losing their business? You bet your ass I do. But I will take exactly one-third of the blame and at that I'm being overly generous. The world has changed. Record companies are just too stupid to figure it out.
The only thing I would say is that people who have an iPod already will gladly ADD an iPhone to the collection. That is, they'll use the iPod at the gym and for a run in the park when they don't want to be bothered with calls and bring the iPhone on the commute to work and everywhere else. It will be a great thing to bring to those awful family visits when everyone just has to see a picture of little Jimmy/Janey when they were on the potty and...Aww, you get the idea.
Namely nine out of every ten Apple devotees who love their Macs and have loved them for years.
Oh, and probably 3 out of ten iPod owners who think it would be cool to have their iPod and phone all in one.
And then there are the people who just have to have latest gadget.
Let's see, that adds up to...Dvorak being wrong again and again and again.
I'm not a Mac devotee, but even I can see that the iPhone has "cool" written all over it. People love having the hot new thing. The Razr is one example in the phone industry. The Prius is another in the auto industry. Hell, I even want an iPhone and I'm still using a cell-phone about the size of a brick. I think it was invented in 1983. I already own an iPod, but I want the iPhone too.
Remember, Dvorak prefers incendiary commentary over researched ideas.
Selling electronics from a brick and mortar store is a thing of the past. My parents will still buy their television at a store. I might buy one out of ten electronic devices at a store, but my kids, I imagine, will buy online and have it delivered to them.
In my area, CompUSA is gone, Fry's never showed up, Circuit City is dying, and only BestBuy, Staples (et. al.) and Apple are left. But go to BestBuy and you'll see that they don't know anything about the products they sell either. Go to Staples and it's much worse.
****Disclaimer: I do not own a Mac, but I do own an iPod**** Only the Apple store has people who know about the product they sell. The problem there is that they either don't know about PCs or are so starry-eyed about Apple that they can only denigrate anything else that isn't Apple made.
My kids won't know much about brick and mortar electronics stores. They will evaluate, comparison shop, and buy on the web. In other words, this is just another company imploding through its own stupidity.
I give it five years max before it's all in the phone and the initial purchase is affordable. It's the rates for phones that will remain unnecessarily high.
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Given that the article sites June 30 as the cut-off date for pre-installed XP from the likes of HP and Dell, does anyone think that these guys are going to see a bunch of sales right before that date? I know that my brother's business needs about three more laptops and that when he hears that June 30 is the drop-dead date for XP machines from Dell, he's probably going to start ordering.
I wonder if XP will get a reprieve before or after the 30th of June. It _will_ get a reprieve. That's my bet. I just don't know for sure when.
Of course, I'm feeling a bit smug typing this on an Eee PC without Windows and knowing that my wife is about to buy a MacBook. I use Windows at work, but in every place where we make the decisions, we've given up on it.
I don't think that most people put that much thinking into which computer they buy. A friend said that she wants a PC instead of a Mac because, "I'm used to them and don't want to relearn." Another bought a Mac because, "I'm sick of viruses and it looks cool." I bought an Eee PC because it was cheap an kind of cool.
But here's the thing with Linux and bear in mind that I love running Linux and have been tinkering with it off and on since 1999: I still can't get my HP printer to work with the damn thing! Perhaps if I sat down and put several hours into learning the CUPS system I might, but I just want the damn thing to work. So, for now, when I want to print something I use my XP laptop.
The Eee PC is a good start at getting Linux out there--it's small, it's different, it's cool--but the problem isn't some mindset of "Linux feels less valuable to me" but one of "does this work out of the box?"
If they could somehow get Gore to do this, how cool would that be. And it would be the ultimate take on a Mac - PC ad with Rush as the big fat idiot and Al as the uber cool guy who knows what to do. I can hear it now:
"Hello, I'm a Mac bored member."
"And I'm a big fat idiot."
It's delicious.
let him have them. The man deserves more problems than simply computer trouble.
Maybe Jesus wants his computer to give him trouble. Maybe it's those darned illegal immigrants who are keeping his Mac down. No, wait, it must be the Clintons and that Obama guy.
Screw Rush Limbaugh. Preferably with a post-hole auger.
As a high school teacher I'm all for this program.
That's why I downloaded it over bittorrent, made fifty copies and am selling the curriculum to other teachers for $50 a copy (digital). I'm so glad that Microsoft has found a way for me to make some money.
Thank you MS. You guys are the greatest!
There's also a discussion group called EeePlace that can be found here.
My brother still has his VAIO picturebook (model C1) and it still runs. It was his favorite machine of all time. The advantage it had over the Eee was hard disk space. The disadvantage is that I think it cost almost $3K (US). He's pretty impressed with my Eee 8G. If only it ran AutoCad, he would be all set.
Wow! I've read this whole thread (more than I've read of /. comments in months) and the two finger tap trick just made my day. I've had this for six days and that's been one of the few annoyances I haven't overcome. Great, great tip.
In a word, yes.
Bias warning: I'm typing this on an Eee PC 8G.
The thing about this machine over that Dell is that if I buy the home edition of such a machine I'm stuck with Vista which will need way more overhead than this, will require antivirus software, uses software that is not free, and will slow down starting the first time I use it. That was what happened with the last Windows PC I bought (and I mean the last one I'll buy).
I was going to get a MacBook but it too is pretty big and portability was a big factor for me. I got this on a whim thinking that if it wouldn't work I could give it to my six year old (who is now trying to pry it out of my hands). It works. It works very well and the keyboard is pretty easy even for a guy with giant hands like mine.
Running Linux (pre-installed) is great. It has worked better for me than my Windows laptop. And even when the screen is a bit small, I hook up a monitor. Simple. For the price, and for my tastes, it can't be beat.
Record companies have never objected to someone making a copy of a CD for their own personal use."
Doesn't this directly contradict what this lawsuit is about?
My first PC had two floppy drives, a standard 5-1/4" and a high density 5-1/4". There was no hard drive. I don't remember what there was for memory. It was a Zenith and it was presented to me upon entering Clarkson University (here in the states). Alas, they took it back when I failed out.
I sent a message to them this morning and then sent an email to thirty people who will likely also contact them. They can be reached here and it would be great if they received a whole lot of well-thought and considered messages from all over the world (either in support of their decision or against it--I'm not here to say which way you should lean).
In my message I complained that neutrality is a strange term in this argument since it's not an either/or thing. This is a case of apples and oranges.
Now, if someone wants to put up a scientific theory counter to evolution, well, then I'll listen and wait for someone to test it. As for Creationism/ID, the Kitzmiller v Dover Case took care of that for me.
This is one of the first people I've seen to say that Google Docs is as useful as I'm finding it to be. I teach high school and am having my students use it for many reasons including that it's much more difficult for their dogs to eat their homework and because we can collaborate on documents. It really is a powerful thing. Yes, there are things that OpenOffice can do much better (and Word too though I've never used it), but there are things that Google Docs does much better than any of the offline word processors. I'm very impressed. I'm also happy with how often the thing gets updated.
I worry that I'm selling my soul to Google, but so far, if loving Google is wrong, I don't want to be right.
Even if there is a new version coming, this is the least reliable source of information about it. I mean, for Pete's sake, pig latin? We're going to trust that Google really needs this translated into pig latin in order to make it accessible to users?
By the way there's a giant that's been unearthed in Cardiff, NY. It looks to be proof that giants once roamed the Earth and maybe still do. Check it out. It's true for sure.
Oh come on, let's not loose site of the things that defiantly matter here. We can play fast and lose with the little facts so much as we get the big ones write everyday. I wonder if alot of people woulda even noticed the affect of a little mispelling like that.
http://www.paulgraham.com/microsoft.html
Paul Graham's article "Microsoft is Dead" may be applicable here. For me, I'm no longer worried about buying another Windows machine (yes, I'm on XP right now) because I no longer use apps that are tied to Windows. In fact, as things go, I use fewer and fewer apps that aren't web based. I just don't need them any more. Beyond that, most of the apps I use have free alternatives and I use them.
The one proprietary application I still use is iTunes with my iPod. So a Mac machine might work for me next time around. I want one because they are so well designed, unlike this HP piece of junk whose battery doesn't make it an hour, and because friends and family have all had very good experiences.
Then again, I might just throw the whole lot out and buy something cheap and put Ubuntu on it.
Whatever the case, there's more to the equation than Bill Gates's relative worth.
Troll?!
I was trying to be funny. Oh well. Does this mean that I'm going to have to punctuate all my sentences with exclamation points and smiley faces? Sheesh
Consider that I have documents in WP5.1 format, a text-editor from Clarkson University, Yeah Write files, some IBM PC-Write docs, and both MS Word and, lest we forget, MS Works files.
Now, if any of these were in Open Doc format, I would have full access to them.
Finally, consider that in the past I have said some really stupid things, and I'm not even a politician. I certainly don't want anyone to be able to figure out what I have said. Thus, I am in favor of closed source formats that go way, way out of date just so I can be sure that what I say today will be rendered even more incomprehensible in the future.
Thank you.
--
This post best read before July 18, 2015 when it will become unreadable.
To all the compact disc store owners who blame downloaders for the closing of their businesses: I'll take exactly one-third of that rap. Yes, I download music from many sources including iTunes. Yes, I borrow music from my friends. Yes, I take music out of the library. As a kid I did none of these these. I cherished albums (yes, records) and listened to music as a social activity. I loved to go to the record stores on the university campus near my house and find odd titles, smart store managers who wanted to talk about great music, and fellow patrons who were into searching out great music.
The record industry saw to it that all of these stores have closed near me. They did just as the authors of this op/ed piece said. Thus, the record industry gets at least one-third of the blame.
The remaining record stores stocked fifty copies of Britney and all the other flavors of the month. They employed idiots who knew nothing about music. They sold bad products at very high prices. Thus, record store owners get one-third of the blame.
Because it was no longer a pleasant experience to buy, because it was too expensive, and because the stores didn't have what I wanted, I began buying from Amazon. At least they had what I wanted. But the prices were still, to my mind, awfully high. There's my one-third
Along comes downloading and the story is over.
I wish that artists would set up websites where I could send them a voluntary donation AFTER I have downloaded their album and listened to it. Brad Mehldau, The Bad Plus, Tragically Hip, and a few others would get ten bucks from me every time. But I have no interest in funding the RIAA and record companies.
Do I feel bad for two guys losing their business? You bet your ass I do. But I will take exactly one-third of the blame and at that I'm being overly generous. The world has changed. Record companies are just too stupid to figure it out.
I don't think you need to be flamed.
The only thing I would say is that people who have an iPod already will gladly ADD an iPhone to the collection. That is, they'll use the iPod at the gym and for a run in the park when they don't want to be bothered with calls and bring the iPhone on the commute to work and everywhere else. It will be a great thing to bring to those awful family visits when everyone just has to see a picture of little Jimmy/Janey when they were on the potty and...Aww, you get the idea.
Namely nine out of every ten Apple devotees who love their Macs and have loved them for years.
Oh, and probably 3 out of ten iPod owners who think it would be cool to have their iPod and phone all in one.
And then there are the people who just have to have latest gadget.
Let's see, that adds up to...Dvorak being wrong again and again and again.
I'm not a Mac devotee, but even I can see that the iPhone has "cool" written all over it. People love having the hot new thing. The Razr is one example in the phone industry. The Prius is another in the auto industry. Hell, I even want an iPhone and I'm still using a cell-phone about the size of a brick. I think it was invented in 1983. I already own an iPod, but I want the iPhone too.
Remember, Dvorak prefers incendiary commentary over researched ideas.
Selling electronics from a brick and mortar store is a thing of the past. My parents will still buy their television at a store. I might buy one out of ten electronic devices at a store, but my kids, I imagine, will buy online and have it delivered to them.
In my area, CompUSA is gone, Fry's never showed up, Circuit City is dying, and only BestBuy, Staples (et. al.) and Apple are left. But go to BestBuy and you'll see that they don't know anything about the products they sell either. Go to Staples and it's much worse.
****Disclaimer: I do not own a Mac, but I do own an iPod****
Only the Apple store has people who know about the product they sell. The problem there is that they either don't know about PCs or are so starry-eyed about Apple that they can only denigrate anything else that isn't Apple made.
My kids won't know much about brick and mortar electronics stores. They will evaluate, comparison shop, and buy on the web. In other words, this is just another company imploding through its own stupidity.
In the short run: No.
In the long run: Yeah.
I give it five years max before it's all in the phone and the initial purchase is affordable. It's the rates for phones that will remain unnecessarily high.