Picture this; your home PC's no long have disk drives. In fact, any device in your house that has a need for data storage (like your VCR/DVD/CD/Game console/Toaster, etc...) has no local storage.
They all connect to this mammoth central storage unit stuck in a closet or down in your basement using either a wireless device or some sort of networking that is built into every home.
You get on the 'net using your PC console and order a video/cd/game and it miracously shows up on your home storage device ready for use by whatever device is best suited to using it (i.e. use your stereo to listen to music, not your computer and use your game console to play games, not your computer). You use this "product" as if you own (maybe rent it?).
The point being you will need massive storage to pull this off - and I do believe this scenario will play out.
Online shopping has its place, like catalog shopping. To be honest, I'd rather catalog shop 'cause catalogs can go places my computer doesn't... like the "reading" room (yeah, I suppose a laptop would work, not a pretty thought though).
However, most people prefer to shop in person. They like to touch the merchandise, maybe even talk to someone about the product. And if they take it home and it doesn't work, they like to be able to drive back to the store and return it.
Returning purchases made online is a mixed bag at best. Sending the item back usually involves a loss on your part. Even if the retailer pays return postage (how many do that?) you still have the hassle of shipping the item.
Another thing that happens when you return a product to a real store is that you typically buy something else there. This doesn't happen online.
Online shopping isn't going away, but IMO it isn't going to grow much larger then it is now.
Attempting to run windows apps on top of another OS is HOPELESS.
You will get NO support from any software vendor for running their windows app on anything other than... tada; Windows.
OS/2 had just about the best windows sub-system ever, but it too had problems running certain windows apps.
No business in its right mind is going to depend on this software. If Linux is to make inroads on the desktop, it will need native desktop applications. Not Java apps, not emulated Windows apps; native desktop applications.
Fortunately it's getting them and some of them are quite good (Star Office is usable, for instance).
And yes, people will pay for them if they are GOOD.
This sounds to me like a "shovelware" book, albeit too late to have any impact on anything other then the trees that died to print it. Do they pay the authors of these tomes by the pound?
The fact of the matter is anything Unix programming related or C related has been done already and done well. These attempts to cash in by vendors like WROX (and their ilk, like QUE) by slapping "Linux" on the cover are just that, attempts to cash in.
You want a decent Linux book, make sure it's in a nutshell and/or has a funky animal on the cover.
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Picture this; your home PC's no long have disk drives. In fact, any device in your house that has a need for data storage (like your VCR/DVD/CD/Game console/Toaster, etc...) has no local storage.
They all connect to this mammoth central storage unit stuck in a closet or down in your basement using either a wireless device or some sort of networking that is built into every home.
You get on the 'net using your PC console and order a video/cd/game and it miracously shows up on your home storage device ready for use by whatever device is best suited to using it (i.e. use your stereo to listen to music, not your computer and use your game console to play games, not your computer). You use this "product" as if you own (maybe rent it?).
The point being you will need massive storage to pull this off - and I do believe this scenario will play out.
Online shopping has its place, like catalog shopping. To be honest, I'd rather catalog shop 'cause catalogs can go places my computer doesn't... like the "reading" room (yeah, I suppose a laptop would work, not a pretty thought though).
However, most people prefer to shop in person. They like to touch the merchandise, maybe even talk to someone about the product. And if they take it home and it doesn't work, they like to be able to drive back to the store and return it.
Returning purchases made online is a mixed bag at best. Sending the item back usually involves a loss on your part. Even if the retailer pays return postage (how many do that?) you still have the hassle of shipping the item.
Another thing that happens when you return a product to a real store is that you typically buy something else there. This doesn't happen online.
Online shopping isn't going away, but IMO it isn't going to grow much larger then it is now.
Attempting to run windows apps on top of another OS is HOPELESS.
You will get NO support from any software vendor for running their windows app on anything other than... tada; Windows.
OS/2 had just about the best windows sub-system ever, but it too had problems running certain windows apps.
No business in its right mind is going to depend on this software. If Linux is to make inroads on the desktop, it will need native desktop applications. Not Java apps, not emulated Windows apps; native desktop applications.
Fortunately it's getting them and some of them are quite good (Star Office is usable, for instance).
And yes, people will pay for them if they are GOOD.
The "typos" comment is very telling.
This sounds to me like a "shovelware" book, albeit too late to have any impact on anything other then the trees that died to print it. Do they pay the authors of these tomes by the pound?
The fact of the matter is anything Unix programming related or C related has been done already and done well. These attempts to cash in by vendors like WROX (and their ilk, like QUE) by slapping "Linux" on the cover are just that, attempts to cash in.
You want a decent Linux book, make sure it's in a nutshell and/or has a funky animal on the cover.
Don't bother complaining, they've already answered you and you DON'T MATTER to them.
At the risk of stating the obvious; the only way to make an impact on them is NOT BUY their product. Otherwise, get used to it.
Sad but true.