a) wants to eventually have a home media center thing where they get a slice of all games played and all ppv video you watch and all songs you download. They need to "upgrade" people from the 360 to that system or the next step in that direction.
b) They never get anything right till their third rev. The xbox 360/2 has a shot at being a decent unit by that measure.
That Microsoft had to hold it's nose and actually respond to a Linux company.
This is akin to how US presidents don't meet with terrorists and nutty generals. Even heads of state that they greatly disapprove of. It lends legitimacy in the eyes of the world.
The fact that ANY Linux company could say something, and instead of ignoring it. Microsoft feels it actually has to defend itself. All in the name of choice and fair market.
Microsoft can't "require" this. Same as the BSA or CAAST can't just show up at your doorstep and "require" anything. Not even a "license audit."
Which is why, often before even contacting you, they go to a judge and get a court order. Then they just show up with the Federal Marshals and the warrent.
At that point, it is rather moot wheather you think they can or can not require this. If you resist, you are arrested.
That is so 2007. Things may quite different by 2012.
Having run Linux from 1999. I remember: Step 1 install it. Step 2 set up networking. Step 3 back to windows to find out how to fix networking. Step 4 download video driver stuff. Step 5 Compile video drivers. Step 6 stark hacking on X.
While your millage may vary, we starting to get to the point where it does not matter if it is 32 bit or 64 bit. Linux is working more out of the box than Vista is. Dell, is putting enough force behind things that drivers are going to become less of an issue.
The stink of vista is not going away. If Dells support of Linux continues to improve, even if only a little bit. I think you will be seeing Linux systems in stores.
If one woman can make a baby in 9 months, surely 9 women can make a baby in one month?
Even if an organization is flat. And everybody had their shit together and really knew their code.
2 people have 1 path of communication 3 people have 3 paths of communication 4 people have 6 paths of communication 5 people have 10 paths of communication
Every person you have that needs to be in the know, adds to the complexity of communicating. Soon there is so much overhead nothing gets done but trying to stay up to date.
Every "group" at Microsoft has this problem. The vista start button had one programmer working on it. This programmer had a beta tester, meetings with his manager. The manager had meetings with the UI manager, who had to share and work with his staff about how the button looked. The mananger also met with the systems manager, because his team actually had to plug the "shutdown" button into the code that did the shutdown, or hibernate. When it was all said and done. The programmer would make a change, and it would have to go through like 9 or 13 other people before it could be Ok'ed.
All we are talking about here is ONE LITTLE BUTTON on a menu.
Parkinson's Law "Work Expands To Fill The Time Available To Complete It"
Parkinson correctly predicted that the British Navy would have more Admirals one day than they had ships. Due to people being promoted to fill all available space.
Microsoft is so big. It can't trim back down to being lean and mean. Everything is done to much by committee to get anything important of quality done in a timely matter.
As someone once said "God so loved the world, that he did not send a committee"
Microsoft is it's own biggest competitor (Windows 2000 and XP competing against Vista and 7)
Microsoft is it's own biggest enemy (death by committee)
Win 95 broke some stuff. Win 98 did too. Windows XP broke stuff as well. Vista broke more stuff. But for the most part, making sure legacy code has a shot at working seems to be a priority at Microsoft.
If 7 breaks nothing at all..it will really suck.
If 7 breaks a little bit....it will still suck like Vista.
If 7 breaks to much...people will move to linux or mac.
Hey, I am a power user.
Been using Linux for over 8 years now. I have custom compiled 3 or 4 dozen kernels. Can resolve most compiler errors when a configure make make install has problems.
I have probably used 12 or 13 different distros. It would not matter if it was Slckaware, Mandrake or Red Hat. I would do the install, update as many native packages as possible. Then tweak the install. Download a bunch of tar files and compile all of the goodies that I use. It would take me 2 or 3 days to get the system like I wanted it.
With Ubuntu it only takes a few hours. Install, apt-get all the updates. Apt-get most of the packages I use. I have maybe five or 6 packages that I have to custom compile. Shaves about 90% of the time off of setting up a system the way I lik it.
I would say Ubuntu is very much for the power user.
The truth is. There is NO proof that any of the XBox-360's that Microsoft is selling at a "profit" have the overheating causing the board to warp and chips to pop fixed. The red ring of death is still very real. Microsoft may have been very nice extending the warranty on the boxes that are already out there.
But they have done nothing to really fix the overheating issues. The one billion write off will be consumed by repairs. Those old units will continue to break, even after the warranty period is over. The new units will break as well. Will the XBox-III save them?
How long till the shareholders in Microsoft look at the Wii doing great and wonder how many more billions they need to throw after the five billion they have already eaten? And I am sure that the Zune is making the situation even better...
In fact, Microsoft is a Convicted Monopolist, currently being monitored by the Department of Justice.
Never mind how they got to 90% market share. They do have a 90% market share. And they have been found by several courts of law to wield that 90% power as a monopolist. Harming the industry and end user for their own benefit and to further their monopoly.
People just didn't know what they were buying. And that's the consumer's fault, not Microsoft's.
So you are saying when Microsoft says in their advertising that it is the best OS they have ever made. An end user who does not do IT for a living should know that UAC will bug them and that they have hardware and software that will not work with it?
This is like saying when I go to buy a car with anti-lock breaks for safety. New and improved anti-lock breaking system. Except they don't mention at the dealership when it gets below freezing, the breaks will work erratically. Would you blame me that I did not know what I was buying? That I did not know the right questions to ask? "Hey, will this car blow up if I turn on the wipers? Will the anti-lock breaks go out when it is freezing?"
What is a shame. Is that a compnay with a Monopoly on an industry where they control over 90% of the product sold. Would be able to discontinue a product that works just fine. To replace it with a product that often does not work as well, and the only real benefit appears to be to the Monopolist.
"UAC prompts" -> I think I see maybe one of these a week (can't actually remember the last one), and never in an unexpected fashion, or one that doesn't also happen in OS X or Linux.
I only ran Vista on my laptop at work for a month. The idea was that I would see what end users would deal with on that dark and dreaded day we start using Vista (unless SP1 fixes a lot of issues). Which meant I had to run it without turning off UAC. Being a power user administering a network. I saw a LOT of UAC. Notwithstanding, my end users would have seen it several times a day. This is not even including our Quickbooks 2005 users. We would have to pay $7,500.00 or so to move up to a version of Quickbooks that Vista does not choke on.
As far as Linux or OS X. Well, I am used to being prompted only ONCE for each time I need admin privileges. In Vista it is not uncommon to be prompted several times. For instance, once to go to admin mode, and a second time for permission to copy a file into a system folder. Well damn! I thought when I dropped the file on the system folder and it asked for admin privileges. It new it was asking because I was moving a file. So why after switching to admin mode FOR THAT VERY REASON, does it have the genius idea of asking me again to confirm or deny copying that file?
The UI has changed" -> the changes are cosmetic. The fundamental UI features and concepts (widgets, task switching and windows management models, program launching, etc) remain the same as they were in *Windows 95*.
Configuration is a real PITA though. Almost everthing can be fond in 2 or 3 different places. You can get to the same component in several ways. However, so many things have moved to different places and changed names. It is difficult to administer the system. We are down to only two Vista systems. It is always fun to take a support call from a Vista userwith a networking issue who is 600 miles away.
Yes I know, more experience with Vista would help. Still Microsoft has broken so many of their interface guidelines. What would make them think it is a good idea to take a software interface like lets say, system configuration. Then change it so much that a system administrator with 12 years experience of dealing with 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP is back at square one. That is really leveraging a companies investment in Microsoft Windows software.
The sheer volume of FUD spewing out of the anti-Microsoft brigade about Vista is staggering
Microsoft is not having the extend the amount of time they are selling new copies of XP because of the vocal minority of Linux and OS X users who go "poo, poo" and don't like Vista. It is end user and business who are discovering and spreading the news that Vista is not getting the job done.
Even on day one, how much of a complaint was there that XP would not run the software people needed to run? Nothing at all like there is with Vista. I remember having to buy new hardware back then. Almost immediately all hardware was XP compatible. Within a year there was hardware that you could not get 98 drivers for. This is not true for Vista.
Believe me. I have NO love Microsoft. I thought with XP prodcut activation and the right of Microsoft to push updates AND deactivate or change functionality. That Microsoft was tightening the noose on folks. I wished for it to be seen as a dog and have slow adoption. With the Beta program for Vista being over 18 months old, Vista being available to businesses for 10 months, and retail for 8. With many PC makers going Vista only for 2 months and them having to backpeddle on that. Vista has both tightened the noose even more AND is a bigger dog that XP ever was. Also the non geeks hate it.
Almost all non-geeks that I know you have gotten Vista systems have hated them so much they have gone back to XP. The only one I know who is still running Vista, I think does not want to bug anyone to do a nuke a pave and reinstall all the software they would need to do their job.
From experience of working with several Vista system at work. Belive me, it HAS issues.
There are some programs that if you run the installer, UAC will kick in and ask for administrator privileges to perform the install. Then when you run it. That program will be the bane of your existence.
However....if you would have right clicked on the installer and selected "Run As Administrator". The program would run fine.
And no, going back and reinstalling does not solve the problem.
One of the sweet joys of my life is getting to heckle my boss while he is dealing with a Vista issue while he is explaining the gayitry of Linux to me.
Even playing an mp3 file will cause the DRM slowdown.Unfortunately it is more a prodcut of the OS thinking any bits going out to speakers, a display, or being recorded could need DRM protection; than actually playing DRM restricted content.
DRM is a tax on using a Microsoft OS, even when you use media that you own or create. Try running real-time recording software on Vista.
What should aspiring musicians do when they want to record at home and Vista is the only Microsoft OS available for sale?
You can always download the most recent version of Ubuntu. Depending on your hardware, for which your millage may vary. It installed great on his system. Someone elses system may be different.
I would say, that XP is from 2001. Unless you slipstream it, most newer hardware won't work right out of the box. We all know the lack of driver support for the 64 bit edition of XP is legendary. Vista is bright shiny and new. It is also lacking great driver support.
From what I have seen. Anything that would run XP will run a modern linux distro just fine...and usually with FEWER driver issues.
I don't think it necessarily has anything to do with competition... I've got a feeling Windows XP/Vista/etc are so apt to get pwnd by the sheer amount of IE6 and under exploits, MS would rather focus resources moving forward than placing those resources on EOL programs. I know I would.
Well Vista already comes with IE7, so they are taken care of.
Those that are security minded running XP/2000 have already moved on th Firefox. That means the only people gettitng IE7. Are currently running IE6 and already part of a bot net.
We should also not forget all of those who still run Windows 98 and are not able to move to IE7.
Microsoft isn't losing any money because he's using some pirated copy of Windows. He would have never bought their software at the price they wanted/with restrictions on his liberties in place/other reason to not use it. So they're not really losing a sale, since he was never going to buy it anyway.
But Microsoft still obtains benefit.....
Microsoft will GLADLY claim him as a Windows User when it tells developers not to develope games for Linux or Mac. Micosoft most certainly does not want people running other OS's. No matter how much they complain. They would prefer you to run a pirate copy of Windows to you running a Mac or Linux.
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a) wants to eventually have a home media center thing where they get a slice of all games played and all ppv video you watch and all songs you download. They need to "upgrade" people from the 360 to that system or the next step in that direction.
b) They never get anything right till their third rev. The xbox 360/2 has a shot at being a decent unit by that measure.
No, your just not running Vista.
That Microsoft had to hold it's nose and actually respond to a Linux company.
This is akin to how US presidents don't meet with terrorists and nutty generals. Even heads of state that they greatly disapprove of. It lends legitimacy in the eyes of the world.
The fact that ANY Linux company could say something, and instead of ignoring it. Microsoft feels it actually has to defend itself. All in the name of choice and fair market.
They are so droll.
Posting quirky yet funny comments on slashdot?
Which is why, often before even contacting you, they go to a judge and get a court order. Then they just show up with the Federal Marshals and the warrent.
At that point, it is rather moot wheather you think they can or can not require this. If you resist, you are arrested.
Well. I for one after having seen Vista can safely say I don't believe in Intelligent Design.
Hey back off man.
You can't imagine how many times terrorists have been stopped from boarding planes because they did not want to be thirsty.
I am sure Vista's Security relies on there being that type of tangent effect.
I would say that is off by a factor of ten.
Some 80 year olds are going to have to come out of retirement to make this thing work.
That is so 2007. Things may quite different by 2012.
Having run Linux from 1999. I remember: Step 1 install it. Step 2 set up networking. Step 3 back to windows to find out how to fix networking. Step 4 download video driver stuff. Step 5 Compile video drivers. Step 6 stark hacking on X.
While your millage may vary, we starting to get to the point where it does not matter if it is 32 bit or 64 bit. Linux is working more out of the box than Vista is. Dell, is putting enough force behind things that drivers are going to become less of an issue.
The stink of vista is not going away. If Dells support of Linux continues to improve, even if only a little bit. I think you will be seeing Linux systems in stores.
If one woman can make a baby in 9 months, surely 9 women can make a baby in one month?
Even if an organization is flat. And everybody had their shit together and really knew their code.
2 people have 1 path of communication
3 people have 3 paths of communication
4 people have 6 paths of communication
5 people have 10 paths of communication
Every person you have that needs to be in the know, adds to the complexity of communicating. Soon there is so much overhead nothing gets done but trying to stay up to date.
Every "group" at Microsoft has this problem. The vista start button had one programmer working on it. This programmer had a beta tester, meetings with his manager. The manager had meetings with the UI manager, who had to share and work with his staff about how the button looked. The mananger also met with the systems manager, because his team actually had to plug the "shutdown" button into the code that did the shutdown, or hibernate. When it was all said and done. The programmer would make a change, and it would have to go through like 9 or 13 other people before it could be Ok'ed.
All we are talking about here is ONE LITTLE BUTTON on a menu.
Parkinson's Law "Work Expands To Fill The Time Available To Complete It"
Parkinson correctly predicted that the British Navy would have more Admirals one day than they had ships. Due to people being promoted to fill all available space.
Microsoft is so big. It can't trim back down to being lean and mean. Everything is done to much by committee to get anything important of quality done in a timely matter.
As someone once said "God so loved the world, that he did not send a committee"
Microsoft is it's own biggest competitor (Windows 2000 and XP competing against Vista and 7)
Microsoft is it's own biggest enemy (death by committee)
It is how much are they going to break?
Win 95 broke some stuff. Win 98 did too. Windows XP broke stuff as well. Vista broke more stuff. But for the most part, making sure legacy code has a shot at working seems to be a priority at Microsoft.
If 7 breaks nothing at all..it will really suck.
If 7 breaks a little bit....it will still suck like Vista.
If 7 breaks to much...people will move to linux or mac.
Hey, I am a power user. Been using Linux for over 8 years now. I have custom compiled 3 or 4 dozen kernels. Can resolve most compiler errors when a configure make make install has problems. I have probably used 12 or 13 different distros. It would not matter if it was Slckaware, Mandrake or Red Hat. I would do the install, update as many native packages as possible. Then tweak the install. Download a bunch of tar files and compile all of the goodies that I use. It would take me 2 or 3 days to get the system like I wanted it. With Ubuntu it only takes a few hours. Install, apt-get all the updates. Apt-get most of the packages I use. I have maybe five or 6 packages that I have to custom compile. Shaves about 90% of the time off of setting up a system the way I lik it. I would say Ubuntu is very much for the power user.
The truth is. There is NO proof that any of the XBox-360's that Microsoft is selling at a "profit" have the overheating causing the board to warp and chips to pop fixed. The red ring of death is still very real. Microsoft may have been very nice extending the warranty on the boxes that are already out there. But they have done nothing to really fix the overheating issues. The one billion write off will be consumed by repairs. Those old units will continue to break, even after the warranty period is over. The new units will break as well. Will the XBox-III save them? How long till the shareholders in Microsoft look at the Wii doing great and wonder how many more billions they need to throw after the five billion they have already eaten? And I am sure that the Zune is making the situation even better...
In fact, Microsoft is a Convicted Monopolist , currently being monitored by the Department of Justice.
Never mind how they got to 90% market share. They do have a 90% market share. And they have been found by several courts of law to wield that 90% power as a monopolist. Harming the industry and end user for their own benefit and to further their monopoly.
I am a cave man you insensitive clod!
So you are saying when Microsoft says in their advertising that it is the best OS they have ever made. An end user who does not do IT for a living should know that UAC will bug them and that they have hardware and software that will not work with it?
This is like saying when I go to buy a car with anti-lock breaks for safety. New and improved anti-lock breaking system. Except they don't mention at the dealership when it gets below freezing, the breaks will work erratically. Would you blame me that I did not know what I was buying? That I did not know the right questions to ask? "Hey, will this car blow up if I turn on the wipers? Will the anti-lock breaks go out when it is freezing?"
What is a shame. Is that a compnay with a Monopoly on an industry where they control over 90% of the product sold. Would be able to discontinue a product that works just fine. To replace it with a product that often does not work as well, and the only real benefit appears to be to the Monopolist.
I only ran Vista on my laptop at work for a month. The idea was that I would see what end users would deal with on that dark and dreaded day we start using Vista (unless SP1 fixes a lot of issues). Which meant I had to run it without turning off UAC. Being a power user administering a network. I saw a LOT of UAC. Notwithstanding, my end users would have seen it several times a day. This is not even including our Quickbooks 2005 users. We would have to pay $7,500.00 or so to move up to a version of Quickbooks that Vista does not choke on.
As far as Linux or OS X. Well, I am used to being prompted only ONCE for each time I need admin privileges. In Vista it is not uncommon to be prompted several times. For instance, once to go to admin mode, and a second time for permission to copy a file into a system folder. Well damn! I thought when I dropped the file on the system folder and it asked for admin privileges. It new it was asking because I was moving a file. So why after switching to admin mode FOR THAT VERY REASON, does it have the genius idea of asking me again to confirm or deny copying that file?
The UI has changed" -> the changes are cosmetic. The fundamental UI features and concepts (widgets, task switching and windows management models, program launching, etc) remain the same as they were in *Windows 95*.
Configuration is a real PITA though. Almost everthing can be fond in 2 or 3 different places. You can get to the same component in several ways. However, so many things have moved to different places and changed names. It is difficult to administer the system. We are down to only two Vista systems. It is always fun to take a support call from a Vista userwith a networking issue who is 600 miles away.
Yes I know, more experience with Vista would help. Still Microsoft has broken so many of their interface guidelines. What would make them think it is a good idea to take a software interface like lets say, system configuration. Then change it so much that a system administrator with 12 years experience of dealing with 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP is back at square one. That is really leveraging a companies investment in Microsoft Windows software.
The sheer volume of FUD spewing out of the anti-Microsoft brigade about Vista is staggering
Microsoft is not having the extend the amount of time they are selling new copies of XP because of the vocal minority of Linux and OS X users who go "poo, poo" and don't like Vista. It is end user and business who are discovering and spreading the news that Vista is not getting the job done.
Even on day one, how much of a complaint was there that XP would not run the software people needed to run? Nothing at all like there is with Vista. I remember having to buy new hardware back then. Almost immediately all hardware was XP compatible. Within a year there was hardware that you could not get 98 drivers for. This is not true for Vista.
Believe me. I have NO love Microsoft. I thought with XP prodcut activation and the right of Microsoft to push updates AND deactivate or change functionality. That Microsoft was tightening the noose on folks. I wished for it to be seen as a dog and have slow adoption. With the Beta program for Vista being over 18 months old, Vista being available to businesses for 10 months, and retail for 8. With many PC makers going Vista only for 2 months and them having to backpeddle on that. Vista has both tightened the noose even more AND is a bigger dog that XP ever was. Also the non geeks hate it.
Almost all non-geeks that I know you have gotten Vista systems have hated them so much they have gone back to XP. The only one I know who is still running Vista, I think does not want to bug anyone to do a nuke a pave and reinstall all the software they would need to do their job.
There are some programs that if you run the installer, UAC will kick in and ask for administrator privileges to perform the install. Then when you run it. That program will be the bane of your existence.
However....if you would have right clicked on the installer and selected "Run As Administrator". The program would run fine.
And no, going back and reinstalling does not solve the problem.
One of the sweet joys of my life is getting to heckle my boss while he is dealing with a Vista issue while he is explaining the gayitry of Linux to me.
Now I know your a shill. There is no such place as Canada. It is just a place that Microsoft made up for marketing purposes.
Uninstall Norton!
Wrong!
Even playing an mp3 file will cause the DRM slowdown.Unfortunately it is more a prodcut of the OS thinking any bits going out to speakers, a display, or being recorded could need DRM protection; than actually playing DRM restricted content.
DRM is a tax on using a Microsoft OS, even when you use media that you own or create. Try running real-time recording software on Vista.
What should aspiring musicians do when they want to record at home and Vista is the only Microsoft OS available for sale?
The point is still valid.
You can always download the most recent version of Ubuntu. Depending on your hardware, for which your millage may vary. It installed great on his system. Someone elses system may be different.
I would say, that XP is from 2001. Unless you slipstream it, most newer hardware won't work right out of the box. We all know the lack of driver support for the 64 bit edition of XP is legendary. Vista is bright shiny and new. It is also lacking great driver support.
From what I have seen. Anything that would run XP will run a modern linux distro just fine...and usually with FEWER driver issues.
Well Vista already comes with IE7, so they are taken care of.
Those that are security minded running XP/2000 have already moved on th Firefox. That means the only people gettitng IE7. Are currently running IE6 and already part of a bot net.
We should also not forget all of those who still run Windows 98 and are not able to move to IE7.
But Microsoft still obtains benefit.....
Microsoft will GLADLY claim him as a Windows User when it tells developers not to develope games for Linux or Mac. Micosoft most certainly does not want people running other OS's. No matter how much they complain. They would prefer you to run a pirate copy of Windows to you running a Mac or Linux.