The reason most people don't switch from Windows isn't that they like Windows so much. I mean, how much of their OS are they really aware of, anyway? The start menu, maybe?
Changing to Linux isn't hard because they'd lose windows, it's hard because they'd lose all those apps that the can only run on windows.
Everything that people associate with their computer is an application. And 99% of their tasks involve these four "killer" apps: 1. Web browser 2. Instant messenger 3. Office/productivity software 4. Media player.
If great OSS versions of these four apps are available on Windows, and people start using them, then nothing will stop them from switching to Linux.
Mozilla/Firefox is the first step, and it's doing well.
Office/Productivity software is the next step, but I think that will be the biggest challege by far, considering how many people and businesses are stuck with proprietary MS Office documents. And contrary to claims otherwise, many many MS Word documents do not convert perfectly to Open Office.
Instant messenger is already set to go with GAIM, as soon as GAIM starts an awareness campaign, or even without, since there's really no learning curve for AIM users to switch to GAIM. People who switch to Linux won't notice they're using GAIM insteal of AIM.
Media player software is another doozy. There's no linux software out there right now that's as versatile and fully featured as Windows Media Player, and there are no Linux DVD players that match up to windows apps like PowerDVD.
Another alternative is, instead of moving OSS to Windows, move popular windows apps to Linux. This could work for some, like PowerDVD and RealPlayer.
But this would be hard too, since so many of the popular retail apps are from Microsoft. That's the essence of their monopoly... MS Office is a really good set of office tools, but it artificially props up Windows because the company that makes MS Office has a vested interest in keeping it on Windows. There will never be a fair debate within MS on whether it would be profitable for MS Office to be ported to Linux, because while it would be profitable for the MS Office team, it'd be even more unprofitably for the MS Windows team. And that's the essence of their monopoly, and why it would have been a good idea to split the Office and the Wnidows divisions of MS into separate companies.
1. I don't want to be on a monthly payment plan ($17.99 or something) where I have to get 7 movies in that month in order to be paying less than renting the movies at the video store.
That's fine, use the video store like you said you do.
2. Netflix's commercials annoy me. Standing in line at a store? Who the fuck does that? I have never waited to rent a movie and honestly, putting them into the mail takes longer for me than does going to the video store that's less than two miles away.
Most people live closer to a mailbox (usually their own mailbox) than a video store.
3. Downloading movies is free. 66 cents each still costs more than downloading them.
You missed the key point... Netflix is legitimate and legal, but downloading (for free) almost never is. Plus depending on your internet connection speed and the server's download speed, it could take a lot of time or effort to download the movie. You could work an hour fixing someone's computer and charge $20 and rent 4x $5 movies, but I doubt you could find and download good quality versions of 4 movies in an hour. Plus if you're looking for unpopular movies, it would be very difficult to find them.
4. They come in a format that is all ready to be played on your computer (if you so desire) instead of having to wait to convert the 4GB to that format yourself.
Your computer can't play DVD's? Why not? If you have a DVD drive to rip them, then you have a DVD drive to play them. (and yes Linux machines can too).
I also got a headache and got pretty nauseous after few hours of it, but it was fun while it lasted.
Cheers to that! There was also some Magic Carpet game that shipped with my friend's Packard Bell back in 1994 or 1995, where you could enable stereoscopic mode. But yeah after crossing your eyes all weird for a few hours you would get a stereoscopic hangover.
Vertical: a bigger company buys a smaller one, and the smaller one essentially becomes a division of the larger one. Like when Hitachi bought IBM's hard drive unit.
Horizontal: Two large companies that already do similar things merge. Such as the Compaq/HP merger.
For example, embedded URLs in emails don't just link to the website, or utilise the 'target' attribute - they use javascript which prevents me from opening them in new tabs (I have to drag them onto the tab bar).
If you're talking about Firefox tabs, I've had no problem CTRL-clicking and open a link inside an email into a tab...
It's not like Google Scholar has a lot invested in that name yet anyway, should they lose. Google will just rename it to something else and still blow ACS out of the water.
You could have said the same thing about deploying personal computers to every household 25 years ago.
Give the PV industry some time and some incentive to get more efficient and lower prices and you'll hit better economies of scale. Right now, however, I'm guessing that $308 is mostly smallish orders from homeowners, not a giagantic single order from a power company.
Haven't heard of it, therefore it must be of zero importance.
Haven't heard of it? Of course I've heard of it! It's probably the most popular language to reference, among Americans, when you have reason to mention a rare, different, exotic language.
And that's the only reason this is even news. "Hey, they translated it to Swahili, haha, neat!"
Now if a Swahili-speaking nation oficcialy chooses Open Office, then that'll be news.
If he had just taken it on the chin and laughed about it with his mates, it wouldn't have been such a big deal
Absolutely! Star Wars Kid should learn a lesson from William Hung, the American Idol contestent who sang "She Bangs" so poorly that it got him a cult following and several record deals.
...spend 6-7 hours a day sitting in class "learning" nothing, then come home and spend 2-3 hours actually studying something new and interesting. Some might, but that's the minority.
Replace "sitting in class learning" with "sitting at work doing", and it sounds depressingly like adult life.
""I can't believe the Democrats were stupid enough to allow [this]," he says. "I can't imagine anyone going to a bank and not getting a receipt. But yet we have our voting machines that way....
This is a misleading comment. What does he mean "the democrats allowed this"? The republican party has been in control of both houses for sometime now.
And the democrats HAVE been trying. In fact, a group of democrats proposed a bill called the RECORD Act of 2004, which had a stated purpose: "To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require a voter-verified permanent record or hardcopy under title III of such Act, and for other purposes."
It strikes me as really odd that machines like that could even exist.""
Seems odd to me too... perhaps the republican-owned voting machine companies, or the republican Secretaries of State in Ohio and Florida could shed some light on why hese machines were created / purchased?
Why would you merge or buy a company for something you are already good at?
Share customers, decrease overhead. Economies of scale - you go from 2 HR departments to 1.5 HR departments, because some people become redundant when the companies merge.
Well, EA makes The Sims, and those characters lose happiness if you work them too hard and don't give them any play / entertainment.
So I wonder how pissed off the developers on that game must have been getting while writing the Sims' happiness ratings code late one saturday evening:-)
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The reason most people don't switch from Windows isn't that they like Windows so much. I mean, how much of their OS are they really aware of, anyway? The start menu, maybe?
Changing to Linux isn't hard because they'd lose windows, it's hard because they'd lose all those apps that the can only run on windows.
Everything that people associate with their computer is an application. And 99% of their tasks involve these four "killer" apps:
1. Web browser
2. Instant messenger
3. Office/productivity software
4. Media player.
If great OSS versions of these four apps are available on Windows, and people start using them, then nothing will stop them from switching to Linux.
Mozilla/Firefox is the first step, and it's doing well.
Office/Productivity software is the next step, but I think that will be the biggest challege by far, considering how many people and businesses are stuck with proprietary MS Office documents. And contrary to claims otherwise, many many MS Word documents do not convert perfectly to Open Office.
Instant messenger is already set to go with GAIM, as soon as GAIM starts an awareness campaign, or even without, since there's really no learning curve for AIM users to switch to GAIM. People who switch to Linux won't notice they're using GAIM insteal of AIM.
Media player software is another doozy. There's no linux software out there right now that's as versatile and fully featured as Windows Media Player, and there are no Linux DVD players that match up to windows apps like PowerDVD.
Another alternative is, instead of moving OSS to Windows, move popular windows apps to Linux. This could work for some, like PowerDVD and RealPlayer.
But this would be hard too, since so many of the popular retail apps are from Microsoft. That's the essence of their monopoly... MS Office is a really good set of office tools, but it artificially props up Windows because the company that makes MS Office has a vested interest in keeping it on Windows. There will never be a fair debate within MS on whether it would be profitable for MS Office to be ported to Linux, because while it would be profitable for the MS Office team, it'd be even more unprofitably for the MS Windows team. And that's the essence of their monopoly, and why it would have been a good idea to split the Office and the Wnidows divisions of MS into separate companies.
1. I don't want to be on a monthly payment plan ($17.99 or something) where I have to get 7 movies in that month in order to be paying less than renting the movies at the video store.
That's fine, use the video store like you said you do.
2. Netflix's commercials annoy me. Standing in line at a store? Who the fuck does that? I have never waited to rent a movie and honestly, putting them into the mail takes longer for me than does going to the video store that's less than two miles away.
Most people live closer to a mailbox (usually their own mailbox) than a video store.
3. Downloading movies is free. 66 cents each still costs more than downloading them.
You missed the key point... Netflix is legitimate and legal, but downloading (for free) almost never is. Plus depending on your internet connection speed and the server's download speed, it could take a lot of time or effort to download the movie. You could work an hour fixing someone's computer and charge $20 and rent 4x $5 movies, but I doubt you could find and download good quality versions of 4 movies in an hour. Plus if you're looking for unpopular movies, it would be very difficult to find them.
4. They come in a format that is all ready to be played on your computer (if you so desire) instead of having to wait to convert the 4GB to that format yourself.
Your computer can't play DVD's? Why not? If you have a DVD drive to rip them, then you have a DVD drive to play them. (and yes Linux machines can too).
>> bookmarks, if they were searchable i think that would be a big improvement. i collect so many they get hard to manage.
>Firefox has this.
Yeah but it's not very versatile in its default form.
You call that a link? THIS is a link:
2 VkYWVkYWYwZTUxMzMmMTImVm0wd2QyUXlVWGxXYTJoV1YwZG9W Vll3Wkc5alJsWjBUVlpPV0Zac2JETlhhMUpUVmpGYWMySkVUbG hoTWsweFZqQmFTMk15U2tWVWJHaG9UVmhDVVZadGVGWmxSbGw1 Vkd0c2FsSnRhRzlVVjNOM1pVWmFkR05GZEZSTlZUVkpWbTEwYT FkSFNrZGpTRUpYVFVad1NGUlVSbUZqVmtaMFVteFNUbUY2UlRG V1ZFb3dWakZhV0ZOcmJGSmlSMmhZV1d4b2IwMHhXbGRYYlVacl VsUkdXbGt3WkRSVk1rcElaSHBHVjJFeVVYZFpWRVpyVTBaT2Ns cEhjRlJTVlhCWlZrWldhMVV5VW5OalJtUllZbFZhY1ZscldtRm xWbVJ5VjI1a1YwMUVSa1pWYkZKRFZqQXhkVlZ1V2xaaGExcFlX a1ZhVDJOdFNrZFRiV3hYVWpOb1dGWnRNSGRsUjBsNFUydGthVk 5GV2xSWmJHaFRWMVpXY1ZKcmRGUldiRm93V2xWb2ExWXdNVVZT YTFwWFlrZG9jbFpxU2tabFZsWlpXa1prYUdFeGNGaFhiRnBoVk RKT2RGSnJhR2hTYXpWeldXeG9iMWRHV25STlNHaFBVbTE0VjFS VmFHOVhSMHBJVld4c1dtSkhhRlJXTUZwVFZqRmtkRkp0ZUZkaW EwcElWbXBKZUUxR1dsaFRhMlJxVWtWYVYxWnFUbTlsYkZweFUy dGthbUpWVmpaWlZWcGhZVWRGZUdOSE9WZFdSVXBvVmtSS1QyUk dTbkpoUjJoVFlYcFdkMVp0Y0V0aU1XUlhWMWhvWVZKRlNtRldi WE40VGtaa2NsWnRkRmhTTUhCNVZHeGFjMWR0U2toaFJsSlhUVV p3VkZacVJtdGtWbkJHVGxaT2FXRXdjRWxXYlhCS1pVWkplRmRz YUZSaVJuQnhWV3hrVTFsV1VsWlhiVVpzWWtad2VGVXlkR3RoYl VwV1lucEtWbFl6YUROWmEyUkdaVWRPU0dGR2FHbFNia0p2Vm10 U1MxUnRWbGRUYmtwb1VqTm9WRmxZY0ZkWFZscFlZMFU1YVUxWF VraFdNalZUVkd4YVIxTnRPVlZXTTFKNlZHdGFWbVZYVWtoa1Jt UnBWbGhDU2xac1pEUmpNV1IwVWxob2FsSkZOV0ZhVjNSaFlVWn JlRmRyZEd0U2EzQjZWbGQ0VDJGV1RrWlRhM1JYVFc1b1dGZFdX bEpsUm1SellVWlNhRTFzU25oV1Z6QjRUa1phYzFWc1pGaGhNMU p2VlcxNGQyVkdWblJOVldSWFRVUkdlVlJzVm05V01VbzJVbXRv VjFaRldreFdha3BQVW14YWMxcEhiRk5OVlZZelZteGFVMUl4Yk ZkWGJrcE9WbXh3V0ZsWWNGZFdSbFp5Vm10YVQxVlVNRGs9
http://www.hugeurl.com/?ODg1M2YwMDM0NzNjMDgyNmJlM
I also got a headache and got pretty nauseous after few hours of it, but it was fun while it lasted.
Cheers to that! There was also some Magic Carpet game that shipped with my friend's Packard Bell back in 1994 or 1995, where you could enable stereoscopic mode. But yeah after crossing your eyes all weird for a few hours you would get a stereoscopic hangover.
Oh well :)
Vertical: a bigger company buys a smaller one, and the smaller one essentially becomes a division of the larger one. Like when Hitachi bought IBM's hard drive unit.
Horizontal: Two large companies that already do similar things merge. Such as the Compaq/HP merger.
For example, embedded URLs in emails don't just link to the website, or utilise the 'target' attribute - they use javascript which prevents me from opening them in new tabs (I have to drag them onto the tab bar).
If you're talking about Firefox tabs, I've had no problem CTRL-clicking and open a link inside an email into a tab...
that would be an extra 3000 characters (3k) PER PAGE LOAD
Well, that js file would be cached by the browser, hopefully, not reloaded with every single page load.
It's not like Google Scholar has a lot invested in that name yet anyway, should they lose. Google will just rename it to something else and still blow ACS out of the water.
You could have said the same thing about deploying personal computers to every household 25 years ago.
Give the PV industry some time and some incentive to get more efficient and lower prices and you'll hit better economies of scale. Right now, however, I'm guessing that $308 is mostly smallish orders from homeowners, not a giagantic single order from a power company.
Americans? (Fried Twinkies, Fried applies, Fried
Fried arteries?
This guy sure has an impressive portfolio.
Scaling text is just a calculation.
So is finding large primes, but that can take a while too. Rendering / rastering out a large page with a ton of text on it can take a while.
From now on I'm going to "oficcialy" use the preview button.
Haven't heard of it, therefore it must be of zero importance.
Haven't heard of it? Of course I've heard of it! It's probably the most popular language to reference, among Americans, when you have reason to mention a rare, different, exotic language.
And that's the only reason this is even news. "Hey, they translated it to Swahili, haha, neat!"
Now if a Swahili-speaking nation oficcialy chooses Open Office, then that'll be news.
Have you ever put 10,000 names on a page? Consider names are on average 15 characters long.
Now that it supports Swahili, OOo is ready for prime-time!
If he had just taken it on the chin and laughed about it with his mates, it wouldn't have been such a big deal
Absolutely! Star Wars Kid should learn a lesson from William Hung, the American Idol contestent who sang "She Bangs" so poorly that it got him a cult following and several record deals.
...spend 6-7 hours a day sitting in class "learning" nothing, then come home and spend 2-3 hours actually studying something new and interesting. Some might, but that's the minority.
Replace "sitting in class learning" with "sitting at work doing", and it sounds depressingly like adult life.
""I can't believe the Democrats were stupid enough to allow [this]," he says. "I can't imagine anyone going to a bank and not getting a receipt. But yet we have our voting machines that way....
This is a misleading comment. What does he mean "the democrats allowed this"? The republican party has been in control of both houses for sometime now.
And the democrats HAVE been trying. In fact, a group of democrats proposed a bill called the RECORD Act of 2004, which had a stated purpose: "To amend the Help America Vote Act of 2002 to require a voter-verified permanent record or hardcopy under title III of such Act, and for other purposes."
It strikes me as really odd that machines like that could even exist.""
Seems odd to me too... perhaps the republican-owned voting machine companies, or the republican Secretaries of State in Ohio and Florida could shed some light on why hese machines were created / purchased?
Why would you merge or buy a company for something you are already good at?
Share customers, decrease overhead. Economies of scale - you go from 2 HR departments to 1.5 HR departments, because some people become redundant when the companies merge.
Well, EA makes The Sims, and those characters lose happiness if you work them too hard and don't give them any play / entertainment.
:-)
So I wonder how pissed off the developers on that game must have been getting while writing the Sims' happiness ratings code late one saturday evening
Michael, please adjust the headline - IT IS FALSE!
That's extremely weird.