Suddenly it looks as though finally the innovation stranglehold that Microsoft has held over us for many years is coming to an end.
There is no such thing as innovation stranglehold.
I'm not saying Microsoft will go away, but cross-platform compatibility will become the rule, not the exception. It will be easy to choose whichever platform you like, without worrying about not being able to run half your applications. Freedom will be a realistic choice.
Cross platform compatibility of what? As I see it Apple is the hold out here. Apple feels that virtualization is fine and good as long as it's not their OS. Do you know what sucks more then Microsoft's vendor lockin? Apple's hardware and software lockin. Don't act like the increase in Mac sales is making things better in the face of Apple's attitude towards third parties. If anything, computing would suck worse with Apple riding the high waves.
I suppose it was really inevitable in the long run, but I am happy to see the walls finally cracking.
Again, wait and see.
First off, many products are big on initial release only to die a quick death. I will be confident of the Dell-Ubuntu thing in a couple of years. I don't know why people are expecting a pass or fail on this in the first 100 days. This isn't politics as much as some people make it out to be. It's a product.
Secondly, don't start to think things have really made a turn without software support. Hardware has never been the hang up for Linux overall, at least not the lead hang up. Without software you can make a grade-A system and make it cheap and people will not hold on for long. Look at Atari and Amiga. Fantastic machines with a ton of potential. Where are they today? Oh, that's right, no one ever wrote software for them, for the most part.
Lack of software support is stopping me from becoming a big Linux adopter. I run it as a VM only for right now.
Maybe things will change. I'd go with it. But I'm not going on my own without a bit more happening first.
I can agree with you to a point on that. The only problem is that most of the really good titles never go under 20 unless you're ebaying them. Hopefully services like Steam will start to offer older titles for less and undercut the inflated price of the Best Buy bargain bin.
But don't forget games that never drop that far for better reasons: they're simply that good. Half Life 1 never went below 25 (that I had seen) in the big box stores. At 60 it would have been worth buying twice!
Nor did I ever claim that you said that he put it in place. Who has misconstrued what here?
You did indeed blame the Bush administration when you said; "I think that's why Exxon and AT&T are so small and weak, because prior administrations broke them up to help consumers."
Prior administrations did what? Oh, no, that can't be a slight against Bush now can it? Get real.
The thing about your list is that half of what you have listed can be done by a Blackberry alone. So you're reach the point of redundancy. Not to fault you for it...
Looking over the original "article" it seems that there are tons of phones that meet what is being bitched about in the US. The thing is that people don't buy them. Most people are not interested in having a gadget of this nature. Maybe that makes us backwards according to some but the bottom line is that people simply don't want these things.
"The average car on the road in the US is a trashy piece of junk compared to an average car in Japan or the UK."
aside from the lack of smaller cars do you care to back that up?
"US houses and apartments are often shoddily built and poorly maintained such that after 30 years they are ready to be torn down."
again, do you care to back that up with any real statistic or do you just want to keep blowwing smoke up peoples asses?
"Roads in the US are often full of potholes, poorly patched pavement, dangerous angles, and cluttered with hideously ugly advertising signs and strip malls."
uh, yeah. what part of the us were you in? i've seen areas that are with dangerous roads but it's not nation wide by any means.
"Major intersections in cities are occupied by 8-way stoplights that meter cars through at about 80 vehicles per hour so they can fly ahead to the next 8-way stoplight in the next block. Europe uses......"roundabouts" that are about 100x more efficient than stoplights."
while roundabouts may be a better method i must say that i've never seen an 8-way traffic light.
"It's not surprising, then, that the market penetration of Linux, Firefox, and OS software in general is much higher outside of the US."
os software in general? what are you talking about?
Again, hooray for you! Imaginary apps that don't exist but might in the future require us all to upgrade upgrade upgrade upgrade!!!!!!
No one is requiring anything of you. Stop acting like you're being put through some fiery hoops to use a PC. And stop acting like a martyr. That's something that teenagers do when they don't get everything they want.
now better more faster. Not because you can use it but because you might. Uh OK
Oh, so apps need to hit the shelves before the hardware can support it? Who ever came up with that kind of logic? Maybe we should have all stuck with TRS80s and C=64s until Word 97 came out? Upgrading hardware BEFORE the software is made available is the natural progression of things. Or maybe you can tell me how it suppose to work in your mind?
Just because you never plan on using it doesn't mean that no one does.
I'm putting nitrous on my Camry because I might have to outrun the barbarians from Thunderdome.
Fine. I'll keep chugging away on a 8086 and complaining that other people are upgrading to run what they want to run on their own PCs even if I don't need to! What's your point?
It's just slower and since I'm not a gamer or compiling C++ on it it's barely relevant.
I think I'm going back to a point made earlier but : That's YOU! Not everyone is you. That's why we need versatile OSs. They still make PCs that aren't four core with 2 Gigs of ram. Let's not be ridiculous here. And for as much as it doesn't mean anything to you there ARE tons of people who do take advantage of these heavier systems.
The fact that I wouldn't run Vista on them is neither here nor there.
Absolutely it is. That's pretty much what the entire basis of this is. YOU don't feel the need to run Vista. Fantastic! Hooray for you! Now let others who do want to run Vista run Vista without your self-righteous heavy handedness.
Vista isn't opening up a class of applications to me I couldn't do before.
Maybe not for you and maybe not yet. While I don't know of any software today that can't run without Vista also take into account that Vista is new and the new DirectX software will roll sooner or later.
And you're acting like someone said you can't continue to run Windows 98 or whatever. No one cares if you do or not. Get over your entire "I don't need this" and "I don't need that"... other people might. Their needs aren't stopping you from running whatever you want to run. Stop acting like "bloat" is dragging you down because others use it.
And since no one is using one of the multicore CPU's for what I would consider critical housekeeping maintenance functions then to me it's simply ego.
The bottom line is that multicore is faster. If that doesn't make a difference to you that's ok with me. But don't sit here and act like a duel core 1.6 is operating with the same functionality of a single core 1.6 simply because you don't feel that it makes full use of it's potential.
I think you're leaving out a bit here when you say that. Or are you really saying that the same machine could cut half it's cores and half it's memory and work just as well?
If you want a machine that is versatile, yes. If you want a WebTV go and do it. I don't need to win it's not even a situation that I can win or lose in. Prove me wrong. I'd love to see it.
I think what the user was getting at was the it's possible to change tracks while changing the volume. I'm sure just about every normal iPod owner found this at least once or twice.
My problem with the iPod interface is not having an easy repeat feature. I'd like for there to be a way to set a track to repeat without having to go through a menu system. But oh well... I guess that makes me a gimp too, eh?
Were we to have lightweight systems then they could be largely embedded, instant boot up devices, cheap, nearly disposable
As I pointed out up-thread: This has been tried and it failed. If you'd like to try it again by all means do. Don't let my opinion stop you.
Moreover - with dual or quad core processors why is it it hasn't occurred to anyone to take one of those cores and dedicate it to all the bullshit break fix and security hassles that consume everyone's time?
Watch who you call "everyone" in this case. I don't have these problems, people I know don't have these problems. I only know of one person who fits the slashdot cookie cutter Windows user stereotype and he does have these problems. He also has a problem writing checks. Go figure.
Aside from him the only other people I know of who bitch and moan that they can't keep a Windows system online for more then 45 seconds without getting some undesirable software infiltrating their PC are slashdot users. Again, go figure!
Why is it Intel and Microsoft can't make one of those cores an engine that collects patches, runs a firewall, malware scanner, port scanner, system health checker and so on? I'm sure we could do w/o 1 of those 4 cores and be even happier with our shiny new desktop if it were doing all those chores efficiently quietly on its own.
Ask Microsoft. I seriously don't know. My guess it has to do with the early adoption of this technology versus an actual user base large enough to justify the deployment of such software. This will doubtlessly change in the next 18-24 months.
So it's one or the other - either make the machines cheaper lighter faster by using compact software, or, take all that brute force and do something truly useful with it.
Like I said, if you want to give it a go then by all means go ahead. People, even as ignorant as they are, are not going to simply jump on the less is more bandwagon. Sorry, it's human nature.
As far as making it do something useful? It sounds like a solid idea to me. Go for it.
I mean I would hope it would be a lot faster but if that's it then it's mostly a waste.
Yeah, for you, perhaps. And that's what you're neglecting is "for you". I'm sure tons of people out there could be just as happy with older machines too if they weren't so ignorant of the technology they're using.
But when it comes right down to it let's be realistic too: Most people with PCs in their homes didn't have them while Win95 was still being sold. When you buy a new PC you're not going to get Win95 on it. For those of us who don't mind the ins and outs of keeping an old machine working it's not a problem but when you're taking your PII-350 to the Geek Squad?
You're in the vast minority of users over all. If that makes you feel good about yourself so be it but the truth is that most users don't care about that kind of thing and would rather have a machine they know is going to work without the hassles.
Slashdot Mirror
Do you really think they look so much the same?
I'm sure it will be more impressive once Hollywood get's their claws... er, hands on him.
This only adds to the tons and tons of proof that Spock rocks!
The Wii caught them so off gaurd that they nearly pissed themselves.
Thankyou, thankyou, I'll be here all week.
Suddenly it looks as though finally the innovation stranglehold that Microsoft has held over us for many years is coming to an end.
There is no such thing as innovation stranglehold.
I'm not saying Microsoft will go away, but cross-platform compatibility will become the rule, not the exception. It will be easy to choose whichever platform you like, without worrying about not being able to run half your applications. Freedom will be a realistic choice.
Cross platform compatibility of what? As I see it Apple is the hold out here. Apple feels that virtualization is fine and good as long as it's not their OS. Do you know what sucks more then Microsoft's vendor lockin? Apple's hardware and software lockin. Don't act like the increase in Mac sales is making things better in the face of Apple's attitude towards third parties. If anything, computing would suck worse with Apple riding the high waves.
I suppose it was really inevitable in the long run, but I am happy to see the walls finally cracking.
Again, wait and see.
First off, many products are big on initial release only to die a quick death. I will be confident of the Dell-Ubuntu thing in a couple of years. I don't know why people are expecting a pass or fail on this in the first 100 days. This isn't politics as much as some people make it out to be. It's a product.
Secondly, don't start to think things have really made a turn without software support. Hardware has never been the hang up for Linux overall, at least not the lead hang up. Without software you can make a grade-A system and make it cheap and people will not hold on for long. Look at Atari and Amiga. Fantastic machines with a ton of potential. Where are they today? Oh, that's right, no one ever wrote software for them, for the most part.
Lack of software support is stopping me from becoming a big Linux adopter. I run it as a VM only for right now.
Maybe things will change. I'd go with it. But I'm not going on my own without a bit more happening first.
I can agree with you to a point on that. The only problem is that most of the really good titles never go under 20 unless you're ebaying them. Hopefully services like Steam will start to offer older titles for less and undercut the inflated price of the Best Buy bargain bin.
But don't forget games that never drop that far for better reasons: they're simply that good. Half Life 1 never went below 25 (that I had seen) in the big box stores. At 60 it would have been worth buying twice!
A perfect demonstration of the incorrect usage of the comma.
Absolutely, but it, could, be, wor,se.,, I, gues,s,.
Nor did I ever claim that you said that he put it in place. Who has misconstrued what here?
You did indeed blame the Bush administration when you said; "I think that's why Exxon and AT&T are so small and weak, because prior administrations broke them up to help consumers."
Prior administrations did what? Oh, no, that can't be a slight against Bush now can it? Get real.
Commonplace to dismiss me as a shill when you've known you have no point. I guess I shouldn't expect much better out of Slashdot anymore.
No, what the OP did was tried to blame the Bush administration for a system that has been in place longer than what the OP has been alive.
If what you're saying is what I think you're saying we call that a four way stop. Sorry for the confussion.
Yeah, because this problem just began with this administration. Oh, move along troll.
The thing about your list is that half of what you have listed can be done by a Blackberry alone. So you're reach the point of redundancy. Not to fault you for it...
Looking over the original "article" it seems that there are tons of phones that meet what is being bitched about in the US. The thing is that people don't buy them. Most people are not interested in having a gadget of this nature. Maybe that makes us backwards according to some but the bottom line is that people simply don't want these things.
"The average car on the road in the US is a trashy piece of junk compared to an average car in Japan or the UK."
aside from the lack of smaller cars do you care to back that up?
"US houses and apartments are often shoddily built and poorly maintained such that after 30 years they are ready to be torn down."
again, do you care to back that up with any real statistic or do you just want to keep blowwing smoke up peoples asses?
"Roads in the US are often full of potholes, poorly patched pavement, dangerous angles, and cluttered with hideously ugly advertising signs and strip malls."
uh, yeah. what part of the us were you in? i've seen areas that are with dangerous roads but it's not nation wide by any means.
"Major intersections in cities are occupied by 8-way stoplights that meter cars through at about 80 vehicles per hour so they can fly ahead to the next 8-way stoplight in the next block. Europe uses......"roundabouts" that are about 100x more efficient than stoplights."
while roundabouts may be a better method i must say that i've never seen an 8-way traffic light.
"It's not surprising, then, that the market penetration of Linux, Firefox, and OS software in general is much higher outside of the US."
os software in general? what are you talking about?
Again, hooray for you! Imaginary apps that don't exist but might in the future require us all to upgrade upgrade upgrade upgrade!!!!!!
No one is requiring anything of you. Stop acting like you're being put through some fiery hoops to use a PC. And stop acting like a martyr. That's something that teenagers do when they don't get everything they want.
now better more faster. Not because you can use it but because you might. Uh OK
Oh, so apps need to hit the shelves before the hardware can support it? Who ever came up with that kind of logic? Maybe we should have all stuck with TRS80s and C=64s until Word 97 came out? Upgrading hardware BEFORE the software is made available is the natural progression of things. Or maybe you can tell me how it suppose to work in your mind?
Just because you never plan on using it doesn't mean that no one does.
I'm putting nitrous on my Camry because I might have to outrun the barbarians from Thunderdome.
Fine. I'll keep chugging away on a 8086 and complaining that other people are upgrading to run what they want to run on their own PCs even if I don't need to! What's your point?
It's just slower and since I'm not a gamer or compiling C++ on it it's barely relevant.
I think I'm going back to a point made earlier but : That's YOU! Not everyone is you. That's why we need versatile OSs. They still make PCs that aren't four core with 2 Gigs of ram. Let's not be ridiculous here. And for as much as it doesn't mean anything to you there ARE tons of people who do take advantage of these heavier systems.
The fact that I wouldn't run Vista on them is neither here nor there.
Absolutely it is. That's pretty much what the entire basis of this is. YOU don't feel the need to run Vista. Fantastic! Hooray for you! Now let others who do want to run Vista run Vista without your self-righteous heavy handedness.
Vista isn't opening up a class of applications to me I couldn't do before.
Maybe not for you and maybe not yet. While I don't know of any software today that can't run without Vista also take into account that Vista is new and the new DirectX software will roll sooner or later.
And you're acting like someone said you can't continue to run Windows 98 or whatever. No one cares if you do or not. Get over your entire "I don't need this" and "I don't need that"... other people might. Their needs aren't stopping you from running whatever you want to run. Stop acting like "bloat" is dragging you down because others use it.
And since no one is using one of the multicore CPU's for what I would consider critical housekeeping maintenance functions then to me it's simply ego.
The bottom line is that multicore is faster. If that doesn't make a difference to you that's ok with me. But don't sit here and act like a duel core 1.6 is operating with the same functionality of a single core 1.6 simply because you don't feel that it makes full use of it's potential.
http://www.cnn.com/TECH/space/9902/04/space.mirror .01/index.html
I think you're leaving out a bit here when you say that. Or are you really saying that the same machine could cut half it's cores and half it's memory and work just as well?
Likely because they have a good life and when it comes down to it it's more important than God.
Hmmm.. Not being a Christian myself can you quote me where their God demanded that they kill themselves in His name?
Or are you just making up rules on how you think their religion should work instead of going to the source?
If you want a machine that is versatile, yes. If you want a WebTV go and do it. I don't need to win it's not even a situation that I can win or lose in. Prove me wrong. I'd love to see it.
Mine was from Jack Frost:
Ivan: This is the first time I've sat on a shovel.
Mike: Well, at least the flat end.
It was simply the best.
Karma points? By saying something as foolish as that you risk your eternal soul to the fiery pits of hell. I'd not want to be you on judgement day.
I think what the user was getting at was the it's possible to change tracks while changing the volume. I'm sure just about every normal iPod owner found this at least once or twice.
My problem with the iPod interface is not having an easy repeat feature. I'd like for there to be a way to set a track to repeat without having to go through a menu system. But oh well... I guess that makes me a gimp too, eh?
Were we to have lightweight systems then they could be largely embedded, instant boot up devices, cheap, nearly disposable
As I pointed out up-thread: This has been tried and it failed. If you'd like to try it again by all means do. Don't let my opinion stop you.
Moreover - with dual or quad core processors why is it it hasn't occurred to anyone to take one of those cores and dedicate it to all the bullshit break fix and security hassles that consume everyone's time?
Watch who you call "everyone" in this case. I don't have these problems, people I know don't have these problems. I only know of one person who fits the slashdot cookie cutter Windows user stereotype and he does have these problems. He also has a problem writing checks. Go figure.
Aside from him the only other people I know of who bitch and moan that they can't keep a Windows system online for more then 45 seconds without getting some undesirable software infiltrating their PC are slashdot users. Again, go figure!
Why is it Intel and Microsoft can't make one of those cores an engine that collects patches, runs a firewall, malware scanner, port scanner, system health checker and so on? I'm sure we could do w/o 1 of those 4 cores and be even happier with our shiny new desktop if it were doing all those chores efficiently quietly on its own.
Ask Microsoft. I seriously don't know. My guess it has to do with the early adoption of this technology versus an actual user base large enough to justify the deployment of such software. This will doubtlessly change in the next 18-24 months.
So it's one or the other - either make the machines cheaper lighter faster by using compact software, or, take all that brute force and do something truly useful with it.
Like I said, if you want to give it a go then by all means go ahead. People, even as ignorant as they are, are not going to simply jump on the less is more bandwagon. Sorry, it's human nature.
As far as making it do something useful? It sounds like a solid idea to me. Go for it.
Thankfully, these days we have suspend and hibernate so it's not as big of an issue.
These days? Suspend and Hibernate have been around for at least a decade now.
I mean I would hope it would be a lot faster but if that's it then it's mostly a waste.
Yeah, for you, perhaps. And that's what you're neglecting is "for you". I'm sure tons of people out there could be just as happy with older machines too if they weren't so ignorant of the technology they're using.
But when it comes right down to it let's be realistic too: Most people with PCs in their homes didn't have them while Win95 was still being sold. When you buy a new PC you're not going to get Win95 on it. For those of us who don't mind the ins and outs of keeping an old machine working it's not a problem but when you're taking your PII-350 to the Geek Squad?
You're in the vast minority of users over all. If that makes you feel good about yourself so be it but the truth is that most users don't care about that kind of thing and would rather have a machine they know is going to work without the hassles.