Look how much GNOME has advanced in the past two years
GNOME is now better than KDE? (ducks)
Also, look at how Apple completely took Microsoft by suprise with Mac OS X
I don't think OS X took Microsoft by surprise, but the iPod sure did.
Microsoft has it's share of problems, but if it had a better CEO it would, IMHO, be a lot more responsive to the demands of the marketplace. The problem Apple has is that Jobs is apparently the best, and maybe only, CEO who can make Apple work. Once Jobs retires, Apple is probably screwed since Jobs isn't the type to groom a successor, evidently.
The status if any given tech company is not entirely dependent on the state of its technology.
I think Microsoft is in the weakest position it's been in in a long time
I'm not so sure. Seems to me the number of exploits in FF and Safari are increasing. (I'm a FF user as well.) Put on the tin foil hat and one might guess that Longhorn is being delayed while exploits for competitive products increase in number. If Microsoft does a good job improving security management in Longhorn, it will be a big hit.
As for VB programmers, those not using VB.Net are either still using VB 6 or went to C#. Where else would they go? C++? Java? Perl? If anything, they might chose Python, but VB.Net would be an easier transistion than that.
Sort of a tangent, but has Microsoft really done anything significant with Ballmer as CEO? When Gates had the job, they made Windows a success, created VB and the real possibility of RAD development, introduced their first 32 bit OS, began the design of.Net (nifty technology, idiotic name), and launched a very successful update to Windows.
With Ballmer as CEO, Microsoft lost ground (and certainly mindshare) to Apple, issued questionable statements about TCO, introduced something as questionable as XP Starter Edition, and disbanded the IE developer group, leaving consumers with a bad experience when encountering the company's version of the the most widely used type of software application. The stock has done virtually nothing during Ballmer's tenure as well.
My guess is Microsoft needs a new CEO if it is to become an interesting company again. I wouldn't be surprised to see Ballmer step down one day after a fight with institutional investors. The big question: Who is the right person for that job?
seems more like the kind of stunt Microsoft would pull
I don't recall Gates ever proclaiming the ability to define what was "Evil" as a matter of corporate policy, unlike Page and Brin. Should be interesting to see how AutoLink plays out, given the howls when Microsoft introduced smart tags in Office.
I find Google to be quite useful, though I don't use it exclusively. That said, Google management obliterated its credibility with me on the "We won't be Evil" front when they granted themselves stock with preferential voting rights so that they could "keep control of the company" (so why go public?), something I don't recall anyone at Microsoft ever doing.
Let's not forget this incident, either. Google is a profit making company, good for them. But the company also has an effective monopoly on search. Who knows, someday Google management may cross the political line and get sued by the DoJ, too. When that happens, I suppose they will know they have "made" it.
There are many civilians employed with US tax dollars...
Members of the military are generally more responsive, as are others whose personal stakes are higher. I'm thinking more of the stateside characters I have encountered who constitute the bulk of the bureaucracy.
Having worked with government types, I can unfortunately guess that money is not the problem - attitude is. There are many civilians employed with US tax dollars who view their responsibilty as "I am going to do the thing I was hired to do 20 years ago and keep doing it." There's another variety of employee - "I'm not really familiar with this new technology, so I will resist it's implementation because I might look bad otherwise."
Before some mod this as flamebait, I am not saying that all government employees are this way; you have to admire the CDC guys who suit up to go check out the latest hideous disease, for example. They deserve every dime they get. Of course there are other departments where people do a good job as well. That said, I suspect the US Government has the greatest number and probably the highest percentage of unmotivated, uninterested employees of any organization I have encountered. This is a huge problem. The only way to fix it is to curb spending, which can have the effect of making the government more cost efficient and proactive.
Human languages are open and free. How interoperable are they?
Using.Net, I can create a dataset and send it via web service to another.Net consumer with no problem. There's a way to accept.Net dataset in Java as well, but it takes some additional work. Does Java have to conform to every data structure in.Net or vice versa? No. The designers of both Java and.Net may have different priorities for many valid reasons. They will likely never be 100% interoperable, though, except for exchange of a few intrinsic types. That's OK, but I think it demonstrates there will always be variations, as there should be. After all, this is about choice... Choice means even open standards will vary. Which side of the road do you drive on?
Jobs is brilliant guy, but he has always had a rather nasty personality. Check out The Journey is the Reward some time. Great book, tells a lot about Mr. Jobs.
Notice how there is no line of succession at Apple. When Jobs decides to leave, Apple will likely implode as it did before. Companies that fail when the founder/leader leaves are a sign of an organization that revolves around a singular personality, not the best business executive.
Interesting that no one seems to have made note of what I thought was the most important announcement - iPod integration with the audio systems from several car manufacturers. I use iTunes but don't have an iPod. I would get one in a second if my car supported this feature.
Another thought, what does this mean for satellite radio?
Not if you need to advertise on it. Business have to go to Google if they want get exposure on the web by virtue of Googles dominance. Google is currently a legal monopoly. That could change as soon as they are sued, however.
I have no more problem with Google's dominance than I do with Microsoft, since I can use the products of both companies beneficially. If I don't want to use a Microsoft product, I can switch disks, or run a VM to use/not use a Microsoft product.
People on/. rant constantly about intrusive government, the *AA, etc. Yet when it comes to Microsoft, they embrace intrusion. Yes, Microsoft has engaged in excessive business practices, but I think one could make the same claim regarding Apple and the iPod, or Google and the superclass of stock meant to maintain control of the company with the founders and a few other insiders.
If you want to see what monopolies are all about, check out the history of Standard Oil. Microsoft has never been close to that kind of monopoly. The case against Microsoft was largely political and instigated by its competitors. I'm skeptical that it did that it made much difference.
I've been buying PCs without an OS for years. Just go to a whitebox PC store and ask for a system without an OS. People keep trotting out this excuse, yet it is totally invalid.
Just because people don't know how to shop intelligently does not mean Microsoft is a monopoly.
Apple has 92 percent of the HD music player market. Apple desires a closed system for the iPod.
Google serves more than 90 percent of searches.
So why is Microsoft a monopoly while Apple and Google are not?
Answer: They haven't been sued yet. Not that litigation will determine they are monopolies, since they would hopefully deal with anti-trust complaints more effectively than Microsoft did. But that's about the only difference.
Even if apple has a monopoly on MP3 players (which they dont) they let you get your music from anywhere you want. This lawsuit is completely frivolous
You may think so, but courts and judges are not from planet Vulcan. They can come up with some creative decisions, esp. depending on the skill of the attorneys involved. The FairPlay / Real precedent could be used to support the plaintiff's position, you never know.
By the logic used successfully against Microsoft, Apple and Google are monopolies. You can bet their attorneys are looking over the DOJ v. Microsoft proceedings to make sure they don't make the same mistakes Microsoft management / attorneys did.
My guess is most non-programmer musicians run Windows, MacOS, Linux, in that order. I would also guess the percentages are quite lopsided in favor of Windows as well. His idea (and I think it's a very good one) is to bring effects processing creative freeedom to the music community, not promote one OS over another.
Maybe, maybe not. I've been using VMs more and more, and see them as a solution to the family "my machine doesn't work anymore, can you fix it?" problem. I set up the family computer with a configured VM, then save the clean file. Now everyone uses their own VM. Everyone knows how to back up their files to CD, so they continue to do so.
If and when the machine gets fubar'd, they copy over the clean image and restore the backup files from CD. This is all using XP and Virtual PC. <patent "boo-hiss>Now imagine Microsoft offers a new service to manage the VM files for you, plus some other benefits.</patent> Seems to me they would really like to have lots of high bandwidth connections out there.
Don't know if this is the future or not (it's also amusingly reminiscent
of mainframes...), but it's a possibility.
Some posters on/. love to rant about the "monopoly" Microsoft has/had. What if they never really had a monopoly? Then how did they achieve market dominance on the desktop? To think that bandwidth alone will somehow undermine Microsoft is not convincing.
(4) is an good point, but I think there is more to it as well. Once companies reach a certain size, they gain the attention of political people of all stripes. The attorneys and lobbyists are probably telling Gates to get IE down to 60% market share. That way there is still a reason for web developers to write to its specialized features/defects (whatever one wants to call them). The lower market share will provide decent defense against the "monopoly" witch hunters, and so becomes an important business consideration.
One has to observe the legal system up close at some point to understand how important perceptions can become. One of Judge Jackson's reasons for finding against Microsoft in the IE decision was that including IE was harmful to the consumer, because it took too much disk space! He also opined that there was no reason for having a browser on a PC if it wasn't connected to a network. Mind boggling, but it is the reality. There are plenty of other nefarious *cough*software patents*cough* examples to think of which are not technical but rather political/legal in nature.
As for security, just wait. There are lots of kids running linux boxes which are poorly managed. One of these days a swarm of them will be hacked with much negative publicity. It will be interesting to observe the reaction.
IANAL, but my guess is it's the Microsoft way of telling the RIAA to pound sand with regard to protecting CDs. No one can possibly expect an organization like the RIAA to make a decision in two weeks, but the lawyers have to offer some token time frame.
I doubt Microsoft really wants to accommodate the RIAA. That would be betting on the CD as a bankable distribution medium, which would be foolish, let alone allowing the RIAA to dictate Microsoft product features.
I predict within the same 20 year time span, there will be massive civil unrest, possibly a civil war in China. The country just isn't that stable, according to Chinese visitors I know and things I have read here and there.
Scary stuff. hopefully I am wrong.
China has yet to develop the necessary social infrastructure to have an economy has large as that in the US. Whether they can do it is an open question.
At the end of the day - that's what it's all about.
Are you serious? I have iTunes, and plan to keep using it. But if MSN music has tracks not available on iTunes, I will certainly use it, and vice versa. Who cares where the music comes from? I convert all of my tracks to MP3s so I can play them anywhere. Don't start with the "WMA uses an inferior codec." I seriously doubt anyone can tell which original codec was used when listening to custom CDs in a car.
Slashdot Mirror
Look how much GNOME has advanced in the past two years
GNOME is now better than KDE? (ducks)
Also, look at how Apple completely took Microsoft by suprise with Mac OS X
I don't think OS X took Microsoft by surprise, but the iPod sure did.
Microsoft has it's share of problems, but if it had a better CEO it would, IMHO, be a lot more responsive to the demands of the marketplace. The problem Apple has is that Jobs is apparently the best, and maybe only, CEO who can make Apple work. Once Jobs retires, Apple is probably screwed since Jobs isn't the type to groom a successor, evidently.
The status if any given tech company is not entirely dependent on the state of its technology.
I think Microsoft is in the weakest position it's been in in a long time
I'm not so sure. Seems to me the number of exploits in FF and Safari are increasing. (I'm a FF user as well.) Put on the tin foil hat and one might guess that Longhorn is being delayed while exploits for competitive products increase in number. If Microsoft does a good job improving security management in Longhorn, it will be a big hit.
As for VB programmers, those not using VB.Net are either still using VB 6 or went to C#. Where else would they go? C++? Java? Perl? If anything, they might chose Python, but VB.Net would be an easier transistion than that.
Shocking! Shocking! A blogger might have an agenda? Next thing you know, there will be gambling in the casino, and prayer in the church...
That, my friends, is why Microsoft missed its quarterly revenue projection
You are making the mistake of disregarding the rest of the story.
But in fairness, /. isn't a site for MBAs or accountants.
Might want to check a few things before posting next time.
Sort of a tangent, but has Microsoft really done anything significant with Ballmer as CEO? When Gates had the job, they made Windows a success, created VB and the real possibility of RAD development, introduced their first 32 bit OS, began the design of
With Ballmer as CEO, Microsoft lost ground (and certainly mindshare) to Apple, issued questionable statements about TCO, introduced something as questionable as XP Starter Edition, and disbanded the IE developer group, leaving consumers with a bad experience when encountering the company's version of the the most widely used type of software application. The stock has done virtually nothing during Ballmer's tenure as well.
My guess is Microsoft needs a new CEO if it is to become an interesting company again. I wouldn't be surprised to see Ballmer step down one day after a fight with institutional investors. The big question: Who is the right person for that job?
seems more like the kind of stunt Microsoft would pull
I don't recall Gates ever proclaiming the ability to define what was "Evil" as a matter of corporate policy, unlike Page and Brin. Should be interesting to see how AutoLink plays out, given the howls when Microsoft introduced smart tags in Office.
I find Google to be quite useful, though I don't use it exclusively. That said, Google management obliterated its credibility with me on the "We won't be Evil" front when they granted themselves stock with preferential voting rights so that they could "keep control of the company" (so why go public?), something I don't recall anyone at Microsoft ever doing.
Let's not forget this incident, either. Google is a profit making company, good for them. But the company also has an effective monopoly on search. Who knows, someday Google management may cross the political line and get sued by the DoJ, too. When that happens, I suppose they will know they have "made" it.
Which is why I wrote:
There are many civilians employed with US tax dollars...
Members of the military are generally more responsive, as are others whose personal stakes are higher. I'm thinking more of the stateside characters I have encountered who constitute the bulk of the bureaucracy.
Having worked with government types, I can unfortunately guess that money is not the problem - attitude is. There are many civilians employed with US tax dollars who view their responsibilty as "I am going to do the thing I was hired to do 20 years ago and keep doing it." There's another variety of employee - "I'm not really familiar with this new technology, so I will resist it's implementation because I might look bad otherwise."
Before some mod this as flamebait, I am not saying that all government employees are this way; you have to admire the CDC guys who suit up to go check out the latest hideous disease, for example. They deserve every dime they get. Of course there are other departments where people do a good job as well. That said, I suspect the US Government has the greatest number and probably the highest percentage of unmotivated, uninterested employees of any organization I have encountered. This is a huge problem. The only way to fix it is to curb spending, which can have the effect of making the government more cost efficient and proactive.
The patch was released on Feb 8, the story comes out on Feb 11. Right, not much to see here.
Maybe the RAF has a big PowerPoint that's of interest on web server somewhere...
Human languages are open and free. How interoperable are they?
Using .Net, I can create a dataset and send it via web service to another .Net consumer with no problem. There's a way to accept .Net dataset in Java as well, but it takes some additional work. Does Java have to conform to every data structure in .Net or vice versa? No. The designers of both Java and .Net may have different priorities for many valid reasons. They will likely never be 100% interoperable, though, except for exchange of a few intrinsic types. That's OK, but I think it demonstrates there will always be variations, as there should be. After all, this is about choice... Choice means even open standards will vary. Which side of the road do you drive on?
Jobs is brilliant guy, but he has always had a rather nasty personality. Check out The Journey is the Reward some time. Great book, tells a lot about Mr. Jobs.
Notice how there is no line of succession at Apple. When Jobs decides to leave, Apple will likely implode as it did before. Companies that fail when the founder/leader leaves are a sign of an organization that revolves around a singular personality, not the best business executive.
Interesting that no one seems to have made note of what I thought was the most important announcement - iPod integration with the audio systems from several car manufacturers. I use iTunes but don't have an iPod. I would get one in a second if my car supported this feature.
Another thought, what does this mean for satellite radio?
Google is a free service
Not if you need to advertise on it. Business have to go to Google if they want get exposure on the web by virtue of Googles dominance. Google is currently a legal monopoly. That could change as soon as they are sued, however.
I have no more problem with Google's dominance than I do with Microsoft, since I can use the products of both companies beneficially. If I don't want to use a Microsoft product, I can switch disks, or run a VM to use/not use a Microsoft product.
People on /. rant constantly about intrusive government, the *AA, etc. Yet when it comes to Microsoft, they embrace intrusion. Yes, Microsoft has engaged in excessive business practices, but I think one could make the same claim regarding Apple and the iPod, or Google and the superclass of stock meant to maintain control of the company with the founders and a few other insiders.
If you want to see what monopolies are all about, check out the history of Standard Oil. Microsoft has never been close to that kind of monopoly. The case against Microsoft was largely political and instigated by its competitors. I'm skeptical that it did that it made much difference.
I've been buying PCs without an OS for years. Just go to a whitebox PC store and ask for a system without an OS. People keep trotting out this excuse, yet it is totally invalid.
Just because people don't know how to shop intelligently does not mean Microsoft is a monopoly.
Apple has 92 percent of the HD music player market. Apple desires a closed system for the iPod.
Google serves more than 90 percent of searches.
So why is Microsoft a monopoly while Apple and Google are not?
Answer: They haven't been sued yet. Not that litigation will determine they are monopolies, since they would hopefully deal with anti-trust complaints more effectively than Microsoft did. But that's about the only difference.
Even if apple has a monopoly on MP3 players (which they dont) they let you get your music from anywhere you want. This lawsuit is completely frivolous
You may think so, but courts and judges are not from planet Vulcan. They can come up with some creative decisions, esp. depending on the skill of the attorneys involved. The FairPlay / Real precedent could be used to support the plaintiff's position, you never know.
By the logic used successfully against Microsoft, Apple and Google are monopolies. You can bet their attorneys are looking over the DOJ v. Microsoft proceedings to make sure they don't make the same mistakes Microsoft management / attorneys did.
My guess is most non-programmer musicians run Windows, MacOS, Linux, in that order. I would also guess the percentages are quite lopsided in favor of Windows as well. His idea (and I think it's a very good one) is to bring effects processing creative freeedom to the music community, not promote one OS over another.
Maybe, maybe not. I've been using VMs more and more, and see them as a solution to the family "my machine doesn't work anymore, can you fix it?" problem. I set up the family computer with a configured VM, then save the clean file. Now everyone uses their own VM. Everyone knows how to back up their files to CD, so they continue to do so.
If and when the machine gets fubar'd, they copy over the clean image and restore the backup files from CD. This is all using XP and Virtual PC. <patent "boo-hiss>Now imagine Microsoft offers a new service to manage the VM files for you, plus some other benefits.</patent> Seems to me they would really like to have lots of high bandwidth connections out there.
Don't know if this is the future or not (it's also amusingly reminiscent of mainframes...), but it's a possibility.
Some posters on /. love to rant about the "monopoly" Microsoft has/had. What if they never really had a monopoly? Then how did they achieve market dominance on the desktop? To think that bandwidth alone will somehow undermine Microsoft is not convincing.
(4) is an good point, but I think there is more to it as well. Once companies reach a certain size, they gain the attention of political people of all stripes. The attorneys and lobbyists are probably telling Gates to get IE down to 60% market share. That way there is still a reason for web developers to write to its specialized features/defects (whatever one wants to call them). The lower market share will provide decent defense against the "monopoly" witch hunters, and so becomes an important business consideration.
One has to observe the legal system up close at some point to understand how important perceptions can become. One of Judge Jackson's reasons for finding against Microsoft in the IE decision was that including IE was harmful to the consumer, because it took too much disk space! He also opined that there was no reason for having a browser on a PC if it wasn't connected to a network. Mind boggling, but it is the reality. There are plenty of other nefarious *cough*software patents*cough* examples to think of which are not technical but rather political/legal in nature.
As for security, just wait. There are lots of kids running linux boxes which are poorly managed. One of these days a swarm of them will be hacked with much negative publicity. It will be interesting to observe the reaction.
Oh wait a sec...
Makes me wonder how much damage Tenet did to the USA when he was DCI.
Might be folklore, but I read somewhere that "scam" stands for the following:
Right you are, urgency should always be a tip-off.
IANAL, but my guess is it's the Microsoft way of telling the RIAA to pound sand with regard to protecting CDs. No one can possibly expect an organization like the RIAA to make a decision in two weeks, but the lawyers have to offer some token time frame.
I doubt Microsoft really wants to accommodate the RIAA. That would be betting on the CD as a bankable distribution medium, which would be foolish, let alone allowing the RIAA to dictate Microsoft product features.
I predict within the same 20 year time span, there will be massive civil unrest, possibly a civil war in China. The country just isn't that stable, according to Chinese visitors I know and things I have read here and there.
Scary stuff. hopefully I am wrong.
China has yet to develop the necessary social infrastructure to have an economy has large as that in the US. Whether they can do it is an open question.
Nobody cool is going to use MS's service.
At the end of the day - that's what it's all about.
Are you serious? I have iTunes, and plan to keep using it. But if MSN music has tracks not available on iTunes, I will certainly use it, and vice versa. Who cares where the music comes from? I convert all of my tracks to MP3s so I can play them anywhere. Don't start with the "WMA uses an inferior codec." I seriously doubt anyone can tell which original codec was used when listening to custom CDs in a car.