Yes- there should be one Linux distro and it should be owned by a company that charges money for it. That way quality will improve and there will be accountability. This will be a significant improvement over the current petri dish of despair that's only led to... wait, wait just one moment. It's lead to increased adoption and a faster rate of meaningful evolution than has been demonstrated by commercial counterparts. Perhaps things should stay the same.
A Windows box with a 40 gps sec connection? Great, so now 1,000 different email worms and other forms of malware on Grandma's PC have a huge pipe. I'm sure this story will end well.
Wouldn't the web log of a high traffic web site (ie. google) gives us these numbers? Or at least enable the development of thumb rules that would allow us to infer approximations?
If the ads don't get the eyeballs where they are (because of DVR's) won't the advertisers just negotiate to get the ads hidden in the shows (where the eyeballs are)? IMO, this is just another volley in the constant struggle of push vs. pull content. Business feels that they should be able to spend money to force promotional content to viewers; relying on psychology to drive sales rather than merit. The irony is that people that buy the product pay the penalty because the cost is incorporated into the goods.
(sigh) Someday I'll have a nice hut on an island, learn to play the steel drums & none of this will matter.
I also used to believe that SATA wasn't appropriate for the applications being discussed in this post for the reasons you site. However, after having a couple of Apple Xserver's in place for 3+ years I can state from experience that the large SATA drives do just fine in a multiuser environment rife with random access.
After having a good experience with the 250Gbx3 in two Xservers, I deployed a DIY Box-O-Drives with an Opteron mb ; 750Gbx4, including an 8ch SATA2 (3gb/sec) controller (grand total of $3,500). The experience since the deployment 6 mo. ago has been consistent with that of the Xservers- terrific. The DIY box provides a storage buffer which enabled us to cut our to-tape backup time by a third.
While MTBF is still open for discussion, I can say that 6 250 Gb drives in the two Xservers haven't stopped spinning in almost 4 years and drives in the DIY box have the highest MTBF of any drive I've seen. (at 6 mo.'s it's too early to confirm in earnest).
(Additional details: Xservers & DIY box run Opensuse w/reiser & user/server environment is mixed windows/unix.)
I think your comments are more reflective of the situation a few years and ago and less so today. Recent distro's targeted towards the non-tech end user tend to work just as well, if not better, than Windows as desktop replacement. That includes gaming to a limited degree.
Many of the Windows users that would be disatisfied aren't because they have a friend of family member that takes care of things for them when the box goes to hell because of malware or other disfunctionality. I however, and I imagine much of the readership here, am getting tired of supporting these boxes. It's not bad when it's just routine preventive maintenance but when it becomes corrective maintenance and happens often- that's when I reach for the Ubuntu distro. If I were to cease their Window support and force them to either fend for themselves or almost as bad attempt to get support from the box vendor- I'd expect that their disastisfaction would become all too obvious. Of the users that I've converted (all non-technical but open to learning a new desktop), the only negative feedback that I've received is that they miss their iPod application. It's my understanding though that a little Wine fiddling addresses even this.
I have faith that that FOSS will be able to overcome any case of patent infringement based on "ways of doing things with software which there are no easy work around for." MS may be waving a big gun (ie. deep pockets that can sustain an unreasonable legal battle indefinitely) but I'm confident there are no bullets. I don't believe the large motivated group of individuals that the FOSS has demonstrated itself to be can be prevented from coming up with "new ways of doing things."
What happens? The FOSS community comes up with a solution that eliminates the leverage. I bet it doesn't take them that long- they've already demonstrated they can produce better software faster than MS can. Please temper your Doom & Gloom appropriately.
While I think the article makes some valid points, I don't know how he got through two pages with out really mentioning why I think many choose open source. It's not because we want to see the code & it's not because we want a free ride- it's because it works better, is better supported and is more likely to adhere to standards that future proof our decisions. The fact that it's free does make it easy to score a higher ROI, but I think many of the FOSS solutions out there would still be a better value even if they cost something comparable to their proprietary counterparts.
Is it time to start thinking of the browser as the OS and make it the bottom layer?
- broadband -> "Just-In-Time Installation" & remote desktops/filesystems - eeprom based browser -> closer to "instant on" - browser as OS -> less complexity -> less vulnerability & more performance
I think there's a fair % of the internet/computing world that could get by with this and experience nothing but upside. (sidenote: I'd also like to see a filesystem with XML as it's underlying model, db's and filesystems have been converging for a long time and XML seems the logical conclusion of this conversion).
I'm in the process of getting "software bugs" patented. No worries- I'm planning on being quite liberal with licensing, just a modest subscription based royalty fee.
I don't think it's supposed to be new (it's one of the things I miss most about VMS). It's outstanding functionality to have both for end users and sysgeeks/devs; built right into the file system level (ie. LOW). I prefer this approach to the hacks that other O/S's have implemented at a higher level. It's always harded to do something like this down deep at the roots rather than add it on as superficial gloss later. Granted, the end users don't usually notice or appreciate the diff but over time it keeps complex sys's like O/S's from becoming a teetering tower of shims and bolted on widgets.
"betas will start expiring and becoming non-functional from May 31st"
It's been my experience that MS Windows "beta programs" are actually over around 1 month prior to the next version coming out. I think that's why Windows upgrades leave a bad taste in my mouth- right around the time I've settled in to the latest version (ie. I can start using it profitably without having to combat immature code probs), they start asking me money for the next version.
That was my point- to say it wasn't an old model. My simplistic response to what's obviously a complex issue was meant to refute the statement that a "petridish" like the FOSS phenomenon can't lead to value creation.
For posterity: I was part of those days and had dozens of k-byters for pre Win/*nix PC's published for enthusiasts to type in those pre-disk drive days. Coincidentally I type this reply from the old Byte server room in the Guernsey building in Peterborough, NH... a magazine I subscribed to from first to last issue. You may want to check the condescension at the door.
'I don't really know that anybody's proven that a random collection of people doing their own thing actually creates value."
It doesn't sound like Mr. Balmer's been paying that close attention to the FOSS phenomenon. As far as I can tell a random bunch of people doing their own thing for the last 10-20 yrs have achieved just as much as traditional software business models, in some case more and in more profound & lasting ways.
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Yes- there should be one Linux distro and it should be owned by a company that charges money for it. That way quality will improve and there will be accountability. This will be a significant improvement over the current petri dish of despair that's only led to ... wait, wait just one moment. It's lead to increased adoption and a faster rate of meaningful evolution than has been demonstrated by commercial counterparts. Perhaps things should stay the same.
Yeah, but she only gets 20 Gb/s upload speed. Damn ISP's and their fancy marketing lingo.
A Windows box with a 40 gps sec connection? Great, so now 1,000 different email worms and other forms of malware on Grandma's PC have a huge pipe. I'm sure this story will end well.
Wouldn't the web log of a high traffic web site (ie. google) gives us these numbers? Or at least enable the development of thumb rules that would allow us to infer approximations?
Maybe that's the patch- a non-functioning Windows is probably more secure.
If the ads don't get the eyeballs where they are (because of DVR's) won't the advertisers just negotiate to get the ads hidden in the shows (where the eyeballs are)? IMO, this is just another volley in the constant struggle of push vs. pull content. Business feels that they should be able to spend money to force promotional content to viewers; relying on psychology to drive sales rather than merit. The irony is that people that buy the product pay the penalty because the cost is incorporated into the goods. (sigh) Someday I'll have a nice hut on an island, learn to play the steel drums & none of this will matter.
They don't have to leave Tony alive if the movie's a prequel about his dad.
I also used to believe that SATA wasn't appropriate for the applications being discussed in this post for the reasons you site. However, after having a couple of Apple Xserver's in place for 3+ years I can state from experience that the large SATA drives do just fine in a multiuser environment rife with random access.
After having a good experience with the 250Gbx3 in two Xservers, I deployed a DIY Box-O-Drives with an Opteron mb ; 750Gbx4, including an 8ch SATA2 (3gb/sec) controller (grand total of $3,500). The experience since the deployment 6 mo. ago has been consistent with that of the Xservers- terrific. The DIY box provides a storage buffer which enabled us to cut our to-tape backup time by a third.
While MTBF is still open for discussion, I can say that 6 250 Gb drives in the two Xservers haven't stopped spinning in almost 4 years and drives in the DIY box have the highest MTBF of any drive I've seen. (at 6 mo.'s it's too early to confirm in earnest).
(Additional details: Xservers & DIY box run Opensuse w/reiser & user/server environment is mixed windows/unix.)
I think your comments are more reflective of the situation a few years and ago and less so today. Recent distro's targeted towards the non-tech end user tend to work just as well, if not better, than Windows as desktop replacement. That includes gaming to a limited degree.
Many of the Windows users that would be disatisfied aren't because they have a friend of family member that takes care of things for them when the box goes to hell because of malware or other disfunctionality. I however, and I imagine much of the readership here, am getting tired of supporting these boxes. It's not bad when it's just routine preventive maintenance but when it becomes corrective maintenance and happens often- that's when I reach for the Ubuntu distro. If I were to cease their Window support and force them to either fend for themselves or almost as bad attempt to get support from the box vendor- I'd expect that their disastisfaction would become all too obvious. Of the users that I've converted (all non-technical but open to learning a new desktop), the only negative feedback that I've received is that they miss their iPod application. It's my understanding though that a little Wine fiddling addresses even this.
I have faith that that FOSS will be able to overcome any case of patent infringement based on "ways of doing things with software which there are no easy work around for." MS may be waving a big gun (ie. deep pockets that can sustain an unreasonable legal battle indefinitely) but I'm confident there are no bullets. I don't believe the large motivated group of individuals that the FOSS has demonstrated itself to be can be prevented from coming up with "new ways of doing things."
What happens? The FOSS community comes up with a solution that eliminates the leverage. I bet it doesn't take them that long- they've already demonstrated they can produce better software faster than MS can. Please temper your Doom & Gloom appropriately.
While I think the article makes some valid points, I don't know how he got through two pages with out really mentioning why I think many choose open source. It's not because we want to see the code & it's not because we want a free ride- it's because it works better, is better supported and is more likely to adhere to standards that future proof our decisions. The fact that it's free does make it easy to score a higher ROI, but I think many of the FOSS solutions out there would still be a better value even if they cost something comparable to their proprietary counterparts.
Is it time to start thinking of the browser as the OS and make it the bottom layer?
- broadband -> "Just-In-Time Installation" & remote desktops/filesystems
- eeprom based browser -> closer to "instant on"
- browser as OS -> less complexity -> less vulnerability & more performance
I think there's a fair % of the internet/computing world that could get by with this and experience nothing but upside. (sidenote: I'd also like to see a filesystem with XML as it's underlying model, db's and filesystems have been converging for a long time and XML seems the logical conclusion of this conversion).
Anybody else see parallels between this & Disney whining about infringment after they made movies based on long standing folklore?
I'm in the process of getting "software bugs" patented. No worries- I'm planning on being quite liberal with licensing, just a modest subscription based royalty fee.
I don't think it's supposed to be new (it's one of the things I miss most about VMS). It's outstanding functionality to have both for end users and sysgeeks/devs; built right into the file system level (ie. LOW). I prefer this approach to the hacks that other O/S's have implemented at a higher level. It's always harded to do something like this down deep at the roots rather than add it on as superficial gloss later. Granted, the end users don't usually notice or appreciate the diff but over time it keeps complex sys's like O/S's from becoming a teetering tower of shims and bolted on widgets.
"betas will start expiring and becoming non-functional from May 31st"
It's been my experience that MS Windows "beta programs" are actually over around 1 month prior to the next version coming out. I think that's why Windows upgrades leave a bad taste in my mouth- right around the time I've settled in to the latest version (ie. I can start using it profitably without having to combat immature code probs), they start asking me money for the next version.
Is this the History Channel? Come on boys, a little research before slapping it up on the wall would be appreciated.
Looks like "Windows Vulnerability" will be a redundant phrase for another 20 years.
For posterity: I was part of those days and had dozens of k-byters for pre Win/*nix PC's published for enthusiasts to type in those pre-disk drive days. Coincidentally I type this reply from the old Byte server room in the Guernsey building in Peterborough, NH ... a magazine I subscribed to from first to last issue. You may want to check the condescension at the door.
It doesn't sound like Mr. Balmer's been paying that close attention to the FOSS phenomenon. As far as I can tell a random bunch of people doing their own thing for the last 10-20 yrs have achieved just as much as traditional software business models, in some case more and in more profound & lasting ways.
I think we should call Al Gore. He could fix this.
I'd wonder why my ass felt funny.
... or one of /.'s favored Posix o/s's that have gained popularity in the last decade or so.