Haven't you noticed? The desktop is irrelevant. It's been abstracted to an Internet access platform. It's the phone in the pocket which is the current battleground, and Linux has won that already.
Net Applications tracks pretty much every device with Internet access.
The iPhone - as an Internet platform - has a 0.48% share. Symbian 0.24%. The iPod Touch 0.11%. Win Mobile 0.07% Android 0.06%. Operating System Market Share
It is far too early to declare a winner here.
The cell phone remains primarily a personal messaging platform. Its the everyday telephone call, supplemented by text and still or motion video. The subscriber is interested in coverage, he is interested in the service plan - his monthly bill.
It certainly would have been possible to design them with a higher safety factor, but that would have increased the cost...Unfortunately for a large cutting edge project on a tight budget, you need to take some technical risks.
I seem to have heard this argument before.
The Apollo fire. The loss of the Challenger. Repairs to the Hubble.
The target audience (teenagers) sees themselves as poor, or actually is poor, and is thus unwilling to pay for something they can get for free.
The pirate can't be poor.
Unless you assume he is pirating his game hardware and internet service as well.
That sense of entitlement is really more typical of someone who has less at risk. Someone whose high tech toys aren't going to attract the attention of social services.
We don't ignore them, we understand them to be unimportant. Please take your astroturf campaign somewhere people won't call you out and laugh.
Apple is moving towards a pure appliance model. Google too. The Windows system remains a general-purpose PC - and a PC with some serious horse-power even at entry level.
There has to be a reason walmart.com lists about 150 Win 7 systems in every form factor. The has to be a reason why WalMart's in-store netbook inventory has shrunk to a single Nickelodeon branded XP laptop for kids.
The Linux Live CD is also free - and cast out into the world with all the abandon of an AOL coaster. But Linux enters the new year with a 1% share and Windows 7 with 10%.
In daily tracking Win 7 had a 3.5% global share October 31. 10% on January 31. In monthly tracking, Win 7 had a 0% share in March. 7.5% in January, and blew past Linux along about September.
The open public beta was a spectacular success.
Win 7 entered the game when Vista hardware and drivers had matured.
That said these numbers have to come from consumer spending on the mid-line product, or better. Not netbook sales and not corporate purchases. That is a vote of confidence from a market that was supposed to be Apple's for the taking.
So if ya want to bring about "The Year of the Linux Desktop" helping Microsoft turn the screws on unlicensed installs is probably the most productive thing a non-coder can do. Especially outside the US.
Three stories the geek will studiously ignore:
Microsoft revealed that it had sold over 60 million Windows 7 licenses through the second quarter. This not only made it a record quarter for Windows units in general, but it makes Windows 7 the fastest selling operating system in history.Windows 7 leads the way to record quarter for Microsoft [Jan 28]
Apple's Aug. 28 release of its Snow Leopard software resulted in a boost of 1 point to 65 percent in the first week. Through the end of the year, the increase was 6.9 percent. The percentage of customers satisfied with Microsoft reached 73 percent on Dec. 31, the highest since YouGov started surveying in 2007. Microsoft's reputation is benefiting from the positively reviewed Windows 7, after some customers held off personal-computer purchases to avoid the product's predecessor, Vista, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Kirkland, Washington- based Directions on Microsoft. "People are saying, 'Okay, Microsoft got its mojo back,'" he said. "People who were thinking about buying a new PC are more likely to do so now. You'll see slightly better sales." Rosoff said the boost is probably also due to the June release of Microsoft's overhauled Bing Internet search engine. Microsoft Outpaces Apple in Customer Satisfaction: Chart of Day [Feb 1]
Highest Windows 7 Usage in U.S. - Redmond Area Surprise! The Redmond, WA area has the highest usage share of Windows 7 in the U.S. Within the actual city of Redmond, 42% of internet users are on Windows 7.Market Share By Postal Code [Feb 1]
Bars and taverns have been living with performance rights since the nickelodeon days.
Way back then, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes summed it up this way: "If music did not pay, it would be given up. Whether it pays or not, the purpose of employing it is profit and that is enough."
The fund raiser is a headache in its own right - most people will take the trademarked logo or slogan as proof of corporate sponsorship or endorsement of the event - and when the organizers blow the proceeds on a trip to Vegas, their victims will be out looking for someone to blame.
We the taxpayers should finance this company because they're proving that they can make something revolutionary that will work its way down to being affordable to everyone.
Henry Ford worked his way up by beginning with a car that was within reach of almost anyone.
And while Linux started out that way, it didn't end up that way at all. There are many, many counterexamples to your assertion.
If your privately funded aerospace project is to have any credibility at all it must be seen visibly moving towards its goal. You can't afford to be sidelined for a decade while your FOSS engineering software plays catch-up.
Developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Through-The-Earth Communication system proved capable of sending two-way, very-low-frequency (VLF) voice signals from the surface of the mine to depths exceeding 300 feet at the experimental mine operated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
The Through-The-Earth Communication system was developed for the U.S. Department of Energy at Los Alamos National Laboratory's Superconductivity Technology Center with a development team led by David Reagor. The technology has also earned a prestigious R&D 100 Award from R&D magazine.
The system uses VLF electromagnetic radiation in the range of 3 to 30 kilohertz (kHz) and digital audio compression to transmit wireless voice and data signals through the earth. Materials that block higher radio frequency (RF) signals, such as rock, concrete, metal, and high-density ore bodies, do not restrict its signal
Incorporating Sprint/Nextel i325 mobile phones, supported by Raytheon's JPS Communications ACU 1000 cross-band repeaters, the Through-The-Earth Communication system demonstrated its capabilities in the Lake Lynn Mine, which is composed of several long tunnels used for mine safety experiments. The mine consists of nonflammable limestone with a tunnel height of about 10 feet and an overburden of up to 370 feet.Test Of Through-The-Earth Communication System Exceeds Expectations [August 2007]
VLF appeals to radio hobbyists because of its exotic associations with both natural science and submarine warfare. To get started all you really need is a PC and a home-made antenna. Radio Waves Below 22 Hz
Re:They do realize it has to go public at some poi
on
Making Sense of ACTA
·
· Score: 1
All of this secrecy just feeds the intense interest from the public
The story may have the Slashdot's attention. But you have drill down deep elsewhere to have even heard of it.
I'd say the opposite, huge number of replaced PCM modules and sensors show electronics are short lived, needlessly complex solutions offered in lieu of time tested mechanical and hydraulic ones
Citation needed here as well.
The "time tested" mechanical and hydraulic solutions kept Gus Wilson's Model Garage in business for 45 years.
The Tesla model S sedan will retail for $50,000+ which means that less than 20% (and that is being very generous) of Americans will be able to afford this car.
Henry Ford had it right.
When he began automakers were focused on the luxury market, with most of the purchase price going into custom body work rather than basic engineering.
Those who did care about the tech - like the Stanley brothers - were only producing a few hundred cars a year. That would never generate enough revenue to do serious, sustained R&D.
And cardboard games don't come with DRM or restrictive rights where you don't actaully 'own' it, rather rent it and rebuy it when you magically lose the rights to the game. No thanks.
The cardboard game doesn't need DRM.
Tokens are swept up by the vacuum cleaner. The board is stained. The spine is broken.
The game is replaced.
What do you think has kept the Bicycle playing card company in business for 120 years?
You forgot two other major players in killing the netbook. The OEMs and the retailers. So sit right down and I'll tell 'yall the rest of the story.
Forget price for a moment.
Functionally, the netbook is sandwiched between the cell phone and the laptop.
It shares this space with the e-book reader, the tablet PC, mobile Internet appliance, the portable video game console and so on.
The form factor can be problematic for the aging eye and hand.
The Nickelodeon branded netbook may tell the geek something he does not want to hear.
Last year I believed some Chinese OEM with no ties to the existing Intel/Microsoft/Notebook ecosystem existed and one of them would eventually get the idea to make an end run around the Walmart/BestBuy roadblock and distribute through non-traditional channels.
Why would anyone believe this?
You couldn't ask for three stronger, more experienced, more ruthless, partners in entering the North American consumer market than Intel, Microsoft and WalMart.
They play to win - and that is something the Chinese understand.
A reason that BluRay has not taken off in the way they hoped is the attempt to stop the discs playing on non-authorised drives (didn't pay the bribes), region locking / cartel protection etc. etc
so it's clear - unequivocably clear - that all music that people want ends up on P2P networks
I sometimes wonder. I'd like to see the target demographics of the music and its audience. Who is there and who is missing. Even the geek doesn't remain twenty-something forever.
That, my friends, is tyranny. The iPod and its ilk. We bought the device, therefore we own it and should have the right to modify it to work the way we want it.
Apple makes high tech appliances for the consumer market.
The iPod works just fine if you don't want to make hacking the machine your hobby.
In this day and age, it looks like we purchase the license or right to use something which stifles innovation and puts us even further technologically behind other countries.
The most advanced consumer tech tends to become inaccessible to anyone but the pro. You wife won't be agreeable to cracking open the case of the $6000 Samsung HDTV that maxed out your credit line just before the big game.
You probably won't be invited to muck around with the batteries of your next-generation electric car, either.
Legit torrents, like Jamendo and Linux distributions, usually use their own trackers. So the study will naturally underrepresent legal BitTorrent content.
Let's be realistic about this.
The geek may download the nightly build more often than he changes his boxers or briefs.
But you won't go far wrong in assuming that the DVD sized P2P download is a pirated game or a video.
Slashdot Mirror
Haven't you noticed? The desktop is irrelevant. It's been abstracted to an Internet access platform. It's the phone in the pocket which is the current battleground, and Linux has won that already.
Net Applications tracks pretty much every device with Internet access.
The iPhone - as an Internet platform - has a 0.48% share. Symbian 0.24%. The iPod Touch 0.11%. Win Mobile 0.07% Android 0.06%. Operating System Market Share
It is far too early to declare a winner here.
The cell phone remains primarily a personal messaging platform. Its the everyday telephone call, supplemented by text and still or motion video. The subscriber is interested in coverage, he is interested in the service plan - his monthly bill.
It certainly would have been possible to design them with a higher safety factor, but that would have increased the cost...Unfortunately for a large cutting edge project on a tight budget, you need to take some technical risks.
I seem to have heard this argument before.
The Apollo fire. The loss of the Challenger. Repairs to the Hubble.
The target audience (teenagers) sees themselves as poor, or actually is poor, and is thus unwilling to pay for something they can get for free.
The pirate can't be poor.
Unless you assume he is pirating his game hardware and internet service as well.
That sense of entitlement is really more typical of someone who has less at risk. Someone whose high tech toys aren't going to attract the attention of social services.
I rather doubt he is he is a teenager as well.
The basic idea isn't new.
The Evening Graphic's tabloid reality of the twenties was "staged, faked and mostly naked."
Radio's The March of Time used its resident company of actors to vividly recreate events that couldn't be broadcast live.
We don't ignore them, we understand them to be unimportant. Please take your astroturf campaign somewhere people won't call you out and laugh.
Apple is moving towards a pure appliance model. Google too. The Windows system remains a general-purpose PC - and a PC with some serious horse-power even at entry level.
There has to be a reason walmart.com lists about 150 Win 7 systems in every form factor. The has to be a reason why WalMart's in-store netbook inventory has shrunk to a single Nickelodeon branded XP laptop for kids.
Well, the first one is always free.
The Linux Live CD is also free - and cast out into the world with all the abandon of an AOL coaster. But Linux enters the new year with a 1% share and Windows 7 with 10%.
We don't ignore them, we understand them to be unimportant.
I don't know how to respond to something like this.
Here is the graph: Windows 7 Breaks 10% in Daily Tracking
In daily tracking Win 7 had a 3.5% global share October 31. 10% on January 31. In monthly tracking, Win 7 had a 0% share in March. 7.5% in January, and blew past Linux along about September.
The open public beta was a spectacular success.
Win 7 entered the game when Vista hardware and drivers had matured.
That said these numbers have to come from consumer spending on the mid-line product, or better. Not netbook sales and not corporate purchases. That is a vote of confidence from a market that was supposed to be Apple's for the taking.
So if ya want to bring about "The Year of the Linux Desktop" helping Microsoft turn the screws on unlicensed installs is probably the most productive thing a non-coder can do. Especially outside the US.
Three stories the geek will studiously ignore:
Microsoft revealed that it had sold over 60 million Windows 7 licenses through the second quarter. This not only made it a record quarter for Windows units in general, but it makes Windows 7 the fastest selling operating system in history. Windows 7 leads the way to record quarter for Microsoft [Jan 28]
Apple's Aug. 28 release of its Snow Leopard software resulted in a boost of 1 point to 65 percent in the first week. Through the end of the year, the increase was 6.9 percent.
The percentage of customers satisfied with Microsoft reached 73 percent on Dec. 31, the highest since YouGov started surveying in 2007. Microsoft's reputation is benefiting from the positively reviewed Windows 7, after some customers held off personal-computer purchases to avoid the product's predecessor, Vista, said Matt Rosoff, an analyst at Kirkland, Washington- based Directions on Microsoft.
"People are saying, 'Okay, Microsoft got its mojo back,'" he said. "People who were thinking about buying a new PC are more likely to do so now. You'll see slightly better sales." Rosoff said the boost is probably also due to the June release of Microsoft's overhauled Bing Internet search engine.
Microsoft Outpaces Apple in Customer Satisfaction: Chart of Day [Feb 1]
For the last day in January Windows 7 Breaks 10% in Daily Tracking. Global Market Share Statistics [Feb 1]
_____
Highest Windows 7 Usage in U.S. - Redmond Area
Surprise! The Redmond, WA area has the highest usage share of Windows 7 in the U.S. Within the actual city of Redmond, 42% of internet users are on Windows 7. Market Share By Postal Code [Feb 1]
the PSP is nice but I'd never stick it in my pocket on a night out.
the night out opens the door to a whole new world of gaming for the geek. assuming his batteries are at full charge.
Bars and taverns have been living with performance rights since the nickelodeon days.
Way back then, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes summed it up this way: "If music did not pay, it would be given up. Whether it pays or not, the purpose of employing it is profit and that is enough."
The fund raiser is a headache in its own right - most people will take the trademarked logo or slogan as proof of corporate sponsorship or endorsement of the event - and when the organizers blow the proceeds on a trip to Vegas, their victims will be out looking for someone to blame.
Henry Ford worked his way up by beginning with a car that was within reach of almost anyone.
And while Linux started out that way, it didn't end up that way at all. There are many, many counterexamples to your assertion.
If your privately funded aerospace project is to have any credibility at all it must be seen visibly moving towards its goal. You can't afford to be sidelined for a decade while your FOSS engineering software plays catch-up.
The claim was that they could send voice as an electrical wave several miles. Don't know how true the story is, but it sounds like it might work.
Of course it will work.
Morse used earth conduction to bridge the Susquehanna River in 1842-3. CALLING ALL NATIONS -- 1941
Kids were taking on projects like this in 1913. How To Make A Wireless Telephone
Very Low Frequency (VLF) Stations [2010]
Ham Radio below 9 kHz [2006?]
Developed by Los Alamos National Laboratory, the Through-The-Earth Communication system proved capable of sending two-way, very-low-frequency (VLF) voice signals from the surface of the mine to depths exceeding 300 feet at the experimental mine operated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
The Through-The-Earth Communication system was developed for the U.S. Department of Energy at Los Alamos National Laboratory's Superconductivity Technology Center with a development team led by David Reagor. The technology has also earned a prestigious R&D 100 Award from R&D magazine.
The system uses VLF electromagnetic radiation in the range of 3 to 30 kilohertz (kHz) and digital audio compression to transmit wireless voice and data signals through the earth. Materials that block higher radio frequency (RF) signals, such as rock, concrete, metal, and high-density ore bodies, do not restrict its signal
Incorporating Sprint/Nextel i325 mobile phones, supported by Raytheon's JPS Communications ACU 1000 cross-band repeaters, the Through-The-Earth Communication system demonstrated its capabilities in the Lake Lynn Mine, which is composed of several long tunnels used for mine safety experiments. The mine consists of nonflammable limestone with a tunnel height of about 10 feet and an overburden of up to 370 feet. Test Of Through-The-Earth Communication System Exceeds Expectations [August 2007]
VLF appeals to radio hobbyists because of its exotic associations with both natural science and submarine warfare. To get started all you really need is a PC and a home-made antenna. Radio Waves Below 22 Hz
All of this secrecy just feeds the intense interest from the public
The story may have the Slashdot's attention. But you have drill down deep elsewhere to have even heard of it.
I'd say the opposite, huge number of replaced PCM modules and sensors show electronics are short lived, needlessly complex solutions offered in lieu of time tested mechanical and hydraulic ones
Citation needed here as well.
The "time tested" mechanical and hydraulic solutions kept Gus Wilson's Model Garage in business for 45 years.
The Tesla model S sedan will retail for $50,000+ which means that less than 20% (and that is being very generous) of Americans will be able to afford this car.
Henry Ford had it right.
When he began automakers were focused on the luxury market, with most of the purchase price going into custom body work rather than basic engineering.
Those who did care about the tech - like the Stanley brothers - were only producing a few hundred cars a year. That would never generate enough revenue to do serious, sustained R&D.
With an iPad, you could save the game, put it back in your hand luggage, then get it out and resume the game in the taxi to the hotel.
There are times when I think Wall-E had the future pegged just about right.
It wouldn't hurt the geek to take his eyes away from the screen every now and again.
And cardboard games don't come with DRM or restrictive rights where you don't actaully 'own' it, rather rent it and rebuy it when you magically lose the rights to the game. No thanks.
The cardboard game doesn't need DRM.
Tokens are swept up by the vacuum cleaner. The board is stained. The spine is broken.
The game is replaced.
What do you think has kept the Bicycle playing card company in business for 120 years?
You forgot two other major players in killing the netbook. The OEMs and the retailers. So sit right down and I'll tell 'yall the rest of the story.
Forget price for a moment.
Functionally, the netbook is sandwiched between the cell phone and the laptop.
It shares this space with the e-book reader, the tablet PC, mobile Internet appliance, the portable video game console and so on.
The form factor can be problematic for the aging eye and hand.
The Nickelodeon branded netbook may tell the geek something he does not want to hear.
Last year I believed some Chinese OEM with no ties to the existing Intel/Microsoft/Notebook ecosystem existed and one of them would eventually get the idea to make an end run around the Walmart/BestBuy roadblock and distribute through non-traditional channels.
Why would anyone believe this?
You couldn't ask for three stronger, more experienced, more ruthless, partners in entering the North American consumer market than Intel, Microsoft and WalMart.
They play to win - and that is something the Chinese understand.
You'd think that a company with an $8 billion R&D budget could build a web browser that is 100% standards compliant
Is there any browser that is "standards compliant?"
Who sets the standards and are they meaningful? Well-defined and well-aimed.
How often for example will a user encounter a page that demands a fully ACID 3 compliant browser?
Are the standards evolving in a timely fashion or could they be leapfrogged by new and proprietary tech?
H.264 seems to have Mozilla tied up in knots.
Committees tend to move with all deliberate speed.
Meaning you can be forgiven for thinking that they are not moving at all.
The entrepreneur doesn't have that problem.
Which is why Hulu or YouTube or MySpace can take off like a rocket. It's there. It's entrenched before anyone can do a thing about it.
A reason that BluRay has not taken off in the way they hoped is the attempt to stop the discs playing on non-authorised drives (didn't pay the bribes), region locking / cartel protection etc. etc
Blu-Ray did rather well in 2009. Blu-ray sales were up 67 percent in 2009
There are only three Blu-Ray regions.
A1 is North and South America, East Asia, excluding China and Mongolia, Southeast Asia and Japan. This does not strike me as any great hardship.
The Blu-Ray player with Netflix streaming starts at $140.
so it's clear - unequivocably clear - that all music that people want ends up on P2P networks
I sometimes wonder. I'd like to see the target demographics of the music and its audience. Who is there and who is missing. Even the geek doesn't remain twenty-something forever.
That, my friends, is tyranny. The iPod and its ilk. We bought the device, therefore we own it and should have the right to modify it to work the way we want it.
Apple makes high tech appliances for the consumer market.
The iPod works just fine if you don't want to make hacking the machine your hobby.
In this day and age, it looks like we purchase the license or right to use something which stifles innovation and puts us even further technologically behind other countries.
The most advanced consumer tech tends to become inaccessible to anyone but the pro. You wife won't be agreeable to cracking open the case of the $6000 Samsung HDTV that maxed out your credit line just before the big game.
You probably won't be invited to muck around with the batteries of your next-generation electric car, either.
Legit torrents, like Jamendo and Linux distributions, usually use their own trackers. So the study will naturally underrepresent legal BitTorrent content.
Let's be realistic about this.
The geek may download the nightly build more often than he changes his boxers or briefs.
But you won't go far wrong in assuming that the DVD sized P2P download is a pirated game or a video.