While people had choice between Linux and Windows, the figure was very different, but since the consumers are no longer offered a Linux option, even 96% seems low. The situation with netbooks is now exactly the same as with laptops - it's 2009 and it's still impossible to buy one without Windows pre-installed!
You might consider the possibility that Windows sales is what drove the Linux product off the market.
Well there's the Space Gun from Brave New World that was going to shoot people into space, that never caught on because the physics weren't understood by the writer at the time.
I suppose that depends on what you mean by a "gun."
The launch track - the linear accelerator - is at least plausible.
It's an elegant and economical solution to simply launch the manned capsule and not the step-rocket.
X.org has been maintaining X Window ever since, with huge success. The same thing will happen with Open Office. So regardless of who buys Sun, or even if Sun goes out of business, I have no doubt that the open source office suite will continue strongly.
These are two very different problems.
X Window System...in its standard distribution, is a complete, albeit simple, display and human interface solution, [with] a standard toolkit and protocol stack for building graphical user interfaces on most Unix-like operating systems
X Windows is a foundation on which you can build a GUI for a *NIX based OS.
It doesn't attempt to answer the more subte questions of how the design of a UI will affect the workflow in an office.
even if MS hates OO they can't kill it. Buying Sun would make no difference. It's like pee from a pool, man, and there ain't no way for MS to empty the pool and refill.
OpenOffice is down to about 24 full-time developers.
Sun has invested enormous sums in trying to make OpenOffice a competitive office suite.
But the suite is all it has.
Microsoft can deliver an off the shelf solution for everything your business needs.
Microsoft can employ thousands of specialists whose only job is to study and understand office work.
It can employ hundreds more in testing innovations like the ribbon.
It can spend a billion dollars on web based resources exclusively for Office users and call it money well spent.
When mega-projects die they tend to stay dead.
You've lost time. Talent. Organization. Funding. You'd be very, very lucky not to slip two or three generations behind your competition.
When an open source project dies often all that remains is the code - and the code won't be nearly enough to jump-start the corpse.
my guess is that the map would match a map of the average human traffic in a given location.
Crimes have their own geography.
Every large city has streets known for prostitution and drugs. Districts where abandoned homes and industrial sites attract arsonists and scavengers. The college campusus, parks and trails which become the stalking grounds for a rapist.
And because of this insignificant little incident that killed nobody...a safe, clean, mature power generation technology, was (and continues to be) drastically set back.
Technology is more than the machine.
If you don't know what is going on and you are clearly not in control your system has failed - catastrophically.
The TMI cleanup started in August 1979 and officially ended in December 1993, having cost around US$975 million. From 1985 to 1990 almost 100 tons of radioactive fuel were removed from the site. However, the contaminated cooling water that leaked into the containment building had seeped into the building's concrete, leaving the radioactive residue impossible to remove. TMI-2 had been online only three months but now had a ruined reactor vessel and a containment building that was unsafe to walk in -- it has since been permanently closed.
Three Mile Island Unit 2 was too badly damaged and contaminated to resume operations. The reactor was gradually deactivated and mothballed in a lengthy process completed in 1993.Three Mile Island accident
A ten year - billion-dollar - clean-up can't be described as insignificant.
Hmm, that it is so long as it can be proved to be intentional in which case it looks like max 3 years + a fine.
17 USC 506
(A) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain:
18 USC 2319 (b)
(1) shall be imprisoned not more than 5 years, or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both... [copies with a retail value of over $2,500]
(2) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years, or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both, if the offense is a second or subsequent offense
(3) shall be imprisoned not more than 1 year, or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both, in any other case.
17 USC 506
(B) [retail value more than $1000:]
18 USC 2319 (c)
(1) shall be imprisoned not more than 3 years, or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both
(2) shall be imprisoned not more than 6 years, or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both, if the offense is a second or subsequent offense
17 USC 506
(C) distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution.
18 USC 2319 (d)
(1) shall be imprisoned not more than 3 years, fined under this title, or both
(2) shall be imprisoned not more than 5 years, fined under this title, or both, if the offense was committed for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain
(3) shall be imprisoned not more than 6 years, fined under this title, or both, if the offense is a second or subsequent offense
(4) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years, fined under this title, or both, if the offense is a second or subsequent offense under paragraph (2)
If you honestly feel that strangers with cameras are a danger, then you should probably have a ten foot wall around your house. And guard dogs. And tinfoil hats.
But that is precisely what is happening.
Private roads.
Fenced and gated communities.
Guard dogs in the home and armed patrols on the streets.
The geek can be damn slow to sense when he's crossed a line that was dangerous even to approach.
I think we are going to see much more of this sort of thing - and sooner or later someone is going get hurt.
Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft also has Exxon-Mobil grade corporate credit. Not generally the sign of a failing business.
You might consider the possibility that Windows sales is what drove the Linux product off the market.
You buy a netbook to connect to the Internet.
Which implies that Net Applications and others who collect OS webstats should be aware of your presence.
You should be driving the numbers for Linux into the single digits.
I would call that a Linux computer, but I suppose they call it a Windows computer.
They call it a Windows PC because Acer knows damn well the geek who installs his own OS is insignificant in the mass consumer market.
I would love to see GM's glorified golf cart try to navigate upstate New York in winter.
The commuter car - by definition - has to deliver basic transportation year round. It can't be sidelined by ice and wind and storm.
A bike will easily go 15 mph, doesn't have a range restriction, and uses no electricity.
The bike has a range restriction: the cyclist.
Performance affected by age, fitness, roads and weather.
I suppose that depends on what you mean by a "gun."
The launch track - the linear accelerator - is at least plausible.
It's an elegant and economical solution to simply launch the manned capsule and not the step-rocket.
OneCare was a paid subscription service for the consumer market. To be replaced by a free - lightweight - solution code-named Morro.
It's likely your ISP already offers something similar to its residential customers. There just isn't any money to be made here.
I don't recall that the Vatican was in the business of predicting earthquakes.
The same thing will happen with Open Office. So regardless of who buys Sun, or even if Sun goes out of business, I have no doubt that the open source office suite will continue strongly.
These are two very different problems.
X Window System...in its standard distribution, is a complete, albeit simple, display and human interface solution, [with] a standard toolkit and protocol stack for building graphical user interfaces on most Unix-like operating systems
X Windows is a foundation on which you can build a GUI for a *NIX based OS.
It doesn't attempt to answer the more subte questions of how the design of a UI will affect the workflow in an office.
OpenOffice is down to about 24 full-time developers.
Sun has invested enormous sums in trying to make OpenOffice a competitive office suite.
But the suite is all it has.
Microsoft can deliver an off the shelf solution for everything your business needs.
Microsoft can employ thousands of specialists whose only job is to study and understand office work.
It can employ hundreds more in testing innovations like the ribbon.
It can spend a billion dollars on web based resources exclusively for Office users and call it money well spent.
When mega-projects die they tend to stay dead.
You've lost time. Talent. Organization. Funding. You'd be very, very lucky not to slip two or three generations behind your competition.
When an open source project dies often all that remains is the code - and the code won't be nearly enough to jump-start the corpse.
In the present market, who does Red Hat hit up for a $7 billion dollar loan?
Easy for you to say.
You aren't posting in Thai and you aren't posting from Bangkok.
I have seen only one or two posts so far that suggests a passing acquaintance with Thai culture:
Insulting the King (or Queen) is a personal insult to many Thai people and is one of the few things the Thai in general do not tolerate well overall
I'll take that as fair warning that this is a family matter and that you would be well advised to butt out.
Crimes have their own geography.
Every large city has streets known for prostitution and drugs. Districts where abandoned homes and industrial sites attract arsonists and scavengers. The college campusus, parks and trails which become the stalking grounds for a rapist.
the burden of which is shared by 50 states and 300 million people.
in 1954 a rock slide destroyed the hydroelectric plant in Niagara Falls, NY, with a devastating impact on the local economy.
That just might present a problem:
'My theory is that someone copied my artwork, separated them from any typography and then posted them for sale on the stock site.
He isn't saying when or where the artwork was copied.
It isn't impossible that the stock site can prove that they had the graphics before they appeared in print or on the designer's site.
It wouldn't be the first time.
That if the graphics were stolen they were stolen from his office or by someone working for his clients.
It gets messier if the stock site can produce an artist or agent with a known and legitimate track record.
and how does Google know that?
Technology is more than the machine.
If you don't know what is going on and you are clearly not in control your system has failed - catastrophically.
The TMI cleanup started in August 1979 and officially ended in December 1993, having cost around US$975 million. From 1985 to 1990 almost 100 tons of radioactive fuel were removed from the site. However, the contaminated cooling water that leaked into the containment building had seeped into the building's concrete, leaving the radioactive residue impossible to remove. TMI-2 had been online only three months but now had a ruined reactor vessel and a containment building that was unsafe to walk in -- it has since been permanently closed. Three Mile Island Unit 2 was too badly damaged and contaminated to resume operations. The reactor was gradually deactivated and mothballed in a lengthy process completed in 1993. Three Mile Island accident
A ten year - billion-dollar - clean-up can't be described as insignificant.
Shippingport emphasized engineering, management, financial strength.
Projects realistically scaled to the needs, experience and resources of their sponsors.
Those lessons had been forgotten. "The Meltdown" was symptomatic of problems throughout the industry.
You don't know what they were searching for.
You are only repeating a rumor.
The FBI employs about 12-13,000 special agents whose job it is to investigate violations of 300 or so federal statutes.
That is not a particularly large number, when you come right down to it.
In the American federal system. investigation of the "heinous" crime is almost always a local and state responsibility.
The rare terrorist act makes headlines. White-collar crime - economic crime - comes closer to the truth of what the FBI is all about:
FBI: Internet Fraud Rates Rose 33% Last Year
17 USC 506
(A) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain:
18 USC 2319 (b)
(1) shall be imprisoned not more than 5 years, or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both... [copies with a retail value of over $2,500]
(2) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years, or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both, if the offense is a second or subsequent offense
(3) shall be imprisoned not more than 1 year, or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both, in any other case.
17 USC 506
(B) [retail value more than $1000:]
18 USC 2319 (c)
(1) shall be imprisoned not more than 3 years, or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both
(2) shall be imprisoned not more than 6 years, or fined in the amount set forth in this title, or both, if the offense is a second or subsequent offense
17 USC 506
(C) distribution of a work being prepared for commercial distribution, by making it available on a computer network accessible to members of the public, if such person knew or should have known that the work was intended for commercial distribution.
18 USC 2319 (d)
(1) shall be imprisoned not more than 3 years, fined under this title, or both
(2) shall be imprisoned not more than 5 years, fined under this title, or both, if the offense was committed for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain
(3) shall be imprisoned not more than 6 years, fined under this title, or both, if the offense is a second or subsequent offense
(4) shall be imprisoned not more than 10 years, fined under this title, or both, if the offense is a second or subsequent offense under paragraph (2)
17 USC 506. 18 USC 2319
It's perhaps worth a reminder:
When a federal judge says "three years," you serve three years, with no significant time off. The repeat offender gets hammered.
Petty crimes, crimes of violence, almost always come under state jurisdiction.
Interstate crime, economic crimes, high-tech crime, has a very, very, good chance of bringing the geek into the federal system.
Where he is not likely to do particularly well.
You don't know the FBI was searching for.
You only have a rumor.
Search warrants always have the potential to impact the innocent.
That doesn't make them go away.
The innocent bystander might more usefully be asking why he trusted this host - and why he didn't have a back-up plan.
WalMart.
Its customers expect media play to work out of the box.
The Linux PC with a BLu-Ray drives and a gray market codec is in a shipping container on the LA docks - and there it will stay.
It can't be imported, it can't be stocked, and it can't be sold.
The Internet become widely accessible in the mid-nineties, a scant fifteen years ago, through services like dial-up AOL.
Frontier settlements are wild in their beginnings. The world is adolescent and male. The gun-goofy geek with balls.
But the law comes to Dodge. The law comes to Deadwood.
Rubbing salt in the wound. Pouring gasoline on the fire.
The next time around Google's driver just might be making his exit on a gurney.
But that is precisely what is happening.
Private roads.
Fenced and gated communities.
Guard dogs in the home and armed patrols on the streets.
The geek can be damn slow to sense when he's crossed a line that was dangerous even to approach.
I think we are going to see much more of this sort of thing - and sooner or later someone is going get hurt.