"The first day it operated only 52 customers wanted electricity."
Edison had to train a generation of electricians in residential work.
He had to design and manufacture entire systems for commercial and residential use. Things like high voltage switches that wouldn't accidentally electrocute a curious toddler.
Lamps and fixtures as functional and aesthetically pleasing as the gas and oil lamps they are meant to replace.
i have been looking a lot at netbooks online, at best buy and at staples and microcneter, and it is hard to even find a linux netbook - I seriously doubt this has caused any significant harm to MS
Check out Walmart.com.
The Linpus Linux netbook - "not available in stores" - has a modest 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of flash.
For ten bucks more the XP netbook comes with 1 GB RAM and a 120 GB HDD. Mini laptops
it might be interesting if Redhat sold netbooks...
I can't think of a quicker way to bankrupt Red Hat.
You need deep resources to survive in the consumer market.
You need an instantly recognizable consumer brand name - ideally one as strong as HP and Dell, Apple and Microsoft.
You need to market your product aggressively - that means laying out the big bucks for print and tv.
Your consumer product ships with licensed media codecs and players - everything must be subordinated to making the sale. Your FOSS ideals will be the first thing to go.
You need shelf space in big box retail - all the more urgently now with the death of outlets like Circuit City.
You need the hardware bundle.
The gadgets.
The software.
The Red Hat branded monitor and printer. This isn't a market where the shopper Googles for a solution.
It is a market where the multifunction HP Windows printer leaves WalMart in the same cart as the HP Windows laptop.
The Creative Windows HD camcorder with the Vizio HDTV.
You have seconds to prove that your Linux alternative is the better long-term value.
But if shoppers see nothing but aisles filled with software and hardware for Windows and the Mac, you've lost it.
The chances are good that you can pick up a full - legit - version of Office at work or order one online for home use for no more than the cost of shipping and handling the media.
Something like Ubuntu subverts our capitalist assumptions, because it actually gets cheaper the better it gets, and the more people who use it. Supply and demand work differently.
No it doesn't.
The volunteer developer on a major project is most likely a minor contributor or being subsidized by his employer.
When his boss is short on money and patience the developer goes back to working for a living.
The client OS and the client app is not fundamentally about understanding the code - it is about understanding the user.
The way he thinks, the world he inhabits.
This demands mastery of many disciplines and it is not - and never will be - a part-time job.
This is where corporations with deep, deep, resources like Apple and Microsoft can hammer you into the ground.
While it does look interesting, I do wonder whether the core idea, that a browser is enough, really is solid. I knew it was Netscape's dream once, but did it work out?
The net appliance bleeds red ink.
The browser will very soon be embedded everywhere.
By the time your FOSS net appliance enters the market it will be competing with every damn gadget from the hand-held video game to the HDTV.
No one permently tethered to the Internet will have the slightest need for it.
Re:Eh Sonny?
on
The Zen of SOA
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· Score: 2, Informative
What is the weird fascination with "eastern" stuff among upper middle management?
They began in management when the Japanese corporation seemed to be getting everything right.
If the Dell support rep could have just given her two or three helpful tips, she could have probably been fine. OpenOffice is a perfect replacement for Word. I don't know about her Verizon situation, but I'm sure there is a workaround for that.
"Emphasis added."
The answer to saving in Word format should be instantly accessible in OpenOffice Help - or a walk-through designed to introduce new users to the program. This is the problem Clippy tried to solve - and probably did solve more often than the geek was willing to admit.
OpenOffice isn't a drop-in replacement for any component of MS Office. It has its own strengths and weaknesses. The Dell support tech can't be expected to resolve every potential issue for the college student.
Linux is still nowhere near the point where a non-techie will consider adopting it.
The problem for Linux in the consumer market isn't simply poor sales - it's the disproportionate cost of maintaining a dual inventory and support structure, a cost that the big box retailer like Walmart isn't willing to pay.
It's simpler and cheaper to exchange the $350 Linux netbook for its $350 Windows cousin. Simpler and cheaper still not to stock the Linux netbook at all.
they expected to the masses to keep trudging the Microsoft Treadmill and go out and buy Vista in droves just like they did for 98 & XP. As we all know, that didn't happen.
Vista ended the year with 21% of the desktop, up 8% in from February.
Slashdot Mirror
It matters.
The lazy and dishonest story invites a lazy and dishonest response.
Edison had to train a generation of electricians in residential work.
He had to design and manufacture entire systems for commercial and residential use. Things like high voltage switches that wouldn't accidentally electrocute a curious toddler.
Lamps and fixtures as functional and aesthetically pleasing as the gas and oil lamps they are meant to replace.
None of this comes together overnight.
Not everyone shares the geek's adolescent obsession with porn.
Microsoft isn't reporting billion dollar losses.
Microsoft is reporting a bare 2% growth in revenues, to $16.6 billion dollars in its second quarter.
Microsoft is debt free, with tens of billions in liquid reserves and Exxon-Mobil grade corporate credit.
The last I heard, OpenOffiice.org was down to 24 full time developers.
Sun is hurting.
There are others who have made big commitments to Linux and open source who are hurting.
Before the geek crows too loudly about Microsoft's "dilemma" he might usefully rate his own chances of survival.
Check out Walmart.com.
The Linpus Linux netbook - "not available in stores" - has a modest 512 MB of RAM and 8 GB of flash.
For ten bucks more the XP netbook comes with 1 GB RAM and a 120 GB HDD. Mini laptops
It weighs two pounds and ships for 97 cents.
I can't think of a quicker way to bankrupt Red Hat.
You need deep resources to survive in the consumer market.
You need an instantly recognizable consumer brand name - ideally one as strong as HP and Dell, Apple and Microsoft.
You need to market your product aggressively - that means laying out the big bucks for print and tv.
Your consumer product ships with licensed media codecs and players - everything must be subordinated to making the sale. Your FOSS ideals will be the first thing to go.
You need shelf space in big box retail - all the more urgently now with the death of outlets like Circuit City.
You need the hardware bundle.
The gadgets.
The software.
The Red Hat branded monitor and printer. This isn't a market where the shopper Googles for a solution.
It is a market where the multifunction HP Windows printer leaves WalMart in the same cart as the HP Windows laptop.
The Creative Windows HD camcorder with the Vizio HDTV.
You have seconds to prove that your Linux alternative is the better long-term value.
But if shoppers see nothing but aisles filled with software and hardware for Windows and the Mac, you've lost it.
Bah.
A grand total of six "space tourists" have made the run to the ISS.
Call it one a year to be generous.
You want to see some real money rolling in ? Open a deep discount drug store in the states.
This is always worth a quick and lazy mod up to +5 insightful.
It doesn't require that you think about what is on the schedule for tonight - or look beyond your own tastes in programming.
I think the best use the geek can make of these boxes is to give then away to those who need them - the poor, the elderly, the disabled -
and perhaps donating a little of his time to help install them.
The chances are good that you can pick up a full - legit - version of Office at work or order one online for home use for no more than the cost of shipping and handling the media.
Home Use Program
The chances are also good that you really will be getting a full version of Office - with components like Outlook that are missing from OpenOffice.
PDF support is a 900 KB download. Microsoft Save as PDF or XPS
No it doesn't.
The volunteer developer on a major project is most likely a minor contributor or being subsidized by his employer.
When his boss is short on money and patience the developer goes back to working for a living.
The client OS and the client app is not fundamentally about understanding the code - it is about understanding the user.
The way he thinks, the world he inhabits.
This demands mastery of many disciplines and it is not - and never will be - a part-time job.
This is where corporations with deep, deep, resources like Apple and Microsoft can hammer you into the ground.
Has the web ever been standards-compliant?
The standards compliant browser simply shifts focus to where the real action is - the videos on YouTube, the avatars of My Space.
The entrepreneur moves at light speed when he sees an opportunity to make money.
He won't wait on a committee to deliver in five years what Flash can give him today.
clerks, not clerics, and all of them women. Too Many Women
The net appliance bleeds red ink.
The browser will very soon be embedded everywhere.
By the time your FOSS net appliance enters the market it will be competing with every damn gadget from the hand-held video game to the HDTV.
No one permently tethered to the Internet will have the slightest need for it.
They began in management when the Japanese corporation seemed to be getting everything right.
It can work very well.
HD projection. 1080p 60 fps.
Multilingual captions. Signing. Second channel audio. Your choice of perhaps a dozen feeds tailored for specific audiences.
Most schools I suspect began planning for the Inaugural no later than the day after the election.
The pro can spend $5000 on a lens or a camera body and not feel the first pangs of sticker shock.
"Emphasis added."
The answer to saving in Word format should be instantly accessible in OpenOffice Help - or a walk-through designed to introduce new users to the program. This is the problem Clippy tried to solve - and probably did solve more often than the geek was willing to admit.
OpenOffice isn't a drop-in replacement for any component of MS Office. It has its own strengths and weaknesses. The Dell support tech can't be expected to resolve every potential issue for the college student.
Linux is still nowhere near the point where a non-techie will consider adopting it.
The problem for Linux in the consumer market isn't simply poor sales - it's the disproportionate cost of maintaining a dual inventory and support structure, a cost that the big box retailer like Walmart isn't willing to pay.
It's simpler and cheaper to exchange the $350 Linux netbook for its $350 Windows cousin. Simpler and cheaper still not to stock the Linux netbook at all.
The revolution in Europe tends to end in terror and the charismatic despot who promises to restore order.
The Twentieth Century brought many such men into power -
and the young technocrats - the primal-geeks of The New Order - into power along with him.
The executive makes policy decisions.
You don't.
The executive is the public face of his employer.
People first.
Numbers second.
The best - the very best - is comfortable with both.
The geek is never so adept.
The executive funds your project. Staffs your project. Markets your project.
Internally and externally.
He fires you.
You do not fire him.
This is funny.
But it cuts close to the truth.
Spreadsheet planning wasn't the novelty.
The novelty was that plans could be updated instantaneously - without employing hundreds of clerics and dozens of machines to make it happen.
.
In a half-dozen or so standard configurations only available from Apple.
The "high-priced spread."
The Windows PC was available from many fiercely competitive suppliers - and could be customized any way you wanted.
Apple had its "killer apps."
The problem was that the Mac was defined almost solely as a graphics powerhouse for the designer and photo editor working at the professional level.
I'll not call the Mac "gay."
But it was never working class.
MSDOS and Windows got down and dirty.
The auto body shop in Anchorage. The office tower in Burbank. The feed lot in Nebraska. The suburban hospital on Long Island.
MSDOS and Windows began as a stand-alone OS.
Microsoft earned its 90% share by building from the ground up and not from the top down.
I was struck by the discovery that the Mitsubishi "3D Ready" has made the home shopping channels.
The laptop display isn't "the only game in town."
The desktop PC remains a very flexible platform that can deliver a lot of bang for the buck - both for the developer and the user.
The key word here is "me" and it is one the geek uses far too often.
Vista ended the year with 21% of the desktop, up 8% in from February.
The MacIntel with 7%, up 3% and Linux (all flavors) 0.8%, up 0.2% since February. Top Operating System Share Trend
Are the masses just as tired of dancing the Redmond Slide like most of us /. type folks are?
No one is stampeding to buy anything right now.
But those who are in the market are most buying Vista. The perception remains that OEM Linux is a bottom-feeder and the Mac the "high priced spread."