On one hand it is financially cheaper for Dell to offer the machines without Windows.
This assumes that OEM Linux can succeed for Dell where it failed for Walmart - in delivering mass-market sales. Marketing is expensive. Maintaining a dual inventory and support structure is expensive. The product with the 1% market share gets the axe.
now it is the British, who care about providing good value for the tax revenue rather than stuffing pockets, that produces superior television shows.
How many of these "superior" BBC projects are co-productions with significant export sales and markets - how many are internally funded and for purely domestic consumption?
Cable Tv was started because a few men with lots of money to invest saw a cash cow sitting there. They promised Advertising free, they broke that promise the second someone showed up with a bag of money wanting to put Ad's on the channels.
The cost of making a one-hour drama episode has tripled in the last 15 years from about $1m in the early 1990s to $2.7m, according to some studio executives. Costs of thirty-minute comedies have also spiralled to $1.5m from around $700,000.Quality TV squeezes networks
Cable TV began as a community antenna service. There were adds from the beginning - but none that directly benefited the cable provider or subsidized the cost of original programming.
When you go to jail for longer for copyright infringment than for robbery
You don't.
In the U.S. robbery and assault are almost always prosecuted under state [local] law. When the feds do have jurisdiction in such cases, the hammer comes down. Bureau of Prisons - Quick Facts
If your contributions to the P2P nets ends in prosecution it will be for one very simple reason:
The FIRST thing I did was wipe the hard drive and load XP, and I suspect thousands, if not millions of people have done that to the machines they've bought.
Millions? Give me a break.
Walmart is currently trumpeting a "special edition" $800 Vista Premium laptop from HP.
It has an integrated webcam, Wi-FI, a dual-core AMD CPU. a gigabyte of RAM, GeForce Go 6150 graphics, a wide-screen display, a 120 GB HDD, a DVD burner and a wireless remote control for media play. Walmart will throw in a gigabyte of ReadyBoost Flash for $14.
This is entry level Vista as seen by the customers of the world's largest retailer barely four months after its introduction. They will not be going back to XP.
I understand that employers feel they need to protect themselves but they shouldn't be so paranoid as to limit their employee pool to only the financially stable, mentally stable and law abiding. They'll never get someone who thinks outside of the box then.
I've worked in a controlled environment with people who have significant behavioral problems, are under severe financial strain, have known criminal records, etc. But it is not an experience I would recommend for the unprepared or understaffed. There will be trouble. It can turn serious.
Typically, when someone is non-technical and asks me a technical question, I ask them why they want to know. When they tell me the problem, I tell them how to solve it. When they ask if there is another way to solve it, I say I wouldn't recommend any other way. Even if I have a few alternatives up my sleeve, I don't offer them.. it only confuses the non-technical person.
The IT equivalent of a Bush appointee. All problems are purely technical. Arrogance unbounded. The alternatives to your solution never to be openly and honestly presented.
Great, but is anyone buying it? Once they buy it do they keep Vista? The answer looks like no and no. Vista is bad and M$'s push is hurting PC sales.
HP is selling computers as fast as they can stamp them out:
Sales in the quarter leaped to $25.53 billion, a 13 percent jump from the $22.55 billion HP rang up in the same quarter last year.
The increase was spurred partly by booming sales of laptop computers and servers. Revenue in the Personal Systems Group, which includes laptop and desktop computers, grew 24 percent to $8.7 billion, while sales in the Enterprise Storage and Servers unit climbed 8 percent to $4.6 billion.Hewlett-Packard's profit falls 7 percent despite a dramatic increase in PC and and server sales
Do they keep Vista? Of course they do.
The HP is an entry-level laptop with an integrated webcam, Wi-Fi, a remote control for media play, a dual-core CPU, a gigabyte of RAM and respectable GeForce Go 6150 integrated graphics.
Walmart will throw in 1 GB of ReadyBoost Flash for $18, a pocketable HDTV USB tuner for $120.
What I see is Walmart selling a wide-screen HP Vista Premium laptop for $800. AMD Dual-Core CPU. 1 GB RAM. 120 GB HDD, GeForce Go graphics and a DVD burner. HP Pavilion Entertainment Laptop
Surely, the fact that it's included with just about every new PC proves AOL is a stellar success.
AOL stopped pursuing new subscribers quite some time back:
Operating income for AOL...rose 27 percent during the three months ended March 31, but the firm continued to lose subscribers as it makes the transition to a business model based on advertising revenue from one based on selling subscriptions. AOL's advertising revenue rose 35 percent during the quarter. AOL's operating income...nearly tripled, to $1.2 billion in the first quarter, which included the sale of a German unit. Excluding one-time adjustments, operating income rose 27 percent, to $542 million, boosted by growth in online advertising. The Internet company lost 1.2 million subscribers during the quarter. Revenue fell to $1.5 billion, from $2 billion. Time Warner executives said AOL's Web e-mail, now free, has become a lucrative way to serve up online ads. More than 40 percent of the ad revenue for the quarter stemmed from e-mail. AOL Ad Growth Brightens Poor Time Warner Quarter [May 3, 2207]
1) Exposure to something, whether good or bad, is good. More people will, at the very least, know what Linux is now.
Exposure? What exposure?
The kiosk in the mega-mall? The Sunday Color supplements? Catalog mailings in the Fall? The Home Shopping Network? Or simply another premature burial in the back pages of a web site that only the Geek will ever see?
Remember when Walmart was touted here as the White Knight who could sell OEM Linux to the masses?
The story ends with the AMD Dual-Core $800 HP Vista Premium laptop. "The most up-to-date operating system on the market." HP Pavilion Entertainment Laptop. 1 GB RAM. 120 GB HDD. GeForce Go 6150 graphics. DVD R/RW drive.
The more they see choice, the more likely they will be to choose - either now or in the future.
The Geek sees his ideal operating system.
Dell's customers see the next generation of the platform that runs the programs they've been using for fifteen years.
Think. How many Geeks chose Linux simply because it was a free UNIX? Same skill sets, same software libraries. Migration always comes at a price in time or money. More than most are willing to pay.
Until it can be used by someone without ever having to rely on outside assistance from someone more savvy, Linux remains an obvious step below such issueless competitors as Microsoft Windows (whose users are known the world over for their trouble-free operations and complete eschewing of support)
You can laugh. But I haven't stumbled on a Linux Geek off-campus in ten years. There are no local user groups, no custom system builders. No hands-on support for the newbie whatever.
"I think Ubuntu Linux is definitely ready for almost anyone with a Windows system who is tired of having their computer infested with spyware and viruses. It is also a way to avoid Microsoft's "activation" demands. It's free! It's good! It works!"
But she needs to dual-boot.
This clueless newbie hasn't been asked to re-activate XP in six years - or had the slightest problem keeping a Windows home PC computer mal-ware free - or paid a dime for security software, repairs or clean-up.
I think it's fair to assume that a non-technical user who has problems with Windows at this level is going to have serious problems with Linux on many levels. Software compatibility, documentation, drivers, display settings...
Display settings?
Explained in "community documents?" "It involved opening a terminal and using the command line..."
People get attached to the technologies they're familiar with, if they think they work well enough, Old people especially seem to get stuck to the form of telephony they're used to. My grandmother was still using a rotary phone just a few years ago until I found her one of those art deco touch tone phones with the buttons in the same positions as the old rotary dial finger holes.
Have you ever known a dial phone to break or need repair? These things are damn near indestructible. Phoneco
You should be able to call 911 on any landline that's physically connected, even if you don't pay for landline service.
Perhaps.
But is 911 the only number you must be able to dial?
What happens when you become the lifeline for an aging parent? When you are the one who needs to speak to a nurse or a doctor? Questions like these become more frequent and more urgent as you grow older - as you grow old.
The one thing that the oldest in our family never forget is that their phone service has always been reliable.
They called it MSCE. You got one, and you got yourself a $20+/hr job. Then the suits engineered a surplus of techs and outsourced every job they could, and that $20+/hr job became a $9.50 an hour job, and low and behold people weren't so happy with Microsoft anymore.
It would appear that an MCSE is worth rather more - sometimes much more - than $10/HR:
Like it or not, MS has bludgeoned the masses into perceiving MS == computers.
No one had to be "bludgeoned" into buying the PC clone that was designed and priced for the mass market. That fit well into both the home and office. Apple's tightly held bundle of hardware and software gave it a secure niche market - which has shown little growth or change in thirty years. Linux arrived late to the party and - as your post suggests - is still identified with the Geek with a grievance, a chip on his shoulder. Something to be avoided.
Blame Microsoft who, let's face facts, sees you as a wallet. They don't really care how well their crap works and their prices go up not down in contradiction to everything we've ever been promised about the 'digital age.'
Someday - perhaps - the geek may learn this lesson:
No one in the consumer market gives a damn about the price of OEM Windows -what they do give a damn about is the price of the latest mass market OEM Windows system bundle.
With specs that look damn good even if you have been out of the market for only two or three years.
Slashdot Mirror
This assumes that OEM Linux can succeed for Dell where it failed for Walmart - in delivering mass-market sales. Marketing is expensive. Maintaining a dual inventory and support structure is expensive. The product with the 1% market share gets the axe.
How many of these "superior" BBC projects are co-productions with significant export sales and markets - how many are internally funded and for purely domestic consumption?
They were banned from Country radio.
But The Dixie Chicks survived and found a new audience. Cecilia Peck - Shut Up & Sing
The cost of making a one-hour drama episode has tripled in the last 15 years from about $1m in the early 1990s to $2.7m, according to some studio executives. Costs of thirty-minute comedies have also spiralled to $1.5m from around $700,000. Quality TV squeezes networks
Cable TV began as a community antenna service. There were adds from the beginning - but none that directly benefited the cable provider or subsidized the cost of original programming.
You don't.
In the U.S. robbery and assault are almost always prosecuted under state [local] law. When the feds do have jurisdiction in such cases, the hammer comes down. Bureau of Prisons - Quick Facts
If your contributions to the P2P nets ends in prosecution it will be for one very simple reason:
You were an arrogant litle prick who thought that geek-hood was a lifetime "get out of jail free" card. 50th Conviction Landed in Piracy Crackdown
Millions? Give me a break.
Walmart is currently trumpeting a "special edition" $800 Vista Premium laptop from HP.
It has an integrated webcam, Wi-FI, a dual-core AMD CPU. a gigabyte of RAM, GeForce Go 6150 graphics, a wide-screen display, a 120 GB HDD, a DVD burner and a wireless remote control for media play. Walmart will throw in a gigabyte of ReadyBoost Flash for $14.
This is entry level Vista as seen by the customers of the world's largest retailer barely four months after its introduction. They will not be going back to XP.
I've worked in a controlled environment with people who have significant behavioral problems, are under severe financial strain, have known criminal records, etc. But it is not an experience I would recommend for the unprepared or understaffed. There will be trouble. It can turn serious.
The IT equivalent of a Bush appointee. All problems are purely technical. Arrogance unbounded. The alternatives to your solution never to be openly and honestly presented.
HP is selling computers as fast as they can stamp them out:
Sales in the quarter leaped to $25.53 billion, a 13 percent jump from the $22.55 billion HP rang up in the same quarter last year. The increase was spurred partly by booming sales of laptop computers and servers. Revenue in the Personal Systems Group, which includes laptop and desktop computers, grew 24 percent to $8.7 billion, while sales in the Enterprise Storage and Servers unit climbed 8 percent to $4.6 billion. Hewlett-Packard's profit falls 7 percent despite a dramatic increase in PC and and server sales
Do they keep Vista? Of course they do.
The HP is an entry-level laptop with an integrated webcam, Wi-Fi, a remote control for media play, a dual-core CPU, a gigabyte of RAM and respectable GeForce Go 6150 integrated graphics.
Walmart will throw in 1 GB of ReadyBoost Flash for $18, a pocketable HDTV USB tuner for $120.
What I see is Walmart selling a wide-screen HP Vista Premium laptop for $800. AMD Dual-Core CPU. 1 GB RAM. 120 GB HDD, GeForce Go graphics and a DVD burner. HP Pavilion Entertainment Laptop
AOL stopped pursuing new subscribers quite some time back:
Operating income for AOL...rose 27 percent during the three months ended March 31, but the firm continued to lose subscribers as it makes the transition to a business model based on advertising revenue from one based on selling subscriptions.
AOL's advertising revenue rose 35 percent during the quarter. AOL's operating income...nearly tripled, to $1.2 billion in the first quarter, which included the sale of a German unit. Excluding one-time adjustments, operating income rose 27 percent, to $542 million, boosted by growth in online advertising. The Internet company lost 1.2 million subscribers during the quarter. Revenue fell to $1.5 billion, from $2 billion. Time Warner executives said AOL's Web e-mail, now free, has become a lucrative way to serve up online ads. More than 40 percent of the ad revenue for the quarter stemmed from e-mail.
AOL Ad Growth Brightens Poor Time Warner Quarter [May 3, 2207]
Exposure? What exposure?
The kiosk in the mega-mall? The Sunday Color supplements? Catalog mailings in the Fall? The Home Shopping Network? Or simply another premature burial in the back pages of a web site that only the Geek will ever see?
Remember when Walmart was touted here as the White Knight who could sell OEM Linux to the masses?
The story ends with the AMD Dual-Core $800 HP Vista Premium laptop. "The most up-to-date operating system on the market." HP Pavilion Entertainment Laptop. 1 GB RAM. 120 GB HDD. GeForce Go 6150 graphics. DVD R/RW drive.
The more they see choice, the more likely they will be to choose - either now or in the future.
The Geek sees his ideal operating system.
Dell's customers see the next generation of the platform that runs the programs they've been using for fifteen years.
Think. How many Geeks chose Linux simply because it was a free UNIX? Same skill sets, same software libraries. Migration always comes at a price in time or money. More than most are willing to pay.
The charge will be that this ring sold counterfeit drugs or airplane parts.
When it is your burnt and broken body being wheeled into the OR it won't seem like such a dumb law after all.
You can laugh. But I haven't stumbled on a Linux Geek off-campus in ten years. There are no local user groups, no custom system builders. No hands-on support for the newbie whatever.
But she needs to dual-boot.
This clueless newbie hasn't been asked to re-activate XP in six years - or had the slightest problem keeping a Windows home PC computer mal-ware free - or paid a dime for security software, repairs or clean-up.
I think it's fair to assume that a non-technical user who has problems with Windows at this level is going to have serious problems with Linux on many levels. Software compatibility, documentation, drivers, display settings...
Display settings?
Explained in "community documents?" "It involved opening a terminal and using the command line..."
You have a problem with that, take it up with your state legislature. Rape and murder almost never come under federal jurisdiction:
Total Sentenced Population 197,011
Homicide, Aggravated Assault and Kidnapping 5,547 (3%)
Sex Offices 4,409 (2.4%)
Club Fed is a myth. Offenders do not get off lightly:
Sentence Imposed
5--10 Years 30%
10-15 Years 19%
15-20 Years 9%
More than 20 Years 10%
Life 3%
Death 48
Federal Bureau of Prisons - Quick Facts
Have you ever known a dial phone to break or need repair? These things are damn near indestructible. Phoneco
Perhaps.
But is 911 the only number you must be able to dial?
What happens when you become the lifeline for an aging parent? When you are the one who needs to speak to a nurse or a doctor? Questions like these become more frequent and more urgent as you grow older - as you grow old.
The one thing that the oldest in our family never forget is that their phone service has always been reliable.
It would appear that an MCSE is worth rather more - sometimes much more - than $10/HR:
Median Salary by Job - MSCE
Median Hourly Rate by Job - MCSE [Both updated May 3, 2007]
Don't trust everything you read on Slashdot.
$14.4 billion in quarterly revenues suggests a far different reality than the imagination of the blogger.
No one had to be "bludgeoned" into buying the PC clone that was designed and priced for the mass market. That fit well into both the home and office. Apple's tightly held bundle of hardware and software gave it a secure niche market - which has shown little growth or change in thirty years. Linux arrived late to the party and - as your post suggests - is still identified with the Geek with a grievance, a chip on his shoulder. Something to be avoided.
Someday - perhaps - the geek may learn this lesson:
No one in the consumer market gives a damn about the price of OEM Windows -what they do give a damn about is the price of the latest mass market OEM Windows system bundle.
With specs that look damn good even if you have been out of the market for only two or three years.
If it you find it on a subway platform or anchored to the foundations of a bridge, than the answer is yes.
The fundamental question you ask is "What is wrong with this picture?"
good luck convincing a jury that the counterfeit ID the police found in your basement wasn't being produced without the intent to defraud.
You cannot trust a crowd to have a sense of humor or proportion.
Radio Quito's 1949 adaption of WOTW ended in twenty deaths and $350,000 in property damage when rioters angered by the "hoax" torched the broadcast station. THE DAY THE MARTIANS LANDED or stories they never tell on HCJB