The industry is fifteen years down the wrong path.
The sad fact is that computer technology was wrestled away from the true technologists who invented it and was thrust headlong to the public sector by the businessmen, politicians, stock brokers, and bankers who saw a massive profit potential in it but had no real knowledge or appreciation of the intellectual advancements which created it.
Cry me a river.
The computer was military and commercial tech from Day 1.
The technologist was never ultimately in control of its deployment or evolution.
"The wrong path" - market-driven - brings the PC and the Internet into every middle class home and office. The golden age of the Geek ends with AOL and Windows 3.1.
Grandmas that are introduced to Linux as their first computing experience...
The problem is that MSDOS and Windows have been around for over twenty-five years. It becomes harder and harder to find the virgin with no knowledge of the Windows PC.
I have made one call to Dell technical support in five years.
I can't remember the last time I opened the registry. I have found no compelling reason to re-install Windows XP. The antivirus and firewall package is provided by my ISP and is more or less jargon free.
My guess is that Dell has some awesome OEM pricing for Windows (maybe $25 a pop or so), and this deal with Microsoft is contingent on them not offering competing operating systems.
Dell has also seen awesome OEM system sales for Windows.
---along with digital cameras, printers, monitors and HDTV, anything, really, that can be marketed as a Windows peripheral.
OEM Linux disappears from Walmart.com for three simple reasons:
Entry level for Vista at Walmart is a $500 Celeron laptop. Vista Premium is a $900 dual-core laptop from Toshiba.
OEM Linux doesn't significantly undercut Windows on price, doesn't sell worth a damn anyway and there is nothing to drive after-market sales. No iTunes for Linux. No Windows Home Server. No XBox 360. No HD-DVD. No Grand Theft Auto.
So the line of division I attempt to draw is that we all see the problems, but only a few of us will actually do anything to address the problem. The rest are Windows users.
the causes which are central to you can be peripheral to others.
choosing Windows says nothing about the user other than that he is comfortable with the Windows OS. he is not a technical hobbyist. he is not buying in to an upscale urban lifestyle. he is not making an ideological commitment.
he is working on his taxes. watching a movie. playing a game.
HDMI? This provides very little advantage over component connections, and as most people on this planet have NO HDTV, let alone one with HDMI, this is pretty irrelevant.
HD is taking hold very fast, at least in the markets targeted by the PS3 and the XBox 360.
Linux/OSS users represent a sense personal and social accountability.
Apple users represent a desire for change and improvement but expect to get that by switching to a popular alternative.
Windows users represent people who just use their computers and don't think about anything else around them. These are the same people who get pissed off when news of a new terrorist..attack is on because it interrupted their favorite sitcom.
"Windows users [are] people who just use their computers..."
You could and should have just stopped right there.
The Geek version of the pathetic fallacy is to see everyone's core beliefs and values reflected in their choice of an operating system.
That said, Microsoft markets Windows to the public as a purely commercial product, fun and useful.
In a strongly market-oriented society like the United States, and one which has grown noticeably weary of the ideologue, left and right, that can take you a very long way.
I'd be interested in hearing the "business case" for it. What does it do particularly well, and for what types of projects/needs has it been particularly successful?
Groove {is} used by legions of organizations from GlaxoSmithKline to the U.S. Army. Being able to edit documents and then return them to a shared folder in one go is great. So is the fact that what you have on your computer is synchronized with other team members in real-time so, should your Internet connection be cut for whatever reason, the version will be updated when you come back online. And all this is done via encrypted files, making it very hard for an outsider to intercept and read them. Why Is the Internet So Unfriendly To Those Who Work in Teams?
First, this assumes that everyone will pay the new fees instead of finding alternative unlicensed content (that is free or Creative Commons or other similar content).
It assumes that the majors will remain the majors: free to draw on over 100 years of recorded music. Elvis may go out of copyright in Britain - but the master recordings still belong to his label.
I doubt that Microsoft will make any headway in this. MS is becoming less and less trusted
"Trust" as used here matters only to the geek. What matters to the professional photographer is support in hardware and in Photoshop - and HD Photo is halfway there.
Re:Bill Gates says "Jump", the world says "HOW HIG
on
High Tech High 2.0
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· Score: 1
I argued (from experience) that his business practices were shady (and driven from the top, so him and Balmer), that his success was from right time and connections, many successes were built upon the unrecognized work of others, and pointed out his philanthropy came very late in life.
His empire was built on undercutting the right enemy at the right time and cramming technological mediocrity down consumers' throats.
He didn't cram anything down anyone's throats.
He sold operating systems and software for hardware platforms which were entry-level at the time of their release.
That is the mass-market solution pioneered by Henry Ford. The solution which always generates more money and greater opportunities for development than the handcraft work so admired by the Geek in his own technological Stanley Steamers.
Here are the specs for a $900 Toshiba Vista Premium laptop from Walmart:
If you want to create schools that teach people useful knowledge the best thing that could happen is a school voucher program where parents receive a set amount of funding from the various levels of government and are free to spend those dollars as they see fit. Thus music programs and technological education can compete in a fair manner.
Aren't you the cock-eyed optimist.
Useful translates into one of two things:
Skills which are marketable and courses which threaten no one.
No difference, fundamentally, from the Amish pulling kids out of school past the elementary grades--where they might be tempted by exposure to new ideas and different cultures.
Possibly you know because over the last hundred or so years the telco monopoly over the infastructure has been a complete disaster. It made the cost of communication excessive and adoption of new technology moved at a glacial pace. That was up until the internet became open to the public over dial up, and there was actual competition to deliver service to the end user
For 100 years the U.S. had the best phone service in the world. It is not too much a stretch to say that the history of communications technology in the 20th century is a history of Bell Labs.
This whole thing isn't about selling with Linux installed. It's about selling hardware without a selling a bundled, pre-installed OS at all. It's about offering choices to customers so they can buy what they want. It's about a computer manufacturer selling *computers* and not selling a license distribution system for content providers and software vendors.
It's about driving your company into Chapter 11.
It's about pursuing a Geek fantasy that has no relation to the reality of the mass consumer market.
You missed:
0 Time for Dell to re-negotiate Microsoft's per-machine fee for Windows approaches
OEM Linux at Walmart couldn't undercut OEM Windows on price. There are enormous economies of scale when you build for the OS with 95% of the mass consumer market. The licensing fee is insignificant.
Dell's IdeaStorm [CC] is turning into a fiasco -- for Dell, and for open source as well. Instead of just shouting at the company to sell pre-installed GNU/Linux systems, how about helping them find a way to do it?
1 Dell sees real potential in "certified" Linux system sales to its larger business and institutional customers.
2 Unsatisfied, the BadVista fanatic spams Dell with adolescently argued posts demanding parity for OEM Linux in the general consumer market.
No matter that even Walmart has fled the field.
3 IdeaStorm collapses into chaos.
4 Dell goes back to selling the OEM Windows system as the mass-market PC of choice for the middle class.
Slashdot Mirror
Xbox 360 Controller for Windows
Vista's Aero GUI. GPU hardware acceleration for video processing. PC gaming on the 60 inch plasma or rear projection screen.
The sad fact is that computer technology was wrestled away from the true technologists who invented it and was thrust headlong to the public sector by the businessmen, politicians, stock brokers, and bankers who saw a massive profit potential in it but had no real knowledge or appreciation of the intellectual advancements which created it.
Cry me a river.
The computer was military and commercial tech from Day 1.
The technologist was never ultimately in control of its deployment or evolution.
"The wrong path" - market-driven - brings the PC and the Internet into every middle class home and office. The golden age of the Geek ends with AOL and Windows 3.1.
The problem is that MSDOS and Windows have been around for over twenty-five years. It becomes harder and harder to find the virgin with no knowledge of the Windows PC.
I have made one call to Dell technical support in five years.
I can't remember the last time I opened the registry. I have found no compelling reason to re-install Windows XP. The antivirus and firewall package is provided by my ISP and is more or less jargon free.
You would be happier. But this isn't a mass market product. Dell has production lines running 24/7 to fill pre-paid orders for OEM Windows.
Dell has also seen awesome OEM system sales for Windows.
---along with digital cameras, printers, monitors and HDTV, anything, really, that can be marketed as a Windows peripheral.
OEM Linux disappears from Walmart.com for three simple reasons:
Entry level for Vista at Walmart is a $500 Celeron laptop. Vista Premium is a $900 dual-core laptop from Toshiba.
OEM Linux doesn't significantly undercut Windows on price, doesn't sell worth a damn anyway and there is nothing to drive after-market sales. No iTunes for Linux. No Windows Home Server. No XBox 360. No HD-DVD. No Grand Theft Auto.
Grandma is fifty, and working full time. Grandma is seventy, a senior volunteer at the local library or community hospital. Grandma can't be ignored.
Download and install the patch for Windows XP. Done. Download and install the patch for Outlook. Done.
Now tell my Dad how to fix the hard-coded DST in his $50 "atomic" wall clock.
the causes which are central to you can be peripheral to others.
choosing Windows says nothing about the user other than that he is comfortable with the Windows OS. he is not a technical hobbyist. he is not buying in to an upscale urban lifestyle. he is not making an ideological commitment.
he is working on his taxes. watching a movie. playing a game.
HD is taking hold very fast, at least in the markets targeted by the PS3 and the XBox 360.
Windows users represent people who just use their computers and don't think about anything else around them. These are the same people who get pissed off when news of a new terrorist..attack is on because it interrupted their favorite sitcom.
"Windows users [are] people who just use their computers..."
You could and should have just stopped right there.
The Geek version of the pathetic fallacy is to see everyone's core beliefs and values reflected in their choice of an operating system.
That said, Microsoft markets Windows to the public as a purely commercial product, fun and useful.
In a strongly market-oriented society like the United States, and one which has grown noticeably weary of the ideologue, left and right, that can take you a very long way.
Building an Emergency Operations Center on Groove and SharePoint
Groove {is} used by legions of organizations from GlaxoSmithKline to the U.S. Army. Being able to edit documents and then return them to a shared folder in one go is great. So is the fact that what you have on your computer is synchronized with other team members in real-time so, should your Internet connection be cut for whatever reason, the version will be updated when you come back online. And all this is done via encrypted files, making it very hard for an outsider to intercept and read them. Why Is the Internet So Unfriendly To Those Who Work in Teams?
It assumes that the majors will remain the majors: free to draw on over 100 years of recorded music. Elvis may go out of copyright in Britain - but the master recordings still belong to his label.
"Trust" as used here matters only to the geek. What matters to the professional photographer is support in hardware and in Photoshop - and HD Photo is halfway there.
Your father would argue that 45 is not "very late in life." Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (est. 2000)
Warren Buffett was 76.
Hardball capitalism is the American national game, with Poker a close second.
He didn't cram anything down anyone's throats.
He sold operating systems and software for hardware platforms which were entry-level at the time of their release.
That is the mass-market solution pioneered by Henry Ford. The solution which always generates more money and greater opportunities for development than the handcraft work so admired by the Geek in his own technological Stanley Steamers.
Here are the specs for a $900 Toshiba Vista Premium laptop from Walmart:
1.73 GHz Dual-Core Intel CPU
15.4" wide-screen display
1 GB DDR RAM (expandable)
160 GB HDD
DVD-R
Intel Wi-Fi Toshiba Sattelite
That, unadjusted for inflation, is 2/3 of the price our family paid for a Win 95 Packard-Bell desktop twelve years ago:
75 MHz Pentium CPU
12" CRT Monitor w/ 1 MB integrated graphics
8 MB RAM
545 MB HDD
4X CD-ROM
14.4 K Modem
Aren't you the cock-eyed optimist.
Useful translates into one of two things:
Skills which are marketable and courses which threaten no one.
No difference, fundamentally, from the Amish pulling kids out of school past the elementary grades--where they might be tempted by exposure to new ideas and different cultures.
---and, it would seem, very successfully, as well.
But the Geek always stumbles badly when he equates his opinion of Microsoft with the public's opinion of Microsoft. How Boss's Deeds Buff A Firm's Reputation
The point spread is narrow between companies that score well. Cold comfort for the Geek in that.
1 Microsoft
4 Google
8 Sony
11 Amazon
13 Disney
16 Intel
22 Apple
23 Dell
37 Verizon
38 HP
40 Wal-Mart
49 Time-Warner
58 Comcast
60 Haliburton
Reputation Rankings
Fanatics are irrational by design...
then you bring the plane down hard and fast.
give then a ride they'll not soon forget. and land at the nearest airport equipped to deal with the problem.
You are attempting to engage the Remote Control System.
Cancel or Allow? not to spoil the joke, but isn't this exactly how the system should respond?
For 100 years the U.S. had the best phone service in the world. It is not too much a stretch to say that the history of communications technology in the 20th century is a history of Bell Labs.
It's about driving your company into Chapter 11.
It's about pursuing a Geek fantasy that has no relation to the reality of the mass consumer market.
0 Time for Dell to re-negotiate Microsoft's per-machine fee for Windows approaches
OEM Linux at Walmart couldn't undercut OEM Windows on price. There are enormous economies of scale when you build for the OS with 95% of the mass consumer market. The licensing fee is insignificant.
Groove Home Page
Building an Emergency Operations Center on Groove and SharePoint
Infopath Home Page Create and manage electronic forms.
1 Dell sees real potential in "certified" Linux system sales to its larger business and institutional customers.
2 Unsatisfied, the BadVista fanatic spams Dell with adolescently argued posts demanding parity for OEM Linux in the general consumer market.
No matter that even Walmart has fled the field.
3 IdeaStorm collapses into chaos.
4 Dell goes back to selling the OEM Windows system as the mass-market PC of choice for the middle class.
5 The end.