My first requirement as a software user is that doesn't steal my freedoms to share, copy, study, modify, redistribute (etc) it. If I can't do that with it, it's not working.
the overwhelming majority of users will never study a single line of code.
some few perhaps will be encouraged to venture out into recreational and hobbyist programming. building a Lego robot with their kids, for example.
but they will not be tinkering with the internals of Linux. OSX or Windows.
they will not be taking sides in the geek's philosophical debates. they will not be defining freedom in terms of an operating system or a model of software development.
There's a saying about he who would swap eye-candy for essential freedoms deserving neither.
quotation isn't argument but simply an appeal to authority.
ah, yes. the joys of maintaining two or three operating systems, software libraries, and skill sets. this will sell Linux to the non-technical end user.
If that's the problem, here's a crazy idea: Market PC's with Linux already installed and ready to start. Hire a real marketing team. Put it where the masses will see it.
It has been tried.
Now for the hard part:
Dell can contract for the entire output of a dozen Asian OEMs for the next five years. It can purchase OEM Windows licenses at steep discounts in quantities of 10,000, 100,000, perhaps more.
There are enormous economies of scale at every point in production, marketing, and distribution.
How does your OEM Linux PC compete on price?
Microsoft has billions free to spend in the promotion of Vista.
Your typical OEM Linux distributer would be strained to put up a poster board in Sam's Club.
The big box retailer likes to see strong after-market sales. Hardware. Software. Peripherals. Consumables. The big box retailer likes to see strong tie-ins to other products. The iPod. HDTV. Blu-Ray. The XBox 360.
The big box retailer does not want to maintain a dual inventory and support structure.
The big box retailer may be looking for a partner in on-line sales and advertising. The Sims. Wizard of War with its 800,000 paying subscribers.
I know people that are somewhat web savvy, but couldn't Google their way out of a paper bag
But are you any more effective using Google when you search outside your own field?
The traditional card catalog gave you three ways to begin: author, title, subject. in most public and school libraries, books for children, books for young adults, would be cataloged separately.
The Britannica, often maligned here, has given two centuries of thought to the problem of organizing knowledge in ways that would make it more accessible to the general reader:
The Propaedia, or outline of the EB, the Syntopicon, the index of ideas and themes which framed the Great Books of the Western World.
These are not perfect solutions. But neither are they as naive a solution as one so utterly dependent for success on how well someone can narrow a search before he begins a search.
"Broadcating" (sic) is not an invention. People do it all the time when they yell.
You can yell as loud as you like ---but you won't be heard across half a continent --- the shared experience of millions of radio listeners in the twenties. Nothing in the world the like of it before.
I think the radio pioneers would be very impressed with the technology progress, but would probably have significant second thoughts about the progress of the content.
only in the sense that they could be too high-minded to appreciate popular music and entertainment. but Deadwood is a legitimate successor to radio's Gunsmoke.
I also think the radio pioneers would be aghast of DRM, it runs counter to all they have worked for, i.e. the wide dissemination of content
there are 40,000 or so DVDs in print at any moment.
150-200 channels of commercial sattelite radio. 13,000 or so AM and FM radio stations. cable and sattelite TV. there is iTunes, Live 365. Shoutcast. Rhapsody. Y! Umlimited....
you will excuse me, I trust, if I don't feel deprived when I can't download your DiVX rip.
I]nstead of varying video card cost based on optional components, the chipset vendor now has to ntegrate everything into a one- size-fits-all premium-featured graphics chip, even if all the user wants is a budget card for their kids' PC.
sounds like a plan to me.
stamp out the single super chip as fast and cheap as you can make it. build it into motherboards. video cards. set top boxes. market it as high performance video at integrated video prices.
easy to explain, once you achieved monopoly status through dirty business practices
The OEM system install sold PCs in numbers no one had imagined before. It was a license to print money. Those who had their arms twisted were crying all the way to the bank. The end.
Until the consumer is informed that their hardware purchase includes a hefty charge for a Windows license and is offered Linux as an alternative (presumably at a different price point), they are not going to know or care about Linux or why they would want to consider it. They're already paying for Windows so they have no incentive to care about anything else.
The charge isn't "hefty" when HP and Dell can buy licenses in quantities of one hundred thousand, one million.
The charge isn't "hefty" when you can contract for the entire output of a half-dozen Asian OEMs for the next five years.
There are enormous economies of scale when you build for the Windows market. There is no price point where OEM Linux is competitive. That is why OEM Linux has disappeared from Walmart.com.
Last week I saw someone playing "neverball" on Fedora... A few days later, I thought it looked nifty, so I searched through synaptic for "ball," scroll through the list of applications, find the one I'm looking for, click "install," "OK," and there it is. In my opinion, that is simpler than what I might have to do on windows - put the CD in, setup, jump through some hoops including where to install, etc, maybe open a readme, reboot, blabla.
To you this looks easy, anyone else will begin by asking "What the hell is synaptic?"
The newcomer to Windows get pointed to Download.com. There he finds a friendly editorial page, all programs neatly cataloged and reviewed. One click to download. One or two clicks to install.
If this is true, Microsoft is making a huge mistake offering no less than *six* different versions of Windows Vista
in the home market:
for light office work on the cheapest box you can find there is Basic.
for media and games and pretty much everything else you spring for the Premium system bundle.
for the heavy hitter who works hard and plays hard on the same machine and is not starved for cash there is Ultimate.
three distinct market segments, each very easily described.
For example 1959 was the peak of streetcar use in America. Ford+General Motors+Firestone+Standard Oil formed a cartel to buy and shutdown every streetcar company in USA to increase their sales.
Light rail was as good as dead before World War I. THE WRONG TRACK
The public abandoned the streetcar as soon as they could afford a Ford.
if the defendant was proven to be non guilty in a civil matter. That would fix so many problems.
civil actions determine legal and financial responsibility. not guilt or innocence. that is for the criminal courts.
in the american system, an elemental sense of justice demands that the courts remain open to the poor and middle class. the rich win by default when the poor pay costs.
not every plaintiff is Microsoft.
It's easy enough to say that, but Credit Suisse [is] not likely to be very happy when the next version of Samba rolls out and they can't use it because it is licensed under version 3 of the GPL and Novell can't distribute GPLv3 apps and still maintain its deal with Microsoft.
Does Credit Suisse need Samba more than Samba needs Credit Suisse?
Samba not only provides file and print services for various Microsoft Windows clients but can also integrate with a Windows Server domain, either as a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) or as a Domain Member. It can also be part of an Active Directory domain.Samba (software)
It certainly doesn't sound like an insurmountable problem for Microsoft to provide a credible alternative.
For distribution under a license that just might be an easier sell in the enterprise market than GPLv3.
Slashdot Mirror
Windows
* Linux (-$50)
* None (-$55)
You are assuming that Dell's costs are the same even when the OEM Windows install outsells Linux 150 to 1 in the home market.
That the home user isn't buying into the very profitable Windows system bundle.
The XPS Gaming System. The desktop replacement laptop, The wide-screen LCD. The multifunction printer.
That he isn't in the market for HDTV and other Dell consumer products.
the overwhelming majority of users will never study a single line of code.
some few perhaps will be encouraged to venture out into recreational and hobbyist programming. building a Lego robot with their kids, for example.
but they will not be tinkering with the internals of Linux. OSX or Windows.
they will not be taking sides in the geek's philosophical debates. they will not be defining freedom in terms of an operating system or a model of software development.
There's a saying about he who would swap eye-candy for essential freedoms deserving neither.
quotation isn't argument but simply an appeal to authority.
Vendors don't offer OEM Linux because Windows sells and Linux doesn't.
Case in point: Walmart.com.
ah, yes. the joys of maintaining two or three operating systems, software libraries, and skill sets. this will sell Linux to the non-technical end user.
But that is the point. If the program runs, it runs. The user doesn't have to know or care about the inner workings of the machine.
Grandma was in her forties when Windows became mass-market.
Windows is not intuitive it's merely familiar
Close enough.
How often have you seen this as a generic response to a problem the user does have to care about, particularly when the user is the administrator?
"The config file is a bit confusing, but there are understandable tutorials online."
OSX and Windows became mainstream precisely because computer literacy as the Geek understands it was removed from the equation.
It has been tried.
Now for the hard part:
Dell can contract for the entire output of a dozen Asian OEMs for the next five years. It can purchase OEM Windows licenses at steep discounts in quantities of 10,000, 100,000, perhaps more.
There are enormous economies of scale at every point in production, marketing, and distribution.
How does your OEM Linux PC compete on price?
Microsoft has billions free to spend in the promotion of Vista.
Your typical OEM Linux distributer would be strained to put up a poster board in Sam's Club.
The big box retailer likes to see strong after-market sales. Hardware. Software. Peripherals. Consumables. The big box retailer likes to see strong tie-ins to other products. The iPod. HDTV. Blu-Ray. The XBox 360.
The big box retailer does not want to maintain a dual inventory and support structure.
The big box retailer may be looking for a partner in on-line sales and advertising. The Sims. Wizard of War with its 800,000 paying subscribers.
You can stop right there.
Users do not want to edit configuration files that may brick their system.
Users do not want to edit configuration files, period.
Users do not want to hear that help files are confusing or non-existent.
Users do not see a new career opportunity in system administration or the help desk.
Users do not want to read technical documents. Users don't look to Google for answers to every question.
Linux can be ignored. Linux can go unfunded.
The Mozilla Foundation. OpenOffice.org.
What happens when Big Daddy Warbucks stops paying the bills?
---at least for the Linux port?
You want to scratch an itch? Go right ahead.
But, if you want to make a living in this game, at some point you have to start thinking about market share, allocation of resources.
You have to make choices.
But are you any more effective using Google when you search outside your own field?
The traditional card catalog gave you three ways to begin: author, title, subject. in most public and school libraries, books for children, books for young adults, would be cataloged separately.
The Britannica, often maligned here, has given two centuries of thought to the problem of organizing knowledge in ways that would make it more accessible to the general reader:
The Propaedia, or outline of the EB, the Syntopicon, the index of ideas and themes which framed the Great Books of the Western World.
These are not perfect solutions. But neither are they as naive a solution as one so utterly dependent for success on how well someone can narrow a search before he begins a search.
You can yell as loud as you like ---but you won't be heard across half a continent --- the shared experience of millions of radio listeners in the twenties. Nothing in the world the like of it before.
Broadcating is the invention being celebrated here. Radio is the underlying technology.
Tesla was using "wireless" almost two decades before Marconi, et al.
Tesla draw the Geek into fantasies of what-might-have-been.
Marconi made his wireless technology a part of everyday life and thought.
Radio has been paying performance rights from day one.
BMI (Broadcast Music Incorporated) was a creation of the broadcast industry.
only in the sense that they could be too high-minded to appreciate popular music and entertainment. but Deadwood is a legitimate successor to radio's Gunsmoke.
I also think the radio pioneers would be aghast of DRM, it runs counter to all they have worked for, i.e. the wide dissemination of content
there are 40,000 or so DVDs in print at any moment.
150-200 channels of commercial sattelite radio. 13,000 or so AM and FM radio stations. cable and sattelite TV. there is iTunes, Live 365. Shoutcast. Rhapsody. Y! Umlimited....
you will excuse me, I trust, if I don't feel deprived when I can't download your DiVX rip.
sounds like a plan to me.
stamp out the single super chip as fast and cheap as you can make it. build it into motherboards. video cards. set top boxes. market it as high performance video at integrated video prices.
The OEM system install sold PCs in numbers no one had imagined before. It was a license to print money. Those who had their arms twisted were crying all the way to the bank. The end.
The charge isn't "hefty" when HP and Dell can buy licenses in quantities of one hundred thousand, one million.
The charge isn't "hefty" when you can contract for the entire output of a half-dozen Asian OEMs for the next five years.
There are enormous economies of scale when you build for the Windows market. There is no price point where OEM Linux is competitive. That is why OEM Linux has disappeared from Walmart.com.
To you this looks easy, anyone else will begin by asking "What the hell is synaptic?"
The newcomer to Windows get pointed to Download.com. There he finds a friendly editorial page, all programs neatly cataloged and reviewed. One click to download. One or two clicks to install.
in the home market:
for light office work on the cheapest box you can find there is Basic.
for media and games and pretty much everything else you spring for the Premium system bundle.
for the heavy hitter who works hard and plays hard on the same machine and is not starved for cash there is Ultimate.
three distinct market segments, each very easily described.
Light rail was as good as dead before World War I. THE WRONG TRACK The public abandoned the streetcar as soon as they could afford a Ford.
civil actions determine legal and financial responsibility. not guilt or innocence. that is for the criminal courts.
in the american system, an elemental sense of justice demands that the courts remain open to the poor and middle class. the rich win by default when the poor pay costs. not every plaintiff is Microsoft.
Does Credit Suisse need Samba more than Samba needs Credit Suisse?
Samba not only provides file and print services for various Microsoft Windows clients but can also integrate with a Windows Server domain, either as a Primary Domain Controller (PDC) or as a Domain Member. It can also be part of an Active Directory domain. Samba (software)
It certainly doesn't sound like an insurmountable problem for Microsoft to provide a credible alternative. For distribution under a license that just might be an easier sell in the enterprise market than GPLv3.
The community that sustains Microsoft and Novell is Credit Suisse, Deutsche Bank AG, and AIG Technologies.
When clients like these sign on to the program, the Geek becomes expendable.