Kamen has done lots of cool stuff, and the Segway is a gorgeous piece of technology. I think all of us, even the most negative, would enjoy trying one out. Nevertheless!
The news story we are commenting on is not "Segway invented." It is "Segway for sale." If someone is thinking about buying a Segway, that person should consider the speculation about reliability, insurance, state laws, public acceptance (whether or not the thing is *perceived* as safe). Because you could end up with a $5000 vehicle you use everywhere, or you could end up with a $5000 doorstop.
But I'm not sure I agree with your definition of research as .. that class of work used to comprehend or understand a copyrighted item without the intention of distributing a full and complete copy of the copyrighted item.
For example, would it be "research" if I published a book with a chapter of your book in it? IMO, even though I didn't use your whole book, you should still have a say in whether or not I get to use your chapter.
Or did I misunderstand you? Anyway, if I had mod points, I would have modded you up.
The vehicle looks like an old Vespa, with a nice big seat, places to rest your feet as you cruise along slowly, even room for a passenger in back, plus a basket for groceries. They have wide tires like motorcycles, not skinny ones like bicycles.
IMO these would be much more helpful to old people than a Segway. And if you need one, your medical insurance pays for it, according to a TV commercial I saw there.
Yes, they ride them on the sidewalks--slowly. And they all seem to be bright red. It looks very cheerful!
Slashdotters should worry about Segways-on-sidewalks--not for moral reasons, as you seem to think--but for financial ones. Segway is a *bad* investment, and we are their target.
The only reason Segways are economically viable right now is that laws have been passed to let them use city sidewalks. Most cities haven't caught on to this yet, and won't catch on until March. But already city officials in both New Jersey and San Francisco are upset about Segways. This is the tip of the iceberg.
The point of the Segway was to reduce the number of cars on the road.
Yes, I know that's the hype they've been using in their round-the-country marketing sessions. How unusual, when all the other corporations just try to make money. BTW, what's up with that Buy-Segway-Give-Me-Commission link in your sig?
Lobbyists downpedaled safety concerns about their product, positioning the Segway as "magic sneakers," says this article (March 2002) in the Concord (NH) Monitor. "It is a product that belongs on the sidewalk," Segway Vice President for Marketing Gary Bridge said. "We can stop as fast as you can in your sneakers. You can't do that on a bicycle."
In case of collision, the Segway "backs up gently when it bumps an object and has low pressure tires that soften the force on anything it rides over."
So far, with no fanfare, legislators in 32 states have declared the Segway welcome on local sidewalks, according to this article in The Register. .
Northern NJ towns are already regretting that hasty cave-in, according to this article. The state law Segway lobbyists pushed through prohibits towns from banning any "electric personal assistive mobility devices,'' says that story--the law " was passed after Segway, maker of the "Human Transporter,'' lobbied New Jersey's Legislature and others throughout the country."
So what's the problem? As a result, New Jersey towns have been unable to deal with the latest fad among local teenagers, electric scooters, which they ride on the sidewalks.
Note that the scooters now terrorizing North Jersey pedestrians are not "assistive devices" that deserve protection by the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)--neither is the Segway. These are vehicles you have to stand up on to drive. But affluent parents who bought these toys for their teens are calling on the protection of the ADA to keep them on the sidewalks and out of traffic. We can expect to see the same with the Segway.
San Francisco plans to fight back, according to this Examiner article. Senior-citizen activists and walkers protested they don't want to share their space with a 95 lb machine traveling 12 mph. "The whole point of sidewalks is to separate vehicles from pedestrians," says Walk San Francisco director Michael Smith.
IMO, the Segway is a pyramid scheme waiting to tumble. Early investors put up the cash for a massive publicity and lobbying campaign. They now have until March to lure unsuspecting buyers to buy their Segways, and unsuspecting investors to buy their stock.
In March it's all over. Once Segways hit the sidewalks, the pyramid crumbles. Whoever has money in Segways in March will take the hits for liability claims that already have class-action lawyers licking their chops. State legislators will quickly rescind Segway laws, and Segway owners will be riding their white elephants in the street--if they feel like admitting they own this year's version of Edsel.
Maybe the way our system is set up large corps rise to the top.
You raise a good point...
Big companies do have many advantage--money to hire good people, economies of scale, lots of experience, etc. The fruits of such advantages get passed on to the consumer in better products.
That's not the issue with Microsoft.
When big companies use their muscle to hurt good products and promote bad ones--for example, by forcing manufacturers who want one of their products to take all of them, or by giving away their browser to take market share from competing products--these tricks are illegal. Deservedly so, in my opinion.
I hope the EU suit will result in a judgment with real teeth in it.
Let's hope the Europeans can succeed where our courts have failed. Does MS sell software at a loss in order to wipe out rivals? This document deserves to appear at SmokingGun.com.
For slashdotters who want to dream about Ceduna, you can link to a boatload of past eclipse photos at "MrEclipse.com".
One of my favorites shows the 1970 eclipse near total, with a diamond-ring effect". I actually saw that one--it was amazing. When the sky gets dark, the birds figure it's night and go roost in the trees. Beautiful.
Mr. Eclipse also links to Ceduna info, including an animation of the shadow's path across earth.
Hi Eric--welcome to Slashdot. I worry that other people won't see your post, and I don't want you to get zero replies! I am glad you are not taking the jokes personally--when people are trying to be funny, they are not thinking about you personally but about what funny thing to say next. Geeks are people who don't mind being strange because they have something they are really interested in other than worrying about what people think. So, being a geek is good in my book. Best wishes and good luck.
Hotmail is already a lot more annoying than Yahoo in the way it tries to push you toward its "premium" account level--msn sends me email almost every few days, promoting some aspect of paid service.
Worse than that, msn won't let me block messages where the From address includes my username, claiming that's the only way they know to send me admin messages. Only about a million spammers use that trick. Hello, Microsoft--think you might hire some programmers to solve that problem for you?
Mac lovers admit it--this iBook is gross!
on
Ants Invade iBook
·
· Score: 2
(At least, it is when it's full of ants.)
(Spooky voice)"Wait, Captain--these are no ordinary ants. Your iBook has... Java ANTS!".
Well, that's okay then.
Nerd humor, Tom Lehrer
on
Science Askew
·
· Score: 2
The irreverent songs of Tom Lehrer, then a young math instructor, were big hits with nerds in the 60s/70s. Some cool modern Flash-guru recently created an animation of Tom Lehrer's song "The Elements."
Successful philosophies claim to break one of these rules:
1. Capitalism promises that you can win.
2. Socialism promises that you can break even.
3. Mysticism says you can quit the game.
Not all nerd sex jokes...
on
Science Askew
·
· Score: 4, Funny
...are nerds-not-getting-laid jokes. Here's one of my favorites.
A man boards an airplane and takes his seat. As he settles in, he glances up and sees the most beautiful woman boarding the plane. He soon realizes that she is headed straight toward his seat. A wave of nervous anticipation sweeps over him.
Lo and behold, she takes the seat right beside his. Anxious to strike up a conversation, he blurts out, "So where are you flying to today?" She turns and smiles and says, "I'm giving a talk to the Sexual Freedom League."
Whoa! He swallows hard--here's the most gorgeous woman he's ever seen, sitting right next to him, and she's talking about sex!
Struggling to maintain his outward cool, he calmly asks, "And what's your talk about?" She looks into his eyes, and says, "I plan to debunk some of the popular myths about sexuality."
"Really," he says, swallowing hard, again. "And what myths are those?" She explains: "Well, one popular myth is that African American men are the most well-endowed. In my experience, the Native American is the most likely to possess this trait. Another popular myth is that Frenchmen are the best lovers. I have found, instead that men of Jewish descent make the very best lovers, on average."
"Very interesting," the man responds. Suddenly, the woman looks embarrassed and starts to blush. "I'm sorry," she says, "I feel awkward discussing this with you--why, I don't even know your name." The man extends his hand and replies, "It's Tonto. Tonto Goldstein."
Some of my favorites, short ones only...
on
Science Askew
·
· Score: 2
...(copied from AZG)
FIRST LAW OF COMPUTER SANITY (FORMULATED BY VON NEUMANN0
"In a day consisting of 24 hours, it is desirable that any computer should require less than 24 hours of maintenance."
COMPUTER START-UP COMPANIES FROM HELL
Did you hear about the computer start-up in Idaho that went nowhere faster than most? Seems they based their hardware on a potato chip.
How about the start-up over in Texas? Their selling point: in the whole world, you won't find a bigger microcomputer!"
SIGN OF THE TIMES (ON THE DOOR OF A CHEMICAL STOCKROOM)
Please do not smoke.
If you must smoke, please exit as quickly as possible
through the large hole that will appear in the roof.
Re:Absolute Zero Gravity
on
Science Askew
·
· Score: 2
What a nice review--thanks! AZG is out of print, but there are used copies available from AddAll Books at prices from $6.83 (delivered) to $28.98 (ridiculously overpriced!) Seriously, this is a little paperback, published at $8--don't pay more than $15--it's free at the library.
Betsy Devine, aka EnlightenmentFan
p.s. No, I don't get money if you buy a copy. No, I don't know Nate Elldredge, but he has great taste in books. No, I'm not writing a book of/. jokes, and if anybody here wants to write such a book, I wish that person well. Yes, I am too a nerd (engineer/physics type), despite my gender. Yes, I am writing another book, just not one about/.
The link teridon posted is actually NASA's "Astronomy picture of the day" for November 14. It's a closeup of the Sun, the best of those Swedish pictures featured in the story. You can also look over NASA's archive of such pix here. Incredible variety: for example "Leonids over Ayer's Rock", "Gullies on Mars", "Jupiter, Moon, and Bees."
Anyway, NASA puts up a new image every day, which you can check out by bookmarking this URL.
Re:Economic incentives do work...
on
Solar Power Play
·
· Score: 1
I'll try to live up to your very nice example--including, if this thing works the way I think it does, modding myself down to 1.
A lot of basic research is funded, right now, by government--it's a tiny fraction of what our taxes pay for. You are right that most research doesn't produce anything as great as polio vaccine. Does the cost to benefit ratio of research make it a good investment for our taxes? That depends on your estimate of the costs, the benefits, and the other stuff we could do with our money.
I can understand your reluctance to pay extra taxes for a speculative "investment" like solar power. I am probably too quick to suggest that government could fund this or that project I think of as an "investment." Let's not run for President and VP together! But let's be friendly when we argue on/.
Re:Economic incentives do work...
on
Solar Power Play
·
· Score: 1
So in other words, you're perfectly happy to let the government take away your money and spend it on whatever the government thinks it should...I wouldn't object much if the government were to subsidize research with the money it already has.
What amazing psychic powers. From my statement that I thought basic research was a good use of government money, you were able to deduce my secret intentions:
1) That there should be an immediate new tax to take money from your wallet to finance this
and 2) That the government should then spend this money on whatever it wants.
It's a fair cop. That's exactly what I meant. What psychic powers! I don't dare to debate you further.
... why would you comment on something that you knew nothing about? Think about that for a second. .
You must not have noticed, but/. has a category called "Funny." Posts declared "Funny" get modded up--that's to encourage people to post messages they think are funny.
I don't know where you got the idea I think only uber-geeks know that "trojan/Trojan horse" is slang for malicious code. Every mini-websurfer knows it--even I know it!
The connection of trojans with Trojans--it's just a joke. It made me smile when I thought of it, and I thought some/.ers might enjoy it too. I never imagined my silly joke would rouse some total stranger to total fury, or that days later he would still be treating me to pompous public lectures, modded at "2" to signify their "Informative" and "Interesting" nature to all/. readers.
I'm surprised Wired doesn't link to the online MS press release. In it, Craig Mundie, Senior Vice President (Advanced Strategies and Policy), flags two planned changes that will affect Microsoft TCO.
First of all, one of the big selling points of Wintel is that you have a wide choice of software. In the future, however, Mundie says that you can expect your old apps to be broken.
"We have decided that we will begrudgingly forsake certain app compatibility things when, in fact, they don't allow us to have a default configuration that opts for more security. In the past, the biggest thing that happened to us was IT managers would come to the company and say, hey, all those new features, they're great, all that new security stuff, that's great, but whatever you do don't break my app. So just turn it all off and trust me, we'll fix the apps and then we'll turn it all on. And the reality is that never happened.
And so we're going to tell people that even if it means we're going to break some of your apps we're going to make these things more secure and you're just going to have to go back and pay the price."
Notice that they're breaking your old apps not so they can sell you new ones, but purely in the interest of your security, and furthermore it's your fault they have to do this.
The other point Mundie makes is that, even after they sell you the new OS and the new apps, any security needed will be your responsibility, at your expense.
"And the other thing is that the customers, whether they're individuals or corporations, are going to have to make a decision about when and how much they spend to get these machines to be more secure. And to some extent you can do it by insulating them, to some extent you can do it by putting things around them or in front of them that protect them, you know, firewalls in some sense. And then in some cases, you can just replace them when you get new machines or new software or both that have intrinsically better capabilities."
Thanks, Microsoft, I'm glad you're looking out for my interests.
Microsoft products, right? There's a very interesting press release yesterday suggesting we don't yet know the future cost of Microsoft products.
Craig Mundie, Senior Vice President (Advanced Strategies and Policy), flags two planned changes that will affect Microsoft TCO.
First of all, one of the big selling points of Wintel is that you have a wide choice of software. In the future, however, Mundie says that you can expect your old apps to be broken.
"We have decided that we will begrudgingly forsake certain app compatibility things when, in fact, they don't allow us to have a default configuration that opts for more security. In the past, the biggest thing that happened to us was IT managers would come to the company and say, hey, all those new features, they're great, all that new security stuff, that's great, but whatever you do don't break my app. So just turn it all off and trust me, we'll fix the apps and then we'll turn it all on. And the reality is that never happened.
And so we're going to tell people that even if it means we're going to break some of your apps we're going to make these things more secure and you're just going to have to go back and pay the price."
Notice that they're breaking your old apps not so they can sell you new ones, but purely in the interest of your security, and furthermore it's your fault they have to do this.
The other change affecting your TCO is that, even though you just bought the new OS and the new apps, any security needed will be your responsibility, at your expense.
"And the other thing is that the customers, whether they're individuals or corporations, are going to have to make a decision about when and how much they spend to get these machines to be more secure. And to some extent you can do it by insulating them, to some extent you can do it by putting things around them or in front of them that protect them, you know, firewalls in some sense. And then in some cases, you can just replace them when you get new machines or new software or both that have intrinsically better capabilities."
So, when comparing your Linux TCO to your MS TCO, be sure you're factoring in the cost of replacing your software as often as MS wants you to and at of course at a price set by MS. Be sure you're factoring in whatever extra firewalls and virus protection you need against script kiddies exploiting a whole new generation of problems in MS software.
Slashdot Mirror
The news story we are commenting on is not "Segway invented." It is "Segway for sale." If someone is thinking about buying a Segway, that person should consider the speculation about reliability, insurance, state laws, public acceptance (whether or not the thing is *perceived* as safe). Because you could end up with a $5000 vehicle you use everywhere, or you could end up with a $5000 doorstop.
For example, would it be "research" if I published a book with a chapter of your book in it? IMO, even though I didn't use your whole book, you should still have a say in whether or not I get to use your chapter.
Or did I misunderstand you? Anyway, if I had mod points, I would have modded you up.
IMO these would be much more helpful to old people than a Segway. And if you need one, your medical insurance pays for it, according to a TV commercial I saw there.
Yes, they ride them on the sidewalks--slowly. And they all seem to be bright red. It looks very cheerful!
The only reason Segways are economically viable right now is that laws have been passed to let them use city sidewalks. Most cities haven't caught on to this yet, and won't catch on until March. But already city officials in both New Jersey and San Francisco are upset about Segways. This is the tip of the iceberg.
The point of the Segway was to reduce the number of cars on the road.
Yes, I know that's the hype they've been using in their round-the-country marketing sessions. How unusual, when all the other corporations just try to make money. BTW, what's up with that Buy-Segway-Give-Me-Commission link in your sig?
In case of collision, the Segway "backs up gently when it bumps an object and has low pressure tires that soften the force on anything it rides over."
..be aware of this website of a bunch of lawyers already making plans to soak Segway for millions.
Northern NJ towns are already regretting that hasty cave-in, according to this article. The state law Segway lobbyists pushed through prohibits towns from banning any "electric personal assistive mobility devices,'' says that story--the law " was passed after Segway, maker of the "Human Transporter,'' lobbied New Jersey's Legislature and others throughout the country."
So what's the problem? As a result, New Jersey towns have been unable to deal with the latest fad among local teenagers, electric scooters, which they ride on the sidewalks.
Note that the scooters now terrorizing North Jersey pedestrians are not "assistive devices" that deserve protection by the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)--neither is the Segway. These are vehicles you have to stand up on to drive. But affluent parents who bought these toys for their teens are calling on the protection of the ADA to keep them on the sidewalks and out of traffic. We can expect to see the same with the Segway.
San Francisco plans to fight back, according to this Examiner article. Senior-citizen activists and walkers protested they don't want to share their space with a 95 lb machine traveling 12 mph. "The whole point of sidewalks is to separate vehicles from pedestrians," says Walk San Francisco director Michael Smith.
IMO, the Segway is a pyramid scheme waiting to tumble. Early investors put up the cash for a massive publicity and lobbying campaign. They now have until March to lure unsuspecting buyers to buy their Segways, and unsuspecting investors to buy their stock.
In March it's all over. Once Segways hit the sidewalks, the pyramid crumbles. Whoever has money in Segways in March will take the hits for liability claims that already have class-action lawyers licking their chops. State legislators will quickly rescind Segway laws, and Segway owners will be riding their white elephants in the street--if they feel like admitting they own this year's version of Edsel.
You raise a good point...
Big companies do have many advantage--money to hire good people, economies of scale, lots of experience, etc. The fruits of such advantages get passed on to the consumer in better products.
That's not the issue with Microsoft. When big companies use their muscle to hurt good products and promote bad ones--for example, by forcing manufacturers who want one of their products to take all of them, or by giving away their browser to take market share from competing products--these tricks are illegal. Deservedly so, in my opinion.
I hope the EU suit will result in a judgment with real teeth in it.
Let's hope the Europeans can succeed where our courts have failed. Does MS sell software at a loss in order to wipe out rivals? This document deserves to appear at SmokingGun.com.
One of my favorites shows the 1970 eclipse near total, with a diamond-ring effect". I actually saw that one--it was amazing. When the sky gets dark, the birds figure it's night and go roost in the trees. Beautiful.
Mr. Eclipse also links to Ceduna info, including an animation of the shadow's path across earth.
Hi Eric--welcome to Slashdot. I worry that other people won't see your post, and I don't want you to get zero replies! I am glad you are not taking the jokes personally--when people are trying to be funny, they are not thinking about you personally but about what funny thing to say next. Geeks are people who don't mind being strange because they have something they are really interested in other than worrying about what people think. So, being a geek is good in my book. Best wishes and good luck.
Worse than that, msn won't let me block messages where the From address includes my username, claiming that's the only way they know to send me admin messages. Only about a million spammers use that trick. Hello, Microsoft--think you might hire some programmers to solve that problem for you?
(Spooky voice)"Wait, Captain--these are no ordinary ants. Your iBook has... Java ANTS!".
Well, that's okay then.
The irreverent songs of Tom Lehrer, then a young math instructor, were big hits with nerds in the 60s/70s. Some cool modern Flash-guru recently created an animation of Tom Lehrer's song "The Elements."
Successful philosophies claim to break one of these rules:
1. Capitalism promises that you can win.
2. Socialism promises that you can break even.
3. Mysticism says you can quit the game.
A man boards an airplane and takes his seat. As he settles in, he glances up and sees the most beautiful woman boarding the plane. He soon realizes that she is headed straight toward his seat. A wave of nervous anticipation sweeps over him.
Lo and behold, she takes the seat right beside his. Anxious to strike up a conversation, he blurts out, "So where are you flying to today?" She turns and smiles and says, "I'm giving a talk to the Sexual Freedom League."
Whoa! He swallows hard--here's the most gorgeous woman he's ever seen, sitting right next to him, and she's talking about sex! Struggling to maintain his outward cool, he calmly asks, "And what's your talk about?" She looks into his eyes, and says, "I plan to debunk some of the popular myths about sexuality."
"Really," he says, swallowing hard, again. "And what myths are those?" She explains: "Well, one popular myth is that African American men are the most well-endowed. In my experience, the Native American is the most likely to possess this trait. Another popular myth is that Frenchmen are the best lovers. I have found, instead that men of Jewish descent make the very best lovers, on average."
"Very interesting," the man responds. Suddenly, the woman looks embarrassed and starts to blush. "I'm sorry," she says, "I feel awkward discussing this with you--why, I don't even know your name." The man extends his hand and replies, "It's Tonto. Tonto Goldstein."
FIRST LAW OF COMPUTER SANITY (FORMULATED BY VON NEUMANN0
"In a day consisting of 24 hours, it is desirable that any computer should require less than 24 hours of maintenance."
COMPUTER START-UP COMPANIES FROM HELL
Did you hear about the computer start-up in Idaho that went nowhere faster than most? Seems they based their hardware on a potato chip.
How about the start-up over in Texas? Their selling point: in the whole world, you won't find a bigger microcomputer!"
SIGN OF THE TIMES (ON THE DOOR OF A CHEMICAL STOCKROOM)
Please do not smoke.
If you must smoke, please exit as quickly as possible
through the large hole that will appear in the roof.
Betsy Devine, aka EnlightenmentFan
p.s. No, I don't get money if you buy a copy. No, I don't know Nate Elldredge, but he has great taste in books. No, I'm not writing a book of /. jokes, and if anybody here wants to write such a book, I wish that person well. Yes, I am too a nerd (engineer/physics type), despite my gender. Yes, I am writing another book, just not one about /.
Check out the BBC's movie promo.
Anyway, NASA puts up a new image every day, which you can check out by bookmarking this URL.
A lot of basic research is funded, right now, by government--it's a tiny fraction of what our taxes pay for. You are right that most research doesn't produce anything as great as polio vaccine. Does the cost to benefit ratio of research make it a good investment for our taxes? That depends on your estimate of the costs, the benefits, and the other stuff we could do with our money.
I can understand your reluctance to pay extra taxes for a speculative "investment" like solar power. I am probably too quick to suggest that government could fund this or that project I think of as an "investment." Let's not run for President and VP together! But let's be friendly when we argue on /.
What amazing psychic powers. From my statement that I thought basic research was a good use of government money, you were able to deduce my secret intentions:
1) That there should be an immediate new tax to take money from your wallet to finance this
and 2) That the government should then spend this money on whatever it wants.
It's a fair cop. That's exactly what I meant. What psychic powers! I don't dare to debate you further.
Think about that for a second. .
You must not have noticed, but /. has a category called "Funny." Posts declared "Funny" get modded up--that's to encourage people to post messages they think are funny.
I don't know where you got the idea I think only uber-geeks know that "trojan/Trojan horse" is slang for malicious code. Every mini-websurfer knows it--even I know it!
The connection of trojans with Trojans--it's just a joke. It made me smile when I thought of it, and I thought some /.ers might enjoy it too. I never imagined my silly joke would rouse some total stranger to total fury, or that days later he would still be treating me to pompous public lectures, modded at "2" to signify their "Informative" and "Interesting" nature to all /. readers.
First of all, one of the big selling points of Wintel is that you have a wide choice of software. In the future, however, Mundie says that you can expect your old apps to be broken.
"We have decided that we will begrudgingly forsake certain app compatibility things when, in fact, they don't allow us to have a default configuration that opts for more security. In the past, the biggest thing that happened to us was IT managers would come to the company and say, hey, all those new features, they're great, all that new security stuff, that's great, but whatever you do don't break my app. So just turn it all off and trust me, we'll fix the apps and then we'll turn it all on. And the reality is that never happened.
And so we're going to tell people that even if it means we're going to break some of your apps we're going to make these things more secure and you're just going to have to go back and pay the price."
Notice that they're breaking your old apps not so they can sell you new ones, but purely in the interest of your security, and furthermore it's your fault they have to do this.
The other point Mundie makes is that, even after they sell you the new OS and the new apps, any security needed will be your responsibility, at your expense.
"And the other thing is that the customers, whether they're individuals or corporations, are going to have to make a decision about when and how much they spend to get these machines to be more secure. And to some extent you can do it by insulating them, to some extent you can do it by putting things around them or in front of them that protect them, you know, firewalls in some sense. And then in some cases, you can just replace them when you get new machines or new software or both that have intrinsically better capabilities."
Thanks, Microsoft, I'm glad you're looking out for my interests.
First of all, one of the big selling points of Wintel is that you have a wide choice of software. In the future, however, Mundie says that you can expect your old apps to be broken.
"We have decided that we will begrudgingly forsake certain app compatibility things when, in fact, they don't allow us to have a default configuration that opts for more security. In the past, the biggest thing that happened to us was IT managers would come to the company and say, hey, all those new features, they're great, all that new security stuff, that's great, but whatever you do don't break my app. So just turn it all off and trust me, we'll fix the apps and then we'll turn it all on. And the reality is that never happened.
And so we're going to tell people that even if it means we're going to break some of your apps we're going to make these things more secure and you're just going to have to go back and pay the price."
Notice that they're breaking your old apps not so they can sell you new ones, but purely in the interest of your security, and furthermore it's your fault they have to do this.
The other change affecting your TCO is that, even though you just bought the new OS and the new apps, any security needed will be your responsibility, at your expense.
"And the other thing is that the customers, whether they're individuals or corporations, are going to have to make a decision about when and how much they spend to get these machines to be more secure. And to some extent you can do it by insulating them, to some extent you can do it by putting things around them or in front of them that protect them, you know, firewalls in some sense. And then in some cases, you can just replace them when you get new machines or new software or both that have intrinsically better capabilities."
So, when comparing your Linux TCO to your MS TCO, be sure you're factoring in the cost of replacing your software as often as MS wants you to and at of course at a price set by MS. Be sure you're factoring in whatever extra firewalls and virus protection you need against script kiddies exploiting a whole new generation of problems in MS software.