The plant used an outdoor cesium pile. Literally, a pile. http://www.ratical.com/radiation/Chernobyl/Chernobyl@10p2.html
If you want polonium, smoke some cigarettes. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/01/opinion/01proctor.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_tobacco http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium
Yes, that's for the OS. But every application has its own update mechanism. And since there's not standard package or update system on the Mac, they're all different and can't be controlled centrally. There isn't even a standard way of removing applications or finding out what's installed.
Apple's apps - Safari, iWork apps, QuickTime, iTunes, etc. - all use the same utility application. to update themsevelves. If every one of those programs I listed changed since the last time you ran it, they all get listed at once. You do not have to run it one time for each.
As for third party applications, they really do not update all that frequently. Most seem to check for updates when they launch. If you are behind, they tell you and offer you a chance to update right then.
A lot of Mac apps seem to use Sparkle to handle their updating: http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org/
It would be nice if the Mac came with a package manager for third-party applications. Like Red Hat's RPM, or Debian's, or whatever.
I know it has been talked about but I do not know if one is forthcoming.
Mac apps do not seem to need complicated uninstallers like Windows apps.
Not sure, but it might be useful for printer/scanner drivers/apps. They seem to install a lot of stuff. Anything that installs a kernel extension would be nice if there was a standard uninstaller. Usually, the drive image for the product includes an uninstaller but that is not particularly useful place to have it.
Of course, it's b.s. from both Microsoft and Apple: when you buy their systems, you get an OS and a bunch of accessory applications. You then need to install the application software you actually want to use. And then you can get ready for being pestered constantly by applications that want to update themselves, security warnings, and all that other crap that comes with desktop OSes.
It is not as bad as you say, as far as the pestering goes. Macs let you specify how often they check for updates. You can go with daily, weekly, or whenever.
I find Apple comes out with updates about every 3-6 weeks. That is not all that frequently.
More in line with how Linux works than Windows, Macs do not require a reboot after every single update. Just things like: OS and Quicktime. Not after updating regular applications like iTunes and whatnot.
The recent update to Mac OS X is being mirrored by other computer makers. There were some serious flaws in how almost everyone was implementing SSL. It impacted web servers, web clients, and even some email servers and clients. Given how pervasive SSL is (e.g. HTTPS), Google would have had to update ChromeOS had it been an existing shipped product.
Most of the time, online update downloads/installs go pretty fast though not fast enough that you run them when you are getting ready to go someplace.
On the flip side, what if you have Google word processor for ChromeOS version 10 and Google decides that version 11 is so much better they are going to switch everyone over to it right away?
What if you have not had time to read the new documentation or you have users at your company who have not learned how to do it? Having it slammed down on their computer might make people unhappy. So, there could be policy/mechanism issues related to Google ChromeOS app updates too. Just different ones, is all.
Apple only licenses Mac OS X for sale on Macintosh. Violating software license is usually regarded as a copyright violation. Violating software/music/etc. copyrights is usually regarded as piracy and it has a high criminal/civil penalty.
Getting software "free" off of torrents, especially illegal software, is a good way to get Trojans installed on your computer. In fact, people who have done it recently have been the only ones to get onto botnets, get infected with worms that asked for money and stole data, etc. on certain platforms.
There is no honor among thieves and pirates are thieves.
The credentials of the people supplying the "hackintosh" hacks are not really known by the public. They could get lured into downloading a gaggle of their wares and then get a backdoor and then a worm, as has already happened with other OS hackers.
Most people don't want to dabble in this and hand over control of their systems to pirates and anyone who knows the mistakes pirates have made with their wares, by accident or on purpose.
Microsoft is in danger of seeing its products become less of a benchmark to aim for - more like a mile market to pass.
Microsoft did an impressive job of seizing Unix market share from Novell file servers and Unix servers & desktops in the 1990's.
They had a few strategies: 1. Offer cheap file serving without user limits
in desktop OS to get rid of Novell which had
high price tag and user limits. 2. Price significantly lower than Unix systems. 3. Hang a "legacy" label on Unix systems. 4. Push Office applications as reason to get OS.
This is one take on the Windows vs. ChromeOS rivalry: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9135288/Google_s_Chrome_OS_poses_long_term_threat_to_Microsoft
I agree that the battle is hypothetical now.
However, having watched a number of technology niche takeovers, I noticed something. The challenging products that are game changers usually overtake an overconfident incumbent by offering blatant advantages such as these: * price * maintenance/operation costs (TCO) * graphics quality & system performance * expandability * ease of use and user empowerment
Linux and perhaps ChromeOS blow away Windows on the first 2 points
Graphics quality & performance will depend on the systems Google management selects/allows to run ChromeOS on. At a whim, almost - they could make it very high performance. Of course, apps and/or utilities have to take advantage of it to get it used but they might already have started the process of fostering those.
Expandability of a ChromeOS cloud client computer is going to offer virtual resources so local ones will be less important. It is conceivable that a Mac or Linux/Windows PC with a scanner in your home or office could be configured as a resource providing a scanner service - accessed via a URL or a web service API via negotiation with the cloud or tunneling through it
Nothing revolutionary there and it keeps the ChromeOS cloud client simple, flexible, and cheap. At the same time it allows the user to capitalize on their existing OS. Security is the tricky thing. Jini finally created a decent scheme for that for Java applications but it took time. UPnP has been been problematic and it let cybercrooks take over systems. Google has advantage of being able to look at past things that worked and failed and avoid going down wrong paths.
Empowerment for office app suite users already exists. Google has their web based word processor, spreadsheet, etc. Running on Linux lets them harness Open Office if they wish, as well, though they might not want it running inside ChromeOS for security & archicture reasons. Does not matter
Virtualization can be seamlessly integrated onto a desktop allowing apps running under two OS to coexist, even to the point where their windows overlapp each other.
Ease of use is largely a degree of how smooth Google does the GUI design. HCI is far ahead of were it was a couple decades ago, yielding a lot of sound principles, software mechanisms, and hardware devices. Microsoft, by no means, has ever had a corner on the market of ease of use.
Malware has really messed up ease of use for users. It is not really safe to use a Windows system carelessly, and caring to keep a Windows system safe takes a lot of work. Individual users who relied completely on iT department to protect them have lost a personal fortune after being blamed for the actions of malware. Take the man who worked for Massachusetts, for example, as well as school teachers in the US & UK. Their use of the computer for business, ultimately, was not easy on them.
Simply using the computer to do online banking has proven incredibly costly for some companies and churches this year. They lost tens to hundreds of thousand of dollars. Their OS got compromised and malware embezzled a fortune.
Surprisingly, increasing security does not seem to be a game changer. At least in the past it has not.
Maybe I missed something but I thought ChromeOS was for desktop computers with full sized keyboards and all, and Droid was for little cell phones with little tiny keyboards.
Would anyone like typing in a one page memo on their cell phone?
Sigh, every time a computer-making OS vendor does something nice for their customers, god kills a pirate.
My Mac seems to be running a little faster since OS 10.6.2 came out. I cannot see how there is any problem with it.
The OS is only warranted to run on Apple's Macintosh hardware so suck it up. Why should Apple have to do compatibility testing for every computer ever built, including ones they never made/licensed/owned/saw?
If your Dell/HP/Acer PC maker claimed in ads, statements, or online that their product ran Apple's OS X then return your system to the vendor that sold it.
Apple does not do software returns. Nobody does. In fact, if you prove that Windows is defective they will only give you $5 and good luck collecting that.
Part of optimizing code is looking what all the target hardware - and other domain entities - have in common and figuring out how to help it. In graphics, you do viewport clipping. In audio/video, you can do somewhat lossy compression for non-master copies. In hardware, you wring all the performance you can out of the hardware you are running on.
I will do a lo-rez crash course in computer history over most of the past half century to make the point that the intrinsic quality of an OS seems to be what gives it staying power. By low-rez I mean I am clipping out lots of bit players or companies that are redundant in the big picture.
In the mid-1970's, when 8-bit microprocessors first came out, there were two kind of computers.
The CP/M computers all used the same 8-bit OS which was in spirit, and some say body, the precursor of MS-DOS (born "SCP-DOS" since Microsoft licensed it for $60K instead of writing it themselves).
When IBM invented PC who made the BASIC used in almost every microcomputer at the time. Microsoft had no OS so they license SCP-DOS really fast and then rel-icensed it to IBM for a low-rate per system that quickly added up.
CP/M died pretty quickly after that, taking the 8-bit systems with it and some 16-bit systems that had moved up to CP/M-16. They pretty all died together. Moral is, if you are different brand computers who share a common OS and the OS becomes uninteresting you ALL become uninteresting at once.
The Commodore PET was replaced with the Amiga (which died ages ago), the Apple II was replaced with the Macintosh - and the TRS-80 went threw a few iterations, then became a PC clone and then went away.
I will limit discussion of minicomputer to just this: they had Unix and they had one-off operating systems.
Just before those microcomputers were around, there were mainframes. IBM had mostly batch systems that were appalling, Univac, Sperry, Control Data Corporation, Cray, etc. And a computer named Multics that had a secure, interactive operating system which Unix was loosely based on. These brands had their own OS except for one little anomaly.
A company named AMDAHL made an IBM mainframe clone (yes, but do not freak out yet). AMDAHL and IBM feuded a lot, vying for customers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahl_Corporation
Amdahl's customers were allowed to license IBM's OS and run it on their computers. The reason was IBM had a monopoly (and acted like it) so they ran afoul of the DOJ. Amdahl computers were cheaper than IBM computers.
Anyway, history of the computer industry clearly shows there is no one "right" way for an OS to work. At any given point over the past three and a half decades, there have been some operating systems that only ran on the brand of computer who invented it and some that were mostly voluntarily licensed out to OEMs.
Apple II was way more foolproof & fun computer to use than CP/M computers. The Mac OS was way better than MS-DOS for doing white color work.
Multics was laid to rest in the mid 1980's having been sold to some very chic, though mostly discrete, rich customers. Sadly, Multics passed having never exceeded microscopic market share. However, the ripples it sent downstream early in its life shaped the operating systems and the computer security models we use today.
Unix, its heir, was kind of king in the late 1980's and early 1990's for business users and some hobbyists ran the one inexpensive commercial distribution of it.
Macs with System 7 were too slow in the mid-1990's compared to MS-Windows 95 PCs, and Linux was still a bit shaky. But by 2001, all 3 operating systems had found their legs and were coming out with new versions that got great acceptance in the market place.
Amdahl had faded away not being able to keep up up the relentless pace of IBM's hardware innovation, leaving IBM mainframes cloneless for the first time in a quarter century. IBM very roughly around this time introduced Linux to zOS, a fusion of several decades of proprietary mainframe technologies that runs on the 64-bit zSeries mainframes. It was the 64-bit zSeries that dealt the death blow to 31-bit Amdahl machines in 2000.
Today, about 70% of IBM PC clones still run Windows XP which came out in 2001. Ma
Small correction: on the line where $499 price is, the price is correct price for the server software. The URL points to completely wrong product (MacMini computer which costs $599 with desktop Snow Leopard).
The URL was intended to be:
http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/
and that does clearly show the Snow Leopard server OS to be only $499, as I said.
Right on, there are free Linux distros you can get and use to create a server without spending a cent on software.
In fact, you do not have to go Linux for a free enterprise server OS. Like you say, there is BSD. FreeBSD is one option and Apple's own Darwin is another option. They're both free and both open source, like Linux.
There are also commercially sold Linux enterprise server distros for people who do not want to a product that includes enterprise whistles & bells, plus paid support.
Taking Red Hat Linux Enterprise server with unlimited connections as an example, that runs $6,500 to $6,800. I just now pulled that price range up using Google. Everyone (Buy.com and a bunch of others) was selling it in that price range.
That is why I said $1 to $999 price range. Unlimited Linux servers come in at either free - or else you pay over a grand for them. For people who get a "comfort" from knowing they get the exact same product & service as a lot of other people are using - at an affordable price, it is a nice niche.
As for the Apple one, the SRP for that is well known: $499 for Snow Leopard Server OS alone, and $999 for the same thing bundled with a Mac Mini it can run on.
For the price Microsoft charges for the software alone to run fifty users, you can buy yourself an armload of Macmini+SnowLeopard servers, each of which has unlimited users.
I think we have all seen a hardware device or complete hardware subsystem/feature stop working after running Windows Update. We know why it happens too. With Apple, their hardware and system software engineers work at the same company. So the CM problems that plague the OEMs/VAR in certain other OS market(s) do not apply with Apple OS/hw.
I think we have all hunted for an audio, LAN, or Wi-Fi driver on occasion for a Linux box we just brought up too.
Apple includes RAID software on both server and desktop versions of Snow Leopard (OS X). So many people mess up with RAID.
Look at what Microsoft did with killing the data in the Danger/Sidekick cloud last month. Again, shows the risk of distributing too much of your stuff to different parties - OS vendor, system hardware vendor, maintenance vendor. With Sidekick, that proved to be the perfect storm in an imperfect cloud.
I think Apple picked a good price point for their software-only and sw/hw bundle server. Why pay more and expect less?
Exactly, and Apple owns the $1 to $1K server OS market too.
In fact, Apple sells a Snow Leopard server (software+hardware) for total price of just $999.
Microsoft charges about $1500 for a crippleware 5-user only Windows 2008 server. They refuse to include any hardware even at that high price, despite the fact they crippled the software. Taking it to 50 users will cost you around $5K and still you will not get any hardware with it.
Apple does not limit the number of users allowed to use their server. Just like they don't limit the number of apps their OS allows notebooks to run.
First off, make sure you really want to be a programmer.
If you absolutely hate reading - forget it. Some people try to "fake" being a programmer by just taking bits of something a programmer wrote, modifying it, and passing it off as a solution. As often as not - what they have created is a problem.
If you like to read, enjoy dealing with details, solving problems, seeing both the forest and the trees at the same time, are good at memorizing things that are written down, and are good with logic - you could make a really good programmer.
If it sounds like programming is something you want to try for yourself, you are in luck. These days, the tools, the tutorials, tons of sample programs, and lots of encouragement are abundant and free.
1. http://java.sun.com/ - download Java - specifically, J6SE (JDK 1.6) for your computer, unless you have a Mac in which case you already have J5SE or J6SE. Install it, and the accompanying documentation according to the directions on the download page. Then reboot.
2. http://www.eclipse.org/ - download Eclipse Ganymede bundle (Eclipse 3.4 with good selection of optional plugins preinstalled). Installation generally boils down to unzipping it and dragging the folder that produces to C:\ - or, if you are on Unix/Linux/MacOSX then to your home directory. Grab a local friend who knows Java to show you how to write a really short program that prints out "hello, world" in Java using Eclipse.
3. http://java.sun.com/tutorial - download the Java tutorial and start reading it. It is written in an informal, helpful style. If you have a friend at your side, they can explain things and answer questions as you read through it. That will help you a lot. You will be trying to form a picture of what goes on in programs, what Java is all about, why Java does certain things, etc. Your friend will help a lot. Guesses and searching all over the web for more clues will just slow you down. Read enough to get started. Mastery can come later.
4. Write some astonishingly simple and useless programs. Do not kill your aspirations off by trying to kill two birds with one stone. This is not the time to write a spreadsheet, a chess game, an accounting program, or a web browser. Just write simple little things with no GUI at first. Stuff like this:
a.) Print all integers from 1 to 10. This teaches you to write loops. You will have easiest time if you use a for-loop.
b.) Print list of all Fahrenheit degrees from 0 to 212 and next to each of those, print the equivalent temperature in Celsius. This teaches you to write simple mathematical expressions, and gives you practice writing another for-loop.
c.) Read some text from the keyboard or from the command line, and then print it out backwards; e.g. "Ten becomes one" is output as "eno semoceb neT". This gets you started at manipulating Strings.
d.) Write a program that defines a group of classes. Make sure you use some inheritance ("extends") and some polymorphism. The latter simply means that you define a method in a subclass that has same declaration as a method in its super class(es) but giving it a different implementation. These two things are key to writing powerful object oriented programs - which is one huge reason for Java's success.
e.) Read up on encapsulation. It enforces a little discipline on how classes can get at each other's data. Such rigor becomes very important in read software projects that involve large programs or more than one programmer.
f.) Now you have completed the basics. You have written some simple programs, so you know which way is up and the basic steps in writing any program. You have an integrated development environment (IDE) set up that makes it easy to enter, edit, debug, and run programs. So, now dream up some more short, easy programs to do. Try to choose a program you will have learn just one or two things in order to write it. Better to write 10 simple-as-heck short programs than one huge complicated one that you never fini
The so-called iTV from Apple costs half to a third of the price of a so-called Media PC. It is an appliance. The media center PCs are a tricked-up, slightly extra expensive version of a regular PC running a regular version of MS Windows XP.
Apple has done a lot of stuff with wireless networking features that other companies have not matched.
Look at Airport Express "Air Tunes" integration with iTunes running on a Mac or Win 2000/XP PC, for example.
Apple might be pulling some cool, unexpected features out of its hat with this device too.
Apple pioneered wireless LANs years before other mainstream computer makers caught up. Apple was the first big computer company to decisively back 802.11g and commit to it with real products. Sounds like Apple will be supporting high-def TV, possibly by introducing even faster wireless LAN capability.
Plus, I think you have to watch what kind of operating systems you scatter around your house. The upkeep of a PC requires an IT department, an extremely savvy and well-equipped user/owner, or regular trips to the store for expensive "cleaning".
An appliance is probably not maintenance-free but it is probably far less hassle to maintain than an entire computer with an entire OS.\
Who wants to have to run Windows-or-whatever Update on their TV set every month, or worse - right as their favorite TV show is coming on? ("Honey, is the set turned on so we can watch 'Desperate Housewives'?" "Uh, yes and no. It is on but it is doing a 5 minute maintenance cycle so we don't have any problems with that new 'Code Burnt Sienna'. We will just have to miss the first 5 minutes of the show. I did not really want to see how the cliffhanger at the end of the episode last week resolved itself anyway.")
Sometimes a lot less for a lot less is much better.
Apple rakes in billions of dollars in music sales through the iTunes store and the authors make an observation that a lot of iPod owners are buying music from iTunes store.
Maybe the tooth fairy is slipping the money under Steve Job's pillow at night?
Everyone has a mouth but you do not see a Big Mac in every one of them.
Still, no one concludes that "McDonalds franchises are ignored by most people." If the bottom line matters, someone looks at the bottom line. Looking at how many people do not buy something only computes how much the potential customer base can grow if suitable changes are made.
Slashdot Mirror
The plant used an outdoor cesium pile.
Literally, a pile.
http://www.ratical.com/radiation/Chernobyl/Chernobyl@10p2.html
If you want polonium, smoke some cigarettes.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/01/opinion/01proctor.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_tobacco
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polonium
Yes, that's for the OS. But every application has its own update mechanism. And since there's not standard package or update system on the Mac, they're all different and can't be controlled centrally. There isn't even a standard way of removing applications or finding out what's installed.
Apple's apps - Safari, iWork apps, QuickTime, iTunes, etc. - all use the same utility application. to update themsevelves. If every one of those programs I listed changed since the last time you ran it, they all get listed at once. You do not have to run it one time for each.
As for third party applications, they really do not update all that frequently. Most seem to check for updates when they launch. If you are behind, they tell you and offer you a chance to update right then.
A lot of Mac apps seem to use Sparkle to handle their updating: http://sparkle.andymatuschak.org/
It would be nice if the Mac came with a package manager for third-party applications. Like Red Hat's RPM, or Debian's, or whatever.
I know it has been talked about but I do not know if one is forthcoming.
Mac apps do not seem to need complicated uninstallers like Windows apps.
Not sure, but it might be useful for printer/scanner drivers/apps. They seem to install a lot of stuff. Anything that installs a kernel extension would be nice if there was a standard uninstaller. Usually, the drive image for the product includes an uninstaller but that is not particularly useful place to have it.
Of course, it's b.s. from both Microsoft and Apple: when you buy their systems, you get an OS and a bunch of accessory applications. You then need to install the application software you actually want to use. And then you can get ready for being pestered constantly by applications that want to update themselves, security warnings, and all that other crap that comes with desktop OSes.
It is not as bad as you say, as far as the pestering goes. Macs let you specify how often they check for updates. You can go with daily, weekly, or whenever.
I find Apple comes out with updates about every 3-6 weeks. That is not all that frequently.
More in line with how Linux works than Windows, Macs do not require a reboot after every single update. Just things like: OS and Quicktime. Not after updating regular applications like iTunes and whatnot.
The recent update to Mac OS X is being mirrored by other computer makers. There were some serious flaws in how almost everyone was implementing SSL. It impacted web servers, web clients, and even some email servers and clients. Given how pervasive SSL is (e.g. HTTPS), Google would have had to update ChromeOS had it been an existing shipped product.
Most of the time, online update downloads/installs go pretty fast though not fast enough that you run them when you are getting ready to go someplace.
On the flip side, what if you have Google word processor for ChromeOS version 10 and Google decides that version 11 is so much better they are going to switch everyone over to it right away?
What if you have not had time to read the new documentation or you have users at your company who have not learned how to do it? Having it slammed down on their computer might make people unhappy. So, there could be policy/mechanism issues related to Google ChromeOS app updates too. Just different ones, is all.
Actually, the company that should be nervous about this development is Citrix.
ChromeOS will allow companies to use remote applications and store the data remotely instead of on the PC. Just what Citrix does.
And Citrix has the steep cost & risks disadvantage that comes along with the territory of being a Windows app yourself. ChromeOS does not.
Apple only licenses Mac OS X for sale on Macintosh. Violating software license is usually regarded as a copyright violation. Violating software/music/etc. copyrights is usually regarded as piracy and it has a high criminal/civil penalty.
Getting software "free" off of torrents, especially illegal software, is a good way to get Trojans installed on your computer. In fact, people who have done it recently have been the only ones to get onto botnets, get infected with worms that asked for money and stole data, etc. on certain platforms.
There is no honor among thieves and pirates are thieves.
The credentials of the people supplying the "hackintosh" hacks are not really known by the public. They could get lured into downloading a gaggle of their wares and then get a backdoor and then a worm, as has already happened with other OS hackers.
Most people don't want to dabble in this and hand over control of their systems to pirates and anyone who knows the mistakes pirates have made with their wares, by accident or on purpose.
Microsoft is in danger of seeing its products become less of a benchmark to aim for - more like a mile market to pass.
Microsoft did an impressive job of seizing Unix market share from Novell file servers and Unix servers & desktops in the 1990's.
They had a few strategies:
1. Offer cheap file serving without user limits
in desktop OS to get rid of Novell which had
high price tag and user limits.
2. Price significantly lower than Unix systems.
3. Hang a "legacy" label on Unix systems.
4. Push Office applications as reason to get OS.
This is one take on the Windows vs. ChromeOS rivalry: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9135288/Google_s_Chrome_OS_poses_long_term_threat_to_Microsoft
I agree that the battle is hypothetical now.
However, having watched a number of technology niche takeovers, I noticed something. The challenging products that are game changers usually overtake an overconfident incumbent by offering blatant advantages such as these:
* price
* maintenance/operation costs (TCO)
* graphics quality & system performance
* expandability
* ease of use and user empowerment
Linux and perhaps ChromeOS blow away Windows on the first 2 points
Graphics quality & performance will depend on the systems Google management selects/allows to run ChromeOS on. At a whim, almost - they could make it very high performance. Of course, apps and/or utilities have to take advantage of it to get it used but they might already have started the process of fostering those.
Expandability of a ChromeOS cloud client computer is going to offer virtual resources so local ones will be less important. It is conceivable that a Mac or Linux/Windows PC with a scanner in your home or office could be configured as a resource providing a scanner service - accessed via a URL or a web service API via negotiation with the cloud or tunneling through it
Nothing revolutionary there and it keeps the ChromeOS cloud client simple, flexible, and cheap. At the same time it allows the user to capitalize on their existing OS. Security is the tricky thing. Jini finally created a decent scheme for that for Java applications but it took time. UPnP has been been problematic and it let cybercrooks take over systems. Google has advantage of being able to look at past things that worked and failed and avoid going down wrong paths.
Empowerment for office app suite users already exists. Google has their web based word processor, spreadsheet, etc. Running on Linux lets them harness Open Office if they wish, as well, though they might not want it running inside ChromeOS for security & archicture reasons. Does not matter
Virtualization can be seamlessly integrated onto a desktop allowing apps running under two OS to coexist, even to the point where their windows overlapp each other.
Ease of use is largely a degree of how smooth Google does the GUI design. HCI is far ahead of were it was a couple decades ago, yielding a lot of sound principles, software mechanisms, and hardware devices. Microsoft, by no means, has ever had a corner on the market of ease of use.
Malware has really messed up ease of use for users. It is not really safe to use a Windows system carelessly, and caring to keep a Windows system safe takes a lot of work. Individual users who relied completely on iT department to protect them have lost a personal fortune after being blamed for the actions of malware. Take the man who worked for Massachusetts, for example, as well as school teachers in the US & UK. Their use of the computer for business, ultimately, was not easy on them.
Simply using the computer to do online banking has proven incredibly costly for some companies and churches this year. They lost tens to hundreds of thousand of dollars. Their OS got compromised and malware embezzled a fortune.
Surprisingly, increasing security does not seem to be a game changer. At least in the past it has not.
Maybe I missed something but I thought ChromeOS was for desktop computers with full sized keyboards and all, and Droid was for little cell phones with little tiny keyboards.
Would anyone like typing in a one page memo on their cell phone?
Sigh, every time a computer-making OS vendor does something nice for their customers, god kills a pirate.
My Mac seems to be running a little faster since OS 10.6.2 came out. I cannot see how there is any problem with it.
The OS is only warranted to run on Apple's Macintosh hardware so suck it up. Why should Apple have to do compatibility testing for every computer ever built, including ones they never made/licensed/owned/saw?
If your Dell/HP/Acer PC maker claimed in ads, statements, or online that their product ran Apple's OS X then return your system to the vendor that sold it.
Apple does not do software returns. Nobody does. In fact, if you prove that Windows is defective they will only give you $5 and good luck collecting that.
Part of optimizing code is looking what all the target hardware - and other domain entities - have in common and figuring out how to help it. In graphics, you do viewport clipping. In audio/video, you can do somewhat lossy compression for non-master copies. In hardware, you wring all the performance you can out of the hardware you are running on.
Pirates, you are not in the architecture.
I will do a lo-rez crash course in computer history over most of the past half century to make the point that the intrinsic quality of an OS seems to be what gives it staying power. By low-rez I mean I am clipping out lots of bit players or companies that are redundant in the big picture.
In the mid-1970's, when 8-bit microprocessors first came out, there were two kind of computers.
CP/M computers (Imsai, Altair, Processor Technology)
one-off computers (PET, TRS-80, Apple II)
The CP/M computers all used the same 8-bit OS which was in spirit, and some say body, the precursor of MS-DOS (born "SCP-DOS" since Microsoft licensed it for $60K instead of writing it themselves).
When IBM invented PC who made the BASIC used in almost every microcomputer at the time. Microsoft had no OS so they license SCP-DOS really fast and then rel-icensed it to IBM for a low-rate per system that quickly added up.
CP/M died pretty quickly after that, taking the 8-bit systems with it and some 16-bit systems that had moved up to CP/M-16. They pretty all died together. Moral is, if you are different brand computers who share a common OS and the OS becomes uninteresting you ALL become uninteresting at once.
The Commodore PET was replaced with the Amiga (which died ages ago), the Apple II was replaced with the Macintosh - and the TRS-80 went threw a few iterations, then became a PC clone and then went away.
I will limit discussion of minicomputer to just this: they had Unix and they had one-off operating systems.
Just before those microcomputers were around, there were mainframes. IBM had mostly batch systems that were appalling, Univac, Sperry, Control Data Corporation, Cray, etc. And a computer named Multics that had a secure, interactive operating system which Unix was loosely based on. These brands had their own OS except for one little anomaly.
A company named AMDAHL made an IBM mainframe clone (yes, but do not freak out yet). AMDAHL and IBM feuded a lot, vying for customers.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amdahl_Corporation
Amdahl's customers were allowed to license IBM's OS and run it on their computers. The reason was IBM had a monopoly (and acted like it) so they ran afoul of the DOJ. Amdahl computers were cheaper than IBM computers.
Anyway, history of the computer industry clearly shows there is no one "right" way for an OS to work. At any given point over the past three and a half decades, there have been some operating systems that only ran on the brand of computer who invented it and some that were mostly voluntarily licensed out to OEMs.
Apple II was way more foolproof & fun computer to use than CP/M computers. The Mac OS was way better than MS-DOS for doing white color work.
Multics was laid to rest in the mid 1980's having been sold to some very chic, though mostly discrete, rich customers. Sadly, Multics passed having never exceeded microscopic market share. However, the ripples it sent downstream early in its life shaped the operating systems and the computer security models we use today.
Unix, its heir, was kind of king in the late 1980's and early 1990's for business users and some hobbyists ran the one inexpensive commercial distribution of it.
Macs with System 7 were too slow in the mid-1990's compared to MS-Windows 95 PCs, and Linux was still a bit shaky. But by 2001, all 3 operating systems had found their legs and were coming out with new versions that got great acceptance in the market place.
Amdahl had faded away not being able to keep up up the relentless pace of IBM's hardware innovation, leaving IBM mainframes cloneless for the first time in a quarter century. IBM very roughly around this time introduced Linux to zOS, a fusion of several decades of proprietary mainframe technologies that runs on the 64-bit zSeries mainframes. It was the 64-bit zSeries that dealt the death blow to 31-bit Amdahl machines in 2000.
Today, about 70% of IBM PC clones still run Windows XP which came out in 2001. Ma
Small correction: on the line where $499 price is, the price is correct price for the server software. The URL points to completely wrong product (MacMini computer which costs $599 with desktop Snow Leopard).
The URL was intended to be:
http://www.apple.com/server/macosx/
and that does clearly show the Snow Leopard server OS to be only $499, as I said.
Right on, there are free Linux distros you can get and use to create a server without spending a cent on software.
In fact, you do not have to go Linux for a free enterprise server OS. Like you say, there is BSD. FreeBSD is one option and Apple's own Darwin is another option. They're both free and both open source, like Linux.
http://www.opensource.apple.com/
http://www.apple.com/opensource/
http://www.freebsd.org/
There are also commercially sold Linux enterprise server distros for people who do not want to a product that includes enterprise whistles & bells, plus paid support.
Taking Red Hat Linux Enterprise server with unlimited connections as an example, that runs $6,500 to $6,800. I just now pulled that price range up using Google. Everyone (Buy.com and a bunch of others) was selling it in that price range.
That is why I said $1 to $999 price range. Unlimited Linux servers come in at either free - or else you pay over a grand for them. For people who get a "comfort" from knowing they get the exact same product & service as a lot of other people are using - at an affordable price, it is a nice niche.
As for the Apple one, the SRP for that is well known: $499 for Snow Leopard Server OS alone, and $999 for the same thing bundled with a Mac Mini it can run on.
Here is the citation you asked for:
http://www.apple.com/macmini/ $499
http://www.apple.com/macmini/server/ $999
For the price Microsoft charges for the software alone to run fifty users, you can buy yourself an armload of Macmini+SnowLeopard servers, each of which has unlimited users.
I think we have all seen a hardware device or complete hardware subsystem/feature stop working after running Windows Update. We know why it happens too. With Apple, their hardware and system software engineers work at the same company. So the CM problems that plague the OEMs/VAR in certain other OS market(s) do not apply with Apple OS/hw.
I think we have all hunted for an audio, LAN, or Wi-Fi driver on occasion for a Linux box we just brought up too.
Apple includes RAID software on both server and desktop versions of Snow Leopard (OS X). So many people mess up with RAID.
Look at what Microsoft did with killing the data in the Danger/Sidekick cloud last month. Again, shows the risk of distributing too much of your stuff to different parties - OS vendor, system hardware vendor, maintenance vendor. With Sidekick, that proved to be the perfect storm in an imperfect cloud.
I think Apple picked a good price point for their software-only and sw/hw bundle server. Why pay more and expect less?
Exactly, and Apple owns the $1 to $1K server OS market too.
In fact, Apple sells a Snow Leopard server (software+hardware) for total price of just $999.
Microsoft charges about $1500 for a crippleware 5-user only Windows 2008 server. They refuse to include any hardware even at that high price, despite the fact they crippled the software. Taking it to 50 users will cost you around $5K and still you will not get any hardware with it.
Apple does not limit the number of users allowed to use their server. Just like they don't limit the number of apps their OS allows notebooks to run.
First off, make sure you really want to be a programmer.
If you absolutely hate reading - forget it. Some people try to "fake" being a programmer by just taking bits of something a programmer wrote, modifying it, and passing it off as a solution. As often as not - what they have created is a problem.
If you like to read, enjoy dealing with details, solving problems, seeing both the forest and the trees at the same time, are good at memorizing things that are written down, and are good with logic - you could make a really good programmer.
If it sounds like programming is something you want to try for yourself, you are in luck. These days, the tools, the tutorials, tons of sample programs, and lots of encouragement are abundant and free.
1. http://java.sun.com/ - download Java - specifically, J6SE (JDK 1.6) for your computer, unless you have a Mac in which case you already have J5SE or J6SE. Install it, and the accompanying documentation according to the directions on the download page. Then reboot.
2. http://www.eclipse.org/ - download Eclipse Ganymede bundle (Eclipse 3.4 with good selection of optional plugins preinstalled). Installation generally boils down to unzipping it and dragging the folder that produces to C:\ - or, if you are on Unix/Linux/MacOSX then to your home directory. Grab a local friend who knows Java to show you how to write a really short program that prints out "hello, world" in Java using Eclipse.
3. http://java.sun.com/tutorial - download the Java tutorial and start reading it. It is written in an informal, helpful style. If you have a friend at your side, they can explain things and answer questions as you read through it. That will help you a lot. You will be trying to form a picture of what goes on in programs, what Java is all about, why Java does certain things, etc. Your friend will help a lot. Guesses and searching all over the web for more clues will just slow you down. Read enough to get started. Mastery can come later.
4. Write some astonishingly simple and useless programs. Do not kill your aspirations off by trying to kill two birds with one stone. This is not the time to write a spreadsheet, a chess game, an accounting program, or a web browser. Just write simple little things with no GUI at first. Stuff like this:
a.) Print all integers from 1 to 10. This teaches you to write loops. You will have easiest time if you use a for-loop.
b.) Print list of all Fahrenheit degrees from 0 to 212 and next to each of those, print the equivalent temperature in Celsius. This teaches you to write simple mathematical expressions, and gives you practice writing another for-loop.
c.) Read some text from the keyboard or from the command line, and then print it out backwards; e.g. "Ten becomes one" is output as "eno semoceb neT". This gets you started at manipulating Strings.
d.) Write a program that defines a group of classes. Make sure you use some inheritance ("extends") and some polymorphism. The latter simply means that you define a method in a subclass that has same declaration as a method in its super class(es) but giving it a different implementation. These two things are key to writing powerful object oriented programs - which is one huge reason for Java's success.
e.) Read up on encapsulation. It enforces a little discipline on how classes can get at each other's data. Such rigor becomes very important in read software projects that involve large programs or more than one programmer.
f.) Now you have completed the basics. You have written some simple programs, so you know which way is up and the basic steps in writing any program. You have an integrated development environment (IDE) set up that makes it easy to enter, edit, debug, and run programs. So, now dream up some more short, easy programs to do. Try to choose a program you will have learn just one or two things in order to write it. Better to write 10 simple-as-heck short programs than one huge complicated one that you never fini
Safari 3.1 supports major HTML 5 features like video and audio. It is based on WebKit.
Why would Google have to add HTML 5 to WebKit too?
It does not do that on its own and history has shown more than once that routing around damage takes a while.
The so-called iTV from Apple costs half to a third of the price of a so-called Media PC. It is an appliance. The media center PCs are a tricked-up, slightly extra expensive version of a regular PC running a regular version of MS Windows XP.
Apple has done a lot of stuff with wireless networking features that other companies have not matched.
Look at Airport Express "Air Tunes" integration with iTunes running on a Mac or Win 2000/XP PC, for example.
Apple might be pulling some cool, unexpected features out of its hat with this device too.
Apple pioneered wireless LANs years before other mainstream computer makers caught up. Apple was the first big computer company to decisively back 802.11g and commit to it with real products. Sounds like Apple will be supporting high-def TV, possibly by introducing even faster wireless LAN capability.
Plus, I think you have to watch what kind of operating systems you scatter around your house. The upkeep of a PC requires an IT department, an extremely savvy and well-equipped user/owner, or regular trips to the store for expensive "cleaning".
An appliance is probably not maintenance-free but it is probably far less hassle to maintain than an entire computer with an entire OS.\
Who wants to have to run Windows-or-whatever Update on their TV set every month, or worse - right as their favorite TV show is coming on? ("Honey, is the set turned on so we can watch 'Desperate Housewives'?" "Uh, yes and no. It is on but it is doing a 5 minute maintenance cycle so we don't have any problems with that new 'Code Burnt Sienna'. We will just have to miss the first 5 minutes of the show. I did not really want to see how the cliffhanger at the end of the episode last week resolved itself anyway.")
Sometimes a lot less for a lot less is much better.
Brilliant.
Apple rakes in billions of dollars in music sales through the iTunes store and the authors make an observation that a lot of iPod owners are buying music from iTunes store.
Maybe the tooth fairy is slipping the money under Steve Job's pillow at night?
Everyone has a mouth but you do not see a Big Mac in every one of them.
Still, no one concludes that "McDonalds franchises are ignored by most people." If the bottom line matters, someone looks at the bottom line. Looking at how many people do not buy something only computes how much the potential customer base can grow if suitable changes are made.