From their pictures it looks like the lowest priced laptop doesn't even have a middle mouse button. Kind of a bizarre choice for a system that ships with Linux, wouldn't you say?
You didn't read the article, did you? It seems to me that people like you are a part of what they wanted to get rid of.
Since SO many seem to have missed it, from TFA:
Strongin said that the five-year-old cafe added free Wi-Fi when it seemed their customers wanted it a couple of years ago. It initially brought in more people, she said, but over the past year "we noticed a significant change in the environment of the cafe." Before Wi-Fi, "People talked to each other, strangers met each other," she said. Solitary activities might involve reading and writing, but it was part of the milieu. "Those people co-existed with people having conversations," said Strongin.
Also there are different kinds of games developed for PCs largely due to the wider range of input devices. Also, a lot of games are better with a mouse and keyboard than with a game controller. For instance, I can't stand Morrowind or the 3D GTAs on console because of the gamepad (and in the case of GTA the severely crippled control due to it), but love them with a mouse and keyboard.
Not to mention that most people have a PC anyway and getting one that will play games well generally doesn't cost even a grand if you aren't buying your video card for games you will be playing in 2 years. Though I definitely agree that it makes no sense to buy some of the shit they put out, like 500$ video cards or 3000$ "gaming pcs".
For the grandparent: different kinds of games, again. Also the ease of setup for playing with friends. Not to mention the standardized hardware configurations that, at least when utilized properly by developers, makes the controls with a gamepad a lot nicer. Which is a problem sometimes on PCs. Also the upgrade cycle is longer, so it's cheaper.
Adobe will have much less chance of making money on the Linux market, because The Gimp is preinstalled on so many machines.
Ok, so as a windows user you're saying that the Gimp is close enough to photoshop that no one will bother buying it just because The Gimp came free with their OS?
If you weren't such an asshat you'd realize that at the cost of Adobe's products the people who want to use them and would/could afford to pay the price will.
Photoshop currently sells for 600$, no one who does the kind of graphics work that would justify that amount of money is going to be swayed by whether or not something comes bundled. Gimp happens to be free to distros to include and honestly lacks serious competition on Linux, so they put it in. Most distros (I know Slackware does, and it still hasn't topped 2 discs for binaries) also tend to include a pretty wide range of paint packages, though none are really comparable.
Your example of adobe is also particularly poor , and shows ignorance, given that photoshop hasn't been and, according to adobe execs (at least as of a couple of years ago), never will be due to their disappointment with the sales of the Irix port they did way back. If I remember right they lost a bundle on it.
This also has the implication that 3rd party developers (e.g. Adobe/MacroMedia, discreet, etc) have less reasons to support free OSs and more and more reasons to support MS only and eventually Apple.
Another poor example is discreet seeing as how they already support Linux. Though you're probably just showing ignorance again and thinking of their lower end software, like 3ds max which isn't up to the quality standards of the people who use Linux for those purposes (aka major film studios), which is why there is no demand for a port.
Sure all the wannabe kids who grew up hearing you "needed" it to make games or some nonsense would love it, but the 0$ contributions their warezed copies make can't be very motivating.
If you doubt bundling is a problem, answer this question..
How many people buy Opera on Linux when they have Firefox, Konqueror, Galeon, Mozilla and another 5 o 6 browsers all preinstalled ?
At least, on Windows, IE is so fu**ed up that someone will buy it anyway..
How many people buy it on windows? Last I heard Opera's primary revenue streams were mobile devices such as cell phones and advertising revenue from the ad-supported version.
And last time I checked the people who were tired of ie being fucked up on windows were using Firefox rather than Opera, primarily because it does basically the same things without the 39$usd pricetag.
I'd have to say that the odds are in Blu-Ray's favour if they have to go head-to-head in the market. After all Blu-Ray is going to be the format used by Sony's PS3, which if history is any indicator will likely sell upwards of 100 million units over it's lifetime.
While that's hardly a guarantee that Blu-Ray will win it's a pretty big installed userbase for a loser. Not to mention Sony's sizeable movie interests.
It seems to me that there isn't a lot of consumer interest in replacing DVD and could prove difficult for either format to push its way into the market. If that turns out to be the case the advantage will clearly be with Sony and their Blu-Ray, regardless of how much earlier HD-DVD hits store shelves.
What does commercial space flight have to do with science again? Yeah the X Prize competition was neat, but where is the scientific value in it? Building rockets isn't exactly cutting edge technology these days.
This seems like a much more valuable example of privately-funded scientific research in space to me.
I also don't remember the United States government being in the commercial sector, though I do seem to recall a lot of commercial interests getting all sandy when it is seen to be in any way cutting into their profits.
I guess it'd depend on if they offered you a discount equal to the lost entertainment value of seeing Ballmer "developers developers developers" their staff to death.
[1]Seriously. Firefly is not SciFi. Replace any piece of technology in the story with current technology or no technology at all, and the story still stands.
Ok, I'm going to replace Serenity with a Pinto, the guns with a stick (not technology, it'll just be a random windfall), and that brain scanning thing with a coffee filter.
Or we could just leave this one to the dictionary...
science fiction
n.
A literary or cinematic genre in which fantasy, typically based on speculative scientific discoveries or developments, environmental changes, space travel, or life on other planets, forms part of the plot or background.
Might have done awful things for the company's marketshare, and arguably its fans, but can't really say it's been bad for the company. They still make great games, great hardware, and giant piles of loot.
Which is a funny thing for anyone to think given the gamma correction issues with Safari (think they've fixed it some time ago) that never occurred with Konqueror.
Given that you can't copyright words, yeah. You're thinking trademark, and the whole idea of owning words seems kind of stupid to me since last I checked most languages (maybe excepting recently made up for commercial purposes ones like klingon) are public domain.
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From their pictures it looks like the lowest priced laptop doesn't even have a middle mouse button. Kind of a bizarre choice for a system that ships with Linux, wouldn't you say?
Since SO many seem to have missed it, from TFA:
Strongin said that the five-year-old cafe added free Wi-Fi when it seemed their customers wanted it a couple of years ago. It initially brought in more people, she said, but over the past year "we noticed a significant change in the environment of the cafe." Before Wi-Fi, "People talked to each other, strangers met each other," she said. Solitary activities might involve reading and writing, but it was part of the milieu. "Those people co-existed with people having conversations," said Strongin.
Also there are different kinds of games developed for PCs largely due to the wider range of input devices. Also, a lot of games are better with a mouse and keyboard than with a game controller. For instance, I can't stand Morrowind or the 3D GTAs on console because of the gamepad (and in the case of GTA the severely crippled control due to it), but love them with a mouse and keyboard.
Not to mention that most people have a PC anyway and getting one that will play games well generally doesn't cost even a grand if you aren't buying your video card for games you will be playing in 2 years. Though I definitely agree that it makes no sense to buy some of the shit they put out, like 500$ video cards or 3000$ "gaming pcs".
For the grandparent: different kinds of games, again. Also the ease of setup for playing with friends. Not to mention the standardized hardware configurations that, at least when utilized properly by developers, makes the controls with a gamepad a lot nicer. Which is a problem sometimes on PCs. Also the upgrade cycle is longer, so it's cheaper.
I always thought he was just using clever marketing tactics to impress his clients who didn't know any better.
Bill didn't graduate from college...
And you didn't like Chrono Trigger? Have you no shame?
Your first "RPG" was Final Fantasy 7, wasn't it?
Good point, there have been good games for Nintendo now that NES is out of the way.
Eats its babies with bbq sauce?
Ok, so as a windows user you're saying that the Gimp is close enough to photoshop that no one will bother buying it just because The Gimp came free with their OS?
If you weren't such an asshat you'd realize that at the cost of Adobe's products the people who want to use them and would/could afford to pay the price will.
Photoshop currently sells for 600$, no one who does the kind of graphics work that would justify that amount of money is going to be swayed by whether or not something comes bundled. Gimp happens to be free to distros to include and honestly lacks serious competition on Linux, so they put it in. Most distros (I know Slackware does, and it still hasn't topped 2 discs for binaries) also tend to include a pretty wide range of paint packages, though none are really comparable.
Your example of adobe is also particularly poor , and shows ignorance, given that photoshop hasn't been and, according to adobe execs (at least as of a couple of years ago), never will be due to their disappointment with the sales of the Irix port they did way back. If I remember right they lost a bundle on it.
This also has the implication that 3rd party developers (e.g. Adobe/MacroMedia, discreet, etc) have less reasons to support free OSs and more and more reasons to support MS only and eventually Apple.
Another poor example is discreet seeing as how they already support Linux. Though you're probably just showing ignorance again and thinking of their lower end software, like 3ds max which isn't up to the quality standards of the people who use Linux for those purposes (aka major film studios), which is why there is no demand for a port.
Sure all the wannabe kids who grew up hearing you "needed" it to make games or some nonsense would love it, but the 0$ contributions their warezed copies make can't be very motivating.
If you doubt bundling is a problem, answer this question..
How many people buy Opera on Linux when they have Firefox, Konqueror, Galeon, Mozilla and another 5 o 6 browsers all preinstalled ? At least, on Windows, IE is so fu**ed up that someone will buy it anyway..
How many people buy it on windows? Last I heard Opera's primary revenue streams were mobile devices such as cell phones and advertising revenue from the ad-supported version.
And last time I checked the people who were tired of ie being fucked up on windows were using Firefox rather than Opera, primarily because it does basically the same things without the 39$usd pricetag.
While that's hardly a guarantee that Blu-Ray will win it's a pretty big installed userbase for a loser. Not to mention Sony's sizeable movie interests.
It seems to me that there isn't a lot of consumer interest in replacing DVD and could prove difficult for either format to push its way into the market. If that turns out to be the case the advantage will clearly be with Sony and their Blu-Ray, regardless of how much earlier HD-DVD hits store shelves.
I think you're confusing Betamax with Betacam.
Read? Article? Please. You must be new here.
Or all the windows users could just switch to Linux where this "exploit" won't do shit.
What does commercial space flight have to do with science again? Yeah the X Prize competition was neat, but where is the scientific value in it? Building rockets isn't exactly cutting edge technology these days.
This seems like a much more valuable example of privately-funded scientific research in space to me.
I also don't remember the United States government being in the commercial sector, though I do seem to recall a lot of commercial interests getting all sandy when it is seen to be in any way cutting into their profits.
I guess it'd depend on if they offered you a discount equal to the lost entertainment value of seeing Ballmer "developers developers developers" their staff to death.
Ok, I'm going to replace Serenity with a Pinto, the guns with a stick (not technology, it'll just be a random windfall), and that brain scanning thing with a coffee filter.
Or we could just leave this one to the dictionary...
Who is Card to talk about what sci-fi sucks? His books are some of the worst sci-fi (or anything else) that I've ever read.
Actually, you're supposed to write it "Microsoft® Windows®".
My Linux has a real name, like 8 or 9 or 10. What the fuck is an XP again?
Might have done awful things for the company's marketshare, and arguably its fans, but can't really say it's been bad for the company. They still make great games, great hardware, and giant piles of loot.
You must be new here.
Which is a funny thing for anyone to think given the gamma correction issues with Safari (think they've fixed it some time ago) that never occurred with Konqueror.
Given that you can't copyright words, yeah. You're thinking trademark, and the whole idea of owning words seems kind of stupid to me since last I checked most languages (maybe excepting recently made up for commercial purposes ones like klingon) are public domain.
Not to troll here, but microsoft drops another feature from longhorn? How is this news?