Most major corporations are moving their customer service support lines to a new voice-responsive menu system where the "operator" understands what you say. Companies like Verizon even go so far as to have the computer respond in natural language "okay, let me make sure i got that right....5..5..5...1..2..3..4".
If you told people in the 1950s that human operators could be replaced with computer programs, they'd tell you you were insane.
Seeing pop stars going digital seems logical. Pop stars are all about image. What better image than a "star" that doesn't have to manage his/her physical appearance, can "perform" at any venue or tv show, never grows old or tired, and, perhaps most importantly to the industry, is cheaper than a contract with a human performer.
And since most pop stars seldom write their own music, lyrics or even their own choreography, it just takes the fake "human" and replaces it with a digital substitute.
Never "upgrade" to a new version of your OS. Always format and install the new version from scratch. Failure to do forfeits any rights you have to complain about bugs and complications.
Mac OS X Specific for Joe Sixpack:
Mac OS X is pre-installed. If you want to add new hardware, external or internal: RTFM, do as instructed, and it'll work. This is the same practice as with Windows.
Mac OS X Specific for Technical People:
When installing a new version of Mac OS X, take out any third party hardware you installed. Once the OS is installed and patched. Unless otherwise instructed by the third party manufacturer's documentation, install the relevent drivers first then shutdown to connect your hardware.
Installing Mac OS X with third-party hardware installed (ZIF/PCI processor upgrades, PCI expansion cards, etc) will only make Installer fail or freak out the OS's hardware detection software (kind of hard to identify third party hardware properly without pre-installed drivers)
You're still thinking about the world in it's current Windows Monopoly 2003 state without a viable desktop linux option.
Now let us assume a Linux with an OSX-like GUI came out and started selling in stores and is getting pre-installed by OEMs:
What happens when Joe Sixpack wants to run current games?
If Linux became popular for Joe Sixpacks and had enough of population to be seen as a "market", game developers would release new games in a multi-format style, including a Linux version.
What happens when Joe Sixpack wants to run a Windows program?
If Linux became popular for Joe Sixpacks and had enough of population to be seen as a "market", a linux version of the Windows app would be available or the appropriate compatible plug-in/converter.
What happens when Joe Sixpack get a new piece of hardware?
If Linux became popular for Joe Sixpacks and had enough of population to be seen as a "market", hardware developers would include Linux drivers with their products.
Apple successfully brought Unix to the desktop with MacOS X. It's a very pleasing and easy-to-use GUI on top of unix.
It gives you the easy usability Joe Sixpack needs ("It just works."), yet still gives you access to a console (Terminal) and developer tools for technical people to do technical things with it.
If some group out there could slap on an OS X-like GUI on top of Linux that looks, runs, and plays as well as OS X does ontop of Unix (for non technical people and technical people alike), and have the OS be free, Windows would be done for.
The RIAA knows file-sharing is a problem, but mostly those that Joe Sixpack can use, such as Kazaa. Technical downloaders still use usenet, IRC and FTP sites.
Since most of the file-sharers use Kazaa, it made sense for the RIAA to target Kazaa for finding violators to sue. They might not get everyone who shares files, but they'll damn well make it hard for non-technical people (people who don't reply solely on Kazaa) to continue the practice.
With that in mind, with 95+% of the computing world using Windows, it's only logical to assume that almost all of the Joe Sixpacks of the world are running Windows, so it's effective to make anti-piracy devices that affect only Windows PCs.
They can't stop non-Windows users from ripping audio from multi-session CDs, but they'll certainly stop the lion's share of computer users, especially all the Joe Sixpacks, by focusing anti-piracy measures on Windows OSes.
The actual Redbook audio that your CD Player can "see" is not visible to a PC. The PC can only see the second session that contains the WMA files and other fluff.
I have become more accustomed to spending $2 or $3 on the 2-3 tracks I like via iTunes, and getting a superior-quality AAC sound file that I can convert to a high quality MP3.
Spending $14-18 on a CD-ROM (no longer an Audio CD) that has CD Audio, low-quality WMA files, links to low-info "exclusive" websites, and tiny music video files, just isn't worth it.
Microsoft was among the first companies to legitimately purchase a Unix license from SCO.
A month later, Microsoft's beta of Windows Services for Unix 3.0 is released on the web.
Now SCO is suing/charging everyone for Linux: a move that will scare some Linux-using corporations back to the "cheaper" (by comparison) solution of using Windows and Office.
But what about those in-house Unix apps those companies use? No problem, Windows Services for Unix saves the day.
And I'm sure that SCO must have gotten some sort of recent fiancial boost in order to give them the confidence to take thefinancial behemoth IBM and, now, end users.
I'm sorry, but of all the people who use MAME worldwide, I doubt that more than 5% of them have 100% legal sets of ROMs.
And for even those who do own the real boards, according to most software licenses, you have to make your legally-entitled single-copy of the software (ie. ROMs) yourself --Using Downloaded ROMs as your "backup" is illegal since you didn't dump them yourself.
But enough of the legal technicalities people like to mention when discussing emulation. Time to play some Galaga.
Most of Dell's servers ship with a CD-ROM that boots a small-sized NT4 install. And we all know how old NT4 is.
When setting up a server, especially one with proprietary backplane hardware, it's actually quite nice to be able to use the CD to boot NT4, partition and format the hard disks, throw drivers on the hard disk for Windows Setup to discover all mass storage devices, and create an unattend.txt for whatever server version of Windows you're installing.
Netware isn't dead - uncommon yes but not dead by a long shot.
NetWare did its job perfectly in a pre-Active Directory world. Since the release of Win2K (and the 2-3 years for companies to implement AD), NetWare is what made systems work. For companies whose IT infrastructure is centered on NetWare file and printer sharing, there is no need to switch to AD, they simply can follow Novell's suggested upgrade path (Especially those companies looking for cross-platform lower-cost IT solutions, like Linux + Open Office).
Personally, I've already made the move to AD, though the IPX protocol will always hold a warm place in my heart in the form of IPXODI.EXE for DOS -- When the execs went home, we'd use it to play multiplayer Doom in DOS on the corporate LAN.
...even though Netscape is practically just a skin and some annoying AOL branding on top of Mozilla...
Strangely enough, "Internet Explorer" (iexplore.exe) is simply a web browser skin that's skinned overtop the Windows Explorer shell (explorer.exe) when you double-click the IE icon or type in a URL in any Address bar in the UI.
Now that AOL has a deal with Microsoft to "use IE" in the AOL software, they need only code software that invokes the appropriate web services already present in explorer.exe, as opposed to coding an entire, complete web browser (Netscape/Gecko/Mozilla), with its own web services and getting it to run cooperatively on the Windows platform.
Considering this, AOL is being smart in cutting their Netscape-based expenses.
While the inevitable Matrix Ultimate Boxed Edition will probably come out long after the third Matrix movie is released on DVD, at least Warner Brothers isn't double- and triple-dipping to the extremes of New Line Cinema with the "Lord of the Rings" DVD releases. (Who wants to bet that more than one ultimate DVD boxed set of all 3 Ring films gets released in 2004/2005?)
Fact is, some people are into DVD extras, some are not. Those who like the Matrix movies but may/may not really care about bonus features (and posters/figures/what-you-will) will buy the single releases. They will buy the movies they like, and move on. Hardcore Matrix fans will almost certainly buy the inevitable boxed set, perhaps in addition to the single releases, so as to have all the extras.
...companies are confident that adobe security will keep the document as read only so no llama will make changes for fun or copy paste their info.
Any "secure" text-display is subject to modification, even by low-end computer users. It's as easy as pressing the Print Screen key and using a scanner with bundled consumer OCR software to convert the image back into paginated (and editable) text.
The problem with the PDF security hole is moreso in the matter of digital signatures. If someone were to exploit the security hole and obtain a company's digital signature, that person could do some real damage on behalf of that company.
There hasn't been a single sys admin (or engineer in the pre-IT era) who didn't get financially clipped at some executive or corporate level.
It's a humbling gesture that keeps sys admins in their place and makes them come up with functional miracles with existing equipment purchases (think of Scotty from Star Trek).
Having been in the IT industry at all levels of the IT ladder, I've had to come up with my own fair share of miracles with existing equipment.
Basically, the rule is: Only buy when it's no longer cost-effective to rig something together with existing purchases.
This keeps bottom lines more realistic and prevents rogue sys admins from making their workstation into Pimp.Rig with company cash that could have been spent better elsewhere.
It's frustrating as hell, especially when no personal gain is intended, but such belt-tightening keeps companies afloat these days.
No operating system is perfect and there will never be one that does it all.
Each OS develops its own niche based on what people want to do with them.
A few stereotypical examples:
Windows - gaming, using Office programs, file/doamin servers
MacOS - graphic artistry, press pagination, digital media creation
Unix - c++ coding and using pine for shell account email access.
Linux - web servers and homebrew software/drivers
While some of these roles are capable of being done on other OSes, it's the right "mix" the user personally needs.
Naturally, a person could just multi-boot or, even better, multi-box and have a couple of OSes to do the things you like?
Unfortunately, Joe Q. Sixpack probably doesn't want to dabble with multiple operating systems and wants to use just one that's easy and does the things they want. Hence why Windows and MacOS will remain more widespread in the desktop world for years to come.
Today's music market has been flooded with a lot of groups that are purely meant to be pop-music fodder for 2-4 years, then burn off for the next crop.
The era of masterpiece albums has been over for quite a while, save for the work of a small minority of today's active artists.
That's not to say that there weren't the ol' 1-2 good songs + 10 tracks of filler crap on albums in earlier years. There's just more of them now.
Before the mainstream-"Joe Sixpack"-Internet era (1996-present), people used to buy the select "good" tracks via vinyl/8-track/cassette/CD singles, and get a few extra remixes and b-sides thrown in for good measure. (It's my theory that B-sides have moved from these "singles" to the main albums these days!)
Bands these days should seriously consider what they put on albums. Artists of the past used to record 30 or more songs, then select a solid set of 13 good ones and tie them together as an album (how do you think they can release "newly-discovered" songs even after they are dead?).
Today's artists also need push their labels to rethink how they do business as digital media files overtake the industry.
Personally, I look forward to when iTunes will become available for non-Macintosh computers. Only then will the RIAA be stuck with warehouses full of blank silver CDs and plastic jewel cases.
Back in the day, JPGs were known for better compression, but with graphical loss. GIFs were known for preserving appearance, but with less compression than JPG.
Then PNG comes in...
- Open Source/Open Standard: cool
- Lots of options of graphic artists: cool
- even less compression: suckage, but whatever, people who really care about their net experience these days have broadband
PNG may be superior, but it suffers from being obscure and being too technically oriented. I remember when Animated GIFs were tough to create without a "wizard". I seriously doubt your average consumer will care about the added layers and alpha "stuff" that's supported by the PNG format.
Kind of like how Firebird may be technically superior to, say, Internet Explorer, but very few people know of Firebird, and few among those who do know about it would know how to use all its features. IE just "works" for them.
PNG rocks, but until the likes of many Photo CD "developing" companies and other consumer-oriented image business start using the PNG format, people will still only know a world of GIFs, JPGs, and BMPs.
Consumers look to DVDs as the CD-equivalent for home video. That's not entirely correct. Unlike CDs, certain dual-layer and double-sided DVDs can suffer from corrosion-by-air called "DVD rot" (basically, air gets in side the layers through micro holes created when the layers were slapped together at the factory).
If DVD rot begins to appear in large numbers in a few years, some consumers will begin to distrust DVDs, feeling betrayed that the one-thought infallable format is potentially self-destructive.
In large numbers, this could either spell the end of the DVD or spur the creation of a better disc format.
Until someone can come up with an OS that's easy to install & support for non-technical people, and are 100% compatible with Windows software and Office file formats, we're stuck with Microsoft software.
MacOS is easy to use, and there's Office compatibility, but there's no way an OS X Server can do what an NT Server can.
Unix/Linux is not easy to use or install for many people and has virtually no Office compatability except with Win32 emulators. Unix servers rock, though.
Cars were made better in the past, too.
It all boils down to simple supply and demand. Make printers that last and the demand for them will die down, once everyone has one.
Today's manufacturers try to hide the shorter product life by adding new "innovations" to each model release.
Forget flash card slots, just give me a printer that'll live as long as a dot-matrix of yester-decade.
One License for the Full Version of Windows XP = $199 USD
One License for *just* the Full version of Microsoft Word XP = $199 USD
One License for Office XP Small Business Edition (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) = $399 USD
With just one Office app equalling the cost of Windows and the fact that the majority of businesses and educational institutions are forever locked into MS Office's proprietary file formats, you can easily see that Microsoft is making its money off Office.
Granted, the leaked key in question is for a Server edition of Windows, but Server edition purchases are fewer than desktop editions. Why were companies complaining about MS Licensing 7.0. For Windows? Nope. Office.
Need more insight? Buy a computer from an OEM (Dell, Gateway, etc.):
-Windows XP costs you $199 of the total price (unless you get a System Recovery CD (as opposed to a Windows CD-ROM), which reduces the price somewhat)
-The forcibly "bundled" Office XP Small Business Edition (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) makes up for $399 of the total price.
-The remainder is for the OEM to recoup costs for hardware, support, and other software royalties, with a little profit thrown in.
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Most major corporations are moving their customer service support lines to a new voice-responsive menu system where the "operator" understands what you say. Companies like Verizon even go so far as to have the computer respond in natural language "okay, let me make sure i got that right....5..5..5...1..2..3..4".
If you told people in the 1950s that human operators could be replaced with computer programs, they'd tell you you were insane.
Seeing pop stars going digital seems logical. Pop stars are all about image. What better image than a "star" that doesn't have to manage his/her physical appearance, can "perform" at any venue or tv show, never grows old or tired, and, perhaps most importantly to the industry, is cheaper than a contract with a human performer.
And since most pop stars seldom write their own music, lyrics or even their own choreography, it just takes the fake "human" and replaces it with a digital substitute.
In General:
Never "upgrade" to a new version of your OS. Always format and install the new version from scratch. Failure to do forfeits any rights you have to complain about bugs and complications.
Mac OS X Specific for Joe Sixpack:
Mac OS X is pre-installed. If you want to add new hardware, external or internal: RTFM, do as instructed, and it'll work. This is the same practice as with Windows.
Mac OS X Specific for Technical People:
When installing a new version of Mac OS X, take out any third party hardware you installed. Once the OS is installed and patched. Unless otherwise instructed by the third party manufacturer's documentation, install the relevent drivers first then shutdown to connect your hardware.
Installing Mac OS X with third-party hardware installed (ZIF/PCI processor upgrades, PCI expansion cards, etc) will only make Installer fail or freak out the OS's hardware detection software (kind of hard to identify third party hardware properly without pre-installed drivers)
You're still thinking about the world in it's current Windows Monopoly 2003 state without a viable desktop linux option.
Now let us assume a Linux with an OSX-like GUI came out and started selling in stores and is getting pre-installed by OEMs:
What happens when Joe Sixpack wants to run current games?
If Linux became popular for Joe Sixpacks and had enough of population to be seen as a "market", game developers would release new games in a multi-format style, including a Linux version.
What happens when Joe Sixpack wants to run a Windows program?
If Linux became popular for Joe Sixpacks and had enough of population to be seen as a "market", a linux version of the Windows app would be available or the appropriate compatible plug-in/converter.
What happens when Joe Sixpack get a new piece of hardware?
If Linux became popular for Joe Sixpacks and had enough of population to be seen as a "market", hardware developers would include Linux drivers with their products.
Apple successfully brought Unix to the desktop with MacOS X. It's a very pleasing and easy-to-use GUI on top of unix.
It gives you the easy usability Joe Sixpack needs ("It just works."), yet still gives you access to a console (Terminal) and developer tools for technical people to do technical things with it.
If some group out there could slap on an OS X-like GUI on top of Linux that looks, runs, and plays as well as OS X does ontop of Unix (for non technical people and technical people alike), and have the OS be free, Windows would be done for.
Indeed, you're right.
The RIAA knows file-sharing is a problem, but mostly those that Joe Sixpack can use, such as Kazaa. Technical downloaders still use usenet, IRC and FTP sites.
Since most of the file-sharers use Kazaa, it made sense for the RIAA to target Kazaa for finding violators to sue. They might not get everyone who shares files, but they'll damn well make it hard for non-technical people (people who don't reply solely on Kazaa) to continue the practice.
With that in mind, with 95+% of the computing world using Windows, it's only logical to assume that almost all of the Joe Sixpacks of the world are running Windows, so it's effective to make anti-piracy devices that affect only Windows PCs.
They can't stop non-Windows users from ripping audio from multi-session CDs, but they'll certainly stop the lion's share of computer users, especially all the Joe Sixpacks, by focusing anti-piracy measures on Windows OSes.
The actual Redbook audio that your CD Player can "see" is not visible to a PC. The PC can only see the second session that contains the WMA files and other fluff.
Thus, you cannot rip the Redbook audio.
I have become more accustomed to spending $2 or $3 on the 2-3 tracks I like via iTunes, and getting a superior-quality AAC sound file that I can convert to a high quality MP3.
Spending $14-18 on a CD-ROM (no longer an Audio CD) that has CD Audio, low-quality WMA files, links to low-info "exclusive" websites, and tiny music video files, just isn't worth it.
No need for all that hassle, just convert AAC files to MP3s within iTunes:
1. Open iTunes (for Windows).
2. Click on the "Edit" menu and select "Preferences".
3. In the window that appears, click the "Importing" tab.
4. Select "MP3 encoder" from the "Import Using" menu. Select your desired MP3 quality. Click OK to close the window and save your changes.
Now you can right-click any file in your library and select "Convert Selection to MP3" from the contextual menu. Done!
Microsoft was among the first companies to legitimately purchase a Unix license from SCO.
A month later, Microsoft's beta of Windows Services for Unix 3.0 is released on the web.
Now SCO is suing/charging everyone for Linux: a move that will scare some Linux-using corporations back to the "cheaper" (by comparison) solution of using Windows and Office.
But what about those in-house Unix apps those companies use? No problem, Windows Services for Unix saves the day.
And I'm sure that SCO must have gotten some sort of recent fiancial boost in order to give them the confidence to take thefinancial behemoth IBM and, now, end users.
My first impression of this story can be described with just two words: "insider trading"
I'm sorry, but of all the people who use MAME worldwide, I doubt that more than 5% of them have 100% legal sets of ROMs.
And for even those who do own the real boards, according to most software licenses, you have to make your legally-entitled single-copy of the software (ie. ROMs) yourself --Using Downloaded ROMs as your "backup" is illegal since you didn't dump them yourself.
But enough of the legal technicalities people like to mention when discussing emulation. Time to play some Galaga.
Most of Dell's servers ship with a CD-ROM that boots a small-sized NT4 install. And we all know how old NT4 is.
When setting up a server, especially one with proprietary backplane hardware, it's actually quite nice to be able to use the CD to boot NT4, partition and format the hard disks, throw drivers on the hard disk for Windows Setup to discover all mass storage devices, and create an unattend.txt for whatever server version of Windows you're installing.
Netware isn't dead - uncommon yes but not dead by a long shot.
NetWare did its job perfectly in a pre-Active Directory world. Since the release of Win2K (and the 2-3 years for companies to implement AD), NetWare is what made systems work. For companies whose IT infrastructure is centered on NetWare file and printer sharing, there is no need to switch to AD, they simply can follow Novell's suggested upgrade path (Especially those companies looking for cross-platform lower-cost IT solutions, like Linux + Open Office).
Personally, I've already made the move to AD, though the IPX protocol will always hold a warm place in my heart in the form of IPXODI.EXE for DOS -- When the execs went home, we'd use it to play multiplayer Doom in DOS on the corporate LAN.
Now that AOL has a deal with Microsoft to "use IE" in the AOL software, they need only code software that invokes the appropriate web services already present in explorer.exe, as opposed to coding an entire, complete web browser (Netscape/Gecko/Mozilla), with its own web services and getting it to run cooperatively on the Windows platform.
Considering this, AOL is being smart in cutting their Netscape-based expenses.
While the inevitable Matrix Ultimate Boxed Edition will probably come out long after the third Matrix movie is released on DVD, at least Warner Brothers isn't double- and triple-dipping to the extremes of New Line Cinema with the "Lord of the Rings" DVD releases. (Who wants to bet that more than one ultimate DVD boxed set of all 3 Ring films gets released in 2004/2005?)
Fact is, some people are into DVD extras, some are not. Those who like the Matrix movies but may/may not really care about bonus features (and posters/figures/what-you-will) will buy the single releases. They will buy the movies they like, and move on. Hardcore Matrix fans will almost certainly buy the inevitable boxed set, perhaps in addition to the single releases, so as to have all the extras.
Any "secure" text-display is subject to modification, even by low-end computer users. It's as easy as pressing the Print Screen key and using a scanner with bundled consumer OCR software to convert the image back into paginated (and editable) text.
The problem with the PDF security hole is moreso in the matter of digital signatures. If someone were to exploit the security hole and obtain a company's digital signature, that person could do some real damage on behalf of that company.
There hasn't been a single sys admin (or engineer in the pre-IT era) who didn't get financially clipped at some executive or corporate level.
It's a humbling gesture that keeps sys admins in their place and makes them come up with functional miracles with existing equipment purchases (think of Scotty from Star Trek).
Having been in the IT industry at all levels of the IT ladder, I've had to come up with my own fair share of miracles with existing equipment.
Basically, the rule is: Only buy when it's no longer cost-effective to rig something together with existing purchases.
This keeps bottom lines more realistic and prevents rogue sys admins from making their workstation into Pimp.Rig with company cash that could have been spent better elsewhere.
It's frustrating as hell, especially when no personal gain is intended, but such belt-tightening keeps companies afloat these days.
No operating system is perfect and there will never be one that does it all.
Each OS develops its own niche based on what people want to do with them.
A few stereotypical examples:
Windows - gaming, using Office programs, file/doamin servers
MacOS - graphic artistry, press pagination, digital media creation
Unix - c++ coding and using pine for shell account email access.
Linux - web servers and homebrew software/drivers
While some of these roles are capable of being done on other OSes, it's the right "mix" the user personally needs.
Naturally, a person could just multi-boot or, even better, multi-box and have a couple of OSes to do the things you like?
Unfortunately, Joe Q. Sixpack probably doesn't want to dabble with multiple operating systems and wants to use just one that's easy and does the things they want. Hence why Windows and MacOS will remain more widespread in the desktop world for years to come.
"It's Rebels like you who have ruined your own lands. You'll not ruin mine!"
EverQuest was great for the first year or so, until Sony started to "tweak" it. I'm afraid we expect the same fate with SWG.
Today's music market has been flooded with a lot of groups that are purely meant to be pop-music fodder for 2-4 years, then burn off for the next crop.
The era of masterpiece albums has been over for quite a while, save for the work of a small minority of today's active artists.
That's not to say that there weren't the ol' 1-2 good songs + 10 tracks of filler crap on albums in earlier years. There's just more of them now.
Before the mainstream-"Joe Sixpack"-Internet era (1996-present), people used to buy the select "good" tracks via vinyl/8-track/cassette/CD singles, and get a few extra remixes and b-sides thrown in for good measure. (It's my theory that B-sides have moved from these "singles" to the main albums these days!)
Bands these days should seriously consider what they put on albums. Artists of the past used to record 30 or more songs, then select a solid set of 13 good ones and tie them together as an album (how do you think they can release "newly-discovered" songs even after they are dead?).
Today's artists also need push their labels to rethink how they do business as digital media files overtake the industry.
Personally, I look forward to when iTunes will become available for non-Macintosh computers. Only then will the RIAA be stuck with warehouses full of blank silver CDs and plastic jewel cases.
Back in the day, JPGs were known for better compression, but with graphical loss. GIFs were known for preserving appearance, but with less compression than JPG.
Then PNG comes in...
- Open Source/Open Standard: cool
- Lots of options of graphic artists: cool
- even less compression: suckage, but whatever, people who really care about their net experience these days have broadband
PNG may be superior, but it suffers from being obscure and being too technically oriented. I remember when Animated GIFs were tough to create without a "wizard". I seriously doubt your average consumer will care about the added layers and alpha "stuff" that's supported by the PNG format.
Kind of like how Firebird may be technically superior to, say, Internet Explorer, but very few people know of Firebird, and few among those who do know about it would know how to use all its features. IE just "works" for them.
PNG rocks, but until the likes of many Photo CD "developing" companies and other consumer-oriented image business start using the PNG format, people will still only know a world of GIFs, JPGs, and BMPs.
Consumers look to DVDs as the CD-equivalent for home video. That's not entirely correct. Unlike CDs, certain dual-layer and double-sided DVDs can suffer from corrosion-by-air called "DVD rot" (basically, air gets in side the layers through micro holes created when the layers were slapped together at the factory).
If DVD rot begins to appear in large numbers in a few years, some consumers will begin to distrust DVDs, feeling betrayed that the one-thought infallable format is potentially self-destructive.
In large numbers, this could either spell the end of the DVD or spur the creation of a better disc format.
Until someone can come up with an OS that's easy to install & support for non-technical people, and are 100% compatible with Windows software and Office file formats, we're stuck with Microsoft software.
MacOS is easy to use, and there's Office compatibility, but there's no way an OS X Server can do what an NT Server can.
Unix/Linux is not easy to use or install for many people and has virtually no Office compatability except with Win32 emulators. Unix servers rock, though.
Cars were made better in the past, too. It all boils down to simple supply and demand. Make printers that last and the demand for them will die down, once everyone has one.
Today's manufacturers try to hide the shorter product life by adding new "innovations" to each model release.
Forget flash card slots, just give me a printer that'll live as long as a dot-matrix of yester-decade.
One License for the Full Version of Windows XP = $199 USD One License for *just* the Full version of Microsoft Word XP = $199 USD One License for Office XP Small Business Edition (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) = $399 USD
With just one Office app equalling the cost of Windows and the fact that the majority of businesses and educational institutions are forever locked into MS Office's proprietary file formats, you can easily see that Microsoft is making its money off Office.
Granted, the leaked key in question is for a Server edition of Windows, but Server edition purchases are fewer than desktop editions. Why were companies complaining about MS Licensing 7.0. For Windows? Nope. Office.
Need more insight? Buy a computer from an OEM (Dell, Gateway, etc.): -Windows XP costs you $199 of the total price (unless you get a System Recovery CD (as opposed to a Windows CD-ROM), which reduces the price somewhat) -The forcibly "bundled" Office XP Small Business Edition (Word, Excel, PowerPoint) makes up for $399 of the total price. -The remainder is for the OEM to recoup costs for hardware, support, and other software royalties, with a little profit thrown in.