If you are up for doing some customizations, I would suggest using ADempiere. It is very robust and can be made to do just about anything. The nice thing about it is that when you are done, it becomes an asset for you, not an expense. (Speaking about the balance sheet.) It also can do quite a bit in scaling up to help with other business processes.
Sorry to nauseate you over it.:-P It seemed like the best way to appease the AC so I figured I'd do it. I hope I didn't make you lose a meal.:-P Thanks for reading.
No, I wasn't trying to be sarcastic, I was simply interested in hearing what people think without having to copy and paste my entire blog entry. Since that seems to be what people want, I'll post it here and waste more precious bits. (The last part was sarcasm, by the way.:-P ) I apologize that some of the characters and such don't appear to have translated properly.
I was thinking the other day, why is market share so important? I read various articles saying Linux has X market share, Mac has Y market share, and Windows has Z market share. I would like to throw the following question out to the masses. Who cares? The pie is large enough in this industry that it doesnâ(TM)t really matter. Especially when you look at this on a global scale. If I was producing something in an industry this size, I would be thrilled to have 0.01 percent market share. I understand that market share is extremely useful in determining growth of any product, but in this case I seriously donâ(TM)t think it matters all that much beyond a growth measurement. Right now it is very difficult to quantify which operating systems are being used the most. We canâ(TM)t count sales (there are many free operating systems.) We canâ(TM)t count downloads (one person could download it multiple times.) We canâ(TM)t even count website visits (my blog is visited more under Ubuntu Linux than any other operating system.)
So could someone tell me why it is so important to try to expend all of this energy on market share calculations? Isnâ(TM)t market share simply supposed to tell us if there is an increase or a decline in a particular productâ(TM)s use? Relative accuracy is important while complete accuracy is not. If you measure using the same tool each time and see a growth, then you can be confident that a growth has occurred. Expending all of this energy on trying to calculate the exact number of Linux users isnâ(TM)t going to really benefit everyone. Letâ(TM)s try to focus on actually making good products and having them speak for themselves.
Now before everyone starts to call me a zealot and a person thatâ(TM)s just upset that linux has a small market share, let me say one more thing. Everything has started with a small market share, and it hasnâ(TM)t mattered before. Any new product starts small. Any new service starts small. Thatâ(TM)s the point! They donâ(TM)t start out saying âoeWe have 0% market penetration so we have failed.â What they do instead is look at what overhead they can afford and build their business around that. I ran an open source business for a while, and had a very small market share, but I lived quite comfortably. Market share isnâ(TM)t the be-all, end-all, it is just one of many tools that companies can use to determine if they are growing or shrinking. It isnâ(TM)t some magical tool that tells them if they are successful.
I've had Wimax here in southeast Idaho for a while. It seems to work ok, the only problem being that they got overwhelmed when they started the service and had some bandwidth shortages due to uptake being quicker than they had originally planned. Other than that, it seems pretty reliable and seems to work well. I'm excited to see the tech rolled out elsewhere.
I actually taught how to do this at our local LUG yesterday. K9Copy works good if you still want to watch it on a dvd player. Thoggen is dead easy if you don't care about putting it back onto a dvd. They both take about 3 clicks to go. The only complicated part is that you have to install decss on your own, but you can thank the movie industry for that. Either way, free software is taking over and you probably use it a lot more than you. Many websites out there use it, as well as other companies. I use open office and generate pdf's of everything. I've had people ask me how much adobe cost me, so I explain to them that I'm not using adobe since it doesn't run on what I'm using. When they ask me if I miss it, I say that sometimes I do, but usually not since I've only missed it maybe once or twice in the last while. Rather than saying that it wasn't good enough, I've worked hard with the devs to tell them what needs to be fixed and I've been able to back up what I'm saying with scenarios, so I usually get listened to and the problem eventually gets resolved.
I saw that happening quite a bit. I don't want to sound like I"m trying to fix the worlds problems, but I've recently forked a project and am looking for developers. This project is a SIS (student information system) that aims to provide that to schools with little to no cost. The project is called OASIS. We are currently in the early planning stages, but I've already been backed by a lot of companies in this area (SouthEast Idaho) and it looks like this can be a success. Anyone interested in helping should go to http://oa-sis.org/ . It is going to be written in php and use postgresql as the backend.
"There are a few other avenues that Linux could be doing well in, but Microsoft is growing faster in the server market despite inferior performance, reliability or security, and that's the only other area Linux and Microsoft have any serious rivalry at this time. Linux could be doing well on the desktop, but not while it is playing catch-up. It would have to invent a whole new metaphor before it could seriously threaten Microsoft in the home market."
I don't want to sound rude or anything, but I've found a lot of people asking me about Ubuntu. In fact, just the other day, a guy walked in, told me that he was wanting to upgrade his windows XP laptop. I asked him "to what" and he said "Ubuntu". I was fairly surprised, especially when I found that he had never used it before and was going to give it a shot because a friend of his uses it and he was impressed. I informed him that I run the local linux users group and invited him to come to help him learn. Linux on the desktop is coming faster than ever because MS has tried to keep ahead and has been doing it poorly.
I work at a computer shop and have had more people call me to see if I can downgrade them from Vista because xp ran fine and vista doesn't. These are people usually using vista business and they have something like 512 MB of ram and an radeon 9200 or something similar. XP simply ran faster than vista... maybe it was just these 5 or 6 machines in the last week or so that I've seen though, and no one else is having that problem.
If you aren't accepting the EULA (by clicking no) then they don't have that right correct? Even if they do put it into the EULA that you are rejecting.
Yuppers. I've seen that happen many times. A user becomes very unhappy with the WGA false positive and they come to me for help. I just let them know that I use something "a little like windows but a lot better" and then give them an ubuntu disc. I offer to install it for cheap and then have them pay me to teach them how to use it. As easy as it is, they usually have very few questions (which surprised me at first, but it looks like the gnome people have done a very good job making things easy to use) and come back with a friend that wants to try it out. Because of the WGA problems, I've helped at least 4 people switch to something non microsoft, one to Mandriva linux and the rest to Ubuntu. All of them still thank me when they see me. These little flaws may turn a lot of people away from MS based stuff just because they pay for something, then don't like it coming back to them and saying that they don't legally own it.
Actually, I live in Idaho. It is a little backwards sometimes (the place I live in just got highspeed internet about 3 years ago.) but it does pay well. It's hard to find a good tech, so when people do, they are more than willing to pay for it. I started a little tech business and I have been able to survive and keep myself busy without even having a storefront (finally got one a month ago after being in business for a year.)
I am always asking the salespeople if a piece of hardware is supported. The only way that a company will start to train and educate its employees is if they see that they have to. I always ask in a polite way, and I don't give them a hard time if they don't know. I do however, thank them for knowing (if they know and actually DO know what they are talking about). Without us asking them, how can they know that there is a demand for it. If I just walk into a store, buy a Linux supported piece of hardware, and leave, for all they know, I bought it because it works under Windows. If I ask them about it, then buy it because it is supported, now they know the real reason why I bought it.
I was able to get a 256 MB Ogg, WMA, MP3, voice recorder, jump drive, FM Radio player thingy for around 50 dollars. It probably doesn't compare to an ipod, but it works great for me.
Write them and inform them that you won't be visiting until they get the site fixed. I like to act dumb and inform them of the issue. Usually I don't get a reply, if I don't, I write again informing them of how they should at least reply to people's requests, even if the answer is no. The more of us that write to them asking to use open standards, then leaving them when they don't provide, the more companies will start to actually listen.
I'm not sure about this... but doesn't one volcanic eruption throw mucb more CO2 into the air than just about anything else we know of? I remember hearing in one of my Geology classes that they actually acount for something like 90+ percent of CO2 in the atmosphere. If that's true, then we don't really have that much of an impact globally. Locally we might be able to change things, but on the global scale, it looks to me like we aren't really as powerful as we think we are. (we being all of mankind.)
Heaven forbid temperatures change. I heard once that the glaciers were shrinking, then I heard from some of the people that the glaciers were getting larger. Looks to me like things are balancing out. It's odd though, both cases were blamed on global warming.
I don't really know much about fish... in fact, I've only lived on the ocean once (Dominican Republic) and you didn't want to touch it there... a whole lot of polutants (in the local area... nature did a decent job of cleaning it up after a bit.)
I don't know if there is a conspiracy or not...but I would like to inform you that global warming isn't "a reality." Most of the data collected comes from cities, which will have a higher temperature simply because of people and that the materials used for building/roads/sidewalks/etc. retain heat better. Everything from a cold spot on the earth to a hot spot has been blamed on global warming. Records are set everywhere all the time. Record highs and record lows. The truth is this, we haven't been keeping records long enough to know what's going on. It's like the "drought" in southeast idaho...many people complained until they realized that they do live in a high-plains desert and it just happened to be particulary moist when they came into the picture. From what I've seen, global warming is a scare tactic so that some people can gain support from the crowd that doesn't think on their own. It makes good news and they get the popularity. Frankly, I don't think that us humans have enough power to change what's going on in a large scale. The earth is going to do as it pleases without taking into consideration what we want.
Slashdot Mirror
I can't believe this has been modded up. has it been missed, or are the geeks away this week? You have the con no.1
I can't believe that Picard would name the replicator "Earl Grey." That just doesn't make any sense to me.
If you are up for doing some customizations, I would suggest using ADempiere. It is very robust and can be made to do just about anything. The nice thing about it is that when you are done, it becomes an asset for you, not an expense. (Speaking about the balance sheet.) It also can do quite a bit in scaling up to help with other business processes.
Sorry to nauseate you over it. :-P It seemed like the best way to appease the AC so I figured I'd do it. I hope I didn't make you lose a meal. :-P Thanks for reading.
My apologies. If you would like, I can copy and paste the blog entry. Would that help you to feel better? [/sarcasm]
There, fixed that for ya.
I forgot to address your main concern. I did want to help people feel better. No sense in making people upset.
No, I wasn't trying to be sarcastic, I was simply interested in hearing what people think without having to copy and paste my entire blog entry. Since that seems to be what people want, I'll post it here and waste more precious bits. (The last part was sarcasm, by the way. :-P ) I apologize that some of the characters and such don't appear to have translated properly.
I was thinking the other day, why is market share so important? I read various articles saying Linux has X market share, Mac has Y market share, and Windows has Z market share. I would like to throw the following question out to the masses. Who cares? The pie is large enough in this industry that it doesnâ(TM)t really matter. Especially when you look at this on a global scale. If I was producing something in an industry this size, I would be thrilled to have 0.01 percent market share. I understand that market share is extremely useful in determining growth of any product, but in this case I seriously donâ(TM)t think it matters all that much beyond a growth measurement. Right now it is very difficult to quantify which operating systems are being used the most. We canâ(TM)t count sales (there are many free operating systems.) We canâ(TM)t count downloads (one person could download it multiple times.) We canâ(TM)t even count website visits (my blog is visited more under Ubuntu Linux than any other operating system.)
So could someone tell me why it is so important to try to expend all of this energy on market share calculations? Isnâ(TM)t market share simply supposed to tell us if there is an increase or a decline in a particular productâ(TM)s use? Relative accuracy is important while complete accuracy is not. If you measure using the same tool each time and see a growth, then you can be confident that a growth has occurred. Expending all of this energy on trying to calculate the exact number of Linux users isnâ(TM)t going to really benefit everyone. Letâ(TM)s try to focus on actually making good products and having them speak for themselves.
Now before everyone starts to call me a zealot and a person thatâ(TM)s just upset that linux has a small market share, let me say one more thing. Everything has started with a small market share, and it hasnâ(TM)t mattered before. Any new product starts small. Any new service starts small. Thatâ(TM)s the point! They donâ(TM)t start out saying âoeWe have 0% market penetration so we have failed.â What they do instead is look at what overhead they can afford and build their business around that. I ran an open source business for a while, and had a very small market share, but I lived quite comfortably. Market share isnâ(TM)t the be-all, end-all, it is just one of many tools that companies can use to determine if they are growing or shrinking. It isnâ(TM)t some magical tool that tells them if they are successful.
I agree. It would be really neat to see some Open Source ads getting run somewhere. Perhaps a fund should be started to get the ball rolling.
If you really cared what people thought, you would have posted your opinion here. As it is, all I see is blog-whoring. Stop wasting peoples' time.
My apologies. If you would like, I can copy and paste the blog entry. Would that help you to feel better?
I blogged a bit about this a while ago. The direct link is http://josephbrower.com/2009/05/13/whats-up-with-market-share/ . I'd be interested in hearing what people think.
I've had Wimax here in southeast Idaho for a while. It seems to work ok, the only problem being that they got overwhelmed when they started the service and had some bandwidth shortages due to uptake being quicker than they had originally planned. Other than that, it seems pretty reliable and seems to work well. I'm excited to see the tech rolled out elsewhere.
I actually taught how to do this at our local LUG yesterday. K9Copy works good if you still want to watch it on a dvd player. Thoggen is dead easy if you don't care about putting it back onto a dvd. They both take about 3 clicks to go. The only complicated part is that you have to install decss on your own, but you can thank the movie industry for that. Either way, free software is taking over and you probably use it a lot more than you. Many websites out there use it, as well as other companies. I use open office and generate pdf's of everything. I've had people ask me how much adobe cost me, so I explain to them that I'm not using adobe since it doesn't run on what I'm using. When they ask me if I miss it, I say that sometimes I do, but usually not since I've only missed it maybe once or twice in the last while. Rather than saying that it wasn't good enough, I've worked hard with the devs to tell them what needs to be fixed and I've been able to back up what I'm saying with scenarios, so I usually get listened to and the problem eventually gets resolved.
I saw that happening quite a bit. I don't want to sound like I"m trying to fix the worlds problems, but I've recently forked a project and am looking for developers. This project is a SIS (student information system) that aims to provide that to schools with little to no cost. The project is called OASIS. We are currently in the early planning stages, but I've already been backed by a lot of companies in this area (SouthEast Idaho) and it looks like this can be a success. Anyone interested in helping should go to http://oa-sis.org/ . It is going to be written in php and use postgresql as the backend.
"There are a few other avenues that Linux could be doing well in, but Microsoft is growing faster in the server market despite inferior performance, reliability or security, and that's the only other area Linux and Microsoft have any serious rivalry at this time. Linux could be doing well on the desktop, but not while it is playing catch-up. It would have to invent a whole new metaphor before it could seriously threaten Microsoft in the home market."
I don't want to sound rude or anything, but I've found a lot of people asking me about Ubuntu. In fact, just the other day, a guy walked in, told me that he was wanting to upgrade his windows XP laptop. I asked him "to what" and he said "Ubuntu". I was fairly surprised, especially when I found that he had never used it before and was going to give it a shot because a friend of his uses it and he was impressed. I informed him that I run the local linux users group and invited him to come to help him learn. Linux on the desktop is coming faster than ever because MS has tried to keep ahead and has been doing it poorly.
I work at a computer shop and have had more people call me to see if I can downgrade them from Vista because xp ran fine and vista doesn't. These are people usually using vista business and they have something like 512 MB of ram and an radeon 9200 or something similar. XP simply ran faster than vista... maybe it was just these 5 or 6 machines in the last week or so that I've seen though, and no one else is having that problem.
There will be. As one company fails to meet the needs, other companies will be welcomed. It's all part of adaptation.
If you aren't accepting the EULA (by clicking no) then they don't have that right correct? Even if they do put it into the EULA that you are rejecting.
Yuppers. I've seen that happen many times. A user becomes very unhappy with the WGA false positive and they come to me for help. I just let them know that I use something "a little like windows but a lot better" and then give them an ubuntu disc. I offer to install it for cheap and then have them pay me to teach them how to use it. As easy as it is, they usually have very few questions (which surprised me at first, but it looks like the gnome people have done a very good job making things easy to use) and come back with a friend that wants to try it out. Because of the WGA problems, I've helped at least 4 people switch to something non microsoft, one to Mandriva linux and the rest to Ubuntu. All of them still thank me when they see me. These little flaws may turn a lot of people away from MS based stuff just because they pay for something, then don't like it coming back to them and saying that they don't legally own it.
That's how terrorism works. If one man can make an entire nation change their policy, then he's won.
Actually, I live in Idaho. It is a little backwards sometimes (the place I live in just got highspeed internet about 3 years ago.) but it does pay well. It's hard to find a good tech, so when people do, they are more than willing to pay for it. I started a little tech business and I have been able to survive and keep myself busy without even having a storefront (finally got one a month ago after being in business for a year.)
I am always asking the salespeople if a piece of hardware is supported. The only way that a company will start to train and educate its employees is if they see that they have to. I always ask in a polite way, and I don't give them a hard time if they don't know. I do however, thank them for knowing (if they know and actually DO know what they are talking about). Without us asking them, how can they know that there is a demand for it. If I just walk into a store, buy a Linux supported piece of hardware, and leave, for all they know, I bought it because it works under Windows. If I ask them about it, then buy it because it is supported, now they know the real reason why I bought it.
I was able to get a 256 MB Ogg, WMA, MP3, voice recorder, jump drive, FM Radio player thingy for around 50 dollars. It probably doesn't compare to an ipod, but it works great for me.
Write them and inform them that you won't be visiting until they get the site fixed. I like to act dumb and inform them of the issue. Usually I don't get a reply, if I don't, I write again informing them of how they should at least reply to people's requests, even if the answer is no. The more of us that write to them asking to use open standards, then leaving them when they don't provide, the more companies will start to actually listen.
I'm not sure about this... but doesn't one volcanic eruption throw mucb more CO2 into the air than just about anything else we know of? I remember hearing in one of my Geology classes that they actually acount for something like 90+ percent of CO2 in the atmosphere. If that's true, then we don't really have that much of an impact globally. Locally we might be able to change things, but on the global scale, it looks to me like we aren't really as powerful as we think we are. (we being all of mankind.)
Or if you get off of work early then can't go home because your house won't let you in. Well, at least it would stop me from being lazy...
Heaven forbid temperatures change. I heard once that the glaciers were shrinking, then I heard from some of the people that the glaciers were getting larger. Looks to me like things are balancing out. It's odd though, both cases were blamed on global warming. I don't really know much about fish... in fact, I've only lived on the ocean once (Dominican Republic) and you didn't want to touch it there... a whole lot of polutants (in the local area... nature did a decent job of cleaning it up after a bit.)
I don't know if there is a conspiracy or not...but I would like to inform you that global warming isn't "a reality." Most of the data collected comes from cities, which will have a higher temperature simply because of people and that the materials used for building/roads/sidewalks/etc. retain heat better. Everything from a cold spot on the earth to a hot spot has been blamed on global warming. Records are set everywhere all the time. Record highs and record lows. The truth is this, we haven't been keeping records long enough to know what's going on. It's like the "drought" in southeast idaho...many people complained until they realized that they do live in a high-plains desert and it just happened to be particulary moist when they came into the picture. From what I've seen, global warming is a scare tactic so that some people can gain support from the crowd that doesn't think on their own. It makes good news and they get the popularity. Frankly, I don't think that us humans have enough power to change what's going on in a large scale. The earth is going to do as it pleases without taking into consideration what we want.