I have the small business edition of Office, which was bundled with my PC. I would be happy using it on the Mac except for the $500 part. I don't know much about Apple Works except that it was ported from pre-OS X days. I haven't heard it mentioned in the same breath as some of Apple's more recent offerings.
I'm a PC user who is intrigued with the G5 and OS X. I was pricing a G5 at the Apple site and it went something like this: "Let's see if I get the low end version and cut out the super drive and modem, and add a 17'' display, I can get it for $2500 and if I get Microsoft Office it will add FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!?" If Apple wants to get people like me to switch, they need to provide first rate, reasonably priced office software that interacts with the Microsoft stuff that 95% of the people are using.
If I were Apple, I would develop an iDocument, bundle it with every Mac, port it to Windows and Linux, and give it away free. Give Microsoft a taste of their own competitive practices. This would make switching a lot easier.
It's sort of ironic that the U.S. government is Microsoft's biggest customer, and at the same time was prosecuting them for being a monopoly. If the government just switched to some other OS (Linux or Mac OS) the monopoly would instantly come to an end.
The purpose of a patent is not to enrich individuals or corporations, but to allow them to recoup research and development costs. The classic example is a drug company that spends millions of dollars developing a pill that only costs pennies to produce. The drug company is given a legal monopoly for a period of time so that they can sell the pill with large profit margins to regain their investment. For a patent to serve its purpose, the following criteria need to be met:
1. The formula for the pill was not obvious to anyone.
2. The R&D effort was considerable.
3. Without the prospect of a patent, the drug company would not have developed the pill.
Software is altogether different. Software developers recoup their investment by selling their software. Being first to market is a huge competitive advantage. Copycat developers are still going to have to spend a comparable amount of time and money to produce a competing product. The software industry is going to thrive without patents. They are not necessary and only reduce competition.
.Net is definitely a step up from COM/ATL and VB 6. When the.Net run time is distributed with the OS, I think you will see more and more.Net software..Net does not have the cross platform advantage of Java, but it does seem to have a significant performance advantage over Java. Theoretically it shouldn't have, since C#/.Net is so similar to Java, but it does..Net is the future for people who live in the Microsoft world.
These computers won't be available until August. What will Apple do for sales until then? I wouldn't even buy a laptop with a G4 after seeing these babies.
The personality traits that make good managers arenâ(TM)t the same as the personality traits that make good programmers. The best programmers love their jobs and often have no desire to be a manager, and do not see a move into management as a step up.
You don't want to work at a company where managers are this stupid. I haven't noticed any hiring problems for older programmers at my company. This might be because some of our older guys (some in their 50â(TM)s) are also some of our best programmers. I know that whenever I interview a potential programmer, I look for in depth knowledge about at least one topic in programming, not their age, sex, or race. I assume that if a person knows something in depth, then they can learn what we need them to know.
If you are new to programming I would recommend using Java (for free) or C# (about a hundred bucks but with a dream IDE). Either of these languages will easy the path to more manly languages, such as C++ later.
Slashdot Mirror
I have the small business edition of Office, which was bundled with my PC. I would be happy using it on the Mac except for the $500 part. I don't know much about Apple Works except that it was ported from pre-OS X days. I haven't heard it mentioned in the same breath as some of Apple's more recent offerings.
I'm a PC user who is intrigued with the G5 and OS X. I was pricing a G5 at the Apple site and it went something like this: "Let's see if I get the low end version and cut out the super drive and modem, and add a 17'' display, I can get it for $2500 and if I get Microsoft Office it will add FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS!!?" If Apple wants to get people like me to switch, they need to provide first rate, reasonably priced office software that interacts with the Microsoft stuff that 95% of the people are using. If I were Apple, I would develop an iDocument, bundle it with every Mac, port it to Windows and Linux, and give it away free. Give Microsoft a taste of their own competitive practices. This would make switching a lot easier.
It's sort of ironic that the U.S. government is Microsoft's biggest customer, and at the same time was prosecuting them for being a monopoly. If the government just switched to some other OS (Linux or Mac OS) the monopoly would instantly come to an end.
The purpose of a patent is not to enrich individuals or corporations, but to allow them to recoup research and development costs. The classic example is a drug company that spends millions of dollars developing a pill that only costs pennies to produce. The drug company is given a legal monopoly for a period of time so that they can sell the pill with large profit margins to regain their investment. For a patent to serve its purpose, the following criteria need to be met:
1. The formula for the pill was not obvious to anyone.
2. The R&D effort was considerable.
3. Without the prospect of a patent, the drug company would not have developed the pill.
Software is altogether different. Software developers recoup their investment by selling their software. Being first to market is a huge competitive advantage. Copycat developers are still going to have to spend a comparable amount of time and money to produce a competing product. The software industry is going to thrive without patents. They are not necessary and only reduce competition.
.Net is definitely a step up from COM/ATL and VB 6. When the .Net run time is distributed with the OS, I think you will see more and more .Net software. .Net does not have the cross platform advantage of Java, but it does seem to have a significant performance advantage over Java. Theoretically it shouldn't have, since C#/.Net is so similar to Java, but it does. .Net is the future for people who live in the Microsoft world.
These computers won't be available until August. What will Apple do for sales until then? I wouldn't even buy a laptop with a G4 after seeing these babies.
Actually, I think Slashdot has been Appled.
The personality traits that make good managers arenâ(TM)t the same as the personality traits that make good programmers. The best programmers love their jobs and often have no desire to be a manager, and do not see a move into management as a step up.
You don't want to work at a company where managers are this stupid. I haven't noticed any hiring problems for older programmers at my company. This might be because some of our older guys (some in their 50â(TM)s) are also some of our best programmers. I know that whenever I interview a potential programmer, I look for in depth knowledge about at least one topic in programming, not their age, sex, or race. I assume that if a person knows something in depth, then they can learn what we need them to know.
If you are new to programming I would recommend using Java (for free) or C# (about a hundred bucks but with a dream IDE). Either of these languages will easy the path to more manly languages, such as C++ later.