Looks like someone needs to double-check that with Bill, then:
"Important: Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems is only compatible with 64-bit AMD Opteron- or Athlon 64-based computers. It cannot be successfully installed on 64-bit Intel Itanium-based systems."
I don't see any mention of an upcoming Intel it will run on, either.
And Word and Excel beat the ever-loving crap out of OpenOffice, too. And while we're on the topic, Linux spreadsheets shouldn't emulate Excel that much - it's not that great a program (painful to set up complex formulas, interface for graphing is non-intuitive, etc), but still better than any of the current crop of Linux competitors. Word, on the other hand, is extremely refined and a damn good program.
As for setting file types, you're MISSING THE POINT (bangs head against wall). The whole point is you should NOT have to set things like that manually. It should Just Work.
Finally, as to security, if a standard user wants to install an app for his own use, then why shouldn't he/she be able to? Obviously a bunch of things wouldn't be allowed (servers on ports lower than 1024, modifications to underlying OS, etc), but why couldn't they just install a game for their own use, for example? And WHY would CD burning be a privileged operation?
There is NO reason these things should be difficult, or take any effort at all for that matter. Look at Mac OS X. They managed to get a lot of these issues right. Took a couple revisions, but Linux has been working on it for far longer with far less to show for the effort.
He didn't cancel the review - read the article more closely - it cancelled itself at the first sign of trouble, with misleading error messages. Next it never prompted him to connect the device despite telling him NOT to until prompted. Finally, it seems it wouldn't have mattered, since it won't work with USB hubs (and a LOT of people have them). So yes, the installation is fatally flawed and it was not the end user's fault. Oops, I forgot, on Windows, EVERYTHING is the end user's fault.
As for voice recordings, I would also expect on an audio device that allows syncing of songs that it would allow you to copy the recording to your computer. Otherwise, what's the point? You can't file it, archive it, name it descriptively, etc. It's near useless then.
Finally, the fact that you CAN'T use this as portable storage unless you either a) have the Dell utilities on every computer you come across, or b) carry the CD with you, quite simply sucks. I thought one of the major selling points was you could use all that space for data easily? An iPod can be connected on the fly to any computer, no drivers needed to get to the hard drive.
So no, it's not his fault ("insightful" comment indeed), and the device did fail on a couple major expected features.
What about genuine advances such as the assembly line or interchangeable parts? I would consider that a novel invention. Obviously we have all benefited by such concepts not being patented, but I can see how it would fit patent criteria.
Having gone through the IBM patent process, something like this would be much more likely to be marked "publish". In that case you don't actually patent it, but you do place the description in the public domain, thus preventing others from patenting it. It simply establishes prior art.
Inside IBM, employees do receive awards based on successful patent applications, so that may have something to do with this being patented, rather than simply published.
That being said, it really pisses me off as my recent patent application was denied for not being "novel". Grrrr...
One very good reason to change refresh rate (that I encounter daily) is that my laptop screen has no refresh rate, but on connecting to a desktop monitor I need to set it to 85Hz (anything lower hurts my eyes). Maybe this isn't an issue on Linux, but it is elsewhere.
However, anyone who has used a P2P network knows that for any given file people are looking for, there are about a dozen variants with very slight differences (encodings, cropping, someone added a few frames of "encoded by..."). Since we don't have digital purchase of data, there is no "authoritative" version of a file to fingerprint in the first place.
Ah yes, where Jef Raskin makes up a *lot* of history (the original "Macintosh" he started did not have a GUI, sound, etc - it was really an evolution of the Apple II), and while Microsoft certainly has supported the Mac with Office and such, let's not forget that they not only stole the interface, but conveniently stopped producing Office for 3-4 long years in the mid-90's, ironically enough, right after Windows 95 arrived. Hmmmm....
Well, if you have a decent provider (like, I don't know, IBM?:), then they already offer burstable bandwidth and multiple ISP's to handle things like that. Bandwidth was on-demand before they'd even coined the term.
As for storage, carving out a new LUN on a SAN or NAS storage unit is simple compared to shifting processing jobs around.
What on-demand is about is when your web site gets a huge spike of hits (/. effect, anyone?), you can immediately blast out several new web server (or application server, or database server) images and double your serving capacity near instantly.
It should also be noted that early betas of Panther bundled DarwinPorts. That faded away in later builds, but most things that Apple has hinted at shows up eventually.
Personally, I find fink (and the wonderful FinkCommander) to be extremely easy to use, but the inclusion of any simple access to ports/apt-get/etc would be a boon to OS X users.
I hate to break this to you, but software development does not depend on numbers, but more on time and planning. Read up on "The Mythical Man Month" - throwing more programmers and such at it would likely slow it down rather than help. Also, IBM's vast resources are in a million different areas - everything from Java and XML to chip design, Oracle maintenance, and network engineers.
Not to mention, I personally have not been that impressed at our client applications - how many people here have used SmartSuite? Why is Notes still so woefully single-threaded (in a network-based app!)? Our server products and backend stuff is the best in the industry, but any client app like this would probably be Lotus' responsibility...
Finally, Visio was just one example that I personally use. For argument, say that we can write our own version, the automation and everything in two years. That would help our group migrate. We represent about a hundred people (maybe a couple hundred in various worldwide departments) out of hundreds of thousands of employees. When you count all other groups using Visio, who knows, maybe a few thousand (I haven't the foggiest). What about other groups and their specialized apps? I'm not being a stick in the mud, I'm injecting a dose of realism to this.
Actually, I will look at that. However, Visio is a very polished program (text printing aside - grrrr), and the shapesheet infrastructure works well. The automation is (at least for our group) a key feature.
Now, Visio was only an example - I'm sure various groups have all their own program or other they absolutely depend on. However, as I said before, many groups without such requirements could probably migrate.
They are doing exactly the right thing for Mom and Pop First Time User, which is a pretty large target. I would expect that coming from a Linux/Unix background that you already have your 5-button scrollwheel USB mouse. Plug it in to OS X - it works.
A couple facts from inside IBM. We've had a workstation build for Linux for quite some time, encompassing all basic business needs in IBM (Notes, corporate instant messaging, etc). Also, all of our HR and other internal applications are pretty much web and Java based, with a quiet directive that Mozilla will be our standard browser platform by 2005.
However, many groups use applications that cannot be replaced on Linux. My group, for instance, does nearly all of our work in Visio. I've looked at Kivio and others, and I can't begin to tell you how primitive they are. Also, at least my group does a lot of active development in Visual Basic to automate Visio and other programs.
Essentially what I'm saying is many basic users here may be able to move to Linux, but Windows will remain the primary client for the forseeable future, simply for the applications, integration, and relative ease of working with partners who use Windows.
It's early, and I'm going to bed. This post will be semi-disorganized and probably a bit flaming. Sorry, I'm tired. However...
1) Files fragment. It happens in any file system. If your file system is well designed, it undoes this as possible. Panther does this. As a result, no appreciable fragmentation should occur (others can fill in the technical details). So what that article was trying to tell you is the file system is automatically defragmented every time an open() call is made.
2) Yes, there's lots of shareware. And a lot of commercial software. And a whole lot of freeware (check www.macupdate.com). Guess what - Linux has only the freeware category in any significant sense. And OS X can run that exact same free software via X11 in the vast majority of cases, just as you do on Linux today. Not to mention that the vast majority of shareware is $20 or less - only a couple things like GraphicConverter cost more. (Horrors, some people spend years of their life and just *don't* want to give it all away for free. They do exist.) Not to mention that Apple bundles a truckload of free software (as in beer, folks) that quite frankly kicks the butt of any open source software I've seen (I'm thinking iTunes/iPhoto/iMovie/iDVD at the moment, not Mail/Address Book). And if you want any of the other stuff, it's readily installable by fink or by compiling it yourself. I already installed my own customized wget and other things.
3) Lack of choice is deliberate. Yes, occasionally it's annoying, no doubt about it. However, I believe the excesisve choice is a major criticism of Linux (and the associated division of labor and lack of focus/coherence). As many have pointed out, why does KDE include several duplicate programs for each basic function, rather than provide a good default up front. You want choice, you can get it very easily on your own (whether by tweak, compile, or download). There are a lot of simple users out there that really, honestly, don't want choice. They want what's included to work and do what they want to do. Apple does that in spades.
I believe one of the more controversial problems is that the federal law overrides the state laws and invalidates them. The federal government has authority over interstate commerce, and I find it hard to argue that this isn't (IANAL just like everyone on Slashdot).
However, given that the 5GB iPod was Mac-only, I don't see how they can get around the fact that they did something completely and utterly unsupported, knowingly.
I flashed a firmware upgrade (against the manufacturer's advice) to a firewire enclosure recently and fried it. Should the manufacturer give me a new enclosure? I don't think so.
Slashdot Mirror
Well thanks for not posting links to the mirrors, but posting a page on the slashdotted site! Informative my ass.
You may call me a troll, but you know I'm right.
Looks like someone needs to double-check that with Bill, then:
"Important: Windows XP 64-Bit Edition for 64-Bit Extended Systems is only compatible with 64-bit AMD Opteron- or Athlon 64-based computers. It cannot be successfully installed on 64-bit Intel Itanium-based systems."
I don't see any mention of an upcoming Intel it will run on, either.
And Word and Excel beat the ever-loving crap out of OpenOffice, too. And while we're on the topic, Linux spreadsheets shouldn't emulate Excel that much - it's not that great a program (painful to set up complex formulas, interface for graphing is non-intuitive, etc), but still better than any of the current crop of Linux competitors. Word, on the other hand, is extremely refined and a damn good program.
As for setting file types, you're MISSING THE POINT (bangs head against wall). The whole point is you should NOT have to set things like that manually. It should Just Work.
Finally, as to security, if a standard user wants to install an app for his own use, then why shouldn't he/she be able to? Obviously a bunch of things wouldn't be allowed (servers on ports lower than 1024, modifications to underlying OS, etc), but why couldn't they just install a game for their own use, for example? And WHY would CD burning be a privileged operation?
There is NO reason these things should be difficult, or take any effort at all for that matter. Look at Mac OS X. They managed to get a lot of these issues right. Took a couple revisions, but Linux has been working on it for far longer with far less to show for the effort.
Screw the mod points.
He didn't cancel the review - read the article more closely - it cancelled itself at the first sign of trouble, with misleading error messages. Next it never prompted him to connect the device despite telling him NOT to until prompted. Finally, it seems it wouldn't have mattered, since it won't work with USB hubs (and a LOT of people have them). So yes, the installation is fatally flawed and it was not the end user's fault. Oops, I forgot, on Windows, EVERYTHING is the end user's fault.
As for voice recordings, I would also expect on an audio device that allows syncing of songs that it would allow you to copy the recording to your computer. Otherwise, what's the point? You can't file it, archive it, name it descriptively, etc. It's near useless then.
Finally, the fact that you CAN'T use this as portable storage unless you either a) have the Dell utilities on every computer you come across, or b) carry the CD with you, quite simply sucks. I thought one of the major selling points was you could use all that space for data easily? An iPod can be connected on the fly to any computer, no drivers needed to get to the hard drive.
So no, it's not his fault ("insightful" comment indeed), and the device did fail on a couple major expected features.
What about genuine advances such as the assembly line or interchangeable parts? I would consider that a novel invention. Obviously we have all benefited by such concepts not being patented, but I can see how it would fit patent criteria.
Gee, I wish someone had told me that. I'm not a tax professional, but this sounds highly unlikely.
Having gone through the IBM patent process, something like this would be much more likely to be marked "publish". In that case you don't actually patent it, but you do place the description in the public domain, thus preventing others from patenting it. It simply establishes prior art.
Inside IBM, employees do receive awards based on successful patent applications, so that may have something to do with this being patented, rather than simply published.
That being said, it really pisses me off as my recent patent application was denied for not being "novel". Grrrr...
One very good reason to change refresh rate (that I encounter daily) is that my laptop screen has no refresh rate, but on connecting to a desktop monitor I need to set it to 85Hz (anything lower hurts my eyes). Maybe this isn't an issue on Linux, but it is elsewhere.
However, anyone who has used a P2P network knows that for any given file people are looking for, there are about a dozen variants with very slight differences (encodings, cropping, someone added a few frames of "encoded by..."). Since we don't have digital purchase of data, there is no "authoritative" version of a file to fingerprint in the first place.
Ah yes, where Jef Raskin makes up a *lot* of history (the original "Macintosh" he started did not have a GUI, sound, etc - it was really an evolution of the Apple II), and while Microsoft certainly has supported the Mac with Office and such, let's not forget that they not only stole the interface, but conveniently stopped producing Office for 3-4 long years in the mid-90's, ironically enough, right after Windows 95 arrived. Hmmmm....
IBM: Hey, get out of our labs, and stop posting it on Slashdot!
(Posted as AC to protect the innocent)
Well, if you have a decent provider (like, I don't know, IBM? :), then they already offer burstable bandwidth and multiple ISP's to handle things like that. Bandwidth was on-demand before they'd even coined the term.
As for storage, carving out a new LUN on a SAN or NAS storage unit is simple compared to shifting processing jobs around.
What on-demand is about is when your web site gets a huge spike of hits (/. effect, anyone?), you can immediately blast out several new web server (or application server, or database server) images and double your serving capacity near instantly.
Which means nearly nothing to UI development. The kernel is not holding back KDE/Gnome, lack of cohesion and division of effort is.
It should also be noted that early betas of Panther bundled DarwinPorts. That faded away in later builds, but most things that Apple has hinted at shows up eventually.
Personally, I find fink (and the wonderful FinkCommander) to be extremely easy to use, but the inclusion of any simple access to ports/apt-get/etc would be a boon to OS X users.
I hate to break this to you, but software development does not depend on numbers, but more on time and planning. Read up on "The Mythical Man Month" - throwing more programmers and such at it would likely slow it down rather than help. Also, IBM's vast resources are in a million different areas - everything from Java and XML to chip design, Oracle maintenance, and network engineers.
Not to mention, I personally have not been that impressed at our client applications - how many people here have used SmartSuite? Why is Notes still so woefully single-threaded (in a network-based app!)? Our server products and backend stuff is the best in the industry, but any client app like this would probably be Lotus' responsibility...
Finally, Visio was just one example that I personally use. For argument, say that we can write our own version, the automation and everything in two years. That would help our group migrate. We represent about a hundred people (maybe a couple hundred in various worldwide departments) out of hundreds of thousands of employees. When you count all other groups using Visio, who knows, maybe a few thousand (I haven't the foggiest). What about other groups and their specialized apps? I'm not being a stick in the mud, I'm injecting a dose of realism to this.
Actually, I will look at that. However, Visio is a very polished program (text printing aside - grrrr), and the shapesheet infrastructure works well. The automation is (at least for our group) a key feature.
Now, Visio was only an example - I'm sure various groups have all their own program or other they absolutely depend on. However, as I said before, many groups without such requirements could probably migrate.
Wow, you're still stuck on CLAIM? Geez, we've been on ILC (Java-based) for a year or two now. I haven't fired up VM once in the last year or so.
And to those saying "With IBM's resources they can do anything": true, but then we have to be able to migrate all of those resources.
They are doing exactly the right thing for Mom and Pop First Time User, which is a pretty large target. I would expect that coming from a Linux/Unix background that you already have your 5-button scrollwheel USB mouse. Plug it in to OS X - it works.
And this sums up exactly why I don't use Linux - the community around it.
A couple facts from inside IBM. We've had a workstation build for Linux for quite some time, encompassing all basic business needs in IBM (Notes, corporate instant messaging, etc). Also, all of our HR and other internal applications are pretty much web and Java based, with a quiet directive that Mozilla will be our standard browser platform by 2005.
However, many groups use applications that cannot be replaced on Linux. My group, for instance, does nearly all of our work in Visio. I've looked at Kivio and others, and I can't begin to tell you how primitive they are. Also, at least my group does a lot of active development in Visual Basic to automate Visio and other programs.
Essentially what I'm saying is many basic users here may be able to move to Linux, but Windows will remain the primary client for the forseeable future, simply for the applications, integration, and relative ease of working with partners who use Windows.
It's early, and I'm going to bed. This post will be semi-disorganized and probably a bit flaming. Sorry, I'm tired. However...
1) Files fragment. It happens in any file system. If your file system is well designed, it undoes this as possible. Panther does this. As a result, no appreciable fragmentation should occur (others can fill in the technical details). So what that article was trying to tell you is the file system is automatically defragmented every time an open() call is made.
2) Yes, there's lots of shareware. And a lot of commercial software. And a whole lot of freeware (check www.macupdate.com). Guess what - Linux has only the freeware category in any significant sense. And OS X can run that exact same free software via X11 in the vast majority of cases, just as you do on Linux today. Not to mention that the vast majority of shareware is $20 or less - only a couple things like GraphicConverter cost more. (Horrors, some people spend years of their life and just *don't* want to give it all away for free. They do exist.) Not to mention that Apple bundles a truckload of free software (as in beer, folks) that quite frankly kicks the butt of any open source software I've seen (I'm thinking iTunes/iPhoto/iMovie/iDVD at the moment, not Mail/Address Book). And if you want any of the other stuff, it's readily installable by fink or by compiling it yourself. I already installed my own customized wget and other things.
3) Lack of choice is deliberate. Yes, occasionally it's annoying, no doubt about it. However, I believe the excesisve choice is a major criticism of Linux (and the associated division of labor and lack of focus/coherence). As many have pointed out, why does KDE include several duplicate programs for each basic function, rather than provide a good default up front. You want choice, you can get it very easily on your own (whether by tweak, compile, or download). There are a lot of simple users out there that really, honestly, don't want choice. They want what's included to work and do what they want to do. Apple does that in spades.
I'm going to bed. grump grump grump...
Man, if you go 14 miles in 6 minutes (140mph) then you deserve the ticket and a court summons.
I believe one of the more controversial problems is that the federal law overrides the state laws and invalidates them. The federal government has authority over interstate commerce, and I find it hard to argue that this isn't (IANAL just like everyone on Slashdot).
"Macintosh" does not mean "one-button".
However, given that the 5GB iPod was Mac-only, I don't see how they can get around the fact that they did something completely and utterly unsupported, knowingly. I flashed a firmware upgrade (against the manufacturer's advice) to a firewire enclosure recently and fried it. Should the manufacturer give me a new enclosure? I don't think so.