I think that they were before their time. In 1998 when the Javastation came out, you have to consider the following:-
Most users of internet/PC were technically aware. They could look after a PC.
Viruses spread by email worms were non-existent
Web sites were still quite a new thing in terms of commerce and services. I couldn't get an online route planner and I don't recall webmail being around then. You needed the applications, which meant you needed a PC.
Internet access typically meant dial-up, which meant not hogging the home phone line, and it cost you per minute. Downloading things like java applets took a long time. You wouldn't want to download office suite applets via dial-up.
Browsers were still operating at which version? Netscape 4? IE 4? No CSS, no AJAX.
I still think they may need a few core apps like photo editing, email, browser and office - but a lot of other user services can be delivered via the web.
Us technical guys can manage, but I did a little work for a tradesman I know, and basically, cleaned up his PC. They don't know they have to defrag, don't run anti-spyware. They don't want to play 3d games or compile code.
They want a machine with a browser, word processing, spreadsheet and photo-editing.
The rise of laptops is significant, and shows the way. A lot of home users I know are going laptop because of space and usage concerns. They like to be able to sit at the kitchen table or on the sofa while they look for flights/order DVDs.
It could also be much more "service" orientated. Give people automated internet backups. When you are online, it backups files in the background for you in a seemless manner.
I've said quite a few times on slashdot that a lot of people want an appliance, not a PC.
I know there's a lot of gamers here, but a lot of users aren't, or they just want to play the odd game of solitaire. They want email, web, photo editing and writing the odd letter. Not much that Thunderbird, Firefox, OpenOffice.org and Google porting Picasa couldn't do. Give people a real simple user directory structure so they don't accidentally go overwriting system folders and a simple upgrade mechanism. Allow for backups to a network server as a built in option and have it all configured and ready to roll.
The killer for me was asking a supporter to explain why this "water memory" happens with certain chemicals that are benign but not with those liable to kill me, like lead, mercury or arsenic.
It's quite probably the most cranky medicine out there because it doesn't just lack proof, it even goes against logic.
I've had discussions with a homeopath who after I confronted her with it being a psychological effect suggested that that was just fine, as long as people got better. May as well give people Evian and tell them it's snake oil.
Anytime you raise the minimum wage, you have to consider what the outcomes may be. When you raise the minimum wage, you reduce an employee's options to be competitive. You take away their option to take less than what the government declares as a minimum.
Outcomes could be:-
Employer replaced by machine. The cost of an employee is now more than buying a piece of software to do the same job.
Foreign subcontractor. Not subject to the same minimum wage, and with a lower cost base, the owner ships work abroad and makes the employee redundant.
Owner decides that the investment isn't worth it/they can invest better elsewhere.
If you ever come over again, I recommend rooms in pubs, which are all over the country. Pick the right ones, and you'll get a warm welcome, friendly locals, home cooked food and great ale.
The one significant thing about the growth of online service companies like Google is that they are shifting the platform from being the Windows PC to being the web.
As this continues, the underlying machine required on your desk shifts from being a PC to something more like a dumb terminal. Not everyone will want this, but there are millions of people out there who use their PCs for internet access, cropping family photos and the odd puzzle game.
For them, why not a Linux solution, ready to roll with that sort of software installed?
It's dual licensed, and as far as I recall, not GPL.
I should also qualify what I said. I understand that applications that are themselves open source (can't remember which licenses qualify) are exempt from the cost of a license.
The article doesn't deal with some of the other strengths/weaknesses.
If you want to distribute MySQL with your application to a customer, you have to pay a license fee. That means that for many people, MS SQL Express may be better.
If I wanted to do some complex database logic, I'd probably consider MS SQL Express, as stored procedures on MySQL haven't been out there for long.
If you are building a database to go on low-cost LAMP hosting, MySQL does the job well.
For a piece of shareware requiring a small database, something like SQLLite is probably better than these options.
Any criminal wanting to carry out a serious enough crime will be able to avoid this. Getting on a train, taking a bus or walking will all avoid it. Using any of those methods to go from car A to car B will mean an incomplete picture.
If the government is really serious about terrorism, they should raise the budget of the intelligence services for more officers to do detailed surveillance work.
Maybe instead you'll see Chinese companies making lesser named devices with protection that just happen to have a copy protection option built in. One that can be overridden with little more than a remote hack that someone posts on the internet.
I've only tinkered with RoR, but I've looked at the scaffold screens as being very good for working up from a simple prototype. That you can build screens, get some input, validate that it's OK, and then replace the functionality.
Also, for "back end" screens for maintenance, where it's only going to be the system administrator (ie me) using it, I'll take time saving over prettiness.
The problem is that for most people, they can't make a reasonable statistical analysis because the numbers are too small.
I have an IBM in my box and it's been fine. The 4 Seagates I've owned have been fine. My friend had a drive that played up and was making heck of a noise. It wasn't either of the above. However, I don't consider them a bad manufacturer just because of one faulty drive. I know other guys who swear by them for quality.
Hard Drives are a good free market. If one of them gets a bad reputation, they typically pull their socks up and get the quality back on line. The only exception to this would be OEM systems, which will use anything just to keep the cost down.
So, in summary, MS Access is better than any F/OSS product when you apply it in the problem space it is most suited to.
Not much to argue, I admit. However, you must admit it isn't saying anything useful.
Forget the technical superiority/inferiority. Access (and you can extend this to Dbase/Paradox as a general class of small, desktop databases) is a very useful tool for businesses. My original point about Access was how it is, as an example, a tool that people use. I'm not saying that it's the best tool or the best approach (I once tried to talk someone out of using it for a 300-user system), although I've helped a few people set up and they, as end users write their own reports and modify queries.
I've set up some LAMP things, and I agree about scaling/flexibility. I do wonder if LAMP may hold the key to replacing Access, though. A simple to use web-based, 3rd party hosted database solution where users can easily design database structures/reports etc, with built in security and the benefit of sharing the database regardless of client software or location.
Your government isn't that much of a right-wing libertarian government, though. Giving favours to one business interest over another isn't libertarian. Taking away civil rights isn't libertarian. Giving out unaffordable tax cuts isn't libertarian.
Many of the things that Bush has done are moving your country towards what statist communist countries like China and the USSR were like (China still is).
So what you are saying now is that you actually can't do exactly what you want to do, that you have to "re-evaluate your dreams", which was sorta my point. That you can't always do exactly what you want, because what you offer isn't always what someone wants.
As you know so much more about marketing than me, how about you find someone to finance my project to write a Linux clone of Mr Do. I'll need a budget of about $25 million, and about 10 years to develop it, during which I really don't want to make any progress reports.
I'll give you 10% when you find someone to finance it.
What's the name of the software company you are running?
Slashdot Mirror
I still think they may need a few core apps like photo editing, email, browser and office - but a lot of other user services can be delivered via the web.
Us technical guys can manage, but I did a little work for a tradesman I know, and basically, cleaned up his PC. They don't know they have to defrag, don't run anti-spyware. They don't want to play 3d games or compile code.
They want a machine with a browser, word processing, spreadsheet and photo-editing.
The rise of laptops is significant, and shows the way. A lot of home users I know are going laptop because of space and usage concerns. They like to be able to sit at the kitchen table or on the sofa while they look for flights/order DVDs.
It could also be much more "service" orientated. Give people automated internet backups. When you are online, it backups files in the background for you in a seemless manner.
I know there's a lot of gamers here, but a lot of users aren't, or they just want to play the odd game of solitaire. They want email, web, photo editing and writing the odd letter. Not much that Thunderbird, Firefox, OpenOffice.org and Google porting Picasa couldn't do. Give people a real simple user directory structure so they don't accidentally go overwriting system folders and a simple upgrade mechanism. Allow for backups to a network server as a built in option and have it all configured and ready to roll.
It's quite probably the most cranky medicine out there because it doesn't just lack proof, it even goes against logic.
I've had discussions with a homeopath who after I confronted her with it being a psychological effect suggested that that was just fine, as long as people got better. May as well give people Evian and tell them it's snake oil.
I once OD'd when I skipped my homeopathic medicine.
Outcomes could be:-
Employer replaced by machine. The cost of an employee is now more than buying a piece of software to do the same job.
Foreign subcontractor. Not subject to the same minimum wage, and with a lower cost base, the owner ships work abroad and makes the employee redundant.
Owner decides that the investment isn't worth it/they can invest better elsewhere.
I heard recently that A Brief History of Time is one of the most bought, but unread books.
If you ever come over again, I recommend rooms in pubs, which are all over the country. Pick the right ones, and you'll get a warm welcome, friendly locals, home cooked food and great ale.
If it's in a condition, it's not an assignment, or if it is, it's non-sensical. Who wants to have an assignment prior to a condition for equality?
As this continues, the underlying machine required on your desk shifts from being a PC to something more like a dumb terminal. Not everyone will want this, but there are millions of people out there who use their PCs for internet access, cropping family photos and the odd puzzle game.
For them, why not a Linux solution, ready to roll with that sort of software installed?
I should also qualify what I said. I understand that applications that are themselves open source (can't remember which licenses qualify) are exempt from the cost of a license.
If you want to distribute MySQL with your application to a customer, you have to pay a license fee. That means that for many people, MS SQL Express may be better.
If I wanted to do some complex database logic, I'd probably consider MS SQL Express, as stored procedures on MySQL haven't been out there for long.
If you are building a database to go on low-cost LAMP hosting, MySQL does the job well.
For a piece of shareware requiring a small database, something like SQLLite is probably better than these options.
Have you tried going in by train? It's my preferred option.
Personally, I prefer my HTML autogenerated/manually created, but I had a play and it seemed OK.
I thought that driving without MOT was pretty stupid, but driving in Bath? Are you MAD?
If the government is really serious about terrorism, they should raise the budget of the intelligence services for more officers to do detailed surveillance work.
Maybe instead you'll see Chinese companies making lesser named devices with protection that just happen to have a copy protection option built in. One that can be overridden with little more than a remote hack that someone posts on the internet.
Also, for "back end" screens for maintenance, where it's only going to be the system administrator (ie me) using it, I'll take time saving over prettiness.
What don't you like about it?
I have an IBM in my box and it's been fine. The 4 Seagates I've owned have been fine. My friend had a drive that played up and was making heck of a noise. It wasn't either of the above. However, I don't consider them a bad manufacturer just because of one faulty drive. I know other guys who swear by them for quality.
Hard Drives are a good free market. If one of them gets a bad reputation, they typically pull their socks up and get the quality back on line. The only exception to this would be OEM systems, which will use anything just to keep the cost down.
SS should have said SMS. Ooops.
Forget the technical superiority/inferiority. Access (and you can extend this to Dbase/Paradox as a general class of small, desktop databases) is a very useful tool for businesses. My original point about Access was how it is, as an example, a tool that people use. I'm not saying that it's the best tool or the best approach (I once tried to talk someone out of using it for a 300-user system), although I've helped a few people set up and they, as end users write their own reports and modify queries.
I've set up some LAMP things, and I agree about scaling/flexibility. I do wonder if LAMP may hold the key to replacing Access, though. A simple to use web-based, 3rd party hosted database solution where users can easily design database structures/reports etc, with built in security and the benefit of sharing the database regardless of client software or location.
Many of the things that Bush has done are moving your country towards what statist communist countries like China and the USSR were like (China still is).
So what you are saying now is that you actually can't do exactly what you want to do, that you have to "re-evaluate your dreams", which was sorta my point. That you can't always do exactly what you want, because what you offer isn't always what someone wants.
I'll give you 10% when you find someone to finance it.
What's the name of the software company you are running?