Microsoft started as a company full of innovation, looking to bring the world together thru the use of computers, to make life easier and less complicated thru the use of a lot of their brilliant software.
Thirty years forward from the embarkation of a noble dream seems a company likened to a powerhungry politician -- they want to be number one, at all costs, and want to have the say and press their voice into the 'law' that is what we know as personal computing. Hordes of Microsoft employees are leaving citing 'poor work environments' for companies like Google, who treat their employees as their number one commodity, something not suprising -- Microsoft did the same in their inception.
Right now, as a network administrator myself, I see Microsoft falling further and further off of the map. Organizations such as my own, and I'm sure many more, look for interoperability, compatibility, and the ability to use the latest and greatest technology with the greatest ease of lateral movement. Linux as a whole is conducive to this environment, embracing open standards so that everybody can view a document in different operating systems, different platforms, etc. And companies realize this -- Microsoft's ease of use will be lessened as time passes, while the brilliant programmers depart to work for the MS counterparts -- be it Google, Sun, Apple, or whomever. And those programmers will bring to Linux what Microsoft brought to computing in merely an idea thirty years ago.
For Microsoft's birthday, I think a good look at their road travelled is important. It will show them how they started, how they innovated, and how they succeeded. Now instead of innovating, they are eliminiating competition, stopping people from innovating, and stopping interoperability. Look back at your history Microsoft, and see that the noble and humble beginnings you had play a huge part in where you are today. It's still not too late to make a u-turn and take a different road than you are travelling -- because the one you are on leads to a cliff.
Last I checked, IE7 has a higher memory footprint than Firefox, renders pages more slowly, lacks a bunch of features of Firefox and doesn't have extensibility like Firefox does with its extensions.
With great extensions out there that are evolving and continually being developed (weather, news, RSS, adblock, etc) I don't see how IE7 is going to score 'major' points.
Besides the fact that Microsoft takes its own sweet time patching against spyware and security breaches, IE7 will be a replay of more of the same from Microsoft, only vaulting Firefox further ahead, imo.
It's not what IE7 offers in terms of features that will let it beat Firefox, it's what it LACKS in timely updates to problems that will allow Firefox to continue a healthy growth and eventually, a standardization on par with IE. So when developers write code, they will think of the 'other' browser that takes up a huge chunk of marketshare.
I guess your 'European' or 'Asian' culture instead allows you only to read a single comment instead of reading my followup for using the wrong word.
So sorry, I won't let your higher intellect fall into the trap of not figuring out I misused a word without explicitly explaining it and further, I will make sure when I post an initial time, to "Refer to followups" so that you can process the extra information that may be a load on your small mind.
The brightest minds in the world being paid to create copywrite protection is NO MATCH for the brilliant mind in some Norweigan country who is MOTIVATED to crack that protection.
It's always a losing game. Maybe think about offering better choices and making it more CONVIENIENT to get music? Oh what do I know... I'm just a consumer!
Symantec rarely captures any in the wild viruses any more. We leave that now to Kaspersky, NOD32, Panda, etc... Symantec never seems to be on top of the industry they claim to be 'the leader' in.
And then they release a report that deems software that has already proven its security, its stability, and its ease of use in comparison with Internet Explorer, 'lacking' in security or more prone to attack.
Entertaining even more still, is that Linux and Mac OS are 'insecure' yet again, are pieces of software that have proven themselves secure and stable. Granted, an idiot could screw up the security...
I suppose Symantec's release on this subject is to 'percieved' security. I mean, if they can't capture any viruses before the smaller, less obnoxious firms that also support Linux, Macs, and are proponents of Firefox well... then why the fuck should we listen to them anyway?
I mentioned it in another article, but the key for Linux to breakthru to the desktop market is not for widespread adoption by corporate customers, it's just simple, plain old, EASE OF USE.
I'm a pretty experienced computer user, EX-Windows developer (networking now), MCSE and while I can install Linux and get around it, I don't have a clue of an idea how to do a lot of things, including at times, install software (though I've figured that out with yum and rpm haha!). Either way... until Linux offers the eyecandy that OS X does, with the compatibility that Windows offers... it will still be the DESKTOP choice of nerds.
I'm waiting for the next version of KDE for some improvements but in reality, I think there's a lot more to be done at even a kernel level to make some things more idiotproof.
I'll parlay it by saying that when Firefox has 'vulnerabilities' (as the genious in this article pointed out... at least it doesn't give the ability for an attacker to "enable a remote attack on systems running Windows XP with Service Pack 2".
So I'll stick with my more numerous, less invasive, and quickly fixed Firefox 'vulnerabilities' instead of my IE's less in number, more damaging and slower to be fixed 'vulnerabilities'.
The 64 bit extensions that Intel uses are a JOKE. They make the processor take turns when deciding what code to execute, while the AMD keeps chugging away and thus makes their 64 bit solution much better.
The Celeron D is okay, but compared to the Sempron again, a joke. You're talking about a chip that is just cheap (and relatively slow) to a Sempron that is cheap and relatively fast. Not to mention, it runs cooler too.
I think I'll echo what everybody else has said. It's a combination of money and laptop options.
Besides Apple can always switch to AMD at a later date.
Even with things that 'just work' like refridgerators and the like -- there are always going to be repair people because of the sheer stupidity of end-users.
Besides, those that are lost probably weren't meant to be there in the first place. The helpdesk support guys either bone up their skills and become full blown developers or network admins, or they get the fuck out of IT. Either way, I call it progress.
Tell me which corporation will install a new point release of ANY Microsoft OS? Hell, remember service pack 2? That's technically speaking, a whole point release. And where I work, and countless other places, IT managers opted NOT to install it for a *very* long time until the bugs were worked out in that point release.
This idea of 'smaller' and 'more frequent' upgrades plays merely into the Linux world's hands. The problem with Windows is that there's a tie-in to everything. So if a change must be made, it affects the OS at the kernel level. With Linux, kernel updates aren't as frequent nor as impacting. However, KDE can release a new version and since it's part of x windows and not attached to the OS in a surgical manner, it really doesn't matter. People don't know that now because Linux isn't mainstream, but they will when they find themselves extensively testing for compatibility with legacy apps they have in-house, or whatever with regards to Windows.
This is the opportunity for the Linux community to come together and offer a *true* desktop competitor to Windows. As it stands right now, and I know the/. users will voice complaint -- Linux on the desktop sucks. The key to break into that market is ease of use and while as/.ers we can generally 'figure it out' even if we are unfamiliar, the average Joe will not. Apple is going in the right direction there but with limited hardware and inflated prices, it's not a viable alternative for the desktop, as pretty as it is.
If Linux as a desktop becomes EASY to use (and I mean damned near idiotproof), the server can pretty much remain as it is. Nobody cares about the server when they are using their desktop, especially as an end-user in say, Accounting. They just want to get their figures out the door without having applications crash and close on them.
Now's the time to do it though.. Microsoft is going to set themselves up badly with Vista... and sometimes you only get one good chance to whack the bad guy in the back of the head. And then kick him while he's down:)
Of COURSE they disagree with the slogan..
on
Bill Gates Speaks Out
·
· Score: 0, Troll
Google's motto is Do no evil.
And since Microsoft only does evil, I can see why Bill Gates disagrees with it.
Counterstrike is a team based game generally, and too slow paced for me. Don't get me wrong -- I like the game and play it a lot -- and I do really well (even against hackers at times), but it's too slow.
Hackers in Quake3 and UT2004 can railgun you while jumping off a bouncer pad and strafing.. it's impossible to block and no amount of 'skill' can fix that, unfortunately.
I'm sure that there are tons of people better than me. I just want to see where I stack up compared to these 'pro' guys. I mean, it doesn't hurt to check, does it? I just wanted a method to be able to get into some competition class matches and see if I do well at all.
I've been playing first person shooters for years now, and I have convinced myself that I'm pretty damned good at them. I read all about these gaming leagues and such, but the question is, how do I join in one to see if my skills are as good as I think they are?
There has to be a way to 'work up the ranks' and I've found myself amazingly good (yes, I'm gloating) at games like Quake3 or Unreal Tournament 2004 -- twitch based games. I want to get online and compete in deathmatches to see how well I do, but I know a *lot* of people out there are hackers and such, so I want an arena in which I can have an even playing field.
That said, so I don't get modded OT, J&J is just getting money into the realm of gaming -- it doesn't really matter whether or not it's online gaming now. It's just something people watch, and something J&J can use to market itself. It's business, and it always is. Intel doesn't sponsor the gaming clans out of the good of their hearts. Well, Intel does it because they know they suck compared to AMD in gaming. Oh well... money talks!
iTunes as a music store may be the biggest, but it's certainly not the best. It has branding and people associate with that -- they will buy because they first bought the iPod, and now they are stuck with their choice of music store.
As soon as somebody, and I'll probably say it will be Creative (with the CEO already gunning for Apple) shows that the iPod is really just a pretty looking piece of shit to the mass market, the empire Apple is building around iPod and iTunes will collapse. You will find Apple making cuts to their pricing structure in iTunes ($.79 at Yahoo for a download, or $4.99 a month for unlimited.. iTunes can't compete at that price) and by that time, it will be too little, too late.
It's amazing to me the amount of marketing dollars spent behind a product that is by my measures, rather mediocre. It has a nice sleek look, it's got a decent interface (that scroll wheel was genious) but otherwise, the sound quality is subpar compared to an iRiver, the battery life is quite a bit lower, there's no radio, no voice recording, you can't view text documents on it, and it's expensive. I would much rather see Apple spend the money they do on marketing the iPod to invest in OS X because frankly, I want an alternative OS that is comparable to Windows at every level -- including software support.
OS X is as well, a MUCH better product than any of its competition, unlike the iPod. So my question is, why the fuck are they investing so heavily and marketing so heavily, a mediocre product when they have a GREAT product in OS X that only needs some love and affection (and allowing me to whitebox would help a lot too!), and the same marketing money and we have a push to really compete with Windows in the mainstream.
Until Apple makes some realizations in this respect and starts improving on what they are ALREADY ahead at (the OS), and making consumers aware of it, and making it cheap, they will find themselves going the same route as Betamax. Better technology, but ultimately much more expensive, less compatible, and will be used by only a small percentage until the *next* best thing comes out. In the case of Betamax, VHS wasn't better but everybody went with that for convienience, and now EVERYBODY went to DVDs because it's "the next best thing". Will Windows Vista be the next best thing? I doubt it, but it may seem that way -- and sadly for Apple, perception is reality.
My perception right now, is that Apple is not the OS X company, but the iPod company. I'd much rather they be the former but then again, I'm not Steve Jobs and I don't have a say in the matter. Besides, the amount of medication I'd have to take to BE Steve Jobs is something I'd probably avoid:)
Why don't they allow us to set up accounts that take in money for charities, without charge? I mean, I have a website with over 8000 users, and I wanted to start a drive to collect money for the hurricane relief to donate to the Red Cross, but if I set up an account using PayPal, they'd charge me a bunch of money, taking away from what we would want to donate. I only wanted to have it set up for my site to show that my small community of members can make a difference, but unfortunately I ended up putting a link to Amazon's donation site which doesn't charge anybody anything for that donation.
because I just load up Tunebite (it's cheap, go buy it!) and now all my DRMed files are unDRMed and I can do with them what I want. All on a $5 a month plan. It may not be 100% what they want, but I'm not sharing those files and I find it more convienient than worrying about my stupid licenses.
Slashdot Mirror
Dolphins will soon rule the world.
:)
Oh well, I guess there are worse ways to go. At least we won't be ruled by catfish. They are some ugly motherfuckers.
He made the music industry sound even MORE greedy this time around.
Maybe it's just me....
Microsoft started as a company full of innovation, looking to bring the world together thru the use of computers, to make life easier and less complicated thru the use of a lot of their brilliant software.
Thirty years forward from the embarkation of a noble dream seems a company likened to a powerhungry politician -- they want to be number one, at all costs, and want to have the say and press their voice into the 'law' that is what we know as personal computing. Hordes of Microsoft employees are leaving citing 'poor work environments' for companies like Google, who treat their employees as their number one commodity, something not suprising -- Microsoft did the same in their inception.
Right now, as a network administrator myself, I see Microsoft falling further and further off of the map. Organizations such as my own, and I'm sure many more, look for interoperability, compatibility, and the ability to use the latest and greatest technology with the greatest ease of lateral movement. Linux as a whole is conducive to this environment, embracing open standards so that everybody can view a document in different operating systems, different platforms, etc. And companies realize this -- Microsoft's ease of use will be lessened as time passes, while the brilliant programmers depart to work for the MS counterparts -- be it Google, Sun, Apple, or whomever. And those programmers will bring to Linux what Microsoft brought to computing in merely an idea thirty years ago.
For Microsoft's birthday, I think a good look at their road travelled is important. It will show them how they started, how they innovated, and how they succeeded. Now instead of innovating, they are eliminiating competition, stopping people from innovating, and stopping interoperability. Look back at your history Microsoft, and see that the noble and humble beginnings you had play a huge part in where you are today. It's still not too late to make a u-turn and take a different road than you are travelling -- because the one you are on leads to a cliff.
Last I checked, IE7 has a higher memory footprint than Firefox, renders pages more slowly, lacks a bunch of features of Firefox and doesn't have extensibility like Firefox does with its extensions.
With great extensions out there that are evolving and continually being developed (weather, news, RSS, adblock, etc) I don't see how IE7 is going to score 'major' points.
Besides the fact that Microsoft takes its own sweet time patching against spyware and security breaches, IE7 will be a replay of more of the same from Microsoft, only vaulting Firefox further ahead, imo.
It's not what IE7 offers in terms of features that will let it beat Firefox, it's what it LACKS in timely updates to problems that will allow Firefox to continue a healthy growth and eventually, a standardization on par with IE. So when developers write code, they will think of the 'other' browser that takes up a huge chunk of marketshare.
I guess your 'European' or 'Asian' culture instead allows you only to read a single comment instead of reading my followup for using the wrong word.
So sorry, I won't let your higher intellect fall into the trap of not figuring out I misused a word without explicitly explaining it and further, I will make sure when I post an initial time, to "Refer to followups" so that you can process the extra information that may be a load on your small mind.
So fuck off, troll.
I meant to say Scandanavian... Oh well.. I skipped work yesterday, so it's like Monday for me :)
The brightest minds in the world being paid to create copywrite protection is NO MATCH for the brilliant mind in some Norweigan country who is MOTIVATED to crack that protection.
It's always a losing game. Maybe think about offering better choices and making it more CONVIENIENT to get music? Oh what do I know... I'm just a consumer!
Symantec rarely captures any in the wild viruses any more. We leave that now to Kaspersky, NOD32, Panda, etc... Symantec never seems to be on top of the industry they claim to be 'the leader' in.
And then they release a report that deems software that has already proven its security, its stability, and its ease of use in comparison with Internet Explorer, 'lacking' in security or more prone to attack.
Entertaining even more still, is that Linux and Mac OS are 'insecure' yet again, are pieces of software that have proven themselves secure and stable. Granted, an idiot could screw up the security...
I suppose Symantec's release on this subject is to 'percieved' security. I mean, if they can't capture any viruses before the smaller, less obnoxious firms that also support Linux, Macs, and are proponents of Firefox well... then why the fuck should we listen to them anyway?
I mentioned it in another article, but the key for Linux to breakthru to the desktop market is not for widespread adoption by corporate customers, it's just simple, plain old, EASE OF USE.
I'm a pretty experienced computer user, EX-Windows developer (networking now), MCSE and while I can install Linux and get around it, I don't have a clue of an idea how to do a lot of things, including at times, install software (though I've figured that out with yum and rpm haha!). Either way... until Linux offers the eyecandy that OS X does, with the compatibility that Windows offers... it will still be the DESKTOP choice of nerds.
I'm waiting for the next version of KDE for some improvements but in reality, I think there's a lot more to be done at even a kernel level to make some things more idiotproof.
I'll parlay it by saying that when Firefox has 'vulnerabilities' (as the genious in this article pointed out... at least it doesn't give the ability for an attacker to "enable a remote attack on systems running Windows XP with Service Pack 2".
So I'll stick with my more numerous, less invasive, and quickly fixed Firefox 'vulnerabilities' instead of my IE's less in number, more damaging and slower to be fixed 'vulnerabilities'.
Yup... IE sucks.
The 64 bit extensions that Intel uses are a JOKE. They make the processor take turns when deciding what code to execute, while the AMD keeps chugging away and thus makes their 64 bit solution much better.
The Celeron D is okay, but compared to the Sempron again, a joke. You're talking about a chip that is just cheap (and relatively slow) to a Sempron that is cheap and relatively fast. Not to mention, it runs cooler too.
I think I'll echo what everybody else has said. It's a combination of money and laptop options.
Besides Apple can always switch to AMD at a later date.
Even with things that 'just work' like refridgerators and the like -- there are always going to be repair people because of the sheer stupidity of end-users.
Besides, those that are lost probably weren't meant to be there in the first place. The helpdesk support guys either bone up their skills and become full blown developers or network admins, or they get the fuck out of IT. Either way, I call it progress.
For Linux that is.
/. users will voice complaint -- Linux on the desktop sucks. The key to break into that market is ease of use and while as /.ers we can generally 'figure it out' even if we are unfamiliar, the average Joe will not. Apple is going in the right direction there but with limited hardware and inflated prices, it's not a viable alternative for the desktop, as pretty as it is.
:)
Tell me which corporation will install a new point release of ANY Microsoft OS? Hell, remember service pack 2? That's technically speaking, a whole point release. And where I work, and countless other places, IT managers opted NOT to install it for a *very* long time until the bugs were worked out in that point release.
This idea of 'smaller' and 'more frequent' upgrades plays merely into the Linux world's hands. The problem with Windows is that there's a tie-in to everything. So if a change must be made, it affects the OS at the kernel level. With Linux, kernel updates aren't as frequent nor as impacting. However, KDE can release a new version and since it's part of x windows and not attached to the OS in a surgical manner, it really doesn't matter. People don't know that now because Linux isn't mainstream, but they will when they find themselves extensively testing for compatibility with legacy apps they have in-house, or whatever with regards to Windows.
This is the opportunity for the Linux community to come together and offer a *true* desktop competitor to Windows. As it stands right now, and I know the
If Linux as a desktop becomes EASY to use (and I mean damned near idiotproof), the server can pretty much remain as it is. Nobody cares about the server when they are using their desktop, especially as an end-user in say, Accounting. They just want to get their figures out the door without having applications crash and close on them.
Now's the time to do it though.. Microsoft is going to set themselves up badly with Vista... and sometimes you only get one good chance to whack the bad guy in the back of the head. And then kick him while he's down
Google's motto is Do no evil.
And since Microsoft only does evil, I can see why Bill Gates disagrees with it.
Bots? HAHAHAHA :)
No, no bot fighting here.
Counterstrike is a team based game generally, and too slow paced for me. Don't get me wrong -- I like the game and play it a lot -- and I do really well (even against hackers at times), but it's too slow.
:)
Hackers in Quake3 and UT2004 can railgun you while jumping off a bouncer pad and strafing.. it's impossible to block and no amount of 'skill' can fix that, unfortunately.
I'm sure that there are tons of people better than me. I just want to see where I stack up compared to these 'pro' guys. I mean, it doesn't hurt to check, does it? I just wanted a method to be able to get into some competition class matches and see if I do well at all.
If you have any info on that, lemme know
Where do you enter tournaments? I live in Jersey and it seems nothing fun comes here :(
Kind of off topic but nonetheless...
I've been playing first person shooters for years now, and I have convinced myself that I'm pretty damned good at them. I read all about these gaming leagues and such, but the question is, how do I join in one to see if my skills are as good as I think they are?
There has to be a way to 'work up the ranks' and I've found myself amazingly good (yes, I'm gloating) at games like Quake3 or Unreal Tournament 2004 -- twitch based games. I want to get online and compete in deathmatches to see how well I do, but I know a *lot* of people out there are hackers and such, so I want an arena in which I can have an even playing field.
That said, so I don't get modded OT, J&J is just getting money into the realm of gaming -- it doesn't really matter whether or not it's online gaming now. It's just something people watch, and something J&J can use to market itself. It's business, and it always is. Intel doesn't sponsor the gaming clans out of the good of their hearts. Well, Intel does it because they know they suck compared to AMD in gaming. Oh well... money talks!
They are testing a new pill that treats epileptic seizures.
They are hoping that enough people start watching the games they sponsor so they are start going into convulsions, then BOOYAH! J&J to the rescue!
Profit!
iTunes as a music store may be the biggest, but it's certainly not the best. It has branding and people associate with that -- they will buy because they first bought the iPod, and now they are stuck with their choice of music store.
:)
As soon as somebody, and I'll probably say it will be Creative (with the CEO already gunning for Apple) shows that the iPod is really just a pretty looking piece of shit to the mass market, the empire Apple is building around iPod and iTunes will collapse. You will find Apple making cuts to their pricing structure in iTunes ($.79 at Yahoo for a download, or $4.99 a month for unlimited.. iTunes can't compete at that price) and by that time, it will be too little, too late.
It's amazing to me the amount of marketing dollars spent behind a product that is by my measures, rather mediocre. It has a nice sleek look, it's got a decent interface (that scroll wheel was genious) but otherwise, the sound quality is subpar compared to an iRiver, the battery life is quite a bit lower, there's no radio, no voice recording, you can't view text documents on it, and it's expensive. I would much rather see Apple spend the money they do on marketing the iPod to invest in OS X because frankly, I want an alternative OS that is comparable to Windows at every level -- including software support.
OS X is as well, a MUCH better product than any of its competition, unlike the iPod. So my question is, why the fuck are they investing so heavily and marketing so heavily, a mediocre product when they have a GREAT product in OS X that only needs some love and affection (and allowing me to whitebox would help a lot too!), and the same marketing money and we have a push to really compete with Windows in the mainstream.
Until Apple makes some realizations in this respect and starts improving on what they are ALREADY ahead at (the OS), and making consumers aware of it, and making it cheap, they will find themselves going the same route as Betamax. Better technology, but ultimately much more expensive, less compatible, and will be used by only a small percentage until the *next* best thing comes out. In the case of Betamax, VHS wasn't better but everybody went with that for convienience, and now EVERYBODY went to DVDs because it's "the next best thing". Will Windows Vista be the next best thing? I doubt it, but it may seem that way -- and sadly for Apple, perception is reality.
My perception right now, is that Apple is not the OS X company, but the iPod company. I'd much rather they be the former but then again, I'm not Steve Jobs and I don't have a say in the matter. Besides, the amount of medication I'd have to take to BE Steve Jobs is something I'd probably avoid
I remember Palm bought out the remainder of BeOS and what was to be used in their devices, the BeIA software.
I'm still hoping to see some "Be" technology in these devices. For its time, it kicked some serious ass and even now, I'm damned impressed with it.
Closer to becoming the 'iPod' company.
:(
As a Mac lover, it upsets me
Why don't they allow us to set up accounts that take in money for charities, without charge? I mean, I have a website with over 8000 users, and I wanted to start a drive to collect money for the hurricane relief to donate to the Red Cross, but if I set up an account using PayPal, they'd charge me a bunch of money, taking away from what we would want to donate. I only wanted to have it set up for my site to show that my small community of members can make a difference, but unfortunately I ended up putting a link to Amazon's donation site which doesn't charge anybody anything for that donation.
because I just load up Tunebite (it's cheap, go buy it!) and now all my DRMed files are unDRMed and I can do with them what I want. All on a $5 a month plan. It may not be 100% what they want, but I'm not sharing those files and I find it more convienient than worrying about my stupid licenses.
Best fucking comment on /. I've read in a long long time... I literally spit water all over the floor I nearly gagged on it hahahahhaahahaa