I don't know but others like him have. Such tools are considered baseline, as are version control systems and debuggers. Linus clearly has rejected well established tools, just not ones that would make his work fundamentally impossible.
"At "only" $2000 now, I think the 2560x1600 displays are well worth the price. Some people are poor though."
You would think that "real hackers" would be good enough at what they did to not be poor. I doubt anyone wants to emulate the style of a programmer who can't afford decent equipment. Real programmers aren't found programming on 10 year old equipment in their mom's basement.
An airline ticket is not just a service, it's a rental of a seat. What you are actually getting depends on who you ask (and what their financial incentive is).
There are well-defined penalties for the airline when they oversell. They are free to do so but it's at their financial risk. That's the difference. ISP's oversell their service then penalize the customer for "overusage".
"Have you heard his autobiography as an audiobook? It might change your idea of what polar opposite means. Unless you are Bizarro Superman."
No, but I worked for him for a time and knew him socially. He is the polar opposite of a loudmouthed blowhard. Steve Jobs is a loudmouthed blowhard. Michael Dell is a brilliant businessman and a computer nerd. Quite nice in person as well.
"Even worse, I think that pat oneself on ones back fest of a bio was ghostwritten even. Although he read it with pride."
Aside from the question of how you even know all this, it seems you've just disproven your point. If it wasn't written by him, then how could it demonstrate who he is?
"Did not Dell, for a short period, sell Macintosh Clones?"
No, they never did. You are thinking of Power Computing, the most successful of the mac clones and run by a protege of Michael Dell's.
"Dell was in the right place at the right time, really. When the company surfed the growth curve, they were providing better value, compared to those mired in retail distribution of similar wares, with other product lines to worry about."
Apple was in the right place at the right time, too. Great success require a lot of luck in regardless of skill and dedication.
Dell was radically successful prior to the massive "growth curve" as you call it. Dell was established as a major manufacturer, it pioneered direct sales of PC's, it pioneered direct sales over the internet, it was the first and most successful direct seller into large business while it successfully defended it's markets against copycats like Gateway. It envisioned the industry consolidation before it occurred, positioned itself properly and drove the consolidation deliberately. I worked there at the time and had it explained to me by Dell himself. Far from simply lucky, Dell is one of the most brilliant businessmen of our time. The company, and the man himself, are only hated now because they are at the top. Dell earned it's success.
Fitt's law isn't a law. It's an old, outmoded theory that held true in practice when screens where small.
Menu bars don't increase the width of windows, only the height. The height of each window is, in fact, increased by the menu but the screen itself is effectively taller because the menu bar isn't taken from the top. In the mac system the real estate is always taken away. In the windows one it's only taken away when the app requires menus (though most do). The result is basically a wash. Windows has the advantage when an app requires no menu. Macs have an advantage when an app is maximized (no title bar). That used to make sense when all apps ran maximized. It no longer does.
"Yes, I do stop and think about things like this and turn off non-essential toolbars in apps I use and get annoyed when new versions of things waste more space in the interface."
I do too, but unlike you, I've actually thought it through.
"Maybe it comes from a couple years being stuck back in 640x480 with a crappy video card a few years ago."
That would explain why you think Fitt's "law" still applies.
"What have NVidia or ATi got to do with it? USB / Firewire HDMI capture devices shouldn't be on the video card."
No, but you don't want A USB/FW solution. You want the full bandwidth signal and you want it tied into video or the local bus. You are aware of the bandwidth of uncompressed HD video, aren't you?
"The technology is available, and its expensive (because its a niche technology), but its there."
Really? Got any references? If so, why would Apple engineers be involved?
"...would save me a lot space and money - I guess if I want it that badly I could just go out and buy the device myself."
If it would save you money why don't you buy it now? Perhaps because it doesn't exist.
Amazon isn't the same as Apple or MS. They aren't suppliers of delivery mechanisms for content, they are simply users of it. MS licenses that mechanism while Apple does not. Amazon stating that Apple refuses to license their system is totally fair. The only way to support OS X and the iPod is to forego DRM (not possible), license Apple's software *blocked by Apple) or develop your own system (not economically viable). Amazon chose to give up Apple's miniscule marketshare instead.
"In fact, Apple did port iTunes to Windows for this very reason, in the same way that Amazon could port their client to Macs or Linux..."
No they didn't. Apple ported to Windows because they would have no marketshare if they didn't and Apple is in the business of producing a MS/Real competitor with QT. Amazon is not in that business and it can license a solution to the dominant platform without engaging Apple at all.
There are two businesses here, the content infrastructure business and the content distribution business. Apple is in both and locks the two together. Amazon is in one and partners with MS to use the other. If Apple chose to do business in an open manner then Amazon would license from them (as they stated). Apple is simply pursuing the same closed, lockin business model that lost them the PC marketshare battle in the first place. They will lose this one eventually as well.
I don't. I care that online distribution actually be useful. I'm not married to any platform.
"Your on/. You should allready know how to circumvent DRM, download files via P2P, or just rip the video from DVD."
I should? Who says I don't? Why does that matter?
"Honestly though...Apple has a much more established system that "just works" out of the box."
It does? If that were true then this thread wouldn't exist. Macs can't play WMV DRM'ed files. Sounds like you're the one that cares who wins.
"I do have some DRMed video files from iTunes and what I payed for was the knoledge that the video I have saved I can just hit play on and not have to deal with a, "security update," reboot, and an online licence check before I can watch a file."
Really? Perhaps you just haven't experienced one yet.
I didn't realize this was a discussion of iTMS video content. Mac users always have to make every discussion one about how great the mac is.
Mac users aren't going to consider any store other than iTMS anyway, at least that's what I'm told by every advocate who claims the mini is the greatest home theater PC available. As long as you only care about Apple-puchased products and content I don't see why it matters. I personally prefer being able to play anything I might get regardless of source. Regrettably, that's only possible on Windows.
"there is NOTHING stopping Amazon from writing software for Mac OS X"
Sure there is...lack of economic incentive. The investment required compared to the potential revenue (especially considering that they will be in direct competition with Apple) makes it clearly not worth their while. Apple doesn't want competitors particularly on their platform.
"Micorsoft does not write any software to allow non-Windows operating systems to view Windows Media files."
No surprise there. Amazon gets coverage of virtually the entire market without much effort by using MS. Amazon could have used Apple but Apple won't allow it.
"Anyhow - screw Amazon - they are lying."
No they aren't. No vendor is going to develop its own technology to distribute protected content. Apple locks out all vendors from its solution and MS locks out all alternate platforms from its. Complain to Apple/MS, not Amazon.
When arguing the merits of the mac mini as a media center device, people seem to think this problem doesn't exist yet here it is on a large scale. Macs will not play a lot of DRM'ed video content if MS has its way and this type of content will make Media Center the only viable choice for the living room. I sure hope that changes because MCE blows.
"Surely a windowed HDMI input screen isn't beyond the Apple engineers..."
Apple will invent it just as soon as ATI or nVidia does. Then they can negotiate an exclusive, just like they did for the superdrive.
"...and Front Row would provide an excellent way of accessing it."
Really? Wouldn't have thought of that. If only PC's had media center functionality.
No one has done HDMI inputs yet though it would be desirable. The other inputs you mention aren't HD. I agree, though, that HD is somewhat of a misnomer but that's marketing for you.
"But on the other hand, the more people view an article the more it is likely to be corrected and balanced for NPOV."
The more people that view an article the more likely the article is to reflect the views of more people. Sometimes that will tend towards a NPOV and sometimes not. The article will increasingly reflect popular opinion (which may not be neutral at all).
"it isn't perfect, but in the opinion of many the results are fairly acceptable."
Perhaps, but not definitive. How do you justify that claim?
When an article can be objective without threatening the views of people it stands a decent chance of being so. Wikipedia is, by its nature, not an objective resource. It is a useful one, though.
You mean like you were fair about "a couple of guys who had to cheat to hack a MacBook"? There has been no evidence to that effect.
"security through obscurity" is a fact, not an argument. It's simply misused in the case of Apple. OS X is absolutely a small target compared to Windows and that absolutely limits its appeal to certain types who would like to take advantage of vulnerabilities. Just because there aren't publicly known exploits doesn't mean none exist.
"marketshare trolls"? Is that another example of you being fair? Are you denying that Windows doesn't have a marketshare advantage or are you claiming that it means nothing?
ARgh. Another obtuse mac keyboard command....what would this missing stop button do..."
If they do the same, then why isn't Pause missing instead? That would make more sense to me.
"...seems sensible to me."
Except that the menus are physically removed from the application and they cause the user to have to make far greater mouse movements than otherwise needed.
"I prefer this to the approach of replicating the same application menus in each window, but each to their own."
Except there's no downside to doing that and they take up no more space, but to each their own.
"There's no need to close applications after use, so why should the system encourage it?"
Because of consistency? Because it frees memory? Mac apps don't get this consistent.
"In addition to being the #1 PC seller, Dell is run my a loud-mouthed blowhard who once threatened a hostile takeover of Apple, so that he could "shut it all down, liquidate the assets, and refund it back to the shareholders"."
This is an absurd misrepresentation of Dell's comments and a completely inaccurate description of the man himself. Dell, when pressed in an interview, said that he sell Apple's assets if it were his company. Such a comment should not be surprising to anyone who knows Dell's views on business and he (so far) hasn't been proven wrong from his perspective. Dell specifically expressed no interest in Apple or its business during that interview and there was never any suggestion that Dell had an interest in an Apple buyout. Michael Dell is the polar opposite of a "loudmouthed blowhard".
"Between the two, I'm sure that *someone* at Apple just LOVES rubbing michael dell's nose in it whenever Apple scores any small victory."
That's more the opinion here than anything else. It's the mac fanbase that seems obsessed with this misrepresentation of his quote. Dell is not the enemy of Apple from Dell's perspective, their largest actual run-in being the spat over who was strongest in education (with Dell strongly winning that argument in time).
??? Why did you quote this? It originated with you.
BTW Apple isn't beating Dell in its own game. If you think it is then you have no understanding of Dell's game.
"Apple's Mac Pro is cheaper than an equivalent Dell."
Perhaps, but that is no indication that Dell is getting beaten at its game. Apple desktops and Windows workstations aren't the same market.
"Dell has even admitted this..."
If by "admit" you mean ackowledge or recognize, then perhaps so. If you suggest that they have admitted to some sort of failure or defeat then not at all. Apple isn't taking any new sales away from Dell or any other Intel workstation vendor at this point.
Dell would argue that #2 is it's strength, not a weakness. Offering it's own Unix (something it has done in the past) requires significant capital investment and Dell's business model specifically is against that. It's been said for Dell's entire existance that it can't compete in the server market because of #2 but it hasn't been proven so (yet).
Of course, you could use one of hundreds of different alternatives that won't saddle you with inferior 2.5" hard drives. The Mac mini is a remarkably poor choice for use as a DVD jukebox.
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I don't know but others like him have. Such tools are considered baseline, as are version control systems and debuggers. Linus clearly has rejected well established tools, just not ones that would make his work fundamentally impossible.
Get a dictionary. Look up "asshole".
"At "only" $2000 now, I think the 2560x1600 displays are well worth the price. Some people are poor though."
You would think that "real hackers" would be good enough at what they did to not be poor. I doubt anyone wants to emulate the style of a programmer who can't afford decent equipment. Real programmers aren't found programming on 10 year old equipment in their mom's basement.
So the mini itself isn't a complete solution. There's always an excuse.
"The local drive is nothing more than a cache."
A cache that's too small, too expensive, and too slow compared to the wire to your NFS server. NFS? What a joke.
An airline ticket is not just a service, it's a rental of a seat. What you are actually getting depends on who you ask (and what their financial incentive is).
There are well-defined penalties for the airline when they oversell. They are free to do so but it's at their financial risk. That's the difference. ISP's oversell their service then penalize the customer for "overusage".
"Have you heard his autobiography as an audiobook? It might change your idea of what polar opposite means. Unless you are Bizarro Superman."
No, but I worked for him for a time and knew him socially. He is the polar opposite of a loudmouthed blowhard. Steve Jobs is a loudmouthed blowhard. Michael Dell is a brilliant businessman and a computer nerd. Quite nice in person as well.
"Even worse, I think that pat oneself on ones back fest of a bio was ghostwritten even. Although he read it with pride."
Aside from the question of how you even know all this, it seems you've just disproven your point. If it wasn't written by him, then how could it demonstrate who he is?
"Did not Dell, for a short period, sell Macintosh Clones?"
No, they never did. You are thinking of Power Computing, the most successful of the mac clones and run by a protege of Michael Dell's.
"Dell was in the right place at the right time, really. When the company surfed the growth curve, they were providing better value, compared to those mired in retail distribution of similar wares, with other product lines to worry about."
Apple was in the right place at the right time, too. Great success require a lot of luck in regardless of skill and dedication.
Dell was radically successful prior to the massive "growth curve" as you call it. Dell was established as a major manufacturer, it pioneered direct sales of PC's, it pioneered direct sales over the internet, it was the first and most successful direct seller into large business while it successfully defended it's markets against copycats like Gateway. It envisioned the industry consolidation before it occurred, positioned itself properly and drove the consolidation deliberately. I worked there at the time and had it explained to me by Dell himself. Far from simply lucky, Dell is one of the most brilliant businessmen of our time. The company, and the man himself, are only hated now because they are at the top. Dell earned it's success.
Fitt's law isn't a law. It's an old, outmoded theory that held true in practice when screens where small.
Menu bars don't increase the width of windows, only the height. The height of each window is, in fact, increased by the menu but the screen itself is effectively taller because the menu bar isn't taken from the top. In the mac system the real estate is always taken away. In the windows one it's only taken away when the app requires menus (though most do). The result is basically a wash. Windows has the advantage when an app requires no menu. Macs have an advantage when an app is maximized (no title bar). That used to make sense when all apps ran maximized. It no longer does.
"Yes, I do stop and think about things like this and turn off non-essential toolbars in apps I use and get annoyed when new versions of things waste more space in the interface."
I do too, but unlike you, I've actually thought it through.
"Maybe it comes from a couple years being stuck back in 640x480 with a crappy video card a few years ago."
That would explain why you think Fitt's "law" still applies.
"Except that the menus pinned to the edge of the screen makes them larger targets to hit, and thus are actually faster to use."
Which might have actually worked when screens were small and all apps were maximized. It's nothing but an old, tired falsehood today.
"What have NVidia or ATi got to do with it? USB / Firewire HDMI capture devices shouldn't be on the video card."
No, but you don't want A USB/FW solution. You want the full bandwidth signal and you want it tied into video or the local bus. You are aware of the bandwidth of uncompressed HD video, aren't you?
"The technology is available, and its expensive (because its a niche technology), but its there."
Really? Got any references? If so, why would Apple engineers be involved?
"...would save me a lot space and money - I guess if I want it that badly I could just go out and buy the device myself."
If it would save you money why don't you buy it now? Perhaps because it doesn't exist.
Amazon isn't the same as Apple or MS. They aren't suppliers of delivery mechanisms for content, they are simply users of it. MS licenses that mechanism while Apple does not. Amazon stating that Apple refuses to license their system is totally fair. The only way to support OS X and the iPod is to forego DRM (not possible), license Apple's software *blocked by Apple) or develop your own system (not economically viable). Amazon chose to give up Apple's miniscule marketshare instead.
"In fact, Apple did port iTunes to Windows for this very reason, in the same way that Amazon could port their client to Macs or Linux..."
No they didn't. Apple ported to Windows because they would have no marketshare if they didn't and Apple is in the business of producing a MS/Real competitor with QT. Amazon is not in that business and it can license a solution to the dominant platform without engaging Apple at all.
There are two businesses here, the content infrastructure business and the content distribution business. Apple is in both and locks the two together. Amazon is in one and partners with MS to use the other. If Apple chose to do business in an open manner then Amazon would license from them (as they stated). Apple is simply pursuing the same closed, lockin business model that lost them the PC marketshare battle in the first place. They will lose this one eventually as well.
"Why should you care if MCE wins?"
/. You should allready know how to circumvent DRM, download files via P2P, or just rip the video from DVD."
I don't. I care that online distribution actually be useful. I'm not married to any platform.
"Your on
I should? Who says I don't? Why does that matter?
"Honestly though...Apple has a much more established system that "just works" out of the box."
It does? If that were true then this thread wouldn't exist. Macs can't play WMV DRM'ed files. Sounds like you're the one that cares who wins.
"I do have some DRMed video files from iTunes and what I payed for was the knoledge that the video I have saved I can just hit play on and not have to deal with a, "security update," reboot, and an online licence check before I can watch a file."
Really? Perhaps you just haven't experienced one yet.
I didn't realize this was a discussion of iTMS video content. Mac users always have to make every discussion one about how great the mac is.
Mac users aren't going to consider any store other than iTMS anyway, at least that's what I'm told by every advocate who claims the mini is the greatest home theater PC available. As long as you only care about Apple-puchased products and content I don't see why it matters. I personally prefer being able to play anything I might get regardless of source. Regrettably, that's only possible on Windows.
"there is NOTHING stopping Amazon from writing software for Mac OS X"
Sure there is...lack of economic incentive. The investment required compared to the potential revenue (especially considering that they will be in direct competition with Apple) makes it clearly not worth their while. Apple doesn't want competitors particularly on their platform.
"Micorsoft does not write any software to allow non-Windows operating systems to view Windows Media files."
No surprise there. Amazon gets coverage of virtually the entire market without much effort by using MS. Amazon could have used Apple but Apple won't allow it.
"Anyhow - screw Amazon - they are lying."
No they aren't. No vendor is going to develop its own technology to distribute protected content. Apple locks out all vendors from its solution and MS locks out all alternate platforms from its. Complain to Apple/MS, not Amazon.
You mean like Apple does?
When arguing the merits of the mac mini as a media center device, people seem to think this problem doesn't exist yet here it is on a large scale. Macs will not play a lot of DRM'ed video content if MS has its way and this type of content will make Media Center the only viable choice for the living room. I sure hope that changes because MCE blows.
Not true
"Surely a windowed HDMI input screen isn't beyond the Apple engineers..."
Apple will invent it just as soon as ATI or nVidia does. Then they can negotiate an exclusive, just like they did for the superdrive.
"...and Front Row would provide an excellent way of accessing it."
Really? Wouldn't have thought of that. If only PC's had media center functionality.
No one has done HDMI inputs yet though it would be desirable. The other inputs you mention aren't HD. I agree, though, that HD is somewhat of a misnomer but that's marketing for you.
I guess if I wanted to pirate VHS movies I might see the use of that.
"But on the other hand, the more people view an article the more it is likely to be corrected and balanced for NPOV."
The more people that view an article the more likely the article is to reflect the views of more people. Sometimes that will tend towards a NPOV and sometimes not. The article will increasingly reflect popular opinion (which may not be neutral at all).
"it isn't perfect, but in the opinion of many the results are fairly acceptable."
Perhaps, but not definitive. How do you justify that claim?
When an article can be objective without threatening the views of people it stands a decent chance of being so. Wikipedia is, by its nature, not an objective resource. It is a useful one, though.
"Now let's be fair..."
You mean like you were fair about "a couple of guys who had to cheat to hack a MacBook"? There has been no evidence to that effect.
"security through obscurity" is a fact, not an argument. It's simply misused in the case of Apple. OS X is absolutely a small target compared to Windows and that absolutely limits its appeal to certain types who would like to take advantage of vulnerabilities. Just because there aren't publicly known exploits doesn't mean none exist.
"marketshare trolls"? Is that another example of you being fair? Are you denying that Windows doesn't have a marketshare advantage or are you claiming that it means nothing?
"...you can press cmd-shift-G..."
...what would this missing stop button do..."
ARgh. Another obtuse mac keyboard command.
If they do the same, then why isn't Pause missing instead? That would make more sense to me.
"...seems sensible to me."
Except that the menus are physically removed from the application and they cause the user to have to make far greater mouse movements than otherwise needed.
"I prefer this to the approach of replicating the same application menus in each window, but each to their own."
Except there's no downside to doing that and they take up no more space, but to each their own.
"There's no need to close applications after use, so why should the system encourage it?"
Because of consistency? Because it frees memory? Mac apps don't get this consistent.
"In addition to being the #1 PC seller, Dell is run my a loud-mouthed blowhard who once threatened a hostile takeover of Apple, so that he could "shut it all down, liquidate the assets, and refund it back to the shareholders"."
This is an absurd misrepresentation of Dell's comments and a completely inaccurate description of the man himself. Dell, when pressed in an interview, said that he sell Apple's assets if it were his company. Such a comment should not be surprising to anyone who knows Dell's views on business and he (so far) hasn't been proven wrong from his perspective. Dell specifically expressed no interest in Apple or its business during that interview and there was never any suggestion that Dell had an interest in an Apple buyout. Michael Dell is the polar opposite of a "loudmouthed blowhard".
"Between the two, I'm sure that *someone* at Apple just LOVES rubbing michael dell's nose in it whenever Apple scores any small victory."
That's more the opinion here than anything else. It's the mac fanbase that seems obsessed with this misrepresentation of his quote. Dell is not the enemy of Apple from Dell's perspective, their largest actual run-in being the spat over who was strongest in education (with Dell strongly winning that argument in time).
"Why is Apple beating Dell at its own game?"
??? Why did you quote this? It originated with you.
BTW Apple isn't beating Dell in its own game. If you think it is then you have no understanding of Dell's game.
"Apple's Mac Pro is cheaper than an equivalent Dell."
Perhaps, but that is no indication that Dell is getting beaten at its game. Apple desktops and Windows workstations aren't the same market.
"Dell has even admitted this..."
If by "admit" you mean ackowledge or recognize, then perhaps so. If you suggest that they have admitted to some sort of failure or defeat then not at all. Apple isn't taking any new sales away from Dell or any other Intel workstation vendor at this point.
"2) Apple scoring lowest on a "Green" survey - when Dell scored second highest."
Dell scored highest (in a tie with Nokia)
Dell would argue that #2 is it's strength, not a weakness. Offering it's own Unix (something it has done in the past) requires significant capital investment and Dell's business model specifically is against that. It's been said for Dell's entire existance that it can't compete in the server market because of #2 but it hasn't been proven so (yet).
Of course, you could use one of hundreds of different alternatives that won't saddle you with inferior 2.5" hard drives. The Mac mini is a remarkably poor choice for use as a DVD jukebox.