The point here is that they are using their monopoly in one market to conquer another. You cannot compare to anyone else, because they are the only monopoly in that segment (doh).
If apple had a monopoly, I would have to agree that what they are doing is anti competitive. Linux distributions bundle different players and different applications of most and they will even let you choose which ones to install.
And now the OEM's can decide what media player(s) to bundle with the os based on more competitive premises. Microsoft may still be able to obtain the big share, but it's now in a more fair and healthy competition with the other players, and not by using their monopolistic status.
It is also wrong because they can use this monopoly to make people use WMP and by using proprietary closed formats they can lock people into having to use their player.
People are fully able to use other players, and many do, but what they do is still anti-competitive and in the long run it will have some very bad effects.
Well, I often read complaints about linux going something like: Last time I tried installing Linux bla bla...
And usually it's no longer an issue, installing linux is easy as hell. If you have a mainstream computer older than a few months, chances are everything will work out of the box.
Linux will become a mainstream desktop platform, but it will take time. It is now a mainstream server platform which has been sortof a main focus for the bigger players and devs the last years.
Now, it's time to take corporate desktops, which it is quite ready for. If you don't need to be able to plug in all sorts of usb gadgets and whatnot or install all sorts of programs and games, Linux can do it just fine.
The home desktop will be microsoft's area for a long time yet. But Linux is steadily gaining ground. I bet Microsoft will offer features Linux doesn't have that home users will want with it's next release. But it will cost you. I think by that time, Linux will have all the ease of use a home user could want.
I'm not a gamer, I know Linux and this is a setting which magically erases any native windows installations on my computers. But I do like to play around, and that also includes some games. Status quo today is a _lot_ of recent games can be played just fine on linux. It is lacking, but improving fast.
As the focus shifts towards the desktop, development in this area increases. The development of many areas of linux have a much clearer direction now than when I started using it, including desktop development. The increased corporate support will also help bringing Linux to the masses.
People have been saying for years that linux is ready for the desktop, but these things take time. To me, Linux does a better job on the desktop than windows. To you, it may not. Still, I won't be surprised if linux has 10+% market share by the time longhorn ships.
Gaming is coming along quite well. It can be a bit painful to get some games installed and up and running when using wine/winex, but at least it's possible.
I'm not a big gamer, but I've gotten a little hooked on UT2004 (native=) lately. I also have BF1942 and NFSU working nicely. I think the only big game that doesn't work at all is Halo, which uses too many fancy DirectX calls.
On my system the thing you are describing is actually one place where I find linux more powerful.
I listen to a lot of music and also buy a lot of it. But I always download an album from the internet to check it out before I order it online (and a lot of what I download I don't buy, but I never would have if I didn't download either...).
And the tools I use to obtain this music are in my experience more powerful in linux, albeit slightly less intutitive.
As for movies and such, I find it easier in my current system in it's default setup to watch those videos. I just download them somewhere, open nautilus and doubleclick and the video shows up in a very intutitive and useable GUI (Totem, almost to simple...) It uses a xine backend, and for those rare occasions when it won't play I do keep mplayer around, but the occasions _are_ rare.
All in all the tools and the ability to make this a painless experience are there, it just needs to be setup correctly by the distribution or whoever does the installation on the machine.
I also think that the important issues with linux are getting much more focus now than only a short while back. It seems the structure in some bigger projects is making sure things that the programmers don't need also gets focused on.
With the current increase in pace I don't think it's unlikely that linux will gain a desktop market share of maybe 10-20% within a few years.
Actually, in real fights with one/a few against many, only a very few will be fighting at once.
I am not saying this particular scene was realistic, only that in a 15 to 1 fight, only a few will be able to fight the person at a time under normal conditions.
I do not know this from experience myself, but I know people who have actually been involved in such situations. I also know that anyone with real knowledge of the matter will tell you the same thing.
I seem to recall this as being adressed as a potential myth in a fighter magazine where a bodyguard trainer amongst others indeed told it to be true.
On my GNOME here with metacity WM, my windows do not get raised when I click in them, they never have, they didn't before when I used enlightenment either and we are now talking a few years back.
It's not default in GNOME, but if you want it, it's really not that hard. In KDE I believe it's even more configurable (who would have thought...=).
I may have totally misunderstood you, though
Nope, it's really one of the most important issues that is being worked on right now. Many "gnomes" are being shipped with a patched up gtk, to improve on the file selector, but it still has limitations. The new gtk will have a much improved and long needed file selector. Still a simpler one than kde, but much more useable than the current one.
Yes, that is a good point. I use gnome and am really satisfied with it. But I'm also playing around a little in kde from time to time, because it's fun to customize, and with a little effort it is a great DE, except I get a little scared everytime I open a menu, as I am used to gnome. I also like the look & feel of gnome and it's applications better. But I still can't help feeling that KDE has been further ahead in it's development. As gnome has reached 2.4 I feel that it has matured enough to be compared to kde 3.x. That is probably the main reason people has been using kde instead of gnome, though I wouldn't be surprised if the numbers have changed a little recently. Still, it's a great thing we have the choice between different DE's having different philosophies, especially now that they are agreeing on some standards to make them more interoperable. Had they only used the same gui toolkit things would have been a lot easier.
And after that area was vaporized, so would the entire American continent be, as Russia alone possesses the firepower to destroy the entire world many times. Yes, the US has much more firepower than anyone else, but that does not make them invincible in a nuclear war. Nobody in the world will start a nuclear war unless pushed to it (though some are unfortunately easier to push...), the result is much to devastating.
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Keith Packard & Co has a nice little experimental X server on freedesktop.org that seems to encompass Avalons abilities.
The fact that people are converting to X.org may also help moving that X obstacle a little.
The point here is that they are using their monopoly in one market to conquer another. You cannot compare to anyone else, because they are the only monopoly in that segment (doh).
If apple had a monopoly, I would have to agree that what they are doing is anti competitive. Linux distributions bundle different players and different applications of most and they will even let you choose which ones to install.
And now the OEM's can decide what media player(s) to bundle with the os based on more competitive premises. Microsoft may still be able to obtain the big share, but it's now in a more fair and healthy competition with the other players, and not by using their monopolistic status.
It is also wrong because they can use this monopoly to make people use WMP and by using proprietary closed formats they can lock people into having to use their player.
People are fully able to use other players, and many do, but what they do is still anti-competitive and in the long run it will have some very bad effects.
This is all for the better, believe me.
Using slapt-get or swaret it's all done for you even in slackware these days.
And you call that browsing the web? I think web browsing and filemanaging is very different and tend to agree with the critic.
Icelandic sounds more like Scandinavian languages 1000 years ago... And it's cool as hell sounding!! :D
Well, I often read complaints about linux going something like: Last time I tried installing Linux bla bla...
And usually it's no longer an issue, installing linux is easy as hell. If you have a mainstream computer older than a few months, chances are everything will work out of the box.
Linux will become a mainstream desktop platform, but it will take time. It is now a mainstream server platform which has been sortof a main focus for the bigger players and devs the last years. Now, it's time to take corporate desktops, which it is quite ready for. If you don't need to be able to plug in all sorts of usb gadgets and whatnot or install all sorts of programs and games, Linux can do it just fine. The home desktop will be microsoft's area for a long time yet. But Linux is steadily gaining ground. I bet Microsoft will offer features Linux doesn't have that home users will want with it's next release. But it will cost you. I think by that time, Linux will have all the ease of use a home user could want. I'm not a gamer, I know Linux and this is a setting which magically erases any native windows installations on my computers. But I do like to play around, and that also includes some games. Status quo today is a _lot_ of recent games can be played just fine on linux. It is lacking, but improving fast. As the focus shifts towards the desktop, development in this area increases. The development of many areas of linux have a much clearer direction now than when I started using it, including desktop development. The increased corporate support will also help bringing Linux to the masses. People have been saying for years that linux is ready for the desktop, but these things take time. To me, Linux does a better job on the desktop than windows. To you, it may not. Still, I won't be surprised if linux has 10+% market share by the time longhorn ships.
Strange, my GNOME doesn't look anything like windows. If anything it more resembles OSX. Maybe you have a different GNOME.
Gaming is coming along quite well. It can be a bit painful to get some games installed and up and running when using wine/winex, but at least it's possible. I'm not a big gamer, but I've gotten a little hooked on UT2004 (native=) lately. I also have BF1942 and NFSU working nicely. I think the only big game that doesn't work at all is Halo, which uses too many fancy DirectX calls.
Yep, that sounds like my xbox allright, except it also runs linux so it does a lot more too :D And I'm not using MCE...
On my system the thing you are describing is actually one place where I find linux more powerful. I listen to a lot of music and also buy a lot of it. But I always download an album from the internet to check it out before I order it online (and a lot of what I download I don't buy, but I never would have if I didn't download either...). And the tools I use to obtain this music are in my experience more powerful in linux, albeit slightly less intutitive. As for movies and such, I find it easier in my current system in it's default setup to watch those videos. I just download them somewhere, open nautilus and doubleclick and the video shows up in a very intutitive and useable GUI (Totem, almost to simple...) It uses a xine backend, and for those rare occasions when it won't play I do keep mplayer around, but the occasions _are_ rare. All in all the tools and the ability to make this a painless experience are there, it just needs to be setup correctly by the distribution or whoever does the installation on the machine. I also think that the important issues with linux are getting much more focus now than only a short while back. It seems the structure in some bigger projects is making sure things that the programmers don't need also gets focused on. With the current increase in pace I don't think it's unlikely that linux will gain a desktop market share of maybe 10-20% within a few years.
Actually, in real fights with one/a few against many, only a very few will be fighting at once. I am not saying this particular scene was realistic, only that in a 15 to 1 fight, only a few will be able to fight the person at a time under normal conditions. I do not know this from experience myself, but I know people who have actually been involved in such situations. I also know that anyone with real knowledge of the matter will tell you the same thing. I seem to recall this as being adressed as a potential myth in a fighter magazine where a bodyguard trainer amongst others indeed told it to be true.
On my GNOME here with metacity WM, my windows do not get raised when I click in them, they never have, they didn't before when I used enlightenment either and we are now talking a few years back. It's not default in GNOME, but if you want it, it's really not that hard. In KDE I believe it's even more configurable (who would have thought...=). I may have totally misunderstood you, though
There is no hope for you at all...
Yes, I do read /. with maximized windows on my 1600x1200 Inspiron... And most of my other applications are used maximized as well.
Nope, it's really one of the most important issues that is being worked on right now. Many "gnomes" are being shipped with a patched up gtk, to improve on the file selector, but it still has limitations. The new gtk will have a much improved and long needed file selector. Still a simpler one than kde, but much more useable than the current one.
Yes, that is a good point. I use gnome and am really satisfied with it. But I'm also playing around a little in kde from time to time, because it's fun to customize, and with a little effort it is a great DE, except I get a little scared everytime I open a menu, as I am used to gnome. I also like the look & feel of gnome and it's applications better. But I still can't help feeling that KDE has been further ahead in it's development. As gnome has reached 2.4 I feel that it has matured enough to be compared to kde 3.x. That is probably the main reason people has been using kde instead of gnome, though I wouldn't be surprised if the numbers have changed a little recently. Still, it's a great thing we have the choice between different DE's having different philosophies, especially now that they are agreeing on some standards to make them more interoperable. Had they only used the same gui toolkit things would have been a lot easier.
And after that area was vaporized, so would the entire American continent be, as Russia alone possesses the firepower to destroy the entire world many times. Yes, the US has much more firepower than anyone else, but that does not make them invincible in a nuclear war. Nobody in the world will start a nuclear war unless pushed to it (though some are unfortunately easier to push...), the result is much to devastating.