Four problems in 50 years? Wiki lists at least 56 Nuclear reactor accidents in the United States which caused at least one death or $50,000 in damage. Of course we've had articles on Slashdot about what happened at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, as well as guards being caught sleeping on the job.
is actually a POSITIVE thing
Ah, I agree it's good there hasn't been more accidents.
Also, modern designs wouldn't have these problems. Modern designs remove 90% of the criticisms that you, and other, lay at their feet.
But those designs don't solve one important problem, nuclear power is still Hooked on Subsidies. Without government subsidies Wall Street, no matter how evil people think it is, will not pay for nuclear power plants to be built.
Compared to the deaths from coal plants nuclear power is a magical fairy playground.
You're leaving out other problems with nuclear power. People don't only suffer when there's an accident at a nuclear power plant, ask the Navajo Nation and other Indidenous peoples.
Now I'm not saying coal is safe and clean, I oppose it almost as much as I do nuclear power, but only counting Three Mile Island doesn't say much.
Fill the Great Lakes and every coast, the Gulf, and all of the Alaskan Coast with towers?
Not needed in the USA. The Rockies contain enough potential wind energy to power the 48 contiguous states. Of course the West Coast from BC to southern CA contains a lot too. Turn eastward in SCal going through AZ and NM to west Texas and there's more. On the East Coast hike up the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine to find more prime wind energy. Of course you can find more offshore but plenty can be found on land.
And that's just considering wind. A Solar Grand Plan goes into how solar power can supply "69 percent of the U.S.’s electricity and 35 percent of its total energy by 2050". Not only does Nevada have a lot of solar potential but it also has a lot of potential geothermal and wind energy.
Of course the pseudo-environmentalists NIMBYs will oppose these.
Citation needed. On the other hand, here's a citation of my own: Nuclear power is Hooked on Subsidies. And China, France, India, and Russia do not have the US's lawyers or environmental laws.
Thanks for the link, however that article admits it does not take into consideration some of the costs of some of the energy sources. Such as the external costs associated with pollution, ie CO2 emissions, mining, and processing. It also doesn't consider subsidies. Coal generates a lot of the electricity produced, more in the US than any other source but behind nuclear power in France, but it is both environmentally damaging and is subsidized. The CEO of Chevron agrees to lobby with Sierra Club to end coal subsidies.
Tens of thousands of people were probably killed by the quake and the resulting tsunami.
Unfortunately this is likely too true.
But anti-nuke activists will consider this the worse tragedy and use it at every chance to fight against the building of more modern and much, much safer designs.
Show a safe design that can withstand what happened in Japan? Fact is is that Nuclear Power is Hooked on Subsidies. And notice that that is not a page on an environmental but on a free market website, and the original article was printed by the business magazine Forbes. Also notice what the writer says about nuclear power in other nations: "How do France (and India, China and Russia) build cost-effective nuclear power plants? They don't. Governmental officials in those countries, not private investors, decide what is built. Nuclear power appeals to state planners, not market actors."
As soon as Nokia's Windows Phone 7 devices are released, I will probably get one. Both iPhone and Android have many issues caused mostly because they're fundamentally so far from each, like left and right. Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 is in the middle ground and takes the best from both worlds.
Forget that, I won't get either an iPhone or a WP7 phone. I love my Mac but I will not be locked into only the software Apple approves of. And I switched from Windows PCs to Linux and Macs in part because I hate Microsoft's business practices. If I buy MS Windows or another MS product all I should need is a product activation key, I will not be forced to into contacting MS or having spyware installed to use it.
I did not find OpenOffice Aqua before I installed NeoOffice. And as I'm comfortable with NeoOffice I see no reason to switch to either OpenOffice or LibreOffice for now. Of course that may change in the future. For instance when either one is compatible with MS Office macros but NeoOffice is not.
Oh, darn. I left out an important thing, the subject line: All about features, not stability. I switched from MS Windows to first a Linux tower then a Mac laptop. I did so specifically because I was sick and tired of my Windows PCs constantly crashing and needing to replace hardware and reinstall Windows and all the software I used. The only version of Windows I found stable was NT4, I still have the PC it's installed on below my desk. Unfortunately the PC has a DEC Alpha and I was unable to get much software installed. Ironically, well maybe not, one of the few applications I paid for I did install on it was Borland C++ builder. Most of the shareware/freeware software installed fine.
Macs selling faster...hmmm I have a problem with that. See, mac came out before windows...and windows has like 90% of the desktop market...
Because Macs are made by only one company, Apple, while Microsoft sells Windows to anybody. I can go down to a store, buy MS Windows, and legally install it on the Mac I am typing this on. Heck I can buy Windows in an Apple store. Now I blame Apple for Macs not having a bigger market share, though it is growing. Fact is is Apple only gives potential buyers a limited selection of configurations and does not allow OSX to be installed on non-Apple hardware. I have heard, well read, a number of tymes right here on Slashdot people saying they would buy a Mac if they could get what they want, such as a mini tower costing around $1000. They will not spend twice that, which is what Mac Pros start at, and lower priced Macs and not really configurable and expandable. I have faulted Apple for this myself.
Your post didn't confirm anything about it being personal preference, and neither did the parent post deny that.
But I did, Mac's market share is growing because of personal choice. Buyers are not being required to buy one, though many PHBs require Windows PCs to be bought. Sure a smaller number of PHBs require Macs but there are less of them. Personally I advocate buying and using whatever gets the job done, at a low cost. In many cases Linux actually. Only in a few cases I know of does Linux fail. Print photography and custom in-house written software. But that's beyond the discussion.
I agree it is about preference...but that wasn't the point of either of the previous posts.
The post I was replying to when I said it was a preference made it out as a fact, therefore I stated it was a preference.
And I stated those were matters of personal preference. Do you have scientific studies showing one GUI is better than others? Or are you letting your emotions dictate your reactions?
re-read your last line and apply it to yourself.
Not only did I not do that but I actually provided links as well as asked for links to scientific studies concluding Windows was more intuitive and logical. Of course it's too difficult to provide what I asked for, but easy to ridicule those who say what you disagree with.
what i don't get is the fact that apple fans seem to think that having their OS derided automatically means that person is automatically saying their OS is better... that does not necessarily follow.
It's no different for Apple opponents.
and if you insist on defending mac design and ergonomics, you might start by addressing my above concerns (how on earth can you defend the case of the mighty-mouse scroll-nipple-and-single-massive-useless-button and the monitors that you cannot calibrate except in software?
But I did address them. Just because you can't, or didn't, read my post does not mean I didn't. But as a matter of fact, Apple's Mighty Mouse and Magic Mouse "acts as one button or two" and "if you want the functionality of a two-button mouse, that’s easy, too." And of course you're not locked into using an Apple mouse, I have a two button Logitech Trackball connected to my Mac. And before I got my Mac, I used it with my Windows PCs and my Linux PC. But if you have to have a two-button mouse then Apple sells them too. As for calibrating Apple monitors, many other monitors can only be calibrated in software too.
my wife has CP on her right side, and as such cannot use function-keys in conjunction with a mouse.
And as stated above she doesn't have to. There is no need to defend that, what's defenseless is ignoring reality. Which you have been doing. Such as your comment:
"anyone can use a mac, so long as they have 100% use of both hands"
There is no need for two hands. Two button mice along with my Trackball are quite easy to use one handed. But go ahead and keep spreading FUD, just like a troll.
Falcon
Oh, one last thing. I am not an Apple fan. Sure I like Macs, the only Apple hardware I plan on buying, but my favorite computer/OS I have ever used is the Amiga. Next in line is Linux. Heck I even liked SGI's Irix more than I liked Apple's OS offering back then. Right now I'm preparing to install Ubuntu Linux on my Mac, to dual-boot. But I first want to swap the current HDD in it to a bigger drive. And for a monitor I'd rather get some else. Monitors from Dell, which use some of the same LCD panels as Apple does, are capable of deep color (30 bit) and cost less.
You'll be that not cooperative employee fighting against a solution that will save the day. Nevermind that the solution will cost so much at the long term that the original problem was cheaper,
Put it this way, I'd rather work somewhere that is open to new possibilities and new way that are cheaper than one that puts up with expensive proprietary lock-in software. Beware of the nibble and adaptive competition who has lower operating costs.
I'd rather be that competition than a drone for someone who will not adapt.
Those e-readers I've seen have glaring screens when light hits them right. Well now one the companies that sells them have this commercial advertize that that is an advantage theirs has over others, it doesn't glare. But I have yet to see it, and I'm not about to fork over the money to get one just to test it. Hell I can't afford much of anything now.
True, a kindle needs electricity. But with the wireless off, you get huge battery life.
As a teen, a lifetime ago, I would go outside in the middle of the night and sit and read a book. No electrical light needed. The stars provided enough. I also would lie down in the grass and stare at the stars, there was little if any light pollution so they were clearly visible unlike today.
Apparently not, and not for want of trying. I've been watching the OSS world for, what, about 14 years now? And nothing has come even close to touching Outlook/Exchange. We've had Evolution. We've had Chandler. We've had iCalendar, CalDAV, SyncML. Nothing's filled the whole solution space.
Name one thing Outlook does that no other program also does. There may not be others that do everything Outlook does but I bet different programs can be used to do everything it does.
To this day I do not comprehend how come email got world standardised via SMTP in 1982 (okay, with glaring security holes like the Sender: field, but still, interoperable), yet calendaring and contacts is still impossible to interoperate except through one defacto-standard system. Seriously, you have some kind of database, some kind of syncing system, a schema of object types... it's not rocket science, right?
I bet there are open standards but Microsoft, as well as other businesses, want to lock-in users. Outlook uses MS's proprietary file formats because it knows that that will lock-in users to Outlook. Look at how MS has tried to get its own formats accepted as ISO standards, but this it wants to collect rent on the use of them. How is a free open source project supposed to use them?
Personally I avoid all this incompatibility BS, I keep all my important email on the email server and I have had only one problem opening a document I received. When I first opened an MS Word document, created with the most recent version of Office, it was displayed mangled up. Someone suggested I upgrade Open Office. After I did the doc was displayed correctly. I tell people they will have problems with their documents if they require others to have the most recent version of the application that created it, such as MS Office. Even older versions of Office may not open documents created with a newer version.
Barnes and Noble sells subscriptions and subscriptions include print and online access. I sometimes buy a cop of the print edition off the newsstand, and sometimes it includes a special access code that allows access to the compleat online edition for a week.
Being a gatekeeper does not mean you have control over anything, if there are other gates to be entered through. In the end Apple is only keeping the gate of its own garden, not the city - that is why rejection is not control, because content people can still do whatever they want.
For iPhones, iPads, and iTunes Apple does not allow apps and other software to be install through any route other than Apple. It may be possible to do so but legally Apple doesn't allow or support it. iPhones have to be jailbroken to install software not approved by Apple. And that requires an Apple Developer Connection account, I used to have one but I let it expire. The same is true for iPads and iPods.
Aww, so you're so new to Macs you don't even remember that one? So cute!
No, I first used a Mac in 1984 or '85. From the mid '90s to about 2006 I rarely used Macs though. I mostly used MS Windows and occasionally used Linux during that tyme. In 2006 my Windows PC died and I was tired of the constant problems I had with Windows PCs, with 3 new Windows PCs I had hardware problems as well as problems with Windows a bunch of tymes in the first year, so I replaced it with a Linux PC. A year later I got a MacBook Pro. And if Apple gets bad, such as requiring software to be installed by downloading it from the Apple app store, then I'll drop Apple.
As far as MS Windows is concerned the only version I have not had trouble with is NT4. Unfortunately because the CPU in the PC it's installed on is a DEC Alpha I was not able to install much software. FX!32 was a piece of crap.
Open Office(and I assume LibreOffice) have offered a Mac native version for some time
The last tyme I looked Open Office still needed X11.
So as far as I know, NeoOffice is a bit obsolete at this point, if its only goal is to provide a Mac-native version of OOo.
Just today, well yesterday first, I got a message saying there's a new version of NeoOffice with bug fixes when I started it. And I keep it up to date.
you need IT buy in, and no one is more pro-Microsoft and anti-user-choice than IT.
Except that is exactly how Linux, LAMP, took over many servers, IT sneaked it into the server room.
It means that when you hire new IT people you need to make sure that they're ok working in a company that is not 100% Microsoft.
People with experience in either Linux or OSX are growing. There are even some with experience in both. I'm typing this on my MacBook Pro and under my desk I have two towers PC, one with Linux and the other dual-boots Linux and Windows. I haven't used either in too long though but I want to rebuild the Linux PC then I'll network them all.
you'll find that you're on the losing end, and everyone is glaring at you for being the person blocking "progress" because they're wasting money supporting servers for open protocols when they already have Microsoft sanctified servers for most people.
Or you'll be the hero for fighting against vendor lock-in, which requires massive upgrades and the money needed for that.
I'm sorry, in what world does "I am so used to OSX I dont notice myself doing this thing and so it is easy" become an answer to "new users will find this difficult and unintuitive"??
The original post complained that some things were not logical or not intuitive.
And I stated those were matters of personal preference. Do you have scientific studies showing one GUI is better than others? Or are you letting your emotions dictate your reactions?
I've never seen that, though I have seen a webpage with black on black. I didn't even see that in my CP/M - DOS days.
having a green plus shrink a screen
What's so confusing about that? Oh, I get it, it doesn't mean "go"?
or using the same UI target for the trashcan and eject.
I have no idea what you're talking about. When I want to eject a drive I click on the triangle in Finder or keypress ctrl and click on the drive. I have never had a problem with either method. If you do that's your fault.
I have a hard time understanding how Mac fans
And I have a hard tyme understanding why Mac opponents are so rabid.
Of course fanbois of all stripes don't think things through, they have to start flamewars instead. Perhaps to boost their egos. Whatever, they have to flame and can't be constructive.
To put it bluntly, as much as Outlook sucks for Email, it is in a class all by itself when it comes to being a PIM for someone in a large company.
And no other software does what Outlook does? You say there are plug-ins to allow Outlook do other things, what's thew difference between that and installing different programs? Aren't those plug-ins programs?
If it wasn't needed or people didn't want the features of Outlook, people would use something else in large companies
Nope, it's PHBs that decide what's used, not individual users. Look how Linux became a widely used server, IT/IS workers silently installed it in locations few if any others saw. Linux is now robust-able enough for stock exchanges, hedge funds, and stock trading.
Slashdot Mirror
Four problems in 50 years? Wiki lists at least 56 Nuclear reactor accidents in the United States which caused at least one death or $50,000 in damage. Of course we've had articles on Slashdot about what happened at the Vermont Yankee nuclear power plant, as well as guards being caught sleeping on the job.
is actually a POSITIVE thing
Ah, I agree it's good there hasn't been more accidents.
Also, modern designs wouldn't have these problems. Modern designs remove 90% of the criticisms that you, and other, lay at their feet.
But those designs don't solve one important problem, nuclear power is still Hooked on Subsidies. Without government subsidies Wall Street, no matter how evil people think it is, will not pay for nuclear power plants to be built.
Falcon
Compared to the deaths from coal plants nuclear power is a magical fairy playground.
You're leaving out other problems with nuclear power. People don't only suffer when there's an accident at a nuclear power plant, ask the Navajo Nation and other Indidenous peoples.
Now I'm not saying coal is safe and clean, I oppose it almost as much as I do nuclear power, but only counting Three Mile Island doesn't say much.
Falcon
how expensive is it to clean all the pollution coal and oil cause?
How expensive will Japan be to clean up? How much will Indigenous people be forced to pay?
Falcon
Fill the Great Lakes and every coast, the Gulf, and all of the Alaskan Coast with towers?
Not needed in the USA. The Rockies contain enough potential wind energy to power the 48 contiguous states. Of course the West Coast from BC to southern CA contains a lot too. Turn eastward in SCal going through AZ and NM to west Texas and there's more. On the East Coast hike up the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine to find more prime wind energy. Of course you can find more offshore but plenty can be found on land.
And that's just considering wind. A Solar Grand Plan goes into how solar power can supply "69 percent of the U.S.’s electricity and 35 percent of its total energy by 2050". Not only does Nevada have a lot of solar potential but it also has a lot of potential geothermal and wind energy.
Of course the pseudo-environmentalists NIMBYs will oppose these.
Falcon
Fast breeder reactors can burn that waste leaving material with a half life of mere decades.
And leave toxic waste as well as hot nuclear material that has to be guarded so terrorist won't get their hands on it.
Falcon
Citation needed. On the other hand, here's a citation of my own: Nuclear power is Hooked on Subsidies. And China, France, India, and Russia do not have the US's lawyers or environmental laws.
Falcon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relative_cost_of_electricity_generated_by_different_sources
Thanks for the link, however that article admits it does not take into consideration some of the costs of some of the energy sources. Such as the external costs associated with pollution, ie CO2 emissions, mining, and processing. It also doesn't consider subsidies. Coal generates a lot of the electricity produced, more in the US than any other source but behind nuclear power in France, but it is both environmentally damaging and is subsidized. The CEO of Chevron agrees to lobby with Sierra Club to end coal subsidies.
Falcon
Tens of thousands of people were probably killed by the quake and the resulting tsunami.
Unfortunately this is likely too true.
But anti-nuke activists will consider this the worse tragedy and use it at every chance to fight against the building of more modern and much, much safer designs.
Show a safe design that can withstand what happened in Japan? Fact is is that Nuclear Power is Hooked on Subsidies. And notice that that is not a page on an environmental but on a free market website, and the original article was printed by the business magazine Forbes. Also notice what the writer says about nuclear power in other nations: "How do France (and India, China and Russia) build cost-effective nuclear power plants? They don't. Governmental officials in those countries, not private investors, decide what is built. Nuclear power appeals to state planners, not market actors."
Falcon
As soon as Nokia's Windows Phone 7 devices are released, I will probably get one. Both iPhone and Android have many issues caused mostly because they're fundamentally so far from each, like left and right. Microsoft's Windows Phone 7 is in the middle ground and takes the best from both worlds.
Forget that, I won't get either an iPhone or a WP7 phone. I love my Mac but I will not be locked into only the software Apple approves of. And I switched from Windows PCs to Linux and Macs in part because I hate Microsoft's business practices. If I buy MS Windows or another MS product all I should need is a product activation key, I will not be forced to into contacting MS or having spyware installed to use it.
Falcon
on a Mac.
I did not find OpenOffice Aqua before I installed NeoOffice. And as I'm comfortable with NeoOffice I see no reason to switch to either OpenOffice or LibreOffice for now. Of course that may change in the future. For instance when either one is compatible with MS Office macros but NeoOffice is not.
Falcon
Oh, darn. I left out an important thing, the subject line: All about features, not stability. I switched from MS Windows to first a Linux tower then a Mac laptop. I did so specifically because I was sick and tired of my Windows PCs constantly crashing and needing to replace hardware and reinstall Windows and all the software I used. The only version of Windows I found stable was NT4, I still have the PC it's installed on below my desk. Unfortunately the PC has a DEC Alpha and I was unable to get much software installed. Ironically, well maybe not, one of the few applications I paid for I did install on it was Borland C++ builder. Most of the shareware/freeware software installed fine.
Falcon
Macs selling faster...hmmm I have a problem with that. See, mac came out before windows...and windows has like 90% of the desktop market...
Because Macs are made by only one company, Apple, while Microsoft sells Windows to anybody. I can go down to a store, buy MS Windows, and legally install it on the Mac I am typing this on. Heck I can buy Windows in an Apple store. Now I blame Apple for Macs not having a bigger market share, though it is growing. Fact is is Apple only gives potential buyers a limited selection of configurations and does not allow OSX to be installed on non-Apple hardware. I have heard, well read, a number of tymes right here on Slashdot people saying they would buy a Mac if they could get what they want, such as a mini tower costing around $1000. They will not spend twice that, which is what Mac Pros start at, and lower priced Macs and not really configurable and expandable. I have faulted Apple for this myself.
Your post didn't confirm anything about it being personal preference, and neither did the parent post deny that.
But I did, Mac's market share is growing because of personal choice. Buyers are not being required to buy one, though many PHBs require Windows PCs to be bought. Sure a smaller number of PHBs require Macs but there are less of them. Personally I advocate buying and using whatever gets the job done, at a low cost. In many cases Linux actually. Only in a few cases I know of does Linux fail. Print photography and custom in-house written software. But that's beyond the discussion.
I agree it is about preference...but that wasn't the point of either of the previous posts.
The post I was replying to when I said it was a preference made it out as a fact, therefore I stated it was a preference.
Falcon
And I stated those were matters of personal preference. Do you have scientific studies showing one GUI is better than others? Or are you letting your emotions dictate your reactions?
re-read your last line and apply it to yourself.
Not only did I not do that but I actually provided links as well as asked for links to scientific studies concluding Windows was more intuitive and logical. Of course it's too difficult to provide what I asked for, but easy to ridicule those who say what you disagree with.
what i don't get is the fact that apple fans seem to think that having their OS derided automatically means that person is automatically saying their OS is better... that does not necessarily follow.
It's no different for Apple opponents.
and if you insist on defending mac design and ergonomics, you might start by addressing my above concerns (how on earth can you defend the case of the mighty-mouse scroll-nipple-and-single-massive-useless-button and the monitors that you cannot calibrate except in software?
But I did address them. Just because you can't, or didn't, read my post does not mean I didn't. But as a matter of fact, Apple's Mighty Mouse and Magic Mouse "acts as one button or two" and "if you want the functionality of a two-button mouse, that’s easy, too." And of course you're not locked into using an Apple mouse, I have a two button Logitech Trackball connected to my Mac. And before I got my Mac, I used it with my Windows PCs and my Linux PC. But if you have to have a two-button mouse then Apple sells them too. As for calibrating Apple monitors, many other monitors can only be calibrated in software too.
my wife has CP on her right side, and as such cannot use function-keys in conjunction with a mouse.
And as stated above she doesn't have to. There is no need to defend that, what's defenseless is ignoring reality. Which you have been doing. Such as your comment:
"anyone can use a mac, so long as they have 100% use of both hands"
There is no need for two hands. Two button mice along with my Trackball are quite easy to use one handed. But go ahead and keep spreading FUD, just like a troll.
Falcon
Oh, one last thing. I am not an Apple fan. Sure I like Macs, the only Apple hardware I plan on buying, but my favorite computer/OS I have ever used is the Amiga. Next in line is Linux. Heck I even liked SGI's Irix more than I liked Apple's OS offering back then. Right now I'm preparing to install Ubuntu Linux on my Mac, to dual-boot. But I first want to swap the current HDD in it to a bigger drive. And for a monitor I'd rather get some else. Monitors from Dell, which use some of the same LCD panels as Apple does, are capable of deep color (30 bit) and cost less.
You'll be that not cooperative employee fighting against a solution that will save the day. Nevermind that the solution will cost so much at the long term that the original problem was cheaper,
Put it this way, I'd rather work somewhere that is open to new possibilities and new way that are cheaper than one that puts up with expensive proprietary lock-in software. Beware of the nibble and adaptive competition who has lower operating costs.
I'd rather be that competition than a drone for someone who will not adapt.
Falcon
As for screens hurting your eyes, are you talking about the e-ink screens, too, or just the LCD ones like on iPads and iPhones?
All of them I've seen. Obvious;y I haven't seen them all, and I'm not going to spend the money to test them either.
You also overlooked another critical factor: instantaneous delivery.
Not if you only have dial-up access, and there still are a lot of people who only have access to dial-up.
Falcon
Have you ever read an e-paper screen?
Those e-readers I've seen have glaring screens when light hits them right. Well now one the companies that sells them have this commercial advertize that that is an advantage theirs has over others, it doesn't glare. But I have yet to see it, and I'm not about to fork over the money to get one just to test it. Hell I can't afford much of anything now.
True, a kindle needs electricity. But with the wireless off, you get huge battery life.
As a teen, a lifetime ago, I would go outside in the middle of the night and sit and read a book. No electrical light needed. The stars provided enough. I also would lie down in the grass and stare at the stars, there was little if any light pollution so they were clearly visible unlike today.
Falcon
Apparently not, and not for want of trying. I've been watching the OSS world for, what, about 14 years now? And nothing has come even close to touching Outlook/Exchange. We've had Evolution. We've had Chandler. We've had iCalendar, CalDAV, SyncML. Nothing's filled the whole solution space.
Name one thing Outlook does that no other program also does. There may not be others that do everything Outlook does but I bet different programs can be used to do everything it does.
To this day I do not comprehend how come email got world standardised via SMTP in 1982 (okay, with glaring security holes like the Sender: field, but still, interoperable), yet calendaring and contacts is still impossible to interoperate except through one defacto-standard system. Seriously, you have some kind of database, some kind of syncing system, a schema of object types... it's not rocket science, right?
I bet there are open standards but Microsoft, as well as other businesses, want to lock-in users. Outlook uses MS's proprietary file formats because it knows that that will lock-in users to Outlook. Look at how MS has tried to get its own formats accepted as ISO standards, but this it wants to collect rent on the use of them. How is a free open source project supposed to use them?
Personally I avoid all this incompatibility BS, I keep all my important email on the email server and I have had only one problem opening a document I received. When I first opened an MS Word document, created with the most recent version of Office, it was displayed mangled up. Someone suggested I upgrade Open Office. After I did the doc was displayed correctly. I tell people they will have problems with their documents if they require others to have the most recent version of the application that created it, such as MS Office. Even older versions of Office may not open documents created with a newer version.
Falcon
And you can't get it from B&N.
Your reading comprehension: F.
Barnes and Noble sells subscriptions and subscriptions include print and online access. I sometimes buy a cop of the print edition off the newsstand, and sometimes it includes a special access code that allows access to the compleat online edition for a week.
Falcon
Being a gatekeeper does not mean you have control over anything, if there are other gates to be entered through. In the end Apple is only keeping the gate of its own garden, not the city - that is why rejection is not control, because content people can still do whatever they want.
For iPhones, iPads, and iTunes Apple does not allow apps and other software to be install through any route other than Apple. It may be possible to do so but legally Apple doesn't allow or support it. iPhones have to be jailbroken to install software not approved by Apple. And that requires an Apple Developer Connection account, I used to have one but I let it expire. The same is true for iPads and iPods.
Falcon
Aww, so you're so new to Macs you don't even remember that one? So cute!
No, I first used a Mac in 1984 or '85. From the mid '90s to about 2006 I rarely used Macs though. I mostly used MS Windows and occasionally used Linux during that tyme. In 2006 my Windows PC died and I was tired of the constant problems I had with Windows PCs, with 3 new Windows PCs I had hardware problems as well as problems with Windows a bunch of tymes in the first year, so I replaced it with a Linux PC. A year later I got a MacBook Pro. And if Apple gets bad, such as requiring software to be installed by downloading it from the Apple app store, then I'll drop Apple.
As far as MS Windows is concerned the only version I have not had trouble with is NT4. Unfortunately because the CPU in the PC it's installed on is a DEC Alpha I was not able to install much software. FX!32 was a piece of crap.
Falcon
Open Office(and I assume LibreOffice) have offered a Mac native version for some time
The last tyme I looked Open Office still needed X11.
So as far as I know, NeoOffice is a bit obsolete at this point, if its only goal is to provide a Mac-native version of OOo.
Just today, well yesterday first, I got a message saying there's a new version of NeoOffice with bug fixes when I started it. And I keep it up to date.
Falcon
you need IT buy in, and no one is more pro-Microsoft and anti-user-choice than IT.
Except that is exactly how Linux, LAMP, took over many servers, IT sneaked it into the server room.
It means that when you hire new IT people you need to make sure that they're ok working in a company that is not 100% Microsoft.
People with experience in either Linux or OSX are growing. There are even some with experience in both. I'm typing this on my MacBook Pro and under my desk I have two towers PC, one with Linux and the other dual-boots Linux and Windows. I haven't used either in too long though but I want to rebuild the Linux PC then I'll network them all.
you'll find that you're on the losing end, and everyone is glaring at you for being the person blocking "progress" because they're wasting money supporting servers for open protocols when they already have Microsoft sanctified servers for most people.
Or you'll be the hero for fighting against vendor lock-in, which requires massive upgrades and the money needed for that.
Falcon
I'm sorry, in what world does "I am so used to OSX I dont notice myself doing this thing and so it is easy" become an answer to "new users will find this difficult and unintuitive"??
In what world is MS Windows easier to use? Not this one, or the one where Macs are growing faster. Of course Yale is too uppity.
http://www.zdnet.com/blog/apple/tco-new-research-finds-macs-in-the-enterprise-easier-cheaper-to-manage-than-windows-pcs/6294
The original post complained that some things were not logical or not intuitive.
And I stated those were matters of personal preference. Do you have scientific studies showing one GUI is better than others? Or are you letting your emotions dictate your reactions?
Falcon
Like using white text on a white background
I've never seen that, though I have seen a webpage with black on black. I didn't even see that in my CP/M - DOS days.
having a green plus shrink a screen
What's so confusing about that? Oh, I get it, it doesn't mean "go"?
or using the same UI target for the trashcan and eject.
I have no idea what you're talking about. When I want to eject a drive I click on the triangle in Finder or keypress ctrl and click on the drive. I have never had a problem with either method. If you do that's your fault.
I have a hard time understanding how Mac fans
And I have a hard tyme understanding why Mac opponents are so rabid.
Of course fanbois of all stripes don't think things through, they have to start flamewars instead. Perhaps to boost their egos. Whatever, they have to flame and can't be constructive.
Falcon
To put it bluntly, as much as Outlook sucks for Email, it is in a class all by itself when it comes to being a PIM for someone in a large company.
And no other software does what Outlook does? You say there are plug-ins to allow Outlook do other things, what's thew difference between that and installing different programs? Aren't those plug-ins programs?
If it wasn't needed or people didn't want the features of Outlook, people would use something else in large companies
Nope, it's PHBs that decide what's used, not individual users. Look how Linux became a widely used server, IT/IS workers silently installed it in locations few if any others saw. Linux is now robust-able enough for stock exchanges, hedge funds, and stock trading.
Falcon