No, the reason is that there is competition in the hardware area.
Really? And this competition arises because of the size of the market, correct? And why is the market so big? Because there are a billion PCs out there, and most of them run Windows, and have for the last two decades or so.
OK, it seems I'm talking out of my butt because I called a friend in the data center and he ripped me a new one. Apparently the circular room with the robotic arm is called an "ATL", and it is used for short-term archival for the mainframe. They do have a long-term digital tape archive, but that lives offsite in a facility near Chicago.
Well that's exactly what my company does, but the hardware is relatively new. You can buy a mainframe from Hitachi or IBM today that runs 40-year old code. There are still companies that make tape archival systems for outdated media (and you can still buy the media!). They have one of those enclosed environment deals with the robotic arm and everything, I'm pretty sure that's not from the 70s.
I'm curious though, how exactly would you archive the data? On an HDD? If not tape then what? Extremely high quality and expensive optical media that I've never heard about?
Say that again? Do you mean it's abysmal because of access latency (which I suppose would be valid), or from a degradation perspective? I ask because my company still pulls 20-year old data out of tapes. I doubt a DVD archive* will last that much unless is stored in some sort of Flash Gordon nullified entropy container.
[*] I'm not sure about the old optical WORM disks though. I'm not familiar with them
Without the massive adoption of Windows and the ease of use it introduced as opposed to character-based environments, companies like Intel would have had little incentive to sink the billions they did in R&D, which in turn created ecosystems for other companies like ATI and nVidia (going further back, 3Com, STB, Diamond, etc) to do the same. Not much money to be made on platforms that are not selling.
I'm not implying that it couldn't have happened some other way, just that in this case, that's the way it happened.
Think for a second how the PC hardware world would look like today if Apple had gotten a hold on the desktop before Microsoft. That PC you're running Linux on would probably cost three times as much, or more likely wouldn't even exist.
The widespread use of Windows was what ended up commoditizing PC hardware.
Microsoft was so far behind Apple in the GUI business in the late 80s and yet they still own the market.
Let me fix that for you: Apple was so far behind Microsoft in the application business in the late 80s and early 90s that they just limped along while Microsoft snagged the desktop. People buy PCs to run applications, not operating systems.
Most of you don't even remember how hard they had to fight to convince companies to write software for their newfangled windowing system when everyone was perfectly happy with DOS. Gates is being disingenuous when he says his competitors were "poorly run", the real reason is that his competitors (including IBM who saw the PC as a toy) didn't have his vision and drive to (as he said back in the 80s) place a computer in every home. People like Mitch Kapor didn't see any value whatsoever in graphical environments - after all he was selling 1-2-3 hand over fist to companies still running DOS. He paid dearly for that. And once Microsoft controlled the desktop, they could do anything they wanted, which eventually would get them into trouble.
The reality is that no one saw it, except Gates. One could argue that Apple saw it (or wanted it), but they were too busy trying to dick around with the hardware and their OS was always an afterthought. The first "real" PC I ever had was a souped-up Zeos Pantera 486 with 16MB of RAM, a Diamond Stealth64 sporting an amazing 4MB of VRAM, a SCSI card with a 105MB HDD on top and - get this - a gynormous 17-inch monitor. I paid close to $6K back then for that. Today I can put together something that is for all purposes a super computer compared to that, for about $600. The reason for that is and always has been Microsoft Windows.
I take back my comment about him being racist. Especially if he's the one posting those "Hitler" trolls all over the place. But the "Hyperbad" thing was nagging me... until I remembered this.
I would bring to everyone's attention the fact that he has not posted at all in the last two days, which is a likely result of an IP ban for excessive negative moderation. And I'm not talking the freenix account here.
The odds are good that the system in question was Windows based.
Undoubtedly.
However, that doesn't really change too much. Any p0wn3d box leads to the same situation.
Exactly my point. More specifically, any box can be p0wn3d given enough lack of attention to security. By the people who are responsible for maintaining the box, and to a lesser extent, the user itself.
I don't see what this has to do with Windows or "non-free". The solutions the GP is talking about are server-side, which means that as far as the desktop is concerned, nothing has changed.
If you want software to do the same in Windows, it is available for free as well.
If you hire on with a company as a lorry driver, and the brakes on your vehicle give way in the middle of taking a turn somewhere because of lack of maintenance, who are you going to blame? Yourself? You were hired on as a driver, not a mechanic. Or hey, let's use a closer analogy - if I hire you as a systems analyst and give you a Linux laptop with an unpatched version of SSH so that it gets r00ted after two days, who are you going to blame? Yourself? You were hired on as a systems analyst, not a system admin or a desktop support specialist.
You "Evangelists" have the most amusing double standards and syncopated rationalizations.
Posts like these are designed to rack up the karma on his sockpuppets so he can keep trolling. I don't think he's necessarily racist. He's just playing to the liberal anti-globalization, anti-Bush, anti-government and anti-everything moderators, of which there are enough around here to make it worth his while.
I disagree and ask that you look there again. You will see that IBM is hiring in China, Mexico, Brazil, Russia, etc., etc., maybe 10% of the jobs are in the US.
I understand what you're saying, and I agree with you and what the link proves. But you are not understanding my point. A great many of those people who are hired in those countries end up working here in the United States. IBM has thousands and thousands of "employees" working here, for IBM and under contract for U.S. companies. They might have been hired in India and China, but lots and lots of them are working here.
I should know, I work with an enormous amount of them every day.
Ha ha, the Ali-Baba post! Haven't seen that one in quite a while. I miss the AC that followed twitter around posting that all the time. At least I had all the links available when needed.
Ah yes, "deadzero". Another twitter name troll. Well, if anyone is interested they can go here and read the details, thankfully. I'm not feeling up to it right now. Or just look at your enormous body of Slashdot postings to see what quality pursuits you've been engaged in since you first laid eyes on Slashdot two weeks ago.
As for the link in your sig (which apparently you're too lazy or ingorant to turn into an actual hyperlink), I'd recommend everyone reads it. In fact, here's a proper link just to avoid cut-and-paste.
Well, a lot of them are. Otherwise the people I see when I look around me at the office must be... Guatemalan? And where do you think the vast majority of these people hired in other countries end up working at? Chile?
I never said that the positions were being occupied by Americans, just that a large percentage of those jobs is indeed in the U.S. Doesn't make it any better, obviously.
You've tried this before, with the usual negative results.
Certainly the AC was trolling, since nowhere in the article was Linux mentioned. But Windows can be perfectly secure if you want it to, which means that your tired claims and bizarre tie-ins with unrelated conspiracy theories are as usual no more than empty "advocacy" that helps no one and just serves to bury more of your accounts in the appropriate karma holes.
Yeah, it's too bad he did not have the skill and nerve
Not having a skill you might happen (I assume) to have shouldn't be cause for derision or ridicule. As for the "nerve", you've obviously never had a job at a company of any significant size. And we'll leave it at that.
We are also starting to run out of qualified young people because all of the engineering jobs have been sent to China and India.
Well your post is offtopic and insulting to boot, but it would seem to me that the jobs are here in the US. Except of course that most of them are Indian and Chinese employed by IBM and companies like that.
Trade with China and wars of aggression have a common cause
No, not really. I'd agree with the wars part, but the trade thing is certainly false. Why do you hate China so much? Any particular reason? You keep going on and on about this and I still don't understand it.
moral bankruptcy
That's rich, coming from the guy who has to pretend he's eleven different people.
Slashdot Mirror
Really? And this competition arises because of the size of the market, correct? And why is the market so big? Because there are a billion PCs out there, and most of them run Windows, and have for the last two decades or so.
Q.E.D.
I agree, the moderation was unfair. It should have been Redundant, since you posted both comments.
Do you really think everyone on Slashdot is that dumb?
OK, it seems I'm talking out of my butt because I called a friend in the data center and he ripped me a new one. Apparently the circular room with the robotic arm is called an "ATL", and it is used for short-term archival for the mainframe. They do have a long-term digital tape archive, but that lives offsite in a facility near Chicago.
Ah, no I would not. I thought they would be about something else.
I'm curious though, how exactly would you archive the data? On an HDD? If not tape then what? Extremely high quality and expensive optical media that I've never heard about?
Say that again? Do you mean it's abysmal because of access latency (which I suppose would be valid), or from a degradation perspective? I ask because my company still pulls 20-year old data out of tapes. I doubt a DVD archive* will last that much unless is stored in some sort of Flash Gordon nullified entropy container.
[*] I'm not sure about the old optical WORM disks though. I'm not familiar with them
Can you point us to one of your vlogs? What do you talk about and where do you publish them?
I think Winamp supports OGG so I should be able to see them.
I'm not implying that it couldn't have happened some other way, just that in this case, that's the way it happened.
Think for a second how the PC hardware world would look like today if Apple had gotten a hold on the desktop before Microsoft. That PC you're running Linux on would probably cost three times as much, or more likely wouldn't even exist.
The widespread use of Windows was what ended up commoditizing PC hardware.
Let me fix that for you: Apple was so far behind Microsoft in the application business in the late 80s and early 90s that they just limped along while Microsoft snagged the desktop. People buy PCs to run applications, not operating systems.
Most of you don't even remember how hard they had to fight to convince companies to write software for their newfangled windowing system when everyone was perfectly happy with DOS. Gates is being disingenuous when he says his competitors were "poorly run", the real reason is that his competitors (including IBM who saw the PC as a toy) didn't have his vision and drive to (as he said back in the 80s) place a computer in every home. People like Mitch Kapor didn't see any value whatsoever in graphical environments - after all he was selling 1-2-3 hand over fist to companies still running DOS. He paid dearly for that. And once Microsoft controlled the desktop, they could do anything they wanted, which eventually would get them into trouble.
The reality is that no one saw it, except Gates. One could argue that Apple saw it (or wanted it), but they were too busy trying to dick around with the hardware and their OS was always an afterthought. The first "real" PC I ever had was a souped-up Zeos Pantera 486 with 16MB of RAM, a Diamond Stealth64 sporting an amazing 4MB of VRAM, a SCSI card with a 105MB HDD on top and - get this - a gynormous 17-inch monitor. I paid close to $6K back then for that. Today I can put together something that is for all purposes a super computer compared to that, for about $600. The reason for that is and always has been Microsoft Windows.
I would bring to everyone's attention the fact that he has not posted at all in the last two days, which is a likely result of an IP ban for excessive negative moderation. And I'm not talking the freenix account here.
Undoubtedly.
Exactly my point. More specifically, any box can be p0wn3d given enough lack of attention to security. By the people who are responsible for maintaining the box, and to a lesser extent, the user itself.
I think he was.
It's really not possible to defend supporting something like this, but it's not useful to exaggerate and accuse them of high crimes, either.
If you want software to do the same in Windows, it is available for free as well.
You "Evangelists" have the most amusing double standards and syncopated rationalizations.
Hah!
Posts like these are designed to rack up the karma on his sockpuppets so he can keep trolling. I don't think he's necessarily racist. He's just playing to the liberal anti-globalization, anti-Bush, anti-government and anti-everything moderators, of which there are enough around here to make it worth his while.
Um, how am I "insulting" again? You're the one saying that anyone who doesn't have the skill and "nerve" to install "GNU/Linux" must be an idiot.
That's hilarious, I was going to say exactly the same thing to you!
I understand what you're saying, and I agree with you and what the link proves. But you are not understanding my point. A great many of those people who are hired in those countries end up working here in the United States. IBM has thousands and thousands of "employees" working here, for IBM and under contract for U.S. companies. They might have been hired in India and China, but lots and lots of them are working here.
I should know, I work with an enormous amount of them every day.
Ha ha, the Ali-Baba post! Haven't seen that one in quite a while. I miss the AC that followed twitter around posting that all the time. At least I had all the links available when needed.
As for the link in your sig (which apparently you're too lazy or ingorant to turn into an actual hyperlink), I'd recommend everyone reads it. In fact, here's a proper link just to avoid cut-and-paste.
I never said that the positions were being occupied by Americans, just that a large percentage of those jobs is indeed in the U.S. Doesn't make it any better, obviously.
Certainly the AC was trolling, since nowhere in the article was Linux mentioned. But Windows can be perfectly secure if you want it to, which means that your tired claims and bizarre tie-ins with unrelated conspiracy theories are as usual no more than empty "advocacy" that helps no one and just serves to bury more of your accounts in the appropriate karma holes.
Not having a skill you might happen (I assume) to have shouldn't be cause for derision or ridicule. As for the "nerve", you've obviously never had a job at a company of any significant size. And we'll leave it at that.
Well your post is offtopic and insulting to boot, but it would seem to me that the jobs are here in the US. Except of course that most of them are Indian and Chinese employed by IBM and companies like that.
No, not really. I'd agree with the wars part, but the trade thing is certainly false. Why do you hate China so much? Any particular reason? You keep going on and on about this and I still don't understand it.
That's rich, coming from the guy who has to pretend he's eleven different people.