The Treo may have given Palm a temporary spike in popularity, but it doesn't look like it's going to last; Treo's defects are well known and there's little point denying it.
I know the interface is better on the Palms, you're preaching to the choir. OS/2 is a much better OS than Windows; I'm sure it'll beat out Windows any day now...;)
Sorry to say, but WinCE marketshare surpassed PalmOS back in 2004!
I know about Palms. I use my Zire 31 every day and like it plenty, but the newest units (Treos) are considered trash by everyone I know that uses them. Even Palm is dumping PalmOS (!) in favor of WinCE, or haven't you been reading the news?
Oh, and I didn't even mention Blackberries because:
They are not a true PDA, but a portable email device, and
The case for pessimism (in this case "MS will destroy all competitors") is that either I'm correct and that I'm prepared for the worst; or I'm wrong, and things actually turn out better! I do hope I'm wrong, but I doubt it.
Cool, some good news! I am happy to concede any of my points, since I do *not* want MS to win. I was just going on what I have been reading in E-Week, Infoworld, etc. No, I don't really trust them, I just never saw any stats to counter them.
> MS has been able to leverage it's OS monopoly to stiffle competition
I agree, that's one tactic MS uses; but they also use FUD, intimidation, manipulation of the press, etc.
> they can't keep going into market losing money
Not in the long term, granted. But in the short term, of course they could; just long enough to destroy the competitor. Who has bigger pockets than MS? They gave their browser away for free (bundled with Windows) and essentially destroyed Netscape. They did the same thing with Stacker. Developing them and giving them away cost money; but it ac hieved their objectives.
Now that really IS a laugh. This is the first time in history I have ever been accused of being a MS fanboy! In fact this message is being typed in Moz Seamonkey running under my ol'now 100% MS-Free Compaq, where I alternately run Puppy Linux and a cut-down Slackware based disto. My other PC runs Mandrake (also MS-free). True, my wife runs a Win XP box (which I've tried to ween her from) but at least it runs primarily OSS stuff (Firefox, T-Bird, OOo), and will dual-boot to Linux.
I just successfully converted my best friend from a frustrated Win XP user into a satisfied Xubuntu user.
When I mentioned all the cases of "X" beats "Y", I am referring to Market Share only. I do not believe MS is better in a technical, economic, or philosophical sense. Please try to discern the difference.
The items in the list are all to the best of my knowledge. I don't claim to be perfect and some may be incorrect. If you believe that in any of these cases a Non-Microsoft product is leading the Microsoft in market share, contrary to my assertions, please point me to some statistics. They may actually help change my pessimism for the future of non-MS products.
Wow. It's shocking to me how many people here are ready to write Microsoft off. People seem to think that the end is near; that Google and others will be some kind of threat to them.
So many people are forgetting the lessons of history.
Once I used to think that MS Word would never overtake WordPerfect; that WordPerfect had too big a lead
Once I used to think that IE would never overtake Netscape; that Netscape had too much mindshare
Once I used to think that WinCE would never overtake Palm; that Palm was the perennial favorite
I've since wisened up, and will never underestimate Microsoft again.
The historical scoreboard of Microsoft versus competitors, for those to young to remember:
MS-DOS beat CP/M-80, DR-DOS
Windows beat Mac OS, GEM, OS/2, Desqview, etc.
Word beat WordPerfect, Wordstar, Wordpro
Excel beat 123, Quattro
Access beat dBase, Paradox, Approach
Outlook beat Eudora, ACT
PowerPoint beat Harvard Graphics
Encarta beat Compton's
Exchange beat Notes
Frontpage beat Composer
Visual Basic beat Power Basic, Turbo Basic
Visual C beat Borland C, Lightspeed C, etc.
MS-Publisher beat Ventura
Internet Explorer beat Netscape, Opera, Mozilla
Visio has no real competition
Win-CE beat Palm
WMP beat RealPlayer
Project leads its market
Halo 1,2 is king of the FPS games
Visual Studio leads all competitors by far
Looking at the current market share battles:
MSN is overtaking AOL
.NET is beating Java
Money leads Quicken
MSN Messenger is beating ICQ, AIM, Y!Messenger
X-Boxen are outselling Sony Playstatia
IIS is gaining on Apache
SQL Server is catching up to Oracle
MSN Seach is gaining market share against Google and Yahoo
Windows growth is outpacing Unix, Linux
People will often joke about MS "Bob" - myself included. But Bob is one of very few actual Microsoft market failures. Virtually every other MS product either already dominates its field, or is projected to do so.
I'm not a Microsoft shill; far from it. I'm proud to count myself among those with the deepest disdain for the company. Currently, I am an enthusiastic Linux, KDE, OpenOffice.org, and Firefox afficianado. Before that, it was always "anything but Microsoft." As much as I'd like this to be the beginning of the end for MS, I cannot kid myself.
Look at the facts:
Microsoft is still the richest, most popular, and most powerful IT company in the world
It still has the rare advantage of being able to buy out or undersell almost any competitor (hell, it could buy most governments!)
It has proven time and time again that it can violate business laws, effectively with impunity
It makes more money by breaking the rules (and paying the invariably-modest penalty) that it would had it actually followed them
It is still being run by the richest man in the known universe; who will continue on as Chairman
Microsoft has powerful stallwart allies: Dell, Intel, the BSA, the Bush administration's Justice Department, etc.
It remains the favorite of the press (Ziff-Davis, CMP, et. al.) and of many CIOs
Most companies worldwide have picked Microsoft as their primary (in many cases only) software publisher
MS is not above using very nasty FUD to sell its products, which the pointy-haired crowd spouts as gospel
It has millions of customers locked in on its proprietary file formats and protocols
MS has plenty of marketing help. Virtually all computer manufacturers (yes, even IBM) recommend Microsoft operating systems in all their advertising materials (I always look)
Microsoft has weapons it hasn't even started to use against competitors: i.
And here we see yet another "score 5" insightful pro-Microsoft post about how pro-Microsoft posts are modded down to oblivion. I used to appreciate the irony, but these trolls are getting rather stale.
I do agree that Microsoft is not going away; I don't think anyone seriously believes that. Quite the opposite, in fact. At its rate of industry dominance, Microsoft will be the only software producer on the planet within two decades. I think that is unfortunate, although you'd probably disagree.
I'll continue to enjoy Linux in the meantime, until it is either outlawed by the governmant, or locked out of PCs by Palladium.
That gets filed under "not ready for the desktop".
No, technically speaking, that gets filed under "not ready for the laptop."
But seriously, if the measure of "desktop readiness" is being able to support every conceivable piece of hardware without tweaking some obscure setting somewhere, then even Windows falls down. Many times, I've had to fiddle with the Registry on my wife's Windows box to add or change a setting, and that's no more straightforward (less in my opinion) then using a text editor.
You can't get Quicken for Linux
You're right, and I used to keep an old Win95 box on a KVM switch for exactly that purpose (I don't like to dual boot). Just over a year ago, though, I discovered and bought Moneydance. It's a cross-platform personal finance manager implemented in Java (I was skeptical that it might be sluggish because of that, but it seems to be more responsive than Quicken). The program isn't really "pretty", but it does everything I need it to do, including the "killer feature" of being able to download transactions from all my banks.
I was then able to kick the KVM "habit" and go Linux full-time.
So to summarize, the richest man in the entire f-ing known universe donates a wad of cash and is -- wait for it -- still the richest man in the known universe. Oh the enormous sacrifices he's made!
The true measure of his generosity would be not how much he gave away, but how much he kept, afterward.
...do any popular open-source apps actually support it?
Yes. OpenOffice.org is the first thing that comes to mind. There is extensive support in perl as well. Also, WINE supports unixdbc too, to allow running odbc-dependant Windows apps under Linux and BSD.
Why should Microsoft care whether it's deemed "legal" or not? They'll go ahead and do it, at the "risk" of paying a small pittance after a decade-long Justice Dept. investigation (provided the Administration at the time is even interested in pursuing them). Meanwhile, this "Skype" becomes a smoldering corpse.
Come on, we've seen the "re-runs" of this show time and time again. Does the ending *ever* change?
Slashdot Mirror
I know the interface is better on the Palms, you're preaching to the choir. OS/2 is a much better OS than Windows; I'm sure it'll beat out Windows any day now... ;)
-a.d.-
-a.d.-
-a.d.-
I know about Palms. I use my Zire 31 every day and like it plenty, but the newest units (Treos) are considered trash by everyone I know that uses them. Even Palm is dumping PalmOS (!) in favor of WinCE, or haven't you been reading the news?
Oh, and I didn't even mention Blackberries because:
Cheers,
-a.d.-
Hmmm... well it's difficult to say for certain...
-a.d.-
>don't make me fucking laugh.
You're laughing? More like living in denial.
But, hey, who needs facts for that "5" rating, when you just tell most slashdotters what they want to hear?
The case for pessimism (in this case "MS will destroy all competitors") is that either I'm correct and that I'm prepared for the worst; or I'm wrong, and things actually turn out better! I do hope I'm wrong, but I doubt it.
Thanks!
-a.d.-
I agree, that's one tactic MS uses; but they also use FUD, intimidation, manipulation of the press, etc.
> they can't keep going into market losing money
Not in the long term, granted. But in the short term, of course they could; just long enough to destroy the competitor. Who has bigger pockets than MS? They gave their browser away for free (bundled with Windows) and essentially destroyed Netscape. They did the same thing with Stacker. Developing them and giving them away cost money; but it ac hieved their objectives.
-a.d.-
I just successfully converted my best friend from a frustrated Win XP user into a satisfied Xubuntu user.
When I mentioned all the cases of "X" beats "Y", I am referring to Market Share only. I do not believe MS is better in a technical, economic, or philosophical sense. Please try to discern the difference.
The items in the list are all to the best of my knowledge. I don't claim to be perfect and some may be incorrect. If you believe that in any of these cases a Non-Microsoft product is leading the Microsoft in market share, contrary to my assertions, please point me to some statistics. They may actually help change my pessimism for the future of non-MS products.
-a.d.-
So many people are forgetting the lessons of history.
Once I used to think that MS Word would never overtake WordPerfect; that WordPerfect had too big a lead
Once I used to think that IE would never overtake Netscape; that Netscape had too much mindshare
Once I used to think that WinCE would never overtake Palm; that Palm was the perennial favorite
I've since wisened up, and will never underestimate Microsoft again.
The historical scoreboard of Microsoft versus competitors, for those to young to remember:
Looking at the current market share battles:
People will often joke about MS "Bob" - myself included. But Bob is one of very few actual Microsoft market failures. Virtually every other MS product either already dominates its field, or is projected to do so.
I'm not a Microsoft shill; far from it. I'm proud to count myself among those with the deepest disdain for the company. Currently, I am an enthusiastic Linux, KDE, OpenOffice.org, and Firefox afficianado. Before that, it was always "anything but Microsoft." As much as I'd like this to be the beginning of the end for MS, I cannot kid myself.
Look at the facts:
Where did the summary get the name Chris from?
;-)
It is a mystery, but the answer will be revealed on July 3rd. Keep watching the website slashdot.org.
That's when the dupe will be posted
-a.d-
who the hell needs 10 laptops for research
I am imagining a 10-node, mobile Beowolf cluster!
-a.d.-
I find myself hoping that Microsoft kicks a startup's ass in the marketplace....
Don't worry, they will
-a.d.-
Nothing to see here... (Score:5, Insightful)
And here we see yet another "score 5" insightful pro-Microsoft post about how pro-Microsoft posts are modded down to oblivion. I used to appreciate the irony, but these trolls are getting rather stale.
I do agree that Microsoft is not going away; I don't think anyone seriously believes that. Quite the opposite, in fact. At its rate of industry dominance, Microsoft will be the only software producer on the planet within two decades. I think that is unfortunate, although you'd probably disagree.
I'll continue to enjoy Linux in the meantime, until it is either outlawed by the governmant, or locked out of PCs by Palladium.
-a.d.-
That gets filed under "not ready for the desktop".
No, technically speaking, that gets filed under "not ready for the laptop."
But seriously, if the measure of "desktop readiness" is being able to support every conceivable piece of hardware without tweaking some obscure setting somewhere, then even Windows falls down. Many times, I've had to fiddle with the Registry on my wife's Windows box to add or change a setting, and that's no more straightforward (less in my opinion) then using a text editor.
You can't get Quicken for Linux
You're right, and I used to keep an old Win95 box on a KVM switch for exactly that purpose (I don't like to dual boot). Just over a year ago, though, I discovered and bought Moneydance. It's a cross-platform personal finance manager implemented in Java (I was skeptical that it might be sluggish because of that, but it seems to be more responsive than Quicken). The program isn't really "pretty", but it does everything I need it to do, including the "killer feature" of being able to download transactions from all my banks.
I was then able to kick the KVM "habit" and go Linux full-time.
-a.d.-
So to summarize, the richest man in the entire f-ing known universe donates a wad of cash and is -- wait for it -- still the richest man in the known universe. Oh the enormous sacrifices he's made!
The true measure of his generosity would be not how much he gave away, but how much he kept, afterward.
-a.d.-
As a PosgreSQL fan, I prefer to pronounce MySQL as "Mice Equal."
It somehow seems fitting.
-a.d.-
...many Research in Motion employees will have to say goodbye to their RIM jobs.
That is, unless NTP decides they have relevent experience, and chooses to hand jobs to them.
-a.d.-
...do any popular open-source apps actually support it?
Yes. OpenOffice.org is the first thing that comes to mind. There is extensive support in perl as well. Also, WINE supports unixdbc too, to allow running odbc-dependant Windows apps under Linux and BSD.
-a.d.-
"The cetacean commandos have escaped!"
"Quick... send in the Korean combat robots!
Why should Microsoft care whether it's deemed "legal" or not? They'll go ahead and do it, at the "risk" of paying a small pittance after a decade-long Justice Dept. investigation (provided the Administration at the time is even interested in pursuing them). Meanwhile, this "Skype" becomes a smoldering corpse.
Come on, we've seen the "re-runs" of this show time and time again. Does the ending *ever* change?
-a.d.-
...why Google would be liable for a violation of an agreement made between Microsoft and Mr. Lee?
;)
It's a good think Microsoft has never stooped to hiring a key person away from a competitor!
-a.d.-
...set to close up shop after the publication of its forthcoming issue, no. 63...
It appears they shouldn't have used just a 6-bit issue counter!
>What killed the Newton was syncronization
And here I was thinking that what killed it was...
L0V5Y H4NDWR17IN6 RFC06N171ON!