I understand the complaint about ease of use - sure. But is it much harder to install a program like Admuncher, or a blocklist for Opera than to install an extension for firefox? I've installed extensions for Thunderbird, and it basically comes down to enabling the site, then clicking the install... Well, for Admuncher it's download the installer and double click - done. For the Opera blocklist, it's download the file and restart Opera...
Is either of the above *really* more difficult than installing an extension? I just don't see it. Actually, my experiance with Proxomitron has only had *one* more step than installing an extension and pointing it at a list, and that's setting the local proxy in Opera.
Mind you - I would say that the "does Opera have the exact FF extension feature I'm looking for" as opposed to "Can I do X in Opera" is the wrong question to ask. I could as much ask Can I in Firefox: Open pop-ups as a tab that doesn't fill the screen, but isn't a new window? Can I put two tabs side by side without new windows? Can I use Mouse Guestures, feeds, and IRC with the default install? Can I remove horizontal scroll with one shortcut with the default install? Can I double click on a tab to switch to my last open tab and back?
And everyone would complain I'm being unfair as I don't want to install extensions... Or Firefox doesn't "work that way".
I'd personally be more inclned to try Firefox more extensively if I wasn't told that any problem I had was likely caused by the extensions I need for my features I want, and the fix to memory bloat or whatever is not using extensions.
No, the above are mostly customizations - much like Firefox. 1) I use Proxomitron to do this since forever, can also be done with CSS etc 2) See Opera customization forum on how to do this - people have it down to one bar, or no bars and all right click etc... 3) Can't say I've seen this... Don't really see the point with fast forward or just clicking on the next page. 4) Need to clarify, but translations offered from hotclick menu 5) Same, see hotclick menu.
And it has to be something called AdBlock that functions *exactly* like it? This is why people use Windows rather than Linux - it can't have a pixel out of place... Why people can't use PuTTY vs an Xterm - looks diffent! Must use Photoshop as the Gimp or Paint.net have different workflows - TO THE SAME END.
Why are the many different ways of achieving adblocking like 1) Using a pre build list for Opera's built in content block 2) Using Proxo/Privoxy + prebuild list 3) Hosts file 4) Admuncher 5) Firewall managed ad-block
and likely more totally unacceptable?
All I can figure is either they aren't called Adblock and operate *slightly* differently or 1) Too much trouble to plug in a list from time to time? 2) Can't handle installing a program (but OK with extensions that function much like a program wrt updates etc) 3) same as 1 4) same as 2, costs money (I see the latter as a deterrant) 5) same as 1,2 (Likely a plugin or built into the firewall though)
I guess I'm biased as I've been using Proxomitron + Opera since before Phoenix existed, much less Firefox and Adblock - but it certainly isn't enough to encourage me to switch. I just don't see many ads nor mess with adblocking very often (maybe twice a year).
I'm pretty sure that issue was one of the main factors addressed in 9.5. I certainly see Opera load my Zenoss dashboard and digg much faster than 9.27...
Yet another unsupported assertion. If the parents want them to go to school, they will make sure they are actually going. It is not the responsibility for the government to take care of everyone's kids.
This does bring up the usual point of collective vs individual responsibility. At what point, if any, does society have a responsibility for anything? Do we even have a society beyond individual homes?
Is government responsible for more than just contracts? Where do the edge cases fall? Is "Murder" gone, leaving only Wrongful Death suits as punishment/deterrance? Who gets to stop a serial killer? Anyone, with the assumption that no one will sue for that death? Should it become legal to kill anyone, knowing you're safe if you leave no one who would be interested enough to sue?
If you do have some responsibility at the governmental/societal level to prevent harm (such as Murder) towards individuals by other individuals or groups - where does that end?
If it's parents responsibility to make sure kids go to school, what if they don't let them, or don't send them? That doesn't really harm the parent, but it sure could harm the kids for the rest of their lives. It's been shown over and over again that people with high school degrees earn more than those without, on up through masters degrees anyway. Can the kid sue for lost wages as his parents didn't send him to school? Should he win? Does it even matter - how does he survive or afford the lawyer with a minimum wage job etc...
Does government have a responsibility to limit or try and prevent people starving or freezing in the streets of the cities?
I'm sure you see where this is going. Unless you retreat into the wilderness and become a hermit, you're affected in some way by others. We have to decide where the harms etc are limited/stop.
I think, for the average user, they can't get XP on a new system. Obviously, if you're not buying a new computer, the retail sales share won't include you (duh?). So they're choosing between Vista on... well, Dell, HP/Compaq, Toshiba or Lenovo on laptops or OS X on a MacBook. And MacBooks are probably close if not *the* most popular laptop. I like Lenovos for all sorts of reasons, but their build quality is going down. The rest seem to be cheapish crap.
I'm not really sure many people are buying desktops anymore, and if they are, my experiance has been they're looking for whatevers cheapest.
And, if a corp isn't running Vista, they can run the majority of desktops at the $350 Dell/Lenovo/HP desktop level for either XP or some Linux. Thin Clients are also up.
You know, with the huge conglomerates, it gets pretty hard to know when you're giving a company money. Even when you do, different divisions do varying things, some you might like, others not. For instance, I think BMG part of Sony, the rootkit people, might not really have all that much to do with the gaming division and PS3.
It also stops you from effectively voting on "console gaming" because of "music".
I see other examples, I "boycot" Phillip Morris, that is I don't smoke, and don't buy cigarretts. But they also own Kraft foods. Does boycotting sliced cheese, for example, really make any statement against smoking?
I mean, sure, for "I hate Sony", not buying anything from them makes sense. But if the issue is "I hate what they're doing with CDs", I can see it being a little harder for them to be sure of the message.
For a clearer example, when sales of non-DRMed tracks from Amazon and iTunes did well, some companies got the message - and EMI joined in on offering non-DRMed tracks, for slightly more money. But if everyone just boycotted all offerings from EMI because *some tracks* were offered DRMed, they (and others) would not have seen that DRM *was* a factor in purchasing. Instead, they'd have a datapoint of less sales, and they would blame it on piracy and a mash of other possibilities.
Maybe I'm naive, but I think companies are datamining to this level, and total boycotts may just lead to them writing you off, without them figuring out why you've written them off.
Indeed, I keep getting burned. Last one was City Life - 50% chance of bluescreen on starting due to DRM. But I bought it bargin bin from EB-- err Gamestop now I guess, and damned if I could find any update that fixed it. There were several that claimed to but didn't work for me.
I remember I bought a collection with XCom etc, and it was asking for manual page/word entries to play - but the collection didn't come with the manual! That one had a patch I found, but WTF?
Not to mention how games seem to be far more likely than any other software to just not work right/well on my PC. I know it's not entirely the devs fault, but boy does it make Shareware more enticing. Let's see if I can play it without it crashing, running terribly, and is it any fun? I don't want to be building a second dedicated gaming box(hell, I'd get a PS3 first).
All of this does kill PC gaming, and I don't know what MS is going to do about it. But I was a hardcore PC gamer, now I just don't play games due to the hassle, and if I was to start I'm going console.
This all assumes that an alien species would think anything like humans do. There doesn't necessarily seem to be a specific evaulation system that advanced species would need to follow.
Well, I went a little off topic, referring to linux in general and not necessarily Red Hat. And I wasn't meaning to just target Microsoft, I meant any propriatery license.
For instance - Acronis - used to be easy, you could grab a few licenses with universal restore online. Done in 10 minutes. For a time, they decided universal restore AMPS (support/upgrades) required a quote... Even for 2 licenses. What a pain to do all that, and I'm sure on both sides. Why do that? I mean, you're testing something out for a while (and it takes longer than 30 day trials for me to fully test and make a business case) so you buy 2 licenses to see if you want to buy more... Make it impossible/difficult, maybe the buyer passes.
Or, need coverage for laptops with Altiris SVS? So you want say 5 licenses? Again, can't just buy online, no you've got to get a Quote. So then, hey - Symantec bought Altiris, they have a contract with Dell if you do (and so in this case we do), but Dell doesn't really handle it, but has a hidden subsidiary - 4 months and several contacts to Symantec and Dell to get 5 licenses.
I mean, I know, I'm not doing huge coporate deals - but small business, say 100 users/500 machines and look at the time we're wasting on these things...
Versus something like Zenoss Core. GPLed, so bam, up and testing. Decide to use, Bam, running. Can buy support for X servers, pretty simple. There aren't multiple CALs + Server license + workstation license. Just pay one amount per system monitored. Or you can run it for nothing and use community support. It doesn't take 4 months to get it installed, or days of e-mails back and forth to get to someone at Acronis that realises they took the bloody AMPS for Universal Restore *off* the damn webstore.
Hell, even companies like Driver Genius didn't realise that "hey, if you run out of update support a year after purchase, there ought to maybe be a way to renew that"!
Why am I having to tell people this? And I'm not even going into activation etc...
The thing I don't get is companies. They presumably have IT support... And Academia where money is short...
We've found that it is cheaper to license Crossover Pro in volumn than Windows. Unless you're using the OEM installs of windows, you'll save money running Office on Linux with Crossover subs... Especially as you update/upgrade the OS.
MS is REALLY expensive once you actually look at licensing for corps as opposed to what I think everyone *must* be doing, which is making it up and mostly not buying licenses.
For every Windows system, not only do you pay the OEM, but you're paying $50-$100 for Vista Business or Enterprise license that you then downgrade to XP Pro or maybe use as is. That's so you can deploy images quickly configured. If you want to run a VMWare instance, as far as I can tell, you need to pay retail cost ~$200-$300 depending on version of Windows. Plus the extra fun upgrade as well. Unless you do run it on a Vista Enterprise backend, for which you get 4 licenses virtual I think.
Then, if you really thought about it and just sent people PDFs, you could run OO, Koffice, whatever for the office savings. I have many people preferring PDF presentations as opposed to.ppt as they "just work" more often, especially with the 2003-2007/Mac compatibility issues going on right now.
E-Mail? Exchange is fricken expensive, CALs can be several hundred dollars per person per machine if you want to cover multiple server apps. Or, you know, Sendmail + IMAP or Citadel + IMAP or even GMAIL + IMAP is free(ish).
It seems calendaring is the big stick in the mud right now - the main tie to Exchange. And depending on your needs, it could well be worth all the money to get it set up and FTEs to support it. But you could have one or two more FTEs running something like Citadel or Zimbra and still save a bunch on the license fees.
The longer I spend in actual IT the more I see that GPL isn't just savings on licenses (which is great) but savings on figuring *out* the licenses and time spend negoating them etc..
Well, they will lose out on some purchases. But you do have to figure in both convienience and gas costs vs the shipping cost. If Amazon shipping remains free on many purchases over $25, you've gone and saved money over driving to the store, saved time etc...
They do, but on the Linux it comes with, it works OK. It does take 15 seconds to start writer, but then it works pretty much normally. And you can switch between apps, so you can leave it running.
Until games start working NATIVELY on linux (don't give me that emulation crap) and WIRELESS support is up to par with windows, I won't touch the thing. And I know lots of other people with the same mindset.
See, the problem isn't games working on linux, it's games working on *computers*. Have you been in a GameStop recently? 90% of the store is console games, consoles, and accessories. Gaming on the PC seems to be about dead save for MMOs, and I think that's going to work ok on XBox 360 or PS3. I'm frankly tired of trying to get games to work on *Windows*. I think the majority of the market is tired of gaming on the PC with all the problems that entails. Want to game, use a console. That really *just works*, and is much cheaper to boot (only have to upgrade every 5 years or so, game install is poping in the disk and hitting start).
I really think this is going to hurt Windows quite a bit, the continued massive move to gaming on consoles, because that's a really hard problem that's just gone away for Linux or MacOS...
As to wireless support, I have to admit, my only experiance with Wireless and Linux is on the EeePC, where it just works - and actually works the same as in Windows XP... You click on the tasktray icon, select a network and say connect... That's it. On Mac Laptops, it's the same, you run the little configurator from the menu, and select a network...
Right, but if nothing that wasn't written for it will run, Windows 7 becomes an upgrade that's as hard as Linux or MacOS X. And if the work around is running XP (or *shiver* Vista) in VMWare/VirtualPC/Crossover/Whatever, what's the push to go and use Windows 7 for someone? Assuming you've paid for XP at some point, why not just install Linux as your next gen OS, and run Legacy in VMWare Player/Server just like you will in Windows 7.
Also, if you're paying ~$200 for an upgrade to Windows 7, now you have to buy Office again? You wouldn't believe the amount of people who are annoyed by that.
You *can* have many Vista UI improvements in XP, for significantly less cost.
1) Directory Opus $65 or so get's you tabs in file manager, breadcrumbs, many different file views and a lot more that *isn't* in Vista. 2) Locate32 $0 gets you an instant search of files, update the index on *your* schedule. OR Copernic Desktop Search or Google Desktop gets you everything that Vista does (that I'm aware of for search) at a small performance hit for the indexing. 3) Find and Run Robot - also $0 (though a little painful license code scheme for the free licence) gets you one key access to an instant start menu search for launching applications FAST. 4) Themes via WindowBlinds or StyleXP - $60 maybe? Or a new shell like litestep/whatever? 5) Comodo Firewall Pro $0 or $39 or $79 - gets you a SMART HIPS that can, IDK, *REMEMBER* your choices and create rulesets. Also a *real* interface for the firewall. Pay for a year and they warrenty you against malware and will clean it up if you do get infected up to 2 times. The more expensive option also gets you cleaned and a professional install and config.
What else did you get from Vista for UI? You've now spent maybe $120, which is about the cost of the Vista upgrade license, but you can pick and choose - and spend less/nothing and you likely won't need more RAM, or a new video card. Probably won't need a bigger HD either.
Well, again it depends, but if your laptop software just connects you, neither party necessarily was aware they were doing anything "wrong" either technically or legally. I've seen users who think they are connected to their router but actually connected to a neighbors because they didn't understand either what the computer did automatically, or what the prompts meant beyond that clicking connect got them to the internet.
Now, for you or I, we know it's wrong to connect to wireless without being invited. But we also know how to pick our router out of many that might be accessable from our house. We also know that we should't just connect to the internet wherever we are...
Personally I think it's because many/.ers think you can't fairly hold someone responsible for something they don't know is going on. It seems unfair for there to be strict liability without some licensing requirement.
Granted this implies an awful lot, but in either case there's: 1) Lack of physical harm 2) debate on how much financial harm is actually caused 3) Little to no effort made to inform users of the consequences of various configurations 4) Really complicated configurations that professionals often get wrong if in a rush or just not on their game
Well, they do have widgets which I *think* is sort of what Mozilla wants to do with one of their projects, websites as a separate window (though not really separate from Opera itself). And I can't imaging that they will not support the local storage once it's a real standard.
OTOH, they don't seem to really want to integrate into the underlying OS - that makes it really hard to have one core for Mac, Linux, Windows and smartphones + Wii etc.
Slashdot Mirror
I understand the complaint about ease of use - sure. But is it much harder to install a program like Admuncher, or a blocklist for Opera than to install an extension for firefox? I've installed extensions for Thunderbird, and it basically comes down to enabling the site, then clicking the install... Well, for Admuncher it's download the installer and double click - done. For the Opera blocklist, it's download the file and restart Opera...
Is either of the above *really* more difficult than installing an extension? I just don't see it. Actually, my experiance with Proxomitron has only had *one* more step than installing an extension and pointing it at a list, and that's setting the local proxy in Opera.
Funny, people said the same thing about Opera 9.5. I think it's just that all software gets released with some known bugs, or it'd never go out.
On the OT side of things, how is Opera's DragonFly coming along for web development? Have any firebug users taken a look?
Mind you - I would say that the "does Opera have the exact FF extension feature I'm looking for" as opposed to "Can I do X in Opera" is the wrong question to ask. I could as much ask
Can I in Firefox:
Open pop-ups as a tab that doesn't fill the screen, but isn't a new window?
Can I put two tabs side by side without new windows?
Can I use Mouse Guestures, feeds, and IRC with the default install?
Can I remove horizontal scroll with one shortcut with the default install?
Can I double click on a tab to switch to my last open tab and back?
And everyone would complain I'm being unfair as I don't want to install extensions... Or Firefox doesn't "work that way".
I'd personally be more inclned to try Firefox more extensively if I wasn't told that any problem I had was likely caused by the extensions I need for my features I want, and the fix to memory bloat or whatever is not using extensions.
No, the above are mostly customizations - much like Firefox.
1) I use Proxomitron to do this since forever, can also be done with CSS etc
2) See Opera customization forum on how to do this - people have it down to one bar, or no bars and all right click etc...
3) Can't say I've seen this... Don't really see the point with fast forward or just clicking on the next page.
4) Need to clarify, but translations offered from hotclick menu
5) Same, see hotclick menu.
And it has to be something called AdBlock that functions *exactly* like it? This is why people use Windows rather than Linux - it can't have a pixel out of place... Why people can't use PuTTY vs an Xterm - looks diffent! Must use Photoshop as the Gimp or Paint.net have different workflows - TO THE SAME END.
Why are the many different ways of achieving adblocking like
1) Using a pre build list for Opera's built in content block
2) Using Proxo/Privoxy + prebuild list
3) Hosts file
4) Admuncher
5) Firewall managed ad-block
and likely more totally unacceptable?
All I can figure is either they aren't called Adblock and operate *slightly* differently or
1) Too much trouble to plug in a list from time to time?
2) Can't handle installing a program (but OK with extensions that function much like a program wrt updates etc)
3) same as 1
4) same as 2, costs money (I see the latter as a deterrant)
5) same as 1,2 (Likely a plugin or built into the firewall though)
I guess I'm biased as I've been using Proxomitron + Opera since before Phoenix existed, much less Firefox and Adblock - but it certainly isn't enough to encourage me to switch. I just don't see many ads nor mess with adblocking very often (maybe twice a year).
I'm pretty sure that issue was one of the main factors addressed in 9.5. I certainly see Opera load my Zenoss dashboard and digg much faster than 9.27...
Who said to make school mandatory?
Yet another unsupported assertion. If the parents want them to go to school, they will make sure they are actually going. It is not the responsibility for the government to take care of everyone's kids.
This does bring up the usual point of collective vs individual responsibility. At what point, if any, does society have a responsibility for anything? Do we even have a society beyond individual homes?
Is government responsible for more than just contracts? Where do the edge cases fall? Is "Murder" gone, leaving only Wrongful Death suits as punishment/deterrance? Who gets to stop a serial killer? Anyone, with the assumption that no one will sue for that death? Should it become legal to kill anyone, knowing you're safe if you leave no one who would be interested enough to sue?
If you do have some responsibility at the governmental/societal level to prevent harm (such as Murder) towards individuals by other individuals or groups - where does that end?
If it's parents responsibility to make sure kids go to school, what if they don't let them, or don't send them? That doesn't really harm the parent, but it sure could harm the kids for the rest of their lives. It's been shown over and over again that people with high school degrees earn more than those without, on up through masters degrees anyway. Can the kid sue for lost wages as his parents didn't send him to school? Should he win? Does it even matter - how does he survive or afford the lawyer with a minimum wage job etc...
Does government have a responsibility to limit or try and prevent people starving or freezing in the streets of the cities?
I'm sure you see where this is going. Unless you retreat into the wilderness and become a hermit, you're affected in some way by others. We have to decide where the harms etc are limited/stop.
I think, for the average user, they can't get XP on a new system. Obviously, if you're not buying a new computer, the retail sales share won't include you (duh?). So they're choosing between Vista on ... well, Dell, HP/Compaq, Toshiba or Lenovo on laptops or OS X on a MacBook. And MacBooks are probably close if not *the* most popular laptop. I like Lenovos for all sorts of reasons, but their build quality is going down. The rest seem to be cheapish crap.
I'm not really sure many people are buying desktops anymore, and if they are, my experiance has been they're looking for whatevers cheapest.
And, if a corp isn't running Vista, they can run the majority of desktops at the $350 Dell/Lenovo/HP desktop level for either XP or some Linux. Thin Clients are also up.
You know, with the huge conglomerates, it gets pretty hard to know when you're giving a company money. Even when you do, different divisions do varying things, some you might like, others not. For instance, I think BMG part of Sony, the rootkit people, might not really have all that much to do with the gaming division and PS3.
It also stops you from effectively voting on "console gaming" because of "music".
I see other examples, I "boycot" Phillip Morris, that is I don't smoke, and don't buy cigarretts. But they also own Kraft foods. Does boycotting sliced cheese, for example, really make any statement against smoking?
I mean, sure, for "I hate Sony", not buying anything from them makes sense. But if the issue is "I hate what they're doing with CDs", I can see it being a little harder for them to be sure of the message.
For a clearer example, when sales of non-DRMed tracks from Amazon and iTunes did well, some companies got the message - and EMI joined in on offering non-DRMed tracks, for slightly more money. But if everyone just boycotted all offerings from EMI because *some tracks* were offered DRMed, they (and others) would not have seen that DRM *was* a factor in purchasing. Instead, they'd have a datapoint of less sales, and they would blame it on piracy and a mash of other possibilities.
Maybe I'm naive, but I think companies are datamining to this level, and total boycotts may just lead to them writing you off, without them figuring out why you've written them off.
Indeed, I keep getting burned. Last one was City Life - 50% chance of bluescreen on starting due to DRM. But I bought it bargin bin from EB-- err Gamestop now I guess, and damned if I could find any update that fixed it. There were several that claimed to but didn't work for me.
I remember I bought a collection with XCom etc, and it was asking for manual page/word entries to play - but the collection didn't come with the manual! That one had a patch I found, but WTF?
Not to mention how games seem to be far more likely than any other software to just not work right/well on my PC. I know it's not entirely the devs fault, but boy does it make Shareware more enticing. Let's see if I can play it without it crashing, running terribly, and is it any fun? I don't want to be building a second dedicated gaming box(hell, I'd get a PS3 first).
All of this does kill PC gaming, and I don't know what MS is going to do about it. But I was a hardcore PC gamer, now I just don't play games due to the hassle, and if I was to start I'm going console.
This all assumes that an alien species would think anything like humans do. There doesn't necessarily seem to be a specific evaulation system that advanced species would need to follow.
Well, I went a little off topic, referring to linux in general and not necessarily Red Hat. And I wasn't meaning to just target Microsoft, I meant any propriatery license.
... Even for 2 licenses. What a pain to do all that, and I'm sure on both sides. Why do that? I mean, you're testing something out for a while (and it takes longer than 30 day trials for me to fully test and make a business case) so you buy 2 licenses to see if you want to buy more... Make it impossible/difficult, maybe the buyer passes.
For instance - Acronis - used to be easy, you could grab a few licenses with universal restore online. Done in 10 minutes. For a time, they decided universal restore AMPS (support/upgrades) required a quote
Or, need coverage for laptops with Altiris SVS? So you want say 5 licenses? Again, can't just buy online, no you've got to get a Quote. So then, hey - Symantec bought Altiris, they have a contract with Dell if you do (and so in this case we do), but Dell doesn't really handle it, but has a hidden subsidiary - 4 months and several contacts to Symantec and Dell to get 5 licenses.
I mean, I know, I'm not doing huge coporate deals - but small business, say 100 users/500 machines and look at the time we're wasting on these things...
Versus something like Zenoss Core. GPLed, so bam, up and testing. Decide to use, Bam, running. Can buy support for X servers, pretty simple. There aren't multiple CALs + Server license + workstation license. Just pay one amount per system monitored. Or you can run it for nothing and use community support. It doesn't take 4 months to get it installed, or days of e-mails back and forth to get to someone at Acronis that realises they took the bloody AMPS for Universal Restore *off* the damn webstore.
Hell, even companies like Driver Genius didn't realise that "hey, if you run out of update support a year after purchase, there ought to maybe be a way to renew that"!
Why am I having to tell people this? And I'm not even going into activation etc...
I would think doing quickfind on bookmarks + extra notes for the bookmarks would work? Works well enough for me anyway.
The thing I don't get is companies. They presumably have IT support... And Academia where money is short...
.ppt as they "just work" more often, especially with the 2003-2007/Mac compatibility issues going on right now.
We've found that it is cheaper to license Crossover Pro in volumn than Windows. Unless you're using the OEM installs of windows, you'll save money running Office on Linux with Crossover subs... Especially as you update/upgrade the OS.
MS is REALLY expensive once you actually look at licensing for corps as opposed to what I think everyone *must* be doing, which is making it up and mostly not buying licenses.
For every Windows system, not only do you pay the OEM, but you're paying $50-$100 for Vista Business or Enterprise license that you then downgrade to XP Pro or maybe use as is. That's so you can deploy images quickly configured. If you want to run a VMWare instance, as far as I can tell, you need to pay retail cost ~$200-$300 depending on version of Windows. Plus the extra fun upgrade as well. Unless you do run it on a Vista Enterprise backend, for which you get 4 licenses virtual I think.
Then, if you really thought about it and just sent people PDFs, you could run OO, Koffice, whatever for the office savings. I have many people preferring PDF presentations as opposed to
E-Mail? Exchange is fricken expensive, CALs can be several hundred dollars per person per machine if you want to cover multiple server apps. Or, you know, Sendmail + IMAP or Citadel + IMAP or even GMAIL + IMAP is free(ish).
It seems calendaring is the big stick in the mud right now - the main tie to Exchange. And depending on your needs, it could well be worth all the money to get it set up and FTEs to support it. But you could have one or two more FTEs running something like Citadel or Zimbra and still save a bunch on the license fees.
The longer I spend in actual IT the more I see that GPL isn't just savings on licenses (which is great) but savings on figuring *out* the licenses and time spend negoating them etc..
Well, they will lose out on some purchases. But you do have to figure in both convienience and gas costs vs the shipping cost. If Amazon shipping remains free on many purchases over $25, you've gone and saved money over driving to the store, saved time etc...
They do, but on the Linux it comes with, it works OK. It does take 15 seconds to start writer, but then it works pretty much normally. And you can switch between apps, so you can leave it running.
Until games start working NATIVELY on linux (don't give me that emulation crap) and WIRELESS support is up to par with windows, I won't touch the thing. And I know lots of other people with the same mindset.
... That's it. On Mac Laptops, it's the same, you run the little configurator from the menu, and select a network...
See, the problem isn't games working on linux, it's games working on *computers*. Have you been in a GameStop recently? 90% of the store is console games, consoles, and accessories. Gaming on the PC seems to be about dead save for MMOs, and I think that's going to work ok on XBox 360 or PS3. I'm frankly tired of trying to get games to work on *Windows*. I think the majority of the market is tired of gaming on the PC with all the problems that entails. Want to game, use a console. That really *just works*, and is much cheaper to boot (only have to upgrade every 5 years or so, game install is poping in the disk and hitting start).
I really think this is going to hurt Windows quite a bit, the continued massive move to gaming on consoles, because that's a really hard problem that's just gone away for Linux or MacOS...
As to wireless support, I have to admit, my only experiance with Wireless and Linux is on the EeePC, where it just works - and actually works the same as in Windows XP... You click on the tasktray icon, select a network and say connect
Hmm, or use Opera with Fit to Width on.
Right, but if nothing that wasn't written for it will run, Windows 7 becomes an upgrade that's as hard as Linux or MacOS X. And if the work around is running XP (or *shiver* Vista) in VMWare/VirtualPC/Crossover/Whatever, what's the push to go and use Windows 7 for someone? Assuming you've paid for XP at some point, why not just install Linux as your next gen OS, and run Legacy in VMWare Player/Server just like you will in Windows 7.
Also, if you're paying ~$200 for an upgrade to Windows 7, now you have to buy Office again? You wouldn't believe the amount of people who are annoyed by that.
You *can* have many Vista UI improvements in XP, for significantly less cost.
1) Directory Opus $65 or so get's you tabs in file manager, breadcrumbs, many different file views and a lot more that *isn't* in Vista.
2) Locate32 $0 gets you an instant search of files, update the index on *your* schedule.
OR
Copernic Desktop Search or Google Desktop gets you everything that Vista does (that I'm aware of for search) at a small performance hit for the indexing.
3) Find and Run Robot - also $0 (though a little painful license code scheme for the free licence) gets you one key access to an instant start menu search for launching applications FAST.
4) Themes via WindowBlinds or StyleXP - $60 maybe? Or a new shell like litestep/whatever?
5) Comodo Firewall Pro $0 or $39 or $79 - gets you a SMART HIPS that can, IDK, *REMEMBER* your choices and create rulesets. Also a *real* interface for the firewall. Pay for a year and they warrenty you against malware and will clean it up if you do get infected up to 2 times. The more expensive option also gets you cleaned and a professional install and config.
What else did you get from Vista for UI? You've now spent maybe $120, which is about the cost of the Vista upgrade license, but you can pick and choose - and spend less/nothing and you likely won't need more RAM, or a new video card. Probably won't need a bigger HD either.
Well, again it depends, but if your laptop software just connects you, neither party necessarily was aware they were doing anything "wrong" either technically or legally. I've seen users who think they are connected to their router but actually connected to a neighbors because they didn't understand either what the computer did automatically, or what the prompts meant beyond that clicking connect got them to the internet.
Now, for you or I, we know it's wrong to connect to wireless without being invited. But we also know how to pick our router out of many that might be accessable from our house. We also know that we should't just connect to the internet wherever we are...
Personally I think it's because many /.ers think you can't fairly hold someone responsible for something they don't know is going on. It seems unfair for there to be strict liability without some licensing requirement.
Granted this implies an awful lot, but in either case there's:
1) Lack of physical harm
2) debate on how much financial harm is actually caused
3) Little to no effort made to inform users of the consequences of various configurations
4) Really complicated configurations that professionals often get wrong if in a rush or just not on their game
Well, they do have widgets which I *think* is sort of what Mozilla wants to do with one of their projects, websites as a separate window (though not really separate from Opera itself). And I can't imaging that they will not support the local storage once it's a real standard.
OTOH, they don't seem to really want to integrate into the underlying OS - that makes it really hard to have one core for Mac, Linux, Windows and smartphones + Wii etc.
But the whole point of Opera is one app that does *everything*... I can't imagine you'd like it?