'Microsoft, by now, should be realizing that it's never going to be as "cool" as Apple, so why waste its time with the Zune where it has no competitive advantage?'"
What are you talking about? The Windows platform was never cooler than Apple's but did Microsoft quit the PC business just because Apple's product was way cooler? No! They should keep hammering on until the market goes their way.
We've seen the same trend when it comes to their IIS web server vs Apache and the rest, Windows Live vs Google/Yahoo.
The battle is on for Silverlight/Moonlight vs Flash, and XPS vs PDF.
Microsoft should not just give up. Wars are never won by giving up battles here and there. They are won when the smarter adversary opens up new fronts with better targeted resources.
My experience in switching from Windows XP to Ubuntu 8.04 has not been all positive, but overall I'm incredibly glad I did it. I used to hate my entire computing experience, now I just hate my email client. My coworkers say things like, "wow, it took Notepad over 10 seconds to load," and I chuckle. It's tempting to interpret this to mean Windows would be a better choice in an environment not bogged down by constant security scanning and filtering, and to some degree that's accurate. However I've found that most of the pain in switching comes from having to tinker a little to get the Linux equivalent of your Windows program working.
Remember the author had time to try to make things work. How many folks have time to tinker with text config files or a system help mechanism that is incomplete at best? I wish Linux fan boys can put their bigotry aside and listen for once.
For Linux to become main stream the following must happen.
Support for relevant applications, out of the box - not via a separate repository that must be enabled. (Key word, - relevant)
A single API for applications so that "Linux" is one platform, not many that must be supported for many versions. Without this, all efforts to make Linux the mainstream are thinned, customers get confused which leads to less adoption.
A single desktop, so that Linux is one desktop, not several. Otherwise the other efforts, such as the help desk, marketing and research all multiply their efforts making everything impractical.
I am sure those waiting for this to happen will love KDE 4.2 which will be released in 2 days. Trust me, it's a different animal all together. Things actually work and work well in the coming release. The earlier releases were a total disaster.
In case Microsoft really has to pay up, it would be trivial, and here's why. Microsoft will ask for leniency in light of "current economic times," then go ahead and hike license costs for those who will buy Windows 7/Vista.
Given that Microsoft's revenues are in the tens of billions of dollars, this will not be that hard to recoup. So brace yourselves for a higher Microsoft tax in years to come.
I thought such attacks were a thing of the past. I am disappointed. But on a serious note, is there a way to completely "immunize" oneself against such attacks? If so, where is the howto?
In regards to dependancies and app installs, sudo apt-get might be more logical for you than say dragging an application into a folder as you do on the Mac or double-clicking an installer executable on Windows but that doesn't mean its relatable to the average user.
You hit the nail on the head.
Not only that...once you hit circular dependencies or find that "sudo apt-get install xyz" returns "installation of xyz has been kept back...," you cannot appreciate the problem with installing apps on Linux.
Folks like the one you responded to are the reason why Linux will not be significant on the desktop for a long long time.
But let me ask...what is wrong with Apple's or Microsoft's way of installing software?
Yes, Linux marketed as a distro can do better. The good thing is that very soon, we'll have KDE with a business friendly license. What I would like Linux programmers to do is to get their act together and solve problems that continue to plague the Linux ecosystem.
These come to mind:
1: Multimedia. There are so many back-ends to choose from, each with problems of their own. The associated front-ends are even worse both in functionality and bloat.
2: Polish. It seams that by default, Linux distros are less polished by default. In fact, I can say they are ugly by default. This does not help.
3: Bloat. KDE is wonderful but suffers from bloat. GNOME is kind of OK, but it's interface looks ancient and lacks the functionality of modern systems.
Why didn't the author of the Ars Technica piece write it in such a way that we are in position to easily zoom the graphics? All detail is buried in tiny [un-zoom-able] sizes! I am not happy at all. Heck these are not the nineties.
While I would not like to start a flame war of words, I have an issue with Open Source Projects. There is one important statistic we cannot overlook; an over whelming number of OSS projects are non starters!
In other words, most of them die before they are even borne. Now, the author of this piece should have gotten us some stats on how many of these projects actually become something useful.
Another first for President Obama. I am sure he "brought all sides together" to hammer out a compromise.
Since he said he wanted to keep his Black Berry in order to "keep in touch" with ordinary folks, I wonder how I can get a hold of him. I would like to inform him about corruption, nepotism and cronyism in my department.
Toronto is where I shop. Now, I imagine that for a huge company like Shoppers, license fees for Office could be huge, but on the other hand change can only be reflected from the "ground up."
Question is: Are the end users ready and flexible enough for change?
It is a pain that i cannot even access the internet to access the websites of products we are putting into a promo for our customers information.
I am a regular customer of Shoppers Drug Mart but worried after reading what you have written. It all smells of incompetence on your management's part. Really saddening.
While I have no doubt that Scott will mention Open Source Software, he better include serious success stories of OSS implementations and detail how such an approach if adopted, will result in jobs created here in the USA at the same time save money.
My suggestion to Slashdotters:
Let's write to Scott informing him of these success stories with as much detail as we can. I do have a success story in the education field to write about. All I need is Scott's contact.
Let's also remember that on the other side, folks at Microsoft will also be doing something similar only that to them, they would reap all the profits while undermining Open Source Software.
I always wonder when this hemorrhage will stop. But at the same time, I have nobody to blame because most of us have been living a "lie," with [communist] China supporting our lifestyle.
Sometimes I think their model of communism is better than our capitalism. Why? Because they potentially can now control our government's priorities.
Windows zealots will have to try very hard to convince me that I need Windows 7. As it stands now, I will not touch it even with a 10 foot pole. Windows XP works and works quite well for me. I plan to ditch it for KDE 4.2 when it comes out though.
These developments offer a chance for the open source.ogg/theora format to shine.
While folks at Illiminable have done a good job of providing a codec to play.ogg files within Windows Media Player, I hope this can be available by default.
That is, you attempt to play an.ogg/theora file and the system provides a opportunity to download and install/setup the plugin by default on systems without the ability to play.ogg/theora files.
Jump onboard Firefox and Adobe!
on
Qt Becomes LGPL
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
With this development, I hope Firefox and Adobe developers will jump on board...fast. I would also like to see the folks at OpenOffice.org on board the QT bandwagon as well. The interfaces I see on Openoffice and Adobe's PDF reader would look better with QT in my opinion.
Does this mean that we're likely to have an Access like GUI to MySQL?
For those who do not know, Access is just an interface to Microsoft's Jet DB engine. MySQL does not have anything that even comes close to Access' functionality.
I hope developments like these can help SONY. In my opinion, SAMSUNG has of late, been chipping away at SONY's lunch [and market share] for a while now with interesting products on the home entertainment front.
BusinessWeek even ran a story for SONY at SAMSUNG.
"If you found a stranger "making out" in the park would you inform the authorities?"
I answered "Yes" and that's what the hiring team wanted to hear. If I had answered "No," then this team would assume that I would engage in similar activity if I were in a place that I am not known.
"Making out" here, was intentionally phrased that way to keep it vague, but we all know what it means right?
I got the job, though I quit seven months later because this job was had began to run my life, something I loathed with a passion.
Slashdot Mirror
'Microsoft, by now, should be realizing that it's never going to be as "cool" as Apple, so why waste its time with the Zune where it has no competitive advantage?'"
What are you talking about? The Windows platform was never cooler than Apple's but did Microsoft quit the PC business just because Apple's product was way cooler? No! They should keep hammering on until the market goes their way.
We've seen the same trend when it comes to their IIS web server vs Apache and the rest, Windows Live vs Google/Yahoo.
The battle is on for Silverlight/Moonlight vs Flash, and XPS vs PDF.
Microsoft should not just give up. Wars are never won by giving up battles here and there. They are won when the smarter adversary opens up new fronts with better targeted resources.
From the submission:
My experience in switching from Windows XP to Ubuntu 8.04 has not been all positive, but overall I'm incredibly glad I did it. I used to hate my entire computing experience, now I just hate my email client. My coworkers say things like, "wow, it took Notepad over 10 seconds to load," and I chuckle. It's tempting to interpret this to mean Windows would be a better choice in an environment not bogged down by constant security scanning and filtering, and to some degree that's accurate. However I've found that most of the pain in switching comes from having to tinker a little to get the Linux equivalent of your Windows program working.
Remember the author had time to try to make things work. How many folks have time to tinker with text config files or a system help mechanism that is incomplete at best? I wish Linux fan boys can put their bigotry aside and listen for once.
For Linux to become main stream the following must happen.
Support for relevant applications, out of the box - not via a separate repository that must be enabled. (Key word, - relevant)
A single API for applications so that "Linux" is one platform, not many that must be supported for many versions. Without this, all efforts to make Linux the mainstream are thinned, customers get confused which leads to less adoption.
A single desktop, so that Linux is one desktop, not several. Otherwise the other efforts, such as the help desk, marketing and research all multiply their efforts making everything impractical.
I am sure those waiting for this to happen will love KDE 4.2 which will be released in 2 days. Trust me, it's a different animal all together. Things actually work and work well in the coming release. The earlier releases were a total disaster.
In case Microsoft really has to pay up, it would be trivial, and here's why. Microsoft will ask for leniency in light of "current economic times," then go ahead and hike license costs for those who will buy Windows 7/Vista.
Given that Microsoft's revenues are in the tens of billions of dollars, this will not be that hard to recoup. So brace yourselves for a higher Microsoft tax in years to come.
I know bad guys have tried to take on Google at some point in its history. Have they ever succeeded to any extent? After all nobody is "immune."
I thought such attacks were a thing of the past. I am disappointed. But on a serious note, is there a way to completely "immunize" oneself against such attacks? If so, where is the howto?
In regards to dependancies and app installs, sudo apt-get might be more logical for you than say dragging an application into a folder as you do on the Mac or double-clicking an installer executable on Windows but that doesn't mean its relatable to the average user.
You hit the nail on the head.
Not only that...once you hit circular dependencies or find that "sudo apt-get install xyz" returns "installation of xyz has been kept back...," you cannot appreciate the problem with installing apps on Linux.
Folks like the one you responded to are the reason why Linux will not be significant on the desktop for a long long time.
But let me ask...what is wrong with Apple's or Microsoft's way of installing software?
Yes, Linux marketed as a distro can do better. The good thing is that very soon, we'll have KDE with a business friendly license. What I would like Linux programmers to do is to get their act together and solve problems that continue to plague the Linux ecosystem.
These come to mind:
1: Multimedia. There are so many back-ends to choose from, each with problems of their own. The associated front-ends are even worse both in functionality and bloat.
2: Polish. It seams that by default, Linux distros are less polished by default. In fact, I can say they are ugly by default. This does not help.
3: Bloat. KDE is wonderful but suffers from bloat. GNOME is kind of OK, but it's interface looks ancient and lacks the functionality of modern systems.
My 2 cents.
I hope that the software will be as reliable as the Soyuz craft.
For a browser, use Firefox with a properly installed ad-blocker extension. Heck, there are remedies to this. So stop whining.
Now back to the topic. I think this could be a delaying tactic by Microsoft.
Why didn't the author of the Ars Technica piece write it in such a way that we are in position to easily zoom the graphics? All detail is buried in tiny [un-zoom-able] sizes! I am not happy at all. Heck these are not the nineties.
While I would not like to start a flame war of words, I have an issue with Open Source Projects. There is one important statistic we cannot overlook; an over whelming number of OSS projects are non starters!
In other words, most of them die before they are even borne. Now, the author of this piece should have gotten us some stats on how many of these projects actually become something useful.
Another first for President Obama. I am sure he "brought all sides together" to hammer out a compromise.
Since he said he wanted to keep his Black Berry in order to "keep in touch" with ordinary folks, I wonder how I can get a hold of him. I would like to inform him about corruption, nepotism and cronyism in my department.
...Since when is being "...more practical for most application..." considered a shortcoming?
When any attempt to making use of the results of being practical is more of an exercise in frustration than maintaining the status quo.
Toronto is where I shop. Now, I imagine that for a huge company like Shoppers, license fees for Office could be huge, but on the other hand change can only be reflected from the "ground up."
Question is: Are the end users ready and flexible enough for change?
It is a pain that i cannot even access the internet to access the websites of products we are putting into a promo for our customers information.
I am a regular customer of Shoppers Drug Mart but worried after reading what you have written. It all smells of incompetence on your management's part. Really saddening.
While I have no doubt that Scott will mention Open Source Software, he better include serious success stories of OSS implementations and detail how such an approach if adopted, will result in jobs created here in the USA at the same time save money.
My suggestion to Slashdotters:
Let's write to Scott informing him of these success stories with as much detail as we can. I do have a success story in the education field to write about. All I need is Scott's contact.
Let's also remember that on the other side, folks at Microsoft will also be doing something similar only that to them, they would reap all the profits while undermining Open Source Software.
I always wonder when this hemorrhage will stop. But at the same time, I have nobody to blame because most of us have been living a "lie," with [communist] China supporting our lifestyle.
Sometimes I think their model of communism is better than our capitalism. Why? Because they potentially can now control our government's priorities.
Windows zealots will have to try very hard to convince me that I need Windows 7. As it stands now, I will not touch it even with a 10 foot pole. Windows XP works and works quite well for me. I plan to ditch it for KDE 4.2 when it comes out though.
What have IBM and the whole bunch of these companies had as monetary gains from these enormous patents? Sometimes I just do not get it.
These developments offer a chance for the open source .ogg/theora format to shine.
While folks at Illiminable have done a good job of providing a codec to play .ogg files within Windows Media Player, I hope this can be available by default.
That is, you attempt to play an .ogg/theora file and the system provides a opportunity to download and install/setup the plugin by default on systems without the ability to play .ogg/theora files.
With this development, I hope Firefox and Adobe developers will jump on board...fast. I would also like to see the folks at OpenOffice.org on board the QT bandwagon as well. The interfaces I see on Openoffice and Adobe's PDF reader would look better with QT in my opinion.
Does this mean that we're likely to have an Access like GUI to MySQL?
For those who do not know, Access is just an interface to Microsoft's Jet DB engine. MySQL does not have anything that even comes close to Access' functionality.
I need this.
I hope developments like these can help SONY. In my opinion, SAMSUNG has of late, been chipping away at SONY's lunch [and market share] for a while now with interesting products on the home entertainment front.
BusinessWeek even ran a story for SONY at SAMSUNG.
Where did SONY go wrong?
"If you found a stranger "making out" in the park would you inform the authorities?"
I answered "Yes" and that's what the hiring team wanted to hear. If I had answered "No," then this team would assume that I would engage in similar activity if I were in a place that I am not known.
"Making out" here, was intentionally phrased that way to keep it vague, but we all know what it means right?
I got the job, though I quit seven months later because this job was had began to run my life, something I loathed with a passion.
"...points out a BBC report calling the UK's law requiring ISPs to retain users' emails for at least a year an "attack on rights."
China, that the UK has been so adept at criticizing, must be saying..."I told you so...!"