I have to say MS did beat CHina and linux on this one. MS needed to get their software into China to prevent more than half of the worlds population using Linux. That many Linux users would mean more software for Linux, more money spent on that software, more games for Linux. That woudl eventually spill out of China, with Linux's easy internationalization, and that woudl be a giant step for Linux. Because MS really needed to get into China they probably could have gotten the software for free.
I do think piracy of Windows in China does affect what I am talking about, I still think this is a black day for Linux.
I disagree that Linux will always be playing catchup though, it's advancing much faster than windows. Corporations are starting to consider Linux on the desktop. It's been done with Solaris before.
Wow, first time I haven't found someone else with a close enough opinion to mine that I feel I need to post. I think too many people aren't reading the article, or are just skimming. I know exactly what he is talking about. It seems he likes playing through and advancing, it's the method he dislikes. The first few hours of most RPGs, online and multiplayer or otherwise start you off so weak, do such menial tasks. Does these phrases sound familiar? "You are not strong enough yet to use the big stick" "Bring me back the spleen from 50 sewer rats" "Your small blunt stick is broken" I personally love RPG, a long time player of various PnP versions. D&D is the pattern almost everyone follows, but it is the most archaic. In Shadowrun you start with either a lot of skill, a lot of tech, a lot of magic power, or a lot of raw talent, and you still advance from there. I play City of Heroes and City of Villains, and there is still a lot of repetitive "grinding" going on, but from the very start of the game you are doing something interesting, even the tutorial! Retrieving data on a psycho drug that has infected mobs of people in the area, it's up to YOU! Or escaping from your cell in the City of Heroes to restart your life of crime under the watch of a criminal overlord interested to see if YOU are the ONE future mega criminal. I have tried WoW and after CoH the first couple levels of most of the races are a chore. That kind of stuff should have been in a tutorial once. Undead actually are OK, I guess because the whole "Hunt animal X for food" thing doesn't work, so you actually fight other remotely imposing monsters who actually drop decent goodies right away. I could definitely do with out all of that, and I have heard many others who fell the same.
You can't compare a doctor to a tech. The things people stop doing to their bodies when they are kids, like shove peanuts up their nose, people do to their computers their whole lives!
One bit ii the article showed me why this guy has a problem. He complained about the hundreds of error messages. The only thing that could be is Internet Explorer. Where if you actually read the mesages ever you would notice the little check box to never show this kind of message again. That would take care of 95% of the "errors" you see. And then you would be able to get the real error messages. It shouldn't be hard to figure out "The security certificate for this page has expired, would you like to proceed anyway?" for a trusted site, and "Would you like to install the Hooters Hooters Hooters! internet speed booster?" But that's all too much of a hastle isn't it?
He was right, Select * from users where clue > 0 isn't funny.
Select * from users where clue > 0 0 records found! is freaking hillarious though! That coming from a Geek site, you want more behind closed doors than that? The internet is our behind closed doors, everyone else keeps coming in anyway!;)
I have to agree with thinking Halo isn't anything special. The only thing I see it had was Vehicles, but Shadow Warrior had that years earlier in a much more interesting game. Unreal was also a much better game, I would forgo the vehicles in Halo for the variety in Unreal in a second. Then again, I don't think there has been a FPS to top Duke Nukem made yet, maybe that's what 3d Realms is waiting for, a product to top other than their own. I can't believe in the average FPS now you can't interact with the world other than shooting stuff or running into giant buttons. Not to mention you can't use your arms to climb onto things you can't outright jump on to. Halo didn't have interesting characters, Master Chief, boring, he was as blank as his visor. I could count the number of enemy types in the game with my fingers and toes, and no I don't have an unusual number of those extremities. I played through that game the way I watch a bad movie late at night, dreading that it won't be worth it but wanting to see how it ends.
I thought Apple came back because of MS's ati-trust suit, which ended up with MS investing in Apple to spur "competition". They did make nice PCs and make a nice MP3 player and advertise the hell out of it. But that was after they were "back"
Ok, paid MS poster.
How much do you get paid anyway? I could use some extra dough and ignoring facts, coming up with poor arguements is pretty easy work.
Meh, I'm sure they'll just start getting grants from the Gates fund to help all the underprivileged children in France, England and other third world countries in EU and they'll let bygones be bygones!
Well, you have some good points, mostly just asuming, throwing insults, and attacking parts out of context. I wanted to counter your points, and there are many ways to, but you are obviously just pissed off at those Linux fans who don't like MS. You think MS is just doing business, and will use their products. I think they are doing business using far to many illegal methods, and don't want to give them any of my money. And I seem to notice many flaws in this suposably superior software, while you apparently live in a land where it all works fine all the time. I am satisfied knowing that as the years go by and Linux takes more control of the market, that Microsoft with all its billions will start to slowly fade away, very slowly of course, they do have billions after all. People looking to change are increasing in numbers though, and unless MS starts changing the way it does business, it will eventually disappear. You can't run your business as a monopoly when you aren't one anymore.
Like I said, Im not a pro at Linux. I am in support at a large financial firm, and have been for 6 years, PC support. And this is just what a smart tech would say to a user as to why they are upgrading, not a thesis on the benefits of Linux vs Windows.
Since Microsoft didn't alter file formats between Office 2000 and Office 2003, this is a complete and total lie. Either that or you're so woefully out of date that you don't realize it. There was a problem from Office 97 to Office 2000, but if you have to go back nearly a decade to find a problem with upgrades, you're really having to reach.
It was a bug. It affected Word, and I experienced it first hand at work. We also were warned about it, let's see if I can find the KB article . . . no luck searching MS's site . . . damn, well like I said, experienced it here, had to upgrade whole groups because of incompatabilities despite having sp1 anyway.
Gee, it must be nice to have a development team sitting around with nothing to do. Real businesses have these people tasked with this thing called "work" which is required to keep the company going, and they don't have time to be mucking around adding features to a new program that's suppose to replace the old program that already had those features! And as for your "we fixed the macros to make them better," that's kind of silly because it presupposes the old macros were somehow wrong. What if they weren't? You just paid developers to rewrite something that already worked just fine. Great use of company resources! What a way to save money!
Well, what I was thinking was a team contracted just for that purpose. The impetus came from conversations with a developer complaning about the limitations of Excel and how a whole new application was in the works at the firm to get around that. Something doesn't have to be wrong to make it better Mr Smarty pants. Ah, I did say fix them didn't I, oops.
Cheaper? How? RHEL costs roughly the same as Windows, and ongoing support contract costs are roughly the same. The stability of the platform and lack of downtime will save in the long run? Again, you pre-suppose that people are having problems with the platform to begin with. Well run shops don't have workstations that crash all the time because they buy quaility machines preloaded with all the right drivers and they don't tinker with them. Driver problems cause 99% of all the crashes in Windows, but drivers can take down Linux just as easily. And since most companies spend significantly less time and effort developing and troubleshooting their Linux drivers vs. their Windows drivers, you stand a greater likelihood of getting something half-baked.
As for Vista upgrade costs, customers on Software Assurance pay nothing for the upgrade. Those without it will pay and arm and a leg, that's for sure, but very few companies buy their software separately any more. They buy the OS during hardware refreshes. This means that in one fell swoop it destroys your argument completely, because the new OS will be bundled with the cost of the machine (and it's a negligible cost compared to the $2,500 purchase cost) and the new hardware will automatically be capable of running the new OS. Most companies are on a 3-5 year refresh cycle already, so this is not anywhere near the issue you're trying to make it out to be. Clearly you have no idea how corporate IT functions.
Way to miss most of the point! OK, OS cost is the same, what about office Pro, and Acrobat Full version for a large amount of users. Software assurance? I admit I'm not involved in procurement for the global OS deals, but none of the 3 firms I have worked for use it, all are are securities companies, so not short on money, and they balk at upgrade licence costs. 3 year upgrades? Sure many places do that, right now you can get an office levle PC for XP for about $1000 bulk. $2500? Maybe for a Vista project refresh. Wow, 2.5 tmes as much as they would have to pay for a Linux upgrade, hardware side. About quality mach
Come on! A stupid person will lose to a smart person every time!
Let's put a smart tech, even though not a Linux pro, a non pro like myself against that user.
Let's start from the beginning....
Tech Guy: Here, Mr. User, we're going to give you a new operating system and a completely new set of applications with which to perform your duties.
Mr. User: OK! Tell me, what does it do that's new or useful?
Tech Guy: Well, it won't crash like Windows!
Mr. User: Well, but I've been using Windows XP now for about the last three years, and it doesn't crash much if at all. What else does this new OS do?
Tech guy: Well, you're one of the lucky ones then! Seriously though, it will let you do the same thing you do now, it is different though, so it will take a while to adjust.
Mr. User: You mean it doesn't have Office 2003?
Tech Guy: No it doesn't. It has this other application suite that's just as good! Maybe even better!
Mr. User: But it looks very different to me! The user interface will require me to get used to it, which will reduce my productivity for a little while. My existing documents might look different in this new suite. Further, all the advanced features such as macros probably don't carry over to this new app. That's a real bummer because I depend on those features to do my job. Does this suite do anything any better than Office 2003 that would allow me to offset this loss of productivity? In other words, is it giving me anything new to offset the costs of moving to it?
Tech Guy: Well, that's true. We are trying to avoid future fiascoes like when legal upgraded to 2003 as soon as it came out, remember that? Once they edited a document all the office 2000 users, the other 95% of the firm, couldn't open them. So we started upgrading everyone, finished just in time for MS to release the sp1 patch that fixed that. And management thinks there is a lower TCO compared to MS products. We also have had a development team that incorporated all the macros you use into the office suite itself! Because it's open source they could tailor them to the software better. The old macros took too long right? On the new suit the functions take less than half the time!
Mr. User: I remember that Legal thing, whew, you guys were here all night around that time! Less than half time for all my macros? Awesome! But lower TCO? Hey, bud, I work in accounting. We saw the invoices for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the office suite. You're paying for support for this stuff. It's not free.
Tech Guy: True, but it is cheaper. The OS, office suite, and Acrobat we won't be paying for make a big difference. The initial upgrade will be expensive, productivity will be lost to start, but the stability of the platform and the over all lack of downtime will save us tones long run. The projected cost to upgrade to Windows Vista are off the scale! We would have to replace 80% or our hardware! And we won't really have to worry about viruses!
Mr. User: You said the same thing about the Mac's down in the art department, yet they're running anti-virus software, aren't they? And your buddy on the helpdesk told me that last week Apple patched 43 separate flaws in their OS, many of which allowed complete takeover of the Mac much like a Windows virus. Do you honestly think your new OS/app combo is going to be immune to all viruses over time? Besides, you bought anti-virus software for all the Windows PC's several years ago with annual subscriptions to virus patterns. We haven't been hit by a virus in a long, long time because of that. So, explain to me again what the advantages are here?
Tech Guy: You can never be immune to viruses. As more firms switch to Linux there will undoubtedly be more viruses, but the basic nature of Linux make it's more robust. Remember how I had to make you administrator of your machine so you could run that accounting package? About 30% of the machines in our branch have some software that requires that. Those machines are more susceptible t
MS Linux support Operator: Thanks for calling Microsoft linux support, how can I help you? Poor Newbie Linux user: I'm having trouble connecting Evolution to our Exchange server. MSLSO: Ah, that's a documented issue . . . see our linux version of the KB, KL-LNX666 . . . I'll run through the fix with you . . . first do you have a sledge hammer? PNLU: Uh, no ... why? Do I need one? MSLSO: Yes, you will, we'll ship one out to you free of charge! PNLU: Wow thanks! I can't bel . . . hold on, someones at the door, I'll be right back . . . . . . ZOMG, that was a courier with my sledge hammer! That was fast! MSLSO: We're dedicated to "fixing" all Linux compatability issues! PNLU: How did you know my address? MSLSO: We'll you're running dual boot with XP, and it forwarded all your details to us to help server you better! PNLU: OK . . . so what do I do? MSLSO: Well, take the sledge hammer, hold it up high in the air, and smash it down on your Linux box. PNLU: OK, how will I know if I've done it right? MSLSO: Keep doing it untill all the sparcs and sound stop coming out of the box, it you hear a sound like breaking glass thats a good sign, that's your hard disk. PNLU: Ok, hold on . . . SMASH! BANG! KZZZZZZ! SMASH! FSHZZzzzzzz.z.z.z.z...... PNLU: OK, I've done what you instructred me, now my machine won't boot at all! MSLSO: Ah, well you know, this wouldn't have happened if you used Windows! That's Geniune Microsoft advantage!
It's easy to ignore that "fact" since it isn't true at all.
Windows 2000 (1999)
Windows XP (2001)
Windows Server 2003 (2003 )
Windows Advanced Server
Windows XP x64 (2005)
Windows Server 2003 x64 (2005)
FYI
Windows 2000 (1999) = NT 5.0
Windows XP (2001) = NT 5.1
Windows Server 2003 (2003) = NT 5.2
Windows Advanced Server = Which version? They have 2000 Advanced server, in which case NT 5.0
Windows XP x64 (2005) = NT 5.1 (guess)
Windows Server 2003 x64 (2005) = NT 5.2 (guess)
Talk about paying for slight version updates ... jeesh
Google (and similar companies) should say to China, "no, we find the rules to which you will subject us to be morally unacceptable, and so we choose not to do business in your country." Economic pressure through divestiture was key in the downfall of South African aparthied, and there's no reason that similar boycotts can't work in China.
So what should Google do in all the other countries that are doing massive wrongs, like America?
While Windows hadn't brought out anything new for trhe OS except security patches and bug fixes while *nix's have had numerous new versions of almost every single part os the OS and think of it as a percentage, it would probaly be Unix 5% Windows 90%
I'm afraid that your credibility is destroyed when you consider lying, stealing and bullying "gray areas".
Sure business is tough, but MS is in a position where they can do all the wrong they want because it's cheaper to pay the lawsuits they lose than to conduct business with any kind of honour or fairplay.
SO you are fooled into thinking he is charitable, well, I PR works or there wouldn't be an PR industry would there.
Check out this info from Michael's Minute, a news leter form the founder of Limdows/Linspire. And before you think it's biased there are many references to legit sources.
From: http://www.michaelrobertson.com/archive.php?minute _id=65
Q: But doesn't Microsoft do a lot of good?
A: The charitable giving that Microsoft advertises is usually a business tactic, where they give away software in an attempt to gain traction in a market, such as they do with schools. The software costs them just pennies to reproduce, but they advertise the full retail value for tax and PR reasons. Microsoft rarely gives actual cash (See: www.nytimes.com/2003/05/26/technology/26SOFT.html) .
Q: Hasn't Mr. Gates given away billions of dollars?
A: Nearly 20 years after starting Microsoft and only after antitrust issues emerged, Mr. Gates created a foundation and moved billions of dollars of stock, tax free, into this new organization, which he controls as the sole trustee. Mr. Gates' PR folks have convinced major publications to carry as many as 5 stories in 3 days about the multi-billion dollar foundation in an attempt to bolster Mr. Gates' image (See http://theregister.co.uk/content/4/28039.html). By repeatedly trumpeting the formation of the foundation, then announcing individual initiatives and finally announcing individual grants, readers are left with the impression that billions of dollars are routinely dispersed, but that is simply not true. In 2001, the Gates Foundation collected more money in interest from their holdings than they dispersed in grants (See: www.fdncenter.org).
I thought a kilogram was the weight of a litre of water at a certain temperature.
I was also taught that we are mistaken when we use the term kilogram for items we have weighed, as it is a term for mass, we should use newtons. How this works out is that one kilogram weighs one newton in earth gravity.
I'm sure someone will point out the fallacy of my recollections.
Mac users are kind of like the Goths and Punks in the corner of the lunchroom sneering at the Preps and Jocks
Xsquese me? More like the design students saying "Oh my gawd Zuders, did you see what colour that PC was?!? The shades of grey don't even match! Eoowey!"
Say what? WRONG!
If they see the big picture they must be looking at it form far away without their glasses on (near sighted) through some dirty glass. Most of the computer components in the world are mde in Taiwan. Asus, hello, good stuff. Most big brand companies get those Taiwan companies to make their stuff. You're insulting a large group of people I hold dear to my heart! Macs aren' perfect either dude, a friend of mine is a Mac Zealot, he broke down and admited he had a lot of problems with his Power book, hardware and software.He thought X would never make it a one point. Now he denies the whole incident . . . They are competing directly with MS now, not soley MS, MS and the hardware co.s. MS and Dell, MS and HP, MS and Sony. And they're not stopping piracy me matey, aargh! 8-|X I think even Mac Zealots can't afford >$500 software after forking out the dough for the box.When they can, they are probably more likely to than their x86 counterparts though.This want to buy can't is kind of like involuntary shareware.:D
First, where i come from. Best OS out now. Mac OS X, will I ever buy a Mac to use it NO.
I didn't bother finishing the article because it seemed off from the start.
Now to explain these things.
MS will probably be the only Monopoly in history to have such control and then lose it through incompetent management. MS did not beat Mac.IBM GAVE it's x86 architecture to the world. Why? They don't sell many PCs now. Maybe they forsaw that a market like the current competitive x86 hardware market would evolve at some point. So they free x86. Clones start appearing and prices drop. Businesses buy x86 PCs because they are cheaper and a Spiffy GUI with awesome multimedia isn't required. Geeks also use x86 because it is cheap and oyu can get the software from someone for free. (Up to today . ..) Apple tries too late to allow clones and from another post I see they changed their mind and dumped the idea. It was probably too late anyway.MS rides unchallenged atop the x86 PC surge and we get the pitifull state of the world today. Simple.
OS X is the best. Strength of a posix based architecture allows for stability, secure networking, reliable servers. Postscript based Gui user friendly and preforms very well graphically and is condusive to printing.Can run Linux/Unix apps plus Apples own formidible softwear. Maybe the GUI is to easy for some (me) but it can run KDE!
I will never buy a Mac. Even though it is the best, it is too expensive, and . . . that's pretty much it, and I can't try it on my PC now can I? In all actuallity, NeXT ran on x86 hardware, OS X should be able to also. Aperantly Apple doesn't want it to.
Plus X will help linux grow as 3rd party vendors might as well make their apps run on Linux if they develop for X. Not much of a step.So in the Future I'll be able to run Linux at a level equal to the Mac in some areas, and exceeding it in others. Finally, I wouldn't want to hang out with all the Mac Zealots. Self righteous design majors make me wanna kick em sometimes.
Mac would never have been MS. Because MS was there, it probably would have been better for the world. Healthy competition would have given us over all better products at lower prices. Perish to think, MS might have even started making good product! Mmm, . . doubt it. It would probably end up the cheaper solution. (Get what you pay for) I think Mac is happy in their niche. Hell, their fans are more loyal to Mac than thier own parents, maybe even their offspring . . .
Finally, compare Mac to Cicso? Please, might as well compare it to watches, game consoles and real fruit.( would oranges have been as popular today it they had licenced pulp? Bu they did! Some prefer the grapefruit!) Apples and Gas Giants baby. (couldn't think of anything more different.)
Slashdot Mirror
I have to say MS did beat CHina and linux on this one.
MS needed to get their software into China to prevent more than half of the worlds population using Linux.
That many Linux users would mean more software for Linux, more money spent on that software, more games for Linux.
That woudl eventually spill out of China, with Linux's easy internationalization, and that woudl be a giant step for Linux.
Because MS really needed to get into China they probably could have gotten the software for free.
I do think piracy of Windows in China does affect what I am talking about, I still think this is a black day for Linux.
I disagree that Linux will always be playing catchup though, it's advancing much faster than windows.
Corporations are starting to consider Linux on the desktop. It's been done with Solaris before.
"A EU without Apple, Hitachi, Toshiba or Microsoft?"
Hmmm, sounds kinda good actually . . . . how is the EU on immigration recently?
Wow, first time I haven't found someone else with a close enough opinion to mine that I feel I need to post.
I think too many people aren't reading the article, or are just skimming. I know exactly what he is talking about. It seems he likes playing through and advancing, it's the method he dislikes. The first few hours of most RPGs, online and multiplayer or otherwise start you off so weak, do such menial tasks. Does these phrases sound familiar? "You are not strong enough yet to use the big stick" "Bring me back the spleen from 50 sewer rats" "Your small blunt stick is broken"
I personally love RPG, a long time player of various PnP versions. D&D is the pattern almost everyone follows, but it is the most archaic. In Shadowrun you start with either a lot of skill, a lot of tech, a lot of magic power, or a lot of raw talent, and you still advance from there.
I play City of Heroes and City of Villains, and there is still a lot of repetitive "grinding" going on, but from the very start of the game you are doing something interesting, even the tutorial! Retrieving data on a psycho drug that has infected mobs of people in the area, it's up to YOU! Or escaping from your cell in the City of Heroes to restart your life of crime under the watch of a criminal overlord interested to see if YOU are the ONE future mega criminal.
I have tried WoW and after CoH the first couple levels of most of the races are a chore. That kind of stuff should have been in a tutorial once. Undead actually are OK, I guess because the whole "Hunt animal X for food" thing doesn't work, so you actually fight other remotely imposing monsters who actually drop decent goodies right away.
I could definitely do with out all of that, and I have heard many others who fell the same.
You can't compare a doctor to a tech.
;)
The things people stop doing to their bodies when they are kids, like shove peanuts up their nose, people do to their computers their whole lives!
One bit ii the article showed me why this guy has a problem.
He complained about the hundreds of error messages. The only thing that could be is Internet Explorer.
Where if you actually read the mesages ever you would notice the little check box to never show this kind of message again.
That would take care of 95% of the "errors" you see. And then you would be able to get the real error messages.
It shouldn't be hard to figure out "The security certificate for this page has expired, would you like to proceed anyway?" for a trusted site, and "Would you like to install the Hooters Hooters Hooters! internet speed booster?"
But that's all too much of a hastle isn't it?
He was right, Select * from users where clue > 0 isn't funny.
Select * from users where clue > 0
0 records found!
is freaking hillarious though!
That coming from a Geek site, you want more behind closed doors than that?
The internet is our behind closed doors, everyone else keeps coming in anyway!
I have to agree with thinking Halo isn't anything special.
The only thing I see it had was Vehicles, but Shadow Warrior had that years earlier in a much more interesting game. Unreal was also a much better game, I would forgo the vehicles in Halo for the variety in Unreal in a second. Then again, I don't think there has been a FPS to top Duke Nukem made yet, maybe that's what 3d Realms is waiting for, a product to top other than their own.
I can't believe in the average FPS now you can't interact with the world other than shooting stuff or running into giant buttons. Not to mention you can't use your arms to climb onto things you can't outright jump on to.
Halo didn't have interesting characters, Master Chief, boring, he was as blank as his visor. I could count the number of enemy types in the game with my fingers and toes, and no I don't have an unusual number of those extremities.
I played through that game the way I watch a bad movie late at night, dreading that it won't be worth it but wanting to see how it ends.
I thought Apple came back because of MS's ati-trust suit, which ended up with MS investing in Apple to spur "competition". They did make nice PCs and make a nice MP3 player and advertise the hell out of it.
But that was after they were "back"
Ok, paid MS poster.
How much do you get paid anyway? I could use some extra dough and ignoring facts, coming up with poor arguements is pretty easy work.
Meh, I'm sure they'll just start getting grants from the Gates fund to help all the underprivileged children in France, England and other third world countries in EU and they'll let bygones be bygones!
Well, you have some good points, mostly just asuming, throwing insults, and attacking parts out of context. I wanted to counter your points, and there are many ways to, but you are obviously just pissed off at those Linux fans who don't like MS. You think MS is just doing business, and will use their products. I think they are doing business using far to many illegal methods, and don't want to give them any of my money. And I seem to notice many flaws in this suposably superior software, while you apparently live in a land where it all works fine all the time. I am satisfied knowing that as the years go by and Linux takes more control of the market, that Microsoft with all its billions will start to slowly fade away, very slowly of course, they do have billions after all. People looking to change are increasing in numbers though, and unless MS starts changing the way it does business, it will eventually disappear. You can't run your business as a monopoly when you aren't one anymore.
Like I said, Im not a pro at Linux. I am in support at a large financial firm, and have been for 6 years, PC support. And this is just what a smart tech would say to a user as to why they are upgrading, not a thesis on the benefits of Linux vs Windows.
Since Microsoft didn't alter file formats between Office 2000 and Office 2003, this is a complete and total lie. Either that or you're so woefully out of date that you don't realize it. There was a problem from Office 97 to Office 2000, but if you have to go back nearly a decade to find a problem with upgrades, you're really having to reach.
It was a bug. It affected Word, and I experienced it first hand at work. We also were warned about it, let's see if I can find the KB article . . . no luck searching MS's site . . . damn, well like I said, experienced it here, had to upgrade whole groups because of incompatabilities despite having sp1 anyway.
Gee, it must be nice to have a development team sitting around with nothing to do. Real businesses have these people tasked with this thing called "work" which is required to keep the company going, and they don't have time to be mucking around adding features to a new program that's suppose to replace the old program that already had those features! And as for your "we fixed the macros to make them better," that's kind of silly because it presupposes the old macros were somehow wrong. What if they weren't? You just paid developers to rewrite something that already worked just fine. Great use of company resources! What a way to save money!
Well, what I was thinking was a team contracted just for that purpose. The impetus came from conversations with a developer complaning about the limitations of Excel and how a whole new application was in the works at the firm to get around that. Something doesn't have to be wrong to make it better Mr Smarty pants. Ah, I did say fix them didn't I, oops.
Cheaper? How? RHEL costs roughly the same as Windows, and ongoing support contract costs are roughly the same. The stability of the platform and lack of downtime will save in the long run? Again, you pre-suppose that people are having problems with the platform to begin with. Well run shops don't have workstations that crash all the time because they buy quaility machines preloaded with all the right drivers and they don't tinker with them. Driver problems cause 99% of all the crashes in Windows, but drivers can take down Linux just as easily. And since most companies spend significantly less time and effort developing and troubleshooting their Linux drivers vs. their Windows drivers, you stand a greater likelihood of getting something half-baked.
As for Vista upgrade costs, customers on Software Assurance pay nothing for the upgrade. Those without it will pay and arm and a leg, that's for sure, but very few companies buy their software separately any more. They buy the OS during hardware refreshes. This means that in one fell swoop it destroys your argument completely, because the new OS will be bundled with the cost of the machine (and it's a negligible cost compared to the $2,500 purchase cost) and the new hardware will automatically be capable of running the new OS. Most companies are on a 3-5 year refresh cycle already, so this is not anywhere near the issue you're trying to make it out to be. Clearly you have no idea how corporate IT functions.
Way to miss most of the point! OK, OS cost is the same, what about office Pro, and Acrobat Full version for a large amount of users. Software assurance? I admit I'm not involved in procurement for the global OS deals, but none of the 3 firms I have worked for use it, all are are securities companies, so not short on money, and they balk at upgrade licence costs. 3 year upgrades? Sure many places do that, right now you can get an office levle PC for XP for about $1000 bulk. $2500? Maybe for a Vista project refresh. Wow, 2.5 tmes as much as they would have to pay for a Linux upgrade, hardware side. About quality mach
Come on! A stupid person will lose to a smart person every time!
Let's put a smart tech, even though not a Linux pro, a non pro like myself against that user.
Let's start from the beginning....
Tech Guy: Here, Mr. User, we're going to give you a new operating system and a completely new set of applications with which to perform your duties.
Mr. User: OK! Tell me, what does it do that's new or useful?
Tech Guy: Well, it won't crash like Windows!
Mr. User: Well, but I've been using Windows XP now for about the last three years, and it doesn't crash much if at all. What else does this new OS do?
Tech guy: Well, you're one of the lucky ones then! Seriously though, it will let you do the same thing you do now, it is different though, so it will take a while to adjust.
Mr. User: You mean it doesn't have Office 2003?
Tech Guy: No it doesn't. It has this other application suite that's just as good! Maybe even better!
Mr. User: But it looks very different to me! The user interface will require me to get used to it, which will reduce my productivity for a little while. My existing documents might look different in this new suite. Further, all the advanced features such as macros probably don't carry over to this new app. That's a real bummer because I depend on those features to do my job. Does this suite do anything any better than Office 2003 that would allow me to offset this loss of productivity? In other words, is it giving me anything new to offset the costs of moving to it?
Tech Guy: Well, that's true. We are trying to avoid future fiascoes like when legal upgraded to 2003 as soon as it came out, remember that? Once they edited a document all the office 2000 users, the other 95% of the firm, couldn't open them. So we started upgrading everyone, finished just in time for MS to release the sp1 patch that fixed that. And management thinks there is a lower TCO compared to MS products. We also have had a development team that incorporated all the macros you use into the office suite itself! Because it's open source they could tailor them to the software better. The old macros took too long right? On the new suit the functions take less than half the time!
Mr. User: I remember that Legal thing, whew, you guys were here all night around that time! Less than half time for all my macros? Awesome! But lower TCO? Hey, bud, I work in accounting. We saw the invoices for Red Hat Enterprise Linux and the office suite. You're paying for support for this stuff. It's not free.
Tech Guy: True, but it is cheaper. The OS, office suite, and Acrobat we won't be paying for make a big difference. The initial upgrade will be expensive, productivity will be lost to start, but the stability of the platform and the over all lack of downtime will save us tones long run. The projected cost to upgrade to Windows Vista are off the scale! We would have to replace 80% or our hardware! And we won't really have to worry about viruses!
Mr. User: You said the same thing about the Mac's down in the art department, yet they're running anti-virus software, aren't they? And your buddy on the helpdesk told me that last week Apple patched 43 separate flaws in their OS, many of which allowed complete takeover of the Mac much like a Windows virus. Do you honestly think your new OS/app combo is going to be immune to all viruses over time? Besides, you bought anti-virus software for all the Windows PC's several years ago with annual subscriptions to virus patterns. We haven't been hit by a virus in a long, long time because of that. So, explain to me again what the advantages are here?
Tech Guy: You can never be immune to viruses. As more firms switch to Linux there will undoubtedly be more viruses, but the basic nature of Linux make it's more robust. Remember how I had to make you administrator of your machine so you could run that accounting package? About 30% of the machines in our branch have some software that requires that. Those machines are more susceptible t
MS Linux support Operator: Thanks for calling Microsoft linux support, how can I help you? .. why? Do I need one?
Poor Newbie Linux user: I'm having trouble connecting Evolution to our Exchange server.
MSLSO: Ah, that's a documented issue . . . see our linux version of the KB, KL-LNX666 . . . I'll run through the fix with you . . . first do you have a sledge hammer?
PNLU: Uh, no .
MSLSO: Yes, you will, we'll ship one out to you free of charge!
PNLU: Wow thanks! I can't bel . . . hold on, someones at the door, I'll be right back . . . . . . ZOMG, that was a courier with my sledge hammer! That was fast!
MSLSO: We're dedicated to "fixing" all Linux compatability issues!
PNLU: How did you know my address?
MSLSO: We'll you're running dual boot with XP, and it forwarded all your details to us to help server you better!
PNLU: OK . . . so what do I do?
MSLSO: Well, take the sledge hammer, hold it up high in the air, and smash it down on your Linux box.
PNLU: OK, how will I know if I've done it right?
MSLSO: Keep doing it untill all the sparcs and sound stop coming out of the box, it you hear a sound like breaking glass thats a good sign, that's your hard disk.
PNLU: Ok, hold on . . .
SMASH!
BANG!
KZZZZZZ!
SMASH!
FSHZZzzzzzz.z.z.z.z......
PNLU: OK, I've done what you instructred me, now my machine won't boot at all!
MSLSO: Ah, well you know, this wouldn't have happened if you used Windows! That's Geniune Microsoft advantage!
FYI
Windows 2000 (1999) = NT 5.0
Windows XP (2001) = NT 5.1
Windows Server 2003 (2003) = NT 5.2
Windows Advanced Server = Which version? They have 2000 Advanced server, in which case NT 5.0
Windows XP x64 (2005) = NT 5.1 (guess)
Windows Server 2003 x64 (2005) = NT 5.2 (guess)
Talk about paying for slight version updates .
While Windows hadn't brought out anything new for trhe OS except security patches and bug fixes while *nix's have had numerous new versions of almost every single part os the OS and think of it as a percentage, it would probaly be Unix 5% Windows 90%
I'm afraid that your credibility is destroyed when you consider lying, stealing and bullying "gray areas".
Sure business is tough, but MS is in a position where they can do all the wrong they want because it's cheaper to pay the lawsuits they lose than to conduct business with any kind of honour or fairplay.
SO you are fooled into thinking he is charitable, well, I PR works or there wouldn't be an PR industry would there. Check out this info from Michael's Minute, a news leter form the founder of Limdows/Linspire. And before you think it's biased there are many references to legit sources. From: http://www.michaelrobertson.com/archive.php?minute _id=65
Q: But doesn't Microsoft do a lot of good?
A: The charitable giving that Microsoft advertises is usually a business tactic, where they give away software in an attempt to gain traction in a market, such as they do with schools. The software costs them just pennies to reproduce, but they advertise the full retail value for tax and PR reasons. Microsoft rarely gives actual cash (See: www.nytimes.com/2003/05/26/technology/26SOFT.html) .
Q: Hasn't Mr. Gates given away billions of dollars?
A: Nearly 20 years after starting Microsoft and only after antitrust issues emerged, Mr. Gates created a foundation and moved billions of dollars of stock, tax free, into this new organization, which he controls as the sole trustee. Mr. Gates' PR folks have convinced major publications to carry as many as 5 stories in 3 days about the multi-billion dollar foundation in an attempt to bolster Mr. Gates' image (See http://theregister.co.uk/content/4/28039.html). By repeatedly trumpeting the formation of the foundation, then announcing individual initiatives and finally announcing individual grants, readers are left with the impression that billions of dollars are routinely dispersed, but that is simply not true. In 2001, the Gates Foundation collected more money in interest from their holdings than they dispersed in grants (See: www.fdncenter.org).
I thought a kilogram was the weight of a litre of water at a certain temperature. I was also taught that we are mistaken when we use the term kilogram for items we have weighed, as it is a term for mass, we should use newtons. How this works out is that one kilogram weighs one newton in earth gravity. I'm sure someone will point out the fallacy of my recollections.
Say what? WRONG! If they see the big picture they must be looking at it form far away without their glasses on (near sighted) through some dirty glass. Most of the computer components in the world are mde in Taiwan. Asus, hello, good stuff. Most big brand companies get those Taiwan companies to make their stuff. You're insulting a large group of people I hold dear to my heart! Macs aren' perfect either dude, a friend of mine is a Mac Zealot, he broke down and admited he had a lot of problems with his Power book, hardware and software.He thought X would never make it a one point. Now he denies the whole incident . . . They are competing directly with MS now, not soley MS, MS and the hardware co.s. MS and Dell, MS and HP, MS and Sony. And they're not stopping piracy me matey, aargh! 8-|X I think even Mac Zealots can't afford >$500 software after forking out the dough for the box.When they can, they are probably more likely to than their x86 counterparts though.This want to buy can't is kind of like involuntary shareware. :D
First, where i come from. Best OS out now. Mac OS X, will I ever buy a Mac to use it NO. I didn't bother finishing the article because it seemed off from the start. Now to explain these things. MS will probably be the only Monopoly in history to have such control and then lose it through incompetent management. MS did not beat Mac.IBM GAVE it's x86 architecture to the world. Why? They don't sell many PCs now. Maybe they forsaw that a market like the current competitive x86 hardware market would evolve at some point. So they free x86. Clones start appearing and prices drop. Businesses buy x86 PCs because they are cheaper and a Spiffy GUI with awesome multimedia isn't required. Geeks also use x86 because it is cheap and oyu can get the software from someone for free. (Up to today . . .) Apple tries too late to allow clones and from another post I see they changed their mind and dumped the idea. It was probably too late anyway.MS rides unchallenged atop the x86 PC surge and we get the pitifull state of the world today. Simple.
OS X is the best. Strength of a posix based architecture allows for stability, secure networking, reliable servers. Postscript based Gui user friendly and preforms very well graphically and is condusive to printing.Can run Linux/Unix apps plus Apples own formidible softwear. Maybe the GUI is to easy for some (me) but it can run KDE!
I will never buy a Mac. Even though it is the best, it is too expensive, and . . . that's pretty much it, and I can't try it on my PC now can I? In all actuallity, NeXT ran on x86 hardware, OS X should be able to also. Aperantly Apple doesn't want it to.
Plus X will help linux grow as 3rd party vendors might as well make their apps run on Linux if they develop for X. Not much of a step.So in the Future I'll be able to run Linux at a level equal to the Mac in some areas, and exceeding it in others. Finally, I wouldn't want to hang out with all the Mac Zealots. Self righteous design majors make me wanna kick em sometimes.
Mac would never have been MS. Because MS was there, it probably would have been better for the world. Healthy competition would have given us over all better products at lower prices. Perish to think, MS might have even started making good product! Mmm, . . doubt it. It would probably end up the cheaper solution. (Get what you pay for) I think Mac is happy in their niche. Hell, their fans are more loyal to Mac than thier own parents, maybe even their offspring . . .
Finally, compare Mac to Cicso? Please, might as well compare it to watches, game consoles and real fruit.( would oranges have been as popular today it they had licenced pulp? Bu they did! Some prefer the grapefruit!) Apples and Gas Giants baby. (couldn't think of anything more different.)