It seems to me that as Windows gets more secure, the opportunities for companies like Symantec will dry up. Windows already has firewalls, anti-virus, etc built in, products like AVG and ZoneAlarm are free so why pay Symantec for the same stuff.
I suspect that MS looked jealously at the revenue stream coming from Symantec. By bundling security products into Windows, MS can now grab an increasingly large chunk for themselves . So where does that leave Symantec ?
If Windows Vista is as secure as MS says, there will be few opportunities for Symantec there. Win95, 98, ME, NT and Win2K will be around for a while but not for long. Most Unix-based OSs ( Solaris, BSD, etc ) are very secure, so probably not much opportunity there.
So, Symantec ( and similar companies ) can only hope for a mix of the following:-
Vista is just as buggy and insecure as all previous versions of Windows.
Linux finally arrives on the desktop full of exploitable holes.
People keep using older versions of Windows for as long as possible.
.. Microsoft Vista Lock-in version. Great for all of those people tired of multiple document formats, now you just get one.
And each new release will have minor 'tweaks' to add new features, and as an added bonus, it will encourage you to upgrade because it will be slightly incompatable with all the earlier versions.
Its not quite the same thing. To interoperate with Google requires only that you point your browser at www.google.com, to interoperate with Windows requires some degree of information and effort.
I have heard of suing your customers ...
on
Microsoft Sues EU
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· Score: 0
.. but suing an entire continent strikes me as an act of extreme desperation to say the least, plus veiled threats of suing Asia for daring to use FOSS !!. Perhaps they are using the SCO/RIAA business manual and simply adding a few more zeros to the numbers.
Add to the fact MS might have lost China and quite a few other contries too and you might get the idea that MS is destined to be an irrelevant national player instead of International player.
I have tried two UK providers, Demon and Freedom2Surf (F2S).
Demon: ADSL - £23.49/month, Dynamic IP, 2048K+256K, No cap. WEB - 50MB, NO Stats, database or Scripting. Even on dialup Demon was quite fast often getting 45~50KBits/Sec on good days.
F2S: ADSL - £14.99/month, Static IP, 2048K+256K, 2GB Cap. WEB - 50MB, PHP4, 5MB MySQL and stats.
Both are quite reliable and tech support was quite helpful but it seems to me that Demon are still stuck in the 1990s web site wise.
I connect via an ADSL router+modem mainly with Linux, FreeBSD and (on a tight leash) Windows.
.. didn't even have a keyboard, it was just a circuit board with LEDs, switches and 256 BYTES of RAM !, the next ones were: a NASCOM (Z80, 1K RAM), TRS80 (4K RAM), ZX81 (16K RAM), VIC20 (48K RAM), Dragon32, C64, C128 (I actually had that thing Multitasking) and the Amiga (Original 1000 & 600 with a massive 2MB RAM and a whopping 20MB HD !).
I then moved to PCs using DOS and then various flavours of Windows until it became a liability - I now use Mandrake Linux and FreeBSD.
I like FreeBSDs simplistic purity. I love Linux too, it saved me from Windows hell 2 years back (Long story). I also find FreeBSD a bit more stable that Linux.
I'm no UNIX expert, I can get KDE to work fairly easily, I can get the sound to work, I can play videos (Totem Player - AVIs,VOBs,FLI...), I can record music (Audacity - WAV,MP3,OGG...) as well as the basic things like Web, Email.
I do have a problem with the packages. Some like, OpenOffice, are easy to install but others depend on dozens of other packages, which still don't work after you have got them all - I wish they would create an extra package with everything you need in it.
As much as I would like to see FreeBSD as easy to install as Linux, I have learned quite a lot from my efforts so far. If I ever get back to low-level coding again I would feel more confident on BSD that on Linux (I started on DOS).
As for compatability, FreeBSD seems to work on just about anything with a clock-pulse but Linux (Mandrake 10.1) has not been able to drive a fairly new, standard network card (VIA Rhine) but FreeBSD did - and its BSD that now resides on that machine.
My deepest, darkest fear is that Linux will go the way of Windows - driven by marketing & legal objectives not user needs. On that dark day I suspect it will be *BSD that will save us.
In summery, FreeBSD works quite well as a desktop OS but you will need to work at it.
All the time people are copying music that belongs to the RIAA's members, those same people are breaking the law ( such as it is ) and run the risk of being sued.
The real solution is to effectively bypass the RIAA without breaking any laws like:-
Bypass CD & DVDs altogether
Buy music from labels not linked with the RIAA
Buy all your music legally from Internet based sources
Swap with friends, family, via web sites, etc - I'm sure thats still legal.
Support your local unsigned band by creating / promoting their web site with their music (NOT pirated music) - I'm in the process of doing this with some bands here.
I don't think free music will wipe out the current music biz any time soon but here is how I think it will play out:-
It will start the same way as OSS - small , unsigned bands will give it a try as these will have few over heads and little to lose.
Some will fail but many will succeed.
There will be many copy-cat web-sites - the more the better.
The music biz will sign-up some of the better bands - invertible
The music biz will try to sue every one or use FUD campains - bad + possible back-fire.
The music biz ups quality and reduces prices like MS is having to do with Linux - good.
Equilibrium reached - The music biz suddenly realises that the net is its friend and copying is not evil and can work in their favour - good.
We finally end up with huge music library where unpopular or old tracks are free to download and the up-and-coming bands cost - wishful thinking on my part.
.. from a company who knows its years are numbered. Perhaps one day someone will do a proper "shoot-out" between WindowsXP, Linux and the BSDs, however I read somewhere that you could violate your Win EULA if you made the results public - can anyone confirm that ?.
I have also been watching the WinXP-SP2 saga play out and it just seems like "business as usual" to me.
I'm sure they will get it right in the end - just in time to start the whole process all over again with "LongHaul" - opps sorry, Longhorn.
.. I read somewhere that our atmosphere will protect us from anything upto the size of a house. As this rock is about the size of my living room I don't think it would have dome much damage.
The smart companies using/trailing OSS will have lower costs and pass the savings onto their customers = more customers = more profit.
The smart companies using Windows securely will also have lower costs (not as much as OSS) and they will pass these savings onto their customers = more customers = more profit.
The lame companies using Windows insecurely will suffer high costs, data loss, customer loss. These will either wise-up or go back the 19th century and ultimately out of business.
Perhaps we should start an endangered list of these companies and see how it plays out.
I used PollyRay many years ago, its much like POV-Ray but allowed you to do animations.
One animation took my 386 (MS-DOS) 4 days to render - needless to say, I was suffering from withdrawal symptoms cause I could not use my PC in the meantime.
You youngsters think you are so cool with your multi-tasking OSs - you don't know your born !!
Slashdot Mirror
I suspect that MS looked jealously at the revenue stream coming from Symantec. By bundling security products into Windows, MS can now grab an increasingly large chunk for themselves . So where does that leave Symantec ?
If Windows Vista is as secure as MS says, there will be few opportunities for Symantec there. Win95, 98, ME, NT and Win2K will be around for a while but not for long. Most Unix-based OSs ( Solaris, BSD, etc ) are very secure, so probably not much opportunity there.
So, Symantec ( and similar companies ) can only hope for a mix of the following :-
- Vista is just as buggy and insecure as all previous versions of Windows.
- Linux finally arrives on the desktop full of exploitable holes.
- People keep using older versions of Windows for as long as possible.
Personally, I think option 1 is more likelyAnd each new release will have minor 'tweaks' to add new features, and as an added bonus, it will encourage you to upgrade because it will be slightly incompatable with all the earlier versions.
Oh wait, doesn't MS do that anyway ??
Its not quite the same thing. To interoperate with Google requires only that you point your browser at www.google.com, to interoperate with Windows requires some degree of information and effort.
Add to the fact MS might have lost China and quite a few other contries too and you might get the idea that MS is destined to be an irrelevant national player instead of International player.
Perhaps we should start a score board.
.. theories saying "supernovae are caused by giant stars undergoing gravitational collapse" are dying.
(OK, its really 3.5 hours but its still crap.)
We already have one, its called the GSM network !!!
Demon: ADSL - £23.49/month, Dynamic IP, 2048K+256K, No cap. WEB - 50MB, NO Stats, database or Scripting. Even on dialup Demon was quite fast often getting 45~50KBits/Sec on good days.
F2S: ADSL - £14.99/month, Static IP, 2048K+256K, 2GB Cap. WEB - 50MB, PHP4, 5MB MySQL and stats.
Both are quite reliable and tech support was quite helpful but it seems to me that Demon are still stuck in the 1990s web site wise.
I connect via an ADSL router+modem mainly with Linux, FreeBSD and (on a tight leash) Windows.
I then moved to PCs using DOS and then various flavours of Windows until it became a liability - I now use Mandrake Linux and FreeBSD.
I used to know lots of people on AOL but now I don't any. They have become totally irrelevant to the Internet.
I'm no UNIX expert, I can get KDE to work fairly easily, I can get the sound to work, I can play videos (Totem Player - AVIs,VOBs,FLI ...), I can record music (Audacity - WAV,MP3,OGG ...) as well as the basic things like Web, Email.
I do have a problem with the packages. Some like, OpenOffice, are easy to install but others depend on dozens of other packages, which still don't work after you have got them all - I wish they would create an extra package with everything you need in it.
As much as I would like to see FreeBSD as easy to install as Linux, I have learned quite a lot from my efforts so far. If I ever get back to low-level coding again I would feel more confident on BSD that on Linux (I started on DOS). As for compatability, FreeBSD seems to work on just about anything with a clock-pulse but Linux (Mandrake 10.1) has not been able to drive a fairly new, standard network card (VIA Rhine) but FreeBSD did - and its BSD that now resides on that machine.
My deepest, darkest fear is that Linux will go the way of Windows - driven by marketing & legal objectives not user needs. On that dark day I suspect it will be *BSD that will save us.
In summery, FreeBSD works quite well as a desktop OS but you will need to work at it.
Hope this helps - PJB
.. its just lots of Windows machines trying to download SP2 updates.
The funny thing is that even if MS did beat Linux on the server front there is still FreeBSD, OpenBSD, NetBSD coming up behind.
Be afraid MS, be very afraid
Who are you ? Bill Gates ??
I have also been watching the WinXP-SP2 saga play out and it just seems like "business as usual" to me. I'm sure they will get it right in the end - just in time to start the whole process all over again with "LongHaul" - opps sorry, Longhorn.
- Spend lots of cash on creating music in expensive studios.
- Spend more cash distributing music to shops.
- Customers buy music.
- Music industry and Artists earns cash.
- Some customers copy music for friends
- Music industry and Artists loose "potential" cash.
- Music industry spends even more cash trying to stop people copying music
- Lots of unhappy customers.
Possible Solution- Artist create music using cheap digital tools - these are already available.
- Artist uploads digital music to web sites
- Lots of people download / copy music for free
- Artist gets well known by lots of people
- Artist does a gig - lots of people pay to come
- Artist gets paid further by selling special CDs,DVDs or other merchandise on web site.
- RIAA now totally redundant - I think they already know this.
- Do same thing with software (Already happening - OSS)
- Do same thing with movie industry
- Do same thing with all forms of information
- Human race leaps forward, as it tends to do when information is freely available
I know some people already planning some of this !!.. I read somewhere that our atmosphere will protect us from anything upto the size of a house. As this rock is about the size of my living room I don't think it would have dome much damage.
- The smart companies using/trailing OSS will have lower costs and pass the savings onto their customers = more customers = more profit.
- The smart companies using Windows securely will also have lower costs (not as much as OSS) and they will pass these savings onto their customers = more customers = more profit.
- The lame companies using Windows insecurely will suffer high costs, data loss, customer loss. These will either wise-up or go back the 19th century and ultimately out of business.
Perhaps we should start an endangered list of these companies and see how it plays out.I used PollyRay many years ago, its much like POV-Ray but allowed you to do animations. One animation took my 386 (MS-DOS) 4 days to render - needless to say, I was suffering from withdrawal symptoms cause I could not use my PC in the meantime. You youngsters think you are so cool with your multi-tasking OSs - you don't know your born !!
Customer: "What !, I don't have to worry about viruses and spyware, I don't need to pay ££££s for WinXP + OfficeXP !! ".
Me: "1 down, 99,999,999 to go !!".
- I was adjusting for inflation
- It was a long time ago
- They saw me coming
- All of the above
Have fun Peter