Wholesale costs are nothing like retail costs, just ask anyone who bought sells bottled water.
Microsoft would need about 400 to a thousand of these to hold their 2 million members, assuming average data can be compressed at a 60% ratio, noone learns to master zipfiles, and 90%+ of people who use it aren't likely to go past 30 or 40mb, they'd still need enough units to get a pretty substantial bulk buy discount, even at wholesale.
If you think MS buys its PC spares at Chips-n-Bits, you're sadly mistaken.
I do tech work sometime, and its flat out stupid of anyone to trying pushing the open source line in places where people just want a fix, not a migration strategy. People call support because of what they have is broken, they dont want it replaced, they want it fixed. If they wanted something new they'd be calling the sales department.
I'm not saying we shouldnt try to promote OSS, but why not promote it when people are arguing about why their pc crashes, since then you appear more objective, and gain a receptive audience. The first words out of a customers mouth if you told them to swap IE for a more secure browser created by a community of developers in their spare time would be "Heh, dork", and they'd ask me to fix the problem they have;)
And this very arogant approach to technology is one of the reasons that *NIX leads by code, and nothing more. Microsoft long ago took the stance that people (and by people, I implicly mean that anyone who reads Slashdot would not fit into the generalized category of normal users) don't give a flying fuck how it works, they want one button and a satisfying click or beep at the end of it all.
If Linux could offer a viable user experience, while still retaining its advantage in technology, then you'd have a brilliant case that Microsoft couldn't answer any time soon. However, the complacance demonstrated day in day out by the bulk of OSS projects is allowing Microsoft to stand up, say "Lets fix the code", and then sell the concept through the standard interfaces. Microsoft will have an easier time closing the gap too, since they have just gained all the relevent experience in writing both secure code (They've got it on the brain too as of late) and they've been making damn good UI's for decades.
Its ironic, but the fact of the matter is that unless the OSS community as a whole makes a unified, concerted effort to make the experience practical for people in the same way Microsoft is, there will be machines on every desk, but few of them will run Linux.
-SG
You can download the patch, but you realise that live windows updating and the BITS/Auto-Update features still dont, and wont work without a genuine key?:)
Slashdot Mirror
"Tommorows bugs today."
Wholesale costs are nothing like retail costs, just ask anyone who bought sells bottled water. Microsoft would need about 400 to a thousand of these to hold their 2 million members, assuming average data can be compressed at a 60% ratio, noone learns to master zipfiles, and 90%+ of people who use it aren't likely to go past 30 or 40mb, they'd still need enough units to get a pretty substantial bulk buy discount, even at wholesale. If you think MS buys its PC spares at Chips-n-Bits, you're sadly mistaken.
But doesnt that mean just 150 customers per $100 HHD? :-S
I do tech work sometime, and its flat out stupid of anyone to trying pushing the open source line in places where people just want a fix, not a migration strategy. People call support because of what they have is broken, they dont want it replaced, they want it fixed. If they wanted something new they'd be calling the sales department. I'm not saying we shouldnt try to promote OSS, but why not promote it when people are arguing about why their pc crashes, since then you appear more objective, and gain a receptive audience. The first words out of a customers mouth if you told them to swap IE for a more secure browser created by a community of developers in their spare time would be "Heh, dork", and they'd ask me to fix the problem they have ;)
And this very arogant approach to technology is one of the reasons that *NIX leads by code, and nothing more. Microsoft long ago took the stance that people (and by people, I implicly mean that anyone who reads Slashdot would not fit into the generalized category of normal users) don't give a flying fuck how it works, they want one button and a satisfying click or beep at the end of it all. If Linux could offer a viable user experience, while still retaining its advantage in technology, then you'd have a brilliant case that Microsoft couldn't answer any time soon. However, the complacance demonstrated day in day out by the bulk of OSS projects is allowing Microsoft to stand up, say "Lets fix the code", and then sell the concept through the standard interfaces. Microsoft will have an easier time closing the gap too, since they have just gained all the relevent experience in writing both secure code (They've got it on the brain too as of late) and they've been making damn good UI's for decades. Its ironic, but the fact of the matter is that unless the OSS community as a whole makes a unified, concerted effort to make the experience practical for people in the same way Microsoft is, there will be machines on every desk, but few of them will run Linux. -SG
You can download the patch, but you realise that live windows updating and the BITS/Auto-Update features still dont, and wont work without a genuine key? :)