Mod the parent up. It's simplistic, but it's incredibly true. There are two barriers to linux pretty much wiping away MSs stranglehold on the OS market. The first is the actual usability of the linux distros. Google can help with that, but it will probably be incremental over the existing efforts.
The second major barrier is something that linux can't really overcome on its own, however, and that is credibility. The impact of having a Google-branded linux distro could be huge. Google is one of the most well-known brands in the world.
Apple's hurdled both of these barriers, with a really usable interface and worldwide positive brand recognition. Coincidentally, they've got a trivial fraction of the OS market and that fraction is barely growing fast enough to track the growth of the market as a whole.
Maybe it helps Google if they can do it cheaper? Otherwise, I don't see what their unique advantage is.
If Google can make the installation simple, the desktop pretty, and break the "freak" tag that Linux has (and don't kid yourseldf - Linux is only for us freaks), then I think this is a great thing.
Well that's clearly the wrong attitude to take around here.
On other sites I've read Solaris referred to as Slowiris when run on a single CPU, but the Sun site suggests Solaris is no slower than Linux on a single CPU machine.
As far as I can tell, the "Slowaris" nickname came from having slow SPARC hardware back in the day, and having a crappy X server. The cool thing is that Solaris is using the Xorg X server for almost all hardware now. They've got an official Nvidia driver now and things are fairly snappy.
One nice thing about Solaris is that successive versions of the OS actually get faster, not slower.
Well, Solaris is infinitely more valuable, for starters. "GPL Java" is a hot-button issue with people for some reason, but at the end of the day, it's just a programming language. Versus, you know, an entire modern Unix operating system.
And for good reason- why should we set aside economic power for inactive (and potentially never-to-be active) members of our society? I think the burden of proof that this should be possible lies on them.
"Society" can tax these death trusts to the point where, adjusted for inflation, they don't grow very quickly. It seems like a good way to appease the whiners. Heaven forbid somebody improve their financial situation just by dying.
Or the government can just seize them. It is hard to see how that could be considered moral or correct.
Unless you're like MIT with a substantial legal staff to scare them off, it'll be too bad for you.
It'd be interesting to know if the XFree86 people were ever sued. God knows they crashed enough machines in their time, and they used the MIT X license until very recently.
I suspect they weren't, and this is all mostly FUD.
Nothing about windmills is going to get in the way of hog farming, and people simply will not turn down money, even when it makes their town smell like shit.
A number of communities fight the huge egg farms and pig farms and stuff. They'd have a little more leverage if they had a strong income source already, like energy generation.
It's not hard to imagine a future where the choice for some poorer rural communities is "sell out to the wind power people and get free electricity and hydrogen for life" and "sell out to the megafarmers and smell pigshit and chickenshit for life". I think anyone who has ever driven within a couple of miles of one of those farms would realize how easy a choice that is.
Communities that say yes to them get their power for half and your power bills are going to double.
They could do a lot better than that for themselves, if the communities bought the windmills themselves using a long-term mortgage type of thing. They'd be paying for the windmills for a long time, but the price of electricity is only going to go up, and they can always make hydrogen with the things if their power grid isn't set up to buy their power.
And, let's face it, the result looks like an industrial park. [friendsofbruce.ca]
They're probably a little disconcerting when you're right under them, at least until you are used to them. When you drive by, they are pretty cool looking.
"We think the iBook, PowerBook, Mac Mini, and potentially Xserve are areas that are going to move to Intel first," said Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research.
"We also think they might move the iMac or Power Mac," he added. "There, that should cover everything"
Moreover misdemeanors aren't liable for jail time above and beyond "time served"
That hasn't been true in my lifetime, at least. The more traditional cutoff is a one year sentence, in some states it might be up to 2 years or as low as six months. It's a pretty rare misdemeanor that is actually sentenced at a full year; the prosecutor will in an extreme case like that probably just pursue felony charges.
Some ex convicts carry around a felony conviction that prevents them from re-entering society or impairs them in some way thus encouraging a return to crime.
This is another way in which the distinction between felonies and misdemeanors has decayed. Plenty of places won't hire someone with a misdemenaor conviction on their record.
The operative word is "conviction." Plenty of states make it illegal to base a hiring decision on a non-conviction criminal record (if someone was found not guilty, the charges were dismissed, they were simply arrested and then released, etc.). Those sorts of rules aren't always followed, however.
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Apple's hurdled both of these barriers, with a really usable interface and worldwide positive brand recognition. Coincidentally, they've got a trivial fraction of the OS market and that fraction is barely growing fast enough to track the growth of the market as a whole.
Maybe it helps Google if they can do it cheaper? Otherwise, I don't see what their unique advantage is.
Yeah, they really knocked it out of the ballpark the last time they played the consumer OS game. Remember OS/2?
Yeah, it worked so well for IBM and OS/2! And Apple's a really well-respected worldwide brand, I'm sure everyone will switch over to Macs pronto.
Well that's clearly the wrong attitude to take around here.
Wave your freak tag high!
Hah. You've got to love an anti-Sun sentiment so strong that GPLing software suddenly becomes a bad thing.
As far as I can tell the only important GPLed Unix-compatible operating system is Linux. It'd be good to have some redundancy there.
People forget that what you describe is a completely solvable problem without Sun's cooperation.
All versions of Solaris are already open source.
As far as I can tell, the "Slowaris" nickname came from having slow SPARC hardware back in the day, and having a crappy X server. The cool thing is that Solaris is using the Xorg X server for almost all hardware now. They've got an official Nvidia driver now and things are fairly snappy.
One nice thing about Solaris is that successive versions of the OS actually get faster, not slower.
Is anyone actually saying that?
Well, Solaris is infinitely more valuable, for starters. "GPL Java" is a hot-button issue with people for some reason, but at the end of the day, it's just a programming language. Versus, you know, an entire modern Unix operating system.
I loved your infomercial!
"Society" can tax these death trusts to the point where, adjusted for inflation, they don't grow very quickly. It seems like a good way to appease the whiners. Heaven forbid somebody improve their financial situation just by dying.
Or the government can just seize them. It is hard to see how that could be considered moral or correct.
My subjective value judgement is better than YOURS. I'm going to put some of it in CAPS. TAKE THAT.
You're new, aren't you?
You are the least funny person in the history of the human race.
Someone mod that shit up as funny.
It'd be interesting to know if the XFree86 people were ever sued. God knows they crashed enough machines in their time, and they used the MIT X license until very recently.
I suspect they weren't, and this is all mostly FUD.
A number of communities fight the huge egg farms and pig farms and stuff. They'd have a little more leverage if they had a strong income source already, like energy generation.
But in general, I do take your point.
It's not hard to imagine a future where the choice for some poorer rural communities is "sell out to the wind power people and get free electricity and hydrogen for life" and "sell out to the megafarmers and smell pigshit and chickenshit for life". I think anyone who has ever driven within a couple of miles of one of those farms would realize how easy a choice that is.
They could do a lot better than that for themselves, if the communities bought the windmills themselves using a long-term mortgage type of thing. They'd be paying for the windmills for a long time, but the price of electricity is only going to go up, and they can always make hydrogen with the things if their power grid isn't set up to buy their power.
They're probably a little disconcerting when you're right under them, at least until you are used to them. When you drive by, they are pretty cool looking.
No, it doesn't.
I can see that someone hasn't heard of the Xeon. You know, the high-end chip in the Pentium line, which holds its own against the G5 just fine.
"We think the iBook, PowerBook, Mac Mini, and potentially Xserve are areas that are going to move to Intel first," said Shaw Wu, an analyst at American Technology Research.
"We also think they might move the iMac or Power Mac," he added. "There, that should cover everything"
That hasn't been true in my lifetime, at least. The more traditional cutoff is a one year sentence, in some states it might be up to 2 years or as low as six months. It's a pretty rare misdemeanor that is actually sentenced at a full year; the prosecutor will in an extreme case like that probably just pursue felony charges.
This is another way in which the distinction between felonies and misdemeanors has decayed. Plenty of places won't hire someone with a misdemenaor conviction on their record.
The operative word is "conviction." Plenty of states make it illegal to base a hiring decision on a non-conviction criminal record (if someone was found not guilty, the charges were dismissed, they were simply arrested and then released, etc.). Those sorts of rules aren't always followed, however.