You guys are all missing the point! The "news, things that matter" part of this isn't that Obama is using a Zune, but that a Zune has actually been seen being used by someone. Happens to be the president-elect, that's just the bonus celebrity factor. But have you ever seen a Zune outside a store? See, now you know why this is news.:-)
It is a slow process to get rid of a monopoly, especially a well funded, contemptible, spiteful, and disgusting entity like Microsoft.
We agree on that.
I don't even see where we disagree. I still think that companies that do switch will do it in a rollout, not step-by-step - mostly for exactly the reasons you list. If it's going to be painful anyway, why make the pain last longer by doing a slow transition?
Yes, most of the actual IT people hate MS, mostly because it's shitty and also because it doesn't give them options and they like options.
Management, even IT management, however, thinks differently. For the techies, another system to support is a challenge. To management, another system to support is another FTE or two, and they don't have that in the headcount.
They HATE the monoculture, they want interoperability.
I don't see that in the real world, except for exceptions.
The "browser" is the model that EVERY COMPUTER USER wants. Competition of programs to best operate with data. Why does a word document have to be different than an OpenOffice document? Its what the companies want, not what the users want.
And still, you will find many, many, many companies that only support IE, and that because it comes with the system. They don't want to support a 2nd browser, because doing so requires additional ressources, however few.
The monoculture is something forced on companies and IT departments by Microsoft. They do it because they are stuck with it. If they could be "un-stuck" they would.
That's what I mean by "lock-in", except that I don't think they care so much about being "un-stuck". I still think monoculture is what most IT departments prefer. They would certainly prefer being able to pick the browser to support, instead of it being IE by default (which it is because since it comes with the system they have to support it anyways).
Many programmers who've designed some of our most useful programs have some basic knowledge of a few math functions in their code and only a passing knowledge of the math of the assembler that converts their C++ into a binary.
Which is largely why we have such shitty software.
Math isn't just about 1+1=2. It's about vectors (required for anything 3D), matrices (required for any complex graphics operations) and also about logic (required for anything). Then there's more esoteric stuff like numerical math (very useful for approximations and error calculations), the whole trigonometry stuff, etc. etc. etc.
True, a GUI designer or operator doesn't need that stuff. It helps even them, but it's not required. But a coder? You're trying to tell me you can write good code without understanding boolean algebra?
Notably, this study doesn't say anything about the total market share of Windows or any other operating system, as seems to be implied in the headline and most of the summary.
That might be because there isn't a single agreed-upon definition of market share.
You have sales numbers, but that ignores how long people keep a system around, it ignores piracy, it ignores re-sales and it can't track Linux where a good share of the installed base isn't sold. Due to the OEM lock-in, going by sales numbers tends to exaggerate windos market share.
You can do surveys, or use online sites like this statistics. Those all have their share of problems as well.
There's at least one other method I can't recall right now.
So what exactly does "market share" mean? Nobody really knows.:-)
So, what they are saying is that people would rather use something else, and do so at home. In effect, people don't want windoze but are forced to use it at work.
Absolutely true for at least 10%, maybe as much as 20% according to my personal estimate and surrounding. A lot of the Mac fans or of the unix guys have no choice at work, and most of them hate it.
However, the corporate monoculture lock-in is one of the main reasons for the continued "success" of windos. So it's ok to point out the difference, but it shouldn't be discounted.
I'm never, ever going to be writing deep, math-theory-heavy code. I just won't. I don't want to, and there are other people who would be better at it, even if I studied it pretty damn hard. "Computer Science" is a wasted concept on me and on the vast majority of coders.
Then you've never coded anything meaningful.
I thought so about most of the theoretical and math stuff during my university time. Now, about 10 years later, I've time and time again been happy that I had to learn the stuff, because it came in handy. And quite a few times, I could probably have done without it, but the alternate solution would have been complicated, wasteful on resources and not as easily adapted to other problems.
Mathematics is the language of computers. If you "don't do math-heavy-stuff" then you're not doing anything meaningful. Period.
3D acceleration and the Aero interface will now work within VMWare clients.
With adoption of Vista being in the single-digit percentages, I can only imagine where it is among VMWare users, where resources are even more limited. I do run XP in VMWare Fusion every once in a while. The thought of running Vista in there (and DX10 is Vista-only, remember?) did never so far cross my mind.
(yes,/., it's been less than a minute since I posted my other comment. Some of us don't do peek-and-type anymore! Grow up already!)
Double the CPU clock and the FPS doubles, double or quadruple the number of cores and the FPS again goes up by the same factor...
Meanwhile, GPU speeds have been growing faster than CPU speeds for years, and the requirements of games will grow with them, i.e. faster than CPU speeds grow.
So there's still a geek or two left at M$, as it seems.
Aside from the cool factor, what exactly is the purpose of this hack? Nobody wants to play Crysis at 7fps in the real world, and dedicated 3D hardware is moving into even the smallest devices. 10 years ago, when notebooks didn't have 3D cards, this would've been commercially interesting. In 2008, it's a simple "because we can" hack.
Then I'll get the competing "bittorrent" release, the one without DRM bullshit. It's also free.
Seriously, there's a number of games now that I would have gladly bought, if it weren't for the DRM. When will game publishers learn that their competition isn't other games, but the pirate releases of their own games? If the bittorrent release is a) free, b) available the same day or (sometimes) even earlier and c) comes without encumberance - give me a reason to buy your game. Seriously. a) is the least important point to me, I earn ok money. So I'm willing to spend the money, if what I get in return is worth it.
Why should I (and others) waste ~$100 dragging our computers to Best Buy or some other service center? Your proposal violates multiple individual rights (right of property, right of labor, right of money). It's my damn computer, my damn money, and *I* will decide whether or not to take it to the service center.
I'll agree to that the minute you allow me to send you an invoice for the damage that you have chosen to continue causing to my mailserver.
Yes, it'll probably be less than $1. But that's just my server and just you. Multiply by all the servers you hit, and all the bot-net-owned PCs hitting me and it becomes quite substantial.
So, you want your rights, that's fine. But with rights comes responsibility, you ready to take that as well?
So there's a line for "acceptable lies" and "too much of a lie"?
Because, if you know any TV ad that does not paint the product in a better light than the real world, I'd really like a youtube link. Yes, it is misleading. That's what advertisement is all about, isn't it? Yeah, that supermodel has really great hair after using that shampoo... and two conditioners (not shown), a very expensive hairdresser (not shown) and two hours in the make-up room (not shown). Let's not even get started about car ads.
I guess the only reason this is news is that the iPhone is hot and shampoo isn't.
I fail to see the punishment. You and me, we don't need to take (or make) calls during the movie, nothing is being taken away from us. The cell phone network will even store up any SMS and provide voice-mail service to any calls we miss.
Jammers treat the symptom, not the problem. The problem is people who are rude and inconsiderate.
Good argument: Same answer. If you can't treat the problem, but you can treat the symptom, doing that is better than doing nothing and waiting for a miracle that takes care of the problem but might never happen.
May I suggest that when you encounter such rude people that you politely explain to them that their behaviour is interfering with your enjoyment of your meal | the movie | &c.
You see, the problem with assholes is that by and large you can't stop them without becoming one yourself. In the movie example specifically, the asshole is not usually the one in the next seat, so in order to tell him you have to become a disruption yourself.
You can, with a little tact, get your message across and spread polite behaviour at the same time and thereby make the world a very little bit nicer a place to be.
Totally. Meanwhile, put in the jammers. There will be enough other opportunities to tell the assholes to behave the way you outlined, where another option isn't available. But where it is, I politely refuse to be responsible for other people's behaviour, including the bad one.
We don't need jammers in theatres and restaurants.
Well, what we really need is more responsible people that think about other people around them a little.
Unfortunately, that is outside of your or mine or the theater management's area. We can't change those people. But we (that is, one of us, the management) can put in jammers.
It's not the perfect solution. But if the perfect solution is theoretical, a good practical solution will do.
Then you get the fuck out instead of calling your best friend to tell him "dude, you won't believe this, but I'm at the movies and there's a fire! No a real fire, not like on the screen, yaknow?"
A crime?
Go outside, tell the crew to call police. You know, like we did back in the days when there were no cell phones (and when people actually cared about crimes happening next to them).
A doctor with an emergency who knows how to stand up and walk out when he gets a call?
If the quota of those to "what the fuck are you thinking?" were even 1:1000 we probably wouldn't be having this discussion. As it is, the doctor is a strawman because compared to the non-necessary mobile phone action going on, he's rarer than Yeti.
GNOME applications now follow a set of guidelines what we developers call an HIG
That's the paperwork part. I know, we on that mailing list started that. But the papers isn't what it's about. The content of the papers is what matters.
Talking from a distance is pretty easy to do. If you're an expert at UI design, jump in and improve it. Start submitting patches. Ubuntu now has a recommendation system and a brainstorming platform where people post ideas and suggestions, which get voted up or down and commented upon.
Thank you for proving my point. Nowhere in the literature on user interface design, be it computers or other devices, is there even one recorded case where democracy or "crowd intelligence" came up with a good design. It's called "design", not "election" for a reason. A good designer listens to the crowd and considers the users, but he also knows enough psychology to understand that there's a difference between what people need and what they say they need.
That's not a solution unless you want to fork pretty much every Linux project.
You need the developers to understand that writing code isn't about writing code. It's about giving users a tool. That's counter-intuitive to the whole philosophy behind most of FOSS, where the focus is on the code and the creation of the code. Linux will be ready for the desktop on the day that everyone involved realizes that the creation of the code is the least important, not the most important part.
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You guys are all missing the point! The "news, things that matter" part of this isn't that Obama is using a Zune, but that a Zune has actually been seen being used by someone. Happens to be the president-elect, that's just the bonus celebrity factor. But have you ever seen a Zune outside a store? See, now you know why this is news. :-)
It is a slow process to get rid of a monopoly, especially a well funded, contemptible, spiteful, and disgusting entity like Microsoft.
We agree on that.
I don't even see where we disagree. I still think that companies that do switch will do it in a rollout, not step-by-step - mostly for exactly the reasons you list. If it's going to be painful anyway, why make the pain last longer by doing a slow transition?
Ok, I need to qualify further.
Yes, most of the actual IT people hate MS, mostly because it's shitty and also because it doesn't give them options and they like options.
Management, even IT management, however, thinks differently. For the techies, another system to support is a challenge. To management, another system to support is another FTE or two, and they don't have that in the headcount.
They HATE the monoculture, they want interoperability.
I don't see that in the real world, except for exceptions.
The "browser" is the model that EVERY COMPUTER USER wants. Competition of programs to best operate with data. Why does a word document have to be different than an OpenOffice document? Its what the companies want, not what the users want.
And still, you will find many, many, many companies that only support IE, and that because it comes with the system. They don't want to support a 2nd browser, because doing so requires additional ressources, however few.
The monoculture is something forced on companies and IT departments by Microsoft. They do it because they are stuck with it. If they could be "un-stuck" they would.
That's what I mean by "lock-in", except that I don't think they care so much about being "un-stuck". I still think monoculture is what most IT departments prefer. They would certainly prefer being able to pick the browser to support, instead of it being IE by default (which it is because since it comes with the system they have to support it anyways).
If it weren't for the "lock-in" part.
Large companies very rarely switch "seat by seat". They like monoculture, it makes it easier to run the whole damn thing.
Many programmers who've designed some of our most useful programs have some basic knowledge of a few math functions in their code and only a passing knowledge of the math of the assembler that converts their C++ into a binary.
Which is largely why we have such shitty software.
Math isn't just about 1+1=2. It's about vectors (required for anything 3D), matrices (required for any complex graphics operations) and also about logic (required for anything). Then there's more esoteric stuff like numerical math (very useful for approximations and error calculations), the whole trigonometry stuff, etc. etc. etc.
True, a GUI designer or operator doesn't need that stuff. It helps even them, but it's not required. But a coder? You're trying to tell me you can write good code without understanding boolean algebra?
Notably, this study doesn't say anything about the total market share of Windows or any other operating system, as seems to be implied in the headline and most of the summary.
That might be because there isn't a single agreed-upon definition of market share.
You have sales numbers, but that ignores how long people keep a system around, it ignores piracy, it ignores re-sales and it can't track Linux where a good share of the installed base isn't sold. Due to the OEM lock-in, going by sales numbers tends to exaggerate windos market share.
You can do surveys, or use online sites like this statistics. Those all have their share of problems as well.
There's at least one other method I can't recall right now.
So what exactly does "market share" mean? Nobody really knows. :-)
So, what they are saying is that people would rather use something else, and do so at home. In effect, people don't want windoze but are forced to use it at work.
Absolutely true for at least 10%, maybe as much as 20% according to my personal estimate and surrounding. A lot of the Mac fans or of the unix guys have no choice at work, and most of them hate it.
However, the corporate monoculture lock-in is one of the main reasons for the continued "success" of windos. So it's ok to point out the difference, but it shouldn't be discounted.
At least they are truthful, you know. They "get" it. Not like the antivirus companies.
Using virus scanners makes it more difficult to write a good virus. That's it.
I'm never, ever going to be writing deep, math-theory-heavy code. I just won't. I don't want to, and there are other people who would be better at it, even if I studied it pretty damn hard. "Computer Science" is a wasted concept on me and on the vast majority of coders.
Then you've never coded anything meaningful.
I thought so about most of the theoretical and math stuff during my university time. Now, about 10 years later, I've time and time again been happy that I had to learn the stuff, because it came in handy. And quite a few times, I could probably have done without it, but the alternate solution would have been complicated, wasteful on resources and not as easily adapted to other problems.
Mathematics is the language of computers. If you "don't do math-heavy-stuff" then you're not doing anything meaningful. Period.
3D acceleration and the Aero interface will now work within VMWare clients.
With adoption of Vista being in the single-digit percentages, I can only imagine where it is among VMWare users, where resources are even more limited. I do run XP in VMWare Fusion every once in a while. The thought of running Vista in there (and DX10 is Vista-only, remember?) did never so far cross my mind.
(yes, /., it's been less than a minute since I posted my other comment. Some of us don't do peek-and-type anymore! Grow up already!)
Double the CPU clock and the FPS doubles, double or quadruple the number of cores and the FPS again goes up by the same factor...
Meanwhile, GPU speeds have been growing faster than CPU speeds for years, and the requirements of games will grow with them, i.e. faster than CPU speeds grow.
So there's still a geek or two left at M$, as it seems.
Aside from the cool factor, what exactly is the purpose of this hack? Nobody wants to play Crysis at 7fps in the real world, and dedicated 3D hardware is moving into even the smallest devices. 10 years ago, when notebooks didn't have 3D cards, this would've been commercially interesting. In 2008, it's a simple "because we can" hack.
Well, technically, if NO ONE bought the game, and it was evident that DRM was the reason why, then I bet it *would* solve the problem.
As was proven by Spore? 2500 one-star Amazon reviews. Game with the highest piracy rate in history. Cracked three days prior to release.
And yet.
Doesn't look like it made anyone at EA think, does it?
Then I'll get the competing "bittorrent" release, the one without DRM bullshit. It's also free.
Seriously, there's a number of games now that I would have gladly bought, if it weren't for the DRM. When will game publishers learn that their competition isn't other games, but the pirate releases of their own games? If the bittorrent release is a) free, b) available the same day or (sometimes) even earlier and c) comes without encumberance - give me a reason to buy your game. Seriously. a) is the least important point to me, I earn ok money. So I'm willing to spend the money, if what I get in return is worth it.
DRM'ed crap isn't.
Why should I (and others) waste ~$100 dragging our computers to Best Buy or some other service center? Your proposal violates multiple individual rights (right of property, right of labor, right of money). It's my damn computer, my damn money, and *I* will decide whether or not to take it to the service center.
I'll agree to that the minute you allow me to send you an invoice for the damage that you have chosen to continue causing to my mailserver.
Yes, it'll probably be less than $1. But that's just my server and just you. Multiply by all the servers you hit, and all the bot-net-owned PCs hitting me and it becomes quite substantial.
So, you want your rights, that's fine. But with rights comes responsibility, you ready to take that as well?
So there's a line for "acceptable lies" and "too much of a lie"?
Because, if you know any TV ad that does not paint the product in a better light than the real world, I'd really like a youtube link. Yes, it is misleading. That's what advertisement is all about, isn't it? Yeah, that supermodel has really great hair after using that shampoo... and two conditioners (not shown), a very expensive hairdresser (not shown) and two hours in the make-up room (not shown). Let's not even get started about car ads.
I guess the only reason this is news is that the iPhone is hot and shampoo isn't.
Correct.
Tables were introduced in Mosaic 2.
The first releases of IE, btw., also did not support tables.
It does. But you need to read the next sentence as well. :-)
I fail to see the punishment. You and me, we don't need to take (or make) calls during the movie, nothing is being taken away from us. The cell phone network will even store up any SMS and provide voice-mail service to any calls we miss.
Jammers treat the symptom, not the problem. The problem is people who are rude and inconsiderate.
Good argument: Same answer. If you can't treat the problem, but you can treat the symptom, doing that is better than doing nothing and waiting for a miracle that takes care of the problem but might never happen.
May I suggest that when you encounter such rude people that you politely explain to them that their behaviour is interfering with your enjoyment of your meal | the movie | &c.
You see, the problem with assholes is that by and large you can't stop them without becoming one yourself. In the movie example specifically, the asshole is not usually the one in the next seat, so in order to tell him you have to become a disruption yourself.
You can, with a little tact, get your message across and spread polite behaviour at the same time and thereby make the world a very little bit nicer a place to be.
Totally. Meanwhile, put in the jammers. There will be enough other opportunities to tell the assholes to behave the way you outlined, where another option isn't available. But where it is, I politely refuse to be responsible for other people's behaviour, including the bad one.
We don't need jammers in theatres and restaurants.
Well, what we really need is more responsible people that think about other people around them a little.
Unfortunately, that is outside of your or mine or the theater management's area. We can't change those people. But we (that is, one of us, the management) can put in jammers.
It's not the perfect solution. But if the perfect solution is theoretical, a good practical solution will do.
What if there's a fire?
Then you get the fuck out instead of calling your best friend to tell him "dude, you won't believe this, but I'm at the movies and there's a fire! No a real fire, not like on the screen, yaknow?"
A crime?
Go outside, tell the crew to call police. You know, like we did back in the days when there were no cell phones (and when people actually cared about crimes happening next to them).
A doctor with an emergency who knows how to stand up and walk out when he gets a call?
If the quota of those to "what the fuck are you thinking?" were even 1:1000 we probably wouldn't be having this discussion. As it is, the doctor is a strawman because compared to the non-necessary mobile phone action going on, he's rarer than Yeti.
GNOME applications now follow a set of guidelines what we developers call an HIG
That's the paperwork part. I know, we on that mailing list started that. But the papers isn't what it's about. The content of the papers is what matters.
Talking from a distance is pretty easy to do. If you're an expert at UI design, jump in and improve it. Start submitting patches. Ubuntu now has a recommendation system and a brainstorming platform where people post ideas and suggestions, which get voted up or down and commented upon.
Thank you for proving my point. Nowhere in the literature on user interface design, be it computers or other devices, is there even one recorded case where democracy or "crowd intelligence" came up with a good design. It's called "design", not "election" for a reason. A good designer listens to the crowd and considers the users, but he also knows enough psychology to understand that there's a difference between what people need and what they say they need.
That's not a solution unless you want to fork pretty much every Linux project.
You need the developers to understand that writing code isn't about writing code. It's about giving users a tool. That's counter-intuitive to the whole philosophy behind most of FOSS, where the focus is on the code and the creation of the code. Linux will be ready for the desktop on the day that everyone involved realizes that the creation of the code is the least important, not the most important part.