I believe that the cost they get from people having to purchase valid copies of Windows generates more money then they loose in call centers. Not to mention that MS can swallow the cost without doing Even though this annoys me 'greatly' what else am I going to do? Run Windows 2000, which will no longer receive updates soon? or run some other OS like MAC or a Linux based OS? None of these are valid options for me at this time. I am hoping that Vista improves this situation.
I've calld in between 50-100 times for various computer (very annoying having to do this). I have never been asked any questions out of the ordinary or been accused of using an invalid key. They simply follow a script of questions to ask and give you a authentication code to type in.
Windows 2000 has the RunAs command. The problem is that Microsoft doesnt or didnt prompt using this feature. It is mainly built for and used by Administrators.
Sure give your mom an OS/2 box and then a Vista box with 4gigs of RAM (Vista runs just fine on 1-2 gigs, 4 is overkill). Come back in a week see which one she is using.
First off the site has been slashdoted, which pretty much ruins any type of results that would mean anything. It is very safe to say that 90%-99% of the people who voted will never buy a Dell.
Note this was started by someone consumer on the Dell website, not Dell itself... People seem to think this is Dells way of testing the waters..lol
Or work with an already established distro. For example: Ubuntu and HP would make a good team, Ubuntu already installs great on all current (not sure how many old models), provides all the drivers makes for a no fuss install. In fact if you install Windows on an HP notebook/workstation you have to hunt down all the drivers, if you install Ubuntu it just works without ANY tinkering
14,000 votes means only 4666 people voted for it, and I can just imagine how many zelots voted multiple time (this isnt the first pro-linux website that has promoted this link)
I think the person who posted this link got a little excited over nothing. If anyone really believes that having Linux on the desktop is more important/popular to consumers then being able to speak to a 'John Smith' rather then a 'Abdule Ramakaiaky' for their tech support is out of their mind.
Sirius has NFL + Nascar, two big industries IMO. Having Opie and Anthony working with the same station (ie rivals) as Howard Stern will bring better content to both of their fan bases. Has a Howard Stern fan I just know he will try to start something, it just makes good radio.
You are ignorant if you believe MS doesnt have so many virus problems because it is the #1 OS on the market.
MAC, Linux and Unix all have Security issues, however they are not a large targets because of their small user base. If both MAC or Linux had 90% market share of the desktop enviroment users would have to use Antivirus applications also.
It's possible that they may not have the amount of security issues that MS has, however they are Software applications and ALL software has bugs that can be exploited.
Microsoft has never said Vista is indestructable, they simply said it is the most secure OS they have released to date, only time will tell if this is true, however they have put in measures to guard against known ways of exploiting systems. As people find ways around this, MS will have to deploy patches like every other OS.
Do you have any idea how much it cost to develop a game for a single platform? Just because you can port 'some' of your code to another platform it doesnt mean it is viable. You still have to write OS specific code, test that code, distribute that code, then support that code. It is more then double the work without doubling the profit ( I would be suprised if a company made a 1/4 of the money they do selling to Windows while selling to MACs... even less for Linux... hell until a single distro takes a huge lead.. forget about Linux, waste of time. It is basic economics.
It is the same reasons why OEMs do not sell many computers with Linux and why lots of companies do not port their business apps to MAC and even less to Linux.
Windows 2000 wasnt really geared toward Computer Games. Ive always thought 2000 was released for businesses, then later on XP for home use / business (I really like the business features in XP, GPOs, Remote desktop/assitances, system restore, firewall, wireless..etc).
At the time I believe Windows ME was targeted for home use... at least this is what I see, I rarely see a home user with Windows 2000 on their machine, unless they are a geek.
By "mid-2008", I'm hoping SP1 or SP2 includes the abandonment of DRM I highly doubt this will happen. Without it, people cannot play HD-DVD or BlueRay Discs. Time will tell if either will succeed, but their is no reason to believe the successor to DVDs wont require DRM.
I don't have time at the moment to fuss with all the production software I use to get it running on XP. Sonar, Premiere, Steinberg Wave-lab, Pro-Tools, etc. I've got oddball little directx plugins for all those programs that I rely upon. I can't afford the time or energy right now to play with all this just to keep MS' quarterly earnings healthy People have wanted MS to change their ways for years, MS finally comes out with a secure design, which OF COURSE breaks 1000's of programs, now people complain about it. Unfortunately the MS platform encouraged people to right crappy code, they ALWAYS had the ability to right the programs properly in the first place, but time is money. Companies had years to test their apps with Vista (Ive been installing betas for over 3 years now), personally I find this makes companies look bad when they cannot be ready for a release. It just goes to show how much some companies don't care about their customers, a lot of companies will abandon old products and just say 'Sorry, you have to buy our new version, no extra features, but it works with Vista!... Pay up!!!'
I don't remember XP's rollout being this much trouble. I remember being elated at how it just seemed to have drivers for everything I was running and and there was a significant improvement over Win98 and NT (which most of the music software didn't like).
The differences between XP and 2000 is minimal, ever notice how many drivers work for both XP and 2000? By the time XP hit the scene 2000 was our in full force and had drivers all over the place, so their was not a huge speed bump for drivers.
It takes roughly a week for a user to get acustom to using the ribbon interface, after that they don't want to go back to the usual menu. Like you said you are digging for items, but once you find them its easy to find them again. Its an entirely new interface, of course its hard to find some items you once loved to use.
Once the employees learned to use it, the new interface is a very good thing.
Mom you can now buy a phone for the same price + subscription fees as a computer...
The IPhone is targetted to ages 15-35. It's business uses are limited, in fact Apple limits it themselves. In 1-2 years their will be multiple IPhone clones for a fraction of the price.
becomes more important because it ties all the consumer devices together
This is why MS and Apple are going towards this market and hitting it hard. Apple went the Ipod route, MS went the XBox route, I guess time will tell which route was faster:)
I was commenting on your statement about Steve Jobs making the right moves about consumer devices. I was basically saying that I don't believe device(s) are the way to go, I believe its a single device.
And your old mum is going to spend $400 for an IPhone? Not sure about your mom, but the day my mom wants a phone to check email, take pictures is the day pigs fly; she just wants a phone.
I am not anti-Apple, but please take a look into how Windows Media edition + Xbox 360 work together to provide a 'currently' unbeatable home enterataintment system. PVR, PC, Gaming Console, what other company can offer such a combo with two of their products. It is very expensive to purchase both of them, but as with everything price will come down and some other company will make a less quality item, but it will be at a very decent price. Xbox is a huge gaming console, and to think MS just got into the market. Both apple and MS are trying to get to the same point, but I believe MS will make it there first.
Is it really unrealistic to have an Xbox acting like a DVD player, PVR, Slideshow presenter, and connect (through wire or wireless) a monitor, keyboard, and mouse and you have a fully functional computer. Software wise this is already possible, however processor speed/price needs 4-5 years to make this a common applicance. Apply may have fancy good looking stuff, but Microsoft is Microsoft. One day the giant will fall, but not before they take over your living room.
I doubt people will replace a single device (a PC or MAC) with multiple devices that provide the same functionality and increases complexity. Its more realistic to imagine all entertainment devices will eventually be in a single box.
Both Apple and MS are moving into this direction, but the technology is not easy enough to use and is still too expensive to really make a huge impact on households. I am exciting to see what will be out there in 5+ years.
I understand what you mean, but this is what I have done.
1 account for my MSN Messenger(my hotmail account I have had for years and years. I use this to chat with friends. I have 250MB storage limit so I only have to log into my hotmail email side once every few months and delete everything to keep it alive.
1 account for my duties at work, for this one I used my work email account. Everything business related would go to this account.
If I had an xbox I probably would have created a new one for that. MS has given us the ability to only use a single sign on, but they did not force us to do so. Xbox live is like any other 'payed' online game, once you create your identity you are stuck with it unless you purchase another account.
I see where you are coming from, I just dont agree with your argument
I use a lot of MS products and I love the fact I dont have to make a new account everything I register for a product, beta, download, webcast, eopen, msn, event. From a business end it is a fantastic idea. As a system integrator that deals with a lot of different clients and even more vendors I have to manage a large (30+) amount of username/passwords. If if the Passport (Live) wasnt universal to MS I would have at least 10 more and I dont even want to know how often I would have typed in my name, address, job...etc
300 dollars for a centrino pc?? I think you mean Celeron. Ive been in the PC selling business for years. I purchase the pc, set it up, walk it into the door, plug it in then let the users use it. I have never seen a pc die in 2 years, especially since they have 3 year warranty.
You just proved why the Outlook/Exchange + Office combo is unbeatable. With only 2 products you get all of what you said + FULL INTEGRATION with an office sweet.
Look at the products you just named and think about why Outlook and Exchange is on top.
If you do that, you will be creating a market where 100's if not 1000's of new hardware vendors will be coming out of the woodworks giving you competition. It just doesnt make good business sense to do this.
3rd Party device makers are in the business of making money, not making fan-boys happy. Why support Linux, the markey is so small its not workth the investment in R&D
Slashdot Mirror
I believe that the cost they get from people having to purchase valid copies of Windows generates more money then they loose in call centers. Not to mention that MS can swallow the cost without doing Even though this annoys me 'greatly' what else am I going to do? Run Windows 2000, which will no longer receive updates soon? or run some other OS like MAC or a Linux based OS? None of these are valid options for me at this time. I am hoping that Vista improves this situation.
I've calld in between 50-100 times for various computer (very annoying having to do this). I have never been asked any questions out of the ordinary or been accused of using an invalid key. They simply follow a script of questions to ask and give you a authentication code to type in.
Windows 2000 has the RunAs command. The problem is that Microsoft doesnt or didnt prompt using this feature. It is mainly built for and used by Administrators.
Sure give your mom an OS/2 box and then a Vista box with 4gigs of RAM (Vista runs just fine on 1-2 gigs, 4 is overkill). Come back in a week see which one she is using.
First off the site has been slashdoted, which pretty much ruins any type of results that would mean anything. It is very safe to say that 90%-99% of the people who voted will never buy a Dell.
Note this was started by someone consumer on the Dell website, not Dell itself... People seem to think this is Dells way of testing the waters..lol
Or work with an already established distro. For example: Ubuntu and HP would make a good team, Ubuntu already installs great on all current (not sure how many old models), provides all the drivers makes for a no fuss install. In fact if you install Windows on an HP notebook/workstation you have to hunt down all the drivers, if you install Ubuntu it just works without ANY tinkering
14,000 votes means only 4666 people voted for it, and I can just imagine how many zelots voted multiple time (this isnt the first pro-linux website that has promoted this link)
I think the person who posted this link got a little excited over nothing. If anyone really believes that having Linux on the desktop is more important/popular to consumers then being able to speak to a 'John Smith' rather then a 'Abdule Ramakaiaky' for their tech support is out of their mind.
Sirius has NFL + Nascar, two big industries IMO. Having Opie and Anthony working with the same station (ie rivals) as Howard Stern will bring better content to both of their fan bases. Has a Howard Stern fan I just know he will try to start something, it just makes good radio.
You are ignorant if you believe MS doesnt have so many virus problems because it is the #1 OS on the market.
MAC, Linux and Unix all have Security issues, however they are not a large targets because of their small user base. If both MAC or Linux had 90% market share of the desktop enviroment users would have to use Antivirus applications also.
It's possible that they may not have the amount of security issues that MS has, however they are Software applications and ALL software has bugs that can be exploited.
Microsoft has never said Vista is indestructable, they simply said it is the most secure OS they have released to date, only time will tell if this is true, however they have put in measures to guard against known ways of exploiting systems. As people find ways around this, MS will have to deploy patches like every other OS.
Do you have any idea how much it cost to develop a game for a single platform? Just because you can port 'some' of your code to another platform it doesnt mean it is viable. You still have to write OS specific code, test that code, distribute that code, then support that code. It is more then double the work without doubling the profit ( I would be suprised if a company made a 1/4 of the money they do selling to Windows while selling to MACs... even less for Linux... hell until a single distro takes a huge lead.. forget about Linux, waste of time.
It is basic economics.
It is the same reasons why OEMs do not sell many computers with Linux and why lots of companies do not port their business apps to MAC and even less to Linux.
Windows 2000 wasnt really geared toward Computer Games. Ive always thought 2000 was released for businesses, then later on XP for home use / business (I really like the business features in XP, GPOs, Remote desktop/assitances, system restore, firewall, wireless..etc).
At the time I believe Windows ME was targeted for home use... at least this is what I see, I rarely see a home user with Windows 2000 on their machine, unless they are a geek.
I highly doubt this will happen. Without it, people cannot play HD-DVD or BlueRay Discs. Time will tell if either will succeed, but their is no reason to believe the successor to DVDs wont require DRM.
I don't have time at the moment to fuss with all the production software I use to get it running on XP. Sonar, Premiere, Steinberg Wave-lab, Pro-Tools, etc. I've got oddball little directx plugins for all those programs that I rely upon. I can't afford the time or energy right now to play with all this just to keep MS' quarterly earnings healthy
People have wanted MS to change their ways for years, MS finally comes out with a secure design, which OF COURSE breaks 1000's of programs, now people complain about it. Unfortunately the MS platform encouraged people to right crappy code, they ALWAYS had the ability to right the programs properly in the first place, but time is money. Companies had years to test their apps with Vista (Ive been installing betas for over 3 years now), personally I find this makes companies look bad when they cannot be ready for a release. It just goes to show how much some companies don't care about their customers, a lot of companies will abandon old products and just say 'Sorry, you have to buy our new version, no extra features, but it works with Vista!... Pay up!!!'
I don't remember XP's rollout being this much trouble. I remember being elated at how it just seemed to have drivers for everything I was running and and there was a significant improvement over Win98 and NT (which most of the music software didn't like).
The differences between XP and 2000 is minimal, ever notice how many drivers work for both XP and 2000? By the time XP hit the scene 2000 was our in full force and had drivers all over the place, so their was not a huge speed bump for drivers.
It takes roughly a week for a user to get acustom to using the ribbon interface, after that they don't want to go back to the usual menu. Like you said you are digging for items, but once you find them its easy to find them again. Its an entirely new interface, of course its hard to find some items you once loved to use.
Once the employees learned to use it, the new interface is a very good thing.
Mom you can now buy a phone for the same price + subscription fees as a computer...
The IPhone is targetted to ages 15-35. It's business uses are limited, in fact Apple limits it themselves. In 1-2 years their will be multiple IPhone clones for a fraction of the price.
Exacly!!!.
:)
becomes more important because it ties all the consumer devices together
This is why MS and Apple are going towards this market and hitting it hard. Apple went the Ipod route, MS went the XBox route, I guess time will tell which route was faster
I was commenting on your statement about Steve Jobs making the right moves about consumer devices.
I was basically saying that I don't believe device(s) are the way to go, I believe its a single device.
And your old mum is going to spend $400 for an IPhone? Not sure about your mom, but the day my mom wants a phone to check email, take pictures is the day pigs fly; she just wants a phone.
I am not anti-Apple, but please take a look into how Windows Media edition + Xbox 360 work together to provide a 'currently' unbeatable home enterataintment system. PVR, PC, Gaming Console, what other company can offer such a combo with two of their products. It is very expensive to purchase both of them, but as with everything price will come down and some other company will make a less quality item, but it will be at a very decent price. Xbox is a huge gaming console, and to think MS just got into the market. Both apple and MS are trying to get to the same point, but I believe MS will make it there first.
Is it really unrealistic to have an Xbox acting like a DVD player, PVR, Slideshow presenter, and connect (through wire or wireless) a monitor, keyboard, and mouse and you have a fully functional computer. Software wise this is already possible, however processor speed/price needs 4-5 years to make this a common applicance. Apply may have fancy good looking stuff, but Microsoft is Microsoft. One day the giant will fall, but not before they take over your living room.
I doubt people will replace a single device (a PC or MAC) with multiple devices that provide the same functionality and increases complexity. Its more realistic to imagine all entertainment devices will eventually be in a single box.
Both Apple and MS are moving into this direction, but the technology is not easy enough to use and is still too expensive to really make a huge impact on households. I am exciting to see what will be out there in 5+ years.
I understand what you mean, but this is what I have done.
1 account for my MSN Messenger(my hotmail account I have had for years and years. I use this to chat with friends. I have 250MB storage limit so I only have to log into my hotmail email side once every few months and delete everything to keep it alive.
1 account for my duties at work, for this one I used my work email account. Everything business related would go to this account.
If I had an xbox I probably would have created a new one for that. MS has given us the ability to only use a single sign on, but they did not force us to do so. Xbox live is like any other 'payed' online game, once you create your identity you are stuck with it unless you purchase another account.
I see where you are coming from, I just dont agree with your argument
I use a lot of MS products and I love the fact I dont have to make a new account everything I register for a product, beta, download, webcast, eopen, msn, event. From a business end it is a fantastic idea. As a system integrator that deals with a lot of different clients and even more vendors I have to manage a large (30+) amount of username/passwords. If if the Passport (Live) wasnt universal to MS I would have at least 10 more and I dont even want to know how often I would have typed in my name, address, job...etc
300 dollars for a centrino pc?? I think you mean Celeron. Ive been in the PC selling business for years. I purchase the pc, set it up, walk it into the door, plug it in then let the users use it. I have never seen a pc die in 2 years, especially since they have 3 year warranty.
What and miss out on .000000000000000000000000001% of the people browsing the Internet? Whats next, Hardware vendors not creating drivers for Linux?
You just proved why the Outlook/Exchange + Office combo is unbeatable. With only 2 products you get all of what you said + FULL INTEGRATION with an office sweet.
Look at the products you just named and think about why Outlook and Exchange is on top.
If you do that, you will be creating a market where 100's if not 1000's of new hardware vendors will be coming out of the woodworks giving you competition. It just doesnt make good business sense to do this.
3rd Party device makers are in the business of making money, not making fan-boys happy. Why support Linux, the markey is so small its not workth the investment in R&D