However that downfall won't come for a very long time considering how embedded Microsoft is in the entirety of our technology universe.
Seeing how much stuff people throw away every day (no backups, untested upgrades, etc.), I think Microsoft is less entrenched than they think. If a business can save millions of dollars each year by using OpenOffice.org and Mozilla on thin clients (both licensing _and_ electricity savings), they would have to consider that option long and hard before re-signing with Microsoft and buying new PCs.
This is a good point. What about editing the film so _only_ the nudity, sex, and violence are left? In "preserving" "fair use" rights, do they preserve equal rights?
If GWB and the Republican Party really cared about the Constitution and restricted government/lower taxes, why do they keep passing bills that fit the needs of special interests--i.e., their interests?
Yes, being overfunded can be a fundamental problem in projects just like being underfunded. It promotes waste, it diffuses management focus, and it can create a "we can do it all" mentality, even though projects scale non-linearly.
I have Windows 98 and Office 97 around for the very rare occasion they are useful, but I exclusively use Solaris and StarOffice otherwise. That could just as well be Linux and OpenOffice.org.
2-3 years after Longhorn ships, I'll still have Windows 98 and Office 97. It's actually cheaper to get support contracts from Sun now than it is to buy an OS from Microsoft. Holy shit, this is the first time I realized that: I can get a real support contract cheaper than just the Windows/Office CD-ROM box sets!
PDF is very carefully laid out so that you can perform random access to the document and even download only those parts which you wish to read as you read them.
Thank you for reinforcing that people who go against the fashion wave and avoid XML are not idiots. When I was doing software development full time, several of my co-workers would run around shouting "XML XML XML XML" like a broken robot. I don't think they ever really used XML effectively anywhere, but they sure spent a lot of time doing it.
Another annoying thing about XML is the amount of software involved on top of all the other software. When I had to do a simple data exchange in between to distant servers, my first thought was to use HTTP. Java Servlets have HTTP handling built right in, HTTP defines GET and POST very simply and clearly, and any idiot can understand that code faster than they can say "W3C" ten times quickly. It doesn't matter though, that particular project got cancelled due to "budget constraints" (gee, I wonder who spent all the money?).
Once LH achieves more penetration, the Metro format will be the standard,...
People give Microsoft _way_ too much credit. Even in ten years, there will be a very significant population of people _not_ running Longhorn. For example, half my family still uses Windows 98! I will still be using Windows 98 even past Longhorn's launch date, because my main desktop will be centered around Solaris and Linux for years to come.
Add that Microsoft is slipping ever so slowly in share, and I wouldn't be suprised if Longhorn never sees a majority share. Look at China and SE Asia, for example. They're signing deals for Linux desktops. Millions of them.
I guess I don't see the advantage in PDF over something like Word.
PDF and PostScript are platform independent and will always display the same on all platforms. Even on platforms that don't have Reader, there's Ghostscript (an OSS implementation) for reading PS/PDF.
Word is a whole 'nother ball of wax. Word depends on fonts and libraries that vary from computer to computer and even from version to version. Word is a terrible data exchange format for this reason. It is also very platform constrained. Usually, when people continue to defend word past this point, they come across as Microsoft zealots, because it is clear Word is a Microsoft-centric program.
I've generally had good luck with even Reader 4.0. It just tells me that there are some newer features in the document but I still see most of the content.
Ugh, I had that happen once with a smaller regional jobs site. They had me put the resume into a web form, and a few days later my resume was up in some screwed up formatting. I re-did it and got a reply from the "Professional Recruiter" that he knew better than I did and let him do his magic. Needless to say, I don't think that site stayed in business long.
Adobe has been in the fonts and printing business for decades. What Microsoft does best in this case is come in with a half-ass replacement, market it to destroy Adobe, and then the world is left worse off than before. They've done it to competitors before. I really really hope that never happens, because PDF is so ubiquitous (look at all the platforms their Reader runs on!).
When it comes down to convenience or price or 'cool factor', most home PC users have no loyalty. Just look how many people switched to Windows 95 in droves, even though it broke lots of apps. Apple successfully moved to Mac OS X, which was a gigantic change. People moved en masse from UNIX to Windows NT in the 1990s (as big a change as it gets).
What is so suprising is that Longhorn has been under development for so long, and it still has this sort of obvious UI problem.
I wonder if Microsoft has reached a critical mass, where they simply cannot finish Longhorn at all. There are lots of projects out there (e.g., The Big Dig, etc.) that for whatever reasons simply never die.
AMD has been producing better CPUs for PCs for a while now. It's about time the markets caught up.
Intel lags behind on power consumption, balanced performance, and price. They've run out of frequency head room on the Pentium 4, so I guess the Pentium M is all they got for the future. AMD still has room to go.
MSN's low share is _in_spite_of_ MSN being the default browser on all Windows computers. Google has managed to side-step the effect of Microsoft's desktop monopoly, due to being better at the same price.
It isn't unethical to buy or sell _anything_ (illicit substances aside). If I personally agree to the terms of the sale, that means I am acting out of free will. Then, there are all these people at Slashdot who say that buying or selling non-GPL software is unethical? Wow, what a twisted up bunch of 'free thinkers'.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, if they spread the cost of R&D over the number of anticipated licensees, it could well be $500!
However that downfall won't come for a very long time considering how embedded Microsoft is in the entirety of our technology universe.
Seeing how much stuff people throw away every day (no backups, untested upgrades, etc.), I think Microsoft is less entrenched than they think. If a business can save millions of dollars each year by using OpenOffice.org and Mozilla on thin clients (both licensing _and_ electricity savings), they would have to consider that option long and hard before re-signing with Microsoft and buying new PCs.
SMF doesn't just parallelize the init process, it also provides fault tolerance by restarting crashed services and maintaining dependency order.
SMF is one of the unsung heros lurking within Solaris 10, while Containers and DTrace get all the press.
This is a good point. What about editing the film so _only_ the nudity, sex, and violence are left? In "preserving" "fair use" rights, do they preserve equal rights?
If GWB and the Republican Party really cared about the Constitution and restricted government/lower taxes, why do they keep passing bills that fit the needs of special interests--i.e., their interests?
For completeness, the Democrats are no better.
Yes, being overfunded can be a fundamental problem in projects just like being underfunded. It promotes waste, it diffuses management focus, and it can create a "we can do it all" mentality, even though projects scale non-linearly.
I have Windows 98 and Office 97 around for the very rare occasion they are useful, but I exclusively use Solaris and StarOffice otherwise. That could just as well be Linux and OpenOffice.org.
2-3 years after Longhorn ships, I'll still have Windows 98 and Office 97. It's actually cheaper to get support contracts from Sun now than it is to buy an OS from Microsoft. Holy shit, this is the first time I realized that: I can get a real support contract cheaper than just the Windows/Office CD-ROM box sets!
Wow, Microsoft has a tough road ahead of them.
PDF is very carefully laid out so that you can perform random access to the document and even download only those parts which you wish to read as you read them.
Thank you for reinforcing that people who go against the fashion wave and avoid XML are not idiots. When I was doing software development full time, several of my co-workers would run around shouting "XML XML XML XML" like a broken robot. I don't think they ever really used XML effectively anywhere, but they sure spent a lot of time doing it.
Another annoying thing about XML is the amount of software involved on top of all the other software. When I had to do a simple data exchange in between to distant servers, my first thought was to use HTTP. Java Servlets have HTTP handling built right in, HTTP defines GET and POST very simply and clearly, and any idiot can understand that code faster than they can say "W3C" ten times quickly. It doesn't matter though, that particular project got cancelled due to "budget constraints" (gee, I wonder who spent all the money?).
Once LH achieves more penetration, the Metro format will be the standard,...
People give Microsoft _way_ too much credit. Even in ten years, there will be a very significant population of people _not_ running Longhorn. For example, half my family still uses Windows 98! I will still be using Windows 98 even past Longhorn's launch date, because my main desktop will be centered around Solaris and Linux for years to come.
Add that Microsoft is slipping ever so slowly in share, and I wouldn't be suprised if Longhorn never sees a majority share. Look at China and SE Asia, for example. They're signing deals for Linux desktops. Millions of them.
StarOffice/OpenOffice.org also print to PDF. I used it all the time for resumes.
I guess I don't see the advantage in PDF over something like Word.
PDF and PostScript are platform independent and will always display the same on all platforms. Even on platforms that don't have Reader, there's Ghostscript (an OSS implementation) for reading PS/PDF.
Word is a whole 'nother ball of wax. Word depends on fonts and libraries that vary from computer to computer and even from version to version. Word is a terrible data exchange format for this reason. It is also very platform constrained. Usually, when people continue to defend word past this point, they come across as Microsoft zealots, because it is clear Word is a Microsoft-centric program.
I've generally had good luck with even Reader 4.0. It just tells me that there are some newer features in the document but I still see most of the content.
Ugh, I had that happen once with a smaller regional jobs site. They had me put the resume into a web form, and a few days later my resume was up in some screwed up formatting. I re-did it and got a reply from the "Professional Recruiter" that he knew better than I did and let him do his magic. Needless to say, I don't think that site stayed in business long.
Adobe has been in the fonts and printing business for decades. What Microsoft does best in this case is come in with a half-ass replacement, market it to destroy Adobe, and then the world is left worse off than before. They've done it to competitors before. I really really hope that never happens, because PDF is so ubiquitous (look at all the platforms their Reader runs on!).
I stopped at Windows 98 SE. It just works
The next generation of computers could very well be thin clients. The key factor being "zero administration".
When it comes down to convenience or price or 'cool factor', most home PC users have no loyalty. Just look how many people switched to Windows 95 in droves, even though it broke lots of apps. Apple successfully moved to Mac OS X, which was a gigantic change. People moved en masse from UNIX to Windows NT in the 1990s (as big a change as it gets).
What is so suprising is that Longhorn has been under development for so long, and it still has this sort of obvious UI problem.
I wonder if Microsoft has reached a critical mass, where they simply cannot finish Longhorn at all. There are lots of projects out there (e.g., The Big Dig, etc.) that for whatever reasons simply never die.
Hasn't Steve Ballmer already done that?
ChewbaccaD says: "In all fairness, they do tell you to put your head between your legs... why not someone else's?"
No offense if I pass you by.
Yes, that was a typo.
How many executives at IBM, HP, Dell, Red Hat, Sun, SGI, etc. use Windows? I'm sure the data sent is anonymous...sure it is.
AMD has been producing better CPUs for PCs for a while now. It's about time the markets caught up.
Intel lags behind on power consumption, balanced performance, and price. They've run out of frequency head room on the Pentium 4, so I guess the Pentium M is all they got for the future. AMD still has room to go.
MSN's low share is _in_spite_of_ MSN being the default browser on all Windows computers. Google has managed to side-step the effect of Microsoft's desktop monopoly, due to being better at the same price.
It isn't unethical to buy or sell _anything_ (illicit substances aside). If I personally agree to the terms of the sale, that means I am acting out of free will. Then, there are all these people at Slashdot who say that buying or selling non-GPL software is unethical? Wow, what a twisted up bunch of 'free thinkers'.
The real turning point will be whenever we hear the words "emergency powers."