I agree if I buy games I like the manual, dvd copy, and extras (maps, etc).
But xbox live has already demonstrated that you can download small games and be sucessful. Geometry Wars is what, ~20MB, and it is the funnest game I've played in years./just waiting until the 360 gets more live games, then I'm going to pick one up.
We catch Chinese spys (which is an act of war) all the time. We spy on each other, and we accept it. No reason to kill millions just because we're in the game.
Why would a business need the premium edition? Can you even get a computer slower than 800mhz from dell? The ram is the only iffy component, and by the time vista comes out 512mb will be standard.
I rarely use paypal, checked my bank statement one day, and realized 2k was missing from my bank courtesy of paypal. I have never clicked on a paypal email, and so the only explaination I could think of is either gross incompetance at paypal, or a keylogger was on my system (which was doubtful). Of course, I run all the major spyware/adware/virus/rootkit detectors and nothing (and yes, I do have a firewall, do not use wireless on this computer, and have a good password).
So, no more paypal for me. Of course I eventually got my money back, but it was a major hassle. For now on I am creating accounts using temp credit card numbers.
Well, sort of. I don't live in my parent's basement, so I can afford all of these systems. I will most likely be getting a Wii if it does not turn out to be too gimicky.
I'm guessing for anyone not obsessed about japanese RPGs that the 360 and PS3 will be very similar with their scope of games, so for most people it will be a Wii plus either the 360 or PS3.
While I can afford it, $500-600 is still a large chunk of change, so Sony better be putting something up OTHER than blu-ray to get my money. Perhaps something similar to live arcade, but with much more content.
Most people likely won't care about blu-ray. Most people I've talked to stated that they would buy 1, maybe 2 movies in blu-ray format if they had a player. Plus, I can't be the only one waiting for $50-$100 combo HD-DVD/blu-ray players (after seeing sony's implementation of DVD on the ps2, I think I'll pass on having the ps3 as my sole player).
Just took back my DS and got a DS lite. So far I like most of the changes. However, the DS lite feels more rickity to me, the buttons are not set as much as the regular DS, and it just feels like it is more fragile. I'll just have to be a bit more careful I guess.
If an IT person has gotten a windows virus since 2002 he should be fired. I have never gotten a XP virus, and 2003 server is supposed to be more locked down than XP, so you would have to be a royal moran to get a 2003 server virus.
I run conflict: middle east political simulator, and wizards crown, with no problems and under no emulation. Some games require sound blaster emulators, such as romance of the 3 kingdoms III. I doubt MS has the rights to offer dos soundblaster emulation. Otherwise I've never had a problem.
My current xp install is about 3gb for the OS. The one thing MS is ok at is backwards compatibility, so I will assume they will leave most of the previous functions as options instead of just rewriting them (I really have no idea as I have not used vista). So I will assume anything they add will be additional.
So what do we have additional: new network stack new GUI new indexing spyware/defender stuff couple of additional programs plus a few things I'm likely missing.
Assuming the GUI uses a variety of different textures for different types of machines, 1-1.5gb for all of the above is reasonable to me. But, this is the ultimate edition. So now they add in media center functionality, plus tablet PC programs, and some other stuff.
The tablet pc stuff likely includes windows journal, sticky notes, possibly One Note, the voice trainer, and since it is the ultimate edition I'll assume it includes the power toys, which is about 16 tablet pc programs. Not to mention some optional upgrades to the XP version. 1 gig for all of this sounds reasonable to me.
I don't know what their media center is all about, so I'll assume 500mb for the UI, codecs, and other crap. I bet the media center is where alot of bloated crap goes.
So that leaves us with 3 + 1.5 + 1 + 0.5 = 6. Which is what you estimated.
Also the recycling bin sets aside space. Perhaps they set this in the windows directory? If so, that can add an additional gig.
Arguably vista has all the programs the average joe will ever need (minus an office suite). I have no idea what takes up the space, but keep in mind that Vista has much more of a driver base than linux. Also, vista has GUIs of almost all windows versions (classic, standard, xp, and aero; not sure if this takes up any space, but it is possible).
XP is stable (I have no idea of vista is), the only thing that I think really needs to be imporved is security, networking, the registry, and the ability to insta-kill an application. Looks like they are working on security and networking, too bad about the registry and task manager. I'd try out OSX if they made a tablet, until then I'm likely to be stuck with vista.
Since I don't care about windows media (I use flac and mp3), the only one I might care about in the slightest is the secure audio path, which I'm guessing is only going to be in place for blu-ray/HD-DVD content, which I don't really care about, at least yet.
Not only is the mac base relatively small, but it is split between two different chipsets (powerpc/intel). Meaning you can market you game for 90% of the market, or 1% of the market.
And nothing stops a mac guy from putting a radeon x1900 in his mac.
If we didn't have windows we would likely still be paying 2k for a decent machine*. And not like anything below OS X was any better. I still have nightmares of mac error popup screens.
Linux is nearly usable for the mass market now; much less 10 years ago.
* We would be left with apple and *nix vararies, and face it, much of the world isn't ready for linux yet (I still can't get linux to work on my laptop properly), and without competition macs would be even more expensive.
I don't think I would be able to take it. Heck, one of my friends was a genius creative writer, chose macabre topics (murder, dissection, etc) and would hand out his writtings at school. Today he would be expelled. And who hasn't joked around about wanting a bomb threat to be called in so you could go home early? Now just talking about it would likely get you expelled.
It would be like going to a prison camp, being afraid of what to do, how to act, and what to say for fear of suspension and expulsion.
Thankfully my school had a program where you could go to community college instead of taking high school classes, so I didn't even spend my last two years at my highschool.
I do not know about lawyer school, but med school is difficult (I'm taking 23-29 units a quarter, and during finals can have up to 11 tests within one week), and a good percentage of people who make it in (which is difficult just in itself) don't make it all the way through.
I made $10-12 an hour delivering pizza, which required 5 minutes of training. My father makes 80k a year (MRI tech) with one year of junior college. Should the pay not reflect the training? Teachers are an exception, and no offense to any teachers, but the training to get there is quite easy (although I would agree some of you are underpaid).
I'm not really a fanboy (I have both a xbox & ps2, will be getting the Wii), but the xbox did pretty decent overall. Sure, it lost 4 gazillion dollars, but they got decent marketshare in an area already saturated IMO.
Sony and nintendo were pretty indifferent about online (I'm sure someone could quote something to prove me wrong here), and who knows where they would be now if xbox live wasn't introduced, and the evolution of live into the 360 is pretty sweet IMO.
The ps2 had more exclusives (the only reason I bought a ps2 was for the romance of the three kingdoms series, and dragon warrior), but those tended to be japanese RPGs and similar games, which don't interest everyone. Cross-platform games tended to look better on the xbox because of the hardware, and the xbox controller was better than the ps2s IMO. The xbox had some decent exclusives as well (jade empire was better than most recent final fantasies IMO).
Where the xbox mainly failed was in Japan, hence the lack of japanese development, and it looks like the 360 is doing, if anything, worse in this aspect.
Also, the custom development for hacked xboxes is impressive. XBMC is (honestly) the best open source program I have seen. I don't know anything about software but even I could get XBMC to play the way I wanted. Not to mention emulators exist for nearly any non-recent game system (no dreamcast, gamecube, ps2, etc).
I'm sure nintendo knows what the competition plans on doing, and MS stated that they would drop the price of the 360 yearly, and they would be foolish not to do so in November with the ps3 arriving, even if it is only $20.
If the $299 core drops down to $250, it would be smart for nintendo to release the Wii at $200. I'm sure they could compete at $250, but a decent amount of hype regarding the Wii is about how cheap it is, so I'm sure they will stay cheaper than the competition.
On the other hand, if the core price doesn't drop (maybe only the premium will, $360 looks like a good number), then I think the Wii will sell just as many at $250 as they will at $200.
That's too bad, a Nintendo MMORPG would be sweet, expecially on the wii. I'm not normally into MMORPGs (I've played a bit of FF online and WoW) and not really into nintendo games (I've had my share of mario in the early 90s) but at least it would be different. For some reason the thought of playing a goomba interests me.
It would never be made, but I would like an current, realistic political assassin game. First, let me make it perfectly clear that I have no intentions of killing or hurting anyone. But it would be sweet to (in a game) choose a goverment you work under (or free-lance) and have a choice of current government officials under opposing goverments that are your targets. You could go over and start grass roots movements or start a coup, or eventually sniper (or use various other methods) your target. Yearly you could download updates to make the government official list from multiple countries current.
First, let's get something out of the way. The top of the line version of each system is really the only one to get. The big thing about PS3 is blu-ray, and that will eventually be useless as a movie player unless you have the $600 version (HDMI). You get a good value for the premium 360, as componenet cables and a memory card would nearly take up the difference themselves. MS stated they would drop the price of the 360 yearly, so let us assume in november the premium will drop to $360. Nintendo would be considered a value at $250 this generation, so I'll assume they will go for that. So that leaves us $600 vs $360 vs $250.
I believe most gamers will vie for something with next-generation graphics, and likely something innovative as well. So this means likely a Wii and either a 360 or PS3.
The problem I have with the PS3, other than price, is that it is a gamble. First, I'm gambling that blu-ray will become the established format. Then, I'm gambling that $70 APEX (or some other cheap chinese) blu-ray/HD-DVD players won't come out within a year and negate the PS3. All the DVD player technical reviews I have seen stated that the ps2 dvd player was mediocre quality, how do I know that the ps3 player will be superior to a cheap chinese knockoff?
So, for $600 in novemeber I can get a premium 360 and a Wii, and I bet within a year a combo HD player for under $100. Why should I get a PS3? I get both innovative gameplay and next-gen graphics for the same price as a ps3, and I won't be stuck gambling that bu-ray will be the next format. (yah, it took a long time for DVD player prices to go down, but the cheap chinese companies are already here this time, and I doubt they care if they get the blu-ray specs legally).
Contra
Frogger
Galaga
Street fighter II
Ultimate Mortal Combat III
Oh yah baby. Would be even better if they upgrade the color pallate like they are doing with sfII (I'm sure some purists would object to redone graphics, but I bet most people wouldn't mind un upgraded color pallate). One thing I see missing is pinball ports. If they start releasing a ton of pinball tables (shouldn't be too hard with a good engine) I will be in heaven.
Slashdot Mirror
MS had their own distro of unix in the 80s (Xenix) and sold it off. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenix
I agree if I buy games I like the manual, dvd copy, and extras (maps, etc).
/just waiting until the 360 gets more live games, then I'm going to pick one up.
But xbox live has already demonstrated that you can download small games and be sucessful. Geometry Wars is what, ~20MB, and it is the funnest game I've played in years.
We catch Chinese spys (which is an act of war) all the time. We spy on each other, and we accept it. No reason to kill millions just because we're in the game.
Why would a business need the premium edition? Can you even get a computer slower than 800mhz from dell? The ram is the only iffy component, and by the time vista comes out 512mb will be standard.
I rarely use paypal, checked my bank statement one day, and realized 2k was missing from my bank courtesy of paypal. I have never clicked on a paypal email, and so the only explaination I could think of is either gross incompetance at paypal, or a keylogger was on my system (which was doubtful). Of course, I run all the major spyware/adware/virus/rootkit detectors and nothing (and yes, I do have a firewall, do not use wireless on this computer, and have a good password).
So, no more paypal for me. Of course I eventually got my money back, but it was a major hassle. For now on I am creating accounts using temp credit card numbers.
Well, sort of. I don't live in my parent's basement, so I can afford all of these systems. I will most likely be getting a Wii if it does not turn out to be too gimicky.
I'm guessing for anyone not obsessed about japanese RPGs that the 360 and PS3 will be very similar with their scope of games, so for most people it will be a Wii plus either the 360 or PS3.
While I can afford it, $500-600 is still a large chunk of change, so Sony better be putting something up OTHER than blu-ray to get my money. Perhaps something similar to live arcade, but with much more content.
Most people likely won't care about blu-ray. Most people I've talked to stated that they would buy 1, maybe 2 movies in blu-ray format if they had a player. Plus, I can't be the only one waiting for $50-$100 combo HD-DVD/blu-ray players (after seeing sony's implementation of DVD on the ps2, I think I'll pass on having the ps3 as my sole player).
Just took back my DS and got a DS lite. So far I like most of the changes. However, the DS lite feels more rickity to me, the buttons are not set as much as the regular DS, and it just feels like it is more fragile. I'll just have to be a bit more careful I guess.
If an IT person has gotten a windows virus since 2002 he should be fired. I have never gotten a XP virus, and 2003 server is supposed to be more locked down than XP, so you would have to be a royal moran to get a 2003 server virus.
Heh, I would say IV was the best. It had the perfect mix of grinding and cutscenes. Everything over that was way too overboard with cutscenes.
I run conflict: middle east political simulator, and wizards crown, with no problems and under no emulation. Some games require sound blaster emulators, such as romance of the 3 kingdoms III. I doubt MS has the rights to offer dos soundblaster emulation. Otherwise I've never had a problem.
My current xp install is about 3gb for the OS. The one thing MS is ok at is backwards compatibility, so I will assume they will leave most of the previous functions as options instead of just rewriting them (I really have no idea as I have not used vista). So I will assume anything they add will be additional.
So what do we have additional:
new network stack
new GUI
new indexing
spyware/defender stuff
couple of additional programs
plus a few things I'm likely missing.
Assuming the GUI uses a variety of different textures for different types of machines, 1-1.5gb for all of the above is reasonable to me. But, this is the ultimate edition. So now they add in media center functionality, plus tablet PC programs, and some other stuff.
The tablet pc stuff likely includes windows journal, sticky notes, possibly One Note, the voice trainer, and since it is the ultimate edition I'll assume it includes the power toys, which is about 16 tablet pc programs. Not to mention some optional upgrades to the XP version. 1 gig for all of this sounds reasonable to me.
I don't know what their media center is all about, so I'll assume 500mb for the UI, codecs, and other crap. I bet the media center is where alot of bloated crap goes.
So that leaves us with 3 + 1.5 + 1 + 0.5 = 6. Which is what you estimated.
Also the recycling bin sets aside space. Perhaps they set this in the windows directory? If so, that can add an additional gig.
Arguably vista has all the programs the average joe will ever need (minus an office suite). I have no idea what takes up the space, but keep in mind that Vista has much more of a driver base than linux. Also, vista has GUIs of almost all windows versions (classic, standard, xp, and aero; not sure if this takes up any space, but it is possible).
XP is stable (I have no idea of vista is), the only thing that I think really needs to be imporved is security, networking, the registry, and the ability to insta-kill an application. Looks like they are working on security and networking, too bad about the registry and task manager. I'd try out OSX if they made a tablet, until then I'm likely to be stuck with vista.
Since I don't care about windows media (I use flac and mp3), the only one I might care about in the slightest is the secure audio path, which I'm guessing is only going to be in place for blu-ray/HD-DVD content, which I don't really care about, at least yet.
What DRM issues are involved with Vista? The only ones I have heard about are that a HDMI adapter may be needed to view blu-ray / HD-dvd video.
I'm honestly interested because I'm a bit tired of building computers, and so my next may be Vista or OSX (if apple ever makes a tablet PC).
Not only is the mac base relatively small, but it is split between two different chipsets (powerpc/intel). Meaning you can market you game for 90% of the market, or 1% of the market.
And nothing stops a mac guy from putting a radeon x1900 in his mac.
If we didn't have windows we would likely still be paying 2k for a decent machine*. And not like anything below OS X was any better. I still have nightmares of mac error popup screens.
Linux is nearly usable for the mass market now; much less 10 years ago.
* We would be left with apple and *nix vararies, and face it, much of the world isn't ready for linux yet (I still can't get linux to work on my laptop properly), and without competition macs would be even more expensive.
I don't think I would be able to take it. Heck, one of my friends was a genius creative writer, chose macabre topics (murder, dissection, etc) and would hand out his writtings at school. Today he would be expelled. And who hasn't joked around about wanting a bomb threat to be called in so you could go home early? Now just talking about it would likely get you expelled.
It would be like going to a prison camp, being afraid of what to do, how to act, and what to say for fear of suspension and expulsion.
Thankfully my school had a program where you could go to community college instead of taking high school classes, so I didn't even spend my last two years at my highschool.
I do not know about lawyer school, but med school is difficult (I'm taking 23-29 units a quarter, and during finals can have up to 11 tests within one week), and a good percentage of people who make it in (which is difficult just in itself) don't make it all the way through.
I made $10-12 an hour delivering pizza, which required 5 minutes of training. My father makes 80k a year (MRI tech) with one year of junior college. Should the pay not reflect the training? Teachers are an exception, and no offense to any teachers, but the training to get there is quite easy (although I would agree some of you are underpaid).
I'm not really a fanboy (I have both a xbox & ps2, will be getting the Wii), but the xbox did pretty decent overall. Sure, it lost 4 gazillion dollars, but they got decent marketshare in an area already saturated IMO.
Sony and nintendo were pretty indifferent about online (I'm sure someone could quote something to prove me wrong here), and who knows where they would be now if xbox live wasn't introduced, and the evolution of live into the 360 is pretty sweet IMO.
The ps2 had more exclusives (the only reason I bought a ps2 was for the romance of the three kingdoms series, and dragon warrior), but those tended to be japanese RPGs and similar games, which don't interest everyone. Cross-platform games tended to look better on the xbox because of the hardware, and the xbox controller was better than the ps2s IMO. The xbox had some decent exclusives as well (jade empire was better than most recent final fantasies IMO).
Where the xbox mainly failed was in Japan, hence the lack of japanese development, and it looks like the 360 is doing, if anything, worse in this aspect.
Also, the custom development for hacked xboxes is impressive. XBMC is (honestly) the best open source program I have seen. I don't know anything about software but even I could get XBMC to play the way I wanted. Not to mention emulators exist for nearly any non-recent game system (no dreamcast, gamecube, ps2, etc).
I'm sure nintendo knows what the competition plans on doing, and MS stated that they would drop the price of the 360 yearly, and they would be foolish not to do so in November with the ps3 arriving, even if it is only $20.
If the $299 core drops down to $250, it would be smart for nintendo to release the Wii at $200. I'm sure they could compete at $250, but a decent amount of hype regarding the Wii is about how cheap it is, so I'm sure they will stay cheaper than the competition.
On the other hand, if the core price doesn't drop (maybe only the premium will, $360 looks like a good number), then I think the Wii will sell just as many at $250 as they will at $200.
Has something changed recently? I had the 360 for about a week 1 month ago, and was downloading 1 gig demos in 10-15 minutes.
That's too bad, a Nintendo MMORPG would be sweet, expecially on the wii. I'm not normally into MMORPGs (I've played a bit of FF online and WoW) and not really into nintendo games (I've had my share of mario in the early 90s) but at least it would be different. For some reason the thought of playing a goomba interests me.
It would never be made, but I would like an current, realistic political assassin game. First, let me make it perfectly clear that I have no intentions of killing or hurting anyone. But it would be sweet to (in a game) choose a goverment you work under (or free-lance) and have a choice of current government officials under opposing goverments that are your targets. You could go over and start grass roots movements or start a coup, or eventually sniper (or use various other methods) your target. Yearly you could download updates to make the government official list from multiple countries current.
First, let's get something out of the way. The top of the line version of each system is really the only one to get. The big thing about PS3 is blu-ray, and that will eventually be useless as a movie player unless you have the $600 version (HDMI). You get a good value for the premium 360, as componenet cables and a memory card would nearly take up the difference themselves. MS stated they would drop the price of the 360 yearly, so let us assume in november the premium will drop to $360. Nintendo would be considered a value at $250 this generation, so I'll assume they will go for that. So that leaves us $600 vs $360 vs $250.
I believe most gamers will vie for something with next-generation graphics, and likely something innovative as well. So this means likely a Wii and either a 360 or PS3.
The problem I have with the PS3, other than price, is that it is a gamble. First, I'm gambling that blu-ray will become the established format. Then, I'm gambling that $70 APEX (or some other cheap chinese) blu-ray/HD-DVD players won't come out within a year and negate the PS3. All the DVD player technical reviews I have seen stated that the ps2 dvd player was mediocre quality, how do I know that the ps3 player will be superior to a cheap chinese knockoff?
So, for $600 in novemeber I can get a premium 360 and a Wii, and I bet within a year a combo HD player for under $100. Why should I get a PS3? I get both innovative gameplay and next-gen graphics for the same price as a ps3, and I won't be stuck gambling that bu-ray will be the next format. (yah, it took a long time for DVD player prices to go down, but the cheap chinese companies are already here this time, and I doubt they care if they get the blu-ray specs legally).
Contra Frogger Galaga Street fighter II Ultimate Mortal Combat III Oh yah baby. Would be even better if they upgrade the color pallate like they are doing with sfII (I'm sure some purists would object to redone graphics, but I bet most people wouldn't mind un upgraded color pallate). One thing I see missing is pinball ports. If they start releasing a ton of pinball tables (shouldn't be too hard with a good engine) I will be in heaven.