Let's face it. Windows is one of the most widely pirated programs. This, in my opinion, is one of its reasons for success. People download or copy a version, then they install on all their machines, their friends' machines, etc. That is why Windows is so ubiquitous.
Now, with MS restricting updates to only legitimate copies, I would venture to guess that this will cause a decrease in the number of machines running Windows. Which means that there will be less machines running Longhorn than there are machines running XP, and hence more machines running alternate OSes. This is somewhat analogous to Apple restricting their software to their own hardware, and suffering as a result (in the PC business, of course).
Hybrid cars are more expensive and better for the environment than their counterparts. So why tax people for buying them? That doesn't sound correct.
But, what makes more sense is to tax people who report LESS mileage at each visit to the gas station. Those are people who own the huge environmentally-devastating gas guzzlers.
Or, why not simply increase the registration fees based on the car you own? That's easier for everyone.
Sexually reproducing organisms do not do any better under most simulation conditions.
Imagine that some kind of virus suddenly develops that efficiently kills off organism A. If A reproduces asexually, then the whole population will die relatively quickly.
Sexual reproduction offers variety, which, on the long run, leads to better immunity and adaptability.
With that much cash in the bank, I doubt if Microsoft will go away any time soon. They can easily buy some successful company in a different, yet related, industry and go on if the need arises.
Potential candidates might be Nvidia, ATI, AMD, Symantec, etc.. Hell, I would say they can even go for RedHat or Novell!
Longhorn will be the first release of Windows authored completely after Microsoft began their Trusted Computing Initiative and released.NET. Longhorn will reimplement and convert major Windows subsystems to managed code. This alone will substantially improve security of the operating system, as while the APIs will remain the same legacy Win32 apps will end up talking to managed code beneath the Win32 API (yes,.NET makes this possible)
Let's not dismiss history.
One advantage that legacy code has over newly-written code is that the legacy code has gone through dozens of iterations of bug fixes and security patches. While Longhorn sounds like the ultimate answer to all your MS questions, it will undoubtedly ship before it has been finished and thoroughly tested, mainly due to TTM (time to market) and other marketing concerns. This has happened with almost every one of MS's products. It will be followed a year or two later with a SP, that should have been the actual product, and which will be touted as the next best thing since toasted bread. During that time, hundreds and thousands of exploits would have been uncovered in Longhorn, creating a huge field for virus authors to play in. The SP will not be able to patch all of those exploits, leaving Longhorn widely open for virus attacks.
I admit that it is no easy feat, but Longhorn is not the magic bullet it is touted to be, unless MS plays it correctly, and thoroughly tests it before release, or, even better, opens up (at least some of) the source code so other eyes can help in spotting exploits.
My mobile phone IS a PC. I can do about as much or more with my cellphone as I could with my first 486.
Fair enough. But, I never said you can't do the same thing on a cell phone and a PDA. My point is that you can POTENTIALLY do more with a PDA. After all, you can (potentially) write a C program, compile it, and run it on your PDA. It is a general-purpose processing machine. You can not do that on your mobile phone because it is not. You might say that Java has enabled phones to run arbitrary code. But then, you are limited to what Java offers.
That is precisely the problem I'm alluding to. There is no app to distinguish PDAs from cell phones. PIMs used to be PDAs' killer app, but cell phones quickly adopted similar functionality, and now PDA sale is suffering.
PDA's do have one advantage over cellphones: input method. I know a lot of people think handwriting recognition is "inefficient" but if you actually use it regularrly 30WPM is not uncommon.
That's not good enough, IMHO. One very good use of a PDA is to take notes in a meeting or a classroom. 30WPM is definitely not fast enough. PDAs need a faster, more reliable input method. Being better than cellphones in that respect does not mean that problem has been solved.
This is a fact that everyone seems to overlook. Your PDA is a stripped down PC. Mobile phones are not. iPods and other MP3 players are not. PIM devices are not. Your PDA is potentially a much more powerful and versatile machine.
Unfortunately, no killer app has been invented for the PDA that can make use of its power. The main reason for this, IMHO, is the inefficient input methods available at the moment: Either an external keyboard, or very unreliable handwriting recognition.
The first step towards a solution is to solve the input problem. If accurate voice recognition, coupled with decent natural language processing, can be added to a PDA, then that would go a long ways. Imagine being able to tell your PDA: "Find me that email from Mr. Gates that talks about his latest trip to OSCON," and have it oblige.
Slashdot Mirror
Now, with MS restricting updates to only legitimate copies, I would venture to guess that this will cause a decrease in the number of machines running Windows. Which means that there will be less machines running Longhorn than there are machines running XP, and hence more machines running alternate OSes. This is somewhat analogous to Apple restricting their software to their own hardware, and suffering as a result (in the PC business, of course).
Just a thought.
Hybrid cars are more expensive and better for the environment than their counterparts. So why tax people for buying them? That doesn't sound correct.
But, what makes more sense is to tax people who report LESS mileage at each visit to the gas station. Those are people who own the huge environmentally-devastating gas guzzlers.
Or, why not simply increase the registration fees based on the car you own? That's easier for everyone.
Imagine that some kind of virus suddenly develops that efficiently kills off organism A. If A reproduces asexually, then the whole population will die relatively quickly.
Sexual reproduction offers variety, which, on the long run, leads to better immunity and adaptability.
Potential candidates might be Nvidia, ATI, AMD, Symantec, etc
.
Let's not dismiss history.
One advantage that legacy code has over newly-written code is that the legacy code has gone through dozens of iterations of bug fixes and security patches. While Longhorn sounds like the ultimate answer to all your MS questions, it will undoubtedly ship before it has been finished and thoroughly tested, mainly due to TTM (time to market) and other marketing concerns. This has happened with almost every one of MS's products. It will be followed a year or two later with a SP, that should have been the actual product, and which will be touted as the next best thing since toasted bread. During that time, hundreds and thousands of exploits would have been uncovered in Longhorn, creating a huge field for virus authors to play in. The SP will not be able to patch all of those exploits, leaving Longhorn widely open for virus attacks.
I admit that it is no easy feat, but Longhorn is not the magic bullet it is touted to be, unless MS plays it correctly, and thoroughly tests it before release, or, even better, opens up (at least some of) the source code so other eyes can help in spotting exploits.
IMHO, of course.
Fair enough. But, I never said you can't do the same thing on a cell phone and a PDA. My point is that you can POTENTIALLY do more with a PDA. After all, you can (potentially) write a C program, compile it, and run it on your PDA. It is a general-purpose processing machine. You can not do that on your mobile phone because it is not. You might say that Java has enabled phones to run arbitrary code. But then, you are limited to what Java offers.
That is precisely the problem I'm alluding to. There is no app to distinguish PDAs from cell phones. PIMs used to be PDAs' killer app, but cell phones quickly adopted similar functionality, and now PDA sale is suffering.
PDA's do have one advantage over cellphones: input method. I know a lot of people think handwriting recognition is "inefficient" but if you actually use it regularrly 30WPM is not uncommon.
That's not good enough, IMHO. One very good use of a PDA is to take notes in a meeting or a classroom. 30WPM is definitely not fast enough. PDAs need a faster, more reliable input method. Being better than cellphones in that respect does not mean that problem has been solved.
Just my 2 cents :)
Unfortunately, no killer app has been invented for the PDA that can make use of its power. The main reason for this, IMHO, is the inefficient input methods available at the moment: Either an external keyboard, or very unreliable handwriting recognition.
The first step towards a solution is to solve the input problem. If accurate voice recognition, coupled with decent natural language processing, can be added to a PDA, then that would go a long ways. Imagine being able to tell your PDA: "Find me that email from Mr. Gates that talks about his latest trip to OSCON," and have it oblige.