Windows will continue to dominate
on
Leopard Vs. Vista
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· Score: 3, Insightful
Windows may eventually topple as the operating system of choice, but no time soon. Even if companies like Dell could freely advertise other OS's without penalty, I doubt it would make a dent in their sales of Windows PC's. Say what you like about MS, they have built remarkable brand name recognition. To erode that in the minds of people who say "the internet is broken" when IE won't launch is going to take a long time. Apple too, while having strong brand name recognition is seen often as cool, funky and not serious. Do they build a superior platform? Absolutely! Apple has always had superlative hardware and the easiest to use OS. I don't know why anyone would buy a mac and put windows on it, expect maybe to play games. There's an irony, Apple is often viewed by the general public as not serious and yet they have a superior suite of work applications while not having anywhere near the number of games available for windows. Windows is seen as the machine for work while having a mediocre suite of work apps and a killer selection of games. Apple has made inroads into the mass market, but with the iPod. At the rate macs are penetrating it is going to be ages before they make Bill Gates sweat buckets on the OS front. Right now he's laughing. In the PC wars, so what if a mac is a better windows machine? So much better for his market share.
Linux, Ubuntu is a step in the right direction, but until you no longer need to be an ardent computer hobbyist or know one to set it up, it ain't happening fast either. What Linux really needs is some kind of mature plug and play especially because people keep buying crap to hook up to their computers and they want to use it. There's lots of good software, the hardware link is what's needed if Linux is ever going to have a "Year of the Desktop".
In any event, in terms of manufacturer's offering an OS, it's going to be a Windows world for them for quite a while. There is no incentive for them to upset the apple cart until MS brand recognition go south. Geeks and their friends may think it has, but not enough to make a difference. In the meantime, all people who favour a particular OS or platform can do is enjoy their difference and show their friends. Someday it will make a difference.
I am not an American, but enough already. I travel the the US a lot. There is no shortage of broadband in most areas if you want it. Not everyone wants it. I have seen enough of these stories on Slashdot (and other sites) relating to poor penetration of boradband into the US last year that if I didn't know better I'd believe they were all using 14.4K dial-up. It simply ain't so...
Those communites may be unprofitable to service today, but if in five or 10 years the technology comes along to make it profitiable, then their lobbying will put them in a position to exploit it. As for the consumer in those communites today, tough. The customer first fad is over.
What develop? They had this tech since the days of the first cell phones. They are just bringing it back to the market (and not in the developed world). What's next, "developing rotary dial phones?
The problems I mentioned are real, not FUD, and I am not the only one to have enumerated/complained about these issues. I will continue to support ff, but it has a long way to go. I suspect much of ff's balkiness comes from IE specific coding on sites. When those sites change, maybe that will go away. In the meantime, it happens more than I (and a lot of others) like.
As for looking stupid, your denial of reality doesn't make you look like a rocket scientist.
I have used ff for a few years now, and have been a fan. I presently run ff 2 RC3. I overall like ff, but I find besides the memory feature, that it is just slow and balky compared to IE (and I have tweaked the ff settings for speed). I really want to like ff more, but until it becomes a smoother experience, I will likely do most of my browing with IE7. As for being more secure, I just assume no matter what that any machine connected to the net is not secure and act accordingly.
After all of Sony's behaviours over the past while especially, let me be the first to throw them an anchor if they are really drowning. They're not drowning, but if my refusal to buy a ps3 helps in some way to bleed the company's stock price a little, my single malt will taste that much sweeter.
They do dominate politics. Actually the thing is, in most countries you don't have to be in politics to have power, just control all the wealth and resources. In lawful countries, they use the law to maintain control. In wild places, they hire armies. Anyone who doesn't think that big money (who owns or is controlled by the innovators) doesn't influence politics just isn't paying attention.
Who says you can only have one console?
on
Will the Wii Work?
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· Score: 2, Insightful
The argument is dumb because it supposes that people will only buy one console. I have a PC, a gamecube, xbox and ps2. I am not the only one. Funny thing is, the gamecube gets the most use for gaming (out of the consoles). Nintendo is not about to vanish from the landscape and is the only console of the new three that looks to break new ground in going after an audience.
Not to diss linux, but I can see why ATI only gives a small portion of their effort to linux drivers (and that effort I hear has improved of late). The majority of their cards are direct X and geared at... windows gamers. It's their bread and butter. That they provide linux drivers at all is a nicety. Many manufacturers of consumer goods for the pc don't give any linux support. Sadly for the linux community, the only way the linux effort will improve is if more big time games come to linux. Right now if you want linux drivers for vid cards, it's still pretty much a nVidia only game (o pun intended).
Are the guys who think of these things that lame that this is the best they can do? Oooo, we'll force viewers to see the message. Bah, I'll just keep myself full of beer so that I don't understand the visual even if I see it. Let them suck on that!
They give us a crappy settlement, I won't buy their crappy products.
I have owned sony products, that has ended. The XCP fiasco is just the latest in a series of blunders on their part. The sony name used to be synonymous with quality. Now they are truly a clueless company that has deserved the beating their stock has taken. Anything I can do to drive it down more as a consumer, I will do and No.1 is buying someone else's products (which now are better anyway).
Don't count on it, firefox downloads are just that, downloads. I've downloaded it several times myself and I am one guy. How many as a percentage are actively on the web at any given time.
Apple?
I can't figure out their marketing. They do great on the iPod by taking a mediocre mp3 player and marketing it into a fad. On their computer side... well I saw an commercial yesterday for example. Apple guy and Bill Gates guy. Gates guy says, well, I do spreadsheets, word processing and goes on to describe workie stuff. Apple goes on about movies, music etc. Well, both computers do both, and while Apple may do it easier for most people, they never mention it. Instead you get this commercial that boils down to... PC = Work, Apple = Fun, or PC = Tool, Apple = Toy. Stupid I think.
As for their sales, while up, they are still minor really. The thing is the corporate buys work in cycles, and they are in a lull. When they start the next cycle, all other shares will fall like a stone. Look for that about two years after vista comes out. Companies buy way more than the home market ever will, which is why embedded grahics are so... popular.
I personally want a more level playing field between systems and OS's because that is what creates real universal standards. As long as one side has a huge advantage, why bother with what helps the other guy.
The irony is, that whether you like it or not, when you control over 80% of the browser market, you are the standard. That they are willing(?) to try to accommodate other standards, is really a sop.
I have seen some of these slip though for a while I think the only purpose for them is to get some neophyte who is confused by them to send back a "WTF?" response thereby confirming a "live one". I suspect after that the floodgates open. I am sure that we will see many more attempts to circumvent filters. After all, weasels abound.
Jobs has done a remarkable job reinventing Apple and giving them some traction. Industry shows where you go and bring the dog and pony in are sometimes entertaining and sometimes boring as hell. That goes for the presenter too. If he had an off day, meh. If it becomes a trend, then maybe he should see a doctor if he has a physical ailment or hire a dog and pony handler to do most of the shows if he is sick of them.
The gadgets, everyone in the industry has shown crap of all kinds whether for PC, Mac or others. A lot of it is just the equivalent of shiny beads without much real world use. It takes time for good ideas to turn into hard product. If you want something like an iPhone, fine. But there is no point in bringing such a thing to market until it is uniquely positioned in someway. Ditto for a lot of junk you see at those shows. Keep making promises about stuff that never sees the light of day or is useless on second look and people stop paying attention to you. Apple is doing well at present. Their next move has to have strategic value to the company as a whole and not just to entertain a fan base. At times such maneuvers are boring to watch.
Just to clear a couple of misconceptions. I am OS and system agnostic. At home I have a windows machine, a powerbook, and I run an old thoroughbred core machine as a server under suse. I taught Aztec C on Apple IIe machines back in 1984. Did stuff on Lisas and Macs too. My friends also have different machines.
While it is true, well-designed software and the peculiarities of different OS'es influence conduct, it is only to a certain degree. I am also not just talking about virii and spyware. I had a friend who had his Mac G5 tower crapping out all the time. He was convinced it was a piece of junk. I opened the sucker up and found the power supply clogged with dust. The thing was overheating and the machine shut down. I showed him how to use a duster to clean it out. Did he do it regularly. Noooooo! I fixed it again for him and then told him next time to do it himself or take it to a shop. Now, was that Steve's fault?
So that said, all three systems have their advantages. Are Linux and Mac more secure than windows? Yes, there are fewer exploits out there right now. The reason doesn't matter. There are fewer. Can that change? Yes, it can, obviously and especially with the Apple migration to Intel hardware. Will it? I don't know. I will say that if it does, the same problems that crop up on the windows side will indeed crop up on the other two sides. And that is simply because most users are lazy and/or not interested in maintaining their machines or following good practice.
People who write on, and read these boards are not a good barometer of the average user. Often we are the "go-to" people for them.
Now that all the bashers have had their fun, can we acknowledge that there is no such thing as a 100% secure computer of any sort as long as it is connected to a public network. I know it is not as fun, and takes the joy out of OS/hardware parochialism but it is true. As well, the behaviour of goofy users is neither Bill's, nor Steve's nor Linus's fault and there is not much they can do about it.
I have run windows machines since 3.1 and DOS before that and never had problem. On the other hand I have shown people (relatives, friends etc) how to secure and maintain their machines and the next week I find them back to doing their own self-defeating behaviours.
Someone found an exploit. Whoop-de-do. There will always be exploits found for all systems that people can screw with. There is almost always a way to secure against it. Almost always a large group of users ignores what is good for them and their machines and gets burned. Frankly, the platform matters less when it comes to these things than the user's behaviour.
For the magazine that is. It has people talking about what appeared even if the content is a load of tripe. Summer is traditionally a low point for game releases and they need content. Stuff like this always gains an audience. Does it make them relevant as a conduit for game info? Well, you decide.
But what I really want to see revived is Space Above and Beyond. A far superior series to almost all the series mentioned above, well ahead of its time, and killed far too soon by a dumbass Fox.
There have always been shut-ins. The net just gives them more to do behind their drawn curtains and locked doors. Some people may see this as cool, but in the long run we look as such people as kooky. We all need to interact with others, that is just our nature. We are social creatures whether we like it or not. Some more so than others to be sure, but still.
Can you live locked in a basement having evrything shipped to you and slid under the door? Sure, but to me that sounds very much like prison.
This really is a black eye for the RIAA in terms of publicity. If I remember the facts right, the woman didn't own the computer or use it, she paid for the internet access for her weasel jailbird boyfriend. She apparently (again, if I remember correctly) didn't know a computer from a microwave. As the facts have borne out enough for her to win, the judge really had a no-brainer on his hands. All she was guilty of was a poor choice in kanoodling companions. The RIAA is (and has been) guilty of poor judgement as well, mainly of the not knowing when to quit and try another way variety.
In the end though, this will cause some bad press (what's one more bad article anyway) and the loss of say, 25 large. It won't cripple them. That will happen from the ongoing erosion of their outdated business model.
Slashdot Mirror
Windows may eventually topple as the operating system of choice, but no time soon. Even if companies like Dell could freely advertise other OS's without penalty, I doubt it would make a dent in their sales of Windows PC's. Say what you like about MS, they have built remarkable brand name recognition. To erode that in the minds of people who say "the internet is broken" when IE won't launch is going to take a long time. Apple too, while having strong brand name recognition is seen often as cool, funky and not serious. Do they build a superior platform? Absolutely! Apple has always had superlative hardware and the easiest to use OS. I don't know why anyone would buy a mac and put windows on it, expect maybe to play games. There's an irony, Apple is often viewed by the general public as not serious and yet they have a superior suite of work applications while not having anywhere near the number of games available for windows. Windows is seen as the machine for work while having a mediocre suite of work apps and a killer selection of games. Apple has made inroads into the mass market, but with the iPod. At the rate macs are penetrating it is going to be ages before they make Bill Gates sweat buckets on the OS front. Right now he's laughing. In the PC wars, so what if a mac is a better windows machine? So much better for his market share.
Linux, Ubuntu is a step in the right direction, but until you no longer need to be an ardent computer hobbyist or know one to set it up, it ain't happening fast either. What Linux really needs is some kind of mature plug and play especially because people keep buying crap to hook up to their computers and they want to use it. There's lots of good software, the hardware link is what's needed if Linux is ever going to have a "Year of the Desktop".
In any event, in terms of manufacturer's offering an OS, it's going to be a Windows world for them for quite a while. There is no incentive for them to upset the apple cart until MS brand recognition go south. Geeks and their friends may think it has, but not enough to make a difference. In the meantime, all people who favour a particular OS or platform can do is enjoy their difference and show their friends. Someday it will make a difference.
I am not an American, but enough already. I travel the the US a lot. There is no shortage of broadband in most areas if you want it. Not everyone wants it. I have seen enough of these stories on Slashdot (and other sites) relating to poor penetration of boradband into the US last year that if I didn't know better I'd believe they were all using 14.4K dial-up. It simply ain't so...
Those communites may be unprofitable to service today, but if in five or 10 years the technology comes along to make it profitiable, then their lobbying will put them in a position to exploit it. As for the consumer in those communites today, tough. The customer first fad is over.
What develop? They had this tech since the days of the first cell phones. They are just bringing it back to the market (and not in the developed world). What's next, "developing rotary dial phones?
Phooey on blades. I am betting on a laser powered face shaving system. One that will give you a tan too if used regularly.
Cry me a river.
The problems I mentioned are real, not FUD, and I am not the only one to have enumerated/complained about these issues. I will continue to support ff, but it has a long way to go. I suspect much of ff's balkiness comes from IE specific coding on sites. When those sites change, maybe that will go away. In the meantime, it happens more than I (and a lot of others) like.
As for looking stupid, your denial of reality doesn't make you look like a rocket scientist.
I have used ff for a few years now, and have been a fan. I presently run ff 2 RC3. I overall like ff, but I find besides the memory feature, that it is just slow and balky compared to IE (and I have tweaked the ff settings for speed). I really want to like ff more, but until it becomes a smoother experience, I will likely do most of my browing with IE7. As for being more secure, I just assume no matter what that any machine connected to the net is not secure and act accordingly.
After all of Sony's behaviours over the past while especially, let me be the first to throw them an anchor if they are really drowning. They're not drowning, but if my refusal to buy a ps3 helps in some way to bleed the company's stock price a little, my single malt will taste that much sweeter.
They do dominate politics. Actually the thing is, in most countries you don't have to be in politics to have power, just control all the wealth and resources. In lawful countries, they use the law to maintain control. In wild places, they hire armies. Anyone who doesn't think that big money (who owns or is controlled by the innovators) doesn't influence politics just isn't paying attention.
The argument is dumb because it supposes that people will only buy one console. I have a PC, a gamecube, xbox and ps2. I am not the only one. Funny thing is, the gamecube gets the most use for gaming (out of the consoles). Nintendo is not about to vanish from the landscape and is the only console of the new three that looks to break new ground in going after an audience.
Not to diss linux, but I can see why ATI only gives a small portion of their effort to linux drivers (and that effort I hear has improved of late). The majority of their cards are direct X and geared at... windows gamers. It's their bread and butter. That they provide linux drivers at all is a nicety. Many manufacturers of consumer goods for the pc don't give any linux support. Sadly for the linux community, the only way the linux effort will improve is if more big time games come to linux. Right now if you want linux drivers for vid cards, it's still pretty much a nVidia only game (o pun intended).
Are the guys who think of these things that lame that this is the best they can do? Oooo, we'll force viewers to see the message. Bah, I'll just keep myself full of beer so that I don't understand the visual even if I see it. Let them suck on that!
They give us a crappy settlement, I won't buy their crappy products.
I have owned sony products, that has ended. The XCP fiasco is just the latest in a series of blunders on their part. The sony name used to be synonymous with quality. Now they are truly a clueless company that has deserved the beating their stock has taken. Anything I can do to drive it down more as a consumer, I will do and No.1 is buying someone else's products (which now are better anyway).
Don't count on it, firefox downloads are just that, downloads. I've downloaded it several times myself and I am one guy. How many as a percentage are actively on the web at any given time. Apple? I can't figure out their marketing. They do great on the iPod by taking a mediocre mp3 player and marketing it into a fad. On their computer side... well I saw an commercial yesterday for example. Apple guy and Bill Gates guy. Gates guy says, well, I do spreadsheets, word processing and goes on to describe workie stuff. Apple goes on about movies, music etc. Well, both computers do both, and while Apple may do it easier for most people, they never mention it. Instead you get this commercial that boils down to... PC = Work, Apple = Fun, or PC = Tool, Apple = Toy. Stupid I think. As for their sales, while up, they are still minor really. The thing is the corporate buys work in cycles, and they are in a lull. When they start the next cycle, all other shares will fall like a stone. Look for that about two years after vista comes out. Companies buy way more than the home market ever will, which is why embedded grahics are so... popular. I personally want a more level playing field between systems and OS's because that is what creates real universal standards. As long as one side has a huge advantage, why bother with what helps the other guy.
The irony is, that whether you like it or not, when you control over 80% of the browser market, you are the standard. That they are willing(?) to try to accommodate other standards, is really a sop.
the Kim Jong show?
I have seen some of these slip though for a while I think the only purpose for them is to get some neophyte who is confused by them to send back a "WTF?" response thereby confirming a "live one". I suspect after that the floodgates open. I am sure that we will see many more attempts to circumvent filters. After all, weasels abound.
Jobs has done a remarkable job reinventing Apple and giving them some traction. Industry shows where you go and bring the dog and pony in are sometimes entertaining and sometimes boring as hell. That goes for the presenter too. If he had an off day, meh. If it becomes a trend, then maybe he should see a doctor if he has a physical ailment or hire a dog and pony handler to do most of the shows if he is sick of them.
The gadgets, everyone in the industry has shown crap of all kinds whether for PC, Mac or others. A lot of it is just the equivalent of shiny beads without much real world use. It takes time for good ideas to turn into hard product. If you want something like an iPhone, fine. But there is no point in bringing such a thing to market until it is uniquely positioned in someway. Ditto for a lot of junk you see at those shows. Keep making promises about stuff that never sees the light of day or is useless on second look and people stop paying attention to you. Apple is doing well at present. Their next move has to have strategic value to the company as a whole and not just to entertain a fan base. At times such maneuvers are boring to watch.
Give the guy a break.
This is old speculation and has already been refuted on startrek.com http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/news/article /19115.html
about halfway down the page
Just to clear a couple of misconceptions. I am OS and system agnostic. At home I have a windows machine, a powerbook, and I run an old thoroughbred core machine as a server under suse. I taught Aztec C on Apple IIe machines back in 1984. Did stuff on Lisas and Macs too. My friends also have different machines.
While it is true, well-designed software and the peculiarities of different OS'es influence conduct, it is only to a certain degree. I am also not just talking about virii and spyware. I had a friend who had his Mac G5 tower crapping out all the time. He was convinced it was a piece of junk. I opened the sucker up and found the power supply clogged with dust. The thing was overheating and the machine shut down. I showed him how to use a duster to clean it out. Did he do it regularly. Noooooo! I fixed it again for him and then told him next time to do it himself or take it to a shop. Now, was that Steve's fault?
So that said, all three systems have their advantages. Are Linux and Mac more secure than windows? Yes, there are fewer exploits out there right now. The reason doesn't matter. There are fewer. Can that change? Yes, it can, obviously and especially with the Apple migration to Intel hardware. Will it? I don't know. I will say that if it does, the same problems that crop up on the windows side will indeed crop up on the other two sides. And that is simply because most users are lazy and/or not interested in maintaining their machines or following good practice.
People who write on, and read these boards are not a good barometer of the average user. Often we are the "go-to" people for them.
Now that all the bashers have had their fun, can we acknowledge that there is no such thing as a 100% secure computer of any sort as long as it is connected to a public network. I know it is not as fun, and takes the joy out of OS/hardware parochialism but it is true. As well, the behaviour of goofy users is neither Bill's, nor Steve's nor Linus's fault and there is not much they can do about it.
I have run windows machines since 3.1 and DOS before that and never had problem. On the other hand I have shown people (relatives, friends etc) how to secure and maintain their machines and the next week I find them back to doing their own self-defeating behaviours.
Someone found an exploit. Whoop-de-do. There will always be exploits found for all systems that people can screw with. There is almost always a way to secure against it. Almost always a large group of users ignores what is good for them and their machines and gets burned. Frankly, the platform matters less when it comes to these things than the user's behaviour.
For the magazine that is. It has people talking about what appeared even if the content is a load of tripe. Summer is traditionally a low point for game releases and they need content. Stuff like this always gains an audience. Does it make them relevant as a conduit for game info? Well, you decide.
But what I really want to see revived is Space Above and Beyond. A far superior series to almost all the series mentioned above, well ahead of its time, and killed far too soon by a dumbass Fox.
There have always been shut-ins. The net just gives them more to do behind their drawn curtains and locked doors. Some people may see this as cool, but in the long run we look as such people as kooky. We all need to interact with others, that is just our nature. We are social creatures whether we like it or not. Some more so than others to be sure, but still.
Can you live locked in a basement having evrything shipped to you and slid under the door? Sure, but to me that sounds very much like prison.
No thanks.
This really is a black eye for the RIAA in terms of publicity. If I remember the facts right, the woman didn't own the computer or use it, she paid for the internet access for her weasel jailbird boyfriend. She apparently (again, if I remember correctly) didn't know a computer from a microwave. As the facts have borne out enough for her to win, the judge really had a no-brainer on his hands. All she was guilty of was a poor choice in kanoodling companions. The RIAA is (and has been) guilty of poor judgement as well, mainly of the not knowing when to quit and try another way variety.
In the end though, this will cause some bad press (what's one more bad article anyway) and the loss of say, 25 large. It won't cripple them. That will happen from the ongoing erosion of their outdated business model.