It really bothers me that people ignore AOL's part. They gave their high end developers to Mozilla project. At one time, lots of developers were paid by AOL. You can't make such high end people work for free on a such a massive project.
It is not like mozilla.org site opened up and people all over the planet started to code for free.
Google is another deal. Pay $ millions and new version of browser defaults to ON for "Anti phishing", sending every URL to Google Inc. Imagine if AOL did such thing.
Governments, universities (I think Berkeley too) can have access to source code. They went into panic when governments, armies made Linux switch because they know "what is there" so they started some program.
That time they really failed. They finally listened to rude but knowing people like JWZ, said "It became useless junk" and started rm -rf operations, shipped Phoneix.
As we speak about 2000s, I wonder what would happen if they (AOL) listened to CmdrTaco of this site right time before Netscape actually failed.
CmdrTaco is the guy who said GPL and open it. Imagine the difference if some suit from AOL actually listened it. That would make YEARS of head start. It wouldn't be "They opened source of failed browser". It would be "They finally figured it out"
Things would be really different if Real Networks started Helix years before too. The entire thing is open source now (excluding codecs) and people still wonder around saying it is spyware.
I have recently used a horrible celeron M laptop with 512MB RAM.
Here is my non web developer, non developer benchmark. Safari for Windows (current) is the fastest, IE 7 is the next , Firefox current stable is the slowest. I know I will get into trouble because of saying it.:)
If people didn't go into panic when I installed Opera, I would make them a favour but... anyway.
As a long time Apple user, I never buy those 5x 10x faster crap Apple says in every product but they somehow managed to make a very fast, responsive, multimedia friendly browser for Windows.
With the recent amazing progress they made with Webkit, even Gnome opting in for Webkit and Trolltech (now owned by Nokia) chooses Webkit for entire Qt 4.x , I think Webkit could be a great example what would happen if you slightly change your coding style, be friendly to 3rd party developers (and rivals), keep it tidy and consider everyone when developing it. Perhaps it is the good example of open source instead of Firefox.
Try to accomplish same thing with thousands of amateurs not caring about real life implementing thousands of lines a day.
Opera is _the standard_ on mobile devices. You know the trend everything moving to non personal computers? Where is Mozilla Symbian S60 version? Where is mini Mozilla runs on a server serving potentially to near billion J2ME powered handsets? Where is Mozilla Win CE? Why Nokia spares millions to their number 1 competitors HTML rendering Webkit? How can Opera sell 2 years old code to Symbian S60 users? How can people bug them 24/7 about the upcoming 9.5 near begging "Give us an Alpha, we will pay for it"
Gnome, KDE, the actual Qt (trolltech) are moving to webkit. Why? Ask them.
Remember Mozilla could fit to a single 1.44 floppy? Who missed the boat I really wonder.
Opera is a huge player in business especially after 2006 when first really usable devices, smart phones begun to ship with sane prices (iPhone doesn't count unless Apple opens it).
Their model is closed source, strictly professionally coded, strictly platform neutral, just the needed features implemented on a web type language. E.g. IRC and mail is actually couple of DHTML/CSS pages. The core html renderer is insanely portable. People doesn't believe the Opera Mobile (not Mini) is using the exact same engine as desktop one but it is a fact.
The benchmark is in fact easy. If Mozilla shipped Firefox for Symbian S60 (why not?), can they sell it for $20 to people like me using Nokia E65 with Webkit based browser? Opera can do it with 2 years old version (8.65). Why I bothered? Because it WORKS. You know there are some guys out there not being part of a billion dollar company depends on my $20. It is not the case with Webkit, Firefox or IE. For Nokia, it is like having "XHTML browser built in" as a line on their specs. Does it work on that weird screen without the high res display of iPhone? They don't care.
While speaking of Webkit, I am type of a person that thinks Safari should NEVER have Mozilla like extensions. My concern is security. The OS default browser should be exactly the same, features implemented in the core and there shouldn't be any 3rd party "click and install" extensions which can change the browsers behaviour, private data of user, send private data to third parties. Security alerts, signed thing, timer, they don't work. Other option is "Apple certified". It won't work too, creating more security issues as people will "jail break" it.
The Opera 9.5 Mobile will ship to every kind of device on market, its NDA betas are already in device vendor hands. It uses the same html/javascript renderer as desktop version. Do you know the free memory on my Nokia E65 when device booted? 24 MB! Opera doesn't have an option to code memory flooding , "because I can" type of geek fantasies. They are caring about Nintendo, Symbian, Win CE, Airliners, high end multimedia devices, TV set top. On such things you don't have an option. If your app uses too much memory, it is closed by OS. Basic as that. No excuses. Especially Symbian single core devices are more strict since single CPU handles the telephony too (it is safe BTW).
Than it is a PR problem for MS, a huge one. As not using Windows for years (except Virtual), I was absolutely sure that enabling Aero has huge minimum requirements. I am kind of a person who suggests real XP/Vista for PCs instead of running some sort of hacked and unsupported OS X since Windows would work better on generic PC. I have no absolute hate to Windows. Core image is supported on Mac G4 mini, as reported by system. The Intel Mac mini could have problems since Apple opted in for Intel integrated junk for graphics. iTunes cover flow etc. works on ATI (real) Graphics card. That is why I stay away from Intel offers except "Pro" line, if I ever need to upgrade my Quad G5. They lost their freedom at consumer level after Intel deal.
Does Vista run on a 32bit RISC G4 1.42 Ghz Processor, 1 Gig installed laptop grade RAM with ALL features enabled? That is what I do with the Mini G4. It works better than Tiger installed.
Just 1 week ago, I was busy helping an electrician who has no clue about computers to install XP SP3 (already had CDR in hand). He said that laptop came with Vista pre-installed, was OK for a week and things really went downhill. He had to create a scene at computer store to downgrade the laptop to XP for free. Not just releasing a bad system, they also made people (especially non tech) somehow phobic about the Vista name itself! That is a major accomplishment.
Here, I found a KB article at Apple about the comical (compared to Aero) requirements of Quartz Extreme on 10.4+ http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301347 "To take advantage of Quartz Extreme, you need one of the following graphics cards:
ATI: Any AGP-based ATI RADEON GPU, with 16 MB VRAM or better. NVIDIA: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX or later, with 16 MB VRAM or better."
Apple did not forget CPU. CPU is not even mentioned since it has nothing to do with the idea of offloading GUI to GPU!
I am not a big windows hater, I just don't understand genuinely what kind of weird development they did to require such insane specs. I also wonder if it has something to do with DirectX 10 and its fake Vista requirement.
OEM thing is always shadowy but if we speak about retail sales, Amazon as a number 1 globally known brand can give a clue.
Apple OS X Leopard made into top 10 software sales list months before going into market, as a pre-order without a significant rebate. Vista never, ever made into that list, at least top 10 section.
MS Office Windows/Mac editions make top 2 of list too. So, there is no issue with ordering MS stuff from Amazon, people choose Amazon to buy MS software they need.
On a huge shareware/freeware planet like Windows, I bet something to replace Sidebar exists. I am not sure about the win32/64 coding quality but Yahoo Widgets does work fine on OS X. http://widgets.yahoo.com/ . At least (same deal on OS X), when you quit, it REALLY quits. Goes away from memory without a trace;)
Where does hardware requirements of Aero really come from? I got a Mac Mini G4 upstairs with a 32MB Laptop grade (I guess) ATI video card, it does every kind of OS X trick except the very needed (Plasma HDTV) transparent menu bar.
Isn't the Aero a "photocopy" of OS X GUI tricks? They have real bad coders there at Redmond I guess...
The best platform currently Java runs (as client) is Windows and Linux. OS X is kinda stuck on version 5. As a full-Apple setup person, I can never dare to say Java is bad performer on Windows.
Near a billion devices run Java, Google (Youtube), Yahoo hires J2ME developers to make unimaginable things just 2 years ago. Java P2P apps make top ten list on downloads, an industry giant like SonyEricsson plans to end J2ME interface problem by using Flash Lite 3 sparing millions of dollars (They own Symbian UIQ now).
Java has devices in hand. A company like Apple switched to Intel because they saw future on portables (which proves to be right every day), mid aged people buy devices like Sony Ps3 just as a media center for their HDTV.
I wouldn't put all my stakes to Windows and MS with a management like this.
I got Virtual PC 7 on Quad G5 2500 (lots of RAM) and it runs Windows XP Sp2 (now 3).
Of course not expecting anything, I wondered the new Widgets on Java 6 and how easy it is if I ever need users to install Java 6 on Windows. (for applet).
Some would call me mad for this, I actually installed Java 6 on Virtual PC 7 emulating a P3 500. It actually installed fine in matter of 3-5 minutes and I didn't even bother to remove its "Java update check" from startup. It doesn't take a gigantic space too.
As MS and Nokia, my cell phone vendor did everything to force me, while I was not busy, I dared to install NET frameworks. I particularly remember version 3 (the current one?) taking 55 MINUTES to install and taking up gigantic space. I also had to install its updates since I can't dare to run Windows without any updates. Imagine a virtual PC getting virused and spamming etc. people. (It can actually happen).
BTW, that fake PC with actual P3 500 with 512MB RAM can run a full feature program like Vuze client. Of course, not video playback etc. When I have 5 spare hours, I can try a non bloated thing like a.NET application.:)
It is also unbeliavable that people dare to compare.NET to Java. I respect to the insane amount of work by the developer of Winforms port (not to Icaza,really) but come on, where is a Nokia.NET requiring Application for Linux? Isn't that the idea of a framework? Where is a single OS X Application which could be ported easily thanks to.NET/Mono?
If Apple posts a "Mac OS X (Some cat name) 10.6, pre order for $80" entry to Amazon.com without any shipment date, just the minimum specs, it can easily make into top 10 list of software sales.
It is not just the number of OS shipments or even usage. It is the future of Windows which is really uncertain after Vista scandal. It is user confidence.
I tell you why they tried to buy Yahoo and falsely thought they could buy trust of active Yahoo users/customers. They see the future of OS neutral, standards based, network oriented desktop computing. That is their worst nightmare.
They crushed Netscape for that reason, dared to mess with Sun at court (over Java) but this time, some vendors actually ship some working things which doesn't really care what platform or CPU they run on.
He doesn't get how Google or Yahoo gets success. They get success because there are purely oriented to services they provide and how a bigger audience they can reach.
Yahoo can spend months trying to make Yahoo Mail beta compatible with one of the fastest moving browser targets on planet, Safari (and Webkit). Same goes for My Yahoo beta which can easily be called a full feature RSS reader APPLICATION running from web browser.
Google guys do everything to keep compatibility with Safari/Firefox and even as a user, I know Safari isn't the easiest browser to code for.
What does Hotmail do? It suggests user to "UPGRADE IE version" to get better experience. Problem? It is/was Safari 3.1 for God's sake.
If they want success on Web, they should fire the first person to suggest IE for better experience, adopt the "Graded browser support" scheme of Yahoo, stop advertising joke like things like Silverlight OR make Silverlight 2 something that people will show Adobe as an example. For example, Silverlight 64bit edition for Linux/FreeBSD , actual MS release without using any puppets.
As you mention Google Android, you know Android syntax is based on J2ME since it is the most known, distributed, multiplatform thing on mobile space. Did MSN code ANYTHING for hundreds of millions of mobile devices having J2ME? Symbian? No. Why? Because they see every device not running Win CE as some sort of "enemy".
On the other hand, Yahoo Go is a full feature application written in J2ME, Youtube (Google) ships an excellent performing J2ME application to mobile devices.
It is not only Ballmer to be fired. It is those idiots at MSN who once dared to block standard WAP browsers except their MS WAP browser (old Sony GSM) from mobile hotmail. As far as I can see, that group of idiots are still active at MS.
Well, I think they shipped Linux/BSD version as a base-features client and they know everyone on Linux uses third party/open source clients so they didn't even bother to race with them.
The MUSIC part you mention is way interesting. Some "BBC iPlayer" thing happened there for sure. I remember launch.com was a great service offering 3 different plugins support (Qt/Wmedia/Real), they got acquired by Yahoo, for a time, it was even better (thanks to bandwidth added) but something happened to make them a windows media only service. Some stuff under table?
Imagine music.yahoo.com didn't become puppet of MS wmedia division and kept the multi platform/multi browser thing. It could be the SECOND popular music store on planet offering media/videos/services to any modern browser/device. There are many lessons to high profile site executives in music.yahoo.com failure.
Well, there is a site/client named www.skype.com and it seems working. At least we, in potential axis of evil countries can use their services.;) Just checking, it got 10.276.342 people online right now.
Funny is the Gizmo mentioned in story... I remember I was supporting Gizmo big time (since OSS/standard based) and advertising them to everyone until... Some genius suit there decided to offer Free real phone calls BUT made a huge list of countries you can't call saying something like "Big fraud happening in those countries!"
While not being citizen of any mentioned country, I uninstalled Gizmo right away as a protest, accepted sad reality of Skype.
No kidding, I think "Spare my personal voice data" whenever I hear Google makes attempts to get into voice business. Would it be like "Free number but we will keep your conversations until 2038"?
They should use a Google.US Domain for that service and block those non USA countries IP blocks reaching!;)
Google's interest doesn't worth shit. When I hear "VOIP over PC", Skype comes to my foreigner mind. A client which supports my language, offers me to select real numbers all over the planet, even my Nokia E65 phone connects to their network over 3G/WLAN/GPRS via third party client. When you do anything regarding voice over IP, you will be compared to Skype.
So, Google offers free number but blocks everyone outside USA? Like WE CARE. Really... Google's interest should be search and they should stop playing with their search-box-monopoly search dollars to make joke to foreigners.
It is also sad that this non standard, closed source, closed codec thing will be de-facto standard for years to come.
Well, give a good tool to them to deserve the "alien like" appearance/behaviour, they may use it. A tool in quality of Azureus 3.x or Limewire. They can look like OS X apps anyway.
Lots of people aren't aware that many of Java/Desktop tools are hits in "top downloads" etc. lists sometimes being top download on their categories.
If Apple doesn't like the fact that their users use X11 to use Java 6 apps, they should sit and code a real Java, not a joke like this. I don't think there was any Java release like this in IT history.
We were already accepting "To get Modern Java, upgrade to latest OS X Major version" but this time, they tie it to a single vendors single CPU with single OS X point release. Almost like a joke.
Slashdot is clever to post this to Developer section, after days since it should be free of the fanboys with moderation powers and let actual developers speak about the future (if exists) of Java on OS X.
Of course the plan failed as those people found the story and abuse their moderation powers without reading a single line.
In reality, this is big news. This is the only Java which is tied to single variant of single vendor's CPU along with single OS point release.
Win2K which is abandoned by its own Vendor has Java 6, a 8 years old system. If there is anyone from Sun reading this: Call your IBM (POWER) Friends, get a high end developer account from Apple, start coding Sun Java for OS X _right now_. Forget Aqua, make it run fine with Leopard X11. Not like any Java developer will trust Apple to code entire thing with Aqua bindings especially after this manifesto like release from Apple.
You forget something, G5 Macs. They are all pure 64bit and in fact, the entire PowerPC line was developed with 64bit in mind.
I was going crazy about this fact until I heard a really funny side effect. As that JRE is pure 64bit, making it default Java applet handler in Safari will practically disable Java since Safari is... 32 bit:)
Sun guys should leave Open Office developers alone a bit and treat Apple just like Microsoft. They should figure already that Apple doesn't like their tool, will do anything to show it as a joke to end user, will not optimise it and get XCode from Apple along with the most expensive Developer account possible, start coding Sun Java for OS X.
I don't even expect JRE 6 from Apple for PPC. It may be released without JIT Compiler etc. even (which is worse than not having it at first place).
People dreaming about Apple in Enterprise should take IBM as example, that is how you get respect on Enterprise.
Another option for PPC while it is tragicomic: MS Virtual PC 7/XP SP2/Win2K+Sun Java 6 . I tested, it works. Of course don't expect Azureus to play movies;)
I use Yahoo since it was founded and I opened account there right after Hotmail got acquired by MS.
If we could get into Yahoo stats, I bet there is a huge explosion of user accounts at Yahoo mail back in 1998, when Hotmail got acquired.
If you buy Yahoo as Microsoft, you don't automatically have 250 million active users (just mail!), you may have 130 million since the rest would purge their accounts and move to other services like Google. It is just 3-4 clicks to purge one Yahoo account, of course I checked if it is easy/possible right after "Microhoo" mentioned. Even the least technical users I know personally asked me to find another commercial webmail provider in case "Microsoft" buys Yahoo.
Yahoo is a open source, FreeBSD/PHP powered services giant. I am using their mail since 1998 and never got rejected to login because of OS I use, the services being down or anything. That is why they can SELL "Yahoo mail plus" to end users. People trust to their services while they provide no guarantee.
Yahoo and Google partnership can happen and it would have no effect to the users, Microsoft/Yahoo partnership would have huge effects since every user NOT using MS Windows/IE (add Silverlight soon) is still considered a loss at Microsoft HQ.
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It really bothers me that people ignore AOL's part. They gave their high end developers to Mozilla project. At one time, lots of developers were paid by AOL. You can't make such high end people work for free on a such a massive project.
It is not like mozilla.org site opened up and people all over the planet started to code for free.
Google is another deal. Pay $ millions and new version of browser defaults to ON for "Anti phishing", sending every URL to Google Inc. Imagine if AOL did such thing.
Governments, universities (I think Berkeley too) can have access to source code. They went into panic when governments, armies made Linux switch because they know "what is there" so they started some program.
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/sharedsource/Licensing/default.mspx
You can also have BSD in a closed source, commercial OS/Software. That is why BSD is the choice for companies like Apple or originally Microsoft.
MS is a evil company, not like they can't code a TCP/IP stack. They didn't see TCP/IP and Internet coming though.
That time they really failed. They finally listened to rude but knowing people like JWZ, said "It became useless junk" and started rm -rf operations, shipped Phoneix.
As we speak about 2000s, I wonder what would happen if they (AOL) listened to CmdrTaco of this site right time before Netscape actually failed.
If you didn't know, there is a good surprise there (1998):
http://web.archive.org/web/19980113192359/slashdot.org/slashdot.cgi?mode=article&artnum=425
CmdrTaco is the guy who said GPL and open it. Imagine the difference if some suit from AOL actually listened it. That would make YEARS of head start. It wouldn't be "They opened source of failed browser". It would be "They finally figured it out"
Things would be really different if Real Networks started Helix years before too. The entire thing is open source now (excluding codecs) and people still wonder around saying it is spyware.
I have recently used a horrible celeron M laptop with 512MB RAM.
:)
Here is my non web developer, non developer benchmark. Safari for Windows (current) is the fastest, IE 7 is the next , Firefox current stable is the slowest. I know I will get into trouble because of saying it.
If people didn't go into panic when I installed Opera, I would make them a favour but... anyway.
As a long time Apple user, I never buy those 5x 10x faster crap Apple says in every product but they somehow managed to make a very fast, responsive, multimedia friendly browser for Windows.
With the recent amazing progress they made with Webkit, even Gnome opting in for Webkit and Trolltech (now owned by Nokia) chooses Webkit for entire Qt 4.x , I think Webkit could be a great example what would happen if you slightly change your coding style, be friendly to 3rd party developers (and rivals), keep it tidy and consider everyone when developing it. Perhaps it is the good example of open source instead of Firefox.
Missed which boat?
http://www.opera.com/b2b/
Try to accomplish same thing with thousands of amateurs not caring about real life implementing thousands of lines a day.
Opera is _the standard_ on mobile devices. You know the trend everything moving to non personal computers? Where is Mozilla Symbian S60 version? Where is mini Mozilla runs on a server serving potentially to near billion J2ME powered handsets? Where is Mozilla Win CE? Why Nokia spares millions to their number 1 competitors HTML rendering Webkit? How can Opera sell 2 years old code to Symbian S60 users? How can people bug them 24/7 about the upcoming 9.5 near begging "Give us an Alpha, we will pay for it"
Gnome, KDE, the actual Qt (trolltech) are moving to webkit. Why? Ask them.
Remember Mozilla could fit to a single 1.44 floppy? Who missed the boat I really wonder.
Opera is a huge player in business especially after 2006 when first really usable devices, smart phones begun to ship with sane prices (iPhone doesn't count unless Apple opens it).
Their model is closed source, strictly professionally coded, strictly platform neutral, just the needed features implemented on a web type language. E.g. IRC and mail is actually couple of DHTML/CSS pages. The core html renderer is insanely portable. People doesn't believe the Opera Mobile (not Mini) is using the exact same engine as desktop one but it is a fact.
The benchmark is in fact easy. If Mozilla shipped Firefox for Symbian S60 (why not?), can they sell it for $20 to people like me using Nokia E65 with Webkit based browser? Opera can do it with 2 years old version (8.65). Why I bothered? Because it WORKS. You know there are some guys out there not being part of a billion dollar company depends on my $20. It is not the case with Webkit, Firefox or IE. For Nokia, it is like having "XHTML browser built in" as a line on their specs. Does it work on that weird screen without the high res display of iPhone? They don't care.
While speaking of Webkit, I am type of a person that thinks Safari should NEVER have Mozilla like extensions. My concern is security. The OS default browser should be exactly the same, features implemented in the core and there shouldn't be any 3rd party "click and install" extensions which can change the browsers behaviour, private data of user, send private data to third parties. Security alerts, signed thing, timer, they don't work. Other option is "Apple certified". It won't work too, creating more security issues as people will "jail break" it.
The Opera 9.5 Mobile will ship to every kind of device on market, its NDA betas are already in device vendor hands. It uses the same html/javascript renderer as desktop version. Do you know the free memory on my Nokia E65 when device booted? 24 MB! Opera doesn't have an option to code memory flooding , "because I can" type of geek fantasies. They are caring about Nintendo, Symbian, Win CE, Airliners, high end multimedia devices, TV set top. On such things you don't have an option. If your app uses too much memory, it is closed by OS. Basic as that. No excuses. Especially Symbian single core devices are more strict since single CPU handles the telephony too (it is safe BTW).
Than it is a PR problem for MS, a huge one. As not using Windows for years (except Virtual), I was absolutely sure that enabling Aero has huge minimum requirements. I am kind of a person who suggests real XP/Vista for PCs instead of running some sort of hacked and unsupported OS X since Windows would work better on generic PC. I have no absolute hate to Windows.
Core image is supported on Mac G4 mini, as reported by system. The Intel Mac mini could have problems since Apple opted in for Intel integrated junk for graphics. iTunes cover flow etc. works on ATI (real) Graphics card. That is why I stay away from Intel offers except "Pro" line, if I ever need to upgrade my Quad G5. They lost their freedom at consumer level after Intel deal.
Does Vista run on a 32bit RISC G4 1.42 Ghz Processor, 1 Gig installed laptop grade RAM with ALL features enabled? That is what I do with the Mini G4. It works better than Tiger installed.
Just 1 week ago, I was busy helping an electrician who has no clue about computers to install XP SP3 (already had CDR in hand). He said that laptop came with Vista pre-installed, was OK for a week and things really went downhill. He had to create a scene at computer store to downgrade the laptop to XP for free. Not just releasing a bad system, they also made people (especially non tech) somehow phobic about the Vista name itself! That is a major accomplishment.
Here, I found a KB article at Apple about the comical (compared to Aero) requirements of Quartz Extreme on 10.4+
http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301347
"To take advantage of Quartz Extreme, you need one of the following graphics cards:
ATI: Any AGP-based ATI RADEON GPU, with 16 MB VRAM or better.
NVIDIA: NVIDIA GeForce2 MX or later, with 16 MB VRAM or better."
Apple did not forget CPU. CPU is not even mentioned since it has nothing to do with the idea of offloading GUI to GPU!
I am not a big windows hater, I just don't understand genuinely what kind of weird development they did to require such insane specs. I also wonder if it has something to do with DirectX 10 and its fake Vista requirement.
OEM thing is always shadowy but if we speak about retail sales, Amazon as a number 1 globally known brand can give a clue.
Apple OS X Leopard made into top 10 software sales list months before going into market, as a pre-order without a significant rebate. Vista never, ever made into that list, at least top 10 section.
Now checking (warning: It is dynamic), MS Windows XP SP2 _is_ on the list, home edition (there goes corporate keeps stable excuse), number 20
http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/software/ref=sv_sw_0
MS Office Windows/Mac editions make top 2 of list too. So, there is no issue with ordering MS stuff from Amazon, people choose Amazon to buy MS software they need.
On a huge shareware/freeware planet like Windows, I bet something to replace Sidebar exists. I am not sure about the win32/64 coding quality but Yahoo Widgets does work fine on OS X. http://widgets.yahoo.com/ . At least (same deal on OS X), when you quit, it REALLY quits. Goes away from memory without a trace ;)
Where does hardware requirements of Aero really come from? I got a Mac Mini G4 upstairs with a 32MB Laptop grade (I guess) ATI video card, it does every kind of OS X trick except the very needed (Plasma HDTV) transparent menu bar.
Isn't the Aero a "photocopy" of OS X GUI tricks? They have real bad coders there at Redmond I guess...
The best platform currently Java runs (as client) is Windows and Linux. OS X is kinda stuck on version 5. As a full-Apple setup person, I can never dare to say Java is bad performer on Windows.
Near a billion devices run Java, Google (Youtube), Yahoo hires J2ME developers to make unimaginable things just 2 years ago. Java P2P apps make top ten list on downloads, an industry giant like SonyEricsson plans to end J2ME interface problem by using Flash Lite 3 sparing millions of dollars (They own Symbian UIQ now).
Java has devices in hand. A company like Apple switched to Intel because they saw future on portables (which proves to be right every day), mid aged people buy devices like Sony Ps3 just as a media center for their HDTV.
I wouldn't put all my stakes to Windows and MS with a management like this.
I got Virtual PC 7 on Quad G5 2500 (lots of RAM) and it runs Windows XP Sp2 (now 3).
.NET application. :)
.NET to Java. I respect to the insane amount of work by the developer of Winforms port (not to Icaza,really) but come on, where is a Nokia .NET requiring Application for Linux? Isn't that the idea of a framework? Where is a single OS X Application which could be ported easily thanks to .NET/Mono?
Of course not expecting anything, I wondered the new Widgets on Java 6 and how easy it is if I ever need users to install Java 6 on Windows. (for applet).
Some would call me mad for this, I actually installed Java 6 on Virtual PC 7 emulating a P3 500. It actually installed fine in matter of 3-5 minutes and I didn't even bother to remove its "Java update check" from startup. It doesn't take a gigantic space too.
As MS and Nokia, my cell phone vendor did everything to force me, while I was not busy, I dared to install NET frameworks. I particularly remember version 3 (the current one?) taking 55 MINUTES to install and taking up gigantic space. I also had to install its updates since I can't dare to run Windows without any updates. Imagine a virtual PC getting virused and spamming etc. people. (It can actually happen).
BTW, that fake PC with actual P3 500 with 512MB RAM can run a full feature program like Vuze client. Of course, not video playback etc. When I have 5 spare hours, I can try a non bloated thing like a
It is also unbeliavable that people dare to compare
If Apple posts a "Mac OS X (Some cat name) 10.6, pre order for $80" entry to Amazon.com without any shipment date, just the minimum specs, it can easily make into top 10 list of software sales.
It is not just the number of OS shipments or even usage. It is the future of Windows which is really uncertain after Vista scandal. It is user confidence.
I tell you why they tried to buy Yahoo and falsely thought they could buy trust of active Yahoo users/customers. They see the future of OS neutral, standards based, network oriented desktop computing. That is their worst nightmare.
They crushed Netscape for that reason, dared to mess with Sun at court (over Java) but this time, some vendors actually ship some working things which doesn't really care what platform or CPU they run on.
He doesn't get how Google or Yahoo gets success. They get success because there are purely oriented to services they provide and how a bigger audience they can reach.
Yahoo can spend months trying to make Yahoo Mail beta compatible with one of the fastest moving browser targets on planet, Safari (and Webkit). Same goes for My Yahoo beta which can easily be called a full feature RSS reader APPLICATION running from web browser.
Google guys do everything to keep compatibility with Safari/Firefox and even as a user, I know Safari isn't the easiest browser to code for.
What does Hotmail do? It suggests user to "UPGRADE IE version" to get better experience. Problem? It is/was Safari 3.1 for God's sake.
If they want success on Web, they should fire the first person to suggest IE for better experience, adopt the "Graded browser support" scheme of Yahoo, stop advertising joke like things like Silverlight OR make Silverlight 2 something that people will show Adobe as an example. For example, Silverlight 64bit edition for Linux/FreeBSD , actual MS release without using any puppets.
As you mention Google Android, you know Android syntax is based on J2ME since it is the most known, distributed, multiplatform thing on mobile space. Did MSN code ANYTHING for hundreds of millions of mobile devices having J2ME? Symbian? No. Why? Because they see every device not running Win CE as some sort of "enemy".
On the other hand, Yahoo Go is a full feature application written in J2ME, Youtube (Google) ships an excellent performing J2ME application to mobile devices.
It is not only Ballmer to be fired. It is those idiots at MSN who once dared to block standard WAP browsers except their MS WAP browser (old Sony GSM) from mobile hotmail. As far as I can see, that group of idiots are still active at MS.
My mail provider, Fastmail.fm defends against false backscatter messages. Here is their method:
http://www.fastmail.fm/docs/faqparts/SpamSettings.htm#JunkBackscatter
Well, I think they shipped Linux/BSD version as a base-features client and they know everyone on Linux uses third party/open source clients so they didn't even bother to race with them.
The MUSIC part you mention is way interesting. Some "BBC iPlayer" thing happened there for sure. I remember launch.com was a great service offering 3 different plugins support (Qt/Wmedia/Real), they got acquired by Yahoo, for a time, it was even better (thanks to bandwidth added) but something happened to make them a windows media only service. Some stuff under table?
Imagine music.yahoo.com didn't become puppet of MS wmedia division and kept the multi platform/multi browser thing. It could be the SECOND popular music store on planet offering media/videos/services to any modern browser/device. There are many lessons to high profile site executives in music.yahoo.com failure.
Well, there is a site/client named www.skype.com and it seems working. At least we, in potential axis of evil countries can use their services. ;) Just checking, it got 10.276.342 people online right now.
Funny is the Gizmo mentioned in story... I remember I was supporting Gizmo big time (since OSS/standard based) and advertising them to everyone until... Some genius suit there decided to offer Free real phone calls BUT made a huge list of countries you can't call saying something like "Big fraud happening in those countries!"
While not being citizen of any mentioned country, I uninstalled Gizmo right away as a protest, accepted sad reality of Skype.
No kidding, I think "Spare my personal voice data" whenever I hear Google makes attempts to get into voice business. Would it be like "Free number but we will keep your conversations until 2038"?
They should use a Google.US Domain for that service and block those non USA countries IP blocks reaching! ;)
Google's interest doesn't worth shit. When I hear "VOIP over PC", Skype comes to my foreigner mind. A client which supports my language, offers me to select real numbers all over the planet, even my Nokia E65 phone connects to their network over 3G/WLAN/GPRS via third party client. When you do anything regarding voice over IP, you will be compared to Skype.
So, Google offers free number but blocks everyone outside USA? Like WE CARE. Really... Google's interest should be search and they should stop playing with their search-box-monopoly search dollars to make joke to foreigners.
It is also sad that this non standard, closed source, closed codec thing will be de-facto standard for years to come.
Well, give a good tool to them to deserve the "alien like" appearance/behaviour, they may use it. A tool in quality of Azureus 3.x or Limewire. They can look like OS X apps anyway.
Lots of people aren't aware that many of Java/Desktop tools are hits in "top downloads" etc. lists sometimes being top download on their categories.
If Apple doesn't like the fact that their users use X11 to use Java 6 apps, they should sit and code a real Java, not a joke like this. I don't think there was any Java release like this in IT history.
We were already accepting "To get Modern Java, upgrade to latest OS X Major version" but this time, they tie it to a single vendors single CPU with single OS X point release. Almost like a joke.
Slashdot is clever to post this to Developer section, after days since it should be free of the fanboys with moderation powers and let actual developers speak about the future (if exists) of Java on OS X.
Of course the plan failed as those people found the story and abuse their moderation powers without reading a single line.
In reality, this is big news. This is the only Java which is tied to single variant of single vendor's CPU along with single OS point release.
Win2K which is abandoned by its own Vendor has Java 6, a 8 years old system. If there is anyone from Sun reading this: Call your IBM (POWER) Friends, get a high end developer account from Apple, start coding Sun Java for OS X _right now_. Forget Aqua, make it run fine with Leopard X11. Not like any Java developer will trust Apple to code entire thing with Aqua bindings especially after this manifesto like release from Apple.
You forget something, G5 Macs. They are all pure 64bit and in fact, the entire PowerPC line was developed with 64bit in mind.
:)
;)
I was going crazy about this fact until I heard a really funny side effect. As that JRE is pure 64bit, making it default Java applet handler in Safari will practically disable Java since Safari is... 32 bit
Sun guys should leave Open Office developers alone a bit and treat Apple just like Microsoft. They should figure already that Apple doesn't like their tool, will do anything to show it as a joke to end user, will not optimise it and get XCode from Apple along with the most expensive Developer account possible, start coding Sun Java for OS X.
I don't even expect JRE 6 from Apple for PPC. It may be released without JIT Compiler etc. even (which is worse than not having it at first place).
If you insist on running PPC(64) Desktop and want the Java 6, IBM one for Linux/PPC is there:
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/java/jdk/linux/download.html
People dreaming about Apple in Enterprise should take IBM as example, that is how you get respect on Enterprise.
Another option for PPC while it is tragicomic: MS Virtual PC 7/XP SP2/Win2K+Sun Java 6 . I tested, it works. Of course don't expect Azureus to play movies
I use Yahoo since it was founded and I opened account there right after Hotmail got acquired by MS.
If we could get into Yahoo stats, I bet there is a huge explosion of user accounts at Yahoo mail back in 1998, when Hotmail got acquired.
If you buy Yahoo as Microsoft, you don't automatically have 250 million active users (just mail!), you may have 130 million since the rest would purge their accounts and move to other services like Google. It is just 3-4 clicks to purge one Yahoo account, of course I checked if it is easy/possible right after "Microhoo" mentioned. Even the least technical users I know personally asked me to find another commercial webmail provider in case "Microsoft" buys Yahoo.
Yahoo is a open source, FreeBSD/PHP powered services giant. I am using their mail since 1998 and never got rejected to login because of OS I use, the services being down or anything. That is why they can SELL "Yahoo mail plus" to end users. People trust to their services while they provide no guarantee.
Yahoo and Google partnership can happen and it would have no effect to the users, Microsoft/Yahoo partnership would have huge effects since every user NOT using MS Windows/IE (add Silverlight soon) is still considered a loss at Microsoft HQ.