1 - Gnome only 2 - Fairly vanilla packages 3 - Really ugly themeing 4 - Basically zero options in the install process. I get the default packages, and that is it. 5 - I could never get the ATI drivers to work well with Ubuntu on my wife's laptop, but they worked great with Sabayon and openSUSE. 6 - I compiled a custom kernel by hand, but then I couldn't get the ATI driver to load at all, because Ubuntu demands that there be a restricted module package for the kernel, and I couldn't make one for a custom kernel. 7 - Never could get madwifi to work on Ubuntu well, when it worked out of the box with openSUSE and Sabayon. 8 - When I asked for support in the forums I was repeatedly flamed in PMs, and on the IRC support channel. I was told that I needed to install the 32-bit version, even when I asked for help the in the 64-bit forums. I was repeatedly told the 64-bit version is unsupported, even though Cannonical sells commercial support for it. 9 - Asking about restricted formats also provoked several flames, and Ubuntu fights methods that allow people to easily install them. 10 - I eventually tried out Kubuntu to find arguably the single worst KDE desktop I've seen in a distro. 11 - I was repeatedly instructed not to install a toolkit or attempt to compile anything manually. "I might screw something up, and frankly you shouldn't ever try to to do things on your own." 12 - At every turn Ubuntu removed choice. It was the most simplistic, straight-forward distro I've ever tried. There is a target audience for that, and it isn't me. 13 - Ubuntu supposedly "simply works" just like Apple. Fans would like you to believe neither Apple nor Ubuntu ever have problems, and yet Ubuntu has had some serious bugs with their last four releases I've witnessed. 14 - Kubuntu is a bastard child that not only receives little developer attention, but it is usually a release behind Ubuntu on *buntu features. 15 - A forum moderator actually told me I was an idiot for owning ATI hardware, to which I replied "it is the laptop my wife bought" to which he later replied "then you should divorce the bitch." I expect better from moderators. It is the single worst community I've ever dealt with. I really got spoiled on the Gentoo forums. I really love reading those.
Shuttleworth does a great job marketing and pushing Ubuntu. He signs deals with the right vendors. People who know nothing about Linux have heard of Ubuntu.
Yet, it is my least favorite distro I've ever tried. Popularity does not necessarily equate to quality.
That being said, I'm glad people are starting to realize that alternatives exist, and Ubuntu might be a gateway to other (better) distros. I hope Ubuntu doesn't turn people off though. I wish there was more of a coordinated effort to market other distros as well as Ubuntu is marketed.
Anyone remember the GetFirefox.com campaign?
I'd like to see a similar campaign for GetOpenSUSE or GetKDE or GetMandriva, or whatever.
The ILM guys have been focusing on what they know well, and developing technology that will help their film and game divisions at the same time. They've been working on new physics technology, AI, animation and rendering techniques.
They've shown some very interesting demos of Indy fighting off thugs on a hilly street in San Francisco. People never fell the same way twice. The way they attempted to regain balance was realistic, and often entertaining.
They're creating tools that should make gameplay more dynamic. It still takes designers to develop good plots, levels, etc. But from the demos of Force Unleashed and the untitled Indy game, I think LucasArts is moving in an interesting new direction.
I say that without fear of hyperbole. Perhaps senior command missed how Al Qaeda is running circles around us online, how China bats around like a cat toy in cyber-space, and how even Georgia and Russia are firmly entrenched in cyber-war right now.
The US has more to lose in a cyber-war than our enemies, we're more vulnerable, and we're not even going to try and focus on that battlefield.
I tried out a DS in a WalMart and didn't like the interface. I didn't like juggling back and forth between holding it with two hands to reach buttons and then going for the stylus. There didn't seem to be any good, comfortable way to hold the device. That being said, they sell like mad.
My wife doesn't enjoy gaming on the PSP, but I imagine if I put a DS in her hand she'd love it. Retirement homes are going nuts over the Wii, where as I'm more interested in getting Fallout 3 and Force Unleashed on my PS3.
These are very different products for very different crowds. I somewhat my Wii and my PS3 side-by-side. I don't think Sony and Nintendo are really competing with each other, so much as Sony and Microsoft are.
Exactly my point. Nintendo is worried about being scooped, and they shouldn't be. Nintendo and Apple are about style.
The wiimote isn't the best motion sensitive controller I've ever used. I have an ancient flight-stick from a Comdex about 10 years back or so that I move in the air to control a plane in a filght-sim. The controls are marvelous, and it never caught on.
The wiimote conversely isn't horribly accurate, doesn't feature enough buttons to offer the complexity I personally crave, and is very frustrating as a mouse-type tool.
That being said, I enjoy my Wii as do many others. Nintendo focuses on gameplay and design. Microsoft can copy the avatars and such, but neither Microsoft nor Sony seem to get what it is that Nintendo does so well.
They're not saying he can't discuss his personal life with friends and family. They don't want him discussing his personal life with the press. It sounds odd, and yet at the same time, Steve Jobs won't allow pretty much anyone from Apple to give interviews other than him. Everyone controls exactly what the press gets to hear.
Bioware has been working on a KOTOR-era MMO for a few years. I was recently confirmed. I'm still hoping for a single-player KOTOR 3 that resolves the KOTOR storylines.
Most people don't seem to know this, but LucasArts went bankrupt and folded. They shipped KOTOR 2 really early and unfinished, and fired the pre-production team that was currently working on KOTOR 3.
Since then, a new LucasArts team was born internally within ILM. They're working closer to the vest, and trying not to do so many games at once since they lost so much money on games like Clone Wars, Super Bombad Racing, Bounty Hunter, etc.
There was a DS homebrew contest and I remember reading about a girl who won the contest by developing a game in which you stroked the fluffy parts of a bunny with your stylus just right to make the bunny happy, and then it exploded into a bunch of butterflies. The developer flat out said the game was a simulation of getting a girl off. I'm sure a similar homebrew game for the Wiimote will eventually come out.
And no ever thought of doing work-out games before (we actually own the XBox virtual personal trainer game that my wife used to work out with).
And no one ever did music games before.
And since when was Wii Music a big hit? I thought it hadn't even been released yet, and all the hype has been about Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour.
American corporations often put limitations on what their employees can say to the press. Every major corporation has had a policy on what statements the company can make, and even then, only certain employees are allowed to talk to the press. Violation of such a policy is grounds for termination. It is pretty standard.
I downloaded the trailer for that new game you are talking about, Force Unleashed. The computer screenshots didn't seem to do it justice. I fired it up on my PS3 on my big screen and it was truly gorgeous. Not only does gameplay look great, but many people keep suggesting it has a great plot. They are doing a novelization of the game, and they suggest that a plot twist in the game will forever change how you view the original trilogy.
I also second a new X-Wing/TIE game. X-Wing Alliance was decent, and there is still a community for that game, but I want to see a next-gen flight sim in the vein of X-Wing/TIE with all the ships in the Star Wars galaxy.
Lastly, we need a solid KOTOR 3 to answer all the questions from the first two.
NPD doesn't publicly list their numbers, and yet people quote them all the time. They're supposed to be the industry standard for actual machines out.
The numbers you quoted were one source I've never heard of, and and only list new PC sales for the quarter. I'm not sure if those PC sales include laptops or not. Some people list laptop sales seperately, and that is where Apple is making the largest strides right now.
Browser usage shows the number of PCs connected to the internet, and reflects real-world usage, as opposed to quarterly sales. Global browser usage shows Apple with a close to 8% market share, which mimics the claims I've seen from multiple sources that Apple has a 7% share of the global market right now.
In the US, Apple had 14% of the US market share for new PCs in February. Everyone in the industry is noting their rapid ascent, and Microsoft's plummeting market share.
The IT department just got beefy, dual-core laptops with 4 gigs of RAM and they still are noticeably sluggish with Vista. However, they are really fast and snappy with XP. As you noted, Vista doesn't seem to offer any real advantage over XP.
Vista becomes tolerable if you through enough hardware at it, but why would you want to spend a bunch of money just to kill system performance with your OS?
I'd recommend openSUSE with KDE 3 over Ubuntu, but that is just me. I don't like Ubuntu, and I don't like Gnome. KDE 4.1 is getting pretty close if you want to hunt down a KDE 4.1 LiveCD.
My last company, we decided to avoid Vista on about 150,000 computers. I just moved to a small local company with about 2,500 computers. When I worked for HP, it was well before Vista's release. However, I wouldn't be shocked if HP was avoiding Vista internally as well.
I also am a member of several computer help forums, and do computer repair on the side. I usually have 2-4 computers sitting in my office that I'm fixing for other people.
XP and Vista add up to 87% of market share. Yet Windows has a total of 91%. Only 4% of Windows users use another Windows, such as x64, 2000, Server 2003, NT 4, 98, etc.
XP very quickly dominated the market share previously owned by the 95, 98, and 2000 users. Vista is not doing the same.
You claim that numbers don't back up my claim that people are looking away from Vista. Perhaps you missed Apple jumping up to 7% market share, and continuing to climb. Apple is the #3 seller of laptops on the planet right now. Oh, and Linux is now being sold preinstalled on 3% of new computers right now, where as before Vista came along, Linux could never top 1% of market share.
Vista hasn't been adopted as fast as XP was, and Microsoft keeps hemorrhaging market share since Vista was released. But keep telling yourself that people are going nuts over Vista.
Your link lists 16.9% share for Vista. I've worked for two major Fortune 500 companies who both purchase new computers with Vista, and then wipes them and puts their XP VLK image on the boxes.
Every user I know personally who has tried Vista rolled back to XP or moved to Linux. I don't know anyone personally who has told me one positive thing about Vista, or stayed with it more than two months.
Dell, HP, Gateway and every major reseller pushed for Microsoft to continue selling XP, and they continue to offer XP even though Microsoft has encouraged them to stop doing so.
You say the numbers don't support people turning away from Vista, yet for all the new Vista licenses being sold, XP dominates the statistics you linked from 70 to 17 percent.
Slashdot Mirror
1 - Gnome only
2 - Fairly vanilla packages
3 - Really ugly themeing
4 - Basically zero options in the install process. I get the default packages, and that is it.
5 - I could never get the ATI drivers to work well with Ubuntu on my wife's laptop, but they worked great with Sabayon and openSUSE.
6 - I compiled a custom kernel by hand, but then I couldn't get the ATI driver to load at all, because Ubuntu demands that there be a restricted module package for the kernel, and I couldn't make one for a custom kernel.
7 - Never could get madwifi to work on Ubuntu well, when it worked out of the box with openSUSE and Sabayon.
8 - When I asked for support in the forums I was repeatedly flamed in PMs, and on the IRC support channel. I was told that I needed to install the 32-bit version, even when I asked for help the in the 64-bit forums. I was repeatedly told the 64-bit version is unsupported, even though Cannonical sells commercial support for it.
9 - Asking about restricted formats also provoked several flames, and Ubuntu fights methods that allow people to easily install them.
10 - I eventually tried out Kubuntu to find arguably the single worst KDE desktop I've seen in a distro.
11 - I was repeatedly instructed not to install a toolkit or attempt to compile anything manually. "I might screw something up, and frankly you shouldn't ever try to to do things on your own."
12 - At every turn Ubuntu removed choice. It was the most simplistic, straight-forward distro I've ever tried. There is a target audience for that, and it isn't me.
13 - Ubuntu supposedly "simply works" just like Apple. Fans would like you to believe neither Apple nor Ubuntu ever have problems, and yet Ubuntu has had some serious bugs with their last four releases I've witnessed.
14 - Kubuntu is a bastard child that not only receives little developer attention, but it is usually a release behind Ubuntu on *buntu features.
15 - A forum moderator actually told me I was an idiot for owning ATI hardware, to which I replied "it is the laptop my wife bought" to which he later replied "then you should divorce the bitch." I expect better from moderators. It is the single worst community I've ever dealt with. I really got spoiled on the Gentoo forums. I really love reading those.
Shuttleworth does a great job marketing and pushing Ubuntu. He signs deals with the right vendors. People who know nothing about Linux have heard of Ubuntu.
Yet, it is my least favorite distro I've ever tried. Popularity does not necessarily equate to quality.
That being said, I'm glad people are starting to realize that alternatives exist, and Ubuntu might be a gateway to other (better) distros. I hope Ubuntu doesn't turn people off though. I wish there was more of a coordinated effort to market other distros as well as Ubuntu is marketed.
Anyone remember the GetFirefox.com campaign?
I'd like to see a similar campaign for GetOpenSUSE or GetKDE or GetMandriva, or whatever.
Don't leave out Mac-boy. He can hack an entire nation with a cell phone.
The ILM guys have been focusing on what they know well, and developing technology that will help their film and game divisions at the same time. They've been working on new physics technology, AI, animation and rendering techniques.
They've shown some very interesting demos of Indy fighting off thugs on a hilly street in San Francisco. People never fell the same way twice. The way they attempted to regain balance was realistic, and often entertaining.
They're creating tools that should make gameplay more dynamic. It still takes designers to develop good plots, levels, etc. But from the demos of Force Unleashed and the untitled Indy game, I think LucasArts is moving in an interesting new direction.
I say that without fear of hyperbole. Perhaps senior command missed how Al Qaeda is running circles around us online, how China bats around like a cat toy in cyber-space, and how even Georgia and Russia are firmly entrenched in cyber-war right now.
The US has more to lose in a cyber-war than our enemies, we're more vulnerable, and we're not even going to try and focus on that battlefield.
Monumentally stupid.
I tried out a DS in a WalMart and didn't like the interface. I didn't like juggling back and forth between holding it with two hands to reach buttons and then going for the stylus. There didn't seem to be any good, comfortable way to hold the device. That being said, they sell like mad.
My wife doesn't enjoy gaming on the PSP, but I imagine if I put a DS in her hand she'd love it. Retirement homes are going nuts over the Wii, where as I'm more interested in getting Fallout 3 and Force Unleashed on my PS3.
These are very different products for very different crowds. I somewhat my Wii and my PS3 side-by-side. I don't think Sony and Nintendo are really competing with each other, so much as Sony and Microsoft are.
Exactly my point. Nintendo is worried about being scooped, and they shouldn't be. Nintendo and Apple are about style.
The wiimote isn't the best motion sensitive controller I've ever used. I have an ancient flight-stick from a Comdex about 10 years back or so that I move in the air to control a plane in a filght-sim. The controls are marvelous, and it never caught on.
The wiimote conversely isn't horribly accurate, doesn't feature enough buttons to offer the complexity I personally crave, and is very frustrating as a mouse-type tool.
That being said, I enjoy my Wii as do many others. Nintendo focuses on gameplay and design. Microsoft can copy the avatars and such, but neither Microsoft nor Sony seem to get what it is that Nintendo does so well.
They're not saying he can't discuss his personal life with friends and family. They don't want him discussing his personal life with the press. It sounds odd, and yet at the same time, Steve Jobs won't allow pretty much anyone from Apple to give interviews other than him. Everyone controls exactly what the press gets to hear.
Bioware has been working on a KOTOR-era MMO for a few years. I was recently confirmed. I'm still hoping for a single-player KOTOR 3 that resolves the KOTOR storylines.
Most people don't seem to know this, but LucasArts went bankrupt and folded. They shipped KOTOR 2 really early and unfinished, and fired the pre-production team that was currently working on KOTOR 3.
Since then, a new LucasArts team was born internally within ILM. They're working closer to the vest, and trying not to do so many games at once since they lost so much money on games like Clone Wars, Super Bombad Racing, Bounty Hunter, etc.
There was a DS homebrew contest and I remember reading about a girl who won the contest by developing a game in which you stroked the fluffy parts of a bunny with your stylus just right to make the bunny happy, and then it exploded into a bunch of butterflies. The developer flat out said the game was a simulation of getting a girl off. I'm sure a similar homebrew game for the Wiimote will eventually come out.
No one ever thought of doing puzzle games before.
And no ever thought of doing work-out games before (we actually own the XBox virtual personal trainer game that my wife used to work out with).
And no one ever did music games before.
And since when was Wii Music a big hit? I thought it hadn't even been released yet, and all the hype has been about Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour.
American corporations often put limitations on what their employees can say to the press. Every major corporation has had a policy on what statements the company can make, and even then, only certain employees are allowed to talk to the press. Violation of such a policy is grounds for termination. It is pretty standard.
For what it is worth, I thought the trailer looked fun. Then again, Episode 1 has one of the best trailers of all time and that movie was truly awful.
I downloaded the trailer for that new game you are talking about, Force Unleashed. The computer screenshots didn't seem to do it justice. I fired it up on my PS3 on my big screen and it was truly gorgeous. Not only does gameplay look great, but many people keep suggesting it has a great plot. They are doing a novelization of the game, and they suggest that a plot twist in the game will forever change how you view the original trilogy.
I also second a new X-Wing/TIE game. X-Wing Alliance was decent, and there is still a community for that game, but I want to see a next-gen flight sim in the vein of X-Wing/TIE with all the ships in the Star Wars galaxy.
Lastly, we need a solid KOTOR 3 to answer all the questions from the first two.
NPD doesn't publicly list their numbers, and yet people quote them all the time. They're supposed to be the industry standard for actual machines out.
The numbers you quoted were one source I've never heard of, and and only list new PC sales for the quarter. I'm not sure if those PC sales include laptops or not. Some people list laptop sales seperately, and that is where Apple is making the largest strides right now.
Browser usage shows the number of PCs connected to the internet, and reflects real-world usage, as opposed to quarterly sales. Global browser usage shows Apple with a close to 8% market share, which mimics the claims I've seen from multiple sources that Apple has a 7% share of the global market right now.
In the US, Apple had 14% of the US market share for new PCs in February. Everyone in the industry is noting their rapid ascent, and Microsoft's plummeting market share.
I'm not sure how you are trying to deny that.
http://www.macrumors.com/2008/03/17/apples-pc-marketshare-up-to-14-percent-for-february-2008/
Slashdot itself had an article not too long about Apple reaching #3.
The link was a few posts above, exactly like I said.
http://marketshare.hitslink.com/report.aspx?qprid=8
Apple has 7.76% global market share. They're almost at 8%.
http://www.homestarrunner.com/trogdor.html
Like this game?
Homestar is secretly a Jedi master and he uses the Force to type, fap, etc.
The IT department just got beefy, dual-core laptops with 4 gigs of RAM and they still are noticeably sluggish with Vista. However, they are really fast and snappy with XP. As you noted, Vista doesn't seem to offer any real advantage over XP.
Vista becomes tolerable if you through enough hardware at it, but why would you want to spend a bunch of money just to kill system performance with your OS?
I'd recommend openSUSE with KDE 3 over Ubuntu, but that is just me. I don't like Ubuntu, and I don't like Gnome. KDE 4.1 is getting pretty close if you want to hunt down a KDE 4.1 LiveCD.
My last company, we decided to avoid Vista on about 150,000 computers. I just moved to a small local company with about 2,500 computers. When I worked for HP, it was well before Vista's release. However, I wouldn't be shocked if HP was avoiding Vista internally as well.
I also am a member of several computer help forums, and do computer repair on the side. I usually have 2-4 computers sitting in my office that I'm fixing for other people.
No, the above link of global statistics confirms what I'm reading everywhere. Apple has jumped to 7% market share since the release of Vista.
XP and Vista add up to 87% of market share. Yet Windows has a total of 91%. Only 4% of Windows users use another Windows, such as x64, 2000, Server 2003, NT 4, 98, etc.
XP very quickly dominated the market share previously owned by the 95, 98, and 2000 users. Vista is not doing the same.
You claim that numbers don't back up my claim that people are looking away from Vista. Perhaps you missed Apple jumping up to 7% market share, and continuing to climb. Apple is the #3 seller of laptops on the planet right now. Oh, and Linux is now being sold preinstalled on 3% of new computers right now, where as before Vista came along, Linux could never top 1% of market share.
Vista hasn't been adopted as fast as XP was, and Microsoft keeps hemorrhaging market share since Vista was released. But keep telling yourself that people are going nuts over Vista.
Your link lists 16.9% share for Vista. I've worked for two major Fortune 500 companies who both purchase new computers with Vista, and then wipes them and puts their XP VLK image on the boxes.
Every user I know personally who has tried Vista rolled back to XP or moved to Linux. I don't know anyone personally who has told me one positive thing about Vista, or stayed with it more than two months.
Dell, HP, Gateway and every major reseller pushed for Microsoft to continue selling XP, and they continue to offer XP even though Microsoft has encouraged them to stop doing so.
You say the numbers don't support people turning away from Vista, yet for all the new Vista licenses being sold, XP dominates the statistics you linked from 70 to 17 percent.
I'd say the numbers firmly cement my argument.
You can slipstream the SATA drivers into an XP CD.