How far back has the software industry been set back by Microsoft?
How much further along would server side be if Microsoft had truly worked with the Java community instead of going it's own way with.Net?
How much better would cellphones be if Microsoft had not bought, and slowly strangled, Danger?
How much further along would so many areas be if Microsoft had not bought up so many experts and stuffed them in an R&D group with almost no real world output, instead of having them work on practical technologies that made it to market?
Would the HD video market have been as fragmented as it was without Microsoft pushing HD-DVD long past the point it was obviously dead just so they would get licensing revenue from the menu system?
If Microsoft the company has lost a decade, it is Karma - for the world and our industry has lost so much more at their hands.
.NET is way better than Java in many respects. In fact, now Java is implementing many features of the new C# version. And I thought competition led to better things and a single language led to stagnation?
Danger is that big of a deal? huh?
R&D with no pressure to create real world output can give freedom to academics instead of always concentrating on the almighty dollar returns.
They were pushing HDDVD how exactly? By paying people to use it? They didn't even include a HDDVD drive by default with the XBOX like Sony did with the PS3.
If Microsoft didn't help make computers standardized and way cheap, we would still be running $3000 computers, especially if IBM or Apple was at the helm. There might not be even Intel today.
Furthermore, I think you mean to say that it's "only useful for non-open source applications" as there are tons of free software applications out there that are not open source but are free (like Microsoft's Express editions of Visual Studio).
He means free as in Stallman-Free, not the free as in cost. That's what I don't like about this 'free' as in 'freedom' thing, it's needless confusing by trying to change the meaning that first comes to mind to people. They could've just gone with libre or something.
"Opinion for anti-MS nerds" perhaps? There are plenty of nerds who aren't religious about hating "M$" and appreciate cool technology wherever it comes from.
Businesses have to use legacy and really badly written software. There are 3 apps out there for sales force automation in the Cable advertising field, and all three suck because they were written in VB5. They all work well under XP but Vista64 barfs on a regular interval with them.
You yourself say they were badly written. Sounds like the apps are barfing then, not Vista. And $90,000? Haven't you heard of XP mode? Unless of course they're using 5 yr old machines. In that case, XP is sufficient. I see machines using Windows 98 being used in some business because they just work. Nothing wrong with that.
Microsoft's "Engineering 7" blog has several telemetrics examples from Windows 7 vs. Vista.
This site has long ceased being a news-for-nerds site and is now a bash-MS-and-promote-alternatives-at-whatever-cost site. And the cycle feeds itself, with people here depending only on news and (highly moderated) comments here for their technology news and then spewing the same (wishful thinking) thing over and over again while getting modded up. The whole Vista DRM half truth comes to mind.
So they actually bothered to ship it with a compiler, source, and a text editor that's better than note/wordpad?
I didn't think so.
Why would anyone with half a brain bloat up a OS with those things when only about 0.5%(I'm being charitable here) of the user base would ever find a use for them? You can always download the things you mention for free(sans source) from places like http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualc/aa336402.aspx
And yes, Visual Express is much better editor than notepad/wordpad.
If you're a nerd you would know where to get them. If you're a true nerd, you can slipstream them into the OS install.
Or maybe you were just trolling for karma. Uninformed posts like yours get modded up all the time as long as they bash MS and/or praise FOSS. In other words, you're a karmawhore wannabe nerd!
no c compiler! when i try to install programs that i have downloaded (in source code) , ubuntu dosen't find any c compiler. and when i search on my disk for ex: gcc, cc, g++ it dosen't find anything....
dosen't ubuntu have a standard c compiler? and if not, how can i install one the easiest way (im a noob)?
Re: no c compiler! Just open up synaptic package manager and install the package 'build-essential' which will automatically install all compilers and development librarys needed to compile most software.
Three things you could have done. First, you can install the Office 2007 compatibility pack all the back till Office XP running on Windows 2000 SP4. Second: http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/msoffice/?p=135
Using the Compatibility Checker
Before you send a document that was created with an Office 2007 program to someone who’s using a previous version of Office, you can run the Compatibility Checker, which is built into Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. It will identify any features or formatting you’ve used that won’t be recognized by older versions of Office.
A list of the incompatible content will be displayed, and you’ll be advised that such content may not be fully editable in the previous version. The Compatibility Checker runs automatically when you save a file in the old format.
Three: You could have used the free Office 2007 Word Viewer.
The bug was already fixed via updates last Tuesday. What if Microsoft decides(via Windows Update) not to allow Firefox to run if it has any critical vulnerabilities?(Happens all the time). MS might claim that Windows gets a bad name if it's hacked via Firefox.
What's up with all the editorializing in the summary? Danger was bought by MS only 18 months ago. What the heck has this got to with Office and cloud computing except wishful thinking by the submitter?
Oh sorry, it's the bash MS article of the day. Please continue.
The reason it's worse than TI is that Apple has positioned the iPhone as a small computer for the general public, and is selling millions. But how many of the millions know that political apps are banned?
Wow, although I’m not happy with Apple right now, I have to give Apple’s CEO some serious credit for answering the email I wrote yesterday: Dear Steve,
A quick note to let you know what kinds of apps are being rejected for the App Store.
This app is not defamatory, harmful or speaking untruth. It is lighthearted and humorous. Does it imply critique? Of course it does, but not without crossing any lines of decency or the boundaries agreement.
Even though my personal political leanings are democratic, I think this app will be offensive to roughly half our customers. What’s the point? Steve
So we have an entire computing platform that is politically censored by Jobs' diktat because it could be offensive to some people, forget about all the apps that are arbitrarily rejected for duplicating functionality and other BS and people don't care. Podcaster had good features but was rejected for duplicating functionality.
They're not. But facts wouldn't get in the way of some good old fashioned hyperbole, particularly if it involves whatever vendor you're choosing to hate.
Wrong, the crap that Apple pulls is way worse than TI can dream of.
Calculators are not advertised or thought of by most people as mobile computers. TI doesn't advertize "There's an App for that". It's sad that Apple forces developers to jump through hoops just to get an App proved and bans any political or other useful Apps under the name of duplicate functionality. Apple also has a forced developer tax of 30% and hence prohibits downloads from the developer's website. The alternative is to jailbreak, but it breaks when updated and is not for casual users. Apple even says that the iPhone and iPod touch can be considered as netbooks(which are otherwise normal computers without the App store bullshit).
Knowing the history of teh bits, this simply means Windows 8 will be available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, and 128-bit processors will be able to run in 32-bit mode, but not 64-bit mode.
WTF? If the history of the bits indicate anything, they run the previous generation architecture. For example, 64 bit processors support 32bit mode and code but 16bit which can only be run via a CPU emulator software.
Not everyone is a slashdotter. In fact, you'd be less vulnerable even if you install it just because you're a techie and post on a site that bills itself as 'News for Nerds'. So, the name (iPhone Config Util) itself sounds like something an iPhone user would want.
If Google were to do something like this with Safari, would Apple allow it? Or will the next update break it? (I know both are based on webkit, and Safari doesn't need the feature and speed boost, but just wondering out aloud).
Lets revisit this in a year's time. It will be interesting to see how many vulnerabilities are introduced by this compared to how many vulnerabilities in IE do not occur when browsing in a Chrome Frame. My guess is that it will be about even.
I don't think so. I think the vulnerabilities will ADD up. For example... 10 in IE, 10 in the Chrome plugin, and say around 5 in IE can be exploited even with the Chrome frame on. So a user running this plugin in IE would be vulnerable to 15, instead of just 10.
I think their worry is that if it becomes popular and IE gets hacked because of the plugin, IE could get blamed for it... just like Firefox gets blamed(wrongly) for faults in the extensions.
Yes, Computerworld fails to understand what they are talking about.
I too am from New Zealand and attended a speech RMS gave at Auckland University. I have also read almost all of his essays. 99% of the people (geeks included) that speak of Free Software and RMS fail to grasp important concepts of the Free Software movement.
A copy of a program has nearly zero marginal cost (and you can pay this cost by doing the work yourself), so in a free market, it would have nearly zero price. A license fee is a significant disincentive to use the program. snip.. However, imposing a price on something that would otherwise be free is a qualitative change. A centrally-imposed fee for software distribution becomes a powerful disincentive. snip... Programmers writing free software can make their living by selling services related to the software. I have been hired to port the GNU C compiler to new hardware, and to make user-interface extensions to GNU Emacs. (I offer these improvements to the public once they are done.) I also teach classes for which I am paid. snip... This confirms that programming is among the most fascinating of all fields, along with music and art. We don't have to fear that no one will want to program.
He does believe that Software should be able to be distributed free of cost though he always avers that Free means libre and not zero price. The major flaw is his reasoning is that he thinks that since the marginal cost of producing an extra copy of software is zero, the price should be zero. But what about the sunk cost? If it costs $200 million for Adobe to make Photoshop, the first copy would cost $250 million and the rest would be free. Adobe folds after that and a magical group of hackers appear and work on it's code to produce the next version for free like they do for Gimp and OpenOffice now? Give me a break.There's some aspects of software development(like extensive testing, making it user friendly etc.) which is NOT fun and shouldn't be outlawed in the name of Freedom.
Slashdot Mirror
How far back has the software industry been set back by Microsoft?
How much further along would server side be if Microsoft had truly worked with the Java community instead of going it's own way with .Net?
How much better would cellphones be if Microsoft had not bought, and slowly strangled, Danger?
How much further along would so many areas be if Microsoft had not bought up so many experts and stuffed them in an R&D group with almost no real world output, instead of having them work on practical technologies that made it to market?
Would the HD video market have been as fragmented as it was without Microsoft pushing HD-DVD long past the point it was obviously dead just so they would get licensing revenue from the menu system?
If Microsoft the company has lost a decade, it is Karma - for the world and our industry has lost so much more at their hands.
.NET is way better than Java in many respects. In fact, now Java is implementing many features of the new C# version. And I thought competition led to better things and a single language led to stagnation?
Danger is that big of a deal? huh?
R&D with no pressure to create real world output can give freedom to academics instead of always concentrating on the almighty dollar returns.
They were pushing HDDVD how exactly? By paying people to use it? They didn't even include a HDDVD drive by default with the XBOX like Sony did with the PS3.
If Microsoft didn't help make computers standardized and way cheap, we would still be running $3000 computers, especially if IBM or Apple was at the helm. There might not be even Intel today.
Furthermore, I think you mean to say that it's "only useful for non-open source applications" as there are tons of free software applications out there that are not open source but are free (like Microsoft's Express editions of Visual Studio).
He means free as in Stallman-Free, not the free as in cost. That's what I don't like about this 'free' as in 'freedom' thing, it's needless confusing by trying to change the meaning that first comes to mind to people. They could've just gone with libre or something.
"Opinion for anti-MS nerds" perhaps? There are plenty of nerds who aren't religious about hating "M$" and appreciate cool technology wherever it comes from.
Businesses have to use legacy and really badly written software. There are 3 apps out there for sales force automation in the Cable advertising field, and all three suck because they were written in VB5. They all work well under XP but Vista64 barfs on a regular interval with them.
You yourself say they were badly written. Sounds like the apps are barfing then, not Vista. And $90,000? Haven't you heard of XP mode? Unless of course they're using 5 yr old machines. In that case, XP is sufficient. I see machines using Windows 98 being used in some business because they just work. Nothing wrong with that.
Microsoft's "Engineering 7" blog has several telemetrics examples from Windows 7 vs. Vista.
This site has long ceased being a news-for-nerds site and is now a bash-MS-and-promote-alternatives-at-whatever-cost site. And the cycle feeds itself, with people here depending only on news and (highly moderated) comments here for their technology news and then spewing the same (wishful thinking) thing over and over again while getting modded up. The whole Vista DRM half truth comes to mind.
And this is a good series of videos to get indepth into design decisions etc. made behind Windows. http://channel9.msdn.com/shows/Going+Deep/
Suck it, nerds.
So they actually bothered to ship it with a compiler, source, and a text editor that's better than note/wordpad?
I didn't think so.
Why would anyone with half a brain bloat up a OS with those things when only about 0.5%(I'm being charitable here) of the user base would ever find a use for them? You can always download the things you mention for free(sans source) from places like http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/visualc/aa336402.aspx
And yes, Visual Express is much better editor than notepad/wordpad.
If you're a nerd you would know where to get them. If you're a true nerd, you can slipstream them into the OS install.
How come you don't know that Ubuntu itself stopped installing gcc by default from disk. From http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=123542
Or maybe you were just trolling for karma. Uninformed posts like yours get modded up all the time as long as they bash MS and/or praise FOSS. In other words, you're a karmawhore wannabe nerd!
no c compiler!
when i try to install programs that i have downloaded (in source code) , ubuntu dosen't find any c compiler. and when i search on my disk for ex: gcc, cc, g++ it dosen't find anything....
dosen't ubuntu have a standard c compiler?
and if not, how can i install one the easiest way (im a noob)?
Re: no c compiler!
Just open up synaptic package manager and install the package 'build-essential' which will automatically install all compilers and development librarys needed to compile most software.
Three things you could have done. First, you can install the Office 2007 compatibility pack all the back till Office XP running on Windows 2000 SP4.
Second:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/msoffice/?p=135
Using the Compatibility Checker
Before you send a document that was created with an Office 2007 program to someone who’s using a previous version of Office, you can run the Compatibility Checker, which is built into Word, Excel, and PowerPoint 2007. It will identify any features or formatting you’ve used that won’t be recognized by older versions of Office.
A list of the incompatible content will be displayed, and you’ll be advised that such content may not be fully editable in the previous version. The Compatibility Checker runs automatically when you save a file in the old format.
Three: You could have used the free Office 2007 Word Viewer.
Pssh. You fail. You missed pointing out the common 'grammer' vs. 'grammar' mistake that grammar nazis make.
Based on the section headings from TFA, I gather that version 3.2 is more secure, faster, more international, and more easier.
Apparently a grammar checker isn't one of the 42 new features.
You're wrong.
From the summary and the FTA:
The next version of OpenOffice.org 3.2 has more than 42 features and 167 enhancements...
So it's version 3.3(or maybe 3.21 or 4.0) that's more easier, not 3.2 :)
At least they should have allowed people like this one a way to allow the plugin to run.
The bug was already fixed via updates last Tuesday. What if Microsoft decides(via Windows Update) not to allow Firefox to run if it has any critical vulnerabilities?(Happens all the time). MS might claim that Windows gets a bad name if it's hacked via Firefox.
My anecdote... even better, actually a screenshot from Vista. http://imgur.com/WyehG.png
So the score is no longer zero.
What's up with all the editorializing in the summary? Danger was bought by MS only 18 months ago. What the heck has this got to with Office and cloud computing except wishful thinking by the submitter?
Oh sorry, it's the bash MS article of the day. Please continue.
Apple is advertising the strength of their App store, showing off the apps available, and then contrasting that to the usefulness of a netbook.
I think Apple's wrong here, a netbook is way more useful, but, they're certainly doing nothing that's immoral or worse than what TI's doing.
http://www.itworld.com/hardware/56567/jobs-iphone-apples-netbook
The reason it's worse than TI is that Apple has positioned the iPhone as a small computer for the general public, and is selling millions. But how many of the millions know that political apps are banned?
http://www.juggleware.com/blog/2008/09/freedomtime-rejected-by-apple-for-app-store/
http://www.juggleware.com/blog/2008/09/steve-jobs-writes-back/
Wow, although I’m not happy with Apple right now, I have to give Apple’s CEO some serious credit for answering the email I wrote yesterday:
Dear Steve,
A quick note to let you know what kinds of apps are being rejected for the App Store.
This app is not defamatory, harmful or speaking untruth. It is lighthearted and humorous. Does it imply critique? Of course it does, but not without crossing any lines of decency or the boundaries agreement.
For a quick screen shot:
http://www.juggleware.com/iphone/freedomtime/
Sincerely,
Alec Vance
juggleware llc
Mr. Jobs replied :
Even though my personal political leanings are democratic, I think this app will be offensive to roughly half our customers. What’s the point?
Steve
So we have an entire computing platform that is politically censored by Jobs' diktat because it could be offensive to some people, forget about all the apps that are arbitrarily rejected for duplicating functionality and other BS and people don't care. Podcaster had good features but was rejected for duplicating functionality.
They're not. But facts wouldn't get in the way of some good old fashioned hyperbole, particularly if it involves whatever vendor you're choosing to hate.
Wrong, the crap that Apple pulls is way worse than TI can dream of.
Calculators are not advertised or thought of by most people as mobile computers. TI doesn't advertize "There's an App for that". It's sad that Apple forces developers to jump through hoops just to get an App proved and bans any political or other useful Apps under the name of duplicate functionality. Apple also has a forced developer tax of 30% and hence prohibits downloads from the developer's website. The alternative is to jailbreak, but it breaks when updated and is not for casual users. Apple even says that the iPhone and iPod touch can be considered as netbooks(which are otherwise normal computers without the App store bullshit).
Knowing the history of teh bits, this simply means Windows 8 will be available in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions, and 128-bit processors will be able to run in 32-bit mode, but not 64-bit mode.
WTF? If the history of the bits indicate anything, they run the previous generation architecture. For example, 64 bit processors support 32bit mode and code but 16bit which can only be run via a CPU emulator software.
Patents.
Not everyone is a slashdotter. In fact, you'd be less vulnerable even if you install it just because you're a techie and post on a site that bills itself as 'News for Nerds'. So, the name (iPhone Config Util) itself sounds like something an iPhone user would want.
If Google were to do something like this with Safari, would Apple allow it? Or will the next update break it? (I know both are based on webkit, and Safari doesn't need the feature and speed boost, but just wondering out aloud).
Lets revisit this in a year's time. It will be interesting to see how many vulnerabilities are introduced by this compared to how many vulnerabilities in IE do not occur when browsing in a Chrome Frame. My guess is that it will be about even.
I don't think so. I think the vulnerabilities will ADD up. For example... 10 in IE, 10 in the Chrome plugin, and say around 5 in IE can be exploited even with the Chrome frame on. So a user running this plugin in IE would be vulnerable to 15, instead of just 10.
I think their worry is that if it becomes popular and IE gets hacked because of the plugin, IE could get blamed for it... just like Firefox gets blamed(wrongly) for faults in the extensions.
Yes, Computerworld fails to understand what they are talking about.
I too am from New Zealand and attended a speech RMS gave at Auckland University. I have also read almost all of his essays. 99% of the people (geeks included) that speak of Free Software and RMS fail to grasp important concepts of the Free Software movement.
Popular myth that he perpetuates in his speeches that is too often repeated here. From http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/shouldbefree.html
A copy of a program has nearly zero marginal cost (and you can pay this cost by doing the work yourself), so in a free market, it would have nearly zero price. A license fee is a significant disincentive to use the program. snip.. However, imposing a price on something that would otherwise be free is a qualitative change. A centrally-imposed fee for software distribution becomes a powerful disincentive. snip... Programmers writing free software can make their living by selling services related to the software. I have been hired to port the GNU C compiler to new hardware, and to make user-interface extensions to GNU Emacs. (I offer these improvements to the public once they are done.) I also teach classes for which I am paid. snip... This confirms that programming is among the most fascinating of all fields, along with music and art. We don't have to fear that no one will want to program.
He does believe that Software should be able to be distributed free of cost though he always avers that Free means libre and not zero price. The major flaw is his reasoning is that he thinks that since the marginal cost of producing an extra copy of software is zero, the price should be zero. But what about the sunk cost? If it costs $200 million for Adobe to make Photoshop, the first copy would cost $250 million and the rest would be free. Adobe folds after that and a magical group of hackers appear and work on it's code to produce the next version for free like they do for Gimp and OpenOffice now? Give me a break.There's some aspects of software development(like extensive testing, making it user friendly etc.) which is NOT fun and shouldn't be outlawed in the name of Freedom.
like anything that requires competence in using an actual makefile.
Been there, done that. but I still don't see any advantage of wasting days in a messing with something that doesn't really need to be messed with.
If Windows 7 and its successors are going to do what I think they're going to do, it's bye-bye Windows, hello Ubuntu.
I'm curious, what do you think they are going to do?
Atleast on Slashdot, he IS a rebel.