For a country like ours that fights wars and preaches the economics of liberalization and the entrepreneurial culture, it's quite amazing that we can't take a doze of our own medication! Hey, Microsoft is no more American than it is French or English! It's a Global Company, and if you pose the question to the board of Microsoft or GE or any other company, they'll tell you that they cannot and will not sacrifice their global presence or business at the behest of a *few* complaining Americans who haven't understood how a free market economy works.
The fact is that I and MOST OF YOU will benefit when Microsoft makes more money by efficiently investing their money. How? From our 401(k) and stock investments.
Grow up people -- we Americans like to think we can export "democracy" and a "modern economy" to Iraq and Afghanistan, but our collective understanding of it is apparently so rudimentary that we demand that so-called American companies (they are in fact Multi-National companies), hire only Americans. How pathetic. I suggest economics 101 in any community college to answer your questions.
From the comments, it seems the same low-brow ignorant red-neck racists on ZDNet have now infiltrated Slashdot. How sad. There was a time when discussions on Slashdot were mature and based on facts, not ethnocentric racist diatribe.
I think what Linux needs to get to the masses is a "default" mail app that ships with every installation. I think that's what the Desktop Linux consortium is trying to get at. It's all well and good that there are five or six good alternatives, but to go Mainstream (and that's key here, because we're not talking about the few savvy techies, but the average Joe or Mom user), Linux needs a default Mail app that ships with EVERY distro, and has the same L&F, no matter whether the Distro ships with Gnome or KDE as the UI.
The other thing Linux needs is a better Install/Uninstall mechanism. I know there are RPMs and I know there are people who'd claim it's so much more powerful than Add/Remove on Windows, but for the Average Mainstream user who wants nothing more than an easy to use Install/Uninstall interface, Linux is quite challenging.
True there are lots and lots of Open Source apps, but all of them ship in this rather convuluted thing called an RPM. Now how in the world is an average user to understand how to install an RPM?! Can he be expected to install ANY RPM with a single click and a little wizard? How about unilstall from a nice GUI Uninstall utility.
These are areas that Linux needs to address. Sure, the core is definitely there, but as in many Open Source apps whos main users are adept at computer internals, the little polish that's reuired for an average user to be comfortable with the app is missing.
Just give them free versions of Windows. They'll be so inundated by viruses and IE exploits that their computers will be rendered unusable and thus they won't be spamming anymore!
Why didn't anyone think of this before?!
Why Palm still developing handhelds based on PalmOS? I thought they entered an agreement with M$ to use Windows CE on Palms.
Is Palm planning to continue developing a next-gen OS alternative to Windows CE?
Looks like he's hit upon the next great business plan for web sites -- getting geeks hitched!
No but seriously, social networking probably is going to be a mushrooming web-based industry, but so far, I haven't seen a lot of imagination given to how one can meet and extend one's social network online. The last great revolution in this sphere was Instant Messaging/Text Messaging, which has seriously taken off Europe and Asia (and to a lesser degree in the US).
But as far as web sites go, I haven't seen anything that's really revolutionary or that provides something that Orkut, and other social networking or Dating sites don't already give you.
The fact that Firefox patches faster than M$ doesn't mean it's any safer for the END USER (not the average Slash-dotter, who's immesurably more comfortable with updates and far more current with the latest updates to any software on his PC). For the average user, updating a browser (unless it's automatically pushed), is not something that will occur to them to do. Even when it is pushed to their computer, most users postpone such updates for several days or weeks, exposing their computer to the risk in the meantime.
Firefox cannot win in the consumer market just by saying that it patches quicker than Microsoft. It has to proove that it requires patching far less frequently. That is the burden that an upstart faces when staring down an established monopolist.
In my mind, Firefox hasn't yet suffered a great deal of harm in the marketplace, because most web sites and magazines are still friendly to the browser. That may change though, if exploits become more of a regular occurrance. If that happens, it may be the end of the road for Firefox amongst the vast majority of home users.
Ok, so Google Secure Access is a VPN service, NOT a Wi-Fi service provider, correct?
Then what would a user with a laptop in a park have to do to get Wi-Fi internet access? Would one have to buy service from a Provider, and use Google's Secure Access only for securing the information transferred?
Every time there's a story about China or India, I open the comments sections prepared for all the jingos and ethnocentric ignoramuses who unfortunately make the dicussion into a bar-room brawl.
In the post cold-war and freer-trade era, there are few zero-sum games around, but apparently someone hasn't told some folk on here that the world has moved far beyond them.
The way I see it, every so often, Gartner publishes a new story on "How far X is from adoption", or "How long before Y becomes the standard"... and every one of these stories relies on a certain amount of the author's bias, coupled with the author's intuition and exprience, acting on limited data.
Therefore, try not to get to worked up about this. In the end, whether Linux makes it or not depends on many factors, few of which have anything to do with how Gartner thinks of it.
Can anyone remember a positive story from Gartner about OSX before it came out? Could anyone have imagined based on Gartner's initial reactions that OSX would be as big a force as it is now? Could anyone have imagined that Firefox would be as big as it is now, based solely on Gartner's views.
Gartner after all, is made for big industry, which is wary of big changes and new fads. To big industry, anything new is suspect, until it's been around long enough and has enough users, and then suddently, out of the blue, it becomes the "new and hot" item.
Pray, tell me what the difference between Guantanamo Bay and a Chinese Jail is -- both are filled with people who have no rights, have not been given a fair hearing, and as such, have no sentence.
The prison in Guantanamo (and Abu Garib, and the various other similar incidents) have made the US just another country with all sorts of blemishes on our Human Rights records. No longer can we speak from higher ground to any other country. Heck, we've even kidnapped detainees from other countries, and then sent them to places like Egypt to be tortured!!!
Yet another thing this administration can claim credit for!
If anyone took the time to figure out how much and how often the FBI and other US agencies have compelled Yahoo, MSN, AOL and other providers to dish out info on Americans... then we wouldn't be making a huge deal about foreign countries. Just because it happens in China does not mean it's especially egregious, or that what's happening State-side isn't of equal or greater concern.
The real problem is the GLOBAL erosion of privacy, which our misguided government has provided great momemtum to. The fact that we invade and infrige upon previously protected privacy rights precludes us from preaching to other governments, and from faulting them.
How many times do Media companies have to go through the pain and frustration of having their latest encryption schemes thwarted by hackers and enthusiasts?
I think the more level-headed response to piracy is what multi-billion dollar companies like Oracle and IBM have taken -- they let you download and install FULL versions of their flagship software packages, if only you agree to pay them when YOU earn money from their software. These are the companies that pioneered much of the software that runs major IT companies that power the Internet. If they've realized that encryption is a lost cause and that trust and incentives are the only workable solution, then why are the numbskull media execs not learning a lesson from them?!
If users feel a level of trust, I believe media companies will come out ahead. Yes, some amount of piracy will continue, but that's true even today. However, I think if it were easier to get, play and buy media electronically, they'd actually see a dramatic rise in sales, rather than more piracy.
Bravo! Exactly my thoughts. Having two billion applications for an OS mean nothing if installing them requires a guru. The sooner Linux is able to keep users away from hearing the words "kernel", "tar" and keeping track of what's in the/etc directory, the better.
Don't bother flaming, I'm on your team... just that I know what's it's going to take for Linux to become a serious M$ beater.
I've been a SETI@Home volunteer for several years... since 1998, I think, and I've unofficially clocked over 10,500 hours of time -- unofficially that is, because ever since BOINC came into the picture, I've not been getting any credit for my work units. I've tried BOINC, and other than the fact that it's a piece of buggy crap, I hate it, and won't have it on my computer.
SETI was just fine with it's old client -- this may just be a how-to on how to loose a loyal following! SETI@Home no longer runs on my computers, and it's because I feel that the little the organizers had to do to give a "Thank You", was not being done, so why continue?
This story is a bunch of alarmist hogwash. They said the same thing about the lack of skilled people when the Y2k Bug was supposed to bring the world down. Yes, some of the people stuck doing Cobol were the ones who built the systems, but others were new recruits who found their way there because of... wow what a revalation -- economic opportunity! Guess what? We live in a capitalist economy (well, sort of), which is extremely adept at moving resources to where they are needed, and creating the right incentives.
A few years ago, one would be forgiven for thinking that there wouldn't be enough qualified.NET or Java developers to satiate the demand, and that businesses would come apart for the lack of them. Once again, paychecks proved the magnets they are when they reach a certain point, and suddenly the industry was awash with all the qualified architects it wanted.
I'm a techie bred on Assembler, C++, Java and C#. Give me the right incentives, and I'll even add Cobol to that list!
Everyone else.. have a nice weekend. There are many more pressing things to worry about than mainframes running out of handlers!
Who cares if America's out-of-whack CS programs don't train students in the right skills -- I'm sure there are Indian, Chinese or Eastern European programs doing it just fine.
I'm a very happy Vonage customer, and have been for about two years now. I have never had a problem and have never experienced any issues at all. Now, my parents in India have taken a Vonage box home, and I call them on a 'local' Boston number, and hear them as crisply as I would my neighbor... and for free (well, for $24.99/mo)!!
When I switched over to Vonage, I went the porting-my-number way, which took about three weeks, which I think as industry standard at the time, and there wasn't anything that Vonage could really do about it anyway, because the ball was in Verizon's court to 'release' my number.
I really don't know what's keeping more people from switching over to VoIP. I know my enthusiasm for new technologies often gets me in a bit of a bind (as my less than pleasant experience with early-adopter Bell Atlantic DSL), but VoIP has been all plusses for me.
I'm glad Vonage is going public finally -- in these times, it's the sign of a company growing up (after all, this is the post 90s age). While I'm happy with their product, there is one more feature they could provide which would really thrill me -- allowing me to use my mobile phone to make calls over my VoIP line... make sense?
Google becomes ubiquitous is a good thing, it seems, for consumers. However, I think there's a real danger that it has too much information that can be construed as personal and valuable on millions of individuals. While I appreciate the "do no evil" mentality that has diven Google so far, the lure of "evil" and better returns are what drive shareholders, and Google after all, is a public company.
On another note, one has to be amazed at the way in which Google's unique take on technology and on familar things like web search (Google Suggest), GMail, Google Talk and Google Earth, have allowed it to quickly supplant the leaders in every sphere it steps into. It's quite remarkable, and telling of the culture that thrives in the company.
I fear however, that after conquering just about every communication medium (IM, Email, Web Search, VoIP, and rumor has it, free WiFi), stepping out of Google will be as hard as it is to step away from Micro$oft.
What is it they say -- too much of something good can't be too good for you after all. In this case, a ubiquitous publicly traded company that features in so many forms of communication exchange, can't possibly resist the temptation to exploit that monopoly... or can it?
Slashdot Mirror
The fact is that I and MOST OF YOU will benefit when Microsoft makes more money by efficiently investing their money. How? From our 401(k) and stock investments.
Grow up people -- we Americans like to think we can export "democracy" and a "modern economy" to Iraq and Afghanistan, but our collective understanding of it is apparently so rudimentary that we demand that so-called American companies (they are in fact Multi-National companies), hire only Americans. How pathetic. I suggest economics 101 in any community college to answer your questions.
From the comments, it seems the same low-brow ignorant red-neck racists on ZDNet have now infiltrated Slashdot. How sad. There was a time when discussions on Slashdot were mature and based on facts, not ethnocentric racist diatribe.
I think what Linux needs to get to the masses is a "default" mail app that ships with every installation. I think that's what the Desktop Linux consortium is trying to get at. It's all well and good that there are five or six good alternatives, but to go Mainstream (and that's key here, because we're not talking about the few savvy techies, but the average Joe or Mom user), Linux needs a default Mail app that ships with EVERY distro, and has the same L&F, no matter whether the Distro ships with Gnome or KDE as the UI.
The other thing Linux needs is a better Install/Uninstall mechanism. I know there are RPMs and I know there are people who'd claim it's so much more powerful than Add/Remove on Windows, but for the Average Mainstream user who wants nothing more than an easy to use Install/Uninstall interface, Linux is quite challenging.
True there are lots and lots of Open Source apps, but all of them ship in this rather convuluted thing called an RPM. Now how in the world is an average user to understand how to install an RPM?! Can he be expected to install ANY RPM with a single click and a little wizard? How about unilstall from a nice GUI Uninstall utility.
These are areas that Linux needs to address. Sure, the core is definitely there, but as in many Open Source apps whos main users are adept at computer internals, the little polish that's reuired for an average user to be comfortable with the app is missing.
My $.02.
Just give them free versions of Windows. They'll be so inundated by viruses and IE exploits that their computers will be rendered unusable and thus they won't be spamming anymore!
Why didn't anyone think of this before?!
Why Palm still developing handhelds based on PalmOS? I thought they entered an agreement with M$ to use Windows CE on Palms. Is Palm planning to continue developing a next-gen OS alternative to Windows CE?
Please, people from other countries, not every American is as stupid as the guy above!
Looks like he's hit upon the next great business plan for web sites -- getting geeks hitched! No but seriously, social networking probably is going to be a mushrooming web-based industry, but so far, I haven't seen a lot of imagination given to how one can meet and extend one's social network online. The last great revolution in this sphere was Instant Messaging/Text Messaging, which has seriously taken off Europe and Asia (and to a lesser degree in the US). But as far as web sites go, I haven't seen anything that's really revolutionary or that provides something that Orkut, and other social networking or Dating sites don't already give you.
It's my birthday too!! Perhaps I will be as wise someday.
The fact that Firefox patches faster than M$ doesn't mean it's any safer for the END USER (not the average Slash-dotter, who's immesurably more comfortable with updates and far more current with the latest updates to any software on his PC). For the average user, updating a browser (unless it's automatically pushed), is not something that will occur to them to do. Even when it is pushed to their computer, most users postpone such updates for several days or weeks, exposing their computer to the risk in the meantime.
Firefox cannot win in the consumer market just by saying that it patches quicker than Microsoft. It has to proove that it requires patching far less frequently. That is the burden that an upstart faces when staring down an established monopolist.
In my mind, Firefox hasn't yet suffered a great deal of harm in the marketplace, because most web sites and magazines are still friendly to the browser. That may change though, if exploits become more of a regular occurrance. If that happens, it may be the end of the road for Firefox amongst the vast majority of home users.
Then what would a user with a laptop in a park have to do to get Wi-Fi internet access? Would one have to buy service from a Provider, and use Google's Secure Access only for securing the information transferred?
In the post cold-war and freer-trade era, there are few zero-sum games around, but apparently someone hasn't told some folk on here that the world has moved far beyond them.
Therefore, try not to get to worked up about this. In the end, whether Linux makes it or not depends on many factors, few of which have anything to do with how Gartner thinks of it.
Can anyone remember a positive story from Gartner about OSX before it came out? Could anyone have imagined based on Gartner's initial reactions that OSX would be as big a force as it is now? Could anyone have imagined that Firefox would be as big as it is now, based solely on Gartner's views.
Gartner after all, is made for big industry, which is wary of big changes and new fads. To big industry, anything new is suspect, until it's been around long enough and has enough users, and then suddently, out of the blue, it becomes the "new and hot" item.
The prison in Guantanamo (and Abu Garib, and the various other similar incidents) have made the US just another country with all sorts of blemishes on our Human Rights records. No longer can we speak from higher ground to any other country. Heck, we've even kidnapped detainees from other countries, and then sent them to places like Egypt to be tortured!!!
Yet another thing this administration can claim credit for!
The real problem is the GLOBAL erosion of privacy, which our misguided government has provided great momemtum to. The fact that we invade and infrige upon previously protected privacy rights precludes us from preaching to other governments, and from faulting them.
I think the more level-headed response to piracy is what multi-billion dollar companies like Oracle and IBM have taken -- they let you download and install FULL versions of their flagship software packages, if only you agree to pay them when YOU earn money from their software. These are the companies that pioneered much of the software that runs major IT companies that power the Internet. If they've realized that encryption is a lost cause and that trust and incentives are the only workable solution, then why are the numbskull media execs not learning a lesson from them?!
If users feel a level of trust, I believe media companies will come out ahead. Yes, some amount of piracy will continue, but that's true even today. However, I think if it were easier to get, play and buy media electronically, they'd actually see a dramatic rise in sales, rather than more piracy.
Perhaps I could have my own, to beam my iTunes tracks where ever I happen to be!
Don't bother flaming, I'm on your team... just that I know what's it's going to take for Linux to become a serious M$ beater.
SETI was just fine with it's old client -- this may just be a how-to on how to loose a loyal following! SETI@Home no longer runs on my computers, and it's because I feel that the little the organizers had to do to give a "Thank You", was not being done, so why continue?
This story is a bunch of alarmist hogwash. They said the same thing about the lack of skilled people when the Y2k Bug was supposed to bring the world down. Yes, some of the people stuck doing Cobol were the ones who built the systems, but others were new recruits who found their way there because of... wow what a revalation -- economic opportunity! Guess what? We live in a capitalist economy (well, sort of), which is extremely adept at moving resources to where they are needed, and creating the right incentives. A few years ago, one would be forgiven for thinking that there wouldn't be enough qualified .NET or Java developers to satiate the demand, and that businesses would come apart for the lack of them. Once again, paychecks proved the magnets they are when they reach a certain point, and suddenly the industry was awash with all the qualified architects it wanted.
I'm a techie bred on Assembler, C++, Java and C#. Give me the right incentives, and I'll even add Cobol to that list!
Everyone else.. have a nice weekend. There are many more pressing things to worry about than mainframes running out of handlers!
Two words: H1-B Visa.
Finally... something nobody will get pissed off about when it's offshored!
And I was so looking forward to offset my higher fuel prices by downloading the summer's blockbusters (have there been any?)...
When I switched over to Vonage, I went the porting-my-number way, which took about three weeks, which I think as industry standard at the time, and there wasn't anything that Vonage could really do about it anyway, because the ball was in Verizon's court to 'release' my number.
I really don't know what's keeping more people from switching over to VoIP. I know my enthusiasm for new technologies often gets me in a bit of a bind (as my less than pleasant experience with early-adopter Bell Atlantic DSL), but VoIP has been all plusses for me.
I'm glad Vonage is going public finally -- in these times, it's the sign of a company growing up (after all, this is the post 90s age). While I'm happy with their product, there is one more feature they could provide which would really thrill me -- allowing me to use my mobile phone to make calls over my VoIP line... make sense?
Google becomes ubiquitous is a good thing, it seems, for consumers. However, I think there's a real danger that it has too much information that can be construed as personal and valuable on millions of individuals. While I appreciate the "do no evil" mentality that has diven Google so far, the lure of "evil" and better returns are what drive shareholders, and Google after all, is a public company. On another note, one has to be amazed at the way in which Google's unique take on technology and on familar things like web search (Google Suggest), GMail, Google Talk and Google Earth, have allowed it to quickly supplant the leaders in every sphere it steps into. It's quite remarkable, and telling of the culture that thrives in the company. I fear however, that after conquering just about every communication medium (IM, Email, Web Search, VoIP, and rumor has it, free WiFi), stepping out of Google will be as hard as it is to step away from Micro$oft. What is it they say -- too much of something good can't be too good for you after all. In this case, a ubiquitous publicly traded company that features in so many forms of communication exchange, can't possibly resist the temptation to exploit that monopoly... or can it?
Kudos. That just about sums it up!