you have to more than double the size of the iPaq to get that internet connection (PCMCIA) and that fits in your pocket?
The Sharp Zaurus has both CF and SD/SMM builtin and I think HP was the only other pocket pc that compared. Now that's gone... I'm amazed at the size of the the iPaq if you want expansion....
Q1: "Why does a company buy 5 iPaqs?" Q2: I don't know, why does a company buy 5 iPaqs? A1: "So they have 1 that works for the demo." Q3: Is this a hardware or an operating system issue? A2: "operating system"
Take a look at the Sharp Zaurus for your next purchase. If you need MS Windows desktop apps too then Qt and Qt/embedded is a great choice. IMHO.
Remember that the Peruvian Bill does NOT cover the open market ( private sector ). It's just for government agencies. Does the WTO or FTAA have control over how other governments conduct THEIR business?
To tell you the truth, I'd LOVE to see this get esculated. As it is now, we'll be lucky if it gets outside of The Register and Slashdot/Linux press. When we see it on CNN, Forbes, WSJ, etc. then we know it's out of Microsoft's control.
Then let them start by accepting SyncML and dial when they receive one with a tag or something like that. The software crowd will make it work with the PDA's. They should also have a SyncML dump and load feature.
That would be a good start. In a real competitive environment, those with the first or best products set the standard if open standards aren't used. In other words, the field is open and with the PalmOS at 70+% marketshare, that would be a good platform to support but it would depend on the bluetooth support the PDA has or will have.
and they'll be more productive because they will only know the application they are using and not how to change the OS.
90% or more of the users of computers just need to know how to click on the icon to start the programs and that's it. Doesn't take but a few minutes to show/figure-out how to do this on Linux.
It's only Microsofts hold on the OEM that's keeping them on the desktop and that's keeping some vendors from writting Linux apps.
Go download DemoLinux ( http://www.demolinux.org ) and run that (bootable Linux CDROM w/no install on HD). Then tell me you can't figure out how to start up the web browser.
Soon, many more schools will be running Linux because of the far lower cost of ownership.
IMHO, Microsofts' days of control are numbered and people/business's would be smart to realize this. The cost savings are incredible.
BTW Microsoft have put their full weight behind Bluetooth recently. They are trying to sell phones too, so there would be no reason to kill it off for strategy reasons.
Really. By saying they would have a Bluetooth kit for MS Windows XP by the end of the year? That is not full support. Mark my word, they'll have Win-Fi (Windows-only WiFi) out before they release the Bluetooth drivers. I'd even go on a limb and say that the Bluetooth support will be flaky too and the device manufacturers will be pointed to by Microsoft.
I agree there is a lot of potential here with Bluetooth to have two separate devices, but to be honest, next year's phones will be the power of laptops two years ago, so why not steal as much PDA functionality as possible and make it as usuable as possible in the normal phone form factor. Hey if you love to do spreadsheets but find the screen too small, get a PDA too.
Not everyone wants a PDA but most will want a phone. Pricing pressures will limit the sales numbers of the combo-phone/pda. IMO, it would be smarter if the phone manufacturers worked with the PDA vendor and made sure they worked together via Bluetooth than attempt to take the PDA market for their own. Again, not everyone wants a PDA.
Look at the picture with the numpad showing. You can see the hinges and how there are slots in the base phone compartment for the hinges. Now look at the picture with the numpad opened up. There are no hinge slots at all in the phone. Where did the numpad go?
I also see the shadow of the pen looking like a artists mockup. Shouldn't there be some reflection?
If they can build this it looks good for those who insist on having a phone AND PDA in one device. I personally like the option of wireless connectivity between phone, pda, headset, etc. Keep the phones disposable and pack as much as possible into the PDA. IMHO.
The Start-Button is another way they control who puts apps on Windows. They were going to open up the desktop for OEM's to put icons on. They added a bunch of stuff to the Start-Button so users would use that instead of the desktop and they obviously would control how/what applications installed to what part of the Start-Button list.
Everything they do is to keep their software on top and NOT to make the OS easier to use. Keeping other OS's from booting is the same as keeping other applications buried from the users access.
It still amazes me business's buy PC's with MS Windows on it. If they just looked at a graph of their IT expenses over the last 5+ years they would be saying, "What business are we in, funding IT or our 'product X'?"
The rest of the world is finally getting this. Why the US market doesn't is just plain stupid. Look at the US Government, they still require MS Office file formats. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
They've already done this with OS/2. They would disable the BootManger and instead of setting it back as the boot partition, they listed how to do this manually. They didn't tell you that the file you had to change was hidden either and you had to determine what partition NT was going to be listed so it booted from BootManager.
Microsoft is a marketing company, choice is not an option. Competition is not an option.
Yeah, it hurt SGI but was not a win for MSFT. Every business that does not drink the MSFT koolaid helps pull them down underwater.
Does anybody remember that SGI was drinking the koolaid some time back? They even partnered with MSFT on COSMO and I think gave MSFT their patents in the process. It turned out that NT still sucked and SGI dropped MS Windows and started going the Linux route.
I would have thought that Linux would have replaced IRIX by now but they have a heck of alot invested in IRIX and performance tuned galore.
Regarding HP, I thought they were goners too, just like DEC. HP was telling it's customers to drop HP-UX and go with MS Windows NT and it was hurting them for doing this. They stopped it after about a year or so and probably saved a large chunk of the company by doing so. Like you said, they are very happy doing Linux in all the right places.
Back to why this is a strike against MS. If they can't grow their market price will crumble and when that happens their ability to pay employees with stock options fails. The bricks start falling out of the wall, one by one after that.
Microsoft gave away it's web browser and forced it on OEMs. They have a monopoly and threaten anybody who doesn't play THEIR game. Illegal protection of their monopoly.
Now how does Linux(free) stalling MS Windows growth change this? The court case will be over before they start shrinking anyway. IMHO.
There is not much of a reason people don't take a look at Linux anymore. DemoLinux is a bootable CDROM which boots Linux without installing anything on your hard disk. It loads sound and networking support along with having both KDE and Gnome desktops. Tons of software is right there on the CDROM including StarOffice, Gimp, gPhoto, Netscape, etc.
There just isn't much of a reason for people to not see what Linux is. My techie friends still are amazed when they see my Linux system and for some reason keep thinking it's a clunky system.
This is great news and shows the curtain is really starting to close on Redmond.
I just read that Doug Miller is now in charge of a UNIX migration hit-team at Microsoft. They don't mention alternative OS's unless they absolutely HAVE to. Hehe.:)
That sounds about right and this is just why Microsoft wants Bluetooth dead. The lower power handhelds ( read PalmOS-based, Symbian, cell phone ) can support the power requirements of Bluetooth but not 802.11. The WinCE and Linux based handheld pocket PC's already have huge battery systems and can better support the requirements of 802.11.
Wonder why MS is holding back Bluetooth support and running full steam with 802.11....
I would much rather have a Bluetooth enabled small/cheap cellphone, ear piece/mic, and PDA instead of a large/expensive single device that does a poor job at everything. Having my desktop Bluetooth enabled or Tivo or one of these servers at the house or office would rock. Bluetooths short range also will keep snooper close enough to get caught or at least seen.
I laughed out loud when I read that Sanders didn't even read the the settlement or the states proposal.
This looks like the Microsoft legal clowns will be making us laugh again. I only hope the courts don't cave like the appeals court did and like the 1995 consent failed.
Isn't Balmer going to be on the stand? If so, that should be a treat.
> They didn't create a driver model that could > stand the test of time when they released their > first Win32 variants.
that's right but it was done on purpose. Keep moving the API's so that only the people who are "friendly" to Microsoft get to know what's happening next. Microsoft can control the hardware which can eliminate the competition by preventing Win-hardware from working on other OS's. Now they are doing Win-Fi (Soft WiFi).
This is how Microsoft plays this game and started it long time ago. "DOS isn't done til Lotus won't run".....
This is all a big game to keep Microsoft making billions and billions of dollars. NOT to make a good product. The court case might slow that money making machine down. It could prevent this tail-chasing by stablizing the OS (kernel,etc) and letting others pick what apps or API's get layered on top. MSFT doesn't want this and they have bought AMD to help them...
Sanders is just kissing up to MS and because Bill Gates personally asked Sanders to help, he's brown nosing. Heck, he's in the hardware business and only cares that people use the AMD processors. Bill Gates controlls billions of dollars and without support from Microsoft for AMD chips/chipsets, AMD would be history.
A single service pack could stall many AMD sales. AMD just moved into the big league sleeping with these jerks. Will it help or hurt them????? Eventually it will hurt them as it has all others. Intel was helped but there was no competition, just bottom feeders. Now there's Intel and AMD to be played against each other and AMD isn't big enough to survive the back-stabbing Microsoft is known for. IMHO.
How long to you think THAT will last now that AMD is under Bill's thumb? Come on now. Microsoft is on a hunt-n-kill mission to stop Linux any way they can. ANYBODY they work with will have to give up Linux projects to keep ANY deal with Microsoft alive.
That is exactly it. Jerry Sanders sucked up to Microsoft big-time when he talked about the "hammer" productline. Many times stating somthing about "the Windows CPU". It's obvious to many that Microsoft is playing AMD and Intel and since AMD is the underdog, they are sucking up to Microsoft in a very big way.
Sucking up so much that Jerry Sanders will go to court for them. That is some pretty big sucking up.....
I think it's ironic that AMD will fight one monopoly on one hand and then support a monopoly on the other hand. IMHO, this new found friendship with Microsoft, by AMD, does not bode well for AMD. The Black Widow will strike again.
Too bad, because I used to like AMD. That was before Jerry Sanders started whore'ing the company around.....
good question since Polarbar Mailer supports LDAP and Mozilla/Netscape does too. Getting my PDA or PMT (Personal Mobility Tool) to sync with a local LDAP server would be the only/last thing to get going.....
If this is such a good idea, could be, do the standard distributions start this or install it by default? Heck, the standard Netscape/Mozilla installation should be preset to use it too.
If all the other browsers are already able to use LDAP and the emailers (Kmail, pine, etc) then this is a no-brainer.
That is why I liked the OpenDoc concept so much. If OpenDoc had been successful, people could have docked the OD Parts they wanted into their custom email app and provided most of what these guys wanted without building an entire application from scratch.
Slashdot Mirror
you have to more than double the size of the iPaq to get that internet connection (PCMCIA) and that fits in your pocket?
The Sharp Zaurus has both CF and SD/SMM builtin and I think HP was the only other pocket pc that compared. Now that's gone... I'm amazed at the size of the the iPaq if you want expansion....
LoB
I was onced asked by a friend/devleoper:
:)
Q1: "Why does a company buy 5 iPaqs?"
Q2: I don't know, why does a company buy 5 iPaqs?
A1: "So they have 1 that works for the demo."
Q3: Is this a hardware or an operating system issue?
A2: "operating system"
Take a look at the Sharp Zaurus for your next purchase. If you need MS Windows desktop apps too then Qt and Qt/embedded is a great choice. IMHO.
By the way, the Zaurus rocks.
LoB
"Luckily for Microsoft, it's difficult to see a naked emperor in the dark."
--- Ted Lewis, (former) editor-in-chief, IEEE Computer
LoB
Remember that the Peruvian Bill does NOT cover the open market ( private sector ). It's just for government agencies. Does the WTO or FTAA have control over how other governments conduct THEIR business?
To tell you the truth, I'd LOVE to see this get esculated. As it is now, we'll be lucky if it gets outside of The Register and Slashdot/Linux press. When we see it on CNN, Forbes, WSJ, etc. then we know it's out of Microsoft's control.
LoB
Then let them start by accepting SyncML and dial when they receive one with a tag or something like that. The software crowd will make it work with the PDA's. They should also have a SyncML dump and load feature.
That would be a good start. In a real competitive environment, those with the first or best products set the standard if open standards aren't used. In other words, the field is open and with the PalmOS at 70+% marketshare, that would be a good platform to support but it would depend on the bluetooth support the PDA has or will have.
LoB
and they'll be more productive because they will only know the application they are using and not how to change the OS.
90% or more of the users of computers just need to know how to click on the icon to start the programs and that's it. Doesn't take but a few minutes to show/figure-out how to do this on Linux.
It's only Microsofts hold on the OEM that's keeping them on the desktop and that's keeping some vendors from writting Linux apps.
Go download DemoLinux ( http://www.demolinux.org ) and run that (bootable Linux CDROM w/no install on HD). Then tell me you can't figure out how to start up the web browser.
Soon, many more schools will be running Linux because of the far lower cost of ownership.
IMHO, Microsofts' days of control are numbered and people/business's would be smart to realize this. The cost savings are incredible.
LoB
Really. By saying they would have a Bluetooth kit for MS Windows XP by the end of the year? That is not full support. Mark my word, they'll have Win-Fi (Windows-only WiFi) out before they release the Bluetooth drivers. I'd even go on a limb and say that the Bluetooth support will be flaky too and the device manufacturers will be pointed to by Microsoft.
I agree there is a lot of potential here with Bluetooth to have two separate devices, but to be honest, next year's phones will be the power of laptops two years ago, so why not steal as much PDA functionality as possible and make it as usuable as possible in the normal phone form factor. Hey if you love to do spreadsheets but find the screen too small, get a PDA too.
Not everyone wants a PDA but most will want a phone. Pricing pressures will limit the sales numbers of the combo-phone/pda. IMO, it would be smarter if the phone manufacturers worked with the PDA vendor and made sure they worked together via Bluetooth than attempt to take the PDA market for their own. Again, not everyone wants a PDA.
LoB
Look at the picture with the numpad showing. You can see the hinges and how there are slots in the base phone compartment for the hinges. Now look at the picture with the numpad opened up. There are no hinge slots at all in the phone. Where did the numpad go?
I also see the shadow of the pen looking like a artists mockup. Shouldn't there be some reflection?
If they can build this it looks good for those who insist on having a phone AND PDA in one device. I personally like the option of wireless connectivity between phone, pda, headset, etc. Keep the phones disposable and pack as much as possible into the PDA. IMHO.
LoB
phone/PDA's are bigger than just the PDA.
All of your other reasons can be remedied by:
BLUETOOTH
( Now you know why Microsoft is attempting to kill Bluetooth.)
LoB
The Start-Button is another way they control who puts apps on Windows. They were going to open up the desktop for OEM's to put icons on. They added a bunch of stuff to the Start-Button so users would use that instead of the desktop and they obviously would control how/what applications installed to what part of the Start-Button list.
Everything they do is to keep their software on top and NOT to make the OS easier to use. Keeping other OS's from booting is the same as keeping other applications buried from the users access.
It still amazes me business's buy PC's with MS Windows on it. If they just looked at a graph of their IT expenses over the last 5+ years they would be saying, "What business are we in, funding IT or our 'product X'?"
The rest of the world is finally getting this. Why the US market doesn't is just plain stupid. Look at the US Government, they still require MS Office file formats. Dumb, dumb, dumb.
LoB
They've already done this with OS/2. They would disable the BootManger and instead of setting it back as the boot partition, they listed how to do this manually. They didn't tell you that the file you had to change was hidden either and you had to determine what partition NT was going to be listed so it booted from BootManager.
Microsoft is a marketing company, choice is not an option. Competition is not an option.
LoB
Yeah, it hurt SGI but was not a win for MSFT. Every business that does not drink the MSFT koolaid helps pull them down underwater.
Does anybody remember that SGI was drinking the koolaid some time back? They even partnered with MSFT on COSMO and I think gave MSFT their patents in the process. It turned out that NT still sucked and SGI dropped MS Windows and started going the Linux route.
I would have thought that Linux would have replaced IRIX by now but they have a heck of alot invested in IRIX and performance tuned galore.
Regarding HP, I thought they were goners too, just like DEC. HP was telling it's customers to drop HP-UX and go with MS Windows NT and it was hurting them for doing this. They stopped it after about a year or so and probably saved a large chunk of the company by doing so. Like you said, they are very happy doing Linux in all the right places.
Back to why this is a strike against MS. If they can't grow their market price will crumble and when that happens their ability to pay employees with stock options fails. The bricks start falling out of the wall, one by one after that.
LoB
Microsoft gave away it's web browser and forced it on OEMs. They have a monopoly and threaten anybody who doesn't play THEIR game. Illegal protection of their monopoly.
Now how does Linux(free) stalling MS Windows growth change this? The court case will be over before they start shrinking anyway. IMHO.
LoB
There just isn't much of a reason for people to not see what Linux is. My techie friends still are amazed when they see my Linux system and for some reason keep thinking it's a clunky system.
LoB
They didn't switch to MS Windows and it shows companies are trusting Linux for many different tasks. Did I say they didn't switch to MS Windows?
LoB
This is great news and shows the curtain is really starting to close on Redmond.
:)
9 32 , 0.asp
I just read that Doug Miller is now in charge of a UNIX migration hit-team at Microsoft. They don't mention alternative OS's unless they absolutely HAVE to. Hehe.
It's a ZiffDavis story no less....
http://www.eweek.com/article/0,3658,s=1884&a=25
LoB
That sounds about right and this is just why Microsoft wants Bluetooth dead. The lower power handhelds ( read PalmOS-based, Symbian, cell phone ) can support the power requirements of Bluetooth but not 802.11. The WinCE and Linux based handheld pocket PC's already have huge battery systems and can better support the requirements of 802.11.
Wonder why MS is holding back Bluetooth support and running full steam with 802.11....
I would much rather have a Bluetooth enabled small/cheap cellphone, ear piece/mic, and PDA instead of a large/expensive single device that does a poor job at everything. Having my desktop Bluetooth enabled or Tivo or one of these servers at the house or office would rock. Bluetooths short range also will keep snooper close enough to get caught or at least seen.
It looks like 2002 WILL be the year of Bluetooth.
Awesome!
LoB
I laughed out loud when I read that Sanders didn't even read the the settlement or the states proposal.
This looks like the Microsoft legal clowns will be making us laugh again. I only hope the courts don't cave like the appeals court did and like the 1995 consent failed.
Isn't Balmer going to be on the stand? If so, that should be a treat.
LoB
> They didn't create a driver model that could
> stand the test of time when they released their
> first Win32 variants.
that's right but it was done on purpose. Keep moving the API's so that only the people who are "friendly" to Microsoft get to know what's happening next. Microsoft can control the hardware which can eliminate the competition by preventing Win-hardware from working on other OS's. Now they are doing Win-Fi (Soft WiFi).
This is how Microsoft plays this game and started it long time ago. "DOS isn't done til Lotus won't run".....
This is all a big game to keep Microsoft making billions and billions of dollars. NOT to make a good product. The court case might slow that money making machine down. It could prevent this tail-chasing by stablizing the OS (kernel,etc) and letting others pick what apps or API's get layered on top. MSFT doesn't want this and they have bought AMD to help them...
LoB
I couldn't have said it better. :)
Darn, no moderator point....
Sanders is just kissing up to MS and because Bill Gates personally asked Sanders to help, he's brown nosing. Heck, he's in the hardware business and only cares that people use the AMD processors. Bill Gates controlls billions of dollars and without support from Microsoft for AMD chips/chipsets, AMD would be history.
A single service pack could stall many AMD sales.
AMD just moved into the big league sleeping with these jerks. Will it help or hurt them????? Eventually it will hurt them as it has all others. Intel was helped but there was no competition, just bottom feeders. Now there's Intel and AMD to be played against each other and AMD isn't big enough to survive the back-stabbing Microsoft is known for. IMHO.
LoB
How long to you think THAT will last now that AMD is under Bill's thumb? Come on now. Microsoft is on a hunt-n-kill mission to stop Linux any way they can. ANYBODY they work with will have to give up Linux projects to keep ANY deal with Microsoft alive.
;)
Look at history, it tells a story.
LoB
That is exactly it. Jerry Sanders sucked up to Microsoft big-time when he talked about the "hammer" productline. Many times stating somthing about "the Windows CPU". It's obvious to many that Microsoft is playing AMD and Intel and since AMD is the underdog, they are sucking up to Microsoft in a very big way.
Sucking up so much that Jerry Sanders will go to court for them. That is some pretty big sucking up.....
I think it's ironic that AMD will fight one monopoly on one hand and then support a monopoly on the other hand. IMHO, this new found friendship with Microsoft, by AMD, does not bode well for AMD. The Black Widow will strike again.
Too bad, because I used to like AMD. That was before Jerry Sanders started whore'ing the company around.....
LoB
good question since Polarbar Mailer supports LDAP and Mozilla/Netscape does too. Getting my PDA or PMT (Personal Mobility Tool) to sync with a local LDAP server would be the only/last thing to get going.....
If this is such a good idea, could be, do the standard distributions start this or install it by default? Heck, the standard Netscape/Mozilla installation should be preset to use it too.
If all the other browsers are already able to use LDAP and the emailers (Kmail, pine, etc) then this is a no-brainer.
Who has experience with this?
Hey, great ideas. Point me to where I can get the source code and I'll do that for ya. ;)
LoB
That is why I liked the OpenDoc concept so much. If OpenDoc had been successful, people could have docked the OD Parts they wanted into their custom email app and provided most of what these guys wanted without building an entire application from scratch.
Where's Cairo? Jerks....
LoB