I think you fail to realize the power of pre-loading and the willingness of the general consumer to take what is there. You don't know how many times I've told a couple of friends to dump MS IE and MS Outlook for Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird so they don't have to keep paying someone to clean up their computer. Each has paid over $500 to have their machines completely reloaded but they keep sticking with stuff which gets them in trouble because of how they use those products.
And back in the Netscape vs IE days, we are talking dialup networking. Getting pre-loaded was a massive advantage and thinking that many would tie up the line for hours downloading the Netscape suite is silly thinking. Sure, if Netscape had a very small/fast browser it would have made THAT fight easier but the fact is/was, Microsoft leveraged its monopoly in desktop OS's to block a software application vendors product because it carried the threat of being a platform for developers to build on. That's right, the very thing you say was Netscapes downfall is what Microsoft attacked it for.
Back then, I ran OS/2 so both IBM Web Explorer and IBMs port of Netscape ran pretty darn fast and probably mostly due to the multi-threading ability of OS/2.
so if Netscape's product was so bad and Microsofts so good, why did did Microsoft exec privately decide they had to 'leverage' their Windows distribution channel to get people to use MS Internet Explorer? Also, why did Microsoft have to resort to paying millions to purchase Netscapes contracts with large ISP's and also pay these ISP's to put MS Internet Explorer on the ISP customers computers?
They did all that by somehow, they didn't realize that they had already won the game because their product was so great and Netscapes product sucked?
Something just doesn't obey the laws of logic here.
Funny how their quick slide down coincided with their newfound friendship in Microsoft. DEC all of a sudden become enamored with Microsoft and were telling their customers they need to move to Windows and DEC would be there to help. The trouble was, Windows sucked back then too and once DEC users got going, they were looking for another vendor in hopes of a better experience if not a better price on the systems. I also remember DEC System Engineers being way too bullish on Windows even though it multi-tasked like crap and had reliability issues. The end came fast once they drank the Microsoft Cool-aid.
HP almost had the same fate when they too were trying to force the HP-UX customers of UNIX and onto Microsoft Windows. After one year of that they pulled back and continued supporting HP-UX/UNIX let customer chose what product fit their needs best. They did drop a lot of market share in that one year though and along went larger service contracts.
All those UNIX vendors going nuts for Windows had me wondering why they were ignoring OS/2 since it had great multi-tasking, decent memory footprint and was far far more reliable than Windows. I'd not been exposed to how IBM did business before then but now understand why some of these larger computer vendors backed off from IBM's PC OS product. Of course, it didn't help that later on, when HP caught on to what OS/2 brought to the desktop PC market, Microsoft had enough power over HP to force them to turn off all OS/2 promotions and work. This was around 1994.
DEC, HP, others didn't understand how dangerous Microsoft was to their survival. Just like how IBM effectively killed off Digital Research by licensing MS-DOS along with DR-DOS but pre-loading MS-DOS and reselling DR-DOS at a very high price. The original hardware vendors found their PC OS "partner" soon became a threat to any software they where doing or wanted to do and also became so dependent on Microsoft it allowed Microsoft to actually dictate product development via strong arm tactics.
That was a pretty cool system when I first saw it in the 80s. IIRC, distributed file system, distributed processing, cool GUI, and even saw merged x86 runtime execution on the same box via an x86 processor. I seem to remember that some of their engineers did a computer graphics short film in their spare time using spare CPU cycles because that was how the system was designed.
Was saddened to see them purchased by HP and like many other HP purchases, their technology and innovation seemed to disappear. To a lesser degree, it kinda reminds me of Microsquish. IMO, the Apollo Workstation and the people behind it were awesome, are greatly missed, and are fondly remembered.
What do people expect, no growth in MS Vista usage? We got this same kind of worthless "news" when Windows XP shipped, when Windows 2000 shipped, when Windows 95 shipped, and to a lesser degree when the other DOS based Windows, Windows 98, and ME shipped. Microsoft has contracts with all the top OEM vendors, they use various means to pressure these OEMs into loading their latest OS including using financial incentives tied to marketing and likely threats of higher licensing fees among other means. People will take whats pre-loaded and so they are now taking Microsoft Windows Vista instead of the previous version which this time is Microsoft Windows XP. BFD, there's no news in this. IMO.
one reason is because of how Microsoft does business by doing everything legal and illegal to prevent certain technologies from gaining or existing in order to protect its Windows market. If they would compete by making better faster cheaper products in a fair and competitive way, then I'd have far far less of a problem seeing them persist. But they don't, haven't and likely never will. Because they constantly fight and to a greater extent kill off new technology from those who invent it, they are stagnating the industry and therefore harming the consumer by limiting their choices.
Oh, it's the geeks who know this because it's the geeks who are keeping up with what's going on and it's the geeks how are more likely to have an idea of what's innovative and what's not. So yes, ignorance is bliss and Microsoft is the good guy. Unfortunately, THAT is not the world many/.ers live in so we get behind things which have a chance of knocking them off their high horse. I'll let others talk about the benefits of open standards and software choice and freedoms if they so desire.
What moved me away from Microsoft you might ask? It was having to keep fixing the same things over and over for customers. Yes I made more money but it was a completely waste of their money and when asked why it kept happening, I could only say it was due to Microsofts poor design and they looked at me like I was a nut. So it's also about moving forward instead of constantly being blocked from moving forward. Just look at how Bill Gates went out of his way to bash the OLPC project. Yes, Mr 'I want to save the world' Gates wants OLPC to fail and that is because it does not use Microsoft Windows. So please self educate yourself on the subject and read all you can on the many antitrust cases and law suits against Microsoft. You'll see a partner which should open your eyes.
and the numbers( if true ) show you the power of pre-loading. They're stating over 75% of the systems sold in FY08 will be WinVista yet corporate IT depts are not moving and even with some OEM's having WinXP options, still the vast majority of PC sales are getting WinVista.
It's all about pre-loading and how dumb/ignorant the population is and therefore, Microsoft continues to rule the roost with its crapware. Mention that the next time someone asks you why Linux has not gained more marketshare on the desktop PC. I'll also mention that Dell has some balls for putting Ubuntu on some of their systems. They probably are not allowed to advertise these systems but they are there none the less. None of the other top tier OEM's have stepped on the toes of Microsoft to this extent. Having heard how HP has caved to pressure from Microsoft in terminating a few Linux projects explains why they've not stepped up and nothing seems to show that they've grown any balls in the last few years.
IMO, the success of Windows Vista is a given since Microsoft forces pre-loading and forces the quick pulling of previous versions off the shelves. How to stop this and have a breakout year for GNU/Linux is a tough one since the public in general is clueless to what else is out there and does not want to bother with something different unless it's got the Microsoft logo on it. Maybe the answer is in the K12LTSP and K12 schools to 'educate' the youth that there's something else out there. IMO.
And he said in TFA that he uses Windows so he MUST have read the EULA at one time or another. Unless he decided it was too complicated and just clicked-through. I'm with you, this is either a TROLL or he's incompetent to write such an article since at the very least, he should have also discussed the MS EULA.
There was a really good article on the MS XP EULA called "Windows XP EULA in Plain English" by linuxadvocate.org but that site seems to be gone and I can't find a mirror or PDF of it. Just a small hint of how bad the MS EULA is can be found in this short article which states that Microsoft has in their EULA that they are not liable for breach of contract. Read on, it's just a page or two long: http://weblog.infoworld.com/gripeline/archives/200 6/09/a_contract_only.html
why would they put up such clear and understandable dialog boxes which just end up scaring the user. They should follow Microsoft's lead and put all that in 5-10 pages of legalese and call it an EULA. Then, their users will see that, maybe read one or two lines before hitting the [OK] button.
Shame on the Ubuntu developers for putting in such a simple and clearly understandable dialog box.;-)
and as if there is a roadmap with MS Office. I would not count reaction to what others are doing which might threaten their monopoly a roadmap. But it sounds like Microsoft made a good buy-back here so look for it on their Get The Flak web pages.
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Re:Microsoft is thrilled by this news
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But it just gets too much flask IMO"
Now there's a use for the Zune. Make a flask out of it. For one, it's not going to grab any attention and a non-functioning screen can just be explained as 'it's a Microsoft product and just like the Xbox, it doesn't always work right'.
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Re:Microsoft is thrilled by this news
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my first thought was that Microsoft employees probably already has access to the unDRM'ed music so what's the big deal.
that was what I was thinking when I read this. What I've noticed recently was that when marketshare numbers where put out on HD players, they would note later on that the PS3 shipments were excluded and that, IMO, shows that HD-DVD is losing. Having to play tricks with market share numbers is one indicator of what's really going on and this price cut also shows who's got to try harder to get customers. Who in their right mind wouldn't pick up a PS3 for their HD video( BluRay ) player when for maybe $100 you get a 3rd Gen game console thrown in?
To tell you the truth, I also figure Universal and Microsoft are behind this deal since both have tons to lose when HD-DVD fails to gain much marketshare. Universal has partnered with Microsoft and is exclusive to HD-DVD while recently also shutting off Apple from it's music portfolio by not renewing their iTunes license. So Toshiba might not be losing any money on this if it's subsidized by Microsoft and/or Universal.
While tempting, I still don't want to get caught with a device only supported by such a limited market. Not to mention such a lowend device/player.
OS/2 has/had a GUI and complete GUI control of everything to "hide" the underlying control from users if they wanted it. BUT, it also had commandline and scriptable( REXX ) control of everything too. You could add menus to desktop/folders/etc from commandline and bounce networking if you wanted to tweak with what the network was doing or where it was going.
What Microsoft has done is not provide an easy interface for those who don't want to know or care about how the system works, but IMO, did all this to help them control the market by constantly keeping app vendors changing what's going on. As OS/2 would show you, it is possible to have a good GUI for managing the system and also have a good commandline and scriptable interface to those features. Microsoft is now getting closer to what OS/2 had in the mid 90s but it's only because of how flexible Linux is that's driving them to attempt to build this into Windows without losing control of the system.
BTW, OS/2 apps could use it's system/user dbase or use INI config files. It just wasn't the norm to put application INI files in system directories like it was for Windows. THAT was just plain stupid.
Any well designed system can have GUI interfaces for controlling the system after it's got sciptable control. Going the other way around is alot more work.
glad someone else caught that. I wonder if you are somehow sucked into their world( parnership ) when you sign a deal for that Microsoft Software Assurance crock? I can see the insiders at Microsoft now. Right after they sign another sucker, they throw a big party, lots of people milling around the cake doing air-fishing and some with a curled index finger yanking on the inside of their mouth/cheek. Someone in PR probably came up with the idea of calling them partners since it'll give them a sense of belonging as they well get nothing else from the deal.
It also puts a little spin on it since "MS customers bailing..." sounds more dramatic than "MS partners bailing.." Anybody who deals with Microsoft is screwed one way or another, this is just more proof that even the suckers/partners/customers are getting sick of it.
what I was mentioning has more to do with how the proprietary systems tend to simplify and control how things are done while the OSS way is more toward choices and options. Just look at how easy it is to change the Microsoft desktop to some other desktop. They don't want to you do that and even restrict OEMs from doing this. Linux distros have KDE, Gnome, XFCE, etc and that's just desktops. Schools are also going to have a budget problem getting other things kids might get into but in the OSS world, their mostly just a download away. ie, there's more to mess with at the price point.
So it's about flexibility. Sure, it would be best to start everyone on the same configuration so they can get the hang of what's going on and ask others for help or help others. But, once they get the hang, they can learn more and more about the system, what it can do, how they can do it, etc. Even if they are only taught word processing in class, when home or elsewhere, they'd have tons of stuff to mess with in Linux while Windows and Mac are more restrictive in what can be done with the system and apps available. IMO.
nope, until people start off with Linux and OSS, they will continue to expect certain things which are tied to MS Windows and they way things "work"( or don't work ) on MS Windows.
So when school systems start using more and more Linux and the kids get familiar with how it works and how they do things the Linux way, you'll find far fewer people switching to Windows. IMO, given an open tool, kids will figure it out, give them a closed tool and they may use it but the restrictions on how it's used will limit their growth and learning. Things like OLPC and K12LTSP probably scare the crap out of Microsoft execs.
With all the problems the Xbox360 is having, I would think that it would be a great time for someone( Sony/etc ) to offer a $100-$200 discount in an exchange program to 'help' those poor Xbox360 users get a more stable console. After the third exchange with Microsoft, you'd think people would be tossing these things off the roof. Why not offer a $100-$200 discount coupon to help them with their problems? After 1.5 years of this, Microsoft is only now offering a three year cycle of exchange for another bad unit and for many, there's only 1.5 years left.
And while you're at it, build a Linux Custer of all those Xbox360's and find ET already( Seti - http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ ).;-) Or maybe put Edubuntu on them and sell them cheap to India school kids but cheaper than the $500 Microsoft PC ofcourse.
I believe one of the main reasons to do this is so that existing addons for MS Office can allow existing users to use MS Office but still exchange files with OOo users. Adaptive addons for the blind or sight impaired is probably the initial goal. This all started when MA via Microsoft lobbyists where saying they can't shift to ODF and OOo because OOo did not support/have adaptive interfaces for the sight impaired. Sun said that with the plugin, those users could continue to use MS Office with their sight adaptions while still able to exchange documents with the rest of the organizations OOo users, while OOo adaptions were built.
And the competition of another application capable of ODF formats is a good thing. IMO.
can you please show some proof that anything Microsoft says has any truth to it? Really, when you understand that Microsoft is a marketing company first and foremost, you'll understand that pretty much all public statements have only one purpose and that is to sell more copies of Microsoft software. So their public claims that they can't do X or doing Y is too difficult and would break the system, etc, have little to do with facts or the truth. Remember, they once told a district court justice in the 90s that they used paper and pen to keep track of financials at Microsoft.
And anybody who quotes a Microsoft employee for any purpose but to expose the lie is an idiot and is just acting as part of Microsoft PR team. Probably getting paid to do it too. And yes, I understand that they are a business but that does not mean their only option is deception and double-speak IMO.
Once again Microsoft is hammering it's customers into upgrading and I just wonder if it's customers expect to be constantly hammered to upgrade and like it? The Sun plugin, supports the most popular and most used versions of MS Office, 2000, 2003, and XP while Microsoft is pushing for adoption of MS Office 2007.
I do get that their business is to sell new software but when it comes to things like this, having them skip much of the existing market should be a red flag to customers. The flag reads, Microsoft will give you what you want but you've got to bend over and take the latest version of our software before you'll get it. And the customers seem to be saying, "thank you sir, may I have another".
And it's just a guess but the state of Massachusetts is probably standardized on MS Office 2003 and that is the only reason that version is supported. Just a guess.
I hope there can be some balanced comparisons between the MS plugin and the Sun plugin. Microsoft has a very long history of pulling tricks and making these kinds of things look worst than the native Microsoft stuff so let's see how broken Microsoft makes its plugin. If not broken, I'll bet they've got a few dozen developers going over the ODF spec to find holes where they can interpret the spec in some unusual and strange way so they can implement it that way and show how bad it might be. Even though there are open source implementations showing the intended operation. I just can not believe Microsoft would do any of this compatibility with ODF correct and with the customer in mind. History says they'll do otherwise.
I don't think that is what the reply was about but in response to your hardware warranty comment, yes Microsoft now has the best warranty for the worst reliable console. To tell you the truth, I can't believe people bought the Xbox with its original 90 day warranty. Maybe, just maybe if it was a slight mod up from the original Xbox spec but the Xbox 360 was a completely new design and even new graphics partner since they screwed Nvidia to the point of forcing them into court to get their money. A 90 day warranty for a new design and a Microsoft product. THAT is amazing. Bringing that to a full year after so many complaints from failures was a smart move and now, three years is great since in some cases, people have been through close to a dozen units and that included units built in 2006. January 2006 was supposed to be the cutoff date where new production units would not have hardware problems but that didn't work either.
I was kinda shocked to have seen the 1st 3 month numbers for the three consoles. Nintendo had ~1.5M, Microsoft had ~.8M, and Sony had ~1.2M. So even with Microsoft freeing up billions of dollars from the next two years Xbox support department budgets, I'm thinking their still going to need to play some more budgeting tricks to make it look like they're pulling a profit. ie. I think Wii and PS3 are destined to corner the Xbox360 into a small 3rd place for a very long time.
So all those with Xbox360's waiting to blow, you now have a way out. when it blows, get a new one and sell as new.
And that flying Wii remote recall was just to funny. Shows how 'into' the game play users get though. Good business plan Nintendo, the know $250 is the sweet spot and they've done some nice innovations at that price too.
there's a big difference between a company which does this all legally and one which has so much cash that they can do almost over the legal lines and pay cheap fines if need be or just promise to step back over the line after they've had enough time to harm the intended competitor.
I know people who feel that business are supposed to fine holes in laws and do whatever they can to make a buck when they realize and expoit those holes. It is a moronic way to do business and it harms society as a whole but they have no interest in society other than to make as much money as they can so they can push "society" out of their way.
It's unfortunate, but this is exactly why some have to resort to governmental/legal options to protect THEIR business, customers, and investors. Most can't even afford to do that and are just pushed out of business. Microsoft plays the business game like they are David Carradine in "Death Race 2000" and they'll take the easy points when every they can, but every now and then, they'll pull out all stops just to get one particular 20 pointer. IMO.
I guess you're too young to know what's going on. I'll keep it short, Microsoft has a monopoly in desktop computer operating systems. Not bad in itself and really what businesses strive for. Now the good part, Microsoft has used that monopoly to block competitors and protect their monopoly product(s). This is legal thing and comes into effect once a company gains monopoly status in a market. Now the really bad part, over the last 15+ years, Microsoft has used anti-competitive practices outside the laws of anti-trust( monopoly stuff ) and went to court with the federal government twice on this. The first time they settled before conviction an agreed to a few things that really didn't stop doing. The second time, they ended up with the same judge who was put in to replace the first judge( first time around ) and he'd been told to settle the original case so he was quite aware of how Microsoft worked and what they were SUPPOSED to do/operate. Well he threw the book at them the second time and all kinds of fun facts made it to the public along with Microsoft losing the case and getting convicted of anti-competitive actions in computer desktop operating systems. They were supposed to be split into 3 or more smaller companies but Bush and his corrupt gang of thieves took over and threw that judge out and put in an ignorant and naive judge who basically told Microsoft to be good and don't do that again.
So, what's "WRONG with that" is that Microsoft is a convicted felon, convicted of using anti-competitive practices to thwart competition, they've done it far more times than they've been in court for it and they are continuing to do the same. If they did not have a monopoly position it would not be an issue. If they were a monopoly AND didn't have a history of constantly using anti-competitive business practices it would not be AS big a deal. But they are, they do and they keep on doing this. As a consumer and/or a person trying to make a buck providing the best product on the market for your customers, you should be bleeping made that this is continueing year after year after year. But if you make money fixing Microsoft software or any of the other many wasteful businesses built on supporting Microsoft Windows, you'll have a very different view.
They should be teaching this stuff in school since there are just soo many how have no clue as to how and why Microsoft is what it is and how it keeps doing this to prevent products from getting to consumers. IMO.
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I think you fail to realize the power of pre-loading and the willingness of the general consumer to take what is there. You don't know how many times I've told a couple of friends to dump MS IE and MS Outlook for Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird so they don't have to keep paying someone to clean up their computer. Each has paid over $500 to have their machines completely reloaded but they keep sticking with stuff which gets them in trouble because of how they use those products.
And back in the Netscape vs IE days, we are talking dialup networking. Getting pre-loaded was a massive advantage and thinking that many would tie up the line for hours downloading the Netscape suite is silly thinking. Sure, if Netscape had a very small/fast browser it would have made THAT fight easier but the fact is/was, Microsoft leveraged its monopoly in desktop OS's to block a software application vendors product because it carried the threat of being a platform for developers to build on. That's right, the very thing you say was Netscapes downfall is what Microsoft attacked it for.
Back then, I ran OS/2 so both IBM Web Explorer and IBMs port of Netscape ran pretty darn fast and probably mostly due to the multi-threading ability of OS/2.
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so if Netscape's product was so bad and Microsofts so good, why did did Microsoft exec privately decide they had to 'leverage' their Windows distribution channel to get people to use MS Internet Explorer? Also, why did Microsoft have to resort to paying millions to purchase Netscapes contracts with large ISP's and also pay these ISP's to put MS Internet Explorer on the ISP customers computers?
They did all that by somehow, they didn't realize that they had already won the game because their product was so great and Netscapes product sucked?
Something just doesn't obey the laws of logic here.
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Funny how their quick slide down coincided with their newfound friendship in Microsoft. DEC all of a sudden become enamored with Microsoft and were telling their customers they need to move to Windows and DEC would be there to help. The trouble was, Windows sucked back then too and once DEC users got going, they were looking for another vendor in hopes of a better experience if not a better price on the systems. I also remember DEC System Engineers being way too bullish on Windows even though it multi-tasked like crap and had reliability issues. The end came fast once they drank the Microsoft Cool-aid.
HP almost had the same fate when they too were trying to force the HP-UX customers of UNIX and onto Microsoft Windows. After one year of that they pulled back and continued supporting HP-UX/UNIX let customer chose what product fit their needs best. They did drop a lot of market share in that one year though and along went larger service contracts.
All those UNIX vendors going nuts for Windows had me wondering why they were ignoring OS/2 since it had great multi-tasking, decent memory footprint and was far far more reliable than Windows. I'd not been exposed to how IBM did business before then but now understand why some of these larger computer vendors backed off from IBM's PC OS product. Of course, it didn't help that later on, when HP caught on to what OS/2 brought to the desktop PC market, Microsoft had enough power over HP to force them to turn off all OS/2 promotions and work. This was around 1994.
DEC, HP, others didn't understand how dangerous Microsoft was to their survival. Just like how IBM effectively killed off Digital Research by licensing MS-DOS along with DR-DOS but pre-loading MS-DOS and reselling DR-DOS at a very high price. The original hardware vendors found their PC OS "partner" soon became a threat to any software they where doing or wanted to do and also became so dependent on Microsoft it allowed Microsoft to actually dictate product development via strong arm tactics.
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That was a pretty cool system when I first saw it in the 80s. IIRC, distributed file system, distributed processing, cool GUI, and even saw merged x86 runtime execution on the same box via an x86 processor. I seem to remember that some of their engineers did a computer graphics short film in their spare time using spare CPU cycles because that was how the system was designed.
Was saddened to see them purchased by HP and like many other HP purchases, their technology and innovation seemed to disappear. To a lesser degree, it kinda reminds me of Microsquish. IMO, the Apollo Workstation and the people behind it were awesome, are greatly missed, and are fondly remembered.
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What do people expect, no growth in MS Vista usage? We got this same kind of worthless "news" when Windows XP shipped, when Windows 2000 shipped, when Windows 95 shipped, and to a lesser degree when the other DOS based Windows, Windows 98, and ME shipped. Microsoft has contracts with all the top OEM vendors, they use various means to pressure these OEMs into loading their latest OS including using financial incentives tied to marketing and likely threats of higher licensing fees among other means. People will take whats pre-loaded and so they are now taking Microsoft Windows Vista instead of the previous version which this time is Microsoft Windows XP. BFD, there's no news in this. IMO.
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one reason is because of how Microsoft does business by doing everything legal and illegal to prevent certain technologies from gaining or existing in order to protect its Windows market. If they would compete by making better faster cheaper products in a fair and competitive way, then I'd have far far less of a problem seeing them persist. But they don't, haven't and likely never will. Because they constantly fight and to a greater extent kill off new technology from those who invent it, they are stagnating the industry and therefore harming the consumer by limiting their choices.
/.ers live in so we get behind things which have a chance of knocking them off their high horse. I'll let others talk about the benefits of open standards and software choice and freedoms if they so desire.
Oh, it's the geeks who know this because it's the geeks who are keeping up with what's going on and it's the geeks how are more likely to have an idea of what's innovative and what's not. So yes, ignorance is bliss and Microsoft is the good guy. Unfortunately, THAT is not the world many
What moved me away from Microsoft you might ask? It was having to keep fixing the same things over and over for customers. Yes I made more money but it was a completely waste of their money and when asked why it kept happening, I could only say it was due to Microsofts poor design and they looked at me like I was a nut. So it's also about moving forward instead of constantly being blocked from moving forward. Just look at how Bill Gates went out of his way to bash the OLPC project. Yes, Mr 'I want to save the world' Gates wants OLPC to fail and that is because it does not use Microsoft Windows. So please self educate yourself on the subject and read all you can on the many antitrust cases and law suits against Microsoft. You'll see a partner which should open your eyes.
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and the numbers( if true ) show you the power of pre-loading. They're stating over 75% of the systems sold in FY08 will be WinVista yet corporate IT depts are not moving and even with some OEM's having WinXP options, still the vast majority of PC sales are getting WinVista.
It's all about pre-loading and how dumb/ignorant the population is and therefore, Microsoft continues to rule the roost with its crapware. Mention that the next time someone asks you why Linux has not gained more marketshare on the desktop PC. I'll also mention that Dell has some balls for putting Ubuntu on some of their systems. They probably are not allowed to advertise these systems but they are there none the less. None of the other top tier OEM's have stepped on the toes of Microsoft to this extent. Having heard how HP has caved to pressure from Microsoft in terminating a few Linux projects explains why they've not stepped up and nothing seems to show that they've grown any balls in the last few years.
IMO, the success of Windows Vista is a given since Microsoft forces pre-loading and forces the quick pulling of previous versions off the shelves. How to stop this and have a breakout year for GNU/Linux is a tough one since the public in general is clueless to what else is out there and does not want to bother with something different unless it's got the Microsoft logo on it. Maybe the answer is in the K12LTSP and K12 schools to 'educate' the youth that there's something else out there. IMO.
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And he said in TFA that he uses Windows so he MUST have read the EULA at one time or another. Unless he decided it was too complicated and just clicked-through. I'm with you, this is either a TROLL or he's incompetent to write such an article since at the very least, he should have also discussed the MS EULA.
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There was a really good article on the MS XP EULA called "Windows XP EULA in Plain English" by linuxadvocate.org but that site seems to be gone and I can't find a mirror or PDF of it. Just a small hint of how bad the MS EULA is can be found in this short article which states that Microsoft has in their EULA that they are not liable for breach of contract. Read on, it's just a page or two long:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/gripeline/archives/20
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why would they put up such clear and understandable dialog boxes which just end up scaring the user. They should follow Microsoft's lead and put all that in 5-10 pages of legalese and call it an EULA. Then, their users will see that, maybe read one or two lines before hitting the [OK] button.
;-)
Shame on the Ubuntu developers for putting in such a simple and clearly understandable dialog box.
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and as if there is a roadmap with MS Office. I would not count reaction to what others are doing which might threaten their monopoly a roadmap. But it sounds like Microsoft made a good buy-back here so look for it on their Get The Flak web pages.
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Now there's a use for the Zune. Make a flask out of it. For one, it's not going to grab any attention and a non-functioning screen can just be explained as 'it's a Microsoft product and just like the Xbox, it doesn't always work right'.
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my first thought was that Microsoft employees probably already has access to the unDRM'ed music so what's the big deal.
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good points on the hassles/missing parts for using the PS3 as a HD video player. Sony goofed there too.
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that was what I was thinking when I read this. What I've noticed recently was that when marketshare numbers where put out on HD players, they would note later on that the PS3 shipments were excluded and that, IMO, shows that HD-DVD is losing. Having to play tricks with market share numbers is one indicator of what's really going on and this price cut also shows who's got to try harder to get customers. Who in their right mind wouldn't pick up a PS3 for their HD video( BluRay ) player when for maybe $100 you get a 3rd Gen game console thrown in?
To tell you the truth, I also figure Universal and Microsoft are behind this deal since both have tons to lose when HD-DVD fails to gain much marketshare. Universal has partnered with Microsoft and is exclusive to HD-DVD while recently also shutting off Apple from it's music portfolio by not renewing their iTunes license. So Toshiba might not be losing any money on this if it's subsidized by Microsoft and/or Universal.
While tempting, I still don't want to get caught with a device only supported by such a limited market. Not to mention such a lowend device/player.
OS/2 has/had a GUI and complete GUI control of everything to "hide" the underlying control from users if they wanted it. BUT, it also had commandline and scriptable( REXX ) control of everything too. You could add menus to desktop/folders/etc from commandline and bounce networking if you wanted to tweak with what the network was doing or where it was going.
What Microsoft has done is not provide an easy interface for those who don't want to know or care about how the system works, but IMO, did all this to help them control the market by constantly keeping app vendors changing what's going on. As OS/2 would show you, it is possible to have a good GUI for managing the system and also have a good commandline and scriptable interface to those features. Microsoft is now getting closer to what OS/2 had in the mid 90s but it's only because of how flexible Linux is that's driving them to attempt to build this into Windows without losing control of the system.
BTW, OS/2 apps could use it's system/user dbase or use INI config files. It just wasn't the norm to put application INI files in system directories like it was for Windows. THAT was just plain stupid.
Any well designed system can have GUI interfaces for controlling the system after it's got sciptable control. Going the other way around is alot more work.
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glad someone else caught that. I wonder if you are somehow sucked into their world( parnership ) when you sign a deal for that Microsoft Software Assurance crock? I can see the insiders at Microsoft now. Right after they sign another sucker, they throw a big party, lots of people milling around the cake doing air-fishing and some with a curled index finger yanking on the inside of their mouth/cheek. Someone in PR probably came up with the idea of calling them partners since it'll give them a sense of belonging as they well get nothing else from the deal.
It also puts a little spin on it since "MS customers bailing..." sounds more dramatic than "MS partners bailing.."
Anybody who deals with Microsoft is screwed one way or another, this is just more proof that even the suckers/partners/customers are getting sick of it.
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what I was mentioning has more to do with how the proprietary systems tend to simplify and control how things are done while the OSS way is more toward choices and options. Just look at how easy it is to change the Microsoft desktop to some other desktop. They don't want to you do that and even restrict OEMs from doing this. Linux distros have KDE, Gnome, XFCE, etc and that's just desktops. Schools are also going to have a budget problem getting other things kids might get into but in the OSS world, their mostly just a download away. ie, there's more to mess with at the price point.
So it's about flexibility. Sure, it would be best to start everyone on the same configuration so they can get the hang of what's going on and ask others for help or help others. But, once they get the hang, they can learn more and more about the system, what it can do, how they can do it, etc. Even if they are only taught word processing in class, when home or elsewhere, they'd have tons of stuff to mess with in Linux while Windows and Mac are more restrictive in what can be done with the system and apps available. IMO.
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nope, until people start off with Linux and OSS, they will continue to expect certain things which are tied to MS Windows and they way things "work"( or don't work ) on MS Windows.
So when school systems start using more and more Linux and the kids get familiar with how it works and how they do things the Linux way, you'll find far fewer people switching to Windows. IMO, given an open tool, kids will figure it out, give them a closed tool and they may use it but the restrictions on how it's used will limit their growth and learning. Things like OLPC and K12LTSP probably scare the crap out of Microsoft execs.
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With all the problems the Xbox360 is having, I would think that it would be a great time for someone( Sony/etc ) to offer a $100-$200 discount in an exchange program to 'help' those poor Xbox360 users get a more stable console.
;-) Or maybe put Edubuntu on them and sell them cheap to India school kids but cheaper than the $500 Microsoft PC ofcourse.
After the third exchange with Microsoft, you'd think people would be tossing these things off the roof. Why not offer a $100-$200 discount coupon to help them with their problems? After 1.5 years of this, Microsoft is only now offering a three year cycle of exchange for another bad unit and for many, there's only 1.5 years left.
And while you're at it, build a Linux Custer of all those Xbox360's and find ET already( Seti - http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ ).
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I believe one of the main reasons to do this is so that existing addons for MS Office can allow existing users to use MS Office but still exchange files with OOo users. Adaptive addons for the blind or sight impaired is probably the initial goal. This all started when MA via Microsoft lobbyists where saying they can't shift to ODF and OOo because OOo did not support/have adaptive interfaces for the sight impaired. Sun said that with the plugin, those users could continue to use MS Office with their sight adaptions while still able to exchange documents with the rest of the organizations OOo users, while OOo adaptions were built.
And the competition of another application capable of ODF formats is a good thing. IMO.
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can you please show some proof that anything Microsoft says has any truth to it? Really, when you understand that Microsoft is a marketing company first and foremost, you'll understand that pretty much all public statements have only one purpose and that is to sell more copies of Microsoft software. So their public claims that they can't do X or doing Y is too difficult and would break the system, etc, have little to do with facts or the truth. Remember, they once told a district court justice in the 90s that they used paper and pen to keep track of financials at Microsoft.
And anybody who quotes a Microsoft employee for any purpose but to expose the lie is an idiot and is just acting as part of Microsoft PR team. Probably getting paid to do it too. And yes, I understand that they are a business but that does not mean their only option is deception and double-speak IMO.
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Once again Microsoft is hammering it's customers into upgrading and I just wonder if it's customers expect to be constantly hammered to upgrade and like it? The Sun plugin, supports the most popular and most used versions of MS Office, 2000, 2003, and XP while Microsoft is pushing for adoption of MS Office 2007.
I do get that their business is to sell new software but when it comes to things like this, having them skip much of the existing market should be a red flag to customers. The flag reads, Microsoft will give you what you want but you've got to bend over and take the latest version of our software before you'll get it. And the customers seem to be saying, "thank you sir, may I have another".
And it's just a guess but the state of Massachusetts is probably standardized on MS Office 2003 and that is the only reason that version is supported. Just a guess.
I hope there can be some balanced comparisons between the MS plugin and the Sun plugin. Microsoft has a very long history of pulling tricks and making these kinds of things look worst than the native Microsoft stuff so let's see how broken Microsoft makes its plugin. If not broken, I'll bet they've got a few dozen developers going over the ODF spec to find holes where they can interpret the spec in some unusual and strange way so they can implement it that way and show how bad it might be. Even though there are open source implementations showing the intended operation. I just can not believe Microsoft would do any of this compatibility with ODF correct and with the customer in mind. History says they'll do otherwise.
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I don't think that is what the reply was about but in response to your hardware warranty comment, yes Microsoft now has the best warranty for the worst reliable console. To tell you the truth, I can't believe people bought the Xbox with its original 90 day warranty. Maybe, just maybe if it was a slight mod up from the original Xbox spec but the Xbox 360 was a completely new design and even new graphics partner since they screwed Nvidia to the point of forcing them into court to get their money. A 90 day warranty for a new design and a Microsoft product. THAT is amazing. Bringing that to a full year after so many complaints from failures was a smart move and now, three years is great since in some cases, people have been through close to a dozen units and that included units built in 2006. January 2006 was supposed to be the cutoff date where new production units would not have hardware problems but that didn't work either.
I was kinda shocked to have seen the 1st 3 month numbers for the three consoles. Nintendo had ~1.5M, Microsoft had ~.8M, and Sony had ~1.2M. So even with Microsoft freeing up billions of dollars from the next two years Xbox support department budgets, I'm thinking their still going to need to play some more budgeting tricks to make it look like they're pulling a profit. ie. I think Wii and PS3 are destined to corner the Xbox360 into a small 3rd place for a very long time.
So all those with Xbox360's waiting to blow, you now have a way out. when it blows, get a new one and sell as new.
And that flying Wii remote recall was just to funny. Shows how 'into' the game play users get though. Good business plan Nintendo, the know $250 is the sweet spot and they've done some nice innovations at that price too.
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there's a big difference between a company which does this all legally and one which has so much cash that they can do almost over the legal lines and pay cheap fines if need be or just promise to step back over the line after they've had enough time to harm the intended competitor.
I know people who feel that business are supposed to fine holes in laws and do whatever they can to make a buck when they realize and expoit those holes. It is a moronic way to do business and it harms society as a whole but they have no interest in society other than to make as much money as they can so they can push "society" out of their way.
It's unfortunate, but this is exactly why some have to resort to governmental/legal options to protect THEIR business, customers, and investors. Most can't even afford to do that and are just pushed out of business. Microsoft plays the business game like they are David Carradine in "Death Race 2000" and they'll take the easy points when every they can, but every now and then, they'll pull out all stops just to get one particular 20 pointer. IMO.
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I guess you're too young to know what's going on. I'll keep it short, Microsoft has a monopoly in desktop computer operating systems. Not bad in itself and really what businesses strive for. Now the good part, Microsoft has used that monopoly to block competitors and protect their monopoly product(s). This is legal thing and comes into effect once a company gains monopoly status in a market. Now the really bad part, over the last 15+ years, Microsoft has used anti-competitive practices outside the laws of anti-trust( monopoly stuff ) and went to court with the federal government twice on this. The first time they settled before conviction an agreed to a few things that really didn't stop doing. The second time, they ended up with the same judge who was put in to replace the first judge( first time around ) and he'd been told to settle the original case so he was quite aware of how Microsoft worked and what they were SUPPOSED to do/operate. Well he threw the book at them the second time and all kinds of fun facts made it to the public along with Microsoft losing the case and getting convicted of anti-competitive actions in computer desktop operating systems. They were supposed to be split into 3 or more smaller companies but Bush and his corrupt gang of thieves took over and threw that judge out and put in an ignorant and naive judge who basically told Microsoft to be good and don't do that again.
So, what's "WRONG with that" is that Microsoft is a convicted felon, convicted of using anti-competitive practices to thwart competition, they've done it far more times than they've been in court for it and they are continuing to do the same. If they did not have a monopoly position it would not be an issue. If they were a monopoly AND didn't have a history of constantly using anti-competitive business practices it would not be AS big a deal. But they are, they do and they keep on doing this. As a consumer and/or a person trying to make a buck providing the best product on the market for your customers, you should be bleeping made that this is continueing year after year after year. But if you make money fixing Microsoft software or any of the other many wasteful businesses built on supporting Microsoft Windows, you'll have a very different view.
They should be teaching this stuff in school since there are just soo many how have no clue as to how and why Microsoft is what it is and how it keeps doing this to prevent products from getting to consumers. IMO.
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