First off, I'd like to note my surprise at the (relative to slashdot) objective comments posted- Typically when given a chance, there's a staggering deluge of "OSS good, Microsoft bad" responses, very articulate but staggeringly biased, and in their attempt to sound intelligent by going with anything not MS, commenters pretty much degenerate to "Mongo Smash!"
I completely agree- part of it is that it requires significant resources on Dell's part (support or explanation of lack thereof, distributing CD's, preloading compatible java runtime, manhours spent on streamlining the installation, etc) would be significant, but the return would be quite minimal.
I think another part of it, though, is that OpenOffice just isn't as good as MS Office- There are benchmarks all over the web showing staggeringly slow (relative to MS Office apps) execution times for starting the applications, opening, saving, and closing files... Not to mention compatibility with MS Office files isn't anywhere near perfect- just close enough to lull you into a false sense of security until you have to open an important document with complicated formatting, written in MS Word, or MS Powerpoint, or something along those lines. And, while this may sound like a horrible joke, in personal experience, OpenOffice apps just tend to crash more often than MS Office equivalents.
Incidentally, while it may sound like it, I'm NOT an OSS hater. I hold Firefox, 7zip, Eclipse, Rails, and some flavors of Linux all very dear to my heart. I'm just saying, credit where credit is due. Sometimes, when comparing products, you should look at the actual software instead of the licenses attached. And Microsoft Office is (I'm putting on my flame retardant suit as I write this) a quality suite of software.
One of the main arguments against audio DRM, from the ones I've heard (other than just being a total pain in the ass), is that it's the music industry's responsibility to adapt, not just fortify a stale business model
Given that pc gaming faces much the same problem, and "solutions" like StarForce run a disturbing parallel to RIAA solutions (Sony Rootkit, anyone) in not being merely ineffective, but aggressive and dangerous, it appears that the game industry is faced with the same choice: Adapt, or fortify & piss everyone off.
And it would make sense, since the internet ultimately defeated the brick&mortar business model for digital consumables, that the industry should factor the internet into its strategy when they adapt. The problem is that for every game DRM there's a crack. For every key there's a keygen, and for every demo there's an ftp server somewhere out on the darknet that has the complete version. Making money off of the distributed binaries is just becoming increasingly inviable.
There's a couple different ideas floating around: WoW is the most popular example of a subscription-based business model, but games like MTGO and PoxNora (http://www.poxnora.com) offer a different system, whereby instead of purchasing the game, people purchase the assets used in the game. Poxnora even gives you a starter deck, which you can use to your heart's content, as sort of a "try before you buy".
Don't get me wrong, I think the controller absolutely kicks ass. I'm a little skeptical about how intuitive it'll really be for FPS'ers and Super Smash Bros and the like, but I was skeptical about the DS. I totally admit I just lack the imagination of the game designers who could pull this off.
That being said, how new is this controller style, really? Other than there being physical buttons under your gaming-hand's fingertips...
How is this different from the powerglove?
And how will this succeed where the powerglove failed?
-Polar
Slashdot Mirror
First off, I'd like to note my surprise at the (relative to slashdot) objective comments posted- Typically when given a chance, there's a staggering deluge of "OSS good, Microsoft bad" responses, very articulate but staggeringly biased, and in their attempt to sound intelligent by going with anything not MS, commenters pretty much degenerate to "Mongo Smash!" I completely agree- part of it is that it requires significant resources on Dell's part (support or explanation of lack thereof, distributing CD's, preloading compatible java runtime, manhours spent on streamlining the installation, etc) would be significant, but the return would be quite minimal. I think another part of it, though, is that OpenOffice just isn't as good as MS Office- There are benchmarks all over the web showing staggeringly slow (relative to MS Office apps) execution times for starting the applications, opening, saving, and closing files... Not to mention compatibility with MS Office files isn't anywhere near perfect- just close enough to lull you into a false sense of security until you have to open an important document with complicated formatting, written in MS Word, or MS Powerpoint, or something along those lines. And, while this may sound like a horrible joke, in personal experience, OpenOffice apps just tend to crash more often than MS Office equivalents. Incidentally, while it may sound like it, I'm NOT an OSS hater. I hold Firefox, 7zip, Eclipse, Rails, and some flavors of Linux all very dear to my heart. I'm just saying, credit where credit is due. Sometimes, when comparing products, you should look at the actual software instead of the licenses attached. And Microsoft Office is (I'm putting on my flame retardant suit as I write this) a quality suite of software.
One of the main arguments against audio DRM, from the ones I've heard (other than just being a total pain in the ass), is that it's the music industry's responsibility to adapt, not just fortify a stale business model Given that pc gaming faces much the same problem, and "solutions" like StarForce run a disturbing parallel to RIAA solutions (Sony Rootkit, anyone) in not being merely ineffective, but aggressive and dangerous, it appears that the game industry is faced with the same choice: Adapt, or fortify & piss everyone off. And it would make sense, since the internet ultimately defeated the brick&mortar business model for digital consumables, that the industry should factor the internet into its strategy when they adapt. The problem is that for every game DRM there's a crack. For every key there's a keygen, and for every demo there's an ftp server somewhere out on the darknet that has the complete version. Making money off of the distributed binaries is just becoming increasingly inviable. There's a couple different ideas floating around: WoW is the most popular example of a subscription-based business model, but games like MTGO and PoxNora (http://www.poxnora.com) offer a different system, whereby instead of purchasing the game, people purchase the assets used in the game. Poxnora even gives you a starter deck, which you can use to your heart's content, as sort of a "try before you buy".
Step 1, steal the world's underwear.
Step 3, profit!
Don't get me wrong, I think the controller absolutely kicks ass. I'm a little skeptical about how intuitive it'll really be for FPS'ers and Super Smash Bros and the like, but I was skeptical about the DS. I totally admit I just lack the imagination of the game designers who could pull this off. That being said, how new is this controller style, really? Other than there being physical buttons under your gaming-hand's fingertips... How is this different from the powerglove? And how will this succeed where the powerglove failed? -Polar