You forget they also get (possibly but hopefully not) the highest paid lawyers in the world baying for your blood. Even though it's the case is completely baseless, it's still enough to make any geek cry I'd say.
The overhead you speak of, it's called a security system that isn't admin by default. It's also present in *unix and is called 'su' or 'sudo' instead of UAC.
Do some reading on the improvements I speak of. I've already provided a URL, but Google has plenty more. These improvements aren't exactly just theoretical, they've been years in the testing and making. Beyond that, who knows...maybe they won't turn out great for everyone once in the public domain, but neither of us can say so right now. Again, actually do some reading about the improvements before criticising and site examples. Here's one example for you now; the new thread priority and scheduling system - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issues /2007/02/VistaKernel/default.aspx?loc=en
As i'm sure you're aware, revolutionary changes (as opposed to evolutionary changes) will break things. Case in point; Mac OS X cannot run applications built for Mac OS9 at all - everything is run in an entire virtual Mac OS9 VM - not exactly friendly on the memory. So no, saying "not if they did it correctly" isn't exactly accurate.
DRM? That's another discussion. Vista so far hasn't swallowed whole anyone's mp3 downloads, nor has it magically converted anyone's film downloads into WMV's. Feel free to prove me wrong if you know otherwise.
Vista possibly is a bit shaky in areas - it's still very new. I've got a copy sat on my desk in fact that I'll install once SP1 is released. It will get there though, and just as once people ranted they'll "never upgrade to XP", they'll do again from Vista too about Vienna. Unless your a Linux bod of course, in which case good on you.
Sure, just about 100% of Windows is proprietary which I agree maybe isn't ideal. What a shame, but that's not the debate either.
I find your comments on backwards compatibility slightly misleading too now you mention it - it's not as bad as you make out. My case in point is the game I'm playing right now; Command & Conqueror 95 - built for DirectX 5 i believe - a system written absolutely donkeys years ago, and still working just dandy on the latest DX9.
Here's a challenge for you; can you take a version of StarOffice from 10 years ago and run it just fine under Ubuntu 7? I doubt it somehow.
That's just a list of stuff you'd probably never even notice that's been enhanced. If you're going to bash Microsoft senselessly, please back it up at least.
Changes are top-to-bottom too; everything from thread scheduling, to the entire driver model, to the TCP/IP implementation, to kernel-security has been completely re-done. And good on them I say for doing it - operating systems must evolve.
The problem is that such fundamental changes can cause some fundamental breakages, and this is what we're seeing now, and indeed, expecting. Even with Microsoft's "it must be backwards compatible" philosophy, things will break. People are just waiting for things to start working again, that's all. I think it's unfair to bash Microsoft because of these changes and breakages too; vendors have had years to prepare for vista (god knows it's been coming to long enough) so I'd suggest the slow adoption is largely the fault of vendors. Never-the-less, Vista is a positive re-write IMHO (the DRM is a separate issue of course).
Now, next question; was the time & money investment worth it for the consumer to pay for it? Maybe; maybe not. I can't see even my geeky mates wanting to upgrade on the basis of kernel enhancements alone. The pretty backgrounds, maybe, but certainly not for a re-written TCP/IP stack.
I moved from the UK to sleepy Andalucía (Spain) a couple of years ago. The first ad I see for broadband was literally 10x what I had been running in the UK; 2Mbit > 20Mbit. They have issues constantly running water and electricity in Andalucía, but they still manage to churn out 20Mbit pipes. If the Andaluces can do it, the US has no excuse believe me!
I trust you can back this claim up with some sort of evidence at least?
As far as I know, no nation in Europe "decides" to go Airbus on anything other than normal business motivations. Every airline I've flown in the EU has had some Boeing stock of sorts, even if Airbus is by far the most popular.
Personally, I suspect both Airbus & Boeing have had about equal "investment" from their own governing bodies. I can see what's wrong with it either side personally.
I've been wondering actually whether these patent agreements are indeed such a bad thing. It's basically Microsoft agreeing not to sue [insert name of company] and possibly a few sexual favours in return right? I'm asking because I'm actually quite fond of Linux, despite being mainly based in Microsoft tech and I'd actually like Linux to thrive, which with all this patent FUD flying around isn't going to happen.
'Free' in business terms doesn't exist. It makes investors very nervous as how on earth can you base your business success on technology 'no one' built? Successful solutions are bought not simply 'used' - you get sued for using something you didn't buy right?!
Ok, so that is the utter devils advocate coming out there, but my point is that I'm hoping these patent agreements will at least help allay such fears, and investors will consider Linux more seriously - even if this whole campaign by Microsoft utter toss (which I think we all know it is)
I love the idea of Java, but the implementation poor. I used to be a Java dev, but I've fully converted to the dark side since, essentially because I found Java's implementation just impractical. Things like VM versions (Java has countless varying versions (of which any number can be installed in varying locations),.Net has 4 - of which only 2 are particularly significant imo - 1.1 + 2.0), designing forms (I found a plug-in for Eclipse once that made it ever-so-slightly faster than coding it manually), and frankly, the god-awful speed of the it running....all made Java just a bit of a pipe dream rather than a practical reality.
I know what you mean about.Net cross-platform portability (which is a bummer), but Java just doesn't cut the mustard for applications for these reasons, plus others.
One minute, Microsoft make most of their money through Windows OEM sales...
Now they're actually paying OEM's to have their software installed?
My personal guess is that Dell know this'll be a specialist product line, and that the extra money they would've spent on buying each copy of Windows is instead going towards Michael Dells' cigar allowance...unless of course it becomes a serious product line (which it might), and then you'll see a proper roll-out.
...in NYC Times Sq. Metro. "Free personality test" they called it. Being in a generally good mood at the time (first day in the US no less), I though "why not" - the girl looked pretty hot, and it was an excuse to talk to someone. So I hold the tin cans, and the questions start coming; "how are you doing", and then "no really, how ARE you doing?", and then more like "I think you're insecure" and "This book can help with that" - despite my protests that I was actually OK. This pissed me me somewhat, as my good mood turned quite sour quite quickly and in fact, I left rather pissed off.
Anyway, the next day, I saw them again, and this time I was ready for them. I did the whole "Oh, I wonder what this is" type gaze, and sure enough they invite me over for another free personality test, and sure enough the same questions start. The needle was going no-where this time, and in fact the more the guy tried to convince me i was a mental train-wreck the more my confidence grew and the needle fell. Eventually I actually start laughing at the guy interviewing me, and he can't take it any more so hands me over to another fine looking female who tries a similar technique. At this point I'm chuckling even louder at their constant mental batterings, and people are starting to take interest in the commotion, at which point they try and sell me their book once last time.
I tell them quite clearly and loudly enough for the onlookers to hear that "when I'm as insecure as you lot, I'll buy your stinking book then and burn it". To which my awaiting friends added "Scientology is for losers".
1. Vista does not need a DX10 anything to run , even with all the bells & whistles turned on. You (mis)quote the BBC, well, I'll link to the BBC on this one - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6407419.stm which clearly explains a DX9 card is just fine for Areo.
2. Vista can run just like all the versions of Windows before it, without any 3d acceleration at all. Therefore, a 3d card isn't mandatory at all. An 8Mb card will do just fine.
3. Memory: you have two people telling you that they/we can run Vista fine on less than the recommended 1-2GB just fine. Experience counts more than some shop (Dell) may recommend for running an operating system. Dell just want to sell as much hardware as they can, so of course they'll recommend as much memory as they can get away with. I refer you to the following page as pretty convincing evidence - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/13/dell_overs sells/
If that's not enough to quell your 'concerns' over Vista hardware costs, then I don't know what is.
Re:My predictions for Wndows over the next year...
on
The End is Nigh for XP
·
· Score: 1
1. Completely untrue. My machine runs Areo, all systems go on my trusty GForce 6600 - a budget DX9 card I bought well over 2 years ago. Also, don't forget, you don't have to run the Areo UI if you don't want - it's merely a GUI enhancement. You can indeed switch back to the classic Win2k interface if you so wish.
2. 256Mb ram as an average? WinXP would be sluggish on that - where did you pluck that figure from? Also, Ram is cheap - case in point - http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/91121/rb/26862385 408 - a 1GB stick will set you back just under $80 in UK prices.
3. The points you raise sound to me like FUD, it's nothing personal, but I simply don't agree with the specifics you're coming out with. I personally will avoid using Vista until I have to as a primary OS, but not for hardware reasons.
SP1/2 & mature drivers will finally get this beast off the ground. And thank god too; Windows has needed a good tweaking and tuning for, er, ever - and although Vista is far from perfect, it's finally heading in the right direction if you ask me.
Re:My predictions for Wndows over the next year...
on
The End is Nigh for XP
·
· Score: 1
"you will need to invest in Vista.... at a steep increase in hardware"
Pure FUD - Vista ticks along just fine on any graphics card bought in the last 2-3 years, and certainly on all current cards. This isn't Doom 4 we're talking about here; just Windows. Also, it's not like it can't run in the good old 2d mode either. In terms of RAM, 1GB is just dandy for running conventional apps (and yes, I speak from experience rather than heresay). I mean, if you can 'run' XP on 8-MHz Pentium with 20 MB RAM, Vista on surely run on any machine bought in the last couple of years.
The real problem with Vista is undoubtedly compatibility rather than performance. Microsoft have vastly changed how drivers interact with the OS, meaning very little cross-over from previous versions. For the short-term, this has a negative effect, but once drivers are mature, the new system is undoubtedly better - check out the new display-driver model as an example of this.
The tool need Admin priveledges to work, and guess what you can do with that? Yes! Anything you like! The same goes for Linux too - oddly, with root access you too can do/inject/patch anything at all too.
Tags like: 'haha, defectivebydesign' Show how immature and unwilling to be unbiased some of you lot are. Shame on you./endRant
Er, what? Ryanair is so far disconnected from the US of A it's unreal. FCC laws are irrelevant in Ireland/EU airspace. In fact, last I heard the EU & Airbus were trailing to allow mobile-phones for "domestic" EU flights which is no bad thing IMO. Long-haul is something else though.
You don't need WGA to receive Windows patches either. Automatic updates will work perfectly fine even if your serial is blatantly stolen; but 'upgrades' won't (IE7, WMP, and all that good fun).
Yeah, WGA sucks, but software updates will come either way.
Also, to say Linux is completely independently modular isn't entirely accurate either (although, in fairness it's not like I completely disagree). Upgrading kernels (due to 'serious' security vulns) will break more things than I'd like for instance - my (yes I know, proprietary) NVidia drivers will be the first victims.
Finally, you think MS don't feel your patch-pain? Just by working for them in one form or other you've subscribed your machine to every patch, patch-for-the-patch, and patch-for-the-hacked-patched-service-pack that gets tested; all before releasing to a unsuspecting public, almost every day, just so you get as little bother staying secure with as little hassle as possible. It's not a pretty sight sometimes.
"The 747-8 is far lighter and far more efficient than the A380"
Bollocks. The A380 has an entirely new wing design, new composite material design, not to mention the newest engine tech going - making it proportionally way more lighter and efficient than the 747-800 - which, as the name heavily suggests, is just a modified version of a 1969 plane design.
As I've said before, the A380's biggest selling point is and will be that it can ship more people for less cash. That is why, when Airbus finally get their act together, they will be as common-place now as the 747 is now.
The market hasn't decided. The plane is very new. Yes it's late, but ultimately it's the most efficient plane for price of fuel per passenger, and that it why it will be a storming success. Very early days yet.
Airlines care about one thing alone; profit margins. The A380 delivers better than the 747 does - even the 800 series. Money talks.
I am perhaps more Microsoft pro than most people on this site; I believe they offer some great products, and, when you actually get to know the people that work there, you realise that in this day and age (and it hasn't always been this way), they're actually quite level-headed when it comes to working with the competition in general. Sure they could be better, but they could be a lot worse too in my opinion; having actually seen the real "face" of Microsoft.
Then, you get complete arseholes like Ballmer. He's the teeth of the company and that's it - does nothing constructive for IT in general other than force-feed customers MS only tech they don't want, bully the competition out of the market, and only bitch about the competition that's beating them left right & centre.
This dear friends is why the man must go. Microsoft can't be seen to be this childish; which I genuinely believe they are not. What a shame.
Slashdot Mirror
You forget they also get (possibly but hopefully not) the highest paid lawyers in the world baying for your blood. Even though it's the case is completely baseless, it's still enough to make any geek cry I'd say.
OJ Simpson anyone?
*sigh*
s /2007/02/VistaKernel/default.aspx?loc=en
The overhead you speak of, it's called a security system that isn't admin by default. It's also present in *unix and is called 'su' or 'sudo' instead of UAC.
Do some reading on the improvements I speak of. I've already provided a URL, but Google has plenty more. These improvements aren't exactly just theoretical, they've been years in the testing and making. Beyond that, who knows...maybe they won't turn out great for everyone once in the public domain, but neither of us can say so right now. Again, actually do some reading about the improvements before criticising and site examples. Here's one example for you now; the new thread priority and scheduling system - http://www.microsoft.com/technet/technetmag/issue
As i'm sure you're aware, revolutionary changes (as opposed to evolutionary changes) will break things. Case in point; Mac OS X cannot run applications built for Mac OS9 at all - everything is run in an entire virtual Mac OS9 VM - not exactly friendly on the memory. So no, saying "not if they did it correctly" isn't exactly accurate.
DRM? That's another discussion. Vista so far hasn't swallowed whole anyone's mp3 downloads, nor has it magically converted anyone's film downloads into WMV's. Feel free to prove me wrong if you know otherwise.
Vista possibly is a bit shaky in areas - it's still very new. I've got a copy sat on my desk in fact that I'll install once SP1 is released. It will get there though, and just as once people ranted they'll "never upgrade to XP", they'll do again from Vista too about Vienna. Unless your a Linux bod of course, in which case good on you.
Sure, just about 100% of Windows is proprietary which I agree maybe isn't ideal. What a shame, but that's not the debate either.
I find your comments on backwards compatibility slightly misleading too now you mention it - it's not as bad as you make out. My case in point is the game I'm playing right now; Command & Conqueror 95 - built for DirectX 5 i believe - a system written absolutely donkeys years ago, and still working just dandy on the latest DX9.
Here's a challenge for you; can you take a version of StarOffice from 10 years ago and run it just fine under Ubuntu 7? I doubt it somehow.
"Vista, in my mind, is basically a GUI change [not upgrade, just change] and explorer.exe re-write."
e w_to_Windows_Vista
I find it amazing how comments like yours get modded insightful. Where's the insight here? Do you know something no-one else does?
As you are clearly out of touch somewhat with Vista, please review the following 'under the hood' changes to the OS:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_features_n
That's just a list of stuff you'd probably never even notice that's been enhanced. If you're going to bash Microsoft senselessly, please back it up at least.
The thing is, Vista is actually quite a enhancement over XP and previous renditions of Windows. This isn't actually debatable; see:
- en.mspx/ 17/82188.aspx
http://www.microsoft.com/whdc/system/vista/kernel
http://geekswithblogs.net/sdorman/archive/2006/06
Changes are top-to-bottom too; everything from thread scheduling, to the entire driver model, to the TCP/IP implementation, to kernel-security has been completely re-done. And good on them I say for doing it - operating systems must evolve.
The problem is that such fundamental changes can cause some fundamental breakages, and this is what we're seeing now, and indeed, expecting. Even with Microsoft's "it must be backwards compatible" philosophy, things will break. People are just waiting for things to start working again, that's all.
I think it's unfair to bash Microsoft because of these changes and breakages too; vendors have had years to prepare for vista (god knows it's been coming to long enough) so I'd suggest the slow adoption is largely the fault of vendors. Never-the-less, Vista is a positive re-write IMHO (the DRM is a separate issue of course).
Now, next question; was the time & money investment worth it for the consumer to pay for it? Maybe; maybe not. I can't see even my geeky mates wanting to upgrade on the basis of kernel enhancements alone. The pretty backgrounds, maybe, but certainly not for a re-written TCP/IP stack.
I moved from the UK to sleepy Andalucía (Spain) a couple of years ago. The first ad I see for broadband was literally 10x what I had been running in the UK; 2Mbit > 20Mbit. They have issues constantly running water and electricity in Andalucía, but they still manage to churn out 20Mbit pipes. If the Andaluces can do it, the US has no excuse believe me!
I trust you can back this claim up with some sort of evidence at least?
As far as I know, no nation in Europe "decides" to go Airbus on anything other than normal business motivations. Every airline I've flown in the EU has had some Boeing stock of sorts, even if Airbus is by far the most popular.
Personally, I suspect both Airbus & Boeing have had about equal "investment" from their own governing bodies. I can see what's wrong with it either side personally.
I've been wondering actually whether these patent agreements are indeed such a bad thing. It's basically Microsoft agreeing not to sue [insert name of company] and possibly a few sexual favours in return right? I'm asking because I'm actually quite fond of Linux, despite being mainly based in Microsoft tech and I'd actually like Linux to thrive, which with all this patent FUD flying around isn't going to happen.
'Free' in business terms doesn't exist. It makes investors very nervous as how on earth can you base your business success on technology 'no one' built? Successful solutions are bought not simply 'used' - you get sued for using something you didn't buy right?!
Ok, so that is the utter devils advocate coming out there, but my point is that I'm hoping these patent agreements will at least help allay such fears, and investors will consider Linux more seriously - even if this whole campaign by Microsoft utter toss (which I think we all know it is)
And Boeing has never been subsidised by the US gov? Give me a break.
Perhaps they should calculate it by:
for each spam email sent:
-for each email opened: +5 seconds
-for each email filtered: +1 second
I predict even on this basis, he'd be picking up the soap for a long time yet.
I love the idea of Java, but the implementation poor. I used to be a Java dev, but I've fully converted to the dark side since, essentially because I found Java's implementation just impractical. Things like VM versions (Java has countless varying versions (of which any number can be installed in varying locations), .Net has 4 - of which only 2 are particularly significant imo - 1.1 + 2.0), designing forms (I found a plug-in for Eclipse once that made it ever-so-slightly faster than coding it manually), and frankly, the god-awful speed of the it running....all made Java just a bit of a pipe dream rather than a practical reality.
.Net cross-platform portability (which is a bummer), but Java just doesn't cut the mustard for applications for these reasons, plus others.
I know what you mean about
One minute, Microsoft make most of their money through Windows OEM sales...
Now they're actually paying OEM's to have their software installed?
My personal guess is that Dell know this'll be a specialist product line, and that the extra money they would've spent on buying each copy of Windows is instead going towards Michael Dells' cigar allowance...unless of course it becomes a serious product line (which it might), and then you'll see a proper roll-out.
Modded troll for presenting raw facts that was largely devoid of opinion?! I guess I deserve it.
A quick scan of Google would confirm this:
u e
http://www.google.com/search?q=inurl%3Aadmin%3Dtr
I'm not attempting to start a flame-war here, but the percentage of those sites that end in ".php" is remarkably high...
Ah to hell with it, let the flames commence.
*runs*
...in NYC Times Sq. Metro. "Free personality test" they called it. Being in a generally good mood at the time (first day in the US no less), I though "why not" - the girl looked pretty hot, and it was an excuse to talk to someone. So I hold the tin cans, and the questions start coming; "how are you doing", and then "no really, how ARE you doing?", and then more like "I think you're insecure" and "This book can help with that" - despite my protests that I was actually OK. This pissed me me somewhat, as my good mood turned quite sour quite quickly and in fact, I left rather pissed off.
Anyway, the next day, I saw them again, and this time I was ready for them. I did the whole "Oh, I wonder what this is" type gaze, and sure enough they invite me over for another free personality test, and sure enough the same questions start. The needle was going no-where this time, and in fact the more the guy tried to convince me i was a mental train-wreck the more my confidence grew and the needle fell. Eventually I actually start laughing at the guy interviewing me, and he can't take it any more so hands me over to another fine looking female who tries a similar technique. At this point I'm chuckling even louder at their constant mental batterings, and people are starting to take interest in the commotion, at which point they try and sell me their book once last time.
I tell them quite clearly and loudly enough for the onlookers to hear that "when I'm as insecure as you lot, I'll buy your stinking book then and burn it". To which my awaiting friends added "Scientology is for losers".
That showed them.
...seeing one of those go off in an air-port check-in.
Somehow, it reminds me of this - http://junkfunnel.com/sld/ - possibly one of the most irresponsible products on the market!
1. Vista does not need a DX10 anything to run , even with all the bells & whistles turned on. You (mis)quote the BBC, well, I'll link to the BBC on this one - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6407419.stm which clearly explains a DX9 card is just fine for Areo.
s sells/
2. Vista can run just like all the versions of Windows before it, without any 3d acceleration at all. Therefore, a 3d card isn't mandatory at all. An 8Mb card will do just fine.
3. Memory: you have two people telling you that they/we can run Vista fine on less than the recommended 1-2GB just fine. Experience counts more than some shop (Dell) may recommend for running an operating system. Dell just want to sell as much hardware as they can, so of course they'll recommend as much memory as they can get away with. I refer you to the following page as pretty convincing evidence - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/03/13/dell_over
If that's not enough to quell your 'concerns' over Vista hardware costs, then I don't know what is.
1. Completely untrue. My machine runs Areo, all systems go on my trusty GForce 6600 - a budget DX9 card I bought well over 2 years ago. Also, don't forget, you don't have to run the Areo UI if you don't want - it's merely a GUI enhancement. You can indeed switch back to the classic Win2k interface if you so wish.
5 408 - a 1GB stick will set you back just under $80 in UK prices.
2. 256Mb ram as an average? WinXP would be sluggish on that - where did you pluck that figure from? Also, Ram is cheap - case in point - http://www.ebuyer.com/UK/product/91121/rb/2686238
3. The points you raise sound to me like FUD, it's nothing personal, but I simply don't agree with the specifics you're coming out with. I personally will avoid using Vista until I have to as a primary OS, but not for hardware reasons.
SP1/2 & mature drivers will finally get this beast off the ground. And thank god too; Windows has needed a good tweaking and tuning for, er, ever - and although Vista is far from perfect, it's finally heading in the right direction if you ask me.
Pure FUD - Vista ticks along just fine on any graphics card bought in the last 2-3 years, and certainly on all current cards. This isn't Doom 4 we're talking about here; just Windows. Also, it's not like it can't run in the good old 2d mode either. In terms of RAM, 1GB is just dandy for running conventional apps (and yes, I speak from experience rather than heresay). I mean, if you can 'run' XP on 8-MHz Pentium with 20 MB RAM, Vista on surely run on any machine bought in the last couple of years.
The real problem with Vista is undoubtedly compatibility rather than performance. Microsoft have vastly changed how drivers interact with the OS, meaning very little cross-over from previous versions. For the short-term, this has a negative effect, but once drivers are mature, the new system is undoubtedly better - check out the new display-driver model as an example of this.
The tool need Admin priveledges to work, and guess what you can do with that? Yes! Anything you like! The same goes for Linux too - oddly, with root access you too can do/inject/patch anything at all too.
/endRant
Tags like: 'haha, defectivebydesign' Show how immature and unwilling to be unbiased some of you lot are. Shame on you.
Er, what? Ryanair is so far disconnected from the US of A it's unreal. FCC laws are irrelevant in Ireland/EU airspace.
In fact, last I heard the EU & Airbus were trailing to allow mobile-phones for "domestic" EU flights which is no bad thing IMO. Long-haul is something else though.
You don't need WGA to receive Windows patches either. Automatic updates will work perfectly fine even if your serial is blatantly stolen; but 'upgrades' won't (IE7, WMP, and all that good fun).
Yeah, WGA sucks, but software updates will come either way.
Also, to say Linux is completely independently modular isn't entirely accurate either (although, in fairness it's not like I completely disagree). Upgrading kernels (due to 'serious' security vulns) will break more things than I'd like for instance - my (yes I know, proprietary) NVidia drivers will be the first victims.
Finally, you think MS don't feel your patch-pain? Just by working for them in one form or other you've subscribed your machine to every patch, patch-for-the-patch, and patch-for-the-hacked-patched-service-pack that gets tested; all before releasing to a unsuspecting public, almost every day, just so you get as little bother staying secure with as little hassle as possible. It's not a pretty sight sometimes.
"The 747-8 is far lighter and far more efficient than the A380"
Bollocks. The A380 has an entirely new wing design, new composite material design, not to mention the newest engine tech going - making it proportionally way more lighter and efficient than the 747-800 - which, as the name heavily suggests, is just a modified version of a 1969 plane design.
As I've said before, the A380's biggest selling point is and will be that it can ship more people for less cash. That is why, when Airbus finally get their act together, they will be as common-place now as the 747 is now.
The market hasn't decided. The plane is very new. Yes it's late, but ultimately it's the most efficient plane for price of fuel per passenger, and that it why it will be a storming success. Very early days yet.
Airlines care about one thing alone; profit margins. The A380 delivers better than the 747 does - even the 800 series. Money talks.
I am perhaps more Microsoft pro than most people on this site; I believe they offer some great products, and, when you actually get to know the people that work there, you realise that in this day and age (and it hasn't always been this way), they're actually quite level-headed when it comes to working with the competition in general. Sure they could be better, but they could be a lot worse too in my opinion; having actually seen the real "face" of Microsoft.
Then, you get complete arseholes like Ballmer. He's the teeth of the company and that's it - does nothing constructive for IT in general other than force-feed customers MS only tech they don't want, bully the competition out of the market, and only bitch about the competition that's beating them left right & centre.
This dear friends is why the man must go. Microsoft can't be seen to be this childish; which I genuinely believe they are not. What a shame.