Star Office was written by Stardivision, a German company. Most of the updates for 5.2 were there before they were purchased by Sun, and actually 5.1 was better (faster) even if a little buggier. So, in short, Sun hasn't produced anything, except the source for Open Office and hopefully 6.0 will be worth it.
"friendly", and "useful" are two different things. Macintosh may be more soothing -- appealing shapes and colors, friendlier text and error messages (bombs and frowns anyone?), but it is not easier for a newbie to use. Have them sit down and actually try to do something. From trying to launch an app, to setting system configuration, Apple is way behind Microsoft. Their focus groups need to spend less time asking people how they feel, and giving them real world tasks to complete. Using a computer is stressful, but making sitting in front of the machine less threatening isn't the answer. That's like getting drunk before battle (or sex). It may calm your nerves, but it won't help you get the job done.
There is still more 98 than NT than 2K than ME than XP in the world and it doesn't look to change for at least a couple years. Windows 2000 and XP is the only growth segment of the Microsoft marketplace.
ME was primarily installed only by OEMs, and XP will probably be the same. Post-market (consumer) installs of 98 continue to be greater than those of ME, but will probably slacken now that XP is actually *more* stable than 98. Such was not the case with ME. Consumer backlash from Passport registration will probably be small (but vocal) but lack of a java VM and, much more so, crippled MP3 encoding will either force Microsoft to rescind, or increase demand for 3rd party apps, which is outside Microsoft's stategic aims.
Whether or not Microsoft chooses to use XP's built in hardware and software copy protection schemes in the way critics have feared is yet to be seen, but such a move would most likely move consumers over to Windows 2000, except for cases where driver support is needed. Microsoft may or may not be able to introduce the low level protections through a Windows update, service pack or Internet Explorer upgrade. Most likely, future versions of 2000 will be indistinguishable from XP, except superficially, once the neccessary changes have been incorporated into the code base. This will achieve one of Microsoft's primary goals, a standard code base, allowing the consolidation of resources for drivers and applications as well as the core OS.
Currently, post-market consumer installs of Linux are increasing at a faster rate than any Windows OS. Total windows installations are in decline, which is closely related to declining OEM sales. Unless XP does significanly better in post-market installations, Consumer Linux growth will be at Microsoft OS's expense. This won't necessarily affect Microsoft's sales, since Microsoft relies chiefly on pre-market installations.
Business desktops are as reluctant as ever about switching to Linux, but are also reluctant at upgrading to windows XP, and still largely resistant to even 2000. Businesses have strongly resisted Microsoft's movements towards more upgrade-oriented licensing models, and while Linux is still not seen in large part as an alternative on the desktop, Microsoft's overall licensing strategy has hurt its advances into the server room. This is likely to increase as Microsoft becomes more aggressive in software upgrade tactics, especially in light of the hardware purchase slowdown, and the hardware technology having outstripped current software demands (98/NT, Office 97, etc.) in the past few years.
most seiges in history were won by spies destroying city walls. One example: When Hannibal took Tarentum (in southern Italy) his spied bribed men inside to open the city gates at night. His army then walked right in, through a gap in the city wall -- the front door.
4) The package plays nice and doesn't replace files from other packages on your system.
Isn't this really one of the basic reasons to have a package management system?
Yeah, and its the critical failing of the existing package systems. Actually, either dpkg or rpm would work fine in theory, if they (the individual packages) were maintained by rational human beings, instead of raving mad sabateur space aliens, which they are.
Debian expects you to just use your cable modem to re-install everything from unstable and RedHat wants you to buy the next disk, so you're stuck breaking dependencies and installing from source anyway.
If he'd been born 400 years earlier, you might have been right, but as it was, his family name was and had been da Vinci for a while (and all his neighbors didn't have the same surname, and he didn't come from Vinci)
jit (just in time) compilation is also known as "interpreted" at runtime. Just because it isn't plaintext interpretted by an already compiled userland process that is not abbreviated JRE doesn't change that. Theoretically, some optimization and error checking is done before hand (with javac) but it fails to deliver on performance in most practical applications.
c/c++ code is not unsafe. When was the last bug in malloc()/free() or new()/delete() ?? You can do something like:
int *x = (char[10]) malloc (1024);
x[9573] = 0x37ff;
but you don't have to! You can use garbage collection libraries, or you can encapsulate data -- which a much better coding practice. It is just as safe to use a working c library in perl as to use a JRE. You can even setuid() and have a sandbox to play in if you want to run it as root.
It looks like your company, NeoCore, has a good idea. One of the big complaints about xml is that in the absense of standardization, everyone just creates their own DTDs or schemas. The fact is that most companies have highly structured specific documents that they need to keep records of, like purchase orders. It can be very painful to change a RDBMS to match a new marketing scheme or billing system. XML is a very good fit. A binary store decreases size and improves retrieval performance, but you can manually search or modify the XML.
it is easier to print/stock/distribute/promote one book. when everyone from the publisher, to the bookstore, to the critic are allied -- and no one is competing with them -- it only makes economic sense to reduce cost, and mass producing one product makes more sense than floating several and hoping one will catch on. Content is King -- and the king is appointed by a statisticial. The Harry Potter books are ghost written by as many demographickers as a hollywood script.
by "all ages" it sounds like you mean kids of all ages, which sounds like you mean exclusivly 30 year olds who collect comic books. Which is what monsters inc. is squarely targeted at. Not comic books, but 30 year olds who are in to pixar stuff.
Bugs bunny was all ages, star wars was all ages, phantom menace was not.
and Verisign is Network Solutions which has exclusive agreements with Microsoft and is in the process of attempting to transfer their operations and "temporary hosting" over to win2k, supposedly to help them in Netcraft statistics, but partnerships with Verisign and Network Solutions (certificate and domain sections of the same company) are a critical part of the dotNET Hailstorm strategy. Microsoft hopes to make dotNET synonymous with e-commerce in the same way the Verisign is, and they have Verisign's backing on it.
It won't be long before you won't be able to use a digital certificate, register a domain, or host a web site without permission from Microsoft. It only takes one more line of code to shut out Apache (or Zeus or IPlanet) servers from IE users. If you don't think they'd do something like that, then point your brower to this link.
If you are counting on the competition to stop practices like these, you may want to head over their site.
the main reason is that web development is easy. Most kids don't have that much exposure to computers. Web design can give them a sense of accomplishment and give them the confidence and motivation to explore computers more. Once they get html down they may pick up javascript. And then start learning to parse forms with perl or something, and then build an apache module, a kernel module, etc.
AT&T Wireless is doing just like you said. They sell cell phones. It is a separate company from the rest of AT&T now (they split off this year.) A wireless connection that supplies everything from a local dialtone to high speed internet apparently didn't fit the company plan.
Disclaimer: I work there.
Wireless internet is still fairly new. My dad has tried it with his small ISP several times in the last couple years, but there isn't a big enough market for it. That, and the entry is pretty high. You need more than just a $89 PCMCIA card. End user set up runs around $250, bare minimum. And then you need line of site too. It'll happen if it isn't quashed by the telcos, but it isn't going to happen overnight.
the problem is that 9 out of 10 geeks with a T-1
have either moved on, sold out to a bigger isp,
or been squeezed out by the local telco; and the
barrier is alot higher than it was 5 or even 2
years ago.
Slashdot Mirror
Star Office was written by Stardivision, a German company. Most of the updates for 5.2 were there before they were purchased by Sun, and actually 5.1 was better (faster) even if a little buggier. So, in short, Sun hasn't produced anything, except the source for Open Office and hopefully 6.0 will be worth it.
"friendly", and "useful" are two different things. Macintosh may be more soothing -- appealing shapes and colors, friendlier text and error messages (bombs and frowns anyone?), but it is not easier for a newbie to use. Have them sit down and actually try to do something. From trying to launch an app, to setting system configuration, Apple is way behind Microsoft. Their focus groups need to spend less time asking people how they feel, and giving them real world tasks to complete. Using a computer is stressful, but making sitting in front of the machine less threatening isn't the answer. That's like getting drunk before battle (or sex). It may calm your nerves, but it won't help you get the job done.
There is still more 98 than NT than 2K than ME than XP in the world and it doesn't look to change for at least a couple years. Windows 2000 and XP is the only growth segment of the Microsoft marketplace.
ME was primarily installed only by OEMs, and XP will probably be the same. Post-market (consumer) installs of 98 continue to be greater than those of ME, but will probably slacken now that XP is actually *more* stable than 98. Such was not the case with ME. Consumer backlash from Passport registration will probably be small (but vocal) but lack of a java VM and, much more so, crippled MP3 encoding will either force Microsoft to rescind, or increase demand for 3rd party apps, which is outside Microsoft's stategic aims.
Whether or not Microsoft chooses to use XP's built in hardware and software copy protection schemes in the way critics have feared is yet to be seen, but such a move would most likely move consumers over to Windows 2000, except for cases where driver support is needed. Microsoft may or may not be able to introduce the low level protections through a Windows update, service pack or Internet Explorer upgrade. Most likely, future versions of 2000 will be indistinguishable from XP, except superficially, once the neccessary changes have been incorporated into the code base. This will achieve one of Microsoft's primary goals, a standard code base, allowing the consolidation of resources for drivers and applications as well as the core OS.
Currently, post-market consumer installs of Linux are increasing at a faster rate than any Windows OS. Total windows installations are in decline, which is closely related to declining OEM sales. Unless XP does significanly better in post-market installations, Consumer Linux growth will be at Microsoft OS's expense. This won't necessarily affect Microsoft's sales, since Microsoft relies chiefly on pre-market installations.
Business desktops are as reluctant as ever about switching to Linux, but are also reluctant at upgrading to windows XP, and still largely resistant to even 2000. Businesses have strongly resisted Microsoft's movements towards more upgrade-oriented licensing models, and while Linux is still not seen in large part as an alternative on the desktop, Microsoft's overall licensing strategy has hurt its advances into the server room. This is likely to increase as Microsoft becomes more aggressive in software upgrade tactics, especially in light of the hardware purchase slowdown, and the hardware technology having outstripped current software demands (98/NT, Office 97, etc.) in the past few years.
New and improved Maze game!
you can't win by going R, R, L, R, L (you have to go L, R, L, R, L) -- and the walls are a more subtle shade of blue-green!
most seiges in history were won by spies destroying city walls. One example: When Hannibal took Tarentum (in southern Italy) his spied bribed men inside to open the city gates at night. His army then walked right in, through a gap in the city wall -- the front door.
4) The package plays nice and doesn't replace files from other packages on your system.
Isn't this really one of the basic reasons to have a package management system?
Yeah, and its the critical failing of the existing package systems. Actually, either dpkg or rpm would work fine in theory, if they (the individual packages) were maintained by rational human beings, instead of raving mad sabateur space aliens, which they are.
Debian expects you to just use your cable modem to re-install everything from unstable and RedHat wants you to buy the next disk, so you're stuck breaking dependencies and installing from source anyway.
If he'd been born 400 years earlier, you might have been right, but as it was, his family name was and had been da Vinci for a while (and all his neighbors didn't have the same surname, and he didn't come from Vinci)
why does slashdot fuck up URL's?
mchawking.com
what do you mean, steven hawking isn't productive? He's put out 3 albums . Not to shabby for a guy with his physical challenges.
jit (just in time) compilation is also known as "interpreted" at runtime. Just because it isn't plaintext interpretted by an already compiled userland process that is not abbreviated JRE doesn't change that. Theoretically, some optimization and error checking is done before hand (with javac) but it fails to deliver on performance in most practical applications.
c/c++ code is not unsafe. When was the last bug in malloc()/free() or new()/delete() ?? You can do something like:
int *x = (char[10]) malloc (1024);
x[9573] = 0x37ff;
but you don't have to! You can use garbage collection libraries, or you can encapsulate data -- which a much better coding practice. It is just as safe to use a working c library in perl as to use a JRE. You can even setuid() and have a sandbox to play in if you want to run it as root.
but, you are correct sir
It looks like your company, NeoCore, has a good idea. One of the big complaints about xml is that in the absense of standardization, everyone just creates their own DTDs or schemas. The fact is that most companies have highly structured specific documents that they need to keep records of, like purchase orders. It can be very painful to change a RDBMS to match a new marketing scheme or billing system. XML is a very good fit. A binary store decreases size and improves retrieval performance, but you can manually search or modify the XML.
it is easier to print/stock/distribute/promote one book. when everyone from the publisher, to the bookstore, to the critic are allied -- and no one is competing with them -- it only makes economic sense to reduce cost, and mass producing one product makes more sense than floating several and hoping one will catch on. Content is King -- and the king is appointed by a statisticial. The Harry Potter books are ghost written by as many demographickers as a hollywood script.
by "all ages" it sounds like you mean kids of all ages, which sounds like you mean exclusivly 30 year olds who collect comic books. Which is what monsters inc. is squarely targeted at. Not comic books, but 30 year olds who are in to pixar stuff.
Bugs bunny was all ages, star wars was all ages, phantom menace was not.
then why did the used to call it a WINdows Emulator?
It won't be long before you won't be able to use a digital certificate, register a domain, or host a web site without permission from Microsoft. It only takes one more line of code to shut out Apache (or Zeus or IPlanet) servers from IE users. If you don't think they'd do something like that, then point your brower to this link.
If you are counting on the competition to stop practices like these, you may want to head over their site.
Enterprise Software: any software application which has a ratio of marketers to developers of greater than 2 to 1.
default theme
I thought you were talking about the next version of microsoft's product -- Windows TF
I thought you were talking about the next microsoft product line -- Windows TF
wouldn't it be fascististic?
fasc-istic doesn't make sense
neither does fascist-ic
the main reason is that web development is easy. Most kids don't have that much exposure to computers. Web design can give them a sense of accomplishment and give them the confidence and motivation to explore computers more. Once they get html down they may pick up javascript. And then start learning to parse forms with perl or something, and then build an apache module, a kernel module, etc.
AT&T Wireless is doing just like you said. They sell cell phones. It is a separate company from the rest of AT&T now (they split off this year.) A wireless connection that supplies everything from a local dialtone to high speed internet apparently didn't fit the company plan.
Disclaimer: I work there.
Wireless internet is still fairly new. My dad has tried it with his small ISP several times in the last couple years, but there isn't a big enough market for it. That, and the entry is pretty high. You need more than just a $89 PCMCIA card. End user set up runs around $250, bare minimum. And then you need line of site too. It'll happen if it isn't quashed by the telcos, but it isn't going to happen overnight.
the problem is that 9 out of 10 geeks with a T-1
have either moved on, sold out to a bigger isp,
or been squeezed out by the local telco; and the
barrier is alot higher than it was 5 or even 2
years ago.