If you shout something loud enough and many people are saying it, does it become true? Some groups of people (include tech journalists and Linux advocates, such as Steven J. Vaughn-Nichols) have a psychological need to find Vista lacking. Mr. V-N has predicted that Vista will have all manner of problems, so his clear interest is to point out everything that is wrong with the OS. Who cares if he has to even make some stuff up?
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Member since:2005-07-06
OpenOffice and GIMP are good enough for the vast majority of users[i]
I disagre. Gimp doesn't have the high end features to compete with photoshop and it doesn't have the ease of use to compete with low end consumer packages. And I'm saying that as a gimp user.
[i]The Drm/activation/WGA, high prices, bad EULA and absurd system requirements will still be there in 18 months.
We'll see. If there is a genuine revolt against DRM and WGA that threatens their market share, there is nothing stopping microsoft from reworking them in a servicepack. That being said I doubt most people are that bothered by the two as most people here are. As for the system requirement in 18 month they'll be positivly low end.
Look I love Linux, and don't like Vista in the slightest. I'm however not letting that stop me from being realistic.
Member since:2005-08-11
Actually, if more companies jump on EMI's bandwagon andd start selling DRM free music and Movies, there may not be DRM in Vista in 18 Months.
Vista's activation is nothing, it neither gets in the way or is restrictive, it is no less annoying then XP's.
The System requirements are in no way absurd, the same bullsh*t was spouted when XP came out, and Win2k. Vista ran just dandy on my Athlon XP 2800/1G ram, and it runs acceptably on mY 1G Celeron with 756. Even with Aero running. and Firefox, OpenOffice, Gaim and thunderbird all running, it still ran ok.
OK, the prices are high, I'll give you that.
Member since:2007-03-04
"Actually, if more companies jump on EMI's bandwagon andd start selling DRM free music and Movies, there may not be DRM in Vista in 18 Months."
MS removing DRM from Vista........not likely.
"Vista's activation is nothing, it neither gets in the way or is restrictive, it is no less annoying then XP's."
Activation does nothing to stop pirates, while annoying paying customers.
"The System requirements are in no way absurd, the same bullsh*t was spouted when XP came out, and Win2k."
The system requirement increase for XP to Vista is MUCH more than the increase for 98 to XP. Linux is MUCH faster than Vista. Vista is a slow, bloated, drm infected mess, that will give Linux significant marketshare gains. Apple will probably get a marketshare increase also.
Member since:2005-11-09
"OpenOffice and GIMP are good enough for the vast majority of users, for the rest there is CrossOver or Wine."
Your being delusional. I am a fan of Open Source (pats his LAMP box) but to think GIMP is the equal of Photoshop is like saying a Buick is on par with a Rolls. You might wish it was but it just ain't so. I even like the way OOo handles databases better then Access and how much cleaner Writer is then Word. We get submissions for our site in Word format we open and clean them up in OOo first and then they go to FCKedit. But I don't think it ready to be a straight up replacement for Office.
And don't give me "but they are free." That is what you are competing against. Your competing with free. You have to make them better then free Windows and free Photoshop. Bill G knows this. It isn't just because he is a nice guy that he is practically giving away Win/Office in China($3 a copy). You may notice lots of requirements to keep people from pirating Windows. Yet you don't for O2k7. Why? Because you need Windows to run that free copy of Office.
I am not condoning piracy. I am pointing out market facts.
Member since:2007-03-04
"Your being delusional. I am a fan of Open Source (pats his LAMP box) but to think GIMP is the equal of Photoshop is like saying a Buick is on par with a Rolls."
I did not say it was equal, I said it was good enough for the vast majority of users. Most people don't need the extra features that Photoshop offers. They also don't need MS office, OpenOffice can easily do the job for most people.
"So in summary... Google has pulled the plug on support on a protocol they've helped popularize, after years of promising interoperability, for reasons that are dubious at best, and in a way that leaves people who don't jump to the new Hangouts app unable to talk to their contacts without any feedback that their IMs aren't getting through... And they've done that with no warning to anyone. I imagine there's a bunch of people out there wondering where some of their buddies have gone, or why their messages aren't getting responses, because this isn't documented anywhere." Google really messed this up. Such a dick move.
The Tizen Greek Community has some screenshots of a very recent build of Tizen running on a Samsung GT-i8800. It looks wholly unremarkable.Joint statement to The Next Web from Microsoft and Google: "Microsoft and YouTube are working together to update the new YouTube for Windows Phone app to enable compliance with YouTube's API terms of service, including enabling ads, in the coming weeks. Microsoft will replace the existing YouTube app in Windows Phone Store with the previous version during this time." Good to know these children stopped acting like little pricks. Can we have full Google support in Windows 8 now, please?
Yahoo is acquiring Tumblr, the microblogging and social networking website, for $1.1 billion USD. Tumblr offers little revenue but lots of eyeballs if Yahoo can monetarize them. Now Yahoo is bidding for Hulu, the streaming video service. After years of ineffective responses while Google, Facebook, and others took large chunks of the online advertising market, Yahoo is fighting back. Can Yahoo reignite the momentum it had at the turn of the century? What do you think?
"Sources have described iOS 7 as 'black, white, and flat all over'. This refers to the dropping of heavy textures and the addition of several new black and white user interface elements." I couldn't be happier.
"Ilja van Sprundel, a security researcher with IOActive, has discovered a large number of issues in the way various X client libraries handle the responses they receive from servers, and has worked with X.Org's security team to analyze, confirm, and fix these issues."
"Google is facing a new antitrust probe by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission into whether the company is using its leadership in the online display-advertising market to illegally curb competition, people familiar with the matter said." Sucks to be Google today, apparently."In the midst of the major press blitz surrounding its annual I/O Conference, Google dropped some unfortunate news about its instant messaging plans. In several places around the web, the company is replacing the existing 'Talk' platform with a new one called 'Hangouts' that sharply diminishes support for the open messaging protocol known as XMPP (or sometimes informally Jabber), and also removes the option to disable the archiving of all chat communications. These changes represent a switch from open protocols to proprietary ones, and a clear step backward for many users." That's why I always say: only suckers trust companies."The wave of departures is a sign of internal struggle, but amidst all the bad news, there is a glimmer of hope. According to an anonymous HTC executive cited by WSJ, the crucial HTC One is selling 'pretty good so far'. The executive revealed that HTC sold about five million One units since launch, a performance that is deemed encouraging. However, sales have been limited by the persisting supply issues that still plague the production of the HTC One." Finally some good news for HTC. Five million units amidst supply constraints is very impressive.
"Sony gave the PS4 50% more raw shader performance, plain and simple (768 SPs @ 800MHz vs. 1152 SPs & 800MHz). Unlike last generation, you don't need to be some sort of Jedi to extract the PS4's potential here. The Xbox One and PS4 architectures are quite similar, Sony just has more hardware under the hood. Weâll have to wait and see how this hardware delta gets exposed in games over time, but the gap is definitely there. The funny thing about game consoles is that itâs usually the lowest common denominator that determines the bulk of the experience across all platforms. On the plus side, the Xbox One should enjoy better power/thermal characteristics compared to the PlayStation 4. Even compared to the Xbox 360 we should see improvement in many use cases thanks to modern power management techniques." AnandTech does its usual in-depth thing.
Member since:
2007-03-04
"Who will be switching?"
People who think they own their computer, not MS.
"Let's face it unless either Linux gets native Office and Adobe suite (or their open source equivalents improve astronomically)"
OpenOffice and GIMP are good enough for the vast majority of users, for the rest there is CrossOver or Wine.
"Apple lets Dell and HP sell OS X boxes"
Apple will gain marketshare, but they would get much more if they did let Dell and HP sell OS X boxes.
"there is nothing that will seriously threaten Microsoft's dominance on the desktop over next 18 month"
Vista is the biggest threat to Microsoft's dominance on the desktop. Abusing customers will send them fleeing to alternative products.
"And 18 month is plenty of time for MS to sort out any problems there might be."
The Drm/activation/WGA, high prices, bad EULA and absurd system requirements will still be there in 18 months.