Microsoft has reiterated its commitment to the desktop. Building on its co-founder Bill Gates' vision of a PC on every desk in every home, Microsoft will continue to focus on delivering desktop products. And in this context, nothing will change when it comes down to the development of the company's main cash cows. Windows Vista and the 2007 Office System will be followed by Windows Seven and Office 14. Kevin Turner, Chief Operating Officer, present at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference 2007 in Denver on July 10 emphasized the fact that Windows
Vista will neither be the last of its kind, nor the last big operating system release from the Redmond company. The same strategy is valid for the Office 2007 System.
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Member since:2006-04-21
Or they just made the home desktop cheap and accessable to non-geeks.
Er, no. Apple did that. MS only got into Windows to stop the brain-drain away from DOS.
Funny, without that first step to put computers into homes, there would be no open source movement.
Wrong again. UNIX software was regularly distributed as source.
Member since:2005-07-06
Wrong again. UNIX software was regularly distributed as source.
While most came either as source or with source, they where generally not Open Source in any way that the phrase is currently understood. Having access to the source code is only one small part of what Open Source is generally about.
Member since:2005-08-11
Member since:2005-07-06
Excuse me, but is it necessary to continue to push that blatent lie over and over again?
Before "Microsoft" and "the PC" people were happily using Amstrads, Atari's and Amiga's. Heck, I would be confident to go so far to say that back in the good old days, the Amiga did a lot better at meeting the end users requirements than the crap we see today.
I remember the variety of languages, REXX, AmigaBASIC, and AMOS - massive amounts of documentation when you bought a computer, if you wanted to be a programmer, you had all the documentation there. Heck, when I had an Amiga 500, there was sufficient documentation to not only help you how to use Kindwords, but also how to write your own applications.
You could play games; plonk in a disk, and it would load up and voila, no directx, no opengl jihads, everything just worked as it should be. Same goes for applications - it all worked as it should. Anyone from that era can't honestly look at back and consider what was accomplished with such limited system specifications wasn't remarkable.
Member since:2006-01-10
Precisely! Actually with the LiveCD it literally can be more like the 'good ol' days.' Pop in a disk, let your computer boot up to whatever game / application you wanted.
I still loved having the majority of your OS in a rom. It booted fast, and never depended on a hard drive or other media to boot up. The only problem was that the operating system was as easily upgraded. Loved the Amiga and Atari ST. I still have my Atari STs.
Member since:2006-04-21
Before "Microsoft" and "the PC" people were happily using Amstrads, Atari's and Amiga's. Heck, I would be confident to go so far to say that back in the good old days, the Amiga did a lot better at meeting the end users requirements than the crap we see today.
Well, hurrah. I can finally agree with you on something wholeheartedly.
I remember the variety of languages, REXX, AmigaBASIC, and AMOS - massive amounts of documentation when you bought a computer, if you wanted to be a programmer, you had all the documentation there. Heck, when I had an Amiga 500, there was sufficient documentation to not only help you how to use Kindwords, but also how to write your own applications. OTOH I wish I could agree with you there. I'm not saying you're wrong, just that mine didn't come with that. OTOH these days you can download perl, python, c, several lisps...all of them for free and several of them for both Linux and Windows.
But again, yes, even Linux does some things wrong, or allows you to do in a million different ways in the hope that it will please somebody, that Amiga/Commodore (miraculously, it seems, given the latter's repuation) got right first time.
You could play games; plonk in a disk, and it would load up and voila, no directx, no opengl jihads, everything just worked as it should be. Same goes for applications - it all worked as it should. Anyone from that era can't honestly look at back and consider what was accomplished with such limited system specifications wasn't remarkable.
Agreed.
Member since:2005-07-24
My Apple ][+ came with a complete logic diagram for the hardware, too.
Come to think of it, large scale OSS would have thrived in that heterogeneous environment. Multiplatform being our middle name and all.
Of course, the essential spark that was missing was ubiquitous access to the Internet or something like it.
Certainly fertile ground for an alternate history novel. :-)
Member since:
2006-08-04
Or they just made the home desktop cheap and accessable to non-geeks. Funny, without that first step to put computers into homes, there would be no open source movement.
Oh, and all the complaining about the yin/yang symbol reminded me of that "coexist" bumper sticker...