Linked by Howard Fosdick on Mon 13th Dec 2010 23:11 UTC
It's hard to predict the future because we humans prefer to think in terms of familiar paradigms. Even the most brilliant of our species are subject to this flaw. Now, Microsoft faces its turn. The owner of the operating system that likely runs your personal computer, the company that achieved monopoly with Windows and ducked the Department of Justice's scythe to keep it, faces a midlife crisis as the world goes gaga over portable consumer devices. This is the story of what's happening to Microsoft in the handheld operating system markets -- and how it parallels the earlier, similar journeys of IBM Corporation and Digital Equipment Corporation. Can Microsoft achieve dominance on mobile devices?
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RE[2]: Don't Count Microsoft Out - Not Yet, Anyway...
by lemur2 on Tue 14th Dec 2010 09:41
in reply to "RE: Don't Count Microsoft Out - Not Yet, Anyway..."
Member since:2007-02-17
even sharepoint seems to be struggling in the private sector
At the entry level, sharepoint is free, but it doesn't take long before it attracts rent (via CALs).
There are a number of very decent alternatives that do not attract rent.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfresco_%28software%29
One can save a fortune by not using sharepoint (even if one does use Windows).
Edited 2010-12-14 09:41 UTC
RE[3]: Don't Count Microsoft Out - Not Yet, Anyway...
by lucas_maximus on Tue 14th Dec 2010 11:41
in reply to "RE[2]: Don't Count Microsoft Out - Not Yet, Anyway..."
Member since:2009-08-18
The problem is finding support contracts for Alfresco.
We looked at using Alfresco and/or Umbraco and we couldn't find many companies to provide support. When asked about bug fixes, they said they would have to wait for upstream ... which obviously wasn't acceptable. Also Umbraco (especially) has very little functionality without any 3rd party components. The problem is that we won't be able to support for these 3rd party components.
Also there is the problem with licenses. A lot of components had licenses which aren't acceptable for our business. GPL is not an acceptable license for our business.
However there were plenty of companies which supported sharepoint, and there was more functionality out of the box.
Edited 2010-12-14 11:42 UTC
RE[3]: Don't Count Microsoft Out - Not Yet, Anyway...
by sorpigal on Tue 14th Dec 2010 13:28
in reply to "RE[2]: Don't Count Microsoft Out - Not Yet, Anyway..."
Member since:2005-11-02
News
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:33 UTC
Official Apple statement on PRISM and privacy: "Regardless of the circumstances, our Legal team conducts an evaluation of each request and, only if appropriate, we retrieve and deliver the narrowest possible set of information to the authorities. In fact, from time to time when we see inconsistencies or inaccuracies in a request, we will refuse to fulfill it." This is basically Apple re-publishing their earlier statement in a more official manner. You either believe it, or you don't.
Linked by Anonymous on 06/18/13 22:26 UTC
The open source Contiki operating system and its commercial Thingsquare distribution are making strides towards the connected home. According to a Computerworld article, a new LED light bulb manufacturer is putting small computers into their light bulbs. Each computer runs the Contiki OS, which gives each bulb an IP address and allows them to be controlled with a smartphone application. To connect the bulbs to the application, the bulbs use both Wi-Fi and the much lower power IEEE 802.15.4 mesh technology.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 22:25 UTC
"Google asked the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court on Tuesday to ease long-standing gag orders over data requests it makes, arguing that the company has a constitutional right to speak about information it's forced to give the government. The legal filing, which cites the First Amendment's guarantee of free speech, is the latest move by the California-based tech giant to protect its reputation in the aftermath of news reports about sweeping National Security Agency surveillance of Internet traffic." Draining the ditch after the cow has drowned in it.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:45 UTC
"I can't find one person who has been using the Nexus 7 for an extended period of time, and hasn't seen a massive downgrade in performance. Just what kind of downgrade are we talking here? I cannot pick up my Nexus 7 without experiencing problems like a lag of ten seconds, or more, just to rotate the display; touches refusing to acknowledged; stuttering notification panel actions; and unresponsive apps." Fully and utterly agreed. My Nexus 7 was blazing-fast and awesome for a few months, and at some point, it just started sucking. Just like that. I've tried loads of ROMs, and nothing helps.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/18/13 17:32 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
A new release of the hobby operating system MenuetOS! The release notes are a bit non-descript, but you'll have to take what you can get: "updates and improvements (picview, httpc, ehci, ...)".
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:58 UTC
"The Internet is one of the most transformative technologies of our lifetimes. But for 2 out of every 3 people on earth, a fast, affordable Internet connection is still out of reach. And this is far from being a solved problem. There are many terrestrial challenges to Internet connectivity - jungles, archipelagos, mountains. There are also major cost challenges. Right now, for example, in most of the countries in the southern hemisphere, the cost of an Internet connection is more than a month's income. Solving these problems isn't simply a question of time: it requires looking at the problem of access from new angles. So today we're unveiling our latest moonshot from Google[x]: balloon-powered Internet access." Insane.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/17/13 17:52 UTC
"MineAssemble is a tiny bootable Minecraft clone written partly in x86 assembly. I made it first and foremost because a university assignment required me to implement a game in assembly for a computer systems course. Because I had never implemented anything more complex than a 'Hello World' bootloader before, I decided I wanted to learn about writing my own kernel code at the same time. Note that the goal of this project was not to write highly efficient hand-optimized assembly code, but rather to have fun and write code that balances readability and speed. This is primarily accomplished by proper commenting and consistent code structuring." Just cool.
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 21:03 UTC
Jon Rubinstein, former CEO of Palm: "Well, I'm not sure I would have sold the company to HP. That's for sure. Talk about a waste. Not that I had any choice because when you sell a company you don't get to decide that. Obviously, the board and shareholders decide that. If we had known they were just going to shut it down and never really give it a chance to flourish, what would have been the point of selling the company? I think the deal we had with Verizon really hurt us, but who knew that at the time? These things are all hindsight."
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 20:46 UTC
"And so it is with Dell's Alienware X51 R2, a small form factor gaming PC in console digs. It's shaped similar to Microsoft's Xbox 360 Slim, and though it's slightly larger than either a 360 or PlayStation 3, the X51 R2 would be right at home in a living room setting nestled next to a large screen TV. Indeed, it's adept at running Steam's Big Picture mode, and if your primary objective is to play games in the living room, go ahead and consider the X51 R2 a hybrid game console." This is obviously not the only machine like this - still, these are very valid console alternatives even for those that don't like being hunched over with a cramped WASD-claw. Also, PC gamers among us: could you get away with the $699 model for gaming?
Linked by Thom Holwerda on 06/14/13 17:32 UTC
From Bloomberg: "Microsoft, the world's largest software company, provides intelligence agencies with information about bugs in its popular software before it publicly releases a fix, according to two people familiar with the process. That information can be used to protect government computers and to access the computers of terrorists or military foes." The lid has officially been blown off.More News »
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2007-03-26
This prompted the famous, 1995, "Internet Tidal Wave Memorandum," from Bill Gates to MS Executives. He outlined (basically) that MS had totally missed the boat when it came to the importance of the Internet and its bearing on the future of Microsoft itself.
Gates directed a massive shift of resources in order to play catch-up. And I believe they caught up quite quickly.
The difference there is that:
1. most people still didn't have internet access, where as most people now do have mobile phones
2. even though MS were lagging behind re the internet, people still bought into their core businesses (ie Windows and Office). If people buy Android or iOS handsets, MS lose business.
3. and because those people were already tied into Windows, it was relatively easy to switch them to MS's own web-products. Where as if people are using iPhones or Android, it's harder to convince them to switch to a new and unfamiliar platform.
4. and finally, I'd argue that MS haven't really caught up in regards to the internet:
4a. ok, they did gain a monopoly with IE, but that's gone again now.
4b. They've had numerous failed search engines and only now gaining any kind of presence there with Bing (and that's largely due to their deal with Yahoo),
4c. Google (et al) have eaten away their cloud-email market share,
4d. MS still don't have much of anything in the social networking.
4e. And even sharepoint seems to be struggling in the private sector - though governments have adopted it. Though I will concede that this is based purely on the jobs I've applied for in the last year so my anecdotal evidence might be misleading.
In short - I can see the logic in your comparison, but I don't really think it's a fair one.