Linked by Thom Holwerda on Mon 23rd May 2011 22:13 UTC, submitted by poundsmack
Yes, it's still being updated. 
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RE[3]: Ridiculously Overpriced
by poundsmack on Tue 24th May 2011 14:55
in reply to "RE[2]: Ridiculously Overpriced"
Member since:2005-07-13
RE[4]: Ridiculously Overpriced
by tanishaj on Tue 24th May 2011 15:20
in reply to "RE[3]: Ridiculously Overpriced"
Member since:2010-12-22
I don't think it's over priced and I gladly pay that much for it. They aren't trying to spread it around like wild fire, they are just trying to keep afloat.
Given, if they dropped the price it likely would have more people checking it out, but still.
Given, if they dropped the price it likely would have more people checking it out, but still.
Perfectly fair that you do not feel it is overpriced. Economics tells us that the same products are worth different prices to different buyers after-all.
My feeling is that it is mis-priced (too high) however in the sense that a different price would maximize profit. They are limiting their market share and their profit.
$149 for a home user is just too high. For one thing, it is above the psychological price point for the market these days. Second, it just does not offer enough value relative to competing solutions like Windows. It is great that it comes with a 5-seat license but most people do not need that. Also, they have no "upgrade" option for users of competing products.
I get that eComstation is pretty much a business only (and legacy) OS at this point. I also assume that IBM is constraining their options on pricing. The lifetime even the existing installed base is threatened by these policies however.
There are a lot of people in the "hobbyist" and developer camps, such as myself, that have fond memories of OS/2. I wager that Having a low cost developer option ($49 or so) would make a lot of sense. Giving free copies to Open Source projects that support eComstation would be even smarter.
I am impressed that projects like Firefox and OpenOffice.org (LibreOffice?) still support OS/2 but I am sure the situation could be improved if the barrier to entry for developers was dropped.
With a little boost to the software ecosystem, we could see the niche market for eComstation significantly extended. The overall market share could even grow. It is far too late for OS/2 to be a mainstream OS contender. It is not too late for it to be the core of a profitable software ecosystem for a smart company that can execute well.
RE[3]: Ridiculously Overpriced
by Adurbe on Wed 25th May 2011 19:33
in reply to "RE[2]: Ridiculously Overpriced"
Member since:2005-07-06
If students learn how to use a new OS it can only be a good thing in my view. Its these same students that will one day be in the position of CHOOSING the os a business buys.
I would argue, that for long-term longevity, they should concentrate More on the student editions. Basically making it as 'disposably cheap' as possible so more people can have a taste for it.
My university was very good at making us use multiple OS for different kinds of tasks. It might have felt a bit pointless at the time (everyone used windows for everything it seemed) but kindled my interest in such things, leading me to sites like OSNews 
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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Member since:
2011-03-18
You're very likely right. Still, then, why bother having a "Home and Student" version? Seems like that money would be better spent marketing the business version.