Post #76,187
1/22/03 2:46:20 PM
|
Making money off of Linux: HP and IBM
[link|http://news.com.com/2100-1001-981633.html?tag=fd_top|A profitable venture]
Excerpt:
HP said Tuesday that it had $2 billion in Linux-related revenue in 2002. Wednesday, the opening day of the LinuxWorld Conference and Expo in New York, IBM said it had raked in $1.5 billion in Linux-related revenue.
In addition, IBM spokeswoman Willow Christie said IBM's Linux effort was profitable. That's a change from last year, when Big Blue said it hadn't quite recouped its 2001 Linux investment of $1 billion.
The figures highlight the fact that although Linux can be obtained for free, there is money to be made from the operating system. IBM and HP both sell servers running Linux as well as software and services.
Victory is the answer. There are no alternatives.
Move ZOG for great justice!
Where's Abdul Rahman Yasin?
[link|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/index.html|http://www.angelfire...arlowe/index.html]
[link|http://pascal.rockford.com:8888/SSK@jbf~W~x49RjZfyJwplqwurpNmg0PAgM/marlowe//|http://pascal.rockfo...mg0PAgM/marlowe//]
|
Post #76,249
1/22/03 9:47:36 PM
|
What? No applause? Cmon O My Brothers!
Put your hands together!
What? You say it's not a good thing for these Big Mean Corporations to make money off "GNU"Linux? Oh. I see.
That might actually lead to jobs, which would put a serious crimp into the GNU lifestyle I suppose.
-drl
|
Post #76,257
1/22/03 10:04:29 PM
|
Oh, I cheer. Even if I didn't post.
Imric's Tips for Living- Paranoia Is a Survival Trait
- Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised...
- Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.
|
Post #76,265
1/22/03 10:28:48 PM
|
Stuff it.
Being a gadfly just for the sake of being a gadfly doesn't accomplish anything other than annoying people to no end. I'd rather not have annoyance for the sake of annoyance. So unless you have a point, give it a rest.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
|
Post #76,276
1/23/03 1:07:17 AM
|
Seconded
I actually have better things to do than go "Yippee!" every time someone decides to post something that says "Linux is making inroads into <X>."
Like helping Linux make inroads into X, Y, and Z.
Meantime, it's just plain not that much to crow about anymore, IMHO. More along the lines of "normal state of affairs."
-YendorMike
[link|http://www.hope-ride.org/|http://www.hope-ride.org/]
|
Post #76,349
1/23/03 11:42:49 AM
|
Re: What? No applause? Cmon O My Brothers!
Being a capitalist, I care about their capital pretty much exactly to the extent of their existing a prospect that some of it might become my capital. So, the day one of them engages my services, is the day I'll applaud their financials, Ross -- and that day hasn't yet come.
Was any of this a difficult concept? And did you have a point?
Rick Moen
rick@linuxmafia.com
If you lived here, you'd be $HOME already.
|
Post #76,352
1/23/03 11:53:55 AM
|
Guess Not - did you?
-drl
|
Post #76,381
1/23/03 1:47:59 PM
|
As long as the profit is subservient to the code, sure.
Hurray.
Happy?
Now if the code becomes a slave to the profit, meh, not so much. M$ redux.
You seem to want a line in the sand. I'm happier havin' the whole beach.
Many fears are born of stupidity and ignorance -
Which you should be feeding with rumour and generalisation.
BOfH, 2002 "Episode" 10
|
Post #76,382
1/23/03 1:51:04 PM
|
Meaningless statement
What the hell does that mean?
It's word salad.
-drl
|
Post #76,384
1/23/03 1:55:00 PM
|
Think "Microsoft"
Where portions of IE are stuck into .dll's that would otherwise have nothing to do with IE.
As was shown at the trial.
And the reason for this was simply to ensure that removing IE could not be accomplished.
|
Post #76,392
1/23/03 2:03:40 PM
|
Bad development, not a master plan
The idiocies of the execs at the trial had little to do with actual Windows development.
Windows was/is two OSes - one stemming from Win3x, the other from WinNT. IE was an afterthought. To get it to work the same way on both systems required merging the concept of browsing into the OS - in the same way that the Windows device context required merging the WM inextricably into the OS.
-drl
|
Post #76,404
1/23/03 2:21:53 PM
|
There was a cultural attitude there.
Remember, I was there during the rush to get 2k out the door - before it was called Win2k.
There WAS very much an attitude of "let's tie everything together before they make us tear it apart" - along with the associated idea that the more difficult they made it to dissassemble things, the less likely it is that they would make Microsoft do it.
This philosophy was very evident in the way bugs were handled - a lot of bugs that were caused by IE integration were closed as "won't fix" without any discussion of the merits (usually .dll version dependancy errors) when the solution presented was to remove the integration.
Any deity worthy of a graven image can cobble up a working universe complete with fake fossils in under a week - hey, if you're not omnipotent, there's no real point in being a god. But to start with a big ball of elementary particles and end up with the duckbill platypus without constant twiddling requires a degree of subtlety and the ability to Think Things Through: exactly the qualities I'm looking for when I'm shopping for a Supreme Being.
|
Post #76,422
1/23/03 2:52:40 PM
|
"DOS isn't done 'til Lotus won't run." It's cultural. QED.
|
Post #76,605
1/24/03 12:54:52 AM
|
Re: merging browsing into the OS.
You seem to be suggesting that merging browser code (application code, that is) into the OS had no ulterior motive. I surmise that you're now working on an MCSE, an MCSD.Net or are employed with a Microsoft Partner. That is the only thing I can think of to explain what is, imo, your weakest post ever (at least back to 1995).
bcnu,
Mikem
|
Post #76,674
1/24/03 11:09:29 AM
|
Re: merging browsing into the OS.
Not at all, in fact I'm hoping I can move everyone to desktop Linux eventually. I will not buy XP machines. If I'm forced to buy Windows it will be Windows 2000.
The truth is, the only decent UI to date technically is WPS, and that has usage issues for the hoi polloi.
MS is too dumb to have a master plan. Have you ever seen anyone actually USE Active Desktop? For all practical purposes, IE is used like any other application - in spite of it really being welded to the OS. Windows is a stupid as ever, with no well-defined line between the hardware and the UI - it's just more stable now, after 8 years of the same thing. (It amazes me that in all this time, a decent competitor has not emerged.)
-drl
|
Post #76,711
1/24/03 1:04:28 PM
1/24/03 1:06:36 PM
|
Re: A decent competitor.
To take on the beast would require money that only Gates/Balmer/Allen/etc. has. That means that one would require "venture capital". But as Stewart Alsop testified before a Senate hearing, before Win2K shipped iirc, there is no way, even in the heyday of the late 1990's that anyone with a plan for an OS could possibly get funding.
It is no coincidence that Linux emerged as the singleton competitor: if you had a better idea for an OS and you tried to play by conventional capitalist rules, your air supply was cut off before you could draw your first breath. It had to be a grass-roots, community effort outside conventional bizness.
And don't underestimate MS's intellect. There are some very smart people working for them. Misguided, yes; Greedy, yes; Hell bent on world domination and equipped with a "take no prisoners" attitude, yes; ethically and morally challenged, yes; but stupid, no.
Edit:
Actually I have seen quite a few people using "Active Desktop." When I visited a friend working in the Charlotte office of Microsoft, nearly everyone there was using it.
bcnu,
Mikem
Edited by mmoffitt
Jan. 24, 2003, 01:06:36 PM EST
|
Post #76,720
1/24/03 1:13:54 PM
|
There is one way
Make a VM oriented OS that can run "personalities".
-drl
|
Post #76,762
1/24/03 3:44:59 PM
|
Perhaps, but...
you better do it in your spare time. Because no one, and I mean no one is going to float you enough money to get it off the ground. But, I repeat myself. ;-)
|
Post #76,629
1/24/03 7:43:18 AM
|
Say that again.
Windows was/is two OSes - one stemming from Win3x, the other from WinNT. With you so far. IE was an afterthought. Still with you. To get it to work the same way on both systems required merging the concept of browsing into the OS - in the same way that the Windows device context required merging the WM inextricably into the OS. But Mozilla works on both platforms (and more) and works in exactly the same way. Yet Mozilla isn't welded into the OS. And Mozilla offers the same functionality as IE. The same with Opera. I think you're wrong on this.
|
Post #76,673
1/24/03 11:03:06 AM
|
Mozilla is just an application
IE is not clearly identifiable as an application in itself - because the entire UI is built around browsing now - it has to be for Active Desktop to work.
-drl
|
Post #76,732
1/24/03 1:54:26 PM
|
Ummm, incorrect.
They could have done that and still not have built it into the system .dll's.
|
Post #76,385
1/23/03 1:57:18 PM
|
Okay, Mr. low-context.
HP, IBM make money off Linux: hurray for them. I make money off Linux: hurray for me. HP, IBM take that money and use it to turn Linux into something I can no longer use to make money (or in any other way): bah, humbug.
Simple enough?
Many fears are born of stupidity and ignorance -
Which you should be feeding with rumour and generalisation.
BOfH, 2002 "Episode" 10
|
Post #76,386
1/23/03 1:59:55 PM
|
Re: Okay, Mr. low-context.
But I thought the vaunted GPL prevented that.
-drl
|
Post #76,390
1/23/03 2:01:52 PM
|
Up to a point.
Many fears are born of stupidity and ignorance -
Which you should be feeding with rumour and generalisation.
BOfH, 2002 "Episode" 10
|
Post #76,431
1/23/03 3:37:48 PM
8/21/07 12:42:48 PM
|
All that money and they still cant get a decent UI onto it
I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customer got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don't think we are. I think we're responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don't become missionaries. Don't feel as if you're Bible salesmen. The world has too many of those already. What you know about computing other people will learn. Don't feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your hands. What's in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to see the machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can make it more.
--Alan Perlis
|
Post #76,433
1/23/03 3:48:22 PM
|
Nope
Even KDE is a 5-year old attempt to copy MS's 10-year old UI solution to the 15 year-old WM problem on a 20-year old graphics system.
When disgusted, start over.
-drl
|
Post #76,573
1/23/03 11:08:57 PM
|
Well, I was given the opportunity to use...
...two of [link|http://www.apple.com/displays/acd23/|these] with one of [link|http://www.apple.com/powermac/|these] 1.25GHz dualies... and Aqua.
I sat for ~6 hours at it, I banged the hell out of it... 10.2.3 Jaguar. Does a nice job. The crystal mouse has got to go though... plug *shudder* an Optical 2-button wheelmouse from Microsoft into it... it'd be good to go.
Comments on the UI, well, too sweet for my tooth. Lots of neato features, the animations and dockings and attachings and overall quality is excellent, far better fit and trim than I have seen in a LONG time... *IF* ever. For me, tooo much eyecandy... Sure I like the desktop being that nice, but gosh it almost made me sick from the sugar coating.
Now, *IF* I could get that fit and trim, feel and crispness (yes it was crisp also) in GNOME or KDE or FluxBox or XFce, blackbox... what have you... THEN and ONLY then will the Desktop quest be able to done. As *THAT* would be a start to build upon. Integration using OPEN APIs and such would be a plus.
Oh, BTW ya'll... OSX 10.2.3 *IS* indeed a rootless-mode UNIX. Everything I needed I installed using fink and a bit of bandwidth. With OODLES of Memory and those 1.25GHz processors... Hell *EVEN* WindowsXP would be quick and fast on it... if WindowsXP supported PowerPC arch.
| [link|mailto:curley95@attbi.com|greg] - Grand-Master Artist in IT | | [link|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry/|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] [link|http://pascal.rockford.com:8888/SSK@kQMsmc74S0Tw3KHQiRQmDem0gAIPAgM/edcurry/1//|ED'S GHOST SPEAKS!] | Heimatland Geheime Staatspolizei reminds:
These [link|http://www.whitehouse.gov/pcipb/cyberstrategy-draft.html|Civilian General Orders], please memorize them.
"Questions" will be asked at safety checkpoints. |
|
Post #76,645
1/24/03 8:57:35 AM
|
Sweating the details
Might have mentioned this already, but a friend recently bought an eMac on my recommendation. As an example of thoughtful touches: When I started to do something that required a password there was a small note under the password field that told me "Caps Lock" was on. The keyboard was just different enough from mine that I had fat-fingered the tab and caplock keys. The nice little touch kept me from making a typical newbie mistake.
===
Microsoft offers them the one thing most business people will pay any price for - the ability to say "we had no choice - everyone's doing it that way." -- [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=38978|Andrew Grygus]
|
Post #76,671
1/24/03 10:54:46 AM
|
Check out Logitech.
I'd given up on their mice a bit back, but we recently got some of their opticals, and they are actually VERY nice.
Any deity worthy of a graven image can cobble up a working universe complete with fake fossils in under a week - hey, if you're not omnipotent, there's no real point in being a god. But to start with a big ball of elementary particles and end up with the duckbill platypus without constant twiddling requires a degree of subtlety and the ability to Think Things Through: exactly the qualities I'm looking for when I'm shopping for a Supreme Being.
|
Post #76,740
1/24/03 2:21:32 PM
|
Second on Logitech
I have one for my G4 tower and it works a treat right out of the box.
For a laptop, look into the Kensington Pocket Mouse Pro. The cable reels into the mouse case when not in use. I've gone through two of them already on my TiBook, though, so they could probably be sturdier. (Or I could just treat them with more care, I suppose.)
My wife still likes the Apple Pro ('crystal) mouse since she can't remember when to click which button on a multi-button mouse. She also has MS with accompanying loss of manual dexterity and the Apple mouse is essentially one big mouse button so you just squeeze it anywhere to click.
Takes all kinds, I say.
Tom Sinclair
"Everybody is someone else's weirdo."
- E. Dijkstra
|
Post #76,769
1/24/03 4:30:48 PM
|
Thirded
I'm using a Logitech optiocal 2 button w/scroll wheel at work. Very nice.
At home I'm still using my Kensington Expert Mouse trackball. It's the older serial/ps2 one, not the newer PS2/USB one. I even picked up some replacement balls for it - a "crystal ball" from third party(can't find a link) that looks like it's glowing when the light hits it right and a blue one that Kensignton put out. The blue one reminds me of a bowling ball, the way the colors shimmer when you turn it.
Darrell Spice, Jr.
[link|http://www.spiceware.org/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
|
Post #76,788
1/24/03 5:37:49 PM
|
What? Still using corded mice?
A couple companies are making mini mice for laptops with small transmitters. [link|http://www.targus.com/product_details.asp?sku=PAUM005U|Targus mini mouse] I went for the Micro Innovations mouse; the transmitter is a bit bigger, but it included a rechargeable NiMH battery. So far it's been good.
For desktop systems, I use Logitech.
Tony
|
Post #76,808
1/24/03 7:02:34 PM
|
Yup
I didn't want to fuss with batteries and I get at least some of the same convenience from the retractable cord. Fits nicely into my laptop bag without tangles.
Tom Sinclair
"Everybody is someone else's weirdo."
- E. Dijkstra
|
Post #76,778
1/24/03 5:12:24 PM
|
Switch to graphite mode
OS X can run in aqua or graphite (no colors - only grayscale stuff in the ui components).
I think that it's extraordinarily important that we in computer science keep fun in computing. When it started out, it was an awful lot of fun. Of course, the paying customer got shafted every now and then, and after a while we began to take their complaints seriously. We began to feel as if we really were responsible for the successful, error-free perfect use of these machines. I don't think we are. I think we're responsible for stretching them, setting them off in new directions, and keeping fun in the house. I hope the field of computer science never loses its sense of fun. Above all, I hope we don't become missionaries. Don't feel as if you're Bible salesmen. The world has too many of those already. What you know about computing other people will learn. Don't feel as if the key to successful computing is only in your hands. What's in your hands, I think and hope, is intelligence: the ability to see the machine as more than when you were first led up to it, that you can make it more.
--Alan Perlis
|
Post #76,810
1/24/03 7:07:22 PM
|
Other desktop theming options
Use the Universal Access preference pane to switch your desktop to grey scale. It also allows you to zoom in on any area of the screen and even invert the color scheme to white on black. Makes a nifty demo, too.
I've also played with the various third party UI themes ([link|http://www.resexcellence.com|http://www.resexcellence.com] is a good source of information.) There are some very nice ones along with tools to make changing them out very easy.
The downside, of course, is that these third party themes are not officially supported by Apple and the usual warnings and disclaimers apply.
Tom Sinclair
"Everybody is someone else's weirdo."
- E. Dijkstra
|
Post #76,827
1/24/03 9:27:48 PM
|
Vive la NeXT!
-drl
|
Post #76,844
1/24/03 10:54:05 PM
|
It's not really a matter of Color...
... It's more a matter making sure the floor in underneath my feet.
I play FP shooters that rock my world or anyone's for that matter. I play Zero *G* games and all too. Never loose my sense of the horizon... But for some reason... I just can;t seem to not feel a bit nauseus with all the movement and animations and other such eye-candy.
The layout is bar-none the best *DEAL* I've seen... I use very similar things in GNOME and FluxBox... but they don;t make me feel queasy... I can;t put my finger on it... something just makes me woozy. Even with the 3840x1200 desktop I had... wasn;t enough to launder that feeling. Could have been a refresh problem... active TFT Display.
It was something like the fluid movement... like when you are using a rubber band to move everything... a slight bit behind your expectations... but wasn;t a response issue... it was "deliberate" settings or something. It's not a matter of the interface being bad or what... just that me being who I am I have certain tendancies... this is one I didn't expect. Maybe that's why.
| [link|mailto:curley95@attbi.com|greg] - Grand-Master Artist in IT | | [link|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry/|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] [link|http://pascal.rockford.com:8888/SSK@kQMsmc74S0Tw3KHQiRQmDem0gAIPAgM/edcurry/1//|ED'S GHOST SPEAKS!] | Heimatland Geheime Staatspolizei reminds:
These [link|http://www.whitehouse.gov/pcipb/cyberstrategy-draft.html|Civilian General Orders], please memorize them.
"Questions" will be asked at safety checkpoints. |
|
Post #76,856
1/25/03 12:31:52 AM
|
I entered a room where the floor was so cunningly laid...
that no matter where you stood, it was always under your feet.
-- Goon Show, The China Story
Have fun,
Carl Forde
|
Post #76,884
1/25/03 9:40:59 AM
|
Always one in every group!!! ;)
| [link|mailto:curley95@attbi.com|greg] - Grand-Master Artist in IT | | [link|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry/|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] [link|http://pascal.rockford.com:8888/SSK@kQMsmc74S0Tw3KHQiRQmDem0gAIPAgM/edcurry/1//|ED'S GHOST SPEAKS!] | Heimatland Geheime Staatspolizei reminds:
These [link|http://www.whitehouse.gov/pcipb/cyberstrategy-draft.html|Civilian General Orders], please memorize them.
"Questions" will be asked at safety checkpoints. |
|
