Post #251,325
4/7/06 2:27:09 PM
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Cringely says it's the big OEM's fault.
It seems they need too much time for testing... [link|http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20060406.html|Cringely at PBS]: It is easy to forget that Microsoft works mainly through its OEM partners, which include Dell, HP, and many others. If Microsoft announces a date by which some future product is going to be available, they can only do so with the agreement of the OEMs. I know we hear (and I write) a lot about Microsoft beating up its partners, but Bill Gates can't put new software on a Dell computer without Michael Dell's permission.
According to those familiar with the way Dell qualifies new software, they are very careful about their shipping OS/application sets. They put together new builds every quarter, and test them for a full quarter. This means that to ship something in October it has to be into a build set in July, which means it has to be slotted some time in April. And that's just for an application. Now imagine what Dell's test plan looks like for a whole new operating system.
Remember, Microsoft announced a delay of availability to the public, but absolutely nothing changed about their Release To Manufacturing (RTM) date. So what happened is reality finally set in at Microsoft. I'm saying it was Dell, but it could as easily been HP, which of course has to work that much further ahead because, unlike Dell, HP manufactures for distribution through resellers.
So Microsoft possibly could have stuck to its original November availability estimate, but that would have meant a Christmas with Vista available only from second-tier PC manufacturers, and darned few of those.
The only shocking thing here is that this seems to have somehow taken Microsoft by surprise. If they didn't realize internally that shipping a new OS for Christmas means getting final bits to the OEMs in July, they have problems in the Windows division far beyond just their ability to ship. Maybe... He also says some implausible stuff about Apple making a reverse BootCamp that will let OS X run on "bog-standard 32-bit PC hardware". I think Steve would like to have that option, but unless there was a very restricted set of supported hardware it's hard to see how Apple could make a go of that. Cheers, Scott.
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Post #251,330
4/7/06 3:23:20 PM
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The RTM Date DID Slip
From August To November. That caused the rest to cascade into 2007 as he describes.
-- Chris Altmann
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Post #251,353
4/7/06 8:07:37 PM
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Cringely is overrated.
In fact, I regard him as only slightly less stupid as Dvorak.
Peter [link|http://www.no2id.net/|Don't Let The Terrorists Win] [link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal] [link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
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Post #251,354
4/7/06 8:12:39 PM
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Did Peter just make a grammar error?!?!
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Post #251,360
4/7/06 8:58:18 PM
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No.
Peter [link|http://www.no2id.net/|Don't Let The Terrorists Win] [link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal] [link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home] Use P2P for legitimate purposes!
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Post #251,364
4/7/06 9:04:27 PM
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"X less stupid as Y" is a strange construct to these eyes.
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Post #251,372
4/7/06 9:36:09 PM
4/7/06 9:39:15 PM
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Ditto
As ... than, not as ... as is what I'm used to seeing.
/edit spelling
----------------------------------------- Impeach Bush. Impeach Cheney. Do it now.
Edited by Silverlock
April 7, 2006, 09:39:15 PM EDT
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Post #251,389
4/8/06 8:20:34 AM
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Temporarily skip over the qualifying "only slightly less".
Alex
When fascism comes to America, it'll be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross. -- Sinclair Lewis
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Post #251,395
4/8/06 9:54:23 AM
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That works, but it's not quite the same.
Unless a comma (or dash) is present somewhere, or unless it ends a sentence, I almost always see a "than" follow a "less" in a sentence. [link|http://www2.ncsu.edu/ncsu/grammar/Pronoun3.html|E.g.]: No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main. If a clod be washed away by the sea, Europe is the less, as well as if a promontory were, as well as if a manor of thy friends or of thine own were. Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. I find 79,000 hits for "as less as" (in quotes) on Google. In the examples I see, I would be most likely to use "as little as" (37.7 M hits) or "as few as" (4.9 M hits) instead. Skipping over "only slightly less" dramatically changes the meaning for me. Instead of it being a comparison, it lumps them together. "I regard X as I regard Y." If I couldn't use "than", I would have expressed that as, something like, "I have less regard for X; like I have little regard for Y." In other words, I think the "less" is being used as an implied comparison, not to indicate near equality of regard. Short subject lines are a bitch. I'm not saying Peter's wrong. Just that it is an expression I don't recall seeing before. English is neat like that. :-) Cheers, Scott.
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Post #251,490
4/10/06 3:55:09 AM
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Doesn't work; that's the operative part of the sentence.
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Post #251,491
4/10/06 3:55:50 AM
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Yes.
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Post #251,399
4/8/06 10:13:37 AM
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which cringley, there are several of them
Any opinions expressed by me are mine alone, posted from my home computer, on my own time as a free american and do not reflect the opinions of any person or company that I have had professional relations with in the past 50 years. meep
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Post #251,486
4/10/06 12:18:25 AM
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The one on pbs.org
"Insert crowbar. Apply force."
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