The Linux experience - ugly, bad, and good - Re: Random Hesitations: The new threat to windummy productivity in the office
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From: Rex Ballard on 11 Apr 2010 02:58 On Apr 4, 6:34 am, "Steve Walker" <spam-t...(a)beeb.net> wrote: > 7 wrote: > > Random Hesitations: The new threat to windummy productivity in the > > office > > Windummy OSen loaded PCs are known to the word as a two bit OS that > > hesitates for just about every operation. > Yeah, Windows is really annoying and buggy. But it's still better than > Linux for the typical user, or for commercial use. Hard to really make that assesment isn't it? After all, with the exception of the few weeks when Linux Netbooks were on display at Circuit City, there has been a huge difference in the availability of Linux compared to Windows. With Windows, the top 10 manufacturers must by roughly 120% of their anticipated usage, based on Microsoft's most aggressive estimate of what each manufacturer will be able to sell that year. They must make a minimum commitment to that number. If they make the minimum commitment, the price can be as much as 60% lower. For example, if Microsoft things that Dell can sell 10 million PCs, then the minimum commitment will be set at 12 million. If Dell orders and pays for all 12 million units, they will only pay about $40 per license. If they are even one PC short, the price shoots up to $60 each. 12 million at 40 is 480 million. 8 million units at $60 is 480 million. 100 million units at $60 is 600 million. Dell can't afford not to order all 12 million. For Dell to make money at the higher price, a minimum of 30% of their PCs would have to be shipped with Linux. When NetBooks came out, ASUS and Acer were stating that 60% of their sales were Linux. Microsoft simply adjusted the discount even lower, offering XP for something like $15 each. If Acer sells 10 million unit,s and 4 million of them are Windows, at $60 that would be $24 million, but if Acer buys 12 million license units, they will only have to pay $36 million, or about $20 per license. There is a catch though. If you accept the OEM license, you must agree to install the Microsoft approved image in each machine. Furthermore, any alterations to that image must also be approved by Microsoft. If you purchase the correct number of licenses, but say you ship 2 million machines with Linux, then your might have to pay a higher price, and your minimum commitment increases by the number of Linux units you sold. Obviously, if you had to sell some of those machines with Linux, then you didn't order enough Windows licenses. Worse, if you sell 4 million PCs with Linux on them, and the end users then install pirated copies of Windows, Microsoft would know about it when Windows "phoned home", or when you visited a Microsoft site, a Microsoft partner site, or attempted to e-mail a Word, Excel, or powerpoint document. The pirated license would be discovered, and you, as the OEM - would be held liable for promoting the piracy. Because you didn't pre-install Windows, you would not be able to use one of the millions of unused licenses that you already paid for, you would be required to pay full retail price. If only 1 million users installed Window on the boxes originally configured with Linux - that could be $200 million - or more. Net result, nearly every PC shipped by the major PC makers, including Dell, HP, Lenovo, Acer, Sony, Toshiba, and ASUS, are shipped with Windows pre-installed. Suppose that Acer or ASUS decide to completely rebel against Microsoft and stop shipping Windows on their machines entirely. From this point forward, they plan to ship 10 million Linux boxes to retailers all over the united states. This is when we hit the next problem. You see, Microsofts license agreements forbid running any kinds of benchmarks, which means ANY kind of side-by-side comparison of Windows and any other competitor. Furthermore, Microsoft's authorized reseller agreements govern the use of trademarks and logos within the store. This includes the display of logos and trademarks displayed by any PCs that might happen to be running Windows. Walt Disney studios won a "Damage to Brand" lawsuit against a company who made T-shirts and posters of Donald Duck, Micky, Minnie, Goofy, and Daisy - all stoned out of their minds around a hooka. The Judge ruled that Walt Disney studios had the right to stop ANY use of the brand if the store did damage to the brand. Microsoft uses this same judgement in the United States to enforce it's trademark rights in the stores. Since putting a Linux PC or a Mac right next to a Windows PC in the retail store would result in a reduction on the number of Windows PCs sold, and possibly even a reduction in price due to reduced demand, Microsoft considers such displays to be damaging to the brand. Apple eventually got around this blockade by opening it's own stores in a number of popular shopping malls. Soon people were lining up for their chance to test-drive a Mac, and many retailers began to see Apples being sold for $2000 while their Windows PCs on nearly identical hardware, were only selling for $400 or $500 each. Some big retailers, like Best Buy did push back, especially when faltering sales of Vista based PCs faltered so badly that many PC stores were going bankrupt or closing their doors. > Those Linux guys have the biggest open goal in the world, why can't they > kick the ball in? Instead of one goalie, Microsoft has an army of criminals guarding the goal posts, and an army of lawyers backing them up. Microsoft is willing to spend $4 billion in legal fees and settlments to block Linux from the marketplace. As a result, you can go into any computer or office supply store, except Apple's and see a dozen or so nearly identical computers all running identical copies of Windows 7. You may be able to access the computer to try it out and take it for a test drive, but it's quite likely that you won't even be able to discover that while Macs have 1900x1200 displays, all you get with Windows is 1280x780 displays. In simple terms, it's a 1080p hdtv vs a 720p display. Furthermore, you will not be able to identify the kinds of components used on the machine, to help you determine whether the machine would be Linux-friendly or not. The retailer will probably also have set up the display so that the DVD drive is blocked shut, so you won't be able to run a Live-CD or Live-DVD version of Linux to confirm that it works. Several retailers are also setting up the BIOS no that the PCs can't boot Linux USB drives or memory sticxs. Assuming that you have done your homework, and you have actually figured out which PCs will let you run Linux, you now attempt to purchase the machine. The salesman will want to bait-and-switch you to another higher priced machine, one that has DirectX-10 graphics cards, because he gets a kickback from Microsoft for doing so. Once he has realized that you can't be dissuaded, he will now try to encourage you to purchase a service plan. He probably won't tell you at first, that the service plan does not cover damage to the PC, he'll wait until you've accepted the support plan first. THEN he will try to sell you the replacement plan. The Laptop might have a sticker price of $500, but the support plan - which only covers Windows - will add around $200 for 3 years, and the replacement plan will add another $300. He will also try to sell you antivirus software, as well as MS- Office. If you don't buy, he won't tell you that installing Linux will void the in-store warranty, or maybe he will, just to get you to stick with Windows and order that copy of MS-Office. So now, you've paid nearly $1100 for a computer that had a price tag of $500, and you are ready to take it home. You want a copy of Linux from a trusted source, but you can't find a copy at the computer store at all. Fortunately, there is a Borders about 500 feet from the Best Buy, so you can take your choice of 8-10 magazines which include Linux, or you can go to the books and find a book containing a DVD full of slightly older (but more stable) Linux software. Now, you finally get the new PC home. They then tell you to shrink your partitions. Unfortunately, GPARTED doesn't like the Windows 7 logical volume manager, so you have to let Windows 7 shrink the partition. Yes, you've paid $1100 for a Windows PC and Windows support, but once you shrink that partition, all bets are off. Now, you get the partition reduced, and you install Linux. You tell Linux to use the Free Space created by Windows when it shrunk the partition. About 10-20 minutes later, depending on the speeds of your hard drive and DVD player, you get working Linux system. You may notice however, that the boot manager only shows Linux and "Other" - because it can't grock all the funny headers in the bootable Windows partition. Next, you have to start installing software. At first your are overwhelmed by all the software, there are thousands of choices available, and all you have to do is click the ones you like. On the other hand, if you click everything, you start getting warnings about conflicts, so you have to start with what you know you want. Most of the titles, you've never heard of. But on the other hand, there are no charges for any of these applications. Normally, when you install shareware, you have registration fees of $40-100 per application. If you installed this much shareware on Windows, you'd be getting hit with a credit card bill of another $3000 or so in about 30-60 days. But Linux is letting you install all of this stuff, and not asking for anything but an occaisional donation - showing you the link where you can contribute using pay-pal. As you shop, the descriptions aren't great, and there is a tendency to have any number of different expectations. Will GIMP be as good as PhotoShop? Creative Studio 4? Will Open Office be anything like Microsoft Office? Almost immediately there is this tendency to compare software which you've purchased as a bundle for around $15 with applications costing as much as $1900 each. You start to have fantasies of having software that is identical to software that you would normally have to pay as much as $20,000 per user for, and are beginning to feel that anything less would be insufficient. Finally, you have all the software downloaded. Because you've done your home-work, everything works right away. That T60 Thinkpad runs every feature of Linux perfectly. The WiFi card connects immediately, and prompts you for the security WPA password if you have one, or just connects to the WiFi without even asking you. Then it asks you if you want your updates. You're connected to a high speed internet connection, and you start the process. You are informed that there are already 132 updates, and wonder if Linux is really that insecure. Then you realize that these updates include updates, new features, bug fixes that have very little to do with security, and fixes for vulnerabilities that are practically imposible to exploit. Finally, after about 2 hours of downloads and updates, you have a nicely configured Linux system. Now you want to try some applications. You almost immediately realize that you have a lot of applications. You can't even see all of them at the same time. You didn't install all that much, but there are at least 120 or so GUI applications, most of which you've never heard of. What is audacity? GIMP - that photo-shop like thing. Ther's Open Office, and FireFox. Yes, those I remember. There's Adobe Acrobat. Theres' a USB ImageWriter, for creating bootable versions of Linux from Live-DVDs. Gedit - that's a bit like Notepad? Let's try the calculator - Yes, that looks familiar - but the View option let me choose advanced, more like an HP scientific calculator. Financial gives me stuff like my banker and broker use. Scientific has trig, log, and exponential functions. My kid is taking calculus, he'll love this. And now theres the one for programming, hex, octall, and binary? Wow. I probably won't use it all, but that's already far more that the calculator I got with Windows. There's a gnote sticky pad - kinda like the one on Windows 7 isn't it? Copyrights 2004-2009. Looks like there's even an organizer for my stickies. Clicking the menu I missed an got nothing, so I right-clicked it and got new panel, how many panels can I have? Looks like I can have a lot. I clicked it 4 times and got 5 more panels. So I can have a toolbar that looks a bit like Apple's, and onother that looks like Microsoft's, and another that looks like Eclipse, and another just for show. Let's add some applications.Add to panel, that should do it. I can add a custom application, or a brightness adjuster, or character palette - I can practice sending e-mail in spanish! A clock. Connect to server? A CPU frequency monitor, a dictionary in a button. Disk mounter? So I don't mess up my USB drives when I unplug them? Those eyes are spooky, they keep following my cursor around. Fish - a bit too relaxing. Hardware sensors? So that I can see if my graphics card is overheating when I put the laptop on my lap? That's useful. Invest - to show stock tickers. That would be nice to have up all the time. A keyboard indicator. I can set up that Dvorak keyboard Rex keeps telling me about? Maybe later. Main Gnome Menu, that looks good. Oh, that's different from the one on the bottom. A tool for connecting up my Palm Pilot. And one for the cell phone. System monitor, let me try that one. Good heavens, it's broken, it's not showing anything. Oh, I clicked it and it's showing 10% CPU usage. Now I can see the meter pop up a bit. I can also see network traffic too. That's nice. And it's small too. Trash can can go on a tool bar? I'll put that someplace convenient. What's this workspacec switcher. Oh, theres a little box on the toolbar with two grey boxes. I click the second box and everything disappeared. I pull one of the items from the other little box, and I have just that application on this desktop. I click the other one, and I see all the other apps. How many windows can I have? Right click, preferences - wow, that's a lot. I cranked it up to 20, but I don't think I'll need that many, I'll start with 4. This will be great when I don't want my wife to see that I'm shopping for her. I can't make the toolbar any bigger. Right click - properties - oh. I can move it where I want, and expand it. At 48 pixels, I can see two rows of apps in the list of windows. They have some graphics tools. dia, that looks a little like Visio doesn't it. I don't see a save as vsd format, but I do see autocad formats, and visio users can read those. An image viewer, oh that's good for going through those family photos. Gimp - not quite like photo-shop. How come the controls are all over the place. Well, at least I can use the whole screen for those really big pictures and move the controls around when I'm working on different areas. This is pretty nice. I'll have to try it with my 1080p HDTV display. Looks like there are a few internet tools. some browsers, CISCO VPN software, and a remote desktop viewer. Is that something like GoToMyPC? Yes, but I don't have to leave my PC exposed? Very nice. Open Office, I'll have to try that. Is it anything like the Windows version? Identical? Nice at least that's one thing I won't have to re-learn. Task Juggler and Project management - is that anything like Microsoft project? Well, it has gantt charts, tasks, and resources, and you can see resource usage. Not quite everything that Project provides, but for $0 - it's not bad. It is only V0.14, but at least I could print up some gant charts that look a bit like MS-Project. If there's a windows version, I could even share the schedule and plan with the whole team for a change. Looks like there are a couple of other project management tools, but they aren't exactly MS-Project. I wonder if any of them get levelling right. Looks like there are a few different media players. And Movie Player seems to support some plug-ins. Songbird looks interesting too. And I get a free CD/DVD burner, that would have been about $100 on Windows. A nice terminal emulator package. Oh, there's that terminal thing. I used UNIX a few years back, I wonder if they are similar there too? Yep. looks like there's over 2000 applications in /usr/ bin, that's a lot more than on my old BSD 4.0 system. Let's go shopping some more. Applications- let's start there. authoring and publishing - DocBook - and an XML editor. So I can publish batches of documents as HTML, PDF, and as printed documents. Not bad. Linux documentation project. Isn't that what they used for those big 1200 page SAMs books? That should work pretty well. CSS Editor and validator - that would be handy for creating web pages. GNU Emacs, that's the one that started the whole GNU movement isn't it? Might be a bit much to learn - I remember it from college, but maybe later. vi, that brings back memories. I notice that emacs is much easier to use now. It even likes mice. Some nice educational software. That typing tutor might come in handy. Those engineering tools look pretty wild. Even graphics and grid control, and tools for creating clusters. Pretty impressive. Normally, that's really expensive stuff. Games - lots of games, and game authoring tools. I also see that there are a bunch of emulators for popular game machines like Nintendo, Sega, Looks like there's emulation for several game machines, as well as a few games for Linux. Still not the strong-point for Linux. But it can emulate all those other game machines as well as Windows. Some really nice Internet tools with GUI interfaces though. Linux really does collaboration well. Almost 100 applications. That might take some time to sort out. I guess all those Linux and OSS developers got really good at working together over long distances, so they really had to be good at collaboration to make it all work. These are their tools. Maybe I'll share more of what it's like to be a REAL Linux user - later. Rex Ballard http://www.open4success.org
From: Ezekiel on 11 Apr 2010 08:25 "Rex Ballard" <rex.ballard(a)gmail.com> wrote in message news:dc9385f7-bafd-4684-905e-bab6c8a055ff(a)b33g2000yqc.googlegroups.com... > With Windows, the top 10 manufacturers must by roughly 120% of their > anticipated usage, based on Microsoft's most aggressive estimate of > what each manufacturer will be able to sell that year. They must make > a minimum commitment to that number. If they make the minimum > commitment, the price can be as much as 60% lower. For example, if > Microsoft things that Dell can sell 10 million PCs, then the minimum > commitment will be set at 12 million. If Dell orders and pays for all > 12 million units, they will only pay about $40 per license. If they > are even one PC short, the price shoots up to $60 each. 12 million at > 40 is 480 million. 8 million units at $60 is 480 million. 100 > million units at $60 is 600 million. Dell can't afford not to order > all 12 million. For Dell to make money at the higher price, a minimum > of 30% of their PCs would have to be shipped with Linux. Bullshit. Show some proof or evidence for your claim. You can't because you will run away and hide like a liar always does. > Trash can can go on a tool bar? I'll put that someplace convenient. Trash describes your posts rather well. Free advise for you - Quality, not quantity.
From: Rex Ballard on 11 Apr 2010 09:17 On Apr 11, 8:25 am, "Ezekiel" <M...(a)Not-there.com> wrote: > "Rex Ballard" <rex.ball...(a)gmail.com> wrote in message > > news:dc9385f7-bafd-4684-905e-bab6c8a055ff(a)b33g2000yqc.googlegroups.com... > > > With Windows, the top 10 manufacturers must by roughly 120% of their > > anticipated usage, based on Microsoft's most aggressive estimate of > > what each manufacturer will be able to sell that year. They must make > > a minimum commitment to that number. If they make the minimum > > commitment, the price can be as much as 60% lower. For example, if > > Microsoft things that Dell can sell 10 million PCs, then the minimum > > commitment will be set at 12 million. If Dell orders and pays for all > > 12 million units, they will only pay about $40 per license. If they > > are even one PC short, the price shoots up to $60 each. 12 million at > > 40 is 480 million. 8 million units at $60 is 480 million. 100 > > million units at $60 is 600 million. Dell can't afford not to order > > all 12 million. For Dell to make money at the higher price, a minimum > > of 30% of their PCs would have to be shipped with Linux. > Bullshit. > Show some proof or evidence for your claim. You can't because you will run > away and hide like a liar always does. http://www.overclock3d.net/news/os/microsoft_drops_bulk_license_price_for_xp_to_15/1 http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/04/19/ms.asks.15.for.xp.netbooks/ <quote> Microsoft's determination to wrest control of netbooks from Linux has seen it drop the bulk price of Windows XP for the systems to under $15 per copy, according to a leak from an unnamed source. Although Microsoft has never publicly disclosed its pricing for netbook licenses, the Wall Street Journal now hears that a copy of XP Home for the budget portables is less than a third the price of a Windows Vista copy for a typical notebook, which costs the PC maker between $50 and $60 per copy in large batches. The price is well below the usual $30 asked for the Starter Edition of Windows, which is meant for PCs in the developing world. </quote> When Linux made it to the retail shelves, and captured a significant share of the market, whether it was 60% or 40%, Microsoft knew that it had to do whatever it took to get Linux off the retail shelves as quickly as possible. Offering $15/license versions of Windows XP to the NetBook OEMs on the condition that they pre-install Windows on ALL of the machines they shipped, was the quickest way to stop the market share bleeding. As you know, actual license costs are only available to officers of the court, as part of the antitrust settlement. The license rates are sealed, and even then, Microsoft can grant additional discounts to companies who advance certain technologies - especially Linux hostile technologies. This is why the license fees on gateway machines was lower than the fees on HP and ThinkPads. I have had the rare and unique opportunity to have a desk only 6 feet away from a Microsoft Representative, who explained all of these business practices to various customers over the telephone - back in 1997. After about 3 months, I left a copy of Linux sitting on my desk, and suddenly she had been replaced and the new rep had been moved to another area. The new guy had a bad habit of leaving corporate license agreements on the copy machine. As much as I'd love to have been able to record and copy all of this information, attempting to do so, given the environment where I was working, would have been grounds for dismissal and criminal prosecution. During my discussions with a rather mysterious character who had only a first name, no valid e-mail, and could only get replies via usenet newsgroups - I did provide some leads as to where to start investigating. A few months later, the DOJ was filing charges against Microsoft. Could this mysterious person have been a federal investigator pumping me for viable leads? I doubt it. On the other hand, such a public conversation could have easily caught the attention of several people who did want Microsoft's monopoly broken up, and had close relationships with people in the Clinton administration. so, no, you won't be getting any proof, and by now, I'm sure all of the evidence at the organization where all this took place - has long been shredded, but it can easily be checked out by federal and state investigators who have the right authority to issue warrants and discovery orders. The Bush administration ignored over 7,000 complaints about how Microsoft had violated nearly all of the terms of the antitrust agreement. It eventually became public during the investigation of Jack Abramhov, that Carl Rove had arranged for Microsoft to make a number of charitable donations to organizations that produced propaganda favorable to the Republican party. When, despite Microsoft's best efforts, John McCain won the republican nomination, which was not good for Microsoft, Microsoft's MSNBC began promoting Obama on their late night television shows - for up to 6 hours a night. The Gates foundation makes a number of donations to other charities - many of them recommended by politicians (essentially 501-C organizations using their freedom of speech - tax exempt. At least it offsets Rupert Murdock whose Fox News organizes and sponsors tea party rallies.
From: Ezekiel on 11 Apr 2010 09:23 "Rex Ballard" <rex.ballard(a)gmail.com> wrote in message news:47230c75-76d5-4e0e-a124-c9c69355367c(a)y36g2000yqm.googlegroups.com... > On Apr 11, 8:25 am, "Ezekiel" <M...(a)Not-there.com> wrote: >> "Rex Ballard" <rex.ball...(a)gmail.com> wrote in message >> >> news:dc9385f7-bafd-4684-905e-bab6c8a055ff(a)b33g2000yqc.googlegroups.com... >> >> > With Windows, the top 10 manufacturers must by roughly 120% of their >> > anticipated usage, based on Microsoft's most aggressive estimate of >> > what each manufacturer will be able to sell that year. They must make >> > a minimum commitment to that number. If they make the minimum >> > commitment, the price can be as much as 60% lower. For example, if >> > Microsoft things that Dell can sell 10 million PCs, then the minimum >> > commitment will be set at 12 million. If Dell orders and pays for all >> > 12 million units, they will only pay about $40 per license. If they >> > are even one PC short, the price shoots up to $60 each. 12 million at >> > 40 is 480 million. 8 million units at $60 is 480 million. 100 >> > million units at $60 is 600 million. Dell can't afford not to order >> > all 12 million. For Dell to make money at the higher price, a minimum >> > of 30% of their PCs would have to be shipped with Linux. > >> Bullshit. > >> Show some proof or evidence for your claim. You can't because you will >> run >> away and hide like a liar always does. > > http://www.overclock3d.net/news/os/microsoft_drops_bulk_license_price_for_xp_to_15/1 > > http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/04/19/ms.asks.15.for.xp.netbooks/ The price for WinXP on netbooks has *nothing* to do with your bullshit claims. Hint for you... just because you post a link to something *random* doesn't mean that you've backed up anything. Here's what you claimed: <quote> With Windows, the top 10 manufacturers must by roughly 120% of their anticipated usage, based on Microsoft's most aggressive estimate of what each manufacturer will be able to sell that year. They must make a minimum commitment to that number. If they make the minimum </quote> > > As you know, actual license costs are only available to officers of > the court, as part of the antitrust settlement. The license rates are > sealed, and even then, So in other words YOU HAVE NO CLUE what the license agreements are. So why do you lie and make claims? > > so, no, you won't be getting any proof, and by now, I'm sure all of > the evidence at the organization where all this took place - has long > been shredded, So YOU HAVE NO PROOF. So why do you LIE?
From: chrisv on 12 Apr 2010 09:18
Chris Ahlstrom wrote: > trolling fsckwit Ezekiel wrote: >> >> Bullshit. > >This kind of deal definitely happened in the past, and is undoubtedly well >document in the case of MS-DOS. Just a hint here: > > http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS-DOS > >And Win 7 is stil available with volume license terms. > >While one might argue with Rex's exact numbers, these volume deals >are so common, and so important to Microsoft, as evidenced by public >statements from Steve Ballmer, that I'm surprised to see you use the word >"bullshit". The trolling filth show their colors each time they make a post like "Ezekiel's" above. I can understand why some people may prefer Windows over Linux - Linux isn't for everyone. However, to deny Micro$oft's immoral activities is to be a liar, plain and simple. -- Advocate: You know damned well how microsoft abused their position. Hadron Quark's response: Actually I do not. |