Posts by Eadon
2449 posts • joined Monday 3rd August 2009 06:33 GMT
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Stagnating market does not preclude winners
Even if a market as a whole is moribund, market share can still be quite volatile. People are getting out of the PC biz, and Lenovo are picking up that business.
There are three issues - firstly MS has a stranglehold on the desktop OEM's (It's 100% windows or 0% Windows for you!) which means that OEM's are forced to peddle Windows. And this, at present, means Windows 8 (to consumers at least). So players are getting out out of the market.
The second issue is that we're not seeing a doubling of power every 18 months like we used to during the megahertz wars. This means that there are fewer killer apps that were impossible to fun on even relatively recent tin.
The third issue for the desktop is that mobile devices are being used for consumption-based tasks, which means that people need fewer PC's per house hold and spend less time at a PC. Mobile is a growing market and the players here are creating the future - they are Apple, Google and Google's partners such as Samsung. Beneath the scenes, Linux is making much of this revolution possible. It runs excellently on ARM.
Re: Why have the hassle of remote desktops when you can have LibreOffice?
@HolyFreakinGhost
- and I'm pointing out the inconvenience that the MS Office DRM is putting you through, and showing that the alternative, open source, means you don't have to jump through hoops to make one licence work (sort of) for more than one device.
MS are treating you like a criminal and inconveniencing you - a paying customer - and you still seem happy to use their products. Stockholm syndrome, I think the word is, for those that like their prison guards.
Re: UK users?
@dajames - indeed, the report is a joke - but the rumour of it allows astroturfing shills to spread FUD as we see happening in this thread.
Some people fall for it. It's one of the reasons I dislike MS, they use dirty tricks.
Re: Microsoft mentioned a lot?
@dogged - if you want open-source only codecs then use pure Debian - as any geek would know. But as you're not a geek, I have to explain such things to you.
Or are you trolling?
Re: UK users?
@AC shills -
that "report" that the Munich Migration cost more money than it has saved was paid for my Microsoft. I wonder if it is trustworthy?
Re: UK users?
@TheVogon - so you are accusing the Munich council of lying?
Or is it more likely that you are spreading FUD, like your usual lies about Linux being less secure than Windows?
MS are worried
Microsoft might be worried that Dell's new masters would turn it into a Linux company, break ranks from MS and the Windows 8 train wreck, and reinvent themselves as a Linux systems vendor.
In addition they could also sell Google Chrome with cloudy back ends.
Dell could make a mint doing that. And then it's a revolution that means, GAME OVER MICROSOFT.
Re: Microsoft mentioned a lot?
@dogged - since you raise the subject, every time *you* mention Microsoft, you are sucking up to them. It's nauseating to read your sycophantic bullshit,
It wouldn't be so bad if you were technically accurate but you tell whoppers.
Re: Google Pi
@Captain Scarlet, I think it's a ploy to ween kids off the unhealthy MS Windows / Office crack. MS give away windows to schools to get kids hooked. Google are not giving schools android, they're giving them Pi, which runs a non-Google Linux Distro.
Raspberry Pi is the best thing to happen in 10 years
And every kid should have one - it's an open system with an open operating system. It's exactly what is needed to get kids interested in technology instead of being abused by having to learn the closed, proprietary products of ghastly corporates (Apple, Microsoft).
This is a PR stunt by Google, but it's infinitely better than the alternative - MS crap taught to kids in schools as if it were somehow not bad for their brains.
Once again Raspberry Pi brings rejoicing to lovers of real engineering and real openness. Also it's a damned good product, throwaway-cheap computer that can be used for some brilliant projects.
Re: Ubutnu Systems - Use Linux Mint
Linux Mint is the new Ubuntu.
MS are committing commercial suicide!
That MS are attempting to control (buy?) Dell (Nokia style) signals to the other OEM's that MS are no longer to be trusted. Not that they ever were, but this is absolutely stunning proof that cannot be ignored.
The other OEM's will be flogging Google Chrome on the desktop as quickly as they can, as they have no choice now. MS will buy an OEM and attempt to put the other OEM's out of business, so that it can turn itself into an Apple-like hardware company.]
This strategy by MS will fail. There isn't room for two Apple's on this planet, and MS do not have the strategy to out-compete Apple.
So the OEM's will flock to Google, and Google will continue to eat Microsoft's lunch until MS is a starveling, at which point IBM will eat it.
EPIC FAIL
Re: The gods help us
at the other AC - "How do you seriously propose that IBM get the money to buy MS?"
You wait patiently until MS are cheap enough to buy.
MS's value will collapse extremely quickly, because they need a massive quarterly profit to support the way that they operate. Once the profits dry up, then they will burn through their cash reserves extremely quickly, they will be like Nokia: selling their family silver because their shares will be of junk value. Their only real income will be from patent trolling the creative guys.
*Then* IBM might buy them.
Re: The gods help us
@AC - "Guess we should not shop at Tesco" - damned right! I'm a capitalist, but corps like Tesco's use corrupt methods to obtain their dominance. If a council objects to a big tesco's being built, then Tesco's use lawyers to fight in court until the council runs out of money to fight the case any more.
Re: @Eadon
@shelluser - there are open source tools for dealing with management of open source systems.
https://schoolforge.net/education-software/school-management-software
Given the savings of switching to open source, and more importantly, the benefits of teaching children on open systems, not closed systems, this is worth considering. In general the TCO for open source systems is lower than for MS based systems.
If not, then Munich would not have saved 11 million Euros and counting.
Cheers
Re: Microsoft copying Google YET AGAIN @eadon
@bluegreen - that used to be true of WordPerfect. WordPerfect used to be the de facto standard. However, it didn't take long for industry to switch away from that, and it won't take long for industry to switch away from MS Office. It is already happening, business is finding it hard to justify costs. That is why MS are desperate to get everyone on a subscription model, to lock them in tighter.
Now businessmen are using Macs and even Android. They are are realising that, you know what? There's no bloody need for MS Office. So they are asking themselves, why the hell are we paying all this money for it?
Office can only survive for as long as guys like you see some kind of value in it, but each year there are fewer guys like you.
The gods help us
What a ghastly set of megacorps.
Still Microsoft won't be around much longer, IBM will buy them to pick the corpse once their cash cows have finished collapsing and dying.
Apple will always be around as the "prestige" organisation, with Google taking over the generic platforms software vendor role.
The article is hilarious! You can put lots of gigabytes on a Microsoft computer but the software will gobble them all up, leaving the user with about 640 kilobytes for their MP3s.
Re: They can charge
@admin - if people standardised on open standards - i.e. ODF - then there would be no problem. The problem is, Microsofts proprietary formats, which MS changes every 3 years to make life awkward for open source solutions trying to read these obfuscated formats.
Why have the hassle of remote desktops when you can have LibreOffice?
@HolyFreakingGhost - Open Source alternatives to Office can be installed on as many devices as you like. No need for those logging onto remote desktops and all that hassle of working with the expensive MS Office unproductivity suit. And good luck reactivating MS Office if your hardware changes.
Microsoft products are extremely inconvenient to use and manage. Open source frees you from these hassles and they are free.
Re: UK users?
@TheVogon - hello RICHTO.
For your erudition - Munich switched from Windows to Linux / Open office and have ALREADY saved 11 million euros. They will continue to save even more in the future, now that they have already covered the one-off cost of switching.
FYI - even large companies are now demanding justification for employees to use MS Office. I'm talking bluechip and I am talking about huge bluechip. I know this first hand. They are standardising on LibreOffice to save money.
A lot of this is down to BYOD - people are using Android and iDevices these days and exchanging data as PDF's or in ODF formats.
Re: Microsoft copying Google YET AGAIN @eadon
@bluegreen - yes, opening MS docs messes up formating but that's also true of MS Office. Try opening a random MS documetn with a random version of office. It will screw up the formatting in small or large ways.
To keep using MS Office will just make this problem WORSE! Everyone would be better of with office suits that work well with the ODF open document format.
You're suffering from vendor lock-in my friend. Hook line and sinker. And you PAY to be locked in even more!
Re: The Mpnthly subscription model is pretty ... expensive compared to google's
You say, "The cloud integration is fantastic too, i'm using it to do my documents at home on my desktop pc, then when I get to college in the morning, I can go straight where I left off to on my Laptop, and it's so seamless"
Weird language. This is straight out of an astroturfing marketer's notebook, or so it seems to me.
And... MS crap is being taught to our kids!
Why the hell are schools teaching our kids the only proprietary-format-docs, EXPENSIVE, closed source office suit???
They should be teaching either Google Docs (free) or, better - Libre Office - free.
Our tax is going to Microsoft in order that they can lock in our kids. FFS!
>wanders away muttering<
Re: Windows 8: best advert for Apple ever?
@Ian Grant - "Unix" in a "Test lab"?? You realise that Apple's operating systems are literally Unix? Also Android has a Linux kernel. These Unix systems are user friendly systems and wildly popular.
Linux Mint should be right down your street, give it a try with an open mind. It's definitely more user friendly than Windows 8 - and more user friendly than Windows 7 too.
Re: The netbook is dead, the laptop is dying, long live the tablet.
@RonWheeler speak for yourself, your own sheep-like windows-only mentality is not generic.
The market loved Netbooks with Linux and they were always in heavy demand, until MS killed Linux by forcing OEM's onto XP.
Most people do not want Windows on a laptop - the ones that can afford it buy an Apple laptop, and the rest only use windows because it's pre-installed. The smart guys and geeks scrub windows and install Linux, to treble the speed and battery power - and it comes with loads of open source software.
Microsoft copying Google YET AGAIN
Microsoft are copying google docs.
And they want to get paid for doing so!
Don't do it kids - Google Docs / Google Drive is free. And so is LibreOffice.
Why do idiots use MS Office? People think it's worth buying out of group think, in reality it's not needed except by some bean counters with non-portable Excel vba macros.
MS OFFICE COPIES GOOGLE DOCS FAIL
Re: Maybe MS were right not to bother about their OS being any good on a desktop.
@AC indeed, MS has accelerated the decline of the desktop by compromising its desktop operating system in a ruse to capture a slice of the mobile market. It's a gamble and it's one that they are badly losing (quite predictably).
Either MS go in reverse, which will leave them even further behind, or they accelerate their strategy, which is a strategy that is failing.
In other words, Microsoft are in serious trouble and they have no ideas on what to do about it. When a corporation finds itself in such a situation, it needs a new CEO.
Re: The netbook is dead, the laptop is dying, long live the tablet.
Make a cheap, low-spec netbook with Linux running fast on it and they sell like hot cakes. MS forced OEMs to run XP on these (but with extra CPU and memory to cope with the bloat. pushing up the cost) to stop Linux in its tracks on these devices. XP was a dog on cheap hardware, so the market was asphyxiated, quite deliberately, by MS, who abused their desktop monopoly.
Tablets - Google, Android partners and Apple clean up. MS and Nokia lose.
Disclaimer, I bought a Nexus 7 tablet last week and love it.
Where are all these Windows-mouse-clicking commentards who said that the tablet market was just a fad? WRONG!! Tablets have replaced the need of a PC for a lot of people and for a lot of tasks. If you look at web surfing, for example, tablet traffic is high and increasing.
All of this makes Google and Apple more powerful relative to what they would be if they did not enter the tablet market.
So what is Microsoft's strategy in chasing the tail lights of Apple and Google? The Surface! Which has simultaneously shown the OEMs that there's no money in windows on tablets, whist alienating said OEM's by directly competing with them.
Surface Pro will come out and failed like the first Surface failed. This will deter OEM's from putting windows on Intel tabs. And Intel is not so good on tabs, draining the batteries and running at the temperature of a fusion reactor.
So MS can't win on ARM and cant' win on Intel. Can't win, - pun not intended!
So now the guys that rule the mobile markets will take over the desktop market, we are seeing this already with OEM's flirting with Google Chrome laptops and even Android tablet/laptop transformers.
Time to sell those MS shares and fast. The fall in Apple's shares is nothing in comparison to what will face MS when its Windows cash cow ends up in Google's abattoir.
Flame way AC's but you know I am right.
Re: Here's an idea...
@Crisp - the article is just an ad for MS, what is there to discuss?
Re: Puff Piece
This forum is crawling with shills.
Multi platform????
"multi-platform holistic manner" - translation - it only runs on windows and doesn't talk via open protocols or standards.
Puff Piece
This is just a PR exercise to get journalists to mention certain commercial products.
IMNSHO academic research should be conducted with open source databases and open source tools, so that anyone can be involved without having to pay licence fees or end up with data in binary proprietary formats.
This is nothing more than MS advertising. One day the Reg might write an article about how open source tools are used in research. HINT - CERN use Linux to do all the LHC number crunching. Why don't we hear that from this techie site?
Because lazy Reg hacks do not receive PR releases from marketers on such topics, presumably, so, you know, would have to actually research and write original material.
FAIL.
Re: Entrepreneurs Beware! Do not trust Elop.
@Ragarath - but Microsoft have a particularly odious history of doing so - look at how they screwed Sendo. They also screwed Danger. And that's just in the mobile space. And, ironically, they screwed Nokia too. who are now a mere enslaved MS hardware division.
So trust no one but that goes treble for Microsoft and their little wormtongue trojan, Elop.
Flat tax
No NI, no bands, no corporate vs personal tax, dividends tax, VAT, tax codes blah blah blah, you want a flat tax. Then the rich will not bother to evade it, as it will not be too high to give them an incentive to. And the rest of us will not struggle to understand what we do and do not owe.
Tax at the moment is horrifically complex, and, for that matter, way too high. A flat tax will stimulate the economy and everyone but bureaucrats, megacorps and accountants will be way better off.
Entertaining but shallow
That is what we will get from this director. He is out to please rather than to create anything profound.
A great improvement upon Lucas's sterile prequels, that's for sure, but it's not so exciting as a prospect. The corporatisation of movies continues apace.
Outsourcing is a ticking time bomb
As I have said before, if you outsource, to this country or, worse, to a foreign one, then you run great risks. Your services and data may corrupted, be stolen, be lost, you name it. (Then there are the usual risks of additional management overhead to wrestle issues, and sub-par results).
If you are attempting to save money by outsourcing, ask yourselves what the worst case scenario is, and plan for that, including budgeting for it.
Entrepreneurs Beware! Do not trust Elop.
Elop and his chums at Microsoft will steal your ideas. Do not trust these guys, based on their (Microsoft's) history of ripping people off and copying them.
Posted in UK's 2e2 goes titsup
Re: Bloody hell...
Here we can see the horrific danger of outsourcing - IT services and/or Cloud services.
If you outsource then you are entirely at the mercy of the financial health, ethical nature and competence of the outfit you outsource to.
Outsourcing, whether to organisations based locally or abroad, is financially tempting - but it carries severe risks, and here is one of many examples.
Three big security improvements
1) Crack down on social engineering attacks
2) Crack down on employer error / maliciousness
3) Avoid Windows based systems and IE where ever possible - use secure systems instead, e.g. UNIX / Mac / Google / Linux families of operating systems - and further harden these.
This will prevent security attacks, and prevention is better than, and cheaper than - damage limitation - always!
Re: My top tip for Microsoft.
"Eadon, you're obviously a student or unemployed"
- as I say, the AC shills attack me, and not my arguments. You need to come back when you know what you are talking about, AC.
In case you didn't know, Linux is massive on the Desktop (many millions of users take the trouble to install it) as well as embedded systems, also raspberry pi, Android (kernel), phones, and at the higher end, it powers most of the servers that run the net, and indeed, business, and indeed stock exchanges, big iron, CERN, grids, clouds all the way up to supercomputers.
Perhaps it is you that needs to "grow up", and stop using personal abuse instead of engineering arguments.
Re: MSFT posted *what* about W8...?
@Levente Szileszky "While Microsoft posted solid numbers for Windows 8,"
Bullshit can be fairly solid if it's been cooked long enough.
Re: My top tip for Microsoft.
@AC - "Cite sources"
I AM the source
Everything I have predicted on this site and others has come to pass. I predicted that win pho 7 would fail. It did. I predicted that Win 8 would fail. It did. I predicted Win Pho 8 would fail. It did. I predicted Surface ... well you get the idea.
Further more, as well as being able to predict the bleeding obvious, I am more technical than 99.9% of posters here, and when shills come along, they attack me, not my arguments.
If you want citations, google is your friend, go and search, do some research, come back when you have a decent counter argument (and don't post as AC) and we can debate the technical points.
world without MS - open, innovation, creative
@technohead95 - everyone will notice an MS free world - higher quality kit and they will be paying less for it.
Windows 8 is actually like Windows 1.0!
@AC by jove you have a point, Windows 8 is Windows 1.0!
Ironic, isn't it?
http://www.geeksaresexy.net/2011/09/16/windows-1-0-vs-windows-8-pic/
Re: "Notebooks were incredibly popular when they came with Linux."
@Arctic fox - google is your friend, use it!
I remember it well, when notebooks came out, everyone was buying them, they cost £100 - had very little memory and they ran Linux very fast.
Then MS came along, forced XP onto the things. They ended up costing over £250 to £300 and XP ran sluggishly on it. Eventually the bad Microsoft experience killed the notebooks.
If a powerful OEM went back to selling £100 notebooks with Linux, they would sell, but MS would crucify that OEM with reduced discounts on Windows desktops.
That is why OEM's are now chomping at the bit to sell Chrome OS - to be free from MS.
Re: My top tip for Microsoft.
@Darryl - everyone is making a LOSS selling Windows 8 - whether on phones, tablets or on desktops. The losses made on mobile kit with Windows on it are astronomical.
With Android you have an open system that you can adapt, rather like a Linux distro. You don't even get that with Win Phone 8 - they all look exactly alike.
Re: There are no top tips for Windows Phone - it's a failed product, like Zune.
@Crapbeans - Good points Sir!
Apple had the Jobs Reality Distortion Field - and also they created such a compelling phone, with an excellent touch / internet combination that they did excellently.
But that was then - 2008. This is now - after the Android revolution. In any case, Apple are high end, and prestige (to many) and they have that niche - albeit a huge niche.
The apps in the Windows App Store are padding, or low quality versions of the same apps in other stores. It's low quality as well as low quantity. Missing features, poor usability. No one is going to put much effort (time = money) into developing for a failing platform.
As for healthy competition - if MS wins the mobile wars, then we will have stagnation - like what happened to the desktop market and, indeed, what happened when IE had no competition. MS play dirty and they are not "good" competition.
