Posts by msknight

Re: Well...

I live in the sticks, so a removable battery is a big thing for me, but I'd give anything for a phone that isn't Google, isn't Apple, and is a damn sight better than the Jolla and the Ubuntu mess. And it's British! I mean ... got to give it a go!

Re: Earth to Microsoft

Chrome is Linux, but how many, "users," know that? Also, it is a walled garden in itself.

Apple is a walled garden, but they've managed to build a user base nevertheless.

To a degree, we've got to see how badly M$ muck it up and cause people to reject it; but given their history, I fear this will happen.

Linux has become much easier on multiple monitor machines in the last few years, and much easier to set up. It took a while to go through which software I wanted to use, and what I wanted to kill from the machine, but I can generally get a machine up and running in two hours, with all my software tuned, and my files easily transferred/safe from format, thanks to running my /home dir on its own partition and having an apt-get remove and an apt-get install on a memory stick.

Much better than the windows days of mucking about with registration keys, license codes, assured software and stuff.

And yes, I've taken a chunk of my friends over to Linux and they've loved it. More stable and quicker to respond on less-than-cutting-edge hardware.

However, it's the average consumer that is going to be hit by this, and how many of them have one of us in their little black books?

Re: Earth to Microsoft

Commercial won't, but what chance do the consumers stand? None. They have no voice and Microsoft are in an advantageous position because there's loads of people who won't fork out the cash for Mac, and won't feel comfortable with this, "Linux," thing that people keep talking about.

@ P.Lee

You are correct ... but there are nuances going on here.

It is the man in the middle that is in control of everything.

The bloggers and reviewers, even the services that support the indies, have to bow to the man in the middle. They need to keep their servers running and the only financial support they get (certainly from the book world) is from Amazon ... so the links to my books which are on my publishers site, get surpressed in favour of Amazons links.

As more of us stop viewing the mass market, the bill boards, the TV channels, the newspapers, and consume our information from the community itself (ok, even the communities free voice is add supported; but at least they're not censord, or forced to supply links to certain retailers over others) then we'll get less of this herding to perfered purchase vectors.

We are buying from the man in the middle because we don't know where else to get our goods. Lately I've stopped buying from Amazon completely. A few extra minutes spent on a web search more often than not, bags me the same goods at a cheaper price, from a high street retailer.

It is in OUR hands to change this. I know that I haven't got the money to pay for advertising ... but even if I did, I'd be very dubious about the return I'd be getting for my investment as we run add blockers etc. ... we HATE advertisements ... therefore we go straight to the easy retailers and fail to search ... we just hit the buy it now button.

Social media HAS proven its worth in promoting people. Shades wouldn't have even been picked up if it wasn't for the community enthusiasm surrounding it.

*sigh* and even this is a simplistic chop-down of what's going on.

Re: I'm a creator and consumer...

It also applies to books; which is my artistic enterprise. Sales through my publisher directly, net me a reasonable amount; I'm lucky to have a publisher who has a fair view of society, endeavour, etc.

Plug that through Amazon, and you've got a serious drain on the revenue stream.

Films are a different model ... artists are employees and paid a salary for their worth, and is a whole other argument to that of writers, musicians, or other artists from various fields who are relying on a percentage of the sales. Films are funded by investors who take a chance and front up the cash to the people that create it; the artists aren't reliant on the on-going sales ... unless they take a percentage of revenue as their payment and that's a chance they take ... but again it still holds. Indie film makers enjoy a different place in my heart than those of the big guns.