[ale] OT: more info on where all the jobs are (going...)

[Greg]

	Actually MS had 1 or 2 things that were somewhat innovative or rather more
accurately things that you could not get anywhere else.  In the early 90's
or so they provided a GUI OS on a *cheap* platform.  My first pc was a Mac
SE30 because I wanted a pc that I could actually use and not spend more time
trying find documents or learning the archaic memorized system of F keys.  I
paid 2-3 more times for a Mac because I could actually use it as opposed to
a system that I could not use.  Windows 3.1 (or whatever it was) brought
GUI-ness to the masses on cheaper 386 PCs.  No longer did one have to get
gouged by Apple to get a GUI.  Nevermind the amateurishness - it was a grand
less in $$!.

	The second MS innovation was using VB (a programming language) as a basis
to tie an Office Suite (good idea in itself) to an OS and enable better
front-ends to all sorts of data and enable a lot of creative solutions.  Of
course, this was before security became an issue and nullified the idea.
Well, actually made the concept a liability in a security sense.

	The only underlying current of MS throughout all of their existence (except
to make $$) is to make things simple - even things that are complicated like
networking at the Sys Admin level.  Of course this cannot and should not be
applied to some things.  As someone said lately (I think on a qmail site) "I
don't want to say that setting up a mail server is rocket science - but it
is."  Personally, knowing how things work is half the fun and I think
differentiates those whose interest in computers is a hobby from a
profession.  Hobbyists aren't required to know all of the underpinnings of
something, though most do since it is fun, whereas I *expect* myself and
other professionals to either know or find out.  I would love to click and
point and set up qmail or even better just touch my forehead to the screen
and automagically the pc would do my bidding (and I would know everything on
it) but this is Star Trek computing and does not exist yet.  I don't blame
MS and others for trying to simplify (and make more productive workers) what
is complicated, but I don't think that it is ok at anything above the casual
user level.  Casual users judge an OS by how much usefulness they can get
out of it, to them a pc is something that is either a toy or a tool.  The
benefit of a Unix system over a MS user system is that the tool does not
break and it costs less, as well as, recently, it is not as obtrusive as MS
products.  All of the stuff about MS being evil and such is relatively a
geek topic.  99% of casual users aren't interested in that and don't really
care. They just want something they don't have to fiddle with. A very, very
small percentage of consumers are into the politics and morality of the
corporations that produce what consumers buy.

	RPM dependencies, apt-get, ports, and packages still don't compare to just
hitting a button to update, inserting a CDROM, or having it done
automatically.  Red Hat's up2date is the answer.  Suse needs to make it a
single button and not require a menu hunt.  Wine/Win4Lin/VMWare need to be
done automatically and done flawlessly.  The question of "Can I run
Office/Foo on this ?" should be answered "of course".  A discussion of
anything else will just give a consumer a case of
glassy-eyed-my-head-hurts-please-stop-the-madness-of-tech-talk".  Unices
still are not ready for the casual user desktop until they fix this
problem - though one needs to keep in mind that the goal of some projects is
not the casual user desktop (plan9 and OpenBSD come to mind).  This explains
partly why Bill is getting his server market  ass kicked where competent Sys
Admins and programmers are involved in decision making.  When the easy
install/upgrade/compatibility problem is solved, folks will pick up a copy
of EasyGreasy Linux in one hand and Windows 2010 in the other hand and
compare them like they compare the generic cookies to the brand name in a
supermarket.  Price will determine the outcome *all else being equal* and
the cheaper box will go in the basket.  I have seen Linux make tremendous
strides since I first put a Caldera 2.3 Desktop CD into a 486 3 years ago.
It took MS 12 years to get where Linux has in 2 or 3.  RH has already made
official the run for the home desktop and started coalescing the desktops.



	Damm, I think I need some water..

Greg

> -----Original Message-----
> From: ale-admin at ale.org [mailto:ale-admin at ale.org]On Behalf Of Jim
> Sent: Sunday, March 16, 2003 2:03 PM
> To: ale at ale.org
> Subject: Re: [ale] OT: more info on where all the jobs are (going...)
>
>
> On Sunday 16 March 2003 01:25 pm, Greg wrote:
> > Folks buy bottled water because they are:
> > 1. Wanting something that they believe is not polluted.
> > 2. Too lazy to get a filter.
> > 3. Status
>
> All of which goes to the point: people will buy something they
> can get free if
> that item is properly packaged and marketed. Hell, people once
> paid for pet
> rocks. We all know that Microsoft has not succeeded through technical
> innovation, but through packaging and marketing. Sure, their
> monopoly factors
> into it, but they used marketing to create the monopoly.
> _______________________________________________
> Ale mailing list
> Ale at ale.org
> http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>

_______________________________________________
Ale mailing list
Ale at ale.org
http://www.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale