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Windows is 'collapsing,' Gartner analysts warn
Computer Worlds ^ | April 10, 2008 | Gregg Keizer

Posted on 04/11/2008 6:50:11 AM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum

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To: jalisco555

To be honest though, if Apple would ever sell OS X as a standalone OS that wasn’t tied to the machine I’d buy it, I believe most would.

Truth be told, MS wouldn’t be what they are now if Apple had only did that 20 years ago...


161 posted on 04/11/2008 10:50:50 AM PDT by gjones77
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To: E. Pluribus Unum
From the Computerworld link in the article: So Microsoft didn't give XP a blanket extension? Absolutely not. Dix made it clear that the operating system isn't getting a general reprieve. "There is no plan to extend sales of other editions of Windows XP beyond June 30, 2008," he said before launching into a recitation of what Microsoft sees as Vista's success in the market.

Vista's SUCCESS??? What are they, blind?

162 posted on 04/11/2008 10:52:46 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks (To the liberal, there's no sacrifice too big for somebody else to make. --FReeper popdonnelly)
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To: longtermmemmory

Apple was able to do their System 9 emulation on OS-X well enough to make a decent transition. Microsoft has virutalization tech in-house already that should be able to run the old OS in its entirety if need be, and move their architecture to something much more protected from crashing, and much better suited to a multiuser environment. A better driver architecture, file system, and sleep/hibernate modes that actually work would be a must for the next rev. Killing off the outdated, bloated, POS API would be icing on the cake.


163 posted on 04/11/2008 10:53:22 AM PDT by dan1123 (If you want to find a person's true religion, ask them what makes them a "good person".)
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To: gjones77

I see. I know that .png is used where I work for clients web pages.


164 posted on 04/11/2008 10:54:23 AM PDT by Fawn (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/isbninquiry.asp?r=1&ean=9781604743708)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

“”There is no plan to extend sales of other editions of Windows XP beyond June 30, 2008,””

Does anyone know if I buy a copy of XP just to hold on to in case I buy a new computer with Vista and want to put it on the new machine, will Microsoft allow me to register it or is the 6/30/08 date firm for authenticating the OS as well?


165 posted on 04/11/2008 10:54:30 AM PDT by Slapshot68
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To: cspackler

>> Oh please, I’ve upgraded all of my home machines with no problems at all, and the thruput on my DSL line has increased significantly due to the IP6 layer.

Windows XP SP1 has ipv6. I don’t think the networking has changed much since SP2.

>> If you put enough memory on your macine...

And there’s the reason for slowness. Microsoft never should have allowed Vista stickers on anything less that 2GB of RAM.


166 posted on 04/11/2008 10:56:25 AM PDT by dan1123 (If you want to find a person's true religion, ask them what makes them a "good person".)
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To: Slapshot68
Oh I’m not saying the Mac isn’t a good machine, it really is. But for me, at least, I can’t justify the premium over a PC, plus I’m into PC gaming for which there is obviously a much larger market.

To each his/her own!

I have an Imac at home and run games fine under Bootcamp. Call of Duty 4 runs great, no lag at all. A slight nuisance to have to reboot into another OS but otherwise it's fine. But, as you say, to each his/her own.

167 posted on 04/11/2008 10:57:36 AM PDT by jalisco555 ("My 80% friend is not my 20% enemy" - Ronald Reagan)
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To: gjones77

When it comes to Mac vs Windows, they are not comparable. People don’t normally weigh the two options against each other. I build my own boxes so I would never look at a Mac. I would use Linux instead.

I use Macs on campus and they seem wickedly fast compared to a PC. We would save a lot of money by banning Windows on campus because it costs so much to deal with pwn3d boxen. We are constanty going into the dorms and yanking wires out of PC’s. When studentsmove into the dorms, the first thing they do is pull down the firewall.


168 posted on 04/11/2008 10:59:17 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: AppyPappy

Alright, you can’t blame Windows for user stupidity.

That’s like blaming guns for murder.


169 posted on 04/11/2008 11:01:42 AM PDT by gjones77
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To: dan1123
And there’s the reason for slowness. Microsoft never should have allowed Vista stickers on anything less that 2GB of RAM.

And they should have never allowed 3.1 on anything with 640K. People figured it out. 2gb costs about $70, it may be time to upgrade.

170 posted on 04/11/2008 11:05:26 AM PDT by cspackler (There are 10 kinds of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.)
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To: untrained skeptic
However, people would rather complain that Windows is to blame when they download and run some cool program that someone they have never heard of before emailed to them despite all the warnings that such programs might be harmful.

You can actually architect around that. If the filesystem had advanced permissions and the OS didn't require every user to run as an Administrator, you could have administrative applications protected, and each user in their own sandbox, unable to write to other users or the administrative area. The administrative area could then back up documents that could be wiped out by a harmful program, and if there were a problem, restore them on boot.

Of course, that would mean every administrative application would have to be signed by Microsoft, and drivers too for that matter. And there would have to be a way to have lower applications stored to another universally accessible section of the drive, and all applications would have to save preferences and other user changable data to their sections. It's a big change, but it could be done.

171 posted on 04/11/2008 11:07:15 AM PDT by dan1123 (If you want to find a person's true religion, ask them what makes them a "good person".)
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To: gjones77

Windows was designed to be easily owned. It’s part of the ease of use feature. You can run a program from the email client. You are handing an idiot the means of his undoing.

Not only that, you encourage the user of the box to run it as root.


172 posted on 04/11/2008 11:07:17 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: jalisco555

I think the new version of Parallels is supposed to work better with games.


173 posted on 04/11/2008 11:08:46 AM PDT by dan1123 (If you want to find a person's true religion, ask them what makes them a "good person".)
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To: cspackler

3.1 ran with ONLY 640K. We had machines with 28 meg of RAM and they still ran out of resources.


174 posted on 04/11/2008 11:08:57 AM PDT by AppyPappy (If you aren't part of the solution, there is good money to be made prolonging the problem.)
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To: Fawn

Never had a problem with pictures, and I send a ton of them; it’s a standard format. Are they using jpegs? If it’s tifs, she can set her default to Windows and it will work on both platforms. Or perhaps it’s her camera format.

If she is sending a screenshot that’s a png file unless converted, dunno if that’s the problem.

Office works fine on Mac, so does the full range of Adobe apps. Of course email, browsers..

Obviously if you have an app you must run and it only runs on Windows, you have to have a Windows box - or you can buy a Mac and run both Windows and MacOS.

There are some apps that require Windows, but outside of specialized business apps and small highly specialized apps, these are pretty rare.

If you’re a heavy duty computer gamer, you should be in a PC.


175 posted on 04/11/2008 11:10:09 AM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: Slapshot68
Actually if I spec out and build the machine myself, I come out way ahead of the Mac and better than Dell.

Yeah, but you work cheaper than the Taiwanese. :)

176 posted on 04/11/2008 11:12:55 AM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: Boston Tea Party
"Couldn’t agree more. I have Vista on two different laptops, and the system ‘think time’ is absolutely over the top"

You got that right. I do some side work for a client, and he was forced to buy a new PC from a retailer. Vista was his only option as XP wasn't available on the new OEM computers. I told him to buy an XP Pro disk. I go to install XP on his new computer, and it wouldn't even get passed the initial installation steps before bombing out. HP said the computer would only run Vista, so we were stuck with it.

Setting the computer up for the guy was dreadfully painful. It was slow, having to 'think'(this is on a brand new fast machine that was designed for it, mind you) for a few seconds to do just about anything. The interface and layout of the OS is inefficient. Doing even the simplest administrative tasks require too many clicks and navigation steps. You almost have to go through hell just to configure a network adapter. lol Turning off the UAC makes using Vista not as frustrating, but even then it still sucks badly.

Microsoft had better get this heaping pile of bloatware junk out of the way fast, or they are gonna take a beating. I just can't believe how a company as big as theirs can do something so unbelievably stupid in releasing such an OS. Who in the hell working there could have actually thought Vista was a good idea? I wonder if they still have a job? LOL!!

177 posted on 04/11/2008 11:12:55 AM PDT by KoRn (CTHULHU '08 - I won't settle for a lesser evil any longer!)
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To: gjones77
Plus, you also forget that hardware wise the Mac is identical to a PC now, it’s just the OS that’s different.

Yes and if you spec the identical components vs. Dell, the Mac is cheaper.

So you’re paying that premium for the privilege of using St. Steve’s OS.

No, you're paying more for that spiffy Dell logo. :)

178 posted on 04/11/2008 11:14:37 AM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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To: AppyPappy
I use Macs on campus and they seem wickedly fast compared to a PC.

One thing OS-X got right was revamping it's painting system to be up to date with modern video cards. When windows overlap in Windows (XP), they really overlap, and sections must be repainted. Video has to use overlays that the video card takes care of, but it's very limited. Move a window on a Mac and there is no problem, no delay. Move a window in front of other windows in Windows, and you will see each window underneath slowly repainting itself, even on a blazingly fast machine. I believe Vista fixed this, but they tried to do too much and sent the hardware requirements too high for many computer buyers.

179 posted on 04/11/2008 11:15:08 AM PDT by dan1123 (If you want to find a person's true religion, ask them what makes them a "good person".)
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To: gjones77
That’s mostly because Apple has always used it’s own graphics format for it’s internal apps, I believe it’s a *.pic format.

Nope. And photos aren't an internal app. I photo uses standard formats, and screeenshots are pngs. I haven't seen .pict in many many years.

180 posted on 04/11/2008 11:17:03 AM PDT by D-fendr (Deus non alligatur sacramentis sed nos alligamur.)
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