06.15.09
GNU/Linux is Winning, Apple and Microsoft Entangled in Stagnation
Summary: A video to enjoy whilst the competition of GNU/Linux shows signs of great weakness (links for morale)
• Apple, Microsoft make mediocre moves
I sat there shaking my head in disbelief as I realized I had just witnessed possibly the most disheartening Apple keynote in recent memory. Three years ago, Steve Jobs introduced the adoption of Intel chips in Apple machines, a move that would send its market share soaring. A year later he walked up on stage and announced the phone that would change the mobile world forever.
• Apple finalizes PowerPC divorce with OS upgrade [good for GNU/Linux, which can neatly occupy those PCs]
When the new operating system arrives in September, it’ll work only on Intel-based Macs. That means Mac OS X 10.5, aka Leopard, will be the end of the line for those with Macs that use PowerPC processors.
So well done, Microsoft! You’ve released a browser that deletes a system file it shouldn’t even LOOK at! That’s true creativity, that is. Who wouldn’t think that a piece of software designed for looking at web pages might be deleting boot files even before it’s told to load and run?
Morons.
Utter morons.
This has got to be the most obscure error I’ve ever had to track down, bar none. Congratulations on that score, I guess, MS.
• A question to Microsoft? Whats unique about Windows 7?
I ask again, what feature does 7 offer that cannot already be achieved either natively or via 3rd party software in XP?
Here’s continuing in the quest to find out what exactly is the “treasure” contained within Windows 7.
Related post::
The Score: Red Hat Revenue Up 18%, Microsoft Revenue Down, Apple Fires 1,600 Full-time Employees
Needs Sunlight said,
June 15, 2009 at 10:32 am
Apple screwed up by both going too deep into DRM’d hardware and by failing to embrace ODF in time. However, these could just be symptoms of M$ fans inside apple or of some quiet agreement between Apple and M$.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 15th, 2009 at 10:38 am
There is a lot of the latter, but many Mac users are in denial over it. We covered some examples of this before.
Yuhong Bao Reply:
June 17th, 2009 at 7:06 pm
Yea, it is extremely interesting because their OSes compete with each other.
David Gerard Reply:
June 15th, 2009 at 7:48 pm
Apple have always been as viciously obsessive control freaks as Microsoft ever were. They just make better stuff.
Yuhong Bao Reply:
June 15th, 2009 at 8:49 pm
On the matter of DRM, what do you think in retrospect about what BN called a ‘PR stunt’ by Apple now that Apple has completely got rid of DRM from all music in iTunes? I think that letter by Steve Jobs was important because it got the ball rolling.
twitter Reply:
June 15th, 2009 at 10:44 pm
When Apple and M$ OS are free software we can say that media on those platforms is without restriction. In the mean time, both companies reserve the “right” to terminate your software licenses for any reason and regardless of loss to you. iPod and Zune, specifically, are viciously non free and hostile to user’s rights. Plug your iPod into another computer, for example, and it will delete all of your media. Both Apple and M$ media formats are patent encumbered, so that they can only be used by non free software. Pretending such media is without restriction is indeed a PR stunt and a careful piece of propaganda.
Yuhong Bao Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 12:32 am
Indeed, Steve Jobs was referring to DRM restrictions, not format restrictions. In fact even DRM-free music from iTunes is delivered in 256 kbps AAC.
Yuhong Bao Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 12:37 am
If you want MP3s, go to for example Amazon’s DRM-free music store or convert from AAC using iTunes (which is possible because the music is now DRM-free). Ogg would be ideal but that is not common enough yet.
reece Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 1:05 am
Yuhong: OGG may not be common enough yet, but there are a growing number of media players that support it: Cowon and iRiver, for example. (See http://wiki.xiph.org/index.php/PortablePlayers for a list.) There is also RockBox (very good) if you have a player that supports it.
Yuhong Bao Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 1:09 am
I am thinking in terms of music stores, not players.
Finalzone Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 1:33 am
Magnatune, Jamendo have stored in music in OGG Vorbis format. Granted they are not popular to Itunes but they do exist.
With Firefox 3.5, Opera supporting them, the impact will also affect those music store would provide OGG support. The reasons why store like Apple are relunctent are mostly for control.
Yuhong Bao said,
June 15, 2009 at 10:38 am
“Apple finalizes PowerPC divorce with OS upgrade [good for GNU/Linux, which can neatly occupy those PCs]”
Except that unfortunately even Linux is leaving PowerPC behind:
http://lowendmac.com/mail/0806mb/0605.html
http://lowendmac.com/mail/0806mb/0610.html
On the other hand:
http://lowendmac.com/mail/0806mb/0611.html#8
And even Apple agrees with you on 7:
http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/06/apple-takes-a-few-stabs-at-windows-during-wwdc09.ars
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 15th, 2009 at 10:41 am
Not at all. There is more than one PPC-compatible distribution.
I’ve expressed no view about Vista 7 in this post.
Yuhong Bao Reply:
June 15th, 2009 at 11:35 am
“Not at all. There is more than one PPC-compatible distribution.”
Yes I did indeed mention that other side.
“I’ve expressed no view about Vista 7 in this post.”
Indeed not, I was referring to the views on 7 you have expressed in past posts (for example how it is just another version of Vista) and I am saying that Apple agrees with them.
Doug said,
June 15, 2009 at 11:02 am
re: They outdid themselves
“So well done, Microsoft! You’ve released a browser that deletes a system file it shouldn’t even LOOK at ..”
Get a load of the excuses in the comment section ..
http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/index.php/2009/06/13/they-outdid-themselves
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 4:27 am
Maybe Waggener spotted and reported that one.
David Gerard Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 4:34 am
“Yggdrasil” showed up in the comments, spewing abuse.
Remember: PR is cheaper than coding!
Yuhong Bao Reply:
June 17th, 2009 at 10:41 am
IMO the best thing to do in cases of problems like this is to debug the problem properly to see what really is at fault for deleting boot.ini.
Doug said,
June 15, 2009 at 11:03 am
re: They outdid themselves
Get a load of the excuses in the comment section ..
“So well done, Microsoft! You’ve released a browser that deletes a system file it shouldn’t even LOOK at ..”
http://geekblog.oneandoneis2.org/index.php/2009/06/13/they-outdid-themselves
amd-linux said,
June 15, 2009 at 1:09 pm
Regarding Micro-Soft stagnation, you guys will enjoy this:
The latest browser stats from Germany:
Watch out for flying chairs!
http://www.w3b.org/technik/browserwatch-firefox-enttrohnt-microsofts-internet-explorer.html
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/web/0,1518,630459,00.html
http://www.heise.de/newsticker/Mozilla-kontert-Apples-Download-Statistik-fuer-Safari–/meldung/140388
–> FF now at nearly 70% on heise.de and 42.5% (mainstream interests sites)
–> Linux another percent point up to 14,8% from 13,8% in March 2009 on heise.de
–> FF is still the fastest growing browser on mainstream websites
The trend is Linux’ friend, me thinks.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 15th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Firefox is about 70% here.
reece Reply:
June 15th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
It’s interesting how on the pie chart from the first link, IE is at around 50% total market share. Firefox 3 is at 40%, with the remaining 10% taken up by other (Safari, Opera, Chrome) and older browsers (FF2, etc).
Also interesting is that IE8 has a low market share — lower than IE6. IE used to have a 97/98% market share.
It’s also interesting how we are seeing a second ‘browser wars’ — this time, it is being fought on standards compliance; Acid2 and the race to Acid3 conformance (between Opera and WebKit, with FF3 doing well and 3.5 even better, but IE as usual dragging the market down); and JavaScript speed, with most of the browsers using some form of just-in-time (JIT) compilation. This time, IE is lagging behind.
You can do some really amasing things with HTML5/SVG/JavaScript, and still be standards compliant. The need for proprietary RIAs like flash and silverlight is vastly reducing. And Mozilla are doing interesting things with pushing browser design and functionality.
This is good for the user. Now, if IE could just disappear, the web would be a better place.
David Gerard Reply:
June 15th, 2009 at 7:51 pm
Maxthon is one of the most popular browsers in China (as I understand it) – Firefox is in the low single digits of share. Maxthon’s basically a skin on MSHTML … until the most recent edition, which is based on Webkit and uses MSHTML only when you tell it to for “compatibility mode.”
This sort of thing will drive out popular use of IE even amongst the Windows fans. Firefox and Webkit-based browsers are just better by any measure.
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 3:02 am
Microsoft seemingly pondered embracing those engines too. Some remarks from Ballmer last year…
David Gerard Reply:
June 17th, 2009 at 10:50 am
I’m sure there’s some luckless programmer at Microsoft hard at work to try to make Webkit incompatible with itself.
twitter said,
June 15, 2009 at 10:54 pm
Watch for falling hardware prices. Cool stuff, PowerPC is.
Marcus Koze said,
June 16, 2009 at 3:00 am
A bit off-topic, but a much better version of the video can be found here: http://video.linuxfoundation.org/video/1262 (modified voice pattern, a lot better
awesome piece
Roy Schestowitz Reply:
June 16th, 2009 at 3:02 am
Thank you.