On Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:00:55 -0700, Chambers wrote:

> Jim Henderson wrote:
>> I think the combined revenue for their applications probably either is
>> (or could be) their largest source of revenue.
> 
> IIRC, Windows and Office are (respectively) their #1 and #2 earners.
> Everything else pales in comparison.  Their most successful products
> outside of these two make nowhere near as much money for them.
> 
> Of course, that was a few years ago, and things could have changed.

Possibly.  I know MOM is frightfully expensive (at least in large 
implementations) and at least when I was working with AD in a large 
environment, we were told it was absolutely necessary in spite of the 7-
figure price tag.

>>> Think Windows Vista is bad now?  Imagine how bad things would be 10
>>> years from now, if MS's development budget were slashed in half.
>> 
>> Depends on how they structure the business.  If the apps fed into the
>> OS development stream and the apps were successful enough, then it
>> could be self-reinforcing.
> 
> Yeah, but they wouldn't get paid for the OS, only for the Apps, so
> there's the temptation to focus on the apps and not the OS.

Depends on how the revenue was structured and fed back.  The part of my 
company I work for, we are a cost center - we get almost all of our 
funding from the product teams.

Jim

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Chambers wrote:
> Phil Cook wrote:
>> But Apple just aren't making their phones to accept non-Apple bought 
>> music what's the difference?
>>
> 
> Personally, I see none.  So I don't know.
> 
> ...Chambers

The difference is the general view of a 'computer' versus that of a 
music device. A MP3 player that can only play certain MP3s is a waste of 
money to some people, but a computing device that only runs one OS is 
the norm. How many people out there even realize that they don't need a 
special computer to run Linux, that Windows is not the computer?

Cell phone contracts are pretty clear, the phone only runs programs they 
allow and only has access to certain networks. No average person 
purchasing one would expect it to run home made software and still work. 
Game consoles are another similar set up, they run only the software 
provided by the company. They occasionally send out patches that brick a 
device that is running unauthorized code. All pretty much out in the 
open, as they say you can only use their network and new 'upgrades' as 
long as you do not modify the device.

Apple just made the mistake of calling the ipod an mp3 player instead of 
a 'personal media device' or something.

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Sabrina Kilian wrote:
> Apple just made the mistake of calling the ipod an mp3 player instead of 
> a 'personal media device' or something.

Speaking of which, I saw in the bookstore a "iPods for dummies" book, 
including a tear-out page of shortcuts you can "store with your 
retracted headphones."  How loser do you need to be before you pay $15 
for a crib-sheet for an iPod? :-)

-- 
Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
  Helpful housekeeping hints:
   Check your feather pillows for holes
    before putting them in the washing machine.

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Sabrina Kilian <"ykgp at vtSPAM.edu"> wrote:
> Apple just made the mistake of calling the ipod an mp3 player instead of
> a 'personal media device' or something.

On the subject of licensed software and the tight grip the license holders have
on them, I wish ATRAC were an open standard and prevalent instead of MP3. It's
a much better algortihm, but Sony wants to keep it all to itself.

-Mike

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I would like to love Vista. It has new features I like: the basic UI is
improved, account management is a lot more streamlined, the organization of
system/user files and folders is better IMO. But, it is slow and hangs or
crashes apps way too frequently. Also, I have the Vista UI on my XP machine
right now as a result of amateur conversions and 'skins'.

-Mike

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> I would like to love Vista. It has new features I like: the basic UI is
> improved, account management is a lot more streamlined, the organization 
> of
> system/user files and folders is better IMO. But, it is slow and hangs or
> crashes apps way too frequently. Also, I have the Vista UI on my XP 
> machine
> right now as a result of amateur conversions and 'skins'.

So long as you have enough RAM, Vista seems quicker than XP.  Certinly here 
at work, apps that used to take up to a minute to boot up now take *way* 
less (like under 10 seconds most times).  Definitely an improvement for me.

But, I installed Vista on my home PC (only 1 gig RAM) and it was slow.  I 
upgraded to 2GB and it's fine now.

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scott wrote:

> So long as you have enough RAM, Vista seems quicker than XP.
> I installed Vista on my home PC (only 1 gig RAM) and it was slow.  
> I upgraded to 2GB and it's fine now.

I'm just loving the concept of "only 1 GB of RAM" - as if that's a 
"small" amount or something...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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And lo on Tue, 08 Jul 2008 02:15:01 +0100, Sabrina Kilian <"ykgp at  
vtSPAM.edu"> did spake, saying:

> Chambers wrote:
>> Phil Cook wrote:
>>> But Apple just aren't making their phones to accept non-Apple bought  
>>> music what's the difference?
>>>
>>  Personally, I see none.  So I don't know.
>>  ...Chambers
>
> The difference is the general view of a 'computer' versus that of a  
> music device. A MP3 player that can only play certain MP3s is a waste of  
> money to some people, but a computing device that only runs one OS is  
> the norm. How many people out there even realize that they don't need a  
> special computer to run Linux, that Windows is not the computer?
>
> Cell phone contracts are pretty clear, the phone only runs programs they  
> allow and only has access to certain networks. No average person  
> purchasing one would expect it to run home made software and still work.  
> Game consoles are another similar set up, they run only the software  
> provided by the company. They occasionally send out patches that brick a  
> device that is running unauthorized code. All pretty much out in the  
> open, as they say you can only use their network and new 'upgrades' as  
> long as you do not modify the device.
>
> Apple just made the mistake of calling the ipod an mp3 player instead of  
> a 'personal media device' or something.

Exactly it's a perceptual thing; no-one expects a PS3 to play Xbox360  
software, no-one expects a Nokia phone to run the Motorola OS. Sell a  
device that's tied to a 'genre' and everyone expects it to work with all  
cases. It's not a monopoly case that you can't run a Wii game on an Xbox  
so why is it when you can't play certain types of music on your iPod?  
Because "Apple just made the mistake of calling the ipod an mp3 player"  
should have gone for iTune music player.

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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> I'm just loving the concept of "only 1 GB of RAM" - as if that's a "small" 
> amount or something...

Ermm yeh it is, even the cheapest Dell for under 300 GBP has 2GB of RAM.  My 
new desktop at work has 8GB and it's nothing special (about 900 GBP IIRC). 
And the cost for me to upgrade at home from 1GB to 2GB was a tiny fraction 
of the cost of a Vista license.  So yes, today, 1GB is a small amount.

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>> I'm just loving the concept of "only 1 GB of RAM" - as if that's a 
>> "small" amount or something...
> 
> Ermm yeh it is, even the cheapest Dell for under 300 GBP has 2GB of 
> RAM.  My new desktop at work has 8GB and it's nothing special (about 900 
> GBP IIRC). And the cost for me to upgrade at home from 1GB to 2GB was a 
> tiny fraction of the cost of a Vista license.  So yes, today, 1GB is a 
> small amount.





3. My motherboard (for an AMD socket-939 CPU) doesn't even *support* 
more than 4 GB of RAM.

4. Why in the name of God would you even *need* that much RAM anyway? 
(Apart from the fact that Vista wastes it all for you.)

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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