Can GNU/Linux beat ghosts?
--Microsoft, internal document [PDF]
There's fierce debate in the air about what 7 means for both Windows and Linux. Microsoft's last gasp? Linux's formidable new enemy? Closer inspection shows us it's not really either of those things. Linux has made strides of its own on the desktop and made it possible to build netbooks at low cost--and while Windows 7 will almost certainly take a bite out of that market and impress existing Windows users all the more, Linux has also become its own animal.
Although Serdar doesn't spell it out here, I think his comparison of Linux and Windows 7 offers an important subtext. While it is clear that a lot of Microsoft's work on WIndows 7 was a direct response to its difficulties with Windows Vista, it's not a stretch to see that some improvements would not have happened if Linux didn't represent a legitimate competitive threat. (One word: netbooks.)
A few days' testing of Windows 7 has already disclosed some draconian DRM, some unrelated to media files. A legitimate copy of Photoshop CS4 stopped functioning after we clobberred a nagging registration screen by replacing a .dll with a hacked version. That's not so much a surprise, but what WAS a surprise: Noting that Win7 allows programs like Photoshop to stealthily insert themselves in your firewall exception list.
[...]
Something *really nasty* is lurking under the surface of Win7. Being in bed with the RIAA is bad enough, but locking your own files away from you is a device so outrageous it may kill the OS for many persons.
"Customers have been forced to purchase the most expensive version of [Windows XP] in order to 'downgrade' from the Windows Vista operating system," the complaint read.
That was the cause of some confusion last year, when Dell Inc. was accused of gouging customers by charging $150 to downgrade a new computer to XP. Dell, however, countered that although it did charge $20 to install XP on the machine, as well as to cover the cost of the additional media, the bulk -- $120 of the $150 -- was the price of upgrading the PC from the standard Home Premium to the more expensive Business edition.
Money, money, money; that's us.
Microsoft should understand that -- just as we understand why Microsoft has started to push Vista with arguments ranging from the sincere to the screwy. (No, Steve Ballmer, most users won't ask their boss why they can't get Vista at work this year; they just want to keep getting a paycheck this year.)
News Analysis. My reaction to today's Microsoft announcements coming out of the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona: Too little. Too late. Too bad.
Comments
aeshna23
2009-02-18 14:58:37
"Re media files, the days of capturing an audio program on your PC are gone if the program originated on your PC. The inputs of your sound card are severely degraded in software if the card is also playing an audio program (tested here with Grooveshark). Under XP you could select "Stereo Mix" or similar under audio recording inputs and nicely capture any program then playing. Microsoft appears to be pandering to Big Music for its own reasons unrelated to consumer satisfaction."
This basically means Linux is going to capture the entire youth market soon--with all the implications of that. Is Microsoft unable to think through the consequences of what they do? Or is it simply hubris?
Roy Schestowitz
2009-02-18 15:02:00
David Gerard
2009-02-18 16:34:51
You just wait for the day a popular game gets better frames-per-second under Wine than Windows ... that's the day everyone playing that game installs Ubuntu.
('course, non-crap NVidia drivers would help ...)
Roy Schestowitz
2009-02-18 16:50:47
"Long story short - World of Warcraft runs faster under Ubuntu/Wine than natively under Windows XP Professional."
http://msmvps.com/blogs/plenderj/archive/2007/07/14/foray-into-feisty-fawn-helped-me-take-back-my-mips.aspx
I've almost lost this valuable reference which took me 5 minutes to find.
David Gerard
2009-02-18 17:22:52
Needs retesting under 9.04 - then writing up and submitting to Slashdot.
David Gerard
2009-02-18 17:24:51
(The list has *lots* of WoW users. And there's lots of WoW users at Codeweavers too, which is why DirectX 9 works quite well and why WoW is officially supported by Crossover Games :-D )
Roy Schestowitz
2009-02-18 17:26:31
For fairness, as in a like-with-like comparison, run it under Vista too (XP is no longer available). Performance degrades in Vista.
Roy Schestowitz
2009-02-18 17:28:09
If they can reproduce these results, that would be a fantastic weapon (in the information sense).
David Gerard
2009-02-18 17:28:14
Roy Schestowitz
2009-02-18 17:33:02
The same goes for SSD and USB performance BTW.