So basically they realised the hole they dug for themselves is far too deep to get out of on their own, and they need a little more appeal.
Don't get me wrong, I like Blackberry's products, it's just that they are trying to be all things to all people, and it's not working. Apple know their market, as do the Android handset makers, and MS is now turning out a proper consumer-focused handset OS that really does work well (It got me off Blackberry after many years, and after I had a HD2, a handset that would put anyone off). Blackberry on the other hand have stumbled along producing too many handsets, most of which don't have an obvious market.
RIM if it has a future needs to sell the software products, and let others make the handsets. If it wants to keep the handsets in-house it needs to scale it's range back to a few handsets aimed a few levels of the corporate market again.
I've said for a few years that RIM will end up being bought out by another company, and I was told to stop being stupid. iPhone was the first nail in the coffin, and they keep getting hammered in.
I'm using a little Acer "Ferrari One" at the moment, had it for about 18 months as it was only £300 brand new when my old lappy died. I used an MSI Wind u135 for a while, but it caused me rage!
Similar points raised in relation to a netbook and this type of machine. Screen res is good, graphics are pretty slick, and it's USABLE. The 11.6" point is where usability and portability meet. You're using a proper keyboard for the most part, you've a screen you can read, and the battery life does well.
18 months down the line the ONLY regret I have in my case is not checking first to see if the XGP parts would come on the market here. They didn't, but I'm still not disappointed by the Sub-Laptop/Big Netbook machines.
To the best of my knowledge they never had them in stock anyway. Her Indoors asked for one as her upgrade, so I asked to be kept informed, and never heard a thing. I checked the website every single day, never a dickybird. Asked them 2 weeks after release date, they said they had no word on supply date.
She's now on Orange, paying less, with the handset she wanted.
TBH I think they are just trying to shift their old Trophy and HD7 stock, but TBH as much as I love my HD7, it's been over a year since release, and I wouldn't agree with anyone getting one now on anything over £25 a month.
At least they are being a little more competative at last. I've never really had any issues with AMD laptops, using an Acer Ferrari One to type this on, works great. Last machine was a 2.0Ghz Turion, and the one previous was an XP Mobile. All have been great at the times they were bought.
Personally for a laptop I'd steer clear of Intel for the most part, as ny desktop does the most work. Anyone using a Laptop as their Only (or main) machine isn't really getting the best experience anyway.
Because putting Woz in charge will give them the other Founder, and a man who does actually believe in open, interesting, fun and innovative new products.
They wanted £250 for me to upgrade to a Blackberry 9800 from a Curve 8900, that was on a £45 per month contract. I'm dumping that contract in a month or so, and I've already got a 9800 for £30 a month. Their customer retentions people seemed to think that as an existing customer I wasn't worth their time to deal with. Went back with Orange on the new contract as well because we get good contract discounts a month, but I was shocked that basically I could have a 9300 and enjoy it according to Orange.
I've been a Blackberry user on and off since the 7x00 series devices. A couple of years back I caved in and bought a Pearl as I finally caved in and bought a personal. Blackberry.
I've had few regrets, namely the AWFUL browser on the pre-OS6 devices, but when I got one I knew it was awful! With the Torch I really think they do actually have a handset that matches (and indeed surpasses) the iPhone in many areas. Still not beating the iPhone for media consumption and gaming, but for what matters to most people who buy this type of handset it's stunning.
If Adobe do roll out Flash as they are suggesting, and RIM do roll out a JVM to run Adroid apps (again as the rumours have been saying for months) then the iPhone really does have a serious competitor!
I gave my wife my old 8900 to replace the HD2 thing she's been using, and after a short grump about the keyboard she's already suffering from Blackberry Thumb!
As above, they agreed to do this before the iPhone 1 arrived on the market, then ignored it totally. They'll lost out to the market that buys the new data cable every 6 months because it's broken, again.
OpenSUSE user here, because I'm lazy and prefer everything in one place ready to go. I tried Ubuntu, but TBH I just think of it as Debian for people who aren't technically advanced enough to install Debian directly.
MyPhone offers enough service for anyone, and you can opt-out of the advertising if you want. Likewise the OVI store stuff, and Blackberry is binging out Blackberry Shield at some point soonish.
All of the already released ones are free if you have the right handsets. Google I wouldn't use, because I prefer not to give them ALL of my information. Blackberry Haven't announced a price for their service yet, but it's unlikely to be expensive, if they even charge for it at all. Plus the features I personally am more concerned about are remote wipe, phone location and OTA backup anyway, these aren't charged for unless you're Apple.
Expensive phone, expensive contracts, vendor lock-in and even the OTA backup being charged? You're having a laugh! I like the iPhone as a media and browsing handset, there is NOTHING to touch it in those areas, but for e-mail and actually making calls on it leaves an awful lot to be desired.
I'm agreeing with what is already said about security. The iPhone is an amazing handheld browser and media device. However from a security point of view it's a disaster.
You can't enforce what apps are on it, you can't turn the camera off, you can recover wiped data, you can bypass the password easily.
Blackberry on the other hand is designed from the ground up for security. Even the encryption on them is reliant on the hardware side of things as much as the software. You have absolute control over it (I've worked places with varied security levels dependent of the idiocy level of particular users), and you can pretty much support anything remotely using BES (Over 500 pre-defined options IIRC, plus any custom policies).
As for it "only" being verified up to Restricted level, big deal. You shouldn't be carrying around data any more sensitive than that in the first place! It's one of the reasons a lot of large corporates disable USB ports and the like to protect client data!
Is utter garbage, they seem to have done the minimum amount of work so they can say "We're the first to market with a 64Bit browser on Windows". Never mind the fact it's horribly incompatible, horribly insecure with the Active-X controls it does actually support, and just plain horrible to use.
I used to be on T-Mobile, and some time in 2006 they removed the free access to voicemail after I upgraded my call plan. On my previous (Cheaper) plan I wasn't being charged, but with the upgrade they started charging. When my contract came up for renewal I listed it as the main reason for leaving. Some of us don't answer our calls when driving, and turn our phones off when they don't want to be contacted. It annoyed me that they then charged me extra, so I left.
If you've paid for the handset then it's legally your property. Would you be happy if your OS was locked to use a particular ISP or similar? No you wouldn't, you'd go ape and complain.
TBH it's not a bad product. I was going to pile 2k8 on the box I've got, but after installing and setting up I found I had no real use for it. Loads of nice shiny options to play with, but in a home environment they just aren't needed.
I've got the 120 day trial running atm, and it's doing everything I need it to, and a few extra things that are rather useful. I would guess most tech-savvy folks will install 2k8 or 2k3 server, but having done that in the past It's more arse for a home setup than needed.
I remember seeing something similar done years ago. Guy was building a cluster for some university students to use, and just slapped a load of motherboards (P3s) onto a load of shelves, then powered them up. Never realised Google started out with the same idea. Mucho cheapness to do, and fixing things is so easy it's untrue.
I wouldn't use BMW and Ford as comparisons. If you want to stick with the Ford then think Jaguar X-Type and Ford Mondeo. Basically the same car, but the look is changed to keep the snobs happy.
Probably Log Me In, or GoToMy PC to be honest. LMI is free, and I even managed to teach my 70-odd year old grandmother how to use it for when she is on holiday. Forget the really clever ways, they may have factored in, but when you dig on these types of stories you'll usually find something like LMI or GTMPC have been used.
If anyone nicks my laptop it's encrypted and insured, so I'm too bothered about it. Also being a normal human being with more sense than money I don't leave it sat in my car, or on my car roof.
Do these guys have a stake in NTL/Virgin? They seem to have picked the most irritating punishments for actually using the bandwidth they supply. If they don't want you to download things then they might as well just give you 2Mb and tell you it's tough luck.
You may benefit from them. If you hadn't been informed previously Europe isn't a country, it's a continent.
I work for a company that trades in the US as well as the UK, and i've looked at the deals. We get a better deal when you take all the extra benefits into account (handsets are free, as are 3G modems etc).
I work nights, it was about 6:30am when I was writing that and my fingers where pretty much going in the direction my brain pushed them rather than aimed them.
"Pretty Secure" is considered perfectly acceptable English here. Unix itself-unless it's messed with to not be-is a fairly secure and a reliable platform.
My real point is that the least secure part of any computer system is the user. OSX users have swallowed the "More Secure, and no viruses" line hook, line and sinker. They by and large believe that there is nothing that can infect their machine, so they can do as they please with nothing to worry about. I'm commenting here from about 15 years of experience supporting systems both in corporate environments, and in domestic settings, while dealing with people of pretty much all levels of technical ability.
P.S. If you are going to try and correct my grammar and spelling, perhaps you should consider a few lessons in the use of commas beforehand.
See, the thing is. OSX stems from FreeBSD, a Unix. As such is should be pretty secure. However the point people miss is that people using Unix machines are inherently more technical than the average user. They know not to click on random links, download oddball executable files, and open e-mails with titles like "Get It Bigger, She'll Love You For It".
Similar profiles fit the users of the more "Serious" Linux distros. You pretty much know that someone using Fedora/RedHat/Suse/Mandriva will be fairly technical, and again will know the sensible things to do. On the flipside of this are the users of "Newbie" distros like Ubuntu/Linspire. They often aren't as technical. They can get the stuff working that they need to, but then they aren't too bothered about anything else. Even here there is a certain level of security consciousness. These are users who are either technical, or have in many cases had a Seriously Bad Experience of an infected computer.
Mac users, now then they are living in world of "We are safe because we use Macs". Even back in the days of System 6/7/7.5/8 there have been Mac viruses. However the modern Macs using OSX are sold as super-secure. When in fact we all know they are pretty secure, but not foolproof. This advertising however has made them out to be so secure you don't need to worry about anything. This results in the user thinking they can click what they want, with no consequences. It also results in a certain level of irritating smugness that really riles everyone else. "Get A Mac, It Just Works" rings out on the release of new models, and the party faithful line up to buy Mr Jobs a new Bentley or Three. Then if things don't work Apple just delete the topic on their forums and deny that there is a problem.
Now if you'll excuse me I'll go back to my Windows and Linux boxen. I'll keep my AV programs up to date, and remain pretty paranoid about my own security.
I was trying to get on from 8am, called them at 9 and was advised of the problem. Just kept trying it every half hour. Wasn't working for me at 10:30, was again at 11. Still didn't work properly (Missing Images, slow loading pages) until gone 3pm. Ctrl+F5ing pages got everything back again, but it was annoying.
My handset is up for renewal this week, i've just ordered one on Orange instead of T-Mobile. After repeated patchy service round Lancashire and Cumbria i've had enough.
..and I rather like it. Not used it for a much yet, but seems to have everything I want. Even supported my 770 Series chipset with no issues (10.3 wasn't huge fan of the board, and Ubuntu wouldn't even detect the hard drives).
Later I'll see how it like my Lappy, the combination of Turion X2, Nvidia Chipset and Broadcom wireless has made me give up previously due to a serious case of "More effort than I can be bothered with".
As for the MS and Novell hatred in this thread. Most distros contain something that MS own the licence for, even if it is just .WMA compatability. Come down off the high horse please.
I've played with the RC Releases a little as i'm a long term OpenSUSE user. Felt nice, but was using KDE 4 and it did have a few annoying bugs. Full release should be rather nice to have set up so I can just leave the server up and running for 6 months plus and ignore it again. At the moment it's running Server 2003, and remembering the weekly reboots is a pain.
I don't ring 08xxx numbers all that often, 2 or 3 times a month is normal though, and usually for 20 minutes or so per call. I begrudge paying extra anyway, but trebling the cost isn't exactly going to keep my business unless there are lots of other freebies put in place. Free Web n' Walk may swing it, but only if they allow me enough that I don't have to bother about me connecting the lappy up.
I'm a long-term HP user for my laptops. The only minus to this I can actually see is the awful GMA graphics (which the Air also suffers from). That said, if I personally wasn't paying I would be ordering one. Would make a nice machine with XP and Suse on a dual boot.
As for people saying it's not nice looking, it looks like a laptop that is actually functional rather than pretty. I like the looks more than I like the Air because of that, and so will many others.
I'm reminded of Bill Ray's comment in an article about the iPhone SDK. "But eliciting positive quotes about Apple products is a bit like asking children for their view on Christmas; whatever you hear is going to be predictable and pretty much devoid of insight."
While i'll admit the iPhone has some very cool features, it's come rather late to the smartphone party. I've been using Symbian, Windows Mobile and RIM devices for a few years on and off. Personally I really can't see the attraction with any of them. At least with Symbian and WM you don't have to cope with Vendor lock-in, and the restriction of buying your software through a single point of sale. Nor are you restricted to using a single piece of rather terrible software to connect to those devices (I know iTunes works brilliantly on OSX, but on Windows it's cack). Also RIM have pretty much stitched up the corporate push e-mail market. Any company seriously considering deploying the iPhone to it's people either only has a few handsets, or is only just considering giving their field guys mail capable handsets. Nobody of any size is going to drop their existing Blackberry+BES install in favour of the iPhone. Nor can I see RIM opening up BES to interface with the iPhone. Also taking economics into account anyone with a largish company gets their Blackberry handsets for free as part of their deal with Vodaphone/O2/T-Mobile.
Is the iPhone a nice product? Certainly.
Is it going to take the market? Not a hope.
I was considering an iPhone the 1st time round, and opted for a HTC Wizard instead. I'm due a new phone this month, I'm asking for a Nokia 6500 Classic, because all the smartphones are Too Bloody big!
And again a possibly usefull article is ruined by the MSvApple debate. If you REALLY want to be secure then Solaris is your friend. Macs aren't much more secure than Windows machines because the weakest link in the security chain is drooling on the keyboard opening things they don't understand. The Spyware and Virus share for the Mac is slowly growing, and they even had viruses back in the days of 7.5. The downfall of OSX and viruses with be Hubris on the part of the users. Yes you CAN be infected with a virus, you aren't immune. Someone will write a real nasty at let it out in the wild at some point. When that happens the "We dont get viruses" argument will be the downfall of the machines. I'll be smiling as i reinstall and attempt to recover people's data off HDD's so they don't lose any more of their data.
Erm, that would be incorrect. Apple always used to think of themselves as a hardware company, that also produced the OS. The recent leaning towards being mainly a software company is exactly that, recent. If you disagree take a look inside a Mac Classic and take note of all the names embossed inside the case. You'll see that the great majority of them (Including Woz's) are hardware engineers.
Just out of curiosity, would this be a possible ploy for Apple to return to the PowerPC chips as a base for some of their machines? They still code for the PowerPC chips in 10.5 yes? Is the Intel deal for a set period of time?
Greater minds than mine will no doubt have a better idea, but I know I wouldn't be surprised to be fair. As long as the OS doesn't look any different to the end-user then they won't have massive problems. Most Mac users i know don't boot windows, or in fact use Parallels, they just boot into OSX and do all their stuff. Outside of the tech-savvy it seems there is a lot of ignorance that you even can run windows if you really do need to.
I'm rather impressed. I was getting the impression that AVG 8.0 Wasn't going as a free product. The Paid for version has been around for a while, and I just assumed they would leave 7.5 as the free option. I'm running Sophos on one of my machines, but the others are just running AVG free. I've had too much exposure to McAfee and Norton to ever like them, just hoping that they don't let it get too bloated!
Why the arguments? We know all OSen suck. Doesn't matter if it's Windows, OSX, Linux, Unix or even BeOs. They are all a pain in the arse.
Windows 98SE is actually perfectly acceptable for the majority of users out there. While most of us here are pretty tech-savvy, the average user doesn't care. They just want to turn the computer on, browse the web, shop and do their e-mails. Latest and Greatest doesn't come into it. Though to be fair, Macs aren't good value for money, even in a dim light if you squint. The newest laptop I bought (HP G6031EA, AMD TK-53, 2Gb RAM, GeForce Go6100) does everything I want of it, and then quite a bit more. It boots XP64 and 64Bit OpenSUSE. It "Just Works" once I got rid of the horribly bloated POS that is Vista.
My desktop box is a home built AMD 6000+, 4Gb and an X1950XT. Decent spec for what I use it for (Mainly Browsing and some gaming). Again this boots XP64 and OpenSUSE. The Reason i mention those is that at both points in time I took a serious look at Macs as a possible option. Both times I've had to conceed that for what each of these machines cost me I wouldn't have been able to get a Mac, and still have the same grunt. The Lappy was £375, the desktop was £550 all in. I wouldn't have been able to get the MacPro that would have been essential to actually play games on (once I had installed Windows alongside OSX). price/performance on Macs is a great big fail, and some of us really do work things out like that. Hell, I wouldn't have been able to get a MacBook pro to get away from the horrible Intel graphics chips on the MacBook either, even when you take the combined price of the machines into account.
Macs don't always "Just Work" either. They are just as bad as PCs for perferal hardware compatability. I picked up a cheap Samsung laser printer a few years back, and it refused to be recognised by either my G3 when I bought it, or my mate's Macbook about a month back. They are less prone to hardware conflicts and annoying driver issues essentially because Apple have such a tight level of control over the hardware, but they do still suffer with external devices.
Before I get accused of being a "Mac Hater" i'm not. Until recently I was still using a G3 that was sat under my desk, but after many years faithful service it finally let The Magic Smoke escape, and it's gone to the great recycler in the sky. I used Macs from System 6 onwards, running through various machines including a Powerbook 100, early Powerbook Duos (Now THAT was a snazzy idea), Quadra 630 DOS (shiny P90 card If my memory serves), PowerMac 6500 and eventually the rather awesome and uber reliable G3 (by way of a few other machines as well, including a few Power Computer servers we had at a place I was working). I've also pretty much always had a Windows/Linux box as well because of games, and software availability.
Now please, quit the bickering, it's like being in a playground.
ouchies, i just wrote an essay, nightshift is getting to me I think.
Really come on. I've used OpenSUSE as my OS of choice for a few years now. Though I have had some holidays with RedHat and Ubuntu. Where SUSE falls down is that it has Too Much Stuff included by default. Where it wins is hardware support. I ended up with SUSE after multiple failed attempts at installing Ubuntu onto my Lab Boxen. I was trying to escape Mandrake/Mandriva for some reason I can't actually remember now.
I have also been responsible for rolling Ubuntu onto peoples machines, and some copies od Redhat on servers. It's no better or worse than any other distro, but at least it's users don't wave it in front of everyone's face telling them that it's The Ultimate OS a la Ubuntu & OSX users.
*shrug* I'll no doubt get flamed, but it'll be by fanboys, who's opinions are by deafault worthless.
"tell you what... use an iphone for a month, then come back and give an informative decision. When the iphone launched, i said i wouldnt get one, reminded of that everyday by my friends"
I don't have one, I had if for about 2 weeks, wasn't that impressed.
"To anyone who says you can get handsets for free etc,, yes you can buy wine for £2 a bottle but how come you buy the £7 bottle? Quality and doesnt blow your head apart."
Quality doesn't always depend on price, anyone that thinks that obviously isn't thinking for themselves.
"I now can finally leave my laptop behind and use just the iphone. Could never do that with any other phone no mater how much i tried and i own an ISP."
Unless of course you need an exchange server for work, and the sysadmin refuses to enable the POP3. In which case you are still going to use the laptop, because you have no other choice. At least you get a physical Keyboard and you can add a 3G modem to a lappy as well.
"Anyway , stick your cheap handsets..."
Cheap? OK, i'll tell my GF that she's wrong sticking to her 3g phone, with a 5Mpx camera and it's attendant applications, and i'll feel sorry for myself being "stuck" with my own Windows Mobile device (That is admittedly at times infuriating, but at least i can add any apps i want without voiding the warranty).
"Biased views always win ;-)"
There is little that is more Bias than a fanboy, and one of us is making out that a single product is the best thing ever, that makes which of us Bias?
I work indirectly for an iPhone supplier, we get a discount of sorts as well, yet I still don't have one. Partially due to cost, and partially due to the fact it offers me nothing I (and many other people) want. Convergent devices are all well and good, but only when they offer the features for a good price. I can ring up T-Mobile today and get either a blackberry or windows smartphone for free. Having had a blackberry in the past I don't want one, having a windows mobile phone at the moment I don't want one of those either. Those i) don't cost for the handset, ii) don't cost me £35 a month iii) don't need sending back to Apple for a new battery if it needs replacing iv) don't look like someone dipped it in chipfat after you have made phonecall. I don't own any apple products anymore since my G3 died a horrible smokey death, and don't intend to buy any soon.
I've also got an O2 contract at the moment, and they have collared me twice trying to shift an iPhone onto me. They have offered to cancel my existing contract, and throw a few extras in to sweeten the deal. That is _not_ the sign of a product that is doing as well as they expect.
My present contracts cost me £50 a month in total, and that gives me an Old HTC Wizard from T-Mobile(mine) and an LG Viewty on O2(girlfriend). The Viewty is in my opinion a much better phone than the iPhone, it's just not as pretty, and doesn't require iTunes. Oh, and 3G is rather nice.
Lets use the Viewty as 2 phones isn't a fair example, plus the Wizard is on an old contract:
Handset Cost : £0
Tarrif : £25
£25x18 = £450
So if the girlfriend stick with the Viewty we'll have £550 more to spend on things that are more useful than a fashion phone with a couple of nifty features. Oh, and i did give her the option to swap handset to an iPhone, she pulled her face and hugged her "cheap" LG.
Since His Highness, The Lord Of All, The Saviour Of Personal Computing, Ruling By The Grace Of Woz, His Royal Highness Steve Jobs Says so. If Steve Jobs says something then it _must_ be The Truth.
If it wasn't doing so well they wouldn't be offering to buy out contracts, and sticking some very nice extras into the deals to make them all that much sweeter. We all like paying £1000 for a phone don't we?
"no matter how secure software is, there is always a way to break it". Bollocks!"
Any software security can be broken if you chose to apply enough effort. It's a basic fact that the only really secure computer is the one that is unplugged, locked in a safe, encased in concrete and dropped to the bottom of the ocean.
As for the modern Mac users, it's not the fact they use macs that is annoying, it's their attitude! I used Macs alongside PCs from System 6 to 10.1, and quite liked them. Despite what a number of the PC enthusiasts say they are nice to use. It'll be interesting the 1st time I get someone ringing me up about their system giving popups and the like, because most Mac users don't bother with Anti-Virus programs. After i've stopped laughing i'll head round and work out how to clear it down.
Yeah, you are 5 times more likely to click on an overlay add. Mainly because the close button won't be in the top right corner, it'll be tiny, and it'll only appear after a few seconds, (Or not at all as is the case most of the time with facebook).
Adverts are all well and good, but most people just want to ignore them, and while other sites are offering the same service with adds you can ignore, or no adds at all people will move to other providers.
To honest i can't see them using .OD* files of any format. The software services industry as a whole is more than a little wary of Open Source anything. These are the 'experts' that the people developing the document archive will turn to for advice. In my experience large software services companies have too many tie-ins with Microsoft for them not to recommend .doc (or whatever MS decided to call their next format). Failing that they will opt for .pdf, because "it's free". They invariably fail to mention (or possibly don't know?) that .OD* file readers and editors are also available for free.
Looking on my personal in the past most service suppliers are more concerned about getting their sales percentage from MS then delivering a Good Enough product to the end user. I've yet to find a normal secretary/receptionist that needs anything more OOWriter and Calc (some user's do need the macro functions of Excel though). However, if you even ask a sales guy he'll usually go pale and stutter about how MS product is so superior.
I just built a new PC taking advantage of the AMD price cuts. The System isn't underpowered by any measure. 6000+, 2Gb RAM (4Gb at the end of next month), 256Mb ATi 1950XT, M2A-VM motherboard. You can see where i'm going here, it's a decent spec gaming box, well above the Minimum requirements, and should be fully supported by Vista.
I sat there in front of it using XP Home Edition because that is the OS i have most licences for (All legal as I build boxes for folks). At this point I've also got Vista 64bit to install later on. So i sit down to install Vista on the 2nd partition, it scrolls through the setup process then i get a BSOD. I do a doubletake and try installing again, BSOD again. I think that maybe something is wrong with the disk so re-download the image and burn it to disk again (MSDNAA Customer). 3rd attempt, it looks like it's going well and IT BSODs again. At this point I wonder if XP64 will install on the rig. I get the ISO, burn it to disk and it installs 1st time without complaint (though i did annoyingly have to boot from the XP-Home disk and run the fixboot and fixmbr commands to get rid of any Vista droppings). Someone else I was chatting to had the very same problem with his Retail Copy using almost the same hardware (Slightly slower CPU and more RAM).
I'm staying with XP until it drops out of the support loop, i did the same with W2K, and i'll stick with XP for now thanks. It's a pity I can't play games on the Suse box or I would be doing!
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50 posts • joined Monday 23rd April 2007 08:58 GMT
Aero?
Why Bother?
I'm using the Classic theme, because it's an OS. It lets me find the apps I want to run, and I want it to be clean.
As long as I'm not FORCED to use Metro day-to-day i'll upgrade, otherwise I'll stick with Win7 on all my machines.
Re: Point?
Skydrive auto-sync app working fine here, and as you said, it's 25Gb.
I've used Dropbox before now, not a fan.
So basically they realised the hole they dug for themselves is far too deep to get out of on their own, and they need a little more appeal.
Don't get me wrong, I like Blackberry's products, it's just that they are trying to be all things to all people, and it's not working. Apple know their market, as do the Android handset makers, and MS is now turning out a proper consumer-focused handset OS that really does work well (It got me off Blackberry after many years, and after I had a HD2, a handset that would put anyone off). Blackberry on the other hand have stumbled along producing too many handsets, most of which don't have an obvious market.
RIM if it has a future needs to sell the software products, and let others make the handsets. If it wants to keep the handsets in-house it needs to scale it's range back to a few handsets aimed a few levels of the corporate market again.
I've said for a few years that RIM will end up being bought out by another company, and I was told to stop being stupid. iPhone was the first nail in the coffin, and they keep getting hammered in.
Nice Little Machines...
I'm using a little Acer "Ferrari One" at the moment, had it for about 18 months as it was only £300 brand new when my old lappy died. I used an MSI Wind u135 for a while, but it caused me rage!
Similar points raised in relation to a netbook and this type of machine. Screen res is good, graphics are pretty slick, and it's USABLE. The 11.6" point is where usability and portability meet. You're using a proper keyboard for the most part, you've a screen you can read, and the battery life does well.
18 months down the line the ONLY regret I have in my case is not checking first to see if the XGP parts would come on the market here. They didn't, but I'm still not disappointed by the Sub-Laptop/Big Netbook machines.
Never had them...
To the best of my knowledge they never had them in stock anyway. Her Indoors asked for one as her upgrade, so I asked to be kept informed, and never heard a thing. I checked the website every single day, never a dickybird. Asked them 2 weeks after release date, they said they had no word on supply date.
She's now on Orange, paying less, with the handset she wanted.
TBH I think they are just trying to shift their old Trophy and HD7 stock, but TBH as much as I love my HD7, it's been over a year since release, and I wouldn't agree with anyone getting one now on anything over £25 a month.
Nice to see
At least they are being a little more competative at last. I've never really had any issues with AMD laptops, using an Acer Ferrari One to type this on, works great. Last machine was a 2.0Ghz Turion, and the one previous was an XP Mobile. All have been great at the times they were bought.
Personally for a laptop I'd steer clear of Intel for the most part, as ny desktop does the most work. Anyone using a Laptop as their Only (or main) machine isn't really getting the best experience anyway.
Just put Woz in charge
Because putting Woz in charge will give them the other Founder, and a man who does actually believe in open, interesting, fun and innovative new products.
Might help if customer retentions had a clue...
They wanted £250 for me to upgrade to a Blackberry 9800 from a Curve 8900, that was on a £45 per month contract. I'm dumping that contract in a month or so, and I've already got a 9800 for £30 a month. Their customer retentions people seemed to think that as an existing customer I wasn't worth their time to deal with. Went back with Orange on the new contract as well because we get good contract discounts a month, but I was shocked that basically I could have a 9300 and enjoy it according to Orange.
typing this on my 9800...
I've been a Blackberry user on and off since the 7x00 series devices. A couple of years back I caved in and bought a Pearl as I finally caved in and bought a personal. Blackberry.
I've had few regrets, namely the AWFUL browser on the pre-OS6 devices, but when I got one I knew it was awful! With the Torch I really think they do actually have a handset that matches (and indeed surpasses) the iPhone in many areas. Still not beating the iPhone for media consumption and gaming, but for what matters to most people who buy this type of handset it's stunning.
If Adobe do roll out Flash as they are suggesting, and RIM do roll out a JVM to run Adroid apps (again as the rumours have been saying for months) then the iPhone really does have a serious competitor!
I gave my wife my old 8900 to replace the HD2 thing she's been using, and after a short grump about the keyboard she's already suffering from Blackberry Thumb!
Apple agreed to this years ago
As above, they agreed to do this before the iPhone 1 arrived on the market, then ignored it totally. They'll lost out to the market that buys the new data cable every 6 months because it's broken, again.
Awesome!
Got to love it, some people think the entire 'net is facebook, they'll be in TEARS.
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OpenSUSE user here
OpenSUSE user here, because I'm lazy and prefer everything in one place ready to go. I tried Ubuntu, but TBH I just think of it as Debian for people who aren't technically advanced enough to install Debian directly.
Too expensive.
MyPhone offers enough service for anyone, and you can opt-out of the advertising if you want. Likewise the OVI store stuff, and Blackberry is binging out Blackberry Shield at some point soonish.
All of the already released ones are free if you have the right handsets. Google I wouldn't use, because I prefer not to give them ALL of my information. Blackberry Haven't announced a price for their service yet, but it's unlikely to be expensive, if they even charge for it at all. Plus the features I personally am more concerned about are remote wipe, phone location and OTA backup anyway, these aren't charged for unless you're Apple.
Expensive phone, expensive contracts, vendor lock-in and even the OTA backup being charged? You're having a laugh! I like the iPhone as a media and browsing handset, there is NOTHING to touch it in those areas, but for e-mail and actually making calls on it leaves an awful lot to be desired.
Good call
I'm agreeing with what is already said about security. The iPhone is an amazing handheld browser and media device. However from a security point of view it's a disaster.
You can't enforce what apps are on it, you can't turn the camera off, you can recover wiped data, you can bypass the password easily.
Blackberry on the other hand is designed from the ground up for security. Even the encryption on them is reliant on the hardware side of things as much as the software. You have absolute control over it (I've worked places with varied security levels dependent of the idiocy level of particular users), and you can pretty much support anything remotely using BES (Over 500 pre-defined options IIRC, plus any custom policies).
As for it "only" being verified up to Restricted level, big deal. You shouldn't be carrying around data any more sensitive than that in the first place! It's one of the reasons a lot of large corporates disable USB ports and the like to protect client data!
64bit IE
Is utter garbage, they seem to have done the minimum amount of work so they can say "We're the first to market with a 64Bit browser on Windows". Never mind the fact it's horribly incompatible, horribly insecure with the Active-X controls it does actually support, and just plain horrible to use.
Included in Allowance?
I used to be on T-Mobile, and some time in 2006 they removed the free access to voicemail after I upgraded my call plan. On my previous (Cheaper) plan I wasn't being charged, but with the upgrade they started charging. When my contract came up for renewal I listed it as the main reason for leaving. Some of us don't answer our calls when driving, and turn our phones off when they don't want to be contacted. It annoyed me that they then charged me extra, so I left.
iPhonemobile 'jailbreakers'@ Charles
If you've paid for the handset then it's legally your property. Would you be happy if your OS was locked to use a particular ISP or similar? No you wouldn't, you'd go ape and complain.
I'm running WHS
TBH it's not a bad product. I was going to pile 2k8 on the box I've got, but after installing and setting up I found I had no real use for it. Loads of nice shiny options to play with, but in a home environment they just aren't needed.
I've got the 120 day trial running atm, and it's doing everything I need it to, and a few extra things that are rather useful. I would guess most tech-savvy folks will install 2k8 or 2k3 server, but having done that in the past It's more arse for a home setup than needed.
Reminds me of a homebrew setup...
I remember seeing something similar done years ago. Guy was building a cluster for some university students to use, and just slapped a load of motherboards (P3s) onto a load of shelves, then powered them up. Never realised Google started out with the same idea. Mucho cheapness to do, and fixing things is so easy it's untrue.
@ Alexis
I wouldn't use BMW and Ford as comparisons. If you want to stick with the Ford then think Jaguar X-Type and Ford Mondeo. Basically the same car, but the look is changed to keep the snobs happy.
cash in the COA
Just get the XP version, cash in the COA, instantly you have a cheaper netbook.
@ Martin
Probably Log Me In, or GoToMy PC to be honest. LMI is free, and I even managed to teach my 70-odd year old grandmother how to use it for when she is on holiday. Forget the really clever ways, they may have factored in, but when you dig on these types of stories you'll usually find something like LMI or GTMPC have been used.
If anyone nicks my laptop it's encrypted and insured, so I'm too bothered about it. Also being a normal human being with more sense than money I don't leave it sat in my car, or on my car roof.
@ Robert Moore
Thecloud probably won't have enough RAM for Vista.
This sounds familiar
Do these guys have a stake in NTL/Virgin? They seem to have picked the most irritating punishments for actually using the bandwidth they supply. If they don't want you to download things then they might as well just give you 2Mb and tell you it's tough luck.
Stolen To Order?
Somehow I don't think this stuff will end up on ebay. Or alternatively it's someone who has finally had enough of BT's level of "Service".
1Gb to the home, 10Mb Per month Fair Usage Limit
You just know it'll happen. Especially if BT are involved.
@ asdf - Geography Lessons
You may benefit from them. If you hadn't been informed previously Europe isn't a country, it's a continent.
I work for a company that trades in the US as well as the UK, and i've looked at the deals. We get a better deal when you take all the extra benefits into account (handsets are free, as are 3G modems etc).
@ Charlie Clark
I work nights, it was about 6:30am when I was writing that and my fingers where pretty much going in the direction my brain pushed them rather than aimed them.
"Pretty Secure" is considered perfectly acceptable English here. Unix itself-unless it's messed with to not be-is a fairly secure and a reliable platform.
My real point is that the least secure part of any computer system is the user. OSX users have swallowed the "More Secure, and no viruses" line hook, line and sinker. They by and large believe that there is nothing that can infect their machine, so they can do as they please with nothing to worry about. I'm commenting here from about 15 years of experience supporting systems both in corporate environments, and in domestic settings, while dealing with people of pretty much all levels of technical ability.
P.S. If you are going to try and correct my grammar and spelling, perhaps you should consider a few lessons in the use of commas beforehand.
Apple, Windows and Linux security
See, the thing is. OSX stems from FreeBSD, a Unix. As such is should be pretty secure. However the point people miss is that people using Unix machines are inherently more technical than the average user. They know not to click on random links, download oddball executable files, and open e-mails with titles like "Get It Bigger, She'll Love You For It".
Similar profiles fit the users of the more "Serious" Linux distros. You pretty much know that someone using Fedora/RedHat/Suse/Mandriva will be fairly technical, and again will know the sensible things to do. On the flipside of this are the users of "Newbie" distros like Ubuntu/Linspire. They often aren't as technical. They can get the stuff working that they need to, but then they aren't too bothered about anything else. Even here there is a certain level of security consciousness. These are users who are either technical, or have in many cases had a Seriously Bad Experience of an infected computer.
Mac users, now then they are living in world of "We are safe because we use Macs". Even back in the days of System 6/7/7.5/8 there have been Mac viruses. However the modern Macs using OSX are sold as super-secure. When in fact we all know they are pretty secure, but not foolproof. This advertising however has made them out to be so secure you don't need to worry about anything. This results in the user thinking they can click what they want, with no consequences. It also results in a certain level of irritating smugness that really riles everyone else. "Get A Mac, It Just Works" rings out on the release of new models, and the party faithful line up to buy Mr Jobs a new Bentley or Three. Then if things don't work Apple just delete the topic on their forums and deny that there is a problem.
Now if you'll excuse me I'll go back to my Windows and Linux boxen. I'll keep my AV programs up to date, and remain pretty paranoid about my own security.
wasn't working until at least 10:30
I was trying to get on from 8am, called them at 9 and was advised of the problem. Just kept trying it every half hour. Wasn't working for me at 10:30, was again at 11. Still didn't work properly (Missing Images, slow loading pages) until gone 3pm. Ctrl+F5ing pages got everything back again, but it was annoying.
My handset is up for renewal this week, i've just ordered one on Orange instead of T-Mobile. After repeated patchy service round Lancashire and Cumbria i've had enough.
Now Installed on my desktop box..
..and I rather like it. Not used it for a much yet, but seems to have everything I want. Even supported my 770 Series chipset with no issues (10.3 wasn't huge fan of the board, and Ubuntu wouldn't even detect the hard drives).
Later I'll see how it like my Lappy, the combination of Turion X2, Nvidia Chipset and Broadcom wireless has made me give up previously due to a serious case of "More effort than I can be bothered with".
As for the MS and Novell hatred in this thread. Most distros contain something that MS own the licence for, even if it is just .WMA compatability. Come down off the high horse please.
At Last!
I've played with the RC Releases a little as i'm a long term OpenSUSE user. Felt nice, but was using KDE 4 and it did have a few annoying bugs. Full release should be rather nice to have set up so I can just leave the server up and running for 6 months plus and ignore it again. At the moment it's running Server 2003, and remembering the weekly reboots is a pain.
Just as my contract comes up for renewal...
I don't ring 08xxx numbers all that often, 2 or 3 times a month is normal though, and usually for 20 minutes or so per call. I begrudge paying extra anyway, but trebling the cost isn't exactly going to keep my business unless there are lots of other freebies put in place. Free Web n' Walk may swing it, but only if they allow me enough that I don't have to bother about me connecting the lappy up.
Very Nice.
I'm a long-term HP user for my laptops. The only minus to this I can actually see is the awful GMA graphics (which the Air also suffers from). That said, if I personally wasn't paying I would be ordering one. Would make a nice machine with XP and Suse on a dual boot.
As for people saying it's not nice looking, it looks like a laptop that is actually functional rather than pretty. I like the looks more than I like the Air because of that, and so will many others.
It's nice, but it's not the answer to everything.
I'm reminded of Bill Ray's comment in an article about the iPhone SDK. "But eliciting positive quotes about Apple products is a bit like asking children for their view on Christmas; whatever you hear is going to be predictable and pretty much devoid of insight."
While i'll admit the iPhone has some very cool features, it's come rather late to the smartphone party. I've been using Symbian, Windows Mobile and RIM devices for a few years on and off. Personally I really can't see the attraction with any of them. At least with Symbian and WM you don't have to cope with Vendor lock-in, and the restriction of buying your software through a single point of sale. Nor are you restricted to using a single piece of rather terrible software to connect to those devices (I know iTunes works brilliantly on OSX, but on Windows it's cack). Also RIM have pretty much stitched up the corporate push e-mail market. Any company seriously considering deploying the iPhone to it's people either only has a few handsets, or is only just considering giving their field guys mail capable handsets. Nobody of any size is going to drop their existing Blackberry+BES install in favour of the iPhone. Nor can I see RIM opening up BES to interface with the iPhone. Also taking economics into account anyone with a largish company gets their Blackberry handsets for free as part of their deal with Vodaphone/O2/T-Mobile.
Is the iPhone a nice product? Certainly.
Is it going to take the market? Not a hope.
I was considering an iPhone the 1st time round, and opted for a HTC Wizard instead. I'm due a new phone this month, I'm asking for a Nokia 6500 Classic, because all the smartphones are Too Bloody big!
*sigh*
And again a possibly usefull article is ruined by the MSvApple debate. If you REALLY want to be secure then Solaris is your friend. Macs aren't much more secure than Windows machines because the weakest link in the security chain is drooling on the keyboard opening things they don't understand. The Spyware and Virus share for the Mac is slowly growing, and they even had viruses back in the days of 7.5. The downfall of OSX and viruses with be Hubris on the part of the users. Yes you CAN be infected with a virus, you aren't immune. Someone will write a real nasty at let it out in the wild at some point. When that happens the "We dont get viruses" argument will be the downfall of the machines. I'll be smiling as i reinstall and attempt to recover people's data off HDD's so they don't lose any more of their data.
@ Geoff
Erm, that would be incorrect. Apple always used to think of themselves as a hardware company, that also produced the OS. The recent leaning towards being mainly a software company is exactly that, recent. If you disagree take a look inside a Mac Classic and take note of all the names embossed inside the case. You'll see that the great majority of them (Including Woz's) are hardware engineers.
Back to PowerPC?
Just out of curiosity, would this be a possible ploy for Apple to return to the PowerPC chips as a base for some of their machines? They still code for the PowerPC chips in 10.5 yes? Is the Intel deal for a set period of time?
Greater minds than mine will no doubt have a better idea, but I know I wouldn't be surprised to be fair. As long as the OS doesn't look any different to the end-user then they won't have massive problems. Most Mac users i know don't boot windows, or in fact use Parallels, they just boot into OSX and do all their stuff. Outside of the tech-savvy it seems there is a lot of ignorance that you even can run windows if you really do need to.
Tux, because he need some loving too.
Nice of them!
I'm rather impressed. I was getting the impression that AVG 8.0 Wasn't going as a free product. The Paid for version has been around for a while, and I just assumed they would leave 7.5 as the free option. I'm running Sophos on one of my machines, but the others are just running AVG free. I've had too much exposure to McAfee and Norton to ever like them, just hoping that they don't let it get too bloated!
Thumb Buttons?
I'ver removed the apple software update anyway, but is Safari supporting the thumb buttons on mice yet?
gah! fanboys!
Why the arguments? We know all OSen suck. Doesn't matter if it's Windows, OSX, Linux, Unix or even BeOs. They are all a pain in the arse.
Windows 98SE is actually perfectly acceptable for the majority of users out there. While most of us here are pretty tech-savvy, the average user doesn't care. They just want to turn the computer on, browse the web, shop and do their e-mails. Latest and Greatest doesn't come into it. Though to be fair, Macs aren't good value for money, even in a dim light if you squint. The newest laptop I bought (HP G6031EA, AMD TK-53, 2Gb RAM, GeForce Go6100) does everything I want of it, and then quite a bit more. It boots XP64 and 64Bit OpenSUSE. It "Just Works" once I got rid of the horribly bloated POS that is Vista.
My desktop box is a home built AMD 6000+, 4Gb and an X1950XT. Decent spec for what I use it for (Mainly Browsing and some gaming). Again this boots XP64 and OpenSUSE. The Reason i mention those is that at both points in time I took a serious look at Macs as a possible option. Both times I've had to conceed that for what each of these machines cost me I wouldn't have been able to get a Mac, and still have the same grunt. The Lappy was £375, the desktop was £550 all in. I wouldn't have been able to get the MacPro that would have been essential to actually play games on (once I had installed Windows alongside OSX). price/performance on Macs is a great big fail, and some of us really do work things out like that. Hell, I wouldn't have been able to get a MacBook pro to get away from the horrible Intel graphics chips on the MacBook either, even when you take the combined price of the machines into account.
Macs don't always "Just Work" either. They are just as bad as PCs for perferal hardware compatability. I picked up a cheap Samsung laser printer a few years back, and it refused to be recognised by either my G3 when I bought it, or my mate's Macbook about a month back. They are less prone to hardware conflicts and annoying driver issues essentially because Apple have such a tight level of control over the hardware, but they do still suffer with external devices.
Before I get accused of being a "Mac Hater" i'm not. Until recently I was still using a G3 that was sat under my desk, but after many years faithful service it finally let The Magic Smoke escape, and it's gone to the great recycler in the sky. I used Macs from System 6 onwards, running through various machines including a Powerbook 100, early Powerbook Duos (Now THAT was a snazzy idea), Quadra 630 DOS (shiny P90 card If my memory serves), PowerMac 6500 and eventually the rather awesome and uber reliable G3 (by way of a few other machines as well, including a few Power Computer servers we had at a place I was working). I've also pretty much always had a Windows/Linux box as well because of games, and software availability.
Now please, quit the bickering, it's like being in a playground.
ouchies, i just wrote an essay, nightshift is getting to me I think.
Why does SUSE Suck?
Really come on. I've used OpenSUSE as my OS of choice for a few years now. Though I have had some holidays with RedHat and Ubuntu. Where SUSE falls down is that it has Too Much Stuff included by default. Where it wins is hardware support. I ended up with SUSE after multiple failed attempts at installing Ubuntu onto my Lab Boxen. I was trying to escape Mandrake/Mandriva for some reason I can't actually remember now.
I have also been responsible for rolling Ubuntu onto peoples machines, and some copies od Redhat on servers. It's no better or worse than any other distro, but at least it's users don't wave it in front of everyone's face telling them that it's The Ultimate OS a la Ubuntu & OSX users.
*shrug* I'll no doubt get flamed, but it'll be by fanboys, who's opinions are by deafault worthless.
"cheap" handsets?
"tell you what... use an iphone for a month, then come back and give an informative decision. When the iphone launched, i said i wouldnt get one, reminded of that everyday by my friends"
I don't have one, I had if for about 2 weeks, wasn't that impressed.
"To anyone who says you can get handsets for free etc,, yes you can buy wine for £2 a bottle but how come you buy the £7 bottle? Quality and doesnt blow your head apart."
Quality doesn't always depend on price, anyone that thinks that obviously isn't thinking for themselves.
"I now can finally leave my laptop behind and use just the iphone. Could never do that with any other phone no mater how much i tried and i own an ISP."
Unless of course you need an exchange server for work, and the sysadmin refuses to enable the POP3. In which case you are still going to use the laptop, because you have no other choice. At least you get a physical Keyboard and you can add a 3G modem to a lappy as well.
"Anyway , stick your cheap handsets..."
Cheap? OK, i'll tell my GF that she's wrong sticking to her 3g phone, with a 5Mpx camera and it's attendant applications, and i'll feel sorry for myself being "stuck" with my own Windows Mobile device (That is admittedly at times infuriating, but at least i can add any apps i want without voiding the warranty).
"Biased views always win ;-)"
There is little that is more Bias than a fanboy, and one of us is making out that a single product is the best thing ever, that makes which of us Bias?
@ Seanie
I work indirectly for an iPhone supplier, we get a discount of sorts as well, yet I still don't have one. Partially due to cost, and partially due to the fact it offers me nothing I (and many other people) want. Convergent devices are all well and good, but only when they offer the features for a good price. I can ring up T-Mobile today and get either a blackberry or windows smartphone for free. Having had a blackberry in the past I don't want one, having a windows mobile phone at the moment I don't want one of those either. Those i) don't cost for the handset, ii) don't cost me £35 a month iii) don't need sending back to Apple for a new battery if it needs replacing iv) don't look like someone dipped it in chipfat after you have made phonecall. I don't own any apple products anymore since my G3 died a horrible smokey death, and don't intend to buy any soon.
I've also got an O2 contract at the moment, and they have collared me twice trying to shift an iPhone onto me. They have offered to cancel my existing contract, and throw a few extras in to sweeten the deal. That is _not_ the sign of a product that is doing as well as they expect.
My present contracts cost me £50 a month in total, and that gives me an Old HTC Wizard from T-Mobile(mine) and an LG Viewty on O2(girlfriend). The Viewty is in my opinion a much better phone than the iPhone, it's just not as pretty, and doesn't require iTunes. Oh, and 3G is rather nice.
Lets use the Viewty as 2 phones isn't a fair example, plus the Wizard is on an old contract:
Handset Cost : £0
Tarrif : £25
£25x18 = £450
So if the girlfriend stick with the Viewty we'll have £550 more to spend on things that are more useful than a fashion phone with a couple of nifty features. Oh, and i did give her the option to swap handset to an iPhone, she pulled her face and hugged her "cheap" LG.
@ AC
Since His Highness, The Lord Of All, The Saviour Of Personal Computing, Ruling By The Grace Of Woz, His Royal Highness Steve Jobs Says so. If Steve Jobs says something then it _must_ be The Truth.
If it wasn't doing so well they wouldn't be offering to buy out contracts, and sticking some very nice extras into the deals to make them all that much sweeter. We all like paying £1000 for a phone don't we?
@ Breaking
"no matter how secure software is, there is always a way to break it". Bollocks!"
Any software security can be broken if you chose to apply enough effort. It's a basic fact that the only really secure computer is the one that is unplugged, locked in a safe, encased in concrete and dropped to the bottom of the ocean.
As for the modern Mac users, it's not the fact they use macs that is annoying, it's their attitude! I used Macs alongside PCs from System 6 to 10.1, and quite liked them. Despite what a number of the PC enthusiasts say they are nice to use. It'll be interesting the 1st time I get someone ringing me up about their system giving popups and the like, because most Mac users don't bother with Anti-Virus programs. After i've stopped laughing i'll head round and work out how to clear it down.
5 times more likely?
Yeah, you are 5 times more likely to click on an overlay add. Mainly because the close button won't be in the top right corner, it'll be tiny, and it'll only appear after a few seconds, (Or not at all as is the case most of the time with facebook).
Adverts are all well and good, but most people just want to ignore them, and while other sites are offering the same service with adds you can ignore, or no adds at all people will move to other providers.
Open Format?
To honest i can't see them using .OD* files of any format. The software services industry as a whole is more than a little wary of Open Source anything. These are the 'experts' that the people developing the document archive will turn to for advice. In my experience large software services companies have too many tie-ins with Microsoft for them not to recommend .doc (or whatever MS decided to call their next format). Failing that they will opt for .pdf, because "it's free". They invariably fail to mention (or possibly don't know?) that .OD* file readers and editors are also available for free.
Looking on my personal in the past most service suppliers are more concerned about getting their sales percentage from MS then delivering a Good Enough product to the end user. I've yet to find a normal secretary/receptionist that needs anything more OOWriter and Calc (some user's do need the macro functions of Excel though). However, if you even ask a sales guy he'll usually go pale and stutter about how MS product is so superior.
Vista "Compatability"
I just built a new PC taking advantage of the AMD price cuts. The System isn't underpowered by any measure. 6000+, 2Gb RAM (4Gb at the end of next month), 256Mb ATi 1950XT, M2A-VM motherboard. You can see where i'm going here, it's a decent spec gaming box, well above the Minimum requirements, and should be fully supported by Vista.
I sat there in front of it using XP Home Edition because that is the OS i have most licences for (All legal as I build boxes for folks). At this point I've also got Vista 64bit to install later on. So i sit down to install Vista on the 2nd partition, it scrolls through the setup process then i get a BSOD. I do a doubletake and try installing again, BSOD again. I think that maybe something is wrong with the disk so re-download the image and burn it to disk again (MSDNAA Customer). 3rd attempt, it looks like it's going well and IT BSODs again. At this point I wonder if XP64 will install on the rig. I get the ISO, burn it to disk and it installs 1st time without complaint (though i did annoyingly have to boot from the XP-Home disk and run the fixboot and fixmbr commands to get rid of any Vista droppings). Someone else I was chatting to had the very same problem with his Retail Copy using almost the same hardware (Slightly slower CPU and more RAM).
I'm staying with XP until it drops out of the support loop, i did the same with W2K, and i'll stick with XP for now thanks. It's a pity I can't play games on the Suse box or I would be doing!