John Dvorak Concedes 2007 was a "Crappy Year" for Windows Enthusiasts

<Quote>
Daniel Eran Dilger
John Dvorak looked back at "another crappy career year for tech" and
decided "Microsoft, Apple, and Google were to blame." Being right on
one count out of three isn't a bad record for Dvorak, who typically
gets everything wrong. Considering his self-flagellating lamentations
of 2007 in PC Mag makes for a comical framework for looking back at a
year that was particularly distressing to Windows Enthusiasts.

Dvorak's Crapy Year.
Among the problems for his "crappy" 2007 was that some irrelevant
dictionary added "w00t" as its word of the year, and that the scrappy
Nintendo Wii humiliated the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3,
as I predicted would likely happen. Microsoft was well represented in
his list of complaints, with the WGA fiasco and the Windows Vista
Yawn.

PlayStation 3 vs. Xbox 360 vs. Nintendo Wii

Clearly, 2007 was not a good year for Microsoft, but Dvorak forgot to
mention the worst of Microsoft's problems:

The Zune: nobody cared about Microsoft' embarrassing predicament a the
hands of the iPod throughout 2007. After squirting out a tepid updates
that made it look more competitive with the low end of last year's
iPod line, Apple countered Microsoft's best efforts with the release
of a series of new models that trounced Zune 2.0, from the thin Nano
with games and video output to the Touch featuring a full web browser
and live podcast playback over the web. Microsoft was left only to
brag that it was finally able to sell off most of its 2006 inventory-
already reported as sold-at fire sale prices.

Windows Mobile: after struggling for a decade to get WinCE installed
on something, Microsoft's plans largely focused on mobile smartphones.
Unfortunately, in 2007 Apple targeted the same market with a device
even hotter than the iPod. Even worse, while far more sophisticated
and attractive, the iPhone paired with a service plan costs hundreds
less than an entry level Windows Mobile phone such as the basic
Motorola Q. No wonder Apple outsold the entire range of Windows Mobile
devices in its first quarter of sales, and ended up with a stronger
showing in web stats than every other mobile browser combined.

Proprietary Formats: one key element to Microsoft's monopolistic
control over the PC has been its use of proprietary formats to force
users into buying everything from Microsoft. However, in 2007 a
variety of events eroded into that stranglehold. Windows Media DRM was
given the final boot in audio with MPEG AAC, and video with H.264. The
ISO rejected Microsoft's OOXML advanced to replace the existing Open
Document standard for productivity applications. Even DirectX is
facing increasing competition from Mac, Linux, Playstation, and Wii
applications that all use OpenGL for their graphics.

The Vista Yawn: Microsoft discovered, as I predicted, that 2007 wasn't
going to be like 1995. Retail Vista sales were disappointing to say
the least, corporate interest was simply absent, and even hardware
makers balked at loading up Vista Home Basic and forcing their users
to upgrade to a more expensive version that actually works as
expected.

Windows 95 and Vista: Why 2007 Won't Be Like 1995

Vista uptake has been reported to be about half that of Windows XP,
despite the fact that the PC market has grown significantly since 2001
and the reality that many Windows PC users regularly buy new computers
just to run away from their old infected machines rather than paying
to clean their old system out. Exacerbating the Vista problem is the
pestilent detail that an increasing number of users are now buying
Macs so they can run both yesterday's Windows XP and upgrade to Mac OS
X without the security problems, spyware, and adware push.

[Dvorak's April 07 comment that Vista's problems due to PC makers...]

Dvorak recommended that Microsoft build its own PC and screw over its
Windows licensee partners. Yes, that worked so well with the Zune!
Perhaps if Microsoft shipped its own Windows PC, it wouldn't break
compatibility between its MS PC and third party boxes, but imagine the
profits behind selling Office for MS PC-Windows separately from Office
for regular Windows.

The downside to Dvorak's hardware fantasy is that Microsoft has no
expertise in making or marketing functional hardware. Look at the
billion dollar losses behind the Xbox line, along with its 33% or
greater record for hardware failure. And look at what Microsoft did to
WebTV, MSNTV, and even its best ideas for music players, handheld
gaming, SPOT watches and other hardware that all stunk to high heaven.

[Dvorak complaints about Apple, Google...]

Microsoft was up 19.2%, Google 50.2%, but Apple was up 133.5% [in
2007]. No wonder Dvorak is kvetching.

[Dvorak's bad predictions about iPhone...]

Of course, reality is beyond him because Dvorak has no technical
competency in predicting what will work out and what won't. Why does
Dvorak command $40,000 speaking engagements despite not having written
anything interesting, accurate, or thought provoking in the last
decade? He's a professional troll. Fortunately for him, nobody in the
speaking engagement circuit or sound-bite seeking world of New
Journalism cares about substance.
</Quote>

[url]http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/01/02/john-dvorak-conceeds-2007-was-a-%e2%80%9ccrappy-year%e2%80%9d-for-windows-enthusiasts/[/url]

* [email]nessuno@wigner.berkeley.edu[/email] fired off this tart reply:
[color=blue]
> <Quote>[/color]

This one was a laffer for me:
[color=blue]
> The Zune: nobody cared about Microsoft' embarrassing predicament a the
> hands of the iPod throughout 2007. After squirting out a tepid updates
> that made it look more competitive with the low end of last year's
> iPod line, Apple countered Microsoft's best efforts with the release
> of a series of new models that trounced Zune 2.0, from the thin Nano
> with games and video output to the Touch featuring a full web browser
> and live podcast playback over the web. Microsoft was left only to
> brag that it was finally able to sell off most of its 2006 inventory-
> already reported as sold-at fire sale prices.[/color]

Already reported as sold. What other MS product does that sound like?

Here's another laffer:
[color=blue]
> Dvorak recommended that Microsoft build its own PC and screw over its
> Windows licensee partners. Yes, that worked so well with the Zune!
> . . .
>
> The downside to Dvorak's hardware fantasy is that Microsoft has no
> expertise in making or marketing functional hardware. Look at the
> billion dollar losses behind the Xbox line, along with its 33% or
> greater record for hardware failure. And look at what Microsoft did to
> WebTV, MSNTV, and even its best ideas for music players, handheld
> gaming, SPOT watches and other hardware that all stunk to high heaven.
>
> [url]http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/01/02/john-dvorak-conceeds-2007-was-a-%e2%80%9ccrappy-year%e2%80%9d-for-windows-enthusiasts/[/url][/color]

Their keyboards aren't too bad though.

--
GNU/Linux rox, Tux!

[color=blue]
>
> Their keyboards aren't too bad though.[/color]

I used to say that about their mouse, too, but recently I've switched
to Logitech and like it much better (costs more, though). My
keyboard is an IBM/Lenovo. Need to find one without the Microsoft
flag.

To me one of the most interesting things about the article is the
quotes on stock prices over the last year:

Microsoft up 15%
Google up 50%
Apple up 133%

I think if you look over the last 5 years the comparison is even more
dramatic. I recall figures like $7 for Apple 5 years ago vs $200
now. I may not have these figures correct, but I think it is true
that Apple has been an extremely good investment in recent years,
while Microsoft has been so-so. I'd be interested to see graphs of
stock prices for all these companies in the last five years, RedHat
and Novell too. We know what happened to SCO. Meanwhile, trolls on
cola are bragging about how good an investment Microsoft is.

Market share is another statistic I'd like to see quantified
(honestly, I mean). Of course it's slippery to define, for example,
Apple is stronger in the US than elsewhere, and Linux is stronger
elsewhere than in the US. And for many other reasons. But it
certainly looks like both Apple and Linux are eating into Microsoft's
share of the desktop, from opposite ends, although Linux is currently
small.

____/ [email]nessuno@wigner.berkeley.edu[/email] on Wednesday 02 January 2008 23:22 : \____
[color=blue]
> Microsoft Â* up 15%
> Google Â* Â* Â*up 50%
> Apple Â* Â* Â* Â*up 133%
>
> I think if you look over the last 5 years the comparison is even more
> dramatic.[/color]

It means very little. Microsoft is pumping cash into the stock. In general,
stock price does not indicate much because it doesn't just gauge actual
wealth. IBM and Dell, IIRC, are in heavy buyback mode as well. Novell will
inevitably end up this way as well.

--
~~ Best of wishes

Roy S. Schestowitz | Useless fact: Women blink twice as much as men
[url]http://Schestowitz.com[/url] | Open Prospects | PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Tasks: 121 total, 1 running, 120 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
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On Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:00:49 -0500, Linonut wrote:
[color=blue]
> Their keyboards aren't too bad though.[/color]

As a matter of principle, I won't purchase or recommend for purchase
anything branded with the Microsoft label unless absolutely necessary.

____/ alt on Thursday 03 January 2008 01:06 : \____
[color=blue]
> On Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:00:49 -0500, Linonut wrote:
>[color=green]
>> Their keyboards aren't too bad though.[/color]
>
> As a matter of principle, I won't purchase or recommend for purchase
> anything branded with the Microsoft label unless absolutely necessary.[/color]

if you feed the ogres, they'll never leave.

--
~~ Best of wishes

"The number of developers working on improving Linux vastly exceeds the number
of Microsoft developers working on Windows NT."
--Paul Maritz, Microsoft

* alt fired off this tart reply:
[color=blue]
> On Wed, 02 Jan 2008 18:00:49 -0500, Linonut wrote:
>[color=green]
>> Their keyboards aren't too bad though.[/color]
>
> As a matter of principle, I won't purchase or recommend for purchase
> anything branded with the Microsoft label unless absolutely necessary.[/color]

The MS Ergonomic 4000 was on sale at Office Depot. But gone by the time
I got there. So now I'm thinking of ordering an Inland Ergonomic via
Tiger Direct. Probably still has the Genuine Monopoly Logo on it, though.

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In article <jCUej.44059$vt2.685@bignews8.bellsouth.net>,
Linonut <linonut@bollsouth.nut> wrote:[color=blue]
> This one was a laffer for me:
>[color=green]
> > The Zune: nobody cared about Microsoft' embarrassing predicament a the
> > hands of the iPod throughout 2007. After squirting out a tepid updates
> > that made it look more competitive with the low end of last year's
> > iPod line, Apple countered Microsoft's best efforts with the release
> > of a series of new models that trounced Zune 2.0, from the thin Nano
> > with games and video output to the Touch featuring a full web browser
> > and live podcast playback over the web. Microsoft was left only to
> > brag that it was finally able to sell off most of its 2006 inventory-
> > already reported as sold-at fire sale prices.[/color]
>
> Already reported as sold. What other MS product does that sound like?[/color]

On the other hand, Zune isn't the only player that was trounced by iPod.
All of the others were, too. Just compare among the non-iPod players,
and Zune is actually doing well. Among hard disk players, it seems to
have one of the best price/capacity ratios. It's main problem there is
iPod--the iPod Classic has the same price/capacity ratio for the 80 GB
model, and iPod also offers 160 GB which beats it, and the others.

Of course, iPod exists, so doing well among the non-iPods isn't all that
spectacular.

--
--Tim Smith

On Jan 2, 6:22 pm, "ness...@wigner.berkeley.edu"
<ness...@wigner.berkeley.edu> wrote:[color=blue][color=green]
> > Their keyboards aren't too bad though.[/color][/color]
[color=blue]
> I used to say that about their mouse, too, but recently I've switched
> to Logitech and like it much better (costs more, though). My
> keyboard is an IBM/Lenovo.[/color]

I use a Logitech trackball, but most of the time I just use my
ThinkPad "stick", or occasionally
[color=blue]
> Need to find one without the Microsoft flag.[/color]

I'm less concerned about the flag on the keyboard, than I am about how
quickly and easily I can easily I can get the whole computer running
Linux.
[color=blue]
> To me one of the most interesting things about the article is the
> quotes on stock prices over the last year:
>
> Microsoft up 15%
> Google up 50%
> Apple up 133%[/color]

He forgot:
Linux related portion of Novell's revenue - up 69%
Lenovo (Linux now runs on almost all models) - up 150%

Gateway (loyal to Microsoft) - down to less than $1/share before being
sold to Acer

Acer, a big supporter of Linux and open critic of Vista, has gone from
$40/share in August 2006, and has soared to almost $80/share in
October 2009.


[color=blue]
> I think if you look over the last 5 years the comparison is even more
> dramatic. I recall figures like $7 for Apple 5 years ago vs $200
> now.[/color]

Close enough, on April 17, of 2003, the price was as low as $6.65.
[color=blue]
> I may not have these figures correct, but I think it is true
> that Apple has been an extremely good investment in recent years,
> while Microsoft has been so-so.[/color]

Microsoft stock hung between $23 and $27 from 2001 to 2006, and has
only climbed to between $32 and $37 in 2007, and even those increases
were based on Microsoft's self-funding of it's distribution channels,
and some stock buy-backs. At the same time, insiders have sold almost
41 million shares directly back to Microsoft.
[color=blue]
> I'd be interested to see graphs of
> stock prices for all these companies in the last five years, RedHat
> and Novell too. We know what happened to SCO. Meanwhile, trolls on
> cola are bragging about how good an investment Microsoft is.[/color]

Look at the "Pure Microsoft" plays.
Gateway - now nearly bankrupt taken over by Acer.
SCO - now nearly bankrupt.

It seems that Bill has reduced his 2 billion shares to 857 million.
Ballmer is down to 408 million.
Paul Allen has sold off.
John Shirley has only 1.4 million,
and Jeffrey Raikes only 5.4 million shares.

Gates is 52 and ready to retire.
Ballmer is about the same, and not in the best of health.

Methinks that some of the big institutional investors are about to get
"stuck", some could lose as much as $15 billion.
[color=blue]
> Market share is another statistic I'd like to see quantified
> (honestly, I mean).[/color]

You, me, and everyone else in the industry. There does seem to be a
strong indicator that Vista is not doing well. After one year, Vista
has only penetrated 4% of what is supposed to be "Microsoft's" market.

PC unit volumes are down, prices have eroded to pre-XP prices, even
though they now have twice as much memory, storage, and CPU power.

There seems to be a dearth of market statistics.
How many OpenGL compatible adapters were sold?
Browser statistics just say who owns the most IP addresses.
Counting page-views doesn't count squid cached pages.

But let's look at some of the companies who DO count USERS, and can
tell when they are using Linux or "Other" that is probably Linux.

Microsoft - has declared Linux "enemy number one". When testifying
under oath, Microsoft testified that Linux had 17% of the market, when
browser surveys said it only had 1%, and that was in the 2002 EU
trial.

Google - has become a huge supporter of Linux and Open Source.

Sun - big supporter of Linux.

Yahoo and AOL - now Linux friendly.

Adobe - now releasing Linux version at same time as Windodws.

IBM - has client software for Linux, including Lotus Notes 8 and Lotus
Symphony.

Secondary indicators:

Mozilla FireFox - downloaded by over 1/2 billion users, estimated to
be used by almost 40% of all PC users (using skewed browser survey).

OpenOffice - 100 million "official" downloads, actual downloads
estimated at over 250 million.

An old classic, "sizing the Linux Market" written by Bob Young in 1997
[url]http://bat8.inria.fr/~lang/hotlist/free/use/linuxmarket.html[/url]

It shows many of the problems of trying to "count" Linux users.

We have a pretty good idea of how fast the market is growing (about
70% per year since 2001, and about 200% from 1996 to 2001.

XP slowed the momentum of Linux, but didn't stop it, and Linux seems
to still have been growing at 3-5 times the rate of Microsoft. Of
course, Microsoft has been shipped with 100 million PC per year,

Even survey methods are flawed, because many Linux users use BOTH
Windows AND Linux, often on the same PC. Most surveys assume that you
can only run one OR the other.

This is also the flaw in PC marketing. Instead of offering the choice
of Windows OR Linux, the OEMs need to offer the option of Windows AND
Linux (for a higher price of course).

This is also Microsoft's flaw in claiming market share. Microsoft
wants us to assume that just because a PC is SOLD with Windows, that
Windows is the only operating system that will ever be installed.
[color=blue]
> Of course it's slippery to define, for example,
> Apple is stronger in the US than elsewhere,[/color]

Apple is also very popular in Europe as well.
[color=blue]
> and Linux is stronger
> elsewhere than in the US. And for many other reasons.[/color]

Linux just plays a different role.

Keep in mind that Linux is more than just the kernel, it's also the
entire suite of Open Source Software, and the Open Standards, and this
is where Linux is really winning.
[color=blue]
> But it certainly looks like both Apple and Linux are
> eating into Microsoft's share of the desktop,[/color]

More importantly, Vista has stalled severely.

Microsoft took a huge gamble at several levels. They tried to make
Vista an "All or Nothing" proposition. They were hoping to force
Linux completely off the PC platform. They wrote this into their
license agreements. They wrote this into their OEM agreements. They
wrote this into their software. They added features which would allow
Microsoft to prevent the installations of boot managers, prevent the
installation of virtualization software, and prevent the installation
of software that has not been "certified" as safe by Microsoft.

Microsoft also required end-users to grant them permission to disable
their computers if Microsoft detected a license violation, which could
be falsely triggered by such things as disk partitioning, disk
replacement, or adding disks.

It all backfired. Microsoft inappropriately killed lots of innocent
computers. They alienated Linux users against Vista. Unfortunately,
this included many corporate customers who mandated that all new PCs
be "Linux Ready" in case Microsoft tried to disable their licenses.

Microsoft also tried to require that PCs be configured with DirectX-10
video cards in order to get it to do the "WOW" things shown in the
television advertizing. The problem was that most of the PCs being
sold were being chosen to be "Linux Ready".

The net result is that even though Microsoft has claimed about 100
million Vista licenses over the last year, only about 40 million of
them seem to actually be running Vista. Most were actually shipped
with XP.
[color=blue]
> from opposite ends,
> although Linux is currently small.[/color]

You might be surprised. Remember, even though Microsoft has about 10
years worth of computers, roughly 1 billion PCs, out there in the
marketplace, their market isn''t growing significantly. Meanwhile,
many PCs originally sold with Windows are being converted to Linux.
Many of these PCs are "hybrids" running both Linux and Windows at the
same time.

It's quite possible that the number of Linux users, including those
using Linux on hybrid machines, could increase by over 100 million
this year. Meanwhile, Microsoft has been able to get Vista to even 40
million PCs, and most of those PCs are replacements for existing
Windows users, which means no net gain in market share.

Statistically, on a quarter by quarter basis, Linux is "outselling"
Windows in terms of generating new users and incremental market share.

The real question is how to measure the Linux population accurately.
The first problem is that you have to assume that Linux users may be
using BOTH Linux and Windows from the same location. You need to
count each environment uniquely, but only once.

But even if you did get that information, you probably wouldn't be
allowed to publish your findings, and even if you did want to publish
it, you would probably join the various other researchers who charge
$2000 to $5000 PER VIEWER for their reports.

* Tim Smith fired off this tart reply:
[color=blue]
> In article <jCUej.44059$vt2.685@bignews8.bellsouth.net>,
> Linonut <linonut@bollsouth.nut> wrote:[color=green]
>>[color=darkred]
>> > ... Apple countered Microsoft's best efforts with the release
>> > of a series of new models that trounced Zune 2.0, ...
>> > Microsoft was left only to
>> > brag that it was finally able to sell off most of its 2006 inventory-
>> > already reported as sold-at fire sale prices.[/color][/color]
>
> On the other hand, Zune isn't the only player that was trounced by iPod.
> All of the others were, too. Just compare among the non-iPod players,
> and Zune is actually doing well.[/color]

What, all the other manufacturers are also dumping their already-sold
hardware at fire-sale prices?
[color=blue]
> Among hard disk players, it seems to
> have one of the best price/capacity ratios. It's main problem there is
> iPod--the iPod Classic has the same price/capacity ratio for the 80 GB
> model, and iPod also offers 160 GB which beats it, and the others.
>
> Of course, iPod exists, so doing well among the non-iPods isn't all that
> spectacular.[/color]

The point is, I think, that Microsoft's big crusher fell flat, and
Microsoft, unlike Apple, doesn't seem to have a follow-through plan.

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* Rex Ballard fired off this tart reply:
[color=blue]
> PC unit volumes are down, prices have eroded to pre-XP prices, even
> though they now have twice as much memory, storage, and CPU power.[/color]

We've noticed.
[color=blue]
> The net result is that even though Microsoft has claimed about 100
> million Vista licenses over the last year, only about 40 million of
> them seem to actually be running Vista. Most were actually shipped
> with XP.
>
> . . .
>
> But even if you did get that information, you probably wouldn't be
> allowed to publish your findings, and even if you did want to publish
> it, you would probably join the various other researchers who charge
> $2000 to $5000 PER VIEWER for their reports.[/color]


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On Jan 2, 4:56 pm, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@schestowitz.com> wrote:[color=blue]
> ____/ ness...@wigner.berkeley.edu on Wednesday 02 January 2008 23:22 : \____
>[color=green]
> > Microsoft up 15%
> > Google up 50%
> > Apple up 133%[/color]
>[color=green]
> > I think if you look over the last 5 years the comparison is even more
> > dramatic.[/color]
>
> It means very little. Microsoft is pumping cash into the stock. In general,
> stock price does not indicate much because it doesn't just gauge actual
> wealth. IBM and Dell, IIRC, are in heavy buyback mode as well. Novell will
> inevitably end up this way as well.[/color]

Yes, I've read how many large corporations in the US are buying back
stock. But to the extent that is true of Microsoft, it means that
their 15% gain means less than it seems. I don't know if Apple has
been buying back stock, but surely their 133% gain is related to the
success of iPod, iPhone and OS/X.

Linonut wrote:
[color=blue]
>* Tim Smith fired off this tart reply:[color=green]
>>
>> On the other hand, Zune isn't the only player that was trounced by iPod.
>> All of the others were, too. Just compare among the non-iPod players,
>> and Zune is actually doing well.[/color]
>
>What, all the other manufacturers are also dumping their already-sold
>hardware at fire-sale prices?
>[color=green]
>> Among hard disk players, it seems to
>> have one of the best price/capacity ratios. It's main problem there is
>> iPod--the iPod Classic has the same price/capacity ratio for the 80 GB
>> model, and iPod also offers 160 GB which beats it, and the others.
>>
>> Of course, iPod exists, so doing well among the non-iPods isn't all that
>> spectacular.[/color]
>
>The point is, I think, that Microsoft's big crusher fell flat, and
>Microsoft, unlike Apple, doesn't seem to have a follow-through plan.[/color]

I would also point-out that the Zune has failed despite the benefit of
a massive marketing campaign, the buying of "end-cap space" in stores,
etc, that other "non Ipods" have not had. Not to mention Micro$oft's
brand-name recognition and support of the Zune.

*unplonk* Timmy Smith. (It's slow around here.)

[email]nessuno@wigner.berkeley.edu[/email] <nessuno@wigner.berkeley.edu> espoused:[color=blue]
> On Jan 2, 4:56 pm, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@schestowitz.com> wrote:[color=green]
>> ____/ ness...@wigner.berkeley.edu on Wednesday 02 January 2008 23:22 : \____
>>[color=darkred]
>> > Microsoft up 15%
>> > Google up 50%
>> > Apple up 133%[/color]
>>[color=darkred]
>> > I think if you look over the last 5 years the comparison is even more
>> > dramatic.[/color]
>>
>> It means very little. Microsoft is pumping cash into the stock. In general,
>> stock price does not indicate much because it doesn't just gauge actual
>> wealth. IBM and Dell, IIRC, are in heavy buyback mode as well. Novell will
>> inevitably end up this way as well.[/color]
>
> Yes, I've read how many large corporations in the US are buying back
> stock. But to the extent that is true of Microsoft, it means that
> their 15% gain means less than it seems. I don't know if Apple has
> been buying back stock, but surely their 133% gain is related to the
> success of iPod, iPhone and OS/X.[/color]

The actual share price is meaningless unless you multiply it by the
number of shares in order to get the actual market cap.

As Microsoft have been buying back shares, they have been reducing their
market cap by the value of each of these shares which they bought back,
although that is ameliorated by the rise in value which went on at the
same time.

You then need to take into account the indices of the market for the
same period, and as far as possible look at how the overall market
moved. If they overall market moved up by, say, 10%, then Microsoft's
15% is really a 5% increase above the market, which might be almost
entirely funded by share buy-back, thus reducing their market cap by the
value of those shares.

Of course, analysts look at this stuff all the time, but as many of them
are non-technical, they often get things wrong, as they are as much
driven by mathematical analysis of reported financial performance plus
ongoing trading as they are by a deep understanding of the actual market
in which the company operates.

--
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| Cola trolls: [url]http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/[/url] |
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On Jan 3, 12:22 am, "ness...@wigner.berkeley.edu"
<ness...@wigner.berkeley.edu> wrote:[color=blue]
> I used to say that about their mouse, too, but recently I've switched
> to Logitech and like it much better (costs more, though). My
> keyboard is an IBM/Lenovo. Need to find one without the Microsoft
> flag.
>[/color]

If you want to have a keyboard without the windows flag, here are som
examples of those that don't. I'm pretty certain that neither of these
are what you are looking for, maybe the last.

[url]http://www.daskeyboard.com/[/url]

Das keyboard is a really exclusive keyboard, for anyone who want to
learn to type fast. Then there is the budget version of das keyboard,
that is called bzerk blank. I got that one, and think that it is
really good. It takes a little time to get used to. I still make alot
of typos after 2 to 3 weeks of using it, but I'm getting alot faster.

Then there is happy hacking keyboard, which might be something that
you are looking for.

[url]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_Hacking_Keyboard[/url]

It exists in three different version, of which only one is available
today. It is slimmer and lacks a lot of the keys that exists on
ordinary keyboards, but those are often unnecessary and makes you
slower at typing.

/Your friendly neighbourhood Ewok

<nessuno@wigner.berkeley.edu> wrote in message
news:3b337575-0c7e-44b0-8087-1d94f989bcf6@d21g2000prf.googlegroups.com...[color=blue]
> <Quote>
> Daniel Eran Dilger
> John Dvorak looked back at "another crappy career year for tech" and
> decided "Microsoft, Apple, and Google were to blame." Being right on
> one count out of three isn't a bad record for Dvorak, who typically
> gets everything wrong. Considering his self-flagellating lamentations
> of 2007 in PC Mag makes for a comical framework for looking back at a
> year that was particularly distressing to Windows Enthusiasts.
>
> Dvorak's Crapy Year.
> Among the problems for his "crappy" 2007 was that some irrelevant
> dictionary added "w00t" as its word of the year, and that the scrappy
> Nintendo Wii humiliated the Microsoft Xbox 360 and Sony PlayStation 3,
> as I predicted would likely happen. Microsoft was well represented in
> his list of complaints, with the WGA fiasco and the Windows Vista
> Yawn.
>
> PlayStation 3 vs. Xbox 360 vs. Nintendo Wii
>
> Clearly, 2007 was not a good year for Microsoft, but Dvorak forgot to
> mention the worst of Microsoft's problems:
>
> The Zune: nobody cared about Microsoft' embarrassing predicament a the
> hands of the iPod throughout 2007. After squirting out a tepid updates
> that made it look more competitive with the low end of last year's
> iPod line, Apple countered Microsoft's best efforts with the release
> of a series of new models that trounced Zune 2.0, from the thin Nano
> with games and video output to the Touch featuring a full web browser
> and live podcast playback over the web. Microsoft was left only to
> brag that it was finally able to sell off most of its 2006 inventory-
> already reported as sold-at fire sale prices.
>
> Windows Mobile: after struggling for a decade to get WinCE installed
> on something, Microsoft's plans largely focused on mobile smartphones.
> Unfortunately, in 2007 Apple targeted the same market with a device
> even hotter than the iPod. Even worse, while far more sophisticated
> and attractive, the iPhone paired with a service plan costs hundreds
> less than an entry level Windows Mobile phone such as the basic
> Motorola Q. No wonder Apple outsold the entire range of Windows Mobile
> devices in its first quarter of sales, and ended up with a stronger
> showing in web stats than every other mobile browser combined.
>
> Proprietary Formats: one key element to Microsoft's monopolistic
> control over the PC has been its use of proprietary formats to force
> users into buying everything from Microsoft. However, in 2007 a
> variety of events eroded into that stranglehold. Windows Media DRM was
> given the final boot in audio with MPEG AAC, and video with H.264. The
> ISO rejected Microsoft's OOXML advanced to replace the existing Open
> Document standard for productivity applications. Even DirectX is
> facing increasing competition from Mac, Linux, Playstation, and Wii
> applications that all use OpenGL for their graphics.
>
> The Vista Yawn: Microsoft discovered, as I predicted, that 2007 wasn't
> going to be like 1995. Retail Vista sales were disappointing to say
> the least, corporate interest was simply absent, and even hardware
> makers balked at loading up Vista Home Basic and forcing their users
> to upgrade to a more expensive version that actually works as
> expected.
>
> Windows 95 and Vista: Why 2007 Won't Be Like 1995
>
> Vista uptake has been reported to be about half that of Windows XP,
> despite the fact that the PC market has grown significantly since 2001
> and the reality that many Windows PC users regularly buy new computers
> just to run away from their old infected machines rather than paying
> to clean their old system out. Exacerbating the Vista problem is the
> pestilent detail that an increasing number of users are now buying
> Macs so they can run both yesterday's Windows XP and upgrade to Mac OS
> X without the security problems, spyware, and adware push.
>
> [Dvorak's April 07 comment that Vista's problems due to PC makers...]
>
> Dvorak recommended that Microsoft build its own PC and screw over its
> Windows licensee partners. Yes, that worked so well with the Zune!
> Perhaps if Microsoft shipped its own Windows PC, it wouldn't break
> compatibility between its MS PC and third party boxes, but imagine the
> profits behind selling Office for MS PC-Windows separately from Office
> for regular Windows.
>
> The downside to Dvorak's hardware fantasy is that Microsoft has no
> expertise in making or marketing functional hardware. Look at the
> billion dollar losses behind the Xbox line, along with its 33% or
> greater record for hardware failure. And look at what Microsoft did to
> WebTV, MSNTV, and even its best ideas for music players, handheld
> gaming, SPOT watches and other hardware that all stunk to high heaven.
>
> [Dvorak complaints about Apple, Google...]
>
> Microsoft was up 19.2%, Google 50.2%, but Apple was up 133.5% [in
> 2007]. No wonder Dvorak is kvetching.
>
> [Dvorak's bad predictions about iPhone...]
>
> Of course, reality is beyond him because Dvorak has no technical
> competency in predicting what will work out and what won't. Why does
> Dvorak command $40,000 speaking engagements despite not having written
> anything interesting, accurate, or thought provoking in the last
> decade? He's a professional troll. Fortunately for him, nobody in the
> speaking engagement circuit or sound-bite seeking world of New
> Journalism cares about substance.
> </Quote>
>
> [url]http://www.roughlydrafted.com/2008/01/02/john-dvorak-conceeds-2007-was-a-%e2%80%9ccrappy-year%e2%80%9d-for-windows-enthusiasts/[/url][/color]

Can you not find anyone more authoritative than this pathetic lamester to
cite? Good grief! You might as well make up your own rant as feed this
fool's tripe to the world. I didn't realize the current Berkley crowd was
so shy.

He begs for cash and click-throughs like a bower bum looking for a buck to
round out the purchase of another pint of muscatel.

He sneers at Dvorak for commanding high speaker fees and begs for pennies in
the same breath.

And he ignores that Vista has currently shipped some 130 million copies in
the first 11 months, far surpassing Win95 as he mistakenly claims had a
faster sales pace. How typical of the OSS folk.

Thanks for the info on keyboards!

In article <ow4fj.44396$vt2.33036@bignews8.bellsouth.net>,
Linonut <linonut@bollsouth.nut> wrote:[color=blue][color=green]
> > On the other hand, Zune isn't the only player that was trounced by iPod.
> > All of the others were, too. Just compare among the non-iPod players,
> > and Zune is actually doing well.[/color]
>
> What, all the other manufacturers are also dumping their already-sold
> hardware at fire-sale prices?[/color]

I'm not talking about the ones that were on sale. The current models,
at their regular price, are doing well among the non-iPod players. For
example, when I check the Amazon top sellers for MP3 players, more often
than not, it is a current Zune that is the first non-iPod among the sea
of iPods in the top 15.

--
--Tim Smith

On Jan 3, 9:26 am, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@schestowitz.com> wrote:[color=blue]
> ____/ ness...@wigner.berkeley.edu on Thursday 03 January 2008 15:55 : \____
>
>
>[color=green]
> > On Jan 2, 4:56 pm, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@schestowitz.com> wrote:[color=darkred]
> >> ____/ ness...@wigner.berkeley.edu on Wednesday 02 January 2008 23:22 : \____[/color][/color]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
> >> > Microsoft up 15%
> >> > Google up 50%
> >> > Apple up 133%[/color][/color]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
> >> > I think if you look over the last 5 years the comparison is even more
> >> > dramatic.[/color][/color]
>[color=green][color=darkred]
> >> It means very little. Microsoft is pumping cash into the stock. In general,
> >> stock price does not indicate much because it doesn't just gauge actual
> >> wealth. IBM and Dell, IIRC, are in heavy buyback mode as well. Novell will
> >> inevitably end up this way as well.[/color][/color]
>[color=green]
> > Yes, I've read how many large corporations in the US are buying back
> > stock. But to the extent that is true of Microsoft, it means that
> > their 15% gain means less than it seems. I don't know if Apple has
> > been buying back stock, but surely their 133% gain is related to the
> > success of iPod, iPhone and OS/X.[/color]
>
> I don't watch Apple to be honest (I closely track RHT/RHAT, NOVL, INTC, AMD,
> IBM, MSFT, ^FTSE and SCOX in the finance feeds), but all that I know based on
> bankers' word is that Novell is *advised* to buy back stock (many layoffs
> coming next year and jobs continue to move east-wards). It's not looking great
> for the US economy in general and I suppose you've heard about the price of
> oil (a Benjamin per barrel).[/color]

The Sibold troll is posting an item on how great Apple has been doing,
and taunting Linux advocates. I think he's a Wintroll not an Apple
troll, which is odd since the news is mostly bad for Microsoft, not
Linux. Also, even according to NetApplications, Linux is up from
about 0.35% in Jan 07 to 0.66% now. I don't know what their
methodology is, I couldn't find out, for example, these are OS
statistics as reported by browser hits? In the US only? I'm guessing
that this represents desktop usage in the US. But the point is that
both Apple and Linux are up in the last year, Windows is down, getting
nibbled from both directions. At this point Apple and Linux are not
competing much with each other. But the report on Apple in the last
few days really is impressive. Looks like half the universe got a Mac
and an iPhone for Christmas. My father-in-law was one (Mac last fall,
iPhone for xmas). I hadn't seen an iPhone before. It's really
beautiful, I've got to say. My father-in-law is deaf, so he doesn't
use the phone part, but he does do a lot of internet from hand-held
devices (his main way of communicating), and he's a technology nut.
He also loves his new Mac and vows never to go back to Windows, which
he used for 10 years. Anyway, I'd love to see Ballmer's face when he
sees these statistics. I won't feed the Sibold troll, but this is
an interesting story. All the curves I've seen on Apple are aiming
for the stars, so it's got to give Billy and company bad dreams.

2007 has been a bad year for Microsoft. I can't wait to see what 2008
will bring.

* [H]omer fired off this tart reply:
[color=blue][color=green]
>> The MS Ergonomic 4000 was on sale at Office Depot. But gone by the time
>> I got there. So now I'm thinking of ordering an Inland Ergonomic via
>> Tiger Direct. Probably still has the Genuine Monopoly Logo on it, though.[/color]
>
> Get a Cherry Linux keyboard:
>
> [url]http://www.cherry.de/english/products/specials_g83-6188_linux.htm[/url][/color]

Nah, I want an ergo one. Turns out Office Depot had them stocked in an
out of the way spot, so I got one now. Not bad, need to loosen up the
keys a bit and get used to the Microsoft key spacing.

Turns out there's a lot of information and some kernel support for the
idiot buttons, too.

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