Gates Downplays Chrome OS

[mdm-adph]

Indeed, Google invest millions in it... a wait... they too don't spent a dime to help those poor little Africans.

Aye, so not pretending to give away millions in charity is just as bad as pretending to help people by giving away something that isn't costing you anything?

No, if you ask me, it's not.

It's called Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and it gives those people what they need the most. Medicine.

I'm talking about Microsoft -- not Bill & Melinda Gates. The two aren't the same thing.

 

[joshiers8605]

I love the browser they have, this would be pretty neat to tinker around with as well

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I'm talking about Microsoft -- not Bill & Melinda Gates. The two aren't the same thing.

Microsoft: For every completed download of Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft’s Browser for the Better campaign will donate the financial equivalent of eight meals to Feeding America’s network of 206 local food banks, which supplies food to more than 25 million Americans each year.

To participate, go here.


Employees: Microsoft employees gave $87.7 million to charity last year

 

[mdm-adph]

Microsoft: For every completed download of Internet Explorer 8, Microsoft’s Browser for the Better campaign will donate the financial equivalent of eight meals to Feeding America’s network of 206 local food banks, which supplies food to more than 25 million Americans each year.

To participate, go here.

The "financial equivalent of eight meals" pretty much says it all, to me. For all I know, they could be talking about one free copy of Windows Vista, like what I was saying earlier.

Not only do I think that's not charity, but they're worse off for having Windows Vista.

Employees: Microsoft employees gave $87.7 million to charity last year

To what charities? In what form, hard cash or in imaginary "deferred benefits" or some other such creative accounting? Convenient that the seattletimes article link wasn't working, too.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

The "financial equivalent of eight meals" pretty much says it all, to me. For all I know, they could be talking about one free copy of Windows Vista, like what I was saying earlier.

Not only do I think that's not charity, but they're worse off for having Windows Vista.

Giving up to $1 million away isn't charitable?

To what charities? In what form, hard cash or in imaginary "deferred benefits" or some other such creative accounting? Convenient that the seattletimes article link wasn't working, too.

Does it really matter? They can't report it as a charitable donation unless it meets specific federal guidlines.


I thought I fixed the URL...try again:
http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.c...employees_gave_877_million_to_charity_la.html

The 16-page PDF can be downloaded from that URL.

 

[Wile E]

Who the hell cares about donations? This article is about Bill's opinion of Chrome OS.

I tend to agree with him. It's mostly a publicity stunt, thus the relative lack of any kind of useful details about the OS. I don't like what I've read so far about it tho. I don't think Cloud is where we need to be focusing our efforts right now. Our infrastructure in most places isn't quite up to the task, not to mention the bandwidth caps the ISP are instilling.

Once somebody kicks the ISPs in the ass and gets them to update our infrastructure, and forces them to be up front about bandwidth caps, cloud computing will be much more viable.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Except for intranets, I can't see cloud computing ever catching on. In order for cloud computing to work on the internet, you need no less than 99.9% reliability. Once you got that, you need to figure in all the excess bandwidth it uses and bitrate required before users get annoyed by the performance. Frankly, I don't think it can catch on for at least another 10 years, at least in the USA.

On other hand, if Chrome OS is just a browser for a GUI and still has all the normal functions of a computer, its success will be restricted by hardware and software support (it has to change the Linux demographic).

At the same time, I don't see how having a browser for the GUI of a computer is in any way beneficial. In fact, it is riddled with disadvantages (e.g. it takes longer to render a web page than render a window thanks to hardware acceleration/GDI+). The only advantage is users can program their GUI with relative ease (layout, design, etc.) but I doubt many users actually care for this feature.

So yeah...another wait and see.

 

[Meecrob]

go fios, verizon dosnt need to update the fios infrastructure, the most they have used in any market they have installed fios into is 1/3 of the avalable bandwidth that their fiber can provide!!!

as to the rest yeah they all need a kick in the nuts from the govt to get them to stop overselling their networks bandwidth, then trying to move to pay scale type plans......blah.

 

[Wile E]

go fios, verizon dosnt need to update the fios infrastructure, the most they have used in any market they have installed fios into is 1/3 of the avalable bandwidth that their fiber can provide!!!

as to the rest yeah they all need a kick in the nuts from the govt to get them to stop overselling their networks bandwidth, then trying to move to pay scale type plans......blah.

I can't get Fios. I'd already have it if I could.

 

[3870x2]

Indeed, but the majority of end-users have no idea what Linux is. When it comes to the masses things like brand familiarity come heavily into play. Many people don't know what the abbreviation O/S even stands for yet they've seen Google before. For the sheeple of the world it's all about hype, marketing and saturation. After that the product has to be simple and work, then everyone will jump on board. If it doesn't work people will go back to Windows whatever they were using previously.

Not sure about your demographic, but in mine, about 9/10 of all the people here (in tennessee/kentucky) are very well aware of linux, about 10% of them could name 2 or more different linux releases. Just like when they first tried to release netbooks with linux to reduce the price, ChromeOS will fail because of vast incompatibilites.
Let me know when ChromeOS starts to utilize directX, and the .net infrastructure, then well talk about ChromeOS's chances in the real world.

 

[Meecrob]

Not sure about your demographic, but in mine, about 9/10 of all the people here (in tennessee/kentucky) are very well aware of linux, about 10% of them could name 2 or more different linux releases. Just like when they first tried to release netbooks with linux to reduce the price, ChromeOS will fail because of vast incompatibilites.
Let me know when ChromeOS starts to utilize directX, and the .net infrastructure, then well talk about ChromeOS's chances in the real world.

anybody wanting to game on a netbook needs a reality check......so dx dosnt matter, anybody wanting .net apps shouldnt be after a netbook either, they are A NET-BOOK!!!

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I can't get Fios. I'd already have it if I could.

Ditto. I'm lucky I got 2.5mbps ADSL.

Let me know when ChromeOS starts to utilize directX, and the .net infrastructure, then well talk about ChromeOS's chances in the real world.

Google would have to jump through legal hoops to get access to either technologies. Both are closed-source and wholly owned by Microsoft.

 

[mdm-adph]

Giving up to $1 million away isn't charitable?

Not if whatever you're giving away isn't costing you anything at all, no. It's just a tax writeoff, done for personal gain.

Once somebody kicks the ISPs in the ass and gets them to update our infrastructure, and forces them to be up front about bandwidth caps, cloud computing will be much more viable.

You know, the only "somebody" who could ever have the power to do that is the government, right? There's nobody else with the power.

Not sure about your demographic, but in mine, about 9/10 of all the people here (in tennessee/kentucky) are very well aware of linux, about 10% of them could name 2 or more different linux releases. Just like when they first tried to release netbooks with linux to reduce the price, ChromeOS will fail because of vast incompatibilites.
Let me know when ChromeOS starts to utilize directX, and the .net infrastructure, then well talk about ChromeOS's chances in the real world.

Chrome is not designed to use directX or the .net infrastructure, nor will it ever. It's not designed to compete against Microsoft in their market.

 

[Wile E]

Not if whatever you're giving away isn't costing you anything at all, no. It's just a tax writeoff, done for personal gain.



You know, the only "somebody" who could ever have the power to do that is the government, right? There's nobody else with the power.



Chrome is not designed to use directX or the .net infrastructure, nor will it ever. It's not designed to compete against Microsoft in their market.

That was kind of what I was implying.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

Not if whatever you're giving away isn't costing you anything at all, no. It's just a tax writeoff, done for personal gain.

It will cost them up to $1,000,000.

 

[mdm-adph]

It will cost them up to $1,000,000.

How? Microsoft can "give away" as many copies of Windows as it pleases -- it doesn't cost them anything.

 

[Meecrob]

It will cost them up to $1,000,000.

it costs them NOTHING to give windows away, ms could sell windows at 15-20bucks a copy retail and still make a profit, the retail market is not where they make their money, its OEM's and office the make them the big bucks, The reason u still see triple digit prices on Windows is because MS hasnt accepted the reality that they will keep loosing market share slowly but surely as *nix and mac become more user friendly and viable, Its already to the point where Netbooks and even some notebooks are more attractive with *nix then with windows due to the fact you get little to no trial or crapware with them and save money in the process.

Why spend more when your not planning to game or use anything that really needs windows?

I know my aunt loves her laptop with desktop bsd on it, its got apps for all her needs and runs great, and no worries about spyware/malware/viruses/exct, it also cost her a good bit less because she didnt have to pay for windows+office software,exct, she was able to just load up and do what she wanted, IF she runs into a need for windows app support she can buy crossover and have an easy solution

 

[DrPepper]

Hardly anyone knows how to use linux OS'. Also windows is gaining market share much faster than mac and linux. Especially since the cheapest mac laptop is about £500 more than the cheapest laptop of the same size.

 

[Meecrob]

Hardly anyone knows how to use linux OS'. Also windows is gaining market share much faster than mac and linux. Especially since the cheapest mac laptop is about £500 more than the cheapest laptop of the same size.

windows has been LOOSING market share, do some googling.

with a presetup consumer linux you DONT NEED TO KNOW HOW TO USE IT, you just use it, same as with windows, If the gui's easy to use and its got the basic apps most people need per-installed, and it runs at a decent speed, they are happy.

a few years back, i would have said your comment was true about people not knowing how to use linux, and that being an issue, but anymore, a properly setup linux distro can be just as easy to use as windows, proof of this is that my father was using a system here at the office for 2 weeks b4 he figuared out it wasnt windows!!!!(vector linux 6 using the LXDE desktop)

 

[FordGT90Concept]

How? Microsoft can "give away" as many copies of Windows as it pleases -- it doesn't cost them anything.

You can't donate Windows to charity whom's objective is feeding people. They don't need Windows, they need food or money to buy food.


Moreover, there is always a per-item production cost--nothing is free (see cost over value methodologies).

 

[DrPepper]

windows has been LOOSING market share, do some googling.

with a presetup consumer linux you DONT NEED TO KNOW HOW TO USE IT, you just use it, same as with windows, If the gui's easy to use and its got the basic apps most people need per-installed, and it runs at a decent speed, they are happy.

a few years back, i would have said your comment was true about people not knowing how to use linux, and that being an issue, but anymore, a properly setup linux distro can be just as easy to use as windows, proof of this is that my father was using a system here at the office for 2 weeks b4 he figuared out it wasnt windows!!!!(vector linux 6 using the LXDE desktop)

I don't see how linux has become anymore user friendly. My mum, brother and father can't use ubuntu at all and neither can anyone I know. Also over the xmas period when people are most likely to get a laptop they usually buy the cheapest 15" which is always a windows vista laptop. It's hard to believe that microsoft's market share is dropping. I can only imagine it increasing next year.

 

[Meecrob]

I don't see how linux has become anymore user friendly. My mum, brother and father can't use ubuntu at all and neither can anyone I know. Also over the xmas period when people are most likely to get a laptop they usually buy the cheapest 15" which is always a windows vista laptop. It's hard to believe that microsoft's market share is dropping. I can only imagine it increasing next year.

then you must have some sub-retarded people around you, because dispite noobuntu being a crap distro IMHO its not hard to use for normal day to day stuff.

and there are alot of FAR BETTER distros around that are faster and easier to use.

When i first played with linux it was 98% command line with xorg running as a gui to make you feel like you where using a modern os, since then its gotten so that the avg joe can actualy open a pre-setup system running a decent distro and just do whatever, email, download porn, facebook, twitter, myspace, exct, most people dont game, they dont do any real demanding stuff with the system, they just want to get online and surf and beable to type something up if needed(openoffice or abiword cover that nicely)

anybody who cant use a modern user friendly linux should just give up and buy a mac OR not even bother with a computer.....because i hate to tell you this but windows enlarge isnt any easier to use for those same tasks, and in some cases is more hassle due to viruses/worms/exct.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I don't see how linux has become anymore user friendly. My mum, brother and father can't use ubuntu at all and neither can anyone I know. Also over the xmas period when people are most likely to get a laptop they usually buy the cheapest 15" which is always a windows vista laptop. It's hard to believe that microsoft's market share is dropping. I can only imagine it increasing next year.

I don't know about market share but Microsoft sales sunk 17%. Mostly contributed to the economy.

anybody who cant use a modern user friendly linux should just give up and buy a mac OR not even bother with a computer.....because i hate to tell you this but windows enlarge isnt any easier to use for those same tasks, and in some cases is more hassle due to viruses/worms/exct.

There aren't many first-time users of Windows in the USA anymore. If you've used Windows as far back as 1995, you can use Vista/7 just as easy. There really is no learning curve.

On the other hand, the majority of people have never touched a Mac or Linux. They may have used Mac a school but most of those users walk away disgusted. Anyway, there is a learning curve with switching from a platform you encountered at least once in the past to a platform that you have never seen. Is it worth $90 to skip the learning curve? Most say yes. People tend to stick to what they know as people generally don't like change.

 

[Meecrob]

I don't know about market share but Microsoft sales sunk 17%. Mostly contributed to the economy.



There aren't many first-time users of Windows in the USA anymore. If you've used Windows as far back as 1995, you can use Vista/7 just as easy. There really is no learning curve.

On the other hand, the majority of people have never touched a Mac or Linux. They may have used Mac a school but most of those users walk away disgusted. Anyway, there is a learning curve with switching from a platform you encountered at least once in the past to a platform that you have never seen. Is it worth $90 to skip the learning curve? Most say yes. People tend to stick to what they know as people generally don't like change.

what learning curve, u click the start menu, click the firefox/opera/seamonky icon and theres your web browser
you click openoffice and choose writer or the like and theres ur office suit.

you click media and choose a player(all well labled) and theres your media player.

most people use the system in a way that means they arent gonna be doing anything diffrent when using linux then they would if they had windows installed, try it yourself,go here
http://vectorlinux.com/downloads
download a version, and test it, even my father(a true moron when it comes to computers) was able to use that without any help getting started from me, hell he didnt even realise it wasnt windows till weeks after he started using it for a couple hours each day...and then he was just suprised at how easy it was when he alwase thought linux/non-windows wasnt useable by normal people.

and vectors not built to be 100% noobie friendly(its damn easy tho if u got any long term windows experiance u can use it)

the main distro(6 standard) even has an easier then windows gui based installer!!!

they also have presetup virtualbox images you can get virtualbox here
http://www.virtualbox.org/
its free and will let you test any os you want without needing a 2nd computer or multi boot

 

[FordGT90Concept]

A lot of people don't assume FireFox means Internet browser. A lot of people also don't make the association of OpenOffice with documents. They need to learn all of those previously unknown associations in addition to all the fundamental things like installing printers, changing the display resolution, defragmenting hard drives, and where to save your stuff.

With windows, most users can tell you exactly how to do those things...
Internet: Internet Explorer
Document: what you bought (if any)
Intall Printer: Put the disk in and click "install" then "OK" a few times.
Defrag: Hard drive properties
Resolution: Display properties
etc.

People have learned these things from previous exposure to the system.


I'm 100% happy with Windows, why would I use Linux/Mac? I have no problem spending $100-150 on an OS.