Reader Comments

that's something linux and mac users have in common. every year is the year of the mac/linux take over. ok maybe linux has a shot someday if MS manages to screw really really bad. but what can be worse than the huge vista delay which left a huge hole for other OS's to gain traction on the desktop. apple did absolutely nothing given their falwed closed platform model. And linux failed to capitalize by not being able to deliver an OS under any distribution that was superior to winXP from a customer's perspective. Given MS mentioned they would adopt the more profitable apple model of charging 129 for a laughable amount of features in a 0.1 release instead of a new OS every 5 years, the best chance for the year of the "whatever OS" is now gone.

No, _this_ year will be the year of Linux. I know we've said it before; actually every year, but _this_ time.... _this_ time it will be true. I know it in my heart of hearts. Linux for teh win! "(Calm down, it doesn't involve buying a Mac.)" This was hilarious. Thank you Paul. Hey, it's a Friday and I'm feeling punchy.

"Most Microsoft Employees Use Google" Makes sense to me. MSN takes 5 minutes to load and google 3 seconds. Just think how long vista would take if they used msn for research.

"And interestingly, she's not involving the lawyers, though I think she has an excellent antitrust case to make." Well, first of all, Windows Server certainly does not have a monopoly, so they should feel free to integrate virtualization into it. And from what I understand, only Vista Enterprise and Ultimate will contain Virtual PC Express, and just those two editions together do not consitute a monopoly. So I don't see the antitrust concern here.

It's been a fun week everyone, but my work here is done. Bonchi-poo, we're pulling the plug on this propaganda project. The boys in Marketing have determined that annoying posts on obscure blogs read only by hardcore Windows users isn't the best way to reach the general public. It turns out that no one hre cares. Who knew? I'm also afraid we can no longer be lovers. No, no, it's not you. It's me. I've grown and moved on. Get your stuff out of the apartment while I'm at work today. You can keep the sad hobo collectibles, looking at them will be too painful for me. I'll think of you always, Bonch, whenever I see your mother on my screensaver. Goodnight all! Buy a Mac!

"Anyway, some Web researchers began examining whether Microsoft's own employees were using Google's search engine or the company's own MSN Search. It turns out that 80 percent use Google, compared to just 20 percent." I made this point some time back to drive home the point that MS doesn't really mind if its employees use rival products if they're superior. In my opinion, that doesn't really go with the image of MS being a "sweatshop" being painted by some mac fanatics on this site. By the way, some of Steve Jobs's posts are pretty funny.

"Why would Microsoft make a technology that's like PDF but not as good? " Um...you know that's a rhetorical question, right? I mean--you can't be serious. Microsoft? Copy something and make it not as good? BWAHAHAHAHA (Oh, the verification image is really interesting. I'm seeing more unusual characters that you'd find at the Microsoft campus cafeteria!)

"In my opinion, that doesn't really go with the image of MS being a "sweatshop" being painted by some mac fanatics on this site." Show me a post that says that, and then we'll talk.

"Show me a post that says that, and then we'll talk." Firstly, I've seen such posts on the site but I'm not going to waste my time searching for them. Secondly, I wasn't referring to you! " Microsoft? Copy something and make it not as good? BWAHAHAHAHA" Why does Adobe have to be so worried in that case? BWAHAHAHAHA.

Great move by Adobe, though - to license the technology for free to each one of MS's competitors and charge MS a hefty sum of money for it. Of course, it makes sense considering that fewer people will buy the sh*tty Adobe Acrobat in that case. I really don't understand why Acrobat takes a minute to convert a word document into a pdf file, while Open Office (and Office 12) does the same in less than 5 seconds.

"How many years of stagnant growth and zero success in new markets will Microsoft need to absorb before its board of directors and investors wake up?" You, know, I've been wondering the same thing. Take the Xbox project, for example. In my view, it's been a complete debacle. Over $4 billion in losses so far! That's about the price of a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. Sure, the Xbox has a significant market share, but what's the point if the only way you can stay in business is by burning massive amounts of $$$'s. Any other company would have pulled the plug on this ill-advised venture long ago. Microsoft has deep pockets and has other businesses that are very profitable, so I guess no one has been too concerned thus far. But someday people are going to wake up and stare at the budget sheet for this project in disbelief. If Bill Gates really has this much money to spend, why not make a big donation to the US Navy to buy them a new aircraft carrier? Seriously. Think of it: Our next Nimitz-class carrier, the "USS Bill Gates".

(Sorry, but this was too good to pass up) "Think of it: Our next Nimitz-class carrier, the "USS Bill Gates"." Bad idea for a lot of reasons: * Ship needs to be restarted every 200 miles * Everyone on board gets a virus * Too many delays leaving dock (can't "ship" on time) * Ship actually named "USS Bill Gates Warlord Special Battle Cruiser Edition 2006" * Repairs require all personnel to go through Microsoft Certified Ship Maintenance Professional Certification * Ship must return to drydock every Tuesday for routine patching. If ship fails certification process, it refuses to run. * Must be painted with "Teletubbies" green meadow scheme. * Response to every command must include the phrase "Are You Sure?" Good idea for one reason: * A Bill Gates ship would make a good trojan horse.

"Secondly, I wasn't referring to you!" Didn't say you were, sharky. Just asking you to back up your words (i.e., posts--plural--where mac fanatics refer to MS as a sweatshop), which obviously you can't. :-) "Why does Adobe have to be so worried in that case?" You've got it wrong (again) sharky. Adobe isn't "worried" about anything. They are simply protecting their intellectual property. As the creator and owner of the PDF specification, they're free to license it as they see fit, and not permit it to be stolen by an entity like Microsoft. It has do with "intellectual property rights" and an economic system called "capitalism". You might have read about it somewhere. I think it's in the same chapter as "Antitrust violation" and "Monopoly".

"If Bill Gates really has this much money to spend, why not make a big donation to the US Navy to buy them a new aircraft carrier?" Hmmm. Is buying a new aircraft carrier for the US Navy more important than solving global health problems? He does have the money and he is spending it on a cause that he feels is important. Lotsa, do the above points apply to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation too?

"I really don't understand why Acrobat takes a minute to convert a word document into a pdf file, while Open Office (and Office 12) does the same in less than 5 seconds." It could be (and I'm not saying it IS, just that it COULD BE) because Acrobat is making a PDF file properly, and Word isn't. I receive PDF files regularly that have bad formatting, fonts that aren't embedded and other display issues. Inevitably, they've been generated by Word or a third-party tool. Of course, the sender never realizes that his/her ad flyer looks like crap on the receiving end, because they HAVE all the fonts and artwork local on their system. But they look foolish to the person who receives the mangled PDF. OTOH, PDF files generated properly from Acrobat (or, for that matter, from the built-in PDF generation tools on Mac OS X) always display properly. Might be the answer you're looking for.

"Inevitably, they've been generated by Word." I don't think so. Only Word 2007 has that feature and it's still in Beta. And, for what it's worth, it does an amazing job (and so does Open Office Writer). Just because Adobe is competing with MS doesn't make Acrobat good. "Might be the answer you're looking for." Nope.

Good try, though - blaming MS for everything that goes wrong.

"Lotsa, do the above points apply to the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation too?" No. You'll never hear me say or write anything negative about Gates' philanthropic efforts. Some have tried to drag me into a debate about the distribution of ill-gotten gains, but I think the end result makes such conversations irrelevant. Bill and Melinda are doing a marvelous thing with this foundation. Given that their last large public collaboration was "Microsoft Bob" (Remember? Melinda was project manager!), this is a huge improvement. I sincerely hope the Gates legacy is one of a benevolent philanthropist, and not a cheating businessman.

"Just asking you to back up your words (i.e., posts--plural--where mac fanatics refer to MS as a sweatshop), which obviously you can't. :-)" I did see some posts and I don't want to waste my time searching for them. I'm not standing trial in a court of law that I need to produce evidence. If you don't want to believe me, I really don't care, but I stand by my statement.

"Good try, though - blaming MS for everything that goes wrong." sharky, you're starting to seriously p i s s me off. I'm not a knee-jerk Microsoft hater. I was simply answering a question about PDF files. Let me elaborate: I had "export to PDF" in my Word menu five years ago. I was exporting PDF files FROM WORD through the use of a THIRD PARTY TOOL. Now how is that "blaming MS?" The FACT is, many of these tools (at least in their default mode) do not properly embed fonts or create "proper" PDF files. Many do. It's not Microsoft's fault--necessarily. IF you purchase Acrobat and create the PDF file from that program, you won't have these problems. Simple as that. I have a PDF file open on my screen right now that was sent to me yesterday--it's an absolute formatting nightmare, and according to the file information in Acrobat Professional, it was created in Microsoft Word.

"Just because Adobe is competing with MS doesn't make Acrobat good. " Huh? WTF are you trying to say? Adobe CREATED Acrobat, silly boy. Their implementation is bound to be better than one from any third party (and that includes Microsoft). Any reasonable person would expect that. Acrobat is "good". In fact, in the printing industry, it's damn near indespensible. And its popularity as a document distribution tool is unmatched. "I did see some posts and I don't want to waste my time searching for them." Of course not, why should you? You only do that when you have a point to prove, not when you make unfounded accusations. It's an interesting debating tool; just not very effective.

"sharky, you're starting to seriously p i s s me off." Well, guess what, you're ******* me off too! For the sake of other readers, I'm not going to continue this discussion. So, you win. Happy?

"Think of it: Our next Nimitz-class carrier, the "USS Bill Gates"." "Bad idea for a lot of reasons:..... ..... * Ship actually named "USS Bill Gates Warlord Special Battle Cruiser Edition 2006" LOL! That's a good one!

Three things: 1) I don't expect the Mac to make a huge gain this year. And I'm a huge Apple fan. I'm typing on a PowerBook right now. I DO expect the Mac to grow, however. It may grow slower than the overall PC market, but it'll grow. And it will keep growing. Very slowly. So I've taken a snapshot of all your comments (guru and such). In a few years, don't be surprised when I lord them over your heads. 2) I think it's hilarious that some guy found a way to defeat WGA. I don't remember which article I posted the comment in, but I said that someone would find a way around it. It was the same comment where I said the pirates over in Asia couldn't care less about Aero Glass versus Aero Basic. Seriously, who didn't see this coming a mile away? 3) If Verizon wins that suit against Vonage I'm going to be angry. There is NO company on EARTH that I hate more than Verizon. I sooner DONATE MONEY TO MICROSOFT than see Verizon win a suit against Vonage. Especially since Verizon never offered the same service as Vonage until Vonage came along. And just in case I haven't been clear: if EVERY executive from Verizon dropped dead tomorrow, I'd pop some champagne and dance naked in the streets. Seriously, I hate the company that much. Every time I turn around they're screwing me over one way or another. AND WOULD SOMEONE GET THE VERIFICATION TEXT BACK FROM CRAZYLAND!?

WGA's daily notification broken - not a surprise at all. I installed that (it was on Windows Update) like a week before I saw any stories about what all it was doing. To be honest, I don't mind that much if all it's doing is seeing if it should shut itself down, but I understand the complaints. Would have been nice if that behavior had been disclosed (would have shut up some of the conspiracy folks too). And the CAPTCHA's just wierd. If you reload the page enough, eventually you'll get an enterable one :).

"I DO expect the Mac to grow, however. It may grow slower than the overall PC market, but it'll grow." Um, that means it's actually shrinking. Noble attempt though...

"* Ship needs to be restarted every 200 miles * Everyone on board gets a virus" lol.

Lotsa, While you're better than some, today I felt you were more in the detached-from-reality Apple user than you've sometimes been. You sometimes come off rational, but today... "You've got it wrong (again) sharky. Adobe isn't 'worried' about anything. They are simply protecting their intellectual property. As the creator and owner of the PDF specification, they're free to license it as they see fit, and not permit it to be stolen by an entity like Microsoft. It has do with 'intellectual property rights' and an economic system called 'capitalism'. You might have read about it somewhere. I think it's in the same chapter as 'Antitrust violation' and 'Monopoly'." Me me this wasn't funny, it wasn't accurate, and it wasn't civil. As to the accurate part: Adobe has made their claim that they freely license their technology to everyone for inclusion in 3rd party products. However, Adobe has stated that they think Microsoft, given its history of Embrace and Extend, would modify PDF. Microsoft chimed back stating that a significant number of companies already extend PDF and it's hypocritical to prevent Microsoft from bundling PDF functionality in Office, but not prevent others as Microsoft hasn't made any attempts to extend it. While Microsoft does have a history of Embrace and Extend, ultimately I feel Adobe is making a mistake. When you fight the natural evolution of the market, you're going to get screwed, just further down the line. For example, protectionist tariffs are good short term, but put in place long term they prevent your industry from investing in more efficient technologies and processes. Adobe, rather than embrace a combined standard that's in their control as well as Microsoft's will simply fight and lose. XPS will replace PDF in 10-20 year's time if they fight it.

"You sometimes come off rational, but today..." Blame it on the weather. It's been a bad day. I completely stand by my accurate (if somewhat smarmy) paragraph that you quoted. Adobe owns PDF, they have the right to do with it what they wish, and if they're worried about Microsoft screwing it up, they have the right to Just Say No. "XPS will replace PDF in 10-20 year's time if they fight it." I would HOPE that there's something better than PDF in the next 10-20 years. That's a long, long time, and what you're describing is known in some circles as "progress". "While Microsoft does have a history of Embrace and Extend, ultimately I feel Adobe is making a mistake." Perhaps. I'm not thrilled about any "standard" being in the hands/control of ANY one company, and that includes PDF--but given their relative histories and past behaviour, I trust Adobe far more than Microsoft, and I completely understand Adobe's reticence in this matter.

"but given their relative histories and past behaviour, I trust Adobe far more than Microsoft" You shouldn't. A "format" like PDF can be generated in multiple ways. For example, consider MP3 encoders. Fraunhoffer was the first. Today's encoders (LAME and others) are significantly faster and create much better quality sound at lower bitrates. The students surpassed the mentor in many respects. MS is a decent company with some very skilled developers. Eventually, their in-house PDF efforts would resemble the Fraunhoffer codec situation. Once that happened no one would have a reason to buy an Adobe branded PDF product. You either create a revenue stream, or an open standard. Those two are mutually exclusive without exception. Pretending otherwise is disingenuous, but it has apparently fooled some people into thinking Adobe is "open" regarding the format (the result of token gestures that have no potential of causing fiscal pain). Another way... Virtually every document that ends up as a PDF starts its life in MS Word. If Word could natively create PDF, 95% of Adobe's Acrobat revenue stream would vanish. Free built-in tools based on standards (or generally accepted capabilities) always pummel non-free add-ons. The same thing happened to Netscape, WinZip, WinFax, etc, etc.

While Adobe may publicly claim that they're scared MS will "embrace and extend" their pdf format, the real reason, as Christopher and (much to lotsa's chagrin) shark pointed out, seems to be that Adobe is worried that they'll lose a major source of revenue. That's my opinion.