Re: Ridin' Through Gateway Country, Roundin' up details.... (fwd)

["Robert G. Brown" <bob@xxxxxxx>]

>>>>With the volume of data a lot of people are handling today....
>>>Volume of data?
>>Yeah, volume of data. Animated graphics, Web Surfing (complete with client-
>>side Java nad the JVM to run it), ISDN and cable modems (300K/sec downloads
>>for $50 per month), Encarta and other multimedia apps. Internet phone and
>>video. Games. 
On rereading this, I'm thinking of that verse from "The Music Man"
    Libertine men and Scarlet Women,
     Ragtime, Shameless Music, and
    Trouble! Right here in River City!....
All the things discussed in that song are quaint, tame, and maybe a little 
old fashioned now, but back then, they certainly did spell "Trouble in River
City".

>Ah! I see your point. Bloat ware. 
So who are WE to judge whether or not something is "Bloat ware" or not?
We like to think we know what it takes to get a particular point across,
but we have a minimalist sense of that. Perhaps the public wants something
we think of as "Bloated", because it allows them a comfort level. Let's
face it, reading about taxes is like watching paint dry on a cool, damp
day (at least for most people). If the folks at Intuit have discovered
that users retain more by having them watch a five minute video clip about
home mortgage deduction rules (and pay less taxes, and save some money, and 
not get hassled by the IRS doing it), is that "Bloatware"?

EVERY YEAR I've purchased TurboTax, I've saved more than ten times the pur-
chase price in taxes. Not just 'cuz it's "great software", either.

What's the difference between WP 4.2 (a DOS package, circa '86) and MS 
Word 6.0 (a Windows 3.1, circa 1991)?

Answer: (In capability, capacity, features, product cost, etc.) ZERO
        Word showed you exactly what would be printed, all the time
        (well, close enough so that most people didn't matter, and I
         will map any technoid objections to this statement to /dev/null
         because I know that this is not a 100.00% accurate statement,
         but it's close enough for mass-market purposes).

That is the one feature that really sets one generation of software apart 
rom another, although it costs about an order of magnitude in memory use
and processor power, and 2 orders of programming complexity.

But the mass market loves it, and that's were the money is, and it allows 
JQ Public to do complex things without understand so much that visualizing
the result isn't needed, the system SHOW you what's going to be printed.

So you believe that we will all be able to get cable modem's?  
I beleive that any mass market PC maker is just dumb if they don't see it
coming at them, and very fast. About 14 million people live in areas that 
support cable modems RIGHT NOW, and only about 120,000 have them. Want to
cut yourself off from that kind of market potential?

In two years, that first number will grow to over 80 million.

>I talked to TCI and they said no way.
That's the right answer, but for this quarter, maybe the next. Drive 140 miles
east or west, and you are in cable modem service areas. Want to assert that 
the "No" from TCI will still be in place EIGHT quarters from now? That's a
long time in this business.

>>>>NT. If THe cost (to me) of RH Linux went from $50.00 to $1500.00, I
>>>>wouldn't care; the distribution is still a better value....
>>>What else is there to say.  It's cheap, it works.
>>The "what else" is -- Why ain't the rest of the universe using it?
>>Um... we know the answer to that... it's one of the reasons KLUG exists.
>Many many people simply do not know that a alternative exists.
Right. This is why I don't like to see MS referred to as "popular", or
"dominant".  Both of these terms imply that somehow there has been a choice
made between existing competitive systems.

I like the notion that MS Os'es are "pervasive", rather than popular.

Here's something else that's pervasive, but no one would call "popular":
Malaria.  I don't think anyone chooses to get Malaria, yet it's almost im-
possible to avoid in some parts of the world.  In the most abstract and 
philosophical sence, one can avoid Malaria by moving away from regions
inhabited by the "Anopholese" mosquito. In practice, this is not practical,
since such regions of the world constitute whole nations, with an agregate
population in the billions, many of whom cannot afford to move. Moreover,
other countries (including this one) would resist such a migration. In
practice, those who inhabit such areas have little choice.

We can fight Malaria with a few simple techniques, and by educating the 
people who must continue to live there.  Perhaps they will adopt some of 
these techniques, in order to learn to live with the disease.

Similarly, KLUG exists to support those who have chosen Linux, AND to 
educate those who have not yet done so.  If they continue to use their
current system, at least they'll be better informed. If they don't we 
help them make the transition and learn how to use this sytem.

>...RedHat 4.1 in "real" magazines...
           ^ 5.1?
Cool!

I think the Linux distributors and software vendors are beginning to see and
exploit the opportunity that Linux provides. It's a 'whole additonal channel 
for exposure, at virtually no cost!

>What's this about a revamp of the Amiga?  This is news to me.
http://www.amiga.com/052998-boot.html is the specifc link to get
an answer to this question.

                                                    Gotta go!
                                                         ---> RGB <---