How can Linux benefit from Microsoft?

A very strange thought!
But consider.
What does Microsoft have? Money and power.

That means they can find out what people want.
(It is *extremely* expensive to find out what people want!)

Linux people could easily ride on the back of that, by using Microsoft's
research to do the same thing - either more elegantly - or, at least,
free.

So, for example, take the case of emailing pictures.
Ordinary people really want to do that ... and they want to do it
quickly and easily.

XP provides just what people want. Even an idiot can send a photograph
to his mum in about five seconds - using "Send To" - "Mail Recipient",
whereupon everything is done automatically ... the re-sizing ... the
compression ... the launching of the default email application ... with
the picture set up as an attachment.

You must admit, this is a a magnificent example of giving people what
they want!

So - what are the implications of this?

I am subscribing to this newsgroup - and I am spending hundreds of hours
struggling to master Debian - and so please accept me as being friendly!

I am wondering how Microsoft could be USED by you.
( I was going to say "by us" - but I am too much of a newbie - and that
would have been presumptuous!)
--
Chris

And in a year they'll sue us all for patent infringement.

---
Stultorum infinitus est numerus

In article <0MCdnWEkXJ9inM3eRVn-rA@speakeasy.net>, shakotah
<shakotah@spymac.com> writes

>And in a year they'll sue us all for patent infringement.

Lighten up! I was looking for benefits!

>Stultorum infinitus est numerus

Stultorum infinitus est numerus - Infinite is the number of fools.
(Bible)

Could be finite and large. Could not be infinite.
Mathematicians differentiate between big and infinite!
--
EXUBERANCE:
a passion to know more;
a playful spirit;
an empathy with nature;
a sense of joy.

Chris wrote:

> Could be finite and large. Could not be infinite.
> Mathematicians differentiate between big and infinite!

Is that countably or uncountably (in)finite ?

In article <43504d14$0$93534$14726298@news.sunsite.dk>, Madhusudan Singh
<spammers-go-here@spam.invalid> writes
>Chris wrote:
>
>> Could be finite and large. Could not be infinite.
>> Mathematicians differentiate between big and infinite!
>
>Is that countably or uncountably (in)finite ?

I suppose if we went into the future and considered all of time it could
be infinite - but it would have to be aleph-null rather than continuum,
don't you think, in that people are discrete, even if not discreet.
--
Chris

Chris wrote:
<snip>
> You must admit, this is a a magnificent example of giving people what
> they want!
>
<snip>
In my book, any program that does stuff like that automagically is worth
un-installing.
Take a quick look at the history of GUI, Word Processing,
Spreadsheet/Database programs, web browsers and media players etc. and
you may find that MS has always been a "me too" company. In a recent
Q&A, an MS PR person commented on the lack of tabbed browsing in IE by
saying that "it wasn't what our customers wanted" . Only recently, it
has been announced that tabbed browsing will be a " feature" in the new
IE. If anyone is doing the copying and learning here, it is MS.

In article <KtCdnQr5zOh76sneRVn-1Q@rogers.com>, A. Ben Hmeda
<abhNOCAPS@canada.EH.com> writes
>Chris wrote:
><snip>
>> You must admit, this is a a magnificent example of giving people what
>>they want!

><snip>
>In my book, any program that does stuff like that automagically is
>worth un-installing.
<snip>

Fair enough - I am open to ideas.
How would you do this in Debian though?
In fact, how *do* you do it?
Do you go through all the steps one-by-one when you want to send a
picture?
Or do you use a script to automate the process?
--
Chris

Chris <nospam@[127.0.0.1]> wrote:
> XP provides just what people want. Even an idiot can send a photograph
> to his mum in about five seconds - using "Send To" - "Mail Recipient",
> whereupon everything is done automatically ... the re-sizing ... the
> compression ... the launching of the default email application ... with
> the picture set up as an attachment.

> You must admit, this is a a magnificent example of giving people what
> they want!

I think the point here is, that this is a good example of Microsoft
providing a feature which does what THEY THINK people want. In this
particular case they may even be right for the majority of home users.
On the other hand, this is definitely NOT what I want because it makes
assumptions about my intention and qietly imposes its choice on me. For
the very same reason I routinely throw a fit once I have to use Word and
some 'helpful' feature decides I just started an enumeration, when I
didn't. (Yes, I know you can switch that off)

Many people say the goal of LINUX should be "world domination" i.e.
putting Microsoft out of business and be on everybodies desktop. I don't
think so! I like LINUX because it is DIFFERENT from Windows. If you want
the features and functionality of Windows I say: Then use Windows. And I
don't mean this at all to be insulting or anything like that. Seriously
- despite all MS bashing, Windows does a pretty good job for many
applications. Free software is about choice - not monoculture.

Long live LINUX, UNIX, Windows, Mac-OS, ...

cu
Philipp

--
Dr. Philipp Pagel Tel. +49-89-3187-3675
Institute for Bioinformatics / MIPS Fax. +49-89-3187-3585
GSF - German National Research Center for Environment and Health
http://mips.gsf.de/staff/pagel

On Tue, 18 Oct 2005 10:21:03 +0100, Chris wrote:

> In article <KtCdnQr5zOh76sneRVn-1Q@rogers.com>, A. Ben Hmeda
> <abhNOCAPS@canada.EH.com> writes
>>Chris wrote:
>><snip>
>>> You must admit, this is a a magnificent example of giving people what
>>>they want!
>
>><snip>
>>In my book, any program that does stuff like that automagically is
>>worth un-installing.
> <snip>
>
> Fair enough - I am open to ideas.
> How would you do this in Debian though?
> In fact, how *do* you do it?
> Do you go through all the steps one-by-one when you want to send a
> picture?
> Or do you use a script to automate the process?

I usually email photos as attachments, not sure what you are really after
here. If I wanted to send several, I would highlight several and select
them all at once. I would also use the same method on a windows machine.
But then again, I would be using Mozilla on a windows machine also. :-)
--
dw

On Tue, 18 Oct 2005 00:20:33 -0400, A. Ben Hmeda wrote:

> Chris wrote:
> <snip>
>> You must admit, this is a a magnificent example of giving people what
>> they want!
>>
> <snip>
> In my book, any program that does stuff like that automagically is worth
> un-installing.
> Take a quick look at the history of GUI, Word Processing,
> Spreadsheet/Database programs, web browsers and media players etc. and
> you may find that MS has always been a "me too" company. In a recent
> Q&A, an MS PR person commented on the lack of tabbed browsing in IE by
> saying that "it wasn't what our customers wanted" . Only recently, it
> has been announced that tabbed browsing will be a " feature" in the new
> IE. If anyone is doing the copying and learning here, it is MS.

So true. MS didn't even want to have anything to do with the internet
until it caught on. Then all of a sudden they had 'invented' it. There is
a reason the whole internet is forward slashed... It's because Bill
didn't invent ANY of this.-- dw