Alot of bussiness where i live still use windows2000 with spk4, & Linux Redhat 8. - they never bothered to upgrade to xp probably wont bother with vista either. If it aint broken... no need to fix it.

Yeh, alot of offices that I know here use mostly Win98 or 2000.

Another company refuses to take the crooked path

http://www.itwire.com.au/content/view/10276/1023/

For businesses I would think it's more a matter of security then getting the latest and greatest. As long as you can keep it secure why bother upgrading.
As far as Vista goes I'll wait until at least sp1 comes out and longer as long as programs support XP. The gaming industry however? I have a 2.2 ghz and am starting to discover older games.

Funny, I actually saw the use of the word Monopoly in reference to M$.:rotfl:

I have seen M$ grow and grow since it 1st came out and they always had 1 excuse after another on how they acquired applications and features legally so they could beat lawsuits to include things that they did not steal the code, it's just the same idea.

Through these many years they have found 1 way or another to control what other companies could do in regards to creating apps for there OS.

I had a friend that actually tried to create a program to be used in Windows a few years back but he had to sign a contact stating he would not create any other program for any other OS while under contract with M$. He refused to sign and created what he wanted for who he wanted. Yet, at the same time, M$ tells the courts that there are no contracts of that type with M$.

My problem with M$ is not so much the Software that they release as so much as the control they take. They take it little by little and by the time the average citizen finds out, it's to late to care or do anything about it.

You want to know why M$ is holding DX10. from what I've seen published, it allows them the position to dictate the directions of the new video cards. In the past, the video card Mfgr's worked to create new and better features that worked with the OS so there were many different types of cards each with different features to choose from, now M$ can control what features will be developed so all cards will basically be the same. Price & design will now be what you can choose from, not features.

The large Graphic Card companies can't really say any about this. They either accept it or spend Millions to support another OS. I really doubt M$ would allow them to design for another OS at the same time due to contracts so it's not something these companies can just switch to over night or slowly migrate to.

Sound Blaster Audigy drivers were deliberately excluded from VI$TA because they did not come to M$ when M$ wanted them to. In the past, if Drivers were missing, you just installed them from a disk. Not possible now. VI$TA has to accept the drivers.

This may also be part of the problem with why so may here are having problems getting SH3 to works with the MOD. VI$TA looks for digital signatures like WinXP did for hardware but I'm sure it looks harder now and for software based digital signatures now. Seems to be the case from the complaints I've read from people (not just here) that try to upgrade.

M$ has just grown to large and has grabbed to much control that they really could not be stopped without a real major hit. And when that day comes, we will all lose and that in itself could prevent the big hit from happening.

The US Government is taking a risk by not upgrading because the OS versions they decided to stick with will not have support after much longer and as long as their systems are on a network, M$ could expire support and the OS. So the offices that use it will have no legal leg to stand on since they are aware of the new OS and that the licences will expire as well as support and still decided to ignore and/or refuse to upgrade for what ever reason.

Far fetched for sure, but does anyone really think that it could not happen. After all, all remains fine as long as M$ is happy.

Now, it's possible that M$ may be kind enough to offer free upgrades to critical system business's that have not made the upgrade. Business's like IRS, DOT, DOE and any local city Government office that is considered a critical business. That may be fine but deep down, that still scares me.

Yeah, up-grading from windows 3.1 to vista will be pretty tough for our gov't. Better form a committee.

Maximizing digital rights management by incorporating "Fritz" chips and other hardware-encrypted tunneling methods to secure audio and visual possibilites over the next several years.

Yes. I agree with that. Palladium ("Next Generation Secure Computing Base") is the goal, and Vista is a necessary control part. AMD is about to bail out of the running, leaving Intel and IBM to decide. Intel will go with Microsoft, Universal Studios, Sony-BMG, Disney, Time-Warner, and all the other RIAA/MPAA corporations.

I don't know which direction IBM is going to go. Their "cell" processors have a tremendous potential, especially in consideration to some of the new optical bridging designs.



All bets are off (for me) when the first production pure-inferometer computer is announced. That's going to happen within about 10 years, barring a major oil disaster.

However, some work is being done to produce paper-like computer screens (which means not using backlighting, but using ambient light to read the screen, and low power consumption).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronic_paper

It would obviously not reach the quality of a good printed book at first, but might be a good way to read, for example, those pdf manuals that are often provided instead of paper manuals.

But does it look as sexy on your bookshelf as this?

http://img175.imageshack.us/img175/4466/img0949sp9.jpg

:D

The days where IBM's mainframe computer manuals were only available on paper are long gone now. They introduced their library CDs in the mid-80's.

But back then, there were literally cataloged book rooms to shelve at least one copy of each book, besides the duplicate copies staffer kept on their necessary bookshelves around their work areas.

I have very few 3 ring binders left anywhere near me in this day and age. Talk about hugging trees!

PDF Lover! :lol:

I prefer manuals over cds anyday. Data storage is one thing but back up should also be on paper. Down to the treehuggers!

Yeah ive heard they're holding onto DX10 for no other reason but greed.

Future predictions
Linux noob friendly operating systems will finally be recognised by all, Linux will finally be gamer friendly leaving windows users to dumb the OS, cause ppl will want security, stability, open source, and free OSes!.
Microsoft windows will cave in and die by 2012 end up like Apple, MS will move away from operating systems & take up home entertainment with a fancy box that will do it all. MS will introduce the "Lustbox69er"
Linux will take over the operating systems.
Subsim website will be intregrated into All Linux OS :cool: