According to the MacObserver. Microsoft founder Bill Gates had a few problems in the course of delivering his keynote presentation at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

His Windows crashed. Not once, not twice… but three times. The first crash was just a freeze-up kind of thing (you may have seen it before?) as he attempted to attach a peripheral via a Wi-Fi connection. That was certainly not good given the circumstances but it paled in comparison to crash number 2, which was none other than the granddaddy of all crashes – yes… the fabled Blue Screen of Death. The BsoD decided to end a demonstration of some video game they were trying to show off. Last but not least, Windows croaked while trying to connect a Tablet PC to the Internet.

Of course, I suppose this freak string of unfortunate events only drives home what many have been saying for years… Windows is fine as long as you don’t need to connect peripherals, play games or access the Internet.

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I wonder how many people lost jobs over that one!!!

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Reminds me of that classic BsoD on Win98 (SE?)......

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As a photographer, writer, and web designer, I can only agree with your last sentence! Even my 9-year-old son (a future filmmaker) knows which computer to use when editing film, modifying a photo, or mixing music.

Apple rocks!

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sure it funny when things stuff up on gates, but not so funny when it happens to us,

the only thing is that i personaly have never had any trouble getting on the internet or connecting peripherals on windows machines, i also run a digital photo lab with a windows xp pc without any problems,

i don't suppose any one has considered that its not the computer or the software that maybe its the human pushing the buttons ??

This is both surreal but not surprising... and hysterically funny.

I'm sure everyone has considered it at some point. When so many people still think it's the software, especially when it happens to its founder, I'd tend to agree it's the software. And especially when there are so many updates, and updates to fix the problems that the last updates caused, etc...

Only thing holding me back from Apple is the price, and availability of software/hardware. Other than that, you never hear the Mac world complain about the performance of their Operating systems. When Apple becomes more economical (reasonable), I'll jump back in with both feet.

Maybe it's that special Windows OZ edition.
;o)

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Cooper Griggs
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This argument has been made time and again and is a non-issue. I use both Winodws and Mac computers. More often than not, the systems that give me problems and requires more of my time to "fix" security holes and such are the windows boxes. Desktops, laptops, servers, you name it. So that perceived price difference ends up going in the other direction when you take into account your own time (or someone you pay) to fix the damn things. Invariably my Mac machines are faster and easier to use and when there is an update, I don't have to fix the fix I just installed and reboot 3 or 4 times in process. Pardon me, but I'm so sick of hearing lame excuses for people not to use something that makes more sense. People are so afraid of change even if it's for the better.

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lol you know you could be right ya know cause we have our own microsoft building right here in sydney which is where i get all my microsoft software from.

What a heartwarming story...there IS justice in the Universe! :)

Up until recently I hadn't had trouble hooking up peripherals. Then I got a new Olympus digital camera. The computer couldn't recognize it. I called Olympus and asked for a new cable. They said oh it's not the cable, and told me to totally undo and re-hook-up all the devices, hubs, yada yada. Well, that crashed the whole computer, which then could not find the keyboard, mouse, and moreover burned out the hub. (BTW, the camera was not found on a second PC or a Mac--it's the cable.) Also, I recently added a wireless keyboard and mouse and now have about 10 times more frequent lock-ups than ever. Several a day, sometimes. Sheesh.

Gee Bill, have a nice day.

Cheers,
Jean

[quote="wintevlol you know you could be right ya know cause we have our own microsoft building right here in sydney which is where i get all my microsoft software from.[/quote]

Wow they sure do things differently down under, here in the Northern hemisphere we have to buy MS stuff OR did you mean get as in walk in and pick up any CD's you see lying around :)

Julian

[quote="carju1"
Wow they sure do things differently down under, here in the Northern hemisphere we have to buy MS stuff OR did you mean get as in walk in and pick up any CD's you see lying around :)

Julian[/quote]

well actually for me it is a little of both some i buy and others they post to me for free isn't that nice of them lol

i sometimes get sent software in order to try to break it on purpose and then tell them what i find, and sometimes it aint hard to break especialy if it is a R.C. version

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EDD Central a little bit of me and more.

and read the horror stories about people trying to link their Mac's to a server. These people ain't playin' games. They're typesetters trying to earn a living.

Someone above said it best: the update takes care of a couple known bugs, however, inserts some new bugs. Example: Version 6 of Quark Express.
pete

I have one word for all of you the one that Bill Gates fears the most: LINUX

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Both Security and SuSe start with "S". www.oldslides.com

Yeah, right. I'm sure he's shaking in his boots.

Maybe it's time to learn another word? If he's worried at all, which seems highly unlikely to me, I suspect that "Firefox" might worry him a little bit more...

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LMAO!!!

I can imagine what was going through his head!!1
imagine: " Damn, I hope mikmik and cooper amd mushroom don't hear about this, what will they think of me? It is bad enough in front of all my buddies (that I could buy and sell like dogfood at the grocery store). I don't know, even having 50 billion dollars in the bank and zero to be worried about financially for a 1000 lifetimes, and spawning an OS that runs on 95% of the worlds computers and everyone tries to copy but can't get it right... Oh, I wonder if I can cope..."


For every shortcoming you guys can point out with windows, I will show you 100 things that are better in Windows, compared to other OSes, GUARANTEED

Widows and Microsoft give new depth the meaning of useability, it is not even funny how many thousands of things are common sense in windows that you don't even realize.

Windows is not lousy, it is the most incredible invention since the computer, and no one of ya's understands that it is not a few shortcomings you focus on, because if you looked at Linux and Mac with the same amound or critcism, you would never runs out of points to make.

I can't believe how much people keep repeating things like "Firefox is faster and more stable" or "Linux doesn't crash like windows".

IE is faster, Firefox is always locking up on me, and I have never seen as many freeze-ups as I have with SuSE and Xandros since Win98!

It is rubbish that windows is so bad, or that Linux is so good, to the point of being rediculous.

The Linux communtity doesn't have the foggiest idea why windows is so popular, an therefore, why Linux will never pose a threat of gaining 5% market share, let alone anything significant.

I mean, come on, most people are choked if they have to push three buttons instead of two when they microwave their popcorn, you thing they are going to learn to compile source into binaries?????

You think that people who can't even spell their/there right are going to understand to go into "usr/bin/blah/blah/geektalk/notEnglis/.."

Here is a typical example of my looking for help, and what I find:
Whaaa?!?

You tell me, most people - I'm gonna say 80% - have a hard enough time setting up a pop3 account in Outlook Express. You think they are going into a file system that looks like ancient Greek, and type commends into a terminal, to do stuff?
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Here is an experiment. I have a fresh install of XP SP2, which I updated, and did not have to reboot to do so. I want to burn some pictures to a cd.

I open my computer, open the CD-R drive, open My Pictures (You can tell it's pictures by the name), draw a box around the pictures, and put my mouse on them and move it into the CD window.

It then asks"Do you want to burn these files to CD?" and you click yes.
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Um, i am also wondering about the driver issue? Isn't Linux famous for not having available drivers for hardware? Peripherals, or otherwise?

Here are the latest stats, for general populations, not geek intensive. You can see that Windows success is overwhelmingly devastating - you can be sure that Linux, and Mac, in their present state, are not even interesting, let alone threatening:


I don't know if many of you have noticed, but IE fixed the box model problem.
Microsoft is churning out the help and support sites for home users, small business owners, IT pros, and programmers.

Competition is good, I love open source, and I want to have Linux and other options. But it ain't gonna happen the ways things are, and we have to be realistic, or the battle is over before it is begun.

I think that the next release of windows (Longhorn) with the Avalon desktop, and efs, will be unbelieveable.

Well said mikmik, its about time someone did that, i should send one of my friends here, he tries to preach linux like his life depends on it.

sure i have givin various linux versions and distrobutions a go here and there out of sheer curiosity but most of them still to much command line based, it reminds me of my school days and the old 802's and dos 2 and 3 the lenth of time it took just to get the word processor loaded let alone write anything it was quicker to use paper and a pen.

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EDD Central a little bit of me and more.

The ONLY area that Microsoft has any competition from Linux is in the webserver and embedded applications areas.
As a desktop OS Linux is at a stage where it can compete with windows regarding hardware support/software packages but as Mikmik points out it is far from being termed user friendly.

I've been using Linux (mostly Slackware) for over eight years but I have had to manually patch and compile my own kernels just to have cd's automatically mounted. I can just imagine a new linux user putting a cd into their drive and wondering why they cannot access it. I know that fedora, mandrake, suse, gentoo etc all ship with supermount patched into their kernels but they patch in so much other gunk that they are killing Linux. Spend a few hours with fedora then switch to mandrake and the basic filesystem layout is the same but not much else which is why I prefer Slackware (I get a basic Linux to do with what I will).

I would never use windows for anything but playing games. Linux is my preferred OS for programming and web development but that is primarily what Linux is, a programmers OS.

As far as Linux being a valid competitor to windows I would have to say it is but and it is a huge but, unless the user is technically minded and understands at least the basic rudiments of programming and compiling software from source then they will be lost and frustrated within an hour of installing their new Linux OS.

The people who continually bash Microsoft and hail Linux as the best thing since sliced bread need to consider one simple fact. The majority of computer users can barely get to grips with an extremely user friendly operating system (yes, windows) so migrating to Linux is a non starter for 90% of computer users.

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interesting arguments for operating systems. I respect each of the operating systems mentioned, however what you prefer is really down to PERSONAL preference these days. THEY ARE ALL VERY GOOD.

If you're a designer, music person - then it's a good chance you'll like MAC - not only for the excellent operating system, but because MACs say DESIGN, cool, and quality.

If you're a programmer or similar then you'll mostly dislike MACs and luv LINUX, WINDOWS. Because you don't care if things go wrong - you can FIX THEM and you generally love having the case off and pulling things out, tweaking, etc. "look at my new video card - awesome!"

If you're a business person you'll mostly (99%) select and respect windows (you have to). Makes recruiting, training, maintaining staff much easier (more people know windows than anything else). There are many other reasons of course.

Windows will rule while it runs the business world.

And why not have choice. After all I drive a 4x4 because I like camping, towing my boat, 4x4ing, etc. Most cars are good quality these days, so it's down to personal choice and your planned use - just like computers.

Hey, umm, cooper, simma down now. I wasn't proposing an 'argument'. Merely stating a preference. Sorry if you're 'sick and tired'. Good luck with that.

Again, when finances permit, I'm going with Mac. If that's a lame excuse, I'll be happy to accept your gift of a new Mac with all the trimmings. ;0

Otherwise, if you want to contend with my wife when she says it's affordable, go right ahead. I wouldn't if I were you, though.

Any idea which Windows version it was? Perhaps XP, XP64, Win2003 or the fabled Longhorn?

I have to say that the Audio, Video and Photo editing of Apple, while superior, were given a larger stability boost in OS with the shift to OS 9 and OS X Unix-based kernels. Maybe I'm wrong, but... I've always found Linux to be the most stable out of all the OSes I run. (I currently run a tri-boot system: Linux, Win2003EE, and Win98 on my main computer and linux/winXP on my other computers and yes I even use a Mac)

I have to agree with Mikmik, though. My learning curve in Linux has been VERY steep. The first time I compiled Nvidia drivers for my NForce motherboards it took me 2 hours and a LOT of searching on the internet. The second time it only took me 1 hour to figure out where the configuration files were and to compile the new drivers. Incidentally, having been a DOS man was the only reason I decided to try Linux in the first place and it has been very enlightening.

By and large I have found that the Windows family of OSes has been the most user friendly and easy to use (albeit somewhat overpriced). Unfortunately most of the instability and security holes stem from the use of dynamic link libraries that control the OS. When an application needs some special function that needs to be called from a DLL that DLL is loaded into the system kernel or an existing system DLL is replaced by a proprietary one.

But I digress... (because I'm preaching to the choir). Suffice it to say, Windows has gained a HUGE following, made it easy and flexible to use for most functions your average user uses, leveraged (and sometimes abused) OEM agreements to bundle Windows software and made it generally easy to upgrade hardware and download software patches, etc. Until another operating system does this seamlessly and provides a FAMILIAR (not MAC) interface, specifically markets itself as an alternative to Windows with all the same familiar options and interfaces and software support, and gets in place OEM agreements that Microsoft can't affect, and has the drivers and technical support similar to Windows, then you won't see a competitor that could take marketshare from Microsoft.

Lining up all of those things as a startup company would be like climbing Mt. Everest with a climbing pickax, a tent, and some winter clothing. Are you likely to survive? No. Especially with the legal avalanches and hidden trademark and patent crevasses.

.....but it would be refreshing to see it if it happened.....


Brightglaive
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You'll always miss 100% of the shots you don't take and, statistically speaking, 99% of the shots you do.