[Gllug] Open Source lobbying meeting - UKUUG London Thurs 19th

[Alain Williams]

On Sun, Oct 15, 2006 at 10:58:35AM +0100, Christopher Hunter wrote:

> My experience with SMEs  is that they complain that they "can't run Sage" 
> easily.  I've come across companies still using the DOS versions of "Sage"!

FL?OSS needs decent Sage & Quicken alternatives. Don't talk to me about GnuCash.

> "Vista" might be the first "earth-shaking" event - it needs much higher spec 
> hardware than the average desktop machine - particularly in terms of memory - 
> 1 Gb is the realistic minimum, despite MS' claims.  The "eye candy" gimmicks 

Which is why all the high street PC vendors will be touting it as the real must have.
MS understands that it needs foot soldiers, people who will sing their praises;
the loca PC shop will see MS Vista as a way of selling more hardware.

> also require an above-average video card.  It breaks compatibility with older 
> Windows software - even Office XP doesn't work properly.  It has the same old 

If that is true that would be a mistake by MS. It isn't just old versions of MS Office,
but the other stuff.

> anything new).  Last of all, it is very expensive, and has all sorts of usage 
> restrictions that will make it almost impossible to run "within the rules" - 

Yes - can't run under a VM :-(

> I can guarantee that most copies will be hacked to avoid the "Windows Genuine 
> Advantage" validation, and will never be properly patched.

Companies won't like that. I suspect that with MS Vista's release MS will push
FAST into a higher gear.

-- 
Alain Williams
Parliament Hill Computers Ltd.
Linux Consultant - Mail systems, Web sites, Networking, Programmer, IT Lecturer.
+44 (0) 787 668 0256  http://www.phcomp.co.uk/

#include <std_disclaimer.h>
-------------- next part --------------
-- 
Gllug mailing list  -  Gllug at gllug.org.uk
http://lists.gllug.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/gllug