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Entry tags:
MBA Assignments & Exams, Rolemaster Playtesting, MS-Windows 7
Last week received results for my first two MBA assignments; Management Perspectives 67.5% (meh), Financial Management 88% (woot!). In the former, my marks were lower because I left out perspectives such as "Porter's Five Forces", the "McKinsey 7-S model" and so forth. If this sounds like management-babble that's because it is. I am somewhat horrified by how intellectually lightweight management theory actually is. There is a lot of influence from the latest popular psychology and material from actually practising managers who seem to owe their position more to luck, gender and school connections. In any case, exams are next week I've I've started putting together study notes from the course material. For my next two courses (and thus completing the Grad Cert level) I'll probably be taking Marketing (which should be a doddle with my background) and Managing Information Systems, which should be more challenging.
With the release of a playtester version of Rolemaster Cyradon I've been running scenarios with the three groups that I do regular face-to-face gaming with. Cyradon is pretty much generic fantasy, in many ways reminiscent of Rolemaster's old default game-world, ShadowWorld. That means there is a science-fantasy background in the distant past (thus one can integrate components of SpaceMaster), plus a reduced number from the standard set of fantasy 'races'; elves, dwarves, gnomes and lizard-men are all present. There is a group that physically resembles orcs, the gryx, but with a more peaceful outlook. Added to the mix are gryphons as potential PCs. The system is, well Rolemaster with some slight modifications, with both the benefits and problems of that game. Character generation still takes too long, the skill system is simple, combat is colourful with random deadliness, and the magic system certainly requires experienced players.
On Friday night went to an MS-Windows "7" (more marketing nonsense; it's actually NT v6.1.7) launch party (parody available) that was hosted at our work. A substantial number of our rusted-on pro-Linux systems team were present and, in all honesty, I cannot see any real advantages to Microsoft's latest release. Yes, it's better that Windows Vista, but that's hardly a great achievement. Big selling features supposedly include virtual folders, some user interface changes, and keyboard shortcuts - none of which are exactly great (or particularly new) improvements. It would be interesting to see if Windows 7 is still tied to DRM as its predecessor. Overall, there is no good reason to upgrade from Windows XP especially at the price tag that Windows "7" comes with; and I suspect the market will respond in kind.
With the release of a playtester version of Rolemaster Cyradon I've been running scenarios with the three groups that I do regular face-to-face gaming with. Cyradon is pretty much generic fantasy, in many ways reminiscent of Rolemaster's old default game-world, ShadowWorld. That means there is a science-fantasy background in the distant past (thus one can integrate components of SpaceMaster), plus a reduced number from the standard set of fantasy 'races'; elves, dwarves, gnomes and lizard-men are all present. There is a group that physically resembles orcs, the gryx, but with a more peaceful outlook. Added to the mix are gryphons as potential PCs. The system is, well Rolemaster with some slight modifications, with both the benefits and problems of that game. Character generation still takes too long, the skill system is simple, combat is colourful with random deadliness, and the magic system certainly requires experienced players.
On Friday night went to an MS-Windows "7" (more marketing nonsense; it's actually NT v6.1.7) launch party (parody available) that was hosted at our work. A substantial number of our rusted-on pro-Linux systems team were present and, in all honesty, I cannot see any real advantages to Microsoft's latest release. Yes, it's better that Windows Vista, but that's hardly a great achievement. Big selling features supposedly include virtual folders, some user interface changes, and keyboard shortcuts - none of which are exactly great (or particularly new) improvements. It would be interesting to see if Windows 7 is still tied to DRM as its predecessor. Overall, there is no good reason to upgrade from Windows XP especially at the price tag that Windows "7" comes with; and I suspect the market will respond in kind.
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Apple has a very nice market share, thank you, far bigger than many car manufacturers thank you, and make a healthy profitable return on it.
Linux is the system for servers, and I am not sure that any organisation really wants to push at the level needed to break through, the freedom and independence of FOSS is just too much fun to standardise and push.
Windows 7 will slowly, very slowly, gain ground.
But remember.. Windows is dominany because it is a monopoly that governments don't seem willing to break up. Imagine if you only had 1 car manufacturer or 1 fuel supplier, with no regulation?
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4% outside the US seems pretty limp to me. A lot of that's to do with the extraordinary price mark-up for overseas buyers — and that's lumped on top of the fabled Apple Tax the Americans complain about.
far bigger than many car manufacturers thank you
Lets not go there. Invoking the car industry in a Mac thread is the local equivalent of Godwin's Law. Computers aren't cars. Lets keep discussing computers.
and make a healthy profitable return on it.
Exactly. They're not at all interested in the mainstream computer market, which is the principle reason why they're not going to take it over. They're happy in their niche, so they passed on their opportunity.
Windows 7 will slowly, very slowly, gain ground.
I'm expecting the take-up to be relatively fast, personally. There's a lot of pent up demand for something new, and you can expect all those large businesses with volume and site licensing to migrate quite happily.
But remember.. Windows is dominant because it is a monopoly that governments don't seem willing to break up.
Completely false, I'm afraid. During times of complete release failure (like Windows ME and Windows Vista), the market's absolutely there for the taking by a better alternative where it exists and it goes for the killer blow. Ask Ashton Tate where their Lotus 1-2-3 market went. Ask SSI where their WordPerfect market went. Both were by far the dominant products of their generation until they rested on their laurels and their competitor came along and ate their lunch.
Apple and Linux have both lost their opportunity to take the OS market in this generation, completely off their own respective bats, by squandering their opportunity when it came.
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There is a reason economists seriously dislike monopolies.
And cars are in fact quite similar..
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Now don't get me wrong: they've certainly used their position to cruel other companies products before (DR-DOS and Netscape in particular). They're the 800 pound gorilla in the market and it's a good thing that they have the DoJ breathing down their necks and the European Commission hitting them with fines where appropriate and enforcing things like the browser ballot.
However — they're not a monopoly in the market... not even in the specific market of Windows platform providers: you can run your Windows apps in WINE, Bordeaux and ReactOS. Alternatively, you can choose Linux, one of the BSDs or a Mac. All of them are fine operating systems with strengths and weaknesses that make them better or worse for particular tasks.
Nobody forces companies and individuals (outside of their workplaces) to use Windows. Nobody forces developers to program for Windows — hell, I'm a little one-man ISV and my apps are released for Windows, Mac and Linux — and if I'm doing it, trust me, anyone can. I'm able to do that because I actively made a decision to.
And cars are in fact quite similar.
Not similar enough to not muddy the waters every time they come up in computing debates as bad analogies. The worst thing about them is debates end up side-tracked into why the analogy is good or bad, straying from whatever it was originally intended to shine light on. Honestly, it's a Godwin's Law special case.
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Some MS-Windows applications run in Wine, but no Linux applications run in MS-Windows. OpenOffice can save files in MS-Office format, but MS-Office cannot read OpenOffice files. This is how a monopoly ensures that it retains market dominance.
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Most Linux apps have Windows ports available — from the command shell through to GIMP, Xchat, Apache, and so on. If anything, you could say Microsoft are at a disadvantage here. It's easier to migrate binaries off their products and onto their competitors systems than it is to do the opposite :).
OpenOffice can save files in MS-Office format, but MS-Office cannot read OpenOffice files. This is how a monopoly ensures that it retains market dominance.
WordPefect would have died an even quicker death if they couldn't import their competitors files. If anything, file import capability is a strong feature that MS Office is missing and hurts them. I've switched a couple of home users to OpenOffice on this alone (where a new version of MS Office couldn't read an old MS Office's file format, OO could) :).
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I actually think that proves Tom's point rather than disproves it.
The monopoly is the operating system. So MS can release something like ME or Vista and all that will happen is that people will stick with an earlier version (Win98 and WinXP in these cases). Applications are a different kettle of fish; they can be changed because it doesn't change the core OS. Indeed users probably prefer tighter integration with the OS, even thought that enhances the monopoly; thus WordPerfect and Lotus lost out to MS-Office.
Firefox has been a success story probably because IE has been forced to decouple from the OS (and it comes with a small mountain of very useful modular plugins, e.g., Adblock) plus it has been a technology leader rather than follower (e.g., tabs). Apart from getting ODF (which MS quashed with typical monopolistic behaviour) OpenOffice does not have these characteristics.
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Well, they can switch to Linux and run their Windows apps from WINE (whether from their repositories or in the form of a commercially supported WINE like Bordeaux). They can run their Windows apps in ReactOS (with varying degrees of success, though that's improving). They can bite the bullet and switch to another operating system entirely and use non-Windows apps that do much the same things (often provided for free, courtesy of the FOSS movement).
They actively make a choice not to use any of these alternatives or they pay the price by not researching these alternatives. Just like in any market.
Indeed users probably prefer tighter integration with the OS, even thought that enhances the monopoly; thus WordPerfect and Lotus lost out to MS-Office.
Have a read of Almost Perfect a now-free book online by W. E. Peterson, an insider to the rise and fall of WordPerfect. The long and short of it is, they thew their market away themselves through management ineptitude and poor decisions. Microsoft played the turtle and brought their products up to scratch, SSI played the sleeping hare and watched their customers (annoyed by buggy releases) jump ship.
Firefox has been a success story probably because IE has been forced to decouple from the OS (and it comes with a small mountain of very useful modular plugins, e.g., Adblock) plus it has been a technology leader rather than follower (e.g., tabs).
Firefox benefited greatly from Microsoft's giving them the opportunity by all but closing down MSIE development for many years at version 6. As its bugs were increasingly exploited, and MSIE6's reputation was lying in tatters, Firefox came in and are now currently eating their rather large lunch :).
MS seems to be now essentially ceding the browser market, as they've found it really only brings them headaches. They'll keep MSIE going as a walking zombie (think Netscape after AOL bought them) to keep face and a few customers happy, but, it won't be the big priority it once was. That position in their heart is now occupied by the search market.