HAL must die!

[Da Rock]

On 03/16/11 21:30, Jerry wrote:
> On Wed, 16 Mar 2011 06:29:25 +0000
> Matthew Seaman<m.seaman at infracaninophile.co.uk>  articulated:
>
>    
>> On 16/03/2011 00:37, Jerry wrote:
>>      
>>> Microsoft has approximately 90% of the desktop market share with
>>> everyone else dividing up the remainder. If you are on a Microsoft
>>> platform you use their products. The same applies to other platforms
>>> and their utilities.
>>>        
>> Microsoft may once have had 90% of the desktop market -- but is that
>> still true?  Macs seem to be everywhere nowadays.
>>
>> Also, how important is 'desktop' nowadays, compared to mobile browsers
>> and the like?  If the iPhone doesn't support Flash, then anyone with
>> any sense is going to provide an HTML5 alternative.
>>      
> There are numerous sites with purport to state the latest statistics
> on OS usage, etc. This is just one that I have used before. I obviously
> cannot verify its accuracy. As far as I can tell, it is an impartial
> assessment.
>
> http://www.netmarketshare.com/operating-system-market-share.aspx?qprid=8
>
> In an interesting side note, another article that I read recently and
> am trying to locate at this moment states that 50% of users who
> switched to MAC from Windows in the last 5 years are now seriously
> considering dumping it and moving to a Windows 7 machine. Their biggest
> complain was with the added complexity of doing routine tasks. A lack
> of job specific software was also mentioned. Exactly what that entails
> I have no idea. Apparently, keyboard users found Windows easier to use
> and maneuver. I am a mouse person myself so I would not be able to
> comment on that even if I used a MAC.
>
> In any case, the subject declaring "HAL must die" if no longer
> relevant. It is all ready dead, except on FreeBSD. Even its author has
> declared it so. The real question is how long are the developers of
> the fragmented open-source community going to continue to display
> testosterone poisoning by refusing to come together and develop one
> common interface/API or whatever they want to declare it to be that
> works on all the competing distros and thereby helps to unite the
> open-source community? The sad part is even if that did happen, each
> distro would then refuse to use it because it was not licensed according
> to their own specifications. Yes indeed, you have to love standards,
> there are so many of them.
>    
I may be just talking shit here, but shouldn't there be some posix (or 
similar) specification for this? That would bypass the licensing 
requirements- right? Then the coding would be done by the licensor 
according to their own requirements, but the interface would be the same.

Hell, by that reckoning even Winblow$ and Mac could get onboard if they 
chose too- not that anyone could see M$ coming to any open standards 
party where they don't think they could gain the upper hand :)

Might diminish the pissing contest too...