Also, Azure charges you less for Linux VMs compared Windows VMs with the same hardware specs. A medium instance costs 12cents/hour with Linux and 18c/hr with Windows Server. That's 50% higher! If anything, it looks like they're trying to lock you into Linux. I don't have any beef with Amazon, but it looks like you haven't really looked at Azure before making such sweeping assertions with zero details, except some handwaving which makes it sad that this is the top comment on this story.
Not sure if you are trying to pull out the old faded joke or being truly serious. Bing has about 18%-27% market share depending on Organic vs Powered By. No I am not nitpicking a specific blog article, infact its the first summarized link on a Google search for "Bing market share". Bing also powers Siri, which is another major contributor.
>Windows is largely enterprise.
Its revenue may be largely enterprise but its still a monopoly in the consumer side. Infact I can blindly bet that majority of users here on HN is using Windows.
Based off the majority of OS related post and comments, I would assume so too but there are a good number of lurkers and users who are non-vocal about their use of Windows. I couldn't find any HN Poll on this matter, but I hope someone who dealt with an HN effect would be kind enough to share their Analytics report on the OS traffic.
Yesterday a buddy of mine (and partner in crime - the proverbial kind) tried to install a new language and dev environment on his machine. 4 hours and much frustration later, he still couldn't do much.
On Linux the same tasks would have taken 20 minutes (and did, as I had installed the same environment several months ago).
I couldn't imagine doing any development on Windows unless it's C++ or C# on VS... Everything is a hassle compared to Linux.
I wouldn't call it that. My assumption is based off of the outcome in desktop market share and the fact of the monopoly title still being held by Windows.
>Yesterday a buddy of mine (and partner in crime - the proverbial kind) tried to install a new language and dev environment on his machine. 4 hours and much frustration later, he still couldn't do much.
Out of curiosity what was he/she installing? Unless its a *nix port of something, all it should involve is install and run.
Well its quiet opposite for me, everytime I try to set up a dev environment or anything GUI related (like media center) on Ubuntu, there is atleast one thing that happens not to work. Googling mostly comes up with a fix where I would need to recompile the whole thing, at which point I give up and switch to Windows.
However, for servers, I love Linux distros, it works perfectly out of box, I can't imagine running Windows for anything server related.
On Linux you use the Haxe install script, then sudo apt-get or sudo zypper install everything. Add a Vim script for context aware code completion, haxelib install a few things, all done.
On Windows - Haxe installed easily. Everything else was a nightmare - had to download everything from every vendor's website, then had to download a bunch of dependencies from various other vendor's websites, then he had to figure out versions of .NET (apparently he needed .NET 2.0 AND .NET 4), 32 bit vs. 64 bit. In hindsight if we were to do it again it'd be quicker, but it was a hassle.
Everything worked (eventually), but it wasn't fun. I'll never again take for granted how Linux pulls in dependencies for everything automatically.
This graph[1] tells some of the story, but the bigger story was they failed to capitalize on the patents, and even got fined by a jury for trying to abuse FRAND patents on WiFi and H.264.
Edit: The timing is very interesting too. Google reports its quarterly earnings tomorrow, and was known to have spent about $500M on advertizing the Moto X which hasn't been selling well and which must have dragged Google's earnings down. Releasing this news now will help calm investors tomorrow.
Also, can't imagine that Lenovo will continue subsidizing the Moto X/Moto G, so I expect prices to go up once the acquisition completes.
Increasing the price of a phone that "hasn't been selling well"? Doesn't seem like a good tactic to me (if they currently sell them at a loss, it would be an improvement, but it would be more cutting your losses than being a success)
Luckily, by the time the acquisition completes, those phones will be obsoleted by newer models ('completes' will take months, if not years)
edit: I am rate limited from replying to fpgeeks reply below so I will post my reply here.
First, the author is extremely clear that he invested in Vringo, in fact the whole article is about why he did so., so I am not sure why you talk about it as if it is kind of a revelation. Second, the article is very informative about the history of the patents and is highly relevant. Third,which of my comments are pro Vringo, really? Fourth, can I be suspicious that you're short Vringo stock, or do you get a free pass just because you have an older HN account.
> You can think to yourself: “ugh, patent trolls are disgusting”. But the protection of intellectual property is what America is built on. Smart people invent things. Then they get to protect the intellectual property on what they invents. Other companies can’t steal[1] that technology.
"Protection of intellectual property is what America is built on?" Hyperbole much?
"Smart people invent things. Then they get to protect [...] what they invents." Oversimplification much?
Not exactly a home-run defense of patents by Mr. Altucher.
[1]: As admitted by the article, there was no "stealing" here anyway.
> But the protection of intellectual property is what America is built on.
Is it? I recall the story of how the textile industry in America was built upon designs illegally smuggled out of Britain.
Also, the movie, auto, and aviation industries were all hobbled for years under patent lawsuits. It was so bad in the aviation business that development in the US pretty much ground to a standstill and the center for aviation progress switched over to Europe for a decade or two.
Not just that - a young America ignored foreign authors copyright in publishing. Film making took off in Southern California in order to escape the Edison company's protection of its film patents.
Intellectual property protection became important to America once it had leapfrogged other nations by ignoring their rights. Which is what makes the current stance on international intellectual property a little hypocritical, especially when it comes to generic drugs in third world countries.
Indeed--in fact the word 'yankee' as applied to americans long ago, referred to the american ripping off of intellectual property: yankee meant IP pirate. No joke!
Bing was infringing and Vringo had tens of millions in cash and big investors like Mark Cuban bankrolling it. They certainly didn't need a paltry million bucks to continue the lawsuit.
Vringo already had the jury verdict against Google before the MS settlement. Also, maybe Bing has only 5% of Google's revenue/profit.
Funny that you seem to be falling victim to what you accuse others of doing i.e kneejerk birching and whining.
> Wow, hedging against patent trolls by backing them is some sick and twisted logic.
But not unexpected for Mark Cuban.
This is the man who owes his status as a billionaire to hedging. If he hadn't hedged out his Yahoo exposure at the very top of the dot-com bubble, then he would've been worth about $60 million by the time his lock-up period expired.
$1.4 billion vs. $60 million. Being one of the richest 500 Americans, vs. not even being able to buy the Dallas Mavericks. You can see why Mark Cuban believes in hedging.
Vringo isn't your average patent troll and actually has a fascinating back story and history behind it. Here's a good link to understand the background.
Can you tell me which of the ~1000 VM images they provide as listed in the below site are proprietary? All? None? Some?
http://vmdepot.msopentech.com/List/Index
Also, Azure charges you less for Linux VMs compared Windows VMs with the same hardware specs. A medium instance costs 12cents/hour with Linux and 18c/hr with Windows Server. That's 50% higher! If anything, it looks like they're trying to lock you into Linux. I don't have any beef with Amazon, but it looks like you haven't really looked at Azure before making such sweeping assertions with zero details, except some handwaving which makes it sad that this is the top comment on this story.