2012 July 19 archive at Robert Pogson

Archive for July 19th, 2012

M$ Discounts A Licence For That Other OS To $15

Published by Robert Pogson July 19th, 2012 in technology. 16 Comments

“Windows Division revenue decreased $598 million or 13%, primarily reflecting the deferral of $540 million related to the Windows Upgrade Offer announced in the quarter. The offer provides consumers who buy qualifying Windows 7 PCs the option to purchase a downloadable upgrade to Windows 8 Pro for an estimated retail price of $14.99 during the promotion period. Qualifying purchases must be made between June 2, 2012 and January 31, 2013, and offers must be redeemed by February 28, 2013. The deferral impacted only the timing of revenue recognition and not cash flows from operations during the periods reported.”

M$ is finally recognizing that an OS is a commodity these days and $15 is a reasonable price to pay for a licence. The question remains how long they can continue to sell licences without a discount after 2013. The losses will mount if they have to discount everything.

OTOH, their revenues from other software products continues to rise but much of it depends on that other OS. It’s a house of cards.

see Press Release.

- Robert Pogson

ARM v Xeon Head to Head, sort of, at TryStack

Published by Robert Pogson July 19th, 2012 in technology. 0 Comments

The way to test ARM v Xeon as servers is in the cloud:

“If you are dying to see how software running on a bona fide ARM server stacks up against a Xeon server, then TryStack.org has some time slices running the OpenStack cloudy fabric that have your name written all over them.”

Trystack:“The Easiest Way To Try Out OpenStack. We’ve set up large clusters of hardware running OpenStack on both x86 and ARM architectures. The best part? It’s totally free for you to try & test your apps—thanks to our generous individual and corporate contributors.”

This should be a big shot in the arm for developers and organizations wanting to try out their applications on ARMed clusters. The price is right, $0.

see TryStack pits ARM against Xeon in the cloud • The Register.

- Robert Pogson

My Mission

My observations and opinions about IT are based on 40 years of use in science and technology and lately, in education. I like IT that is fast, cost-effective and reliable. I do not care whether my solution is the same as yours. I like to think for myself.

My first use of GNU/Linux in 2001 was so remarkably better than what I had been using, I feel it is important work to share GNU/Linux with the world. I have been blessed by working in schools where students and school systems have benefited by good, modular software easily installed in most systems.

I have shown GNU/Linux to thousands of students and hundreds of teachers over the years and will continue in some way doing that until I die in spite of the opposition.