What would you like to see Microsoft do differently this year?

One thing is odd here.
Bill Gates talks about music makers, and we immediately think of Napster and Kazaa and MP3 and other ways to illegally distribute music.
Bill Gates talks about movie makers, and we immediately think of BitTorrent and DivX and other ways to illegally distribute music.
And in the same sentence, Bill Gates talks about software makers, and we immediately think about... open source?!?

He could just as easily have been talking about software piracy, ya know.

EDIT: Beer, I sometimes use BitTorrent (for legitimate purposes, yes, those exist), and my BitTorrent client of choice is written in Java, of all things. Saying Windows is responsible for file sharing is like saying guns kill people. If anything, blame Berkeley. After all, they invented IP.

Well im a musician.. with 500 songs i wrote available online FREE - so i guess im a communist

but wait - i also "sort of" do development - by working on interfaces for open code - and re-releasing it FREE online - so I guess im really a communist

man - i better not make a movie and give that away or ill end up blacklisted like writers in hollywood!

Seriously - there is a place between left and right

lets get there.. and things will be simpler

jamie wrote:

Well im a musician.. with 500 songs i wrote available online FREE - so i guess im a communist

That's not really what he's saying at all though, is it?  If you want to give them away, fair dues.  However, you aren't trying to get rid of the incentives for others to make money from their work by doing this, are you?

not at all - that would be extreme - one side or other - on the other hand im not trying to limit them either - as DRM - left unchecked - just may

was trying to say there is a middle ground between left / right     open / closed   piracy / DRM

its defining the middle ground

this is what MS should step up and do

( apple sort of tried by getting individual downloads of songs for a buck and Fair play - share to so many friends computers etc.. but its not enough )

MS has the clout to say - guess what media companies - consumers can share to THIS many friends.. play on THIS many devices - copy THIS many times and actually put some weight on them


right or wrong - many people just think ms is in bed with media conglomerates and mivie studios while they build a software/music/movie lockin land - while preparing to sue the pants off OSS with the other hand

there has got to be a place between steal and sue!

If "giving stuff away" is his definition of communism, with his charity donations, Bill Gates' next book would be "Das Kapital Extreme!"

haha

He's got far more worrying things to think about, like this incriminating picture:

jamie wrote:

There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist.

I think Bill needs to check himself here.. I think "anti-capitalists" would be better. Communists has other ramifications as well, but I think anti-capitalistic is a great way to describe those people. No one should make money from developing software (music, writing, etc.).. Even if they want to..

MisterDonut wrote:

jamie wrote: There are some new modern-day sort of communists who want to get rid of the incentive for musicians and moviemakers and software makers under various guises. They don't think that those incentives should exist.

I think Bill needs to check himself here.. I think "anti-capitalists" would be better. Communists has other ramifications as well, but I think anti-capitalistic is a great way to describe those people. No one should make money from developing software (music, writing, etc.).. Even if they want to..

so to use the democrat - middle analogy - people in the middle are anti capitalistic?

OK Stallman - you may be able to call anti-capitalistic..  but what are people who think a buck a song is ridiculous when its their time, bandwidth, storage space, removable media, ink, paper and case - and they are doing all the work?

can we not disagree with an antiquated business model - just because MS decides there is money in "rescuing it" ?

* dont forget we are talking millions and millions of peole here.. are they all anti capitalist / communists because the internet came along and "older" monoliths have not embraced it fully / properly?

Beer28 wrote:

Maurits wrote: Beer28 wrote: Sven Groot wrote: What is it with computers and car analogies anyway? Linux is the volkswagon! I'd say Linux is more like a kit... you put it together yourself, and if it breaks you fix it yourself.

It's not a kit, because the most distros used for desktops come with a know nothing installer, and GUI confs for everything, they are plug and play ready for everything from a firewire cam to a sony cybershot usb drive. They come bundled with more software titles than you could imagine ever needing for a PC.

If you want to do more complex stuff then yeah, but that's the same with any system, mac and win included, or if you delete system files or whatever.

I'd say linux is die volksOS, it was coded by the public, somewhat, for the public/people

actually Linux would be what ever car runs without gas = no money to big oil

so hydrgen..water..battery.. Jolt cola
any car thats green / disruptive

here's a good/new stallman article for the "left" point of view

Jan 1st 2005:
http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=4933

..yes..hes an extremist nut - but how can you hate a guy out fighting for the consumer?

= the point

you dont have to be a "communie nut" to do something nice for consumer rights - and you dont have to be on one side or the other

i for one wish MS would do more of this somehow
after all, Microsoft is "the beatles of software"
(Q=Steveb)

</end of politically charged comparison/analogy > 

Beer28 wrote:

jamie,

 I'd like to see graduated pricing of digital media based on income, but since this will never happen, I guess....


.... well, I now see this post has no point.... Jamie, your idea sucks.

id actually like to see pricing based on released to market

so the new U2 comes out - it costs this much..while it's "hot" and goes down the longer its out - to settle at baseline price

* MS stepping up to help consumers in the area of fair use is NOT a bad idea = GOOD PRESS FOR A CHANGE



EDIT - re; "It can't be $10 a CD at the store then 5 cents to download a song online, that would make the whole album 50 cents."

but most albums in canada ARE 10$ at the store... and they are the same online! - no art - my paper my space my bandwidth etc = ms comes in and fixes - steals credit - good press

jamie wrote:

Stop refering to customers (that are concerned about too much corporate control) as COMMUNISTS

You know, "communists" isn't such a common term anymore. I can imagine a broad glass door conference room with Bill sitting at the end and 20 marketing types trying to come up with the right word:

- scums
- too pejorative
- thieves
- well, that they are, but proving lost of $$$ will be tough
- liberals
- that's good, that's good, something worse...
- (All together) Communists!

hahah

they stolds it from us!

Back to original topic..

Re: What would you like to see Microsoft do differently this year?


Anything

lol

(c9 excluded - that was a good one.. regretting it yet?

1.  Make all products work toward calendar standardization
    A. iCalendar is it for now, not the best but work with it
    B. participate in calconnect.org 's mini-iop and other lowest-common-denominator calendar interop projects.
    C. Frontpage needs to be able to build calendars with iCalendar links built in (-> an iCalendar event file, I can add it to Outlook with a click). Any other product that creates calendar/schedule information needs to be able to create iCalendar (or its successor) files.
    D. IE needs to support document.open("text/calendar") in javascript to allow creation on the fly of calendar objects.
    E. Web services for calendar manipulation?
    F. Realize that your customers want their calendaring to be as easy as their e-mail and their IM but it's not enough to handle it locally on one PC. Not only do they want to do this for workgroup/business reasons, but many families now have more than one PC and they need it at home.

2. Look at working with IBM to provide Windows APIs on z/Series boxes. IBM may balk because of their Linux support but it's worth a shot - it might sell hardware for them, and it might provide the legendary reliability underneath Windows server code.

i remember emailing Ben Slivka (former ms employee - who bares the honor of being personally berated and called a "communist" by Billg over j+) a while back - we were discussing file sharing / consumer stuff etc..  he honestly just couldnt see the need for it

his angle was something like: why would i bother - i just go to HMV or whatever and buy the 20 newest cds i like... and my point was - alot of people cant afford to do that

i think ms needs to look at peoples side that arnt so financially well off

lets face it - if you work at ms - you arnt broke, a student, or welfare mom

Is a welfare mother a communist for downloading a song (legal in canada by the way)

anyway im rambling here

original point: ms could do itself well by pretending - how can we ensure a great digital future for the have NOTS

theres just too much press / fuss / hullabaloo about charging / controling / drm  for me

( and im not broke )

.. so thats what id like ms to do:  step up to the plate and make a difference for the less fortunate

***sorry last example ***

Routers: (fake)

Microsoft today released an update to messenger that lets consumers share or trade media with up to 30 online firends - eclipsing apple computers 10 friend limit

They also issued a press release chastising the current record and per song pricing citing bandwidth, harddrive space, blank media tax, lower quality and consumers time

"We believe mp3 quality songs should be priced in area of 5 to 10 cents a song" billg was quoted as saying " and we are working with our partners on behalf of the consumer to make this a reality"

In other news - a Microsoft sponsored bill in regards to higher upload speeds for consumers was passed.  Comcast was the first ISP to make the new speeds available. 

** ok i dont run MS - but this stuff just seems to make sence to me - but ive got no MBA