The problem with old programs is the Microsoft 'Updates' that add cruft until the system becomes a dog. Microsoft's solution? Buy their new version.

Funny how that works.

Apple currently has a 28% market share of the smartphone market, even with its phone being exclusive to ATT. Opening it to the Verizon network will surely cause its market share to climb sharply.

Right now, Apple is in a three-way tie for the market. It will start to dominate the market if/when it goes onto the Verizon network.

The app store concept is not evil unless traditional distribution is eliminated.

Good point. They will be competing with their own vendors. How's that going to work? Will they be making promises to play nice?

Obviously, their vendors won't have any choice except to bend over, once again. And, obviously, this has all the makings of a total custer fluck - conflicts will be immediate and chronic. Microsoft will be setting up a web site that competes with their vendors, and they will necessarily be offering things that their vendors won't have available. I suppose they had to do something to try to counter Apple's success. Too bad they couldn't think of something original.

Innovation at its finest.

In the past, Microsoft has tried to 'innovate' by tying functionality between their OS and apps. Doing so helps prevent technology from escaping the Microsoft ecosystem and being deployed on competing operating systems, software, and hardware. Having an App Store that is supplied by independent programmers means that those programmers will be able to leverage their work across multiple platforms. This could have worked in Microsoft's favor if they had been early to the game. They could have positioned themselves in the center of a new, connected world and helped steer traffic by and through their world.

Instead, Microsoft has been doing the opposite; attempting to hold users captive to a separate ecosystem, thinking they could provide users with everything they could possibly want. Browsers, search, social networking, heck, even the internet itself happened despite Microsoft, not because of Microsoft.

And, no, corporate IT is not hopping on Microsoft bandwagons like they have in the past. Corporate migration away from XP has been slow, at best. Yes, there are suits who are happy to have Microsoft be the sole vendor of standard desktop apps. But truly interesting things are not done at Microsoft.

For an App Store to work, Microsoft would have to open up its desktop and maintain a backwards compatibility. They have a bad track record on that issue.

Truly, because Microsoft is so large, there will be money made, and truly, they can take some of the wind out of Apple's sails, but there is less to this than meets the eye.

Yeah, Microsoft innovates. Yeah, that's why they dominate the desktop marketplace. Once again, they are ripping off ideas from Apple.

If the OS were free and they made their money in the App Store, this would make more sense - they would be beholden upon revenue from the App Store to survive. But this is just an attempt to counter Apple's success and Apple's increasing mindshare. Microsoft's 'App Store' will be an ugly, controversial mess and will likely drive more business toward Apple.

First question would be - Don't they already have an 'App Store'? Oh, wait, it only sells Microsoft software.

What happens when somebody comes up with something that competes with an existing Microsoft application? I think we already know the answer to that one.

What happens when someone comes up with a truly 'killer app' that becomes hugely successful? Microsoft will first try to buy the app to capture that 'lost' revenue, and if they fail to negotiate a suitably low price, will duplicate the app in-house and compete for that market.

So, someone quickly que the glossy, focus-group approved, TV ads that promise shiny exciting new toys for your already buggy, overburdened laptop.

Everybody sing! I'd like to buy the world an APP, and keep it company, I'd like to promise happy times, and flying chairs to see.

What kind of bike did you get?

I just split up with my (second) wife and bought an old Kawasaki H1. I'm thinking of a Betty Boop tattoo.

I like musicians who get the fermata symbol tattooed on their bodies. (Hold me.)

I've been around the industry for more than twenty years. There is NO sexism where I have worked. When it comes to management, there had been reverse sexism, but that seems to have passed, partly because there are so few women in the industry.

As for why more women are dropping out? I don't know the reasons why, but good for them. I might be about to drop out (or be kicked out) myself. Part of me can hardly wait for it to happen.

While working as a failure analysis technician at a company that made a disk controller, I came across a single-bit error in static RAM cache that was repeatable. I was lucky to have the software and hardware tools available and I eventually tracked down the failure mode. Setting a bit at a certain location would cause another, different location's bit to get set. Just that one bit. And only if you set it. Resetting it did not cause the other bit to reset.

This turned out to be a manufacturing problem with a particular run of RAM. I starting finding more of these bad parts and could reproduce the failures. I guess what I'm saying is that this could well be a manufacturing defect in the RAM.

Parent poster points out some interesting things about the GOP and racism. The irony of the Deep South being both 'Republican' and racist, is that they were the 'solid South', voting staunchly Democrat, up until Lyndon Johnson signed the Equal Rights Amendment. Why did the deep South vote Democrat for so long? Abraham Lincoln was a Republican.

The Deep South voting bloc cares little about niceties like the Constitution if it gets in the way of them having power. They are a cohesive and crafty bunch of politicians. They are more akin to fascists than anything else.

Many of the tech employers have lobbied congress to get exemptions to the laws regarding the hiring of foreign workers. They have cited the lack of qualified people as the reason for the need to hire H1b workers. I don't know what the truth is behind that claim, but I can tell you that the use of H1b workers has resulted in lower wages, fewer job opportunities, and less demand for those jobs that require specialized technical training. Job security is gone.

High tech employers have also gotten exemptions to the labor laws that limit the number of hours per week worked; people who work in the software industry do not have protection from employers who demand they work long hours. So, the quality of life for workers in the software industry sucks.

Someone ought to clue in the brainiacs about the reasons why nobody in the U.S. cares to take a tech/science job.

It still scares me to see how badly the Bush administration has damaged democracy and the American constitution. It will take years, but this is another step away from the proto-fascist path that our country had started down when the far right-wing neocons came to power.

They are still out there. The Supreme Court has been loaded with ideologues and until one of them leaves the bench we are stuck with a judicial system that has been gamed for the sake of the wealthy and well-connected who care nothing for our country's laws and traditions.

As parent points out, he's out to change HIS world. He might have more credibility if he hadn't stole the code, and wasn't compromising user's data, but, hey, he's got the stage so why not try a little spin on the truth.

I should have pointed out the source - Gartner Group. They are butt-buddies with MS. If you look back at their forecasts and predictions, you'll see they have always projected scenarios that feature Microsoft. That's probably not a surprise in the MS vs. Linux arena because Microsoft has the money to create presentations and to woo the Gartner people, but the result was a consistently bullish projection of Microsoft success.

No surprise about your bank staying on old stuff; Bankers would rather eat their young than let go of a little money. I'll bet the hardware wouldn't support Vista or 7.