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A Losing Bet: the Last Days of Comdex, Part 1

Nov 24, 2002  By Doc Searls
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Linux kept a low profile at Comdex this year. But maybe that's because Comdex itself is failing, and Microsoft is using what's left as a promotional vehicle.
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Doc Searls is Senior Editor of Linux Journal

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Re: A Losing Bet: the Last Days of Comdex, Part 1

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 11/26/2002 - 03:00.

One thing that surprised/disappointed me from the TabletPC makers (Acer most noticeably) was the focus on the OS and not on product differentiation. As my co-worker and I went from Acer to Toshiba (although they had some knowledge) to Fujitsu all we got from the Rep's was how to write our names and send a hand written emails.

Am I just naive to think that the product should take center stage given that the OS is what it is?

Anyway, next time my money will be spent at LinuxWorldExpo.

Re: A Losing Bet: the Last Days of Comdex, Part 1

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 12/17/2002 - 03:00.

The first time I see a "hand-written email" posted to a LUG will be amusing indeed. The inevitable thousandth time, however, won't be.

Anybody else think thats a brain-dead feature that should have been aborted before implementation? Its all well and good to save an image of notes and attach it to an email where that's useful, but to make it EASIER to send monster images of illegable rubbish than send proper text (well, MS-HTML-ized mangled text)... whoops.

I bet Microsoft tech support hates them already.

I work for a local newspaper covering a district full of more-money-than-brains yuppies driving monster four-wheel-drives by the way... we'll be right on the brunt of this one.

Next thing to look for - automatic handwriting recognition in MS Outlook, and the first exploits against it.

Re: fonts

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Tue, 11/26/2002 - 03:00.

"Microsoft has done a very nice job with screen type..."

Agreed. Most pleasing "out-of-the-box" visual (i.e. anti-aliased fonts) experience:

1) WinXP (especially on my Vaio)

2) GNU/Linux

3) Solaris 8 (non-existent, really; and a lot of pain to get it working for mozilla)

Re: fonts

Doc's picture
Submitted by Doc (not verified) on Wed, 11/27/2002 - 03:00.

I've heard that the subpixel rendering used by WinXP was invented by Steve Wozniak back in the Apple II days and never patented. Sadly, what Apple has today on OS X looks more to me like font blurring than anything else (yes, I know it's just anti-aliasing, but it's not pretty). The result is blurry screen type that's far less readable than it was in plain old Classic mode.

Linux may lag in the font department, but I think this is one of those areas where less is more.

Re: fonts

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 11/27/2002 - 03:00.

Doc, go to System Preferences General, and set the font smoothing to 'Medium - best for Flat Panel'. It does the sub-pixel thing, and makes a big difference in legibility. (You'll need to relaunch apps after switching it on)

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