AOPA Flight Planner - Microsoft only?

I was a Mac user back at version something. About 5 years ago I gave up.
Yes they have a great operating system but Apple has done everything
possible to screw up the adoption of it by the general public.

According to Google Zeitgeist the operating systems used to access Google
during February 2004 by percentage were

Windows 98 23%
Windows XP 46%
Windows 2000 18%
Windows NT 3%
Windows 95 1 %
Mac 4%
Linux 1%
Other 1%

That's 91% for Windows.

There just isn't the base out there for every body to port every thing to
non-Windows OS. Hell, the virus writers don't even port their stuff to Mac.



"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message
online.com...
Morgans wrote:

Who cares? You are a very small minority. (only half a grin, here)

The question is: Does AOPA care (about the minority that doesn't spew
viruses at everyone {8^) ?

I am, after all, an AOPA member.

Seriously: I spend a nontrivial amount of effort selling people on
non-viral-farm solutions. Thanks to Apple's OSX, this is actually quite
feasible for the nontechnical today.

So what is AOPA saying about safe computing (and never mind monocultures)
if
they ignore us?

- Andrew

The browser identity string is settable on Linux browsers and many are set
to show themselves as being Windows machines running IE. This is because
there are a lot of sites that block entry unless IE on MS.

Nevertheless, Windows is still the predominant platform for desktops. But
don't count on that forever - corporate America is poised to make the jump,
led by IBM and others, to Linux. Good or bad, that is happening now.
Personally, I am for the freedom to use whatever platform you want (right
now most of my stuff is Windows), and not support a private standard such as
MS.


"Gig Giacona" wrote in message
...
I was a Mac user back at version something. About 5 years ago I gave up.
Yes they have a great operating system but Apple has done everything
possible to screw up the adoption of it by the general public.

According to Google Zeitgeist the operating systems used to access Google
during February 2004 by percentage were

Windows 98 23%
Windows XP 46%
Windows 2000 18%
Windows NT 3%
Windows 95 1 %
Mac 4%
Linux 1%
Other 1%

That's 91% for Windows.

There just isn't the base out there for every body to port every thing to
non-Windows OS. Hell, the virus writers don't even port their stuff to
Mac.



"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message
online.com...
Morgans wrote:

Who cares? You are a very small minority. (only half a grin, here)

The question is: Does AOPA care (about the minority that doesn't spew
viruses at everyone {8^) ?

I am, after all, an AOPA member.

Seriously: I spend a nontrivial amount of effort selling people on
non-viral-farm solutions. Thanks to Apple's OSX, this is actually quite
feasible for the nontechnical today.

So what is AOPA saying about safe computing (and never mind
monocultures)
if
they ignore us?

- Andrew

Peter Gottlieb wrote:

But
don't count on that forever - corporate America is poised to make the
jump,
led by IBM and others, to Linux. Good or bad, that is happening now.

We're a Solaris/Linux shop here, but I'm *very* aware of Apple's UNIX
product. A lot of desktop moves that might have been to Linux a year or
two ago are instead going to Apple. I cannot speak from my own experience,
but I think it a safe assumption that the Apple product is easier for
neophytes to use than Linux.

Of course, I personally still use a window manager (olvwm) from well over
ten years ago. The object model that most Linux managers use today leads,
in my opinion, to a cluttered screen that's tough to navigate. But Apple's
modal interface seems even worse to me.

The point being that I'm a poor judge of what UIs others would like. Still,
I think Apple on the desktop a good bet.

- Andrew

In article , "Gig Giacona"
wrote:

I was a Mac user back at version something. About 5 years ago I gave up.
Yes they have a great operating system but Apple has done everything
possible to screw up the adoption of it by the general public.

According to Google Zeitgeist the operating systems used to access Google
during February 2004 by percentage were

Windows 98 23%
Windows XP 46%
Windows 2000 18%
Windows NT 3%
Windows 95 1 %
Mac 4%
Linux 1%
Other 1%

That's 91% for Windows.

There just isn't the base out there for every body to port every thing to
non-Windows OS. Hell, the virus writers don't even port their stuff to
Mac.


the numbers cannot be trusted because browsers can be configured
to lie to the server. The lie is required in part because some
web weenies are complete idiots, "designing" the site so that it
only supports MSIE (we don't need that pesky web paradigm, do we?)

--
Bob Noel

"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message
I tried to go to the AOPA Flight Planning web page today, and found that
the
only option remaining is to download a Microsoft-only application. This
seems annoying.

Why should AOPA devote substantial time and resources to develop something
that much less than 3% (the percentage of non-MS systems in homes out there)
of their readership would ever use?

I can think of a kajillion other things I'd want my dime spent on other than
designing an app to please almost none of their sponsorship.

On the other hand, I'm sure there are some enterprising pilot/developers out
there who would absolutely jump at the chance to devote a thousand hours
designing an app for the few hundred people in your same shoes. Why, I'd
bet you pay them ten pr perhaps even fifteen bucks for such a killer app,
right?

Resistance is futile.

--
Jim Fisher
(who loves a Mac and Linux but can't function in reality without Windoze)

Jim Fisher wrote:

(who loves a Mac and Linux but can't function in reality without Windoze)

The reason you cannot is because companies/groups like AOPA waste time and
money developing platform specific products because the programmers don't
know any better. Enough time and money is wasted on Microsoft viruses that
anyone interested in economy should at least permit, if not encourage,
migration to more robust - or at least more diverse - platforms.

I do that. When Apple finally joined the UNIX world, it became a *lot*
easier.

But here we find an organization of which I'm a member working in precisely
the opposite direction. Annoying.

- Andrew

Get real. Microsoft is targeted because Microsoft is the target. If 98%
of the world was running Unix, Linux, or some Apple OS, the hackers
would go after them. The problem is everyone jumping onto the latest OS,
making it easy to target "your prey".

Andrew Gideon wrote:

Jim Fisher wrote:


(who loves a Mac and Linux but can't function in reality without Windoze)


The reason you cannot is because companies/groups like AOPA waste time and
money developing platform specific products because the programmers don't
know any better. Enough time and money is wasted on Microsoft viruses that
anyone interested in economy should at least permit, if not encourage,
migration to more robust - or at least more diverse - platforms.

I do that. When Apple finally joined the UNIX world, it became a *lot*
easier.

But here we find an organization of which I'm a member working in precisely
the opposite direction. Annoying.

- Andrew

"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message The reason you cannot
is because companies/groups like AOPA waste time and
money developing platform specific products because the programmers don't
know any better.

Well, that plus the fact that Apple chose not to license their OS long ago
and changed history. I'm sure it sounded like a good idea at the time.

--
Jim Fisher

In article , "Jim
Fisher" wrote:

"Andrew Gideon" wrote in message
I tried to go to the AOPA Flight Planning web page today, and found
that
the
only option remaining is to download a Microsoft-only application.
This
seems annoying.

Why should AOPA devote substantial time and resources to develop
something
that much less than 3% (the percentage of non-MS systems in homes out
there)
of their readership would ever use?

why write a ms-based app?

why not a web-based?

(btw - your "3%" number is incorrect)

--
Bob Noel

"Bob Noel" wrote in message

(btw - your "3%" number is incorrect)


Oh? What is the percentage of Windows to Non-Windows systems in the HOME as
I stated, Bob?

--
Jim Fisher