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If I remember, I think dBase I, which was never on the market, was created by Bell Labs.

That didn't sound right so I looked around and found this:

1981 November: Ashton-Tate repackaged Wayne Ratliff's Vulcan database program as dBase II, bringing relational database technology to the PC. There was never a dBase I, nor an Ashton, nor a Tate, (though a parrot was later named Ashton) bringing deceptive product naming to the PC. Ed Esber brought real MBA style business management to the company, destroying it completely. The parrot died and Ashton-Tate was sold to Borland, where dBase died.

The version "II" was pure marketing. Yes, even in 1981 people were afraid of "version 1" of anything.

Home users do notice the registration in XP when their PC fails to work after a time if left unregistered.

On security in general, there is a level of fear out there from some users. I can't speak to prevalence, but if Tony Sopranno mentions being worried about cookies, the idea is out there. The more regular people are worried about Microsoft registration, the less inclined they would be to use pirated copies of XP. This is a good thing, IMHO. Once they see the price tag of Microsoft, Linux looks even better.

Some corporations, however, almost seem duty bound to get the latest offerings from Microsoft whether or not the latest offerings provide needed enhancements. Not all corporations of course.

Now bear in mind that (a) there are challenges from all sides coming at Microsoft (they have failed to gain much of a foothold in markets outside their core products of Windows and Office, both core markets now under heavy attack from Free alternatives) and (b) the price of MSFT has almost halved over the past 5 years (in fact, it was almost touching $100 a share in Feb 2000) and you might just think it's not all rosy in the MSFT garden. So much so that co-founder Paul Allen sold all his MSFT stock and got out whilst the going was good. This is also why MS decided last year to pay a dividend on their stock for the first time - they have to prevent institutional investors from jumping ship. The stock setup is their one (big) weakness.

To accuse Microsoft of accounting fraud by manipulating their numbers in an age of corporate accounting scandal borders on libel. I don't think you can accuse Microsoft of putting money away and manipulating their numbers without proof, and the author has offered none of this.

Microsoft Cooks Their Books

Plenty more here.

The SEC investigation was dropped due to lack of evidence. But nothing says "We did it and we'd like to keep it out of a courtroom" quite like a $4M payout to the guy who blew the whistle and got sacked for his trouble.

And when Microsoft gets away with something, they don't stop doing it.

Even that may be questionable:

"Not having the skills or time to write a network operating, Novell bought a license to a Unix kernel and based NetWare on that foundation."

= 9J =

actually, NetWare is UNIX, in a way.

"Novell began in 1983 intending to enable CP/M PCs to share an expensive hard disk.They soon realized disk costs were plunging, and files on the disk where needed to be shared. Not having the skills or time to write a network operating, Novell bought a license to a Unix kernel and based NetWare on that foundation. "

= 9J =

Ahem, she did.

Ahem, Not according to Salon
Or, if you don't want to access the "premium" content, search for DiDio in this page

Has anyone heard of other stories of manufacturers being deceptive so that they could get better reviews?

Is that anything like having your employees send out fake grass-roots letters, pose as random users on message boards, or secretly fund an "independent" study?

For those looking for insight on this might look here:

http://www.aaxnet.com/product/appgn.html

--------------

10-Oct-03 - the Appgen company has closed - the Appgen product is expected to continue. There are groups currently working on acquiring rights to license the product and this issue should be resolved soon. Nothing is yet resolved about terms, pricing or VAR support.

18-Oct-03 - people are still working to put together a deal, but the process has apparently been stalled a bit by the volume of badmouthing and threats (legal and physical) against those who were involved with the Appgen company. Cooperation would seem to be a much better tactic right now.

You may contact me by email at aax@aaxnet.com and I will keep you updated on whatever I learn about this matter.- or just watch this space

For people with licensing problems with Mybooks purchased directly from Appgen, this temporary solution has been proposed by an Appgen VAR.

continued...

For those looking for insight on this might look here:

http://www.aaxnet.com/product/appgn.html

--------------

10-Oct-03 - the Appgen company has closed - the Appgen product is expected to continue. There are groups currently working on acquiring rights to license the product and this issue should be resolved soon. Nothing is yet resolved about terms, pricing or VAR support.

18-Oct-03 - people are still working to put together a deal, but the process has apparently been stalled a bit by the volume of badmouthing and threats (legal and physical) against those who were involved with the Appgen company. Cooperation would seem to be a much better tactic right now.

You may contact me by email at aax@aaxnet.com and I will keep you updated on whatever I learn about this matter.- or just watch this space

For people with licensing problems with Mybooks purchased directly from Appgen, this temporary solution has been proposed by an Appgen VAR.

continued...

DR's Gary Kildall sat down at an IBM PC supplied by IBM and, using a secret code, got it to pop up a Digital Research copyright notice.

It's case won, Digital Research received monetary compensation and the right to clone MS-DOS. This is why Microsoft never sued DR over DR-DOS, but used every other means to destroy it. The settlement was under a strict non- disclosure agreement, so few even know DR sued, never mind that they won.

That sounds EXACTLY LIKE what Microsoft's School Agreement. Under that particular nastygram, all a school had to do was count every PC, including Macintoshes and pay $42 per PC, per year. Why? Even though they already paid for the OS, the Macs could also theoretically run Word and Internet Explorer. So pay up $42 for those Macs, too!

If you own copyright to any Linux Kernel code, sue.

By the way, in a recent interview, Linus claimed that he owns sole copyright to the Kernel. Maybe Linus should sue SCO?

or if you end up writing that killer busseinse app. youve allways wanted, it will meen going after the ppl riping you off.

I'm suspicious about any additional powers being granted. The same arguments can be made for any crime in the public eye, "We must violate your rights in order to combat this_daterdly_deed" All criminals hide their assets. That does not make me want my tax money paying government clerks to read my email.

I'm waiting for the big sting that shows that most spam is comming from MSNBC, AOL, Earthlink and others who advertise "spam fighting email service". I doubt I have to give up any more for this than I gave up when "Steven Barkto" got nailed. Spam, not everloving, astroturfing Microsoft!

Slashdotters defending DRM... am I crazy or am I the last sane one? I'm not sure sure anymore.

Slashdot continues to get more mainstream readership, even getting mentioned in print articles these days. As a side effect of this visibility, the activity of astroturfers has increased -- notice that the pro-MS AC(s) tend to have the same writing style and logical fallacies. When other readers put them in their place, a handful UIDs dog pile one or two posters with ad hominem attacks or the "you-just-don't-like-Microsoft" (appeal to emotion?) attack. Microsoft has a long practice of 'turfing in it's marketing:

• MSFT paid Gartner to publish MSFT material as Gartner's
• fake "grass roots" letter writing
• another fake letter writing campaign
• paid for people to hang out in AOL forums
• paid for people to hang out in ZDNet "talkback" forums
• paid for people to hang out in CompuServe forums
• MSNBC doctored Wall Street Journal material
• Stuffed an on-line ballot box
• planned to plant fake op-ed pieces in local newspapers
• funded favorable think-tank whitepapers
• 'Astroturf' PR campaign exposes Microsoft goals.
• Joseph Menn. "Lobbyists Tied to Microsoft Wrote Citizens' Letters." The Los Angeles Times; Aug 23, 2001; pg. A.1 (print)
• Windows Outstuffs Linux in Poll
• Dead People, Fake Letters, Support Microsoft - Report
• Dead people rise in support of Microsoft
• Microsoft employee's move against AOL backfires
• The Freedom to Innovate Network - an 'Astroturf' Organisation

Also, right now MS is in a panicked marketing blitz. notice all the product placement on the tech sites. The embarassing stuff just disappears from the top page less than a day, but the press releases sit there for weeks.

It makes sense. Most Windows users have both Windows and Office because it's what the OEMs had installed on the machines they bought, nothing more or less. Most of these are either apathetic or know nothin else, so they will not write. Others are pissed off at the low quality, made worse by Microsoft treating security and stability issues as PR issues -- How many times have you heard "computers" crash from BSD, Novell, QNX, Linux, or OS X users? Or is it just the MSCEs? Most remaining clients could go easily over to OS X or one of the Linux distros and the next IT boom would start, like the previous one, without Microsoft.

In short, they need DRM to survive the summer and few, except for MS and RIAA staff

(Anonymous to avoid karma whoring.)

Please try to use links when posting a URL... slahdot will mangle long URLs, and though this one isn't, it's still considerate to take the extra five seconds to add the <a> tags.

Anywho, here's the link. Enjoy!

Its a L-o-n-g read through the document at
MS or ...

Well, in five years time YOU will either be using x86, LOCKED into MS and .NET, with MS in control of your Data or .....
You MAY have made the shift to PPC with the OS ( or OSs ) of your personal choise.

It is really up to YOU; being a drone or a free person!
.

You're joking, right?
click

First of all, I really don't want to use Microsoft's dev tools because it locks me into Windows. I would rather program with Java or Python, where the app is sufficiently cross-platform that I don't have to rewrite it for Linux, Macintosh, or whatever. Sure, you'll be able to convert your Windows apps to the new file system, as long as it's written in C# or VB-- under any other language you might be SOL.

I think you're incredibly ingenuous if you think that Microsoft is not going to make this change in an attempt to wring the last drop of blood out of its customers. A lot of companies are getting fed up, especially where it concerns the server side. Check out this article to see what I'm talking about. Even if you discount it by about a quarter to a half, it's still not good news for Visual Studio developers.

I don't suppose anyone has told you yet that

... only a small percentage of programmers are employed by companies that produce software for sale. The great majority work for non-software businesses developing software for internal use.

I do not see anyone in this thread restricting discussion to public projects. Indeed, the entire thread started with a discussion of MS Office documents, and I can assure you the vast majority of Word documents are not intended for public distribution.

The reason Microsoft's own licensing is relevant is that your practice of railing against the horrors of GPL licensing while completely ignoring the evils of Microsoft licensing renders you nothing but a hypocrite.

Giving in so easy?

No... because you sound like you're on crack, which means I can win without even responding.

It's entirely possible for anti-MS rumormongers to sound very convincing. Just not for you.

(Although, the fact that Microsoft may have been losing a single lawsuit 5 years is hardly biased negatively or positively towards the company. It's rather meaningless, unless you want to be a stickler for details. And in the details- claiming "Microsoft settled a copyright lawsuit for $150 million"- you are wrong)

A paragraph under the heading "The Foreign Threat" was devoted to California.
I'll let you draw your own conclusions.

The "Windows" moniker will disapear soon anyway...
(According to this anyway (and I think it makes sense)

I quote (well...I cut n paste)..

"Some expect the name Windows will be dropped completely. The antitrust agreement with the Bush DoJ specifically states "Microsoft Windows" throughout. By maintaining incompatibility (already planned due to design considerations), making it look different and calling it something else, Microsoft can free itself from antitrust oversight. "It's not Windows, it's a different product - the agreement doesn't apply."

So this may soon go away anyway...

Why does it alway work out this way?

Like a good book, that had to be one of the best reads I've read in a long time. The peru letter had me rolling on the floor.

This is a long story, could have just gone with the road ahead section of the editorial. He does make some interesting points about Longhorn including "Current Windows based software will not be compatible with the Longhorn filesystem".

If that's true, sounds like a big shot in the foot for MS. With many people still on 98/2000, XP has yet to saturate every cubicle around. Now by 2005 everyone will be expected to drop everything and get a new stuff? They must have some plan to support "legacy" software.

I'm really suprised none of the linux zealots have mentioned this yet, but one of the best uses a school could have for an old PC is to rip out the hard drive, hook that sucker up to a network, and use it as an X terminal thin client with its display managed by a bigger backroom server.

This is much more reliable and effective than you might imagine. Over 10baseT, X is plenty fast. An old pentium is more than enough power for an X server (even a 486 works very nicely, with a decent vid card). Eight or 16 megs of ram is enough. For the server, to run basic office and net apps you need much less power than you think, because most of the time the processor is sitting idle (what you really need is ram). Plus, you get all the additional benefits of thin-clients in their easier administration and much lower TCO. No more running around to Windows (or even Linux) PCs all over the school--you can forget they exist.

This is already quite a popular way of doing things in cash-strapped schools, and it's growing.

Be evangelized.

The biggest deployment of this kind I know of is in Largo, Florida, with 400 terminals. See also here, and here, aw heck just Google.

LTSP is a very popular package for serving mini X server distros to storage-less PSs over a network.

Actually, yes. MSFT has an amazing history of shilling and astroturfing:

• MSFT paid Gartner to publish MSFT material as Gartner's
• fake "grass roots" letter writing
• another fake letter writing campaign
• paid for people to hang out in AOL forums
• paid for people to hang out in ZDNet "talkback" forums
• paid for people to hang out in CompuServe forums
• MSNBC doctored Wall Street Journal material
• Stuffed an on-line ballot box
• planned to plant fake op-ed pieces in local newspapers
• funded favorable think-tank whitepapers

I'm sure there's more, that's just all I can scrounge up in a few minutes. I seem to remember another MSFT-funded think-tank ("Indepence Institute"?) white paper, and there was an interesting "Brill's Content" article on how MSFT tracks reporters and what they write about MSFT. Actually, isn't the above enough? 10 items from 9 different sources about all varieties of shilling and astroturfing in forums from small to nation-wide. Yes, I think it's prudent to believe that MSFT employees watch Slashdot and mod-up pro-MSFT articles, or even submit them.

I'd go so far as to say that the average person should be suspicious of any pro-MSFT article or viewpoint posted in a public forum. If you, the reader, are pro-MSFT, I'm sorry: if you lie down with pigs, you can't expect to wake up in the morning smelling like roses.

If I recall correctly, most ATM machines run OS/2

for example: OS/2

Petswarehouse.com

They sued some customers for giving bad (honest) reviews of their service. Not exactly the same, but hey, who wants to take on Microsoft in legal battles or fun audits?

M$ might have not cared a few years ago when MS was flush with money and sales from companies also flush with money. However this is no longer the case, and MS has been doing everything to get cash from strapped companies. In particular M$ is trying to extorts as much money from schools as possible with only the Linux counter threat saving taxpayers from a multi-million dollar theft.

I admit that this comment is going to sound very ad hominum: We need to examine Obasanjo's claims carefully. He's worked for Microsoft very recently.

Ordinarily, I wouldn't call attention to this, but Microsoft as a company has a really bad track record of astroturfing just about any kind of on- or off-line forum:

• CompuServe forums
• Political Action Committee
• "Independent" research groups
• Letter writing campaigns
• MSNBC articles
• online poll 1, online poll 2
• ZDNet talk backs

Sorry, Dare, but that's the facts: if you lie down with pigs, you wake up smelling a bit like pig excrement.

I agree, those idiots in Redmond had better shut up. =:> I don't see the folks from Debian busting into grade schools looking for old versions of Emacs without documentation. The extortion of hundreds of thousands of dollars from US public school systems for "unregistered" and "pirated" coppies of Word and what not is a matter of public record. So, if second hand PC's get you that much trouble here, where M$'s avowed interest is the children, how do you think they will act overseas? The only frenzy I see is people reacting to the new blue screen of death, programs they pay for advertising at them, the mega improved clippy animations and quirkyness in general. They get a daily rise out of such insults. It's imposible to exaggurate the situation as people who don't have to deal with it all won't believe half of the truth.

Are we REALLY saying that if I found someone who had a LEGALLY LICENSED copy of Windows 95 from 1995, we could not engage in any sort of transaction to transfer the license (per whatever terms were stated in the Win95 original license) over to me?

Yes, Microsoft really says that, as was extensively documented here by Michael's excellent copyrant. Let's not forget the Naked PC effort, where M$ tried to quash the sales of any computer without an OS. Kinda goes to show you where there heart is.

Guess who uses IIS? eBay, Dell, Gateway, Intel, Nasdaq, Compaq, most of the UK Government sites... etc.

Guess who uses OSS? Tivo, Yahoo, Google, Cisco, Home Depot, Mexico City, more...

http://www.aaxnet.com/design/linux2.html

Or, Emergency 911 systems.

If you are a Californian, the contact info is here for California attorney general Bill Lockyer- you can call toll-free (800) 952-5225 inside California.

Given that MS has a history of astroturfing again and again pretending to have a grass-roots movement in its support, it would be a good idea to express bona fide concern about how fair the settlement is at a time when it might make some difference.

Found this link in a ZDNet TalkBack forum, of all places. A down-and-dirty expose of the real truths (they claim) behind the entire Microsoft history. Includes a long list of everyone who's sued M$, etc. Very enlightening...

What are they supposed to be doing? Install Windows and apps on thousands of machines?

In the original article about the rat out your clients game, there is a link to an article about licensing. In there you will find:

If you got your computer with an OEM license, but you "ghost" the hard disk as most larger companies do to achieve consistency, you have to buy a second Windows license for that computer. Installing this second license voids your OEM license so the OEM no longer provides support. You now have to get that from Microsoft at $350 per incident.

So in short, yes, you are supposed to install all apps individually onto a clean OEM Windows install.

Am I the only one who can't click that link?
Well, for anyone else who can't, here's the link.
http://www.aaxnet.com/news/M010425.html

1982 - Digital Research sues Microsoft and IBM - DR wins. It was obvious MS-DOS and its PC-DOS variant were simply rip- offs of Digital Research's CP/M operating system. It remained only to prove it contained DR code. DR's Gary Kildall sat down at an IBM PC supplied by IBM and, using a secret code, got it to pop up a Digital Research copyright notice.
It's case won, Digital Research received monetary compensation and the right to clone MS-DOS. This is why Microsoft never sued DR over DR-DOS, but used every other means to destroy it. The settlement was under a strict non- disclosure agreement, so few even know DR sued, never mind that they won.

Digital Research was purchased by Novel and destroyed by neglect and mismanagement. The products now belong to Caldera, which has filed suit against Microsoft over predatory practices used to destroy DR-DOS's market.