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Broadband Reports/DSL Reports' security forum has a discussion about this. Even legit XP owners, including myself, are complaining.

Look at TechCentral's article for screen shots and results of this nag stuff.

I wonder if MS is going to contact ISPs with DMCA for those who pirated their products. It's very scary. I have heard and seen pirated software users with this before. An example: VisualRoute -- http://www.google.com/search?q=visualroute+dmca

unless you fly on Lufthansa airlines. Others will follow.

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1830880,00.as p

http://www.osjournal.com/content/85/Reviews/A_look _at_Fedora_Core_4/

http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2 005/6/28/prodit/11304408&sec=prodit

These reviews aren't quite so negative as the review posted on /. . Funny how that is.

One of the selling points of OSS businesses is that it's (usually) cheaper than proprietary closed-source software, but that point is negated by the fact that piracy is so rampant here that every piece of software is "free". Therefore, Windows wins out since it has the most hardware support, and all the (warezed) games run on it, and that it also runs MS Office.

Sure, OO.o and all that is available, but MS has a head start with their stranglehold, and everyone just uses what everyone else uses. Price isn't an issue. For home users, support isn't an issue either since computer hardware shops that sold you the computer will do the support for you (whether that copy of Windows is licensed or not). Basically, what a typical home user does when his box is messed up is take it to the shop, and some bored technician will just reformat and reinstall things.

For big businesses, they want a "reputable" brand and therefore go Microsoft. MS has a lot of mindshare, plus they have a monopolistic stranglehold on the iT industry anyway, so Windows and MS is accepted way of running computers.

It's not all bleak though... OSS is getting momentum around these parts. In Malaysia, there has been a drive by the government to OSS-ify their IT infrastructure (this made a few Microsofties cry ;) ). Governments are getting more aware of the issues involved with security and transparency of software systems. I think the future is bright, but it'll take time getting there.

Windows server: Sure, some folks buy it, but plenty don't. So far, Microsoft only has about one third of this space, and Linux is nipping at its heels. They knifed Windows for Itanium, to the disappointment of both Itanium users.

Server appications: IIS has lost market share to Apache in recent years, and Exchange isn't ubiquitous yet either. SQL server enjoys showing the web its limits.

Windows CE/Mobile/Tablet/whatever: Still no monopoly, and since sales of PDAs are shrinking and tablet PC's haven't really caught on, even if MS did take over this market...

Game Consoles: XBox did just have its first profitable quarter. Ever. But it doesn't seem to sell so well overseas, and Nintendo and Sony haven't been persuaded to go away yet.

Media: Media Center PC's aren't selling so well, and in a world with iTuneszilla stomping around, Windows Media suddenly seems less likely to rule the universe than it did a few years ago, even with "PlaysForSure."

Internet Services: Even with its added features, MSN Messenger doesn't seem to be destroying AIM or Yahoo Messenger. MSN doesn't seem to be destroying anybody in general, even if Verizon throws it in free with DSL, and even if MSN is the homepage for Internet Explorer. Now Microsoft wants to go after Google, too.

It's pretty interesting to consider that Windows Client and Office are so frickin' profitable that Microsoft can afford to throw gobs of money at their unprofitable products and divisions (which are pretty much everything but Windows Client and Office) and still have huge heaps of cash left over.

(Oh, and I left off Apple, because if 95% of the world abruptly switched to Apple, Microsoft is second only to Apple itself in Mac software development, and would still be one of the most profitable companies out there, on sales of Office for Mac, VirtualPC, etc. Also, because as long as Apple is out there, and isn't owned by Microsoft, Microsoft can point at it and say "look, there are other choices, we're not that much of a monopoly!" :)

Linux outdoes Sun in clustered enterprise databases

How about we go ask the folks at Google on what platform they run THEIR payroll on? I wonder, do you think they keep track of their billions in stock options on a grid of white box linux machines? Your search for 'Britney Spears+panties' may not need 100% reliability and repeatibility (and thus is perfect for the system they use to run their search engine on), but I'll bet all of those PhD.'s like to get their direct deposits on time.

And Sun needs 3rd party clusterware? Please, list the problems with SunCluster 3.1, in direct comparision to Veritas Cluster (or whatever Symantec is going to do with it), that make it fall short of even being respectable.

Windows Me is selling for USD220.That might not sound much but due to currency, its RM839 .Thats more than 2 months worth of paycheck! I admit I have never seen a genuine copy of Windows.

Just read this article yesterday:
Philadelphia to become 'Wi-fi for all' city.

IMHO, It's a wonderful effort. The whole idea behind this effort is that Internet access should be treated as a public resource. And apparently Philadelphia isn't alone... plans like these are being researched in other locations as well.

Well, MS didn't win in Malaysia. According to this article, Linux out sold Windows about 7 to 3 in the PC Gemilang project mention in the article.

Motorola has a nice overview graphic - you can also checkout a more generalized article at The Star Online.

Here is My comment about winXP UI apeared in local newspaper

http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2 004/3/16/itfeature/7484361&sec=itfeature

It's been six months since this story, and since then Kazaa:

might be sued by the US government for facilitating IP infringement,
is being sued in Australia for IP infringement, and
is being sued for possible IP infringement of the Kazaa software itself.

BitTorrent *is* cast in the same light as Kazaa, Morpheus etc. according to the media, and as such it will not (in the near future) be seen as legitimate, no matter how Atari or Blizzard uses p2p. Yes, p2p has legitimate uses, but until the world wakes up and realises that you can do more than download Britney_Spears_L33T-N3w-S0ng!.mp3, it will remain as shady as Napster 1.0.

Official Language of Malaysia is Malay (langcode=ms)
it also known as "Bahasa Melayu" or sometimes "Bahasa Malaysia"
I prefer to call it Bahasa Melayu since it's the original name of the language.

The language has 2 type of writing form, roman and jawi script. however jawi script is not popular.

speaking about native language, Microsoft has announce "Language interface Pack" for Malay several week before.
http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2 004/2/23/technology/7357771&sec=technology

and i would love to see Malay XD2 to compete with them.

Sorry, but I don't think so:

Malaysia investing 15-30 Million $ in Open Source

MSC Trustgate fires its chief scientist after uncovering fraudulent claims

Be afraid, be very, very afraid. Them implementing PKI for an entire country?

• ZDNet Australia was unable to reach the company's two Domain Name Servers (DNS). Both machines were inaccessible, which is unlikely to result from too much "legitimate" traffic going to the site. DNS processing does not use a lot of system resources, and does not use a lot of traffic. Furthermore, the two name servers are hosted on different IP ranges, which is unlikely to spring from a run-of-the-mill system outage.

  The US-based companies that host the DNSs and the Web servers were unable to comment. Datapipe, who host the secondary name server, flatly refused to comment on the phone, insisting that all enquiries be directed to the legal department of the company. Global company Navlink, who host the Aljazeera.net primary DNS, were unable to comment at the time of writing. However their own Web site is offline also.

According to this story, '...the attack "was 100% preventable." This view was shared Howard Schmidt, cyber security adviser to US President George W. Bush, who on Monday suggested that six months was more than enough time for systems administrators to plug the hole.'

I know its their statement and I should probably question everything, but it does make sense.

I stopped reading this last post at "Agreed, but the openness of the language"

Where do you see Java being open? It's not even a standardized language. C# has been accepted as a standard by the ECMA and has been submitted to ISO. here.