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Microsoft Battles Free Software at Pentagon
Spirit of Ishmael writes "The May 22 Washington Post is running a story under the headline Microsoft Fights Free Software at Pentagon. According to the story: 'Microsoft Corp. is aggressively lobbying the Pentagon to squelch its growing use of freely distributed computer software and switch to proprietary systems such as those sold by the software giant, according to officials familiar with the campaign.'"
You have this software that you pay nothing for and that thousands of people around the world find bugs in, but you should BUY ours because we obscure our bugs and only we know how this software works...???
Go with the lowest bidder?
How does M$ expect to beat free?
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Unix is very user friendly, it's just picky about who its friends are.
You make so much sense! The DoD has obviously ditched NSA testing for free beer software. "Security, Shemurity, at least it doesn't cost anything! I'm installing sendmail on the President's laptop."
"Now, I understand why Microsoft is trying to muddy the waters, but why in the world is the DoD playing along? "
Spoken like a man who was never in the military. As a veteran let me assure you that the DOD is playing along because they are profoundly stupid people. MS said something and they believed it. They are not used to questioning authority in the first place.
War is necrophilia.
You can install sendmail on SNES?!
It doesn't mean much now, it's built for the future.
aren't contributing to any one nation's national security, but all takers equally.
I hear Al-queda is finally fed up with security leaks from their use of Microsoft software and are switching over to 100% open-source.
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- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
"Ever watch Battleship Potempkin? How come you can't get that on Kazaa?"
Because it doesn't have Kirsten Dunst's nipples showing through a wet shirt silly.
Who's Jar Jar Binks in this parallel? Oh right, uncoordinated movement and incomprehensible speech, he's Steve Ballmer!
What time is it/will be over there? Check with my iPhone app!
you actually make a good point- I woulnd't be suprised if EVERY branch of every government started looking for an alternative to MS right now.
MS basically told the government "hey, you know that stuff we sold ya? it's CRAP! we pocketed the money! We ripped of you AND your country, and most of the world for that matter! but, we don't want to hurt your feelings, so we're gonna focus on fixing it, 'security is our top priority'....not really, we're just gonna 'start from scratch,' with the same old code and sell it to you for twice the price! muahahaha....wait, where are you going? nonono, open source is bad, remember!? Bad USA!....doh!!"
as my dad is fond of saying, "they just stepped on their own dick."
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I concur- I work in one of the big 6 consulting firms, and HR often comes to our team (networking, telecomm) to help interview potential hires. You wouldn't believe the attitudes of the people that come in and say "I have an MCSE!" and just glow about it. Of course, nearly zip in real experience. (Best story: older guy comes in to one of our job fairs, just got his MCSE but no experience in computers ever, and when I told him that he didn't fit any of our openings, he asked if we needed a janitor! I really felt bad for that guy, though) Now, people who come in and detail their experience and maybe throw in the MCSE at the end, they are the people that you want.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
The Washington Post article says that M$ is calling open source unamerican.
When did they employ the remains of Joe McCarthy for its marketing department?
This sig no verb.
Hey, buddy, that's the G/Box to you!
Fight for your right to read books!