Windependence Day

An unknown reader points us to the Windependence Day contest sponsored by DesktopLinux. Cute idea, and I'm sure some people have exciting stories of battling the talking paperclip...

Comments

It looks like you're trying to work

[delta407]

Good thing he doesn't work under CrossOver Office...

Stupid paperclip.

winderws

[FigBugDeux]

I don't depend on windows
wnidows depends on me

Re:winderws

[Jester998]

So, if we want to get rid of Windows... we have to... kill all its users?!?! Real-life Quake! Sounds good to me. ;)

- Jester

July 14th: The Storming of Redmond

[boa13]

And on July 14th, join us as we storm the Redmond stronghold and cut the head of the evil king of the Microsoft Kingdom. The storming of Redmond will symbolize, for all citizens of Linuxdom, liberty, democracy and the struggle against all forms of oppression!

Re:July 14th: The Storming of Redmond

[dweezle]

Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!

Re:July 14th: The Storming of Redmond

[PacoTaco]

The Justice Department is already contemplating a lawsuit. Apparently "Windependence Day" is too similar to the US Government trademark "Independence Day." This could cause confusion in the minds of consumers and lead them to believe that Linux has something to do with lighting fireworks. Innocent penguins may be needlessly harmed.

Re:July 14th: The Storming of Redmond

[Anonymous Coward]

Heh, mind if I use that as my .sig? ;-)

Re:July 14th: The Storming of Redmond

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude, you'd have to type it each time ;-)

Re:July 14th: The Storming of Redmond

[Anonymous Coward]

And all this time I thought 'Independence day' was trademark of The Movie Industry.

Re:July 14th: The Storming of Redmond

[trezor]

will symbolize, for all citizens of Linuxdom, liberty, democracy and the struggle against all forms of oppression!

And democracy isnt opression? Any kind of authority is opression, and boy do democracys have authorities!

Linux is freedom. Mircrosoft Windows is democracy (what suits most people is forced upon all)

Re:July 14th: The Storming of Redmond

[arvidnl]

--
Enter any 11-digit prime number to continue.

11111111113

Re:July 14th: The Storming of Redmond

[Dannon]

Liberty! Equality! Fraternity!

Does this mean there'll be free beer?

Re:July 14th: The Storming of Redmond

[Anonymous Coward]

LOL, quite true...
/me stumbles off to create an account, no doubt to the detriment of the entire /. community ;-)

Re:July 14th: The Storming of Redmond

[suicidal]

Untrue. M$ forces what M$ believes is the best for you, (or what it thinks it can get away with which is best for itself) down our collective throats. This would be more like a Magistrate/Supreme Power/Dictatorship (I can't think of the right word for the life of me), than a proper Democracy where the voice of the people would be the determining factor.

Uhh....

[smoondog]

I battle word, excel, powerpoint and window 2000 everyday. Does this mean I'm finally going to win?

-Sean

Re:Uhh....

[Anonymous Coward]

Use your secret weapon: fdisk. Windows has no defense.

"...crush the Rebellion with one swift stroke!"

Re:Uhh....

[flewp]

Actually, speaking of battling the paperclip bastard....
About a year ago, doing a freelance job, I had to work a lot with Frontpage2000. Not too bad, since I was able to use Dreamweaver at home, but I also had to use Word a lot when I was in the office. It was mostly for conversions of data to be put into HTML. Since I was working on a machine that someone else used, and they were the primary user, I opted not to really change anything around. Anyway, one day when working with Word, the paperprick bastard kept popping up. I got so mad (mostly from being hungover) I took the box of paperclips at the desk and proceeded and to simply bend probably around 20-25 until they broke. Man, that was great. Not only did I kill the minions of the paperclip army, I killed enough time to the point that I chilled out and got back to work. Anyone else have a similiar pathetic story?

(yeah, yeah, I eventually turned the helper off, but whatever.)

Re:Uhh....

[IndependentVik]

Flamebait? What kind of idiotic MS sycophants are moderating today?

Re:Uhh....

[Verizon Guy]

Soooo... if instead, say, you had the "Rocky the Dog" assistant loaded, would you have proceeded to go around the neighborhood and start kicking random dogs?

Re:Uhh....

[flewp]

Well, that depends. If they were chiwauhas(sp), I would have punted them. Otherwise I, well, whatever.

Misnomer

[ObviousGuy]

What about a Sundependence Day? Or a Vaxdependence Day? Or a Aixdependence Day?

More systems are leaving traditional Unix for Linux than are leaving Windows for Linux.

Re:Misnomer

[FigBugDeux]

Or Inteldence Day? Throw out you intel cpu and get a motorola! So much prettier.

Re:Misnomer

[magicslax]

Or Inteldence Day? Throw out you intel cpu and get a motorola! So much prettier.

For all the beauty of Apple cases, I don't think the cpu itself looks all that much better.

Re:Misnomer

[zmalone]

UNIX on VAX? When did this happen?

Re:Misnomer

[Anonymous Coward]

DEC had a nice Unix on VAX 15 years ago. I don't know if it's been maintained by Compaq.

Re:Misnomer

[Russ Steffen]

It happened shortly after the VAX was introduced in 1977, when DARPA contracted with the Computer Sciences Research Group to port their version of UNIX from the PDP-11.

Re:Misnomer

[Russ Steffen]

Also, I nearly forgot about ULTRIX, which was a DEC product introduced somewhat later. It was a heavily VMS influenced version of UNIX for VAX, but I don't know if it has any relationship with the forementioned UNIX port.

Re:Misnomer

[Russ Steffen]

Are you thinking of ULTRIX? As far as I can tell, it was pretty much phased out about the time that the Alpha processor launched. It was replaced by OSF/1, aka Digital UNIX, aka Tru64, which itself has now been retired in favor of HP/UX.

Re:Misnomer

[mlk]

the CPU is not transparent?!
Dam, I'm not buying one now!

Re:Misnomer

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, someone who can't even tell that it's brought o you by DesktopLinux.com.

Re:Misnomer

[Suzuran]

It was called BSD UNIX.

(Those who do not know history are doomed to repeat it!
VAX is the 32-bit CPU.
VMS is the operating system that ran on it.)

Re:Misnomer

[Anonymous Coward]

That's not true. I was running Windows 98 second edition on my celeron, then I switched to Linux.

Re:Misnomer

[johnnyp123]

if not prettier, at least cooler (temp wise that is). God forbid i have to have a heat sink the size of texas on it...

Re:Misnomer

[Anonymous Coward]

NetBSD of course.

Which just goes to show that *BSD is dying... ;)

Re:Misnomer

[_Sprocket_]

More systems are leaving traditional Unix for Linux than are leaving Windows for Linux.

Yea. I've heard that theory too. Though I haven't seen any good data on it - got a reference?

One concept to consider is a loss for Solaris or AIX to Linux is still a loss for Microsoft.

I used to administer a lab of Unix (Solaris, HP/UX) workstations used for engineering applications. The apps were often also available for the Windows NT environment. Thus, Management was constantly being courted by vendors who offered Windows NT engineering workstation solutions - the draw was the cheaper, commodity hardware. But the engineers largely preferred the Unix workstations after experiencing WinNT during training seminars. None the less, the promise of cheaper hardware was always tempting.

These applications are now largely available for Linux. Thus Linux competes with Windows for the market of those who are seeking a way to run these applications on commodity hardware. When a shop migrates away from, say, Solaris it may be a loss for Solaris. But when the shift is to Linux, it is likely to be at the expense of a move to Windows.

Re:Misnomer

[oever]

It's a misnomer for another reason too.

Win-dependence day

What are we celebrating, our dependance on Windows? Sounds more like a day for mourning.

I'm in favor of Defenestration Day

open windows, throw out Windows

Re:Misnomer

[Chemicalscum]

And VMS bacame Windows NT when Cutler defected to M$.

Re:Misnomer

[Anonymous Coward]

It really will be 'Windependence' day for us - the offices where I work will be closed 4th of July week - to replace our NT server and desktop PCs with a Linux server and diskless workstations (we're actually closed one week every summer). Interesting reaction from our old software vendor, who called us about the new MS licensing program, when we informed them how we had 'already taken care of that matter'.

Re:Misnomer

[Jucius Maximus]

"What about a Sundependence Day? Or a Vaxdependence Day? Or a Aixdependence Day?"

I will rejoice only when Emacsdependence Day rolls around.

Re:Misnomer

[Felinoid]

It's a considerably sad thing to say considering other Unixes are fighting Microsoft the current problem.

But it's true.... and more sad to admit they had it comming.

Ma Bell liccensed source code. No binarys no support just source.
Unix admin came to expect source code.

But with the Ma Bell break up and shrink wrap liccenses Unix drifted farther and farther away from that philosophy.

GNU/Linux fills the void left by this...

Sun offers Solarus source code for a hefty liccens fee I believe.

comes the revolution.

[Alien54]

All we need is a tea party in Seattle.

or public burnings of Bill Gates in Effigy or something.

Should get his attention.

independance day???

[mr_exit]

How about a overly paitiotic story about flying a jet fighter being flown into the big glowing heart of redmond and the whole place blowing up.....

or is that a little too insensitive these days??

Re:independance day???

[Anonymous Coward]

I could see a little creative video editing where a fighter climbs up into a Gigantic low-level spaceship labelled "Microsoft", with the pilot saying "Up YOOOUUURRRSSSSS!!" as he ignites it with a Linux missile..

Re:independance day???

[Anonymous Coward]

only to find out the linux missile wouldnt fire as it wasnt compatible with that version of GCC and you couldnt install the targeting software due to a dependancy issue.....

in windows it would be click on button to target and on to fire and in lunix it would be cd/missile/targeting/make trgtsys /cd

ohh i give up

Re:independance day???

[Charm]

How about a overly paitiotic story about flying a jet fighter being flown into the big glowing heart of redmond and the whole place blowing up.....

What you seem to forget is Windows is a system.
That system is our enemy

When you are inside and you look around what do you see?
You see buisnessmen, teachers, carpenters, lawyers

The very minds of the people we are trying to save
But until we do these people are a part of that system
And that makes them our enemy

You have to understand most of these people are not ready to uninstall windows
And many of them are so hopelessly dependant on windows that they will fight to defend it

Were you listening to me or were you looking at the operating system from Redmond
Look Again!

You turn around and where the screenshot of XP was; it is now a gun pointed point blank into your face

Kudos to the Matrix

Re:independance day???

[Theom]

But... Windows goes down in a horrible BSOD thanks to the viruss.

Switchers?

[tbo]

To help celebrate wIndependence Day (or, perhaps more accurately, WinDependence Day), do we have just not be Windows users, or do we have to use Linux? If it's just about not using Linux, then somebody has already started promoting a similar idea.

Maybe Apple would team up with the Linux community on this one if the event was a little more inclusive. On the other hand, I think OS X and Linux are serious competitors, at least in the PPC world. I know my interest in Linux on PPC died when I saw the terminal in OS X and XDarwin...

Re:Switchers?

[Anonymous Coward]

Ah, you have but one holiday, but to me, every day is lIndependence Day!

Re:Switchers?

[BinBoy]

Ack. That page has half a dozen javascript errors.

For those without Word access (or are just lazy)

[Anonymous Coward]

In Word XP, I get "No answers could be found." Pretty disappointing Easter Egg in my opinion.

It Isn't Really All That Hard

[John Hasler]

Except for a few months in 1996 when I had a NT box on loan from a customer (didn't care for it) my home and business have always been Windows-free (and Apple-free as well).

Re:It Isn't Really All That Hard

[PacoTaco]

How is that Commodore 64 treating you? :)

Re:It Isn't Really All That Hard

[Anonymous Coward]

Want a cookie? Who modded this fucker up? Mod this fucker down.

Re:It Isn't Really All That Hard

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry, but it is hard for most people. Just because you can (and have) done it, does not mean it is not difficult. You are either underestimating yourself, or are trying to insult a large group of people. Both are harmful to your psyche. Perhaps you could instead recognize your talent and use it to help people who do find it hard to do. Do you have a web site with a detailed kb that would help Joe SixPack use linux? Do you volunteer time to local schools and libraries to help them gain independance (WinIndependance)?

Re:It Isn't Really All That Hard

[John Hasler]

"Perhaps you could instead recognize your talent and use it to help people who do find it hard to do."

I'm a Debian maintainer and I wrote pppconfig to make it easy for users to configure ppp. What have you contributed?

Obligatory, obscure Simpsons' quote

[OO7david]

or public burnings of Bill Gates in Effigy or something.

"Ah, a good old effigy burning, Eh....AH!"

(from the episode where Homer gets smart via crayon removal)

Let's declare a Windows independence day...

[alan_dershowitz]

when we get a unified, working, intuitive desktop with a HELP BUTTON. Linux is all good and well for server replacement, but seriously, anybody even remotely knowledgeable was already using something besides windows, even if not linux. Independence for consumers means desktop. period. For who else is this meaningful?

Re:Let's declare a Windows independence day...

[gatzke]

RTFM

Re:Let's declare a Windows independence day...

[alan_dershowitz]

You can live in your smug, superior little world, or you can acknowledge that consumers have demands for products. Isn't the point of "windependence day" to get people to ditch Windows???

"Help" means that I can get pertinent, pragmatic information quickly. Its also called a "necessity" if you are into things like usability.

Re:Let's declare a Windows independence day...

[mlk]

Yes, we should all have a help button, GO GO R-Keys! :)

Re:Let's declare a Windows independence day...

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux has a manual worth reading? Where, for the love of God show me WHERE?

Re:Let's declare a Windows independence day...

[spectecjr]

RTFM

Last time I had lycoris running, I tried to do just that with the GUI-based LILO config tool that comes with it.

Couldn't work out what settings I needed, so I brought up the manual.

The manual was one introductory passage, and a series of chapter headings all marked "Not written yet".

Handy advice!

Re:Let's declare a Windows independence day...

[Anonymous Coward]

Also while in Lycoris, try locate'ing a file, or doing an updatedb. Ooops - neither tool is installed, and there are no .rpms for them.

Also, RPM is version 3, so it's not compatible with more recent .rpm files.

How about....

[simetra]

Focusing all this energy on creating replacements for the apps that keep us tied to Windows?

For me to run Linux on my main PC at work, I need specific things: A Groupwise client, a Novell client, a pcAnywhere type thing to check on remote systems which cannot be replaced by Linux because of the apps that must run on them... ? These things would go a lot further than a doorprize, though free stuff is always good.

Re:How about....

[spencerogden]

pcAnywhere type thing? You haven't looked very hard if you haven't run across VNC, look it up.

Re:How about....

[Jenova]

RADMIN works too, the client works well under Wine

Re:How about....

[Scutter]

A Groupwise client, a Novell client, a pcAnywhere type thing to check on remote systems which cannot be replaced by Linux because of the apps that must run on them... ?

You mean like this, this (or this), and this?

Re:How about....

[simetra]

Thanks for the tip, I found it, will give it a whirl. Now, Groupwise, Novell, and about a dozen specialized medical apps, and I'll be good to go!

Re:How about....

[.com b4 .storm]

If you want something like pcAnywhere, try VNC. There are servers and clients available for a variety of platforms, all free. I used this for a presentation on Linux at my school (had a VNC server running at home, and brought the client in on a floppy so I could show them Linux on the projector). Worked rather well, even with the limited upstream bandwidth of my home connection.

Re:How about....

[PacoTaco]

There's always VMware. That way, at least your computer isn't tied to Windows.

Re:How about....

[pete-classic]

You are incorrect about what is tying you to Windows. It is your dependence on proprietary communication protocols and file formats.

The only way to "kick the habit" and to bring any real competition back to the SW industry is to only use software that interchanges data in standard formats.

In the mean time, many dedicated OSS developers are fighting the losing fight of trying to create reverse-engineered software for many of the more popular proprietary formats and protocols. God bless 'em.

-Peter

Re:How about....

[YrWrstNtmr]

Add to that the ability to send and receive complex M$Office documents (Word,Excel,PPT) to many and varied clients. All of which DO use windows, and are not about to change.

Star -or OpenOffice is almost there, but not quite.

Re:How about....

[ch-chuck]

There are specialized medical apps inexoribly tied to the Windows platform? No wonder costs have spiraled out of control. I'll bet a big percentage of pharmaceutical costs go toward software licenses in the research dept too. Now there's a lucrative market to corner, with a nice steep demand curve. You have a choice, pay the extortion rate fee, or die. See ya' on the golf course.

Re:How about....

[MeNeXT]

This is old FUD get OpenOffice...

Re:How about....

[Anonymous Coward]

I dig OpenOffice.org 1.0. I even use it on Win2k (my wife doesn't like Linux)

Re:How about....

[YrWrstNtmr]

I DO have OpenOffice. And I'm sitting here looking at a medium complexity Excel spreadsheet, opened in OO 1.0-graphs, lotsa calcs, a few sliders to change values...

And it works. MOSTLY. The numbers add correctly, the graphs are about 90% the same visually.
But all the sliders and spinners and fancy stuff does not transfer. Zip, zero, nada. Not even there. A small thing, you say? Maybe. But if the customer you are dealing with is still using M$ products exclusively, what are you to do when they send you something that does not work 100%?

I REALLY like OpenOffice. Use it a lot. But to be usable on the job..a true replacement for M$ Ofice, it MUST read 100% of the elements in the M$ document, whatever they are.

This, of course, may be the fault of M$, because they won't open up their file formats. But currently, that's the way it is.

Re:How about....

[a_n_d_e_r_s]

Ask them to send it as a RTF document.

Re:How about....

[ncc74656]

For me to run Linux on my main PC at work, I need specific things: A Groupwise client, a Novell client...

Can't help with GroupWise, but back when I was playing with NetWare 5, I had Linux accessing shares on a NetWare server. It's been a while, but IIRC you need IPX and NCP support compiled into the kernel (NCP over TCP wasn't supported...maybe it is now). There might've been some additional software involved, but I can't remember offhand. (I set up a server on some spare hardware, got my CNS, and toasted my setup when some hardware went screwy...haven't bothered putting it back on a machine since Linux will do for me what NetWare does, and then some.)

Re:How about....

[YrWrstNtmr]

Ask them to send it as a RTF document.

sigh...it's not just simple Word docs, but also complex ppt and xls. AND, trying to get 200 major clients, among them the #1 consumer goods company in the world and the #1 carmaker in the world, to standardise on something other than M$ Office is an exercise in futility.

Re:How about....

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know what you might be doing with Excel which requires ``... all the sliders and spinners and fancy stuff ...'', but if your work is valued for its content rather than its form, you might want to reconsider using Excel. Look here and here for some potential problems which you might encounter, and here for some guidance on when it is safe to use this intrinsically flawed product.

I have no idea whether OpenOffice suffers similar flaws. Perhaps I'll get ambitious enough to run some of these tests on it myself, someday. In the mean time, I do my number crunching in R. I find that LaTeX provides far more professional-looking reports than any combination of MS products.

Re:How about....

[sab39]

Better yet, so long as you're running win2k or better on the boxes in question, rdesktop.

One question though...

[The_Shadows]

If Indenpendence Day is ID4....
Does that make Windependence Day WD-40?

Re:One question though...

[Anonymous Coward]

It would have been funnier without the punchline :)

Truly outrageous

[none2222]

Independence day allows us to look back on the sacrifices our forefathers made to keep America free. I don't appreciate seeing it trivialized to further some partisan hippy cause. "Free software" types are clearly, in many cases, not on the side of Freedom (except when it comes to smoking pot). We need only look at their response to the Microsoft "anti-trust" case, or the victim-control mentality they exhibit so often on sites like this one. I'm no fan of Microsoft, but I'm even less of a fan of government intrusion. I recommend everybody read Atlas Shrugged to see how Gates should have handled things, if he wasn't such a pansy.

Bottomline: don't trivialize independence day.
Take the opportunity to start working for real change: less government intrusion, less taxes, fewer regulations, more freedom. Those are your birthrights, secured with the blood of our ancestors. Don't let them down by falling for this hippy crap instead.

Re:Truly outrageous

[Anonymous Coward]

> I recommend everybody read Atlas Shrugged [amazon.com] to see how Gates should have handled things, if he wasn't such a pansy.

HEAR, HEAR.

You've no IDEA how much better off the world would have been had BillG chosen the John Galt route and just vanished. An excellent suggestion, and he can still implement it as far as I'm concerned.

Re:Truly outrageous

[atta1]

I couldn't agree more. As a veteran and a citizen, this saddens me.

Re:Truly outrageous

[Anonymous Coward]

So what would James Taggart have done in this situation?

Re:Truly outrageous

[Anonymous Coward]

Less than 300 years from being terrorists to fighting terrorists

Re:Truly outrageous

[guttentag]

...fewer regulations, more freedom...

The prospect of "fewer regulations" is not a uniformly "good thing." There may be regulations that [are|seem to be] overzealous and overbearing, but many regulations are designed to protect you.

The pharmaceutical industry would like fewer regulations so it could lower its costs, but the regulations set quality requirements for your safety. You can walk into any drug store and the generic drugs are just as high quality as the name brands. Without the regulations, you'd be betting your health on the abilities of a corporation's marketing team.

The airline industry would like fewer regulations so it could lower the cost of maintaining and flying planes, but the regulations require certain maintenance procedures for your safety. The pilots and mechanics of the airline may not want to cut corners, but executives are forever pushing for that extra dollar of profit. Without the regulations, planes would be falling out of the sky because some exec who knows nothing about aviation pushed too far.

Peter Pan may get away without regulations in Never Land, but in the real world regulations serve a purpose.

Bottom line: If you're going to criticize regulations that serve specific interests (as opposed to the whole of society), fine, but don't trivialize regulations.

Re:Truly outrageous

[gol64738]

damn, too bad Microsoft isn't a british company
cuz then i'd stop drinking this horrible tea and get my gun..

microsoft is coming! microsoft is coming!

don't you love how history repeats itself?

Re:Truly outrageous

[kyras]

I think corporate america has already trivialized it enough by turning it into little more than an excuse for a sale and the corresponding orgy of capitalism. I'm no communist, but all things in moderation. On the other hand, I'm not a flag waver either, and I think that in this (dare I say it?) post September 11th world, we could all do with a little less prima facie patriotism and a little more of standing up for what that term used to mean.

Re:Truly outrageous

[Teutates]

Let's see...GPL = communism and we fight a hippy partisan cause about "Free Software"

"Free software" types are clearly, in many cases, not on the side of Freedom (except when it comes to smoking pot)

Um...this is insightful? Moderators, you've been trolled.

Re:Truly outrageous

[jejones]

The prospect of "fewer regulations" is not a uniformly "good thing." There may be regulations that [are|seem to be] overzealous and overbearing, but many regulations are designed to protect you.

Well...when you go to the store to buy an iron or a hair dryer, is it the government that protects you? No...but the Underwriters Laboratories approval tag is almost certainly on the appliance you buy. UL is not a governmental body.

Re:Truly outrageous

[Anonymous Coward]

Take the opportunity to start working for real change: less government intrusion, less taxes, fewer regulations, more freedom.

That's what this event is trying to do. Microsoft may not be an actual government but they have de facto control over most of the world's computer users in much the same way. Their manipulation of protocols and file formats and their burdensome pricing and licensing practices are in practice just the same as intrusion, taxes and regulations for those people who have to use Windows to get their work done.

Re:Truly outrageous

[jbayes]

I'm no fan of Microsoft, but I'm even less of a fan of government intrusion.

So fight against government intrusion by fighting against Microsoft. Remember, every day Microsoft says, "Government, go out and find anyone who is copying MS software, and throw them in jail."

Complaining about government antitrust interferance without complaining about government anticopying interference is just looking at one side of the coin.

Re:Truly outrageous

[Scooby Snacks]

Without the regulations, planes would be falling out of the sky because some exec who knows nothing about aviation pushed too far.

Sorry to put it so bluntly, but I have to say, "Bullshit." Since the top brass in any company are, as you so succinctly put it, "forever pushing for that extra dollar of profit," I severely doubt that planes would commonly be "falling out of the sky." Do you realize how bloody expensive a plane crash is? Not just in terms of the destroyed equipment, but in terms of the compensation the airline winds up paying to each dead person's family. Not to mention that any airline that had planes constantly "falling out of the sky" would very quickly lose public confidence and would soon go out of business. It would be supremely idiotic for airlines to flout safety precautions in the name of a few extra clams on the ledger.

Re:Truly outrageous

[Anonymous Coward]

I recommend everybody read Atlas Shrugged to see how Gates should have handled things, if he wasn't such a pansy.

You're obviously referring to the character Orren Boyle in that story, since he's the one who is most Gates-like. But I don't see how Orren's behavior was any less pansy-like than Bill's.

Lycoris

[rob-fu]

If Lindows was an infringement upon the Windows name, then Lycoris has to be basically identical to WinXP (based on the screenshots). Look:

here
here
and here

Perhaps MS can sue them for 'theft of look and feel.'

Re:Lycoris

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow. While not quite as ugly as Windows XP, that's still pretty bad.

When will the linux community figure this out? You don't want to have as your end goal to "be like windows" or "be as good as windows" or "be as pretty and easy to use as windows". Windows is shit. If you attain all the above goals, you will be bad, ugly, and difficult to use. Find better goals.

Re:Lycoris

[Anonymous Coward]

> When will the linux community figure this out? You don't want to have as your end goal to "be like windows" or "be as good as windows" or "be as pretty and easy to use as windows". Windows is shit. If you attain all the above goals, you will be bad, ugly, and difficult to use. Find better goals.

Yes, when will *some* members of the Linux community figure out that Linux is 10 TIMES as configurable as Windows, so even if some distros choose to start out with a familiar 'face' for the sake of new users, those new users can reconfigure it to look as nice as they like!

The goals for Lycoris and others is NOT to "be like windows", but initially look like windows for the sake of Win-to-Lin users. Makes the transition easier, and there's enough Unix/Linux lore to learn as it is. Once they're comfortable with it, they can always change its appearance, just as you did.

Re:Lycoris

[Raleel]

Hey, check out the user and password icon...that looks like a tweaked up version of the MSN Messanger icon that I get on my mac when it starts. Like...they put hair on them, and put a lock in front of them

Re:Lycoris

[jimson]

Perhaps MS can sue them for 'theft of look and feel.'

and then Apple can sue M$ Windows.......and so on and so on......

Re:Lycoris

[cheezus]

Perhaps MS can sue them for 'theft of look and feel.'

yeah, maybe you should go ask apple about that ;)

Re:Lycoris

[blibbleblobble]

"Perhaps MS can sue them for 'theft of look and feel.'"

Failed: Financial times today, Philips vs. Remington: "A trademark cannot be held on a unique look-and-feel when it comes as a result of engineering decisions".

i.e. if that's the best way for it to work, it can't be trademarked.

Re:Lycoris

[Reziac]

Actually there's a precedent, that you cannot sue over "look and feel" -- had to do with the Lotus menu system, back in the dark ages of DOS. Someone who cares can probably look up the legal references.

Definition?

[sheepab]

Windependance day - The day hoards of slashdotters and Linux fans alike gathered to battle that EVIL paper clip. And what did they do? Well, heh, Ill tell you what they did, but it wasnt pretty. When they got ahold of the paper clip, they grabbed ahold of him at each and...and they....they....STRAIGHTENED HIM!!!

Re:Definition?

[Anonymous Coward]

Cool! Now I also wanna hear the fairytale about the XP killer...

Re:Definition?

[Skevin]

...and they....they....STRAIGHTENED HIM!!!

What? the Office Assistant isn't straight?

Re:Definition?

[buzzbomb]

Well, I've always found it a bit questionable. All that twitching and winking seemed a little "sweet" to me...

Re:Definition?

[sheepab]

What? the Office Assistant isn't straight?

Not the paper clip, he's as curved as curved can be.

Re:Definition?

[Chemicalscum]

The problem is that on my machine the paper clip is Vigor and I just can't straighten him out.

Re:Definition?

[Anonymous Coward]

Apple users have been straightening paperclips for years.

How else can you get a stuck floppy out of a drive with no eject button?

Re:Definition?

[Jucius Maximus]

"Windependance day - The day hoards of slashdotters and Linux fans alike gathered to battle that EVIL paper clip. And what did they do? Well, heh, Ill tell you what they did, but it wasnt pretty. When they got ahold of the paper clip, they grabbed ahold of him at each and...and they....they....STRAIGHTENED HIM!!!"

For those who are fighting a battle against the office clippy, you can easily neuter it by renaming the directory \program files\microsoft office\office\actors. It's like the clippy is not installed. This information should be most useful to people on corporate machines where they cannot get a hold of the Office CD to run setup.exe to uninstall it.

Re:Definition?

[Luxury P. Yacht]

Well, that explains why it keeps winking at me...

Re:Definition?

[sab39]

I never understood this. Why do people come up with such complicated, convoluted solutions to getting rid of clippy, instead of just, like, not installing it? As in, go to "custom install" and like, uncheck the box?

Why July 4?

[ross.w]

Lets see, we could have done this on:

July 14th (France)
May 1st (Russia)
October 1st (China)
July 1st (Hong Kong)
June 12th (Phillippines)
March 1st (South Korea)
April 30th (Vietnam)

Why is 4th July so special?

Re:Why July 4?

[Anal Cocks]

"Why is 4th July so special?"

July 4th is the USian independence day. If we don't let them have their way, expect to see your country join the "axis of evil" and get bombed in a couple weeks.

Re:Why July 4?

[atta1]

Spoken like a true free thinker, who will no doubt insist on US assistance when his country runs into a crisis.

Re:Why July 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

Windows is American made (Microsoft is HQ'd in Washington state). American Independence Day is July 4th.

Re:Why July 4?

[frooyo]

Windows is American made...

Isn't UNIX too!

I could be mistaken though.

Re:Why July 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

The B in BSD is for Berkley... but, Linux isn't American originated.

Re:Why July 4?

[red flavor]

Who the hell wants US assistance? It's the fastest way to getting your country screwed over.

When the Russians were invading Afghanistan, the US gave money and weapons to the Mujaheddin (sp?) who kicked out the Russkies, but then became the Taliban!

Saddam Hussein is CIA trained and was working with the CIA before he decided to go it alone.

Let's not forget all the fuckups in South America.

And thanks to more stupidity and blundering on the part of the USians, Canadians have been killed on the battlefield for the first time since Vietnam. From friendly fire, by USians!

I don't have the figures handy, but I remember reading that more USians were killed during operation Desert Storm by friendly fire than by Iraqis. Boy, that's who I want helping me out, let me tell you.

Re:Why July 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

Dec 7, 1941 is the turning point of WWII. Up to this time, the U.S. has been fairly neutral with regards to sending troops and as a consequence the Allies are getting their ass handed to them on a platter. Enter the U.S., and thereafter it's a downward spiral for the Axis.

You were saying, you ungrateful little piece of Euroshit?

Re:Why July 4?

[Anal Cocks]

Atta... Mohammed?

Oh, and I'm British, you half-fuck. I don't want any help from you filthy colonists.

Re:Why July 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

but then linux is not unix, it's a unix-a-like.

Re:Why July 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Spoken like a true free thinker, who will no doubt insist on US assistance when his country runs into a crisis."

Look we didn't proclaim

"You are either with us or against us." OR "You are either with us or with the terrorists."

Hell more than likely the next global crisis will be percipitated by the US government through aid or foriegn policy, American Companies or have at least one of the parties financed by one or more of the same.

Don't believe me, check the last hundred years.

Fingers in many pies and global power it is something every nation wants but none of them have to the extent of the United States of America. Are they just jealous?

Or maybe I'm just bitter that your flyboys hit our troops with friendly fire then leaked your report before notifying their families.

Or maybe I'm pissed over your (insert industry here) subsidies that have been found by neutral arbitrator to be illegal and your country even agreed because it paid the fines but will likely engage in said behaviour again to score points at home while crushing my countrie's small (by your standards) economy.

Maybe I'm pissed off with your pollution levels. Before you go off pointing fingers or saying "we aren't really that bad" remeber you are the leader and should be held to a higher standard just like Microsoft should for its legal convictions.

Having said that, there is quite a lot to like about the US of A and it's a shame that more people the world over only see your negatives. Perhaps it's the media. Perhaps xenophobia. I can tell you though that one liners like the previous post don't help very much at all.

----

I always find it funny that...

Japanese maps often have Japan at the center.

Canadians believe Canada is a dominate force on the World stage.

Americans believe not only is it their God given right to be in charge, but since they are, they must on the balance of things be right, good and just.

Re:Why July 4?

[red flavor]

Actually, I'm an ungrateful Canadian.

If you read the site you quoted, you'll find that Canada declared war on Germany 5 days after US delcared neutrality. The Canadians declared war to help out their allies. (Note that Americans only apparently declare war to protect their assets (Kuwait), or when they get punched in the nose [ala Pearl Harbor & Sept 11])

Then, almost a year into the fighting, the US--get this--froze german and italian assets in the states! OMFG! Now that's protection!

In fact, the US apparently didn't declare war on Germany ever, but it did declare war on Japan, AFTER Pearl Harbor (almost 2 years into the fighting). So again, we have a case of the us staying out of things until they get hurt themselves.

My mother is Latvian, and she and all her relatives were routed from Latvia thanks to the Russians. The Russians, I might add, who were "given" the territory by an agreement with the US. Thanks again, America! Land of the Free!

Re:Why July 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

STFU, eh.

Re:Why July 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Dec 7, 1941 [historyplace.com] is the turning point of WWII. Up to this time, the U.S. has been fairly neutral with regards to sending troops and as a consequence the Allies are getting their ass handed to them on a platter. Enter the U.S., and thereafter it's a downward spiral for the Axis."

About time considering your country was getting hit hard what with all the shipments you lost and military vessels that were sunk. Not to mention if the Europeans had been conquored your little continent would have no legs to stand on.

Before you dispute this please remeber that it was your country that worried about security enough to purchase Alaska and the worries over the whole Cuban missle crisis. The solutions to both those actions created buffer zones. Europe also became a buffer zone. If you want numbers here's another link try this one http://www.skalman.nu/worldwar2/stupade.htm and note the numbers well while thinking about them instead of just giving us a knee jerk reaction. The Canadians lost per capita far more troops than your country and it has hurt them population wise to this day.

"You were saying, you ungrateful little piece of Euroshit?"

While you point to the Americans entering the war fresh from doing little, you fail to realise and maginalize the uniting of many nations to ensure a measure of freedom.

It is called a World War and not an American War for a reason.

Re:Why July 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

It is called a World War and not an American War for a reason.

Yep. Because America stepped in and made the decisive moves that ended the war. If they had never entered, the war would simply be another European squabble over piss poor farmland.

Re:Why July 4?

[red flavor]

Right - So we don't have a huge standing army, so we should shut the f--- up or we're going to be invaded?

So you've gone from predicting that other countries will look to the US for help, to admitting that we'd better toe the line or we'll get stomped on.

Sounds like a playground bully to me. I feel really sorry for the Founding Fathers of the US, because I think they had a really great idea, and they had some amazing philosophies behind their work. The declaration of independence, and the constitution, are powerful, thought provoking works.

It's a shame that the recent leadership has strayed from them and the principles they were founded on. In fact, it seems that they've strayed so far that they're acting like the very leaders the fonders wanted to break from.

Truth, honor, justice are all now just empty words, or even marketing phrases. Instead, the US now seems to be about Lawyers, Guns and Money.

Re:Why July 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

War on Germany and Japan was declared by the USA on Dec 8, 1941

Re:Why July 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

"Yep. Because America stepped in and made the decisive moves that ended the war. If they had never entered, the war would simply be another European squabble over piss poor farmland."

Wow my hat goes off to you.

The logic you have placed there proves there is no point debating you. Not because you are right mind you but because any nuance of understanding is lost in your unthinking emotional, knee jerk response.

They say many of the countries that engaged in WWII have adapted their historical viewpoint to live with their response and their actions. That's why we get stuff like "We were wrong but we have made sure it will never happen again." (Japan and Germany) "We got our butts whipped but are better for it. The army was to blame not the Emperor." (Japan) "We saved your ass be grateful. The civilian losses incurred are regrettable but were necessary to save our boys." (United States of America) Hey whatever it is you need to make yourself feel better about your countries response and absence there of. Just remember that there is the other side that says those so called "decisive moves" were late and long in the comming and that the very land you occupy now is included in that so called "piss poor farmland" that the Nazi's would have conqured. Your own country said so through the Treasury Department no less ... http://www.openstore.com/posters/shadow.jpg

Oh I get it, you must believe either

a) the Axis would be of no threat to us because they would be satisfied with Europe (yay more appeasement we see how well that worked)

b) with no allies or friendly ports left it would be easy to crush an opponent a world away who has more men and resources AND ports of call right next door to you.

c) some way we would have presevered because we are great and it might as well be devine will

maybe you have another option

d) all of the above

Guess I'm done with you.

Re:Why July 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

Really. I thought the declaration of war on Japan was something like this....
Congressional Declaration of War on Japan

December 8, 1941

JOINT RESOLUTION Declaring that a state of war exists between the Imperial Government of Japan and the Government and the people of the United States and making provisions to prosecute the same.

Whereas the Imperial Government of Japan has committed unprovoked acts of war against the Government and the people of the United States of America: Therefore be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the state of war between the United States and the Imperial Government of Japan which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the United States and the resources of the Government to carry on war against the Imperial Government of Japan; and, to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.
Approved, December 8, 1941, 4:10 p.m. E.S.T.

As for Germany it went something like this....

Congressional Declaration of War
on Germany
December 11, 1941
The President's Message

To the Congress of the United States:
On the morning of Dec. 11 the Government of Germany, pursuing its course of world conquest, declared war against the United States. The long-known and the long-expected has thus taken place. The forces endeavoring to enslave the entire world now are moving toward this hemisphere. Never before has there been a greater challenge to life, liberty and civilization. Delay invites great danger. Rapid and united effort by all of the peoples of the world who are determined to remain free will insure a world victory of the forces of justice and of righteousness over the forces of savagery and of barbarism. Italy also has declared war against the United States.

I therefore request the Congress to recognize a state of war between the United States and Germany, and between the United States and Italy.

Franklin D. Roosevelt

The War Resolution

Declaring that a state of war exists between the Government of Germany and the government and the people of the United States and making provision to prosecute the same.

Whereas the Government of Germany has formally declared war against the government and the people of the United States of America:

Therefore, be it Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, that the state of war between the United States and the Government of Germany which has thus been thrust upon the United States is hereby formally declared; and the President is hereby authorized and directed to employ the entire naval and military forces of the government to carry on war against the Government of Germany; and to bring the conflict to a successful termination, all of the resources of the country are hereby pledged by the Congress of the United States.

Looks seperate to me and on different dates. But hey you learn something new everyday. I also apologize for the formatting but the slashdot blank space quotient filter is acting up and I hate posting html links.

Re:Why July 4?

[dameron]

Uhm... 'Cause, uhh....

Maybe...

Uh, yeah, the U.S. was the first of all colonial states to fight and win independence from a european monarchy?

Ummm... Yeah, this insurrection caused an explosive reaction through Eurpope and directly predicated the fall of Monarchy (see Meier, Sid) or at the very least "divine right".

And, Ummm...

European colonialism enveloped most of the globe, de fact subjecting a majority of the world's population to European hegemony...

And, ah...

Independence movements eventually freed most of them....

Thus, to be a cynic, those who were "allowed" to survive owe a great deal to the American revolution.

While I have no great affinity to America's recent history (say, since the fall of the USSR), it's early history is truely significant, and,

Ummm..

revolutionary...?

-damerion

Re:Why July 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

A very fine post and citing such an authoritative source as Sid Meier ( http://www.google.ca/search?q=Sid+Meier&hl=en&btnG =Google+Search )to buttress your insights simply genius.

Re:Why July 4?

[Qrlx]

Actually, WWII was won (or lost) on the plains of Russia, and it was fought between Russians and German tanks. Anybody who has bothered to scratch the surface of the history of WWII knows this to be the case. America stepping in and making the "decisive moves" was a nice touch though, especially since FDR had been promising Stalin that we would do just that for months before we actually did.

The 25 million Russians who died in the War is why we're not speaking German today. America didn't really enter the War in Europe (i.e. invade at Normandy) until it was relatively "safe." That the casualties suffered on June 6 were so immense is a testament to just how grisly the War was. But for the most part, Americans didn't fight the major battles, at least in Europe.

The proportionately-small U.S. casualties in WWII is barely a dent, but for all the flag-waving we see every year you'd think we'd won the World Cup or something!

One death is a tragedy, a million deaths is a statistic -- Josef Stalin

Re:Why July 4?

[Hektor_Troy]

"the U.S. was the first of all colonial states to fight and win independence from a european monarchy?"

Ahh ... so the fact that Sweden was under Danish rule from 1397 to 1521, and then broke free doesn't count, because Sweden wasn't a colony? I see.

What next? Claims that the US is the oldest democracy, when it's a republic? Or that it is the biggest "democracy", even though such countries as India and Malaysia are far bigger?

*sigh*

"it's early history is truely significant"

So? The same can be said of Denmark. Up until the late 1500s, early 1600s, Denmark was one the foremost countries in Europe with regards to naval power and supremacy. Now it's just a puny little country with some of the highest taxes in the world. In comparison, the US was once regarded as a guardian of democracy and freedom, but that was a loong time ago - and it's not getting better, I'm sad to say.

So to get back to the point - why choose July 4th as "independence day"? I have no idea - why not pick something more symbolic; what day was MSFT introduced on the stockmarket? What day was Microsoft founded? What day was Windows introduced? What day did Linus start working on Linux?

Tying it to a national independence day (no matter what nation) will only deter the participation of nationalists across the world "because my country is MUCH better than the other countries - I know because I was born in THIS country and that makes it better than the piece of land 10 yards away!!!".

Of course if what you want is to promote the use of Windows, be sure to place Windependence Day on such a day ...

Oh wait - too late.

And placing Tux in an Uncle Sam hat? Nich touch. Who arranged this? Microsofts PR-department?

Re:Why July 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

> why we're not speaking German today

Oh, no! The Nazis/Hitler-wanted-to-conquer-the-world-myth strikes again!

Re:Why July 4?

[SubtleNuance]

The C.D. Howe Institute.

Is a Rightist, think-tank - they also think taxes should be abolished and Democracy replaced by Market Capitalism...

Listen, The US spends more money on arms then the rest of the planet combined - it is not a 'defender' of anything -telling americans that the rest of the planet "demands US comes and helps" is a PR pile of stink-shit that helps mask the overwhelming offensive nature of your domestic military.

That bullshit is for ignorant Americans, not for the citizens of the 70odd nations who have had USians do battle in their nations since WWII.

The USA is a rogue nation run by Plutocrats with an incredibly apathetic and ignorant populace... and they have an incredibly massive military too boot - just the kind of thing that will lead us to WWIII... under what conditions im not sure, but as long as the hawks run your country, and the citizens are so brazen and aggressive its only a matter of time.

Citizens of Democratic countries the world over need to start demanding a change to this, when bullies also have big sticks someone is going to get whacked. Id like to see a standing UN army replace any 'domestic peacekeepers'. Any army on foriegn soil should be considered an aggressor and should be condemned by the World Public. The US cannot keep trapsing around the globe killing at will and telling their domestic popluation 'we were invited to keep the peace' - this bullshit lead to thousands (from *MANY* nations, not just Americans) that ended up dead in the attack on the WTC.

Re:Why July 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

Put this event on a neutral date, with no connection to any country.

Honouring the British Empire's freedom-eating successor this way is just wrong.

Re:Why July 4?

[jcast]

Do you want the damn U.S. assistance or not?

First, you say y'all don't want our help.

Then, you attack the U.S. for not helping y'all when you (actually your colonial overlords in Great Britain) get attacked.

Re:Why July 4?

[Anonymous Coward]

America was the first country to declare its independence (1776). All the other revolutions came after

Re:Truly outrageous...sorta

[Em Emalb]

Dude, I agree with your sentiments whole-heartedly, however, as snopes2 can tell you, that page is rather a hoax. Some of the founding fathers did make extreme sacrifices, but not as bad as you think.

http://www.snopes.com/glurge/declare.htm

However, I whole-heartedly agree with your basic premise, in that this is distasteful of them, and Atlas Shrugged is a good read. Not likely to happen, ever, but an interesting perspective.

ironic?

[ross.w]

Doesn't anyone find it ironic that people hate Microsoft for much the same reasons that people from Microsoft's own country hated England?

Re:ironic?

[ceejayoz]

Microsoft is quartering their troops in peoples' homes and taxing without representation? Wait, how'd I miss that?

Re:ironic?

[ross.w]

So Microsoft's Corporate licencing isn't a tax without representation?

Re:ironic?

[Anonymous Coward]

True. If anything, it's the Linux geeks' parents that are being forced to quarter the Linux troops in their homes, their inability to get a job or reach puberty and all that.

Re:ironic?

[Tomble]

Microsoft is quartering their troops in peoples' homes and taxing without representation? Wait, how'd I miss that?

You're quite right- the BSA target business premises.

Re:ironic?

[tshak]

No. A companies product that you make a very free choice to purchase is not a tax. Next please.

Re:ironic?

[ross.w]

the operative word here is "free choice". Most Corporate users don't have that (yet).

Especially those with licences that require them to pay Microsoft for every PC they own regardless of whether it has Windows on it.

Ever tried to return your OEM MS Windows for the refund promised by the EULA?

Yes there are alternatives. (I use one of them), but to most people, especially businesses, the Microsoft tax (and the Autodesk tax, for that matter) is a fact of doing business.

Re:ironic?

[Anonymous Coward]

I belive they hated England for being monopolist and hindering business with their rules?

Isnt this just what microsoft does?

Re:ironic?

[Micah]

and sending the BSA cronies to do audits without warrants isn't as bad as quartering troops in our homes?

Re:ironic?

[Arandir]

The English colonies in North America decided they wanted independence. But England didn't want them to be independent. When the colonists declared their independence, England waged war. By war, I mean bullets, bloodshed, gangrene, evisceration, hangings, rapes, burning of homes and crops, enslavement of children, etc.

Now contrast this with the average Microsoft user and Microsoft. Said user wants to be independent of Microsoft products. Microsoft doesn't want them to be. User erases Microsoft software and installs FreeBSD (or Linux for you folks in Rio Linda). Microsoft responds by ... nothing. They don't wage war. They don't fire bullets. They don't kill, rape, pillage or burn.

If you can't understand the difference between Microsoft under King Bill and England under King George, you need to get out into the sun a bit more often.

Re:ironic?

[ceejayoz]

You have the choice not to buy MS products and thus not give them an excuse to do an audit.

Anyways, has there even been a single actual audit? I would think /. would have covered it if one had happened, but I can't find any info. Seems to me it's just a paper tiger.

Re:ironic?

[Micah]

of course WE have the choice, but most of corporate America is so clueless they don't realize it, and collectively lock themselves into using M$ tripe.

Yes, there have been plenty of audits. None that have effected me, but I've read about them...

Re:ironic?

[ceejayoz]

Then corporate America will either wise up and go Linux (hreh... heh heh heh...), or it's not as big of a deal to them as Slashdot zealotry would have you believe.

Re:ironic?

[AME]

(or Linux for you folks in Rio Linda)

Heh. I know where that came from!

exciting stories?

[bilbobuggins]

I'm sure some people have exciting stories of battling the talking paperclip...

LMAO.

'It was a dark and stormy night. My nervous grip on my trusty Xconfigurator tightened as I heard the 'BOOIIING!' from the distance. Only one thing in this world made that sound. And that thing was Bob...'

Re:exciting stories?

[Jucius Maximus]

"I'm sure some people have exciting stories of battling the talking paperclip... "

I started typing a swashbuckling tale about my battles on my work machine (where I'm not allowed to install anything) against the clippy, but then I remembered that I'm at work.

win-dependence?

[gyratedotorg]

not to be a troll or anything, but i think they could have come up with a better name.

"windependence" sounds like "windows dependence" to me, and who but m$ would want to celebrate something like that? ;)

Re:win-dependence?

[mlk]

Me, else I'd get cold, or not know when it's day or night!

On the next Celebrity Boxing...

[shmuc]

Paperclip vs. Penguin

Re:On the next Celebrity Boxing...

[ObviousGuy]

One is sharp and pointy. The other is a fleshy ball of feathers.

My bets are on the paperclip.

Re:On the next Celebrity Boxing...

[Profe55or Booty]

joke, not troll:

wouldn't the penguin have to be popular to be considered a celebrity? ;)

Re:On the next Celebrity Boxing...

[Anonymous Coward]

Should it not be the Windows Bear? Isnt that their real one, the paperclip is just anoying...

Re:On the next Celebrity Boxing...

[swillden]

And you think the paperclip is popular?!?

Re:On the next Celebrity Boxing...

[A5un]

As popular as Tonya Harding or Vanilla Ice..

I can see the filk now...

[jejones]

Let freedom ring/Let the penguin sing...

(Apologies to Martina McBride.)

Instead of 4th of July...

[jcsehak]

...why not celebrate it on the day the courts finally dole out MS's punishment? I mean, it's gonna happen sooner or later, right?

Re:Instead of 4th of July...

[Anonymous Coward]

The second Tuesday from NEVER?

I can't wait that long, I want to celebrate now!

Re:Instead of 4th of July...

[Neph]

Oh yes, in 2003, to be exact.

COME ON!

[frooyo]

You got a 3 mod points for Insightful. That was damn funny to me.

(Score: 5, Hilarious)

Moderation rule number one

[BlowCat]

The first on-topic comment that doesn't pretend to be funny and doesn't contain obscenities is always moderated as insightful, no matter how dumb it is :-(

If it's really dumb, it's moderated down later.

Re:Truly outrageous, hardly

[Anonymous Coward]

>I don't appreciate seeing it trivialized to further some partisan hippy cause.

But I appreciate when you trivialize our partisan hippy cause. One day or another pot-smoking commies like us are going to... smoke together with the likes of you. Oh that day!

Win on Lin...

[frooyo]

I have to agree, I was first amazed at the continue attempts by KDE to copy the windows look and feel (just a little trolling I guest). But this must top it all.

I can only wonder if it blue screen too.

Re:Win on Lin...

[Arandir]

No, it is Lycoris who is duplicating the look and feel of WinXP. If you look at those screen shots, you'll see that they ARE NOT of the standard KDE control center. That isn't the standard KDE color scheme. Those aren't the standard KDE icons. In fact, that isn't even a control center at all! It's Konqueror displaying a fscking web page!

I'm running KDE right now, and I'll be damned! It looks just like...like...KDE!

why do...

[Anonymous Coward]

Linux groups always shoat about how fucking shit everything MS is, then copy it?
I don't get it, I really don't!
XP, ugly pile of shit, Linux-co's copy copy copy...
Explorer==iexplorer, pain in the arse, Linux-co's, wooo copy copy copy.
What next? THE BLUE SCREEN!

Re:why do...

[Anonymous Coward]

Which of all the look-and-feels have the most HCI research behind it? I guess M$ rules it..

Re:why do...

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, how does someone with that much cash to blow on HCI end up with a shitty copy of Apple?!?

Re:why do...

[fr2ty]

look what I found in /usr/bin/

#!/bin/sh
# Blue screen of death implementation for Linux
;-)
# Author: Christian Steinruecken cstein@suse.de
if test -t 0; then
set -- `stty size`
L="$1"
R="$2"
else
L="25"
R="80"
fi
echo -en "\033[m\033[44;37m\033[H\033[J"
LL=`expr $L / 2 - 5`
RR=`expr $R / 2 - 3`
echo -en "\033[${LL}B"
echo -en "\033[${RR}G"
echo -e "\033[47;34m Linux \033[37;44m"
RR=`expr $R / 2 - 34`
p=`echo -en "\033[${RR}G"`
echo -e "\033[1m"
case "$LANG" in
de*) cat ${p}Der schwere Ausnahmefehler 0E trat auf in
Prozess 01 (/sbin/init &)
${p}Die aktuelle Anwendung kann nicht
fortgesetzt werden.

${p} * Drücken Sie RETURN um die Anwendung zu
beenden.
${p} * Drücken Sie STRG-ALT-ENTF um Ihren
Computer neu zu starten. Vergessen
${p} Sie nicht, vorher laut zu fluchen.
EOF
;;
# Feel free to add more languages!
*) cat ${p}The fatal exception 0E occurred in process 1
(/sbin/init &) ${p}The current application cannot be continued.

${p} * Press RETURN to close the application.
${p} * Press CTRL-ALT-DEL to reboot your
computer. Do not forget to
${p} scream and curse.
EOF
;;
esac
if test -t 1; then
read
echo -en "\033[${L}H\033[m"
echo -e "\033[KOh, and yes... Have a nice day!! ;-)"
else
echo -en "\033[${L}H\033[m"
fi
exit 0

i liked this

[zephc]

the first time i saw (and participated in) it

Windependence Day, my story.

[Anonymous Coward]

I recently switched. Just my laptop, for now...

My company volunteered for a BSA audit some months ago.

We were short some licenses; we rectified the situation before sending our report back to the BSA, indicating while we had been short some licenses, we were currently in compliance...

This overage involved approximately 10% of our client machines...

We relaxed, thinking we'd done good ethically and morally, by owing up to our discretion and paying for it...

Then we were sued...

Not for the the 10% of our clients that were out of license...

For a sum equal to the entire -retail- value of all BSA represented software at our organization...

Paid for yesterday, or three years ago, or five, or more...

Essentially, they want us to pay for every piece of BSA software (we currently use) twice...

My Windependence day happened a month ago...

Just my laptop...

25 machines on our network use mission critical MS-only systems...

That's less that 3%...

Last month MS lost 1 customer...

Just my laptop...

The other 900+ systems on our network...

Well...

They're good for now...

Re:Windependence Day, my story.

[Anonymous Coward]

Umm, whose idea was it to volunteer for a BSA audit without even knowing you were in compliance or not? It's like "yeah, I'll invite a cop into my house for a cup of coffee, never mind these dead hookers lying all over the place." You've got nobody to blame but yourself.

Re:Windependence Day, my story.

[Anonymous Coward]

When the BSA allows you to do a self-audit, they explicitly tell you not to install or deinstall anything from any PC. The point is that they are relying on your honesty to truthfully state what software was in use on your network AT THE TIME THE AUDIT WAS REQUESTED. You just admitted that you were not in compliance for some period of time, and made a quick gesture to try to make up for it. In a nutshell, you showed that you had something to hide. It's like a traffic ticket; if you attempt to lie or hoodwink the cop, he will have no pity for you. Be calm, tell the truth, and he might let it slide.

Of course, none of this is even necessary IF YOU DON'T BREAK THE FUCKING LAW IN THE FIRST PLACE, STUPIDSHIT

Re:Windependence Day, my story.

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you read?

He informed the BSA of exactly what happened. They didn't hide anything, they "truthfully state what software was in use on your network AT THE TIME THE AUDIT WAS REQUESTED" and were short, admitted this to the BSA, and were sued.

I don't see any attempt to "lie or hoodwink" anyone. Seems they did what anyone would expect them to do. More like a cop pulls you over, says "hey, your tail-light is out." and you fix it, hell, even pay a fine, but nothing like that.

---
"Freak Out!"
-Zappa

Re:Windependence Day, my story.

[imadork]

You just admitted that you were not in compliance for some period of time, and made a quick gesture to try to make up for it. In a nutshell, you showed that you had something to hide. It's like a traffic ticket; if you attempt to lie or hoodwink the cop, he will have no pity for you.

Except that a cop is a duly-sworn officer of the law, and a BSA auditor is not. (No matter what your opinions on cops are, you have to at least admit that!) Besides, If you get pulled over, and you admit to the cop that you were speeding (which is much more like what the Poster said his company did), the cop just writes you a ticket and sends you on your way; he doesn't arrest you for the robbery that just took place down the road!

Of course, none of this would even be necessary if the BSA would leave the "investigations" and "law enforcement" to the people who actually have the legal authority to do so.

Re:Windependence Day, my story.

[Sorthum]

When you don't invite them in, how does the BSA gain access to your facilities? I mean, you're hard at work at International Dildonics or wherever you happen to work, and you hear a knock at your door.
"Hello?"
"Hi, I'm from the BSA, I'm here to check your compliance."
"Come back when you have a warrant." *SLAM*

Obviously people don't do this, but WHY NOT? What gives the BSA the right to come into your place of business uninvited?

Re:July 14th: The stoning of Redmond

[ReverendRyan]

At first I thought you said the Stoning of Redmond. That would be a much better idea. If theres one thing the world lacks its stonings.

I can see the headlines now... "Microsoft Closes for a Week ... Microsoft temporarily closed its doors today after thousands of dissatisfied Windows users hurled stones at the buildings on Microsoft's main campus, breaking nearly every window. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries..."

Re:paperclip

[Drunken Coward]

In office 2000 is says "I do not understand the phrase. Please ask a different question."

Re:Mississippi Trollse

[Anonymous Coward]

That URL is supposed to be pronounced goat SEX...

se.cx ... sounds like sex... duh get it?

fucking for the amount people troll the shit you'd think they'd realize it's not "goatse" or "goatsy" it's fucking GOATSEX... damn fucking some people are so stupid.

Troll season.

[Mulletproof]

Hmmm... Wonder if a "Rebel against Linux Day" story would make front page? Microsoft's struggle to battle the communist open sourcers.

Sure my comment's troll flame-bait, but no more than that story is.

Re:Troll season.

[spectecjr]

Hmmm... Wonder if a "Rebel against Linux Day" story would make front page? Microsoft's struggle to battle the communist open sourcers.

We could call it Lindependence Day.

*rotfl* these crappy-ass puns just kill me.

Parent post modded down out of idiocy...

[NanoGator]

I don't agree with you, but I respect your opinion. I can't believe that you got modded down as troll.

The reason I disagree is that monopolistic companies and organizations can take away our rights the same as any invader. Only we have a harder time fighting them. The MPAA/RIAA and their purchase of Senator Fritz come to mind. If the SSSCA had passed, we'd have lost some rights critical to creative work.

I respectfully disagree with you, but modding you down as Troll was awful. There are moderators on Slashdot that could stand to learn the difference between stating an opinion and trying to rile people up.

Re:Parent post modded down out of idiocy...

[Reziac]

Doesn't surprise me. Last week I got modded "Flamebait" for daring to suggest that if coders want respect from beta testers, maybe they should respect beta testers in return. Makes me long for a return of the Great Blackout, when all the morons went away for a week.

On to the topic, I think you're both right, in that the line between gov't and business has become so blurred that it's often impossible to tell just who is controlling what. Yet all too often, the opposing forces (frex, opensource advocates) are indeed more like hippies than patriots. (Of course, most folk here weren't yet born during the hippie era, and have no idea what the parent post is talking about.)

But the situation at present is actually FAR beyond the abuses that led to the American War for Independence (it was called the Revolutionary War on the *other* side of the ditch). Frex, did you know that the horribly extortionate Tea Tax, which led to the "Boston Tea Party", was a whopping ONE PERCENT?!!

Yet now we put up with half our income being stripped by taxes, another chunk being pried out of our wallet by business interests like M$ and the RIAA, and effectively no representation working against these primary and secondary levies.

Yeah, this rambles a bit, so flame me. :)

Re:Parent post modded down out of idiocy...

[NanoGator]

"Yet now we put up with half our income being stripped by taxes..."

Yah.. but you have to admit, with our money they are able to purchase rather impressive weaponry and blow shit up with it! :)

Re:Parent post modded down out of idiocy...

[Reziac]

No fair!! WE paid for it, WE should be allowed to blow shit up too! :)

Slashdot's day...

[URoRRuRRR]

Can we have Widependance day? Freedom from page widening posts?

(Supposed to be funny)

Re:Slashdot's day...

[Anonymous Coward]

(Supposed to be funny)

Better luck next time...

Re:insensitive???

[Anonymous Coward]

How about this t-shirt design?

*ducks*

Strange Idea

[waltc]

If I used nothing but my OS and two or three software pieces I could probably go "Windependence," too. But I buy a lot of software, and a lot of games which I enjoy, and so I need to be "Windependent" about like a hole in the head...:)

I don't value my computers for the OS's they run, but I value my OS's for the software they support.

Re:Strange Idea

[elveu]

the only think you miss at all with linux is games, for everything else i want i go to http://www.freshmeat.net and check that. there is a large amount of other stuff like start office and ohter such stuff.

Fucking paperclip...

[moyix]

I'm sure some people have exciting stories of battling the talking paperclip...

Heh, you bet I do. Take a look at this:

Once upon a time, there was a small boy. He loved to use Microsoft Word, and was, unlike most, paricularly fond of that lovable scamp known as Clippy. Clippy would always pop up just when he needed help with something, and was the best friend a boy could have. Paperclips live forever, but not so little boys, and so, as time passed, the boy, who was not so little any more, began to grow tired of Clippy's constant popping up. Clippy, sensing that he would soon be abandoned, began to pop up more and more frequently, even when he had no advice to give. Matters came to a head one April night, when the boy, sick of Clippy's shenanegins, tried to close the irksome paperclip. Sensing his life was in danger, Clippy leapt from the screen, snarling ferociously. The ensuing struggle lasted for three hours. At its completion, the boy stumbled out, battered, and with thousands of paperclip-shaped bruises and gashes all over his body, but victorious.

What was the point of this story? I was that boy.

Note: Normally I would just give a link to fanfiction.net, where I originally posted it, but since the site seems to be down (and because that version is slightly altered to be *cough* backstreet boys fan fiction), you'll have to make do with this. If you really need to, you can search for the author's name--moyix--on http://fanfiction.net/ when it comes back up.

Re: Battling the Paperclip!

[XO]

You have got to check this picture out. Battling the paperclip! I want to write without interference!

At least give us a chance to switch

[WildBeast]

I considered switching my desktop to Linux for a while and have been looking closely at it for the last five years. Unfortunately, there's not much progress in sight. Installing a simple game is an exercice in patience. Why can't I just click on Next - Complete Install and then click on Finish and start the game just like in Windows?

The already bundled software with the Linux distribution works fine but its when I want to install new software that the problems occur (ie. missing libraries, permissions, drivers, graphics, etc.)

Re:At least give us a chance to switch

[mrselfdestrukt]

Pfft, How many times I wished that I could just get the source code for a windows app and compile it myself and know for sure it's gonna work on my platform. If you're looking for a Next -> Complete install -> Finish , stick with Win. It doesn't show you exactly what it's doing. I prefer compiling my own from source.
-- Linux/Unix/*ix is user-friendly! It's just picky about the friends it chooses --

Re:At least give us a chance to switch

[elveu]

if all you want is simplicity then sue windows. however it's those installations that windows can get so bloated since it dosn't really give you freedom with what it's doing do you can end up with crap installed that you don't want. linux is less bloated, more stable and gives you much more freedom over your computer.

Re:At least give us a chance to switch

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree with you 100%. Hopefully lindows will solve this problem with their "click-n-run" feature.

Re:At least give us a chance to switch

[Anonymous Coward]

Claiming to have looked closely at Linux for the last five years and not have seen much progress you must be trolling. This is nothing but ridiculous.

Re:At least give us a chance to switch

[MeNeXT]

Based on your argument why not switch to Mac. No install required just click on the icon on the CD and viola! you are playing. If you wish to install it on your system just drag and drop it where you want it.

What gets me with Windows is that when you have something that you know works but that you have to keep reinstalling the software or to keep thing simple save your stuff on another system and reinstall. You do not know what is being installed and you have to take great care to insure that the system is running well. If you ever had a test system where you constantly install...test...deinstall you would have a hard time keeping this system running properly without problems for a year.

Now on linux you have the dependencies. It may require a couple of minutes more to install but in the end you never have to reinstall the OS to keep the stability. This also applies to FreeBSD and such.

Re:At least give us a chance to switch

[WildBeast]

Well I have yet to reinstall Windows XP since its release. Pretty stable and no crashes as of yet.

Yes I considered Macs but the problem is that they're pretty expensive. If I buy a Mac, it'll be an iBook. There laptops are decently priced for once.

Re:At least give us a chance to switch

[WildBeast]

It doesn't matter, people will always prefer simplicity anyway. I know enough to know that people couldn't care less about stability, security, freedom, privacy, etc.

Give us simplicity and people will begin using Linux en masse.

Re:At least give us a chance to switch

[nurotuxin]

OH thats right.... you dont have permission, driver, and graphics problems in Windoofs. I can 1/2 agree with libraries problem. The other 1/2 thinks its not so much trouble to upgrade libraries. Especially since a majority of "new " Linux users pick a distro like Redsplat, Manjoke, or SuSE (I think SuSE is Ok), from which you can use rpms to install library updates(rpm -i package name). Thats not so hard is it.....

Before the comment is made...Yes Im hardcore Linux user..... Been doin the desktop thing for about 4 years. All servers at the office run Linux. I personally think great strides have been made to make Linux more desktop friendly. I run a Slackware (woot!!)Desktop at my office amongst all the windows clients. I do everything they do except MS Access. I can even do somethings they cant.....

Re:At least give us a chance to switch

[WildBeast]

Oh easy to say. The fact is that many times the library I want is not in my distribution rpm's. And when it is included, the program will tell you the name of the library that's missing not the name of the rpm package.

Besides, from all the apps I've downloaded from freshmeat, very few had rpm packages.

And why exactly didn't your company switch to Linux on the desktop?

Pathetic

[Anonymous Coward]

At first I thought it was a contraction for windows-dependence day.

From the article it turns out that it's contraction for windows-independence day.

I'm confused...

[Picaroon]

Does anyone else find it a little hypocritical that some of the "prizes" being awarded are designed to make Linux look and act more like Windows? Or in the case of the Code Weavers CD, to run Microsoft products on Linux? How does this speak for independance from Windows?

We're already inside(TM)

[satanami69]

A special black OPs agent, known as the BOFH, has already made his way into the stronghold. Using unencrypted satellites, he's beamed back his assault on Clippy. View the gruesome archive:

http://www.salmondays.tv/downloads/paper_clip.mp g

Linux has cost Microsoft billions of dollars

[Anonymous Coward]

> More systems are leaving traditional Unix for Linux than are leaving Windows for Linux.

Nice try, but wrong.

It's true that, as the power of Intel CPUs has increased, many businesses have replaced expensive Unix hardware, with inexpensive PC hardware.

But then, to run their PC hardware, it comes down to a choice between Windows, and Linux/BSD.

And, in over one third of the cases, Microsoft is losing that competition to Linux/BSD.

Microsoft fares even worse when it comes to web servers. Check out this Netcraft survey (Sept/2001):

http://www.netcraft.com/Survey/index-200109.html

Looking down the page, we find the Computer Counts section, which shows:

Of all physical computers running websites:

- 86% are Intel based

- 50% run Windows
- 30% run Linux
- _6% run BSD

Reworking the above numbers, we get:

Of all Intel-based web servers:

- 58% run Windows
- 42% run Linux/BSD

The survey also counted 32,398,046 total web sites, which translates to around 28 million web sites running on Intel-based hardware.

At this point, I will assume that those 28 million sites represents at least 5 million PCs being used as web servers.

And of those 5 million PCs, over 2 million are running Linux or BSD, instead of Windows.

The amount of money that Microsoft makes for a server sale (counting OS, various server software, support contracts, upgrades, and client licenses) is at least $1000.

Therefore, Linux and BSD have cost Microsoft at least $2 billion in revenue.

And that's just for web servers.

Add another billion+ dollars for desktops, and a few billion more for other servers.

Result: Linux and BSD have cost Microsoft multiple billions of dollars.

I'm willing to bet that Microsoft has noticed.

Those paperclips ...

[Anonymous Coward]

... are all fun and games until someone pokes an eye out!

And I thought...

[g.a.g]

Well, reading the headline I thought, wow, what a good idea, trying to break the dependence on foreign oil by using more wind power!

Would be a good slogan for that, too...

(However, reading that on Slashdot should have told me!)

Linux will fail

[Anonymous Coward]

When people see the crap that they're selling at wally world, the linux movement will collapse and the geeks who pissed around with it will move on to the HURD or bring bsd back from the dead!

celebrating by winning porprietary software ?

[Anonymous Coward]

wow - great plan... celebrating 'freedom' by giving people proprietary software.

free from the one - enslaved by the other ... why does that sound like not a reason for celebration to me ?

Poor timing

[Anonymous Coward]

It's kind of a shame that this will be on July 4th, the day after Warcraft III is released. This game will probably be one of the few things that people reboot for.

Shawn Gordon misquoted!

[moZer]

We'll conquer the desktop together, one user at a time if need be," enthused Shawn Gordon, President of theKompany.

I'm pretty sure he said 'konquer the desktop'.

Celebrating Windows Dependence???

[anandsr]

Think of it in another way. Are we celebrating
our dependence on Windows. That is what came to
my mind first reading Windependence.

We need a better name than windependependence.

-anand

Re:Celebrating Windows Dependence???

[fr2ty]

I think that your understanding of the word is far more logical and does fit better.
If I could choose Independence from Windependence, guess what I'd choose.

Painful mistake, actually, isn't it? What a waste.

More like the Stamp Act

[EvilTwinSkippy]

Grrr. Did everyone sleep through US History?

What really put the bee in the American bonnett was the stamp tax. The exact details escape me, but the parallels between the Stamp Act and new Software Assurance program are startling.

Think about it, Parliment wanted to bill the colonists for every legal document, license, contract, pamplet, and even playing card (MS Solitaire?). The Bill was passed without any feedback or representation of the customer.

You want to talk about history repeating itself, look no further.

Their Windows are already broken

[Anonymous Coward]

(sorry, couldn't resist)

Windependance != Freedom, it seems

[Phil Hands]

I think it's a shame that most of the prizes are partly or completely non-free software.

It brings to mind what I believe is a translated polish proverb:

A change of leaders is the joy of fools.

To exchange one set of proprietary terms & conditions for another, even if the new ones are a lot less aggravating, when one could instead have grasped Freedom in perpetuity, is a wasted opportunity in my opinion.

Re:Windependance != Freedom, it seems

[Our Man In Redmond]

It brings to mind what I believe is a translated polish proverb:

A change of leaders is the joy of fools.

Yeah, we have a proverb like that in English too:

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

I chuckled when I heard the bad guy saying this in "The Sum Of All Fears" but I didn't know just how deeply Pete Townshend's line had worked itself into the linguistic landscape until I did this search.

Re:July 14th: The stoning of Redmond

[AndroidCat]

Darn, and I still haven't started on my CD gun. It's based on the toy "phaser" that shot those little plastic disks.

Finally a good use for all those AOL discs eh? (The power source is the problem. A spring just doesn't cut it for a 100 CD magazine.)

Wow! Look at all the features...

[gatesh8r]

That I'll never use! Gee, whiz, I need to spend $500 on it and take out a second mortgage for the computer I'm going to need!

Of course we declared war on Germany

[pgpckt]

In fact, here is a link to it. You could have justed asked google, which is what I did. I used "declaration of war germany". It was the first hit.

exciting movie of battling the talking paperclip

[aderusha]

http://www.salmondays.tv/downloads/paper_clip.mpg

from salmon days, the register's on line tv show adaptation of the bofh (bastard operator from hell, but you knew that anyway)...

Re:July 14th: The stoning of Redmond

[Anonymous Coward]

Gesept.

Now, a few wasps inside MS HQ should slow them down. Maybe mail a few boxes of wasp nests?

Well said!

[robinjo]

I think it's a shame that most of the prizes are partly or completely non-free software.

That was so well said that I'll give you 10 free Apache licenses and another 10 free OpenOffice licenses!

Sighh...

[Interrobang]

For me to run Linux at work, I need Office. I can't even convince my project boss (1000 km away, more or less) to use FrameMaker for this project, despite its being the Right Tool for the Job.

At home, however... Linux box here I come! (Just moved; computers et al in pieces!)

?!

Re:July 14th: The stoning of Redmond

[AndroidCat]

Heh, was that intentional? Wasps and Dirac Angestun Gespt. [WASP is a book by Eric Frank Russell where Dirac Angestun Gespt comes from.]

I was using that as my organization for years on alt.religion.scientology before Co$'s local thugs tracked down the reference -- they actually wasted the time searching for it, which suits the tactics of Dirac Angestun Gespt just fine. ;^)

Re:July 14th: The stoning of Redmond

[ncc74656]

Darn, and I still haven't started on my CD gun. It's based on the toy "phaser" that shot those little plastic disks.

Finally a good use for all those AOL discs eh? (The power source is the problem. A spring just doesn't cut it for a 100 CD magazine.)

Any chance of it being a portable railgun that would fling CDs, or is the aluminum layer in your average CD not sufficient for that idea to work? If it could work, you could get some pretty decent speed out of the business end of it...

Of course, you'd probably need a backpack power supply to drive the thing. You could go around flinging AOHell CDs at people with a contraption that looks like something out of Ghostbusters...

Parent was a troll

[Paul the Bold]

The parent post was a troll, and I'll tell you why. (I was not a moderator today, but I may have modded this one down.) First, he refered to the subject as "some partisan hippy cause", which is misleading (is it Republican, Democratic, Green, Libertarian, or Whig?), and the language he uses is unkind. Second, he writes, ""Free software" types are...not on the side of Freedom (except when it comes to smoking pot)." Wow! Even if I agreed with the premise that this is an inappropriate day to hold such festivities, I am insulted. This is unnecessary, and turns me (and any other Linux user) away from his message immediately. Finally, he calls Bill Gates a pansy, which should turn off any Microsoft fans. Who is left? Apple? Be? Vax?

The poster is making an important point, but the point is lost amid the insults. People will respond not to the ideas but the language. For that reason, it is a troll.

I have re-written the parent, removing all insults, thus making a more effective post:

Independence day allows us to look back on the sacrifices our forefathers made to keep America free. I don't appreciate seeing it trivialized.

Take the opportunity to start working for real change: less government intrusion, less taxes, fewer regulations, more freedom. Those are your birthrights, secured with the blood of our ancestors. Don't let them down!

May 17!

[epepke]

Scandinavian independence day. If it weren't for Scandinavians, we wouldn't even be thinking about this.

wintelpendence

[Anonymous Coward]

windependence - that's from windows independence.

But it is really wintel monopoly, not just windows. Therefore, let's call it wintelpendence day, to be more correct.

wINDEPENDENCE, i.e Freedom

[FreeUser]

To help celebrate wIndependence Day (or, perhaps more accurately, WinDependence Day), do we have just not be Windows users, or do we have to use Linux? If it's just about not using Linux, then somebody [apple.com] has already started promoting a similar idea.

First, you need to rephrase your question.

As stated, no, you don't have to use GNU/Linux, but you do have to use a Free Operating System (Free as in Freedom). This rules out Apple, Sun, etc. Replacing one set of masters with another set of masters doesn't by you an ounce of freedom or independence, which is what "Windependence" is all about.

So, if you had phrased your question "...do we have just not be Windows users, or do we have to use Free Software" then the answere would be, if you wish to be free and independent, then yes, you have to use free software. If you do not care that a corporate vendor has veto power over your ability to use your PC, then Apple, Microsoft, or any number of other proprietary vendors will likely serve your purposes just fine.

Ok, maybe not Microsoft based on their track record for the last 10 years vis-a-vis reliability, security, and forced obsolescence...but don't kid yourself: Sun and Apple are just failed Microsoft wannabe's, and if you switch to their product you may find, while you are breathing a sigh of relief to be free of Microsoft's stranglehold, that you have in fact only replaced one set of masters with another and are now firmly entrenched in Apple, or Sun's, stranglehold. It only becomes a question of time then, before you are looking for escape once more.

And our motto will be...

[devphil]

...l1b3rty, 3qual1ty, and frat3rn1ty!

free your ass from Windows-alike interfaces

[Enahs]

Windows-alike interfaces aren't that special. Let's start doing something revolutionary, like paying attention to UI research results.

Re:July 14th: The stoning of Redmond

[sharkey]

Fortunately, there were no serious injuries...

You mispelled "Sadly".

The BSA methods.

[azimir]

I'm under the impression that the BSA will contact you and ask for a voluntary audit first. If you don't have the time/money for it, they'll gladly provide their own people to do the audit for you. If you are found in compliance they'll just go away, but if you are found to be guilty they charge you (contrator rates) for the people they provided.

If you ignore or upset them, then the BSA will get help from local authorities. I believe they use the federal marshalls. The Marshalls will knock down your door and tell everyone to take their hands off their keyboards to prevent any deletion of evidence. So far not much gives the BSA the right to do this, but a flimsy EULA and some badly interpreted copyright laws.

No, it's not right or fair, but it is now precedented, so you will need to check your facts before you start using software from BSA members. There are few ways to win against the BSA system because they only get paid if you are charged/fined/extorted money.

Just remember that that fu*k'n paperclip is a member of the mob.

Re:July 14th: The stoning of Redmond

[vsprintf]

You misspelled "mispelled," although I agree with the sentiment completely. Damn, I sure I hope I spelled everything correctly. :)

A bit off topic...

[Anonymous Coward]

I know this is a bit off topic, but remember all the old jokes going around that Microsoft just takes the same old source code and slaps a new name on it, to resell?

Well, here's more proof. My boss created a DOS boot disk the other day off of his XP Laptop. He booted with it, and it pops up with

"Windows Mellenium"
A:\>

Re:July 14th: The stoning of Redmond

[EnderWiggnz]

the problem with using CD's, is that they arent articularly aerodynamic - no curves, not strategically placed holes...

too flat and smooth.

Re:July 14th: The stoning of Redmond

[sharkey]

Damn, I sure I hope I spelled everything correctly. :)

From now on, I sure I hope I do too.

Re:July 14th: The stoning of Redmond

[vsprintf]

From now on I hope I can I hit the preview button instead of the submit button. :)