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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...
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DEC had a nice Unix on VAX 15 years ago. I don't know if it's been maintained by Compaq.
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?
"Tell me doctor, with all of your defenses, are there any provisions for an attack by killer bees?"
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.
Sent from your iPad.
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...
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.