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CD Duplicator Refuses Linux Job, Citing MS Contract
Jonathon writes "Seems a Microsoft imposed restraint of trade agreement and concerns about the SCO suit have prevented a New Zealand company duplicating 500 CDs for our upcoming installfest. The installfest was mentioned on /. just days ago."
As one of the helpers for the installfest, I can say that this is pretty much only going to help our cause. We couldn't ask for better advertising (both the NZ Herald, and Slashdot).
We will be ready, Saturday, with plenty of CDs (we hope).
I use to have a funny sig, but slash cut it off, and I forgot what the punchline was.
52x writers are under $50USD and a 500 pack of cd-rs is probably well under $100, im sure they can get some volunteers to sit and burn all the discs needed.
Bill Gates did not become the world's most successful business by being dumb. He is doing a very good job using the whole SCO issue to take away people's confidence in Linux. He has done a nice job putting pressure on the CD copying company. He is hoping to make the name "Linux" synonymous with phrases like "infringing copyrights" and "illegal".
He is not stupid, and if Linux does not watch its back, the penguin might get slain, leaving the world without a reliable and secure OS.
Later, he said Microsoft's lawyers' advice was: "It's conjecture. It depends on who, what, when, the technology, and a whole bunch of things and the Herald is not a good place to get into a legal discussion." He went on to explain: Have you ever been pussy whipped by your girfriend? Well, if you have, you would understand our relationship with microsoft.
Because it's what the k3wl h4x0rs use.
The name Yesterday Technology certainly describes the company perfectly, choosing Windows over Linux, that is so 1995.
Either one would be a valid, LEGAL reason for not doing the work, even if it was unhelpful. With the apearant backpeadaling, I'm likely to suspect that someone waffled after hearing about SCO's lawsuit.
They can sell to whosoever they like. The situation would presumably be different if they had a monopoly (I say presumably because I don't know about New Zealand law) but that can't be said of CD duplication. It's essential that companies do have the right to refuse orders without giving reasons, because every order taken on involves some degree of commercial risk ranging from nonpayment to public liability. Were this not so, it would make for some interesting scams by dishonest buyers. The best protection for buyers is that salesmen as a breed want to be able to sell to anybody with money, and that provides a certain counterweighting to the caution of the legal and finance departments.
Panurge has posted for the last time. Thanks for the positive moderations.
Great publicity for the event, but apart from that, who cares?
I don't know about NZ, but where I live there (and it ain't silicon valley) there must be a dozen or more businesses in very easy distance which do CD mass duplication. So here's a tip: just ask somebody else.
Since this is under YRO, I figured I'd ask: whose rights are being violated here? (I can't see any rights violations)
This seems more like a story about how evil Microsoft is. And evil they are, which is why I neither purchase nor support their software.
Looks like they can't do anything for any of Microsoft's competitors ... but would linux itself really qualify as a competitor? I know there are many people who package distributions, but what if it was a non-commercial distro such as slackware they were trying to burn?
And as long as they mentioned SCO, I would love to see them driven into the ground for what they're doing.
Why yes I am paranoid! Thanks for asking!
Now you have ample ammo for suing SCO for libel, slander, defamation, etc...
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
I think little by little, SCO's efforts to create FUD may inconvenience substantial numbers of people. It wouldn't be a bad idea for a website to be started, for keeping track of the myriad ways that SCO's threats of copyright infringement liability have caused tangible expense and inconvenience.
It would be a good knowledge base to have, and might come in handy for purposes of a potential class-action suit against SCO, if the company's claims of infringement are found by the courts to be without merit. In any case, this would be one way to give SCO's backers some FUD of their own.
I'm generally "Interesting," "Insightful," and even "Funny" here. What the hell happens to me at parties?
Besides, SCO has claimed that every single modern operating system (except Sun, they are quick to point out), is at similar risk. How could a CD company stay in business if they refused to duplicate anything McBride said was his?
Litigious bastards
Linux Community Refuses to Give Business to CD Duplicator, Citing Questionable Ethics
This is further proof that the SCO debacle is hurting the image of Linux in the marketplace and in the eyes of the consumer. SCO may not have a sound case, but they are causing a lot of confusion about the legality of Linux.
There's also the part of the contract with Microsoft. This company is obviously not going to risc their probably very important economic ties to Microsoft for a mere 500 cd copy job -- no sane business person would -- but yet again we see evidence that the strong arm tactic Microsoft has employed since the DOS days (anyone remember DR DOS?) is still very much a part of their modus operandi.
I do not think that the SCO case made them refuse the job. When I read the article, the SCO case gives them an excuse not to do the CD duplication (of a small number, 500, of CDs).
They lose almost nothing, while they are sucking up to M$, possibly gaining much more with the obfuscated licensing. I assume M$ will gladly pay their losses, considering the press coverage this thing will get.
Genius doesn't work on an assembly line basis. You can't simply say, "Today I will be brilliant."
Lets slashdot them!
No empire lasts forever, are the masses at the gates of the castle yet?
the mare might get jealous...
Give them the slashdot treatment!
hehe
I don't know how the law works in New Zealand, but I know for sure that in France (and probably in other countries where Latin right rules), it is illegal to refuse to sell goods or services without reason. In this case, the SCO thing is clearly insignificant... So I very much think that there could be a quick legal decision that would force this CD press to do the job, would the case arise in France.
Did anyone check how things work in NZ ?
This is of course total BS. If MS does somehow have a hand in this, maybe it's time to get SCO out of the way after all. The longer they stay around, even though their case against IBM is close to vapour, the longer MS can trick these companies into believing the FUD - they probably don't know any better, who can blame them?
My $0.02.
zWhat would an EWOULDBLOCK block, if an EWOULDBLOCK could block would? -- me
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
You forgot he also mentioned SECURE.
I'm reminded of the English tradition of Knighthood. Where some subject becomes a knight and is granted
dominion over a parcel of land.
Microsoft granted this company so many parcels of foo, so long as they upheld Microsoft's honor. And on a larger scale, Isn't dominion what was promised to the RIAA, Media Cartels, others, in exchange for their "loyalty"?
Maybe I stretch things too far. But it seems the power of the common man has dwindled to nothing outside of a small space that's been allotted. Any attempts to reach beyond this space are met with resistance and punishment.
All these guys wanted to do was duplicate some cd's.
But that activity appears to be outside the domain Microsoft is willing to grant them. How have we gotten into the situation where we must beg persmission to do mundane tasks like this?
Is the large scale duplication of information getting to be a little too risque' for the peons? Gotta keep an eye on stuff like that now?
The box that makes up our collective free will is getting smaller and smaller as each cubic centimeter is parcelled off to the Knights of Modern Royalty.
every linux supporter is somehow being effected by this SCO/Linux issue. Even YOU as a system admin. or programmer are. I mean i am a linux programmer where i work, and devlopers form the other side(MS dev.) keep on asking, whats up with this SCO thing, so are you planning to go back to Visual c with a wide smile.. . PERIOD..out of subject..
what i wanted to say is, companies like IBM, SUN, Oracle, Redhat, Suse and others are losing money, credability, business, and are instead gaining lots of headache, questions, bla bla bla...
Why the fuck dont they just group, put an end to it. They already spent billions in investments on Linux, espically IBM and Oracle(who supported Linux clustering), if they care for their business and investments, they should act, and FAST, before this thing really grows and starts to actually draw back customers who had linux on their considered solution list, knowing that Linux opened new business grounds for them, and they cant deny it, they owe linux exactly s much as linux owed them...
The lunatic is in my head
It's from the contacts page so I guess he wants people to call him their.
and not tell my electricity supply company that I use Linux at home, just in case they decide that because some of my neighbours run M$ boxes, that they can't supply me with power any more.
Have you really been running it for years, without a crash in the middle? Years of uptime is commonplace for UNIX servers, with many software and even hardware updates without a reboot. Maybe you should rethink what stable means.
Laws of a free market economy: some company will be there to fill the demand.
But it wont come cheap.
The problem can easily be solved by picking up a few of these CD burners. 500 CDs? No problem!
As every GNU/Linux fan on the planet is saying "Can you hear me now?" BTW, in case they take down or change their contacts page here is Google's cache.
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
... I can say that this is pretty much only going to help our cause
I'd say so. I downloaded Knoppix last night after the previous installfest story piqued my interest.
Things to note:
I've used Micosoft software since I started using PCs.
I'd never used any version of Linux before.
I was very impressed with what I saw.
Congratulations guys, you just gained a brand spanking new Linux user.
One can usually discriminate however one wants, with the exception of certain sorts of discrimination that are prohibited. You can kick someone out of your restaurant because you think they're an ass and personally dislike them, but you can't kick someone out of your restaurant because they're black and you personally dislike black people. In some countries there are exceptions to this for private clubs (e.g. the Masters can prohibit women, and the Boy Scouts can prohibit atheists and homosexuals).
But in any case, this case is completely unrelated to that, as it's about restraint of trade and anti-competitive business practices (if it's about anything at all).
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
All good things must pass. I know, I had some great corn last night and there it was again, almost as fresh-looking as going in the other end.
.
i'm usually amazed how seldom people will resort to boycotts.
whilst i would have no doubt that MS are obviously a large part of their business, it is obvious that no business survives with just one good horse in their stable.
with a good enough word-of-mouth campaign it should be possible to inform local businesses and companies of the boycott, inform them of other options, and thus remove a chunk of their potential business.
500 cds may not hurt their purse strings, but 100 x 500 will.
do we forget just how much power we have?
Slackware IS a commercial distro and in fact one of the oldest commercial distros.
However, your point is well taken. Just replace "Slackware" with Debian.
Take Care
A1miras
And finally the Linux community realizes that the SCO case is to be taken seriously...
-- Cheers!
Slashdot: The END is Nigh
Or was that the Register? Extinction is a natural course. Relax.
As a Linux user myself for many years I now see the sideeffects of Open Source myself and started to eye for alternative Operating Systems such as MorphOS (Pegasos), MacOSX, BeOS Zeta and Microsoft Windows. There are various reasons for me to do this.
a) The Open Source community used to be a nice one, the philosophy of it was valued high in the first couple of years but meanwhile the entire situation has changed. Companies are trying to protect their IP, other companies don't work fair with the Open Source company by not backporting their changes in the original sources and so on.
b) The audience changed totally, you need to deal with more and more complaining and ranting people every day. People that are always dis-satisfied regardless what you do. Even I as Programmer need to deal with these people. I spent my time writing the programms, fixing bugs, answering technical emails, pay for the Webspace, offer the software and yet you need to deal with dis-satisfied people all overwhere which leads into demotivation of doing something better.
c) Many people wandered off from Linux and Open Source by using alternative Systems (preferabely MacOSX) thus they have a working, aesthetical, nice, round and standardized desktop environment with all tested tools. They can get their work done and don't care for Linux and it's Open Source that much anymore as they initially did. A lot of people started to work a lot less on Open Source because they don't see the need to do this anymore because they get all the software with better quality offered on their alternative System.
Here an example: A lot of GNOME developer moved away working on MacOSX these days and don't look back, while they still help with various fixes, coding etc. they still do this as funjob, they don't see the need to work as hard to make a good Desktop because they have a Microsoft independant OS (MacOSX) which offers them everything and more than GNOME for example. Of course they also see the points written by me here with all the ranting people, no fair play of companies and the general demotivation.
Face it, we all like to be honoured for our work, we all like to hear 'thank you' from the people outside that we spent our time working our ass off on the tools we offer. But the reality is that we deal more with complaining people rather than people who said 'thank you'. We all like to earn some money with what we do. Look, we sit down the entire day, weeks, months working on the Tool, we pay for Webspace and more and we don't even get the money back for the Webspace we pay once per year.
Open Source is indeed a nice thing but the times has heavily changed, complaining users, demotivation, dirty play with companies, sueing of people who wrote Open Source applications like the freecraft person. A very nice game and now it's not available anymore because he got is ass sued off.
Think about it, is it really worth the trouble ? We should concentrate back to the old roots and try making some bucks with our work, getting the webspace paid, stop the insanity with open source. it's a good idea but the license is only a hype. Like everyone can fork the code and release his own version of the software which only ends in 20 derivates which each of them still doesn't do the work it was aimed for. Not to mention that we all are individual people who work for fame, for money for being someone in the community. You work on the software because you love it because you never think about someone comming up forking it and then one day you see a derivate of your work floating around in the community and you get heavily pissed off and stop working on it and feel disappointed and have thoughts in your head saying 'what did i do wrong, why did this person fork my software' and so on. Please don't understand me wrong, think back the time when emacs got forked to xemacs. Or think back when KDE Desktop got heavily trashed by RedHat. You are itching at the egos of people with this. It's really better to start thinking about new and better ways and search for an alternative work on an alternative System.
This place would be nothing more than a structure fire. Comeone people. Don't take this crap. Burn the mofo - or at least loot yourself one of those disc pressing machines.
Yeah, but they discontinued NT, so unfortunately we would have to use that unstable windows 2000, or the infamous windows XP.
I don't know of any such laws. You wouldn't get away with refusing to serve homosexuals etc.
I doubt the courts would actually even care about the issue.
After ATI win a MS contract for the next Xbox, they now don't support linux drivers.. whats the bet its the same sort of contract.
utter bastards.
"Consider how lucky you are that life has been good to you so far. Alternatively, if life hasn't been good to you so far
is to have a hate email/phone mail campaign against these bozos. It will confirm to Software Images and probably others that they did the right thing in refusing the order.
Arf!
From the article:
Roberts said the contract with Software Images did not contain anything that prevented Software Images working with the Open Source Society or pressing Linux CDs "or anything like that".
He said Software Images made their decision before talking to Microsoft "for their own reasons".
"It's very much a Coke/Pepsi situation. If you are an ad agency dealing with Pepsi you don't pick up business with Coke."
When the Herald pointed out that Open Source software was a competitor to Microsoft, Roberts said: "I guess so, but the NZ Open Source Society isn't."
Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!
Our country code is 0064
Enjoy ;)
He may be a dick, but you can't spell.
It's:
"You're a dick."
See, the "you're" is a contraction. It combines "You" with "are". "Your" is a possessive pronoun.
Didn't you graduate 3rd grade?
--
A.C.
(Not from Oz but still can't stand stupid grammatical mistakes.)
"It's very much a Coke/Pepsi situation. If you are an ad agency dealing with Pepsi you don't pick up business with Coke."
Um... I work for an ad agency, and our company deals with both of the above mentioned companies. We work around the possible problems by having different teams work with the individual companies. (I think this is semi-public knowledge, but I'm posting AC anyhow, to be on the safe side.)
That said, the deal with Software Images is just a hiccup, lost business for them. I'm sure there is a long list of other companies that will duplicate for them without any trouble at all. Move on, nothing to see here.
That's right, New Zealand businesses! Software Images has helped you make a decission towards reliable outsourcing for your data duplication needs. If you need an outfit who can be trusted to handle your order, even important rush orders, Software Solutions is not your provider.
Data duplication is an important last step to any project that requires physical media for distribution. You need to know that your order is accepted and being handled and processed quickly, efficiently, and reliably. At Software Images, your data duplication order may be green-flagged by their expert account managers... only to be refused at a later date.
Your order may be refused because, on a "case by case basis", the data in question might be considered in competition with Microsoft. And as Microsoft continues to reach in to new sectors and attach new niches... who's to say if one is in direct competition or not? But you'll find out. After your order has been rejected and you are forced to scramble for another outsource provider.
Your order may also be refused if an industry competitor makes unfounded alligations as to owner of the intellectual property contained in your duplication order. No need to wait for a court ruling. No need for proof of a currently valid license. Your important job will be rejected, leaving your business high and dry.
In this tough economy, every business needs reliable outsource providers. They need to know that services will be there for that important job or rush order.
With Software Images, you won't know.
Software Images. They're not there for you. They're there for their major account - Microsoft.
An eye punctured with shards of flying CD, of course. Hillary can oversee the whole operation! But only for a minute...AHHH!
>;C MY EYES!
It would seem it's time to start with CDCopyFest
Signature Pro version 1.13.2-3 release 83.5 beta3try7 after-breakfast edition
[Please type your sig here.]
The simple truth of the matter, is that Linux is all but uninstallable on anything but a computer. Anyone who claims that they installed Linux on a computer is quite simply lying. This is due to a number of facts, including the legacy support of i386 processors. Newer chipsets, such as the SCO and Macintosh video cards, have workarounds and can achieve a subtle increase in gaydar rankings, but you'll never see Linux running on anything with a reasonable amount of RAM.
To its credit, however, Linux is quite capable of running a watch, or similar sub-complex hardware. This is because it does its job very well, that is, keeping time. In fact, it will waste cycles maintaining its own clock, discarding the perfectly useful CMOS clock found in most post-1975 computers.
As a response to the smelly teenager who insists on wearing his favourite t-shirt 5 days a week to your workplace, simply ask him (when he next shouts at you blathering on about freedom of choice) about which VM you should use... the one that crashes all the time, or the really slow one?
"Software Images' account manager Dean Baker...backtracked, saying there may be an issue due to a "replication agreement" with Microsoft."
So they're in bed with MS, that's why they don't want to promote Linux. The SCO FUD is just an excuse; they just don't want to upset MS.
Still, we all know what happens to companies that get in bed with MS. Eventually MS f**ks them.
Malaysia being the world's #1 producer of PIRATED CDs, VCDs, and CD-ROMs, has more than enough talent and capacity to make ANY NUMBER of high quality CD, even in a short order.
The cost of making CDs in Malaysia is EXTRA-ORDINARILY LOW - amount to LESS THAN USD 0.25 per CD, with quantities of 500 or more.
No, I am NOT a CD pirate. I just know enough people who are in this line of "work" to know the cost.
Not only the cost is low, the CDs they produce are also of high quality - rejection rate of less than 0.5 %, and turn around time can be as short as 5 days.
And since it is NEVER ILLEGAL to make Linux CD-ROMs, legality wise there shouldn't be ANY PROBLEM.
So, next time if you wanna make CDs, or you have a rush job and still want to have high quality CDs made, give Malaysia a call.
You won't be disappointed !
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
I remember nine years ago when I was shopping for a top of the line PC (at that time, a 486DX-2/66). I walked into a local computer superstore and told them what I wanted; however, I also wanted to save a few bucks and just have the hard drive boot to a DOS prompt, no more.
The salesperson was very pushy and asked "well what are you going to install on there?" and I of course responded "anything - SCO Unix (note: what irony, little did I know...), Linux, BSD...why?" Well, sadly, I was informed by the salesperson there that I "would not be receiving a hardware warranty if I did not order it with Windows."
Needless to say, I walked out shortly thereafter and later learned that this was a common practice at the time and at later points in time. The moral of the story is that anything that Microsoft might have its grubby little hands, in any form, may affect the average Joe in unimaginable ways, and many imaginable ones. Just like me, and just like the folks trying to legally dupe CDs.
The SCO lawsuit is not preventing copying Linux cd's as timothy wrote !
Software images just has a non-competement agreement with Microsoft.
Of angry villagers, marching up the road with pitchforks and torches in hand.
Er, what's the name of that street in Redmond??
I think Microsoft made a big mistake with the whole SCO thing. The more people are aware of licenses and the more people understand the GPL, the worse Microsoft looks in comparison.
The SCO case does hurt Linux in the short term, that's for sure. But in the long term, it will be just a confirmation of what many already know: That users of GPLed software are much safer from legal problems than users of commercial software.
With the millions of shares Microsoft executives sell constantly, maybe they don't care about the long term...
The problem isn't one of piracy - you can't pirate GNU / Linux - it's free. The fact is MS-SCO is spreading their FUD globally (where I live, Gartner is actively carrying the SCO FUD). Joe ServicePack's attention span and analytical-skills must not be over-estimated.
By moving the CD copying to Malaysia, it's sort of implied that there's some pirating going on here! Newbies to Linux don't need this FUD - it could deter a few of them from joining the fest.
Yesterday's interview, McBride stated that the case is entering a 'discovery' phase - this clearly indicates that SCO is only interested in FUD, and not a quick court action. It would help if more countries follow the example of Germany, Poland and others in exposing SCO's conduct, and seek penalties for future instances of FUD.
If you keep throwing chairs, one day you'll break windows....
They are also actively promoting Linux to businesses who are looking for alternatives to microsoft during the latest software piracy crackdown.
Pirates have brought linux to Malaysia! Pirates aren't that bad after all ;)
Well, that's a bit too late, recent police and government crackdowns have more or less crippled these duplication rings. I know, I live in Malaysia where everyone is complaining about not being to buy VCDs or DVDs for less than USD2.00 anymore (at least not easily :) Yes, what you want are LEGAL duplications as opposed to the illegal pirated ones, but the point is that the cheap CD makers are the pirates and their machines have just been consfiscated, so tough.
You are going about it all wrong. Here's how it works:
I was checking out their web page and it's pretty slick. Each time you go to it, they feed you a graphic of a different person up top. Presumably employees, although they could be models. Anyway, I reloaded the page (shift-reload in moz) a few times checking to see how many different ones they had, and imagine my surprise when, after about six hundred reloads, up popped Natalie Portman, nude and petrified!!!!!
I guess it's an easter egg, pretty well hidden too, not like the managers are going to sit there and shift-reload over and over again, no-one but the horny nerd that did the page for him and maybe some of his friends, and all the horny nerds here at slashdot now that I discovered it. Yipeee! Make sure and save the image once it comes up, otherwise you have to do the whole thing from scratch to see it again.
http://www.litepc.com/xplite.shtml
tracking the Caldera/SCO story minute-by-minute.
Most of you already agree that SCO is full
of it, then why not behave the way you always do? Like when someone posts on Slashdot
wild allegations without evidence, you
would moderate SCO as "troll" and that is the end of it.
For God's sake, enough with SCO already!
In the 2000s, a movie (Bruce Almighty) has a phone number in it that doesn't start with 555 and various people around the world get called up to 20 times an hour asking if they are God.
Maybe the proliferation of crank calls on tv and radio shows, and email spam has led to this being seen as acceptable by the public? Not fun for the person on the receiving end though.
[~]% telnet linuxforums.co.nz 80
Trying 202.49.94.189...
Connected to linuxforums.co.nz.
Escape character is '^]'.
GET / HTTP/1.0
HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Server: Microsoft-IIS/5.0
Content-Location: http://192.168.0.1/index.html
Date: Tue, 01 Jul 2003 09:37:07 GMT
Content-Type: text/html
Accept-Ranges: bytes
Last-Modified: Mon, 16 Jun 2003 21:40:04 GMT
ETag: "86a02fd94f34c31:927"
Content-Length: 2220
I bet if I walked in there with a copy of UT 2003 and asked for 500 copies of it they would say: "No problem, mr Smith"
rejection rate of less than 0.5 %
So, that means in doubt they should burn 3 more CDs to have the 500 required.
Will this help them benefit from the 501-1000-unit batch cheaper than the 1-500-unit one ?
Trolling using another account since 2005.
If it is caused by the SCO case, the NZ linux group can sue SCO for that.
Shouldn't legal contracts be clear? Or is eaving plenty of weasel-room a tactic by lawyers to leave room for the FUD to spread.
The replicators are probably loving all the harsh publicity they are getting in Slashdot and around the Linux community, anything they do to upset and aggrivate the Open Source world will probably score them bonus points with Microsoft. The more we bitch about them here, the more Microsoft will love them.
However, they'll need to be careful, dealing with Microsoft is not something I would envy - I met someone once who used to work with them, and he told me that ".. the only time M$ wouldn't piss all over you is if you were on fire."
Jolyon
Please read my Canon EOS tech blog at http://www.everyothershot.com
Not only does MS acknowledge that Linux is a competitor (Pepsi vs. Coke so we must be on par :grin:), but we get to be Coke, the obviously superior choice :p
(especially with choices like cherry, vanilla and lemon)
This space for rent. All reasonable inquiries will be entertained at proprietors discretion.
The CD duplication company is not a monopoly, but MS is (at last legally, in the US). They may be limited in what kind of anti-competitive contracts they are allowed to enter.
Let's Slashdot em' & tell them how dumb that was.
Jaysyn
There is a war going on for your mind.
Looks like we need a new Robin Hood who shoots the Sheriff of Nottingham and gives software to the poor.
This is anti-competitive behaviour.
i -c ompetitive%20practices%20final.pdf
Raising Your Concerns by Contacting the Commission
Readers who are aware of behaviour that appears to breach the Commerce Act can forward information to the Commission. The Commission will consider this information and, if appropriate, initiate an investigation.
The Commission also carries out its own market monitoring and surveillance activities. An investigation that identifies a breach of the Commerce Act may lead to the Commission taking one of a range of actions, including prosecuting businesses in the High Court. Actions the Commission can take are outlined in the Commission Processes section of this publication.
To contact the Commission with information:
Telephone 0800 94 3600
Write to:
Contact Centre
Commerce Commission
P O Box 2351
Wellington
Email: contact@comcom.govt.nz
http://www.comcom.govt.nz/publications/pdfs/ant
Put Software Images out of business.
CD Pirates are one of the primary reasons why Linux is gaining ground in Malaysia. They are cheap, and have all the latest titles. Linux enthuthiast who need the latest ISO's just needs to go to his local pirate distributor and usually in 2-3 days, you'll be able to get a copy. Especially useful for those of us who don't have Broadband internet at home
It's ironic that people will go to illegal channels as the most efficient way to get that which is free and legal anyway. Showing that distribution businesses do not need to own monopolies to be profitable.
Have you got your LWN subscription yet?
Sorry...this comment makes no sense whatsoever....
Man! I just stepped in a big pile of FUD.
One day I want to sue my competition just to fuck my competition, even if I have no real case!
The ultimate network admin tool needs HELP!
Then when he finds out that he's not getting all the rebates he's asked for, he hauls them into a room. "Gentlemen, you have been cheating me. I could sue you in court and win, but I'm not going to. I'm simply going to ruin every one of you." And Rockefeller (because that's who this is) did.
That's monopolistic practice. Not "don't do our competitor's CDs, see, we'll pay you a little extra not to do it." It's instead, "don't do our competitor's CDs. If you do, well, Garnett there did, and look, all of a sudden he lost his business with the RIAA, and the postal service didn't deliver his finance payment on time, and all his bills came due at once, and look... really, it's better not to do our competitor's CDs. I'm sure you understand."
Not that that's what happened here -- I have no idea what happened here. But that's the mold of a monopoly: just a touch of war.
I have no idea what FUD is. Anyone care to enlighten me?
-RLG
Pirates have brought linux to Malaysia!
How do you think MS even got popular? Back in 1995-96 I hardly knew anyone with a legit copy of Win95, their computers all came with 3.1 and they borrowed 95 from a friend.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
According to the FAQ, if your submission was rejected by one editor, maybe another will approve it, and they also appear to cave if many people keep submitting the same story.
I want to believe that this can't be completely legal. Does Thailand have any "illegal dumping" laws like (IIRC) the U.S.? Also, if this deal goes through, it might make interesting ammunition the next time Microsoft tries to "estimate" costs of illegal copying. Wait, how much is Windows really worth again? Retail, OEM, or $6? Along those lines, I wonder if any of Microsoft's big customers will be annoyed that someone else is getting a much better deal than they are.
WMBC freeform/independent online radio.
that M$ is REALLY worried about Linux.
And yet another example of M$ innovation. When threatened by a competing product, they:
1. spread FUD about the competition.
2. litigate; either directly or through secondary parties that they manage to pump cash into.
3. lean on their partners (for today, anyway; they'll get it in the back tomorrow) to leverage their monopoly position.
4. do anything, ANYTHING except compete on the technical superiority of their product because they have none and they are not about to provide any!
It's all kind of sad, really.
1. Offer the binaries without a corresponding offer for the source code.
2. Hijack the ship coming from Malaysia with all the linux cd's. Equipment you'll need: eyepatch, parrot, pegleg, makeshift plank for the crew to walk, silly accent. Say "Yarrrrrr!" a lot and complain about scurvy.
microsoftword.mp3 - it doesn't care that they're not words...
Is it really illegal to go commando in Thailand?
Take screenshots of what happens when you go through winipcfg and put them on your hard drive. Then just browse through them and pretend you're actually doing it.
Comcast doesn't seem to care what I run; they say something to the effect of, "OK, well you'll have to set that up yourself." As long as my DHCP client works, they don't seem to care that it's OpenBSD. I know I've checked my end, so I sometimes tell them I don't run Windows (if they start going into details), and sometimes just tell them what they want to hear. Besides, the lights on the cablemodem are generally what they ask about first, and they can do some diagnostics (and even upgrade the firmware) from their end.
If they service your area, Speakeasy DSL is actually friendly to *nix-like operating systems (and people who want to run servers). Sadly, now my cable bandwidth has been increased and I am lazy. Maybe one day Comcast will actually become the NAT/upload fascists they claim to be.
WMBC freeform/independent online radio.
From the article:
"It's very much a Coke/Pepsi situation. If you are an ad agency dealing with Pepsi you don't pick up business with Coke."
This seems like a legitimate reason to refuse a Linux job. In the current climate it's clear to most that Linux is strong competition to Microsoft. I'm suspect that there exists at least one other company offering similar services, which isn't doing business with Microsoft directly, and can see the value in becoming a provider for the Linux community.
I think that the Linux community has to draw a line and say that enough is enough. And I think we have to sue SCO over this issue. If not, then our problems with SCO will escalate and in the end hurt Linux. This incident in New Zealand only proves this.
So, there have been no contributions to BSD since that piece of paper was written? Unlike BSD, Linux has a GPL proving they don't owe SCO a thing.
>It's ironic that people will go to illegal channels as the most efficient way to get that which is free and legal anyway
No, it's ironic that most people, including the justice department that brought the action against them, still use products from a company convicted of illegally leveraging a monopoly.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
why not post a website? anything to get one started? or are you just making some judgement on how all the pirated cds come from malaysia?
;p
1800-malay-cds?
Fair trade.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
just wait until you buy a shiny new piece of hardware and install it... or a game... i wouldn't delete that windows install just yet
Plenty of shiny new hardware breaks Windows -- in fact, so does a lot of old hardware.
I play Quake, Unreal Tournament, America's Army, etc. on Linux. Can't think of any better games that I'd want to play on Linux -- nor any that I can't.
Are you just a lttle behind the times? Fear is usually fought with fear; There's nothing more fearful, at times, than change.
The New Zealand Hearld is an unreliable paper, they get basically everything wrong one way or the other (to cite an example, they can't even get the name right for a 700 people land, that had everybody playing CS 'against terrorism' on ONE server). So thier take might be completly off...
NZ is small, if you have a contact with Microsoft, you do everything you can to please them. Otherwise they might cancel the contact next time it comes up for review. Which in NZ could mean the company would have to scale back significantly or even shut down.
Ohh and yes, MS is a big boy in this country and throws its weight around quite happily.
GPLv2: I want my rights, I want my phone call! DRM: What use is a phone call, if you are unable to speak?
Go to their competitor and let them do the job.
Plenty of shiny new hardware breaks Windows -- in fact, so does a lot of old hardware.
You can't just talk out of your ass and expect people to believe you. I've purchased plenty of shiney new hardware in the past and I have never had any compatibility issues with Windows.
I shudder at the posibility of naming a street after Billy bot himself.
IANAL but write like a drunk one.
Yeah, right. ObSimpsons reference:
Homer: I reluctantly accept your proposal!
Bill Gates: Well everyone always does. Buy 'em out, boys!
[Gates' lackeys trash the room.]
Homer: Hey, what the hell's going on!
Bill Gates: Oh, I didn't get rich by writing a lot of checks! [insane laughter]
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Just work out a user friendly way to install from the internet. Older versions of RedHat used to install via FTP. Gentoo installs over the net. What "Joe Average" needs is a happy medium:
-They pop open IE in Windows and go to the "Install Linux" web site and start the procedure.
-It brings down a self extracting tar.bz2 archive which expands to %TEMP%.
-It also creates another file that stores the actual location of %TEMP% in Windowspeak.
-It then executes a Windows based binary that will format a floppy, a bootable ZIP or Jaz disk or burn a CD-R/RW as bootable medium.
-It also unpacks file that contains an ext2 filesystem to %TEMP%
When the floppy, Zip, Jaz or CD-R/RW are complete, the user is instructed to reboot with the new boot disk. When they do, they are first presented with a partition manager that allows them to resize their Windows partition and set up space for the Linux installation. Then the file with the ext2 filesystem is mounted and the real GUI based installation begins pulling the distro from the internet. (Network configuration, X with framebuffer support, etc... has already completed in the background)
Obviously this would only be suitable for people with high bandwidth, but that could be solved too... The installer should allow the user to pause the installation and shutdown so that they can do it in phases. When they reboot, the installer would see the partially installed system and allow them to continue from where the log indicates that the install left off.
CDs need to go away as an installation medium.
Un-news
If you'd stated the opposite, you'd be accused of being a troll and astroturfer. Funny how things work, innit?
Me too! Oh yeah, I don't run Windows, so of course I had no problems with it. :-)
If you've never had problems with hardware in windows, you've never installed much more than the latest video card.
Get your facts straight, kiddo. It is not like Bill inherited a railroad empire from Dad, he build the godammed illegal monopoly from ground up, starting from a 3 man operation back in the seventies. You may question his business ethics, his excessive greed or whatever, but thinking he can't outsmart most of us with his hands tied and his eyes closed is dumb (and dangerous - underestimating the enemy is the fastest path to a unforgettable defeat).
Good job, I thought you could.
I wonder if they denied to press Microsoft's discs when Microsoft was litigating the case brought against them by Caldera or the case with the DOJ.
/python
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
-Hi, Malaysia? Is this Malaysia?
-Yes sir. You have reached the tourist center for Malaysia. How may I help you?
-I need 500 CDs burned fast!
-Excuse me sir?
-Like I said, I need 500 CDs burned and shipped before Saturday. I read about your country's amazing capabilities to do something like this on Slashdot and I figured I'd give it a shot.
-I'm sorry sir, this is a tourist hotline.
-Don't get smart with me, buddy. I know for a FACT that all you guys up in Malaysia are in the CD pirating business. Don't make me turn you in.
-I'd be happy to refer you to our Business Bureau.
-You don't get it! I don't want a bureau. I want some CDs. Legal CDs! Linux CDs! And you guys have to make them.
-I'm sorry sir, but I just can't help you.
-Sheesh. What do I need to do to get your country to make some CDs for me? Do I need to bribe you?
-Sir, you'll have to contact someone else for your needs. I can't help you.
-Sure you can. You're from Malaysia, and Malaysia makes CDs. Now what's it gonna take? Twenty dollars? A few shiny trinkets? You Malaysians go for that kind of stuff, right?
-<click>
IWARS.
People, in general, disappoint me. Politicians even more so.
Well, from what I hear, they're all sheep fuckers.
"They're" is a contraction as well. It's (It is) a combination of "they" and "are". Why would they need to graduate 3rd grade if they can just go out in the field and fuck sheep?
I've purchased plenty of shiney new hardware in the past and I have never had any compatibility issues with Windows.
Whoops. I am an idiot. I totally forgot about all the problems I had with 2 of my last 3 computers. I take that back.
Welcome. Knoppix and Mandrake are two great distro's for beginners. After you've learned a bit, and want to learn more, I'd suggest trying another distro, like debian, redhat, or gentoo. Good luck... -Kevin
If Masters disallowed children-party clowns from being members and the Boy Scouts wouldn't accept three-legged iguana owners, we wouldn't be discussing it, would we?
So it seems that a lot of these people should be looking for legal employment, no? What better transition than to legally producing free software cds?
"It's very much a Coke/Pepsi situation. If you are an ad agency dealing with Pepsi you don't pick up business with Coke."
BS. This is more like telling some local kids with a lemonade stand that you can't help them because Pepsi doesn't like the competition.
In other news, companies supplying toilet paper, soda, coffee, cleaning products, and office space, to Microsoft in New Zealand may not supply companies using products that may compete with Microsofts' ...
Mr.Boies, heading the SCO "legal" team, epitomizes what a great many people despise about lawyers. Truth is not what Boies seeks - - it's billable hours, and SCO are the suckers who'll have to pay the bill. I'm sure that, by now, even Boies recognizes that there's no stopping the Open Source juggernaut. But why should he care about that? Even if his case is flushed down the crapper, he'll walk off with millions. Gates, likewise, will capitalize from this sad and misguided effort by SCO for a while. But I submit to you that even Gates sees the inevitable outcome, which, at the very least, is a MORE publicized Open Source movement. In the advertising world, all publicity, good or bad, is exposure which can be spun to one's own benefit. Unfortunately, SCO stockholders will profit from this very principle, too, even if their case tanks.
It's only funny until someone gets hurt. Then, it's hilarious.
Distributors ship it with computers because consumers expect it and never get exposed to anything better such as linux.
Install fests give non-penguineers a chance to experience the glory, so Microsoft sees it as a threat.
Just like AOL, Microsoft survives and advances by making deals with other companies and sucking them dry. Many companies are scared shitless of shipping a PC without Windows for fear of Microsoft contract revokation.
Microsoft has made every computter manufacturer its bitch. On a whim they can revoke their agreement with Dell. Dell would then be forced to ship with another OS and drop their prices significantly or bribe their way back into Microsoft's stranglehold.
You become a monopoly not by being the best in the market, but by being the fittest in the market.
You can't judge a book by the way it wears its hair.
is they have a habit of multiplying when things get difficult. You know the disease starts spreading, or as all supremacy groups like to complain, "I hate xyz because they breed." Oh wait...
The message on the other side of this sig is false.
"It had more to do with his father being a wealthy and politically well-connected lawyer"
Absolute Bullshit. Yeah, he came from a well off family. But his daddy didn't build Microsoft. He did. If anything, his family instilled a sense of drive and competitiveness in him that made him succeed. Just because you come from a family with some money doesn't guarantee success. How many rich families have we seen where the kids just weren't up to snuff with their parents? Can anybody say "Kennedy"?
Bill Gates was more successful than his father ever was. Donald Trump came from a similar background. His dad was rich, but not super rich. He had the drive to succeed on levels far higher than his own father. Same with Ted Turner.
No doubt, having families with money gave these guys an advantage when starting out, but please, be more honest. If they weren't any good themselves, they never would have succeeded. Period. Daddy's bucks can only help you so much.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
now you want a ... spanking?
j/k - welcome to the club
A new family has just moved into the neighborhood. They're a hippie bunch, they all work different jobs, and even the kids work around the house to help out. Mommy says they're kinda low-class.
The primary purpose of the GNU organization is to create free software based on valuable commercial software.
Translation: "Mommy, that new kid wants my spot on the team. He's picking on me."
As long as the Linux development process remained uncoordinated and random, it posed little or no threat to SCO...
Translation: "Hee Hee The new kid sucks."
IBM initiated a course of conduct with the purpose and effect of using Linux to unfairly compete in the enterprise market.
Translation: "That new kid's kicking my ass. Cheater!!!"
It is not possible for Linux to rapidly reach UNIX performance standards for complete enterprise functionality without the misappropriation of UNIX code, methods or concepts to achieve such performance, and coordination by a larger developer, such as IBM.
Translation: "My mommy bought me a whole home gym and personal trainer. That new kid must be using steroids."
And, finally, this quote from IBM with which SCO takes issue in their complaint: ?IBM will put US $1 billion this year into Linux, the free operating system.
Translation: "Hey! That new kid just got recruited by State!"
Which makes the summary of the whole suit:
"Mommy! Waaaa!!!"
"Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, it doesn't go away." - Philip K. Dick
How can the parent of this post not be modded "Funny"?
The billions that Microsoft has earned, which have come at the cost of true innovation in our industry, emerged when Microsoft generated substandard copies of Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, etc. (Eudora?) and packaged these absolutely inferior, substandard applications with integration that would have been impossible to achieve without control of the OS.
I can't explain the reasoning behind Lotus' preference of OS/2 for 1-2-3 versus Windows (which helped kill them). I can't explain why WordPerfect stayed in the DOS world a little too long.
One thing that I can say is that, if we had wanted the proprietary software market to survive, the antitrust trial should have happened in the late 80s, at about the same time that Microsoft started knifing DR-DOS in the back.
Now, Microsoft has destroyed all the other major proprietary players on the desktop, and the industry has banned together behind GPL software in an effort to stop them.
In the end, Microsoft is doomed. You can only charge for something that is free for so long.
Perhaps the pity of it is that all of the other proprietary players will eventually go down as well. Eventually, all OS and major application software will be free. The GPL and BSD licenses will someday walk over Microsoft's grave. It is only a matter of time.
Pirates have brought linux to Malaysia! Pirates aren't that bad after all ;)
Pirates have also brought all sorts of Microsoft products to Malaysia. All Microsoft has to do now is to somehow convert their market penetration there into paying customers and they're set...
I hope you like getting shit on, because that's how we treat the n00bs.
This kinda shit is exactly why the US founding fathers detailed the right to bear arms. It's our last defense against bad politicians, the ultimate veto.
It wont be done by an organized army of citizens, it will be more guerilla-style. Random people, sick of all the bullshit, randomly popping off politicians who have forgotten that their first responsibility is to the PEOPLE, not the megacorps.
Something that's strongly needed, reminding them who they really serve, real people, not a fictitious legal entity. Instead of being primarily concerned with "which gives me the best kickback", they will be more concerned about "should I vote for bill x, or will I get popped off".
Political terrorism at it's best.
FUD = Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.
GAMES = God Always Makes Engineers Suffer
One time, I attached a USB CD-RW drive to my then Windows 2000 PC, and Windows 2000 stopped recognizing my regular, installed CD-ROM drive. Even after I unplugged and restarted the computer, I still couldn't use it.
And then there was the "incident" that made me switch to Linux. Let's just say that waiting eighteen hours for the Windows 2000 to format my hard drive (after an error with Windows popped up) and having every attempt to reinstall Windows 2000 end in an error is not a pleasant experience.
What part of Bootable Linux on a CD son't you understand?
The reason for giving the CDs out was to give the timid a working Linux distro that did not "invade or damage" their MS system.
Knoppix is the perfect tool for demonstrating the power of Linux without the FUD of dual booting, repartitioning, etc etc that frightens the uninitiated.
I carry a CD with me to night classes. I demo linux in the computer lab, freaking out the support people the first time I had linux pop up on their Secure Win2K machines
Surely thats the implication here - which is just plain wrong.
USD 0.25? Do you mean 25 cents?
I've been buying my blank CDs in spools of 100 at SAMs for about 20 bucks which comes out to about 20 cents per CD. Sure, I have to burn them myself, but with the money saved for the CDs and shipping from Malaysia and pirate (eye patch/peg legged kind) insurance, I could buy a couple extra burners and have them done myself in a couple days.
Bill Gates said you will be able to turn it off and run whatever software you want. Yeah, right. You can see the clear intention in every move Micrsoft makes.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Wake up and smell the bullshit. IT's got nothing to do with any piracy concerns. Microsoft got the duplicator to agree not to make Linux CDs. They want microsoft business a lot more than that want a tiny 500 CD order, so they are glad to play along. They admitted as much, but when it became clear that this would make public a bad and likely illegal business deal they started hiding behind claims that the MS deal was confidential and grabbed the SCO claim (likely at Microsoft's suggestion) as a reason they would not make the CD's. It's only an excuse, not a reason.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
It's ironic that people will go to illegal channels as the most efficient way to get that which is free and legal anyway.
The true irony is that as long as Microsoft doesn't crackdown on the pirates too much, they have a near monopoly on the legitimate and the black markets. But if Microsoft really cracks down on the software pirates, then that pushes the pirates customers to cheap, but legitimate alternatives like Linux.
"Essentially every operating system on Earth" is an overstatement. OpenVMS is based on TOPS-10, TOPS-20 and RSX-11M; it owes nothing to Unix. IBM's OS/360 has roots older than Unix, as does the Burroughs B5000 Master Control Program. I believe CDC also has an operating system that is not derived from Unix.
John Sauter (J_Sauter@Empire.Net)
Well, at least it was funny Flamebait... :D
Meep.
Okay... I can see that if you *ARE* Pepsi then you don't go around advertisng Coke, but if you're a third party agency that advertises whatever your clients pay for, why can't you advertise for both products? As a third party, you have no vested interest in the success of one over the other, so any claim of being unfair couldn't be substantiated.
This claim smells almost as fishy as SCO's own claim.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
It's the company address to http://www.microsoft.com/nz and Brett Robers.
David is the victim here. He's had to refuse work for fear of M$. We can imagine they threatened to remove all bussiness from them as well as hit him with a lawsuit if he did not carefully read the provided script. It takes extraordinary character to stand up to a threat like that and we should not fault David for not sacrficing everything he owns.
I imagine David's inbox is going to be crushed by a bunch of M$ paid trolls anyway. Making other people look bad is just another part of Microsoft's advertising budget. I don't put it past M$, famous for astroturf.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
That's ture, Software Images has been forced to reject legitimate work and damage their reputation.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Posting as AC from work, but you know who I am
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO
I play Quake, Unreal Tournament, America's Army, etc. on Linux. Can't think of any better games that I'd want to play on Linux -- nor any that I can't.
Agreed! I just got GTA3 Vice City yesterday. It installs and runs under Linux no problem, using WineX 3.1!
"I play Quake, Unreal Tournament, America's Army, etc. on Linux. Can't think of any better games that I'd want to play on Linux -- nor any that I can't."
It'd devastate your argument if you tried to think of better games you'd want to play on Linux.
You're only kidding yourself.
"Derp de derp."
First: Setup network installation servers and perform as many installs as you can via ethernet.
Second, try to install the machines that HAVE cd burners first, then use those machines to burn cds for the machines that cant be installed via the network.
Third, call a competitor for the company you are having problems with and give them an opportunity to gain some ground on their rival.
Welcome the challenge and have fun with it. The more you let these fools drag you down, the more you let them win. They don't deserve to win.
This is +5 insightful??! Microsoft started in a college dorm room......
If you want to talk about the start of Microsoft, tell the full story. Bill started it, not in his dorm room, but by using an emulator for an 8080 at Harvard. He didn't even have an 8080 when they did the first basic interperator, it ran on an emulator on a Harvard school computer. Bill was caught doing this, and called to task for it. Seems it was illegal for him to be using the school computer for this private, business project! He was reportedly given the choice of stopping this improper use of Harvard's computer or leaving school, he elected to leave school.
So Microsoft was started with an illegal act and has continued the tradition to this day. Lots of other good parts to the story too, like basic being released only on hardware memory boards that never did work. But if you're going to call Bill a businessman, be sure to add a phrase like "just like the Columbian drug lords or Al Capone".
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
or slackware! (yes, gang up on the newbie with distribution-wars ...)
I/O access to the CMOS clock is slow. The support of both old and new processors does not imply instability.
... ?
;)
This so called "legacy" support exists in all PCs. Like your ugly PC with an 8042 in it driving your ugly dumb keyboard. Apples also have legacy.
Nobody really understands what you are arguing about. Are you for some OS in particular over Linux? Windows, MacOS X, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, Solaris, Irix,
As a person who uses 5 of those operating systems on a daily basis I have to say that all operating systems pretty much suck.
ps- NetBSD runs a lot better on a wrist watch than Linux anyways.
pps- which VM? Hrm. well normally you can't pick one and end up with either the slow one or the one that crashes all the time. Sometimes you end up with one that does both, that's always fun too. If you didn't try running more than 1 process it wouldn't really matter anyways, so that's probably your fault.
My new motherboard only works with Windows XP. According to the sticker on it and the sales guy at Fry's. Apparently they keep getting them returned because people didn't realize that it wouldn't work with Win2k.
So Windows will run the latest hardware, but it helps if you keep dropping $200 or whatever it is for a new version of windows everytime you upgrade.
(yes. Linux, NetBSD and FreeBSD will run on it. didn't try OpenBSD).
--
I'm not some open source zealot, I hate Windows because it's a waste of my time.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
I've got Mandrake 9.1 running beside Windows2K Pro on an NForce2 MB with a GeForce 4 ti 4400 graphics card. The onboard NIC doesn't work in Linux. The Buolt in sound is iffy. The Nvidia board is not accelerated. Under Windows the NIC works, the sound is fine and the video is accelerated. Out of the flipping box. No bullshit. No recompiling. No problem.
As for games, there are more than will not run that there are that will. And not everyine is a fan of run and shoot games.
Linux has come a LONG way since I first used it back in 1993. It's actually to a point where most people might have a chance of actually getting some use out of it. But be realistic. It's not ready for prime time yet. The hardware support is still lacking (but that's not really Linux' fault, that's just the way it is), the availability of games is still overly limited (again, not Linux's fault, but it is still true) and it's just not fiully baked yet.
Linux may be fine FOR YOU, but it's not for everyone. Quake, UT, AA and Tux Racer may be all the games you need, but not everyone likes such a limited selection.
You blind elitism is doing more to harm Linux than it is to help it.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
Thank you very much. I'm going to another shop becouse you want me to pay for something I'm not going to use.
We are clients. If a shop receives a pair of clients that refuse to buy a full PC becouse of their M$ policy they may start to think about it.
This is the power of free market.
I like solitaire, sokobon, tetris, nethack, rogue, angband and moria. All run perfectly fine on teletype hobbists OSes.
Neverwinter Nights runs on Linux and FreeBSD just fine. I play it almost every weekend.
Notice I don't play it during the week because I am one of those types of people who has a job and does that instead of worring about what games my computer can play.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
"Neverwinter Nights runs on Linux and FreeBSD just fine. I play it almost every weekend."
I'm glad you found a game you like.
"Notice I don't play it during the week because I am one of those types of people who has a job and does that instead of worring about what games my computer can play. "
I have a job and I play games in the evening.
"Derp de derp."
You know this to be true. Everybody does. Any argument that Microsoft competed on the quality of their products is absolute bunk. Any quality is due to them hiring good people, but guess what, the alternative monopoly would have hired those same people!
Knoppix already is debian. He can use debootstrap to install debian from the Knoppix cd.
Notice I don't play it during the week because I am one of those types of people who has a job and does that instead of worring about what games my computer can play.
So, instead, at 10am on a weekday, you're posting on slashdot about what games you play?
Ouch.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
So, next time if you wanna make CDs, or you have a rush job and still want to have high quality CDs made, give Malaysia a call.
OK what is their phone number?
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face, it's just a goddamned piece of paper!" - George W. Bush Nov. 2005
He inherited his empire from IBM. Aside from the incredible luck (read your history) of getting the original IBM contract, and his even more incredible luck at being left in the cat-bird seat when IBM's monopoly began to bust apart at the seams (which is really just an extension of that first piece of luck), Billy has shown no more than fair-to-middlin' business acumen.
Oh, and he also inherited the wherewithal to start up a successful business from his parents. This is not a case of "successful hacker builds gigantic company from nothing", this is a case of "rich kid with all the right contacts leverages money and contacts into even more money."
I don't think Billy can outsmart me with both hands tied behind his back -- certainly not in my area of expertise (software development). In business acumen, I'm sure he has me beat, because that's not my field, but can he outsmart your average businessman? I seriously doubt it. He didn't show any amazing ability to defeat his opponents until he already had that monopoly in place (thanks to IBM).
Of course, underestimating the power of his monopoly, and or his ruthlessness (which is pretty fair-to-middlin' as far as business ruthlessness is concerned, but is backed by that good ol' monopoly) is a pretty quick road to disaster, but lets not give him more credit than he actually deserves. Down that road lies fear and paralysis, which is just as sure a route to defeat.
RTFM ya lame newbie!
:D
Just helping to ease your transition
.. you can have the standard mouse features with the windows driver, or some of the advanced features, but not all of them, with the manufacturers drivers. Some Choice.
This is with a Logitech cordless mx700, under Win2k or XP.
It works perfectly well with Win98, which, as soon as I get my drives backed up, I'll be reinstalling.
I like windows and dos, but not the restrictive new flavors.
Truth isn't Truth - Guliani
While I do not deny that Gates and Allen were very lucky to get the original IBM contract, they had to be very smart to beat the competition in the GUI arena during Windows early years. They had some luck there (when Apple, for instance, refused to port their OS to the Intel platform, a move that would probably have left us with Apple at the top). Before v 3.1, Windows could barely run two instances of its own clock at the same time and there were worthy players (GEM, for instance, or the text-based DeskView).
In the development area, Borland and Watcom were the two companies developers cared about. While Visual Basic was an instant hit, its original crippled enviroment couldn't be used for serious development. With Visual C++ Microsoft managed to turn the wind around once again.
As for being "a rich kid with contacts", there are those everywhere. It garantees nothing past the first couple of opportunies. People will see you because they know your Dad, but they will only keep turning to you if you can prove you are good.
But, please, don't misundertand me. I am no BillG fan, I just think one can't really dismiss his intelligence just because one does not like how he uses it (as the original poster did).
+6421 626 361 or 006421 626 361,
If you phoned or SMS'ed, let us know.
I'm not trolling by saying this, but MAME has all the games I'd ever want to play :)
"You're getting brutal, Sark. Brutal and needlessly sadistic."
"Thank you, Master Control"
-Sark and the MCP
All you have to do is profess a belief in a "higher power." Many people get away without even doing this, but if you make a point of refusing to profess that belief, they may kick you out. Other than that, they don't actually go around trying to make sure you really do believe in God.
It's still kind of a silly rule, but it's promoted by some conservative elements within the organization who feel that being religious is a necessary component of being a good person.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
"I'm not trolling by saying this, but MAME has all the games I'd ever want to play :)"
;)
I don't think he had you in mind. I think he's referring to the gamer who wants new games every so often. I fit into that category, and I think Linux would be a ridiculous OS to have for that. The main reason being that Windows not only gets the good stuff, but it also gets the stuff a lot sooner than Linux does.
Instead of getting a system and waiting for stuff to trickle down to me, I found the games I want and picked the system that plays those. So I have a Windows PC and a GameCube. Linux might be on the radar if it didn't get hand-me-downs.
On the other hand, there are people who find games to be a secondary priority. Linux is probably fine for them. Heck MAME alone (like you said) should be good for them. I do agree with NG, though, that people who are reserved about switching to Linux because of games are going to be disappointed.
If you'd stated the opposite, you'd be accused of being a troll and astroturfer. Funny how things work, innit?
I'll try the opposite.
One problem... where can I download a version of Windows that runs off a CD so I can see what all the fuss is about?
".. the only time M$ wouldn't piss all over you is if you were on fire."
....Oh sorry you guys are EMU/wine freaks not Ostriches.
Only if you work for MS?
Or maybe.... they will piss all over you if you are a competitor or a hardware partner that tries to innovate without MS approval and a lions share piece of the action!
Firewire, usb (which they got anyway with enough money grease), fixed ram chip based hard drives on a pci or ide slot, the original windowing software that they couldn't clone fast enough but could buy for a pittance, the good ideas that are open source like a spread sheet, and proprietary win modems, printers, chips, etc,etc,etc........the system utilities they tried to clone, compression software they needed virgins to write, etc,etc.... The very PC itself with the aid of Compact.
MS is a corporate/intellectual property side stepping or financial raiding organisation, not a software firm. History will be blinded to the truth because everybody loves a winner. There is no way the moral high-ground of Linux and Gnu can stop them, because of their rediculous wealth and American Government/lobby connected control. So give in, learn to love MS and your PC. Millions swear it is the greatest thing since sliced bannock, and will defend MS to the end.
How to stop worrying and love the PC, someone should write it!
Quit trying to find a reason to believe. Linux for business is a dead starter, and Bsd has already been buried. Businesses have been blind-sided and cannot get away from the MS office/windows addiction/costs even if they try.
Most simple minded MS word users crindge at the thought of learning anything new and think that MS office is God come to them on their office PC.
They are taught to think that in private business sponsored MS, IT schools. Here in British Columbia you cannot even find a College that teaches anything other than MS approved office software training!
Linux install fests are no threat to Goliath, David with a little rock in the right place, was a different matter.
What Linux needs is a killer PC that it runs instantly without a frigging DRIVE C TO BOOT FROM.
Cheap RAM CHIP based hard drives could have done exactly this. The manipulation of the hardware, bios chip and ram market by Goliath is the real crime! Get your heads out of the sand, NewZealanders
OH THE SHAME I fell off the wagon and use sigs again!
The Typing Of The Dead, Worms Armageddon, Diablo 2.... These are not Linux native, but you might be able to get them to work on an emulator.
-]Phreak Out[-
This is a very important point - Linux is seen by many outside the US as the only potential alternative to American domination of a strategic technology area.
[~]% telnet linuxforums.co.nz 80
Trying 202.49.94.189...
Connected to server.02net.co.nz.
Escape character is '^]'
To: chris.due@softwareimages.com
Cc: logan.jay@softwareimages.com, cristian.giurgiu@softwareimages.com,
rudy.clavel@softwareimages.com
Subject: Refusal of Linux CD Order
Dear Chris,
I have just read with dismay the Slashdot and NZ Herald stories regarding your refusal to copy CD images of the Linux operating system for use at an
upcoming Linux Installfest to be held in New Zealand.
I understand that this refusal is due to a deal that your organisation has with Microsoft Corporation, your unfounded protestations of copyright infringement concerning Linux not withstanding.
I believe that you are fully within your rights to make such a deal, sordid though I believe it to be, and to refuse work orders from your customers as you see fit.
Like many others however, I dislike your decision and chose not to use your services or buy your products until such time as your decision is reversed and you make adequate restitution to the Open Source community.
Further, I am in the process of contacting every person I can think of who might be in a position to do business with you to explain my decision, in the hope that they also may chose to do business with one of your competitors.
I hope that the loss of business that results, along with the terrible press you have been getting encourages you to rethink your decision.
Please withold any platitudes regarding the SCO Group suit against IBM, they are neither relevant to your decision or in themselves have any basis in fact.
Regards,
Hi Bill. Missed you at the meeting today. Nice interview in USA Today, you really let Ol' Big Blue have it! Weird, I've never seen you post to Slashdot before. That was great! :-) This is exactly what Jim was talking to Balmer about, before, well, you know.
:-( The cleaning crew was *still there* when I left for lunch. I heard the pants were a total loss. Anyway, don't let the "Open Sores" :-) thing get to you. You should see some of the things coming out of R&D! The next version of "NT" is *SO* integrated that the whole thing loads up in a single Visual Basic project. And the beauty part is that we used a Mac OS X box to do it! They ship with a CCT (Code Convergence Tool) called /bin/cat that allowed us to combine all of the source files into One Big .bas file. It was so cool. It went something like: /bin/cat kernel32.bas hal.bas comctl.bas ie6.bas palladium.bas cia_code.bas > nt_2004.bas
:-) Well, I have to get back to work. Steve'll be back any minute. He's started keeping a change in his car 'cause he was sick of driving all the way home every time. Talk at ya later.
Poor Steve. He really thought it was gas.
Hehe, we'll have to "license" the code to that tool.
Marcus Ellington
Director of Software "Acquisitions"
Microsoft
PS, maybe we should remove the quotes around "Acquisitions" in my title. Seems a little blatant...
/. finds me to be 20% Troll, 80% Funny
Yes, but does the Neverwinter Nights expansion pack -- Shadows of Undrentide work on Linux or FreeBSD (e.g. is 1.30 patch available yet).
I used up all my sick days, so I'm calling in dead.
A lot of the programs in windows aren't owned in whole by Microsoft. Several of the utilities for example are not made inhouse, and the IP doesn't belong to Microsoft to do as it will.
;)
It doesn't mean anything. Here's horrible analogy: If you had to prove everything in your car at any moment is in fact yours, then I bet you'd be in trouble -- no recipts for your laptop, bag, and your old tennis shoes? Our these pictures yours in your wallet - your not in them!
When every cd printing house requires such detailed proof they'd go out of bussiness fast.
I play Quake, Unreal Tournament, America's Army, etc. on Linux. Can't think of any better games that I'd want to play on Linux -- nor any that I can't.
When I can play 'Shogun: Total War' under Linux, that Winders partition is GONE DADDY GONE.
>>
I am the director, and this is my movie
I challenge you to name a better game!
It has been a diffcult time recently, with various recent Linux issues creating problems for us in the NZOSS from a public relations point of view. Our concern when reporting the issue we had with Software Images to the NZ Herald was that the problem of exclusivity agreements could become widespread, and that this would restrict our ability to compete.
However, as a result of this story Software Images has received threats and abusive email to such an extent that they will probably report this to the NZ Police. And to be clear, I support this 100%. I and the society have been professional and polite in our dealings with Software Images, and the same is true in return.
It is simply not acceptable for people to be making threats to companies and their employees. I am deeply upset that people would take it on themselves to write abusive and threatening emails, and abuse people by phone.
Its not a good look for open source in New Zealand, but more importantly its JUST WRONG! These abusive emails were not appreciated by the NZOSS.
To be clear I am not refering to people who communicate respectfully and intelligently about the issues. Being passionate about open source is good. However, the abuse I am talking about stepped way over the line.
Regards,
Peter Harrison
NZOSS
Why are we punished for replying, thoughtfully, to an existing article? If you are not happy with the topic, mod down the parent. If any meta-moderators are reading this, I hope you get on the case. Thanks!
Let me start by saying that I've got Linux in my blood. I only use Windows at work, cuz I have to.
But I completely agree with the Pepsi/Coke argument. If you were a company making your living by selling/servicing Microsoft products, would you jeapordise that for a measly order to copy 500 CD's?
Business relationships are built on much more than just contractual agreements.
How would you like it if RedHat started selling Windows XP on its website?
As a Linux community we've always approached Linux with passion. For everyone else trying to make a living it's about numbers and Linux numbers don't add up.
Yes. Most of the servers require 1.30 right now. You can run 1.30 with the original data (no expansion) or with the new data packs (expansion pack).
ps- go on "Realm of the Dead"/Heaven vs. Hell and maybe I'll see you.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/os/story/0,20000
Yep, I'd missed this detail - - apologies to Boies, et.al. Doesn't change my opinion of Boies' involvement - - just means he'd like an even bigger take if SCO's bullsh*t case pans out.
It's only funny until someone gets hurt. Then, it's hilarious.
Do they have a contract with MS, or a retainer?
Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.