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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.
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."
Give them the slashdot treatment!
hehe
No empire lasts forever, are the masses at the gates of the castle yet?
No, but the masses have surrounded the castle of Gates!
Forget thrust, drag, lift and weight. Airplanes fly because of money.
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
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
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.
The problem can easily be solved by picking up a few of these CD burners. 500 CDs? No problem!
... 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
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!
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.
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
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!
"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!
"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.
[~]% 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.
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
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.
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.
FUD = Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.
RTFA = Read The Flaming(*) Article.
* There was a bit of a crackle on the line as the person said this word, but I can't think of anything else that would fit.
Je fume. Tu fumes. Nous fûmes!
Fear, uncertainty, and doubt. Companies use it when they have an inferior product to try to scare people away from their competitors. It usually only works on people who don't know the real merits of the products.
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.
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...
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.
>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.
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.
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
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).
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.
-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.
"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.
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
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.
FUD = Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt.
GAMES = God Always Makes Engineers Suffer
This guy making more sense than most people on both sides of this arguement. You should read his last line and think hard on it. Foaming at the mouth Windows Disciples(tm) wear their ignorance like a badge of honor, but by reciprocating you make yourself look pretty silly too. I love Linux, and have a Linux box. Most of my machines run Windows because it does work for what I need, and when I want to play the latest shrinkwrapped game off the shelf or want to stick the latest piece of hardware in my box it works. Sure it has its flaws, most of them are directly to the company that makes it :) Linux has its flaws too, as well as its great strenghts. The absolute freedom to do what you want with the system is its biggest. My grandmother couldnt work with Linux though, but she could use Windows just fine. I can't believe I just supported Windows. Bleh.
Also remember, competition is good. Repeat to yourself, competition is good. It absolutely drives innovation and refinement above anything else in our society.
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!
Ouch.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
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
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,