Following Bill Gates' Linux Attack Money

UnderScan writes "After researching this material for about three years, Tom Adelstein tracks Microsoft's anti-Linux lobbying money: "Microsoft has unparalleled influence throughout the Federal government. On the cover of a recent edition of VarBusiness Magazine dated June 26, 2005 the editors presented a large headline which read: 'It's A Microsoft World. Five years after running afoul of the Feds, Microsoft is as powerful as ever. Pushing a platform instead of products could make it stronger still. Why nothing seems to stop it.'""

Comments

Hmmmm

[Vonotar82]

It's only a matter of time before MicrSoft seceeds from the Union, forming a technocracy that will rule the internet and unleash Clippy v2.0, the Terminator edition. Unstoppable, blob-like, indefatigable, only Mr. Peabody and the Way Back machine can stop it now. May the Gods have mercy on our souls.

monkey!

[Paul Rose]

who else read as 'attack monkey' ?

Re:monkey!

[zakkie]

We're more used to it being referred to by its name: Steve Ballmer... ;-)

sure

[nomadic]

Microsoft has unparalleled influence throughout the Federal government.

Oh puh-lease. There are plenty of companies with that kind of clout; there are plenty with a hell of a lot more. Compared to Halliburton or McDonnell-Douglas or Boeing, Microsoft is strictly amateur hour.

Re:I don't get it

[VolciMaster]

Before you start complaining here about anything, maybe you should have asked yourself, what do I want to be doing with my computer? I only boot Windows to play a few games I like. Everything else I do under Linux - with absolutely no problems. I can log into my router - with konqueror or firefox - play video and music files without skipping, and use all of my nVidia graphics card's available resolution (well, not quite all, but monitor won't support the max the card will).

If your DSL connection is running into your router, there's no reason for your provider to have stated that 'linux is not supported'.

And I hate to break this to you also, but I've owned a couple machines (with nothing wierd in them) that only Linux would install and boot up. My parents' last computer wouldn't run Win95, 98, or NT. But Mandrake 6.1 installed onto it fine, found all the hardware (including the unusual printer they have), and ran fine. (It was a 400Mhz K6-II with 256M RAM.)

I've set up Linux for a bunch of 'real average Jane' students, and they don't even notice a difference. After getting one set up with Mandrake, Firefox, and GAIM, her roommate came in and asked "oh, is that a new version of AIM?" not "what happened to windows?".

My roommate MS work centered around using Linux machines with video capture cards, so I don't know what you were trying to do that you couldn't. the All In Wonder cards from ATI are pretty popular, and have extensive driver support.

So, I'm calling complete bull on you. I'm not an ultra fanatical linux geek, either. I just use it, and it works. It takes no longer to boot than XP, and has far more useful application to me (lack of viruses, ease of ssh access to other machines, higher granular control over individual resources) than Windows ever has.

Re:Microsoft

[nanop]

Other's already have.
See Jeffrey Vernon Merkey's court complaint against, well... everyone.
An excerpt from the "FACTS COMMON TO ALL CAUSES OF ACTION" section:

42. Much of the activities of Linux and OSS have served to create a funneling system allowing sensitive and advanced technology created by computer technology companies in the United States to be illegally exported out of the United States and into the hands of the citizens of other countries.
43. As a result of these activities, a large portion of US technology has been unwittingly placed into the hands of various groups around the world, including Al-Queda, and other groups who sponsor international terrorism.
44. As a result of these activities, a large portion of US technology has been unwittingly placed into the hands of various groups around the world, including radical governments and groups who sponsor and have used the technology in support of the creation of weapons of mass murder and mass destruction designed to murder American Citizens and their families.

Re:I don't get it

[Fiver-]

The GP is a Usenet post from 2003.

Burn.

Re:Amount of contributions

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

I don't mean to discourage the notion that our leaders sell out cheaply, they certainly do. But documented campaign contributions are the tip of this iceberg, dive down below the surface with me.

There are golf trips, and trips to las vegas, or other places this senator needs to check out for him to be able to properly understand Microsoft and the plight of the industry regarding the federal government.

There are the neices and nephews with a different last name, that need a job out of college, that Microsoft hires.

There are the flights on corporate jets. The introductions to other powerful industry people, that both junior and senior senators need.

There's the promise of a cushy job if and when they do retire out of Congress.

The promise of indirect contributions come next election.

And once you consider that the $5000 is more like roughly $100,000 all things considered, and that it only required an hour here, and hour there throughout the year, never interfering with others giving him more or less the same benefits... would you pass over one more free grab at $100,000, when you're already selling out 5 times a day, and #6 won't be all that more difficult?

Make mine +6 Insightful

[IceAgeComing]

"Better yet, you idealists should all just die now. The world has no room for people who strive to make it a better place."

No thanks. At the end of my life, I'd like to not be remembered as a back-stabbing cheat, but as someone who strove to make the world better. And today you're in luck: I can take your ridicule. My heart is full of love.

Re:Microsoft may not be the problem.

[IdleTime]

How2 this is rated as a troll is a mystery. here in the US companies and Special Interest Groups have politicians on their payroll. Any person who don't see that is truly blind.

And to all people who claim I have never been outside USA, I can only say I'm not an American, but come from a Scandinavian country. I have lived in USA since 1999. I've lived in several countries around the wolrd and travelled extensively in East-Europe too, both before and after the fall of communism. Nowhere have I seen politicans so blatantly ignoring the common peoples interest as here in the US while beeing in the pockets of corporations. You can mod me troll as much as you like, but it doesn't change the facts.

Re:Microsoft

[bnenning]

Holy crap. You stopped before it got really good:

46. The beheading and murder of United States Citizens in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and other countries have been videotaped, converted to MPEG and other images for viewing on the public Internet through the use of OSS and Linux software and computer technology developed and purloined by Linux and OSS members and illegally exported from the United States.

This guy makes Darl look like the poster child for mental health.