Slashdot Mirror
Nigerian Government Nixes Microsoft's Mandriva Block
An anonymous reader writes "After trying to bribe a local supplier with a $400,000 marketing contract, Microsoft has still apparently lost out in trying to woo Nigeria's government to use Windows over Linux. Microsoft threw the money at the supplier after it chose Mandriva Linux for 17,000 laptops for school children across Nigeria. The supplier took the bait and agreed to wipe Mandriva off the machines, but now Nigeria's government has stepped in to stop the dirty deal."
Microsoft really did try to Bribe them. That's crazy. I hope this makes the mainstream media.
In Soviet Nigeria, the government stops YOU from taking bribes!
I'm waiting for a "-1 somepeoplejustshouldn'tgetmodprivileges" meta-moderation.
You know you're corrupt when the government of Nigeria steps in to block your shady deal.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
It shouldn't be suprising that the folks who actually want to use them would want to keep the tried and tested localised Mandriva over the untested XP that costs more and would cripple the system. Hopefully they will all end up this way, but I don't blame them for accepting the MS bounty.
I wished they pay me to use Windows...
Libertarian Leaning Political Discussion Forum.
And I thought they successfully bribed the government. :)
Heh, apparently there are still honest people in there!
Now just let's hope Mandriva doesn't screw it and their machines actually work
There goes 400k for bad publicity for M$.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
Har har har har ^_^
cough wheeze
That Microsoft didn't even try to push their new OS.
Why is it so hard to only have politicians for a few years, then have them go away?
My name is Stephen Ballmer I am the Chair Executive of William Gates of Redmond in the United State of America. I am contacting you with regard to transfer of a huge sum of laptops from the OLPC project. Though I know that a transaction of this magnitude will make any one apprehensive and worried, but I am assuring you that everything has been taken care off, and all will be well at the end of the day. I decided to contact you due to the urgency of this transaction.
Good thing is is not Unix... It is Linux.
:)
To be realistice Windows 2000 and Up have been rather stable reliable systems... So if you were a spammer you will be able to get out just as many spams with windows as you would with Linux or Unix. Secondly Linux can be downloaded for free so if windows sucked that bad they will use Linux.
It is not like we are giving them Macs... [Ducks]
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
From the stories before on this I thought Nigerias Government WERE the suppliers? Was this not known that they were separate until now or was it just overlooked for the purpose of taking a swing at Nigerias government?
Glad to know that MS got caught though, even without Francis having to use the 'B' word
I'm dying to hear what do those people that tried to defend M$ on the last story about this subject have to say. And you also owe apologies to Mandriva CEO, too...
Just an hour back there was this story about MSFT including some game vendor's malformed copy protection driver for six year into every damn computer in the world. What percentage of them played that software? Why a corporate server that might end up in a blade rack without even have a dedicated monitor or mouse got this driver? Why are the corporations not demanding full disclosure of what dlls are needed and what are not? Why isn't there a third party service that will advice corporations which components of Windows could be safely removed by looking at the company policies and use patterns?
As long as the customers accept everything dished out by MSFT patiently, there is nothing we can do to make it change. Education of the customers is the most important thing if we are going to rescue computing from this monoculture.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
How dare they bribe a non-gov official! But seriously, I'd love to see Penguins take over the world.
Following uprising in Nigeria, many personal computers reluctantly have been dressed in mandriva.
We want more to use your Widows operating of system and wish to purchase license to the order of $10'000'000
Require though a proof of sample please send license and insurance for delivery $400'000 which will be given back when order is laid.
Sincere regards
[Bah, the lame(ness) filter will not allow me to post in all caps]
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/11/09/mandriva-steals-nigerian
Various sources point out that TDC took $400,000 to wipe the machines and put XP on them. The question is; who is paying for the XP licenses. Also, who would pay for the licenses for the other software (eg. Office) that it would take to make the computers useful?
Were TDC going to supply the computers and than tell the Nigerian government: "BTW, the software is extra."? The mind boggles.
See what happens when you cheap out? A few million bucks in the Swiss bank accounts of some high government officials would, I'm sure, have smoothed the shiny golden road to a stunning African Vista.
I've calculated my velocity with such exquisite precision that I have no idea where I am.
Nigeria's government has stepped in to stop the dirty deal.
I am not a lawyer, in Nigeria or anywhere else, but is this deal really "dirty"?
The article tells us little:
"After public statements from Mandriva officials implied the marketing deal is legally questionable, Microsoft said last week that it complies with international law and the law of the countries in which it operates."
Mandriva can "imply" that the deal is "legally questionable", but this tells us nearly nothing about the actual legal situation.
Setting aside reflexive Microsoft-bashing, this may be a case of business as usual, legitimately within the scope of the law.
Until someone clarifies the matter by citing actual law, "dirty" seems like an overstatement to me.
-kgj
-kgj
I'm pretty sure they are calling it a dirty deal because of the BRIBERY not the actual marketing side *rolleyes*
It's a leather thing
...a measely $23.50 per license.
Hard to justify $250-$500 upgrade cost of Vista using those numbers.
I learned that Mandriva is a French outfit. So, perhaps a handiwork of Sarkozy?
Now that the dirty deal is uncovered, the first question is:
"If this were done in the US, would it be considered illegal?"
The next question would be:
"If yes, then should Microsoft be prosecuted?"
Further:
"If not, then why not?"
And for all the Microsoft apologists:
"Is this sort of behavior acceptable from your favorite software vendor/publisher/distributor, business partner? And if so, why is it acceptable? If not, please elaborate?"
The Nigerian officials are just upset the supplier is the one being bribed and not them :)
Nigeria makes a claim that someone else is corrupt, and people believe them?
/., a well known MS bashing place, that bashes first and ignores the truth,then this should be expected.
Well, since this is
The way it works is that the people in Nigeria send you money. I'm waiting on my 5% commission for moving $48,000,000,000 right now!
Ever since the Lockheed bribery scandal, its been illegal for US citizens or corporations to bribe anyone, anywhere in the world, same as its illegal for them to engage in pedophilia abroad.
So, how much $$$ (campaign contributions - the only "legal" bribe) Microsoft is going to spend to "make this go away"?
Kevin Smith on Prince
Seriously, you have a very good point. That is the way business is done in some third world countries. They don't consider it wrong. Anyone with power expects to be paid, much like waitresses expect to be tipped here.
Microsoft apparently failed to pay all of the right people.
No wonder our economy is almost in doldrums. Can we sue Microsoft in any court of law? The other day, a senator from the south was fighting corruption charges.
To those Africans and poor nations of the world that I was prejudiced about, I say: "I am sorry," since I now realize that the "cancer" of corruption is alive and well in societies that are known to be well off economically.
Shame on you Microsoft!
No "bribery" here, just two companies making an agreement. Sure, Microsoft's motivation is to move more software over a competitor, but why is that a problem? If Microsoft wants to discount its software or given the company some other benefit, then whatever.
It's called "dumping", and in the U.S., is illegal when conducted by a monopolist. It also tend to violate a variety of world trade rules.
Furthermore, even if one can construe a scenario where it is legal (international run around the law?), it is extremely underhanded and a waste of government resources (they'd be paying for Windows and Linux).
As such, here are the issues:
1. It's probably illegal, and should be, but I'm not a lawyer.
2. Even if its not illegal, its shady business. And it demonstrates more and more than no sane company should get into bed with Microsoft, because Microsoft will do anything and everything to screw you.
WhiteWolf666 an exBush supporter. All you new-school,compassionate,save the children Republicans can rot in hell
"'We are sticking with that platform,' said the official, who would not give his name.
The organisation reserves the right to choose whichever platform is best for Nigerian students, which could also include Microsoft's software in the future, said the official."
Does anyone else get the impression that's code for: "$400,000 would go a long way in convincing me that Microsoft's software is best for Nigerian students."? Sounds like Microsoft just forgot to include Nigerian officials in on the deal.
I have no idea how this deal was made, but if you got my company a $400.000 marketing deal I'm sure I could see to it that that money comes into my personal possession. Things get more complicated when you have big companies and lawyers, but when you pay a company to do something it is still a bribe, perhaps not always legally but morally.
Ummmm
The company shipping the laptops took money to wipe out Mandriva and ship with Windows.
So, I have a contract with you to buy 10000 widgets painted in red Du Point paint. And, 3m pays you money to paint them in a 3m yellow. Is that OK?
This isn't a "dirty" deal in what way?? It's doing an end run around the people they have a contract with. They did not have a contract with Microsoft, and Microsoft did not have standing to alter the terms of the contract.
I would call this dirty. Hell, I'd call it fraud.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Man, people these days...
I know that there is common misunderstanding and false assumption that bribery is only possible in government level. No, in business world it happens even more frequently and it IS illegal (Even if some business people would like to think otherwise). I won't get into details how much laws Microsoft broke with doing this, but please, people, keep that in mind - business or government level, such actions are illegal and can get your sorry ass to the courtroom in any country.
user@ubuntubox:~$ stfu This server is going down for shutdown NOW!
As much as I hate to be one to cast doubt on how dirty this deal really is, or (gasp) defend MS on slashdot... is bribery really all that wrong? See here a classic defense of bribery:
http://www.mises.org/rothbard/ethics/seventeen.asp
Of course, as far as I'm concerned, MS wouldn't exist without the protection of the US Government's bogus patent system. I would probably worry more about that than bribery.
Although the article is not very precise about the source of the information, to me it's more important to watch how the 2 companies will handle this case. Beyong the real value of the OSes, more importantly business ethics is at stake here and if I was the big player I would prefer to lose this deal rather than having an endless battle and debate and possibly even worse about the way this deal was finally won. If you were one of the 2 parties, what would be your winning crisis management strategy ? --------- By Anonymous Hero : anonymous writers from totalitarian countries are nothing like cowards.
In the United States, the legal way for companies to influence government authorities with indirect or implied monetary incentive is called "Lobbying".
>> To be realistice Windows 2000 and Up have been rather stable reliable systems...
That's the funniest thing I've heard all day.
>> So if you were a spammer you will be able to get out just as many spams with windows as you would with Linux or Unix
Really? I bet a $500 machine w/ gentoo or BSD that I compile can smoke any commercial Exchange server that costs lest than $20k
I'd put 5k on it if you want.
Yes, this is a P.R. disaster in the making, in more ways than one.
The best way to predict the future is to create it. - Peter Drucker.
These countries building their technologies need to try at least to understand the negative impact of vendor lock in. With open source the road is full bright and open, like a true vista. With windows you condemn your nation to Microsoft's spyware. (As Vista has 47 programs that collect information about you and send it back to Microsoft, not counting the WGA/WGN. This process is essentially the equivalent of say having Walmart coming to your home on any given Sunday morning asking to search your belongings to ensure that those items in your home that come from Walmart are legally purchased, just because you are a shopper at Walmart. Because Microsoft does it with hidden programs (or hidden cameras) makes no difference. You wouldn't allow Walmart to place hidden cameras in your home).
We all know about the vendor lock ins such as DirectX which keep you playing on and paying for Windows. With true OpenGL development you could find games on a number of platforms. There are many more lock in technologies and DRM was Microsoft's most important one until everyone revolted over it. It is still their number one hope to lock you into the Windows platform.
So, let's hope that Nigeria has the experienced personnel in the right positions of influence capable of understanding what is happening to ensure that it doesn't happen there. If so, let's hope other regional governments learn from the negatives of vendor lock in and the sometimes illegal influences Microsoft exerts.
90% of all people can benefit from Linux in that it does what those people need it to do, day in and day out. It is solid, safe, trusted, proven, performs very well, and is attractive. Most of the popular distros have taken the approach of ease of use for the customer, the development cycle for open source is superior to the closed source development cycle. The access to the programming code is also an incredible benefit unavailable (likely never will be available) to the government and the peoples of the world, whereas with open source if there's a conflict bug you can look at both project's code and resolve your issue yourself (as a programmer for some group).
Hopefully we'll see that other governments understand that it is important to put measures into place that secure them from the influences and lock ins created by using Microsoft products.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
I hate to contradict my own jokes but...
Imagine that they HAVE paid them 640k instead of 400, and that it was enough... wouldn't that make that old 640k saying finally correct... but since we would not hear about it then we would never know...
Kind of a like tree falling in a forest without anyone there to hear it.
Mind-boggling.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
... as if 17.000 chairs cried in despair and then suddenly were silenced.
In fact, the statement "Microsoft complies with law" is demonstrably false. The courts have spoken.
FYI: While it's nice to see some blow-by-blow news regarding government contracting, it's pretty much this way everywhere in the world.
The GSA and Sun Microsystems are being accused of corruption in the U.S. http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/11/08/iowa-senator-rips-investigation
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Jeez, and they didn't even blink when they wrote the check out to "Father Bukkake".
I bet MS feel like idiots right now for that one...
-- Trinity in high heels carrying a whip: The donimatrix - there is no spoonerism
Microsoft said last week that it complies with international law and the law of the countries in which it operates.
Sheah, right they do.
slashdot AC tags: USantitrust, EUantitrust, chairthrowing, developersdevelopersdevelopers, monkeydance
I for one am very happy to see this stopped! I grew up in a "third world" county (Belize), when my siblings and I joined our parents in the US, I recall one of the first things they did was get us a computer (CoCo 2). I wouldn't be where I am today if they had not (good job and my own little project http://mysettopbox.tv/knoppmyth.html/ ). While I did do some growing up on Windows, it has been almost 9 years since I switched to using Linux exclusively at home. As someone that grew up in a developing nation, I firmly believe there is no better option for it that FLOSS.
Education and technology can level the playing field. Perhaps in the first world, we can afford to argue about the merits of FLOSS vs closed source. However, this isn't the case when you are worried about where your next meal is coming from or if you can afford to vaccinate your child. The Gates Foundation could really show it's altruism by helping to support OLPC or the Classmate PC.
Cecil
When the source is open, the possibilities are endless.
Dear sir: I am the former CEO of a Nigerian IT company. Lately we had been offered a large amount of money by Microsoft Corporation in order to install Microsoft Windows on very cheap laptops, but due to excessive government regulations, the deal has been ruined. Now I have been forced to leave the country, along with a hundred million dollars, that I'm willing to share, provided that...
Thank you, anonymous moderator...
I was aiming at funny, with light chances of insightful, but you just read the title and marked it as offtopic.
Thank you, you humourless git.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Big corporations bribing government officials, i've seen this a million times, i'm brazilian... Just recently it was Cisco in Brazil http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/10/16/2334253 and now MS in Nigeria. I've only seen people been arrested or fired, couldn't the corporation be fined or something? Apart from theirs reputation, the corporation itself in the end is clean to continue doing its dirty business...
I must admit that I thought corruption was a problem of the 3rd world alone. But now, we see that a [major] US corporation was perpetuating corruption.
Finally got tired of living under a rock, huh?
So what is going to happen to all of the money?
Fortunately, I happen to have a contact at the Technology Support Centre who has offered to cut me in for a 40% share if I can help him get the money out of Nigeria. He contacted me personally on this highly confidential financial transaction after my having been recommended by an associate in confidence of my ability and reliability...
I don't think we're actually disagreeing, just having a difference of opinion on the semantics. Either way the system is screwey
It's a leather thing
Depends on your country, and sometimes (not this time) it's hard to tell what is a bribe.
In some countries it is rude if you don't take a gift, in others it is rude if you don't give a gift.
Gifts are generally a reflection of personal wealth. So a billionaire from one of these countries might give a gift worth many thousands of dollars, and not expect any special treatment in return.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Bribery?? What exactly does that even mean in a business context? If I sell auto-windows and I offer you a free dinner at some restaurant if you use my service, is that "bribery"? When Coke offers a company advertising dollars and a discount to carry only Coca Cola products, is that "bribery"? The idea is ridiculous. Unless MS broker Nigerian law, it's not bribery.
As for your "contract" - was Du Pont paid? If so, and nothing in the contract states that the widgets can't be _repainted_, then it's perfectly fine. You seem to have some kind of issue with consenting business entities doing business. If Microsoft is willing to cut them a deal or even give them money because they have some business interest in MS Windows being on those machines, then that's their problem. The whole outrage over this is just completely ridiculous and makes no rational sense. In the end, the government said "no" to the deal and it's over with.
That wouldn't be bribery according to the law but that does smack of unethical use of marketshare power
It's a leather thing
Why is the system screwy? Microsoft saw a business value in those machines running Windows XP. They made an offer to the end-user which was obviously, at first glance, beneficial enough to be accepted. In the end, the government didn't agree and the deal was refused. Who exactly, again, did anything wrong here?
Nonsense. There's absolutely nothing unethical about using marketshare power unless you have government granted control over a physically limited resource. Business ethics say nothing about being "fair" to your opponents. Only "fair" to your customers. If you give them what they paid for and both parties are happy, there's nothing wrong with it. The whole ridiculous, and easily proved false idea that MS has a monopoly was dreamed up by their competitors and lapped up by corrupt politicians with distinct geographical associations to said competitors.
François, from Mandriva
Says it all.
http://blog.mandriva.com/2007/10/31/an-open-letter-to-steve-ballmer/
Why does MS insist on exhibiting NO CLASS?
Duck Amuck?
Ignore them and hopefully they'll go away.
(blush - is MY BIAS showing - blush, bats eyelashes to looney tunes soundtrack)
http://www.sarakadee.com/feature/2002/12/images/animate_02.jpg
http://content.answers.com/main/content/wp/en/7/7c/Looney_Tunes.png
~hylas
So you will not mind if your medication inside the pill capsule is changed to something other that what you thought you were getting.
Undetectable Steganography? Yep, there's an app fo
No, but your victim doesn't personally control other people's money as well. If they give the Nigerian Government a rebate or gift to convince them to buy windows, that's not bribery. If they give a key Nigerian official gifts or rebates to convince them to exercise the Nigerian government's authority to buy windows, that's a bribe.
Not only is it unethical, it's also less costly. You can see how much cheaper it is to influence one person than to influence an entire country. 1% discount might not seem like much, but if 1% of the cost of 100,000 PCs were directed to a single person...
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Why is this even a story? Oh, because it's Microsoft trying to outcompete a Linux supplier, therefore, it's intrinsically evil.
Evil, NO. Unethical, YES. No one likes a cheater.
What is your definition of competition? A kickback or bribe includes any item intended to improperly obtain favorable treatment. Why didn't Microsoft just lower the per unit license cost to match Mandrakes? Are you saying that on a level playing field, Windows looses to Linux?
From the article:
Mba-Uzoukwu wrote that Microsoft is still negotiating an agreement that would give TSC US$400,000 (£190,323) for marketing activities around the Classmate PCs when those computers are converted to Windows.
Where have I heard this before? Oh Yeah, the anti-trust hearing:
In addition, Plaintiffs are concerned that there is some confusion among OEMs relating to the application of certain portions of the MDA to OEM advertisements for computers containing non-Microsoft operating systems. Pursuant to the MDA, Microsoft provides marketing funds -- in the form of discounts on the price the OEM pays for each copy of Windows -- to OEMs whose print advertisements and websites promote Microsoft's operating systems in a manner specified by Microsoft.
http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/f205700/205751.htm
Enjoy,
It's just the normal noises in here.
Let me make an analogy. You enter into a contract with a toothpaste company to purchase toothpaste in bulk, but the local dog shit dealer wants you to brush your teeth with dog shit. So he pays your delivery man to squeeze out the tubes of toothpaste and fill them with dog shit. This is legal, moral or ethical HOW, exactly?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
And you have..evidence they gave a Nigerian official gifts or rebates? Of course not. You just used a strawman. "In all cases, including self defense, killing is wrong. Take for example Ted Bundy who murdered many innocent young women. This, indeed, proves that in all cases killing another human being is wrong."
Bribery is when you offer a personal incentive to someone who is buying on behalf of someone else (ie, with money that doesnt belong to them).
If you offer a free dinner to someone who uses your auto-window service for their own car, then your just sweetening the deal. And someone is free to spend their own money as they see fit, and because its their own money they're more likely to do the research and take the best deal, and it's only them who suffers if they dont.
If someone is in charge of purchasing for a company or even worse, a taxpayer funded entity, they are spending SOMEONE ELSE's money on their behalf. Whoever's money it is wants to get the best deal, and they're paying and trusting someone to get them the best deal. If that person takes a bribe in order to spend more of their employer's money than they needed to, or to obtain an inferior product without a substantial discount, then they are defrauding their employer.
Any sweeteners attached to such a deal should go to the entity that is fronting up the cash, not an employee who's simply doing his job by organising the deal.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Hmm, this whole thing is funny, but let's seriously look at how "business is done" and view this in the light of it.
The there are two reasons that an entity would purchase software for a sizable sum and then later purchase different software to replace it at additional cost are, The software first purchased is fraudulent or unable to perform the function(s) that it was purchased to perform, this one we know is not the case here. Or, the decision maker got bribed, money, stuff, whatever.
Lunches, dinners, floor level tickets to NBA games, luxury boxes at hockey games, Superbowls and Olympic events, tickets that include drinks and food to luxury suites for PGA tournament events, strippers, prostitutes, SWAG, SWAG and more SWAG. How much vendor labeled stuff, provided by the vendors do you have? All of the above I have personally seen or have been informed of by reputable sources (attendees or eyewitnesses), here in the US. So why would it be any different anywhere else? The statement that the "right" people were probably not included in the bribe is probably accurate and we all know it. That is the way the world is, lot's of greedy people who are trying to "get some" for themselves. And legislation has not brought about honesty, just better motivation for hiding dishonesty. My idealism has been corrupted by realism. Get used to it. It's probably not going to change this week.
I agree 200%. If MS is not doing this at home, why should it be allowed to do on a different country? is that the way to bend law?
$400,000. For 17,000 laptops? That's pretty cheap for Microsoft. I don't blame the gov't for throwing them out, trying to bid the price of bribes down like that.
Have gnu, will travel.
Friday morning at 10:00 pdt, I filed a complaint with the Washington State AG.
***
Microsoft is bribing "Technology Support Center (TSC)" a Nigerian computer company with $400,000.00 to install Windows after TSC already bought an operating system. To get around the word "bribe" they are calling it "marketing activities".
***
So if I hire someone to break the law, I'm not guilty? Bribery in the form of paying someone to break a contract is one thing, but this is different. This is like hiring a hit-man, or paying someone to burn down a rival's shop. We're talking paying someone to destroy another person's property.
Why do libertarians always parrot back arguments without understanding them? Can't you guys think for yourselves?
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Wait a minute, you were questioning whether bribery is wrong, then you provided an example which isn't bribery. How is providing a definition and hypothetical example of bribery equivalent to saying that Microsoft actually committed it?
Can you be Even More Awesome?!
Not only is it illegal in business, but taking a bribe often results in you being professionally incompetent.
If you worked for me, and i gave you the task of "Book me the best value business-class flight to australia"...
Let's say the best value would be Qantas, and they would fly me direct to australia business class for $4000...
But you received a bribe from United, who paid you $1000 to buy a ticket from them instead...
Their ticket costs $6000 and has a stopover half way, and thus takes longer.
You would benefit from the $1000 bribe, United would benefit from a sale. I would lose out on my time and $2000, because you used my money to buy me an inferior (slower) service that costs more.
You didn't do your job properly.
You wasted my money for your own personal benefit, you effectively stole from me and gave it to United, in exchange for a cut of it back.
Taking a bribe to spend someone else's money is fraud, and should be prosecuted accordingly. Also whoever actually took the bribe is not doing their job properly regardless of the law, and should be fired.
http://spamdecoy.net - free throwaway anonymous email - avoid spam!
Friday morning at 10:00 pdt, I filed a complaint with the Washington State AG.
***
Microsoft is bribing "Technology Support Center (TSC)" a Nigerian computer company with $400,000.00 to install Windows after TSC already bought an operating system. To get around the word "bribe" they are calling it "marketing activities".
***
You must be the guy who started the whole "IANAL" thing.
I'm sorta tired about the XP bashing.
I've used XP for quite some time now, willingly (I'm too lazy to deal with wine, drivers and the like and I like Portal...) and with exceptions of power outages or certain installs, I've managed uptimes in the 100+ day realm. Current record's 180 that was ruined by an above outage.
Course, the obvious difference between me and a regular user is I use common sense when surfing the net. No fancy animated cursors, no banzai buddy, no new.net shit.
Windows XP, in my personal experience, can be a very stable, reliable operating system. And for me, it just. works. Now if you've got someone doing all the above shit, of course you're going to tank your OS. BUT if they wanted to do all the same crap on a Linux box, I'd bet they'd find a way to tank that too. All boils down to the user.
That in mind, I'm not touching the Exchange comment. I know better.
Microsoft got their asses handed to them by Nigerian scammers? Wow. I guess they forgot that you shouldn't respond to spam.
This is bizarre, particularly considering the history of monopolies in the US. In a monopoly situation, the customer simply has no choice. The market no longer moderates "what's fair" and "what's not fair".
There are other forms of anti-competitive behavior that are also in the "what's not fair" even if consumers may not be aware of it. Price fixing and dumping come to mind.
The perfect market you seem to have in mind doesn't exist and cannot exist.
Microsoft controls somewhere in the neighborhood of 90% of desktops worldwide. That's a textbook monopoly, and the rules changes for monopolies. Note that merely being a monopoly is not in and of itself illegal, but it does mean that the allowable range of actions changes. If Apple has a secretive, closed development model, it's not creating problems for consumers, but when Microsoft does, it does effect consumers.
Now go back to Redmond, you pathetic Microsoft shill.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
O.K.
Let me guess you still in school huh.
These $20k systems are $20k becuase they support C R A Z Y thinks like Hot Swapable RAID Drives, Duel CPUs, Large Cache and Bus Bandwith, Huge amount of memory. So yes your Baby Linux box will smoke this huge system for your piddly load of what you and your dorm mates and you closest group of best friends can handle. But if you are getting a huge load you $500 PC will cringe to a halt (Say form a Slashdot effect) While the Larger $20k will still keep going...
Next Windows is actualy just as stable as Linux (seriously) it is just the fact that Microsoft was stupid enough to make most of its apps to run at Root or Admin Level for them to work correctly. You can Crash a Linux box as Root much faster then you crash a windows box as Admin. Secondly you probably havent delt much with using Windows Server Adition as a server and actually using it as such. Usually when things get sour is when you get Windows server stick it on a huge box and then start using it like a work station. It is a server you set it up and leave it alone except for maintenance.
Is it not that Linux is bad or anything it is just that Windows and Linux if you look at them non Zealosly or with preconsived notions are actaully fairly close is stability and in performace.
As a Ex-Linux zealot I will tell you the following. If you are useing Linux and you did someting as root causing it to crash you blame yourself, Linux Flexibility allows you to do bad things but also lets you to do ingenious things... If you are using windows and it crashes (doing something simular) its Microsoft Fault they should have desinged it better.
Over the past 7 Years I have seen more Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X crashes then I have seen Windows Crashes.
If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
This is bull, Microsoft will never do something like this. Are you kidding me?
I want to mod you troll, but you're exactly right. So I'll reply to you instead and remove the temptation.
XP is genuinely a fairly competent system. If you like closed source. And six-year-old privilege-escalation vulnerabilities. And Defective Restriction Management. And a vendor that tries to destroy every free alternative to their product with BS patent/copyright lawsuits. And supporting a convicted monopolist. And...
Also, how on earth do you have such high uptime if every monthly patch requires a reboot? You're not...unpatched, are you?
Just another "DOJ fascist authoritarian totalitarian bootlicker" -- Zeio
F*cking Awesome.
Slashdot is kind of like Playboy; we aren't here to read the articles.
Sorry, this makes no sense. The guy (B) offering the bribe is conspiring with the employee (A) of company (X) in order to profit from selling his inferior product at a higher price. A can not act alone, he always needs B. There is no conceivable benefit to society by making B's actions legal. Unless we are commited into making our economy less efficient, and our system of government more corrupt it's not a sensible course of action. As for the morality of B: he's enabling and persuading A to commit a crime, and he knows he's doing it - that's not moral.
It's not a bribe--there is no individual that is receiving the money. Instead, Microsoft would spend $$ marketing the TCS's classmate PC in Africa (if they choose windows).
Things like this occur in businesses every day in America. This is neither illegal or even shady. As usual the slashdot summary is slightly biased.
No, but if I hire someone to purchase auto-windows for my business, and he's buying an inferior product for a higher price because you paid him - then you've bribed him.
If you offer a lower price to the party who pays you are not bribing anyone, if you offer the money to a third person, then you are paying a bribe.
A modicum of common sense (and a decent firewall) can keep an XP system safe even unpatched. I'm not saying Windows is perfect (I have plenty of issues with aspects of it's design), but what I am saying is treated well, it can be stable and reliable.
Also note, my ONLY point was about stability. Not any aspect of Microsoft's business practices which are a whole different quagmire.
"You see, officer: it was the CIO wot did it!"
"And now that we've sacked him, you don't need to investigate any further."
That's probably the most confusing (and confused) post I've ever read on slashdot. Basically, what you're saying is that Linux would crash more often than windows if it was designed in a way that was as prone as windows to crash? Incidentally, either you don't work much with windows, or you're lying when you say you've seen more Linux system than Windows systems crash in the past 7 years ... or those were your own systems and you always logged in as root, and did everything possible to actually crash the Linux systems, while desperately trying not to crash the windows one.
"DRM is like the Ford Pinto: it's a smooth ride, right up the point at which it explodes and ruins your day."-C.Doctorow
All (B) is doing is offering a discount up front for his product. Why should that be illegal, and how does that make our economy less efficient? If I'm the company who accepts the bribe, I am the one who is doing a real disservice to my shareholders in going with a shoddier product. And as far as corrupting the government goes... since the state is completely immoral in the first place, I don't blame people for finding ways to get around their unjust laws and restrictions. Is it too much to ask state officials to not accept the bribe in the first place? They are the ones who are doing us wrong.
XP is fairly stable on its own. From the point of view of a regular user, it's not too bad.
/etc, a package list, and off you go reinstalling quite easily.
The problems I have with it are more of a technical point of view, about how it's not very solid, hard to troubleshoot, how to cure it if it gets borked (especially by spyware or trojans), and how stupidly hard it is to reinstall and make the new install workable. The inability to transfer software from one installation to another is very annoying. The way everything is stored in monolithic files which can only be edited through the MS interface (the registry) is a constant issue. If it gets corrupted or deleted, you're fucked. There are ways to recover, but it's not simple, and doesn't always work.
Comparatively, on a Mac OS X machine, I can backup 3 folders and I get everything: apps, data, configurations. If a pref gets hosed, it's a single text file which I can consult, edit, or delete (similar to how it is on Linux which I also like a lot). I can rebuild an OS X machine in little more than an hour, whereas Windows reinstalls take easily 3 hours including the entire patching process (which even starting from SP2 is over 100 updates now), and most software isn't even installed at that point, where with OS X, 99% of the software that I backed up is functional.
It's not quite as good, but almost on a Linux machine. grab $home,
If he explores all forms and substances Straight homeward to their symbol-essences; He shall not die.
And not just "when done in the US". If its done anywhere in the world with the intent (even if its not the only intent) of reinforcing a US monopoly (such as, say, by preventing broader global adoption of Linux which would put pressure on US marketshare as more desirable software was available exclusively for Linux, providing an incentive for people to switch from Windows) it can violate US antitrust law.
Now some open source zealot is going to read this and claim it's Vista causing AIDS... Or is that a Windows zealot saying Linux causes AIDS...
/., I'm so confused!!!
Great
"A little misunderstanding? Galileo and the Pope had a little misunderstanding."
Actually, localization of the GNU tools is pretty good compared to some proprietary software projects I've seen.
Have you ever considered piracy? You'd make a wonderful Dread Pirate Roberts.
I wish I could mod Tom Lantos up, insightful. Bribery is wrong, no matter where it's done. Getting ahead financially at the expense of morality does the world no good, and it ought to have repercussions. Engaging in bribery because the country you're doing it in doesn't object just makes you a moral pygmy.
Kudos to you, sir.
My name is Mutumbo Mombassa Kwaheri. I live in Nigeria. I have sought you in this matter of great importance because of your obvious honesty and integrity.
I am contacting you because my wealthy, balding and furniture-destroying client has deposited $400,000 in a paper sack on my kitchen counter. He is gone now and my family is quite relieved.
I am most interested in seeing these funds secured in investments in your country. For your assistance, I offer you 25% of the total, or one thousand dollars.
Please contact me in haste before the loud Bwana returns.
Rich And Stupid is not so bad as Working For Rich And Stupid.
Not to mention the guy writes like he just graduated 2nd grade...
Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo!
If a foreign subsidiary (outside of US jurisdiction) did the actual "work". The beauty of being a multinational corporation is that you can always ask one of your foreign offices to do something that you can't do for yourself.
Because that's just as immoral as the guy taking the bribe. Why should it be immoral to take the bribe? It brings an advantage to the person taking the bribe, and if you are not happy with the performance of your agent you can just hire someone better, right? Let the market decide. Why should it be illegal to steal? If you don't like having your property stolen you can just hire someone to protect it.
the state is completely immoral in the first place
Everybody is doing something immoral, so I can too. Sorry, but that's not even an argument. Even if it was it would just make the whole discussion pointless.
They are the ones who are doing us wrong.
Says someone who lives in a country which allows him to hold private property, who was able to get a good education, has access to clean water, drives on pulic streets, who doesn't have to be afraid that a neighbouring country invades and sells him into slavery. Visit Africa sometime, or have a chat with someone who lived through the Chinese cultural revolution, and then smack yourself up the head for being such a whiner. Seriously, man!
17,000 laptops for school children across Nigeria? What do they teach in school, how to email 419 scams?
"Champagne for my real friends - and real pain for my sham friends!" http://ericblade.postalboard.com/
I disagree. On Linux, I can create an account, install any software I want to run into my home directory, install all forms of spyware and malware, and if I really mess things up, worse case scenario is to delete the home directory and start again. On Windows, you need admin access to install most programs (based on what I've seen of coworkers without admin access).
In other words, the design of a *nix system seems to me to be much more stable for the system overall.
Thank God for evolution.
I'm in second grade, you insensitive clod!
Thank God for evolution.
- A government agency -- the USPF -- had determined that Mandriva Linux was the best choice on the new machines it had purchased.
- The government hired a contractor -- TSC -- to install the new machines with Mandriva Linux.
- Microsoft's local manager claims that they're cutting a deal with the contractor to pay them (not the government) $400,000 for "marketing" when the machines are converted to Windows. (Umm, marketing? What marketing?)
- The contractor begins the process of converting the machines to Windows, dropping Mandriva.
- The government finds out and vetoes the deal.
I'm no expert on international law, but I would love to hear how this would not be bribery.===== Murphy's Law is recursive. =====
This is very rational and clear minded. It also goes against the inflammatory summary. We don't take kindly to your type around here.
... but how ya gonna keep 'em down on the farm, after they've seen SlashDot?
Yeah, I noticed. Guess I never should've left the Vulcan Academy
-kgj
-kgj
Except, you're not describing what actually happened. Nor are you commenting on what I wrote. You've picked a whole different point to argue, which is unrelated to what happened.
The Nigerian government had a contract with the supplier of the laptops to deliver the machines with Mandriva installed (the red widgets). Microsoft paid the company providing the laptops to wipe out Mandriva (the red widgets) and put on Windows (the yellow widgets), and then deliver it to their customer. The customer explicitly didn't order yellow widgets, they ordered red. The company selling yellow widgets doesn't want people to have red widgets, or even know that red widgets are available, and will do anything to prevent it. The yellow widget company is playing dirty pool.
This is not about the customer being free to do anything they want after they have been delivered what they contracted for. This is a 3rd party bribing the supplier to change what is being delivered without consulting the customer. The customer asked for the red widgets, the suppliler was being paid to deliver yellow widgets instead by someone who wasn't the customer.
In this case, Microsoft had no legal basis to attempt to change the goods deliverable as part of the contract. They just merely tried to pay someone to alter what they'd deliver to their customer without the customer's knowledge or consent.
That's not cool at all.
Cheers
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
Now go back to your mother's basement, you dirty, smelly UNIX dweeb.
I thought that if you were MCSE (Minesweeper Certified Solitaire Expert) you could define uptime as infinite as long as you rebooted once a week on a Sunday night as planned.
Stick Men
Bah. Late to the party, as usual, hope more than 3 people read this. Let me share a story... it's been over 5 years already, so I hope I don't get into trouble for sharing it.
Picture a budding "third world" country, but one a little closer to the south of the border: Guatemala. Also picture a huge, monolithic Gov't institution, the Ministry of Education, where a small, dedicated team has been assigned a major project: switching all of the Ministry's PCs to Linux. This meant not only the PCs in the administrative buildings, but also the computers in every school in the country. Which in reality wasn't that huge of a project, because it's a smallish country, and at the time few schools had PCs for the kids.
Still, it was a very exciting project! We sincereley felt that what we were beginning could have a very positive impact in the lives of Guatemalan kids, exposing them early on to the advantages (and difficulties, too!) of the gospel of Open Source. But we soon ran into trouble. The hardware was hopelessly outdated -- note we didn't have the advantage of Xubuntu and other nice modern end-user distros for legacy HW, plus we met with serious and organized resistance from the many Ministry bureaucrats who decided they weren't going to give up the Microsoft OS they barely knew how to operate.
We soldiered on nonetheless, for a couple more weeks at least. But we could tell a storm was brewing at the higher ranks. Sure enough, the project gets axed, and a head or two rolls. Technical reasons were claimed, but we techs knew very well that the technical hurdles could've been overcome. Rumors abounded, and we all had our own suspicions. My own suspicions were confirmed when I had the chance to talk to a senior management guy who had managed to keep his job, who told me in no uncertain terms that Microsoft was very directly responsible for the project's cancellation, by courting Gov't officials and offering a generous "discount" on the many licenses the Ministry needed to fully comply with the law -- most of the Ministry's Windows PCs were illegal installations in the first place. And also, that palms had indeed been greased -- no proof, of course, but knowing how most (yes, most!) Gov't deals go down here would have been enough for me to believe this, but the confirmation by that bureaucrat left me with no doubt.
Cut to 5 years later. Millions were poured into the "legalization" of thousands of the Ministry's PCs, but the benefits for the average schoolkid remain to be seen. I often wonder what this country's schools would look like today if greed hadn't gotten in the way.. but sadly that's a recurring theme in corrupt countries. MS has a lot to answer for, in my humble opinion.
anon because this is still a very dangerous country
We put all nigerian scam in undesirable e-mails,,,at some point the Nigerian gov will start to be angry
I claim that I had commented on what you wrote. As support for this claim, I point out to you that I quoted one of the things you wrote, and directly responded to that.
As for "describing what actually happened", I never meant to imply that I was describing what "actually happened", I'm only responding to what I had quoted in my response to your post.
(shrugs) So you claim, but I don't know who you consider to be "the customer" in this scenario, and I don't know how (or if) you managed to get the contents of the actual contract to support your claim.
Either way, I'm not particularly interested in playing devil's advocate in defense of Microsoft here, since the Slashdot crowd seems to easily incorrectly assume that this means I actually approve of MS's behaviour. I was just pointing out what I perceived to be a flaw in your analogy.
It's odd how several courts, the EU and the DoJ agree with me, but some piece of crap on Slashdot whose the puppet of Redmond thinks he knows better.
Go back to giving Ballmer blowjobs you piece of apologist shit. You're a retard.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I've personally kept an XP system up for almost a year when it was shut off, not by crashing, but by a power failure in my house during a bad storm. I only reboot to install security updates if I personally consider them to apply directly to me. The majority of the time, security flaws are already blocked by my NAT router and/or firewall.
Having said that flaimbait as a random AC -- I do actually use Linux (Ubuntu 7.10 these days, used to be Debian unstable) on my main machine. The vast majority of the problems with Windows, however, are entirely based on the stupidity of its user base. That's not necessarily Microsoft's fault - with 95% of the user base, they're bound to have the most idiots as well. Theres a thousand things you can bash Windows (or Microsoft in general) for - but stability due to spyware is not one of them anymore. You can have the most secure prison in the world, but if someone leaves the keys in the lock it's all for nothing.
You actually got that backwards. There's nothing "unethical about using marketshare [sic] power" if you have a natural monopoly, because governments (supposedly) regulate them (nationalized gas/phone utilities or local cable monopolies, for example). Any company that uses its market share power to prevent competition is running afoul of antitrust laws.
It's not about competing, it's about preventing competition. Microsoft has never competed well in a level playing field. It has only ever won markets through stealing IP, setting up contracts to prevent competition, and then using its sales to pay off lawsuits later. Microsoft has swept $25,000,000,000 of "corporate level losses" under the table in the last half decade, much of which went to anti-trust lawsuits and settlements. Microsoft spends far more propping up its criminal activities than any drug dealer. Shilling for this company only makes you look equally disingenuous.
Microsoft's Outrageous Office Profits
For Microsoft Apologists, anything is fair up until a company outside of Microsoft does it. It's fine for Microsoft to bundle apps with its monopoly operating system in violation of its consent decree, but if Apple ships iTunes for iPods, that's suddenly a "monopoly" that needs to be stopped.
It's an "outrageous scandal" when Sony installs a root kit to enforce DRM, but when Microsoft builds even more limiting DRM into the OS and bars the user from working around it, it's "a vibrant opportunity to to experience rich media."
Seriously, it's impossible to take your religion seriously. Microsoft is a criminal organization that has to bribe the world to continue in servitude to its third rate products. What motivates you to make excuses for such greedy, arrogant, and technologically backward jokers?
RDM
The difference is in who is getting the money. The same difference if you pay a thief to steal something for you, or if you pay the owner to get it.
In both cases, the company is paying less money for services offered by the briber than would normally be paid.
No they don't. It would be a rather special case that the company bribing the agent would be the cheapest - the opposite is a lot more common. In what kind of fantasy world do you live?
And it's still a voluntary contract.
The company did not voluntarily select the highest bidder - they hired someone to select the best suited supplier. They were defrauded. Now if you want to argue that this isn't equivalent to theft, then the agent didn't commit a crime either
Doesn't seem like a good deal to me.
Well then Mr Entitlement - try living somewhere else. Try living somewhere where the government is weak. And as for the low quality of government - people like you who think paying taxes is such a hard burden have a lot to do with that, and your absurd scheme to promote corruption is yet another contribution to it.
Speaking as someone working in the US IT industry, I'm really... REALLY... happy Nigeria isn't teaching their students to use Windows.
This guarantees that nobody from Nigeria will have any job skills required to enter the world IT market and actually do anything more than install memory chips. They are going to have to work their way up to getting real job skills, and while they spend years doing that, Americans can just get another few years of real world job experience.
It seems like a complete win for the US. Not so good for Nigeria, who's Lunix Kidz will only learn how to use Lunix's SENDMAIL for their bulk email scams. But hey, maybe years of cranking up their OLPC's will give them strong wrists for becoming restaurant bus boys and cab drivers.
Duel CPU : you closest group of friends : form a Slashdot effect : actualy : havent : delt : Adition : non Zealously : preconsived : actaully : useing : simular : desinged : then I have
You know, I don't like to judge people by the odd spelling mistake or bit of dodgy grammar. We all make mistakes and it's not like spelling is generally all that important in making your writing understandable. However the number of spelling mistakes in your post (I won't even start on the grammar) makes you sound like an idiot. If you have dyslexia or English isn't your mother tongue, use a spell checker, if you're just stupid then don't post.
Like you said in your previous postings about firefox and IE...How is the best man going to win in this case? Mandriva won the deal to supply their operating system and Microsoft just played dirty and cheated.
Mandriva won the deal to supply their OS and Microsoft paid the company who is re-distributing these machines to install Windows on the laptops.
Then here you are talking about people's "choice". Idiot.
As for your self defence rubbish.. Killing IS wrong. That's why that UK farmer got jailed up for killing in "self defense" with a shotgun while the his bugler victim was 50 yards and running away. I hate "its ok self defense" tards like yourself who are just looking for an excuse to use your guns on people.
Get a life and stop posting your immoral crap. Next you'll be saying rape is ok..
I completely agree, but why the hell would you give the keys to any old person who walks into the prison? You can agrue now that you should just turn off admin privileges and you can no longer run into this sort of problem, but how many people who use Windows know how to do that, not only that but how many people do you think know that it is even possible? I like Linux because (at least in the distros I have installed and used) you aren't admin to begin with, and being a Linux noob it was a pain to figure out how to become root and do various things. This hopefully prevents the "idiot user" from destroying anything and if they try to figure out how to become root they get plenty (in my case at least) of warnings of why they need to be VERY careful. Just my two cents anyway.
My problem with all of you is you don't know shit - I know more about Linux than most of the Johnny Come Lately FOSS filthy dweebs who post around here, and I get tired of the same old boring, righteous bullshit you all spew day in day out. Ultimately, it amuses me to come refute your utter garbage arguments.
I like your strawmen, by the way. They are outrageously unrelated to anything. MS providing DRM functionality you can use or not use is somehow similar to installing a rootkit without people knowing or consenting? Give me a break. And who's bitched about Itunes? Nobody. You just made that up, or they only bring that up when the "but MS is a monopoly" dweebs crawl out of the woodwork.
Wow, you take the stupid asshole of the day award for sure! What the hell are you gibbering about? Clearly killing is not, in every case, wrong. Jesus, but you're a dumb bastard.
"Even the Nigerian government knows that it's wrong."
I've heard this kind of comment many times and used it often myself but upon hearing it this time it prompted some thoughts that hit me more strongly than before. I hope I will be indulged writing them here.
You see, it occurred to me that, although we throw around blame casually and, often-times, tongue-in-cheekily, it seems a bit of a cop-out to be really blaming the user for breaking a system when, after all, it is we, the software engineers and system designers, who so kindly provided then with the ability to break it in the software itself in the first place!
There should be no reason for a basic user to go on a computer course just in order to check their emails, surf the web, write letters, do their personal accounts and edit a few digital photographs. There should also be no reason why a person doing that should ever end up hosing their operating system, but it still happens.
Truthfully, the majority of computer users are not really stupid at all--many of them are, in fact, quite clever (perhaps they don't have the tech smarts like we do but smart in other ways - and I challenge anyone here to say honestly that they have never accidentally hosed a system, Windows or Linux--I know I have... both). Nonetheless, most users will still, at some point, have to deal with a malware problem or a broken system due to their own neglect or some wrong action. But why does this happen? Why, indeed, should it happen at all? If the users are not stupid there has to be another explanation...
Despite the complexity of building good software, I find myself wondering why it is still possible for a user to break an operating system. Is impossible to design and build an operating system that is unbreakable, even if the average user tried to really hard (notwithstanding dropping the computer or erasing the hard drive with a magnet)? Difficult maybe, but surely not impossible. Theoretically, it should be possible to create an OS that knows what actions would break it and try to prevent it happening. At the very least, it should be fairly simple to prevent some of the more obvious ways to hose a system. Some progress is being been made in this area but we have not yet reached the ideal.
I suppose for some users (especially you, dear readers) the ability to mess up an OS is a design feature, not a bug and you would complain loudly if the OS designers ever prevented you from doing whatever you wanted to do to the OS (including hosing it if you really wanted) but we are a distinct minority; the default behaviour of an OS should be to assume the user will break whatever is breakable and prevent it from happening (in a sensible way)--and make the expert opt-in deliberately to operate in unsafe mode, and do so in such a way that the casual user would find it difficult to find and make that choice.
I am certain a lot of this is obvious to you and I know it is not as simple as it sounds Further more, a lot of research and effort has gone into improving OS usability and reliability and I don't wish in any way to belittle these efforts; but I do think, however, that part of the problem stems from a culture of blaming the user for when things go wrong rather than, as system designers and developers, taking responsibility to ensure it can't go wrong in the first place.
I'm in second grade, you insensitive clod!
We were discussing GP, not snoyberg.
Thanks for updating us on your CV. Any more interesting items to publish?
LOL - I can't believe Microsoft sucks so much - LOL
Last week's fault log:
- E6300 Workstation, 2GB, Intel 82545, XPP SP2, fully patched;
.wav file from the server. Screen blanked twice and computer rebooted without warning. About 10 minutes editing in Media Studio Pro lost.
-
IPS Dual Opteron, 2GB Reg ECC, Quadro FX5500, XPP SP2, fully patched;
-
HP NC6400 laptop, 1GB, XP SP2, fully patched;
XP may be fine if you don't use it, but it's fragile when you put it under load.Used "Open Recent" in SoundBooth to reopen 90MB
Set to batch convert client-supplied video overnight. Computer was found at login prompt in the morning and only 110 minutes of the batch completed. On the second attempt, the computer became unresponsive at the 110 minute mark, remained unresponsive for several minutes, then reset. Decided that section of video could be abandoned. Remainder of video batch processed ok
Running custom frame capture app overnight unattended. Capture had failed after about 4 hours, Error message popups every 2 seconds "{Delayed Write Failed} Windows was unable to save all the data for the file . The data has been lost." Computer hangs on reboot and has to be hard reset. Rebooting stopped popups, and laptop seems to work normally. A second attempt the following night worked.
"I've got more toys than Teruhisa Kitahara."
I claim that I had commented on what you wrote. As support for this claim, I point out to you that I quoted one of the things you wrote, and directly responded to that.
If that's what you think you did, you need to work on your reading comprehension. So, I have a contract with you to buy 10000 widgets painted in red Du Point paint. And, 3m pays you money to paint them in a 3m yellow. Is that OK? Yes, it's perfectly ok: I pay you whatever amount of money we agreed on, and you give me the 10'000 widgets painted in red. No, you got the 10000 widgets painted in yellow. Where do you get the idea that you got any red widgets?you've used install in two different contexts:
/home/user/ is really just unpacking an archive or copying a binary there.
'installing' something in
'installing' someting in windows typically adds stuff to the registry, drops things into a system wide directory ( gargh, even some crap dropping shit into $WINDOWS\System32 ! ).
you can quite easily just unzip a windows binary to your own Documents And Settings\Desktop, and run any binary you want, just as you do by extracting something somewhere in your *nix home dir, 'admin' rights or not.
conversely, you can sudo/su - install something system wide in linux with a simple privilege escalation.
problem is, in XP ( particularly Home ), users already have 'Admin' or 'Power User' rights, which typically lets em bork up whatever they want without even prompting for privilege escalation.
i agree with your overall sentiment though: the design of *nix is for a much more stable overall system, but probably not for the reasons you outline. ( eg: i can install a web server in my linux ~/bin, but i wont be able to bind to port 80 without admin/root rights. windows will happily oblige though...)
If you'd have moderated him troll i'd have metaz moderated _you_ "unfair". His comment is on topic, and not a flame or a troll.
Adrian, YMMV.
I AM MARYAM BARIACHA, WIDOW OF THE LATE SYGOBI BARIACHA. BEFORE HE DIED, MY HUSBAND ARRANGED FOR THE CAPTURE OF 17,000 LINUX DESKTOPS IN MY COUNTRY OF NIGERIA. THEY HAVE BEEN TAKEN HOSTAGE BY MICROSOFT, WHO IS WILLING TO PAY A FEE TOTALLING $17,000,000 TO PREVENT THEM FROM BEING RELEASED. AS A RESIDENT OF NIGERIA, I AM NOT ALLOWED TO COLLECT THIS MONEY, BUT IF AN INDIVIDUAL FROM OUTSIDE OUR COUNTRY STEPS UP, THEY CAN BE THE LEGAL REPRESENTATIVE FOR MY HUSBAND...
The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
Well, duh. That's pretty much the whole point of my comment.
Just another "DOJ fascist authoritarian totalitarian bootlicker" -- Zeio
I remember years ago, when Gates donated something like $2 million to some charity, everyone was oooohing and ahhhing over it. Hell, it might have even been a story on here. There were some heated posts, and I contended that while 2 mil is a lot of money, Bill wasn't being generous. People laughed at me and even got angry, saying "how can you say he isn't generous if he gives away 2 million dollars?"
I did a quick and dirty net-worth calculation. If your net worth was $100,000 and you gave someone $2, it would be more generous (percentage-wise) than Bill giving away $1 million. Think about that for a second. And even just looking at percentage isn't fair, because if I give away 1/2 of 100,000 I only have 50k left. He could easily give away half of his net worth and still live more comfortably than most of the entire country. Hell, he could give away 90% of his net worth and live more comfortably than almost everyone.
So $400,000 ? That isn't even petty cash money - that's dryer money.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Casual MS Windows users have a different definition of uptime to Sysadmins. They define 100 days of uptime as turning it on every day and turning it off at night 100 times. The things in the server rooms often have an MS operating system but usually not a hobby one designed for home computers - and shuffling the tasks off to a different system, applying updates and rebooting are a lot more important than uptime for the sake of it.
The government paid the company to bring in machines with Linux. This article clarifies that.
Microsoft paid them to swap the specified software out for their own.
I don't know what bait-and-switch laws Nigeria has, but this is not going to help Microsoft undo the extension of the wrist-slap.
It was their contract from the government.
Microsoft applied financial incentives for them to act against their contract, in a move to promote Microsoft.
No individual got paid? What are you sniffing?
Apart from that I agree with you, although I'm also not convinced that the market ever properly moderates what's "fair" and what's "unfair" - just look at broadband provision, and how many services that claim to be unlimited really aren't.
It's official. Most of you are morons.
Ok, I know it's pendantic, but this US-centricity is the cause of so much trouble in the world.
Partaking of the liquor perhaps?
I just noticed that nice OLPC project is driven by a Nicholas Negroponte. This is brother of John Negroponte. That's scary, at least to those who've followed the career of this vicious, powerful killer brother.
isn't getting screwed the *point* of going to bed with someone?
You are being ignorant. So, if one brother does wrong, whatever the other does is automatically suspect?
When the source is open, the possibilities are endless.
This is a terrific victory for the OLPC Project.
They don't know that - they've hired someone to evaluate that and he's defrauding them.
How can you say it is fraud when the company doing the purchasing still knows what they are getting for their purchase? The one taking the bribe is the one to blame, not the briber.
Make up you mind - if the person taking the bribe is to blame, then it's fraud. If there is no fraud, there is no point in putting blame on anyone.
You're accusing me of entitlement?
Yes, and if you'd take the time to respond and understand my argument, rather then blaming someone else, you might actually get it.
Let me guess, you never went to school in the first place.
Hey Microsoft: Nanny nanny boo boo! Google is a better company than you!!
/me ducks to avoid being hit by chair.