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MS Dirty Pool Against AOL?
Hobbes_ sent us an amusing little story that talks about some MS Employee forging some email to some guy trying to
raise heat against AOL. Just read the article, its more than just a little bizarre.
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Enough credible sources?
BTW, it is kind of ironic since you are an Anonymous Coward....
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
I seem to recall a story during the height of the Visual C++/Borland C++ compiler wars. One of the Visual C++ manuals gave credit to "Buck Forland".
Save the whales. Feed the hungry. Free the mallocs.
Disclaimer: I've worked for MS as an intern. Not in any group where I'd know about the workings of AOL software (!), 'tho...
Hmmm. If the buffer overflow actually exists, *and* Microsoft is sure of that, they'd better be able to prove it -- in other words, document and release code to both AOL and a forum such as BugTraq. A history of such alleged holes and copies of the relevant binaries and such forwarded to an independent group should work...
If they cannot substantiate the existence of such, then this would seem to be either a bizarre game of chicken, or it would seem that at the very least an apology is in order -- possibly more, for laying very specific and public charges on AOL's products.
In the meantime, that has little bearing on whether it's legal for AOL to block other services from using their messaging system, security hole or no.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
Absolutely right. And more recently, MS was caught trying to urge it's employees to show "grassroots support" for the company via letter writing campaigns when the DOJ was getting into the main part of the case against them.
Unfortunately, I don't have a link available. Anyone?
This ALL makes sense now. I don't know why someone didn't realize this already. The reason Microsoft is saying that there's a buffer overflow exploit for AOL IM is that there might be a way to execute and/or receive certain data from the memory in the system and/or other things. Apparently, AOL's client has some built in functionality to allow them leeway in changing enough of the protocol to be able to detect what information a real client should get. This "buffer overflow exploit" might be one of their mechanisms. Or M$ might just assume that it is one. Obviously, some of those M$ engineers are quite frustrated at being blocked and not knowing how to get around the block.
I'm not a big fan of MS (I use my Windows box only for gaming), but I have to admit that I like IE *way* better than Netscape. Netscape on my Linux box hangs all the time, plus it's awkward to use. Of course, even Netscape is a peach compared to some of the other web browsers for Linux. -joe-
If you think free market competition hurts, business communications... ...
If you think that a monopoly running everything is good
If you think that open standard retard/prevent inovation...
You are on another planet, bucko.
msn mesenger dosnt use AOLs database. all it does is login to AOLs server and allow u to IM other aol users.
All I hear is raves about ICQ and IRC and none about IM. It seems like AOL is way behind on this front. BTW, if M$ would build IM into their OS, it would crush ICQ and IRC financially. This is how M$ uses their monopoly power to kill companies, they buy into a technology and give it away for free. How will this hurt IRC financially? IRC is free.
"After reading these things for a while I became convinced that I could make a fortune distributing a good Linux-compatible spell checker."
-Jack Bryar
Perhaps he should begin his development of a Linux-compatible grammar checker as well.
10 PRINT CHR$(205.5+RND(1)); : GOTO 10
Alright then, smile at an honest comparison. I've been working on computers for 17 years and I'm an MCSE. By your reasoning, I should be pro-NT, right? Wrong. Our LAN (at work) runs a mix of WinNT4 and Debian servers, and I can honestly say Debian is the preferable server platform. Our NT boxes lock up and require reboots at least once a week, and they always bomb at the worst possible time (like when I'm at lunch). Our Debian machines were all rebooted about two weeks ago because we were doing hardware checks on them...it was the first time in 6 months that any of them had been offline.
Up until a month ago our company webserver ran NT Server 4 with IIS 4, and it required daily reboots. A month ago we installed Debian+Apache, and it's been up, unaided, ever since.
I'll agree that some people here seriously exaggerate the instabilities of NT, but Linux actually is the more reliable OS for mission critical servers.
There is nothing so pathetic as seeing a beautiful young theory roughed up by a tough gang of facts.
And during the login proccess you (guess what) use the login database. And then you can (guess what again) use the info database and find out neat things about AIM users.
Need a Catering Connection
Now that everyone hates me... On a new OS (i.e. Win2K) You have Stockholders and the media screaming for MS to release it NOW! For NT4, the people who code the fixes are upset that they are fixing, and not creating and it shows in the quality of their work. Also, when we find bugs, the Dev guys will sometimes not fix them because now, you never know who is going to be called into court and made the newest scapegoat. PS...It's a job and much better than starving in a gutter in Berkely like I was doing.
Can anybody explain how you could track a Yahoo mail message to a Microsoft employee?
You prefer IE over Netscape? There are so many little things about IE that just annoy the hell out of me... one being that it hangs randomly. But honestly though, I'm not calling pro-MS people MS Gimps. I use NT at work. Hell I use NT to write papers at school if necessary and surf the web. However, when I see a message posting on some usenet group with an MSN email address or a hotmail anonymous address, it makes me wonder. Especially when they're making blatently false or misleading statements.
"Thou who hath lied once, who shall believe you?"
Sorry, I'm not sure about the exact quote but that is a close aproximation.
___
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
This was in the latest comp.risks digest. The article makes reference to a NewsScan Daily article called "Spy Who Messaged Me" -- Now Playing at Microsoft!, which in turn cites the New York Times article.
http://www.techweb.com/wire/story/TWB19990813S0015
This article says that it was traced to a Microsoft Proxy. Whether or not this is a corporate server or not is not said, so there is room for doubt. Although I can assume that is is a corporate proxy server rather than an MSN proxy server.
I'm not so out of things that I didn't realize how large (and slow) AOL is, but I'd always been under the impression that MSN was a wee pathetic thing. Is MSN seriously bigger than Earthlink/MCI/AT&T/etc? Or did someone hit the crack pipe a little too hard before writing his story?
Hard to think that an MS employee (or anyone with any computer knowledge) wouldn't have thought about this though. Hmmmm, oh well....
Andrew
Why should AOL allow Microsoft to use their *proprietary* database of users? Would you stand idly by while a competitor develops a program that can use your own long-standing userbase against you?
"Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try."
You prefer IE over Netscape? There are so many little things about IE that just annoy the hell out of me... one being that it hangs randomly.
I haven't had IE 4.0 hang randomly on me, but I can crash communicator 4.61 and earlier at will, at least on my nt box.
Open 1 page.
Open a second page in a second window.
Reload both pages simultaneously.
Wait for Dr. Watson...
-Richard.
-Richard
....in Hell before Micros~1 gets even the faintest glimmer of the
*possibility* of support from *me*! It is without a doubt the most
noxious company in existence today. I've no use for AOL, but this
is a case where "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" applies if
ever there was one.
Well... What is home turf for Netscape then? Because Netscape on UNIX (at least on this IRIX box) is *horrible*. I have a short alias for "killall netscape"...
I'm really looking forward to Mozilla and its treaded windows...
I sure hope ICQ stays out of the fray in this battle.
I know that the most powerful force in the universe is entropy, and ICQ will eventually go to crap, but right now, it's a more than adequate messaging system with no advertisements and works most of the time.
I just hope they all leave it alone.
Russ
War is Peace. Freedom is Slavery. Ignorance is Strength. - George Orwell or George Bush?
The article is by John Markoff. Not exactly the most credible of reporters. I wonder if there is a different source for this story?
well ICQ is soooooo icky (personal opinion)
the main communication to the server is UDP (udp=? undenyably drops packets)
client to client communication goes directly to the clients first in all official clients (as far as i can tell), theres no way to specify a specific user is behind a firewall, and can't handle connecting to her(gender neutral) directly. I believe the clients may try to connect directly every time a message is sent, rather than once per session as would be somewhat intellegent(ironically i don't think i spelt that word correctly).
There is no authentication of the other user in direct user to user communication, with aim you can assume if the user logged in as herself, its in fact her, but if you get a message on ICQ, it could just be somebody f***ing w/ your head.
This is not to say AIM is uber protocol, its got yucky things as well, nor is it to say ICQ is bad, i usually have both running, just because of the different userbases.
Need a Catering Connection
They should just get it over with and merge all these half-assed attempts at winning mindshare into one entity: The Microsoft Public Manipulation Team.
Yeah, the toc servers dumped the buddy lists like it said they would in one of the readmes somewhere on aol's site. (back when they let ppl get toc related stuff off of it)
(granted i've forgotten where exactly it said it, but if i cared, i might be able to find it again)
Need a Catering Connection
I'd be willing to bet 80% of the pages Netscrape hangs on predictably are made by Frontpage or it's MS-Kin...
I love the part where the Microsoft marketing director says, ``It's unfortunate they're putting user security at risk.'' That slays me.
Ever heard of Perl? It's been around for a lot longer and it can do a lot more than OBDC and COM will under NT. Even programs such as xchat (linux irc program) support Perl! Food for thought. Andy
But I've sometimes wondered who was really posting messages promoting MS on
In response to the responses to funny responses -- a good new feature for slashdot:
Get rid of the 'Submit' button.
Have a huge banner at the top of the preview screen saying "Have you considered the possibility that this person is being humorous"?
I mean, sheesh. Attached to nearly every funny/sarcastic/ironic comment are four or five responses saying "you're stupid, that's wrong". Even the obvious ones.
--
Three words, Fear Uncertainty Doubt
---- aut viam inveniam aut faciam
Some problem nowadays; swamping people with news so they do not get the news anymore, so it was *an unknown employee*. The same kind one can find everywhere, no matter what OS he / she / it is using, so turn down the heat a bit. M$ has got enough problems already with Windows1999.539492. BTW, is it currently up or down or somewhere in the middle ?
Oh yes, almost first post but overtaken by an alien paket of electrons at router 4.
Can't WinNT compete?
"No. You're a moron." -- Anonymous Coward, Slashdot.org
Forget all that enlightened approuch stuff. Forget function over splashy brochures. Oh no. We've finally awoken to what will REALLY get Linux out there into the masses. Not results... insults. And plenty of them. Can't we see about producing anti-Windows FUD while we're at it?
I wonder where this leaves the "Open Source" trademark?
"Grab them by the pussy" -- President of the United States of America
I couldn't give a damn if some stupid ms munchkin wrote an email to try to discredit AOL. Who cares? What I find amusing/ annoying at the same time is MS's hypocracy over this issue. The "embrace and extend" philosophy has been used by MS countless times, having a much greater impact than some stupid IM Service. For instance, I'm never in windos. I run Netscape under Linux, always. Now, due to the way MS have extended the standard character set, all quotes end up as question marks. This is slightly annoying. What is more annoying is when I try to visit, say : http://www.chatcity.com.au My browser doesn't support Java, according to their NT box. http://www.met.vic.gov.au My browser apparently doesn't support frames, according to their NT box. I am running NS 4.61 for christsakes. I cannot visit these sites. This is obviously deliberate. How long will it be before half the web is unviewable by myself? For fuck sake, this is http. An as far as the fact that MS claims AOL is introducing a security problem when they extend the protocol, I have one word to say : Melissa. Cheers AndyM
www.fud.net
The Libyan hit teams are not compatible with Win32. So MS purchased Syrian hit teams, slapped on a better looking interface, and called it MS ActiveSyrian HitTeam 95.
Sadly, Libyasoft lost a lot of their customers because of this.
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
send all spam to theotherwhitemeat@ropine.com
to learn that something like this could have originated by the highly respected computer company Microsoft.
Zontar The Mindless,
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Zontar The Mindless,
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Breaking down a proprietary system may be good if we are breaking down the Win32 API, but we are talking about AOL's IM system and one company who will probably break its protocol: M$.
The only good that will come of this is AOL will possibly lose control of its IM system. M$ is probably using this to hurt AOL in some kind of underhanded way. Who the heck uses AOL's IM anyway? AOL subscribers. And who else?
All I hear is raves about ICQ and IRC and none about IM. It seems like AOL is way behind on this front. BTW, if M$ would build IM into their OS, it would crush ICQ and IRC financially. This is how M$ uses their monopoly power to kill companies, they buy into a technology and give it away for free.
For example, I heard about how several companies were offering (if I remember correctly) a video game audio technology. They were competing and were selling their technology. The software was continuously getting better and competetion was fierce. Micro$oft bought one of the companies. They took their software development kit and bundled it with another M$ development kit as a free add on. The other companies went out of business, competition has ceased, and development toward a mature product has ceased.
It is not necessairly good to have developing technologies as open source because it diverts revenues from these emerging markets. In the case of Operating Systems, the market has stagnated and this is why we see KDE and GNOME comming up from the rear with systems almost as user friendly as a Mac.
There is also the case where systems are not commercially viable. For example, EMACS is not a comercially viable product (Try to sell it to someone;), but is very useful for the many people that use it. So, it has become open source.
A market where I see that open source is not ready is digital audio and MIDI. If you look at Studio Vision, it is very hard to imagine developing such a product through open source. It is extremely complex and highly integrated. Only a highly talented development team who has access to tons of research can produce such a easy to use and robust program. Other examples are Photoshop, Canvas (compare to GIMP), Adobe Illustrator, and Macromedia Freehand (compare to xfig and killustrator).
On the other hand, anyone who has taken a comprehensive Operating Systems course and has some talent could write Linux or the Windows Kernel or even the Mac Kernel. (The NT kernel, from what I have read, is radically different. different != better)
So, what I am trying to say is that competition+venture capital feeds progress and M$=monopoly=kill progress. Also open source cannot compete with radical commercial software products.
No, the A-team was being chased by the law. (I think his name was Decker, or something like that).
Rambo, on the other hand, was brought in by the government to do stuff that they didn't want to get their hands dirty with....sort of like SOF on TV these days, or like a more violent version of Mission Impossible.
Build it, and they will come^Hplain.
Stability is not important thanks to the new cluster server package and switches.
I can't believe you just said that with a straight face? Stability isn't important? I don't claim to be an admin or anything, but even with redundancy and clustering, when a server fails, it's going to mess things up. Do you want less stability on, say, the computers controlling the nuclear power plant near your home? I'm not willing to rely on clustering for something *that* mission critical. Or even better, are you willing to sacrifice stability on your company's payroll systems? I didn't think so. Give me stability!
Oh, wait.. I see the light! Windows NT is just OpenVMS for Non-Technical (NT) people! Man, if only I had seen that before... maybe I too would rush to embrace this incredible offering of OpenVMS to we, the Non-Technical people of the world. They shall sing epic ballads of this AC and their incredible insight.
being a microsoft employee is not like being an employee of any other comapny... if I were to stick up publicly for my company.. it wouldn't be a big deal. No one would think i'm evil. However, anyone from microsoft sticking up for microsoft is automatically considered evil by most. If I worked for microsoft, and wanted to state my opinion, I would do it anonymously as well. As for the lying about his consulting firm.. he has to establish somehow that he knows what he's talkin about and he's not just some crackpot. In short, its not a big deal.
-- "I feel a strong disturbance in the for.."\*Segmentation Fault*\ (core dumped)
My favorite MS zealot mantra is to blame everything on the hardware or an unfit sysadmin whenever someone reports an unstable NT server. It;s just not conceavable to the MS zealots that not everybody has "good" experiences with NT. Well, there are primarily 3 things that cause blue screens in NT. 1) Bad hardware, 2) Bad drivers, and 3) mismatched system DLL's. In all 3 instances, a good sysadmin can fix all the problems, thus if you continually have problems it's because of a bad sysadmin. I might point out that if Linux had the same kind of hardware support (from ISV's, not from Linux developers) you would probably see just as many faults in Linux.
Bill Phucking...
Does anyone remember hearing about the original press release for Visual Basic 5.0, Control Creation Edition?
It included a list of upcoming publications that included VB5 CCE. One of the books was
* "Visual Basic 5.0 Client/Server How-To," Buck Forland, Waite Group Press
Buck Forland....
Seems that the microsoft joke department can't
come up with anything new or original either!
Reports and quotes from so called 'experts' who have this weakness of Linux to complain about and another harping on another set of negatives. All negative...all the time. Watch for it. We're so strong now and growing...and they're so quiet. It's scary.
Redhat should begin splashing some of that money onto full page ads in the trade magazines---and not just harping their own distro. Stuff for the community...
Would you give equal support to someone who would help "break down some of Microsoft's proprietary products", e.g., Windows 98/NT/2000, Office, Visual Basic, etc., etc.
I'll be curious to see how soon the same stuff is pulled against Linux.
/....
I can guarantee it's going on right now. I mean if it works once, wouldn't you want to try it again. FUD/Marketing call it what you will, it's all about influencing the ignorant, not a difficult thing to do in my experience.
I've seen some *suspicious* AC's on our very own
+&x
Ginkcuhp Llib? ;) The spoonerism was pointed out when the article first(?) appeared on Linux Today on the weekend. While it might be plausible that the body responsible was a "disgruntled employee", it just as likely (if not more so) that this is yet another ruse on Microsoft's part: It wasn't one of our employees. Well, okay, it was one of our employees, but a disgruntled one; we don't have any control over what they do. Yeah, right.
I find it interesting that AOL is doing nothing to promote ICQ. Which, IMNHO, is a much better instant messaging client than anything that is currently out there...
A quote from the article:
"Separately, America Online and Novell Corp. on Thursday announced that Novell, a network software provider based in Provo, Utah, had licensed the AOL Instant Messenger software and planned to build it into its Netware Directory Services software for corporate users."
In light of all these 'licensing' deals that AOL is making, I recall that no mention of ICQ has ever been made.
Once again, IMNHO, AOL is trying to kill any kind of 'IM' that isn't their own, despite the fact that they own ICQ now...
What do you guys think?
"Meddle not in the affairs of Dragons...for thou art crunchy and taste good with ketchup."
Yeah, I think I saw a movie based on a story like this too. It was called "All The President's Men". But that was just fiction, right?
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
But what can you do?
A company can do a lot, especially in this case if the author is identified. Remember, that message was (allegedly) sent from a system on the Redmond campus. The author didn't even bother to log into his own ISP account and then connect to the free service. (Or maybe I'm just spoiled by my unix shell account.)
This means that an employee has:
1) used corporate resources to
2) publicly lie (about his affiliation with Microsoft, if not the buffer overflow problem), and thus
3) bring his employer into disrepute.
In the most extreme cases, Microsoft could dismiss such employees immediately. Any employee who inserts an actionable easter egg into a released product, *and* his immediate supervisor for failure to exercise sufficient oversight should be fired-for-cause, IMHO.
In this case, it would not be unreasonable for MS to insert a "written reprimand" for lying about his employment status in a message sent from MS property, with either a few days suspension and/or an explicit reduction in his next performance raise.
This response might sound extreme, but look at how much these antics are costing Microsoft. Right now it's only some techies who are outraged at "fluff" easter eggs in many (most?) MS applications, but what will happen if someone wins millions of dollars because one easter egg alleges that a particular individual is sexually assaulting his child, and it turns out that the egg was inserted by the spouse's new SO? Or thousands of users find their system compromised because a latter-day Excel flight simulator contains a serious security hole?
For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong. -- H L Mencken
i don't know about you folks, but i submitted this story several days ago. perhaps it was during the latest round of technical difficulties. oh well.
- Entertaining Bits from the Ancient Kernel Tree
This discussion is real fun! :))
:)
It is THE theme on slashdot an i really love to read the same arguments told again and again using different words and i am even more amused reading the lots of NEW arguments never heard before!
i have an idea:
make this discussion a separate part of slashdot, a permanent feature, a gamelike thing with a big counter Linux vs. MS where the best comments score! Only the last, say, 300 comments are stored, like with a logfile-wrapper.
Except of the above, THERE WILL BE NO RULES!
wow, i'd love that!
BUT WAIT:
Another thing we could do:
write two eliza-like programs, one on a Linux platform, the other on a windoze^H^Hws platform. (maybe even make separate ones for win9x and winNT...)
then, put them into discussion.
yeah, make them defend their platform and try to outrage each other.
AND: the both elizas must have a web interface, where geeks can add new arguments and curses to the knowledge-base of each one.
of course this could be extended to other platforms too!
maybe we can also do a moderator-bot, that tries to calm down both parties...
hummmm...that would be funny...
Never make anything simple and efficient when a way can be found to make it complex and wonderful.
Yes, it was pretty damned stupid. But no, it wasn't just reading headers.
The message was sent from an anonymous account at Yahoo. Now, this was incredibly dumb--what "owner of Bucking Consulting, a software consulting firm" would send mail from a free account?--but the headers still don't say anything about microsoft in them. However, they do contain the originating IP address, which was traced back to MS.
"The one computer security expert who could trace it back to Microsoft"? Not quite. But it wasn't as absurdly obvious as you might think.
That's why things like drivers (as well as the OS) should be made open source. If the drivers cause problems then someone can fix them and submit a patch rather than waiting for the ISV to fix it themselves.
--
Well I rarely have problems with Netscape on Linux (a few crashes but not very frequently) and people I know using Windows have very little problems with Netscape or IE.
I don't think Netscape is as unstable as people make out and on the Windows platform IE is more stable than Netscape but on the odd occaision IE crashes it's more likely to bring the system down.
Basically use whatever browser you prefer but it's a total load of rubbish saying Netscape crashes all the time.
As for supporting standards, why should Netscape waste time on getting standards support in the 4.x browsers? This would just slow down the development of Mozilla. IE5 isn't totally standards compliant and N4.x is even worse but until Mozilla I'm prepared to wait as if the standards currently work only on IE5 (Mozilla isn't stable yet so it doesn't count) they should not be used in web pages (except for testing standards compliance) as it ties down people to using IE.
Once Mozilla is launched we will have the standards compliance and cross platform support. If Netscape had worked on adding this to 4.7 then we'd wait a lot longer for Mozilla and as the 4.x series are based on the old layout engine it wouldn't be as small or as fast as Mozilla.
--
sql*kitten is at least sincere, though given the things he's sincere about it's hard to tell if that's a good thing.
--
Xenu loves you!
zieg hail, zieg hail. Zee vorld will vitness the supremacy of zee master OS. Adolph Hilter.
Certainly it's a firing offense anywhere (and perhaps grounds for a defamation lawsuit). The question is whether Microsoft actually wants to go after this individual or not.
Notice that:
1) Thus far they have been unable to identify the employee in question (which if their gateway is even halfway decent shouldn't take more than a few hours at most).
2) Rob Bennett (director of marketing, MSN) didn't exactly condemn whoever did it "somebody who got a little over-passionate but went about it the wrong way." Sounds like praising with faint damnation to me, especially in a culture that rewards taking risks.
3) Not only does Bennett not condemn the unnamed employee, he concurs with the statements so made.
It probably (IMHO) was not officially sanctioned, but I suspect that there was no need to actually ask someone to do so or formally approve it.
"sent it to the one computer security expert who could trace it back to Microsoft..." Pardon me, but does this strike anyone else as very laughable? Even a greenhorn admin can make sense of mail headers, yet this journalist makes it sound like the guy is James Bond. Give me a break!
Micros~1 tried to take over IRC. Remember comic Chat? What am I saying it's still around and the most annoying program ever for anyone not using Comic Chat. It would flood the IRC Channel with comic data (garbage) and normally the person using it wouldn't have a clue how to switch it off and get kicked off the channel shortly afterwards. Thier 3D one was worse. # Appears as ANNA
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Anyway, I wonder if MS will try taking the path of using the publicly available protocol. Don't get me wrong, I dislike MS with some respect as the next person, but I think they should just be like the rest of the client developers and use Toc. Just because little billy has plenty of money is no reason for him to be above the law.
For those that are interested in a primer on ToC, feel free to check out http://find.tetrinet.org/aol/. I have a (small) archive there of the ToC Protocol including the old TiK client for TCL that AOL distributed in place of their clunky Java client.
Anyway, that's my two cents. Read the Protocol and decide for yourself. Cheers.
Maybe its just a puberty thing, but there are other ways to respond to something that you don't agree with other than personal insults. It's really quite sad.
Bill Gates: Steal glib: Bag it, sell
Linus Torvalds: Rival sold nuts: Sun's vital lord (hmmmm, what does this mean?)
Rob Malda: A bar mold: Rod a lamb (hmmm, better not touch this last one)
There's a lot more (ES Raymond = Sermon Day). Perhaps we could start using anagrams as /. login names.
Nope, Microsoft has little control over what we using their Internet connection do, we can even post to slashdot. Microsoft likes to employ creative thinkers and give them the freedom to explore and try out new ideas, just sometimes they come up with, and implement bad ideas before someone notices and stops them. Many of 'you people' have the notion that Microsoft is some sort of evil, conspiracy laden, closed corporation. The reality is that is very chaotic, friendly, and open. So when you see 'Microsoft' appearing to change it's views, in reguard to closed protocols/APIs, open protocols/APIs, changing goals, attacking while befriending other organizations (Why does AOL ship IE?) the reality is that each interaction with 'Microsoft' is with a different person, so that while the MSN Team sees AOL as an enemy, the IE Team sees them as a partner, and Office dosn't give a damn. These are my personal views, and do not represent Microsoft in any way, I'm not even an employee, just a contractor on my 7th MS assignment.
This is such a huge security issue it's revolting. But of course, nobody noticed that part of the story, because everyone was too busy laughing at how Microsoft made this information known...
--
Wonko the Sane
Run Xvnc (http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/download.html) on the server and the BeOS port of vncviewer (http://abstrakt.ch/be/) on the BeOS workstation. Using VNC is slower than using a local X server, but it has advantages too (e.g. you can just switch off the workstation and the apps keep running on the server until you re-connect).
"I love my job, but I hate talking to people like you" (Freddie Mercury)
Nathan
Did M$ know about it? I would believe that a marketing person in microsoft was capable of being stupid enough to be traced back, but a programmer? :)
There is an X-Server for BeOS. Check out ftp.ninemoons.com. Sorry I can't give you more specific directions - the site isn't the best organized in the world. I haven't tried the BeOS X-Server. There was just a brief mention of it in the BeOS bible.
"jihad (jee-hod') 1. a religious war fought by fanatics sworn to victory or death against the enemy."
Kinda fits the Linux schoolkids in this forum.
Yeah, using software from some companies is like playing marbles with the spoiled little rich brat down the street who throws a temper tantrum and tries to change the rules evertime he loses: it's just not any fun.
Chuck
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
i had to read this twice to realise that this message is, in fact, a wind-up.
but just in case others don't see the joke, can i make three points:
i)I agree that OLE ( and for that matter activeX ) are not supported in the MS fashion; I'm not sure if you also meant to include COM and DCOM in your list of glue, or you deliberately left it out becuse of the known security issues..
ii) ODBC is generally supported on most Unices, and specifically on ODBC is available on most databases, as are the drivers, look in Freshmeat.net for a whole bunch of drivers to attach ODBC for perl, java, c, c++, etc. Is the MS ODBC different from the publicly defined version?
iii) CORBA is available, for client programs, on windows and NT; you really dont want to put an ORB on these platforms because you want some stability in the server for the broker. The easiest implementation is built into JAVA ( the standard SUN version and IBM's, maybe not MS's) - and c++ libraries are availbale also. I don't know if the CORBA orb is fully implemented on windows, but it is on NT, and also a simplistic ORB is available as a JAVA example somewhere. Other glues (un-like OLE) are available in the desktop including tooltalk, KDE/KOM and GNOME.
but there do remain some cases where MS office products remain the most appropriate, its just that MS can no longer just wash alternative platforms away with no thought.
ray
Don't bother looking there unless you are using Netscape.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Well... He didn't "admit" that it was an MS employee. He just said that it looked quite likely. Probably figured it was the kind of thing a MS employee was likely to do, but he didn't actually know whether it was actually one of them or not.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
No. What I've gotten through my head is that I can't prove it was from MS. A very different thing. However, I can verify the at least one of their public spokesmen doesn't think that it's a very serious offense against the MS code of ethics. Possibly along the lines of violating "Don't get caught."
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
I guess you remember the Steve Barkto incident?
I think the URL is http://www.pjprimer.com/jihad.html
InThane
"...patriotic innovators..."
Really, a beautiful parody of an MS press release. You do have a future at Waggoner-Edstrom (SP?), if you choose to accept it.
Microsoft Continues to Work Toward Consumer Interoperability, Despite AOL Allegations About MSN Messenger
REDMOND, Wash. - Aug. 6, 1999 - On July 22, Microsoft® launched MSN Messenger Service, the free Internet messaging service that enables people to communicate with the greatest number of Internet users and offers the tightest integration with popular Microsoft communications tools. One of the exciting features of MSN Messenger Service is the ability to exchange messages with both other MSN Messenger users and with people using AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).
In several recent news reports, America Online has made a number of false or misleading claims about MSN Messenger Service. These comments have been made against the backdrop of AOL's failure to respond to consumer demand for interoperability between messaging systems. PressPass asked Yusuf Mehdi, director of marketing for Microsoft MSN, to comment.
Q: What is Microsoft's overall stance on instant messaging and how does it differ from AOL?
A: Communications continues to be the cornerstone of the Internet, and instant messaging is becoming a more prevalent way for people to communicate. With MSN Messenger we are offering a rich and easy solution for people to instant message. In addition we have delivered a breakthrough feature that lets consumers exchange instant messages not only with their MSN contacts but their AIM contacts as well. It is our view that instant messaging should quickly evolve to enable any individual to instant message with anyone else irrespective of their client software or messaging system. In the same way that different telephone handsets and systems interoperate, we're delivering the functionality to enable people to instant message with each other.
Q: What is the current state of Microsoft's relationship with AOL on the subject of Instant Messaging?
A: We are very interested in having AOL work with Microsoft and other industry leaders that have gotten behind a proposed industry standard for messaging. For the last two years, many companies have worked with the IETF on the Instant Messaging Presence Protocol as a standard way to help the industry move forward on interoperability. We are disappointed that AOL has chosen not to join the standards process thus far. We are also disappointed that in the interim AOL is choosing to deny consumers the choice of MSN Messenger interoperability.
Q: Does Microsoft's new MSN Messenger Service strip out AOL's privacy and security controls, as AOL claims?
A: Absolutely not. Privacy was a top priority in developing MSN Messenger Service, and Messenger provides strong privacy features that enable users to maintain total control of their personal information. MSN Messenger Service in no way compromises the privacy or security of people who use it to communicate with other MSN Messenger users or with their AIM contacts. Specifically:
Q: Is it true that Microsoft invaded AOL's network without authorization?
A: No. MSN Messenger gives people using the AIM service a choice of which client software they want to use to send instant messages to other AIM contacts. A person who chooses to use MSN Messenger uses his or her authorized AIM account, just as they would with the AIM client. All of the login, authentication and messaging activity for AIM contacts still occurs on the AOL servers, exactly as it would if someone were using the AIM client. MSN Messenger simply provides one integrated interface that allows people to send messages to both MSN Messenger users and AIM users.
Q: AOL claims Microsoft has subverted and/or disabled the AOL Instant Messenger software.
A: Not true. People are completely free to choose which instant messaging service they'd like to use as the default - that is, which service starts up and logs in automatically when Windows starts. If someone chooses to make MSN Messenger the default, it will be started when Windows starts and will log people into the MSN Messenger Service, and, if they have chosen, the AIM service as well. The MSN Messenger setup wizard is very clear in explaining what it means to set MSN Messenger as the default, and gives people the option to check or uncheck this box. This doesn't mean that the AIM software is disabled. People can certainly still use this client, and it is easy for someone who wants to make AIM the default service again to do so.
Q: Is it true that MSN Messenger drains AOL network and system resources?
A: Of course not. People who have chosen to use MSN Messenger to talk to their AIM contacts already have an authorized AIM account, one that they already use to send messages to their AIM contacts. This doesn't change when people start using MSN Messenger. The same AIM account is still used to communicate with AIM contacts; the only difference is the client software that the person has chosen. There is no additional load on the AOL servers.
Q: Why is lobbying for an instant messaging standard so important?
A: It has always been Microsoft's goal that people should be able to talk freely on the Internet, no matter whose software they are using. Microsoft has supported establishing an open standard with the IETF since November 1997, when Microsoft and the rest of the industry proposed the RVP protocol (now called IMPP - instant messaging and presence protocol) to the IETF. AOL was approached at that time to join with Microsoft, the other companies and the IETF, but they declined. To date AOL has not had any active participation with the rest of the industry in meeting consumer demand for interoperability.
Microsoft has been a leader in working with standards bodies and supporting industry standards for interoperability. Internet Explorer is a great example, because it was the first browser to support CSS, HTML 4.0, DHTML, etc. AOL has no track record in the area of industry standards.
Q: Why did Microsoft choose to move forward with interoperability in lieu of an approved instant messaging standard?
A: Again we strongly believe that the long term and best solution is for the industry to standardize on IMPP. We are committed and will support IMPP as soon as the IETF ratifies it as the standard. In the interim, we have delivered a simple and straightforward solution that provides consumers with interoperability among instant messaging clients. People are responding with overwhelmingly positive feedback on MSN Messenger and we will continue to do our best to meet consumer demand for interoperability.
Q: What about AOL's claim that it asked Microsoft to "make peace" in the letter sent on July 23, 1999?
A: It's simply untrue. AOL sent a letter informing Microsoft that they would block people who chose to use MSN Messenger to communicate with their AIM contacts, and proposed a "business arrangement." This is in no way in the best interests of our mutual customers or a solution to the broader issue of solving the industry need to have a standard for interoperability on messaging.
Q: Does Microsoft have any response to AOL's newly announced deal with EarthLink and MindSpring.
A: This announcement is unrelated to the core issues we have been discussing regarding enabling interoperability for consumers. Frankly it feels a bit like a diversion on AOL's part. They seem to be doing everything they can to NOT enable interoperability for consumers, which is disappointing.
Q: Will Microsoft offer free Internet access to its customers; and, if so, is it a direct shot at AOL?
A: Our focus with MSN Internet Access is to make it easy, fast, and attractive for everyone to get online. We have recently come out with some very compelling offers for consumers that marry a great promotion, such as the Staples $400 instant cash rebate in return for 3 years of MSN Internet Access, along with great technology such as the automatic account creation. In our efforts to help make getting on the Internet as attractive as possible we are considering all manners of technology and promotion. We have no new strategy to announce here from the great promotions that we are already conducting at retail stores today.
... cry foul. And then find other venues for cheating. MS will not play fair, even if the odds are stacked against their hapless victims. - a lost_my_identity_on_the_net luser.
I would love to set up a linux server with BeOS workstations. But I have not figured out a good way to run X apps on the server. I would love to be able to run X apps on the server and have them display on my Be desktop, but I don't think there is a way to do this. Anyone know?
Vidi, Vici, Veni
The Anagrams Page. ;)
Try to spot which companies and individuals and products are being talked about!
"(Vast Lord Linus) had a gleam in his eye that looked like UNIX- except it wasn't going to be expensive corporate wares. No, what (Snarl... I'd Volt Us) had in mind was (In Flexure), and (Felix Rune), though still more cryptic than the simplified GUI operating systems, developed its own loyal following..." (written in October 1996!)
Volt me, linus!
..the whole instant messenger battle between AOL and Microsoft is a good thing, as it puts the two behemoths against each other and uses up resources they could be using to go after Linux(M$) or crush local ISPs(AOL). Personally, I don't get why they think that the big money is in instant messaging.
Besides which, it leads to entertaining news stories like this.
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
Pausing before I hit "Submit," it occurred to me that I ought to find out the balance on my card before I actually bought the book, and that would require going to the credit card company's web site. So I opened up another window, and the moment I did, IE automatically submitted the form. I had bought the book.
I went to another site with a similar structure and tried a few more times, and every time, opening a new window while on a page with an order or submission form automatically caused the form to be submitted.
So I have vowed never to use IE again. It caused me to involuntarily lose money, and that is unacceptable.
:) nt
Not everyone who likes NT and ms are ms based employees. I admit some are suspicous like "Boy those guys at Microsoft sure know how to make great softare" pretty much tops the list. Most users like myself like NT and linux. I despise Microsofts bussiness practices but we at least have a working standard and we have linux if you dont like it. I agree with you when you mention that you have never met a whole 100% pro ms only admin. or manager but alot of people like both and here. I dont want to start a flame war here about NT vs unix so I am not going to spill out why I prefer NT but respect NT users because there are benefits. Even on slashdot NT users do exist.
How did Richard Smith trace a message sent from a free Yahoo email account back to Microsoft? Should we assume that Richard Smith of Phar Lab Software has friends at Yahoo that will provide this sort of information without a court order? Wouldn't this violate Yahoo's TOS?
Here's the quote from the article that made me suspicious:
"The message, sent via a free Yahoo email account, was ironically sent to a person who was more than qualified to examine where the message originated and evidently traced it back to someone within Microsoft."
Evidently, this sounds like a bunch of BS.
NT supporters are just suffering from MicroSoft business practices. Microsoft has in the past posed as "users, admins, and regular joes" to defeat OS/2, they should have left that to their supporters.
Now, we are seeing the effect of those practices. You couldn't praise NT as a user and have anyone take you seriously. Immediately individuals will assume you are from MS. It's quite sad, however don't blame the average joe, blame MS.
You reap what you sow.
Awesome!
AOL and MSN are as much ISPs as a lot of the little mom and pop shops we are using. They certainly as much an ISP as someone like Earthnet, who mostly resells service from other providers.
Besides that I beleive that AOL has a backbone, or at least they used to.
MS, or at least their fanatical employees, are well known in the software industry for malicious pranks like this. This just reaffirms my distrust in anything they say.
I am not shocked the slightest bit.
But you can bet that for every one time they're caught, there are many more times that they're not caught. And you know they've pulled the most absurdly outrageous things, beyond our imagination, and gotten away with it, because no one dreamed they'd do what they do. They keep outdoing themselves. They are simply better than us at subterfuge, deception, and not being restrained by scruples.
Reminds me of the time a few weeks ago when i got an instant message (I use AIM) from someone with the screen name "MSNmesengr" or something along those lines. He told me how big bad AOL was trying to shut out the poor Microsoft users from the AIM service and even told me I should write AOL a letter in protest (how thoughtful!) I had fun warning him as many times as I could, got him up to over 60% .... hehehe. I got a good chuckle out of this one.
"Well kids, you tried your best, and you failed. The lesson is, never try."
I love the idea that Microsoft can say... "Hey, we can't help it that any of our employees are acting in this manner. We certainly do not condone this sort of thing, and will take the necesary action to see it does not happen again!"
Reminds me of all those Rambo movies, where the US Government disowns a "fringe" group of commandos.
"They were acting on their own"
But what can you do?
Steve Bartko is a name I've heard of, but don't remember. Unfortunately, your site is blocked to IE4 users, so it may be awhile before I find out.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
To sum that up, put in 1 article about MS plus 10 ./'ers and the net result are 21 pimple faced, mice wielding mad men sitting on a tree and barking at the world.
A long year Unix user who has just given up computing. I shall move in the woods and sort my stamps collection.
I know a sysadmin that "promotes" MS based on the following principle: "If I don't know it, it's crap."
This is a corollary of the old standby "I don't want to learn anything new" which is the unfortunately often coupled with (at least in this case) "...and I don't know diddly now, either."
Linux: Because an OS is about choice, not intertia.
---
Put Hemos through English 101!
"An armed society is a polite society" -- Robert Heinlein
Linux MAPI Server!
http://www.openone.com/software/MailOne/
(Exchange Migration HOWTO coming soon)
Actually, Win95 is only half bad. I switched to Win98, and then immediately switched back, even at the cost of reformatting hda0. Didn't actually quite come to that, but I was getting ready before I decided that if I just removed the Windows folder and tried again it might work. Did end up re-installing all the software though.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
Tsk, Tsk. Microsoft tries to make fools out of the public (as per usual) and ends up with a red arse. I wish this happened more often! (the reddening, that is!) As much as I hate to say it, Microsoft's assertion of a buffer overflow in AIM may be true. It isn't like Microsoft to admit to their own dirty tactics, let alone to assure the public that the claims are true. They could have written the forged message off in any one of a thousand ways so as to protect their image and prevent escalation in the IM war. I would be really interested in a comparative checksum of pre- and post- war AIM binaries. If AOL has been using the fault to run live code and alter the end-user copy of AIM, it should show..
.sig: Now legally binding!
AOL's protocol operates on their own hardware, not just on your hardware. It is "freely" accessible because it is advertiser supported. MS is trying to skip around supporting those who are paying to have their ads displayed.
I don't know the precise terms of the contract, of course, but I suspect that AOL is paid by the contact minute, which would mean that if it doesn't take all reasonable steps to prevent infringing software from counterfeiting access via the ad supporting gatewar, that it could be sued. If it can't tell who is legit and who isn't, then it can't fairly charge for ads placed. It seems to me (I am not a lawyer) that MS should be found guilty of grand theft, but I doubt that there is a jurisdiction that this could be tried in. I am not a lawyer.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
I click on an article in Slashdot or DejaNews. After reading it, I click the "Back" button. Netscape almost always reloads the page, often taking half a minute for all the graphics and ads. So what do I use? Most of the time, it's the KDE browser, which is extremely fast, and understands that "back" means back.
The name then was "Steven Barkto" back when MS pulled this exact same trick trying to tank OS/2 in the discussion groups - I think it was on CompuServe at the time. I'll be curious to see how soon the same stuff is pulled against Linux.
This story broke last week, and is old news by now.
What really amazes me (or doesn't amaze me, depending on your viewpoint) is that the MS lamer thought that he can cover his tracks simply by the virtue of sending the mail from his Yahoo account. The lack of understanding of basic Internet principles, on the part of MS developers, never ceases to amaze me.
--
What I'd like to know, is why they don't just cooborate and come up with a 'messaging standard'? We have AOL IM, MSN IM, ICQ, and a host of others. AOL owns ICQ, but is the AOL instant messanger compatible with ICQ? I don't think so...
I currently use ICQ because 1) i have a LOW number (below 200k), and 2) all my friends use ICQ. However some of my relatives and my parents friends are now joining the internet, and since they use AOL or MSN they, of course, use that provider's instant messenger.
IF we had at least a standard message format, ICQ users could add AOL or MSN users to their userlists and message away (or any other combination thereof). It's not like ICQ's format is secure - how many clones are there for X?
Just a thought - and I know that it won't be acted upon, after all look who I'm talking about - but if AOL or MSN had any shred of intelligence they'd realize this and stop bickering over something insignificant.
der dee der.
Having graduated to AC status I can hardly wait to see what comes next.
I think that it could be someones real name, considering that one of MS's web server admins is named Todd Wanke...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Brillant rebuttel and unfortunately all to common of the vocal Linux supporters. Do you have an original thought in your head (doubtful) or do you just parrot back what you've heard your online, no social life, IRC buddies tell you?
I thought that MSN was number 3 or 4. In any case AOL is waaaaay out in front of whoever is #2. MSN has something like 1.5 million subscribers, AOL has I belive 17 million.
Let's see, "American Online and Microsoft -- the world's two largest Internet service providers"
Funny, I thought you had to have a network to call yourself an ISP. AOL and MS are not ISPs, they are content providors.
In any event, hasn't this happened before? OS/2, and lotsa others? Why won't a similar thing happen to ICQ in the future (AOL bought ICQ a while back, no?).
This is very similar to the stunt they pulled with the Mindcraft Study. While not the same in nature, it's the same practice. "Feed disinformation to the public about a competitor's product, and then tell them about OUR product."
I'm no fan of AOL. God knows I hate them enough, however I don't like Microsoft's business procedures at all.
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon?
-- Give him Head? Be a Beacon? :P)
(If you can't figure out how to E-Mail me, Don't.
If you can't beat 'em fairly: cheat?
This employee's actions are reflective of Micro$oft's mind-set, IMO.
How anybody with any self-respect would willingly associate themselves
with anything related to Micro$oft is a mystery to me.
The post I'm responding to is by Anonymous Coward. Not exactly the most credible of posters. I wonder if this is by a Microsoft employee?
Shocking.....simply shocking. (After all the crap that's come to light during the DOJ trial, I'm surprised MS hasn't been found to have hired Libyian hit teams to eliminate it's rivals.)
That the guy who sent the E was named Phil Bucking, which sounds interesting if you phonetically switch the first consonent sounds in the first and last name...
The name of the individual who supposedly sent this email was "Phil Bucking"
Switch the syllables around and you get:
"Bill Phucking"
Read that backwards...
And now you know the rest of the story...
Windows 95 was the all-time computer prank. I'll bet Bill's still laughing.
That was a god dam beautifull post! Had I mod powers this week it would have been 5'd to the hilt. Sig means
Poor little clams! Snap! Snap! Snap! Poor little clams! Snap! Snap! Snap! Poor little clams! Snap! Snap! Snap!
says a lot about the company.
... because they *know* that they are expeced to behave ethically and would be fired imediately for such bull****.
at many companies no one would even *think* of behaving that way
But, M$ employees have pulled stunts like this in the past and we can infer from current behavior that M$ turned a blind eye to their "a little over-passionate" but darling children.
- bridgette
AOL should just state that accessing there software with certain clients is unauthorized access to its servers. Then state in the login to by sending text to the client loggin in that use of the MS client violates there access policy. This would prevent most regular users even wanting to use it. If only this could work.
I like NT because it fits nicely with custom based applications that work together and NT/dcom provides the glue to help make an enterprise enviroment for custom apps. I admit NT's stability sucks compared to unix but my needs are bussiness objects and custom vb apps on the clients all getting data from the NT servers running Oracle and SQL server. NT provides cheap ways for custom apps for bussinesses because a Oracle database is just raw numbers while a custom vb app at the client creates usable data the user could use and unix really really sucks when it comes to glueing things together. Yell all you want about this just being a tactic by ms to convert unix users but integration is a huge selling point. I am concerned about the server market in the future. I am afraid that as integration between clients and servers become more required for computing, we can expect unix to decline because it can't use ODBC or OLE or any other glue technology (cobra doesnt count because it cant run on windows). This is why I thought it was stupid for sgi to focus on linux only and not NT. Stability is not important thanks to the new cluster server package and switches. I want integration with little hassles from my users. This is why NT is winning and its not about false advertisment or employees stalking internet user groups but because of integration and making safe bets is whats making NT win. Alot of /.ers who are in college dont understand why they need com/dcom and they just focus on academic computing but in corporate computing dcom/ole is a must. Unless linux can get these technologies where IS managers wouldnt have to worry about ms cutting support for linux, you will never see linux come close to NT's marketshare. THis is why I want one company owned by one man to decide whats standard and whats not. I need answers and not splintering in the OS world. This might seem weird to linux users but proprietary software vendors all make there software/hardware not work with the competition. To ease fears we need only one company because competition would split up the world of communication and we the bussiness world couldn't get anything done if we cant even read email from each other or read word docs. At work I have lots of problems with reading outlook express 5 docs in netscape messenger. As an exapmle of what I mentioned about about 1 company I decided to switch everyone from netsape to outlook express and we can finally read everyones email. I just hope the rest of the world switches quick. I love linux and I think its cool but I am worried in 10 years that it will be incapable of taling to windows at all. You dont think ms would keep samba unpatented do you? Ole objects may be required jsut to connect to the microsoft internet that runs only NT server because ms IE only accepts NT servers. What a shame. My point is that NT does make sense like the multiple situations I described above.
The last I heard kde team was experimenting with a ODBC clone for kde apps but that was it. If linux supports odbc then at least I would consider linux more in enterprise planning.
I would love ODBC support.
I think it's important to understand the reasons behind the attitude of the PHB. The character appears entirely irrational to most technical types, and yet there are reasons for what PHBs do. The good news is that, in my view, PHBs are coming around, for reasons you will shortly discover.
See, the person who gets me most of my work is a somewhat enlightened PHB. He's intelligent, has a lot of business savvy and knows a lot about where the bodies are buried. I'm slowly starting to understand his point of view, which is likely to be useful to my future - after all, you can't stay a coder forever, not if you want that inexpensive house on Sunset Plaza Drive in the Hollywood Hills [minimum price $495,000 and rising], anyway.
The primary concern of any boss is to keep the business running. The boss's nightmare is if the IT staff either quits or holds him up for more money. The boss knows that as long as there are plenty of MSCE's ready to help him out, his current IT staff can be replaced. If he uses technology nobody's ever heard of, that requires people that are difficult to locate, then his head is on the corporate chopping block.
Now, note that this doesn't require the executive to like Microsoft. He may find the company's products every bit as wretched as we do. But he knows that he can always find people who can use the stuff, even if the worst happens and his workers all leave.
There is a second, related reason bosses like Microsoft: Applications and software tools are inexpensive and plentiful. Oracle, Sybase and SQL server are all cheaper on Windows than any other platform due to the level of competition that exists. This is, again, something bosses love. They can pitch the salespeople against each other.
Finally, they have someone to blame when things go wrong. I'm not sure how much satisfaction they get from blaming Microsoft, because the company certainly isn't going to help them much, but the idea is there.
These strike me as valid reasons to use Microsoft, even if you hate their products. The good news is that it looks like the younger computing generation has rapidly assimilated Linux, thanks to its extremely low price and compatibility with existing Unix systems they may have in school. This is, no doubt, why MS is trying so hard to get people in academic environments to use their stuff - but they have met considerable resistance. From the perspective of people like Steve Ballmer, who I'm sure can see this as clear if not clearer than I can, this is disasterous news, far worse than any tiresome antitrust trial.
So the good news is that I see a very hopeful future for Linux and free software. What's happened in my own office is instructive - two additional people have been hired, both of who have an interest in Linux. So we are starting to get a critical mass of rebel geeks in the organization I work with, which has traditionally been a "Windows Uber Alles" type shop.
D
PS: You're probably telling me, "David, everyone knows MSCE's are incompetent boobs who studied very hard to pass a simple multiple-choice test." And I'm sure you're right. But at least it means some minimum level of ability, and that reassures the PHB.
----
We should perhaps give Microsoft a bit of support for trying to break down AOL's proprietary messaging system.
AOL is just as bad resorting to tricks to stop competitors making software compatible with theirs.
What's the quote about "those unfamiliar with history are doomed to repeat it". A perfect example.
clancey
Anyone who remembers the OS/2 fora on Compuserve circa 1994 should be well acquainted with this trick. There were at least two or three 'round those parts who would try to stir up trouble, apparently under tacit if not explicit MS Sanction. Not that MS would ever admit to that. No doubt they do it with Linux too and just haven't got caught yet. Maybe even here. Maybe I'm one. Yeah...