you are wrong. they are not a bully, they are an illegal monopolistic corporation that has broken the law repeatedly and settled out of court.
stealing stacker code was illegal.
the recruiting dept. next to borland was illegal.
the novell networking code they distributed with win3.x was illegal.
the code they stole from ibm was illegal.
breaking the agreement they had with the doj was illegal.
modifying sun's java api was illegal.
stealing the apple look and feel was illegal.
How can I say these things were "illegal"? MSHAFT was not found guilty, because they settled out of court when it became clear they would lose.
personally, i think the judge will ask the case to be fast-tracked to the supreme court, as is his right. MSHAFT will then have a single chance to show they are not deserving of the remedy. after that decision, it's over.
i think they are going to mintain a monopoly for a few years, but with sun, sgi, apple, ibm all helping the two divisions fight each other (developing apps to a well documented api, having MSHAFT apps run on their OS) it's pretty much over for Bill Gate's Wild West Show.
The more I read about the split, the more I like it. Legally, they won't be able to partner, and they will immediately view each other as rivals.
The implication is that the App division will immediately try and support other OS, to kill the OS division.
At the same time, the OS division will be forced to STOP the floating API game they've been using for so many years. Instead, stability, open APIs, etc. will become the watchword as they try to kill off the App division.
Who "wins"? Everyone. Lower cost, better quality for the consumer. More software companies, with better documentation.
All programmers (MS or not) benefit from a larger pool of employers. MS shareholders win, cuz no matter which one they end up owning (or split) the stock will start rising again before long.
*nix, apple, Sun, SGI win, since they will no longer be a "competitor" to the App division, but an ally in the war against the OS. Similarly, all the app companies will be wooed by the OS division!
Both divisions, by law, will have to provide docs, licensing, etc. at a solid pricing and quality structure to all comers.
The "Operating Systems Business" includes OS products for computing devices such as: * personal computers based on the Intel x-86 architecture and other microprocessors * servers * handheld devices such as personal digital assistants and cellular telephones * TV set-top boxes
The "Applications Business" includes products such as: * Office * Internet Explorer * BackOffice * Internet Information Server * SQL Server * Mobile Explorer and other Web browsers * streaming audio and video software * Mobile Explorer * SNA server software * XML servers and parsers * Java virtual machines * Frontpage Express * Outlook Express * Media player * Net Meeting * MSN * MSNBC * Slate * Expedia * "all investments owned by Microsoft in partnerships or joint ventures"
a lot of people complain about RPM, i know i used to. some of my friends bitched at me endlessly about it, and it rubbed off. oh well.
i'm persoanlly in favor of RH. maybe they could do more towards establishing a standards board, or participating in one, but they have certainly released nearly all their stuff under GPL. what more do you want?
i'm pretty sure RPM is under the GPL. presumably, debian's PM (apt?) is under GPL as well.
the only thing stopping some kind of grand unified linux PM is a lack of programmers capable of understanding the deep problems involved in recursive version checking.
if someone were to make such a GULP, with it's own new extension (gpm?) and allow conversion between the other two into the new, that would essentially make everyone shtup about it.
tarballz, in my opinion, are NOT the best way to go. not unless they have some type of autoconf script (even for binaries).
PS: anyone have the "Storm Trooper/Whazzup/Elian" flash thing mirrored? I hear it's illegal now, so I'd like a copy ASAP...
radio and tv blast stuff to your house all the time. you can make recordings, watch them later, give the tapes to your friends so they can watch them, too.
i'm pretty sure all this stuff was settled back in the early days of rock and roll and in the early vhs era.
the tv and radio stations broadcast this stuff to thousands of listeners, who tune in to their stations for the material.
no money changes hands between the listener and the artist, except in the quasi-cash form of advertising and retail. your buying advertised products is absolutely optional.
i hope whatever defense lawyers get these cases just keep pounding the above into the ground. this is a freedom of speech and communication issue.
indeed, as of the ridiculous metallica suit, i have stopped purchasing cd's, with a couple exceptions. i whore them from my friends whenever i can.
all of you should do the same. fuck the artists like dre and metallica. they need to recognize that a huge technology shift is occuring, and they have to adapt to it, not hide behind fear and anger.
the faster the shift occurs, the less impact the suits will have. download napster/gnutella now, put ALL your cd's on it, put an end to this issue.
Free D/L: One layer, Letter size printing Basic Edition: $100, Tabloid printing Pro Edition: $200, Full size plotting
...and the Pro Edition is available to students for $100.
The price isn't bad...if I had a pending need for CAD software, I would be willing to D/L the free edition, run it through it's paces, see if it cores, etc.
If it seemed to work well, I'd consider the purchase.
One thing: I saw nothing about upgrades. I think all non-free s/w should have a fairly liberal upgrade policy.
that's some criminal record -- a alchoholic who gets caught driving drunk (no one hurt) and then skips a couple hearings. ooooh. how scary.
remember, the current ferver over alcohol and drugs is strictly a twentieth century phenonenon.
the state of california, where i live, pulls in about $3500 cash for every drunk driver they catch -- and that's based on blood alcohol level, not your ability to control a vehicle. the state has a strong financial incentive to continue lowering the legal BA level to "catch" more depressed individuals.
drugs? same issue. you get a certain set of genes, you're fucked for life. if the condition is such that you are one of the people out on the bell curve, that medication can't help, you go through a life of terror as you are ostricized and held up as "an evil of society". many end up homeless, tortured souls that the "normals" laugh at and ridicule.
the police, politicians and "moms against drunk drivers" hold you up as evil, politicians pass harsh laws to get votes, the alcoholic is a fundraiser for the state, never gets the treatment to actually fix the problem, their job is lost, money taken into the state's coffers, all so the police can justify more police, more pay, more laws.
my opinion: all the laws should be rolled back to "suspicion" -- the vehicle must be weaving or driving erratically before pullover. furthermore, no sobriety checkpoints. all drugs should be legalized now.
once someone violates the above, it must not be a way for the state to earn money. i would favor very harsh laws against people driving under the influence -- for example, 6 mos. suspension of license on the first offense, and mandatory psych evaluation.
naturally, they would also be responsible for any damage or pain inflicted. but $3500 to the state for a random sobriety checkpoint, on a person who can control their vehicle is not justice.
one of the major reasons people bring up for the legalization of drugs is the elimination of the organized crime and violence that comes with it. what few people realize is that the crime/enforcement/imprisionment industry is one of the fastest growing enterprises in the USA.
the police are no longer your neighbor, looking to keep you safe. this is not mayberry rfd, and the sheriff's son isn't played by ron howard. they are a business enterprise, one that depends on pullovers, tickets, convictions, fines and statistics for their funding and increased presence and livelihood.
the usa's prisons have a large percentage of population that are totally non-violent. they are a cash cow for the massive police enforcement agencies and contracted prison operators. this is a pathetic joke, and the shame of a nation. many of the violent criminals would not be there but for the black market nature of drugs, perpetuated by the state.
one day, this post will be justified by someone who will speak out about the subject, in such a way that america will see through the lie. so far, only a couple of politicians or judges have spoken, since to do so means the instant loss of the police unions during the next election cycle, and the funding of your opponent by the commercial prison lobby.
this is not america.
Re:antidisestablishmentarianism
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Pay Lars
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i don't agree -- the economic roll is about 5 years old and has been shakey the last several months. there is just no way to show any damage to any artist on a systemic scale.
of all the plaintiffs, i think only the action against the individuals *may* has merit. after all, they (apparently) did make large numbers of mp3 files available. but radio, tv, libraries do a similar thing, in a different fashion. i don't think the students were charging for those mp3s, so it's not a simple case of bootlegging.
but the servers? the company that wrote the software? it would be like holding the phone company responsible for a drug deal that used their lines.
hence my sarcastic post. it does piss me off. i was just making up outrageous scenarios that i consider to be as ridiculous as the action against the other plaintifs.
it will be an interesting case. this is definately not a bootlegging case. i think metallica could lose against every plaintif on every charge.
when i listen to a metallica song on the radio, their intellectual property resides in antennas, wires, circuitry, my speakers -- does that make the manufacturer of my car a party in an illegal distribution of metallica's property? after all, the radio station has one cd, but possibly tens of throusands of radios are cooperatively distributing the information.
it's like the battle over cassettes all over again, except now we can all be a radio station.
why do the little people, the end users, always get litigated and blamed when we try to do the same thing the big guys do? and we're not even making any money at it. the court may rule in the favor of the people.
antidisestablishmentarianism
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Pay Lars
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· Score: 4
hahahah that's so funny, a fund to pay pooor the metallica lusers for all that money they lost from mp3's.
i especially enjoyed reading how Q1/2000 has had a greater increase in sales than the last several Q1 increases. mega-profits all around.
here's an idea: maybe the DOJ should find every prisoner or criminal with a metallica-related tattoo, or is willing to sign that metallica influenced their urge to commit crimes, and then sue Metallica under the RICO statues for:
1) Recover the cost of incarceration; 2) Recover lost tax revenue over the life of the unproductive citizen; 3) Establish a retirement fund for a "Metallica Druggies/Losers/Sluts Rest Home" so they aren't a drain on the social security fund;
Furthermore, anytime USA law enforement gets a call on noise complaints, the offender's music collection is seized, and the artists similarly sued under RICO for disturbing the peace.
afaik, the last decent release of netscape was 4.61 -- mozilla claims to be in beta, but in all honesty they are still very alpha. too many showstoppers to call that release beta, imho.
as far as 4.72, there are a couple of hints on bugzilla.redhat.com to get the address book kinda working (in your ~/.netscape dir -- two of the.js files have a line with "locale" in them -- delete those lines). then it will stop crashing when you manipulate addresses between messenger and the address book. that was ugly.
i have a copy of stormix on the way that i'm gonna try next. i hear it's a easy install, then just a simple edit of some config file, run two "apt" commands, and you get potato...
I have to say I'm really impressed with that blurb in the article about suse fixing the netscape issues they had -- sounds like the compiler flags were different between the netscape 4.72 jre build and the XFree 3.3.6 build -- yech.
Wow, another incredible step in Microsoft's march of innovation! The list of Bill's incredible "Industry Firsts" justs keeps growing!
1) MS Basic. (Take that, Carnegie!) 2) QDOS (I mean, MS DOS 1.0) 3) Excel (So much better than that Lotus thing!) 4) Dos 5.0 (Goodbye, DR-DOS!) 5) Windows 3.1 (Take that, Xerox/Apple/MIT!) 6) Windows 95 (Take that, Apple!) 7) Windows NT (Take that, Unix!) 8) IE (Take that, Netscape!) 9) Exchange (Take that, Sendmail!) 10) Visual Studio (Take that, Borland!) 11) SQL Server (Take that, Oracle!) 12) Windows 2K (Take that, Unix!) 13) Windows IIES (Take that, Apache!) 14) Windows Media Player (Take that, Real!) 15) Microsoft SkyServer (Take that, Hubble data archive!) 16) Microsoft Pocket Pool (Take that, Palm!)
Truly, Microsoft is the epitome of laissez faire capitalism! Their innovation and creativity show the whole world just how effective the American legislative, judicial and executive branches are when faced with large rogue corporation.
All countries (and 2/3 of the known extra-solar planets) should immediately model themselves after the USAs clearly superior (and effective) system of government.
>> It is this final point that shows the United >> States Air Force and Navy are becoming rogue >> entities; they deny the will of the people >> of the United States, the considered opinion >> of the Judicial Branch, and repeated, vocal >> concerns of the Legislative. >> > That's quite serious. Want to elaborate?
Sure. In the context of *that portion* of my yappage (a pro-linux sentiment) observe that:
0) A majority of the people support action against MSHAFT.
1) The President is at the helm (so to speak) of the three military branches. I seem to recall him making negative comments about MSHAFT business practices, although I can't quote them precisely at this point. I do distinctly recall an article in the paper discussing a private meeting between Gates and Clinton, and the reporter noted that "...Gates left the meeting...smiling..." while "...the President appeared to be in a state of rage..."
Indeed, the accompanying photograph showed Clinton angry and red-faced while Gates was grinning. This was pre-trial; circa 1997 or so. I consider this an example of Executive displeasure with MSHAFT -- the leader of the military branches is (in general) displeased with Gates/MSHAFT and the costs associated with a lengthy trial.
The Executive Branch has been shown to be unhappy about the refusal of MSHAFT to act in the country's best interest (perhaps MSHAFT's best interest? We won't go there). Yet the United States Navy and Air Force continue to adopt Microsoft products and services at an accelerated pace.
This can only be due to Mismanagement/Incompetence, Misconduct/Bribery, or simply a refusal to accept Clinton as leader. I prefer to believe it is a case of incompetence -- that they are "short term thinkers" -- "We need Microsoft now, because the recruits come in knowing it".
Well, short term thinking can lead to a long term threat -- a dangerous path to tread. Is the Mac or Linux interface really all that different? It is not.
I prefer NOT to beleive it is a case of corruption or malfeasance, yet there have been many cases of this throughout history, and should such evidence arise, I will not be suprised.
2) The judicial. Microsoft has been found guilty of violating federal law. Duh. In my opinion, the Armed Forces exist to preserve and uphold the Constitution and the law -- whether they like it or not. The President is angry at MSHAFT; the Judicial finds them guilty of federal crimes, yet the two branches under discussion continue to expand their use of MSHAFT products and services.
3) The Legislature. Many of the most hardcore right wingers in the Senate and House have pounded out diatribe after diatribe at the podium describing the methods MSHAFT has used to terrorize their constituents. If you wish, you can search for the comments of one Orrin Hatch of Utah, or either Senator from the State of California for some interesting quotes.
You will recall Eisenhower's famous parting comments about the dangers of the Military Industrial Complex?
I hope I have elaborated to the extent you desired, o cowardly one. I have attempted to show that the people, the Executive, the Judicial and the Legislative have all soken freely and strongly in the face of Microsoft -- and yet the Navy and Air Force continue to ignore all of these entities -- entities they are sworn to protect.
After all the grotesque things the posters say about you, your friends and even your mother, there's nothing wrong with a little anger.
Now throw in the questions about ESR and Taco's financial interests, and it's getting pretty dirty.
Finally, the sig:noise ratio is probably approaching parity, if it hasn't been exceeded.
So, I'm glad he's pissed. I hope the/. folks consider making some kind of "Dog Pound" where -1 posts gets transitioned to and deleted after. say 24 hrs.(unless they get moderated back up).
The grossly offtopic remarks (Taco's mom, VA Linux/financial issues, Natalie's Hot Grits, etc) have nothing to do with free speech. This issue has been wrangled since ancient times.
You're free to go onstage and fart at the audience, but don't be suprised if security chucks you out the side door. It's not censorship, it's choice. Most forums delete grossly off topic messages. Go to usenet if you need that kind of outlet. You can even post pictures there.
Netscape 6/VooDoo Banshee
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Carmack Speaks
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· Score: 1
...can barely render that link under Linux. I wonder why. It can hardly scroll it.
Oh well. I think it's pretty cool to go out and talk to gamers that way and give them tips, etc.
It would be nice to see more people doing this; I know I get more productive after sitting through one of these guru speeches. Seems to fire me up.
The United States Air Force is, in all honesty, a bloated, poorly managed, semi-corrupt agency.
As an employee of the Air Force (soon to be a former employee) I'm seen all kinds of jewels they come up with to help themselves at the expense of their employees and contractors.
Scenario One: Civil Service Steals Ideas Contractors.
1) Award a contract to one competitor among several. Civil service immediately opens several "shadow projects" like that of the contractor; they "shadow" their work, constantly stealing any progress the contractor makes and holding it up as their own, thus justifying continued civil service positions. They often justify eliminating the contractor at the end of the contract and "going civil service" since they did "an equivalent or better job" at the task.
Scenario 2: Steal Money from contractors.
1) Contractor A needs access to Air Force resource X.
CS: Oh! You need *that* resource? When do you need it? Oh, six months? Well, it won't do what you need in that time frame. But if you fund a massive upgrade on it, it will do everything you need, in the specified time frame.
In the mean time, the contractor in charge of that resource, who knows it's all lies, can't say anything without incurring the wrath of the corrupt AF/CS/Contractor structure. That contractor gets a slack/neutral review because no one uses the resource, even though it's primed and ready to go. The "upgrade" requirement is falsified to insure the CS can get brownie points for upgrading AF resources, even though it was unneeded.
Finally, I'll toss in my "Pro Linux Speech" here: Even though Microsoft has been found guilty of holding a monopoly, the Air Force (in particular), and the Navy (in general) continue their campaign of "all Microsoft, Everywhere".
It is this final point that shows the United States Air Force and Navy are becoming rogue entities; they deny the will of the people of the United States, the considered opinion of the Judicial Branch, and repeated, vocal concerns of the Legislative.
The United States Air Force and Navy should have to undergo major funding cuts until they STOP the behaviors I've outlined. Furthermore, although I detest libertarians (they aren't) and Republicans (they aren't, either) I have to say that federal employment, in the form of Civil Servants *who produce rather than manage or oversee* are eroding the economy of the USA.
The CS needs to be reduced to oversight, and all production areas closed and sent to the public sector. I can't beleive that I agree with the republicans and libertarians on this one issue, but I do.
is that microsoft has a lot of their serfs (directly and indirectly) flailing at slashdot to disorganize things, try to keep us apart, try to fragment the core believers in openess.
it sounds crazy at first, but back in 1998 or so MS *did fund* a fake grassroots ("astroturf") campaign to try and drop support for the DOJ in the legislative and executive branches of the US government -- that is, they paid people to send letters in support of MSHAFT to the government, people claiming to be independent of MSHAFT, just another lie in the string...
it's not that far of a stretch to have the serfs come pollute slashdot. the most obvious ones start with "...hey, i don't like MSHAFT either, but..." personally, that when I recognize them:-)
i also read a thoughtful article by someone here about this being an ancient japanese technique when your adversary has an open forum -- send in your clowns to spread hate and misery, to discredit the opponent.
overall, i've come to believe this is the case. this open forum has simply become infested by the opposition, who will post anything to discredit the truth. an oppostion that consists of thousands of programmers and users that are simply "less than" -- that is, unable to see past their own desire to retain dominance and see the necessity to restore sanity to the software industry.
perhaps most ironically, it is microsoft programmers who stand to gain the most from government intervention. they would obtain a wider field of possible employers. why they don't see that...oops, i forgot:-)
anyway, if linux goes down, it won't be the first time brawn beat brains, or wrong beat right, or evil beat good, or the general public chose poorly. there are many instances in history where governments/societies chose *extremely poorly*, even though it seemed right at the time.
personally, i don't think censorship applies to grossly offtopic posts. the "va linux" whiner is pathetic. okay, if there is anyone out there who doesn't realize that the stock market had a major reversal, and va linux/andover/redhat/mp3/SGI all cratered, please....go read the news.
besides, ESR still has 150,000 shares, even if va drops to like $0.50 it's still $75K he didn't have before all this. i fell sorry for the people who really lost out this week -- people depending on 401K distributions, etc. that's really painful.
why would anyone moderate this up? it's a troll. there are real reasons for IPOs, particularly Linux IPOs, to yo-yo, and none of those reasons have to do with VA Linux, ESR, or Linux itself.
The whole market just took a plunge -- after years of clockwork growth. Tech stocks were hit hardest -- particularly recent IPOs, dot-coms, and other computer/IT related stocks. Clearly, interest rates are going to skyrocket, just as all indicators show inflation on the rise. The party's over, folks. It's going to take something earth-shaking (fundamental Fusion/Physics/Science breakthrough) to pull this one out.
Even worse, the recent tech IPOs of RedHat, VA, Caldera, MP3 were started off with unsophisticated "geek" buyers. People who are basically ignorant of anything except the net investing all they had for a quick buck. The institutions quickly followed suit, and everyone bailed out once they saw the peak.
This chump should give it a rest with the Linux bashing, ESR should do his homework before making BS posts, and moderators, KINDLY PULL YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS. This guy is either a troll or pathetically ignorant of the stock market, or (most likely) both.
Well, it isn't exactly a myth -- they are falling, and falling rapidly.
But many other stocks are falling as well, with Linux falling somewhat worse. Even high rollers with great quarters (SUN, AMD) are taking an undeserved beating.
So, the questions comes down to:
1) Are Linux stocks are falling rapidly because it is a failed product?
2) Or are Linux stocks are falling rapidly for other reasons...
Clearly, the answer IS NOT #1! Even through shithead organizations like the United States Air Force and Navy, whom routinely kneel behind Bill Gates and give him a good licking, there is still rapid growth in Linux is many areas.
At least the US Army has the balls to think a little out of the box, with their use of Apple webservers and influence in having National Instruments port LabVIEW over to Linux.
To characterize Linux as "failed" because it does poorly in the stock market is to ignore it's roots and phenomenal growth over the last several years, before it was ever "on the market".
A more likely cause is (for lack of a better term) "Techie Insider IPO Fever". That is, geeky people with money, and internet "knowledge", but no real stock market experience, investing in "hot" items as they come on the market, things they "know about", and then bailing out when the stock tops out. MP3, RedHat, VA Linux, Andover. Main stream, long term investors did not buy these until they started ramping up!
The horrid state of the stock market (ridiculous PE ratios, etc), Greenspan's never-ending interest rate increases, the clear indicators of inflation setting in, combined with the poor performance of the dot-coms has led to a backlash against the market, and tech in particular -- and the newcomer to tech was Linux. Of course it is being hit harder.
Sophisticated, forward thinking people didn't buy Linux -- geeks out for a quick killing, and no sense of what the market is really for, bought Linux.
Anyway, all these Linux companies taking a beating will probably struggle on. They did it all for free (or at a loss) for years anyway. This is nothing new -- I personally think Linux will dominate everything at some point.
Add in some sort of legislation giving tax breaks to companies/corporations deploying non-MSHAFT solutions, or a mandate to reduce government usage/purchases of MSHAFT produts/services, or even a speech from Clinton declaring America's overdepence on MSHAFT software a threat to national security (in the same way a single radio/tv entity would be a threat), and you might see these stocks bounce back up fairly rapidly.
Besides, the last time I looked through the classifieds in the region where I live, there were over a hundred Linux developer openings.
There were only five a year and a half ago. And for all the bitching I see about VA Linux, source forge is pretty cool.
One of the reasons VS is so popular is the chief architect. Do you know who he is? His name is Anders. Anders Helsjborg(sp).
Borland was strong in the early 1990's. Anders Helsjborg created Delphi for Borland. They had the best compilers and tools. Delphi was terrifying to Bill Gates. It was eating away at VB rapidly.
So Bill raped Borland. He had his "people" rent the top floor at a hotel near Borland, in California, and had MS employees call most of Borland's developers and tell them a "technology expo" was being held at the hotel -- "please come on over".
When the Borland engineers arrived, they found not a technology expo, but a recruiting center. They were offered jobs at salaries far in excess of their current wages.
Anders himself was eventually offered something like $6 million dollars to sign. An unheard of engineering salary. But remember how bad Bill Gates wanted to stop Borland. To him, it's nothing.
Some would say that "that's freedom and competition". But that would be ignorant, since there is another name for it: "Brain Draining". Brain draining a competitor is illegal in California, as well as other states.
Borland sued, and Microsoft danced their usual jig -- tie up the lawsuit for as long as possible, make the competitor spend a fortune on legal, in the meantime, steal the product as throughly as possible. Microsoft (as usual) settled in the 12th hour.
So the next time you start yapping about how great NT and VS are, and how proud you are to use them, remember that the people who developed them were not originally MS employees. They were brain drained (in the case of VS) from Borland, and in the case of NT, DEC (although I think DEC did not enough of a loss to qualify for a legal action).
Go enjoy your stolen VS interface on your stolen OS. Before MS grabbed the DEC VMS people and the Borland Delphi people, all they had was a shitty VB interface on a shitty OS. That's not innovation, it theft -- one of the "Business Practices" that the DOJ is trying to curb.
You Microsoft Apologists are so sickeningly ignorant.
As long as people are beating this horse, I'll give it a couple whacks.
What can be more American than sharing ideas, communicating, and trusting that the fruits of your labor will pay off in the long run? People have come to America for hundreds of years -- not for the promise of "guaranteed income" but for a a chance; an opportunity. They fled countries where the wealth was jealously held by the few, to a country where hard work pays off for nearly anyone willing to do it.
Many people from across the globe are working on free systems, not for a major income (although some do quite well) but because they sense that a something truly innovative is happening to the compute industry -- openness and freedom. Many beleive that success will come as a fruit of their labor.
Open Source is like America. There's no guarantee. You get a foundation, and you're the one who takes it from there. Free, open, anyone can get it -- regardless of race, creed, sex (and to some extent) economic stature.
Microsoft? Let's see, communism is a system run by a few people, or even one person, who has total control and power over the future of the product. Nearly all wealth is in the hands of those few "intellectuals" that pass the dictator's litmus test. Its goal is the eventual domination of all thought -- as Orwell made clear in his humanist/socialist novels, communism has the overall goal of occupying your mind for the entirety of your life; cradle to grave, swinging that mouse over to the "Start" button. Alternatives are ridiculed. Everyone does it the same way, forever, and is thankful to Bill Gates for the opportunity to use his fine products. After all, if there was something better, surely Bill Gates would have "innovated it".
Microsoft is far closer to communist dicatorship than democratic freedom. A few people control massive wealth and the future of human-machine interface. They steal (Stac, Borland, IBM, Novell) then deny and settle out of court to eliminate a trail of convictions. They claim "it's okay for everyone to use the same product, if it's the best product". But without choice, you will never know, will you?
I don't deny a few capatalists have done very well with Microsoft. But they have done well in the same way Casinos did well in Cuba, or fruit growers in Viet Nam or South America. A few rich people, a lot of suffering -- both day-to-day suffering, and an eventual ugly cleanup when the charade comes apart. A painful cleanup that lasts decades.
Unix gave the world the internet, and Linux is giving the world a chance to develop under a free, open platform -- a computing Bill of Rights, a Magna Carta, a GNU Testament, a Constitution.
Slashdot Mirror
you are wrong. they are not a bully, they are an illegal monopolistic corporation that has broken the law repeatedly and settled out of court.
stealing stacker code was illegal.
the recruiting dept. next to borland was illegal.
the novell networking code they distributed with win3.x was illegal.
the code they stole from ibm was illegal.
breaking the agreement they had with the doj was illegal.
modifying sun's java api was illegal.
stealing the apple look and feel was illegal.
How can I say these things were "illegal"? MSHAFT was not found guilty, because they settled out of court when it became clear they would lose.
personally, i think the judge will ask the case to be fast-tracked to the supreme court, as is his right. MSHAFT will then have a single chance to show they are not deserving of the remedy. after that decision, it's over.
i think they are going to mintain a monopoly for a few years, but with sun, sgi, apple, ibm all helping the two divisions fight each other (developing apps to a well documented api, having MSHAFT apps run on their OS) it's pretty much over for Bill Gate's Wild West Show.
The Fat Lady is tunin' up...
The implication is that the App division will immediately try and support other OS, to kill the OS division.
At the same time, the OS division will be forced to STOP the floating API game they've been using for so many years. Instead, stability, open APIs, etc. will become the watchword as they try to kill off the App division.
Who "wins"? Everyone. Lower cost, better quality for the consumer. More software companies, with better documentation.
All programmers (MS or not) benefit from a larger pool of employers. MS shareholders win, cuz no matter which one they end up owning (or split) the stock will start rising again before long.
*nix, apple, Sun, SGI win, since they will no longer be a "competitor" to the App division, but an ally in the war against the OS. Similarly, all the app companies will be wooed by the OS division!
Both divisions, by law, will have to provide docs, licensing, etc. at a solid pricing and quality structure to all comers.
Sweeeeet!
PS: Here are the proposed divisions:
The "Operating Systems Business" includes OS products for computing devices such as:
* personal computers based on the Intel x-86 architecture and other microprocessors
* servers
* handheld devices such as personal digital assistants and cellular telephones
* TV set-top boxes
The "Applications Business" includes products such as:
* Office
* Internet Explorer
* BackOffice
* Internet Information Server
* SQL Server
* Mobile Explorer and other Web browsers
* streaming audio and video software
* Mobile Explorer
* SNA server software
* XML servers and parsers
* Java virtual machines
* Frontpage Express
* Outlook Express
* Media player
* Net Meeting
* MSN
* MSNBC
* Slate
* Expedia
* "all investments owned by Microsoft in partnerships or joint ventures"
...that headline would just about round out all the hits our freedoms are taking today.
I will not buy another CD.
...don't do the crime. he broke the law, he went to court, he lost, now he's on probation and must adhere to the terms of that probation.
not that i think the gov handled the case properly -- i don't. but he has to live with the consequences, eh?
...if I'm reading the text of the law properly. UCITA makes licences holding the author/provider harmless INVALID.
The implication is that the GPL and many other licences are INVALID in these states, and the AUTHOR can be held liable for the software!
...at least not after the DOJ gets done.
a lot of people complain about RPM, i know i used to. some of my friends bitched at me endlessly about it, and it rubbed off. oh well.
i'm persoanlly in favor of RH. maybe they could do more towards establishing a standards board, or participating in one, but they have certainly released nearly all their stuff under GPL. what more do you want?
i'm pretty sure RPM is under the GPL. presumably, debian's PM (apt?) is under GPL as well.
the only thing stopping some kind of grand unified linux PM is a lack of programmers capable of understanding the deep problems involved in recursive version checking.
if someone were to make such a GULP, with it's own new extension (gpm?) and allow conversion between the other two into the new, that would essentially make everyone shtup about it.
tarballz, in my opinion, are NOT the best way to go. not unless they have some type of autoconf script (even for binaries).
PS: anyone have the "Storm Trooper/Whazzup/Elian" flash thing mirrored? I hear it's illegal now, so I'd like a copy ASAP...
radio and tv blast stuff to your house all the time. you can make recordings, watch them later, give the tapes to your friends so they can watch them, too.
i'm pretty sure all this stuff was settled back in the early days of rock and roll and in the early vhs era.
the tv and radio stations broadcast this stuff to thousands of listeners, who tune in to their stations for the material.
no money changes hands between the listener and the artist, except in the quasi-cash form of advertising and retail. your buying advertised products is absolutely optional.
i hope whatever defense lawyers get these cases just keep pounding the above into the ground. this is a freedom of speech and communication issue.
indeed, as of the ridiculous metallica suit, i have stopped purchasing cd's, with a couple exceptions. i whore them from my friends whenever i can.
all of you should do the same. fuck the artists like dre and metallica. they need to recognize that a huge technology shift is occuring, and they have to adapt to it, not hide behind fear and anger.
the faster the shift occurs, the less impact the suits will have. download napster/gnutella now, put ALL your cd's on it, put an end to this issue.
not free, but...
Free D/L: One layer, Letter size printing
Basic Edition: $100, Tabloid printing
Pro Edition: $200, Full size plotting
...and the Pro Edition is available to students for $100.
The price isn't bad...if I had a pending need for CAD software, I would be willing to D/L the free edition, run it through it's paces, see if it cores, etc.
If it seemed to work well, I'd consider the purchase.
One thing: I saw nothing about upgrades. I think all non-free s/w should have a fairly liberal upgrade policy.
informative bullshit.
that's some criminal record -- a alchoholic who gets caught driving drunk (no one hurt) and then skips a couple hearings. ooooh. how scary.
remember, the current ferver over alcohol and drugs is strictly a twentieth century phenonenon.
the state of california, where i live, pulls in about $3500 cash for every drunk driver they catch -- and that's based on blood alcohol level, not your ability to control a vehicle. the state has a strong financial incentive to continue lowering the legal BA level to "catch" more depressed individuals.
drugs? same issue. you get a certain set of genes, you're fucked for life. if the condition is such that you are one of the people out on the bell curve, that medication can't help, you go through a life of terror as you are ostricized and held up as "an evil of society". many end up homeless, tortured souls that the "normals" laugh at and ridicule.
the police, politicians and "moms against drunk drivers" hold you up as evil, politicians pass harsh laws to get votes, the alcoholic is a fundraiser for the state, never gets the treatment to actually fix the problem, their job is lost, money taken into the state's coffers, all so the police can justify more police, more pay, more laws.
my opinion: all the laws should be rolled back to "suspicion" -- the vehicle must be weaving or driving erratically before pullover. furthermore, no sobriety checkpoints. all drugs should be legalized now.
once someone violates the above, it must not be a way for the state to earn money. i would favor very harsh laws against people driving under the influence -- for example, 6 mos. suspension of license on the first offense, and mandatory psych evaluation.
naturally, they would also be responsible for any damage or pain inflicted. but $3500 to the state for a random sobriety checkpoint, on a person who can control their vehicle is not justice.
one of the major reasons people bring up for the legalization of drugs is the elimination of the organized crime and violence that comes with it. what few people realize is that the crime/enforcement/imprisionment industry is one of the fastest growing enterprises in the USA.
the police are no longer your neighbor, looking to keep you safe. this is not mayberry rfd, and the sheriff's son isn't played by ron howard. they are a business enterprise, one that depends on pullovers, tickets, convictions, fines and statistics for their funding and increased presence and livelihood.
the usa's prisons have a large percentage of population that are totally non-violent. they are a cash cow for the massive police enforcement agencies and contracted prison operators. this is a pathetic joke, and the shame of a nation. many of the violent criminals would not be there but for the black market nature of drugs, perpetuated by the state.
one day, this post will be justified by someone who will speak out about the subject, in such a way that america will see through the lie. so far, only a couple of politicians or judges have spoken, since to do so means the instant loss of the police unions during the next election cycle, and the funding of your opponent by the commercial prison lobby.
this is not america.
i don't agree -- the economic roll is about 5 years old and has been shakey the last several months. there is just no way to show any damage to any artist on a systemic scale.
of all the plaintiffs, i think only the action against the individuals *may* has merit. after all, they (apparently) did make large numbers of mp3 files available. but radio, tv, libraries do a similar thing, in a different fashion. i don't think the students were charging for those mp3s, so it's not a simple case of bootlegging.
but the servers? the company that wrote the software? it would be like holding the phone company responsible for a drug deal that used their lines.
hence my sarcastic post. it does piss me off. i was just making up outrageous scenarios that i consider to be as ridiculous as the action against the other plaintifs.
it will be an interesting case. this is definately not a bootlegging case. i think metallica could lose against every plaintif on every charge.
when i listen to a metallica song on the radio, their intellectual property resides in antennas, wires, circuitry, my speakers -- does that make the manufacturer of my car a party in an illegal distribution of metallica's property? after all, the radio station has one cd, but possibly tens of throusands of radios are cooperatively distributing the information.
it's like the battle over cassettes all over again, except now we can all be a radio station.
why do the little people, the end users, always get litigated and blamed when we try to do the same thing the big guys do? and we're not even making any money at it. the court may rule in the favor of the people.
hahahah that's so funny, a fund to pay pooor the metallica lusers for all that money they lost from mp3's.
i especially enjoyed reading how Q1/2000 has had a greater increase in sales than the last several Q1 increases. mega-profits all around.
here's an idea: maybe the DOJ should find every prisoner or criminal with a metallica-related tattoo, or is willing to sign that metallica influenced their urge to commit crimes, and then sue Metallica under the RICO statues for:
1) Recover the cost of incarceration;
2) Recover lost tax revenue over the life of the unproductive citizen;
3) Establish a retirement fund for a "Metallica Druggies/Losers/Sluts Rest Home" so they aren't a drain on the social security fund;
Furthermore, anytime USA law enforement gets a call on noise complaints, the offender's music collection is seized, and the artists similarly sued under RICO for disturbing the peace.
afaik, the last decent release of netscape was 4.61 -- mozilla claims to be in beta, but in all honesty they are still very alpha. too many showstoppers to call that release beta, imho.
.js files have a line with "locale" in them -- delete those lines). then it will stop crashing when you manipulate addresses between messenger and the address book. that was ugly.
as far as 4.72, there are a couple of hints on bugzilla.redhat.com to get the address book kinda working (in your ~/.netscape dir -- two of the
i have a copy of stormix on the way that i'm gonna try next. i hear it's a easy install, then just a simple edit of some config file, run two "apt" commands, and you get potato...
I have to say I'm really impressed with that blurb in the article about suse fixing the netscape issues they had -- sounds like the compiler flags were different between the netscape 4.72 jre build and the XFree 3.3.6 build -- yech.
sleep now.
Wow, another incredible step in Microsoft's march of innovation! The list of Bill's incredible "Industry Firsts" justs keeps growing!
1) MS Basic. (Take that, Carnegie!)
2) QDOS (I mean, MS DOS 1.0)
3) Excel (So much better than that Lotus thing!)
4) Dos 5.0 (Goodbye, DR-DOS!)
5) Windows 3.1 (Take that, Xerox/Apple/MIT!)
6) Windows 95 (Take that, Apple!)
7) Windows NT (Take that, Unix!)
8) IE (Take that, Netscape!)
9) Exchange (Take that, Sendmail!)
10) Visual Studio (Take that, Borland!)
11) SQL Server (Take that, Oracle!)
12) Windows 2K (Take that, Unix!)
13) Windows IIES (Take that, Apache!)
14) Windows Media Player (Take that, Real!)
15) Microsoft SkyServer (Take that, Hubble data archive!)
16) Microsoft Pocket Pool (Take that, Palm!)
Truly, Microsoft is the epitome of laissez faire capitalism! Their innovation and creativity show the whole world just how effective the American legislative, judicial and executive branches are when faced with large rogue corporation.
All countries (and 2/3 of the known extra-solar planets) should immediately model themselves after the USAs clearly superior (and effective) system of government.
>> It is this final point that shows the United
>> States Air Force and Navy are becoming rogue
>> entities; they deny the will of the people
>> of the United States, the considered opinion
>> of the Judicial Branch, and repeated, vocal
>> concerns of the Legislative.
>>
> That's quite serious. Want to elaborate?
Sure. In the context of *that portion* of my yappage (a pro-linux sentiment) observe that:
0) A majority of the people support action against MSHAFT.
1) The President is at the helm (so to speak) of the three military branches. I seem to recall him making negative comments about MSHAFT business practices, although I can't quote them precisely at this point. I do distinctly recall an article in the paper discussing a private meeting between Gates and Clinton, and the reporter noted that "...Gates left the meeting...smiling..." while "...the President appeared to be in a state of rage..."
Indeed, the accompanying photograph showed Clinton angry and red-faced while Gates was grinning. This was pre-trial; circa 1997 or so. I consider this an example of Executive displeasure with MSHAFT -- the leader of the military branches is (in general) displeased with Gates/MSHAFT and the costs associated with a lengthy trial.
The Executive Branch has been shown to be unhappy about the refusal of MSHAFT to act in the country's best interest (perhaps MSHAFT's best interest? We won't go there). Yet the United States Navy and Air Force continue to adopt Microsoft products and services at an accelerated pace.
This can only be due to Mismanagement/Incompetence, Misconduct/Bribery, or simply a refusal to accept Clinton as leader. I prefer to believe it is a case of incompetence -- that they are "short term thinkers" -- "We need Microsoft now, because the recruits come in knowing it".
Well, short term thinking can lead to a long term threat -- a dangerous path to tread. Is the Mac or Linux interface really all that different? It is not.
I prefer NOT to beleive it is a case of corruption or malfeasance, yet there have been many cases of this throughout history, and should such evidence arise, I will not be suprised.
2) The judicial. Microsoft has been found guilty of violating federal law. Duh. In my opinion, the Armed Forces exist to preserve and uphold the Constitution and the law -- whether they like it or not. The President is angry at MSHAFT; the Judicial finds them guilty of federal crimes, yet the two branches under discussion continue to expand their use of MSHAFT products and services.
3) The Legislature. Many of the most hardcore right wingers in the Senate and House have pounded out diatribe after diatribe at the podium describing the methods MSHAFT has used to terrorize their constituents. If you wish, you can search for the comments of one Orrin Hatch of Utah, or either Senator from the State of California for some interesting quotes.
You will recall Eisenhower's famous parting comments about the dangers of the Military Industrial Complex?
I hope I have elaborated to the extent you desired, o cowardly one. I have attempted to show that the people, the Executive, the Judicial and the Legislative have all soken freely and strongly in the face of Microsoft -- and yet the Navy and Air Force continue to ignore all of these entities -- entities they are sworn to protect.
Go, Taco.
/. folks consider making some kind of "Dog Pound" where -1 posts gets transitioned to and deleted after. say 24 hrs.(unless they get moderated back up).
After all the grotesque things the posters say about you, your friends and even your mother, there's nothing wrong with a little anger.
Now throw in the questions about ESR and Taco's financial interests, and it's getting pretty dirty.
Finally, the sig:noise ratio is probably approaching parity, if it hasn't been exceeded.
So, I'm glad he's pissed. I hope the
The grossly offtopic remarks (Taco's mom, VA Linux/financial issues, Natalie's Hot Grits, etc) have nothing to do with free speech. This issue has been wrangled since ancient times.
You're free to go onstage and fart at the audience, but don't be suprised if security chucks you out the side door. It's not censorship, it's choice. Most forums delete grossly off topic messages. Go to usenet if you need that kind of outlet. You can even post pictures there.
...can barely render that link under Linux. I wonder why. It can hardly scroll it.
Oh well. I think it's pretty cool to go out and talk to gamers that way and give them tips, etc.
It would be nice to see more people doing this; I know I get more productive after sitting through one of these guru speeches. Seems to fire me up.
My Opinion:
The United States Air Force is, in all honesty, a bloated, poorly managed, semi-corrupt agency.
As an employee of the Air Force (soon to be a former employee) I'm seen all kinds of jewels they come up with to help themselves at the expense of their employees and contractors.
Scenario One: Civil Service Steals Ideas Contractors.
1) Award a contract to one competitor among several. Civil service immediately opens several "shadow projects" like that of the contractor; they "shadow" their work, constantly stealing any progress the contractor makes and holding it up as their own, thus justifying continued civil service positions. They often justify eliminating the contractor at the end of the contract and "going civil service" since they did "an equivalent or better job" at the task.
Scenario 2: Steal Money from contractors.
1) Contractor A needs access to Air Force resource X.
CS: Oh! You need *that* resource? When do you need it? Oh, six months? Well, it won't do what you need in that time frame. But if you fund a massive upgrade on it, it will do everything you need, in the specified time frame.
In the mean time, the contractor in charge of that resource, who knows it's all lies, can't say anything without incurring the wrath of the corrupt AF/CS/Contractor structure. That contractor gets a slack/neutral review because no one uses the resource, even though it's primed and ready to go. The "upgrade" requirement is falsified to insure the CS can get brownie points for upgrading AF resources, even though it was unneeded.
Finally, I'll toss in my "Pro Linux Speech" here: Even though Microsoft has been found guilty of holding a monopoly, the Air Force (in particular), and the Navy (in general) continue their campaign of "all Microsoft, Everywhere".
It is this final point that shows the United States Air Force and Navy are becoming rogue entities; they deny the will of the people of the United States, the considered opinion of the Judicial Branch, and repeated, vocal concerns of the Legislative.
The United States Air Force and Navy should have to undergo major funding cuts until they STOP the behaviors I've outlined. Furthermore, although I detest libertarians (they aren't) and Republicans (they aren't, either) I have to say that federal employment, in the form of Civil Servants *who produce rather than manage or oversee* are eroding the economy of the USA.
The CS needs to be reduced to oversight, and all production areas closed and sent to the public sector. I can't beleive that I agree with the republicans and libertarians on this one issue, but I do.
one theory i heard...
:-)
:-)
is that microsoft has a lot of their serfs (directly and indirectly) flailing at slashdot to disorganize things, try to keep us apart, try to fragment the core believers in openess.
it sounds crazy at first, but back in 1998 or so MS *did fund* a fake grassroots ("astroturf") campaign to try and drop support for the DOJ in the legislative and executive branches of the US government -- that is, they paid people to send letters in support of MSHAFT to the government, people claiming to be independent of MSHAFT, just another lie in the string...
it's not that far of a stretch to have the serfs come pollute slashdot. the most obvious ones start with "...hey, i don't like MSHAFT either, but..." personally, that when I recognize them
i also read a thoughtful article by someone here about this being an ancient japanese technique when your adversary has an open forum -- send in your clowns to spread hate and misery, to discredit the opponent.
overall, i've come to believe this is the case. this open forum has simply become infested by the opposition, who will post anything to discredit the truth. an oppostion that consists of thousands of programmers and users that are simply "less than" -- that is, unable to see past their own desire to retain dominance and see the necessity to restore sanity to the software industry.
perhaps most ironically, it is microsoft programmers who stand to gain the most from government intervention. they would obtain a wider field of possible employers. why they don't see that...oops, i forgot
anyway, if linux goes down, it won't be the first time brawn beat brains, or wrong beat right, or evil beat good, or the general public chose poorly. there are many instances in history where governments/societies chose *extremely poorly*, even though it seemed right at the time.
personally, i don't think censorship applies to grossly offtopic posts. the "va linux" whiner is pathetic. okay, if there is anyone out there who doesn't realize that the stock market had a major reversal, and va linux/andover/redhat/mp3/SGI all cratered, please....go read the news.
besides, ESR still has 150,000 shares, even if va drops to like $0.50 it's still $75K he didn't have before all this. i fell sorry for the people who really lost out this week -- people depending on 401K distributions, etc. that's really painful.
you take the time out to bash slashdot, but you never mention all the major news services carried it first.
remember, slashdot DOES NOT VERIFY news to any great extent. it only reports it.
by the way, even MSHAFT recommended the dll be deleted as soon as possible.
whether you like it or not, it was news, news for nerds. incorrect news, but that was hardly slashdot's fault, considering the above.
why would anyone moderate this up? it's a troll. there are real reasons for IPOs, particularly Linux IPOs, to yo-yo, and none of those reasons have to do with VA Linux, ESR, or Linux itself.
The whole market just took a plunge -- after years of clockwork growth. Tech stocks were hit hardest -- particularly recent IPOs, dot-coms, and other computer/IT related stocks. Clearly, interest rates are going to skyrocket, just as all indicators show inflation on the rise. The party's over, folks. It's going to take something earth-shaking (fundamental Fusion/Physics/Science breakthrough) to pull this one out.
Even worse, the recent tech IPOs of RedHat, VA, Caldera, MP3 were started off with unsophisticated "geek" buyers. People who are basically ignorant of anything except the net investing all they had for a quick buck. The institutions quickly followed suit, and everyone bailed out once they saw the peak.
This chump should give it a rest with the Linux bashing, ESR should do his homework before making BS posts, and moderators, KINDLY PULL YOUR HEAD OUT OF YOUR ASS. This guy is either a troll or pathetically ignorant of the stock market, or (most likely) both.
i thought ESR's prediction that the "...US Ecomomy...would crater..." before his six-month holding period was up was particularly interesting.
Well, it isn't exactly a myth -- they are falling, and falling rapidly.
But many other stocks are falling as well, with Linux falling somewhat worse. Even high rollers with great quarters (SUN, AMD) are taking an undeserved beating.
So, the questions comes down to:
1) Are Linux stocks are falling rapidly because it is a failed product?
2) Or are Linux stocks are falling rapidly for other reasons...
Clearly, the answer IS NOT #1! Even through shithead organizations like the United States Air Force and Navy, whom routinely kneel behind Bill Gates and give him a good licking, there is still rapid growth in Linux is many areas.
At least the US Army has the balls to think a little out of the box, with their use of Apple webservers and influence in having National Instruments port LabVIEW over to Linux.
To characterize Linux as "failed" because it does poorly in the stock market is to ignore it's roots and phenomenal growth over the last several years, before it was ever "on the market".
A more likely cause is (for lack of a better term) "Techie Insider IPO Fever". That is, geeky people with money, and internet "knowledge", but no real stock market experience, investing in "hot" items as they come on the market, things they "know about", and then bailing out when the stock tops out. MP3, RedHat, VA Linux, Andover. Main stream, long term investors did not buy these until they started ramping up!
The horrid state of the stock market (ridiculous PE ratios, etc), Greenspan's never-ending interest rate increases, the clear indicators of inflation setting in, combined with the poor performance of the dot-coms has led to a backlash against the market, and tech in particular -- and the newcomer to tech was Linux. Of course it is being hit harder.
Sophisticated, forward thinking people didn't buy Linux -- geeks out for a quick killing, and no sense of what the market is really for, bought Linux.
Anyway, all these Linux companies taking a beating will probably struggle on. They did it all for free (or at a loss) for years anyway. This is nothing new -- I personally think Linux will dominate everything at some point.
Add in some sort of legislation giving tax breaks to companies/corporations deploying non-MSHAFT solutions, or a mandate to reduce government usage/purchases of MSHAFT produts/services, or even a speech from Clinton declaring America's overdepence on MSHAFT software a threat to national security (in the same way a single radio/tv entity would be a threat), and you might see these stocks bounce back up fairly rapidly.
Besides, the last time I looked through the classifieds in the region where I live, there were over a hundred Linux developer openings.
There were only five a year and a half ago. And for all the bitching I see about VA Linux, source forge is pretty cool.
That's hilarious.
One of the reasons VS is so popular is the chief architect. Do you know who he is? His name is Anders. Anders Helsjborg(sp).
Borland was strong in the early 1990's. Anders Helsjborg created Delphi for Borland. They had the best compilers and tools. Delphi was terrifying to Bill Gates. It was eating away at VB rapidly.
So Bill raped Borland. He had his "people" rent the top floor at a hotel near Borland, in California, and had MS employees call most of Borland's developers and tell them a "technology expo" was being held at the hotel -- "please come on over".
When the Borland engineers arrived, they found not a technology expo, but a recruiting center. They were offered jobs at salaries far in excess of their current wages.
Anders himself was eventually offered something like $6 million dollars to sign. An unheard of engineering salary. But remember how bad Bill Gates wanted to stop Borland. To him, it's nothing.
Some would say that "that's freedom and competition". But that would be ignorant, since there is another name for it: "Brain Draining". Brain draining a competitor is illegal in California, as well as other states.
Borland sued, and Microsoft danced their usual jig -- tie up the lawsuit for as long as possible, make the competitor spend a fortune on legal, in the meantime, steal the product as throughly as possible. Microsoft (as usual) settled in the 12th hour.
So the next time you start yapping about how great NT and VS are, and how proud you are to use them, remember that the people who developed them were not originally MS employees. They were brain drained (in the case of VS) from Borland, and in the case of NT, DEC (although I think DEC did not enough of a loss to qualify for a legal action).
Go enjoy your stolen VS interface on your stolen OS. Before MS grabbed the DEC VMS people and the Borland Delphi people, all they had was a shitty VB interface on a shitty OS. That's not innovation, it theft -- one of the "Business Practices" that the DOJ is trying to curb.
You Microsoft Apologists are so sickeningly ignorant.
As long as people are beating this horse, I'll give it a couple whacks.
What can be more American than sharing ideas, communicating, and trusting that the fruits of your labor will pay off in the long run? People have come to America for hundreds of years -- not for the promise of "guaranteed income" but for a a chance; an opportunity. They fled countries where the wealth was jealously held by the few, to a country where hard work pays off for nearly anyone willing to do it.
Many people from across the globe are working on free systems, not for a major income (although some do quite well) but because they sense that a something truly innovative is happening to the compute industry -- openness and freedom. Many beleive that success will come as a fruit of their labor.
Open Source is like America. There's no guarantee. You get a foundation, and you're the one who takes it from there. Free, open, anyone can get it -- regardless of race, creed, sex (and to some extent) economic stature.
Microsoft? Let's see, communism is a system run by a few people, or even one person, who has total control and power over the future of the product. Nearly all wealth is in the hands of those few "intellectuals" that pass the dictator's litmus test. Its goal is the eventual domination of all thought -- as Orwell made clear in his humanist/socialist novels, communism has the overall goal of occupying your mind for the entirety of your life; cradle to grave, swinging that mouse over to the "Start" button. Alternatives are ridiculed. Everyone does it the same way, forever, and is thankful to Bill Gates for the opportunity to use his fine products. After all, if there was something better, surely Bill Gates would have "innovated it".
Microsoft is far closer to communist dicatorship than democratic freedom. A few people control massive wealth and the future of human-machine interface. They steal (Stac, Borland, IBM, Novell) then deny and settle out of court to eliminate a trail of convictions. They claim "it's okay for everyone to use the same product, if it's the best product". But without choice, you will never know, will you?
I don't deny a few capatalists have done very well with Microsoft. But they have done well in the same way Casinos did well in Cuba, or fruit growers in Viet Nam or South America. A few rich people, a lot of suffering -- both day-to-day suffering, and an eventual ugly cleanup when the charade comes apart. A painful cleanup that lasts decades.
Unix gave the world the internet, and Linux is giving the world a chance to develop under a free, open platform -- a computing Bill of Rights, a Magna Carta, a GNU Testament, a Constitution.
Now that's innovation.