Put the lie to it, directly. Don't be misled. You do not "buy" microsoft products at all. If Microsoft is happy with your payment, if they are happy with your hardware, if you jump through all the proper hoops with CD keys and WGA, THEN Microsoft will ALLOW YOU TO USE their product, until they decide they don't allow it any more. License, schmicense.
Even with tremendous discounts to third world countries, there are zillions of people who never will be able to afford a "legal" microsoft system. They MIGHT get their hands on some hardware, and knock something together that can be called a computer, but the whole VILLAGE can't afford a "legal" license.
MS is not going to license their product to people living way out on the extreme edge of existence, plain and simple. Open source, on the other hand, is happy to license their products to anyone, and everyone, and they don't care if you give them nothing, give them a dollar, or give them a trillion dollars. You're just as "enabled" with open source no matter WHAT you give, and there will never be a "genuine advantage check" sent around to disable your *nix operating system.
Political correctness was a term from the Soviet Union, as I recall. Screw the activists who demand it. Activists are a minority. The sterotypical female outnumbers them, and Dell will probably sell a lot of computers to that majority. Yeah, the feminazis might make Dell feel guilty, they might even make some of the more stereotypical females feel a twinge of guilt - but so many women WANT a damned pink computer, Dell will see a profit. Money talks, bullshit walks.
Sarcasm noted. Would you be comforted to know that I have given time to the Boy Scouts of America, as well as the Girl Scouts of America? 8 years of documented service in positions of leadership, not to mention undocumented time spent helping individuals. Would it make any difference to know that I was registered as an EMT almost 30 years ago, and that I have helped a number of people around the country - NEVER paid for my services, but always strictly volunteer?
Back to Bill. Let's say you grew up with someone who was a known thief. Over the years, you read of him being arrested multiple times for theiving. At the end of a long life, the guy has more thefts to his credit than anyone can count. But, he's RICH!!! You meet him, and he offers to share a little dab of his wealth with you. Do you accept his money? Do you suddenly forget that he's a thief?
Bill is a crook, plain and simple. The man digusts me. And, the charades put on by these charitable organizations make me sick. Any time someone attempts to put Bill into a good light, I WILL remind them that Bill is a crook, and he got where he is by being a sneaky vicious bastard.
Practice bigotry much? You're an America hater? Fine, hate me. Personally, I'm not "typical". I've been badmouthing and arguing America's worst practices for a long time - 20 years plus.
Meanwhile, will you deny that the Taliban are a bunch of religious zealots? Will you deny that the Moslem extremists sometimes make irrational moves? Are you implying that those same Moslem extremists represent all the rest of the world outside of the US/UK/British Commonwealth?
BTW - you have rather limited scope in your diatribe. The butchery, abuse, and exploitation have been going on for CENTURIES, not mere decades. Of course, that is not a purely one-way street. There has been plenty of butchery, abuse, and exploitation to go around for all races, nationalities, religions, or whatever other division you wish to classify humanity by.
I stand by my assertion: if the religious zealots in Pakistan get hold of those nukes, the apocalypse COULD BE as near as a year away. Not "has to be" or "will be", and not necessarily "likely to be", but COULD BE. Religious nuts are dangerous, whether they be Christian, Jew, Moslem, or whatever. They ALL expect to be rewarded in heaven for whatever atrocities they might perform here on earth.
Now, can you really say that it would be a "GOOD" thing for the Taliban to capture even ONE NUKE?????
Did Bill steal money and intellectual rights from other people? See my sig for one glaring, irrefutable example. A mountain of excuses won't wash away that one stain on his character, or Microsoft's reputation. And, that is only ONE example.
As for what I do, personally? You expect me to roll out everything I've ever done for the poor, the hungry, and the destitute, and beat my chest over those achievements? No thank you - that isn't my styly. Nor am I qualified to do much that has any real impact beyond my own neighborhood, and circle of acquaintances.
But, I will point to Boinc and Rosetta. Go to the distributed computing sites sponsored by Boinc, and search for my nic. Maybe it isn't much, but I demontrably contribute SOMETHING to science, and have been for years.
Meanwhile, don't expect me to worship the Gates, Carnegies, and other philanthropic entities established to enshrine those ruthless enough to build fortunes, mostly at the expense of Joe Sixpack.
Let us assume, just for the sake of argument, that Osama's buddies capture all 60 nukes that the Pakistani's own. Now, you assume that the particular bunch of baddies who capture them will use them, directly. I figure, someone with brains is going to already have a plan. He inventories those that are in good working condition. He inventories those that are unusable, either through being "locked", or parts missing, or whatever. THOSE, he sends to Iran, for reverse engineering and reconstruction. Suppose they have ten warheads that are "usable". They will be divvied out, to high value targets, that offer the most bang for the buck. Two to Israel, two to India, one or two to the UK, and the rest targeted on the US of A.
Delivery? Phhttt. There is so much contraband crossing our borders already, you can't POSSIBLY believe that a one ton package will be stopped. Tons of drugs cross our borders every week, in packages large and small. There is no NEED to figure out how the missile works, or to target a missile, or to subject the warhead to satellite/radar tracking in flight.
A lack of imagination my prevent you from seeing possibilities. That doesn't mean the possibilities aren't there, and it CERTAINLY doesn't mean the bad guys aren't looking for them.
Meanwhile - it is my position that the US, UK, and France were damned fools to assist various "freindly" countries aroung the world to develop nuclear technology. When the Paki's nukes are safely out of the country, and in the possession of a safe country, THEN you can fart off the potential for disaster. Til then, you're talking from the wrong orifice.
You're right, JackieBrown, and for the most part, I'm lazy enough to rely on the spam filters.
But, Bigbutt is a bit smarter than either of us. Using unique email addies enables him to IDENTIFY where the trash is coming from, and to do something about it. Contacting a forum admin, or confronting MySpace or Facebook, or whatever.
You and me? Because we're lazy, we don't really KNOW where we slipped up, or who is using our personal info, so there's not much we can do - aside from using spam filters. We certainly can't go back and delete accounts and/or personal info in places that we kinda THOUGHT was confidential.
Screw taxonomy. If it moves, it's an animal, eat it. If it don't move, it might be vegetable, eat it. If it wasn't a vegetable, you needed your minerals anyway.
Watched? You WATCHED One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? What good does that do, if you don't turn the pages? Isn't anyone literate anymore? Does no one READ anything that Hollywood doesn't produce? Phhhhtt.
Oh yeah - that one made the "banned" list. It was handed out as an assignment in 8th or 9th grade. Some parents complained about language, and the books were taken away from us.
What better way to GUARANTEE that even the illiterate idiots read the book, huh? ROFLMAO
Errrr - thinking here. While in the Navy, rumor had it that plans were underway to float Long Island away from New York, to create the world's largest aircraft carrier.
Now - uhhhhm - you seem to be suggesting that the world's smallest continent might become the world's largest spacecraft?
But, how you gonna throw that big damned rock OUT THERE?!
Pakistan. The religious zealots are only 60 miles or so from capturing nuclear warheads. There is a full blown war being fought in that country right now, and if the "freindly" government falls, it doesn't look real good for Israel, and western civilization. The apocalypse COULD BE only a year away.
In another time and place, egotistical bastards forced slaves to build huge pyramidal structures, for the purpose of immortalizing the egotistacal bastard's name.
In this time and place, egotistical bastards steal billions, then spread around a few thousand here and there, with the purpose of immortalizing the egotistical bastard's name.
We really haven't progressed much, have we? Gates is as worried about some malaria like fever as I am worried about the sun going nova. The money's purpose is NOT to cure dengue fever. The money's purpose IS to make a bunch of gullible chumps say "Oh, isn't Bill WONDERFUL?!?!"
I have always been partial to AMD chips. Over time, I have acquired an aversion to intel. My biggest single grudge against intel was the chip that broadcast a unique identifier to the world, in effect defeating any anonymity if bad guys chose to track your internet usage.
But, the main reason I'm answering you? To say I love that sig!!! The Hurd likes to spin things to inflate their egos, but it's Linux that runs my machines. Nice educational rant there.:-)
I don't think that I implied that ALL commuters are selfish bastids. Just "many" of them.
Houston is a good example, which I am pretty familiar with. They built the suburbs miles away from ANY businesses or industry, intentionally far from the "undesirables", and attached ridiculously high price tags. And, every aspiring "anybody" snatched those high dollar housing projects up at ultra-inflated prices. There are probably a million heads of household in the Houston area who are "to good" to live in the old 'hood with the homies. And, they justify this elite lifestyle in a number of ways - all of which demonstrate that they are unwilling to work to make the city a better place to live.
Personally - I commute 25 miles. I live in rural Arkansas. It's 25 to 40 miles to town, depending on which direction I go. Unless I build a hog house or a chicken house, there is NO industry near my house. But, the wife's family owned this land before the Louisiana purchase, and we ain't goin' nowhere either.
But then, we aren't "elite", and we don't drive 12MPG gas guzzlers either.;-)
Don't worry - there will be a Walmart near you soon, along with one of those trashy McDonald's "restaurants". If not this year, then maybe next year, after some Euro or Chinese company buys Walmart out, and goes global.
Meanwhile - my 2.5 ghz machines will run full speed, 24/7. When I'm not actually USING them, they crunch Rosetta and Seti@home numbers.
I'm sure that reason applies to some. In many cases, work is in an unattractive neighborhood, and the commuter has CHOSEN to buy/rent a home in a more "upscale" neighborhood. The last time I posted on the subject here at slashdot, some broad demonized me because she commutes like 35 or 40 miles. Her excuse? Her school age children deserve the best schools. Phhhht.
Orly? Want to see real selfishness? Stand down at Walmart, and watch the fat bitches driving in with their huge SUV's. Skinny bitches too, I guess - but they are all to lazy to walk to a corner market for a gallon of milk. Nooo - we've just GOT to fire up that 300 - 500 hp engine, crank up the AC, and waste 2 or 3 gallons of gasoline to make that run to Walmart. What about the commuter crowd? Driving that gas hog as much as 100 miles each way, 5 days a week, because they are to damned good to live in the neighborhoods in which they work.
I'm with Moraelin - I want my computer to RUN!! If it doesn't, I might as well just push the damned bamboo shoots under my own fingernails. I'll tolerate a three minute boot-up (especially since I reboot very seldom) I'll tolerate a one minute login (again, I don't do it very often) and I'll tolerate (barely) my laggy internet connection. But, don't DARE try to throttle my damned machine down!!!!
If/when I feel the need to throttle it, I WILL DO SO, to suit my own personal goal.
The web site designer's answers are all the answers that are necessary to answer this. They design their site and build it to be standards compliant, and they are DONE. Every standards compliant browser out there can and will render the site properly, and no one has to spend even one minute making the site render on Internet Explorer - let alone the hours and days that SOME of them spend.
Aside from that - if MS loses exactly zero dollars if their browser is abandoned, then why, oh why, has MS spent so much time, money, and effort in upgrading and updating Internet Explorer? They see some benefit from doing so, or they wouldn't waste the money.
Obviously, if IE is abandoned, MS loses. I suspect that IE makes them a nice lump of cash every quarter. The adverts on the default home page may not amount to a HUGE sum of money, but it is money, or it wouldn't be there. Other channels for making revenue exist, and they may make less money than the home page advertising, but every dollar counts.
Obsessed? If you say so. If I am obsessed, that obsession would be fighting a monopoly. Are you here to defend an ungovernable monopoly?
No amount of talk is going to convince a person like yourself that MS is a monopoly, nor that something needs to be done to break the monopoly. But, your justifications for inclusion of a browser are pointless.
Assuming that you are qualified to participate in the simplest IT type of discussions, which part of my last post do you NOT UNDERSTAND?
The installation script can be altered ever so slightly, with a popup windows asking the user "Which browser(s) would you LIKE TO BE INSTALLED?"
The choices can include text browsers, Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, you name it. The choices can include every single internet browser known to man, or only the 6 most popular, I don't care.
People like myself who DO NOT WANT INTERNET EXPLORER will be quite happy to uncheck the IE entry, and wait for a few minutes while the browser(s) of my choice download.
Fanbois like yourself who feel that IE is an essential part of your computing experience can also feel good that your browser is included in the choices.
While you gripe on Canonical - yes, they do install a default. But, the update tool offers several other browsers, and the default can be completely removed. MS will NOT completely remove IE, no matter how you beg and plead with it. The only way to do that is to remove IE from the installation media before you install Windows.
Monopoly: it isn't a good thing, no matter how you try to excuse it.
That has been talked to death. One does not NEED a browser to download a browser. In Ubuntu, all I need is the package manager. Open a command prompt, type sudo apt-get install midori firefox opera
Wait a little bit, and I have THREE browsers installed. The browser doesn't connect me to the internet, after all - it only displays what is on the internet, if I choose to see it.
Windoze doesn't need IE installed to perform a similar task, either. Since so few people know how to open a command prompt, or what to do with it, Windows can write a script, based on answers provided during setup, that will download and install whatever browser you wish to install.
False. The DOJ attempted to deal with the problem but before the problem was properly dealt with, an election occured. The big winner in that election chose to direct the DOJ to stop interfering with oil, big business, the defense industry, and possibly human rights issues that might reflect poorly on the administration.
The EU has dealt with the problem more effectively than the US has - but there is still a long way to go before MS is properly harnessed.
This technology is available to the next Pol Pot, or Idi Amin, or Saddam Hussein. As a dictator, cost is little if any problem - you just tell people to set up the surveillance, and report to you. Not to mention, the US comes awfully close locking up political prisoners sometimes. Remember McCarthy? Just think if HE had access to all this newfangled monitoring equipment. The next George W. Bush may whisk you off to Guantanamo, based on some comment you made online, or in an email. And, people who notice you gone will say, "Well, if he had nothing to hide, he wouldn't have gone missing!"
Those were rhetorical questions, mocking the post above my own.;)
Meanwhile - I don't believe that any of the programs you mention use any MS code. Each was developed independantly of MS code, although they do manipulate MS assets. No one expects MS to support Samba, Wine, or ntfs-3g. On the other hand, one MIGHT have expected MS to make life a little easier on those who developed them. Why shouldn't they?
Do you suppose that MS Office does NOT have access to the most up-to-date source? And, advance warning when some new "feature" might break something?
Let's say that a change in some API will break OpenOffice - when does OOo find out about it? Probably when OOo users complain, then they have to research, and find a fix.
Let's say that the same change in the same API will break something in MS Office. When do THEY find out about it? About 6 months before it is ever released to the public as a beta. That is to say, in plenty of time for MS Office and Windows teams to get together and fix the problem, before the public ever becomes aware that there MIGHT BE a problem.
"Enriching it's shareholders requires " only that sales are made. FUD makes a large number of sales.
"But any modern OS is incomplete without a browser. If you were to break up the company, you would have to include the browser in the OS unit." Wrong. Redhat doesn't make a browser, nor does Suse, Debian, or any of the other Linux OS's. A web browser is not necessary for an operating system to operate, period. There are any number of methods by which MS could offer a CHOICE of browsers, including the method used by Ubuntu: package half a dozen or more on the OS installation CD, and let the user CHOOSE which, if any, he wants.
"I would contend that it's a lack of competition that caused IE's stagnation and lack of standards compliance. " Good - you do admit that in one instance, at least, what's been good for MS has not been good for the advancement of computer sciences. Stockholders were quite happy with a substandard browser, and only opensource competition offered the stimulation to improve.
MS Office was designed and built to integrate itself into the operating system, much as the web browser does. The people with the source code to the operating system KNEW how to make it fit like a hand into a glove. Obfuscation, as much as anything, defeated some of the office suites of yesteryear. Without the insider information available to MS Office developers, WordPerfect and others were left out in the cold. Added to that was the common FUD put out by Microsoft, pressuring businesses go by MS Office to ensure "support" by MS.
And finally, justification for breaking up ANY company? It is sufficient to demonstrate that society is likely to benefit. All business exists at the sufferance of government. When government decided that hemp should be illegal in this country, all industries related to hemp went out of business. The government unilaterally decided the nation would be a better place without hemp, and that was it.
If/when the government decides that this nation would be better off without a monopolistic giant that abuses the computer sciences, microsoft will be history. No further justification needed, and no apologies to any stockholders.
Slashdot Mirror
Put the lie to it, directly. Don't be misled. You do not "buy" microsoft products at all. If Microsoft is happy with your payment, if they are happy with your hardware, if you jump through all the proper hoops with CD keys and WGA, THEN Microsoft will ALLOW YOU TO USE their product, until they decide they don't allow it any more. License, schmicense.
Even with tremendous discounts to third world countries, there are zillions of people who never will be able to afford a "legal" microsoft system. They MIGHT get their hands on some hardware, and knock something together that can be called a computer, but the whole VILLAGE can't afford a "legal" license.
MS is not going to license their product to people living way out on the extreme edge of existence, plain and simple. Open source, on the other hand, is happy to license their products to anyone, and everyone, and they don't care if you give them nothing, give them a dollar, or give them a trillion dollars. You're just as "enabled" with open source no matter WHAT you give, and there will never be a "genuine advantage check" sent around to disable your *nix operating system.
Political correctness was a term from the Soviet Union, as I recall. Screw the activists who demand it. Activists are a minority. The sterotypical female outnumbers them, and Dell will probably sell a lot of computers to that majority. Yeah, the feminazis might make Dell feel guilty, they might even make some of the more stereotypical females feel a twinge of guilt - but so many women WANT a damned pink computer, Dell will see a profit. Money talks, bullshit walks.
Sarcasm noted. Would you be comforted to know that I have given time to the Boy Scouts of America, as well as the Girl Scouts of America? 8 years of documented service in positions of leadership, not to mention undocumented time spent helping individuals. Would it make any difference to know that I was registered as an EMT almost 30 years ago, and that I have helped a number of people around the country - NEVER paid for my services, but always strictly volunteer?
Back to Bill. Let's say you grew up with someone who was a known thief. Over the years, you read of him being arrested multiple times for theiving. At the end of a long life, the guy has more thefts to his credit than anyone can count. But, he's RICH!!! You meet him, and he offers to share a little dab of his wealth with you. Do you accept his money? Do you suddenly forget that he's a thief?
Bill is a crook, plain and simple. The man digusts me. And, the charades put on by these charitable organizations make me sick. Any time someone attempts to put Bill into a good light, I WILL remind them that Bill is a crook, and he got where he is by being a sneaky vicious bastard.
Thank you for your time - I'm finished here.
Practice bigotry much? You're an America hater? Fine, hate me. Personally, I'm not "typical". I've been badmouthing and arguing America's worst practices for a long time - 20 years plus.
Meanwhile, will you deny that the Taliban are a bunch of religious zealots? Will you deny that the Moslem extremists sometimes make irrational moves? Are you implying that those same Moslem extremists represent all the rest of the world outside of the US/UK/British Commonwealth?
BTW - you have rather limited scope in your diatribe. The butchery, abuse, and exploitation have been going on for CENTURIES, not mere decades. Of course, that is not a purely one-way street. There has been plenty of butchery, abuse, and exploitation to go around for all races, nationalities, religions, or whatever other division you wish to classify humanity by.
I stand by my assertion: if the religious zealots in Pakistan get hold of those nukes, the apocalypse COULD BE as near as a year away. Not "has to be" or "will be", and not necessarily "likely to be", but COULD BE. Religious nuts are dangerous, whether they be Christian, Jew, Moslem, or whatever. They ALL expect to be rewarded in heaven for whatever atrocities they might perform here on earth.
Now, can you really say that it would be a "GOOD" thing for the Taliban to capture even ONE NUKE?????
Did Bill steal money and intellectual rights from other people? See my sig for one glaring, irrefutable example. A mountain of excuses won't wash away that one stain on his character, or Microsoft's reputation. And, that is only ONE example.
As for what I do, personally? You expect me to roll out everything I've ever done for the poor, the hungry, and the destitute, and beat my chest over those achievements? No thank you - that isn't my styly. Nor am I qualified to do much that has any real impact beyond my own neighborhood, and circle of acquaintances.
But, I will point to Boinc and Rosetta. Go to the distributed computing sites sponsored by Boinc, and search for my nic. Maybe it isn't much, but I demontrably contribute SOMETHING to science, and have been for years.
Meanwhile, don't expect me to worship the Gates, Carnegies, and other philanthropic entities established to enshrine those ruthless enough to build fortunes, mostly at the expense of Joe Sixpack.
You assume the "bad guys" are stupid, yes?
Let us assume, just for the sake of argument, that Osama's buddies capture all 60 nukes that the Pakistani's own. Now, you assume that the particular bunch of baddies who capture them will use them, directly. I figure, someone with brains is going to already have a plan. He inventories those that are in good working condition. He inventories those that are unusable, either through being "locked", or parts missing, or whatever. THOSE, he sends to Iran, for reverse engineering and reconstruction. Suppose they have ten warheads that are "usable". They will be divvied out, to high value targets, that offer the most bang for the buck. Two to Israel, two to India, one or two to the UK, and the rest targeted on the US of A.
Delivery? Phhttt. There is so much contraband crossing our borders already, you can't POSSIBLY believe that a one ton package will be stopped. Tons of drugs cross our borders every week, in packages large and small. There is no NEED to figure out how the missile works, or to target a missile, or to subject the warhead to satellite/radar tracking in flight.
A lack of imagination my prevent you from seeing possibilities. That doesn't mean the possibilities aren't there, and it CERTAINLY doesn't mean the bad guys aren't looking for them.
Meanwhile - it is my position that the US, UK, and France were damned fools to assist various "freindly" countries aroung the world to develop nuclear technology. When the Paki's nukes are safely out of the country, and in the possession of a safe country, THEN you can fart off the potential for disaster. Til then, you're talking from the wrong orifice.
You're right, JackieBrown, and for the most part, I'm lazy enough to rely on the spam filters.
But, Bigbutt is a bit smarter than either of us. Using unique email addies enables him to IDENTIFY where the trash is coming from, and to do something about it. Contacting a forum admin, or confronting MySpace or Facebook, or whatever.
You and me? Because we're lazy, we don't really KNOW where we slipped up, or who is using our personal info, so there's not much we can do - aside from using spam filters. We certainly can't go back and delete accounts and/or personal info in places that we kinda THOUGHT was confidential.
Animal, vegetable, or mineral?
Screw taxonomy. If it moves, it's an animal, eat it. If it don't move, it might be vegetable, eat it. If it wasn't a vegetable, you needed your minerals anyway.
Watched? You WATCHED One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest? What good does that do, if you don't turn the pages? Isn't anyone literate anymore? Does no one READ anything that Hollywood doesn't produce? Phhhhtt.
Oh yeah - that one made the "banned" list. It was handed out as an assignment in 8th or 9th grade. Some parents complained about language, and the books were taken away from us.
What better way to GUARANTEE that even the illiterate idiots read the book, huh? ROFLMAO
Errrr - thinking here. While in the Navy, rumor had it that plans were underway to float Long Island away from New York, to create the world's largest aircraft carrier.
Now - uhhhhm - you seem to be suggesting that the world's smallest continent might become the world's largest spacecraft?
But, how you gonna throw that big damned rock OUT THERE?!
Pakistan. The religious zealots are only 60 miles or so from capturing nuclear warheads. There is a full blown war being fought in that country right now, and if the "freindly" government falls, it doesn't look real good for Israel, and western civilization. The apocalypse COULD BE only a year away.
In another time and place, egotistical bastards forced slaves to build huge pyramidal structures, for the purpose of immortalizing the egotistacal bastard's name.
In this time and place, egotistical bastards steal billions, then spread around a few thousand here and there, with the purpose of immortalizing the egotistical bastard's name.
We really haven't progressed much, have we? Gates is as worried about some malaria like fever as I am worried about the sun going nova. The money's purpose is NOT to cure dengue fever. The money's purpose IS to make a bunch of gullible chumps say "Oh, isn't Bill WONDERFUL?!?!"
I have always been partial to AMD chips. Over time, I have acquired an aversion to intel. My biggest single grudge against intel was the chip that broadcast a unique identifier to the world, in effect defeating any anonymity if bad guys chose to track your internet usage.
But, the main reason I'm answering you? To say I love that sig!!! The Hurd likes to spin things to inflate their egos, but it's Linux that runs my machines. Nice educational rant there. :-)
I don't think that I implied that ALL commuters are selfish bastids. Just "many" of them.
Houston is a good example, which I am pretty familiar with. They built the suburbs miles away from ANY businesses or industry, intentionally far from the "undesirables", and attached ridiculously high price tags. And, every aspiring "anybody" snatched those high dollar housing projects up at ultra-inflated prices. There are probably a million heads of household in the Houston area who are "to good" to live in the old 'hood with the homies. And, they justify this elite lifestyle in a number of ways - all of which demonstrate that they are unwilling to work to make the city a better place to live.
Personally - I commute 25 miles. I live in rural Arkansas. It's 25 to 40 miles to town, depending on which direction I go. Unless I build a hog house or a chicken house, there is NO industry near my house. But, the wife's family owned this land before the Louisiana purchase, and we ain't goin' nowhere either.
But then, we aren't "elite", and we don't drive 12MPG gas guzzlers either. ;-)
Don't worry - there will be a Walmart near you soon, along with one of those trashy McDonald's "restaurants". If not this year, then maybe next year, after some Euro or Chinese company buys Walmart out, and goes global.
Meanwhile - my 2.5 ghz machines will run full speed, 24/7. When I'm not actually USING them, they crunch Rosetta and Seti@home numbers.
I'm sure that reason applies to some. In many cases, work is in an unattractive neighborhood, and the commuter has CHOSEN to buy/rent a home in a more "upscale" neighborhood. The last time I posted on the subject here at slashdot, some broad demonized me because she commutes like 35 or 40 miles. Her excuse? Her school age children deserve the best schools. Phhhht.
Orly? Want to see real selfishness? Stand down at Walmart, and watch the fat bitches driving in with their huge SUV's. Skinny bitches too, I guess - but they are all to lazy to walk to a corner market for a gallon of milk. Nooo - we've just GOT to fire up that 300 - 500 hp engine, crank up the AC, and waste 2 or 3 gallons of gasoline to make that run to Walmart. What about the commuter crowd? Driving that gas hog as much as 100 miles each way, 5 days a week, because they are to damned good to live in the neighborhoods in which they work.
I'm with Moraelin - I want my computer to RUN!! If it doesn't, I might as well just push the damned bamboo shoots under my own fingernails. I'll tolerate a three minute boot-up (especially since I reboot very seldom) I'll tolerate a one minute login (again, I don't do it very often) and I'll tolerate (barely) my laggy internet connection. But, don't DARE try to throttle my damned machine down!!!!
If/when I feel the need to throttle it, I WILL DO SO, to suit my own personal goal.
The web site designer's answers are all the answers that are necessary to answer this. They design their site and build it to be standards compliant, and they are DONE. Every standards compliant browser out there can and will render the site properly, and no one has to spend even one minute making the site render on Internet Explorer - let alone the hours and days that SOME of them spend.
Aside from that - if MS loses exactly zero dollars if their browser is abandoned, then why, oh why, has MS spent so much time, money, and effort in upgrading and updating Internet Explorer? They see some benefit from doing so, or they wouldn't waste the money.
Obviously, if IE is abandoned, MS loses. I suspect that IE makes them a nice lump of cash every quarter. The adverts on the default home page may not amount to a HUGE sum of money, but it is money, or it wouldn't be there. Other channels for making revenue exist, and they may make less money than the home page advertising, but every dollar counts.
Obsessed? If you say so. If I am obsessed, that obsession would be fighting a monopoly. Are you here to defend an ungovernable monopoly?
No amount of talk is going to convince a person like yourself that MS is a monopoly, nor that something needs to be done to break the monopoly. But, your justifications for inclusion of a browser are pointless.
Assuming that you are qualified to participate in the simplest IT type of discussions, which part of my last post do you NOT UNDERSTAND?
The installation script can be altered ever so slightly, with a popup windows asking the user "Which browser(s) would you LIKE TO BE INSTALLED?"
The choices can include text browsers, Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, you name it. The choices can include every single internet browser known to man, or only the 6 most popular, I don't care.
People like myself who DO NOT WANT INTERNET EXPLORER will be quite happy to uncheck the IE entry, and wait for a few minutes while the browser(s) of my choice download.
Fanbois like yourself who feel that IE is an essential part of your computing experience can also feel good that your browser is included in the choices.
While you gripe on Canonical - yes, they do install a default. But, the update tool offers several other browsers, and the default can be completely removed. MS will NOT completely remove IE, no matter how you beg and plead with it. The only way to do that is to remove IE from the installation media before you install Windows.
Monopoly: it isn't a good thing, no matter how you try to excuse it.
That has been talked to death. One does not NEED a browser to download a browser. In Ubuntu, all I need is the package manager. Open a command prompt, type sudo apt-get install midori firefox opera
Wait a little bit, and I have THREE browsers installed. The browser doesn't connect me to the internet, after all - it only displays what is on the internet, if I choose to see it.
Windoze doesn't need IE installed to perform a similar task, either. Since so few people know how to open a command prompt, or what to do with it, Windows can write a script, based on answers provided during setup, that will download and install whatever browser you wish to install.
Simple as can be.
False. The DOJ attempted to deal with the problem but before the problem was properly dealt with, an election occured. The big winner in that election chose to direct the DOJ to stop interfering with oil, big business, the defense industry, and possibly human rights issues that might reflect poorly on the administration.
The EU has dealt with the problem more effectively than the US has - but there is still a long way to go before MS is properly harnessed.
This technology is available to the next Pol Pot, or Idi Amin, or Saddam Hussein. As a dictator, cost is little if any problem - you just tell people to set up the surveillance, and report to you. Not to mention, the US comes awfully close locking up political prisoners sometimes. Remember McCarthy? Just think if HE had access to all this newfangled monitoring equipment. The next George W. Bush may whisk you off to Guantanamo, based on some comment you made online, or in an email. And, people who notice you gone will say, "Well, if he had nothing to hide, he wouldn't have gone missing!"
Those were rhetorical questions, mocking the post above my own. ;)
Meanwhile - I don't believe that any of the programs you mention use any MS code. Each was developed independantly of MS code, although they do manipulate MS assets. No one expects MS to support Samba, Wine, or ntfs-3g. On the other hand, one MIGHT have expected MS to make life a little easier on those who developed them. Why shouldn't they?
Do you suppose that MS Office does NOT have access to the most up-to-date source? And, advance warning when some new "feature" might break something?
Let's say that a change in some API will break OpenOffice - when does OOo find out about it? Probably when OOo users complain, then they have to research, and find a fix.
Let's say that the same change in the same API will break something in MS Office. When do THEY find out about it? About 6 months before it is ever released to the public as a beta. That is to say, in plenty of time for MS Office and Windows teams to get together and fix the problem, before the public ever becomes aware that there MIGHT BE a problem.
"Enriching it's shareholders requires " only that sales are made. FUD makes a large number of sales.
"But any modern OS is incomplete without a browser. If you were to break up the company, you would have to include the browser in the OS unit." Wrong. Redhat doesn't make a browser, nor does Suse, Debian, or any of the other Linux OS's. A web browser is not necessary for an operating system to operate, period. There are any number of methods by which MS could offer a CHOICE of browsers, including the method used by Ubuntu: package half a dozen or more on the OS installation CD, and let the user CHOOSE which, if any, he wants.
"I would contend that it's a lack of competition that caused IE's stagnation and lack of standards compliance. " Good - you do admit that in one instance, at least, what's been good for MS has not been good for the advancement of computer sciences. Stockholders were quite happy with a substandard browser, and only opensource competition offered the stimulation to improve.
MS Office was designed and built to integrate itself into the operating system, much as the web browser does. The people with the source code to the operating system KNEW how to make it fit like a hand into a glove. Obfuscation, as much as anything, defeated some of the office suites of yesteryear. Without the insider information available to MS Office developers, WordPerfect and others were left out in the cold. Added to that was the common FUD put out by Microsoft, pressuring businesses go by MS Office to ensure "support" by MS.
And finally, justification for breaking up ANY company? It is sufficient to demonstrate that society is likely to benefit. All business exists at the sufferance of government. When government decided that hemp should be illegal in this country, all industries related to hemp went out of business. The government unilaterally decided the nation would be a better place without hemp, and that was it.
If/when the government decides that this nation would be better off without a monopolistic giant that abuses the computer sciences, microsoft will be history. No further justification needed, and no apologies to any stockholders.