Is that when people realise there IS another option as a web browser, it does not take them long to install it and try it, or have someone install it for them. More otfen than not, when people try a different browser they like it better than IE after they get used to the fact that it's different.
Often they will feel more for their new browser because they CHOSE it and make it their default, so when an updated IE comes in as part of an automatic update they may not even know it, as they will already be using a different browser. For many people, their memories of IE are loads of pop ups crashing the fucker, toolbars installing themselves and their home pages being changed without their permission. This is NOT a warm and fuzzy feeling to give any "new and improved" IE a second chance.
People who are already awakened to the fact that other browsers exist and almost all of them are better than IE will happily jump between different browsers, perhaps start with Firefox then try out Opera etc but they are not likely to go back to IE. IE is a one-way exodus and there's nothing Microsoft can do to stop it, all they can do is try to slow the flood by actually making a good product people WANT to use.....for once.
Don't you just love karma? This is what happens when you let your product stagnate and your users suffer for years because they have nowhere to go. As soon as they do have an escape vessel they rush for it and you're left trying to lock the doors to keep them onboard.
This is welcome news for today, but lets wait until Microsoft's army of lobbyists have swarmed Washington to see that quietly dropped in favour of hitting Google even harder. The woman dealing with anti-trust stuff that Obamma hired said (I'm paraphrasing) "Microsoft are last century, we need to look at current offenders like Google."
Bottom line: Politicians lie all the time, this is not news, this is normal operations. Look for the actions to back up any words. Given Microsoft's encamped army in Washington I doubt that sentiment will amount to much.
The problem with going after Microsoft is that there are far too many deeds they need punished for that it'd tie up the courts system for decades to come, and waste a LOT of EU tax payers money on a show trial. There is no "first offense" or "mitigating circumstances" in a lot of what Microsoft have done and continue to do. They are unrepentant in their intentions. It's time to tell them to fuck off in the only terms they will understand. It's easier to just ban Microsoft from the EU altogether as an organized crime syndicate. Make their products and services illegal. Give perhaps a years grace period to allow other businesses in the EU who are reliant on Microsoft time to move their business away from Microsoft.
If you don't want to compete fairly in the EU, you're not welcome in the EU.
You could ask who the US regulators will shake down FIRST. The EU are the only ones with some balls in fighting (mostly) US corporate abuses in the EU. It'd be nice if the US paid attention to their own.....until that day begins, the EU will have to take the role.
Then let the flood of lawsuits against Intel begin. Small companies who suffer because of Intels behavior should be compensated by Intel. Perhaps with that compensation money, they'd be wise to look into tying their income to corporation with some integrity instead of the scumbags they've found themselves in bed with.
If you buy Microsoft Office 2007 and set it to use odf as standard, do you get a refund? Do you report the "bug" and rely on the good graces of the company who tried to kill odf to fix it? I'm guessing the ETA for that fix is around "when hell freezes over"......but there's no refund policy....just use our formats TYVM and stop being a troublemaker.
So all these Vista 7 testers, also known as "end users". Say several of them notice some bug which is gonna take them a while to fix, they report it and Microsoft decide to ignore it for a while to get the release out and start clawing back money lost on Vista.....we'll fix it later. They already have the insane fixed patch dates, regardless of the time the exploit is actually being used. They already have a habit of not acknowledging the existence of a bug until they have the patch ready. All of this is hidden behind the scenes, while the users PC is at risk.
A huge difference in the FOSS model is that ANYONE with coding skills can fix the bug, they are not reliant on informing the vendor and hoping the vendor fixes it. The vendor also has commercial pressures to make sure that every $ spent on development / bug fixes translates somewhere down the line into profits. Something which may be time consuming to fix won't just delay the launch, but cost more money, since you have to pay for EVERY developer who works on it for as long as it takes to fix it. It's much easier to just ignore the problem.....easier and more profitable for the vendor, the end user don't matter.
I know where I put my faith.
"Unless your free testers are staring at code all day trying to force defects, it's all in vein."
That's an interesting view. Do you have the knowledge of a trained doctor when you go visit so you can talk shop and explain your symptoms in correct medical terminology? Most of us don't. We go with symptoms which we explain in our own words to the best of our ability and rely on the doctor to interpret them.
The same applies to bug testers, they don't need ANY technical knowledge to spot and report a bug. All they do need is the ability to explain "I tried to do this, I expected this to happen but this happened instead." The developers can then ask for more information in a way the end user can understand to get the information they need to fix the problem.
The other angle here is passion for the project. If you're working on a FOSS project, chances are that you're doing it because you have a passion for it and want it to be better, to be bug free etc. This means you take more pride in your work, and will want to go that extra mile to fix things or add features. If you're at a desk all day working on some project you don't own, possibly don't use, checking in and out at set times do you have the same passion and attention to detail? For most people that'd be a no.
It is interesting too that you imply that Microsoft people "stare at code all day trying to force defects". If this is true, judging by the (very expensive) end product, these guys would be better off working at Burger King.
I do have a PS2 and a GameCube (which I bought mucho cheap second hand for Rogue Squadron & Rogue Leader alone). I'm not much of a gamer these days, I used to spend a HUGE chunk of my day gaming but I've grown out of that phase now. Now I like an occasional quick 10 min blast of something to pass the time before the footie starts etc, win, lose or draw it don't matter.
Anyhoo, the last time the exclusivity deal hit me was Munch's Odysee, the "next gen" 3D version of Abe's Odysee which I loved. It was supposed to be exclusive to the PS2, which suited me as I was always a Sony person anyway....only to find it reversed and became an exclusive XBOX title instead. BASTARDS!!!! I was NOT amused. To this day I've never owned an XBOX, nor have I played that particular game, although I would have queued for it had it been available on the PS2. Knowing that Microsoft lose money on every XBOX sale has tempted me on a few occasions to consider buying one but the gesture would hurt me more than Microsoft so the urge usually passes.
The 6 month delay is a compromise I suppose but it's still no fun if you have one of the consoles and not the other. It's the big guys shuffling bits around while the little guys are left bewildered and abused. Entertainment companies in general have little understanding of their customers as it is, so this type of business decision being seen as a "good idea" does not surprise me.
I wonder what percentage of gamers rush out and buy a new game full price the week it hits the shelves. I reckon most gamers, specially the more experienced ones have enough self control to wait a few months till it plummets in price. The last game I bough on release day was MGS2, a LONG time ago.
Exactly, every hardware vendor knows that exclusive titles can mean the customer buys more than one console if a game they REALLY want is only available one the one they don't currently have. Exclusive deals tend to be good news for vendors, not customers or game developers. If I spent a fortune developing a game and had to rely on a lot of sales to break even, let alone make a profit I sure as hell wouldn't be cutting off half of my potential customer base by signing an exclusive deal....unless at least half of my projected sales numbers were paid in advance, at which case I'm back to even. It's not as if the current generation games can be knocked up by a couple of blokes in a weekend, it's a huge investment and a lot of man-hours to get to release.
Just like 1984 where ministries were named for the opposite of what they do, Microsoft have taken the old Mac advert a bit too literally. WGA is only an advantage to Microsoft, not the end user. DRM gives the content holders the right to restrict and punish users. I guess if truth in advertising was mandatory concepts like WSGD or Windows Sometimes Genuine Disadvantage wouldn't go down well.
Just when you thought it was safe to click the "later" option, an all new treat awaits our valued and loyal customers who upgrade to the best ever version of Windows. From the lovely people who brought you such well loved classics as the WGA and it's sister OGA. Now with their latest innovation, new improved nagware. This time it's even harder to stop.
Our patented nagware is a guaranteed success because we say so, and believe us, if you don't say so, we'll know and pay you a visit to "educate" you. All of our valued customers who have been flooding our inboxes demanding to be nagged now have the solution at hand. You won't find any better nagware than ours.
Microsoft - We listen to our customers demands because we care.....not like those hippie, commie, pinko Linux terrorists.
Indeed, and if Windows 7 replaces Vista in that slot, ie the one that users don't want....what does that do to Microsoft's reputation among the non-tech savy users who only see a HUGE corporation who must have gotten where they are by being the best in their field. One major failure in their two key product lines followed by another. They can bluff their way right now by claiming Windows 7 will fix everything that was wrong with Vista, but the more we hear of Windows 7 it appears not to be that much of an improvement, other than a flashier UI.
On a side note, I'm really hoping Microsoft stick with the crippled Starter Edition for netbooks, it will only help drive people away from them even faster.
It's about whether Microsoft can use this project to create more addicts to their programs. It wouldn't be the first and it won't be the last time they've tried, or succeed. Microsoft & Intel tried to destroy the OLPC project when it started because they saw it as a threat to their revenue. After a while they decided to be "nice" and forced their way into the project and insisted that XP be on it instead of Linux. The price would be higher of course, but XP was offered at a discount.
It wouldn't be the first time something good for the underprivileged has been hijacked and destroyed by Microsoft for their own ends. They are very skilled at spotting hotspots of freedom and sending the heavies in to rectify the situation in their favor.....gotta keep them addicts coming.
I expected the M$ proxies to mod the comment down, it's what they get paid for. By modding it down it becomes filtered out to some users, which helps censor the post.
The announcement was made that the Linux version wasn't suitable after all and they've decided to go with XP instead after a donation from the Gates Foundation? Oh, and the guy who forgot to bow to the M$ lobby in the first place will be quietly fired for some dubious reason.
"And why in the hell would anyone buy a product where the company gets to treat you like a five year old?"
Because it's shiney, and unkle Steve is a little less strict that unkle Stalin.....from time to time....if you eat your greens and tidy your room without whining too much.
Every time a piece of hardware which wasn't properly cleaned to the recommended levels, the individual responsible for letting it leave the premises should be held accountable....personally. How about sharing state secrets with the enemy? You can't know who it was destined for so there's every possibility it will go overseas. To my knowledge this carries a harsh sentence, but we can allow a prison sentence if they co-operate with the authorities and ensure the command level personnel are also charged.
My guess is that most of this stuff happens through employee laziness, and contractor unaccountability. If you have lobbyists lairing in government to ensure that you keep the contracts no matter what and are able to hide anything under the "national security" red herring then why bother enforcing rules like wiping stuff properly? The idea of being held PERSONALLY responsible, with potential jail time will make people stop and think, specially if the command level have no loophole to blame their underlings for anything the press find out about.
Wow, so they finally bumped Office into the Windows updates huh? Last time I checked that was a separate issue, with separate validation clicks etc.
"This is only true if the software you need is open source, packaged by your package manager, and is ported to your distro in a timely manner. I run into a _lot_ of situations where the package managers dont have what I need and I have to out and either compile the stuff myself or download and run some scripted installer."
Being open source here is not technically true, there are plenty of distros who offer a non-free repo for proprietary binary blobs compiled by the vendors, like Skype. You're right in the fact that you're relying on the version compiled and included in the repos being updated in a timely manor however in many cases FOSS projects have their own repos you can add to your package manager and install from, thereby getting the latest version, regardless of how timely your distro updates it. I have about 5 applications I do this for because there are features in the later versions I need.
The other thing I can't understand why Microsoft haven't managed to get right yet is the way installing / removing applications leaves crap behind, or goes wherever it wants. When you install an application on Windows IT decides how many icons to put where, how many new links to add to the programs menu, whether to add itself onto the startup menu, system tray, quick launch etc. You have to look for the "advanced install" option and untick stuff (assuming they give you the option) or go round removing lots of crap after the install. After all that's done you find you have another couple of options at the end of a 3 column long unordered "programs" list. When you remove it, assuming it has an easy "uninstall" icon or the uninstall is not grayed out in the add/ remove programs does it gather all the shit it installed on the way out? No, it leaves it all behind for you to manually clear out.
By comparison installing on Linux assumes that YOU will decide where you want icons, that YOU will decide if the application starts at bootup etc. It also adds the application into the correct category in the menu, ordered alphabetically.....without you lifting a finger. If that's not helpful enough, when you remove it, it removes that entry to the menu too, again without you lifting a finger.
The way I see it is that Windows is designed for the benefit of companies who want to sell you stuff, and set up your PC for their revenue streams. You have to be wary when installing stuff and untick a lot of the options they want you to take. Maybe the fact that you don't own the OS you;re using sets the tone for this arrangement, perhaps it's all the pre-installed trial-ware which loads the PC down when you buy it which does it, I don't know. The user is only the wallet.
Linux by comparison is made by users for users. By that I mean it's not corporations insisting on certain features, or holding back on some features because they seek to sell you the "Pro" version. Most of the stuff in Linux comes from users with coding skills scratching their own itches, which means they don't include stuff that gets in the way.
Like any other scam, the scope has grown with every new gadget to ensure there are no loopholes to avoid paying them. The TV license in the UK applies if you have a TV, video recorder, DVD recorder, PC with TV card etc...basically anything with a tuner capable of receiving a signal. As technology advances they want more added to the list, pretty soon if your fridge is capable of connecting to the internet and the internet is capable of receiving a TV signal, the argument will be that your purpose for having a fridge with that feature is that you want to watch TV on it, so you must pey them. The arrogance here is doubled by the fact that for the idea to hold water, you MUST be watching channels funded by the license, not advertising / subscription funded ones.
You can tell them you don't have any of that stuff and opt out, at which point they will send round someone to search your house to prove it. They will occasionally return for another search to make sure you didn't get a TV and "forget" to opt back into their extortion racket.
The concept of a TV license was extinct decades ago, this smacks of broadcasters who can't make enough money to justify the multi-million euro bonuses to the board members wanting state funding. I hope this passes and gets the outcry it deserves, it'll make the case for abolition of the TV license even stronger in the UK.
Personally I don't have a TV license, nor do I intend to buy one. I've had umpteen threatening letters which keep the shredder fit, and a few visits from the henchmen.....who get the same response every time; a polite but firm "fuck off" and the door closed in their faces.
Government paid adverts for free software to keep users PCs secure huh? Sounds like they're gonna be advertising Linux / BSD.....wait, hang on, is that a Microsoft sales drone I see behind the curtain? I guess not then.
Slashdot Mirror
Or does the image of Johnny 5 from the movie Short Circuit come to mind when thinking of Google?
"Need more input!!!!!!"
Is that when people realise there IS another option as a web browser, it does not take them long to install it and try it, or have someone install it for them. More otfen than not, when people try a different browser they like it better than IE after they get used to the fact that it's different.
Often they will feel more for their new browser because they CHOSE it and make it their default, so when an updated IE comes in as part of an automatic update they may not even know it, as they will already be using a different browser. For many people, their memories of IE are loads of pop ups crashing the fucker, toolbars installing themselves and their home pages being changed without their permission. This is NOT a warm and fuzzy feeling to give any "new and improved" IE a second chance.
People who are already awakened to the fact that other browsers exist and almost all of them are better than IE will happily jump between different browsers, perhaps start with Firefox then try out Opera etc but they are not likely to go back to IE. IE is a one-way exodus and there's nothing Microsoft can do to stop it, all they can do is try to slow the flood by actually making a good product people WANT to use.....for once.
Don't you just love karma? This is what happens when you let your product stagnate and your users suffer for years because they have nowhere to go. As soon as they do have an escape vessel they rush for it and you're left trying to lock the doors to keep them onboard.
This is welcome news for today, but lets wait until Microsoft's army of lobbyists have swarmed Washington to see that quietly dropped in favour of hitting Google even harder. The woman dealing with anti-trust stuff that Obamma hired said (I'm paraphrasing) "Microsoft are last century, we need to look at current offenders like Google."
Bottom line: Politicians lie all the time, this is not news, this is normal operations. Look for the actions to back up any words. Given Microsoft's encamped army in Washington I doubt that sentiment will amount to much.
You're right, a year is very tight. It was more the principle of the thing than an exact figure.
The problem with going after Microsoft is that there are far too many deeds they need punished for that it'd tie up the courts system for decades to come, and waste a LOT of EU tax payers money on a show trial. There is no "first offense" or "mitigating circumstances" in a lot of what Microsoft have done and continue to do. They are unrepentant in their intentions. It's time to tell them to fuck off in the only terms they will understand. It's easier to just ban Microsoft from the EU altogether as an organized crime syndicate. Make their products and services illegal. Give perhaps a years grace period to allow other businesses in the EU who are reliant on Microsoft time to move their business away from Microsoft.
If you don't want to compete fairly in the EU, you're not welcome in the EU.
You could ask who the US regulators will shake down FIRST. The EU are the only ones with some balls in fighting (mostly) US corporate abuses in the EU. It'd be nice if the US paid attention to their own.....until that day begins, the EU will have to take the role.
Then let the flood of lawsuits against Intel begin. Small companies who suffer because of Intels behavior should be compensated by Intel. Perhaps with that compensation money, they'd be wise to look into tying their income to corporation with some integrity instead of the scumbags they've found themselves in bed with.
If you buy Microsoft Office 2007 and set it to use odf as standard, do you get a refund? Do you report the "bug" and rely on the good graces of the company who tried to kill odf to fix it? I'm guessing the ETA for that fix is around "when hell freezes over"......but there's no refund policy....just use our formats TYVM and stop being a troublemaker.
So all these Vista 7 testers, also known as "end users". Say several of them notice some bug which is gonna take them a while to fix, they report it and Microsoft decide to ignore it for a while to get the release out and start clawing back money lost on Vista.....we'll fix it later. They already have the insane fixed patch dates, regardless of the time the exploit is actually being used. They already have a habit of not acknowledging the existence of a bug until they have the patch ready. All of this is hidden behind the scenes, while the users PC is at risk.
A huge difference in the FOSS model is that ANYONE with coding skills can fix the bug, they are not reliant on informing the vendor and hoping the vendor fixes it. The vendor also has commercial pressures to make sure that every $ spent on development / bug fixes translates somewhere down the line into profits. Something which may be time consuming to fix won't just delay the launch, but cost more money, since you have to pay for EVERY developer who works on it for as long as it takes to fix it. It's much easier to just ignore the problem.....easier and more profitable for the vendor, the end user don't matter.
I know where I put my faith.
"Unless your free testers are staring at code all day trying to force defects, it's all in vein."
That's an interesting view. Do you have the knowledge of a trained doctor when you go visit so you can talk shop and explain your symptoms in correct medical terminology? Most of us don't. We go with symptoms which we explain in our own words to the best of our ability and rely on the doctor to interpret them.
The same applies to bug testers, they don't need ANY technical knowledge to spot and report a bug. All they do need is the ability to explain "I tried to do this, I expected this to happen but this happened instead." The developers can then ask for more information in a way the end user can understand to get the information they need to fix the problem.
The other angle here is passion for the project. If you're working on a FOSS project, chances are that you're doing it because you have a passion for it and want it to be better, to be bug free etc. This means you take more pride in your work, and will want to go that extra mile to fix things or add features. If you're at a desk all day working on some project you don't own, possibly don't use, checking in and out at set times do you have the same passion and attention to detail? For most people that'd be a no.
It is interesting too that you imply that Microsoft people "stare at code all day trying to force defects". If this is true, judging by the (very expensive) end product, these guys would be better off working at Burger King.
I do have a PS2 and a GameCube (which I bought mucho cheap second hand for Rogue Squadron & Rogue Leader alone). I'm not much of a gamer these days, I used to spend a HUGE chunk of my day gaming but I've grown out of that phase now. Now I like an occasional quick 10 min blast of something to pass the time before the footie starts etc, win, lose or draw it don't matter.
Anyhoo, the last time the exclusivity deal hit me was Munch's Odysee, the "next gen" 3D version of Abe's Odysee which I loved. It was supposed to be exclusive to the PS2, which suited me as I was always a Sony person anyway....only to find it reversed and became an exclusive XBOX title instead. BASTARDS!!!! I was NOT amused. To this day I've never owned an XBOX, nor have I played that particular game, although I would have queued for it had it been available on the PS2. Knowing that Microsoft lose money on every XBOX sale has tempted me on a few occasions to consider buying one but the gesture would hurt me more than Microsoft so the urge usually passes.
The 6 month delay is a compromise I suppose but it's still no fun if you have one of the consoles and not the other. It's the big guys shuffling bits around while the little guys are left bewildered and abused. Entertainment companies in general have little understanding of their customers as it is, so this type of business decision being seen as a "good idea" does not surprise me.
I wonder what percentage of gamers rush out and buy a new game full price the week it hits the shelves. I reckon most gamers, specially the more experienced ones have enough self control to wait a few months till it plummets in price. The last game I bough on release day was MGS2, a LONG time ago.
Exactly, every hardware vendor knows that exclusive titles can mean the customer buys more than one console if a game they REALLY want is only available one the one they don't currently have. Exclusive deals tend to be good news for vendors, not customers or game developers. If I spent a fortune developing a game and had to rely on a lot of sales to break even, let alone make a profit I sure as hell wouldn't be cutting off half of my potential customer base by signing an exclusive deal....unless at least half of my projected sales numbers were paid in advance, at which case I'm back to even. It's not as if the current generation games can be knocked up by a couple of blokes in a weekend, it's a huge investment and a lot of man-hours to get to release.
Just like 1984 where ministries were named for the opposite of what they do, Microsoft have taken the old Mac advert a bit too literally. WGA is only an advantage to Microsoft, not the end user. DRM gives the content holders the right to restrict and punish users. I guess if truth in advertising was mandatory concepts like WSGD or Windows Sometimes Genuine Disadvantage wouldn't go down well.
Just when you thought it was safe to click the "later" option, an all new treat awaits our valued and loyal customers who upgrade to the best ever version of Windows. From the lovely people who brought you such well loved classics as the WGA and it's sister OGA. Now with their latest innovation, new improved nagware. This time it's even harder to stop.
Our patented nagware is a guaranteed success because we say so, and believe us, if you don't say so, we'll know and pay you a visit to "educate" you. All of our valued customers who have been flooding our inboxes demanding to be nagged now have the solution at hand. You won't find any better nagware than ours.
Microsoft - We listen to our customers demands because we care.....not like those hippie, commie, pinko Linux terrorists.
Indeed, and if Windows 7 replaces Vista in that slot, ie the one that users don't want....what does that do to Microsoft's reputation among the non-tech savy users who only see a HUGE corporation who must have gotten where they are by being the best in their field. One major failure in their two key product lines followed by another. They can bluff their way right now by claiming Windows 7 will fix everything that was wrong with Vista, but the more we hear of Windows 7 it appears not to be that much of an improvement, other than a flashier UI.
On a side note, I'm really hoping Microsoft stick with the crippled Starter Edition for netbooks, it will only help drive people away from them even faster.
It's about whether Microsoft can use this project to create more addicts to their programs. It wouldn't be the first and it won't be the last time they've tried, or succeed. Microsoft & Intel tried to destroy the OLPC project when it started because they saw it as a threat to their revenue. After a while they decided to be "nice" and forced their way into the project and insisted that XP be on it instead of Linux. The price would be higher of course, but XP was offered at a discount.
It wouldn't be the first time something good for the underprivileged has been hijacked and destroyed by Microsoft for their own ends. They are very skilled at spotting hotspots of freedom and sending the heavies in to rectify the situation in their favor.....gotta keep them addicts coming.
I expected the M$ proxies to mod the comment down, it's what they get paid for. By modding it down it becomes filtered out to some users, which helps censor the post.
The announcement was made that the Linux version wasn't suitable after all and they've decided to go with XP instead after a donation from the Gates Foundation? Oh, and the guy who forgot to bow to the M$ lobby in the first place will be quietly fired for some dubious reason.
"And why in the hell would anyone buy a product where the company gets to treat you like a five year old?"
Because it's shiney, and unkle Steve is a little less strict that unkle Stalin.....from time to time....if you eat your greens and tidy your room without whining too much.
I was wondering if someone else had that thought before I posted it, lol.
Every time a piece of hardware which wasn't properly cleaned to the recommended levels, the individual responsible for letting it leave the premises should be held accountable....personally. How about sharing state secrets with the enemy? You can't know who it was destined for so there's every possibility it will go overseas. To my knowledge this carries a harsh sentence, but we can allow a prison sentence if they co-operate with the authorities and ensure the command level personnel are also charged.
My guess is that most of this stuff happens through employee laziness, and contractor unaccountability. If you have lobbyists lairing in government to ensure that you keep the contracts no matter what and are able to hide anything under the "national security" red herring then why bother enforcing rules like wiping stuff properly? The idea of being held PERSONALLY responsible, with potential jail time will make people stop and think, specially if the command level have no loophole to blame their underlings for anything the press find out about.
Wow, so they finally bumped Office into the Windows updates huh? Last time I checked that was a separate issue, with separate validation clicks etc.
"This is only true if the software you need is open source, packaged by your package manager, and is ported to your distro in a timely manner. I run into a _lot_ of situations where the package managers dont have what I need and I have to out and either compile the stuff myself or download and run some scripted installer."
Being open source here is not technically true, there are plenty of distros who offer a non-free repo for proprietary binary blobs compiled by the vendors, like Skype. You're right in the fact that you're relying on the version compiled and included in the repos being updated in a timely manor however in many cases FOSS projects have their own repos you can add to your package manager and install from, thereby getting the latest version, regardless of how timely your distro updates it. I have about 5 applications I do this for because there are features in the later versions I need.
The other thing I can't understand why Microsoft haven't managed to get right yet is the way installing / removing applications leaves crap behind, or goes wherever it wants. When you install an application on Windows IT decides how many icons to put where, how many new links to add to the programs menu, whether to add itself onto the startup menu, system tray, quick launch etc. You have to look for the "advanced install" option and untick stuff (assuming they give you the option) or go round removing lots of crap after the install. After all that's done you find you have another couple of options at the end of a 3 column long unordered "programs" list. When you remove it, assuming it has an easy "uninstall" icon or the uninstall is not grayed out in the add/ remove programs does it gather all the shit it installed on the way out? No, it leaves it all behind for you to manually clear out.
By comparison installing on Linux assumes that YOU will decide where you want icons, that YOU will decide if the application starts at bootup etc. It also adds the application into the correct category in the menu, ordered alphabetically.....without you lifting a finger. If that's not helpful enough, when you remove it, it removes that entry to the menu too, again without you lifting a finger.
The way I see it is that Windows is designed for the benefit of companies who want to sell you stuff, and set up your PC for their revenue streams. You have to be wary when installing stuff and untick a lot of the options they want you to take. Maybe the fact that you don't own the OS you;re using sets the tone for this arrangement, perhaps it's all the pre-installed trial-ware which loads the PC down when you buy it which does it, I don't know. The user is only the wallet.
Linux by comparison is made by users for users. By that I mean it's not corporations insisting on certain features, or holding back on some features because they seek to sell you the "Pro" version. Most of the stuff in Linux comes from users with coding skills scratching their own itches, which means they don't include stuff that gets in the way.
Like any other scam, the scope has grown with every new gadget to ensure there are no loopholes to avoid paying them. The TV license in the UK applies if you have a TV, video recorder, DVD recorder, PC with TV card etc...basically anything with a tuner capable of receiving a signal. As technology advances they want more added to the list, pretty soon if your fridge is capable of connecting to the internet and the internet is capable of receiving a TV signal, the argument will be that your purpose for having a fridge with that feature is that you want to watch TV on it, so you must pey them. The arrogance here is doubled by the fact that for the idea to hold water, you MUST be watching channels funded by the license, not advertising / subscription funded ones.
You can tell them you don't have any of that stuff and opt out, at which point they will send round someone to search your house to prove it. They will occasionally return for another search to make sure you didn't get a TV and "forget" to opt back into their extortion racket.
The concept of a TV license was extinct decades ago, this smacks of broadcasters who can't make enough money to justify the multi-million euro bonuses to the board members wanting state funding. I hope this passes and gets the outcry it deserves, it'll make the case for abolition of the TV license even stronger in the UK.
Personally I don't have a TV license, nor do I intend to buy one. I've had umpteen threatening letters which keep the shredder fit, and a few visits from the henchmen.....who get the same response every time; a polite but firm "fuck off" and the door closed in their faces.
Government paid adverts for free software to keep users PCs secure huh? Sounds like they're gonna be advertising Linux / BSD.....wait, hang on, is that a Microsoft sales drone I see behind the curtain? I guess not then.
Why is this news?
Maybe they should keep that $29bn safe in this economy, shove it in the bank....wait....on second thoughts, buy something with it instead.