Microsoft will never ever open their source, nor are they likely to pay the full $615m fine. They might submit to the unbundling of WMP. For those who can't understand why, let me explain.
First, the source. We all know that MS will fight against this more than any other single punishment. This is what they truly don't want to have happen. You can bet that MS would be willing to go to such extreme's as pulling out of the EU market rather than supply the source. Further, the EU has no real way to actually force them to release it anyway. They can issue such an order, but if MS says no, what are they going to do? They can't legally seize the code and release it for them (at least, I don't think they can). The only way to force MS to release the code would be through the cooperation of the US, which isn't likely to happen. Regardless of whether or not the US gov agree's, as soon as the EU tries to force their hand, it becomes an EU vs US thing (guess who will win that battle).
Second, the fine. It's big. Damn big. Yes MS can technically afford it, but if nothing else, that is likely to get overturned and reduced to $100m or so.
Finally, the unbundling. If MS releases an unbundled version it will cost exactly the same as the regular version, because hey, WMP is free, right? Second, people who mistakenly buy the unbundled version are gonna be peeved when they can't find WMP and are gonna complain. Whether the Open Source/Free Software communities likes it or not, people want this software, like this software, have gotten used to this software, and most importantly, DO NOT CARE THAT THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES. Yes, thats right, they are happy using WMP and want to keep on using it. So what is ultimately going to happen? People will buy the bundled version anyway! Furthermore, MS knows this and is more likely to comply for just this reason. They've already strangled the market, so it doesn't matter anymore.
You aren't actually crashing the "spammer's" box. You're crashing the box of some poor sucker who doesn't know enough to that he should have a firewall (software or hardware), between his computer and his cable/dsl modem. Meanwhile, the spammer just moves on to another of his pool of tens of thousands of broadband IP's which have computers attached to them EXACTLY THE SAME WAY.
So congratualtions, you have successfully made some poor guy's day miserable because his box keeps rebooting and he hasn't an fscking clue why, and you have done exactly nothing to hinder the spammers. Keep up the great work!
I'd like to pay less taxes on my midrange income, but that doesn't mean that I feel those tax cuts should be squandered on people making 7 figure incomes and up.
Oh come on, haven't you people figured this out yet? You're not the only one spouting this drivel so I'm not picking on you on purpose, you just happen to be the highest up in the list of comments.
I would have thought that people on slashdot could figure this out, it's simple math. If you give a 1 percent tax cut to someone making a billion dollars you have to give a 10% tax cut to someone making 1 million dollars in order for them to have the same monetary value. The top 1% of people in the country make more money than the entire middle class combined. If the rich are given a 4 % tax cut, and the middle class is given a 20% tax cut then YES, THE WEALTHY WILL GET MORE MONEY BACK!!!
It is virtually impossible to give a tax break such that the wealthy get less money back than the middle class. Besides which, this really shouldn't be called a "tax cut". This is the government giving back the money that they shouldn't have taken in the first place. The wealthy gave more money, they get more back, there is no way around that.
Unless you happen to favor a completely unfair scheme of "tax cuts" such that for every 1% tax break you give the wealthy you give a 10% break to the middle class, you will never be able to give more money back to the middle class.
If you don't like taxes, don't pay them. There is no law requireing you to do so. The 15th amendment was never ratified, and beyond that the amendment very specifically allows for an "excise tax" aka, tarrifs. So quit bitching about tax cuts and think about how the system works before you go ranting about tax cuts being 'squandered'.
The other 1/3 are voting for Shrub are those who want Andy Griffith in the White House so they don't have to look at the boring, intelligent, responsible Al Gore on their TV screens.
So, in other words, you want a president who has the horribly flawed idea that it is the governments responsibility to pay for your retirement. You want a president who thinks that its the United States' job to play the part of world police force. You want a president who supports socialized medicine. Lets me say that again, SOCIALIZED medicine. As in socialism. You think socialism is a neat idea?
Geuss what, not all of us want to pay for your medical bills. If you didn't save properly in your youth and prepare for retirement, then quite frankly, fuck you. If you don't have enough money to survive thats your own damn fault and I sure as hell do not want to be forking over my money that I could be using to prevent myself from being in that same position.
It all has to do with consequences. If you don't take responsibility for you actions, why should I have to pick up the slack? Don't get the wrong impression, I do care about my fellow man, and I don't mind supporting them when they need help, but that doesn't mean that I want to pay for someones entire lifestyle. It's your respoonsibility to make sure that you can support yourself when you retire, not the governments, and not mine either.
Ok, I think it's fairly obvious how the bulk of the community feels about this idiocy. The important question though, is what are we going to do about?
I wonder if maybe we couldn't find some way to get this onto national television and let the world know what these idiots are doing. The reason why RIAA, MPAA, and other big industry conglomerates have been able to get away with things like CSS and potentially SDMI, is because the public at large doesn't know what it means, and if they do know what it is, they may not neccesarily know why they should care.
Somehow we need to get this into national press and make people aware of the potential damage these various technologies could do.
Be careful of what you say. As a frequenter of said message boards and web site I am well aquainted of what goes on there. ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING posted there about the G450 and G800 are RUMORS!!! Do NOT take any of it as fact.
It has full OGL implementations under 9x, 2000 and NT4.0. XFree86 has built in support for all Matrox cards. You can get OGL support via the Glx project here http://utah-glx.sourceforge.net/ The one thing I would like to know is why this card is being reviewed now? It's been out for a number of months now, at least since last summer. Not that it's a bad card mind you, in fact, while it may not give you the highest frame rate around, it sure as hell will give you the best image quality around. But hey, whatever. It doesn't really matter, it just seems a little strange. HedsSpaz
Slashdot Mirror
Microsoft will never ever open their source, nor are they likely to pay the full $615m fine. They might submit to the unbundling of WMP. For those who can't understand why, let me explain.
First, the source. We all know that MS will fight against this more than any other single punishment. This is what they truly don't want to have happen. You can bet that MS would be willing to go to such extreme's as pulling out of the EU market rather than supply the source. Further, the EU has no real way to actually force them to release it anyway. They can issue such an order, but if MS says no, what are they going to do? They can't legally seize the code and release it for them (at least, I don't think they can). The only way to force MS to release the code would be through the cooperation of the US, which isn't likely to happen. Regardless of whether or not the US gov agree's, as soon as the EU tries to force their hand, it becomes an EU vs US thing (guess who will win that battle).
Second, the fine. It's big. Damn big. Yes MS can technically afford it, but if nothing else, that is likely to get overturned and reduced to $100m or so.
Finally, the unbundling. If MS releases an unbundled version it will cost exactly the same as the regular version, because hey, WMP is free, right? Second, people who mistakenly buy the unbundled version are gonna be peeved when they can't find WMP and are gonna complain. Whether the Open Source/Free Software communities likes it or not, people want this software, like this software, have gotten used to this software, and most importantly, DO NOT CARE THAT THERE ARE ALTERNATIVES. Yes, thats right, they are happy using WMP and want to keep on using it. So what is ultimately going to happen? People will buy the bundled version anyway! Furthermore, MS knows this and is more likely to comply for just this reason. They've already strangled the market, so it doesn't matter anymore.
...how many of us went to EBay immediately after reading this article and did a search for 'labtop'?
You aren't actually crashing the "spammer's" box. You're crashing the box of some poor sucker who doesn't know enough to that he should have a firewall (software or hardware), between his computer and his cable/dsl modem. Meanwhile, the spammer just moves on to another of his pool of tens of thousands of broadband IP's which have computers attached to them EXACTLY THE SAME WAY.
So congratualtions, you have successfully made some poor guy's day miserable because his box keeps rebooting and he hasn't an fscking clue why, and you have done exactly nothing to hinder the spammers. Keep up the great work!
I'd like to pay less taxes on my midrange income, but that doesn't mean that I feel those tax cuts should be squandered on people making 7 figure incomes and up.
Oh come on, haven't you people figured this out yet? You're not the only one spouting this drivel so I'm not picking on you on purpose, you just happen to be the highest up in the list of comments.
I would have thought that people on slashdot could figure this out, it's simple math. If you give a 1 percent tax cut to someone making a billion dollars you have to give a 10% tax cut to someone making 1 million dollars in order for them to have the same monetary value. The top 1% of people in the country make more money than the entire middle class combined. If the rich are given a 4 % tax cut, and the middle class is given a 20% tax cut then YES, THE WEALTHY WILL GET MORE MONEY BACK!!!
It is virtually impossible to give a tax break such that the wealthy get less money back than the middle class. Besides which, this really shouldn't be called a "tax cut". This is the government giving back the money that they shouldn't have taken in the first place. The wealthy gave more money, they get more back, there is no way around that.
Unless you happen to favor a completely unfair scheme of "tax cuts" such that for every 1% tax break you give the wealthy you give a 10% break to the middle class, you will never be able to give more money back to the middle class.
If you don't like taxes, don't pay them. There is no law requireing you to do so. The 15th amendment was never ratified, and beyond that the amendment very specifically allows for an "excise tax" aka, tarrifs. So quit bitching about tax cuts and think about how the system works before you go ranting about tax cuts being 'squandered'.
The other 1/3 are voting for Shrub are those who want Andy Griffith in the White House so they don't have to look at the boring, intelligent, responsible Al Gore on their TV screens.
So, in other words, you want a president who has the horribly flawed idea that it is the governments responsibility to pay for your retirement. You want a president who thinks that its the United States' job to play the part of world police force. You want a president who supports socialized medicine. Lets me say that again, SOCIALIZED medicine. As in socialism. You think socialism is a neat idea?
Geuss what, not all of us want to pay for your medical bills. If you didn't save properly in your youth and prepare for retirement, then quite frankly, fuck you. If you don't have enough money to survive thats your own damn fault and I sure as hell do not want to be forking over my money that I could be using to prevent myself from being in that same position.
It all has to do with consequences. If you don't take responsibility for you actions, why should I have to pick up the slack? Don't get the wrong impression, I do care about my fellow man, and I don't mind supporting them when they need help, but that doesn't mean that I want to pay for someones entire lifestyle. It's your respoonsibility to make sure that you can support yourself when you retire, not the governments, and not mine either.
Ok, I think it's fairly obvious how the bulk of the community feels about this idiocy. The important question though, is what are we going to do about?
I wonder if maybe we couldn't find some way to get this onto national television and let the world know what these idiots are doing. The reason why RIAA, MPAA, and other big industry conglomerates have been able to get away with things like CSS and potentially SDMI, is because the public at large doesn't know what it means, and if they do know what it is, they may not neccesarily know why they should care.
Somehow we need to get this into national press and make people aware of the potential damage these various technologies could do.
Be careful of what you say. As a frequenter of said message boards and web site I am well aquainted of what goes on there. ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING posted there about the G450 and G800 are RUMORS!!! Do NOT take any of it as fact.
It has full OGL implementations under 9x, 2000 and NT4.0. XFree86 has built in support for all Matrox cards. You can get OGL support via the Glx project here http://utah-glx.sourceforge.net/
The one thing I would like to know is why this card is being reviewed now? It's been out for a number of months now, at least since last summer. Not that it's a bad card mind you, in fact, while it may not give you the highest frame rate around, it sure as hell will give you the best image quality around.
But hey, whatever. It doesn't really matter, it just seems a little strange.
HedsSpaz
So, has anyone tried compiling it yet? Heh heh... ;)