I think the point you miss is that whereas IBM, Sun, etc have some very talented people working on their kernels, many of those very same people are working on the Linux kernel. IBM in particular has formal groups workingon Linux development, but many AIX developers also work on the Linux kernel. I think it is fair to say that whereas not all of the developers at the mentioned companies are doing Linux work (though that may not be true, it may be that they all are) many of the best are, and many very good developers *not* working for those companies also are. Also Linux development is not just done by the "core team" it is done by anyone who can submit a decent patch by Linus' standards.
No, really, I read that in several different places.. i'm just too tired to think of where they are.. hell, I can't even think of the word for that.. oh yeah, he's doing it on contingency. i think that's the word. lol
Sounds like you read it in an AOL chatroom to me.:P
The statutes are for manufacturing and selling such a system. Technically code is not manufactured until it is compiled.
Linus is off scott free.
Why? because he never checks to make sure the kernel code compiles? Maybe that is why he said he was going to add some header files that were missing...
Linus is a pragmatist and an engineer. He does what is best for the technical side of Linux and seems to make compromises where he feels it is necessary for the future of Linux. This has allowed corporate adoption and participation in the development of Linux. Linus has always advocated Open Source (I think Free Software less so, though he certainly favours and defends the GPL way of doing things). He has said it is okay for companies to have closed source, which is not against the Open Source way, but RMS seems to see this as detrimental to Free Software.
Honestly I think Linus' stance makes sense since he is the maintainer of the Linux Kernel. I think RMS is important too because he reminds us that we do need to fight for Freedom. Linus cannot afford to get too political because he has to be a laison to business. Compare the number of businesses who supported HURD to the ones supporting Linux and see if you agree.
Actually the Darth Helmet Quote "I am your father's cousin's former roomate" more accurately describes the relationship between SCO and Linux.
Re:If MS were to use such strategies, would anyone
on
Platform Evangelism
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· Score: 1
I agree that WalMart has done evil things to employees. I was glad to hear that the CEO has recently publicly said that any employees being forced to work overtime without pay (reportedly a common Wal-Mart practice) can report dircetly to him. We will see if this is for real soon enough I expect.
Likewise there are many areas where Wal-Mart is the only place to buy music, electronics, etc. I have lived in places where WalMart is pretty much the only store, period. However, I think in those places we might never have certain merchandise available (like computers) without Wal-Mart. I think one of the worst things they do in this case besides being a historically nasty employer is their censorship of music and books. In some cases, the "Wal-Mart Version" of an album becomes the only version of that album which hides this fact. In cases where there is an uncut version as well people in areas where walmart is the only game in town won't see it. Thankfully the internet is here to change that, albeit slowly.
Sorry. In the USA Dyslexia and ADD have become "cool" diseases and probably 99% of people joke that they have them (witness the recent Ask Slashdot ADHD article...) but most people do not understand what they really are. I was just pointing out that Dyslexia is a serious matter for people who really have it and that it affects more than spelling. And yes it is difficult for people with Dyslexia to spell their ailment (and probably to search for information about it):P.
It's not completely the bad fs design. I think more of it has to do with sloppy coding. Firstly, far too many things get opened for write in windows land when they should be only opened for reading. System libraries in particular come to mind. In most systems, opening a file for writing locks the file. Then there is the matter of not being able to tell what is accessing a particular file, or to tell it to "stop that now so I can change the file then you read it again." This is a pretty common operation on Unix. I know it is possible on Windows because I have supported applications that did just that (replaced library, config, and executable files on the fly then restarted applications or told them to read again) which worked on a variety of platforms including windows. If it were easier to tell what is running and what is reading what (hell, windows does not even necessarily give you the real process table!) this would be possible. Given such uncertainties, it is easier to reboot and windows users have gotten used to it. They don't realize this is an abnormality of their platform.
Man, leave it to Theo to lay it out like it is. I was falling out of my chair laughing. But then again, what he says is really true. There is no room for being namby pamby if you really want something to be Free Software. Make it free for people to use and they will use it. Make it free as long as they sacrifice bunnies and only bunny sacrificers will use it.
HAL was introduced in Windows NT (The Hardware Abstraction Layer). It was supposed to make it more portable, but essentially meant it worked on DEC processors as well as x86, perhaps to piss DEC off more after MS stole their VMS dev team to make NT...
Neither Boxen nor Vaxen make any sense, though. Both sound like an attempt at sounding German without any rhyme or reason. I first saw "boxen" on slashdot. Come to think of it, that is the only place I have seen it, unless you count redneck bars, but there i think it is spelt "boxin'" and refers to something quite different.:P
You should also feel guilty since it could be argued that without Minix being available to Linus he might not have ever written Linux in the first place. Using Minix gave him inspiration, though he specifically avoided having his system be anything like Minix ultimately, the original development for linux was done under Minix using GNU tools. Heck, originally Linux started as a terminal emulator Linus felt the need for because the one on Minix sucked.
Pick up a copy of _Just_For_Fun_ by Linus Torvalds, or read this. The license he chose reminds me a lot of the dikumud license. It is more restrictive in that it does not allow Linux to be sold by anyone. Linus was initially not so sure about the GPL, but he decided in the end to go with it. The rest, as tey say, is history.
When the crusoe came out, it was said that it required software to run because part of the chip is implemented in software. But the Software for Crusoe chips only seems to come on Windows as shipped with the laptops with crusoe chips (though honestly I have yet to see a laptop with a crusoe chip actually offered for sale, other/.ers are saying that there are some but they come with XP ONLY.)
Transmeta's Linux distro does not seem to be for Crusoe processors. (I am not sure what it is for, as all the links to things that it is supposed to run on are dead, and it is stated in teh faq that it is meant for "small devices" that use flash for storage).
If Linux runs on Crusoe laptops, it is not clear how. Clearly even some people who claim to have these laptops have no clue how Linux could run on them. I haven't combed the vanilla kernel source, but I don't recall seeing a Crusoe config option anywhere. So if Linux runs on Crusoe chips, how about you give us a link? Otherwise it seems as much the vapourware as it always has seemed to be.
That's because you already have the device driver installed for that device. But most USB devices require the driver to be installed beforehand on Windows (or Macintosh for that matter) and the driver installers always require a reboot. They even come with big red stickers that say DO NOT PLUG IN THIS DEVICE BEFORE INSTALLING THE DRIVER! Devices which have fit this description for me include: USB Epson Printers, USB Logitech trackballs, USB Epson Scanners, USB Intel Webcams. This was on Windows 2000, Mac OS X, and Windows 98.
Hell, I have had Windows 2000 require a reboot to change the bleeding IP address on a NIC. It does not seem to ask for this consistently though as NT used to. On Linux, as long as I have the right hooks compiled into my kernel beforehand (such as USB support for USB devices) I can load a module. Otherwise I have to recompile my kernel and reboot Linux too.
I have never installed a driver on Windows that did not require a reboot. I have rarely installed a program on Windows that did not require a reboot. Windows 2000 reduced reboot situations to some degree, but there are still far more than necessary. I now run Linux on my home systems fairly exclusively, but I support Windows at work in addition to a number of unices and have used Windows since 3.0 came out.
Maybe XP has more common USB drivers loaded. Maybe it even really doesn't require reboots if you install drivers. But as the other MS apologist in this thread said they have been claiming this since 98 and it has always been a lie, at least for me.
Dyslexia is a learning disability. One of the most well-known symptoms is a tendency to transpose letters when reading (and therefore writing), which is not very conducive to good spelling. It can be treated and there is therapy available for it. Anyway bad spelling is not even the half of it.
It's a pity there is such a huge buy-in with an operating system purchase that it's very difficult and expensive to switch. My operating system choice (MacOS X) determines my video editing program of choice (Final Cut Pro) and keeps me more or less locked in to my Photoshop, After Effects and Illustrator licenses - even though I could cross grade when updating, this would be difficult and time consuming.
There are alternatives for all of the products you have mentioned, even open source ones in some cases (the Gimp works on Mac). That said, I have been told that FCP is the best video editing package around, and it only comes for Mac, which tends to drive film geeks to Mac (that and the fact most people with one specialty, such as film or music, do not necessarily have others, such as computers, which leads to film geeks and musicians not wanting to have to screw wth their computers therefore buying Macs).
Re:Microsoft is responsible for macromedia's succe
on
Platform Evangelism
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· Score: 1
I'd have to say Mozilla is more against Macromedia, for whatever reason. They also don't seem to like Java. At least now it is a little easier to install the plugins than it used to be, but that could be a simple matter of practice.
Does anybody else see the mutual inconsistancy of these two postitions? That the software that would "help them suceed" should be based on open standards (so that many people could develop backward compatible solutions and the best be chosen with no lock in) would not be the ones that "made money, lots of money".
MS Frontpage is a replacement for Dreamweaver. That said, I have not heard of Windows being altered to not use Dreamweaver, IE being altered not to read web pages made by dreamweaver, or IIS made not to serve dreamweaver pages... YET...
Re:If MS were to use such strategies, would anyone
on
Platform Evangelism
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· Score: 0, Troll
I know which I prefer, and it ain't the wierdos in Hubbardian robes over at M$.
Too right. I have been wondering about the possible links between the Church of Scientology and Microsoft. True Executive Software made the best candidate for inclusion in Win2k (Diskkeeper) and it was something MS needed anyway. BUt their tactics are very much right out of the CoS playbook...
Re:If MS were to use such strategies, would anyone
on
Platform Evangelism
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· Score: 1
Only on slashdot would this be considered insightful. We cannot hide behind the idea that american corporations always play rough. There is playing rough, and then there is dirty pool. There is a distinction. If the big three automakers make exclusive deals with steelmakers so no one else making cars can buy steel, that is dirty pool. If Standard Oil buys all the barrels so no one else can, it is dirty pool. If Coca Cola says you can't sell Pepsi if you sell Coke, it is dirty pool. If Microsoft tells computer makers they can only ship their product, it is dirty pool.
In Microsoft's case, they are a declared monopoly which means that even stricter rules than usual apply to them. They have blatantly broken their agreements with the US DOJ, required computer makers to pay them a tax on all computers made, disallowed any customization of those computers at the software level by said manufacturers, and tied (to date) a web browser, a media player and a chat client so deeply into the innards of their operating system that they cannot be extracted without severe hacking. These are the documenteed facts in evidence. They are not even in dispute, not even by Microsoft, and to me, to much of the world, and to several judges represent a business practice of tampering with the competition. They have been trying for the past several years to come up with a replacement for the internet which they will solely control, computers which only run Windows, and to take over the music, movie and entertainment industries. What is normal about that?
Normal competition is trying to come up with better products, services, and prices which make customers want to use your products. Microsoft has instead been going the route of forcing consumers to buy their product and trying to make it impossible for anyone to market anything else. They even try to pressure companies into not supporting competing operating systems with drivers, and recently have been trying to convince executives to fire people for installing Linux.
If MS does this (and they may indeed), this is merely business as usual among many of these corporations. Corporate America is not a day-care facility; companies can and do play hardball. The question is not "does MS want to help or hurt the competition" but rather "did MS engage in illegal anti-competitive practices which are bad for the consumer and bad for the market." I don't see you answering that question.
I will answer that question with a resounding yes. The integration of IE and the scripting host are the number one cause of security problems and viruses in Windows. Their decision to release patches which deliberately break major applications (like Lotus Notes and Domino, and RealPlayer) damages consumers. Their non-published APIs lead to sloppy coding of applications which again leads to instability. The way they "market" their products, by forcing them down people's throats, hurts healthy competition, and when you hurt competition you create a scenario in which there is less pressure to create a decent product which will truly benefit people. Products you have to buy tend to suck very much. That is why the process of doing your taxes gets worse every year and not better.
There is a big difference between putting the hurt on your competitors (in a sporting way) and stifling competition altogether. Microsoft is incapable of doing the former so they focus on the latter. Rather than compete in the marketplace, they make it practically impossible to compete with them. As for this other...
Wal-Mart destroyed the competition. And, yes, some say Wal-Mart is evil. But all they did is healthy, normal competition, no?
I like Wal-Mart. I shop there because it is cheap and it is open when I am awake. I can also usually buy everything I need at Wal-Mart and Fry's respectively. If something breaks (or does not work) from Wal-Mart or Fry's I can take it right back to the store and get my money back or something that d
Damnit!/. ate my link, and I even previewed this time. Well here it is. Hmm. In view of the subject matter, I suppose I should admit I forgot to check whether the link was there during the preview...:P
Thank you for the links, but these are stories I have read before. Thomas J. Watson was sent a medal from Hitler, who had awarded it to him, but he rejected the medal. The author of the book in question has done a lot to increase publicity and help sales of his book, including filing a lawsuit against IBM, but has not presented any new evidence for his case. The holocaust survivors' stories of instructions in English make perfect sense, as it is not in dispute at all that these computers were American and from an American company.
The Nazis seized control of the German arm of IBM. This seizure is well documented as were many of the Nazi's actions. No one has ever presented proof that any communication whatsoever occurred between the German arm of IBM and the American arm during the war.
The definitive tome on European goings-on during the period links to documentary evidence of this. But you won't see many people trumpeting on about that right now. Actually the Republican party has a curious history of being on the wrong side of wars....
Anyway, it seems to me that IBM's side, that the book did not present new evidence and makes wild claims that do not have documentary basis, makes more sense in the face of the evidence. Besides, if IBM had sent anything to Germany after the war in Europe started they would have gotten into serious trouble. Meanwhile, they did manufacture guns, ammunition, and a number of other things for the Allies. Incidentally, I wonder what happened with the lawsuit? The news got awful quiet and it has been several years now...
Slashdot Mirror
I think the point you miss is that whereas IBM, Sun, etc have some very talented people working on their kernels, many of those very same people are working on the Linux kernel. IBM in particular has formal groups workingon Linux development, but many AIX developers also work on the Linux kernel. I think it is fair to say that whereas not all of the developers at the mentioned companies are doing Linux work (though that may not be true, it may be that they all are) many of the best are, and many very good developers *not* working for those companies also are. Also Linux development is not just done by the "core team" it is done by anyone who can submit a decent patch by Linus' standards.
No, really, I read that in several different places.. i'm just too tired to think of where they are.. hell, I can't even think of the word for that .. oh yeah, he's doing it on contingency. i think that's the word. lol
Sounds like you read it in an AOL chatroom to me. :P
The statutes are for manufacturing and selling such a system. Technically code is not manufactured until it is compiled.
Linus is off scott free.
Why? because he never checks to make sure the kernel code compiles? Maybe that is why he said he was going to add some header files that were missing...
Linus is a pragmatist and an engineer. He does what is best for the technical side of Linux and seems to make compromises where he feels it is necessary for the future of Linux. This has allowed corporate adoption and participation in the development of Linux. Linus has always advocated Open Source (I think Free Software less so, though he certainly favours and defends the GPL way of doing things). He has said it is okay for companies to have closed source, which is not against the Open Source way, but RMS seems to see this as detrimental to Free Software.
Honestly I think Linus' stance makes sense since he is the maintainer of the Linux Kernel. I think RMS is important too because he reminds us that we do need to fight for Freedom. Linus cannot afford to get too political because he has to be a laison to business. Compare the number of businesses who supported HURD to the ones supporting Linux and see if you agree.
Actually the Darth Helmet Quote "I am your father's cousin's former roomate" more accurately describes the relationship between SCO and Linux.
I agree that WalMart has done evil things to employees. I was glad to hear that the CEO has recently publicly said that any employees being forced to work overtime without pay (reportedly a common Wal-Mart practice) can report dircetly to him. We will see if this is for real soon enough I expect.
Likewise there are many areas where Wal-Mart is the only place to buy music, electronics, etc. I have lived in places where WalMart is pretty much the only store, period. However, I think in those places we might never have certain merchandise available (like computers) without Wal-Mart. I think one of the worst things they do in this case besides being a historically nasty employer is their censorship of music and books. In some cases, the "Wal-Mart Version" of an album becomes the only version of that album which hides this fact. In cases where there is an uncut version as well people in areas where walmart is the only game in town won't see it. Thankfully the internet is here to change that, albeit slowly.
Sorry. In the USA Dyslexia and ADD have become "cool" diseases and probably 99% of people joke that they have them (witness the recent Ask Slashdot ADHD article...) but most people do not understand what they really are. I was just pointing out that Dyslexia is a serious matter for people who really have it and that it affects more than spelling. And yes it is difficult for people with Dyslexia to spell their ailment (and probably to search for information about it) :P.
It's not completely the bad fs design. I think more of it has to do with sloppy coding. Firstly, far too many things get opened for write in windows land when they should be only opened for reading. System libraries in particular come to mind. In most systems, opening a file for writing locks the file. Then there is the matter of not being able to tell what is accessing a particular file, or to tell it to "stop that now so I can change the file then you read it again." This is a pretty common operation on Unix. I know it is possible on Windows because I have supported applications that did just that (replaced library, config, and executable files on the fly then restarted applications or told them to read again) which worked on a variety of platforms including windows. If it were easier to tell what is running and what is reading what (hell, windows does not even necessarily give you the real process table!) this would be possible. Given such uncertainties, it is easier to reboot and windows users have gotten used to it. They don't realize this is an abnormality of their platform.
Man, leave it to Theo to lay it out like it is. I was falling out of my chair laughing. But then again, what he says is really true. There is no room for being namby pamby if you really want something to be Free Software. Make it free for people to use and they will use it. Make it free as long as they sacrifice bunnies and only bunny sacrificers will use it.
HAL was introduced in Windows NT (The Hardware Abstraction Layer). It was supposed to make it more portable, but essentially meant it worked on DEC processors as well as x86, perhaps to piss DEC off more after MS stole their VMS dev team to make NT...
Neither Boxen nor Vaxen make any sense, though. Both sound like an attempt at sounding German without any rhyme or reason. I first saw "boxen" on slashdot. Come to think of it, that is the only place I have seen it, unless you count redneck bars, but there i think it is spelt "boxin'" and refers to something quite different. :P
You should also feel guilty since it could be argued that without Minix being available to Linus he might not have ever written Linux in the first place. Using Minix gave him inspiration, though he specifically avoided having his system be anything like Minix ultimately, the original development for linux was done under Minix using GNU tools. Heck, originally Linux started as a terminal emulator Linus felt the need for because the one on Minix sucked.
Pick up a copy of _Just_For_Fun_ by Linus Torvalds, or read this. The license he chose reminds me a lot of the dikumud license. It is more restrictive in that it does not allow Linux to be sold by anyone. Linus was initially not so sure about the GPL, but he decided in the end to go with it. The rest, as tey say, is history.
Methinks the grandparent was trying to start the rumours they were talking about. Hmm.. recursive rumours? This rumour is not a rumour :).
When the crusoe came out, it was said that it required software to run because part of the chip is implemented in software. But the Software for Crusoe chips only seems to come on Windows as shipped with the laptops with crusoe chips (though honestly I have yet to see a laptop with a crusoe chip actually offered for sale, other /.ers are saying that there are some but they come with XP ONLY.)
Transmeta's Linux distro does not seem to be for Crusoe processors. (I am not sure what it is for, as all the links to things that it is supposed to run on are dead, and it is stated in teh faq that it is meant for "small devices" that use flash for storage).
If Linux runs on Crusoe laptops, it is not clear how. Clearly even some people who claim to have these laptops have no clue how Linux could run on them. I haven't combed the vanilla kernel source, but I don't recall seeing a Crusoe config option anywhere. So if Linux runs on Crusoe chips, how about you give us a link? Otherwise it seems as much the vapourware as it always has seemed to be.
That's because you already have the device driver installed for that device. But most USB devices require the driver to be installed beforehand on Windows (or Macintosh for that matter) and the driver installers always require a reboot. They even come with big red stickers that say DO NOT PLUG IN THIS DEVICE BEFORE INSTALLING THE DRIVER! Devices which have fit this description for me include: USB Epson Printers, USB Logitech trackballs, USB Epson Scanners, USB Intel Webcams. This was on Windows 2000, Mac OS X, and Windows 98.
Hell, I have had Windows 2000 require a reboot to change the bleeding IP address on a NIC. It does not seem to ask for this consistently though as NT used to. On Linux, as long as I have the right hooks compiled into my kernel beforehand (such as USB support for USB devices) I can load a module. Otherwise I have to recompile my kernel and reboot Linux too.
I have never installed a driver on Windows that did not require a reboot. I have rarely installed a program on Windows that did not require a reboot. Windows 2000 reduced reboot situations to some degree, but there are still far more than necessary. I now run Linux on my home systems fairly exclusively, but I support Windows at work in addition to a number of unices and have used Windows since 3.0 came out.
Maybe XP has more common USB drivers loaded. Maybe it even really doesn't require reboots if you install drivers. But as the other MS apologist in this thread said they have been claiming this since 98 and it has always been a lie, at least for me.
Dyslexia is a learning disability. One of the most well-known symptoms is a tendency to transpose letters when reading (and therefore writing), which is not very conducive to good spelling. It can be treated and there is therapy available for it. Anyway bad spelling is not even the half of it.
It's a pity there is such a huge buy-in with an operating system purchase that it's very difficult and expensive to switch. My operating system choice (MacOS X) determines my video editing program of choice (Final Cut Pro) and keeps me more or less locked in to my Photoshop, After Effects and Illustrator licenses - even though I could cross grade when updating, this would be difficult and time consuming.
There are alternatives for all of the products you have mentioned, even open source ones in some cases (the Gimp works on Mac). That said, I have been told that FCP is the best video editing package around, and it only comes for Mac, which tends to drive film geeks to Mac (that and the fact most people with one specialty, such as film or music, do not necessarily have others, such as computers, which leads to film geeks and musicians not wanting to have to screw wth their computers therefore buying Macs).
I'd have to say Mozilla is more against Macromedia, for whatever reason. They also don't seem to like Java. At least now it is a little easier to install the plugins than it used to be, but that could be a simple matter of practice.
Does anybody else see the mutual inconsistancy of these two postitions? That the software that would "help them suceed" should be based on open standards (so that many people could develop backward compatible solutions and the best be chosen with no lock in) would not be the ones that "made money, lots of money".
Can anyone say doublethink?
Well, he *did* say he worked for Microsoft...
MS Frontpage is a replacement for Dreamweaver. That said, I have not heard of Windows being altered to not use Dreamweaver, IE being altered not to read web pages made by dreamweaver, or IIS made not to serve dreamweaver pages... YET...
I know which I prefer, and it ain't the wierdos in Hubbardian robes over at M$.
Too right. I have been wondering about the possible links between the Church of Scientology and Microsoft. True Executive Software made the best candidate for inclusion in Win2k (Diskkeeper) and it was something MS needed anyway. BUt their tactics are very much right out of the CoS playbook...
Only on slashdot would this be considered insightful. We cannot hide behind the idea that american corporations always play rough. There is playing rough, and then there is dirty pool. There is a distinction. If the big three automakers make exclusive deals with steelmakers so no one else making cars can buy steel, that is dirty pool. If Standard Oil buys all the barrels so no one else can, it is dirty pool. If Coca Cola says you can't sell Pepsi if you sell Coke, it is dirty pool. If Microsoft tells computer makers they can only ship their product, it is dirty pool.
In Microsoft's case, they are a declared monopoly which means that even stricter rules than usual apply to them. They have blatantly broken their agreements with the US DOJ, required computer makers to pay them a tax on all computers made, disallowed any customization of those computers at the software level by said manufacturers, and tied (to date) a web browser, a media player and a chat client so deeply into the innards of their operating system that they cannot be extracted without severe hacking. These are the documenteed facts in evidence. They are not even in dispute, not even by Microsoft, and to me, to much of the world, and to several judges represent a business practice of tampering with the competition. They have been trying for the past several years to come up with a replacement for the internet which they will solely control, computers which only run Windows, and to take over the music, movie and entertainment industries. What is normal about that?
Normal competition is trying to come up with better products, services, and prices which make customers want to use your products. Microsoft has instead been going the route of forcing consumers to buy their product and trying to make it impossible for anyone to market anything else. They even try to pressure companies into not supporting competing operating systems with drivers, and recently have been trying to convince executives to fire people for installing Linux.
If MS does this (and they may indeed), this is merely business as usual among many of these corporations. Corporate America is not a day-care facility; companies can and do play hardball. The question is not "does MS want to help or hurt the competition" but rather "did MS engage in illegal anti-competitive practices which are bad for the consumer and bad for the market." I don't see you answering that question.
I will answer that question with a resounding yes. The integration of IE and the scripting host are the number one cause of security problems and viruses in Windows. Their decision to release patches which deliberately break major applications (like Lotus Notes and Domino, and RealPlayer) damages consumers. Their non-published APIs lead to sloppy coding of applications which again leads to instability. The way they "market" their products, by forcing them down people's throats, hurts healthy competition, and when you hurt competition you create a scenario in which there is less pressure to create a decent product which will truly benefit people. Products you have to buy tend to suck very much. That is why the process of doing your taxes gets worse every year and not better.
There is a big difference between putting the hurt on your competitors (in a sporting way) and stifling competition altogether. Microsoft is incapable of doing the former so they focus on the latter. Rather than compete in the marketplace, they make it practically impossible to compete with them. As for this other...
Wal-Mart destroyed the competition. And, yes, some say Wal-Mart is evil. But all they did is healthy, normal competition, no?
I like Wal-Mart. I shop there because it is cheap and it is open when I am awake. I can also usually buy everything I need at Wal-Mart and Fry's respectively. If something breaks (or does not work) from Wal-Mart or Fry's I can take it right back to the store and get my money back or something that d
Damnit! /. ate my link, and I even previewed this time. Well here it is. Hmm. In view of the subject matter, I suppose I should admit I forgot to check whether the link was there during the preview... :P
Thank you for the links, but these are stories I have read before. Thomas J. Watson was sent a medal from Hitler, who had awarded it to him, but he rejected the medal. The author of the book in question has done a lot to increase publicity and help sales of his book, including filing a lawsuit against IBM, but has not presented any new evidence for his case. The holocaust survivors' stories of instructions in English make perfect sense, as it is not in dispute at all that these computers were American and from an American company.
The Nazis seized control of the German arm of IBM. This seizure is well documented as were many of the Nazi's actions. No one has ever presented proof that any communication whatsoever occurred between the German arm of IBM and the American arm during the war.
The definitive tome on European goings-on during the period links to documentary evidence of this. But you won't see many people trumpeting on about that right now. Actually the Republican party has a curious history of being on the wrong side of wars....
Anyway, it seems to me that IBM's side, that the book did not present new evidence and makes wild claims that do not have documentary basis, makes more sense in the face of the evidence. Besides, if IBM had sent anything to Germany after the war in Europe started they would have gotten into serious trouble. Meanwhile, they did manufacture guns, ammunition, and a number of other things for the Allies. Incidentally, I wonder what happened with the lawsuit? The news got awful quiet and it has been several years now...