You don't seem to understand. This is slashdot.org and thus if someone can rip on Microsoft no matter how unsubstantiated it might be, they are going to do it.
For instance, if there is an article about using child labor in New Guinea to create rubber bouncing balls... You can guarantee that slashdot.org will post the article with the comment, "How can we stop Microsoft from utilizing child labor?"
I agree, I have never heard of Microsoft ever suing anyone for reverse engineering their data formats.
"It doesn't take a stretch of the imagination to see how Microsoft, as the sole "signer" of drivers, to favor its own hardware/software over other third party products. "
Yep, those Microsoft sound cards will get top priority over anything made by Creative!
Of course since Microsoft doesn't make sound cards, top priority really isn't all that important, is it?
Maybe you ought to leave the conspiracy theories to the more experienced kooks.
SCO was hot 5-10 years ago. But since '95 or so they've been on the decline.
SCO sold licenses because there were all these various business tools that would only run on SCO.
About '96 or so most of these companies said "We're phasing out SCO in favor of X because it's easier/better/whatever".
Typically that X was Windows NT, sometimes it was Solaris.
I used to support an SCO ODT3 environment of about 8 workstations back in '93/'94.
But I agree with you in regards to Sun's popularity. Java also worked to their advantage, not necessarily as a language but as a marketing hype generator.
Re:can Windows be beaten on the desktop?
on
Linux Is Going Down
·
· Score: 2
That may be true.
But it's important to examine all your options. Running down the dual boot Linux path is something of a pain, especially if it's not the best solution.
Students receive substantial discounts on software, no need to pirate.
The RameN Worm was first reported on 1/18 I believe, yet according to attrition.org only like 5 servers have been impacted by it.
That doesn't seem quite right, since I've seen more reports than that just in usenet groups.
What seems clear to me is that attrition.org obviously bases their stats on reported defacings, and the pages defaced by the RameN Worm were not reported because nobody had a direct hand in making it happen.
I guess the point, the attrition.org statistics aren't really saying what you want them to say.
Sorry.
Re:can Windows be beaten on the desktop?
on
Linux Is Going Down
·
· Score: 2
You realize of course that Windows 2000 would satisfy most all of your requirements.
It would be able to act as a FTP server without rebooting daily, and play games and the other software you require Windows for.
It also has a much greater cool factor than Linux, which is important when in college.:)
Microsoft didn't subcontract to Akamai to manage their DNS servers.
They subcontracted cached content delivery to Akamai, basically as a means to reduce the effects of DoS attacks by distributing their content across multiple Akamai servers across the globe, thus preventing an attack against one machine from taking everything offline.
So now when you contact the microsoft web site to grab something, instead of going to Seattle it may be routed to a Akamai server in Chicago which has the content cached.
Obviously in order to do this, Akamai has to be able to manipulate DNS entries for Microsoft's web servers, thus you now have Akamai DNS servers listed as authorative for Microsoft.com.
This was all discussed in numerous news articles this week, which you apparently missed.
For your specific example. In the closed-source world of Microsoft, Sun, etc...
First of all, since the compiler is not bundled with the OS it could be released a few months after the OS. In the meantime making the beta available for people to use and test.
In fact, both companies have done this quite frequently.
Your characterization of closed-source companies while entertaining tends to ignore facts and history.
As far as the RedHat making it work better than it should... Need we remind you of that RameN Worm?:)
It's not entirely clear to me that they've entirely ripped VB apart. I have to test this theory, but my understanding is they have made it such that VB6 and VB.Net can coexist just fine. I just need to verify the development environments work.
VB was in need of a serious overhaul, anyway. There are a lot of inconsistencies throughout the language, and a lot of cruft basically left over from the very first versions of MS-BASIC from the 1980's.
They had to overhaul it in order for it to fall in line with the other CLR languages. This eases things because they will only have one runtime environment to maintain.
As far as the claim that they've made it impossible to develop desktop apps, I don't believe that's true either. From everything I've played with, C# and VB.Net are still capable of developing two-tier applications.
I'm going to dig into this deeper this week as I'm going to attempt to port a desktop client of mine from Visual C to C#. It has a lot of user-interface stuff and should be entertaining.
Hmm, I don't recall Microsoft ever claiming ActiveX was cross platform.
COM on the other hand is, there are implementations of this for Unix, even Linux.
Microsoft has committed to providing a Reference implementation of C# and the intermediate language runtime for ECMA standardization. This reference implementation will contain the core subset of the language and runtime without any of the Windows specific libraries, etc. But they have said it will compile with gcc on Unix/Linux.
But really it's the web services which is key to all of.Net. You don't need the C# language or the runtime in order to take advantage of this technology. IBM has committed to SOAP as have some other companies, even Sun is reluctantly talking about it.
The only tool, utility, or application I have encountered recently which used Java is the Viewlet builder.
While that util is pretty cool, I just don't see the popularity of Java being all that strong. At least not in the Windows desktop arena, and certainly not on the Windows server, where COM and ASP dominate.
I first heard about THX perhaps 10 years ago in an article in Speaker Builder magazine. The idea was fantastic, Lucas was tired of going to theatres with crappy sound systems which didn't allow you to enjoy the music.
At that time the THX certification meant that not only was the sound system of a high calibre, but the theatre itself had been designed with quality acoustics in mind. It was a certification that only the very best theatres were capable of receiving.
Then I guess they decided they needed some more money for the Lucas studios because they started slapping THX on home audio/video equipment. Still it was typically good equipment that you found this label on.
Now, what is it? More money, or is Dell hoping to be buzzword compliant?
I can't believe they'd slap a THX label on a cheap tinny Altec Lansing computer speaker setup.
Sheesh, you'll get better sound spending the same money on a pair of PSB Alpha's and a small NAD integrated amp. Yeah, it may not be "surround" but it'll sure sound better.
Ahh, well if this is true, then by extension the entire Rush Limbaugh franchise should be regulated by the government.
But why stop there? Newspaper editorial boards, columnists and book authors should also be regulated because they all have opinions. In fact the jokes I make at work, or comments I make to friends should also be regulated as campaign contributions.
Personally I find the notion silly and to some extent quite repulsive. As an US Citizen, my right to speak out against those who hold and are running for political office is not only protected, it is encouraged.
I think you are coming to several wrong conclusions based on the facts at hand.
Microsoft is going through a reinvention of itself, partly because of this court case, but also because of the change in the industry. This is not untypical of any corporation which matures.
Corporate executives who start a company rarely stay forever, but leave when the climate changes. There is a big difference between being part of a small company and a large behemoth, and it takes a different kind of executive.
It was inevitable, the challenge for Microsoft is to keep the momentum going with new blood.
Uhh, the geeks are jealous of Microsoft's success. Come on, people aren't attracted to Linux because of it's technical superiority, they are attracted for the same reason people pierce their tongues. It's a desire to be different, to be cool, whatever.
Larry Ellison is one of the primary motivators behind this anti-trust lawsuit, and he's certainly in this game because of jealousy.
I wouldn't look too deep here for vindication of your beliefs because in the long run you'll be sorely disappointed.
But that's not freedom, you are arguing for legitimized theft.
The United States was founded on a principle of intellectual property. It is a protected right by grant of the US Constitution.
An assault on freedom would be if the RIAA were to prevent you from recording your own music and selling it on the market. This hasn't been what the internet debates have been about.
If you don't like the restrictions placed on you by the content creators then DON'T UTILIZE THEIR SERVICES! Don't listen to the music, don't watch the movies, don't use the software. That is the only lawful, moral and ethical way to cause them financial harm.
Better yet, go out and create your own music, your own movies, your own software! Then compete with them fairly!
Otherwise if you just sit around whining because the RIAA, MPAA and SIIA is protecting their constitutionally guaranteed right...
You are a parasite. We don't need parasites in our society, as they provide no value.
Of course 50-100 years ago they would have been shocked at police wearing masks.
"Why would they have to wear masks?", they would say. It was perfectly acceptable just to shoot people in cold blood in the name of law and order.
I suggest you go back and read your history books. Pay particularly attention to the labor battles such as with Carnegie steel, the docks in San Francisco and New York, etc.
Check out Joseph McCarthy. Check out Wallace on the steps in Alabama, or the assassination of two Kennedy's and King.
Then come back and claim we are worse off today.
One thing I really hate are people who never learned history and are doomed to repeat it.
We must be ever vigilante in the defense of our freedoms, but we also must be rational and intelligent in the discussion of same.
Slashdot Mirror
Interesting that you accuse me of trolling.
Maybe you should go educate yourself before posting as an Anonymous coward.
You don't seem to understand. This is slashdot.org and thus if someone can rip on Microsoft no matter how unsubstantiated it might be, they are going to do it.
For instance, if there is an article about using child labor in New Guinea to create rubber bouncing balls... You can guarantee that slashdot.org will post the article with the comment, "How can we stop Microsoft from utilizing child labor?"
I agree, I have never heard of Microsoft ever suing anyone for reverse engineering their data formats.
"It doesn't take a stretch of the imagination to see how Microsoft, as the sole "signer" of drivers, to favor its own hardware/software over other third party products. "
Yep, those Microsoft sound cards will get top priority over anything made by Creative!
Of course since Microsoft doesn't make sound cards, top priority really isn't all that important, is it?
Maybe you ought to leave the conspiracy theories to the more experienced kooks.
I'm sorry to disappoint you, but MP3 sounds like crap.
WMA is only just tolerable crap, but it is most certainly better than MP3. A WMA encoded stream at 160kbps sounds about like a MP3 stream at 256kbps.
Even VBR MP3 doesn't help... the 160kbps WMA stream sounds better than MP3 VBR at 320kbps top encoding.
SCO was hot 5-10 years ago. But since '95 or so they've been on the decline.
SCO sold licenses because there were all these various business tools that would only run on SCO.
About '96 or so most of these companies said "We're phasing out SCO in favor of X because it's easier/better/whatever".
Typically that X was Windows NT, sometimes it was Solaris.
I used to support an SCO ODT3 environment of about 8 workstations back in '93/'94.
But I agree with you in regards to Sun's popularity. Java also worked to their advantage, not necessarily as a language but as a marketing hype generator.
That may be true.
But it's important to examine all your options. Running down the dual boot Linux path is something of a pain, especially if it's not the best solution.
Students receive substantial discounts on software, no need to pirate.
Hmm. Now that you mention it, yes I guess it does make me superior.
Nice try at digging yourself out of a hole.
It's not quite clear that it is all that simple.
The RameN Worm was first reported on 1/18 I believe, yet according to attrition.org only like 5 servers have been impacted by it.
That doesn't seem quite right, since I've seen more reports than that just in usenet groups.
What seems clear to me is that attrition.org obviously bases their stats on reported defacings, and the pages defaced by the RameN Worm were not reported because nobody had a direct hand in making it happen.
I guess the point, the attrition.org statistics aren't really saying what you want them to say.
Sorry.
You realize of course that Windows 2000 would satisfy most all of your requirements.
:)
It would be able to act as a FTP server without rebooting daily, and play games and the other software you require Windows for.
It also has a much greater cool factor than Linux, which is important when in college.
Hotmail.com used FreeBSD on their external hosts, and Solaris internally per all the articles I read.
However about 4 months ago Microsoft removed all the FreeBSD servers and replaced them with Windows 2000 servers.
This was reported by netcraft and a number of news agencies, which you apparently missed.
Microsoft didn't subcontract to Akamai to manage their DNS servers.
They subcontracted cached content delivery to Akamai, basically as a means to reduce the effects of DoS attacks by distributing their content across multiple Akamai servers across the globe, thus preventing an attack against one machine from taking everything offline.
So now when you contact the microsoft web site to grab something, instead of going to Seattle it may be routed to a Akamai server in Chicago which has the content cached.
Obviously in order to do this, Akamai has to be able to manipulate DNS entries for Microsoft's web servers, thus you now have Akamai DNS servers listed as authorative for Microsoft.com.
This was all discussed in numerous news articles this week, which you apparently missed.
Excuses...Excuses... Everybody's got one.
:)
I thought about leaving that statement out of my post, but the fun of tweaking all the Linux trolls got the best of me.
For your specific example. In the closed-source world of Microsoft, Sun, etc...
:)
First of all, since the compiler is not bundled with the OS it could be released a few months after the OS. In the meantime making the beta available for people to use and test.
In fact, both companies have done this quite frequently.
Your characterization of closed-source companies while entertaining tends to ignore facts and history.
As far as the RedHat making it work better than it should... Need we remind you of that RameN Worm?
More details on what they are changing in VB:
h tm
http://www.mvps.org/vb/index.html?rants/dotnot.
It's not entirely clear to me that they've entirely ripped VB apart. I have to test this theory, but my understanding is they have made it such that VB6 and VB.Net can coexist just fine. I just need to verify the development environments work.
VB was in need of a serious overhaul, anyway. There are a lot of inconsistencies throughout the language, and a lot of cruft basically left over from the very first versions of MS-BASIC from the 1980's.
They had to overhaul it in order for it to fall in line with the other CLR languages. This eases things because they will only have one runtime environment to maintain.
As far as the claim that they've made it impossible to develop desktop apps, I don't believe that's true either. From everything I've played with, C# and VB.Net are still capable of developing two-tier applications.
I'm going to dig into this deeper this week as I'm going to attempt to port a desktop client of mine from Visual C to C#. It has a lot of user-interface stuff and should be entertaining.
Hmm, I don't recall Microsoft ever claiming ActiveX was cross platform.
.Net. You don't need the C# language or the runtime in order to take advantage of this technology. IBM has committed to SOAP as have some other companies, even Sun is reluctantly talking about it.
COM on the other hand is, there are implementations of this for Unix, even Linux.
Microsoft has committed to providing a Reference implementation of C# and the intermediate language runtime for ECMA standardization. This reference implementation will contain the core subset of the language and runtime without any of the Windows specific libraries, etc. But they have said it will compile with gcc on Unix/Linux.
But really it's the web services which is key to all of
"I'm going to write everything in Java because that's the only thing I know."
Isn't that also a form of laziness?
Could you provide some examples of these?
The only tool, utility, or application I have encountered recently which used Java is the Viewlet builder.
While that util is pretty cool, I just don't see the popularity of Java being all that strong. At least not in the Windows desktop arena, and certainly not on the Windows server, where COM and ASP dominate.
I first heard about THX perhaps 10 years ago in an article in Speaker Builder magazine. The idea was fantastic, Lucas was tired of going to theatres with crappy sound systems which didn't allow you to enjoy the music.
At that time the THX certification meant that not only was the sound system of a high calibre, but the theatre itself had been designed with quality acoustics in mind. It was a certification that only the very best theatres were capable of receiving.
Then I guess they decided they needed some more money for the Lucas studios because they started slapping THX on home audio/video equipment. Still it was typically good equipment that you found this label on.
Now, what is it? More money, or is Dell hoping to be buzzword compliant?
I can't believe they'd slap a THX label on a cheap tinny Altec Lansing computer speaker setup.
Sheesh, you'll get better sound spending the same money on a pair of PSB Alpha's and a small NAD integrated amp. Yeah, it may not be "surround" but it'll sure sound better.
We call that statistical sampling.
Ahh, well if this is true, then by extension the entire Rush Limbaugh franchise should be regulated by the government.
But why stop there? Newspaper editorial boards, columnists and book authors should also be regulated because they all have opinions. In fact the jokes I make at work, or comments I make to friends should also be regulated as campaign contributions.
Personally I find the notion silly and to some extent quite repulsive. As an US Citizen, my right to speak out against those who hold and are running for political office is not only protected, it is encouraged.
I think you are coming to several wrong conclusions based on the facts at hand.
Microsoft is going through a reinvention of itself, partly because of this court case, but also because of the change in the industry. This is not untypical of any corporation which matures.
Corporate executives who start a company rarely stay forever, but leave when the climate changes. There is a big difference between being part of a small company and a large behemoth, and it takes a different kind of executive.
It was inevitable, the challenge for Microsoft is to keep the momentum going with new blood.
Uhh, the geeks are jealous of Microsoft's success. Come on, people aren't attracted to Linux because of it's technical superiority, they are attracted for the same reason people pierce their tongues. It's a desire to be different, to be cool, whatever.
Larry Ellison is one of the primary motivators behind this anti-trust lawsuit, and he's certainly in this game because of jealousy.
I wouldn't look too deep here for vindication of your beliefs because in the long run you'll be sorely disappointed.
The limits to freedom quotation is available at www.gwbush.com in it's full context.
Even in context the quotation is appalling.
But that's not freedom, you are arguing for legitimized theft.
The United States was founded on a principle of intellectual property. It is a protected right by grant of the US Constitution.
An assault on freedom would be if the RIAA were to prevent you from recording your own music and selling it on the market. This hasn't been what the internet debates have been about.
If you don't like the restrictions placed on you by the content creators then DON'T UTILIZE THEIR SERVICES! Don't listen to the music, don't watch the movies, don't use the software. That is the only lawful, moral and ethical way to cause them financial harm.
Better yet, go out and create your own music, your own movies, your own software! Then compete with them fairly!
Otherwise if you just sit around whining because the RIAA, MPAA and SIIA is protecting their constitutionally guaranteed right...
You are a parasite. We don't need parasites in our society, as they provide no value.
Of course 50-100 years ago they would have been shocked at police wearing masks.
"Why would they have to wear masks?", they would say. It was perfectly acceptable just to shoot people in cold blood in the name of law and order.
I suggest you go back and read your history books. Pay particularly attention to the labor battles such as with Carnegie steel, the docks in San Francisco and New York, etc.
Check out Joseph McCarthy. Check out Wallace on the steps in Alabama, or the assassination of two Kennedy's and King.
Then come back and claim we are worse off today.
One thing I really hate are people who never learned history and are doomed to repeat it.
We must be ever vigilante in the defense of our freedoms, but we also must be rational and intelligent in the discussion of same.
Wow, must be a slow day for moderators...
Slashdot should have a 'Paranoid Maniac' option in their moderate selections.