OSS does NOT "compete" with MS in the traditional, economic sense - it rewrites the rules completely. Classic economic competition does NOT work against Microsoft. In that arena, they have several key markets totally sewn up, and competition simply does not exist because of their dominance.
OSS is only making inroads because it plays outside the rules. There is no profit center, there is no company organization, there is no ownership...
It's unhelpful to give credence to the fallacy that Microsoft has "competition".
I'd like to have content available without advertising (TV as well as radio). Our daily lives have reached a stage of hypercommercialism - we're constantly awash in a thin, cold soup of advertising wherever we go. I'd pay for the relief.
Maybe satellite radio is the way to go - but much of that still has advertising anyway.
I've actually been concerned about this for a couple years. My rationalization was that, since I have "nervous leg" and bounce my legs around all the time, I was at less risk.
This is one hell of a good time to start a Debian support firm. Arseloads of server contracts at $800/box/year knocking around, pissed off IT managers, hell of a good time.
Funny you should mention that. Between the time I posted my first message on this topic and this one, I started downloading Debian.
I sure hope to hell someone at red hat reads and takes to heart the parent.
It was the availability of a cheap base price and an affordable RHN subscription that got me the green light to replace our NT servers with Red Hat servers. I expended a lot of political capital making arguments about savings in maintenance and deploring the Microsoft upgrade treadmill. Management was suspicious but in the end trusted my judgement as the "expert" opinion.
I'm going to look like a fucking asshole if red hat puts us on the same high cost / upgrade treadmill program that I convinced everyone we were getting out of.
Note to red hat: continue to provide an affordable RHN subscription and don't force us to upgrade our servers every 12 months. If you do, during one of those upgrade cycles, you will find yourselves alongside MS in the dustbin, and we'll move to another distro. Or, worst case scenario, management will no longer see the monetary benefit and decide to return to the comforting familiarity of Microsoft's eager clutches, and I'll be "that dick with no sense of judgement" for the rest of my career.
Tech: "Bob, this is Joe Schmoe in IT, I need to install something on your machine."
Bob: "I didn't call you guys. There's nothing wrong with my computer."
Tech: "Yeah there is, you fuckwit. Your machine has been spreading klez-plus wildly to and fro throughout the company, and to our customers and suppliers. Also, someone has compromised your system and has been launching brute-force attacks against our servers from it. And another thing, that piece of shit browser of yours is horking on the company's W3C-compliant web pages. No, I'm not going to change them because your browser sucks ass, sorry."
Tech: "Well, you see, Microsoft is evil. I have to install Mozilla on your box this afternoon."
Bob: "Who the hell is this? What the hell is Godzilla? Who's your boss? I don't have time for this shit. Talk to my boss if you want to touch my machine. Then, send me an email, and I'll try to remember to leave you my machine when I go on vacation in December. But if a single file is missing, I'll have your ass."
Tech: "I'd be glad to talk to your boss. That hopeless retard breaks his machine at least three times a month, so I'll certainly hear from him before December. If he still has a job in December - it appears IE was kind enough to let an anonymous gentleman in Brazil install an auto-dialer on his system, which has been dialing a mysterious 1-900 number repeatedly. His phone bill should be in the five-figures this month.
"As for touching 'your' machine - it's not 'your' machine. As a matter of fact I'm VNC'd into it right now, dipshit. Good to see you do all your personal on-line banking and teen-chat at work.
"And the only way you'll have my ass is if you intend on rimming me until I say I've had enough. Which reminds me: don't worry - I won't tell anyone about the donkey-sucking porn you have splattered throughout your browser cache. What's that? 'Browser cache'? It's a technical term, don't worry about it."
"I'm glad we've had this little chat. I feel better now that we've agreed that I won't tell you how to market useless shit to people who don't need it, and you won't tell me how to manage our computer systems. Have a nice day!"
I'd like to see all forms of media offer their content in packages WITHOUT ANY ADVERTISEMENTS.
TV, radio, magazines, whatever. Charge me for it, that's fine, I'll pay. I just never want to see another "young shitheads gruvin' to toones in their new $SUBCOMPACTCAR" commercial. Or another infomercial. Or another god-motherfucking-forsaken Archer Daniels Midland Corp commercial on PBS, for fuck's sake.
I'm sick of it. I just want the CONTENT (what little content of value there is) without being forced to waste up to a third of my precious time sitting through some marketing/advertising cocksucker's spiel like a fucking bacterium in a petri dish in some consumer-behavior stimulus-response experiment. OK, OK, I get it - you can use pussy to sell absolutely anything. I get it, enough now, thanks.
I learned recently that, originally, the big draw of cable TV was that it was COMMERCIAL-FREE. You paid your money, and you got your TV. That simple. But the insidious, soul-crushing suckers of satan's cock in the advertising industry eventually embed themselves into EVERYTHING that reaches ANY sensory organ hosted by a "consumer", like a chronic case of heartworm.
This hyper-commercialism is totally out of control, and it's probably changing the psychological makeup of society for the worse. It's obviously making me bitter and resentful.
The ability for my wife to walk into Best Buy and purchase "Hoyle Card Games". Or "Reader Rabbit Preschool".
Pointless to specify programs rather than functionality. Download dozens of card games for free, and give that brat a copy of the source to read. He may turn out talking funny, but boy will he smart.
Or buy a digital camera and use the included picture organizing software that my in-laws bought.
Who the HELL wants forty different proprietary digital camera and image manipulation programs to learn?? Use gPhoto and your favorite non-proprietary image manipulation program.
Of course, Quicken is unavailable. GnuCash is not a particularly "friendly" substitute for most people either. And until I can pay my bills over the Internet, it wouldn't be a substitute for me either.
If your bank won't let you pay your bills over the web with any standards-compliant web browser, go to a new bank. That's what I did.
Can't comment on Quicken/GnuCash - I operate on a pretty simple money-in, money-out basis:-)
I really could go on and on, but the point is that Linux is not mainstream and you can't get mainstream software.
I could go on and on, but my point is that the concept of the mainstream may be shifting. Currently the "mainstream" consumer gets in a car, drives to a software store, takes a box off the shelf, buys it, brings it home and installs it. What an enormously wasteful process.
Tomorrow, the "mainstream" consumer will be getting all this stuff off the Internet anyway. Linux is just ahead of the game, and much of the software is F(f)REE. You can see it emerging in consumer-friendly ways in LindowsOS Click-n-run, Ximian's Red Carpet, and similar services.
I'm from the Church of Windows. Our chairs come pre-assembled and are quite comfortable, but there's a very specific commandment about using the chair in a particular way.
Then there are those passages in the Microsoft Bible that require each paritioner to lubricate his anus before attending services.
This has nothing to do with morality - this is FUCKING TECHNOLOGY you nut. Technology is not a RELIGION.
The design and/or use of a technology certainly can have a moral component. If you want to be lazy/amoral/uncaring about that, it's none of our business, but don't try to rationalize it away in your own mind by yelling at those who do make the effort to understand this fact. Dork.
This proves that you must remove Microsoft employees from the Redmond campus, with their families, to a safe, neutral location if you want to get truthful answers from them regarding Linux.
Still can't decide if I love it because it dilutes the strength of MS's.NET server initiative, or if I hate it because it reeks with the stench of Redmond.
Slashdot Mirror
A slight correction:
"Click Here To Accept Your Life's Conditions: [Agree] [Agree]"
I totally missed whatever this reference is supposed to be about.
OSS is only making inroads because it plays outside the rules. There is no profit center, there is no company organization, there is no ownership...
It's unhelpful to give credence to the fallacy that Microsoft has "competition".
Because people who make content don't work for free?
Maybe satellite radio is the way to go - but much of that still has advertising anyway.
I've actually been concerned about this for a couple years. My rationalization was that, since I have "nervous leg" and bounce my legs around all the time, I was at less risk.
Funny you should mention that. Between the time I posted my first message on this topic and this one, I started downloading Debian.
Damn, that jigdo downloads fast.
Minimum $800/yr is NOT reasonable.
It was the availability of a cheap base price and an affordable RHN subscription that got me the green light to replace our NT servers with Red Hat servers. I expended a lot of political capital making arguments about savings in maintenance and deploring the Microsoft upgrade treadmill. Management was suspicious but in the end trusted my judgement as the "expert" opinion.
I'm going to look like a fucking asshole if red hat puts us on the same high cost / upgrade treadmill program that I convinced everyone we were getting out of.
Note to red hat: continue to provide an affordable RHN subscription and don't force us to upgrade our servers every 12 months. If you do, during one of those upgrade cycles, you will find yourselves alongside MS in the dustbin, and we'll move to another distro. Or, worst case scenario, management will no longer see the monetary benefit and decide to return to the comforting familiarity of Microsoft's eager clutches, and I'll be "that dick with no sense of judgement" for the rest of my career.
Tech: "Bob, this is Joe Schmoe in IT, I need to install something on your machine."
Bob: "I didn't call you guys. There's nothing wrong with my computer."
Tech: "Yeah there is, you fuckwit. Your machine has been spreading klez-plus wildly to and fro throughout the company, and to our customers and suppliers. Also, someone has compromised your system and has been launching brute-force attacks against our servers from it. And another thing, that piece of shit browser of yours is horking on the company's W3C-compliant web pages. No, I'm not going to change them because your browser sucks ass, sorry."
Tech: "Well, you see, Microsoft is evil. I have to install Mozilla on your box this afternoon."
Bob: "Who the hell is this? What the hell is Godzilla? Who's your boss? I don't have time for this shit. Talk to my boss if you want to touch my machine. Then, send me an email, and I'll try to remember to leave you my machine when I go on vacation in December. But if a single file is missing, I'll have your ass."
Tech: "I'd be glad to talk to your boss. That hopeless retard breaks his machine at least three times a month, so I'll certainly hear from him before December. If he still has a job in December - it appears IE was kind enough to let an anonymous gentleman in Brazil install an auto-dialer on his system, which has been dialing a mysterious 1-900 number repeatedly. His phone bill should be in the five-figures this month.
"As for touching 'your' machine - it's not 'your' machine. As a matter of fact I'm VNC'd into it right now, dipshit. Good to see you do all your personal on-line banking and teen-chat at work.
"And the only way you'll have my ass is if you intend on rimming me until I say I've had enough. Which reminds me: don't worry - I won't tell anyone about the donkey-sucking porn you have splattered throughout your browser cache. What's that? 'Browser cache'? It's a technical term, don't worry about it."
"I'm glad we've had this little chat. I feel better now that we've agreed that I won't tell you how to market useless shit to people who don't need it, and you won't tell me how to manage our computer systems. Have a nice day!"
TV, radio, magazines, whatever. Charge me for it, that's fine, I'll pay. I just never want to see another "young shitheads gruvin' to toones in their new $SUBCOMPACTCAR" commercial. Or another infomercial. Or another god-motherfucking-forsaken Archer Daniels Midland Corp commercial on PBS, for fuck's sake.
I'm sick of it. I just want the CONTENT (what little content of value there is) without being forced to waste up to a third of my precious time sitting through some marketing/advertising cocksucker's spiel like a fucking bacterium in a petri dish in some consumer-behavior stimulus-response experiment. OK, OK, I get it - you can use pussy to sell absolutely anything. I get it, enough now, thanks.
I learned recently that, originally, the big draw of cable TV was that it was COMMERCIAL-FREE. You paid your money, and you got your TV. That simple. But the insidious, soul-crushing suckers of satan's cock in the advertising industry eventually embed themselves into EVERYTHING that reaches ANY sensory organ hosted by a "consumer", like a chronic case of heartworm.
This hyper-commercialism is totally out of control, and it's probably changing the psychological makeup of society for the worse. It's obviously making me bitter and resentful.
Why in the world not use some liquid that DOESN'T conduct electricity?
I guess some people find pleasure in this.. Personally I prefer women.
Well, me too, but I silently recite things like this to myself to keep from blowing my wad too fast.
YESSS! In your FACE, Infinite-dimension Universe theorists! You SUCK!
Yeaaaaah! Gimme one up top, bro!
Pointless to specify programs rather than functionality. Download dozens of card games for free, and give that brat a copy of the source to read. He may turn out talking funny, but boy will he smart.
Or buy a digital camera and use the included picture organizing software that my in-laws bought.
Who the HELL wants forty different proprietary digital camera and image manipulation programs to learn?? Use gPhoto and your favorite non-proprietary image manipulation program.
Of course, Quicken is unavailable. GnuCash is not a particularly "friendly" substitute for most people either. And until I can pay my bills over the Internet, it wouldn't be a substitute for me either.
If your bank won't let you pay your bills over the web with any standards-compliant web browser, go to a new bank. That's what I did.
Can't comment on Quicken/GnuCash - I operate on a pretty simple money-in, money-out basis :-)
I really could go on and on, but the point is that Linux is not mainstream and you can't get mainstream software.
I could go on and on, but my point is that the concept of the mainstream may be shifting. Currently the "mainstream" consumer gets in a car, drives to a software store, takes a box off the shelf, buys it, brings it home and installs it. What an enormously wasteful process.
Tomorrow, the "mainstream" consumer will be getting all this stuff off the Internet anyway. Linux is just ahead of the game, and much of the software is F(f)REE. You can see it emerging in consumer-friendly ways in LindowsOS Click-n-run, Ximian's Red Carpet, and similar services.
The only missing piece is a free market.
Then there are those passages in the Microsoft Bible that require each paritioner to lubricate his anus before attending services.
Pretty strict with that collection plate too.
I'd love to be an IP lawyer. That way I could indulge my love of money and hatred for mankind in one easy step.
But they're ignoring strokes of genius like one-click shopping swinging sideways!
Like this:
"I'd just like to s- EEEEEAAARAGH!! AGGHHHH AGHHHHHH - AIIIIIII!!!!! OHGODOHGODOHGODOHGODOHGODOHGODOHGODOHGOD! YEEEARRRRUGHHHHHHH!"
The design and/or use of a technology certainly can have a moral component. If you want to be lazy/amoral/uncaring about that, it's none of our business, but don't try to rationalize it away in your own mind by yelling at those who do make the effort to understand this fact. Dork.
This proves that you must remove Microsoft employees from the Redmond campus, with their families, to a safe, neutral location if you want to get truthful answers from them regarding Linux.
Memories.... in the corners of my mind...
Clipper was a great DOS database tool.
Still can't decide if I love it because it dilutes the strength of MS's .NET server initiative, or if I hate it because it reeks with the stench of Redmond.
You must be the guy who sawed off grampa's wrong leg.
Of course. They'd have to do it or their competitor would.