Heck to imply that MS is a monopoly is to disregard Linux, BSD, Mac or any other Misc operating systems as Non-existent.
Yes, those exist and do quite well. I have used Linux for 8 years now and wouldn't dream of going back, but I do have to pay a windows license on every brand-machine I buy (which is unavoidable for portables). Linux is a strong competitor and would fare a lot better if MS wasn't allowed to leverage it's monopoly over OEM's (so you could choose between two identical systems, one with Linux on it being 100 or so cheaper).
Most Linux distros offer a choice of media players and even desktop environments, so there is no 'bundling'. Components you do not use can be uninstalled. Besides, it is FREE software.
OK, I agree with the fine and forcing MS to disclose API's (let's not forget that part of the ruling).
The WinXP lite is nonsense as long as the normal version is available.
What should urgently be addressed is the forced sale of Windows licenses with new PC's and specially portables. In addition, not honoring the terms of the EULA by both OEM's and MS is outragious (try to return a Windows copy if you rejected the EULA).
I have been Windows-free for 6 years now (After 8 years of using Linux). I'm out to buy my first new portable now, and it seems I will have to buy a Windows license which I'm never going to use.
Well, I'm saying that Debian stable is outdated... at least for a desktop. If you think about it, Gnome 2.8 is already getting old and Debian stable has another 3 years to go...
I love Ubuntu though, and thanks to the Debian devs for providing the excellent base work.
I used Gentoo for 1.5 years, and it has some nice features.
But in the end it was too hard to maintain, endless compiles (specially when KDE released two updates in 3 weeks) and a lot of breakage because a security update involved installing a newer version of a program that had changed config file formats...
" Europe has no right to levy a fine of that magnitude on an American company."
Why not? When MS decided to start selling their products in the EU, they knew the laws here. If they wanted to be held accountable by US laws only, they should sell in the US only.
I a Russian firm for example operates in the US, are they not bound by your laws?
There is no trade-war, these laws existed when trade agreements with the US where drawn up.
BTW, you do know the MS is a convited monopolist in the US too?
You are mixing things up. Some countries here in the EU have/had government monopolies on services that are crucial to the public. This includes hospitals, train transport etc.
These monopolies are not to private companies. The institutes involved are required to perform a public service, they are not intended to make profits and the price of their products/services are deteremined by the government and could even be at a loss for certain categories of people.
"This is blatently unfair to Microsoft; an obvious exploitation of a wealthy corporation by governments. This is made obvious by the EU's 5% daily sales fine."
Every Linux I have ever used offers a choice of applications. You can *choose* a media player and browser without breaking everything. Even the install CD's come with a variety of software for each task (check how many browsers come with SuSE/Debian/...).
In addition, Linux does not have a monopoly. You do not pay money to 'Linux' each time you buy a machine and put something else on it.
The protocols/file formats for FOSS projects are open and free. MS word wants to read AbiWord files, no prob.
MS is convicted of being a monopolist (even in the US). The sactions imposed are based on them leveraging their OS monopoly into other markets.
"Last I check Microsoft was not pointing a gun at your head, and telling you to buy their crap."
Is that so. Can you kindly point me to a location in Belgium where I can buy a portable without Windows license (and Azerty be keyboard)? Where can I buy a branded PC without Windows on it, where can I buy a branded server without it?
Even the few brands that do offer PC's without OS pay one license to MS for that product and most of the time, the consumer does too.
I'm running Gentoo Linux, after install I had a working system with 0 ports open. No services running, or installed, no unneeded graphical system.
After installing some handy services like ssh or even net services like http, emerge -U world will keep *everything* patched, no downtime required except for kernel security patches (which are very rare).
Does MS deliver patches for third party products? So you need to track those seperately? Not on Gentoo (or Debian, Slackware,...)
I do not get the fuss... - If you use GPL code in your code, then your code is GPL'd - If you *link* to LGPL code in your code, then your code can be distributed under a license of your choosing - If you *USE* LGPL code in your code, then your code becomes LGPL too - If you use or link to BSD code, then your code can still be licensed as you whish.
Don't like it, don't use that code.
If I use commercial code, then I get sued... This is no more viral than the GPL!
These are not 'thoughts from the west'. The basic idea is ancient. The first I heard from it was Plato, he had this theory that our reality was an illusion. That our *real* existance is hidden from us.
Throughout history, many philosphers played arround with this idea, the Matrix is based on a mix of them all.
BTW, they are not the only ones that don't like their believes questioned, recently there was a fuss here about some American states not wanting to have darwinism in their schools... Yet the US is in the west.
First, their copy-protection mostly is a violation of specifications, and interferes with my *right* on fair use (I'm allowed to make backup copies of works I bought).
Secondly, if you accept your absolute-freedom argument, there is no need for laws that protect copyrights either. The record labels would just be out of luck if their suff got copied. I'm not defending this, but absolute freedom goes both ways.
"who fear the loss of rights that generally never existed"
Rights like playing my *bought* CD's in my car-player, or my DVD-player. Which is also blocked by their copy-protection.
The cynicism found here is disgusting, and unjustified"
It is this kind of cynicism that questioned the motivation of Bush to invade Iraq (their illusive biochemical weapons).
Yet, now that the control the country, they still fail to show even a single microb of those weapons.
They did find Sadams private stock of... chocolate (for real)
Thing like this might be an unpopular stance, certainly when the media keeps reporting one-sided views, but that doesn't make that stance wrong.
*Your* life might not have been visibly changed in the last time, but that doesn't mean there is no change.
I live in Europe, and I saw a couple of things change recently. For one, a large percentage of the new CD's I buy are crippled, and I'm unable to play the original in a normal way. Secondly, the blank CDR's I buy to make my system backups (real backups, as a Free Software user I have no need for pirated copies) got 20-25% more expensive to pay royalties (for my OWN data???).
The only way I can buy a PC without Windows (I run Linux and FreeBSD exclusively) is to buy all the parts and put it together myself!
"Stand up, look around, take control of yourself, and you will be free."
Quite right, that's why some of us plan to resist Pallidium and other schemes. That's one of the main reasons I run Linux.
Without going into any further discussion, creationism is a recursive argument.
I you accept that anything as complex as living beings can not exist through randomness and nature, you define this as a rule. Apply that same rule to the god that created this life, and you come to the conclusion that he/she/it too has been created by a higher being. Again applying the rule, the higher being....
This loops on forever, which creates the problem that as the loop never ends, the ultimate creator is never reached, making the whole argument void.
BTW, almost every religion has a creation-myth, almost all those myths directly contradict eachother. Why should we believe any?
The difference is obvious, P2P like online gaming, surfing or general downloading (legal things like FreeBSD, Mandrake) are what you PAY for as an ISP customer.
SPAM is misuse of my private data and the bandwidth I PAY for. It is something similar to using my creditcard to buy something and having someone else steal the same amount of it.
Ok, you're countering logic and facts with: "pissing themselves too often for this crap..."
You must be a member of the republican party...
"the bribe went to the defector in order to catch the big hairy al quada military guy" Was this *defector* less guilty of those crimes? Yet he is being treated better than the average American (no pension, no healthcare,...)
And besides, evidence comming from bribes cannot be trusted. It may offer leads but has no value in itself. Yet such evidence was also entered to proof that Saddam had certain weapons. And now, your *Prime Minister* looks the fool he is by having to admit that it is false.
Apart from the fact that you are obviously mad, or George Bush (if there even is a difference).
There were Europeans in thos buildings too, you know. Siemens, a major German company, had offices there.
Germany, France and the rest of Europe do not support Bin Laden or Saddam (which are two different matters anyway).
But Europe is not a puppet for the USA either. If the US want European support, they'll have to offer some evidence that is not faked (admitted by the US prime minister) or bought (23 million $$$ to a Taliban defector!)
I don't think he's after the oil in the first place, it would just be a bonus.
Think about this for a second, the American economy (same goes for Europe) is in a slope. Bush got elected in a questionable way (Florida anyone).
His war on Afghanistan en now Iraq solve both problems, although the first one only temporary. Spending is up, on waepons en defense. Jobs are created, in the weapon industry which just happens to be one of Bush major sponsors.
The facts support the theory that these wars have alterior motives: 1. Bush father had Bin Laden's brohter killed 2. Bush jr. had a small oil company, in which the victim of 1 had a major stake 3. Bin Laden and most of the Taliban were trained by the CIA and Brittish intelligence to fight the Russian 4. The CIA knew about 9/11 three weeks before it happened (Mosad intelligence) 5. The USA admitted today that the UN was provided with fake evidence of Iraq having nuclear weapons!!!
Can anyone calculate the probability of this being a coincidence?
I think that someone with tight control over the press of a nation can and will get away with something like this> Hitler worked in this way too. Take a look through history and see.
Slashdot Mirror
The Sony Rootkit is reported to work on Vista.
Not only as the malware it is, but it seems to crash a Vista install quite bad.
So, yes, it is vulnerable and exploits are in the wild.
I think Vista also had the WMF flaw, but I'm not sure about this one.
Heck to imply that MS is a monopoly is to disregard Linux, BSD, Mac or any other Misc operating systems as Non-existent.
Yes, those exist and do quite well. I have used Linux for 8 years now and wouldn't dream of going back, but I do have to pay a windows license on every brand-machine I buy (which is unavoidable for portables).
Linux is a strong competitor and would fare a lot better if MS wasn't allowed to leverage it's monopoly over OEM's (so you could choose between two identical systems, one with Linux on it being 100 or so cheaper).
Most Linux distros offer a choice of media players and even desktop environments, so there is no 'bundling'.
Components you do not use can be uninstalled.
Besides, it is FREE software.
OK, I agree with the fine and forcing MS to disclose API's (let's not forget that part of the ruling).
The WinXP lite is nonsense as long as the normal version is available.
What should urgently be addressed is the forced sale of Windows licenses with new PC's and specially portables. In addition, not honoring the terms of the EULA by both OEM's and MS is outragious (try to return a Windows copy if you rejected the EULA).
I have been Windows-free for 6 years now (After 8 years of using Linux). I'm out to buy my first new portable now, and it seems I will have to buy a Windows license which I'm never going to use.
If there are quirks, it should be installation related.
The software packages are already a bit dated, so bugs should have been ironed out.
That said though, I think Debian politics delayed the release instead of rushing it.
Well, I'm saying that Debian stable is outdated... at least for a desktop.
If you think about it, Gnome 2.8 is already getting old and Debian stable has another 3 years to go...
I love Ubuntu though, and thanks to the Debian devs for providing the excellent base work.
I used Gentoo for 1.5 years, and it has some nice features.
But in the end it was too hard to maintain, endless compiles (specially when KDE released two updates in 3 weeks) and a lot of breakage because a security update involved installing a newer version of a program that had changed config file formats...
"Microsoft's European software prices are expected to increase by 5-7% this week.."
I would love this. See how quickly Linux grows in the EU.
" Europe has no right to levy a fine of that magnitude on an American company."
Why not? When MS decided to start selling their products in the EU, they knew the laws here. If they wanted to be held accountable by US laws only, they should sell in the US only.
I a Russian firm for example operates in the US, are they not bound by your laws?
There is no trade-war, these laws existed when trade agreements with the US where drawn up.
BTW, you do know the MS is a convited monopolist in the US too?
You are mixing things up.
Some countries here in the EU have/had government monopolies on services that are crucial to the public.
This includes hospitals, train transport etc.
These monopolies are not to private companies. The institutes involved are required to perform a public service, they are not intended to make profits and the price of their products/services are deteremined by the government and could even be at a loss for certain categories of people.
What is the difference in this case? MS is their business practices while Linux is a community which contains private individuals and companies.
If RedHat pulled something similar off, you can bash them, chances are the community will be bashing them first.
"This is blatently unfair to Microsoft; an obvious exploitation of a wealthy corporation by governments. This is made obvious by the EU's 5% daily sales fine."
Every Linux I have ever used offers a choice of applications. You can *choose* a media player and browser without breaking everything. Even the install CD's come with a variety of software for each task (check how many browsers come with SuSE/Debian/...).
In addition, Linux does not have a monopoly. You do not pay money to 'Linux' each time you buy a machine and put something else on it.
The protocols/file formats for FOSS projects are open and free. MS word wants to read AbiWord files, no prob.
MS is convicted of being a monopolist (even in the US). The sactions imposed are based on them leveraging their OS monopoly into other markets.
"Last I check Microsoft was not pointing a gun at your head, and telling you to buy their crap."
Is that so. Can you kindly point me to a location in Belgium where I can buy a portable without Windows license (and Azerty be keyboard)? Where can I buy a branded PC without Windows on it, where can I buy a branded server without it?
Even the few brands that do offer PC's without OS pay one license to MS for that product and most of the time, the consumer does too.
I'm running Gentoo Linux, after install I had a working system with 0 ports open.
No services running, or installed, no unneeded graphical system.
After installing some handy services like ssh or even net services like http, emerge -U world will keep *everything* patched, no downtime required except for kernel security patches (which are very rare).
Does MS deliver patches for third party products? So you need to track those seperately? Not on Gentoo (or Debian, Slackware,...)
I do not get the fuss...
- If you use GPL code in your code, then your code is GPL'd
- If you *link* to LGPL code in your code, then your code can be distributed under a license of your choosing
- If you *USE* LGPL code in your code, then your code becomes LGPL too
- If you use or link to BSD code, then your code can still be licensed as you whish.
Don't like it, don't use that code.
If I use commercial code, then I get sued...
This is no more viral than the GPL!
These are not 'thoughts from the west'.
The basic idea is ancient. The first I heard from it was Plato, he had this theory that our reality was an illusion. That our *real* existance is hidden from us.
Throughout history, many philosphers played arround with this idea, the Matrix is based on a mix of them all.
BTW, they are not the only ones that don't like their believes questioned, recently there was a fuss here about some American states not wanting to have darwinism in their schools...
Yet the US is in the west.
Your argument is void for two reasons.
First, their copy-protection mostly is a violation of specifications, and interferes with my *right* on fair use (I'm allowed to make backup copies of works I bought).
Secondly, if you accept your absolute-freedom argument, there is no need for laws that protect copyrights either. The record labels would just be out of luck if their suff got copied.
I'm not defending this, but absolute freedom goes both ways.
"who fear the loss of rights that generally never existed"
... chocolate (for real)
Rights like playing my *bought* CD's in my car-player, or my DVD-player. Which is also blocked by their copy-protection.
The cynicism found here is disgusting, and unjustified"
It is this kind of cynicism that questioned the motivation of Bush to invade Iraq (their illusive biochemical weapons). Yet, now that the control the country, they still fail to show even a single microb of those weapons. They did find Sadams private stock of
Thing like this might be an unpopular stance, certainly when the media keeps reporting one-sided views, but that doesn't make that stance wrong.
*Your* life might not have been visibly changed in the last time, but that doesn't mean there is no change. I live in Europe, and I saw a couple of things change recently. For one, a large percentage of the new CD's I buy are crippled, and I'm unable to play the original in a normal way. Secondly, the blank CDR's I buy to make my system backups (real backups, as a Free Software user I have no need for pirated copies) got 20-25% more expensive to pay royalties (for my OWN data???).
The only way I can buy a PC without Windows (I run Linux and FreeBSD exclusively) is to buy all the parts and put it together myself!
"Stand up, look around, take control of yourself, and you will be free."
Quite right, that's why some of us plan to resist Pallidium and other schemes. That's one of the main reasons I run Linux.
Without going into any further discussion, creationism is a recursive argument.
I you accept that anything as complex as living beings can not exist through randomness and nature, you define this as a rule.
Apply that same rule to the god that created this life, and you come to the conclusion that he/she/it too has been created by a higher being.
Again applying the rule, the higher being....
This loops on forever, which creates the problem that as the loop never ends, the ultimate creator is never reached, making the whole argument void.
BTW, almost every religion has a creation-myth, almost all those myths directly contradict eachother. Why should we believe any?
The difference is obvious, P2P like online gaming, surfing or general downloading (legal things like FreeBSD, Mandrake) are what you PAY for as an ISP customer.
SPAM is misuse of my private data and the bandwidth I PAY for.
It is something similar to using my creditcard to buy something and having someone else steal the same amount of it.
This seems very logically
When are they disarming Israel? Cuba?
Have you seen how people in the Emirates live?
Yet of all those countries, Bush chooses Iraq to wage his crusade at.
I'm wondering either what he knows that we don't, or what he stands to gain that we don't.
Ok, you're countering logic and facts with:
...)
"pissing themselves too often for this crap..."
You must be a member of the republican party...
"the bribe went to the defector in order to catch the big hairy al quada military guy"
Was this *defector* less guilty of those crimes? Yet he is being treated better than the average American (no pension, no healthcare,
And besides, evidence comming from bribes cannot be trusted. It may offer leads but has no value in itself.
Yet such evidence was also entered to proof that Saddam had certain weapons.
And now, your *Prime Minister* looks the fool he is by having to admit that it is false.
Apart from the fact that you are obviously mad, or George Bush (if there even is a difference).
There were Europeans in thos buildings too, you know.
Siemens, a major German company, had offices there.
Germany, France and the rest of Europe do not support Bin Laden or Saddam (which are two different matters anyway).
But Europe is not a puppet for the USA either.
If the US want European support, they'll have to offer some evidence that is not faked (admitted by the US prime minister) or bought (23 million $$$ to a Taliban defector!)
I don't think he's after the oil in the first place, it would just be a bonus.
Think about this for a second, the American economy (same goes for Europe) is in a slope.
Bush got elected in a questionable way (Florida anyone).
His war on Afghanistan en now Iraq solve both problems, although the first one only temporary.
Spending is up, on waepons en defense. Jobs are created, in the weapon industry which just happens to be one of Bush major sponsors.
The facts support the theory that these wars have alterior motives:
1. Bush father had Bin Laden's brohter killed
2. Bush jr. had a small oil company, in which the victim of 1 had a major stake
3. Bin Laden and most of the Taliban were trained by the CIA and Brittish intelligence to fight the Russian
4. The CIA knew about 9/11 three weeks before it happened (Mosad intelligence)
5. The USA admitted today that the UN was provided with fake evidence of Iraq having nuclear weapons!!!
Can anyone calculate the probability of this being a coincidence?
I think that someone with tight control over the press of a nation can and will get away with something like this> Hitler worked in this way too. Take a look through history and see.
The very point of Linux is to benefit the world.
Operating killing machines better suits M$, for them everything has its price.
I'm very much ashamed that Linux is used for something so low.