The evidence presented here is old enough not to mention the Gates Foundation, which is also helping to dump M$ on schools. Often the "charity" comes with big strings, like a vow to "protect IP" and not to run any other software than that provided for years. I have heard from more than one librarian that is how their donations came. Deals like these should be refused because better deal can be had, even if you have to turn to computer recyclers to get the job done.
It is dumping if it's targeted against a specific competitor. It's also dumping if it's significantly below your costs. Realizing zero revenue from a deal if it will help you "never lose to Linux" is about as textbook a dump as you can find. Once the dump is over, the price always comes up and you lose the next time because you don't have as many choices - the competitor is gone. GNU/Linux won't go away, so M$ has an endless task ahead of it.
M$ always promises a complete rewrite and always delivers a new theme and a few minor bug fixes. This is why the monthly exploits always reach back to the lowest version of Windows listed - the underlying code remains the same. That would be OK if they did not hype each version as something new. Vista and Windows 7 are no exception to the rule. Here's the hype and here's reality.
Technical matters should be overlooked because of more important issues of freedom. Who cares if Windows 7 is the only way to make your DTV capture card work if DRM won't let you record the shows you want? Economic and monopoly reality is such that there are few technical advantages to Windows. In most things, free software works better and will never betray you.
XP was an extra cost forced on them when they had already be sabotaged. The demand for OLPC was there before they started the project. A few well placed bribes was all it took to cancel orders for Intel Classmates and other crap not up to the task. Sticking to the mission is always the best answer. It's astounding that OLPC leadership did not realize that they could not agree their way out of being destroyed. The more resources they allocated to dealing with XP and Intel, the fewer resources they had for OLPC and Sugar.
As for cover ups, it's surprising to see a Slashdot article about OLPC that does not mention Intel or M$ malice, something that's been documented here in the past.
The problem with this is that the University will have a patent so that no one else can use it. Some people see this as an extension of M$'s business model. "Partner" companies that benefit from restrictions are providing the seed money to make patent look like a good idea. It it becomes a universal practice, no one will be able to get anything done. You should not share your better ideas or put a significant amount of work behind them if your University makes claims to all of your "IP". Free software developers should also steer clear of these kinds of places too - they are all second rate anyway and you are better off at a better school.
A simpler mechanism has been used for decades, radioisotope thermal generators. These show all the strength and weaknesses of the idea on a smaller scale than full reactors. They provide reliable power in harsh conditions. They also pose a clean up hazard. The former Soviet Union is littered with old RTGs which should be retired but end up vandalized by people who don't understand the danger to themselves and others. It's worse when the vandals DO know what they are getting into. Promises are not worth much even when you are an organization as large as the Soviet Union was. These benefits and problems are orders of magnitude larger for full reactors.
Konqueror and Safari should not be left out.
on
Browser Privacy Test
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· Score: 0
Konqueror, the parent of what's good in Safari, has good privacy protection. It is "unpopular" because there's not a Winblows version yet, but it is one of the better browsers available. Mozilla runs a good second place.
Yes, it will be much better when people quit smoking, burning coal and polluting the world with hormones, nasty pesticides and unneeded plasticisers. Cancer will always be with us, but there does not have to be as much of it.
Groklaw has a nice list of litigation that's a good starter but litigation only scratches the surface of M$ corruption. As the recent OOXML/ISO case shows, only a tiny fraction of M$ crimes ever reach litigation and these only ever deliver a fraction of justice. Cases of astroturf libel and other abuse have yet to make it to court.
Hey, at least that telescreen has a screen. Most of Big Brother's eyes don't. On the minus good side, UK telescreens now have bullhorns, so they can yell at you.
Previous Slashdot coverage of the Vista failure. Computer makers that banked on Vista's big pig requirements and forced OEM sales have been in hot water for a long time and are now going under. They would be doing the same if everyone else was doing well because no one wants Vista. They want netbooks, iPhone and other stuff that just works.
They could get any free software laptop and use the difference in licensing costs for network building. Every dollar spent on M$'s second rate software is a dollar that could have done something useful. "Cheap enough" is still more expensive and less useful.
I looked at the list and knew what people want. Games, email and pictures of each other. What's missing are things like Vista, Windows, Office, etc, the M$ "cash cows". Sure, you can say that hotmail is M$, but it's just another thing they bought and are killing. Microsoft is irrelevant.
I'd be happy if the thing worked, but performance is less important than freedom. Many say that Windows 7 is a clone of Vista with that somehow manages to break compatibility. People running Vista should be pissed that whatever improvements there are are not being released as a service pack to them - it's not like M$ would lose significant sales by rewarding the faithful few burnt by Vista. Still, it could work perfectly and not be good enough because of DRM and other customer hostile tech inherent to non free software. The best hardware in the world, perfectly driven, is useless when you want to record American Gladiators and the damn software says you can't.
XP and Vista are the end of Windows. Both added bloat and anti-features that dragged down progressively more capable hardware and neither did anything about security issues that truly destroy performance. Competing free software based software kicks it's ass in all the important ways.
Don't bother flaming me for telling you this. If you can't see what I do by now, you will be one of the nine or ten percent of users that move onto Vista or it's repainted twin. I'm happy for you, really I am, but you won't be. You can tell me about it later when you've really gotten your hands on it and used it. The rest of the world is moving on to free software for better stability, ease of use, vendor support and security than ever.
It is anybody's guess what they need to offer the FSF now to make it go away.
The FSF wants what it always wanted, for Cisco users to have the freedoms that Cisco took from them. If Cisco wastes a lot of FSF money in court, the FSF might ask for that back too, but we can all be sure that the FSF will take freedom as soon as it is offered and not pursue vindictive punishment. This is how the FSF has always acted. All of the force of law will fall on Cisco for having scoffed for five years because the FSF has been more than patient.
Who needs spyware or Winblows to give one computer to each and every student? Despite much industry apology, crapware is too expensive for real deployments. Free software is cheaper
"M$" is making IE8 standards-compatible by default, and it's telling web site operators (especially high-volume ones) to add a tag to make the browser drop down to "compatibility mode" or "quirks mode" that allow the site to be viewed
It's funny how no other browsers need this tag and how much work this simple tag requires. I'm afraid the simple tag did not work. Most of these so called "optimized" sites already use browser identification and should have already implemented M$'s quirk tag in their IE8 specific code.
Who the hell gave you an "informative" modpoint for spouting the M$ party line like that? Two minutes of thought with the most rudimentary of knowledge proves your explanation implausible.
You don't think IBM will bill you for what ever software you want? I imagine they push the other binaries so you can have "interoperability" with the not quite dead yet M$ monopoly. I prefer free stuff myself, but I'm not sitting on top of thousands of desktops with clueless Outlook users breathing down my neck. IBM is not like M$, with it's big one size fits all, FU if you don't like it way of doing business. They are consultants and hardware vendors that understand free software deployment on a large scale.
Slashdot Mirror
The evidence presented here is old enough not to mention the Gates Foundation, which is also helping to dump M$ on schools. Often the "charity" comes with big strings, like a vow to "protect IP" and not to run any other software than that provided for years. I have heard from more than one librarian that is how their donations came. Deals like these should be refused because better deal can be had, even if you have to turn to computer recyclers to get the job done.
There are also reports of educational discounts being retracted after installation.
Try here, and here or any of the other fine links here.
It is dumping if it's targeted against a specific competitor. It's also dumping if it's significantly below your costs. Realizing zero revenue from a deal if it will help you "never lose to Linux" is about as textbook a dump as you can find. Once the dump is over, the price always comes up and you lose the next time because you don't have as many choices - the competitor is gone. GNU/Linux won't go away, so M$ has an endless task ahead of it.
M$ always promises a complete rewrite and always delivers a new theme and a few minor bug fixes. This is why the monthly exploits always reach back to the lowest version of Windows listed - the underlying code remains the same. That would be OK if they did not hype each version as something new. Vista and Windows 7 are no exception to the rule. Here's the hype and here's reality.
Technical matters should be overlooked because of more important issues of freedom. Who cares if Windows 7 is the only way to make your DTV capture card work if DRM won't let you record the shows you want? Economic and monopoly reality is such that there are few technical advantages to Windows. In most things, free software works better and will never betray you.
huh. You must have missed the Hype before Vista, which was eventually followed by many, "I'm so sorry I gave Vista a pass without really trying it."
They got your Facebook, phone and Dell in their pocket.
XP was an extra cost forced on them when they had already be sabotaged. The demand for OLPC was there before they started the project. A few well placed bribes was all it took to cancel orders for Intel Classmates and other crap not up to the task. Sticking to the mission is always the best answer. It's astounding that OLPC leadership did not realize that they could not agree their way out of being destroyed. The more resources they allocated to dealing with XP and Intel, the fewer resources they had for OLPC and Sugar.
Some helpful corruption links:
As for cover ups, it's surprising to see a Slashdot article about OLPC that does not mention Intel or M$ malice, something that's been documented here in the past.
The problem with this is that the University will have a patent so that no one else can use it. Some people see this as an extension of M$'s business model. "Partner" companies that benefit from restrictions are providing the seed money to make patent look like a good idea. It it becomes a universal practice, no one will be able to get anything done. You should not share your better ideas or put a significant amount of work behind them if your University makes claims to all of your "IP". Free software developers should also steer clear of these kinds of places too - they are all second rate anyway and you are better off at a better school.
A simpler mechanism has been used for decades, radioisotope thermal generators. These show all the strength and weaknesses of the idea on a smaller scale than full reactors. They provide reliable power in harsh conditions. They also pose a clean up hazard. The former Soviet Union is littered with old RTGs which should be retired but end up vandalized by people who don't understand the danger to themselves and others. It's worse when the vandals DO know what they are getting into. Promises are not worth much even when you are an organization as large as the Soviet Union was. These benefits and problems are orders of magnitude larger for full reactors.
Your Goldman Sachs story is here.
Konqueror, the parent of what's good in Safari, has good privacy protection. It is "unpopular" because there's not a Winblows version yet, but it is one of the better browsers available. Mozilla runs a good second place.
Yes, it will be much better when people quit smoking, burning coal and polluting the world with hormones, nasty pesticides and unneeded plasticisers. Cancer will always be with us, but there does not have to be as much of it.
Groklaw has a nice list of litigation that's a good starter but litigation only scratches the surface of M$ corruption. As the recent OOXML/ISO case shows, only a tiny fraction of M$ crimes ever reach litigation and these only ever deliver a fraction of justice. Cases of astroturf libel and other abuse have yet to make it to court.
When this scientist finishes thinking things true, he will wish his patent was not public and that he'd kept the whole thing to himself.
You watch camera watch you.
Hey, at least that telescreen has a screen. Most of Big Brother's eyes don't. On the minus good side, UK telescreens now have bullhorns, so they can yell at you.
Previous Slashdot coverage of the Vista failure. Computer makers that banked on Vista's big pig requirements and forced OEM sales have been in hot water for a long time and are now going under. They would be doing the same if everyone else was doing well because no one wants Vista. They want netbooks, iPhone and other stuff that just works.
They could get any free software laptop and use the difference in licensing costs for network building. Every dollar spent on M$'s second rate software is a dollar that could have done something useful. "Cheap enough" is still more expensive and less useful.
I looked at the list and knew what people want. Games, email and pictures of each other. What's missing are things like Vista, Windows, Office, etc, the M$ "cash cows". Sure, you can say that hotmail is M$, but it's just another thing they bought and are killing. Microsoft is irrelevant.
It had better be enough for them, because they won't be getting another call.
I'd be happy if the thing worked, but performance is less important than freedom. Many say that Windows 7 is a clone of Vista with that somehow manages to break compatibility. People running Vista should be pissed that whatever improvements there are are not being released as a service pack to them - it's not like M$ would lose significant sales by rewarding the faithful few burnt by Vista. Still, it could work perfectly and not be good enough because of DRM and other customer hostile tech inherent to non free software. The best hardware in the world, perfectly driven, is useless when you want to record American Gladiators and the damn software says you can't.
XP and Vista are the end of Windows. Both added bloat and anti-features that dragged down progressively more capable hardware and neither did anything about security issues that truly destroy performance. Competing free software based software kicks it's ass in all the important ways.
Don't bother flaming me for telling you this. If you can't see what I do by now, you will be one of the nine or ten percent of users that move onto Vista or it's repainted twin. I'm happy for you, really I am, but you won't be. You can tell me about it later when you've really gotten your hands on it and used it. The rest of the world is moving on to free software for better stability, ease of use, vendor support and security than ever.
It is anybody's guess what they need to offer the FSF now to make it go away.
The FSF wants what it always wanted, for Cisco users to have the freedoms that Cisco took from them. If Cisco wastes a lot of FSF money in court, the FSF might ask for that back too, but we can all be sure that the FSF will take freedom as soon as it is offered and not pursue vindictive punishment. This is how the FSF has always acted. All of the force of law will fall on Cisco for having scoffed for five years because the FSF has been more than patient.
Who needs spyware or Winblows to give one computer to each and every student? Despite much industry apology, crapware is too expensive for real deployments. Free software is cheaper
"M$" is making IE8 standards-compatible by default, and it's telling web site operators (especially high-volume ones) to add a tag to make the browser drop down to "compatibility mode" or "quirks mode" that allow the site to be viewed
It's funny how no other browsers need this tag and how much work this simple tag requires. I'm afraid the simple tag did not work. Most of these so called "optimized" sites already use browser identification and should have already implemented M$'s quirk tag in their IE8 specific code.
Who the hell gave you an "informative" modpoint for spouting the M$ party line like that? Two minutes of thought with the most rudimentary of knowledge proves your explanation implausible.
Really. Have they even managed Acid Test 2 yet?
You don't think IBM will bill you for what ever software you want? I imagine they push the other binaries so you can have "interoperability" with the not quite dead yet M$ monopoly. I prefer free stuff myself, but I'm not sitting on top of thousands of desktops with clueless Outlook users breathing down my neck. IBM is not like M$, with it's big one size fits all, FU if you don't like it way of doing business. They are consultants and hardware vendors that understand free software deployment on a large scale.