"Customers want to consume this information in a variety of formats..."
ODF for me please!
Seriously this is just a new FUD campaign. Example:
How can "free" be this expensive? Red Hat's business is based on annual subscriptions for OS support--you pay a subscription for every server, every year. And, if you want 24/7 support, you'll pay more.
Okay Microsoft, we've been telling you for years but you don't want to get it. Linux is "free as in speech" not "free as in beer." That means that the users get a whole lot of rights that you wouldn't give in your worse nightmare. The freedom to redistribute. The freedome to modify. etc, etc, etc.
Stop with the FUD websites until you know what you're talking about please. Oh, I forgot. You already know all of this but are just misleading your prospective users. Yeah, that's the kind of company with which I would want to do business. NOT!
Absolutely not! I don't want to go back to the days where I have to fear outrageous on-line bills. I still remember being burned by $6.00/hr charges! Once you start down that path you can expect ISPs to start milking the new payment strategy to maximize their profits.
The internet could end up being a "pick up your mail, serf one or two sites, get the hell off" experience. If you did anything more you could expect a $200.00 bill due to the high cost per megabyte. Hell no!
That's what the 'post judgment collection proceedings' are all about. The RIAA would be wise to just pay up before things get really expensive for them.
I know that I come from a fairly small town and there are "safety cameras" popping up all over the place! How far are we in the United States from a security camera on every corner?
Okay... yes... I am paranoid but sometimes I connect the dots pretty well too. It's never a good idea to blindly trust that your liberties will be protected by the government. Hell, now days we have to protect our liberties FROM the government.
I think that the destruction of the middle class is going to leave a lot of people really pissed off. If a government decides that it needs to control and repress its own population wouldn't a world where "safety cameras" were everywhere be kind of handy?
"Linux needs to recognise Microsoft's leadership in some areas to better itself, Jim Zemlin, executive director for the Linux Foundation told delegates at the Linuxworld tradeshow in San Fransisco."
Being a leader in areas that are self serving at the expense of the world is not honorable and believe me when I say that we DO recognize this. I would be hard pressed to find ANYTHING that Microsoft has done without a anti-competition agenda driving it. It's not a nice thing to say but it is the truth.
"As Linux has become a mainstream operating system, it is exiting the first stage of its life. The second stage requires a different strategy form the first one, said the Linux promotor."
Really? Why? Nothing has changed with regards to Microsoft. It's still a thug corporation convicted of abusing its monopoly in more than one country. Most importantly Microsoft is COMPLETELY unrepentant.
"Open source vendors have to recognise that Windows is here to stay and that together with Microsoft it will form a duopoly in the market for operating systems. This also requires that the Linux community respects Microsoft rather than ridicule it."
Windows? I thought we were talking about Microsoft. The two are not synonyms. One is a monopoly operating system and the other a corporation that abuses the power that the monopoly gives it.
Why should we stop ridiculing Microsoft? Microsoft hasn't stopped the behavior that we find offensive. When it does that's when atitudes will begin to change. Until then Microsoft can't even begin to earn our respect.
"There are some things that Windows does pretty well," Zemlin said. Microsoft for instance has excelled in marketing the operating system, and has a good track record in fending off competition."
My God! Let me say it again. WINDOWS IS NOT MICROSOFT. So what does Windows do so well?? Yes, Microsoft spends a lot of money marketing the operating system but how dare you tout Microsoft's track record of "fending off competition!" There tactics have been anti-competitive and many times blaitently illegal! That's not something of which one should be proud!
I'm not going to say that everything Microsoft does is crap. It is not their software that offends me. It's their constant and unrelenting need to utterly destroy competition by any means legal or not that I will never accept. The open source movement is a new way of doing things. It fosters a spirit of cooperation instead of the back stabbing environment that rocketed Microsoft to the top.
Real Open Source (Not the sham "shared source" that is Microsoft's) isn't going away and Microsoft better learn to adapt or die a long slow lingering death.
The real problem is that competing with a company that controls a monopoly operating system and is willing to use it to illegally extend its market share in other software sectors is like being in bed with an elephant. The elephant only need twitch and you are crushed.
We can't trust Microsoft not to illegally use their monopolies in either the OS sector or the office productivity suite sector to seize control over other areas and lock out competition from Open Source.
They are already buying their way to a victory over ODF so that customer lock-in will continue far into the foreseeable future. They're trying to fill the intranet with proprietary "standards" that they control and use their monopolies as a vehicle to push them. Again in an effort to control and ultimately destroy Linux.
Let face it. Microsoft is a corporate thug that needs to be busted up into at least three separate companies so that true innovation in the software industry can occur.
Personally, I find it offensive when Microsoft tries to pass off it's "Shared Source" for "Open Source." I don't think they are doing this by accident either.
Maybe Microsoft would have better luck "building bridges" to the Open Source community if they stopped trying to screw us at every turn.
Now Microsoft is trying to hijack the term "Open Source." Their "shared source" is in no way "Open." It's a "look but don't touch" bullshit initiative.
If I'm not mistaken you have to sign all sorts of agreements including the agreement that you won't try to compile the source. That's right, no way to verify that they really gave you the real thing.
In many countries it is a common business practice of giving "gifts" to the "right" people if you want to get something done. If you need a license in four months and not four years you bribe officials. Of course you don't do so in an obvious way but they reap your generosity anyway.
It's usually done through third parties that are hired and given a large operational budget.
Linux may be better for China but Microsoft money is better for some key officials.
I didn't mean to suggest that WINE implements the Win32 API completely. I mean that it is not a wrapper but a implementation of the code. Completely being used to mean that it doesn't use any Windows code.
WINE does not "wrap" the Widnows API it is a complete implementation of it.
The Win32 API is not completely documented. Microsoft never has released all of the information which ensures that, push come to shove, they will be able to write code that will out perform most lucrative applications if they decide to squeeze the innovator out.
The real problem is all technical. It is trivial to write code that has the same functionality but does not violate Microsoft patents. I know that Microsoft would like people to believe that any software that does the same thing as one of their offerings MUST be violating some of their intellectual property. That's untrue and just FUD.
...that they have fallen into our trap!! Soon they will feel the icy grip of the crappy and expensive upgrade and maintenance agreements that flow from Redmond!
Only when it is too late will they realize the power of the dark force. Muhahahahaha...
Do you even know what percentage of the market Microsoft controls? No, didn't think so. They DO have a monopoly in both the OS and Office Suite product lines. Period.
...that all those Firefox browsers are running on Windows? Could it be that alternate OSs that run Firefox are adding to the numbers? Maybe IE isn't the only Microsoft product in trouble?
I forgot to mention over population but that is the driving force behind a lot of the ecosystem problems.
I agree with most of your assessment. I don't necessarily agree that after the human population decreases things will stabilize. It all depends on how much damage we do to our ecosystem prior the the reduction.
I wish people could/would understand that there is no bringing back species that have been driven to extinction. Our ecosystem is becoming more and more fragile as more and more species die.
There are a specific set of tasks that must be done in order to keep our environment livable. Every species performs one or more of these tasks. When we destroy all species that perform any one of these essential tasks there will be a cascade effect that is utterly irreversible. When the cascade begins it'll be too late.
Does anyone not believe that the human race is doomed? This is the type of stupidity that removes any doubt from my mind.
We have little concern for the impact our action have on the ecosystems that allow us to live. Eighty jobs can be used as justification to dump huge amounts of wastes into a water resource used by thousands.
This is typical of human folly. We allow polluter's to poison our environment if they pay off the right people. We allow developers to destroy the environment as they greedily consume our wildernesses until nothing is left.
I know that the human race is doomed because we're too greedy to say "enough!" There will always be another polluting factory, another house, store or condominium built where undeveloped land use to be until there is no undeveloped land.
What people just refuse to understand is that our ecosystem WILL EVENTUALLY COLLAPSE. And that day is coming sooner not later.
I predict that man will continue to rape our planet in an effort to gather riches. By the time that we realize that the ecosystem is indeed collapsing it will be too late. Governments will then spend huge amounts of money in the search for a way to save themselves but only find a grave.
"IBM is the only company I can think of that would really have both, and Microsoft isn't stupid enough to violate any of IBM's licenses..."
What I see is Microsoft beating the patent war drums. If Microsoft is foolish enough to sue ANYONE or play the patent FUD card too strongly so that IBM's business is harmed it will become a concern to IBM.
If someone with one of the Microsoft coupons waits until they are sure that Suse Linux comes with GPL V3 software and then gets that software using that coupon it will add another layer of defense against Microsoft's bullying. There is a real possibility that the Microsoft patent threat will be totally nullified.
Netscape would not have died if it weren't for the fact that Microsoft illegally imbedded its own browser into its monopoly OS. Stop trying to rewrite history.
"...as long as it isn't intentionally crippling another companies product or using anti-competitive practices to steal the market from a competitor."
Don't you believe that integrating a competing product into their Monopoly OS IS DOING EXACTLY THAT!
I'm not talking about including separate software that doesn't have to be installed. I'm talking about integration so that it's always there. They did it with their web browser and that killed Netscape now their doing the same F**king thing with their search engine.
Even if you don't use their search engine it's still there and it still slows your system down. Microsoft knows exactly what their doing and it is illegal because of their monopoly. Monopolies can not do all the things a non-monopoly can without causing harm. That's why there are laws which Microsoft apparently feels it doesn't have to follow.
Slashdot Mirror
"Customers want to consume this information in a variety of formats..."
ODF for me please!
Seriously this is just a new FUD campaign. Example:
How can "free" be this expensive?
Red Hat's business is based on annual subscriptions for OS support--you pay a subscription for every server, every year. And, if you want 24/7 support, you'll pay more.
Okay Microsoft, we've been telling you for years but you don't want to get it. Linux is "free as in speech" not "free as in beer." That means that the users get a whole lot of rights that you wouldn't give in your worse nightmare. The freedom to redistribute. The freedome to modify. etc, etc, etc.
Stop with the FUD websites until you know what you're talking about please. Oh, I forgot. You already know all of this but are just misleading your prospective users. Yeah, that's the kind of company with which I would want to do business. NOT!
Absolutely not! I don't want to go back to the days where I have to fear outrageous on-line bills. I still remember being burned by $6.00/hr charges! Once you start down that path you can expect ISPs to start milking the new payment strategy to maximize their profits.
The internet could end up being a "pick up your mail, serf one or two sites, get the hell off" experience. If you did anything more you could expect a $200.00 bill due to the high cost per megabyte. Hell no!
That's what the 'post judgment collection proceedings' are all about. The RIAA would be wise to just pay up before things get really expensive for them.
This wishful fantasy brought to you by an Anonymous Microsoft fanboy and a whole lot of alcohol.
I know that I come from a fairly small town and there are "safety cameras" popping up all over the place! How far are we in the United States from a security camera on every corner?
Okay... yes... I am paranoid but sometimes I connect the dots pretty well too. It's never a good idea to blindly trust that your liberties will be protected by the government. Hell, now days we have to protect our liberties FROM the government.
I think that the destruction of the middle class is going to leave a lot of people really pissed off. If a government decides that it needs to control and repress its own population wouldn't a world where "safety cameras" were everywhere be kind of handy?
"Linux needs to recognise Microsoft's leadership in some areas to better itself, Jim Zemlin, executive director for the Linux Foundation told delegates at the Linuxworld tradeshow in San Fransisco."
Being a leader in areas that are self serving at the expense of the world is not honorable and believe me when I say that we DO recognize this. I would be hard pressed to find ANYTHING that Microsoft has done without a anti-competition agenda driving it. It's not a nice thing to say but it is the truth.
"As Linux has become a mainstream operating system, it is exiting the first stage of its life. The second stage requires a different strategy form the first one, said the Linux promotor."
Really? Why? Nothing has changed with regards to Microsoft. It's still a thug corporation convicted of abusing its monopoly in more than one country. Most importantly Microsoft is COMPLETELY unrepentant.
"Open source vendors have to recognise that Windows is here to stay and that together with Microsoft it will form a duopoly in the market for operating systems. This also requires that the Linux community respects Microsoft rather than ridicule it."
Windows? I thought we were talking about Microsoft. The two are not synonyms. One is a monopoly operating system and the other a corporation that abuses the power that the monopoly gives it.
Why should we stop ridiculing Microsoft? Microsoft hasn't stopped the behavior that we find offensive. When it does that's when atitudes will begin to change. Until then Microsoft can't even begin to earn our respect.
"There are some things that Windows does pretty well," Zemlin said. Microsoft for instance has excelled in marketing the operating system, and has a good track record in fending off competition."
My God! Let me say it again. WINDOWS IS NOT MICROSOFT. So what does Windows do so well?? Yes, Microsoft spends a lot of money marketing the operating system but how dare you tout Microsoft's track record of "fending off competition!" There tactics have been anti-competitive and many times blaitently illegal! That's not something of which one should be proud!
I'm not going to say that everything Microsoft does is crap. It is not their software that offends me. It's their constant and unrelenting need to utterly destroy competition by any means legal or not that I will never accept. The open source movement is a new way of doing things. It fosters a spirit of cooperation instead of the back stabbing environment that rocketed Microsoft to the top.
Real Open Source (Not the sham "shared source" that is Microsoft's) isn't going away and Microsoft better learn to adapt or die a long slow lingering death.
The real problem is that competing with a company that controls a monopoly operating system and is willing to use it to illegally extend its market share in other software sectors is like being in bed with an elephant. The elephant only need twitch and you are crushed.
We can't trust Microsoft not to illegally use their monopolies in either the OS sector or the office productivity suite sector to seize control over other areas and lock out competition from Open Source.
They are already buying their way to a victory over ODF so that customer lock-in will continue far into the foreseeable future. They're trying to fill the intranet with proprietary "standards" that they control and use their monopolies as a vehicle to push them. Again in an effort to control and ultimately destroy Linux.
Let face it. Microsoft is a corporate thug that needs to be busted up into at least three separate companies so that true innovation in the software industry can occur.
Personally, I find it offensive when Microsoft tries to pass off it's "Shared Source" for "Open Source." I don't think they are doing this by accident either.
Maybe Microsoft would have better luck "building bridges" to the Open Source community if they stopped trying to screw us at every turn.
Now Microsoft is trying to hijack the term "Open Source." Their "shared source" is in no way "Open." It's a "look but don't touch" bullshit initiative.
If I'm not mistaken you have to sign all sorts of agreements including the agreement that you won't try to compile the source. That's right, no way to verify that they really gave you the real thing.
In many countries it is a common business practice of giving "gifts" to the "right" people if you want to get something done. If you need a license in four months and not four years you bribe officials. Of course you don't do so in an obvious way but they reap your generosity anyway.
It's usually done through third parties that are hired and given a large operational budget.
Linux may be better for China but Microsoft money is better for some key officials.
And that folks is the way it works.
I didn't mean to suggest that WINE implements the Win32 API completely. I mean that it is not a wrapper but a implementation of the code. Completely being used to mean that it doesn't use any Windows code.
WINE does not "wrap" the Widnows API it is a complete implementation of it.
The Win32 API is not completely documented. Microsoft never has released all of the information which ensures that, push come to shove, they will be able to write code that will out perform most lucrative applications if they decide to squeeze the innovator out.
The real problem is all technical. It is trivial to write code that has the same functionality but does not violate Microsoft patents. I know that Microsoft would like people to believe that any software that does the same thing as one of their offerings MUST be violating some of their intellectual property. That's untrue and just FUD.
They sell us crappy pet food we sell them crappy software!
...that they have fallen into our trap!! Soon they will feel the icy grip of the crappy and expensive upgrade and maintenance agreements that flow from Redmond!
Only when it is too late will they realize the power of the dark force. Muhahahahaha...
Do you even know what percentage of the market Microsoft controls? No, didn't think so. They DO have a monopoly in both the OS and Office Suite product lines. Period.
You are still being denied use of your property.
"I didn't steal it... I stole it!"
...that all those Firefox browsers are running on Windows? Could it be that alternate OSs that run Firefox are adding to the numbers? Maybe IE isn't the only Microsoft product in trouble?
I forgot to mention over population but that is the driving force behind a lot of the ecosystem problems.
I agree with most of your assessment. I don't necessarily agree that after the human population decreases things will stabilize. It all depends on how much damage we do to our ecosystem prior the the reduction.
I wish people could/would understand that there is no bringing back species that have been driven to extinction. Our ecosystem is becoming more and more fragile as more and more species die.
There are a specific set of tasks that must be done in order to keep our environment livable. Every species performs one or more of these tasks. When we destroy all species that perform any one of these essential tasks there will be a cascade effect that is utterly irreversible. When the cascade begins it'll be too late.
Does anyone not believe that the human race is doomed? This is the type of stupidity that removes any doubt from my mind.
We have little concern for the impact our action have on the ecosystems that allow us to live. Eighty jobs can be used as justification to dump huge amounts of wastes into a water resource used by thousands.
This is typical of human folly. We allow polluter's to poison our environment if they pay off the right people. We allow developers to destroy the environment as they greedily consume our wildernesses until nothing is left.
I know that the human race is doomed because we're too greedy to say "enough!" There will always be another polluting factory, another house, store or condominium built where undeveloped land use to be until there is no undeveloped land.
What people just refuse to understand is that our ecosystem WILL EVENTUALLY COLLAPSE. And that day is coming sooner not later.
I predict that man will continue to rape our planet in an effort to gather riches. By the time that we realize that the ecosystem is indeed collapsing it will be too late. Governments will then spend huge amounts of money in the search for a way to save themselves but only find a grave.
"IBM is the only company I can think of that would really have both, and Microsoft isn't stupid enough to violate any of IBM's licenses..."
What I see is Microsoft beating the patent war drums. If Microsoft is foolish enough to sue ANYONE or play the patent FUD card too strongly so that IBM's business is harmed it will become a concern to IBM.
If someone with one of the Microsoft coupons waits until they are sure that Suse Linux comes with GPL V3 software and then gets that software using that coupon it will add another layer of defense against Microsoft's bullying. There is a real possibility that the Microsoft patent threat will be totally nullified.
So I exported the database into a GED file. (I think that's what it was called.) and imported it into Gramps on Ubuntu 7.04.
She is quite happy with it.
1. First they ignore you
2. then they laugh at you
3. then they fight you
4. then you win....
You guys are a little behind the curve...
Netscape would not have died if it weren't for the fact that Microsoft illegally imbedded its own browser into its monopoly OS. Stop trying to rewrite history.
They're a sheep who saw the wolf coming and decided not to get eaten...
"...as long as it isn't intentionally crippling another companies product or using anti-competitive practices to steal the market from a competitor."
Don't you believe that integrating a competing product into their Monopoly OS IS DOING EXACTLY THAT!
I'm not talking about including separate software that doesn't have to be installed. I'm talking about integration so that it's always there. They did it with their web browser and that killed Netscape now their doing the same F**king thing with their search engine.
Even if you don't use their search engine it's still there and it still slows your system down. Microsoft knows exactly what their doing and it is illegal because of their monopoly. Monopolies can not do all the things a non-monopoly can without causing harm. That's why there are laws which Microsoft apparently feels it doesn't have to follow.