"... Eric Schmidt, an experienced industry professional..."
Eric Schmidt was the CEO of Novell, a VERY badly managed company. He was experienced in knowing little about what he was doing.
The entire Business Insider article is, in my opinion, obviously written by someone with little or no understanding of technology, a writer who doesn't have much depth of understanding about what really happened.
Why do people accept what Facebook says about the number of users? There are problems: 1) No independent verification. 2) Conflict of interest. If Facebook claims more users, Facebook makes more money. 3) Many "users" are people who merely tried something and never came back.
"... when lawyers aren't kept on a short enough leash"
Here is a typical joke about lawyers in the United States: There was a terrible tragedy. A van carrying 5 lawyers went over a cliff. What was the tragedy? There was room for 1 more lawyer.
The common underlying feeling is that the legal profession in the U.S. is often out of control.
Wow! Bush 3.0? Will Australia invade Iraq to make money for Bush 3.0 and his family and friends who have investments in oil and weapons companies?
Will Australia imprison 6 times the percentage of its people as the percentage imprisoned in European countries, partly to make money for those who run prisons under contract?
Who has Australia tortured? Who has Australia kidnapped and taken to other countries?
Is Australia holding people in prison without trial?
Is Australia spending taxpayer money to spy on the entire world?
I'm sympathetic about the degradation, but it isn't quite Bush 3.0.
Quote from a book about George W. Bush: "He was arguably the most disliked president in seven decades."
We do both corporate and personal taxes. Paying the least amount in taxes is more being involved with all the complicated issues, not in finding "loopholes". The advertising that tax software companies does is misleading.
If the IRS were guided by technically knowledgeable people, all taxes would be done online.
Libraries would have bootable DVD copies of a version of Linux, allowing even people with malware-infected computers to do their taxes securely. Records could be saved on USB drives, or burned to a DVD from a RAM drive. If there were mistakes in the calculation of taxes, fixing the problem would be the responsibility of the IRS.
Buying tax software would then be completely unnecessary. I dislike how the tax software tries to trick people into paying more and into giving information to the tax software companies. I would like to avoid paying the full price for tax software every year, when there are very full changes in the new versions.
There would be no need for the IRS to supply new DVDs each year, because all calculations would be done by IRS computers. The IRS Linux DVDs would have holograms printed on them; any counterfeit DVDs would cause the same kind of prosecution applied to counterfeit money.
I would love to be director in charge of that effort. I love the U.S., feel really bad about the defects in government, and would like to help the government in a way that benefits everyone.
At present the enormous complexity of dealing with taxes tends to discourage people from starting new businesses.
If the IRS were run by technically knowledgeable people, all taxes would be done online.
Libraries would have bootable DVD copies of a version of Linux, allowing even people with malware-infected computers to do their taxes securely. Records could be saved on USB drives, or burned to a DVD from a RAM drive. If there were mistakes in the calculation of taxes, fixing the problem would be the responsibility of the IRS.
Buying tax software would then be completely unnecessary. I dislike how the tax software tries to trick people into paying more and into giving information to the tax software companies. I would like to avoid paying the full price for tax software every year, when there are very full changes in the new versions.
There would be no need for the IRS to supply new DVDs each year, because all calculations would be done by IRS computers. The IRS Linux DVDs would have holograms printed on them; any counterfeit DVDs would cause the same kind of prosecution applied to counterfeit money.
I would love to be director in charge of that effort. I love the U.S., feel really bad about the defects in government, and would like to help the government in a way that benefits everyone.
At present the enormous complexity of dealing with taxes tends to discourage people from starting new businesses.
Good point. I overstated my ideas. However, it is my understanding that it is possible to fix security defects in recent versions of Linux without paying more. I'm not talking about ancient versions.
It is important to understand that Windows Vista was so unfinished that it was rejected by customers. Windows 8 and 8.1 have also been rejected. So, Windows XP is just one accepted version behind the latest accepted version, Windows 7.
My main point is in response to this Slashdot story. Microsoft is being PAID for continued fixes to Windows XP. Should governments allow Microsoft to prevent those fixes being given to taxpayers?
As I said elsewhere here and in my article, the question is, should Microsoft, a company with a virtual monopoly, be allowed to create anti-customer profit-making arrangements?
Microsoft is being PAID by the U.S. government for continued fixes to Windows XP. Should governments allow Microsoft to prevent those fixes being given to taxpayers?
Should a company be allowed to manage software development in such a way that there are many defects, and then pressure customers to pay for new software with some of those defects fixed?
I just added a better explanation of that to my article, Microsoft Windows XP "end of life": What to do?, which is written to explain the issues for people with little technical knowledge. See the section titled, Can Microsoft prevent distribution to taxpayers?
I haven't been making the complex issues clear enough.
Concerns about Microsoft's business practices: 1) Security fixes that cost huge amounts of money. Linux: None.
2) Security fixes available only to some customers. Linux: None.
3) Business practices that create artificial profit-making arrangements. Linux: Difficult because there are so many suppliers.
4) New versions of software that deliberately and unnecessarily try to obsolete old software. Linux: None.
5) New versions of operating systems that try to be so resource-intensive that they cannot run well on old hardware. Linux: Find the oldest computer in your attic. Install Linux Mint.
"... shutting down support of a 13 year old OS..."
Microsoft is not stopping support. Microsoft is now charging huge amounts for support. And the arrangement is that those who pay for the support for government computers, the taxpayers, will not get the fixes for which they paid. That's the entire point of this Slashdot story.
"Yes Microsoft has done many nasty things..."
Isn't that arrangement one of them?
If a computer system is serving people or an organization in a manner considered sufficient, it is sensible to continue with that hardware and software. Software is not biological. It doesn't get "old".
A lot of corporate computing is data entry, which doesn't require fast hardware.
"That amount wont cover the cost for a whole year."
Several governments are paying, not just the U.S. government. I give links in my article.
Others have said, and I agree, the amount the U.S. government is paying should be far more than enough to provide fixes for the few vulnerabilities that are found in the next year.
Remember, there have already been 2,722 fixes in Windows XP. It seems that eventually, no matter how sloppy the coding was in the beginning, Windows XP will have very few additional vulnerabilities. Perhaps a widely fixed OS is more secure than an new OS.
We are discussing vulnerabilities, not new features.
You said this, and I agree: "Nuclear reactor software written in freaking cobol for Digital's pre-VMS OS is still being updated today and run on PDP-11's in Europe."
There is no reason for hundreds of millions of customers of Microsoft Windows XP to buy new hardware. If XP is working for them, good, nothing new is necessary.
If the U.S. government pays for Microsoft to fix the defects in its software, then the taxpayers must be given those fixes without further payment.
We are discussing vulnerabilities, not new features.
The reason the U.S. government is paying Microsoft to continue to fix defects in Windows XP is that somehow people have come to accept that Microsoft products will always have vulnerabilities.
It is my understanding that the "obsolete" version of Linux are still working very, very well, with few vulnerabilities, almost all of which could be fixed without changing versions, and all of which could be fixed without payment.
You are apparently not aware of what the media has said about Microsoft. From my article:
The cover of the January 16, 2013 issue of
BusinessWeek magazine has a large photo of Microsoft CEO Steve
Ballmer with the headline calling him "Monkey
Boy". See the cover by scrolling down in the article
Microsoft sued for misrepresentation. The
BusinessWeek cover says "No More" and
"Mr.", but that doesn't take much away from
the fact that the magazine called him Monkey Boy -- on
its cover.
In my years of following such things I have never
seen such disrespect of a CEO. Of course, whoever wrote the cover
headline was merely repeating a common phrase applied to Steve
Ballmer by people in the computer industry.
Worst CEO: Quote from an
article in Forbes Magazine about Steve Ballmer:
"Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large
publicly traded American company today."
Another quote: "The reach of his bad
leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to
destroying shareholder value -- and jobs." (May 12,
2012)
Fired for temper tantrums: In my
opinion, there is something that is necessary to understand about
the Microsoft Windows 8 operating system. It is a typical attempt
of Microsoft to make more money by releasing software that is not
finished. But even for a company that intends to be abusive,
releasing it was an example of extreme incompetence. News stories
say that Steve Ballmer was fired because of severely incompetent
behavior that lasted many years. For example, see the article
Steve Ballmer's temper tantrum over Nokia buyout led to his
firing, says report. (March 5, 2014)
"Also keep in mind that GM will pay for SAFETY DEFECTS, not just ANY defects..."
That's what we are discussing, the defects in Windows XP that cause safety vulnerabilities.
I said this in my article: When Windows XP was first released, it was extremely sloppy. It seems to me that it is reasonable to say that Service Pack 3 for Windows XP finally made the OS a somewhat finished product. Service Pack 3 of Windows XP was released on May 6, 2008. By that measure, Windows XP is 6 years old.
The situation with Red Hat is very different. Old versions of Linux were stable and finished.
When Windows XP was first released, it was extremely sloppy. It seems to me that it is reasonable to say that Service Pack 3 for Windows XP finally made the OS a somewhat finished product. Service Pack 3 of Windows XP was released on May 6, 2008. By that measure, Windows XP is 6 years old.
"All software has defects, it's the nature of the beast."
There is a HUGE difference between the situation that Microsoft is in, in which defects are allowed to be a way to make more money, and a healthy arrangement. Why has OpenBSD had so few defects? Because that organization looks for defects before they release software.
"... since you're so convinced that MS is outright evil". First, that is not a logical argument against what I said. Second, I don't say that Microsoft is "outright evil".
Also, it surprises me that you don't know what is generally being said about Microsoft: Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, was fired for abuse! Bill Gates, a board of directors member, agreed that he should be fired! A magazine called him the worst CEO in the United States! Another magazine called Steve Ballmer "Monkey Boy" on its cover. Several years ago, it was common that people called Bill Gates "Satan". For links to all that, see my article.
RHEL, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, is a very different situation. A new version of Linux does not obsolete old versions, it is an upgrade to old versions. Also, there are free versions of Linux, and many organizations support many versions.
That is VERY different from the situation with Microsoft. Microsoft has a virtual monopoly. There is no monopoly involving Linux.
I wonder why it is so difficult for people to recognize and deal with abuse.
Slashdot Mirror
"... Eric Schmidt, an experienced industry professional..."
Eric Schmidt was the CEO of Novell, a VERY badly managed company. He was experienced in knowing little about what he was doing.
The entire Business Insider article is, in my opinion, obviously written by someone with little or no understanding of technology, a writer who doesn't have much depth of understanding about what really happened.
Apparently Bill Gates is still doing things to make money. When you have $70 billion, you still need more?
Exactly. Funny and not funny.
Why do people accept what Facebook says about the number of users? There are problems: 1) No independent verification. 2) Conflict of interest. If Facebook claims more users, Facebook makes more money. 3) Many "users" are people who merely tried something and never came back.
The white-text-on-black-background is discouraging. Can that be changed?
"... when lawyers aren't kept on a short enough leash"
Here is a typical joke about lawyers in the United States: There was a terrible tragedy. A van carrying 5 lawyers went over a cliff. What was the tragedy? There was room for 1 more lawyer.
The common underlying feeling is that the legal profession in the U.S. is often out of control.
This is interesting: What country in the world has most lawyers per capita? Answer: The United States. There is one lawyer for every 265 Americans.
Wow! Bush 3.0? Will Australia invade Iraq to make money for Bush 3.0 and his family and friends who have investments in oil and weapons companies?
Will Australia imprison 6 times the percentage of its people as the percentage imprisoned in European countries, partly to make money for those who run prisons under contract?
Who has Australia tortured? Who has Australia kidnapped and taken to other countries?
Is Australia holding people in prison without trial?
Is Australia spending taxpayer money to spy on the entire world?
I'm sympathetic about the degradation, but it isn't quite Bush 3.0.
Quote from a book about George W. Bush: "He was arguably the most disliked president in seven decades."
"... the lowest tax bill possible."
We do both corporate and personal taxes. Paying the least amount in taxes is more being involved with all the complicated issues, not in finding "loopholes". The advertising that tax software companies does is misleading.
If the IRS were guided by technically knowledgeable people, all taxes would be done online.
Libraries would have bootable DVD copies of a version of Linux, allowing even people with malware-infected computers to do their taxes securely. Records could be saved on USB drives, or burned to a DVD from a RAM drive. If there were mistakes in the calculation of taxes, fixing the problem would be the responsibility of the IRS.
Buying tax software would then be completely unnecessary. I dislike how the tax software tries to trick people into paying more and into giving information to the tax software companies. I would like to avoid paying the full price for tax software every year, when there are very full changes in the new versions.
There would be no need for the IRS to supply new DVDs each year, because all calculations would be done by IRS computers. The IRS Linux DVDs would have holograms printed on them; any counterfeit DVDs would cause the same kind of prosecution applied to counterfeit money.
I would love to be director in charge of that effort. I love the U.S., feel really bad about the defects in government, and would like to help the government in a way that benefits everyone.
At present the enormous complexity of dealing with taxes tends to discourage people from starting new businesses.
If the IRS were run by technically knowledgeable people, all taxes would be done online.
Libraries would have bootable DVD copies of a version of Linux, allowing even people with malware-infected computers to do their taxes securely. Records could be saved on USB drives, or burned to a DVD from a RAM drive. If there were mistakes in the calculation of taxes, fixing the problem would be the responsibility of the IRS.
Buying tax software would then be completely unnecessary. I dislike how the tax software tries to trick people into paying more and into giving information to the tax software companies. I would like to avoid paying the full price for tax software every year, when there are very full changes in the new versions.
There would be no need for the IRS to supply new DVDs each year, because all calculations would be done by IRS computers. The IRS Linux DVDs would have holograms printed on them; any counterfeit DVDs would cause the same kind of prosecution applied to counterfeit money.
I would love to be director in charge of that effort. I love the U.S., feel really bad about the defects in government, and would like to help the government in a way that benefits everyone.
At present the enormous complexity of dealing with taxes tends to discourage people from starting new businesses.
"... nobody is going to die or be injured because an old PC got pwned."
Financial loss is considered legal injury.
Good point. I overstated my ideas. However, it is my understanding that it is possible to fix security defects in recent versions of Linux without paying more. I'm not talking about ancient versions.
It is important to understand that Windows Vista was so unfinished that it was rejected by customers. Windows 8 and 8.1 have also been rejected. So, Windows XP is just one accepted version behind the latest accepted version, Windows 7.
My main point is in response to this Slashdot story. Microsoft is being PAID for continued fixes to Windows XP. Should governments allow Microsoft to prevent those fixes being given to taxpayers?
As I said elsewhere here and in my article, the question is, should Microsoft, a company with a virtual monopoly, be allowed to create anti-customer profit-making arrangements?
Microsoft is being PAID by the U.S. government for continued fixes to Windows XP. Should governments allow Microsoft to prevent those fixes being given to taxpayers?
Should a company be allowed to manage software development in such a way that there are many defects, and then pressure customers to pay for new software with some of those defects fixed?
I just added a better explanation of that to my article, Microsoft Windows XP "end of life": What to do?, which is written to explain the issues for people with little technical knowledge. See the section titled, Can Microsoft prevent distribution to taxpayers?
"Microsoft sells a limited lifetime product."
The question is, should Microsoft, a company with a virtual monopoly, be allowed to create anti-customer profit-making arrangements?
Microsoft is being PAID for continued fixes to Windows XP. Should governments allow Microsoft to prevent those fixes being given to taxpayers?
I haven't been making the complex issues clear enough.
Concerns about Microsoft's business practices:
1) Security fixes that cost huge amounts of money. Linux: None.
2) Security fixes available only to some customers. Linux: None.
3) Business practices that create artificial profit-making arrangements. Linux: Difficult because there are so many suppliers.
4) New versions of software that deliberately and unnecessarily try to obsolete old software. Linux: None.
5) New versions of operating systems that try to be so resource-intensive that they cannot run well on old hardware. Linux: Find the oldest computer in your attic. Install Linux Mint.
"And guess who's footing the bill??"
Lots of taxpayers and corporations. It is hugely profitable for Microsoft. Here are stories about 2 other governments, from an article I wrote:
Dutch government to pay Microsoft 'millions' to extend XP support (April 4, 2014)
(U.K.) Government signs 5.5m [pounds] Microsoft deal to extend Windows XP support (April 2, 2014)
"... shutting down support of a 13 year old OS..."
Microsoft is not stopping support. Microsoft is now charging huge amounts for support. And the arrangement is that those who pay for the support for government computers, the taxpayers, will not get the fixes for which they paid. That's the entire point of this Slashdot story.
"Yes Microsoft has done many nasty things..."
Isn't that arrangement one of them?
If a computer system is serving people or an organization in a manner considered sufficient, it is sensible to continue with that hardware and software. Software is not biological. It doesn't get "old".
A lot of corporate computing is data entry, which doesn't require fast hardware.
"That amount wont cover the cost for a whole year."
Several governments are paying, not just the U.S. government. I give links in my article.
Others have said, and I agree, the amount the U.S. government is paying should be far more than enough to provide fixes for the few vulnerabilities that are found in the next year.
Remember, there have already been 2,722 fixes in Windows XP. It seems that eventually, no matter how sloppy the coding was in the beginning, Windows XP will have very few additional vulnerabilities. Perhaps a widely fixed OS is more secure than an new OS.
We are discussing vulnerabilities, not new features.
You said this, and I agree: "Nuclear reactor software written in freaking cobol for Digital's pre-VMS OS is still being updated today and run on PDP-11's in Europe."
There is no reason for hundreds of millions of customers of Microsoft Windows XP to buy new hardware. If XP is working for them, good, nothing new is necessary.
If the U.S. government pays for Microsoft to fix the defects in its software, then the taxpayers must be given those fixes without further payment.
We are discussing vulnerabilities, not new features.
The reason the U.S. government is paying Microsoft to continue to fix defects in Windows XP is that somehow people have come to accept that Microsoft products will always have vulnerabilities.
It is my understanding that the "obsolete" version of Linux are still working very, very well, with few vulnerabilities, almost all of which could be fixed without changing versions, and all of which could be fixed without payment.
That misses the point. Taxpayers are paying for the fixes. Everyone should be allowed to have them.
You are apparently not aware of what the media has said about Microsoft. From my article:
The cover of the January 16, 2013 issue of BusinessWeek magazine has a large photo of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer with the headline calling him "Monkey Boy". See the cover by scrolling down in the article Microsoft sued for misrepresentation. The BusinessWeek cover says "No More" and "Mr.", but that doesn't take much away from the fact that the magazine called him Monkey Boy -- on its cover.
In my years of following such things I have never seen such disrespect of a CEO. Of course, whoever wrote the cover headline was merely repeating a common phrase applied to Steve Ballmer by people in the computer industry.
Worst CEO: Quote from an article in Forbes Magazine about Steve Ballmer: "Without a doubt, Mr. Ballmer is the worst CEO of a large publicly traded American company today."
Another quote: "The reach of his bad leadership has extended far beyond Microsoft when it comes to destroying shareholder value -- and jobs." (May 12, 2012)
Fired for temper tantrums: In my opinion, there is something that is necessary to understand about the Microsoft Windows 8 operating system. It is a typical attempt of Microsoft to make more money by releasing software that is not finished. But even for a company that intends to be abusive, releasing it was an example of extreme incompetence. News stories say that Steve Ballmer was fired because of severely incompetent behavior that lasted many years. For example, see the article Steve Ballmer's temper tantrum over Nokia buyout led to his firing, says report. (March 5, 2014)
"Also keep in mind that GM will pay for SAFETY DEFECTS, not just ANY defects..."
That's what we are discussing, the defects in Windows XP that cause safety vulnerabilities.
I said this in my article: When Windows XP was first released, it was extremely sloppy. It seems to me that it is reasonable to say that Service Pack 3 for Windows XP finally made the OS a somewhat finished product. Service Pack 3 of Windows XP was released on May 6, 2008. By that measure, Windows XP is 6 years old.
The situation with Red Hat is very different. Old versions of Linux were stable and finished.
When Windows XP was first released, it was extremely sloppy. It seems to me that it is reasonable to say that Service Pack 3 for Windows XP finally made the OS a somewhat finished product. Service Pack 3 of Windows XP was released on May 6, 2008. By that measure, Windows XP is 6 years old.
"All software has defects, it's the nature of the beast."
There is a HUGE difference between the situation that Microsoft is in, in which defects are allowed to be a way to make more money, and a healthy arrangement. Why has OpenBSD had so few defects? Because that organization looks for defects before they release software.
"... since you're so convinced that MS is outright evil". First, that is not a logical argument against what I said. Second, I don't say that Microsoft is "outright evil".
Also, it surprises me that you don't know what is generally being said about Microsoft: Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft, was fired for abuse! Bill Gates, a board of directors member, agreed that he should be fired! A magazine called him the worst CEO in the United States! Another magazine called Steve Ballmer "Monkey Boy" on its cover. Several years ago, it was common that people called Bill Gates "Satan". For links to all that, see my article.
RHEL, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, is a very different situation. A new version of Linux does not obsolete old versions, it is an upgrade to old versions. Also, there are free versions of Linux, and many organizations support many versions.
That is VERY different from the situation with Microsoft. Microsoft has a virtual monopoly. There is no monopoly involving Linux.
I wonder why it is so difficult for people to recognize and deal with abuse.