At least the prospects for his immediate future don't also include being somebody's "bitch" in a Federal prison for the next 3 to 5 years.
He might still be able to get a job in the IT industry, but I think it would be fair to say that his chances for getting a government security clearance is pretty much nil. Which employer would trust him with signing an NDA, or NC, or protecting "company confidential" information?
Considering the state of the USA IT industry (, between offshore outsourcing, onshore out- sourcing with H1-B visas, and gruelling unpaid OT), he might want to back to his waiter job fro a decade or two.
I tried this experiment with a fresh installation of Win2Kpro (plus Service Packs), and it did not work. "Add/Remove Programs" allowed me to roll back IE to a pre-SP version, but not to completely remove IE. IE may not be part of the kernel, but MS has made it part of the core OS. This is also (IMNSHO) why any MSFT OS cannot truly be secure (except as a stand-alone computer) -- no network and definately no internet access.
MSFT doesn't have to roll out Longhorn to make a more secure OS. All they really need to do is make their OS more modular, operationally and during installation. And it is not as if MSFT has not had a bit of practice doing exactly this; MSFT sells WinCE, as well as a RT NT core. MSFT will not make such capabilities available in their OS, because their monopoly position regarding the OS that they are leveraging for IE and WMP (and whatever comes next).
The US DoJ basically gave MSFT a "free pass" in the monopoly lawsuit, and the EU does not want to follow that same path. I say "Good for them", and "Screw MSFT".
Parent has the right idea, but doesn't go nearly far enough. The DoJ should revisit their penalty (not judgement) against MSFT regarding monopoly.
Strip MSFT of all S/W patents, ban MSFT from submitting any S/W patent for a period of 50 years, break MSFT (ala Ma Bell) into at least 5 competing little gorillas, throw the entire Board of Directors of MSFT into prison for 10 years, and strip the Board of all salary and bonuses from the time of the original DoJ outcome (with all monies to be returned to all other shareholders and customers -- that is the penalty that should be incurred for MSFT's continued monopolistic practices.
Time to stick a fork in Mozilla, because its goose has been cooked by FF/TB. Too bad.
No common (shared) libraries between FF & TB, so the memory footprint(s) and load times are worse than with Mozilla (suite).
No plan for an integrated Calender, no plan for an integrated Chatzilla, and no plan for an integrated Composer.
I'll bet that when corporate users adopted the Mozilla suite, they had no idea that it would so quickly be abandoned in favor of FF/TB. Sometimes too much good press at the wrong times is not a good thing. Too bad the Netscape suite is in such a shambles, what with the use of the IE render engine.
When Mozilla does get properly forked, perhaps some time and attention will be paid to actually integrating these things back in. Making use of binary patches instead of the complete download of a new version would be nice, also. Overlays and add-ins (like new skins) has also got to be better that the current FF paradigm.
The music and movie industry has turned the "fair use" clause of copyrighted media on its ear. If I buy a book or magazine, I own that copy of the book or magazine (but not the copyright). I can strip each page out of the book, OCR the contents, and have an entire bookshelf worth of books on my computer, if I wish. Doing that with a leather bound first edition would not be a smart thing to do on my part, because there can be an intrinsic value beyond the contents attached to that book. The contents have been converted from an "analog" into a "digital" format that I might find more useful. Or I could take that book or magazine to a used bookstore, donate it to a public library, or give it to a friend. Neither the copyright nor the media itself precludes me from doing that, unlike DRMed software or music or films.
If I purchase IP under such onerous restrictions, it is no longer a purchase of media, but only a limited "right to use" license, no better than a rental. Considering the state of EULAs that place no guarantees on the quality, merchantability, or fitness of S/W for "any particular purpose", it is no wonder that the
quality of commercial software has become so degraded. Why would I purchase a limited "right to use" license for a painting or for a song or for a movie? With DRMed songs or movies, I have relinquished my right to sell, donate, or give away that property. With such a restriction of my rights, the **AA still wants to charge me very nearly as much as my ownership of the media, while I give up my right to treat it like property.
DRMed IP has stripped me of my rights even further than onerous EULAs tied to installation keys. The S/W publishers have, in essence, labeled me as a thief, while in reality their EULAs increasingly express exactly how bad their S/W is when they claim "no particular fitness". Why should I give the **AA any of my money, based upon the general trend in the quality of digital IP?
There have been numerous lawsuits against police departments, emergency rescue services, fire services, and local governments across the USA. In every instance, the courts have ruled that neither the local government nor the emergency services have an obligation to respond to any emergency within a time frame that will preclude loss of life or permanent disability. The emblem and phrase on the side of police vehicles "To Protect and Serve" is only feel-good marketing.
That said, I do believe that there is a case proceeding to the US Supreme Court over this issue. The original venue was Cook County, IL (Chicago area), if my memory serves me. The case involves domestic violence; the husband/boyfriend had one or more restraining orders against him, and the police and/or district attorney failed to provide either police protection, or else failed to keep the defendent incarcerated, with tragic results. I really don't think the plaintif will stand a chance of winning the case -- the legal and financial repercussions would be enormous for local governments.
Quantum (the hard drive manufacturer) used to make solid state hard drives (SCSI interface). In fact, their SS disks were designed so that you could build a RAID (0,1,5) array out of them -- brought an entirely NEW meaning to the term "Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks", because they were so freaking expensive. At $12K to $80K each, you really needed both justification AND deep pockets.
As I recall, these disks did not have battery backup, so you really needed an enterprise level UPS for the server these were on. One of their technical white papers recommended a RAID 0 system boot disk, a RAID 5 of their Solid State Disks, and a RAID 5/10 of their rotating media disks for static storage and backup. Booting (or rebooting) the server was not something you really wanted to do very often, because copying the appications and databases from rotating storage to solid state storage could take quite some time, as well as updating the rotating storage before shutdown.
This is one of those items that if you need it and can justify its cost, you really really need it. I always wondered why, with the availability of much higher memory density SIMMs, this technology hasn't become far more popular. And especially why more vendors weren't out there selling SS disks. Imagine a NAS or SAN based on this technology! I can.
or will be soon! Uncle (Borg)Bill is wrong, and he knows he is wrong. The problem is, MSFT has created a monster of their own doing, and it WILL conflict with their current "business" model. On one hand, MSFT does (truly) want all its customers to upgrade to Longhorn (or at least to XPSP2 from Win95/98/ME/NT4/2K). They derive profit from selling OS upgrades. For very many computer users this also means purchasing a new more powerful computer to run that shiny new OS on. However, MSFT's "Palladium" (eg. Restricted Rights Computer) initiative WILL drive many customers away from the Wintel platform, because non-corporate customers expect to be able to do anything they like with the hardware THEY buy. And MSFT is at the mercy of the large broadband ISPs when it comes to pushing non-corporate customers into the internet enabled thin client heavily DRMed metered use that MSFT has seen as "their answer" to software piracy issues. Without the widespread (nearly universal) broadband access to MSFT's Application servers, their whole push into onerous License6, EULA changes, and DRMed software updates will fail to crush much piracy.
The marketplace is not ready for the widespread adoption of MSFT-centric thin client computing ala WebTV due to the internet infrastructure's abysmal broadband access. The non-corporate MSFT customer had been in a tizzy over new hardware costs that include the "Palladium" technology. And MSFT's corporate customers are too busy weighing the cost of new hardware & software to protect their "secrets" from Oxley-Sarbanes regs, versus offshore outsourcing the whole thing (and the probability of losing control of their business).
MSFT has painted themselves into the proverbial corner, and Uncle (Borg)Bill's trying to keep the troops happy while they watch the paint dry.
If you are a law abiding citizen, never beat your wife or dog or kids, always pay you taxes on time, never have a difference of opinion with your neighbor or coworker or politician, attend church or mosque or synagogue every week, never engage in extramarital or kinky sex, then you really don't have anything to fear.
But if you deviate from the straight and narrow path dictated by the government or society's "norms", you might risk being considered as a suspicious person, or worst yet as a "security risk" to the state. A spiteful neighbor or aggressively "upwardly mobile" coworker might just report you to the FBI, DHS, or even your employer. (The toll-free numbers and websites have been with us since shortly after 9-11-2001.)
No one is allowed to know if they are now under suspicion, thanks to some of the more onerous provisions of the USA Patriot Act (I). Breaking into your home or auto or computer or office files for "intelligence gathering" can be done on the sly. But if you don't get that promotion, or that new job, or that bank loan, or if "official looking" vehicles always seem to be around you but you never get that ticket for rolling through a stop sign, don't be alarmed -- you just might be the subject of an "investigation".
Since your photo, fingerprints, and DNA are no longer really your property, but that of the state, and these "ID markers" can be easily acquired by a five minute "black bag" job for planting on a crime scene, don't worry about it. Take another Vallium, enjoy life while you can, and realize that the police state that you always read about in your "Cold War era" novels is here today.
Only now, your personal data is scattered around between secretive 3 letter agencies and commercial databases. If you think that MATRIX and CAPPS is bad now, just wait until a National ID law passes, and you are required to donate specimens for their databases. The future is coming fast -- think "Minority Report", "Matrix", Fahrenheit451", "1984" and "Solient Green" all rolled into one.
President George W. Bush saying "Your amnesty has been granted. Sign here for your Social Security benefits, and your voter registration as a Republican." ("By the way, you are a religious fundamentalist, right?")
Preferably in Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Arabic, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Korean, or Klingon. So much can otherwise get lost in the translation.
I find that living in these United States is becoming increasingly ironic. The USA was largely formed by persons fleeing religious prosecution, famine, or the law. Only to have history repeat itself yet again in this modern day.
Populism and personal freedom is giving way to increasingly obnoxious religious intolerance at a time when the USA (and much of Western society) is under attack by increasingly obnoxious Islamic religious intolerance. Those that are bent upon the destruction of Western civilization have employed (wittingly or not) fifth columnists to destroy populism and personal freedom from within. Democracy, rather than being a rising tide in the Middle East, is a receding tide in the USA.
DRMed hardware, like MSFT's "Palladium" project, will find increasing support from both government and industry for more reasons than just protecting IP. DRMed hardware means the end to insider whistleblowers that reveal emails/memos indicating wrongdoing. It also makes the regulation and oversight of business via legislation like Sarbanes/Oxley much more difficult. The DRM issues that the **AA stormtroopers are fighting for are a drop in the bucket compared to organizations trying to protect themselves from either public scrutiny, or public prosecution.
I am neither an ex-employee of Adaptec, nor am I a developer for OpenBSD. I can say, however, that Adaptec's attitude regarding the release of THEIR documentation for THEIR hardware is pure BS. Theo was not asking for Adaptec to release their SDK early, nor was he asking for the Windows source code to the drivers for THEIR hardware. It is, after all, JUST documentation.
The real clue to Adaptec's attitude (from the/. posting) is that THEIR hardware and THEIR drivers are quirky and problematic -- a sure sign that Adaptec has adopted the "Microsoft" business method of having their customers do their beta testing. Theo is well known for not pulling punches when it comes to chiding manufacturers over shoddy products.
Theo has taken the only course left to him, and publicly stating why OpenBSD 3.7 will be released without Adaptec RAID support. No doubt he is relying on public pressure on Adaptec to "play nice". As an IT consultant, I appreciate the problems that linux and the bsd variant development teams go through in trying to obtain cooperation from hardware manufacturers. It is also why I pay particular attention to hardware compatability lists when specifying new server configurations. I rarely (okay, never) specify MSFT Windows OS for my servers, and I will not support hardware manufacturers that play the "closed source/closed documentation/NDA/DMCA" game that has fueled MSFT's continued "embrace/extend/extinguish" monopolistic business practices.
I agree with your sentiments, up to a point. Several years ago, OOorg was dominated on their mailing lists by persons who essentially wanted OOo to be an Office (MSFT) look-alike. IMHO, this detracted from the real benefit of F/OSS, a common source tree that could be built on any number of different platforms.
While OOo's decision to focus primarily upon the X11 platform might be considered to be a drawback, I would consider a single source tree to be a real advantage. Maintaining a common look/feel cross-platform makes it easier to "switch gears" when using it on another OS. Instead of trying to match MSFT on the basis of the GUI, the effort to out-perform MSFT on features and functions would create a product better than MSFT's.
That said, the OOo project has forked specifically for the Mac OS X platform in the NeoOffice/J project, if you insist upon an Aqua interface. Otherwise, just install the available X11 code on your Mac OS X, and use the OOo binaries for the Mac platform (using X11). Simple enough.
Equation A: God ==> Burning Bush Burning Bush ==> Burning Man Burning Man ==> Avant-Garde Avant-Garde ==> Rebel Rebel ==> Terrorist Terrorist ==> Bushwhacker Bushwhacker ==> George W. Bush
Equation B: George W. Bush ==> Cowboy Cowboy ==> Gunslinger Gunslinger ==> Bushwhacker Bushwhacker ==> George W. Bush
Looks like the theorum equations are not equal.
Therefore: IF A != B, and IF B != A, THEN George W. Bush != God
also known as: BARF. The name was changed, no doubt, in order to instill a greater sense among MSFT employees there that they actually might (someday) have a workable product. Hence, BARC.
XML is more complicated than it should be, but it is NOT a MSFT "invention", and has no business being patented by MSFT. Let alone, encumbered with their viral and restrictive and expensive licensing scheme. What it IS is yet another example of the slimey "embrace/extend/extinguish" monopolistic business practices of MSFT. If the DoJ weren't more like a 90 year old grandmother that misplaced her full dentures (aka the Dubya regime), they would have MSFT back into court to exact "new & improved" punishment on the 800 lb. gorilla.
Leading edge and/or bleeding edge hardware and software isn't cheaper than what you already have, provided it still functions to your satisfaction. Unfortunately, any "obsolete" computer/OS that regularly connects to the internet will find fewer and fewer websites that support it, and the now unsupported (and unpatched) OS will get stomped-on on the internet. So long as the "obsolete" computers stay on stable private networks (or standalone), there may be no compelling need to upgrade.
I don't think you can even run FF 1.0.x on a Win95 computer with 16 or 32 MB of RAM. And if you try accessing most websites using IE 2.0 (HTML 1.0 / no CSS / obso MS-Java), those sites are either broken or not even accessable.
I have difficulty with the continued use of Netscape 4.7x on the internet, but I have the luxury of being able (RAM-wise) to run a more modern browser. Which is not the case for my old HP Omnibook craptop computer, with 16 MB. It now runs a customized version of OpenBSD instead of Win95.
Many of the 108 million people that still use obsolete computers and OSes could be ideal candidates (at some point) for an upgrade to linux (presuming it is not a resource hog). The basic problem is getting used to a different operating environment. It is IMHO still easier to get used to WinXP when coming from Win95 than it is to use linux. If you still have to buy new hardware to run a bloated version of linux, the big OEMs have a captive audience, due to the MSFT "tax" that's "built-in". Monopolies suck!
Of course, those 108 million users of ancient Windows versions DO NOT represent new WinXP customers for MSFT -- their hardware will not support the new OS (and vice versa).
MSFT will not, under any circumstances, release the complete source code to their ancient OSes -- they would rather let the email worms, viruses, and spyware so impede these stubborn users that they spring for new hardware, including the built-in MSFT tax.
These 108 million users represent the most likely candidates for a switch to linux -- Linspire or some other linux/wine implimentation. IMHO, a grassroots movement of this sort to linux would drop MSFT stock by 5%. All these users need is the encouragement (and assistance) from the linux community. Some well-placed ads (a la NYT/FF) that also listed LUG websites and phone numbers could provide the tipping point. A well-designed and implimented (bootable) single CD solution that was available (and free as in beer) could help the process along. Imaqine a free linux CD released on the scale of (any) AOL "coasterware".
The EU as a government entity has the right to require that software they purchase meet certain terms and conditions, including interoperability. MSFT's response regarding the publishing of their API's and specification by way of an encumbered AND expensive license violates the EU's stated requirements. Nothing more.
What I DO find rather interesting is the stance the EU has taken in regard to MSFT's monopolistic ploy, versus the EU's apparent infatuation with the adoption of software patents. There would appear to be a disconnect between these two conflicting mindsets. So now I am confused...
As far as the penalty of $5 Million per day fine is concerned, any judiciary anywhere in the West would/should consider the penalty appropriate to weighed benefit of ignoring a judgement. The "carrot" for MSFT is continued access to the EU marketplace, so the "stick" should be big enough to balance the scales. Court rooms in the USA do this all the time when considering the posting of bond to offset a defendant's "flight risk".
If I could make a recommendation here? UserLinux should be tied to a linux distribution
that is stable, yet has a 6 month release cycle that picks up the latest-and-greatest F/OSS projects.
Slackware is just such a distribution. While the installation process is a bit archaic in comparison to some other distributions, it has never failed to install. It is stable enough that I am still using Slackware 9.1, but with the very latest kernel (2.6.11) direct from "www.kernel.org" (and 2.4.30 when released).
Each release is available on a 3 CD boxed set, with a "live CD". Slackware's clean design also makes it the basis for several other linux distributions. While it is not cross-platform to the extent that Debian is, Slackware is the distribution I would hang my hat on if I wanted to build a release for another architecture.
Perhaps SGI traded the Indigo trademark for a couple hundred copies of MSFT's WinNT4 for the last of SGI's x86 based workstations. I think the very last of SGI's factory reconditioned Indigo2 workstations were sold off in 1999.
I would dearly like to have one of the SGI Indigo R4 workstations, if for nothing else than to case mod it into a bar refrigerator.
IMHO, would be a rapid move toward bio-diesel
hybrid/electric vehicles. Bio-diesel would offer
great highway mileage, with the hybrid/electric
boosting urban stop-and-go mileage. If the diesel
were burning 0% sulphur like corn or canola oil,
the only concern would be with recycling those
batteries every 3 or 4 years.
If an automobile company were to come out with
a bio-diesel hybrid/electric all wheel drive
SUV, particularly one that the batteries could
be recharged from photovoltaic cells at home (or
work), I would be standing in line to buy one.
Slashdot Mirror
At least the prospects for his immediate future
don't also include being somebody's "bitch" in
a Federal prison for the next 3 to 5 years.
He might still be able to get a job in the IT
industry, but I think it would be fair to say that
his chances for getting a government security
clearance is pretty much nil. Which employer
would trust him with signing an NDA, or NC, or
protecting "company confidential" information?
Considering the state of the USA IT industry
(, between offshore outsourcing, onshore out-
sourcing with H1-B visas, and gruelling unpaid
OT), he might want to back to his waiter job
fro a decade or two.
I tried this experiment with a fresh installation
of Win2Kpro (plus Service Packs), and it did not
work. "Add/Remove Programs" allowed me to roll
back IE to a pre-SP version, but not to completely
remove IE. IE may not be part of the kernel, but
MS has made it part of the core OS. This is also
(IMNSHO) why any MSFT OS cannot truly be secure
(except as a stand-alone computer) -- no network
and definately no internet access.
MSFT doesn't have to roll out Longhorn to make a
more secure OS. All they really need to do is
make their OS more modular, operationally and
during installation. And it is not as if MSFT
has not had a bit of practice doing exactly this;
MSFT sells WinCE, as well as a RT NT core. MSFT
will not make such capabilities available in their
OS, because their monopoly position regarding the
OS that they are leveraging for IE and WMP (and
whatever comes next).
The US DoJ basically gave MSFT a "free pass" in
the monopoly lawsuit, and the EU does not want
to follow that same path. I say "Good for them",
and "Screw MSFT".
Parent has the right idea, but doesn't go nearly
far enough. The DoJ should revisit their penalty
(not judgement) against MSFT regarding monopoly.
Strip MSFT of all S/W patents, ban MSFT from
submitting any S/W patent for a period of 50
years, break MSFT (ala Ma Bell) into at least
5 competing little gorillas, throw the entire
Board of Directors of MSFT into prison for 10
years, and strip the Board of all salary and
bonuses from the time of the original DoJ
outcome (with all monies to be returned to
all other shareholders and customers -- that
is the penalty that should be incurred for
MSFT's continued monopolistic practices.
MSNMessenger?
WTF!
I'm still trying to remove that bloody IE malware!
Time to stick a fork in Mozilla, because its
goose has been cooked by FF/TB. Too bad.
No common (shared) libraries between FF & TB,
so the memory footprint(s) and load times are
worse than with Mozilla (suite).
No plan for an integrated Calender, no plan
for an integrated Chatzilla, and no plan for an
integrated Composer.
I'll bet that when corporate users adopted the
Mozilla suite, they had no idea that it would so
quickly be abandoned in favor of FF/TB. Sometimes
too much good press at the wrong times is not a
good thing. Too bad the Netscape suite is in
such a shambles, what with the use of the IE
render engine.
When Mozilla does get properly forked, perhaps
some time and attention will be paid to actually
integrating these things back in. Making use of
binary patches instead of the complete download
of a new version would be nice, also. Overlays
and add-ins (like new skins) has also got to be
better that the current FF paradigm.
I very nearly bought one of these Commodores,
except that the dealer never could get the
CP/M-8085 Module and S/W for it.
The music and movie industry has turned the "fair
use" clause of copyrighted media on its ear. If
I buy a book or magazine, I own that copy of the
book or magazine (but not the copyright). I can
strip each page out of the book, OCR the contents,
and have an entire bookshelf worth of books on
my computer, if I wish. Doing that with a leather
bound first edition would not be a smart thing to
do on my part, because there can be an intrinsic
value beyond the contents attached to that book.
The contents have been converted from an "analog"
into a "digital" format that I might find more
useful. Or I could take that book or magazine to
a used bookstore, donate it to a public library,
or give it to a friend. Neither the copyright
nor the media itself precludes me from doing
that, unlike DRMed software or music or films.
If I purchase IP under such onerous restrictions,
it is no longer a purchase of media, but only
a limited "right to use" license, no better than a rental.
Considering the state of EULAs that place no guarantees
on the quality, merchantability, or fitness of S/W for
"any particular purpose", it is no wonder that the
quality of commercial software has become so degraded.
Why would I purchase a limited "right to use" license for a
painting or for a song or for a movie? With DRMed
songs or movies, I have relinquished my right to sell,
donate, or give away that property. With such a
restriction of my rights, the **AA still
wants to charge me very nearly as much as my
ownership of the media, while I give up my right
to treat it like property.
DRMed IP has stripped me of my rights even further
than onerous EULAs tied to installation keys. The
S/W publishers have, in essence, labeled me as a
thief, while in reality their EULAs increasingly
express exactly how bad their S/W is when they
claim "no particular fitness". Why should I give
the **AA any of my money, based upon the general
trend in the quality of digital IP?
Not at all, ever, anywhere!
There have been numerous lawsuits against police
departments, emergency rescue services, fire
services, and local governments across the USA.
In every instance, the courts have ruled that
neither the local government nor the emergency
services have an obligation to respond to any
emergency within a time frame that will preclude
loss of life or permanent disability. The emblem
and phrase on the side of police vehicles "To
Protect and Serve" is only feel-good marketing.
That said, I do believe that there is a case
proceeding to the US Supreme Court over this
issue. The original venue was Cook County, IL
(Chicago area), if my memory serves me. The case
involves domestic violence; the husband/boyfriend
had one or more restraining orders against him,
and the police and/or district attorney failed to
provide either police protection, or else failed
to keep the defendent incarcerated, with tragic
results. I really don't think the plaintif will
stand a chance of winning the case -- the legal
and financial repercussions would be enormous
for local governments.
Not only that, but in other news:
MSFT has just submitted a software patent on
adding numbers together, based upon this f(n).
The number 7(TM) has been brought to you by MSFT.
Quantum (the hard drive manufacturer) used to make
solid state hard drives (SCSI interface). In fact,
their SS disks were designed so that you could
build a RAID (0,1,5) array out of them -- brought
an entirely NEW meaning to the term "Redundant
Array of Inexpensive Disks", because they were so
freaking expensive. At $12K to $80K each, you
really needed both justification AND deep pockets.
As I recall, these disks did not have battery
backup, so you really needed an enterprise level
UPS for the server these were on. One of their
technical white papers recommended a RAID 0 system
boot disk, a RAID 5 of their Solid State Disks,
and a RAID 5/10 of their rotating media disks for
static storage and backup. Booting (or rebooting)
the server was not something you really wanted to
do very often, because copying the appications
and databases from rotating storage to solid state
storage could take quite some time, as well as
updating the rotating storage before shutdown.
This is one of those items that if you need it
and can justify its cost, you really really need
it. I always wondered why, with the availability
of much higher memory density SIMMs, this technology
hasn't become far more popular. And
especially why more vendors weren't out there
selling SS disks. Imagine a NAS or SAN based on
this technology! I can.
or will be soon! Uncle (Borg)Bill is wrong, and he knows he is wrong. The problem is, MSFT has created a monster of their own doing, and it WILL conflict with their current "business" model. On one hand, MSFT does (truly) want all its customers to upgrade to Longhorn (or at least to XPSP2 from Win95/98/ME/NT4/2K). They derive profit from selling OS upgrades. For very many computer users this also means purchasing a new more powerful computer to run that shiny new OS on. However, MSFT's "Palladium" (eg. Restricted Rights Computer) initiative WILL drive many customers away from the Wintel platform, because non-corporate customers expect to be able to do anything they like with the hardware THEY buy. And MSFT is at the mercy of the large broadband ISPs when it comes to pushing non-corporate customers into the internet enabled thin client heavily DRMed metered use that MSFT has seen as "their answer" to software piracy issues. Without the widespread (nearly universal) broadband access to MSFT's Application servers, their whole push into onerous License6, EULA changes, and DRMed software updates will fail to crush much piracy.
The marketplace is not ready for the widespread adoption of MSFT-centric thin client computing ala WebTV due to the internet infrastructure's abysmal broadband access. The non-corporate MSFT customer had been in a tizzy over new hardware costs that include the "Palladium" technology. And MSFT's corporate customers are too busy weighing the cost of new hardware & software to protect their "secrets" from Oxley-Sarbanes regs, versus offshore outsourcing the whole thing (and the probability of losing control of their business).
MSFT has painted themselves into the proverbial corner, and Uncle (Borg)Bill's trying to keep the troops happy while they watch the paint dry.
Exactly right!
If you are a law abiding citizen, never beat your
wife or dog or kids, always pay you taxes on time,
never have a difference of opinion with your
neighbor or coworker or politician, attend church
or mosque or synagogue every week, never engage in
extramarital or kinky sex, then you really don't
have anything to fear.
But if you deviate from the straight and narrow
path dictated by the government or society's
"norms", you might risk being considered as a
suspicious person, or worst yet as a "security
risk" to the state. A spiteful neighbor or
aggressively "upwardly mobile" coworker might just
report you to the FBI, DHS, or even your employer.
(The toll-free numbers and websites have been with
us since shortly after 9-11-2001.)
No one is allowed to know if they are now under
suspicion, thanks to some of the more onerous
provisions of the USA Patriot Act (I). Breaking
into your home or auto or computer or office files
for "intelligence gathering" can be done on the
sly. But if you don't get that promotion, or that
new job, or that bank loan, or if "official looking"
vehicles always seem to be around you but you
never get that ticket for rolling through a stop
sign, don't be alarmed -- you just might be the
subject of an "investigation".
Since your photo, fingerprints, and DNA are no
longer really your property, but that of the state,
and these "ID markers" can be easily acquired by
a five minute "black bag" job for planting on a
crime scene, don't worry about it. Take another
Vallium, enjoy life while you can, and realize
that the police state that you always read about
in your "Cold War era" novels is here today.
Only now, your personal data is scattered around
between secretive 3 letter agencies and commercial
databases. If you think that MATRIX and CAPPS
is bad now, just wait until a National ID law
passes, and you are required to donate specimens
for their databases. The future is coming fast --
think "Minority Report", "Matrix", Fahrenheit451",
"1984" and "Solient Green" all rolled into one.
President George W. Bush saying "Your amnesty has
been granted. Sign here for your Social Security
benefits, and your voter registration as a Republican."
("By the way, you are a religious fundamentalist, right?")
Preferably in Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Arabic,
Vietnamese, Indonesian, Korean, or Klingon. So
much can otherwise get lost in the translation.
I find that living in these United States is
becoming increasingly ironic. The USA was
largely formed by persons fleeing religious
prosecution, famine, or the law. Only to have
history repeat itself yet again in this modern
day.
Populism and personal freedom is giving way to
increasingly obnoxious religious intolerance
at a time when the USA (and much of Western
society) is under attack by increasingly
obnoxious Islamic religious intolerance. Those
that are bent upon the destruction of Western
civilization have employed (wittingly or not)
fifth columnists to destroy populism and
personal freedom from within. Democracy,
rather than being a rising tide in the Middle
East, is a receding tide in the USA.
DRMed hardware, like MSFT's "Palladium" project, will find increasing support from both government and industry for more reasons than just protecting IP. DRMed hardware means the end to insider whistleblowers that reveal emails/memos indicating wrongdoing. It also makes the regulation and oversight of business via legislation like Sarbanes/Oxley much more difficult. The DRM issues that the **AA stormtroopers are fighting for are a drop in the bucket compared to organizations trying to protect themselves from either public scrutiny, or public prosecution.
I am neither an ex-employee of Adaptec, nor am I a developer for OpenBSD. I can say, however, that Adaptec's attitude regarding the release of THEIR documentation for THEIR hardware is pure BS. Theo was not asking for Adaptec to release their SDK early, nor was he asking for the Windows source code to the drivers for THEIR hardware. It is, after all, JUST documentation.
/. posting) is that THEIR hardware and THEIR drivers are quirky and problematic -- a sure sign that Adaptec has adopted the "Microsoft" business method of having their customers do their beta testing. Theo is well known for not pulling punches when it comes to chiding manufacturers over shoddy products.
The real clue to Adaptec's attitude (from the
Theo has taken the only course left to him, and publicly stating why OpenBSD 3.7 will be released without Adaptec RAID support. No doubt he is relying on public pressure on Adaptec to "play nice". As an IT consultant, I appreciate the problems that linux and the bsd variant development teams go through in trying to obtain cooperation from hardware manufacturers. It is also why I pay particular attention to hardware compatability lists when specifying new server configurations. I rarely (okay, never) specify MSFT Windows OS for my servers, and I will not support hardware manufacturers that play the "closed source/closed documentation/NDA/DMCA" game that has fueled MSFT's continued "embrace/extend/extinguish" monopolistic business practices.
I agree with your sentiments, up to a point.
Several years ago, OOorg was dominated on their
mailing lists by persons who essentially wanted
OOo to be an Office (MSFT) look-alike. IMHO,
this detracted from the real benefit of F/OSS,
a common source tree that could be built on any
number of different platforms.
While OOo's decision to focus primarily upon the
X11 platform might be considered to be a drawback,
I would consider a single source tree to be a
real advantage. Maintaining a common look/feel
cross-platform makes it easier to "switch gears"
when using it on another OS. Instead of trying
to match MSFT on the basis of the GUI, the effort
to out-perform MSFT on features and functions
would create a product better than MSFT's.
That said, the OOo project has forked specifically
for the Mac OS X platform in the NeoOffice/J
project, if you insist upon an Aqua interface.
Otherwise, just install the available X11 code
on your Mac OS X, and use the OOo binaries for
the Mac platform (using X11). Simple enough.
Equation A:
God ==> Burning Bush
Burning Bush ==> Burning Man
Burning Man ==> Avant-Garde
Avant-Garde ==> Rebel
Rebel ==> Terrorist
Terrorist ==> Bushwhacker
Bushwhacker ==> George W. Bush
Equation B:
George W. Bush ==> Cowboy
Cowboy ==> Gunslinger
Gunslinger ==> Bushwhacker
Bushwhacker ==> George W. Bush
Looks like the theorum equations are not equal.
Therefore:
IF A != B, and IF B != A, THEN
George W. Bush != God
( get over it, Dubya... )
also known as: BARF. The name was changed, no
doubt, in order to instill a greater sense among
MSFT employees there that they actually might
(someday) have a workable product. Hence, BARC.
XML is more complicated than it should be, but
it is NOT a MSFT "invention", and has no business
being patented by MSFT. Let alone, encumbered
with their viral and restrictive and expensive
licensing scheme. What it IS is yet another
example of the slimey "embrace/extend/extinguish"
monopolistic business practices of MSFT. If the
DoJ weren't more like a 90 year old grandmother
that misplaced her full dentures (aka the Dubya
regime), they would have MSFT back into court to
exact "new & improved" punishment on the 800 lb.
gorilla.
Not exactly right.
Leading edge and/or bleeding edge hardware and
software isn't cheaper than what you already
have, provided it still functions to your
satisfaction. Unfortunately, any "obsolete"
computer/OS that regularly connects to the
internet will find fewer and fewer websites
that support it, and the now unsupported (and
unpatched) OS will get stomped-on on the internet.
So long as the "obsolete" computers stay on
stable private networks (or standalone), there
may be no compelling need to upgrade.
I don't think you can even run FF 1.0.x on a
Win95 computer with 16 or 32 MB of RAM. And
if you try accessing most websites using IE 2.0
(HTML 1.0 / no CSS / obso MS-Java), those sites
are either broken or not even accessable.
I have difficulty with the continued use of
Netscape 4.7x on the internet, but I have the
luxury of being able (RAM-wise) to run a more
modern browser. Which is not the case for my
old HP Omnibook craptop computer, with 16 MB.
It now runs a customized version of OpenBSD
instead of Win95.
Many of the 108 million people that still use
obsolete computers and OSes could be ideal
candidates (at some point) for an upgrade to
linux (presuming it is not a resource hog).
The basic problem is getting used to a different
operating environment. It is IMHO still easier
to get used to WinXP when coming from Win95 than
it is to use linux. If you still have to buy
new hardware to run a bloated version of linux,
the big OEMs have a captive audience, due to the
MSFT "tax" that's "built-in". Monopolies suck!
Of course, those 108 million users of ancient
Windows versions DO NOT represent new WinXP
customers for MSFT -- their hardware will not
support the new OS (and vice versa).
MSFT will not, under any circumstances, release
the complete source code to their ancient OSes --
they would rather let the email worms, viruses,
and spyware so impede these stubborn users that
they spring for new hardware, including the
built-in MSFT tax.
These 108 million users represent the most likely
candidates for a switch to linux -- Linspire or
some other linux/wine implimentation. IMHO, a
grassroots movement of this sort to linux would
drop MSFT stock by 5%. All these users need is
the encouragement (and assistance) from the linux
community. Some well-placed ads (a la NYT/FF)
that also listed LUG websites and phone numbers
could provide the tipping point. A well-designed
and implimented (bootable) single CD solution
that was available (and free as in beer) could
help the process along. Imaqine a free linux CD
released on the scale of (any) AOL "coasterware".
Indeed, what IS wrong with the EU?
The EU as a government entity has the right to
require that software they purchase meet certain
terms and conditions, including interoperability.
MSFT's response regarding the publishing of their
API's and specification by way of an encumbered
AND expensive license violates the EU's stated
requirements. Nothing more.
What I DO find rather interesting is the stance
the EU has taken in regard to MSFT's monopolistic
ploy, versus the EU's apparent infatuation with
the adoption of software patents. There would
appear to be a disconnect between these two
conflicting mindsets. So now I am confused...
As far as the penalty of $5 Million per day fine
is concerned, any judiciary anywhere in the West
would/should consider the penalty appropriate to
weighed benefit of ignoring a judgement. The
"carrot" for MSFT is continued access to the EU
marketplace, so the "stick" should be big enough
to balance the scales. Court rooms in the USA
do this all the time when considering the posting
of bond to offset a defendant's "flight risk".
So that's what happened to UserLinux!
If I could make a recommendation here?
UserLinux should be tied to a linux distribution
that is stable, yet has a 6 month release cycle
that picks up the latest-and-greatest F/OSS
projects.
Slackware is just such a distribution. While
the installation process is a bit archaic in
comparison to some other distributions, it has
never failed to install. It is stable enough
that I am still using Slackware 9.1, but with
the very latest kernel (2.6.11) direct from
"www.kernel.org" (and 2.4.30 when released).
Each release is available on a 3 CD boxed set,
with a "live CD". Slackware's clean design
also makes it the basis for several other linux
distributions. While it is not cross-platform
to the extent that Debian is, Slackware is the
distribution I would hang my hat on if I wanted
to build a release for another architecture.
Just my $00.02 worth.
Perhaps SGI traded the Indigo trademark for a
couple hundred copies of MSFT's WinNT4 for the
last of SGI's x86 based workstations. I think
the very last of SGI's factory reconditioned
Indigo2 workstations were sold off in 1999.
I would dearly like to have one of the SGI Indigo
R4 workstations, if for nothing else than to case
mod it into a bar refrigerator.
IMHO, would be a rapid move toward bio-diesel hybrid/electric vehicles. Bio-diesel would offer great highway mileage, with the hybrid/electric boosting urban stop-and-go mileage. If the diesel were burning 0% sulphur like corn or canola oil, the only concern would be with recycling those batteries every 3 or 4 years. If an automobile company were to come out with a bio-diesel hybrid/electric all wheel drive SUV, particularly one that the batteries could be recharged from photovoltaic cells at home (or work), I would be standing in line to buy one.