Nope. Just article after article with argument after argument summarized by:
Linux is cheaper! No license needed and runs a hell of a lot more stable that Windows.
Windows is cheaper! Setup tools require less experienced admins, setup/configuration takes less time, and everything in the network talks to each other without tweaking!
Linux requires expensive admins, but the good admins will ensure more stability/security, and the experienced staff will be able to solve problems more quickly.
Windows has 24/7 support, but MS tech support needs at least 24 hours to remove their heads from their asses and give a solution other than "just re-install; we don't know".
Linux has poor architeture-wide support/configuration/management tools; only those who buy big business versions of Linux from IBM, etc. will have tools that even come close to enterprise management tools.
Linux in the small-medium business requires custom management scripts and tools, but more experienced admins can take care of this easily with shell scripting and perl, rsync, gold box mentality, and good IT/IS practices.
It all boils down to: Get what you prefer, but use it correctly and in combination with good IT/IS people and practices.
Luke, after receiving the award for his heroism, abruptly looses public adoration and affection when Lea announces her plans of a tour with Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson.
Luke quickly becomes starved for public attention and acts out in the form of a vicious cocaine addition and public acts of beastiality with Chewy at intergalactic S&M clubs.
Han Solo conducts an intervention with Luke in which Luke enters rehab and is slowly cured of his addictions... or so they all think. Luke is really just pretending to be cured to get close to Lea.
He starts a fan club of for the new sensation, The Coshmos. This allows him to get close enough that he eventually is able to take Lea out with a sniper rifle he purchases from Jason Bourne in Bourne Revolutions.
They are still working on the ending, but I think that G.I. Joe talks about the dangers of Heroin addictions and says something about knowing being half the battle...
They'd become Microsoft's best friend! MS has been trying to push web-based subscriptions to their software for a loooong time now (original.Net goal?).
If Google had such systems, MS would likely try to include their subscription package in the google monthly fees so everyone used MS Office: Web Subcription Version...
That would be a sad, sad day. Hopefully, if Google ever goes the route you describe, OpenOffice will be ready with their own subscription-based package.
..how long you've had that one stored up. You must have been dying for an appropriate time for your marketing campaign launch...
Does Blamo make these? ---------------------
What is truly great about Walmart's...
on
Linux vs. Windows
·
· Score: 1
... decision to undercut PC retialers by excluding the MS tax is that, if the idea works and many people purchase these systems, Walmart will start to turn a serious profit on this initiative.
As soon as Walmart starts to turn a serious profit, financial media will pick up and drive the success story home and in turn, everyday media will cover the story, putting the situation in the face of the consumer.
Walmart's competition picks up on the idea, and to compete, mimmicks the intiative and toughly markets the new initiative to everyday consumers as opposed to a random HP announcement that jumps out at us Slahdot readers and is forgotten by the general MS-using public.
If more vendors than Walmart start to push these low-end Linux systems, Linux adoption will begin to grow at a much faster rate.
When executives and other corporate decision-makers start buying these systems for their kids, and start asking questions of their IT staff when expensive budgets cross their desks, the rest is history.
Whether or not I am an evil bastard is of little concern to me, but clarifying my post for simpletons and cowards like yourself is certainly in order. Here comes the Semame Street version:
If you accept cookies from login.yahoo.com, you do NOT have to remember a username/password pair for yahoo.com.
Whether or not you accept cookies from doubleclick.net on the yahoo.com site does not affect your ability to read your email, nor does it cause you to have to have to remember another username/password pair.
I am sure we can go through a list of your favorite example sites and we can provide a tutorial on which cookies you need to accept to NOT have to remember a username/password pair and show that easily identifiable site affiliations exist to help guide your decisions, but I assumed that you were smart enough that this was not necessary. I truly apologize for my gross oversight and your gross ignorance.
Firefox is most of the answer. People programming websites to adhere to standards such that IE and Firefox can render them correctly and using cross-platform non-monopolistic technologies instead of things like ActiveX is another part of the answer.
I have trained about ten broadband users to use firefox with limited javascript, cookie firewalling, zero disk cache, and zero java for everything, and if an important page (like online banking, or online billpay systems) doesn't work correctly, to look at that page ONLY in IE.
The average person can adhere to the above with only a few hours of training, whereas trying to fully educate people about security implications requires a great deal more time, especially teaching those that consider computers to be an invasive and immature technology (read: the sane, not you, most of the world, etc.)
I explain a bit of how cookie firewalling thwarts advertisers and how you really don't need to accept cookies from anything but *.yahoo.com to use the yahoo.com site.
I explain that disk cache on a broadband connection will actually slow your browsing experience on a cluttered hard drive.
I explain that java is almost never used for anything critical and that for those sites that use java that are important, just use IE.
I explain that in Firefox, it is wise to disable all of the features of javascript that Firefox lets you disable, because malicious web designers abuse those features and ruin your browsing experience, but OTHER javascript features enable things like hotmail and gmail to work. Again, if you need more javascript for sites that are important, just use IE.
If you are using a site that needs realplayer or quicktime, or flash, or shockwave, and you *really* need to go to that site, just use IE.
When the users start to get a feel for firefox, and start using the google search bar and tabbed browsing and are able to surf without pop-up windows and automatic window resizing, etc., they can't thank me enough.
Now, if only I could find a way to easily teach openoffice and non-outlook* adoption, I'd feel like superman... I'd certainly feel like the users are much safer than they were.
The rates are actually pretty good. The software is free to install and free to use to talk to other skype users. The quality is incredible between broadband users - I spoken on landlines with poorer quality.
Once you install the software, there are links within the application to a page where you can check the rates out.
From what I understand, here's the hook on Skype Out: The software leverages a global P2P network such that, if I am in the US, and want to call Australia, my call is routed through the P2P Internet network to Australia before the toll call is actually placed, so I can pay Australia to Australia rates, but really be in the US.
Maybe if I come out and make a retarded, inconsequential, happy technology statement, people will ignore all the bad press about the severe security holes in my products that have been uncovered in the last week.
Maybe the 'visionary' should spend more time envisioning a secure MS product that doesn't shop credit card numbers to Russia every few weeks.
The average Unix admin is indeed better than the average Windows admin. Unix admins think in a way that is condusive to better IT.
Unix admins regularly think about maximizing uptime, while good Windows admins actually reschedule reboot procedures.
Unix admins regularly maintain gold systems, where patches and upgrades are tested and evaluated. Once everything is working ok, the other systems are synced with the gold system, whereas Windows admins are tempted to use Windows Update without testing.
There aren't many good enterprise Unix backup solutions, so Unix admins tend to spend a lot of time enumerating valuable data and checking to make sure that backups completed successfully.
Unix admins tend to spend a lot of time addressing warnings in dmesg output and service logs, whereas Windows admins tend to ignore warnings in the system event log.
Unix admins are more likely to stick to the one system = one service idea. This might have something to do with the non-existant or low cost of operating system licenses. Windows admins can save immediate budget (the kind that their bosses understand) by doubling up services on systems.
Because Unix admins spend so much time setting up service configuration files, and reading documentation, they tend to be intimately familiar with the service and much better at troubleshooting problems. The availability and ease of use of tools like strace make debugging a more viable plan of attack when troubleshooting. Windows admins tend to rely on MS Tech Support contracts.
Because there are fewer enterprise management tools for Unix, admins must learn shell scripting, at least enough of it to modify administration scripts that people have contributed to the community.
FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [/X] [/V] [/N] [/M] [/O] [/P] [/F:file]
[/C:string] [/G:file] [/D:dir list] [/A:color attributes] [/OFF[LINE]]
strings [[drive:][path]filename[...]]/B Matches pattern if at the beginning of a line./E Matches pattern if at the end of a line./L Uses search strings literally./R Uses search strings as regular expressions./S Searches for matching files in the current directory and all
subdirectories./I Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive./X Prints lines that match exactly./V Prints only lines that do not contain a match./N Prints the line number before each line that matches./M Prints only the filename if a file contains a match./O Prints character offset before each matching line./P Skip files with non-printable characters./OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set./A:attr Specifies color attribute with two hex digits. See "color/?"/F:file Reads file list from the specified file(/ stands for console)./C:string Uses specified string as a literal search string./G:file Gets search strings from the specified file(/ stands for console)./D:dir Search a semicolon delimited list of directories
strings Text to be searched for.
[drive:][path]filename
Specifies a file or files to search.
Use spaces to separate multiple search strings unless the argument is prefixed with/C. For example, 'FINDSTR "hello there" x.y' searches for "hello" or "there" in file x.y. 'FINDSTR/C:"hello there" x.y' searches for "hello there" in file x.y.
Regular expression quick reference:
. Wildcard: any character
* Repeat: zero or more occurances of previous character or class
^ Line position: beginning of line
$ Line position: end of line
[class] Character class: any one character in set
[^class] Inverse class: any one character not in set
[x-y] Range: any characters within the specified range
\x Escape: literal use of metacharacter x
\ Word position: end of word
For full information on FINDSTR regular expressions refer to the online Command Reference.
At the risk of my non-existant karma rating being absolutely destroyed, you are simply an ass.
I do not want to spend much time explaining why you are an ass, but primarily because VB programs can not run natively on anything other than Windows.
Additionally, the my programming launguage is better than yours conversation is off-topic and grossly redundant, and I apologize for helping it to continue.
Gentoo will have a very easy time dealing with the compile-time complaint. If Gentoo is adopted on multiple systems in an organization, the work they've done with distcc will let them share the compilation load with all of the other Gentoo systmes in the network.
"Like all businesses, their primary goal is to make money." That does not prove that the tool was designed with piracy in mind. The tool was designed to make money from P2P users, just as you have argued.
Tangible evidence of wrongdoing would indeed be the smoking gun, and without it, there is no case against Kazza.
"The Ninth Circuit Court had a similar smoking gun". Similar to what? You currently have no smoking gun. You have no shred of tangible evidence to confirm your suspicion.
Should any tangible evidence be found, and should the context and circumstances surrounding such tangible evidence confirm the illegal intent of that evidence, Kazza deserves to go down. Otherwise, we can not afford to stifle innovation and the development of technology because of the illegal actions of users of that technology.
"Anyway, either the folks behind Kazaa expected it to be used primarily for illegal trading of copyrighted materials, or they didn't." You are correct. Just remember that they are innocent until proven guilty. It will be interesting to see if tangible evidence is produced.
Man, would I love to get the check for that eDiscovery and Forensics project.
"They would have been in possession of a mind-boggling level of naivete." Naivete does not in any way imply guilt.
"We all know there's a huge amount of "nudge nudge, wink wink" going on by the folks who run the P2P networks. This fundamental dishonesty is necessary for them to run their business. It's one thing for them to lie, but it's another thing for smart people to buy into, and try to perpetuate, that lie." Apparently, plenty of smart people like to abuse technology to download copyrighted materials. However, this in not in any way evidence of Kazza designing a product to encourage piracy. Until tangible evidence demonstrates otherwise, they simply designed a tool to capatalize on the popularity of P2P.
You sound like a lawyer without a real shred of evidence to support your arguments. Regardless of what anyone thinks about the timing of the release of the Kazza software, show me real evidence of your accusations.
Find me some owner or developer email, or find me some memos, or find me some tangible shred of evidence to support this accusation.
"I thought it was plainly obvious that Kazaa was launched as a business to take advantage of the huge market for pirated MP3s" Please find me tangible evidence to support this statement.
"Napster was used primarily for piracy" Even if this is true, Napster is NOT Kazza and Kazza's use is determined by the user, not the developer. You've already admintted that Kazza IS used for legal purposes by some users.
"Kazaa folks saw that they could get a piece of that by distributing a P2P application and making money on ad sales" P2P is popular for ANY reason is a good reason to find a way to capatalize on P2P technology if the use of P2P software is not in and of itself illegal. THIS is the capatalist system that some argue Kazza is trying to disrupt.
"Even if we take at face value for a second the notion that the folks who started Kazaa didn't intend for it to be used primarily for piracy, wouldn't you think that it would have been extremely naive of them not to have realized this?" That is irrelevant. Please find me tangible evidence to support the argument that Kazza was designed to be used illegally.
By the way, I really like the large rock that I live under, so back off.
Again, Kazza did nothing but release a tool. The users that abused that tool threw the 'balanced' system into chaos. When our favorite organization lacks the ability, tools, and technical know-how to go after the truly guilty persons (the users), they try to take out the makers of the tool who have done nothing wrong.
More importantly, when deciding who to sue, lets figure out who has more money. The end users or the organization that made Kazza?
These P2P cases set a wonderful precedent, don't they?
Kazza provided a utility for sharing files. Some users chose to use the provided tool illegally.
If Kazza designed a tool that could only be used to conduct illegal activities, or if Kazza designed the tool specifically to conduct illegal activities, I would understand.
Should we make web browsers and servers illegal because I could host a webpage that provides hyperlinks to illegal content that gives a user with a web browser the ability to download copyrighted materials illegally?
This seems like a concept that a child could understand. What am I missing?
Slashdot Mirror
Nope. Just article after article with argument after argument summarized by:
Linux is cheaper! No license needed and runs a hell of a lot more stable that Windows.
Windows is cheaper! Setup tools require less experienced admins, setup/configuration takes less time, and everything in the network talks to each other without tweaking!
Linux requires expensive admins, but the good admins will ensure more stability/security, and the experienced staff will be able to solve problems more quickly.
Windows has 24/7 support, but MS tech support needs at least 24 hours to remove their heads from their asses and give a solution other than "just re-install; we don't know".
Linux has poor architeture-wide support/configuration/management tools; only those who buy big business versions of Linux from IBM, etc. will have tools that even come close to enterprise management tools.
Linux in the small-medium business requires custom management scripts and tools, but more experienced admins can take care of this easily with shell scripting and perl, rsync, gold box mentality, and good IT/IS practices.
It all boils down to: Get what you prefer, but use it correctly and in combination with good IT/IS people and practices.
Luke, after receiving the award for his heroism, abruptly looses public adoration and affection when Lea announces her plans of a tour with Britney Spears and Jessica Simpson.
Luke quickly becomes starved for public attention and acts out in the form of a vicious cocaine addition and public acts of beastiality with Chewy at intergalactic S&M clubs.
Han Solo conducts an intervention with Luke in which Luke enters rehab and is slowly cured of his addictions... or so they all think. Luke is really just pretending to be cured to get close to Lea.
He starts a fan club of for the new sensation, The Coshmos. This allows him to get close enough that he eventually is able to take Lea out with a sniper rifle he purchases from Jason Bourne in Bourne Revolutions.
They are still working on the ending, but I think that G.I. Joe talks about the dangers of Heroin addictions and says something about knowing being half the battle...
As if on cue... "Microsoft Renovates Office Suite as a Web Service" http://it.slashdot.org/it/04/08/21/204210.shtml?ti d=109&tid=187&tid=95&tid=218
They'd become Microsoft's best friend! MS has been trying to push web-based subscriptions to their software for a loooong time now (original .Net goal?).
If Google had such systems, MS would likely try to include their subscription package in the google monthly fees so everyone used MS Office: Web Subcription Version...
That would be a sad, sad day. Hopefully, if Google ever goes the route you describe, OpenOffice will be ready with their own subscription-based package.
..how long you've had that one stored up. You must have been dying for an appropriate time for your marketing campaign launch...
Does Blamo make these?
---------------------
... decision to undercut PC retialers by excluding the MS tax is that, if the idea works and many people purchase these systems, Walmart will start to turn a serious profit on this initiative.
As soon as Walmart starts to turn a serious profit, financial media will pick up and drive the success story home and in turn, everyday media will cover the story, putting the situation in the face of the consumer.
Walmart's competition picks up on the idea, and to compete, mimmicks the intiative and toughly markets the new initiative to everyday consumers as opposed to a random HP announcement that jumps out at us Slahdot readers and is forgotten by the general MS-using public.
If more vendors than Walmart start to push these low-end Linux systems, Linux adoption will begin to grow at a much faster rate.
When executives and other corporate decision-makers start buying these systems for their kids, and start asking questions of their IT staff when expensive budgets cross their desks, the rest is history.
Brought to you by the makers of the tin-foil hat and the ionic bracelet...
Flamebait. -1.
.net on the yahoo.com site does not affect your ability to read your email, nor does it cause you to have to have to remember another username/password pair.
Whether or not I am an evil bastard is of little concern to me, but clarifying my post for simpletons and cowards like yourself is certainly in order. Here comes the Semame Street version:
If you accept cookies from login.yahoo.com, you do NOT have to remember a username/password pair for yahoo.com.
Whether or not you accept cookies from doubleclick
I am sure we can go through a list of your favorite example sites and we can provide a tutorial on which cookies you need to accept to NOT have to remember a username/password pair and show that easily identifiable site affiliations exist to help guide your decisions, but I assumed that you were smart enough that this was not necessary. I truly apologize for my gross oversight and your gross ignorance.
Firefox is most of the answer. People programming websites to adhere to standards such that IE and Firefox can render them correctly and using cross-platform non-monopolistic technologies instead of things like ActiveX is another part of the answer.
I have trained about ten broadband users to use firefox with limited javascript, cookie firewalling, zero disk cache, and zero java for everything, and if an important page (like online banking, or online billpay systems) doesn't work correctly, to look at that page ONLY in IE.
The average person can adhere to the above with only a few hours of training, whereas trying to fully educate people about security implications requires a great deal more time, especially teaching those that consider computers to be an invasive and immature technology (read: the sane, not you, most of the world, etc.)
I explain a bit of how cookie firewalling thwarts advertisers and how you really don't need to accept cookies from anything but *.yahoo.com to use the yahoo.com site.
I explain that disk cache on a broadband connection will actually slow your browsing experience on a cluttered hard drive.
I explain that java is almost never used for anything critical and that for those sites that use java that are important, just use IE.
I explain that in Firefox, it is wise to disable all of the features of javascript that Firefox lets you disable, because malicious web designers abuse those features and ruin your browsing experience, but OTHER javascript features enable things like hotmail and gmail to work. Again, if you need more javascript for sites that are important, just use IE.
If you are using a site that needs realplayer or quicktime, or flash, or shockwave, and you *really* need to go to that site, just use IE.
When the users start to get a feel for firefox, and start using the google search bar and tabbed browsing and are able to surf without pop-up windows and automatic window resizing, etc., they can't thank me enough.
Now, if only I could find a way to easily teach openoffice and non-outlook* adoption, I'd feel like superman... I'd certainly feel like the users are much safer than they were.
The rates are actually pretty good. The software is free to install and free to use to talk to other skype users. The quality is incredible between broadband users - I spoken on landlines with poorer quality.
Once you install the software, there are links within the application to a page where you can check the rates out.
From what I understand, here's the hook on Skype Out: The software leverages a global P2P network such that, if I am in the US, and want to call Australia, my call is routed through the P2P Internet network to Australia before the toll call is actually placed, so I can pay Australia to Australia rates, but really be in the US.
Maybe if I come out and make a retarded, inconsequential, happy technology statement, people will ignore all the bad press about the severe security holes in my products that have been uncovered in the last week.
Maybe the 'visionary' should spend more time envisioning a secure MS product that doesn't shop credit card numbers to Russia every few weeks.
The average Unix admin is indeed better than the average Windows admin. Unix admins think in a way that is condusive to better IT.
Unix admins regularly think about maximizing uptime, while good Windows admins actually reschedule reboot procedures.
Unix admins regularly maintain gold systems, where patches and upgrades are tested and evaluated. Once everything is working ok, the other systems are synced with the gold system, whereas Windows admins are tempted to use Windows Update without testing.
There aren't many good enterprise Unix backup solutions, so Unix admins tend to spend a lot of time enumerating valuable data and checking to make sure that backups completed successfully.
Unix admins tend to spend a lot of time addressing warnings in dmesg output and service logs, whereas Windows admins tend to ignore warnings in the system event log.
Unix admins are more likely to stick to the one system = one service idea. This might have something to do with the non-existant or low cost of operating system licenses. Windows admins can save immediate budget (the kind that their bosses understand) by doubling up services on systems.
Because Unix admins spend so much time setting up service configuration files, and reading documentation, they tend to be intimately familiar with the service and much better at troubleshooting problems. The availability and ease of use of tools like strace make debugging a more viable plan of attack when troubleshooting. Windows admins tend to rely on MS Tech Support contracts.
Because there are fewer enterprise management tools for Unix, admins must learn shell scripting, at least enough of it to modify administration scripts that people have contributed to the community.
findstr is the windows version of grep.
...]] /B Matches pattern if at the beginning of a line. /E Matches pattern if at the end of a line. /L Uses search strings literally. /R Uses search strings as regular expressions. /S Searches for matching files in the current directory and all /I Specifies that the search is not to be case-sensitive. /X Prints lines that match exactly. /V Prints only lines that do not contain a match. /N Prints the line number before each line that matches. /M Prints only the filename if a file contains a match. /O Prints character offset before each matching line. /P Skip files with non-printable characters. /OFF[LINE] Do not skip files with offline attribute set. /A:attr Specifies color attribute with two hex digits. See "color /?" /F:file Reads file list from the specified file(/ stands for console). /C:string Uses specified string as a literal search string. /G:file Gets search strings from the specified file(/ stands for console). /D:dir Search a semicolon delimited list of directories
/C. For example, 'FINDSTR "hello there" x.y' searches for "hello" or /C:"hello there" x.y' searches for
Searches for strings in files.
FINDSTR [/B] [/E] [/L] [/R] [/S] [/I] [/X] [/V] [/N] [/M] [/O] [/P] [/F:file]
[/C:string] [/G:file] [/D:dir list] [/A:color attributes] [/OFF[LINE]]
strings [[drive:][path]filename[
subdirectories.
strings Text to be searched for.
[drive:][path]filename
Specifies a file or files to search.
Use spaces to separate multiple search strings unless the argument is prefixed
with
"there" in file x.y. 'FINDSTR
"hello there" in file x.y.
Regular expression quick reference:
. Wildcard: any character
* Repeat: zero or more occurances of previous character or class
^ Line position: beginning of line
$ Line position: end of line
[class] Character class: any one character in set
[^class] Inverse class: any one character not in set
[x-y] Range: any characters within the specified range
\x Escape: literal use of metacharacter x
\ Word position: end of word
For full information on FINDSTR regular expressions refer to the online Command
Reference.
At the risk of my non-existant karma rating being absolutely destroyed, you are simply an ass.
I do not want to spend much time explaining why you are an ass, but primarily because VB programs can not run natively on anything other than Windows.
Additionally, the my programming launguage is better than yours conversation is off-topic and grossly redundant, and I apologize for helping it to continue.
I would be extremely suprised if the distro of choice was not mostly homegrown.
Gentoo will have a very easy time dealing with the compile-time complaint. If Gentoo is adopted on multiple systems in an organization, the work they've done with distcc will let them share the compilation load with all of the other Gentoo systmes in the network.
"Like all businesses, their primary goal is to make money." That does not prove that the tool was designed with piracy in mind. The tool was designed to make money from P2P users, just as you have argued.
Tangible evidence of wrongdoing would indeed be the smoking gun, and without it, there is no case against Kazza.
"The Ninth Circuit Court had a similar smoking gun". Similar to what? You currently have no smoking gun. You have no shred of tangible evidence to confirm your suspicion.
Should any tangible evidence be found, and should the context and circumstances surrounding such tangible evidence confirm the illegal intent of that evidence, Kazza deserves to go down. Otherwise, we can not afford to stifle innovation and the development of technology because of the illegal actions of users of that technology.
"Anyway, either the folks behind Kazaa expected it to be used primarily for illegal trading of copyrighted materials, or they didn't." You are correct. Just remember that they are innocent until proven guilty. It will be interesting to see if tangible evidence is produced.
Man, would I love to get the check for that eDiscovery and Forensics project.
"They would have been in possession of a mind-boggling level of naivete." Naivete does not in any way imply guilt.
"We all know there's a huge amount of "nudge nudge, wink wink" going on by the folks who run the P2P networks. This fundamental dishonesty is necessary for them to run their business. It's one thing for them to lie, but it's another thing for smart people to buy into, and try to perpetuate, that lie." Apparently, plenty of smart people like to abuse technology to download copyrighted materials. However, this in not in any way evidence of Kazza designing a product to encourage piracy. Until tangible evidence demonstrates otherwise, they simply designed a tool to capatalize on the popularity of P2P.
You sound like a lawyer without a real shred of evidence to support your arguments. Regardless of what anyone thinks about the timing of the release of the Kazza software, show me real evidence of your accusations.
Find me some owner or developer email, or find me some memos, or find me some tangible shred of evidence to support this accusation.
"I thought it was plainly obvious that Kazaa was launched as a business to take advantage of the huge market for pirated MP3s" Please find me tangible evidence to support this statement.
"Napster was used primarily for piracy" Even if this is true, Napster is NOT Kazza and Kazza's use is determined by the user, not the developer. You've already admintted that Kazza IS used for legal purposes by some users.
"Kazaa folks saw that they could get a piece of that by distributing a P2P application and making money on ad sales" P2P is popular for ANY reason is a good reason to find a way to capatalize on P2P technology if the use of P2P software is not in and of itself illegal. THIS is the capatalist system that some argue Kazza is trying to disrupt.
"Even if we take at face value for a second the notion that the folks who started Kazaa didn't intend for it to be used primarily for piracy, wouldn't you think that it would have been extremely naive of them not to have realized this?" That is irrelevant. Please find me tangible evidence to support the argument that Kazza was designed to be used illegally.
By the way, I really like the large rock that I live under, so back off.
Again, Kazza did nothing but release a tool. The users that abused that tool threw the 'balanced' system into chaos. When our favorite organization lacks the ability, tools, and technical know-how to go after the truly guilty persons (the users), they try to take out the makers of the tool who have done nothing wrong.
More importantly, when deciding who to sue, lets figure out who has more money. The end users or the organization that made Kazza?
These P2P cases set a wonderful precedent, don't they?
Kazza provided a utility for sharing files. Some users chose to use the provided tool illegally. If Kazza designed a tool that could only be used to conduct illegal activities, or if Kazza designed the tool specifically to conduct illegal activities, I would understand. Should we make web browsers and servers illegal because I could host a webpage that provides hyperlinks to illegal content that gives a user with a web browser the ability to download copyrighted materials illegally? This seems like a concept that a child could understand. What am I missing?