This is due to the collapse of unix and novell on the server marketplace. It's a well documented phenomenon. As the market for unix and netware collapse people either move to linux or windows. Studies show that the vast majority of migrations move to linux but a certain percentage moves to windows. This is why linux on the server is growing faster then windows on the server and both are growing. Once all that migration is done they will have to fight over new customers.
Linux is winning this war, and will continue to win it.
Haven't the fanbois here continually told us that MS would never sue anybody for patents and that they patents were for defensive purposes only? Where are those shills and astro turfers now?
MS has treaned to sue people who use linux not from SUSE. That's bad for the consumers. When one of the most powerful, politically connected, richest corporation in the world threatens to sue you for USING linux that's bad for the consumers.
"Despite all the harping,.NET has been a huge success for Microsoft in Corporate/Server development."
No it hasn't all they have done is to convert their VB programmers to VB.NET or C# programmers and they VC++ developers to C#. It's not like they converted java programmers or anything. The truth is that VB programmers were going to "upgrade" to anything MS put out no matter what it was.
"And somewhat related: Who cares what someones sexual preference is?"
The republicans do. They want to limit what rights you have if you are gay. These rights include serving in the military, teaching, joining civic organizations and marriage amongst others.
"Academic studies show that Walmart provides the same kind of wages and benefits as other companies in the retail sector, but that doesn't seem to affect the Walmart criticism."
If this is the case (I don't really believe it) then most likely it's because walmart blazed the trail for having mostly a part time staff with no benefits. In other words they are leading the race to the bottom.
"Nobody seriously talks about breaking Microsoft up into separate companies anymore, even though Microsoft is roughly about as dominant in the OS and office suite market as it has ever been."
I think people are waiting for a democratic justice dept. There is no sense in pursuing this as long as bush is running the justice dept.
We already have public financing of elections. It's just that the money is so small it makes more sense to reject public funding and go for the bribes instead.
I don't think there is any solution to this problem. As long as the govt has any power at all over people or commerce people will make sure somebody who will butter their bread are elected. They can either do this by directly bribing the politician like our current system or they can fund efforts on their system like our current system, or they can do both like our current system.
As long as the govt is spreading the money around people will do everything in their power to get some of that.
If you really want to understand what's going on go read groklaw. The headline here is wrong. There is no patent cross licensing, that would violate the GPL. There is a promise which is not a license not to sue. It's a weird thing. There are also some unsaid, unprinted, nobody knows about exception.
So MS promises not to sue novell customers for MS patents with some exceptions. Most likely those exceptions involve some companies (for example google) or some technologies like XML.
MS has promised to sue other companies. Ballmer said that anybody who uses linux from anybody except novell is under a threat of a patent lawsuit from MS.
First of all people who are completely uninformed don't vote. Hell MOST PEOPLE DON"T VOTE!. If somebody is voting they they are likely to same knowledge of what is going on.
All you can argue is that joe voter isn't as smart as me, doesn't know as much as me, and therefore should not vote. It's a stupid argument because it also applies to you. If you want to prevent joe from voting because he is more stupid then you or doesn't know as much as you then somebody else who is smarter and knows more will prevent you from voting. Yes there is always somebody smarter and more informed then you.
Now we see why IBM didn't settle with SCO and why they are so intent on crushing them despite the cost. MS has blown it's wad with SCO as far as IBM is concerned. They are now immune from any IP threats from IBM.
Now all MS has are smaller targets like redhat. My prediction is that redhat will be bought out by somebody in the next year maybe even oracle and that will make it even harder for MS.
"Nonsense. It may be catastrophic for people who live in coastal regions, but not for humanity as a whole. "
Since most of the flat land usable for agriculture is already being used for agriculture when that land dried up and becomes unusable the supply of food will diminish. When the plankton and coral die en masse it will have severe consequences on the food chain for the entire world. When mass extinction of plants and animals occur everything from pollination of crops to the availability of oxygen will be effected. Severe weather extremes, more powerful hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and droughts will effect every single human being on the planet.
I don't know where you get this idea that only coastal people will be effected. Even if only they were effected the economic ripple effects would be tremendous.
"That's not to say we shouldn't try to prevent catastrophy when possible, but in the big-big picture,"
In the big big picture nothing matters. Once the earth was ruled by dinasaurs. They lasted for millions of years. Then they all died, all of them. Not just them but virtually every living being on the planet. For millions of years the only thing on the earth were ferns and tiny creatures. You know how we know all that? All that catastrophy shows up as three inches of dirt layer.
We have been around for a few thousand years, after we are all gone there will not be even an inch of dirt to mark our passing.
"Galileo invented the thermometer in 1593. I don't trust any temperature data for dates prior to 1593."
really? So you completely disavow any conclusions about tempratures from ice cores then.
"Isn't global warming better than another ice age?"
To the earth it's neutral. Just another season in the flow of time. To the humans just as bad if not worse.
"You know Al Gore's movie, where they show the glacier photos, before and after? Are the before and after both from the same season?"
Al Gore is a liberal commie, pinko, fag, granola, green nazi. He wants to destroy the western world and wants to institute a one world govt (TM). Don't believe anything he says. Also don't listen to the scientists, they are all liars (except the ones that say there is no global warming of course).
"f the general consensus is that global warming is happening, you're much more likely to get funded if you decide to do research on "why global warming is going on" or "what are the major contributors to global warming" etc. However, if you were to submit a proposal along the lines of "what if any effect has global warming had on climate change", good luck."
Are you crazy? If you were to write a paper on debunking global warming the oil companies, the republican party, the right wing thinktanks, the liberterian thinktanks etc will throw buckets of money in your direction. If you write a book (never mind a peer reviewed research paper) you will instantly become a best seller because fox news will hype it up and the right wing organizations will buy millions to distribute to others.
There is a lot of money to be made by debunking global warming. The private sector has more money to throw around then the dept of education can even dream about. Besides the Bush govt is actively trying to suppress science on global warming so that funding has dried up anyway.
Actually the ice prevented the oceans from absorbing the CO2 that was spit out by volcanoes. Eventually it built up enough to melt the ice. Once the ice broke it started a chain reaction and it stormed for thousands of years. For some period after the ice broke it literally rained hydrochloric acid. You can see evidence in melted rocks today.
Amazing any life lived though that but some plankton made it through and eventually it turned into humans.
Have you seen the trial? I saw some coverage on BBC. The whole thing was a farce. Some defense attorneys were killed for gods sake. Does that strike you as a proper trial?
What's totally amazing to me is that he was not tried for gassing the kurds or gassing the iranians. Amazing that nobody would be charged for those crimes.
In the case of Iraq the problem was that we did not listen to the experts. Plenty of weapons control experts kept yelling that iraq had no nukes, had no chemical weapons etc. They were all advocating the inspection process to go on. The intelligence agencies of the US were shouting at the top brass that they had no conclusive evidence. But none of them were listened to. The administration and the director of the CIA made up their minds that iraq had WMDs despite the declarations of people who know better.
Yes arabs are not as rational as white people. Take for example saudi arabia. They have been involved in one war or another every five or six years as opposed to the US which has never been involved in any war in my lifetime and has never acted irrationally and agressively towards other nations.
Oil is too valuable to be used internally and only getting more expensive. Why not minimize the use of oil internally so you can sell all your stock.
using oil is bad for the environment.
These countries need nuclear weapons in order to counter a threat from the US and israel. US has made it clear it claims ownership all oil supplies er I mean strategic resources anywhere in the world.
Personally I think they should get nuclear weapons before they get power plants, it's cheaper and quicker to go that route.
If you want insightful legal analysis you have to go to groklaw. Groklaw had this pegged from day one. Here is an excerpt from the front page.
"Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said his company is open to talking to other Linux distributors about reaching mutual patent coverage deals similar to the agreement signed Nov. 2 with Novell.
Such talks would be a good idea, Ballmer suggested, since now only Novell's SUSE Linux customers are the only Linux vendors that have any assurance that Microsoft won't sue for patent infringement....
The distributors of other versions of Linux cannot assure their customers that Microsoft won't sue for patent infringement. "If a customer says, 'Look, do we have liability for the use of your patented work?' Essentially, If you're using non-SUSE Linux, then I'd say the answer is yes," Ballmer said.
"I suspect that [customers] will take that issue up with their distributor," Ballmer said. Or if customers are considering doing a direct download of a non-SUSE Linux version, "they'll think twice about that," he said. "
SO there it is. Ballmer is specifically threatening other linux companies with lawsuits unless they pay up. Don't for one second think that the company will not follow through on the promises and threats made by it's CEO.
"So the first guy doubts the scientists, not in itself a bad thing. Remember, science is based on opening up all theories to critics. It's a fundamental part of the process."
The process is called peer review not moron review. The people who are supposed to have doubts are people who are qualified to judge the research. In other words people who are familiar with the landscape, people who can do the math, people who have studied the matter etc.
The scientific process does not work by random jerks on the internet reviewing scientific research.
Looks like novell actually still owns unix. MS probably didn't know this when they paid SCO to launch it's attack on linux. Now they know. I guess MS will pay Novell next to attack linux and IBM.
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This is due to the collapse of unix and novell on the server marketplace. It's a well documented phenomenon. As the market for unix and netware collapse people either move to linux or windows. Studies show that the vast majority of migrations move to linux but a certain percentage moves to windows. This is why linux on the server is growing faster then windows on the server and both are growing. Once all that migration is done they will have to fight over new customers.
Linux is winning this war, and will continue to win it.
The desktop is dead. The new battleground is on the phones and other embedded devices.
Haven't the fanbois here continually told us that MS would never sue anybody for patents and that they patents were for defensive purposes only? Where are those shills and astro turfers now?
MS has treaned to sue people who use linux not from SUSE. That's bad for the consumers. When one of the most powerful, politically connected, richest corporation in the world threatens to sue you for USING linux that's bad for the consumers.
"Despite all the harping, .NET has been a huge success for Microsoft in Corporate/Server development."
No it hasn't all they have done is to convert their VB programmers to VB.NET or C# programmers and they VC++ developers to C#. It's not like they converted java programmers or anything. The truth is that VB programmers were going to "upgrade" to anything MS put out no matter what it was.
"And somewhat related: Who cares what someones sexual preference is?"
The republicans do. They want to limit what rights you have if you are gay. These rights include serving in the military, teaching, joining civic organizations and marriage amongst others.
"Academic studies show that Walmart provides the same kind of wages and benefits as other companies in the retail sector, but that doesn't seem to affect the Walmart criticism."
If this is the case (I don't really believe it) then most likely it's because walmart blazed the trail for having mostly a part time staff with no benefits. In other words they are leading the race to the bottom.
"Nobody seriously talks about breaking Microsoft up into separate companies anymore, even though Microsoft is roughly about as dominant in the OS and office suite market as it has ever been."
I think people are waiting for a democratic justice dept. There is no sense in pursuing this as long as bush is running the justice dept.
We already have public financing of elections. It's just that the money is so small it makes more sense to reject public funding and go for the bribes instead.
I don't think there is any solution to this problem. As long as the govt has any power at all over people or commerce people will make sure somebody who will butter their bread are elected. They can either do this by directly bribing the politician like our current system or they can fund efforts on their system like our current system, or they can do both like our current system.
As long as the govt is spreading the money around people will do everything in their power to get some of that.
Yes. Novell is the new SCO.
If you really want to understand what's going on go read groklaw. The headline here is wrong. There is no patent cross licensing, that would violate the GPL. There is a promise which is not a license not to sue. It's a weird thing. There are also some unsaid, unprinted, nobody knows about exception.
So MS promises not to sue novell customers for MS patents with some exceptions. Most likely those exceptions involve some companies (for example google) or some technologies like XML.
MS has promised to sue other companies. Ballmer said that anybody who uses linux from anybody except novell is under a threat of a patent lawsuit from MS.
This is bullshit.
First of all people who are completely uninformed don't vote. Hell MOST PEOPLE DON"T VOTE!. If somebody is voting they they are likely to same knowledge of what is going on.
All you can argue is that joe voter isn't as smart as me, doesn't know as much as me, and therefore should not vote. It's a stupid argument because it also applies to you. If you want to prevent joe from voting because he is more stupid then you or doesn't know as much as you then somebody else who is smarter and knows more will prevent you from voting. Yes there is always somebody smarter and more informed then you.
MS will sue somebody just not IBM.
Now we see why IBM didn't settle with SCO and why they are so intent on crushing them despite the cost. MS has blown it's wad with SCO as far as IBM is concerned. They are now immune from any IP threats from IBM.
Now all MS has are smaller targets like redhat. My prediction is that redhat will be bought out by somebody in the next year maybe even oracle and that will make it even harder for MS.
So they are back to doing what they do best FUD.
"Nonsense. It may be catastrophic for people who live in coastal regions, but not for humanity as a whole. "
Since most of the flat land usable for agriculture is already being used for agriculture when that land dried up and becomes unusable the supply of food will diminish.
When the plankton and coral die en masse it will have severe consequences on the food chain for the entire world.
When mass extinction of plants and animals occur everything from pollination of crops to the availability of oxygen will be effected.
Severe weather extremes, more powerful hurricanes, tornadoes, floods and droughts will effect every single human being on the planet.
I don't know where you get this idea that only coastal people will be effected. Even if only they were effected the economic ripple effects would be tremendous.
"That's not to say we shouldn't try to prevent catastrophy when possible, but in the big-big picture,"
In the big big picture nothing matters. Once the earth was ruled by dinasaurs. They lasted for millions of years. Then they all died, all of them. Not just them but virtually every living being on the planet. For millions of years the only thing on the earth were ferns and tiny creatures. You know how we know all that? All that catastrophy shows up as three inches of dirt layer.
We have been around for a few thousand years, after we are all gone there will not be even an inch of dirt to mark our passing.
The sleazy bastards know the only way they are going to win is by cheating and breaking the law. SO they will cheat and break the law in order to win.
"Galileo invented the thermometer in 1593.
I don't trust any temperature data for dates prior to 1593."
really? So you completely disavow any conclusions about tempratures from ice cores then.
"Isn't global warming better than another ice age?"
To the earth it's neutral. Just another season in the flow of time. To the humans just as bad if not worse.
"You know Al Gore's movie, where they show the glacier photos, before and after?
Are the before and after both from the same season?"
Al Gore is a liberal commie, pinko, fag, granola, green nazi. He wants to destroy the western world and wants to institute a one world govt (TM). Don't believe anything he says. Also don't listen to the scientists, they are all liars (except the ones that say there is no global warming of course).
"f the general consensus is that global warming is happening, you're much more likely to get funded if you decide to do research on "why global warming is going on" or "what are the major contributors to global warming" etc. However, if you were to submit a proposal along the lines of "what if any effect has global warming had on climate change", good luck."
Are you crazy? If you were to write a paper on debunking global warming the oil companies, the republican party, the right wing thinktanks, the liberterian thinktanks etc will throw buckets of money in your direction. If you write a book (never mind a peer reviewed research paper) you will instantly become a best seller because fox news will hype it up and the right wing organizations will buy millions to distribute to others.
There is a lot of money to be made by debunking global warming. The private sector has more money to throw around then the dept of education can even dream about. Besides the Bush govt is actively trying to suppress science on global warming so that funding has dried up anyway.
"Do you think the verdict wrong?"
Yes. The verdict is wrong because the trial was not fair and impartial. The trial should have been held in international court.
He is no more guilty of killing those people then george bush is of killing 600,000 iraqis. Perhaps I should say they are both equally guilty.
the good thing about this trial is that it sets a kind of precedent. Maybe one day GW will be tried for all the people he killed and tortured too.
Actually the ice prevented the oceans from absorbing the CO2 that was spit out by volcanoes. Eventually it built up enough to melt the ice. Once the ice broke it started a chain reaction and it stormed for thousands of years. For some period after the ice broke it literally rained hydrochloric acid. You can see evidence in melted rocks today.
Amazing any life lived though that but some plankton made it through and eventually it turned into humans.
The truth is stranger then fiction.
The man is going to be hanged probably in a public square. What is this? 1885?
Yes that will be a spectacle for the world won't it? A public hanging in the newly democratized iraq.
Anyway what I saw of the trial it was a farce. A complete railroad.
Have you seen the trial? I saw some coverage on BBC. The whole thing was a farce. Some defense attorneys were killed for gods sake. Does that strike you as a proper trial?
What's totally amazing to me is that he was not tried for gassing the kurds or gassing the iranians. Amazing that nobody would be charged for those crimes.
In the case of Iraq the problem was that we did not listen to the experts. Plenty of weapons control experts kept yelling that iraq had no nukes, had no chemical weapons etc. They were all advocating the inspection process to go on. The intelligence agencies of the US were shouting at the top brass that they had no conclusive evidence. But none of them were listened to. The administration and the director of the CIA made up their minds that iraq had WMDs despite the declarations of people who know better.
Yes arabs are not as rational as white people. Take for example saudi arabia. They have been involved in one war or another every five or six years as opposed to the US which has never been involved in any war in my lifetime and has never acted irrationally and agressively towards other nations.
Oh wait a minute. I think I have that mixed up..
Oil is too valuable to be used internally and only getting more expensive. Why not minimize the use of oil internally so you can sell all your stock.
using oil is bad for the environment.
These countries need nuclear weapons in order to counter a threat from the US and israel. US has made it clear it claims ownership all oil supplies er I mean strategic resources anywhere in the world.
Personally I think they should get nuclear weapons before they get power plants, it's cheaper and quicker to go that route.
If you want insightful legal analysis you have to go to groklaw. Groklaw had this pegged from day one. Here is an excerpt from the front page.
"Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said his company is open to talking to other Linux distributors about reaching mutual patent coverage deals similar to the agreement signed Nov. 2 with Novell.
Such talks would be a good idea, Ballmer suggested, since now only Novell's SUSE Linux customers are the only Linux vendors that have any assurance that Microsoft won't sue for patent infringement....
The distributors of other versions of Linux cannot assure their customers that Microsoft won't sue for patent infringement. "If a customer says, 'Look, do we have liability for the use of your patented work?' Essentially, If you're using non-SUSE Linux, then I'd say the answer is yes," Ballmer said.
"I suspect that [customers] will take that issue up with their distributor," Ballmer said. Or if customers are considering doing a direct download of a non-SUSE Linux version, "they'll think twice about that," he said. "
SO there it is. Ballmer is specifically threatening other linux companies with lawsuits unless they pay up. Don't for one second think that the company will not follow through on the promises and threats made by it's CEO.
"So the first guy doubts the scientists, not in itself a bad thing. Remember, science is based on opening up all theories to critics. It's a fundamental part of the process."
The process is called peer review not moron review. The people who are supposed to have doubts are people who are qualified to judge the research. In other words people who are familiar with the landscape, people who can do the math, people who have studied the matter etc.
The scientific process does not work by random jerks on the internet reviewing scientific research.
Looks like novell actually still owns unix. MS probably didn't know this when they paid SCO to launch it's attack on linux. Now they know. I guess MS will pay Novell next to attack linux and IBM.