don't know about everyone else - but I am sick and tired of hearing how these goverments choose open source and then they get a visit from the idiot balmer and suddenly they had a revelation and change their minds.
what a bunch of crap - this definitely needs some sort of investigation - and yes I know the training is more in the short term but they will have kicked the microsoft lockin and will be forced to actually open standards.
one word to the government officials involved is please look in the long term and not the short - microsoft is only concerned about the short term and filling their pockets with money.
I just don't understand their logic.
Patching is a heck of a lot easier to do in linux than it is in windows.
they said the transition would cost too much but what do they do - go ahead and lock themselves in more - so now if they want to switch later it will cost even more.
my tax dollars hard at work -
I bet microsoft put the length of time to cover the next presidency in case another bush-alike doesn't get elected.
I just hope they take a hard look at their apps and quit the fricken lock so when they do switch it won't cost so much.
I hope they aren't writing their apps for internet exploder only - but reading the article and trying to diffuse their logic they probably aren't even bothering.
Went to their web site and saw this.
"CCIA today asked Congress to exempt foreign nationals holding advanced degrees from US Universities from H-1B visa quotas. The letter notes that without these exemptions, these individuals will work overseas for our nation's competition and leave a gaping hole in the workforce of domestic companies. Because the US has not produced enough advanced degrees in math, science and engineering companies must look abroad for workers. The requested exemption allows US firms to maintain their technological edge."
I have friends and myself have computer science/math degrees and have programmed in c/c++ and prefer to be a system admin - but I have been turned down by positions because I have been told I am asking too much money.
this is the reason why they want these people they will work for basically no salary - they just want to live over here because our country actually has running water and toilets.
so basically this is a bunch of crap!!!
ballmer is an idiot and has no business running an it company than my dog.
it is no wonder other coutries hate the us when douche-bags like ballmer come and threaten them with us laws.
I am sick of hearing from him why doesn't he just shut the hell up and let people make up their own minds without the threat of being sued.
This tells how bad microsoft is hurting - their threatening lawsuits to get their software in the door.
Next steve will threaten other countries over his recipes that he makes - he probably took a patent out on them - since from his fat ass he probably likes to cook and eat everything that he cooks.
And by the way my house is windows free and always will be - they can stick xp up ballmers fat ass.
this is all about greed.
If I pay for hdtv and I want to record something shouldn't I be able to and play it as many times as I want and as long as I want - just as long as I am not selling it or trying to profit from it.
And can't I view with my friends that aren't as fortunate to have HDTV. After all they are my friends.
I pay for hdtv so I can recieve the signal and so once I have it received it isn't mine to do with as I please. Isn't that why I am paying for it? As long as I am not trying to sell it or make a profit I should be able to keep a copy of it on cd as long as I live.
I guess not though - they want us to pay for it everytime I want to watch it. - this is nothing but pure greed plain and simple.
I am thinking of getting rid of cable at home since I dont' watch it anyway - do you think I am going to watch it on my cell phone.
I am so sick of the media trying to shove crap down our throats in every corner of our lives and then charge us for it.
Why don't they spend time on coming up with quality shows instead of ways trying to shove it down our throats.
"It's a different story for companies that are primarily Microsoft shops. A total switch from Windows to Linux, or even a significant Linux deployment in the middle of a Windows environment, will be three to four times more expensive--and take three times as long to deploy--as an upgrade from one version of Windows to a newer release, according to a Yankee Group study Ballmer cited in his memo. He also cited a May Forrester Research study that said Linux training is on average 15% more expensive than Windows training. The author of that report, Forrester VP Julie Giera, says the caveat there is that her report's sample was very small, mainly because she couldn't find many companies who'd been running Linux more than a year and who closely tracked costs associated with the deployments."
this is exactly why not to deploy microsoft in the first place - it's called lockin this is how microsoft has billions of dollars - they are an illegal monopoly that locks you company into their technology and you have to keep buying from them.
Training is more because it is better and you are actually learning something - like how to troubleshoot problems. there are nt admins out there that couldn't troubleshoot their way out of a wet paper bag. My boss was interviewing nt admins that are going to get layed off to bring into our team and asked a simple question of how you would troubleshoot Internet Explorer problem of not being able to get on the internet in a networked environment - one out of four said they would check network connectivity first - the other three said they would reinstall internet explorer - this is the difference in training - this is what microsoft has brought on with their crap - more crap that people have to un-learn.
why buy one of these -
I bought a tv card for my pc and now I have one of these - I can record shows and do what I want -
I am running fedora by the way -
I am sick of all these little dedicated devices - it is just too much - I use my pc for everything stream media - record tv shows - create home videos - why would I want to buy one of these when I can have a pc and it can do everything -
webserver, video recorder, music streamer, the list goes on and oh ya - word processor.
I am into simplifying these days and I don't want to have all these fricken devices in my life that need managing.
just give me my handspring visor and a pc and I can get all my sysadmin work done.
Gee - what a coincidence that the report came out right before this contract -
I wonder what the the price was before the report came out.
I don't care about training costs - it is irresponsible for a govenment to waste the people's tax money on a substandard product.
Training costs can be dealt with over time - this is just bad decision making and the taxpayers should be very upset.
Nine years is ridiculous - anyone who agrees to nine year contract with anything related to IT is an idiot. The person's who dealt this contract should be fired on the spot no questions asked.
I bet they will create web pages that can only be viewed in Internet explorer too.
It's about time - ogg rocks and should be the standard instead of this windows media player crap.
and not strings attached too.
I hope more sites follow.
gee steve I built my computer right at $110.00 - I went to local store and looked at the price of windows xp pro and it was $196.00 and I would have to buy more ram for windows xp pro which would increase the price of hardware even more - instead of that I downloaded fedora and it installed nicely and works great - does what I want it to do - so what was the point of his article.
he is an idiot - how does he keep his job anyway -
if somebody wanted to build a computer to use at home for the $100.00 budget they can - now if they want to put his os on it then it gets to be double and triple.
just shut up steve - I am sick of hearing about your stupid remarks. do some research before you open your fat mouth.
there is now way I am going to buy if I have put anything microsoft in my house.
this is a joke - they are just coming up with ways to get our money - I have been thinking about getting rid of cable cause there is nothing on and just go back to local over the air stations.
I got dsl through sbc and I have had no problems so I can't complain about that - but I wish they would cut the we don't support anything but microsoft and mac support tactics -
this is microsoft's next big cash cow - when they loose the desktop they are going to lock people in with this crap.
I don't understand why sbc had to work with microsoft - they could of done this on their own - but now they are going to lock people in to crap.
why waste the breath on microsoft - Billy and Steven are going to do what they want to do rather people like it or not -
I personally think microsoft is going way of cable companies except they are going to take it further by providing end devices in the house that either connect to fiber/cable/or dsl.
they have been working with a major telecom giant in getting fiber to premis - bet ya you can only have microsoft products to use it.
this is where they are going next and they will put in writing with the companies they contract with that they don't work with linux.
so I think we should all save our breath and quit trying to tell Billy and Steven what to do.
"Gates: We've been spending a lot of time with studios."
Ya I bet he has - making sure that there is no dvd playing software created for linux by any commercial software company.
I bet he helps financing and finding the people that are supposedly stealing music. I alway knew this was the way he was going to take to try to beat linux. He is groing to try to outlaw it and then tell the world that his windows longhorn has digital rights management and if you use it you will never be prosecuted for stealing any software but if you use linux you are on you own.
Finally - how does he know what people want - I want my tv simple - just turn it on and it works I don't want to have to go through tons of menus to get where I want or deal with viruses, reboots, defrags. - I tried digital cable once and just got rid of it - there is just too many channels and not enough quality.
I was even going to try tivo but when the Janet Jackson thing happened at the super bowl and there were reports on how many people hit the replay button - well it was just too much. I don't want people to know if I hit the replay button - can't I have a little privacy please.
Finally, I would not trust any os put out by Billy Gates - he is just in it for the money he does not give a shit about the customers - he is just going to ram down our throats the way he wants to have it and that is it - he just wants people to worship the ground he walks on - I wish he would just go away.
Billy and Steve are just like kids - na na na na na you can't have them - and the goverment just tolerates them.
Both of them are just sitting back and laughing at all of us.
what a joke - I wish they would just go away and let us do computing the way it was suppose to be done and not their way.
thier os need a total rewrite from bottom up before I even think about touching it.
why does the MPAA - RIAA wake up and get in reality.
should we outlaw all cars because some wife runs over her husband on purpose.
what world are they from anyway?
I guess to them their all important copyrights are more valuable than lives.
what a bunch of screwed up people - they need to take a break from counting all their money.
lets outlaw forks and knives because someone stabbed someone to death with a fork and knife - then we have to eat with our fingers or chopsticks but then what if someone pokes somebodies eye out with a chopstick. then we are reduced to fingers.
but then if you strangle someone -
okay that's all I have a headache.
"These aren't toy home systems. At my last job, we dropped $BIGNUM on several systems that only came with Windows clients. Yes, it would be shiny and happy to use the (non-existent) well-tested and cross-platform Linux-compatible versions of those apps but that wasn't an alternative. So, how would we have just up and switched? "
my metric isn't just switching it is savings in the long run
I am not talking a toy home system -
If the apps are non existant in linux then you need to go back to the vendor and demand it - or choose something else - I bet they would be happy to oblige for the business -
"But what if *shock* that's true? If MS caves and gives a steep discount so that it really is cheaper for them to stay with their current setup than to switch, then what's the problem?"
the problem is the long run - their will be no study to indicate linux is cheaper in the short run when everybody knows windows. companies have to bite the bullet and be dedicated to training to do switch and they will save money in the long run.
just rewrite your code everyone - its not our fault its your fault.
what crap - everyone should move their sites to OSS and use perl, python, php or anything else you want - it is about choice and the expertise you have on hand or that you want to acquire.
whoever uses microsoft anything for production is just asking for it -
and to the person who wrote about the mozilla flaw from yesterday - at least we don't have rewrite anything to fix that.
I have never had to rewrite/change an app because of a patch from any linux vendor.
how long will the corporate world put up with these shinanigans. Switch Now!
99.9999% - riiiight
excuse or notice threatening to take your business down - it was a mistake.
what a load of crap - they should sue these bastards and sue the hard - that is the only language they understand and it will set a precidence.
so please, please, please sue these bastards
why are they publizing it.
all they are doing is using this as a bargaining chip with microsoft.
the next story is that micorosft is now the tco winner because they are basically giving them the os at some extra low rate and that it is now cheaper than if we switched and had to train everybody.
people just don't get it that have to pay the bills.
linux forces open standards and this is where the real cost savings comes.
your company can't be tied to proprietary standards that make it cost prohibitive to ever switch.
no one knows where computers will be in the future but I bet the data you have in linux will be a hell of lot easier to switch to the next new technology than your data in microsoft.
no one ever does long range planning any more -
the more you stick to open standards the better off your company will be - it will also be more flexible to be able to change with technology - this is where the cost savings comes.
but apparently not a cio in the fricken country U.S. realizes this - I don't know maybe it is the accountants but when will the head of all these companies realize what they are doing is costing the company in the long run - both technically and financially.
the system had to be rebooted every 30 days because of bad software. namely the os had to clean itself up.
now to me that is bad software - they had unix before and probably never touched it and it just worked.
what an upgrade.
My favorite part.
"However, Ballmer conceded it isn't going to be an easy battle to win. "Most people still steal music," he said. "We can build the technology but there are still ways for people to steal music.""
I think he is starting to crack. Is he calling the people that buy his crap OS thieves?
He is also saying that you can pay us to stop the stealing but there will always be somebody stealing music no matter what you pay us. So just pay us anyway and we won't defend you if you get arrested.
Does anybody else have a problem with this line of thinking?
First he is calling everybody a thief and then he says pay us even though we can't stop people from stealing. So am I missing something - Like the point?
I wish him and bill would just shut up and stop spreading fud - so now they want people to stop buying the ipod - soon they will probably start having legslation to have it outlawed.
what a joke!
"We have about 30,000 software programers and of course we have a big interest in protecting what they develop," a Siemens R&D spokesman said.
okay - can the same spokesman tell me what EXACTLY the patents cover?
do they cover the idea of financial software (if that is what their busines is - I am not familiar with siemens) where we have a ledger and the typical acounts payable etc etc.
or do they patent the actual code - where every if statement to me looks the same - so does that mean they will sue the GNUCash folks - please I wish they would clarify.
software patents are just too vague and are not a good idea. If a company makes a good product and provides excellent support people will buy whether there is Open Source or not. If you don't - ya then you are going to rely on litigation for your business model. So please bring on Linux we all need a better os than microsoft. All this litigation crap was brought on by microsoft and sco and has done exactly what microsoft wanted and that was create fear/doubt/hesitation about people/companies switching to linux. I don't think companies like veritas, oracle, siemens, and peoplesoft are going to go under because someone adopts a better os. their business model will survive because they all provide a product that isn't TIED to a SPECIFIC OS and they in my experience have all provided above average or really good support (except I don't know about siemens).
so to summarize the company that stands to loose the most is microsoft if everybody adopts linux and so they are the ones that started all this litigation fud and used sco as their pawns because the sco execs are basically greedy and they thought they saw a big payday.
Good old Bill is sitting back and having a good laugh over this one. Linux will have the last laugh.
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don't know about everyone else - but I am sick and tired of hearing how these goverments choose open source and then they get a visit from the idiot balmer and suddenly they had a revelation and change their minds. what a bunch of crap - this definitely needs some sort of investigation - and yes I know the training is more in the short term but they will have kicked the microsoft lockin and will be forced to actually open standards. one word to the government officials involved is please look in the long term and not the short - microsoft is only concerned about the short term and filling their pockets with money.
I guess I have to take the debian off of my sunblade 100 I just put on and put redhat on it.
I just don't understand their logic. Patching is a heck of a lot easier to do in linux than it is in windows. they said the transition would cost too much but what do they do - go ahead and lock themselves in more - so now if they want to switch later it will cost even more. my tax dollars hard at work - I bet microsoft put the length of time to cover the next presidency in case another bush-alike doesn't get elected. I just hope they take a hard look at their apps and quit the fricken lock so when they do switch it won't cost so much. I hope they aren't writing their apps for internet exploder only - but reading the article and trying to diffuse their logic they probably aren't even bothering.
Went to their web site and saw this. "CCIA today asked Congress to exempt foreign nationals holding advanced degrees from US Universities from H-1B visa quotas. The letter notes that without these exemptions, these individuals will work overseas for our nation's competition and leave a gaping hole in the workforce of domestic companies. Because the US has not produced enough advanced degrees in math, science and engineering companies must look abroad for workers. The requested exemption allows US firms to maintain their technological edge." I have friends and myself have computer science/math degrees and have programmed in c/c++ and prefer to be a system admin - but I have been turned down by positions because I have been told I am asking too much money. this is the reason why they want these people they will work for basically no salary - they just want to live over here because our country actually has running water and toilets. so basically this is a bunch of crap!!!
ballmer is an idiot and has no business running an it company than my dog. it is no wonder other coutries hate the us when douche-bags like ballmer come and threaten them with us laws. I am sick of hearing from him why doesn't he just shut the hell up and let people make up their own minds without the threat of being sued. This tells how bad microsoft is hurting - their threatening lawsuits to get their software in the door. Next steve will threaten other countries over his recipes that he makes - he probably took a patent out on them - since from his fat ass he probably likes to cook and eat everything that he cooks. And by the way my house is windows free and always will be - they can stick xp up ballmers fat ass.
this is all about greed. If I pay for hdtv and I want to record something shouldn't I be able to and play it as many times as I want and as long as I want - just as long as I am not selling it or trying to profit from it. And can't I view with my friends that aren't as fortunate to have HDTV. After all they are my friends. I pay for hdtv so I can recieve the signal and so once I have it received it isn't mine to do with as I please. Isn't that why I am paying for it? As long as I am not trying to sell it or make a profit I should be able to keep a copy of it on cd as long as I live. I guess not though - they want us to pay for it everytime I want to watch it. - this is nothing but pure greed plain and simple.
I am thinking of getting rid of cable at home since I dont' watch it anyway - do you think I am going to watch it on my cell phone. I am so sick of the media trying to shove crap down our throats in every corner of our lives and then charge us for it. Why don't they spend time on coming up with quality shows instead of ways trying to shove it down our throats.
"It's a different story for companies that are primarily Microsoft shops. A total switch from Windows to Linux, or even a significant Linux deployment in the middle of a Windows environment, will be three to four times more expensive--and take three times as long to deploy--as an upgrade from one version of Windows to a newer release, according to a Yankee Group study Ballmer cited in his memo. He also cited a May Forrester Research study that said Linux training is on average 15% more expensive than Windows training. The author of that report, Forrester VP Julie Giera, says the caveat there is that her report's sample was very small, mainly because she couldn't find many companies who'd been running Linux more than a year and who closely tracked costs associated with the deployments." this is exactly why not to deploy microsoft in the first place - it's called lockin this is how microsoft has billions of dollars - they are an illegal monopoly that locks you company into their technology and you have to keep buying from them. Training is more because it is better and you are actually learning something - like how to troubleshoot problems. there are nt admins out there that couldn't troubleshoot their way out of a wet paper bag. My boss was interviewing nt admins that are going to get layed off to bring into our team and asked a simple question of how you would troubleshoot Internet Explorer problem of not being able to get on the internet in a networked environment - one out of four said they would check network connectivity first - the other three said they would reinstall internet explorer - this is the difference in training - this is what microsoft has brought on with their crap - more crap that people have to un-learn.
why buy one of these - I bought a tv card for my pc and now I have one of these - I can record shows and do what I want - I am running fedora by the way - I am sick of all these little dedicated devices - it is just too much - I use my pc for everything stream media - record tv shows - create home videos - why would I want to buy one of these when I can have a pc and it can do everything - webserver, video recorder, music streamer, the list goes on and oh ya - word processor. I am into simplifying these days and I don't want to have all these fricken devices in my life that need managing. just give me my handspring visor and a pc and I can get all my sysadmin work done.
Gee - what a coincidence that the report came out right before this contract - I wonder what the the price was before the report came out. I don't care about training costs - it is irresponsible for a govenment to waste the people's tax money on a substandard product. Training costs can be dealt with over time - this is just bad decision making and the taxpayers should be very upset. Nine years is ridiculous - anyone who agrees to nine year contract with anything related to IT is an idiot. The person's who dealt this contract should be fired on the spot no questions asked. I bet they will create web pages that can only be viewed in Internet explorer too.
It's about time - ogg rocks and should be the standard instead of this windows media player crap. and not strings attached too. I hope more sites follow.
gee steve I built my computer right at $110.00 - I went to local store and looked at the price of windows xp pro and it was $196.00 and I would have to buy more ram for windows xp pro which would increase the price of hardware even more - instead of that I downloaded fedora and it installed nicely and works great - does what I want it to do - so what was the point of his article. he is an idiot - how does he keep his job anyway - if somebody wanted to build a computer to use at home for the $100.00 budget they can - now if they want to put his os on it then it gets to be double and triple. just shut up steve - I am sick of hearing about your stupid remarks. do some research before you open your fat mouth.
there is now way I am going to buy if I have put anything microsoft in my house. this is a joke - they are just coming up with ways to get our money - I have been thinking about getting rid of cable cause there is nothing on and just go back to local over the air stations. I got dsl through sbc and I have had no problems so I can't complain about that - but I wish they would cut the we don't support anything but microsoft and mac support tactics - this is microsoft's next big cash cow - when they loose the desktop they are going to lock people in with this crap. I don't understand why sbc had to work with microsoft - they could of done this on their own - but now they are going to lock people in to crap.
why waste the breath on microsoft - Billy and Steven are going to do what they want to do rather people like it or not - I personally think microsoft is going way of cable companies except they are going to take it further by providing end devices in the house that either connect to fiber/cable/or dsl. they have been working with a major telecom giant in getting fiber to premis - bet ya you can only have microsoft products to use it. this is where they are going next and they will put in writing with the companies they contract with that they don't work with linux. so I think we should all save our breath and quit trying to tell Billy and Steven what to do.
"Gates: We've been spending a lot of time with studios." Ya I bet he has - making sure that there is no dvd playing software created for linux by any commercial software company. I bet he helps financing and finding the people that are supposedly stealing music. I alway knew this was the way he was going to take to try to beat linux. He is groing to try to outlaw it and then tell the world that his windows longhorn has digital rights management and if you use it you will never be prosecuted for stealing any software but if you use linux you are on you own. Finally - how does he know what people want - I want my tv simple - just turn it on and it works I don't want to have to go through tons of menus to get where I want or deal with viruses, reboots, defrags. - I tried digital cable once and just got rid of it - there is just too many channels and not enough quality. I was even going to try tivo but when the Janet Jackson thing happened at the super bowl and there were reports on how many people hit the replay button - well it was just too much. I don't want people to know if I hit the replay button - can't I have a little privacy please. Finally, I would not trust any os put out by Billy Gates - he is just in it for the money he does not give a shit about the customers - he is just going to ram down our throats the way he wants to have it and that is it - he just wants people to worship the ground he walks on - I wish he would just go away.
this all part of the "global economy" that George W's dad started and he has just picked up. The businesses will be hurt in the long run.
Billy and Steve are just like kids - na na na na na you can't have them - and the goverment just tolerates them. Both of them are just sitting back and laughing at all of us. what a joke - I wish they would just go away and let us do computing the way it was suppose to be done and not their way. thier os need a total rewrite from bottom up before I even think about touching it.
why does the MPAA - RIAA wake up and get in reality. should we outlaw all cars because some wife runs over her husband on purpose. what world are they from anyway? I guess to them their all important copyrights are more valuable than lives. what a bunch of screwed up people - they need to take a break from counting all their money. lets outlaw forks and knives because someone stabbed someone to death with a fork and knife - then we have to eat with our fingers or chopsticks but then what if someone pokes somebodies eye out with a chopstick. then we are reduced to fingers. but then if you strangle someone - okay that's all I have a headache.
"These aren't toy home systems. At my last job, we dropped $BIGNUM on several systems that only came with Windows clients. Yes, it would be shiny and happy to use the (non-existent) well-tested and cross-platform Linux-compatible versions of those apps but that wasn't an alternative. So, how would we have just up and switched? " my metric isn't just switching it is savings in the long run I am not talking a toy home system - If the apps are non existant in linux then you need to go back to the vendor and demand it - or choose something else - I bet they would be happy to oblige for the business - "But what if *shock* that's true? If MS caves and gives a steep discount so that it really is cheaper for them to stay with their current setup than to switch, then what's the problem?" the problem is the long run - their will be no study to indicate linux is cheaper in the short run when everybody knows windows. companies have to bite the bullet and be dedicated to training to do switch and they will save money in the long run.
just rewrite your code everyone - its not our fault its your fault. what crap - everyone should move their sites to OSS and use perl, python, php or anything else you want - it is about choice and the expertise you have on hand or that you want to acquire. whoever uses microsoft anything for production is just asking for it - and to the person who wrote about the mozilla flaw from yesterday - at least we don't have rewrite anything to fix that. I have never had to rewrite/change an app because of a patch from any linux vendor. how long will the corporate world put up with these shinanigans. Switch Now!
99.9999% - riiiight excuse or notice threatening to take your business down - it was a mistake. what a load of crap - they should sue these bastards and sue the hard - that is the only language they understand and it will set a precidence. so please, please, please sue these bastards
why are they publizing it. all they are doing is using this as a bargaining chip with microsoft. the next story is that micorosft is now the tco winner because they are basically giving them the os at some extra low rate and that it is now cheaper than if we switched and had to train everybody. people just don't get it that have to pay the bills. linux forces open standards and this is where the real cost savings comes. your company can't be tied to proprietary standards that make it cost prohibitive to ever switch. no one knows where computers will be in the future but I bet the data you have in linux will be a hell of lot easier to switch to the next new technology than your data in microsoft. no one ever does long range planning any more - the more you stick to open standards the better off your company will be - it will also be more flexible to be able to change with technology - this is where the cost savings comes. but apparently not a cio in the fricken country U.S. realizes this - I don't know maybe it is the accountants but when will the head of all these companies realize what they are doing is costing the company in the long run - both technically and financially.
the system had to be rebooted every 30 days because of bad software. namely the os had to clean itself up. now to me that is bad software - they had unix before and probably never touched it and it just worked. what an upgrade.
My favorite part. "However, Ballmer conceded it isn't going to be an easy battle to win. "Most people still steal music," he said. "We can build the technology but there are still ways for people to steal music."" I think he is starting to crack. Is he calling the people that buy his crap OS thieves? He is also saying that you can pay us to stop the stealing but there will always be somebody stealing music no matter what you pay us. So just pay us anyway and we won't defend you if you get arrested. Does anybody else have a problem with this line of thinking? First he is calling everybody a thief and then he says pay us even though we can't stop people from stealing. So am I missing something - Like the point? I wish him and bill would just shut up and stop spreading fud - so now they want people to stop buying the ipod - soon they will probably start having legslation to have it outlawed. what a joke!
"We have about 30,000 software programers and of course we have a big interest in protecting what they develop," a Siemens R&D spokesman said. okay - can the same spokesman tell me what EXACTLY the patents cover? do they cover the idea of financial software (if that is what their busines is - I am not familiar with siemens) where we have a ledger and the typical acounts payable etc etc. or do they patent the actual code - where every if statement to me looks the same - so does that mean they will sue the GNUCash folks - please I wish they would clarify. software patents are just too vague and are not a good idea. If a company makes a good product and provides excellent support people will buy whether there is Open Source or not. If you don't - ya then you are going to rely on litigation for your business model. So please bring on Linux we all need a better os than microsoft. All this litigation crap was brought on by microsoft and sco and has done exactly what microsoft wanted and that was create fear/doubt/hesitation about people/companies switching to linux. I don't think companies like veritas, oracle, siemens, and peoplesoft are going to go under because someone adopts a better os. their business model will survive because they all provide a product that isn't TIED to a SPECIFIC OS and they in my experience have all provided above average or really good support (except I don't know about siemens). so to summarize the company that stands to loose the most is microsoft if everybody adopts linux and so they are the ones that started all this litigation fud and used sco as their pawns because the sco execs are basically greedy and they thought they saw a big payday. Good old Bill is sitting back and having a good laugh over this one. Linux will have the last laugh.