If they stop releasing fixes they are essentially breaking the OS themselves in favor of forcing you to buy something else. If they do, there are a lot of people that are going to switch to alternative OSes, particularly Linux but many to Macintosh. Many have. Steve Jobs states that more than 50% of its computers that are being sold are being sold to new Mac customers (people that have never owned a mac before). If this is the case that means that people are looking for alternatives. An alternative not produced by a convicted monopolist intent on controlling what you do with your computer. Linux has grown by leaps and bounds over that same period. Mark Shuttleworth estimates that there are approximately 20 millions Ubuntu users world wide. If you begin to count all the other distros you'll note that there are probably 100 million Linux users. Steve Jobs recently noted that approximately 20 million of their 22 million users are using OSX. That should tell you something about the size of the Linux market.
What on earth could Civ5 do that required DX10? I would question the game developers for their choice of DX10 because it is not a game that pushes polygons or even requires massive amounts of other video card features. I'd venture a guess to say that it doesn't even need much video RAM to operate and certainly not a high end GPU. CivIV graphics look like they are using 3d but they are also not in an environment which needs a lot of redrawing due to fast paced activity. I guess the zoom level would be nice but overall it is more a board-like game than it is a immersive 3d world. But who knows. I may be wrong.
I don't give one flying pig with lipstick about the lack of drivers. I don't care about Microsoft's profits. I don't even care about what Vista purports to do for the consumer. The fact is it is a spyware tool for Microsoft and for the content creators. It is built upon block of technology designed to lock consumers into Vista instead of standardizing on technology that has been accepted by standards institutes. They have even gone to the point of removing standards for certain technology (such as OpenGL) in favor or their closed DirectX 10 (which is a locking technology). How do we know that it is a locking technology? Because it only runs under Vista (not even XP). It isn't a standard that can be implemented by other computing platforms. Not that we'd want that anyway. But to close down OpenGL.
As well, Vista is not a big step forward. In fact, it is a bunch of baby steps except in the design to lock people into it and to allow Microsoft to spy on the consumer, and to enable content creators to implement technologies that allow for them to spy on the consumer as well.
Vista is a disabling technology, not an enabling technology. It is a technology that demeans open standards. It is a software program that does nothing for the average user other than give it a pretty face. It is a pig with lipstick.
Microsoft's spying on users with their WGA/WGN (the the much more aggressive versions implemented in Vista) is akin to having a Walmart employee come to your home on a Sunday morning asking to search through your home in order to determine which items that are from Walmart are stolen. It is an invasion of your privacy and it is being done without the consent of the consumer. It is a technology put in without the knowledge and consent of the consumer.
Microsoft is a convicted monopolist with a history of stealing IP from other vendors. Z4 is a prime example where Microsoft was found guilty of stealing Z4s technology. They were also found guilty of numerous acts of misconduct during the trial which cost them an additional $25 million in special damages. Microsoft stole the technology from Z4 that they implemented into XP and Office in order to keep you from stealing their technology.
Those types of morals and ethics are not something you can just overlook. Now Microsoft is attacking every Linux user by threatening their comfort telling them that they will have to pay some royalty to Microsoft for using some undisclosed unproven IP that they allege is in every person's copy of Linux. This is akin to a big Oil company threatening every car driver because that car driver may purchase gasoline from one of their competitors, a competitor this Oil company may be accusing of having stolen the IP used in the refinery process.
Do you really want to buy a product or even trust the word from a company that has such a long history, a history of nearly 2 decades of stealing IP and now is threatening consumers that choose not to adopt their newest spyware filled privacy invading pig with lipstick?
Why would any journalist even listen to Microsoft. They have tried repeatedly for the past 3 months to con everyone into thinking Vista is more successful than it is. In fact, when you look at the numbers you know it isn't anywhere near as successful as they state. This is an attempt by them to influence you to be like the Joneses. You don't need to adopt a technology that spys on you and invades your privacy that is from a company that steals technology and then acts with misconduct during the trial.
Microsoft says that there were 40 millions copies sold worldwide of Vista in the first 100 days. Let's sort of average that out. The number of countries of the world is generally accepted to be 194. If we take 40 million and divide that by 194 we come up with about 206,000 copies per country sold during that time. If we then say that 50 percent of those are to OEM vendors that haven't made it into the hands of the consumer then we are looking at roughly 103,000 per co
IP theft doesn't deny a sale. This man serious overestimates the value of the IP. Technically, the value is nil. No loss to anyone. No guarantee any of those copies would have been sold. Lots of other more relative value is earned from the theft. Someone that steals Office uses that knowledge later to make money for others.
I'm not saying it is appropriate to steal nor that no one is a culprit. I'm saying that he is way overestimating the value of the IP. You can probably take the total he states and divide by 100 and come up with the real loss.
This is just something Microsoft will have to live with. If they want to provide access to software for that sort of device and that sort of service they need to make the code accessible to the proper authorities, otherwise stay out of that business.
Lol, that's ludicrous. RAM outside the machine. Just incredulous. Anyway, torrentspy is not in the US so the US courts have little jurisdiction over them.
You are entitled to make your living. Your philosophy is your choice. If you decide to not use GPL or any other Open Source code and you write this all yourself, then you are entitled. In fact, it would be nice to have more people do that. Why is this? Because a product is a product. Just as id makes software that can run on Linux (and we don't expect them to open that code) you are entitled to do it with yours. There are many closed source games that run under Linux. Your program is essentially no different.
I'm sure most of us only ask that you do not use open source code in yours. From what I understand there's no problem with calling libraries from open source either. It would be ridiculous to expect you to code all the OS. In fact, just running under Linux is essentially doing that.
So, don't let the zealot twits jump on your case and don't let it get to you. A product is a product.
Alan Cox is full of shit. Of course the biggest threat is Microsoft. It always has been. Just because Microsoft has been threatened by patent trolls (which actually happen to be an entity with products). Microsoft is the absolute most threatening entity in the software industry regardless of the cost to them. You don't deflect the issue off Microsoft. You put it squarely on Microsoft. If the patent trolls didn't exist we'd still be in the same situation. Microsoft would still own patents and would still be threatening. The Linux Kernel Guru needs to go back and start guru'ing his kernel and stop telling us what is good or bad in the industry from the stand point of patents.
Any break you give Microsoft that is more for it to break you with its monopoly. Get rid of all patents and you'd still have the same problem, and that'd be Microsoft is a monopoly using that monopolistic power to break other companies in the industry.
Frankly, Microsoft has blatantly stolen IP from other companies and has been sued over and over for doing so. They have made suing over IP financially rewarding. Had they simply licensed the technology we'd not be in this situation. We couldn't possibly be. Pay them a just royalty instead of allowing them to beat your door down with lawsuits.
You give no quarter to Microsoft. It can't happen. You can't let up. You defend your IP and you leave it at that. Do not try to defend Microsoft. They have been thieving for a long time and they have been getting caught and now it is time for them to pay up. Yes we have to pay up in the long run because the patent trolls are raking in the treasure but if it wasn't for Microsoft stealing it and causing the lawsuits to begin with there's be a more reasonable and equitable royalty system which most could deal with.
I don't agree that patents are not necessary but the rules governing patents need to be much stricter. Or rather more open to tests of prior art and obviousness.
Don't kid yourself. This issue is firmly Microsoft. Microsoft is simply using patent trolls as an excuse to make their lives easier, with no intent of making our lives easier. Microsoft does nothing to benefit the industry. They do whatever it is to benefit their monopoly. They'll do anything to maintain it and to eek every cent out of us and the consumer. Microsoft is like the predatory company eating away at the fiber of the consumer. Costs of $500 for an office suit are outrageous. Costs for Vista are incredible. The sheer amount of spying going on with those products is unconscionable. Everyone needs to know about all the spying going on and how it is a violation of our privacy. A company that has the ethics that Microsoft has should not be trusted at all, period.
And if patent trolls were the problem how come Microsoft isn't going after the patent trolls and instead are going after the open source community and the businesses that use open source? Microsoft is after patents, yes, to protect itself but also to arm itself. They are extorting patent cross licensing agreements in an immoral and unethical way.
Stop using Windows and start using Linux and other open source operating systems. Linux is certainly much better than comparable OSes and it is free and it does what you want it to do.
Microsoft is using technologies to lock you into their monopoly and you need to recognize that so that you can help us free ourselves of their threats and of their dictatorship.
Microsoft does not seek to indemnify the Linux industry. It does not seek to indemnify Novell nor Xandros, nor LG, nor any other. It seeks to divide. By dividing they conquerer. If they can cut into the unified front they'll have a greater chance of winning against some or many. The companies that enter such agreements should be shunned as entities within the Linux industry. They should be considered non-entities and not part of Linux. They should not be allowed to continue to distribute Linux in any form. All those that create open source products for Linux should explicitly deny license to any of these companies. You don't need GPL V3 to do that. You can simply make it part of your own copyright allowance.
When the critical pieces are removed from these systems then they have no more product to distribute. Maybe they'll move on to BSD or something else.
This is simply divide and conquer. It is very old tactic. It is also commonly used. This is not conspiratorial. Microsoft simply wants to eliminate as many Linux allies as possible before hand by creating allies of their own. In the end they get all the IP when they allow their newly formed allies to die. It's a two pronged attack. It is one attack that they divide and conquer us and another to have us kill their allies (which used to be our allies). Either way, it works for them. It's so simple I can't believe you guys don't see it. To have Xandros enter into such an agreement is a death knell for them and Microsoft knows this. Any piece of the Linux industry that dies and is aided in death by the Linux community is a win for Microsoft.
Nonetheless, we need to cut the rotten meat from the calf in order to grow stronger. When Xandros dies and when Novell is too weak to continue we'll be stronger because those that know what is at stake will aid us at becoming stronger.
Microsoft knows that this is a tactic to delay things. It is a big gamble that we won't see what they are doing until it is too late. What they fail to understand is that millions of minds using and supporting the Linux industry is much better than the drones at MS creating DRM infected crap-ware. Nonetheless, they still will end up with a lot more money before it is all over. They know this will delay adoption. Every company that does indeed enter into an agreement extends the length of time that there will be a delay.
If we are not careful there'll be no Linux distributed without Microsoft's permission.
Also, the CEO of Xandros spoke around the fact that Microsoft allegedly told them anything specific. He should tell us exactly, in their words, what was said by them. You don't just enter into an agreement without knowing all the ins and outs. At least you better not. If you are entering into such agreements you are essentially slitting your own wrists. Apple didn't take enough care when they entered into the agreement with Microsoft over the GUI and Gates let them know that in no uncertain terms. I can guarantee you that Microsoft has gotten a lot better at entering into contracts with all sorts of unscrupulous clauses. Xandros and Novell had better watch out.
This should be a warning that the levy could break and a lot more companies enter into such agreements with the Devil.
If you've looked at Xandros lately you know they are basically trying to be a lesser version of Linspire only they are failing. Xandros is far too restricted in what they produce and how often they do so. The bottom line is that it doesn't take this agreement they've entered into to make the Linux industry resent them. The lack of quality and of product does that itself.
Why would this guy be disappointed. He knew the overall industry reaction when Novell entered into the agreement. He's simply making pacts with the devil for short term gain while essentially writing off his whole company in the long term. He has no power and has no real base so he's going to just wither away and become a non-entity in the Linux industry. Maybe this is his plan. He has no real stock holders and this is just a fast way for them to make some serious money and get out. To bad he's willing to sacrifice his company to do so. I guess devilish minds think alike.
I fix computers day in and day out in the shop I own and operate. I run Linux as my main OS on my primary business and personal machines.
Day in and day out I see computers with problems. A good percentage of them are from issues with hardware. Honestly though I have my share of issues with Microsoft. Lately more so than ever, due to their quick fixing of bugs that aren't being properly tested. I had an ex-Microsoft employee in here the other day (about a week after I had rebuilt a machine for him). He was upset he was getting all these errors in one of Microsoft's system files and he felt it was something I'd done wrong. After a quick look up and a patch the issue disappeared. We both read the KB article and it was abundantly clear that this was a Microsoft fuck up.
OK, day in and day out I do NOT see repeat problems. Every computer seems to have different problems. The machines are generally unstable and that is happening for a great number of reasons.
In my experience with working with Linux I have had very few instability issues. In fact, I'd say that Linux is significantly more rock solid than Microsoft Windows XP. Vista is the only OS I have people coming into my shop to have me remove, and this happens with alarming regularity. They want to go back to the old XP that they were happy with.
When they find out about the spying through the WGA/WGN program they understand that all this goodness and well-wishing isn't a grand thing for them afterall. Most, readily begin to talk about making sure their family members know about it. Believe me, one guy like me in any community telling the truth about Windows/Vista, et al, makes a huge impact.
So, bottom line? I'm saying what you are saying about stability is hogwash. I'm saying that what you are saying about Linux instability is a qualified lie. Linux has been known to be up and running for hundreds of days at a time without a glitch. You can't say that about any version of Windows.
Now that Vista is Microsoft's spyware product there's only one thing to do. That is to let everyone know about the spying. In time, everyone will understand.
I demonstrate on a HD Wide screen 24" LCD display Ubuntu running with Beryl and a bunch of my own easy customizations and people go gaga over it. Their expressions are incredible, and most want it right away. Believe it or not they don't really care about whether it runs Windows programs. The vast majority of users don't use their computer for much more than internet based activities.
So, spread on because we'll be wiping off. These claims (false on both ends) are not helping your situation. You are angry that people are fighting back. You remind me with your anger of someone who insists on forcing American political values across all countries, religions, and ethnicities. You can't do it and remain sane. You, sooner or later have to give up and look at the picture for what it really is. Microsoft can't and won't remain the dominant power in the computer field forever and someone must emerge as the new victor. Have some foresight and get behind the new victor. You'll be happier and more sane.
Let me also state that there are *no* patent violations for a few reasons. The first is that nothing has been proven in a court of law. There are no violations until the jury rules and the verdict is read. Only after that will we be able to determine the depth of any given potential IP violations. Let me state further that 238 patents are minor and insignificant as a number. That number is extremely low and hardly scratches the surface of patents that exist. Also, a good percentage of those patents are from various applications that may make it into a distribution so overall the actual "Linux" violations are so small in number to actually be trivial. An attorney told me the other day that by Microsoft not stating which patents are in violation they are abandoning their rights to those patents, because the Linux industry has asked that they be discl
I've been saying this over and over. What Microsoft is after is more than one thing, but primarily they are after IP. They can't legally take the IP so they are leveraging this, in a criminal monopolistic way, to actually steal the IP. Microsoft can't create the IP fast enough themselves and in enough areas that they need to cross-license. In the end they are trying to indemnify themselves against lawsuits while still holding onto every vestige of IP they can get.
They are essentially extorting the IP from these guys while making Linux the bad guys. This is wrong and people should be pushing back at these companies for entering into such baseless agreements. They are going after some of the little guys (Xandros) in order to try to put more weight behind their current situation.
If anyone knows much about Xandros they know these guys are nothing in the Linux industry yet it made headlines. It is simply due to the Linux vs Microsoft names.
We need to know those IPs so we can push back. People should be putting a concerted effort into suing Microsoft for abandonment of the IP since they won't bring forward any evidence. They should be sued for slander (making false accusations that they know to be false in an attempt to have others believe those accusations to be true and to intentionally do harm.) They then need to be sued for libel for getting that material printed and not making an effort to correct it.
I don't think there should be no closed proprietary software. I just think that Microsoft is just wrong in pushing the industry by misleading vendors and others.
No more LG products for me. No recommendations toward their products. Recommendations are now against them when people come into my store. Same for Xandros. That company is now on the black list for all Linux products, demos, suggestions, and negative comments only on web postings. Believe me I have a great memory for the bad stuff that these companies do.
The initial and long term costs are quite high. $500 for the phone and then a long service contract. The power of the iPod features isn't there. The lack of 3g is an issue for me. If I want to internet browse by latching onto random wireless feeds could result in me ending up in jail due to that act. So, if I'm going to browse the web on it it will be internally done (at home or office) and will not be on a tiny screen which is hard to read and takes a lot more effort to use than a laptop.
If they put a hard drive in it and added 3g I'd pay $500 and would use it to browse the web. Only, tho, if they keep all other costs the same.
Any attempt at prosecution in this matter is nothing but a total injustice. I fix computers every day. I remove malware. It is incredibly easy to get infected under Windows. Most of this is due to negligence on the part of Microsoft. It is exacerbated by the ignorance of the average user. Virtually any site can be dangerous. Some of this software is incredibly difficult to get rid of while retaining the integrity of the prior install. A substitute school teacher would have no idea how she got infected nor how to remove it once it was infected.
We should not be prosecuting this lady. We should be prosecuting the advertisers and adware distributors. Listen if it wasn't for the advertisers we'd have no malware products. We should also be suing Microsoft for their negligence in their failure to protect the children and the school for not ensuring proper protection to begin with.
Schools should be mandated to use Linux with strict account control. Without a doubt the issues are with Windows, the advertisers, with malware creators, and the school IT people. Someone using a computer for whatever reason should not be held liable because they unwittingly find their way to a malicious site. If they installed Linux on those boxes the accounts would be so compartmentalized there's be little to no adware and no infections that were more difficult to clean than backing up the account data and wiping the account.
The whole idea of holding this poor lady responsible for everyone else's fuck ups is just ludicrous. I know they are saying she did this on purpose and that she was hoping she'd create havoc and harm these children's development and hoped to get fired for doing so. If this hadn't been overturned on this appeal it certainly would have been overturned higher up. This poor woman is being abused by the powers that be and is being used as a scapegoat. This is just sad.
I read it. It wasn't bad. When the popup came I was simply disappointed that a Linux based site would have that. I have long become accustomed to simply laying a beat on the "close this" button/link on stuff like that. Whatever content was listed didn't even register.
It was nice to read an article that stated that his Linux experience overcame many of the incredulous defects being purposefully incorported. I do not like the fact that the monopolist is forcing these sorts of things down the throat of consumers due to their monopoly. It is always best to have competition. Linux is now a better OS than Windows is and only great things are coming up. It is the great OS that Linux is that has been causing Microsoft to grunt and growl with muted voices at IP in Linux. Now they just need to sue us so we can get this stuff out in the open and end this farce thus ending the claims of IP infringement.
Microsoft doesn't really give a flying fuck about the license fees. Period. They are not after indemnification of your customers or to make your products inter-operable with theirs (hell, theirs aren't inter-operable with their own). What they are after is indemnification of themselves. They can only get this by first creating a problem and making their solution the only one and then by holding the feet of every other companies to the fire. After they cough up enough IP (that indemnifies them against future lawsuits from you), then they indemnify your customers. It is the IP they want, not the license fees and that IP is to protect themselves, not to open standards and create interoperability.
How many friggen times do I have to say it. They are after IP cross licensing. They will do anything. Open Source has no real need to cross license. Microsoft has a great need. They have been getting sued over and over and over and over, and loosing nearly 100% of the cases. This means they have to cross license instead of outright stealing. Open Source is starting to set the stage and those that participate have large portfolios of IP. If they can't enter into a legal cross license they will threaten suit in the law instead.
Microsoft is NOT innovative. These are hard cold facts. They have repeatedly stolen IP from other companies. No one trusts them. If IP went away they'd be happy. If IP doesn't they'll use their strong arm tactic to force companies to cross license. They can't afford to keep loosing hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars to lawsuits. If they can't outright steal they will steal in a round about way.
Slander is a false statement made publicly knowing it is false and that it will be believed by others and do harm to whomever it was made about. Libel is the printing of the same thing. It isn't difficult to see both slander and libel in what the Microsofties said/printed.
Only veiled lies are part of any Microsoft statement about interoperability. Microsoft wants proprietary and it to be theirs to lock you into their OS and their technologies. This is not new. Let us be wary of the fact that Microsoft wants the IP from the open source community and are willing to extort it through blatant lies about IP violations. An attorney I spoke with just today while we were discussing this informs me that Microsoft's failure to disclose the patent numbers is essentially abandonment.
Microsoft has been trying to extort IP from the open source. That's their only reason behind the threats. The Open Source community doesn't need to agree to Microsoft's terms. Microsoft needs to agree to the Open Source communities terms, or whomever has the IP. Since the Open Source community has little to no reason to cross license and are willing to remove any infringing code, Microsoft has no choice but to pay up to open source.
It will be pretty funny when everyone comes to the realization that Microsoft has a significantly greater number of IP violations than open source does and they'll refuse to pay up when the time comes for the disclosure. They simply claim that the open source community didn't pay up when they were given a chance so Microsoft decided to play judge, jury, and executioner and make the balance themselves.
Microsoft is like the big oil company threatening to sue the individual car driver, and any major company that uses cars, because those people are using gasoline that may be refined using some portion of their process that wasn't "allegedly" legally licensed. It doesn't matter that this big oil company probably stole the process to begin with. Nor does it matter that they won't tell you which part was infringed so the process can be adjusted.
Microsoft's motives are not altruistic. They are not after interoperability. They are after the IP of these companies intellectual property. It is that simple. It is method of extortion. This moron that is in charge of the IP section is obviously crazy.
I believe you are talking about those pirates that used to rape women, murder men and women, steal, maim, and generally disrespect life in general in their call to duty. These are the guys that went rampant on old ships sinking them and pillaging their goods.
You are talking about copyright theft. This isn't the same. Stealing copyrighted content does not keep the rights holder from making a sale on those items. You haven't denied anyone an income nor have you kept anyone from purchasing an item. The law is well established in this area.
Yes, laws are getting tougher and so are the punishments. It is inappropriate to list pirates and those that steal copyrighted works. Yes, it is done but to include mass murders, rapist, and every other form of criminal act with the theft of a copyrighted material is wrong. You send rapist, child molesters, and murders away for life. You don't do the same for copyright theft. They don't have the same economic nor material impact nor the catastrophic impact that a death might have.
You are just spreading the propaganda of the rich companies.
I know you feel it is bad to do take and reproduce these things in this fashion. A lot of people do. You are entitled to your point of view but you need to come to reality. These guys are not committing heinous crimes.
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If they stop releasing fixes they are essentially breaking the OS themselves in favor of forcing you to buy something else. If they do, there are a lot of people that are going to switch to alternative OSes, particularly Linux but many to Macintosh. Many have. Steve Jobs states that more than 50% of its computers that are being sold are being sold to new Mac customers (people that have never owned a mac before). If this is the case that means that people are looking for alternatives. An alternative not produced by a convicted monopolist intent on controlling what you do with your computer. Linux has grown by leaps and bounds over that same period. Mark Shuttleworth estimates that there are approximately 20 millions Ubuntu users world wide. If you begin to count all the other distros you'll note that there are probably 100 million Linux users. Steve Jobs recently noted that approximately 20 million of their 22 million users are using OSX. That should tell you something about the size of the Linux market.
That's not DRM. You are mixing apples and oranges. Your description in no way represents any form of DRM as has been discussed in this forum.
What on earth could Civ5 do that required DX10? I would question the game developers for their choice of DX10 because it is not a game that pushes polygons or even requires massive amounts of other video card features. I'd venture a guess to say that it doesn't even need much video RAM to operate and certainly not a high end GPU. CivIV graphics look like they are using 3d but they are also not in an environment which needs a lot of redrawing due to fast paced activity. I guess the zoom level would be nice but overall it is more a board-like game than it is a immersive 3d world. But who knows. I may be wrong.
I don't give one flying pig with lipstick about the lack of drivers. I don't care about Microsoft's profits. I don't even care about what Vista purports to do for the consumer. The fact is it is a spyware tool for Microsoft and for the content creators. It is built upon block of technology designed to lock consumers into Vista instead of standardizing on technology that has been accepted by standards institutes. They have even gone to the point of removing standards for certain technology (such as OpenGL) in favor or their closed DirectX 10 (which is a locking technology). How do we know that it is a locking technology? Because it only runs under Vista (not even XP). It isn't a standard that can be implemented by other computing platforms. Not that we'd want that anyway. But to close down OpenGL.
As well, Vista is not a big step forward. In fact, it is a bunch of baby steps except in the design to lock people into it and to allow Microsoft to spy on the consumer, and to enable content creators to implement technologies that allow for them to spy on the consumer as well.
Vista is a disabling technology, not an enabling technology. It is a technology that demeans open standards. It is a software program that does nothing for the average user other than give it a pretty face. It is a pig with lipstick.
Microsoft's spying on users with their WGA/WGN (the the much more aggressive versions implemented in Vista) is akin to having a Walmart employee come to your home on a Sunday morning asking to search through your home in order to determine which items that are from Walmart are stolen. It is an invasion of your privacy and it is being done without the consent of the consumer. It is a technology put in without the knowledge and consent of the consumer.
Microsoft is a convicted monopolist with a history of stealing IP from other vendors. Z4 is a prime example where Microsoft was found guilty of stealing Z4s technology. They were also found guilty of numerous acts of misconduct during the trial which cost them an additional $25 million in special damages. Microsoft stole the technology from Z4 that they implemented into XP and Office in order to keep you from stealing their technology.
Those types of morals and ethics are not something you can just overlook. Now Microsoft is attacking every Linux user by threatening their comfort telling them that they will have to pay some royalty to Microsoft for using some undisclosed unproven IP that they allege is in every person's copy of Linux. This is akin to a big Oil company threatening every car driver because that car driver may purchase gasoline from one of their competitors, a competitor this Oil company may be accusing of having stolen the IP used in the refinery process.
Do you really want to buy a product or even trust the word from a company that has such a long history, a history of nearly 2 decades of stealing IP and now is threatening consumers that choose not to adopt their newest spyware filled privacy invading pig with lipstick?
Why would any journalist even listen to Microsoft. They have tried repeatedly for the past 3 months to con everyone into thinking Vista is more successful than it is. In fact, when you look at the numbers you know it isn't anywhere near as successful as they state. This is an attempt by them to influence you to be like the Joneses. You don't need to adopt a technology that spys on you and invades your privacy that is from a company that steals technology and then acts with misconduct during the trial.
Microsoft says that there were 40 millions copies sold worldwide of Vista in the first 100 days. Let's sort of average that out. The number of countries of the world is generally accepted to be 194. If we take 40 million and divide that by 194 we come up with about 206,000 copies per country sold during that time. If we then say that 50 percent of those are to OEM vendors that haven't made it into the hands of the consumer then we are looking at roughly 103,000 per co
cnet.com news is owned by Microsoft I believe. I don't trust anything from them, no matter what, because they always have some ulterior motive.
IP theft doesn't deny a sale. This man serious overestimates the value of the IP. Technically, the value is nil. No loss to anyone. No guarantee any of those copies would have been sold. Lots of other more relative value is earned from the theft. Someone that steals Office uses that knowledge later to make money for others.
I'm not saying it is appropriate to steal nor that no one is a culprit. I'm saying that he is way overestimating the value of the IP. You can probably take the total he states and divide by 100 and come up with the real loss.
This is just something Microsoft will have to live with. If they want to provide access to software for that sort of device and that sort of service they need to make the code accessible to the proper authorities, otherwise stay out of that business.
I applaud the man. He's a true contributor. He helped make a significant change to the world.
If he had patented his idea we'd be in a world of trouble or it would have been stolen and patented by Microsoft.
Lol, that's ludicrous. RAM outside the machine. Just incredulous. Anyway, torrentspy is not in the US so the US courts have little jurisdiction over them.
You are entitled to make your living. Your philosophy is your choice. If you decide to not use GPL or any other Open Source code and you write this all yourself, then you are entitled. In fact, it would be nice to have more people do that. Why is this? Because a product is a product. Just as id makes software that can run on Linux (and we don't expect them to open that code) you are entitled to do it with yours. There are many closed source games that run under Linux. Your program is essentially no different.
I'm sure most of us only ask that you do not use open source code in yours. From what I understand there's no problem with calling libraries from open source either. It would be ridiculous to expect you to code all the OS. In fact, just running under Linux is essentially doing that.
So, don't let the zealot twits jump on your case and don't let it get to you. A product is a product.
Alan Cox is full of shit. Of course the biggest threat is Microsoft. It always has been. Just because Microsoft has been threatened by patent trolls (which actually happen to be an entity with products). Microsoft is the absolute most threatening entity in the software industry regardless of the cost to them. You don't deflect the issue off Microsoft. You put it squarely on Microsoft. If the patent trolls didn't exist we'd still be in the same situation. Microsoft would still own patents and would still be threatening. The Linux Kernel Guru needs to go back and start guru'ing his kernel and stop telling us what is good or bad in the industry from the stand point of patents.
Any break you give Microsoft that is more for it to break you with its monopoly. Get rid of all patents and you'd still have the same problem, and that'd be Microsoft is a monopoly using that monopolistic power to break other companies in the industry.
Frankly, Microsoft has blatantly stolen IP from other companies and has been sued over and over for doing so. They have made suing over IP financially rewarding. Had they simply licensed the technology we'd not be in this situation. We couldn't possibly be. Pay them a just royalty instead of allowing them to beat your door down with lawsuits.
You give no quarter to Microsoft. It can't happen. You can't let up. You defend your IP and you leave it at that. Do not try to defend Microsoft. They have been thieving for a long time and they have been getting caught and now it is time for them to pay up. Yes we have to pay up in the long run because the patent trolls are raking in the treasure but if it wasn't for Microsoft stealing it and causing the lawsuits to begin with there's be a more reasonable and equitable royalty system which most could deal with.
I don't agree that patents are not necessary but the rules governing patents need to be much stricter. Or rather more open to tests of prior art and obviousness.
Don't kid yourself. This issue is firmly Microsoft. Microsoft is simply using patent trolls as an excuse to make their lives easier, with no intent of making our lives easier. Microsoft does nothing to benefit the industry. They do whatever it is to benefit their monopoly. They'll do anything to maintain it and to eek every cent out of us and the consumer. Microsoft is like the predatory company eating away at the fiber of the consumer. Costs of $500 for an office suit are outrageous. Costs for Vista are incredible. The sheer amount of spying going on with those products is unconscionable. Everyone needs to know about all the spying going on and how it is a violation of our privacy. A company that has the ethics that Microsoft has should not be trusted at all, period.
And if patent trolls were the problem how come Microsoft isn't going after the patent trolls and instead are going after the open source community and the businesses that use open source? Microsoft is after patents, yes, to protect itself but also to arm itself. They are extorting patent cross licensing agreements in an immoral and unethical way.
Stop using Windows and start using Linux and other open source operating systems. Linux is certainly much better than comparable OSes and it is free and it does what you want it to do.
Microsoft is using technologies to lock you into their monopoly and you need to recognize that so that you can help us free ourselves of their threats and of their dictatorship.
Microsoft does not seek to indemnify the Linux industry. It does not seek to indemnify Novell nor Xandros, nor LG, nor any other. It seeks to divide. By dividing they conquerer. If they can cut into the unified front they'll have a greater chance of winning against some or many. The companies that enter such agreements should be shunned as entities within the Linux industry. They should be considered non-entities and not part of Linux. They should not be allowed to continue to distribute Linux in any form. All those that create open source products for Linux should explicitly deny license to any of these companies. You don't need GPL V3 to do that. You can simply make it part of your own copyright allowance.
When the critical pieces are removed from these systems then they have no more product to distribute. Maybe they'll move on to BSD or something else.
This is simply divide and conquer. It is very old tactic. It is also commonly used. This is not conspiratorial. Microsoft simply wants to eliminate as many Linux allies as possible before hand by creating allies of their own. In the end they get all the IP when they allow their newly formed allies to die. It's a two pronged attack. It is one attack that they divide and conquer us and another to have us kill their allies (which used to be our allies). Either way, it works for them. It's so simple I can't believe you guys don't see it. To have Xandros enter into such an agreement is a death knell for them and Microsoft knows this. Any piece of the Linux industry that dies and is aided in death by the Linux community is a win for Microsoft.
Nonetheless, we need to cut the rotten meat from the calf in order to grow stronger. When Xandros dies and when Novell is too weak to continue we'll be stronger because those that know what is at stake will aid us at becoming stronger.
Microsoft knows that this is a tactic to delay things. It is a big gamble that we won't see what they are doing until it is too late. What they fail to understand is that millions of minds using and supporting the Linux industry is much better than the drones at MS creating DRM infected crap-ware. Nonetheless, they still will end up with a lot more money before it is all over. They know this will delay adoption. Every company that does indeed enter into an agreement extends the length of time that there will be a delay.
If we are not careful there'll be no Linux distributed without Microsoft's permission.
Also, the CEO of Xandros spoke around the fact that Microsoft allegedly told them anything specific. He should tell us exactly, in their words, what was said by them. You don't just enter into an agreement without knowing all the ins and outs. At least you better not. If you are entering into such agreements you are essentially slitting your own wrists. Apple didn't take enough care when they entered into the agreement with Microsoft over the GUI and Gates let them know that in no uncertain terms. I can guarantee you that Microsoft has gotten a lot better at entering into contracts with all sorts of unscrupulous clauses. Xandros and Novell had better watch out.
This should be a warning that the levy could break and a lot more companies enter into such agreements with the Devil.
If you've looked at Xandros lately you know they are basically trying to be a lesser version of Linspire only they are failing. Xandros is far too restricted in what they produce and how often they do so. The bottom line is that it doesn't take this agreement they've entered into to make the Linux industry resent them. The lack of quality and of product does that itself.
Why would this guy be disappointed. He knew the overall industry reaction when Novell entered into the agreement. He's simply making pacts with the devil for short term gain while essentially writing off his whole company in the long term. He has no power and has no real base so he's going to just wither away and become a non-entity in the Linux industry. Maybe this is his plan. He has no real stock holders and this is just a fast way for them to make some serious money and get out. To bad he's willing to sacrifice his company to do so. I guess devilish minds think alike.
I fix computers day in and day out in the shop I own and operate. I run Linux as my main OS on my primary business and personal machines.
Day in and day out I see computers with problems. A good percentage of them are from issues with hardware. Honestly though I have my share of issues with Microsoft. Lately more so than ever, due to their quick fixing of bugs that aren't being properly tested. I had an ex-Microsoft employee in here the other day (about a week after I had rebuilt a machine for him). He was upset he was getting all these errors in one of Microsoft's system files and he felt it was something I'd done wrong. After a quick look up and a patch the issue disappeared. We both read the KB article and it was abundantly clear that this was a Microsoft fuck up.
OK, day in and day out I do NOT see repeat problems. Every computer seems to have different problems. The machines are generally unstable and that is happening for a great number of reasons.
In my experience with working with Linux I have had very few instability issues. In fact, I'd say that Linux is significantly more rock solid than Microsoft Windows XP. Vista is the only OS I have people coming into my shop to have me remove, and this happens with alarming regularity. They want to go back to the old XP that they were happy with.
When they find out about the spying through the WGA/WGN program they understand that all this goodness and well-wishing isn't a grand thing for them afterall. Most, readily begin to talk about making sure their family members know about it. Believe me, one guy like me in any community telling the truth about Windows/Vista, et al, makes a huge impact.
So, bottom line? I'm saying what you are saying about stability is hogwash. I'm saying that what you are saying about Linux instability is a qualified lie. Linux has been known to be up and running for hundreds of days at a time without a glitch. You can't say that about any version of Windows.
Now that Vista is Microsoft's spyware product there's only one thing to do. That is to let everyone know about the spying. In time, everyone will understand.
I demonstrate on a HD Wide screen 24" LCD display Ubuntu running with Beryl and a bunch of my own easy customizations and people go gaga over it. Their expressions are incredible, and most want it right away. Believe it or not they don't really care about whether it runs Windows programs. The vast majority of users don't use their computer for much more than internet based activities.
So, spread on because we'll be wiping off. These claims (false on both ends) are not helping your situation. You are angry that people are fighting back. You remind me with your anger of someone who insists on forcing American political values across all countries, religions, and ethnicities. You can't do it and remain sane. You, sooner or later have to give up and look at the picture for what it really is. Microsoft can't and won't remain the dominant power in the computer field forever and someone must emerge as the new victor. Have some foresight and get behind the new victor. You'll be happier and more sane.
Let me also state that there are *no* patent violations for a few reasons. The first is that nothing has been proven in a court of law. There are no violations until the jury rules and the verdict is read. Only after that will we be able to determine the depth of any given potential IP violations. Let me state further that 238 patents are minor and insignificant as a number. That number is extremely low and hardly scratches the surface of patents that exist. Also, a good percentage of those patents are from various applications that may make it into a distribution so overall the actual "Linux" violations are so small in number to actually be trivial. An attorney told me the other day that by Microsoft not stating which patents are in violation they are abandoning their rights to those patents, because the Linux industry has asked that they be discl
I've been saying this over and over. What Microsoft is after is more than one thing, but primarily they are after IP. They can't legally take the IP so they are leveraging this, in a criminal monopolistic way, to actually steal the IP. Microsoft can't create the IP fast enough themselves and in enough areas that they need to cross-license. In the end they are trying to indemnify themselves against lawsuits while still holding onto every vestige of IP they can get.
They are essentially extorting the IP from these guys while making Linux the bad guys. This is wrong and people should be pushing back at these companies for entering into such baseless agreements. They are going after some of the little guys (Xandros) in order to try to put more weight behind their current situation.
If anyone knows much about Xandros they know these guys are nothing in the Linux industry yet it made headlines. It is simply due to the Linux vs Microsoft names.
We need to know those IPs so we can push back. People should be putting a concerted effort into suing Microsoft for abandonment of the IP since they won't bring forward any evidence. They should be sued for slander (making false accusations that they know to be false in an attempt to have others believe those accusations to be true and to intentionally do harm.) They then need to be sued for libel for getting that material printed and not making an effort to correct it.
I don't think there should be no closed proprietary software. I just think that Microsoft is just wrong in pushing the industry by misleading vendors and others.
No more LG products for me. No recommendations toward their products. Recommendations are now against them when people come into my store. Same for Xandros. That company is now on the black list for all Linux products, demos, suggestions, and negative comments only on web postings. Believe me I have a great memory for the bad stuff that these companies do.
The initial and long term costs are quite high. $500 for the phone and then a long service contract. The power of the iPod features isn't there. The lack of 3g is an issue for me. If I want to internet browse by latching onto random wireless feeds could result in me ending up in jail due to that act. So, if I'm going to browse the web on it it will be internally done (at home or office) and will not be on a tiny screen which is hard to read and takes a lot more effort to use than a laptop.
If they put a hard drive in it and added 3g I'd pay $500 and would use it to browse the web. Only, tho, if they keep all other costs the same.
NO, GPL V3 does not alienate developers. Developers are free to continue release under GPL v2.
Any attempt at prosecution in this matter is nothing but a total injustice. I fix computers every day. I remove malware. It is incredibly easy to get infected under Windows. Most of this is due to negligence on the part of Microsoft. It is exacerbated by the ignorance of the average user. Virtually any site can be dangerous. Some of this software is incredibly difficult to get rid of while retaining the integrity of the prior install. A substitute school teacher would have no idea how she got infected nor how to remove it once it was infected.
We should not be prosecuting this lady. We should be prosecuting the advertisers and adware distributors. Listen if it wasn't for the advertisers we'd have no malware products. We should also be suing Microsoft for their negligence in their failure to protect the children and the school for not ensuring proper protection to begin with.
Schools should be mandated to use Linux with strict account control. Without a doubt the issues are with Windows, the advertisers, with malware creators, and the school IT people. Someone using a computer for whatever reason should not be held liable because they unwittingly find their way to a malicious site. If they installed Linux on those boxes the accounts would be so compartmentalized there's be little to no adware and no infections that were more difficult to clean than backing up the account data and wiping the account.
The whole idea of holding this poor lady responsible for everyone else's fuck ups is just ludicrous. I know they are saying she did this on purpose and that she was hoping she'd create havoc and harm these children's development and hoped to get fired for doing so. If this hadn't been overturned on this appeal it certainly would have been overturned higher up. This poor woman is being abused by the powers that be and is being used as a scapegoat. This is just sad.
I read it. It wasn't bad. When the popup came I was simply disappointed that a Linux based site would have that. I have long become accustomed to simply laying a beat on the "close this" button/link on stuff like that. Whatever content was listed didn't even register.
It was nice to read an article that stated that his Linux experience overcame many of the incredulous defects being purposefully incorported. I do not like the fact that the monopolist is forcing these sorts of things down the throat of consumers due to their monopoly. It is always best to have competition. Linux is now a better OS than Windows is and only great things are coming up. It is the great OS that Linux is that has been causing Microsoft to grunt and growl with muted voices at IP in Linux. Now they just need to sue us so we can get this stuff out in the open and end this farce thus ending the claims of IP infringement.
Microsoft doesn't really give a flying fuck about the license fees. Period. They are not after indemnification of your customers or to make your products inter-operable with theirs (hell, theirs aren't inter-operable with their own). What they are after is indemnification of themselves. They can only get this by first creating a problem and making their solution the only one and then by holding the feet of every other companies to the fire. After they cough up enough IP (that indemnifies them against future lawsuits from you), then they indemnify your customers. It is the IP they want, not the license fees and that IP is to protect themselves, not to open standards and create interoperability.
How many friggen times do I have to say it. They are after IP cross licensing. They will do anything. Open Source has no real need to cross license. Microsoft has a great need. They have been getting sued over and over and over and over, and loosing nearly 100% of the cases. This means they have to cross license instead of outright stealing. Open Source is starting to set the stage and those that participate have large portfolios of IP. If they can't enter into a legal cross license they will threaten suit in the law instead.
Microsoft is NOT innovative. These are hard cold facts. They have repeatedly stolen IP from other companies. No one trusts them. If IP went away they'd be happy. If IP doesn't they'll use their strong arm tactic to force companies to cross license. They can't afford to keep loosing hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars to lawsuits. If they can't outright steal they will steal in a round about way.
Slander is a false statement made publicly knowing it is false and that it will be believed by others and do harm to whomever it was made about. Libel is the printing of the same thing. It isn't difficult to see both slander and libel in what the Microsofties said/printed.
Only veiled lies are part of any Microsoft statement about interoperability. Microsoft wants proprietary and it to be theirs to lock you into their OS and their technologies. This is not new. Let us be wary of the fact that Microsoft wants the IP from the open source community and are willing to extort it through blatant lies about IP violations. An attorney I spoke with just today while we were discussing this informs me that Microsoft's failure to disclose the patent numbers is essentially abandonment.
Microsoft has been trying to extort IP from the open source. That's their only reason behind the threats. The Open Source community doesn't need to agree to Microsoft's terms. Microsoft needs to agree to the Open Source communities terms, or whomever has the IP. Since the Open Source community has little to no reason to cross license and are willing to remove any infringing code, Microsoft has no choice but to pay up to open source.
It will be pretty funny when everyone comes to the realization that Microsoft has a significantly greater number of IP violations than open source does and they'll refuse to pay up when the time comes for the disclosure. They simply claim that the open source community didn't pay up when they were given a chance so Microsoft decided to play judge, jury, and executioner and make the balance themselves.
Microsoft is like the big oil company threatening to sue the individual car driver, and any major company that uses cars, because those people are using gasoline that may be refined using some portion of their process that wasn't "allegedly" legally licensed. It doesn't matter that this big oil company probably stole the process to begin with. Nor does it matter that they won't tell you which part was infringed so the process can be adjusted.
Microsoft's motives are not altruistic. They are not after interoperability. They are after the IP of these companies intellectual property. It is that simple. It is method of extortion. This moron that is in charge of the IP section is obviously crazy.
I believe you are talking about those pirates that used to rape women, murder men and women, steal, maim, and generally disrespect life in general in their call to duty. These are the guys that went rampant on old ships sinking them and pillaging their goods.
You are talking about copyright theft. This isn't the same. Stealing copyrighted content does not keep the rights holder from making a sale on those items. You haven't denied anyone an income nor have you kept anyone from purchasing an item. The law is well established in this area.
Yes, laws are getting tougher and so are the punishments. It is inappropriate to list pirates and those that steal copyrighted works. Yes, it is done but to include mass murders, rapist, and every other form of criminal act with the theft of a copyrighted material is wrong. You send rapist, child molesters, and murders away for life. You don't do the same for copyright theft. They don't have the same economic nor material impact nor the catastrophic impact that a death might have.
You are just spreading the propaganda of the rich companies.
I know you feel it is bad to do take and reproduce these things in this fashion. A lot of people do. You are entitled to your point of view but you need to come to reality. These guys are not committing heinous crimes.