Linux-Advocacy Digest #742, Volume #27 Tue, 18 Jul 00 01:13:03 EDT
Contents:
Re: What I've always said: Netcraft numbers of full of it ("Otto")
Re: Why my company will NOT use Linux (mlw)
Re: Tinman digest, volume 2451743 (Tholen) (Jacques Guy)
Re: Windows98 ("Spud")
Re: Just curious, how do I do this in Windows? ("Spud")
Re: Just curious, how do I do this in Windows? ("Spud")
Re: Would a M$ Voluntary Split Save It? ("JS/PL")
Re: Just curious, how do I do this in Windows? ("Spud")
Re: Just curious, how do I do this in Windows? ("Spud")
Re: Just curious, how do I do this in Windows? ("Spud")
Re: Looking for Linux authors ("Spud")
Re: To Pete Goodwin: How Linux saved my lunch today! ("Spud")
Re: To Pete Goodwin: How Linux saved my lunch today! ("Spud")
Re: To Pete Goodwin: How Linux saved my lunch today! ("Spud")
Re: To Pete Goodwin: How Linux saved my lunch today! ("Spud")
Re: Would a M$ Voluntary Split Save It? (ZnU)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "Otto" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: What I've always said: Netcraft numbers of full of it
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 03:12:32 GMT
"Arthur Frain" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
: Amazon runs Apache and counts as a single site too.
: Amazon probably handles more traffic than most of the
: Fortune 500 combined. Certainly there are people
: who use IIS for virtual hosting, just not very many.
: That seems to be a useful fact also.
:
: Your argument basically reduces to "Dell uses IIS,
: joesmuck uses Apache, therefore the Netcraft data
: is useless". If I chose to argue on the same level,
: I could say that "Doghouses of the South uses IIS,
: Amazon uses Apache, therefore IIS is insignificant".
: Either case is a fallacy of composition - the
: underlying assumption is that a tiny subset
: (less than 100 out of 17,000,000 sites sampled)
: follows a certain pattern, therefore the entire
: data set follows the same pattern. That's not
: a valid argument IMHO, and doesn't justify
: calling Netcraft "useless".
Touché.....
Otto
------------------------------
From: mlw <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Why my company will NOT use Linux
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 23:13:21 -0400
gLiTcH wrote:
>
> so this now brings up a good question, which is more immoral: having sex
> before married, or Microsoft's business tactics?
>
> "Javier Gostling D." wrote:
>
> > > >David, go out with some girls and have sex.. its more fun than Windows
> > > >computing.
> > To be honest, it's also more fun than computing with Linux, notwithstanding
> > how much you like Linux ;-)
> >
> > - Javier
Well, the fact is that one can not have sex 24 hours a day. If they
could, civilization, as we know it, would never have happened. Nothing
is (or should be) better than good sex. Computers aren't even as good as
bad sex.
The issue is, what do you do with the time when sex is not an option?
Personally, I would not waste my time with Windows, unless I was payed
very very much. Linux, better than sex? No. Linux better than Windows,
yes.
--
Mohawk Software
Windows 9x, Windows NT, UNIX, Linux. Applications, drivers, support.
Visit http://www.mohawksoft.com
Nepotism proves the foolishness of at least two people.
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 03:26:06 +0000
From: Jacques Guy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.sys.mac.advocacy,comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: Tinman digest, volume 2451743 (Tholen)
tinman wrote:
> I can tell that if we continue, my french will broaden significantly.
I recommend "La Methode a Mimile" a handbook of slang, and a spoof
of the famous French series "La Methode Assimil" (out of which I
learnt Russian when I was a kid)
> I do wonder whether Dave is in
> fact just a bot--not necessarily of the computer kind, perhaps rather a
> reduced personality. ('
Even the Grrrreat Mutlu was only part-bot, the bot-part being
the bit that would fetch random quotes from his huge database
of "atrocities perpetrated by Armenians against Turks" (tm)
> Personally, I enjoy Dave's conversations, in a sort of minimalist
> bad-imitation-of-phillip-glass-wannabe sort of way.
Yes, Phillip Glass *is* a bit repetitive, isn't he?
Satyagraha was nice, but Akhnaten ...(at least the Ancient
Egyptian could have been sung in something *resembling*
Ancient Egyptian--then I could have put up with the
saw. I have gone back to Carl Orff and Kurt Weill, and
distantly resembling Glass, but vastly superior, Balinese
music/theatre)
>
> So which of the advocacy groups do you call home?
comp.os.linux.advocacy
Why?
I had two hideous mishaps with Windoze over the past
very few years, and the last was just... I am no longer
touching Windoze, except with a twenty-foot pole, because
my printer is a WinPrinter. I have to relearn everything...
I am exaggerating: only a LOT of things. Thank goodness I had
some exposure to Unix 15 years ago. It helps.
------------------------------
From: "Spud" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Windows98
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 20:35:28 -0700
"Tim Kelley" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> On 11 Jul 2000 15:23:51 GMT, Paul Colclough <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> >[EMAIL PROTECTED] (David Cancio) wrote in
> ><LYl35.1231$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>:
>
> >One thing that annoys me in Linux is where programs install
themselves - some
> >go in /usr/local/bin, other go in /usr/sbin, others are in
/usr/local/share,
> >etc, etc. There doesn't seem to be much difference between the
actual operating
> >system components and accessories needed to run a decent desktop
(eg. XFree86,
> >KDE/Gnome/or whatever window manager) and other programs you
install. You don't
> >see many Windows programs installing themselves into
c:\windows\system now do
> >you? They all install neatly into c:\program files\ and you can
pretty much
> >find an installed program living in there in some sub-directory.
>
> ??? This is just crazy. There is a file system standard for linux
and
> it is followed pretty well.
>
> Program binaries go in /usr/bin; data files go in /usr/share, config
> files go in /usr/etc or /etc and $HOME; libraries go in /lib or
/usr/lib.
>
> Programs you compile yourself - those not part of your
distribution -
> go in /usr/local.
>
>
> ust because a program does not install all its files into a single
> directory does not mean it is willy-nilly. You're just not used to
> it. There is no caprice at work here, it is just the logical result
> of unix being a multi-user system and windows not being one.
>
> Compare to windows where everything is completely random. Some
things
> go in \windows, some in \windows\system, some in \program files ...
a
> total mess. I've seen many programs try to install files in the
root
> directory. Many times windows programs won't even run if they are
> installed in a custom location. Windows is absolute shit in this
> regard, and unix is the model for how things should be done.
Couple of minor points...
1) Putting anything in \windir is largely pointless, and has been
since windows 3.x. A few apps still do it because they've never been
updated, but it's hardly the norm.
2) Writing to \sysdir has been frowned on for some time, other than
installing actual new versions of existing core components.
3) If an application doesn't work when it's installed to a non-default
location, blame the app vendor; it's not a difficult thing to get
right.
4) Examine MSI - default in Win2K, but also available as
redistributables for 9x and NT4. Since app vendors, as a whole,
couldn't seem to cope with a hatful of very basic rules for doing
things right, MS provided MSI, which resolves a number of those
issues, by enforcing them under 2K and NT, and using the same
mechanisms minus protection under 9x. Now you have the following
options to play with:
\Program Files - guess what goes here?
\Windir - nothing goes here
\Systemdir - nothing goes here
\Program Files\Common Files - shared DLLs and the like
My Documents - default for generated data files (Word documents,
databases, etc)
UserAppData - per-user configuration information
AppData - common configuration information (for multiple users)
LocalAppData - configuration information only relevant to this machine
Note that, as a general rule, you _don't_ mess with the Windows or
System folders at all. If you must - eg your application requires an
updated version of, oh, the MFC DLLs - you get a merge module from the
vendor, which is, from your perspective a black box that manages the
updating of the required functionality.
Add to that Win2K's file protection mechanism, which allows old
installs which do write things to the system folder to think they've
done so successfully, but then copies originals back over top of them,
and you get much improved reliability.
There are other benefits, as well. Advertised installs - install the
bits you need now, and if you need another bit later on, MSI (possibly
with some help from the application) will manage the installing of it
when you attempt to use the functionality. Application resiliency -
someone nuked a bunch of your files? No prob, the way MSI and your
application work together, your app can recover and keep right on
chugging.
A personal favorite is the concept of per-machine data. For example,
there's absolutely no reason to maintain more than one installed copy
of Application X, version 1.2.3.4. With MSI, if there's already a
copy on the machine, subsequent installations of an application (eg in
the case of multiple personal installs rather than a single common
install) won't even ask where you want to install the program...
because you're not installing the program, you're simply configuring
an already installed program so you can use it, too. Avoids all sorts
of headaches. MSI also makes it a lot easier to support roaming
users, another handy feature.
MSI has gone a long way to resolving install-related issues under
Windows. Sadly, those issues should never have come about in the
first place, since there are in fact, guidelines on doing these things
right in the first place: if it isn't a system DLL, it doesn't belong
in the system folder. Always version and date check files before
overwriting them. And so forth. The fact some folks couldn't be
bothered to follow them isn't a fault of Windows, so much as of sloppy
install development... and I don't care how good your OS is, if your
install developers are sloppy, or worse, the application developers,
things are going to break, even if only applications that won't work
because you installed them other than to the default location.
------------------------------
From: "Spud" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: Just curious, how do I do this in Windows?
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 20:44:02 -0700
"Aaron R. Kulkis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
>
>
> abraxas wrote:
> >
> > In comp.os.linux.advocacy Drestin Black
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > >
> > > "abraxas" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> > > news:8kefaj$3p2$[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > >> In comp.os.linux.advocacy Drestin Black
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > > wrote:
> > >> > Rob:
> > >> >
> > >> > I didn't read the code because I have a few questions before
I even
> > > begin to
> > >> > think about how to do this in windows.
> > >> >
> > >>
> > >> You didnt read the code because you CANT read the code,
dresden.
> > >
> > > and again, you provide nothing but an attempt at insult. go
mutilate
> > > yourself some more...
> > >
> > >
> >
> > You dont know how to read code, because you are an IT
professional. You
> > know how to hook up printers, and thats about it. Now stop trying
to
> > fool everyone and go back to changing toner.
> >
>
> No..he also replaces big, ORACLE databases servers on Unix with
> Microsoft
> Exchange running on LoseNT....
>
> NOT!
"NOT" is absolutely correct. Only a complete idiot would even
*contemplate* replacing a database server with a messaging server.
Whoops, someone did contemplate it.
------------------------------
From: "Spud" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: Just curious, how do I do this in Windows?
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 20:50:33 -0700
[snips]
"Rob S. Wolfram" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> Fair enough, but frankly I already expected this would be possible.
What
> does interest me, is how you would handle erroneous messages and
> security. How would you prevend me from sending you a similar email
that
> would keep your line open for two days?
You mean like "If the message is > 2Mb, don't download it"? No prob;
set a size filter with an action "don't download".
------------------------------
From: "JS/PL" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.advocacy
Subject: Re: Would a M$ Voluntary Split Save It?
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 23:53:44 -0400
Reply-To: "JS/PL" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Well we could start a large circular argument in which we both eventually
waste 8 hours of our lives comparing and quoting "documents" I really don't
wish to do this.
I will tell you one thing. Government made a huge mistake when they decided
to try and help Netscape compete and get on the evening news all at the same
time. I'll just go on record by saying the appeal will result in the whole
judgment being thrown out.
But if it were upheld....
Splitting up Microsoft will not punish the principal shareholders at all, in
fact it will most likely increase their wealth beyond belief! It will not
benefit the consumer in the slightest because the price of the consumer
operating system will surely go up. The software market will still be
incredibly competitive, so it will not help anyone at all. You'll just have
Uncle Sam with his bureaucratic grasp on something he has no business being
involved in.
All you Anti-MS people who are embracing uncle Sam as your savior are
insane!
"ZnU" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "JS/PL"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > > On Mon, 17 Jul 2000 11:35:38 -0400, JS/PL
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> > wrote:
> > > >Let's have your take on it.
> > >
> > > The oversight of an elected body rather than the whim of a
> > > Robber Baron that is in a position to do anything it likes
> > > being rather out of the control of the "invisible hand" at
> > > this point.
> > >
> > > Government is occasionally a necessary evil, usually to
> > > counteract some other evil. Hopefully, all such evils
> > > are checked in the end. This includes corporations.
> >
> > The statement above has absolutely no facts to debate. Instead of
reciting
> > the anti-MS "evil Microsoft" line try laying down some proven incidents
of
> > wrongdoing on Microsoft's part.
>
> Are you seriously implying you don't think Microsoft has done anything
> wrong? I've got a 150 page document that disagrees with you....
>
> --
> The number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected.
> -- The Unix Programmer's Manual, 2nd Edition, June 1972
>
> ZnU <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | <http://znu.dhs.org>
------------------------------
From: "Spud" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: Just curious, how do I do this in Windows?
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 20:55:58 -0700
[snips]
"Mike Marion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> Drestin Black wrote:
>
> > I am not a big fan of C++, Java or PERL - that leaves quite a
bit... I tend
> > to favor VB (in it's variations) becuase it's easy, fast and
universally
> > understood and available. And cause I have little time to code
like I used
> > to.
>
> Last I saw VB only existed for windows. That's _not_ universally
> available.
>
> From the experience I've had with VB, it sucked. Perl is much more
> powerful IMO (and I can use perl on almost every platform out
there).
"Powerful"? In what contexts? Quick, build me a graphical interface
to our application - in Perl. We'll come back in a year or 12. Sure,
VB doesn't have Perl's ability to parse... but Perl doesn't seem to be
a particularly good tool for developing UIs, which is one of VB's
strengths. So you don't use VB for the "meat" of the program... so
what? This "only a hammer is a useful tool" mentality strikes me as a
little bizarre.
------------------------------
From: "Spud" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: Just curious, how do I do this in Windows?
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 20:59:50 -0700
[snips]
"Mike Marion" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> Drestin Black wrote:
>
> > when I included variations I meant Basic in general. I've found a
basic
> > language or something very similar to it on most platforms, in
scripts or
> > proper languages
>
> Ah, I see. There is a difference though. Unlike Perl, or most C
which
> can simply be copied from platform to platform and run/compiled with
no
> (or very few) changes.. VB is likely not going to port as easily.
No, but only a turnip would choose a non-portable language to write an
application intended to be ported.
You think your app is likely to be ported, or at least you have hopes?
Fine; write it in C++. Then use VB to put a decent interface on it.
When you port to some other platform, take the "meat" code with you,
and redo the UI in something appropriate to that platform.
> No argument there.. it's a tool that works for you (and others).
The
> way you said you don't care for C++, Java and Perl but do prefer VB
made
> it seem as though you thought VB was a better language. Which, IMO
is
> far from the truth.
Better for some purposes... not all, by any means.
------------------------------
From: "Spud" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: Just curious, how do I do this in Windows?
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 21:05:09 -0700
"Aaron R. Kulkis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
>
>
> Drestin Black wrote:
> >
>
> >
> > I am not a big fan of C++, Java or PERL - that leaves quite a
bit... I tend
> > to favor VB (in it's variations) becuase it's easy, fast and
universally
> > understood and available.
>
> VB is ONLY available on LoseDOS systems and is ONLY understoond my
M$
> droids.
Actually, VB is only available, as far as I'm aware, on Windows
systems. "LoseDOS"? Never heard of it. As to "M$ droids", I've
never heard of "M$" either, so I wouldn't know about that. I do know
it's use almost exclusively by people in a Microsoft environment, but
that only makes sense; it's an MS-specific tool which isn't terribly
portable... then again, it's wasn't designed to be.
> Pretty strange definition of "universal" you have there.
Indeed, calling VB "universal" is a bit silly.
------------------------------
From: "Spud" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Looking for Linux authors
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 21:10:26 -0700
"JeffK" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:qlsa5.21283$[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> Sybex Inc., a leading computer book publisher in the Bay area, is
looking
> for Linux professionals to author numerous on the Linux operating
system.
Totally irrelevant, but somewhat amusing, aside:
A certain lady I know, who shall remain nameless in order to protect
the guilty, was hired by a certain Linux distributor (again who shall
also remain nameless, for the same reasons) to write technical
manuals.
That in itself isn't overly surprising; any OS vendor should provide
some sort of documentation, and there's no reason she or any other
person, male or female, couldn't do it, assuming they had the
requisite knowledge and writing skills. What made the incident
laughable was that about a week after getting the job, I'd sent her an
e-mail with an attached jpg image, to which she responded, "I don't
open image attachments; I don't want to get a virus."
Makes you wonder... :)
------------------------------
From: "Spud" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: To Pete Goodwin: How Linux saved my lunch today!
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 21:13:41 -0700
[snips]
"Jacques Guy" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> overnight, but slowly, as I learn my way. I still would like
> to figure out how disk E: became "UNKNOWN" (according to
> DOS fdisk), and how I could restore it to FAT16 (as seen
> by DOS--Linux already sees it as FAT16, reads it, writes to it!)
>
> I had 18 months of painstakingly collected data there.
18 months of data, and it went blooie? No problem... restore from
your backup. Since it's a FAT16, it can't be that large a quantity,
shouldn't take you more than 20 minutes or so.
Oh, you don't have a backup? Fine. Your data is *gone*. Learn the
lesson *now*, before you lose something that's actually worth
something to you.
------------------------------
From: "Spud" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: To Pete Goodwin: How Linux saved my lunch today!
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 21:17:06 -0700
"Aaron Ginn" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
>
> > In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
> > Aaron Ginn <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > Anyway, I created her an account on my Linux partition, mounted
the
> > > windows partition as a vfat drive, and copied all her Windows
mail
> > > over to her new Linux account. Voila! It worked perfectly!
She can
> > > read all her old mail and send mail just like she did under
Windows.
> >
> >
> > Incidentally, mind if I ask which mail client she'd been using in
Win?
> > And what you used to convert the mailboxes? (Assuming they were
not
> > already in "mbox" format... depending on your client of course.)
>
>
> Netscape mail. I avoid Outlook like the plague. Someone passed
along
> the Pretty Park worm to my wife several months ago. At least when
she
> clicked on the attachment, no one else was passed the virus.
Note the action you needed to take: clicking the attachment to launch
it. Avoiding OE won't fix that; you need to avoid any mailer which
actually allows you to receive attachments; as long as you can receive
them and either launch them directly or save them and launch them from
a folder, you're still at risk.
In short, that's not an OE problem, it's a problem with either
selecting an inappropriate tool for the job (i.e. selecting a mailer
that accepts attachments) or it's a personnel problem - someone wasn't
told not to run programs they're not certain are safe.
------------------------------
From: "Spud" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: To Pete Goodwin: How Linux saved my lunch today!
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 21:23:39 -0700
[snips]
"Phill" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in
message
> Try modifying to:
>
> 1) Linux lags behind Windows in some hardware support (those pesky
Linux
> people tend to test their drivers before committing them to a stable
> release unlike those brave hero's that are the windows driver
writers)
Mandrake 7.1, IIRC. Run their little tool for configuring the sound
card. "Do you want to scan for ISA devices?" No. Oh, well, let's
scan anyways, and lock the system so hard it requires a reset. Not
ctrl-alt-del, but reset.
Win98, ME and 2K: Install the OS, sound card is automatically detected
and configured.
> 2) Linux desktop lags behind Windows in terms of "ease of use" for a
> windows user. However, the flexibility that X provides far more
features
> than Windows can achieve at this time.
Can't say I had much of a problem with the GUI, other than that it
felt sluggish... almost as if the video drivers weren't using the
acceleration features on the video card.
------------------------------
From: "Spud" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: To Pete Goodwin: How Linux saved my lunch today!
Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 21:26:38 -0700
"Colin R. Day" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> Pete Goodwin wrote:
>
>
> >
> > Ah but there are a few, they're here in COLA. They've asked me to
modify
> > my statement, so it becomes:
> >
> > Linux lags behind Windows in some hardware products and
> > Linux desktop lags behind Windows.
> >
>
> So which version of Windows has eight desktops out of the box?
None. However, having worked on systems with multiple desktop tools
installed (both Linux and Windows), I've yet to find any actual use
for them. "I want to switch to application X" - okay, fine, alt-tab
to it, or click it's taskbar entry. Oh, it's in another desktop?
Okay, so I click the taskbar entry for that, instead. I've bought
what, exactly?
------------------------------
From: ZnU <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.os2.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy,comp.sys.mac.advocacy
Subject: Re: Would a M$ Voluntary Split Save It?
Date: Tue, 18 Jul 2000 04:27:13 GMT
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "JS/PL"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> Well we could start a large circular argument in which we both
> eventually waste 8 hours of our lives comparing and quoting
> "documents" I really don't wish to do this. I will tell you one
> thing. Government made a huge mistake when they decided to try and
> help Netscape compete and get on the evening news all at the same
> time.
Good thing the government didn't do that.
> I'll just go on record by saying the appeal will result in the
> whole judgment being thrown out.
Riiiiiigth.
> But if it were upheld....
>
> Splitting up Microsoft will not punish the principal shareholders at
> all, in fact it will most likely increase their wealth beyond belief!
> It will not benefit the consumer in the slightest because the price
> of the consumer operating system will surely go up. The software
> market will still be incredibly competitive,
You imply that the software market is competitive now. Some segments of
it might be. But please, which x86 operating system is a viable
alternative to MS Windows?
BeOS? With no apps?
Linux? The OS that compsci graduates have trouble with?
Perhaps OS/2? Totally abandoned by IBM?
You must be thinking of all that middleware. Let's see....
Java? The write-once tweak-for-a-few-months-and-it-might-work-anywhere-
but-you'd-better-test-because-it-might-not platform that Microsoft has
already tried to do significant damage too?
Or maybe you mean YellowBox for Windows? Canceled by Apple.
Hey! Someone could be sneaky and use a browser as middlewa -- err....
oh. Wait.
As if all this wasn't enough, Microsoft now wants to take over the
entire Internet, and turn every web site into an "application" developed
using Microsoft development tools. Just ask Bill Gates. He's very
excited about the plan. And I hope you don't mind paying rental fees for
software, and trusting all your data to Microsoft's servers.
So, where is this huge threat to Microsoft's x86 OS monopoly? Please do
tell. Even Microsoft couldn't do anything more than hand wave on this
issue.
> so it will not help anyone at all. You'll just have Uncle Sam with
> his bureaucratic grasp on something he has no business being involved
> in.
>
> All you Anti-MS people who are embracing uncle Sam as your savior are
> insane!
Obviously. Why would anyone want a democratically elected body to have
any control over anything? The power is much safer concentrated in the
hands of wealthy individuals.
--
The number of UNIX installations has grown to 10, with more expected.
-- The Unix Programmer's Manual, 2nd Edition, June 1972
ZnU <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | <http://znu.dhs.org>
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