All true. But I've never seen a EULA before that said you give your vendor the right to install software on your box at any time they wish and without even your knowledge or consent. (Actually you gave consent when you opened the XP shrinkwrap.) They not only have unrestricted 24x7 access to your machine, they can do with it as they wish. From an Operations perspective, that's completely unacceptable.
Some would argue, of course, that they fear nothing from MS. But the key point is what it reveals about MS' attitude toward you, your systems, their software and their plans for it all in the future. And the simple fact that if they did download the latest security-patch-of-the-minute for XP, and it blew up, you'd have no legal recourse whatsoever. They have rights, you take the responsibility. This is the way monopolies (all) eventually behave - that you, the customer, do their bidding rather than the other way around. This is the first time I've seen IS managers begin to say "enough". They've usually been perfectly happy to be a captive account to whomever their jailkeeper of choice is (IBM, Digital, AT&T, etc.). I was. And most were even worse. I hope this turns into a outright boycott against MS. Michael Lee pontificated eloquently: > Joel Hammer wrote: > > This is really an old argument. Basically, MS can do anything it > > wants to do down the road. After all, almost all MS users are > > entirely dependent on MS. The herd thinks that if there are enough > > sheep, someone will stop the wolf from eating them. Congress would step > > in or something. Or, the wolf will be satisfied with only a small bite > > from each of the sheep. > > > > They could be right. There are a lot of sheep, now that I think about > > it. > > > > Joel > > > >>Some of this has been going on for a long time. Download Netscape 6 and > >> the first thing that happens is that Netscape pings your box to find > >> out what OS your running and the browser you're using. Based on that > >> it makes a recommendation on which version to install. M$ used to do > >> that but I believe they stopped doing it after they caught alot of > >> flack. Netscape's probe is benign enough for a legitamate purpose, but > >> it's still someone tracking your data without asking first. > > > > On Tue, Feb 12, 2002 at 05:28:13PM -0600, Michael Hipp wrote: > > > In case you need ammo to convince folks not to buy MS, this is worth > > > a read: > > > > > > 'Check the fine print' > > > http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/02/02/11/020211opfoster.xml > > > > > > -- > > > Michael R. Hipp > > > Microsoft Windows XP: Just say no. > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Linux-users mailing list - > > > http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users Subscribe/Unsubscribe > > > info, Archives,and Digests are located at the above URL. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > Linux-users mailing list - http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users > > Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Archives,and Digests are located at the > > above URL. > > _______________________________________________ > Linux-users mailing list - http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users > Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Archives,and Digests are located at the above > URL. -- Michael R. Hipp Microsoft Windows XP: Just say no. _______________________________________________ Linux-users mailing list - http://linux.nf/mailman/listinfo/linux-users Subscribe/Unsubscribe info, Archives,and Digests are located at the above URL.
