wow...the audacity

http://www.aaxnet.com/news/M010425.html

I am a dedicated reader of slashdot.org, and when i saw this, I just had to read it. Check out the article, then read the email from Microsoft.

I can't believe that the US government, the people of america, and computer companies worldwide are allowing things like this to happen. It appears old billy boy is at it again. Strong arming OEM's, requesting private information and blatantly ignoring the needs of the user.

Before you guys go into some long speech about how this is a method of MS insuring that all pc's running x flavor of windows, remember, big brother disquises himself well behind the shadows of doubt.

Well I'm not going to believe something that came from that site, since they seem to be a HUGE anti-microsoft site, and since I cannot find that article anywhere else on the web (and I searched for 1 1/2 hours).

Yes, I like Microsoft, and no matter what all you Linux people say, we would be NO-where without Microsoft.

No, I don't believe in everything that they do, and I do think they charge more money than is necessary, but I like them.

And about the whole monopoly thing.....it was over a freakin' browser...that was FREE......................grrrrrrr...that just makes me mad. What's the big deal if they give away more than some other company. Nescrape is giving their browser away for free......they're just not marketing it as well. And so what if Microsoft packaged it with Windows?....because it works WITH the OS......it's easier than packaging a little note with the OS saying "Hey, if you would like, go to microsoft.com and get Internet Explorer because it has a lot of nifty features that will work with your Windows".

OK, I'm done for now. But I'll be back after work.

here bud

www.slashdot.org

title "MS Wants To Know Whose PC Is Windows-Free"

or maybe

http://slashdot.org/articles/00/10/10/145245.shtml

I have never seen anytyhing false or misleading from slashdot...and they are not antimicrosoft...just that most of thier readers are.

forgot a couple things...

"And about the whole monopoly thing.....it was over a freakin' browser...that was FREE......................grrrrrrr...that just makes me mad. What's the big deal if they give away more than some other company. Nescrape is giving their browser away for free......they're just not marketing it as well. And so what if Microsoft packaged it with Windows?."

1) It was never about the fact that the browser came with the OS. It was about the fact that they purposfully strong armed end-users and OEM's into not having a choice about whether or not they wanted to sell an OS that had the web browser so deeply rooted into the functions of filemanagement, system operation, etc.

Try removing IE once. You can't. Why? Because it so deeply rooted into Windows 98,2000 and ME that it would be detrimental to system performance and stability if it was removed.

So, tell me why a user should be forced to install something that he/she doesnt like or use?

2) Marketing has nothing to do with it. When was the last time you saw a tv commercial, heard a radio commercial or saw an advertisement in a computer magazine for Internet Explorer? For Netscape? My guess is never, but I also haven't read any computer magazines for a while because if they aren't opensource based, they tend to be biased in favor of MicroSoft. Hmm, strange how Ziff Davis is partially owned by a MicroSoft Exectutive.

The fact is that MS doesnt have to market thier browser. You already have it. You don't have a choice. Also, notice that its companies like Netscape, Sun and a few others who are calling microsoft on these issues. Not members of the Open Source Community. That being said, you most likely won't find a person who believes in the things Open Source stands for (true opensource based on the GNU/GPL) that disagrees with the plantiff's of the case.

3) As to monopoly. There are, imo, more companies out there who are closer to having a monopoly than MicroSoft. However, the issue is, how many options do you have for an Operating System?

1. 
   Windows - You will be forced to use thier software, update when they get around to releasing a patch for thier all too frequent buggy operating systems. Also, you will be forced to face incompatablity issues with software and hardware.


2. 
   Linux - If you can barely use windows, you can forget about even the simplest distributions of Linux. It's just too hard for people who are very familiar with windows to learn something new. Especially older people who are already terrified of PC's


3. 
   MacOS - Great for graphics programs and some types of web development. Very stable. Unfortunatly, they are also very expensive, upgrading hardware is like pulling teeth, unless you have done it several times, or have help from an extensive manual.


4. 
   DOS - LOL! people still use it, its not heavy on resources, but it tends to suck when you want to run usefull software on it.

Well personally, I've never had a single problem with windows being unstable.

Of course, yes, I do get a crash, but only about every 2 weeks, and that is never a complete failure. Most of the time, Photoshop freezes up and takes out a few other programs, but I can recover from it.

And I.E 5.x often took out Explorer.exe, but that was never a big problem either,.....woopi-dee-doo, so I don't have Active Desktop anymore?....
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And about browser commercials, I see a commercial for MSN Explorer at least 3x/day, and I don't watch much TV, but it's usually on in the background while I'm workin' at the computer.

And I tried removing IE once about 2 years ago, and had no problem. I had to remove it because it was having problems with Visual Basic (my IE didn't like it when I tried to execute a visual basic app). But I un-installed it totally to see if it would make a diff, and it did. I ran Netscape for about 2-3 weeks until I finished the app, then installed the newer version of IE, and from that point on it worked fine. (BTW, I hated Netscape).
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I subscribe to "Interactive Week" (free subscription) and that is a Ziff-Davis magazine, and they are definitely NOT Microsoft supporters. During the whole monopoly thing this time last year, they had a big article on WHY Microsoft should be split up and all the details about the whole deal, but the content of the article did not show Microsoft support.

The following full-page ads
APR 23, 2001 Interactive Week:
Microsoft Ads: 3 (1 being for MSDN)
IBM/Linux Ads: 2
HP Ads: 2

That doesn't seem to be too bad. I didn't look through and count articles, but I did find one article in the front with some nice comments about Linux storage, but like I said, I didn't look throught the whole magazine.
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And that slashdot may not be TOTALLY anti-microsoft, but they sure are PRO-LINUX...(IMO Pro-Linux = anti-microsoft.

But that first time you posted that article, the link was not to slashdot, it was to aaxnet.com, which by the way is STRONGLY PRO-Linux. Personally, I'd like to read it on a NON-biased site.
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And have you ever seen ZD-TV (I think it's called Tech-TV now? It's available on DSS, Direct-TV, and many major cable networks. Well there is a show on there called the Screen-Savers, and Leo Laporte is the host of that show, and he is a LINUX user and proudly says it.
http://www.techtv.com/superguides/linux/
http://www.techtv.com/superguides/linux/productreviews/
http://www.techtv.com/superguides/linux/newsandopinions/

Taken from About page at TechTV:
About TechTV's owner


TechTV is owned by Vulcan Ventures, the Bellevue, Washington-based investment organization of Microsoft cofounder Paul G. Allen. Vulcan Ventures purchased TechTV from its founder, Ziff Davis, in a transaction completed on January 21, 2000. Through Vulcan, Allen invests in companies that offer products, services, or technologies that fit his "wired world" strategy and can contribute to or benefit from the technology and strategy of other companies within the group's extensive investment portfolio. For more information on Vulcan, visit www.paulallen.com.
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And when I bought my new Gateway 2000 PC 2+ years ago, Windows was NOT pre-installed, but it did come with the Windows disk. And back then, what choice did I have? I sure wasn't going to dive into Linux (besides the fact that I had no idea what it was until about 1 year ago after watching (ZDTV (TechTV) Ziff-Davis owned).
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Be back tomorrow, need sleep.

Heeheehee.....sorry, that was kinda' long.

I will say this much.

I am pro-linux. I am not anti-microsoft. Hell, if it weren't for the instabilities of Microsoft software, not just the Operating Systems, I wouldnt have a job.

I don't know where the Microsoft zealots get the idea that you can only like/use one operating system.

"And I.E 5.x often took out Explorer.exe, but that was never a big problem either,.....woopi-dee-doo, so I don't have Active Desktop anymore?.... "

Err, Explorer.exe == linked to IE 5.x and Active desktop is still around. If you get a chance, Try Windows Me or Windows 2000. Then go about your daily business. But, if Internet Explorer crashes on you, notice how explorer.exe (the win32 shell) will most likely have to restart itself.

Finally, I think you have missed the point of the article. You say I didnt link to slashdot for the article. Well, pardon me for taking you away from the trouble of finding it yourself. But your assumptions that all Linux users = Microsoft haters, are for the most part, incorrect.

There are those Linux users who say that Microsoft is the incarnation of evil, but the majority realize that it is a necessary evil, because there are people such as yourself, who are either afraid or refuse to try something new. Whether it be because they want to continue using thier windows based software, or the extent of the knowledge they have about computers doesn't extend past changing the desktop background and rebooting.

As to you liking to read non-biased sites/magazines. Then why do you continue to watch techtv, read ziff-davis magazines when they have a vested interest in the advancement of Microsoft.

Personally, I dual-boot both Win98 and Mandrake Linux. I haven't been into Linux very much lately, but that's mostly because when I'm on the computer, I'm doing photoshop, or Dreamweaver or something, which I of course can't use in Linux. However if I had the time, and if Linux had the support of those programs, and a lot of the games I play, I would switch forever to Linux and never look back. There's just so much you can do with Linux it's amazing.

I personally don't have a problem with IE being integrated into Windows, because all I use is IE anyway since Netscape has gone to hell, and those are basically your two options.

Even if I was a Netscape user (which I used to be), all I have to do is install Netscape and not use IE anymore. Not that big of a deal.

Anyway. Those are just my thoughts.

no exactly decker. go to Windows Explorer, the file manager program for windows. Guess what, thats internet explorer.

But that's the same as it's always been. So what's the difference? I don't know. I guess I don't really understand the whole thing.