__/ [ The Ghost In The Machine ] on Monday 19 March 2007 15:13 \__
> In comp.os.linux.advocacy, Roy Schestowitz
> <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> wrote
> on Sat, 17 Mar 2007 05:05:32 +0000
> <1916538.ojisRMtCKn@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>:
>> __/ [ ml2mst ] on Saturday 17 March 2007 04:10 \__
>>
>>> On 17 mrt, 00:28, Roy Schestowitz <newsgro...@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>>>> __/ [ Phil Da Lick! ] on Friday 16 March 2007 18:38 \__
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> > Peter Köhlmann wrote:
>>>> >>http://news.zdnet.co.uk/security/0,1000000189,39286351,00.htm
>>>>
>>>> >> /quote
>>>> >> Asked about these problems, Arno Edelmann, Microsoft's European
>>>> >> business security product manager, told ZDNet UK on Thursday that the
>>>> >> code itself has pieces missing.
>>>> >> "Usually Microsoft doesn't develop products, we buy products. It's
>>>> >> not a bad product, but bits and pieces are missing," said Edelmann.
>>>> >> /unquote
>>>>
>>>> >> Yup. Thats it. "Buying products" is "innovation" The MS type
>>>>
>>>> > "Usually Microsoft doesn't develop products"
>>>>
>>>> > Couldn't have said it better myself.
>>>>
>>>> OneCare will be remembered as one destructive Microsoft failure that
>>>> follows others, which did not necessarily /sabotage/ people's desktop,
>>>> e.g. Zune.
>>>
>>> Dream on Roy!
>>>
>>> The Micro$haft Windopez fans will keep on using their horrible
>>> Operating System (or whatever it aims to be) to eternity.
>>
>>
>> I beg to differ. With increasing pressure, OEMs will soon have to accept
>> the fact that Linux has a market.
>
> Pedant Point: I'm not sure Linux has a market, though it's quite clear
> RedHat, SuSE, or others might. ;-)
Good point.
>> Even my parents would gladly use Linux. They
>> just need some support, akin to the support they already get when Windows
>> gets b0rked.
>
> Depends on your parents, but I suspect if their needs can
> be satisfied by an emailer, a web browser, and a visual
> click-and-go config system that does the basics, Linux
> distros can certainly do that without too much trouble.
> The main issue (still!) is the occasional website that
> can't handle Firefox and/or other such Mozzie derivatives.
Can set the browser to always pose as IE. It would even make Microsoft
happier. They shut out Linux, so even when Linux is on the rise, Microsoft
gets its 'market share' vanity. It makes everyone happy. :-S
>> Yesterday a colleague of mine asked me for help with SUSE 9.3. He hasn't
>> booted into that partition for a long time and he is finally willing to
>> explore it a little more profoundly.
>
> He might want to replace it with 10.2. :-) That's the problem
> with open source; turn around and it goes slightly stale. :-)
> On the flip side, only slightly.
SUSE 8.1 served me well even years after the support rope was no longer
there.
>>> Believe me, I did my best convincing my friends, they should migrate
>>> to a proper and secure OS, but they won't.
>>
>>
>> Approach them when the OS that they currently use angers them. Betrayal by
>> software is soon forgotten, but when it recurs too often, the camel's back
>> cracks. Vista is the last straw to some. A few others have recently lost
>> their mail archives because of OneCare, which is apparently needed for an
>> inherently-insecure OS.
>
> Sad, really. Ideally Linux et al would be accepted on its own merits.
> Of course ideally Microsoft would play fair, too. :-)
They play with the fare instead.
>>> I still don't have the slightest idea why, because to install the
>>> latest distro's, no competence is required at all. Even the greatest
>>> idiot is able to install a GNU/Linux distro these days.
>>
>>
>> Of course. And remember that we fit Linux onto a machine that was designed
>> for Windows, which makes it much more of a challenge, at least on paper.
>
> Ah, but Linux is an adaptive little beastie; stealthy, too. Especially
> when manufacturers cooperate by giving out specs to older products.
>
> (I don't know regarding newer ones at this point.)
At least we get some bread crumbs, leftovers... :-)
>>> Probably they are somehow addicted to their viruses and spyware,
>>> pretty much like hard drugs :D
>>>
>>> The worst of all, is that they take the spyware, provided by Microsoft
>>> for gratitude.
>>
>>
>> The cycle of punishment that technologies like WGA and DRM bring will lead
>> to no gratitude. Profiling of users, which relies on spyware, will become
>> scarier in years to come. I can't recall the name of that Jim Carrey film
>> where he's being watched all the time and he virtually lives in a
>> corporate bubble that delivers not just ads but an entire lifestyle pushed
>> onto him.
>
> Sounds like that might be The Truman Show.
>
> http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120382/
>
> I can't say for sure, as I've not watched it, but that sounds about
> right.
Yes, that's the one. Warmly recommended. I watched it at the cinema when I
was about 15, I think.
>> it's a burden. No person wants to become a servant/robot to whom access to
>> data (even your own photos and music collection) gets limited by corporate
>> power; To whom prices are something that's forced, so you must simply work
>> as hard as the companies require, in order to be able to pay what they
>> charge for computing. It's means of controlling people.
>>
>> Companies work for themselves whereas governments elected by people ought
>> to serve our own needs. But in many cases the companies take over the
>> agendas of the government, lobby in its support, make use of nepotism, and
>> change laws. The role of the government is declining in the sense that
>> it's there to serve a few companies (minority), rather than people who are
>> eligible to vote (majority).
>>
>>
>>> With kind regards,
>>>
>>> Marti van Lin (alias the ML2MST)
>>> Maastricht (NL)
>>
>>
>> Don't lose morale. You happen to live in a place where the ordinary
>> citizen still has a voice. At the moment, the opposition party over here
>> seeks to mimic what continental Europe is working towards. I don't think
>> that the number of proxies, pressure groups, and lobbying Microsoft has in
>> Europe (plenty of them) can overwhelm so many governments that are sick
>> and tired of predatory monopolies that globalise and destroy local SMEs,
>> depriving the local economy.
>>
>
> Not to mention the citizen's voice in politics. However, there was an
> interesting analogy; radio used to be free, as was television. It
> became regulated through a series of rather nasty maneuvers.
>
> Internet might get the same way; we already have an ogliarchy of
> providers. (Earthlink is one of them; Time Warner is another.)
Some are talking about a wireless open mesh, set up by volunteers. Time will
tell...
--
~~ Best wishes
Roy S. Schestowitz | The most satisfying eXPerience is UNIX
http://Schestowitz.com | GNU/Linux ¦ PGP-Key: 0x74572E8E
Mem: 514480k total, 478432k used, 36048k free, 23764k buffers
http://iuron.com - next generation of search paradigms
|
|
