Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

[Snowhog]

Re: Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

While running Windows I read a Dr Dobbs Journal article about how Microsoft tweaked Windows so that it would refused to install on top of DRDOS4, claiming it would only run on MSDOS. The editors edited the Win binary and NOP'd the parts detecting DRDOS and then did a perfect install. In fact, they reported, Windows ran better on DRDO4S than on MSDOS.

Combining those two pieces of info led me to believe that Microsoft was less than ethical...Microsoft makes Standard Oil or Bernie Madoff look like rank amateurs.

You may well remember then, the (I believe) law suit brought against M$ concerning it's deliberate coding in IE to detect what OS the client was using, specifically, coding to detect OS/2 operating systems that were connecting to M$ hosted web sights, preventing the sight from displaying in the OS/2 client browser. Microsoft has, and in many ways still does, incorporate 'predatory' practices where, and when, it can get away with it.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

yup, and judging by how easily and quickly MS "persuaded" the court to reverse the injunction against selling Word, it owns the courts too. "We'll loose too much money if we can't sell Word" But, their selling Word increases the damages to the i4i. So, breaking the law for profits is OK if you have the financial clout.

[Ole Juul]

Re: Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

Snowdog: I'd be suprised if they would be able to substantiate that 'right' in court.

I was going to say that the courts are no match for aggressive companies but it looks like GreyGeek beat me to it:

So, breaking the law for profits is OK if you have the financial clout.

Actually I just started (yet) another blog, with two stories about that here: http://ojuul.baywords.com/

There a lots of examples like this with MS. I didn't like their politics as soon as I got wind of them. That happened when I noticed that their utilities for one version of DOS wouldn't run right out of the box with another version. That was not acceptable to me. Not liking the GUI environment also added to me just staying with DOS until Linux finally allowed me to join the "world" again.

I generally stay away from MicroSoft bashing on the software level since very little software, especially that written in recent years, is safe from criticism. On the ethical level I have no problem expressing my observations. It is unfortunate that this "type" of ethics is so easily accepted by the general populace and even taught in business school.

[Ole Juul]

Re: Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

What I meant to emphasize in my above post, but didn't, is that my overriding reason for not using MS (since DOS) is not really about the software but about the ethics. I'm glad to see that others here share that view.

I promote Linux software, I ignore MS software. I promote open source, I decry questionable ethics.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

To be clear, I appose Microsoft strictly because of its past and current, WELL DOCUMENTED, illegal and unethical behavior.

As far as Windows XP & VISTA, and their software goes, I have no objection to paying for worthwhile proprietary software. I've purchased proprietary Linux software and will continue to do so if I find the software meets a need I have better than any FOSS available. I even pay for Linux distros, or contribute to them on a regular basis. But, I've used OpenOffice (write, spread, calc and base) since it was called StarOffice 5.2. I have no need or use for Office.

As a power user, I have no problems running XP or VISTA and keeping it secure and stable. When I ran it I kept it secure by NOT introducing or saving any personal or financial information on either XP or ViSTA. Bad guys can't steal what isn't there. I also used the best AV software and ran daily audits. My Internet connection is through a Linux router. I keep Windows stable by not overloading it. Usually three or four applications at a time. No more. To run more risks slowing way down, if not crashing. That's why one Linux server can replace 3 or 4 Windows servers. Linux can run a dozen or more applications simultaneously without crashing or slowing way down.

I only bank on line using Linux. Why? NO SOFTWARE is 100% SAFE 100% of the time, including Linux distros. But, FOSS publicly announces security holes immediately after they are discovered, and the fix is usually equally fast in coming, anywhere from a few hours to a couple days. This allows me to judge for myself IF I want to take the revealed risks involved in continuing to use that piece of software, or wait until the patch is installed. Running Windows, on the other hand, is a CONTINUAL risk because Microsoft has bullied security firms into reporting security holes they discover ONLY to Microsoft and no one else. Running Windows you will NEVER KNOW what risks you are taking by using any particular Windows application because Microsoft won't inform you of the holes in that application unless somebody leaks it, which has happened on occasions, but not often enough to constitute a security model. It's been revealed that Microsoft has set on leaks for months, even years, before they announce the security hole and release the patch on the same day, then have the gall to claim zero-day patches. That leaves Windows users at constant risk of having their information stolen. Some security holes are never fixed. Microsoft's solution is self-serving --- upgrade to the "new" version. In other words pay more money to fix THEIR problems.

Linux servers power 70% of the Internet, but all of the malware is launched from the 27% running Windows servers, which means that they are the servers being infected. There are over 2 million viruses and such written for Windows, but less than a dozen or so in the wild for Linux, yet Linux is now at 10%+ of the desktop market, and so is Apple. So, Microsoft has only 80% or less of the desktop market but 99.9999% of the malware is targeted at Windows desktops. Virtually 100% of all zombies in bot farms are Windows powered PCs. The argument that viral counts are in proportion to market share falls flat. Windows is targeted because it is easy to infect. About the only way to infect Linux is by manually hacking into it, a very risky process requiring superior technical knowledge annd a lot of manual labor, and generating only one box per hack. Not a practical way to build a 1,290,000 zombie bot farm.

[Qqmike]

Re: Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

Along the lines of this topic, this has been an interesting site, interesting articles/blogs,
http://badvista.fsf.org/

[Jook_roberts]

Re: Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

My favourite M$ story is when I was reinstalling XP on a friends computer and I HAD to call into activate it. No word of a lie, the M$ guy said to me, “Call back later we are busy,” and hung up. How is that for customer service?

A second issue was when I activated my sisters XP reinstall over the internet. It passed and about 2 months later she started getting WGA notifications that her version of windows was not genuine. I read the OEM license sticker correctly and installed it with an OEM disc. I told her to call them up and give them hell.

I quit using Windows for many reasons, but mostly because I can’t stand all the big brother stuff, even when I am being 100% legit.

[tomp01]

Re: Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

The Ubuntu users are all in a panic over a new Gnome-disk-utility that gives false "disk failing" messages:

Yes, I have Gnome as well as KDE4 and I was getting the same message so I installed Palimpsest Disk Utility which assured me that there was no problems.

[ventper]

Re: Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

[quote=Ole Juul ]

..It is unfortunate that this "type" of ethics is so easily accepted by the general populace and even taught in business school.

ahaha, the Exploitation Business Model.
the exploit phase of product launch was taught to us in Strategic Management, LOL.

i'm goin' ta check ur blog now, har!

cheers

[andybleaden]

Re: Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

Intereting thing from the mouths of children (my lad!). They were using new windows stuff the other day at school and the comment was made that this 'new windows stuff' looks just like the pc my dad has at home (running kubuntu) they (Microsoft) must have copied it!

[eddieg780]

Re: Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

Anyone remember the M$ Lindows fiasco? M$ suing over the Lindows name. I was using Lindows back then and loving it. I was getting Robertson's blog on this almost every other day. M$ didn't win the suit in the US but did in Finland and Sweden. M$ just kept suing Lindows over and over again to get them to go bankrupt. Eventually Lindows did change it's name to Linspire to shut them up. http://www.techspot.com/news/9463-li...drop-name.html I used Linspire for about a year after the name change but discovered Kubuntu and loved it ever since. The Click N Run concept was great at the time. I'm still a member of it and used it on my 8.04 distro to install software. Doesn't look like it will be available for 9.04 or 9.10. Shame too. I did purchase some software that I can't install now. Oh well I guess that's progress. I will however, never go back to Windows again. I don't care how many numbers come after their name, 7,8,9,1000, whatever. Oh BTW it nice to see the declining stock too. Not that I'm bitter or anything.

[Qqmike]

Re: Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

Didn't use Linspire, but the second distro I tried was Freespire. Some things about it are a bit quirky, but it runs good and the support community is excellent, very dedicated folks over there. One, at Freespire, named Bro Tiag, is the first Linux guy to get me interested in the GRUB bootloader, doing so by helping me solve my first dual-boot problem between Kubuntu and XP--he stayed up an extra hour late one night to get the job done for me after a television football game.

[eddieg780]

Re: Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

I was told by a friend of mine that he worked for IBM during the days of OS/2 when Bill Gates worked there as well. He said that Gates actually worked on os/2 and then left IBM and stole some of the code from it and reworked it some and started winblows. He still has a computer with OS/2 on it and I liked it. Shame IBM stopped it. Is it true that macintash's os started out linux based?

[BatsSeva73]

Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

I think thats the worst that could happen to a "webmaster" - when your users turns against you....

[GreyGeek]

Re: Reason for Kubuntu users to be smug

I was told by a friend of mine that he worked for IBM during the days of OS/2 when Bill Gates worked there as well. He said that Gates actually worked on os/2 and then left IBM and stole some of the code from it and reworked it some and started winblows. He still has a computer with OS/2 on it and I liked it. Shame IBM stopped it. Is it true that macintash's os started out linux based?

Gates never worked "at" IBM. Microsoft and IBM had a contract under which Microsoft wrote Operating System/2 (to go with PS/2).

The promised GUI, Presentation Manager, was introduced with OS/2 1.1 in October, 1988.[5] It had an almost identical user interface to Windows 2.1.

.....

Breakup

The collaboration between IBM and Microsoft unravelled in 1990, between the releases of Windows 3.0 and OS/2 1.3. Initially, at least publicly, Microsoft continued to insist the future belonged to OS/2. Steve Ballmer of Microsoft even took to calling OS/2 "Windows Plus". However, during this time, Windows 3.0 became a tremendous success, selling millions of copies in its first year. Much of its success was because Windows 3.0 (along with MS-DOS) was bundled with most new computers. OS/2, on the other hand, was only available as an expensive stand-alone software package. In addition, OS/2 lacked device drivers for many common devices such as printers, particularly non-IBM hardware. Windows, on the other hand, supported a much larger variety of hardware. The increasing popularity of Windows prompted Microsoft to shift its development focus from cooperating on OS/2 with IBM to building a franchise based on Windows.

IBM's problems with OS/2 forshadowed those Linux had. Windows still has a HUGH advantage with their lock on OEM desktops. But, Linux's "Ace in the hole" has been and is the GPL. Many pundits are now predicting that FOSS will eventually triumph over Microsoft. Security experts are now warning AGAINST doing online banking or shopping with ANY version of Windows (including win7) and FireFox has now surpassed IE as the dominant browser.

The battle is not over. I expect Microsoft to get even nastier and more unethical/illegal as they attempt to preserve their illegal monopoly.