Little Humor for Win 7 Release Day

[ukchucktown]

Re: Little Humor for Win 7 Release Day

I just purchased my first Mac last week and I was definitely disappointed with the lack of native Linux package support in OS X. Fink is an okay solution but a little clunky. Their hardware is good if you pick the low-end models and upgrade yourself. Apple needs to wakeup when they are charging $1200 dollars for DDR3 8 gig memory upgrade. I found the same thing online for under $500 and it took 5 minutes to replace. I just couldn't find a laptop with the gusto and battery life I wanted under 5 pounds. That's a hard combo to find.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Little Humor for Win 7 Release Day

.... But it will become the dominant OS as computers are replaced.

Yup, all because of Microsoft's illegal monopoly and control of the OEMs. I wonder how many people realize that the American tax payers PAID for the development of Win95 and some of Win98? And because they were "reimbursed" for the stock options they gave developers in place of payroll accounts payable, they didn't have to pay payroll taxes either. IBM and their other competitors stayed on the ethical path and payed their employees (developers) out of their income revenues, like corporations should, thus reducing the amount of monies they could spend on branding, marketing, research and development. Microsoft, on the other hand, by selling in Reno, NV what they made in Seattle, WA, dodged $500M in sales taxes, which lead to economic shortfalls in the local governments around Redmond (roads, sewers, water and other utiltiies to the Redmond area cost money). So, Microsoft had 100% benefit of their revenues from selling Windows because they didn't pay developers payroll and they didn't pay sales taxes. Talk about a tilted playing field.

Residents in that area are waking up to Microsoft's misdeeds and demanding an accounting and a recovery. How far they get depends on how many in power can't be bribed.... given "campaign donations".

[lmilano]

Re: Little Humor for Win 7 Release Day

GG: please answer quickly and I'll get the honor of getting your 1000 post as an answer to mine

I fully agree, that Tax loophole should have made them hated but anyone paying taxes in the states. Somehow they managed to convince a lot of people that "fighting MS is Unamerican", and that includes the previous administration, which decided to let MS go when the one before (Clinton's) had them against the ropes in the DOJ case.

Of course, bribe and other favors to friends are a much easier explanation than just "being convinced".

How sad!

[ukchucktown]

Re: Little Humor for Win 7 Release Day

Corporate corruption and unethical behavior is part of society. Conservatives tend to favor big business and no regulation. I understand rules and regulations are a necessary evil because we all don't play by the rules. Greed is second nature for many of us and scales up nicely to the corporate level. I do agree that tax loophole was complete BS.

MS better pay me. I ain't taking no MS stock. Hey Canonical, go public.

[lmilano]

Re: Little Humor for Win 7 Release Day

Nah, I wont them private. But I think Google is a good stock to vote with one's wallet. On the other hand, it may be overpriced, at twice the P/E of MS! I just added Google to the table of market capitalizations in the second post.

[ukchucktown]

Re: Little Humor for Win 7 Release Day

I'm joking, I don't want a Linux company with the distro I prefer bowing to public pressure. I like the central idea behind Ubuntu, make it user friendly. That's the only way people will adopt it. I love it but I'm also an engineer with a long Unix background in Solaris before Linux was really available in the early 90s. Once I heard of a free Unix for the desktop I was onboard.

[dibl]

Re: Little Humor for Win 7 Release Day

Yup, all because of Microsoft's illegal monopoly and control of the OEMs. I wonder how many people realize that the American tax payers PAID for the development of Win95 and some of Win98? And because they were "reimbursed" for the stock options they gave developers in place of payroll accounts payable, they didn't have to pay payroll taxes either. IBM and their other competitors stayed on the ethical path and payed their employees (developers) out of their income revenues, like corporations should, thus reducing the amount of monies they could spend on branding, marketing, research and development. Microsoft, on the other hand, by selling in Reno, NV what they made in Seattle, WA, dodged $500M in sales taxes, which lead to economic shortfalls in the local governments around Redmond (roads, sewers, water and other utiltiies to the Redmond area cost money). So, Microsoft had 100% benefit of their revenues from selling Windows because they didn't pay developers payroll and they didn't pay sales taxes. Talk about a tilted playing field.

Talking totally through my butt, and probably unwisely so .... but wouldn't one expect that the exercise of the stock options, at increased share prices, would have resulted in substantial (a) income taxes due and (b) capital gains taxes due, on the part of the developers, assuming the options were exercised and the shares (or some part of them) sold?

In other words, I'm not arguing whether it was fair or unfair, but it does seem like more of a transfer of the tax burden from MS to the developers, in a future timeframe, rather than an outright avoidance of tax revenues for the Government. Did the American taxpayers really lose 100% on the deal, or some lesser amount if the tax consequences on the stock options are taken into account? I agree it does look pretty sweet for MS -- I've heard about the "options in lieu of salary" thing, it was popular with many of the tech companies during the "dot com" era.

[GreyGeek]

Re: Little Humor for Win 7 Release Day

GG: please answer quickly and I'll get the honor of getting your 1000 post as an answer to mine

Done! Thanks, I never noticed that!

...... Somehow they managed to convince a lot of people that "fighting MS is Unamerican", and that includes the previous administration, which decided to let MS go when the one before (Clinton's) had them against the ropes in the DOJ case.
....
How sad!

Actually, they didn't convince that many. Bill Gate's father was a partner in a powerful Washington law office/lobbyist group and he orchestrated the attack against Judge Jackson, who was replaced by the hyphenated judge. Even after Microsoft's phony "astroturf" campaign was noticed by Senators who got emails and letters from constituents who resided in cemeteries, it didn't stop the hyphenated judge from snatching defeat out of the jaws of victory, thanks to Bush replacing the victorious DOJ team with a bunch of corporate lawyers who just passed through the revolving doors from corporate America.

Now, you'll notice that several of the patent trolling corporations buying up MS patents were recently founded by "former" lawyers working for Microsoft.