Microsoft attempts to prevent legal licence transfers.

POSTED BY: citizen
UPDATED: Thursday, October 19, 2006 20:13
VIEWED: 4791
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DREAMTROVE

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 2:34 AM

I read through these posts, and there's suprising little counterpoint. We all agree on something - the suckage of microsoft. And they don't even suck that badly. Microsoft does a lot of things very well. They're sometimes pigheaded, and sure, they're evil in the way they kill competitors and small fries, but in the bigger picture: If your god is 100 and satan 0 theis 100 and satan 0, then microsoft is at least a 'goo'

Consider these basic criteria:

Good: Saves lives, provides services useful to people, ups productivity, creates jobs, protects the enironment, cures the sick, etc., builds culture, etc.

Evil: Destroys lives, and life, creates poverty and dispair and death, destroys the environment, destroys everything.

Microsoft, while a vicious competitor, and sometimes unethical, is still "goo"

Whereas the leaders we attack and defend here such as Bush, Clinton, Blair, Olmert, or whoever, almost all fall on the other end of the scale.

We get caught arguing in favor of one over the other, because one is only

"Evil son of a bitch who rots"

and the other is in our opinion

"Evil son of a bitch who rots in hell"

So, Bill Gates for President, damn it.

That said, I have another counterpoint on Vista,

This rule isn't just bad, it's dumb. No one, other than Microsoft itself, or people who it bribes, is ever going to produce Vista-specific software "why would they?" There's almost no XP-specific software out there, and XP-specific devices, '98 ME, NT or 2000 versions and drivers are usually to be found, for that matter, linux and mac versions and drivers are usually available. So no one would buy Vista. People will just go on using XP.

I mean, consider you get your choice of a copy of firefly on dvd with digitally enhanced sound, but that will erase itself after one viewing, or a regular copy of firefly, and you could only ever buy one, which would you buy? It's real unlikely that anything in Vista is going to be so killer that it's worth the self-restriction.

SIGNYM

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 12:14 PM

YinYang- We've used nothing but Linux for years. It does everything MS does... we have a wonderful web browser (Firefox) and emailer that works better than IE, and I have several office suite programs (currently using OpenOffice) with word processing, spreadsheets, simple CAD, and powerpoint-type applications. This suite also "reads" MS files.

The problem is getting Linux loaded in the first place. Since most PCs come pre-loaded with MS and MS doesn't play nicely with other operating systems you have to go through some machinations to reformat your boot sector. That part is beyond me. I have to have a major geek do that. Loading Linux - especially Debian- is waaaay easy: just insert the disk, and let it run on default mode (it looks at your system and usually does a good job of figuring out what drivers it needs for your hardware).

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Try it, you'll like it.

SIGNYM

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 12:20 PM

Oh, by the way... the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) which gives MS its unusual powers.... we can thank Clinton for that. That was yet another reason why I didn't vote for him.

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Reality sucks. Especially when it contradicts our cherished ideas.

CITIZEN

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 7:29 PM

Quote:
Originally posted by dreamtrove:
The next OS will be one which does certain things very very well:
1. Starts quickly, hopefully instantly.
2. Doesn't forget when you turn it off.
3. Surfs the web quickly.
4. Handles text, graphics, video, very well.
5. Never crashes.

1. -> Not really an OS issue. DOS started quickly because it had virtually no setup to go through, where as a modern OS's have to setup the CPU in P-Mode and partition main memory, startup hundreds of drivers, map interrupts, setup the page file load hundreds of megabytes of data etc DOS had to load one .com file. Hard Disk drives and memory throughput aren't infinite and are a big bottle neck, machines spend most of their time waiting for these peripheral resources to be ready.

OS's can make some impact, only loading things when needed (where as XP loads pretty much everything), but instantaneous loading is pretty much impossible.

2. -> Not an OS issue either, XP can actually do this, it's called hibernation, XP copies all running memory on to the Hard disk when shutting down and back again when starting up. The trade-off is long shut-down and start-up times, that's a lot of data you are moving around (up to 4Gb on a 32bit system).

3. -> Get a faster modem?

4. -> Yeah the Windows GDI sucks the big one. It's nice and easy to use from an API perspective, but slow as hell.

5. -> Literally impossible. OS's are pretty large and complex so it's litterally impossible to keep bugs out (DOS v1 had one for every three lines of code). Add to that dodgy third party drivers and apps. What an OS can do is improve it's recovery, Windows 2000 was a step in the right direction, maybe Vista will get to the point where it is as good as OS2 Warp...

Quote:
And how well such an OS does these:

6. runs existing stand alone software
7. handles complex rendering capability
8. has great interactive multiuser controls

Might be relegated to the world of game console.

6. -> Why?
7. -> Vista is integrating DirectX 10(which won't be available for earlier versions), removing complex rendering capability from an OS would be stupid, there's a lot of PC gamers, and consoles are incapable of satisfactorily running many types of games. An RTS can't be intuitivly controlled through a hand hold controller.

There's also a heap load of stuff that PC's need rendering capability for. CGI is done on PC workstations, Game development is done on PC work stations, 3D product visualisation, Architectural visualisation and so on.
8. -> What do you mean by multi-user controls?

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

SIGNYM

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 7:43 PM

Whoa!!! YOU'RE AN OS/2 WARP FAN??? That's awesome! My SO, a true computer genius, still regrets that IBM let that one slip away. According to him OS/2's brilliant implementation was that everything was an object. He has not seen that idea carried out so consistently since, even in Linux. (I hope that makes more sense to you than to me.) We STILL have OS/2 Warp as a selection in our multi-boot setup.

Like VHS, it just goes to prove that the better product doesn't always win.

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Reality sucks. Especially when it contradicts our cherished ideas.

DESKTOPHIPPIE

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 7:52 PM

It'll get worse before it gets better. Google is bringing out an entire Office software package. They've already got a spreadsheet application available on a limited basis in Google labs. Micro$oft stand to lose a looot of money once it's released, so they'll be grabbing every penny they can.

More graphics and animations available at www.desktophippie.com

CITIZEN

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 8:10 PM

Object refers to Object Orientated Programming (OOP). It's a way of making programming easier, more bug free and more productive. It's a very involved subject, I won't bore you with the details but a good overview is here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object-oriented_programming

Ironically OS2 was a joint venture between IBM (who wrote the core code) and MS (who wrote the interface). MS cut out of the deal, no surprises for why Window 95 and OS2's interfaces are so similar .

I don't get much oppertunity to use OS's outside windows. Unfortunatly all the Software I use is released only for Windows, which makes using other OS's difficult. I had Linux on my laptop for awhile, but in the end I just stopped doing any work on it, as much as I like open source Blender can't beat 3DS Max and GIMP can't beat Photoshop .

Though I have happilly moved over to openoffice, the only thing it can't quite deal with are some of the Spreadsheets I use for work.

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

BILLGATES

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 10:37 PM

Everyone has a right to an opinion, but I must say I'm very disappointed by the hateful attitude expressed here.

I recently watched the Firefly series, and Serenity. I loved it so much, I was planning on donating A LOT of money to Joss Whedon. I was going to fund a sequel.

But not now, no way. The people in this thread are directly responsible for Serenity not getting a sequel.

Windows Vista is a superior product. It introduces a breakthrough user experience and is designed to help you feel confident in your ability to view, find, and organize information and to control your computing experience.

I will return here in one week. If everyone has apologized to me, I may reconsider and fund the Serenity sequel after all.

Sincerely,

Bill Gates

CITIZEN

Tuesday, October 17, 2006 10:52 PM

I think we should settle this issue simply and in a civilised manner.

A boxing match, or I'll sic me mate Eric on ya:
http://www.twisted-imaginings.com/Share/bananaman.mp3

PS are you really Bill Gates?

More insane ramblings by the people who brought you beeeer milkshakes!
No one can see their reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.

SIGNYM

Wednesday, October 18, 2006 12:46 AM

Hey Bill- I noticed "You know who I am" in your profile.

Well, I know who you're NOT. You're NOT Bill Gates! So I'm thinking mebbe.... Chrisisall!

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Did I get it? huh? huh?

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