** Reply to message from Eddie Howson on Fri, 4 May 2001 09:00:31 +0100 ***I have been told that Simply has to pay royalties to Microsoft for every ***system they sell, regardless of whether it has an MS OS or not. Therefore ***(as company policy) they HAVE to sell it with an MS OS. And yesterday or there abouts, Gates and Co started a new drumbeat , ANY system sold w/ a "bare" hd ( no os at all ) is simply a ploy to "pirate" windows !!! This kind of logic (????!!) is scarey ... after all, why would I "need" nevermind "want" to pirate any wndows product if it were going to come preinstalled on my brand new box??? ( even tho they are desperately trying to make certain no "hard" copy of the os installation material comes w/ your new computer .. Most companies just do NOT want the hassle of dealing w/ angry customers whose brand new ( couple weeks, months , old ) computer has just suffered a tragedy , Windows has "eaten" some fiel it desperately needs to run at all , and a $40 (US) call to REdmond ( toll charges extra, of course, as well as "addon" charges if you have to take more than a minimal ampunt of time to explain your problem , only to hear the constant refrain... well, it'll be all right if you "just reinstall Windows ( whatever level Windwoes you might be using . Tech support yp there uses the "just reisntall" line to make you go away before they actually have to spend some time w/ you .. ANd even that old bromide is going to be more difficult now , what w/ the new "xp" and teh next versio after that being tied to a specific computer .. even if that computer dies, is stolen or teh house burns down , or morelike here , flooded out, you get to buy a "new" lisence , worse yet... starting w/ "XP" adn all Xp products. you must allow the thigs to "call teh mothership" several times during each session ( M$ will determine how long a "session" is ) if you block the things from calling out ( using your phone lines, tieing up your resources etc. ) the products will stop working .. should it be the OS , which will not allow you to do anything , and when you reboot ( the usual solution to the Windows stuborness , and the insistance on using up all resources no matter if the OS needs them or NOT! ) you wont be able to boot into windwos at all . You have to call Redmond , and if your tale of woe doesn't soften the hearts of folks up there, you will have to buy a new lisence for each product that has this Xp "improvement" , later it will be even more fun, when you will have to keep all your work stored on thier servers , and stored only in a format ( for your protection, mind) that can be restored to you by a M$ "service .. "It's a Jungle , out there , kiddies.... Have a Very Fruitful Day " ( jimmy Buffett Fruitcakes in the Jungle ) Mind you, I have been wondering when our "intrepid Reporter of Record" Is going to publeish the latest Pronouncement from "on high" ( REdmond, by way of Some person allowed to reperesent themselves as a VP ( of ???) They actually started out by saying " We are Declaring War on Linux, and the "Open Scource" movement. They are only out to destroy our "intellectual property" We are NOT in the businsess of giving away Our property ... , We are in the business of Selling the products we make , which are far superior to anything Linux can produce , after all, Our Operating system is built on "new" technology, and linux is built on 30 year old failed main frame UNix products. Why would anyone want to buy 30 year old technology ??? We will not be giving away the source code for our products, not any of them . ( Um... doesn't that contradict something they just announced reletively recently ??? Shows you how well their "groupware" stuff keeps everyone on the same page now, doesn't it ??? >VBG>apparent;y thier old stuff ( Dos ) doesn't count . cause they put pretty new ( well they think it's pretty) curtains over it. Clearly they haven't tried or looked at any recent version of Linux... After all it's "Too expenseve" Even if it's free for download , it's "too expensive" It's old and ugly and you can't do anything w/ it .... IF you try to use Linux ( any verson, apparent;y) you will quickly find , that all teh shiny new "innovations" like, USB, and Mp3 and video conferencing and the new firewire cameras . not to mention non-scsi scanners and the really BIG and cheap IDe hard drives , and , Of course, Cd burning and anything at all they can think of to obfusticate the fact that they are spinning cobwebs thru their collective Hat ! ( or perforce , expelling air thru some other orifice ! ???? ) I keep wainting for someone to popup and say " silly WAbbit, Trix is for kids! " Surely someone must call them on this stuff, just occassionally ??? Now, how did that "piracy" theory go again??? These Guys could Obfusticate For England! YOu can see from all of that, that teh "policy" of most companies is just not to bother fighting w/ them , and I get to buy new computers that have to have the hard drives formatted as soon as they are out of the box, and plugged into the ups ! forgive my diatribe , please ... one too many press conferences to have sit thru and have to hold my tounge ... I know there must be many wordsmiths out there in Suse land , how about teh comedy approuch ? letters to the editor, perhaps startign w/ some scientific , or engineering journal ( for the cumulative "weight " factor when it gets forwarded to the local press "letters to ... " dept. AS long as we are being exhorted to have a lot of fun , anyway. It shouldn't take a great effort to get teh whole country laughing AT the 800lb gorilla of the mist , er Redmond . Not to mention, laughter is probably healthier ( for us, anyway) than fuming at the injustice of it all ... Just my crackpot opinion , prolly not even worth the usual $.02 GD&R j j afterthought ... If you didn't want grits, how come you ordered breakfast?