On Friday 05 July 2002 03:28, James.Rocks@equant.com wrote:
Steven,
http://netscape.com.com/2100-1105-941398.html?type=pt "SEATTLE--Microsoft over the past week has quietly unveiled details about
a
key new security initiative code-named Palladium, giving the first
glimpse
into its plan to deliver on its promise of "Trustworthy Computing."" The operative term here is *Trustworthy*. I suggest we ask IBM,
WordPerfect,
Novell, and Netscape about M$ being worthy of trust.
And this has precisely what to do with Suse Linux? I'm sure there are more appropriate forums for MS bashing!
James C. Rocks
I'm glad you asked that question. I can't give all the background on my situation because that would bring my company and our contracts into discussion. This subject is about the computing industry, and it is relevent to the future of Linux. I've been using SuSE Linux since early 1998. At the time I was working with Netscape's SuiteSpot servers. They were far ahead of M$ in the field of internet technology. In particular, Netscape had NSS which promised to provide a foundation for much of the emerging PKI market. Then came the move by M$: "We are going to cut off their air supply. Everything they're selling, were going to give away for free." All of a sudden, Netscape could not afford the kind of R&D needed to continue to advance their cross-platform (the real XP) technologies. Netscape has an honerable heritage in the Open Source community. Not only did they release the browser as Open Source, they came from the Apache and (X)Emacs lineage of developers. There is a wonderful piece of code on the NSS CD they sold to the DoD that represents, perhaps, the first 'getopts'. It was the product of a Usenet discussion (before it was called Usenet.) Netscape's approach to the industry was to combine their technological lead with their knowledge base and educate developers in their new technologies. They strove to produce industry standard, interoperable products. Where there were no standards, they worked with others to produce them. They did not merely sell fish. They taught men to fish. I am now in a situation where I can use many powerful tools built to run on (SuSE) Linux to develop solutions for my customer. Indeed, I do use SuSE Linux at work as my primary OS. Unfortunately, I see the clouds darkening around that effort. I am not able to keep up with my emails unless I either reboot, or vnc into an NT box. (The latter is almost unusable.) I can't produce, or even effectively view many of the documents required for my work because M$ proprietary formats are incompatible with the tools I have available. Now I see M$ poised to monopolize the security sector of the market which they effectively stole from Netscape. This will make my ability to use SuSE Linux even less likely in the future. If they build a security infrastructure which undermines open standards, this could effectively check the entrance of competing OSs into the market place. Being a monopoly they can charge what the market can bear rather than a competitive rate for their products. They can then leverage this advantage to fund the R&D necessary for further advancement in the industry which will effectively shut out all competitors. Now consider that one of the most significant demands for security is the new US Government's Homeland Security initiative. I'm sorry. I have a problem with the CIA, NSA, FBI, and the rest of the DoJ in bed with M$ after they have demonstrated their duplicity in so many ways, and so often. Steven