Software vendors urge limits on open source

CNET News.com ^ | 28 November 2002 | CNET

[chilepepper]

The Initiative for Software Choice, which counts Microsoft, Cisco Systems and Intel among its backers, said in comments filed Tuesday that the department should "avoid crafting needless and potentially detrimental IT policy to promote the use" of open-source software. "Open source" means every software developer can view the source code for software, modify it, and use it for free.

The initiative, which launched in May and is chaired by a group called CompTIA, an organization that has close ties to Microsoft, is worried about a recent report that concluded the Defense Department relies on open-source software and recommended its further adoption.

[chilepepper]

Software Vendors

Substitute Microsoft of course.

This article shows the Orwellian depths to which Microsoft will go in order to destroy its true rivals, Open Source and Linux

Sound like doubleplusgood arguments for staying with a single, closed source like Microsoft.

The Red Chinese seem to think so, since they hired Microsoft, Cisco and SUN to provide them with netfiltering software... Of course, they have another way to control content: they execute WWW users who stray to unlicensed sites

Hmmmm, monopoly - control - tyranny - loss of choice - willingness to sacrifice freedom in order to get more money

hey folks, are we starting to see a pattern yet?

[NativeNewYorker]

If the federal govt simply shifted to .rtf and .pdf formats exclusively for text documents, that'd be enough to level the proverbial playing field.

[elbucko]

This article shows the Orwellian depths to which Microsoft will go in order to destroy its true rivals, Open Source and Linux.

Gates and Ellison are their own worst enemies. If I were Gates, I'd have a "Windows" version of Linux developed that matched or exceeded the "DOS" OS, as well as a plethora of compatible applications.

There are many hamburger joints, only one McDonalds. They didn't get to be global by holding up the customer to by a Big Mack.

[elbucko]

by = buy (my apologies)

[hoosierham]

Exactly correct!

I once saved a client hundreds of dollars by knowing the baud rate at which the building HVAC controller talked to its peripherals. So I was able to connect a replacement printer,a very simple task. The HVAC vendor wouldn't give out the needed info (baud rate) ,only schedule a service call.

Too many people's expertise is simply having the manual for the malfunctioning hardware/software. There is at least one dealer of power equipment who keeps ALL repair/service manuals SHIPPED with the units he sells so that the customer must come to him.

[Eric Esot]

A group called "Initiative for Software Choice" that's backed by major players against open source (see Microsoft) says their biggest threat (Competition) is not a good choice.

[Nick Danger]

It will hardly come as news to IT employees at the Department of Defense that a trade association is proposing greater use of its members' wares. This sort of academic-sounding hoo-hah seems to be a staple of federal marketing programs, so I suppose this stratagem must do something useful for those involved.

My suspicion is that federal employees use these pronouncements to paper over what they wanted to do anyway. In proposing that the Department spend four zillion on a Microsoft dot-net solution, the IT bureaucrat will cite findings of the "Initiative for Software Choice" that this is the right way to go. The bean counters and the political appointees have never heard of this outfit and figure it's some think tank, so out comes the rubber stamp.

It's probably true that the Open Source side has been getting free help in this area from academics, who always prefer toys that are free because they never have any money. By now there's probably a shelf full of Computer Science Ph.D. theses written around some aspect of linux. Quoting academics is how you beat up your opponents in a bureaucratic struggle, and the pro-Microsoft 'crats just didn't have enough ammo.

So it's Microsoft to the rescue, with its very own think tank. The real think tank in Alexandria that they tried to buy got exposed as a shill, so now they'll try this instead.

[altair]

Pinging the Penguin Ping guy.

[rdb3]

The Penguin Ping.

Wanna be Penguified? Just holla!

Got root?

[Bush2000]

Great. Another Linux whacko thread.

[isthisnickcool]

Great. Another Linux whacko thread.

Whacko thread? Familiar with those? Eh?

[chilepepper]

Its not really his fault. The problem is that learning the Microsoft way of doing things uses up all your neurons on useless information (e.g. - pull down this menu, then enter this value, then change the registry to this value). one ends up learning arbitrary recipes which are exactly equal to superstitious behaviour.

If you go back about 30 years, you find exactly the same sort of partisanship amongst the old IBM mainframe specialists, MVS, CICS and so forth.

Those who specialised in such things had an extremely difficult time applying that information to anything but CICS, MVS etc.

As a result, their entire livelyhood was so dependent upon IBM that it became just like a religion, IBM became GOD because it kept food on the table and the Fidelity Brokerage account full...

That was all fine and good until the paradigm shifted. Just as it has now.

REMEMBER THAT THE ENTIRE WWW PHENOMENA WAS BORN ENTIRELY FROM

Open Source [Mosaic anyone?]

REMEMBER THAT THE ENTIRE NETWORKED WORKSTATION PHENOMENA WAS BORN ENTIRELY FROM

Open Source [Apollo Domain anyone]

What Microsoft wants with WWW and the internet is to technically freeze it and feast on its carcass...

SO WHAT INNOVATION HAS MICROSOFT EVER COME UP WITH OTHER THAN IT EULA?

Thats easy: large scale Virus and Remote Administration Trojans infectation and distribution suitable for cyberwarfare by enemies of the United States.

[chilepepper]

Just a historical note, P.J.Leech once told me that the Apollo Domain operating system was tongue in cheek named after

Public Domain software funded by the U.S.Air Force...

[chilepepper]

...because of course, the Apollo Domain OS was based on that USAF public domain software!

[StopGlobalWhining]

If the federal govt simply shifted to .rtf and .pdf formats exclusively for text documents, that'd be enough to level the proverbial playing field.

I don't get it. ???

[Tribune7]

If the federal govt simply shifted to .rtf and .pdf formats exclusively for text documents, that'd be enough to level the proverbial playing field

Not a bad idea.

[StopGlobalWhining]

If I were Gates, I'd have a "Windows" version of Linux developed that matched or exceeded the "DOS" OS, as well as a plethora of compatible applications.

Haven't you noticed how many Unix tools and concepts Microsoft has already ripped off from the open source community and incorporated into their systems?

They first lifted the Xerox/Apple desktop as their external interface, and then after destroying 3rd party commercial vendors of niche products by incorporating their features into Windows, turned to open source utilities and functionality and made them an integral part of their fee products.

Can you spell P-A-R-A-S-I-T-E?

[rdb3]

At least you spelled Linux correctly.

Also, how does it feel to be a whacko? You use it, remember?

There shall be no mercy.
101 things that the Mozilla browser can do that Internet Explorer cannot.

[Bush2000]

Also, how does it feel to be a whacko? You use it, remember?

I don't base my existence on whether people adopt it -- unlike many of the freaks around here.