I am watching Novell's work on linux platform. Let's see if it goes somewhere.
Posted on 01/16/2006 7:26:24 PM PST by NormsRevenge
OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) - A pastor on Monday called for a national boycott of Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard and other companies that support a gay civil rights bill, saying the corporations have underestimated the power of religious consumers.
The Rev. Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church in the Seattle suburb of Redmond, said he would formally issue the boycott Thursday on the conservative radio show Focus on the Family.
"We're tired of sitting around thinking that morals can be ignored in our country," he said. "This is not a threat, this is a promise. Check out the past presidential election. We made the moral issue the No. 1 issue."
Last week, several companies, including Palo Alto, Calif.-based Hewlett Packard Co., Microsoft Corp., Boeing Co., and Nike Inc. signed a letter urging passage of the measure, which would add "sexual orientation" to a Washington state law that already bans discrimination in housing, employment and insurance based on race, gender, age, disability, religion, marital status and other factors.
Microsoft is restoring its support for the proposal a year after the company was denounced for quietly dropping its endorsement.
Hutcherson, who has organized anti-gay-marriage rallies in Seattle and Washington, D.C., says he pressured Microsoft into dropping its support for the bill last year by threatening a boycott.
The company, which was criticized by gay activists across the country, insisted it took a neutral stance to focus on other issues but later said it would support the measure in the future.
Asked about the boycott Monday, Microsoft spokesman Lou Gellos said the company would not change its position. He declined to comment further.
Boeing spokesman Peter Conte said the company had no plans to withdraw its support for the legislation.
"The position that we have taken is one that we do feel strongly about," he said. "It is entirely consistent with our own internal practices and policies."
Other companies did not return phone calls on Monday.
The bill has been introduced - and rejected - annually for nearly 30 years in the Legislature.
The state House last year passed the bill 61-37. But it lost by one vote in the Senate. The measure is believed to have a better chance of passage this year because a Republican senator has announced he would switch his vote to yes.
'Just about everyone wants to use Windows'
It's more like everyone is to lazy to install a different OS.
I think Linux is for people who REALLY like to get into computers and tweak under the hood, Mac is for people who do a lot of creative stuff, and don't want to get under the hood. BTW, I noticed something that MAY indicate M$ may need to start worrying about Apple again. Adobe is developing a new program called Lightroom. It's aimed at professional photographers, and they're developing it for the Macintosh platform before they develop it for Windows. That may just be because Vista won't be coming out until next year, but when was the last time a major software developer produced a multi-platform program for the Mac first? IMHO, Linux won't take off unless the peripheral manufacturers start developing drivers and the major software manufacturers start making Linux platform programs. For example, the Epson 2200 I use requires different ICC profiles for different papers. Epson makes the profiles that will plug into the Mac and Windows platforms, but I have no idea where I would find an Epson Photo Luster ICC profile for a Linux based printer driver, or where I would find an Epson 2200 print driver, for that matter. The Canon 1DMII RAW image converter is necessary to convert images from the Canon RAW format to TIFF or JPEG for editing. Canon makes it for Mac and Windows, not for Linux, and it's proprietary.
I think Linux will be relegated to tweakers and guys that run primarily web-centric operations unless some corporation starts persuading a LOT of people to support it.
That's right folks, buy a Mac Book Pro, with iWork.
So this would set the anti-discrimination law on it's head.
Big Business wants to normalize it by making it illegal for Little Business to refrain from this pathology. Like the pot voting to paint the silverware black.
I am watching Novell's work on linux platform. Let's see if it goes somewhere.
The lines just keep getting blurrier.
To paraphrase Laura Ingraham: "Shut up and write crappy software!"
Penguins for purity.
It's not just that, though. How is this good for business? It's just another stupid regulation to comply with, and it will undoubtedly tick off some of their consumers.
Of course, that is just an idle musing. I certainly do not advocate pirating software, no matter how despicable is the behavior of the company. It would be illegal. And it would be just plain wrong.
Sometimes you've just got to do what you've got to do.
I have to appreciate the man's courage to stand up against Goliath.
Prayers up for his encouragement.
That would be so, if the courts didn't keep redefining the definition of private property until everything you own is not yours, but merely leased from the company that holds the patent.
I liked nearly everything about Mac OS X... until I read the license.
My Linux computer is legally and truly my computer in a way that my Mac will never be.
Bill Finkbeiner.
I have, for various reasons, been warming up to that idea.
I realize that with Linux you can have issues with drivers. But Linux is entirely compatible with Windows software? (I mean software that specifies "Windows" in System Requirements.)(I realize that the SFW vendor is not going to support it on an off-label OS but can I nonetheless be pretty confident that it will run?)
This was shot with a Canon 1DMII camera in RAW format. Canon does NOT make a Linux based RAW processor, and I have around $10,000 tied up in Canon photo gear. There is no Linux version of Photoshop, which I've been working with for over ten years. I don't want to or have time to chase down a RAW converter that might work, then learn a new photo editing program that I seriously doubt would be half as good as Photoshop, then look for a hacked Epson 2200 printer driver and ICC profiles developed open source. Like I said, Linux is great for guys that want to get under the hood, but I don't have time to build a system, or spend a week scouring the web for open source versions of programs that I KNOW exist for Mac. If Steve Jobs shows up at my house and wants his OS back, I guess I'll have to give it to him and get out of the photography business, or go back to the dark side with M$. But from my perspective, operating a photography business with Linux systems just isn't feasible.
"I considered Linux, but switched to a Mac instead. I do photography, and there are just too many programs not available for Linux. Photoshop, the RAW image file converters, print drivers for devices like the Epson 2200, noise reduction software, etc."
You can run Photoshop all day long under Xandros (linux)
Other then that, its a great OS, better in many ways.
Sorry...but *yawn*.
So if you require a particular Windows application, keep Windows around.
OTOH, I actually, am quite pleased with the Linux driver situation. It seems counter-intuitive, but most common models and brands work out-of-the-box. That is, the driver comes with the OS. Yes, the new or unusual device won't, or will require you to upgrade your kernel. In these cases, however, I still find the drivers easier to acquire than their Windows counterparts (which usually require throwing down some cash).
Honestly, whenever I was forced to install devices on Windows computers, I usually ended up asking whomever was around "this is supposed to be easier than Linux?"
The amount of free, quality Linux advice on the internet must be 100 times the amount of Windows advice.
Actually this will work pretty good. You see i am your common consumer never heard of linux? But I have now and i will explore my options, so will many others. sick of this taking over of America by the left. fight the good fight....that is picking your battles.
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