[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.

[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.

[Bush2000]

Great. Another Linux whacko thread.

[spunkets]

"This article shows the Orwellian depths to which Microsoft will go in order to destroy its true rivals"

Sounds more like the "workers" are organizing. Maybe they could just start enclosing quick release nicotine puffs in their softwear packs and require all their new computer clients to include a nicotine disperser, so when a microsoft product is run the vapor drifts out from the screen.

[beavus]

Orwellian depths to which Microsoft will go in order to destroy its true rivals

Good one! And _1984_ was a horrific tale about a company trying to peruade people not to buy its competitor's products. Chilling.

[Bon mots]