[HiTech RedNeck]

Penguin Ping

Whether this fellow is telling the truth or not about how he got out of compliance I don't know... but it certainly sounds very plausible -- a copy of an application goes with an old machine to another office that will never use that application, then someone installs the application afresh on the new machine that takes the old one's place. Voila, "piracy."

[Notred]

This article made my day.

Looking forward to the day when the word microsoft is only spoken in hell.

[dfwgator]

RIAA are you listening?

[HiTech RedNeck]

I know I saved $80,000 right away by going to open source.

Which also paid for most of his fines and damages. Cool. Way to go Micro$haft.

[SengirV]

Now he just has to wait for SCO to come after him from not contributing to their extortion fund. Then he'll really get mad.

[kezekiel]

But when (the BSA) went to Congress to get their powers, part of what they got is that I automatically have to pay their legal fees from day one.

Is that true? Damn. Another example of our government acting in the corporate rather than public interest. Pathetic.

[stainlessbanner]

ping

[garyhope]

I hope Ball finds the person who dropped the dime on them and kicks his butt. Probably a leftie socialist "Democrat".

[Bush2000]

In 2000, the Business Software Alliance conducted a raid and subsequent audit at the San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based company that turned up a few dozen unlicensed copies of programs.

Kinda hard to sympathize with somebody who's stealing software.

[TheStickman]

I would dump Windows this very evening if applications I must have (pro-studio recording apps:multitracking apps like Cakewalk, Cool Edit Pro/Adobe Audition and so on) to use existed.

Sadly, they do not exist.

I keep looking. I keep searching. I keep wishing some enterprising code-writer would see this need for these sorts of apps in Linux and get busy!!!!!

[PatrioticAmerican]

Just another free-loader on the anti-Microsoft bandwagon. I bet he thinks he's cool with the high school crowd.

[Southack]

"And I don't have to buy new computers every time they come out with a new release and abandon the old one."

These sorts of things kill me. My little company makes a fair amount of money each year, and we're a MicroSoft shop.

But our clients are screaming about things like the lack of official corporate support for old versions of OS's, languages, tools, etc.

And it isn't just that MicroSoft is dropping their support for their old versions, there are also enormous backwards compatibility issues. Got some applications out there that are working fine, but using old Access 97 db's (and worse, due to MicroSoft's OS architecture, using the old dll's)? Well, tough because someone just upgraded to Access 2000 and converted a working mdb file, so now your old, fully functioning, bulletproof proprietary software isn't working any longer because it can't read its own database due to the new Access 2000 format.

Got software written in Visual Basic 6? Well tough, the new Dot Net isn't backwards compatible with it.

And it's more than just a lack of support combined with a lack of backwards compatibility.

Install your default copy of Windows 2000 and your ports are left open by default, meaning that it takes about 20 seconds for the Blaster virus to hit you with an RPC call before you can even download a ZoneAlarm firewall to stop such hacks. Want to preview your email? Tough, because the MicroSoft default is to execute scripts in those preview panels as soon as your new email message arrives.

And then there is rebooting. Oh. My. GOD! Make the slightest change, or heaven forbid, actually add a device, program, or driver, and off you go into the world of rebooting Windows.

MicroSoft is so successful, of course, that it's difficult to gain any traction criticizing them. In my case, I want to see changes that will make the businesses of my clients run smoother, faster, cheaper, more efficient, and safer (and the changes that I ask them for wouldn't exactly hurt my own lifestyle, either). But I haven't made as much money as Gates, so I must not have any credibility on the matter, right?!

The sad thing is that I'm on the same business side as Gates. I don't want to see some new Indian OS, browser, and utilities come out in some unexpected marketing Blitz that wipes out my business before I have even a change to change to compete.

I need MicroSoft to be successful. MicroSoft's flaws are a direct threat to my bottom line, but yet it wouldn't take that much effort on their part to clean up the existing software (changing defaults on ports, for example, isn't asking for the Moon), legacize rather than abandon support of the old tools, and move towards an architecture that doesn't rely upon the ridiculous and completely unneeded Registry and re-booting.

Some of my clients are large, and some are quite small, but none of them are willing to throw out 2 year old PC's, 2 year old proprietary software, and 3 year old OS's just to "upgrade" to a new system that requires proprietary software re-writes, faster PC's, and keeps the hated flaws of the worst of the old products' beahvior (e.g. having to reboot after an installation). None of my clients want to hear that their current OS's and off-the-shelf tools are no longer going to be "supported", even if they would never use the support. This has to do with corporate liability, among other things.

In short, there was a point in time where K-Mart never saw Wal-Mart coming, and I don't want MicroSoft to be so self-absorbed that it drags my firm into a Blue Light Special sale.

Just a few changes. A few tweaks and MSFT can remain dominant for another two decades, but without them...

Who knows.

[pointsal]

Thanks for the post.
I am sitting here after having spent two days with the computer-guru trying to get my sick system running again. Now, I have to deal with the re-install idiots at Microsoft.

Thanks again.....Linux looks better every day.

[pointsal]

Thanks for the post.
I am sitting here after having spent two days with the computer-guru trying to get my sick system running again. Now, I have to deal with the re-install idiots at Microsoft.

Thanks again.....Linux looks better every day.

[jla]

We pass our old computers down. The guys in engineering need a new PC, so they get one and we pass theirs on to somebody doing clerical work. Well, if you don't wipe the hard drive on that PC, that's a violation. Even if they can tell a piece of software isn't being used, it's still a violation if it's on that hard drive.

Anyone explain to me why this is? It makes no sense at all to me, and I can't understand how it can be illegal if the computers never leave the site. And even if they did, so what?

[Ciexyz]

Wow! Great story. Fantastic read.

[Centurion2000]

bump ..... sounds like more need to do the same (happily learning the unix language on Nokia and Netra appliances)

[Brad C.]

Bump for a later read