FINAL STRAW! GOODBYE MICROSOFT, YOU BIG LOSER YOU!!! EVIDENCE INSIDE!!!

AP_YAHOO ^ | 04.25.02 | Registered

[E=MC²]

Thru with Microsoft? I thought you always despised MS and were a MAC supporter/promoter. Guess I must have missed the switch, eh?

LOL...as are most of the anti-msft posters on this thread.

[Diddle E. Squat]

All that money and he can't even get a decent haircut.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Hilarious!

[Diddle E. Squat]

I think that belongs on that poetry thread.

[stands2reason]

Top picture: Another love child fo JJ is revealed...

[stands2reason]

You do all that photo work and you're not on a Mac?

[Clive]

"Wouldn't it be nice if we could just call the computer shop and ask for a machine with the OS we wanted??"

That is very similar to what I did.

I was running Pentium 120 machines with OS/2-Linux- Windows multiboot.

When one of my Pentium 120 machines failed, I went shopping for a 1 gig machine.

I picked tup what I thought was a bargain from Staples, a Compaq 1 gig machine with a 20 gig drive, pre-loaded with Windows.

My intent was to re-partition the drive and install OS/2-Linux-Windows multi-boot, the same way I had always handled a new machine. Linux would re-partition the drive and the linux lilo would be my boot manager. the Windows OEM disk would be added to my disk inventory for use in the event of a Windows crash, the same as my Linux and OS/2 disks were saved against crashed of those systems. I also have a practice of keeping my C: and root partitions small and putting all my applications on other partitions.

Straight forward, conventional, easy to do.

Not any more. Not with Name brand machines.

Microsoft has a new OEM arrangement with the OEM makers whereby a full general operating system disk is no longer supplied. Instead you get a recovery disk that assumes that your drive is in the state that it was when it left the factory. That is, a huge C: partition which holds everything and a smalled D: partition intended to be used only as a compressed back-up. This is one of the least efficient and least safe partitioning schemes known to man, but it is what you are stuck with if you buy a name brand machine unless you pay almost $300.00 to buy a retail version of Windows to replace the pre-loaded version that you have already paid for as part of the price of the machine.

You can get a restore disk from the machine manufacturer to use in the case of a major crash, but that is tailored to the machine and puts the machine back into the state that it was when it left the factory. In other words, it would over-write all your custom partitioning.

This makes no sense even if you are only using Windows as a system crash will then take out everything as the mission critical files are in the same partition as the operating system.

It does make sense if you are Microsoft and want to discourage people from trying out other operating systems.

So, I took the machine back to Staples. No probelem getting a refund. Staples is very co-operative and I had made a point of telling the seller that I intended to install a Linux-OS/2-Windows multi-boot with custom partitioning.

I then did what I ought to have done in the first place. I went to the Bloor-Spadina area of Toronto, an area between Chinatown and the University full of chinese computer merchants selling plain vanilla machines without the operating system, mainly catering to university students who have limited means and are more likely to want to use Linux.

I was able to get the same size and speed of machine without the operating system. If I also bought the operating system separately, the total price was considerably cheaper than the name brand machine.

I was therfore able to afford to get a 1.6 gig machine with a 40 gig drive and twice the memory.

I was also able to specify that the graphics and sound systems be in slots instead of hard-wired into the mainboard and was therefor able to pick and choose my systems to meet my needs.

Better yet, the decision as to what was appropriate partitioning was made on my premises and not in Redmond.

[ShadowAce]

That's the only way to buy a computer these days. Compaq sucks and I would never buy a computer from them.

Heck--I've even had trouble getting windows to run properly on them.

[CheneyChick]

Nearly every Mac user I know is a flaming Liberal (Rush being one of the exceptions).

Oh really??

Cheers! CC :)

[CheneyChick]

Nice post!

[discostu]

I wind up defending Bill Gates a lot, which is wierd because I hate him. Problem is a lot of what he gets accused of is, in my book, good cut throat business. I know he's done a number of illegal things, but even some of that I question whether it should be wrong. One of the things MS gets nailed for is using it's monopoly in one area to leverage business in another; well went I took business classes they called that horizontal market expansion, I don't understand why that's a basic business strategy when you don't have a monopoly but suddenly it's illegal when you do. To pervert one of Harr's favorite phrases: I think that's the economic equivalent to outlawing the zone defense (I'm still mad at the NBA for that).

This is a wierd one, could be that Bill supports Jesse's stuff, could be he feels it's better to keep Jesse fat and happy without Jesse threatening boycots. Given the way Bill is I think it's a little bit of both. With his stance on the estate tax I think Bill has some serious liberal leanings. But one thing I know for sure about Bill is he doesn't take a dump without considering how it will effect his company; his company is his religion and takes precident over anything.

[B Knotts]

I'm pretty much in agreement with everything you've said. The chief problem I have with the antitrust situation is that people seem to be arguing for a "free pass" for Microsoft on antitrust issues, but other companies are punished for the same all the time. So, if we're not going to take any action against Microsoft, let's abolish the antitrust laws for everyone.

I do think, though, that certain of their OEM contract provisions should be deemed unenforcable. Like the one that forbids the sale of "dual-boot" machines.

[discostu]

Problem is how to punish them. Breakups are dumb, the AT&T breakup has set our national infrastructure back at least a decade (especially if you live in the hinterlands of the West like me, where the phone company will state directly they have no plans to upgrade the infrastructure because there's no margin in it) and I just don't see it being any more useful here. Especially with the way MS roles things into the OS, any breakup would result in no breakup. Fines are meaningless, any fine that would actually hurt MS would probably be struck down as punitive. The contracts can be abolished, that's something.

The antitrust laws need a major overhaul, that's for sure. The definition of monopoly needs to be tweaked, good business practices (like horizontal expansion) shouldn't become illegal just because you've got a monopoly. Who knows, maybe we should scrap them entirely. Look at the big monopoly cases of the last 30 years, are we really better off because IBM, the NFL, AT&T and Hartz Mountain got slapped down? I don't think so. I think the effect of these cases on consumers has ranged from nothing to bad.

[saminfl]

I'll Take Steve Jobs any day......Over "Race Card Jackson"...

You MAC cultists use any excuse don't you?

Me, I boycott anything done by Clinton supporters. Compared to the Clintons, Jackson is an angel.

[Bush2000]

I'm not happy about this, either. Jackson is nothing more than a shakedown scam artist and, frankly, I don't know whether Gates is trying to avoid getting tarnished with more Jackson racism charges or he earnestly believes in Jackson's cause. If I had to guess, I'd say the former. MS has enough problems without having to deal with Jackson and the Sharpton racism brigade. Makes me want to vomit.

That said, I do take issue with any ABMers who are looking for any issue to slam MS with. MS was criticized for not ignoring politics. After the federal government (at the behest of the Clinton goons) sued MS, it finally saw the light and ramped up lobbying efforts -- and the ABMers cried foul, that MS was trying to buy influence. They want it both ways.

Companies are supposed to be amoral. They exist solely for profit. They should respond to competitive threats -- whether those threats come from competitors or the government or freeloading carpetbaggers like Jackson...

[XDemocrat]

Just about every Mac user in the country must be on this thread. I counted them, the numbers are just about right.

[Registered]

I suppose that Jackson has figured out that the best time to shakedown a corporation is when it is most vulnerable. And the two most vulnerable times for a company are when it is involved in the courts, or when it is in the processing of merging with another company.

[Bush2000]

Just about every Mac user in the country must be on this thread. I counted them, the numbers are just about right.

It's probably a good time to remind them that their purchases of Macs indirectly funds Stevie Jobs's donations to the DNC:

http://herndon1.sdrdc.com/fecimg/norindsea.html

JOBS, STEVE
WALNUT CREEK, CA 94596
APPLE COMPUTERS

DNC-NON-FEDERAL INDIVIDUAL
11/01/2000 50000.00 20036584283

[Bush2000]

CC, would you mind emailing Stevie and asking him when he's going to donate to the GOP? ;-P+