Re: Too late! Window hasta la vista 5308 is now fully operational.

[Aragorn]

On Saturday 25 February 2006 16:30, Ian Hilliard stood up and spoke the
following words to the masses in /comp.os.linux.advocacy...:/

> [...]
>
> I like Linux and it is my preferred platform, but as long as Linux
> appears to be anti-CSS, it will not be the preferred platform for
> commercial software development. 

GNU/Linux is not necessarily anti-proprietary when offered as commercial
distributions.  Most commercially vended distributions offer
proprietary drivers - e.g. nVidia and ATI - and proprietary binaries -
e.g. RealPlayer and the various Shockwave/Flash plugins - along with
their shrinkwrapped retail packs.

> It is the commercial software development, with their large
> advertising budgets, that brings the people en mass.

GNU/Linux itself - i.e. the Linux kernel and the GNU operating system
libraries and utilities - is licensed under the GNU General Public
License, as well as much of the additional software that makes up for a
distribution.  

Nothing in the GPL states that GPL'ed software cannot be sold
commercially.  Richard Stallman himself used to sell tapes with the
source code to GNU Emacs long before the Internet or the Linux kernel
even existed.

In addition, time has already proven that Free and Open Source Software
are often of a much higher technical quality than proprietary code. 
I'm illustrating this with a - granted, not so recent - link that has
been posted to /comp.os.linux.advocacy/ earlier - I forgot by whom; was
it Roy S.?

        http://www.fcw.com/article89779-08-04-05-Web&newsletter=yes

<quote>

        "The study found that the most recent release of the Linux kernel is
        free of major defects, compared with the discovery of six critical
        defects at the end of December 2004. Even then, the open-source Linux
        was considered more secure than most commercially developed software.

        The Linux kernel then was found to have 985 bugs in 5.7 million lines
        of code. In comparison, commercial software of a similar scope
        typically has as many as 171,000 bugs, according to Coverity.

        In its study, the company analyzed the most recent version of the Linux
        kernel, 2.6.12, which had expanded to just more than 6 million lines of
        code, and found the same total number of bugs."

</quote>


Big (and smaller) businesses are starting to see the technical merits of
releasing their code either under the GPL or a less free Open Source
license.

> Microsoft knows this and explots it every day to slow the movement
> across to Linux. 

GNU/Linux has some big names backing it up now.  IBM is not exactly a
two-cent company, and neither are HP, Novell or SGI.

I think the balance is starting to shift more and more towards FOSS,
albeit that there will be a stagnation at some point because of
Microsoft's continuing efforts at destroying GNU/Linux and (what they
call) "Open Source Software" (sic).

On the other hand, I may be dreaming out loud but I certainly have high
hopes regarding the current "Microsoft versus EU" clash, the new
antitrust case filed against Microsoft in the Far East, and - last but
not least - IBM's counterstrike against SCO, in which Microsoft is
subpoenaed over its possible funding of the false indictments and
lawsuite SCO conducted against IBM.

All the above are temporally coinciding.  This brings up the pressure on
Microsoft, and it is under pressure that one tends to make mistakes. 
Microsoft has already broken the law on more than one occasion and has
so far always been able to settle matters out of court whenever they
were losing the battle.  

This time however - and I sincerely hope the EU won't let us down -
they've managed to draw a lot of heat upon them - and in their
arrogance and contempt, continue to draw more heat - and someone might
actually decide that it the time has finally come for them to melt down
and evaporate.

What I'm about to say may sound radical, but I believe that there's a
certain analogy between Microsoft and a malignant tumor.  

Once upon a time, it was a bunch of cells that were neither benign nor
malignant.  They were just there, doing what they were doing.  Then it
started growing and growing, eating up other cells and destroying some
very healthy tissue in the process.  

You can go on and treat it with chemotherapy or radiation, trying to
limit its growth by "setting your phaser to stun", making it too numb
for it to feed on innocent tissue for a while, but your body will be
weakened by such treatment just as well, and in the end, the disease
will never be completely gone until you surgically go in and cut the
tumor out.

Microsoft is a vampire, and unless you drive a stake through its heart
and cut off its head, it's going to keep on sucking the life out of its
customers - not to mention whoever it considers to be its competitors -
_and_ out of the ability and right of the human species to make
technological progress.  Technology is supposed to help the advancement
of the human race.  Right now, (proprietary) technology serves nothing
but economical statistics.

Microsoft's view on technology also does quite the opposite of advancing
humanity; it stimulates people in remaining dumb and intellectually
lazy.  Their technology only exists so as to gain more power and
control than they already have, and in their arrogance, it's simply
inconceivable for them that anyone would dare stand in their way and be
successful at that.  They have clearly shown on numerous occasions that
they have less moral awareness than an amoeba.

<Star Trek wisdom>

In light of technological advance, it is much more advisable to adopt
the Vulcan philosophy of logic than the Ferengi philosophy of greed.  

</Star Trek wisdom>

I would add a smiling emoticon to that, but that would seem
inappropriate when speaking as a Vulcan.  I will therefore just raise
an eyebrow instead. ;-|

P.S.: Had I been Klingon, I would most likely have written that
Microsoft should be disemboweled and their intrails soaked in
bloodwine... ;-þ

Live long and prosper!

-- 
With kind regards,

*Aragorn*
(Registered GNU/Linux user #223157)