[dundee] Microsoft Bullying & Hypocracy

Sat Feb 9 03:32:08 GMT 2008

in some dark distant past ..

I used to be a computer geek! Spectrum,C64, amiga's, atari st's..it was all
good stuff. 

! I then got myself a job, and  discovered the joys of Unix..

and things were joyful...

Until, I was managing HPUX,SCO,AIX,Solaris,bsd,... I got really fed up about the
small difference between administration of these platforms, unix vendors
could'nt agree on how to do things, there was very little sharing going on!
It was not a pleasant place to be. however support for these platforms
were incredible. you did'nt buy a piece of hardware, or software 
you bought something that did a particular job, and if it did'nt your
vendor wanted to know about it. it was SERIOUS stuff.

You could'nt run unix on a home computer at all. It was a shame that I could'nt
hack away with the systems at night at home, so I hung around work, working
late (unpaid) just learning stuff, I nearly wore the 'man' command out.

I read everything I could about unix design, even then it was open and
well documented! 

The came mighty NT.. I though...hmm, new ,based on vms, looks interesting
one size fits all, PORTABLE to different cpu's!! I though it would be great
to have a single environment, it even ran a posix subsystem for unix emulation.

and things were joyful...

I was impressed by the ease of use, and actually started to learn stuff about it..

then something happened..more and more features kept appearing, more silly
bugs, focus on os development was on gui changes rather than under the hood
Windows NT 2000, that was their finest hour, I still quite enjoy this o/s
but after that, it all went very very wrong.

The most sickening thing  was if I had a problem, I had to rely on microsoft
or their knowledge base to fix it. Access to source code was impossible. I
remember having an exchange 4.0 problem, no internet email for 4 days
because of a new bug, where mime attachments stopped the internet
mail queue from starting !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!..... as the queue was binary
propitiatory format ,  it was very different from /var/spool/mail. at this point
I thought, shall I go back to unix mail, it's no pretty but it was rock solid.

I though, why use a binary format for a mail queue? no reason , apart from
keeping prying eye's away. Why do microsoft love to hide stuff, 
with weird file formats, you can't understand?  I could still to a string grep
 I could still actually read people's email ;-). mwwwwhahahahah ! (ethically wrong,
and not something I would do...ever). so, it's was'nt a privacy issue..

I could'nt fix the problem, to my users I looked like an idiot.

I'd always been able to fix this kinda thing on unix....

so, during this time, linux was gaining strength, I got a copy (I did use it
in version 1.0 , it was fun ) and it seems to be quite a full featured 
operating system.

Microsoft then dropped all other cpu support for NT, and that's the time
I threw my hands in the air and so no more. this is bullshit. for many years
 have had too much movement in the marketing
department, and not enough being spent in the engineering department.

I got sick of fighting problems, I had enough skill to fix my own problems
at source level if need, just I had this organisation saying, dont do that
just give us money...money..money..for this close source operating system.

It's a shame because I did like the kernel of NT (vms based) it had some
interesting idea's, but it's microsoft marketing department that finally
killed it for me.

so, where are we now? As linux says, 'you should never see the operating system' it should be invisible...and just work!!!!!!!!!!!

Unix seems to be an evolution, it a progression, I learn unix and I stay with
it 'small; things change for time to time, but the core remains the same.

I 'm sick of relearning stuff, do you think I can be actually bothered
to learn vista server when it's released? it's not evolution, it's not even
wipe the slate clean, as microsoft have to support braindead , insecure
protocols like smb through all versions.

I'd rather write a piece of code than can run everywhere, rather than
say code a VB program that can only be run one one platform,one cpu .
..net is a great idea, but what's the point when the only servers your going
to full features or NT ones? microsoft trying to be cross platform, the
math's don't add up.

At the end of the says, that's what going to kill microsoft , there are going
to be technically outgunned. nothing to do with communist freedom
fighters etc etc.

Tim was saying to me about J++, you know, when microsoft took
java, and tried to make it 'better'...  wow... can you trust them?
no? I don't trust them...  

So, linux really creates a standard base, something where I can move
around machines and the interface is almost the same.

okay, I like bsd too, but then again, I see it as another, lets do it our way
and not cooperate with anyone else.

I've got lots of other examples of where microsoft have runied my day,
prevent productivity, had poor documentation, and where they have
offered no support apart from 'why dont you upgrade' ...

Programmers might like the rich api's, and ease of use, but ask a
admin about microsoft networks, they are someone of a diastaster..the
bigger they are , the more they just don't seem to function.

if I leave uni, and don't find employment doing open source, non-microsoft work,
then so be it... I'd rather pass my time working with tools that I think are 
both ethical and good tools, rather than being forced into the one microsoft way.
If that means this prevents my career working for a corporate , then I'll just hack
away at home with tools I actually enjoy using.

I've gone full circle with operating systems, it's gone full circle, I've come home
to unix and it's feels good, but then again I thank microsoft, without them
ram would'nt be so cheap, and the unix vendors would still be property 
monsters, even worse than Microsoft...

at the end of day use the right tool for the job, but for network's dont use
a product that refuses to speak to every other network product out there...

the windows desktop say it all 'my computer' the icon proudly prounces...

'our operating system' it should say below.

Linux is  'my operating system'

It's mine, and I , or I can pay someone to do anything I want to it.

that's a concept that the software giant will never realise, and until it
does it's days are numbered.They lost the server battle many years ago,
the desktop is coming. No doubt I'll be working for microsoft when I leave Uni.
hehehhheh... now that's hypocritical. ;-)

so, what the share price now? it's gone up half a cent.. Someone just's 
made a killing. does it ever worry that tech stocks just represent our idea's.
software is not real, the only thing you need to build it is tools with the
raw material being time (and a little bit of brains).

so when you but tech stocks, like microsoft, what are you buying exactly?

brains?

time?

Tools?

how can something that does not exist (software) have such a large value?

products should be things you can touch and feel.

you should buy stock that has assets, real world stuff, not just a bunch
of number, 0 and 1's. ;-) okay, I must admit some technology is worth
buying... but does microsoft actually own anything special? they have
a api and a kernel? not the most exciting stuff on the market it is?

clustering? Microsoft cluster? hohohohoho

do you know the current firefox team is 17 programmers? interesting
thought.

if I write a program today, I can distribute it to everyone on the internet
in seconds? interesting huh.. could you call that a product? (probably a virus ;-) ).

I may dislike microsoft, but I can back it up with facts. (which are mostly wrong ;-) )

The world is slowly catching on, they've already lost, and the recent attempted
buy out of yahoo,  is part of it's last death throws to dominate the internet scene... 

Laters,
Lee
'developers, developers, developers (in the third world).'

Laters,
Lee

gordon dunlop <astrozubenel at googlemail.com> wrote: I am showing you all the Microsoft bullying & hypocrisy as a scientist
making observations. Two years ago I gave a presentation at Abertay
about the OLPC, highlighting Nicholas Negroponte's concepts and ideas
regarding low cost laptops and Linux and how he would use it for
educational purposes in third world countries. Microsoft scoffed at
these ideas putting him down, hardware manufacturers like Intel, Asus,
Everex etc. started copying his ideas producing low cost laptops with
Linux operating systems in response to consumer demand by individuals
in developed countries, he in a way has started a bit of a revolution
here. We are not talking about education in relation to teachers and
students, we are talking about commercial companies jumping on the
bandwagon in response to consumer demand. So Microsoft seeing his idea
is really changing things globally changing course in order to protect
their own interests and monopoly.
http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Windows/Microsoft-Upbeat-about-Windows-on-the-OLPCs-XO/

After watching Revolution O.S. showed by Arron, how much is the
present is being mirrored by the past. I am an open source person
because as a trained scientist if you have a concept or idea:
you configure a practical experiment;
carry it out making scientific observations;
do data analysis;
write up your findings;
submit your paper to journal;
peer reviewed by three referees;
accepted after recommended modifications;
paper is published;
other scientists can build other ideas and experiments based upon your paper.
Truly open source is within science where knowledge and experience is
shared by all.
Microsoft is only out to control you and your computer.
Has Microsoft provided cures for cancer?
Has Microsoft solved the Global warming problem? (only Linux super
computers can come up with reasonable calculations)
Has Microsoft solved potential problems in the release of genetically
modified organisms within the environment? (No! Fortran programs in
Unix using mathematical models was used, re my Ph.D.)

What point I am trying to make is that as a trained scientist
Microsoft is preventing knowledge and experience to be spread about
the world that is why Scientific Linux was started (based upon Red
Hat0 and is used within many scientific institutions.

Gordon

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