OT: Is Bill Gates the Anti-Christ?

[geoschmo]

I seriously doubt this part is going to stand up to any court challanges, "Even worse, to use the features in Office 2003, you'll need to be running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition." As I understand it this is exactly the sort of garbage that got them into trouble before. For that matter I would expect some smart as a whip lawyer types to bring up the question of whether or not MS has the right to do any of this at all. Given that the data in all these documents is the property of the Users, not MS. It would effectively be like International Paper charging a fee and requiring a special copy machine to copy any thing typed on a sheet of their paper products.

[narf poit chez BOOM]

wether or not he's the anti-christ, this kind of business tactics is scary.

[Narrew]

"Even worse, to use the features in Office 2003, you'll need to be running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition."

Umm, what about home Users, I sure as hell aint going to run enterprise, I am sure there will be something for us home Users, heck I am still using Office 2k.

I can see both sides of the issue, MSFT wants to crack down on piracy, who can blame them, its their stuff. Then there is the monoply issue.

About that artical, heck, that is the best example of the number of the beast so far

[Taera]

okay. if this is true, i have one response.
However "evil" it might be, its a plan of a genius - simply because when it comes out and *someone* installs it, others also will. And by the time something competitive comes out... it'll be too late. And its not a violation of any rights - technically its a DEFENSE of certain human rights.
This plan seems almost foolproof, if it is brought into action, in real.

[Thermodyne]

Originally posted by Narrew:
"Even worse, to use the features in Office 2003, you'll need to be running Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition."

Umm, what about home Users, I sure as hell aint going to run enterprise, I am sure there will be something for us home Users, heck I am still using Office 2k.

I can see both sides of the issue, MSFT wants to crack down on piracy, who can blame them, its their stuff. Then there is the monoply issue.

About that artical, heck, that is the best example of the number of the beast so far

It is not really for home Users. It is for enterprise systems. It should be noted that document security has become an issue partly because of off site backups. Many corporations are very worried about who can read what. There is even some demand for the encryption of logs. I have to wonder who they are really protecting this stuff from, but I know one lady that is about to wish that she had used some encryption on business files.

[Taera]

a good point however - if such a system would be released, why would the corporate world switch to it, possibly souring certain relationships with other companies?

[Thermodyne]

Originally posted by PvK:


Which brings us to Thermodyne's "everyone loves MS when they can get it for free, or use it for free", which I know is definitely not the case for let's see... actually almost everyone I know who uses it. They put up with it and use it because it is often free (or hidden-cost) for them, and a standard most people have, and is useful, if imperfect.

PvK

If we are talking about home Users, then by all means, use what you want. But don’t ***** about having to register your copy, and then ***** because you actually have to obey the EULA. But on the other hand, if it is enterprise, then show us something that is better than MS and we will look at it. UNIX is too user unfriendly for the PITA’s to use with the exception of some very specific applications. Linux is not bad on the desk top, but server side is still absolute junk. FreeBSD is the worst of the lot. And in the enterprise, open source is not free and often it is hard if not imposable to insure.

Actually, I think you need a broader sample of people to base your statement on. I know literally hundreds of people that use many different OS’s. And very few fault MS OS’s except for price. Some like Linux and some like Windows, but invariably the largest ***** is the cost of XP and the inability to stretch the license across several systems. Now granted these are IT people, which more or less weeds out the incompetent *****ing that arises from the PITA’s when they FUBAR an install of wonder why their 15 year old spread sheet is no longer supported. And let’s no forget the PITA’s that “Had no Idea that bringing that floppy from their sick home system would hurt the network!” Or the ones that constantly log id10T errors, then complain about MS. The same ones that scream about “feeling violated” when confronted with the facts in the logs.

Another often over looked point is that the major OEM's all modify windows to some extent. And often the blame for the problems that arise are laid at MS's feet.