Re: Realtime/embedded project to help with employment.

["Stephane Richard" <stephane.richard@verizon.net>]

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Well that is a "unique" way to get back on the topic.  Bravo :-)...

A windows Tax huh?  Pretty soon a criminal will be taken to court and asked
Which set of laws he wants to be judged under?  Federal, State or Microsoft?
This windows deal is really getting out of hand.  And to top that, the next
version of windows (so far anyways) wont allow you full access to your
system.  (not that any version in the past did either, but at least you had
DOS to really screw up your PC ;-)  Plus they're gonna charge you a Windows
tax?  well I say it's time for a change, for SURE!!!!

And yes it could be done, and with these new features that gets added like
non access to your system, all these little tips and tricks that make using
windows such a "flatulence to avoid cursing here :-)"  all I want to do is
install my Linux, and be happy with it.  Sure I'll admit that without
Windows today, the whole PC Industry, including Linux and all it's GUI might
not have gotten push this much forward, but now seems Microsoft is out of
tools of the trade.  They dont know what to do to keep their big share of
the market anymore, that hasn't been done already.  (hence the last
infringement settlement they'll have to pay to Intertrust).  But that's ok
although if I sit down, and create something new, like a new security
feature I'm not sure I'll want to publish it because these companies keep
their stuff so secret and private that I'm not 100% sure muicrosoft even
knew they were infringing.  Think about it.  You, in your basement office,
sit down develop what you believe to be a new concept, You did not copy
anything to your knowledge, but you code happens to do the same thing
someone else did and poof infringement.  (with everythign that's been built
so far as far as software, network and security goes) what are the odds of
something like this happening?  I'd say they're much higher than they were
back when Microsoft started.

But yeah, Microsoft with the new stuff coming up (although it does look good
as in feature related) definitaly shooting itself in the foot I think, and
there's only so much shooting a foot can withstand without falling
apart...Sure this new windows from the stuff I read online looks good, seems
to be a great concept blah blah blah...but at what price?  and what's next?
I dont know, but if it follows in the current trends of what Microsoft wants
to do with Windows itself, I'm not sure I want what's next.   It's gonna
help them yes, if a user can't screw up his system, lot less support calls
:-)....but that dont mean that windows wont screw itself up....then what?
And please understand that I'm not diminishing Microsoft but I just dont
support the new frame of mind, the new lack of control over their system
that microsoft will put in their new windows or are thinking of putting
(nothing seems to be official yet) so I dont want to talk bad before there's
bad to talk about :-)....

But all this to say that yes, I also believe that the window of opportunity
has just gotten bigger lately to tild a windmill :-)....


-- 
St�phane Richard
Senior Software and Technology Supervisor
http://www.totalweb-inc.com
For all your hosting and related needs

"Marin David Condic" <nobody@noplace.com> wrote in message
news:3F3E0F7C.4020106@noplace.com...
> Yeah, but it seems to me that there was more than one guy out there that
> got started building PC's from inexpensive Asian boards in their garages
> and selling them cheaper than another big "monopoly" (that being IBM).
> What were ther names again? "Dell-somebodyorother"?, "Compaq-whosits?"
> "Gateway-idunno"? :-)
>
> Lets say there is a significant "Windows Tax" on your garden variety PC.
> $100.00? Someone like Dell can get a price break on PC boards because of
> volume, but they've also got huge overhead associated with a large
> company. A couple of guys in a garage could start assembling Linux PCs
> and bundling a boatload of other GPLed software on them and shipping
> them without the $100 tax - maybe dropping prices even further with
> other creative strategies. Probably, they could provide all sorts of
> other "value added" features (like descent user's manuals?) and start a
> whole new market. Its not like this industry isn't loaded with examples
> of exactly that sort of formula working in the past.
>
> My point is that it isn't exactly some sort of hopeless cause. Lots of
> people look at Ada as a "hopeless cause" (how's that for getting back on
> topic? ;-) but we're still here fighting the good fight. Toppling
> Micro$oft may seem like tilting at windmills, but it *could* be done. It
> has happened before with lots of other companies. Rather than complain
> about Microsoft and accuse Bill Gates' parents of not being married when
> they had him, why not dream up an alternative?
>
> MDC
>
>
>
> Robert I. Eachus wrote:
> >
> >
> > More to the point, assume that your grandmother does know what an OS is,
> > and intends to download Red Hat from the net for her new computer.
> > Unless she puts the system together from parts, the probability that she
> > won't end up paying the Microsoft tax is zero.
> >
> > That more than any other issue is why Microsoft has a monopoly.  They
> > offer the system builders a deal, either $X per system if you sell boxes
> > without a Microsoft OS, or $Y per system if you sell every "desktop" or
> > laptop computer with Windows.  And X >> Y, so that to be competitive,
> > they have to sell you a Microsoft OS whether you want it or not.
>
> -- 
> ======================================================================
> Marin David Condic
> I work for: http://www.belcan.com/
> My project is: http://www.jast.mil/
>
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>
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>      to the other."
>
>          --  Voltaire
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