Or should we call them MicroSpy ?
If you have never read any details as far as MicroSoft's practices in spyware and deceptive "patches", this might interest you.

http://www.hevanet.com/peace/microsoft.htm

And after reading this :

"Good programmers are not willing to sign the non-competition and non-disclosure agreements that Microsoft requires. They fear that would put them at risk of a Microsoft lawsuit. Even if they were found in court not to have infringed on Microsoft's contract, the cost of the lawsuit would be enormous. Also, they could lose their jobs over any such dispute. It is possible that the only real effect of Microsoft's shared source policy is to cripple an organization's best programmers, so that they cannot work in any field in which Microsoft has an interest."

When I finish school, MicroSoft will be the last place where I would try to get a job.

I want to free myself from MS and never look back.

JC

Not a Linux Technical question or news. Being moved to General and out of Linux - General.

Thanks.

Sorry bout that. I realize that it should be in this forum.

Maybe I should have emphasized that I am one of the people who are coming to Linux, more because of the negative practices of MicroSoft rather than the advantages of a technically superior Linux. And as I dive further into Linux, I see that it is very powerful, and is teaching me things about how and OS works, and about the kernel itself.

My driving force behind moving to Linux is not just because I am a programmer and wish to learn, but because I can sleep at night without worrying if the OS itself is undermining my efforts to keep my home network safe and private. I don't want anyone, including the vendor of the OS looking over my shoulder. If I want their help, I'll ask for it.


JC

That is scarry, but not surprising. I plan to be rid of Windows in 6 months when I graduate and no longer need the POS programming language known as Visual Basic...

I just use windows to play shadowbane, Windows ME not XP. Looks like MS is unknowingly helping linux become a desktop os.

I certainly hope so. I used to counter people who told me "Microsoft is no good" with "Oh, that's exaggerated... It's not so bad as all that," and would end up defending MS. No more. In the last two or three years I've seen enough evidence, without even searching for it, of that company's bad ways that I switched to Linux finally in January. I miss some of the programs, especially my electronic dictionaries. But I will not have anything more to do with Microsoft products.

I only wish third-party providers were not so much under the Microsoft thumb as they are. Makes you wonder what goes on behind the scenes there....

I try to stay unbiases in my views, and even so I am forced to conclude that Linux rocks, M$ sucks. They are simply not good at making a system that is secure and reliable.

Add to that the fact they like taking away peoples privacy and user rights and it makes for one wicked company.

WOW....

I've read many other things like this one, but not as detailed as this.

This article alone makes me want to never use Windows at home on my own PC ever again.

I don't want to use any Windows PC to do anything personal ever again.

Hmmm....

I've been slowly moving to linux......but I'm going to work faster at it now.

I bought Redhat 7.1 a while back. I think I'll buy either Suse 8.2 or Redhat 9 and give it a go.

I am dual booting this box currently with RH8 and WinXP Pro.

I think I'll try to go Full Linux

well, that's good, until microsoft launces the paladium system, then how do you install linux binaries on the system if MS can lock you out at the hardware level,

---get a job at microsoft and slowly take them down from wihtin
perhaps bush should be bombin microsoft as well

upgrade your old pc to the max or migrate to Mac

Are AMD and Cyrix and all in with Intel regarding the 'Fritz chip' and Palladium? I have no problems with Intel processors as such - all my computers are - but I'm having a problem with the company. It'd be nice if the other manufacturers would provide an alternative. But maybe it's a legal thing and not anything the chip makers have any choice about?

Reading about Palladium was a big push in the Linux direction for me. That and having to register my XP. That and my XP being slow as hell and crashing a lot. That and...

thats kinda creepy im glad a finally got myself a linux box

slow and creepy? how about this, my brother has a win xp laptop, and to get his cdrw/dvd burner burning cds, i had to install an upgrade to the software already installed for it to work, the cd came packaged with the machine. but in the process,sometimes when it told me i needed to rebot, i had to try 5 or 6 times clicking the 'reboot' button before i gave up, logged out and clicked THAT reboot button, and my mom has a win98 machine, it was harder to get those machines talking with tcp/ip than with redhat linux go figure Microsoft really sucks, bill gates is the napolean of the computer wolrd

Wow, I haven't looked at this thread in a while. Lot's of replies, and they all seem to be on the same side of the fence.

It's unanimous : MS sucks.

And not necessarily because of product quality, but because more and more computer users are developing an FU MS attitude, due to their tactics.

I read some about "Paladium". And as with everything that I have seen so far from MS, it starts out with seemingly good intentions (like copy protection), but once implemented things get ugly.

For this example - "Wpa" (Windows product activation). At first I thought that MS or any other company is entitled to protect their software from being copied and used on unauthorized machines.

That was until I read the details, and experienced the wpa system first hand.
It's f__cking garbage. For one - doing a simple thing like changing the host name of your computer, or the comments field for the machine, will trigger wpa to ask you to reactivate upon reboot.

Another nuisance - changing hardware. It seems that the magic number for "allowed" hardware changes is 6.
Let's say that you are a hardcore gamer, and you have now bought your third new video card, and before that you changed you NIC, soundcard, and added ram (adding ram does count towards a hardware change).
You are excited to take it for a spin. You install that bad boy and reboot XP. Instead of enjoying your favorite game upon next boot, you are greeted with an ugly message.
It's telling you that it's time to activate Windows.

You have made six changes to your machine,and this makes your hardware abstraction layer different, so you CANNOT use your original activation code.
It's time to call good old Microsoft and deal with their customer service, and talk them into giving you a new activation code.

Now I am well aware of the fact that you can get around this in several different ways, but that is not the point.
The point is that this is BS. You should not have to deal with this shite. You should be able to plug whatever the hell you want into your computer, and not have some Ahole company (MS) making things hard on you.
Microsoft is making hardware swapping a pain in the ass with their wpa system which will be included in one form or another, on all of their future OS releases.

And as for Paladium :

Just like wpa, it starts with good intentions. Microsoft wants to implement a hardware solution to copy protection in a chip which would reside on the motherboard of your machine.

This is all well and good, but I don't even want to think about how Microsoft will abuse this type of technology.
MS says that you can turn it off completely. I'll believe that when I see it. But I won't hold my breath.

No one wants Microsloth, or any other company, trying to totally own their computer.
Your PC does not belong to Microsoft, it belongs to you.

And when they make it tougher, with each OS release, for you to load an alternative OS on your PC to coexist with Windows, they are most certainly treading on you and your rights.

They are NOT trying to make your computer safe.
They are trying to make sure that your machine is mostly Microsoft.

F that.

When you purchase a PC, you are not buying a "Windows" PC. Windows just happens to be the OS that is loaded. You are buying a piece of hardware, and you should be able to install whatever you want, without the presently installed OS intervening in any way.

End of rant.

I chose to escape Microsoft, and I have turned to Linux. And so far, I am very impressed with Linux.

I chose one of the more difficult distros - Slackware, but I don't regret it. I have spent hours upon hours configuring my machine. But it is well worth the effort. I now have a machine with fully functional hardware, and file and print server capability.

I feel like I have accomplished alot in setting this machine up with Linux. I feel a sense of pride, which I can now share with the rest of the Linux community. I have joined a group, growing in large numbers, who have realized that we do have a choice.

Get bent Microsoft.

JC

I may be missing the point, or confusing what sort of 'dictionary' you refer to, but if you are looking for an app that searches a bunch of online dictionary's and returnes the result all you need is Kdict.

If you have kde installed, you may already have it.