M$ is making a desktop takeover by Linux easier...

Check out the CNN article:
http://money.cnn.com/2005/01/26/tech...ex.htm?cnn=yes

Seems M$ are getting "tough" on software pirates by denying them updates...

[sarcasm]Couldn't see that coming!!![/sarcasm]

ok i am curius, i never understood this point.

why do most linux people hate microsoft?

personally i dont like windows (the os) for a number of technical reasons, but i have no problem with microsoft. some ppl get all giddy when a microsoft product fails, i dont understand this hatred of microsoft. can anyone explain it to me?

(didn't even have to read the article) couldn't see that comeing, could, ya?

it ain't even microsoft -- look at all the firewall/AV providers. as this stuff has become critical on most any system, the prices continue to rise. i remember when a symantec annual AV subscription cost $5!!! it's what? $35 now, and that's just the subscription... they want you to update, too!

not to pick on symantec, they're probably the nicest about it, and the ONLY ones with a reason to charge that much... i'm sensing they are setting up another push for fully web-based applications, or some sort of software rental program...

bunch of money-grubbing-(%(*#@, the whole lot of 'em!

edit:
(and have you seen MS antispyware? you have to prove valid key just to download the beta!)

edit2:
but i'm already a linux user... sure the rising costs of things might make some people look for alternatives, but not all people who try linux like it... there's a learning curve, and linux is not near as idiot-user friendly as MS. Even the beta antispyware seems stable, that's more than i can say of some 'stable' open-source apps i've run...

They "lost billions in INCOME" ???

Replace income with theft. . . .

If your running windows, why use a pay anti-virus? Use AVG its free and has free updates.

AV does more harm than good, at least to me.

AV is a priority on windows.

Is AV a priority on Linux ????
Would you feel safer being bastionized (out of the firewall, in the WAN) with windows, or with Linux ?
I choose Linux

Microsoft is a hideous, evil corporation that pushes everyone out of the market.
Kind of like Wal-Mart

Microsuck is why people (average people) are so afraid of computers.

Beleive me, i'm looking into alternatives... there's a lot of looking into to decide if free = secure. but then there's also a lot to look into to decide if lots of money = secure.

I'm playing with ClamWin right now...

Unix = Secure :-P

My dislike of M$ has to do with their business practices...

If their business model was a little more,... shall we say, fair?!?!,... I wouldn't have a problem with them. I don't have a problem with Gates and Ballmer being billionaires... I just have a problem thinking that everyone in the world has to run their stuff or nothing.

That will change in the future, as people realize how good Linux and other Open Source stuff is. I remember when a calculator watch cost $500.00... And then I saw the price drop to less than $20.00 after the years... An IBM PC without a hard drive used to cost over $2500.00. Now you can get a machine that could have been a college or university science department server in 1980 for $700.00. Software has done the opposite. You've gone from paying around $35.00 for OS software to $130.00. You have to expect some inflation, but not that much. It's happened because M$ has had no competition. It was like Bell Telephone before the break-up. They had no desire to innovate, no desire to lower prices, and consumers suffered. My parents had rotary dial phones until the early 80s. That technology was developed in the 40s... pathetic.

M$ has done the same with Windoze. That's why it suffers in terms of reliability and security. DOS was a cheap clone of a Unix clone. Win 3.0 was a cheap hack of Win 2.x. Win 3.1x was a hack of Win 3.0. All the early Wins were cheap add ons to DOS. Win95 was a hack on top of Win 3.11, and Win98 a hack of that. Finally, Win XPee is a hack on top of all the rest. Early 8-bit code still exists in XPee... and will stay there until M$ decides to stop being lazy.

I hate windows so much, in those times where I'm forced to use it, I use coLinux.
Once I get networking working (I need help), I can use KDE and Gnome along side windows (of coarse with X-Win32 instead of VNC).

here's another proven fact: as long as it exists, someone will try and climb it... nothing is really secure...

Same thing here ;-)
Just need to get networking and graphical mode working ;-)

Windows, pheh!

That's very true. For the average NT box, you don't have to climb it, just step on it :-P.