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It seems indefensibly extreme from any mental approach that I can come up with, but if we are going down the road of comparing software companies to the SS, wouldn't Apple be a more apt target? Even Google?
Spending so much mental energy despising the "evil empire" of Microsoft in 2011 is kinda like railing against global tyrannies of the British Empire around 1980. They still had Hong Kong and a couple of other bits around the globe, but it already wasn't the same as the "old days."
HAHA Nazi's huh?? well I think Windows is "ok". But when software is created with the SOLE purpose of just making money, it throws the equation of everything else out of wack!!! But hey, when evil sees an opportunity, it takes it. No matter what form the profit comes in.
Chosen to implement the Nazi "Final Solution" for the Jews and other groups deemed inferior (and/or enemies of the state), the SS was the lead branch in carrying out the killing, torture and enslavement of approximately twelve million people. Most victims were Jews or of Polish or other Slavic extraction. However, other racial/ethnic groups such as the Rroma made up a significant number of victims, as well. Furthermore, the SS purge was extended to those viewed as threats to "race hygiene" or Nazi ideology—including the mentally or physically handicapped, homosexuals, or political dissidents. Members of labor organizations and those perceived to be affiliated with groups (religious, political, social and otherwise) that opposed the regime, or were seen to have views contradictory to the goals of the Nazi government, were rounded up in large numbers; these included clergy of all faiths, Jehovah's Witnesses, Freemasons, Communists, and Rotary Club members.
One of Microsoft's business tactics, described by an executive as "embrace, extend and extinguish," initially embraces a competing standard or product, then extends it to produce their own version which is then incompatible with the standard, which in time extinguishes competition that does not or cannot use Microsoft's new version.[71] Various companies and governments sue Microsoft over this set of tactics, resulting in billions of dollars in rulings against the company.[72][32][37] Microsoft claims that the original strategy is not anti-competitive, but rather an exercise of its discretion to implement features it believes customers want.[73]
Now I hate to jump in on "Ubuntu bashing," especially since it was my first distro and I used to adore it, BUT... Mint just does a better job. Proprietary codecs and drivers already installed and ready to go, which isn't ideal for me philosophically, but if you're going to aim for ease of use, go all the way. LMDE pulls from the more reliable and robust Debian testing repositories with all the ease of use that Ubuntu insists to carry. And to top it all off, Mint isn't under the auspices of a corporation.
No offense, but if you do not follow your own "philosophy", then why do you have it? Ubuntu is doing, from the outside looking in, what is best for the open source industry. You can use closed source proprietary software and codecs if you want, but that is your choice (and to be fair you have no other choice at this time) to use those things.
I am just now getting into Linux this past year and have been really loving it. And its made me want to go to school speciffically for Software development (on all OS's) and I want to work for one of the Linux Corp. (got my eye on Canonical or OpenSuse (~ and specifically try to write open source codecs of all kinds, Gnash the Flash alternative included. Specifically because I am tried of all this crap about closed source codecs and software and hardware companies paying rights just to use one of the smallest piece of software on a computer!!
It seems indefensibly extreme from any mental approach that I can come up with, but if we are going down the road of comparing software companies to the SS, wouldn't Apple be a more apt target? Even Google?
Spending so much mental energy despising the "evil empire" of Microsoft in 2011 is kinda like railing against global tyrannies of the British Empire around 1980. They still had Hong Kong and a couple of other bits around the globe, but it already wasn't the same as the "old days."
lol well Google now a days yes, But IMHO not so much Apple. They have a insane amount of proprietary-ness which sucks!!, but they make things (software and hardware) that they themself (more specifically S.Jobs) would actually use and not so much to specifically sqeeze money out of every person they can like microsoft. They have a quite small market share of desktops and are content with that. And they are one of the Biggest Haters of Adobe Flash on the planet. So that makes them much less evil in my book :~)
Last edited by clem11388; 01-20-2011 at 12:19 AM.
Reason: re wording to better illustrate the same point
I switched back to Ubuntu late in the year, but I should have stayed with Sabayon because they are faster and cleaner running, even though the guys in the #sabayon IRC channel are a bunch of jerks. They did put together a slick desktop.
No offense, but if you do not follow your own "philosophy", then why do you have it? Ubuntu is doing, from the outside looking in, what is best for the open source industry. You can use closed source proprietary software and codecs if you want, but that is your choice (and to be fair you have no other choice at this time) to use those things.
Because I have found no suitable FOSS replacement for Flash, nvidia drivers, mp3 codecs, etc etc. Ideally, a system composed entirely of FOSS software would be my first choice, but I also want my computer to function properly.
Well ... in 1980 there were only like five million people outside of the UK under British rule, as opposed to like seven-hundred million at the end of World War II.
Nowadays, you still have your Bermudas and Gibraltars of the world, but it's safe to say that the Empire as it was at its height has gone from this world.
So it is with Microsoft now; I believe that their "stranglehold" heyday of being the single most powerful and important computer software company in the world are in the process of ending, and for the most part are already completely over, like with the Empire around 1980.
My freakin' phone is a computer, as are most of them now. In fact, my current phone outclasses the PC I had on my desk eight years ago by several powers of ten, and it doesn't have a lick of Microsoft code on it. (Neither does my PC, except for Office, but the phone's 100% commercial and untouched by me, whereas I built the PC.)
It doesn't take a prophet to see that most "consumer computing" will soon be taking place on non-traditional devices; devices more like my phone than my PC. "Real" computers will go back to their old 1980s role of being seen as "for work." Only hobbyists like us will see them as anything else 20 years from now, assuming that "real" computers as we think of them now even exist outside of data centers by then. Microsoft's code doesn't run on very many of those non-traditional devices these days, and they don't seem to be doing a very good job of horning in on that market.
Being bitter about Microsoft's current "evil" levels of "control" over computer users is very silly. That situation was real about fifteen years ago or more, but since then it has changed a great deal, and you are only really "stuck" with MS software on a PC for as long as you don't care about being stuck with it. As soon as it irritates you, you have options. This was not really true for me in 1991, when I bought my first PC.
So ... as far as the dates on the Empire goes, I'll defer to those who would know better. Perhaps I should have said 1945 instead of 1980, as the metaphor could be more apt, since MS today still has a very large market share, but I was going for a bit of an exaggeration.
All these are Google FOSS projects, and HUGE ones. Privacy wise Google may be evil, but FOSS wise and standards wise they are. Really, if I had to rank Google, it would be dead in the middle -- not anywhere the top, not anywhere near the bottom.
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and specifically try to write open source codecs of all kinds, Gnash the Flash alternative included. Specifically because I am tried of all this crap about closed source codecs and software and hardware companies paying rights just to use one of the smallest piece of software on a computer!!
