I've been hearing more and more about other companies doing the same thing because of Microsoft's strong-arm tactics. When will Billy & Company learn that tactics such as these are what is driving businesses to dump Microsoft and switch to Linux/BSD? Linux isn't Microsoft's enemy, Microsoft is it's own worst enemy. Full article
Reading this made me the happiest I've been all month! I'm working for a large corporation now and my team is really starting to try to introduce some open source stuff in our coding. It's definitely a battle. Everyone has been so brainwashed by MS and their propaganda! YAY Ernie Ball!! I knew I loved their super slinkies for more than their playability!
Proof that the customer is always right, even if they have to prove a point by voting with their wallets
I'm missing something here. 1. You're using illegal software. 2. You get caught. 3. You squeal "Unfair", and take your bat home. 4. Everybody praises you?
That's not the point. To use me as an example... I work at a hospital which has 900 - 1100 PC's and a few dozen servers, all with a varient of Windows installed and about 3/4 of those PC's have Office installed. The servers are running Windows 2k and some have MS-SQL ... Now, we try very hard to keep an accurate counting of licenses and have given ourselves voluntary audits on occasion just to make sure we're in compliance. Many times we have found that departments (mostly nursing and executive offices) take it upon themselves to buy a new computer and install a copy of Office or just plain ole install a copy on a computer they "need". Quite a few times, it's installed on a computer that is for temp employees and never removed and subsequently there will be multiple computers with the same license. It's inevitable. According to Microsoft, it doesn't matter if the software is being used, as long as it's on the computer, it needs a license. Now, if the BSA comes in to do an audit and sees this, no matter if it was an honest accident or not, you will be fined. In addition, by law, if you try and fight it, you are required to not only pay your legal fees, but the BSA's legal fees as well. It would be VERY easy for us to have multiple computers with the same Office (or even Windows) licenses without IT knowing about it, and we can be nailed for it. It's not a matter of legal or illegal software most of the time. It's a matter of employees taking it upon themselves to install Microsoft products on multiple computers using the same license. Does that make any sense at all? I'm tired and not really thinking too clearly...
Alright. Here is my thing with this. Windows is a good OS, no one can doubt that, it runs, people play games, its DECENTLY stable, don't comment linux-freaks, but its losing its grip. Microsoft really started to employ the wrong tactics. While I feel their pain, they loose in the millions possibly billions of dollars a year to piracy, probably more then the MP3 and music industry does because they sell OS for much more. Everyone has to have an OS and most aren't legal. Mine is, came with the laptop. Now my agenda. I just realised, I don't play games on this laptop. I chat, surf websites etc. What Linux distrobution would best be suited for a laptop and have very nice features with good packages? I code on this laptop, so..
I am fast becoming tired of M$'s intolerant attitude in regards to licencing. If I go out and purchace Office, at the rediculious prices they are charging, I should be able to install it on 15 computers! $33 a computer isn't too bad, it is almost fair. They are being totaly unreasonable, and they will lose customers. In theroy, if a corperation of 100 computers is running on NT4, the cost to upgrade to XP or Server 2003 would be phenominal! Come on, there is NO WAY any sane boss would approve that, unless not upgrading means the company will go out of business. This week, I installed Linux as a server operating system, so I can serve files to my local network. I didn't use Linux out of spite, because I hate M$, but because buying a decent server os costs TOO MUCH FREAKING MONEY!!!! Linux is free, and while it took a load of time and 2 installs to configure, it works just as well, and was FREE!!! Microsoft is going to start losing a lot of people to the Linux community, unless they do something about it. My sugestion: Either start charging about %12 of what you're currently charging for your software, or allow multiple computers on one copy of the software. /me is severly unhappy with M$
Actually, nearly any distro will have what you want. The bigger distros now-a-day have great laptop support and any will let you chat, surf, code, etc... My suggestion for anyone who has never played with Linux would be either RedHat or Mandrake because of their ease of installation and clean interfaces.
