Agreed. There is a very serious image problem in the open source community - the hardon for bashing Microsoft is basically a reflex now, without any reflection as to how things actually are these days with the quality of their software.

An excellent point of course. I didn't mention OS X because the blog seemed more focused on open source and the ideology of openness, which is traditionally more of a Linux focus than OS X, but you're still right.

In a competitive environment, it would be. In a monopoly position, it simply is anti-competitive in an area where you'd like some competition. I agree it is not "bribery", though.

Oh please. The monopoly position doesn't hold much water these days. We're got alternatives - Linux and LibreOffice. They're freely available with no restrictions. Microsoft can offer Windows and MS Office as cheaply as they want, but they won't offer it for free because that doesn't exactly net them any money, so no matter what, they will always be offering the more expensive option compared to what I suggested. It's not like they're undercutting the opposition when the opposition is free.

No, there's more to it than that. People prefer to spend the money to keep the status quo and not have to learn anything new than try something that MIGHT work well enough for them, but would be different to what everyone else around them is using. We HAVE enough options now to keep everyone happy, so I don't see Microsoft as much of a monopoly now. They do have a huge market share though, but they can't remove the free option.

This is the problem. People like you do not see anything but black and white. There is no grey apparently. You talk as if someone might actually find Windows more suitable for what they use a computer for than what Linux provides (e.g. me).

You seem to think I'm an idiot for having made a conscious choice to stick with Windows for logical and practical reasons, and since this does not click with your thought processes, you twitch, and post as you did.

It is hence you who is the mindless twit. For you do not accept a contradicting opinion.

So cheap copies of Windows and Office = bribibing? Sounds more like clever business to me.

OH! But it's Microsoft, how could I forget this little fact that completely ruins a person's objectivity...

Slashdot is fun. It reports news which basically doesn't exist. This is just some guy who is on an anti-Microsoft bender and wants to somehow make his ideology meaningful in a world which doesn't really give a shit (if the low Linux uptake has anything to go by).

His rant is way too emotional for something that the politicians and most parents won't even understand. I mean, everyone uses Windows right? It's installed on all computers, and if you point at a random computer user, it's probably 99% likely they use Windows or have at least one Windows machine in the house. This is slight hyperbole of course, but it's enough to bet money on most of the time.

Now I'm not saying there isn't value in a open and multi-platform way to distribute information. It's just that this guy overblows the matter. The number of people who would be affected by the requirement for Silverlight is probably going to be EXTREMELY minor. Should those people be penalized? Of course not. But they also made the decision to make life more difficult for themselves by going against the grain and choosing to use something other than Windows (an OS pre-installed on virtually all computers you can buy, so having to buy it yourself is unnecessary).

In other words, if you don't want to use Windows, be aware that you'll be treated like a second-class citizen and it's extremely hard to convince non-geeks (general public as well as politicians) that there's any issue at stake here. Heck, maybe this is part of the reason why people are scared off from using Linux - they see all these posts about "battles" and "fights" that just aren't faced if you use something more mainstream. One could argue that some fights are worth fighting for, but if so... a small petition from a bunch of geeks with too much emotion and too little tact is likely to not do a damn thing.

Agreed. I've decided to get back into some older games such as Neverwinter Nights 1 and Unreal Tournament 2004 and have been surprised at just how much gaming value these two games have with regards to free, user-made content. NWN in particular has so many damn modules it's amazing how much gameplay you can get from a single game (yes there's obviously going to be crap in that list, but all you do is go to the NWVault, sort by popularity/top lists and the number of available modules ends up in your favour, since this also means there's so much good stuff too).

As for UT2004, the user-made mods and even the bonus packs from Epic, back when they didn't do the paid-DLC thin, is also a great example of what gaming life was like before paid-DLC was commonplace.

Not all mods are created equal. I've noticed that the majority of moderators on the Steam forums (at least the most active ones anyway) are total Valve fanboys who don't see anything Valve does as wrong, and some of them are also quite paranoid at leaving anything controversial open for discussion. Bans are not uncommon if you try to open discussion regarding taboo subjects such as piracy - they won't even bother reading the comment, they'll just ban first and not ask questions later.

We've got some real morons working in the security area of the gaming industry.

Maybe they can hire Steve Jobs. I hear he was the CEO of a pretty large company who left recently.

Oh damnit now I can't remember the name of that company! If only they were in the news more I'd remember them.

Yup. I think the Windows 7 one is superior to Vista in terms of recall speed as well, though I've never compared it to third-party desktop indexing software.

You have a 12TB file server? WTF are you putting on that thing, pirated content you'll never have enough time in your life to watch?

I should have clarified - I don't like how the iTunes store only sells AAC files. I know I can play them in other players (player of choice is Winamp), I just prefer having to deal with MP3, FLAC or in rare cases, OGG. I don't currently have any AAC files, and in keeping a known set of popular and open-source codecs I reduce the likelyhood of dealing with any issues down the track.

As for a portable media player, don't really use them anymore. I either listen to music on my media centre/main computer or burn then to a CD and play in my car, which lacks a USB port. For these reasons the space gained by other formats is not important.

Oh, and before anyone points out the obvious, the missing "at" between good and typing is more about a lack of proof-reading than typing skill. :)

I didn't even notice those dimples on the F/J keys until reading the summary. I've gone through life without noticing them on keyboards for some reason (or I either noticed them once but forgot about them). I'd still argue I'm a pretty good typing though. Shows how useless they are I guess.