45582
submission
Toreo asesino writes:
ZDNet is reporting the French government is ditching their Microsoft platforms and going open-source — a total of 1,154 workstations in all. From the article:
"The study showed that open source software will from now on offer functionality adapted to the needs of MPs, and will allow us to make substantial savings despite the associated migration and training costs," the parliament said.
42594
submission
Toreo asesino writes:
It looks like the US is becomming increasing nanny-like with laws like Section 2252B (Title 18).
From the section...
"2252C: Misleading words or digital images on the Internet
(a) IN GENERAL. — Whoever knowingly embeds words or digital images into the source code of a website with the intent to deceive a person into viewing material constituting obscenity shall be fined under this title and imprisoned for not more than 10 years.
(b) MINORS. — Whoever knowingly embeds words or digital images into the source code of a website with the intent to deceive a minor into viewing material harmful to minors on the Internet shall be fined under this title and imprisoned for not more than 20 years.
(c) CONSTRUCTION. — For the purposes of this section, a word or digital image that clearly indicates the sexual content of the site, such as 'sex' or 'porn', is not misleading."
35089
submission
Toreo asesino writes:
Microsoft has finished coding on Windows Vista, and has RTM'd the product. This of course means that any further bugs will now be fixed in patches and service-packs.
15315
submission
Toreo asesino writes:
As part of the Windows Longhorn Server releases, Microsoft intend on providing 'core' versions of these too without any of the extra 'fluff' normally bundled into a normal Windows Server install. The hacked out elements include any kind of GUI, all the integrated application (IE, Outlook, Media Player) — just the bare essentials and support for networking tools (file-sharing, active directory, DNS server, etc), and as such is administered from the command-line only.
This approach is more inline with the *nix server philosophy of 'less is more' — the idea being that the less there is in the system, the less things can go wrong.
8296
submission
Toreo asesino writes:
It would appear Microsoft are tightening the screws on their up & coming DRM platform; Windows Media Player 11 removes the right to move music from one machine to another, as according to their website, "Windows Media Player 11 does not permit you to back up your media usage rights (previously known as licenses)".
Worse in fact, If you rip your own CDs and the 'Copy protect music' option is turned on WMP will require you to, in their words..."connect to a Microsoft Web page that explains how to restore your rights a limited number of times."
4855
submission
Toreo asesino writes:
Windows Vista RC1 has been made available to the general public, with keys available here.
There are various websites that report this build is far more stable than previous builds, but as Microsoft themselves have said "quality will continue to improve. We'll keep plugging away on application compatibility, as well as fit and finish, until RTM"
These builds are set to expire on June 1st 2007.
1101
submission
Toreo asesino writes:
Microsoft has offered developer assistance to Mozilla to ensure both the Firefox browser and Thunderbird email-client run under the pending Windows Vista. This was announced by Sam Ramji, director at the 'Open Source Software Lab' in Microsoft, on Google Groups
From the posting: "I am the Director of the Open Source Software Lab at Microsoft, and I'm
writing to see if you are open to some 1:1 support in getting Firefox and Thunderbird to run on Vista.
...
In the past the company has only invited commercial software developers to these labs. I'm committed to evolving our thinking beyond commercial companies to include open source projects, so I went to the non-trivial effort of getting slots for non-commercial open source projects."
Is Microsoft finally beginning to play nice with open-source or are there ulterior motives at work here?
