I certainly think they should test their OEM configurations before they go out the door but let's be honest. How hard is it really? Dell has a range of models which differ only slightly in terms of CPU/RAM etc. I can see problems with certain language options but afaik OSS is much better supported right out of the box with translations than most retail software. I've got a few issues with your points, if a "stupid error" slips through Microsoft how are you responsible for that then? Same for alternative Office software, how is Dell responsible for that? They test the software, does it work as advertised? No? File a bug report. What else can you do. Does Dell get a dedicated line into Microsofts code lab? Do they have a priority bugfix hotline? I don't think so.

The question here is: What is "good testing" and what is the alternative if a court order actually prevents you from selling/shipping the software. If I were a computer manufacturer I'd rather look into a testing cycle that would keep my shipment process running and diversifies my experience and configuration portfolio for future use rather than bitch and moan to a court how you are inconvenienced by one of your suppliers shenanigans. Then again, I'm not a computer manufacturer. I'm not really familiar with Dells modus oparandi but how much "support" do they actually give for the software installed? Do they explain customers how to use MS Word? If there is a bug in Word what do they tell them anyway? Like I said, I honestly don't know.

Should you maybe READ what other people write before you complain? Oh wait, I forgot this is Slashdot after all.

I think perhaps you've missed details like this: http://yro.slashdot.org/story/09/08/18/190227/i4i-Says-OpenOffice-Does-Not-Infringe-Like-MS-Word

So two of the biggest hardware retailers in the world complain about how it's too boohoo complicated for them to change their OEM installation images that get automatically plastered onto every computer? No one does a manual install in the Dell or HP plants. The extensive time and resource consuming "testing" they're referring two most likely comes from the time they sit around their contracts testing how much Microsoft owes them now for this legal stunt. The most testing you'd have to do for this is to install an alternative on every model once and then you're good. I'mn not really aware of any hardware limitations that would prevent a word processor to run on any modern system.

They should be forced to ship their machines with something like OpenOffice. Microsoft can't complain themselves but that would expose them for the jerks they are so they bully their OEM holders to do their legal poo-flinging. Pathetic, just as expected.

Now, tell me. Ingenious discoverer of truth. Tell me why the things you think you know about me from a half page comment in a computer forum are true and how you can, with you open minded attitude, label someone a loser you've never met and never spoken to? Oh right, open minded successful people don't need reasons.

Welcome to reality for many people. Sure, I make no big deal about how I'd love to have a positive attitude towards life. Just that it doesn't come automatically people like me. I'd also love to be ignorant and oblivious to many things, another thing I can't influence. I can smile all day but that doesn't make me happy. Oh and a warning: the last sentence was an analogy ... not literally meant. You don't seem to understand the difference.

How quaint, and which post exactly did YOU read? I kinda missed the one in which I explained my CV and stuff to you and introduced you to my friends... the only thing that's predictable here is your self-affirming ignorance paired with that infinite belief in what you say. THAT is sad.

Alright, your just being a jackass ridiculing yourself now. Until someone "threatened" them? Jeez. What a wonderful picture of the threats to friendship you have. How many of your former girlfriends, that get you laid such a lot, would take a bullet for you? Also, tell me more of your wisdom great master. You seem to be the Dhalai Llama's son or something. Maybe learning about YOUR life makes everybody as happy as you pretend to be. May I ask you how old you are to think you can go around giving other people advice on how to live their lives? Oh wait, you're just gonna lie anyway. Nevermind.

Where did I claim my way of life is superior to yours? Is that what you read into this? How would I even know enough about what you do and what I do to compare it in any meaningful way? I've been to "be social at all costs" phases and was really successful at it, friends, girlfriends, money, cars, jobs, you name it. Did it make me happy? Quite the opposite, because I wasn't myself. I can say with confidence that I'd rather get up in the morning and introvertedly hate myself for half an hour than run around extrovertedly hating everybody and everything again while broadly smiling. You CLAIM all kinds of shit that you can't and won't ever prove to anyone. Why should anyone try to be what they ain't? Because it works for you? You're right because you say so. Alright, so be it. Just a quick note: you're probably not.

Well played sir, and statements like this make me respect you as a bringer of true insight and valuable conversation. Especially after you've proved all your points with razor sharp wit and to an extent that everybody can fully grasp why your ways must inevitably be better.

No but really, had you said ONE word about what I wrote and explained how you come to think you know better I probably even considered taking hints from a complete stranger online, that's how pathetic I am. You'd probably think it'd help an addict by shouting You've got a fucking drug problem!!1! at them. You keep blabbering on about how great you are and that is classical asshole behavior since you can't (won't) even think about why you even believe you're right. First step to being wrong. You're lucky that I sit here at my extremely easy and lucrative job with nothing to do or else I'd have never answered. Looking forward to wolfing down more of your self-confident ramblings.

For a guy that claims to have a positive attidude towards life and being successful as you are you sure have some bitter fucking shit to say about people you don't know and don't care about. I still loled

1st of September? When the last "true" TPB user will stop caring about the project for good? Nice going. Good Luck with your useless block then.

You're a funny bisquit are you? "People that are not good at socalizing should go out and socialize". That's like saying ... people that are not good at reading and spelling should go out and make their living writing books. Disappointment, rejection and failure are the only consequences out of this retarded advice. What most introverts need is other introverts to connect to and feel safe around. As an introvert trying to socialize with extroverts is like pricking a power socket with a wet fork. You might connect for a moment but you can't really stand it for long. Failure after failure trying to connect with the "normal" masses looking down on them is the worst thing that drives people even deeper into their shells. I've been through phases like that ... in the end I'd rather stay an introvert with a few true friends than be that extroverted jackass again that gets laid, meets people and "does things" all while not realizing that all of it is meaningless pretend bullshit. After all, that "life" that you seem to promote so feverishly is mostly lead by people that neither care nor understand what the world is actually about and what matters. Keeping themselves busy so they never have to reminisce about the things that are "wrong" with their attitude and whatnot. In my experience introverts think about way more things (especially in a social context) and that's why they hardly risk upsetting those relationships. Just my 2 cents.

But you're not here to help with the discussion anyway, are ya? You're just writing to demonstrate to the potentially worst computer crowd in the world what a great socializer you are ... I loled

I live in (Nazi) Germany and we've had more freedom of speech for years. At least satire is still (mostly) satire over here. You can have your country back once you've sorted out how to get rid of the ruling political and religious nutters. We've got lots of idiots like that around here too but they hardly call the shots.

Ah and getting rid of guns would be a great idea as well. Ever wondered why a moron can defend his absolutely batshit crazy opinion against all odds? Because he fends of reality with an assault rifle ... that's why.

I'm just joking of course ... because I can.

Then every other broadband customer has to pirate their media or pay a "Comcast Tax" when purchasing physical media. Maybe this'll wake up the consumer types.

"We can't take into consideration the sanitation laws or human rights, this needs to act as a deterrent for pillaging hordes"

Could they just go die already? I'm not buying anything either and I'm sick by the cries of suffering from the basement. I guess I'll take a shovel down there and end it ...

Fort Knox announced today that someone broke in and took a dump on the Gold ... nothing was stolen though.

Public Anti-Terror campaigns, everybody accusing everybody else, political trials etc.

At least with that shit Americans at some point realized how horrible it is. Right now the headless chicken is still going strong.

And the "OMG gargoyle" comments probably didn't help either ...

If you'd known the crap I was taught as a kid you'd understand that it was a bit more complicated than that. The stuff I had to write looked somewhat like this: http://spzwww.uni-muenster.de/~griesha/eps/wrt/pics/schrift/lehrer-ir.1966d.gif but even more curly. I found this example on Wikipedia but it doesn't do the crap justice if it's just single letters. http://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Datei:La-ges.jpg&filetimestamp=20060501153550 I don't have much of my primary school writing around but you're getting the idea. Note how this first sample is from a teacher from 1966 and this guy obviously took his time to write this sentence. Mine looked far worse under pressure. The Wiki page even states that usually this stuff was taught AFTER learning print ... I never even learned print. We were taught that "Latin Cursive" only.

Then you might have been lucky and adopted a style that was compatible with most other writing so teachers were able to recognize it.

Well, large blocktype in capital letters to cram into form boxes is something else than free flowing print style letters required for producing a sophisticated result in drafts.

I never tried to imitate computer or type font. I just took what I saw in other writing and used that as a guideline. It comes pretty close to how computer fonts look is far more "edgy" and straight strokes than the curvy squiggling I did before. I'm not saying I had a hard time, it was just inconvenient to try to lose a habit that was so deeply entrenched in my brain. I'm not a calligrapher but it works for me and I'm fine with that.

I dropped my cursive handwriting several years ago when I went to the German equivalent of Highschool Senior Year. I had been taught a curvy flowing writing style from primary school onwards and was required to write like that even though I found it exhausting. Then people started expecting me to write half a dozen pages or more in under 90 minutes for class tests which subsequently were graded badly because ... heck ... how am I supposed to write legibly in that amount of time when the style of writing I was taught looks like a curvy mess. I specifically remember my English teacher one day handing a class exam back to me which got an "F" because he couldn't read the 13 pages I had to squeeze into the 80 minute exam time, ironically the same guy a few years later told me that he couldn't give me anything but straigt "A"s in his classes. The difference between an "F" and an "A" -grade wise- for me that's enough reason to think Fuck Cursive. My primary school teachers and the idiots writing the curriculum obviously didn't take into account that some day kids would have to complete real life tasks with that crappy writing. Thus started a lengthy process retraining myself to "print" style writing. After all, what good is a handwriting nobody else can read. It might be fun for literary scholars or archaelogists but my employers and teachers have been more than glad to see me drop that cursive hyroglyphics. A year of cramps and wasted trees later my grades got (significantly) better. Nine years later I can finally decipher things I wrote in a hurry months ago and for really long texts nobody can expect me to avoid typing it anyway anymore. Those that find a romantic spark in writing books and letters in wriggly bible font are welcome to learn how to do it. Just don't expect me to do it if it's detrimental to my everyday requirements. I maintain two seperate keyboard layouts (QWERTY and DVORAK Type 2) on full 10 finger typing speed. That should be enough writing geekery for me.