The primary reason Microsoft will always have a strangle-hold on the desktop and Office suite is because they control all the variables in the equation. If a new feature is suggested, they can manipulate everything they need to without a lot of political muss and fuss.

Integration in Gnome usually means a committee/standards body, lengthy discussions, arguing about implementation and integration interfaces, flame wars between "camps" - which contribute to constant lagging behind the Redmond giant, sometimes shotty code or a feature's death.

OpenOffice/StarOffice is great...but there's no integration with other apps like Evolution, Mr Project, GNUCash, etc. other than the export-to-suboptimal-format + import-and-clean-up method. All of these programs have well-defined APIs and interfaces, but no one's connected them, yet. Imagine, using Mr. Project to coordinate 3 developers, a project manager and a sales engineer, updating everyone's schedule in Evolution and tracking expenses in GNUCash.

When there's that level of integration, then GNU/Linux will grow to be as ubiquitous as Microsoft.

Why do most marketing folks not use their brains? Sure, they come up clever ads and campaigns but when it comes to targeting an audience, they really suck ass. Case in point:

My job title is Senior UNIX Administrator & Engineer

Please note that the words "Microsoft," "Windows," ".Net," "Active Directory" are not in my title. Neither are "SQL Server," "Exchange," "Internet Explorer," "Office," "IIS," "ActiveX," "Visual Basic/C++/J++/Studio" or "FoxPro" for that matter.

That being the case, why do marketing slugs constantly send me shit advertising Microsoft products, training, demonstrations and the like? Get it through your fucking skulls - I don't give a shit about Microsoft products.

Okay...so today was the first snowfall of the season for the DC Metro area. And what do I see: some moron in a Kia Sportage driving down the road with 4-5 inches of snow on his hood. Mind you, this isn't damp snow, this is light, fluffy snow so the snow on the hood was blowing up and over his windshield - reducing his visability.

I don't know about you, but it would seem to me to be common sense to brush the snow from your vehicle before setting out. I mean, after all, don't you want to see other people on the road and want other people to see you?

Instead of good, common sense, I find stupidity everywhere. So many people driving around with snow all over their vehicles, covered headlamps and tail lights, front windshields mostly blocked, rear windows completely covered!

Now, I'm normally a nice, easy goin' guy...but when I see these idiots driving around, I can only think of one thing: should this dumbass, who couldn't take 5 minutes to brush off their vehicle, wreck and severely injure themself or even die, I will feel no pity or sorrow for them. I will, instead, laugh at them for being so stupid. I will, however, feel deep sprrow for the family and friends they'll leave behind.

The song Du Hast by Rammstein (from the Matrix soundtrack) is a really kicking song....but I don't speak a word of German.

Which leads me to ponder - the German language is very gutteral and "harsh" with a lot of hard consonants. The combination of German lyrics and heavy industrial metal music is a great!

So...while I like Du Hast, I can't understand a damn word, which is unfortunate for me.

"When I reach in to my pocket, that's when I loose control." Butthole Surfers Thermador

Gibby...you are a freak, but that's okay.