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Microsoft

Journal Journal: All right! I've had enough! FIX YOUR GODDAMN MACHINES!

Enough! Fix your goddamn broken software and train the damn users. This afternoon alone I get _6_ SMS messages from some asshole running a Windows machine that got nailed by another Windows virus. I don't use Windows, or any of Microsoft's broken or non-broken crap (there's some good everywhere) out of both principle and necessity to use tools that work.

Where do I sign up to get refunds for the money I'm charged for these messages? Gods forbid I'd be somewhere that I pay for bandwidth by time and get this crap in my email box as well, I'd be ready to send a bill to Redmond and a nasty note.. Yes, I know they're not directly responsible but they've done more to impede the progress of computing and people's expectations of computers than anything since the Luddites ran around smashing machines.

</rant>
Caldera

Journal Journal: SCO and my Zaurus (Zaurii?)

It's interesting that lately SCO wants to collect money from everyone (!) using anything based on a 2.4 Linux kernel. As the happy owner of a Sharp Zaurus (5500 for now, with a C760 on its way next week, yay!), Agenda VR3d, bunches of old machines tinkering with various distros and lastly a Dreamcast that I use for nothing but Linux tinkering, my household alone would end up owing in the range of a couple of thousand dollars to SCO for their 'licensing fee'. If SCO is going to run around telling everyone that if you don't pay their license, you're a pirate, does that constitute slander? If it does, perhaps some form of class action libel suit against SCO on behalf of Linux users worldwide is in order. As someone that has made my living since High School as a programmer I am fastidious about software licenses - to do otherwise would be to deny myself a paycheck. For them to even allege that people such as myself are 'stealing' from them is an affront to both my personal and technical sensibilities.
I have had to explain to various people that No, Linux users are *not* thieves, that if someone has (intentionally or otherwise) included sources that they shouldn't, those sources need only be identified and they will be replaced. Finding myself on the defensive on a topic like this is akin to someone asking loudly at a party if you still beat your wife - no matter how unfounded or baseless, the implication is made and you are at an immediate disadvantage.
It's high time that SCO backed up their increasingly outlandish claims and demands with some simple facts. Perhaps they're all too aware that the very market they're attacking will absorb any damage they can deal out, make any required adjustments and leave them simply kicking and squalling. If SCO does indeed have any proof of wrongdoing in any part of Linux, let them come forward with it so it can be dealt with in sane fashion. Otherwise, let them answer the legal consequences of their wreckless behavior.

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