Comment Sure, it's been available for years. (Score 3, Funny) 121
But it usually comes with an email demanding money for decryption.
If you want to keep something private, you should not use Windows.
Comment Open is not free. (Score -1, Troll) 468
Read the license again.
You may copy and/or distribute This Product, provided that You do not modify This Product (for terms and conditions for copying and distribution of modified versions of This Product, see Chapter III) and provided that You do not include This Product in another product forming Your Product (except as permitted under Chapter III)
Truecrypt is not free software and security problems have been noted in the past. Only free software should be trusted.
Comment It's Bull Shit (TM) from the Wintel People. (Score 0, Funny) 413
"Bundling" is a lie. OEM manipulation and technical sabotage are the truth. Calling Mozilla a "Monopoly" is just plain stupid.
Comment With those two, M$ is dead. (Score -1, Troll) 640
According to Heather Bellini, of UBS AB and the top-ranked software analyst by Institutional Investor magazine all five M$ divisions were behind expectations and most are losers.
every one of Microsoft's five divisions may miss the company's and analysts' sales forecasts. The world's biggest software maker won't be able to cut enough costs to meet profit goals
Things have only gotten worse, which is why Oppenheimer & Co's analyst Brad Reback advises 10% cuts and others as much as 17%. None of that can save Vista, Zune, IE and other failures.
Comment eweek and WSJ articles. (Score -1, Informative) 344
When the Wall Street Journal reports it, you know M$ is in trouble. EWeek also has an interesting write up with more technical details.
Submission + - IBM have a M$ Free Future with Ubuntu Thinclients. (eweek.com)
freenix writes: IBM is rolling out it's planned, "Microsoft free" thinclient desktop solution.
IBM joined forces with Virtual Bridges and Canonical Dec. 4 to offer a virtual desktop package comprises three software components that sit on one corporate server. The bundle, billed as "Microsoft free," is then provisioned to hundreds or even thousands of desktops.
Everyone and their dog is reporting this. IBM is basically dancing on Vista's grave by promissing cheaper and more flexible solutions. Existing hardware can be used, Windows is virtualized to run legacy apps but the real works is concentrated for greater reliability and easier upkeep. People at the Wall Street Journal concentrate on costs and claim savings of $500 to $800 per desktop per year. Eweek has lots of technical details. Others seem to follow these leads.
It looks like IBM is ready to capitalize on it's GNU/Linux work in a big way.
Comment Public Interest and Rights. (Score -1, Troll) 174
Companies making these deals don't own the land the lines run through and are obligated to be good stewards of it. This is the basis for telco regulation, to define what a good steward is. Cutting off large chunks of the internet is harmful to the public and should be avoided with reasonable regulations. Companies that violate those regulations can and should be replaced by the public with another that will maintain infrastructure better.
France Seeks To Push 3-Strikes Law Across Europe 265
quanticle writes "As you may recall, France previously threatened to cut off broadband access for file sharers. However, after lobbying by the public, the legislation failed in the National Assembly. Now, the government of Nicolas Sarkozy is trying to revive the the measure by pushing it as an amendment to the pan-European Telecoms Package. This amendment has the potential to impose 3-strikes across Europe, not just in France."
Feed Wired: Microsoft Live Search to be HP PC Default (wired.com)
Comment Very defensive about Vista. (Score 4, Interesting) 769
Ballmer tried to counter Vista's reputation as a mistake and failure. CBS did not miss this.
Both Gates and Ballmer were asked about the success, or lack thereof, of Windows Vista, with Walt Mossberg asking if Vista was a failure or a mistake.
"It's not a failure and not a mistake," responded Ballmer. "With 20/20 hindsight, there are things we would do differently." Ballmer said Vista has sold 150 million units so far, but he did say that business customers will be able to request a "downgrade" to Windows XP after the company stops selling XP in June - obviously a response to the fact that many customers prefer XP to Vista.
The Register has an article that focuses on this and what it means.
I agree with Gates, Win95 was as good as Windows got. No, I'm not Bill Gate's sockpupet. Their vision of a unified desktop and web browser has been better implemented by KDE since. XP's copy protection and Vista's digital restrictions were tremendous mistakes. The seeds of M$'s demise were expressed early on.
Who can afford to do professional work for nothing? What hobbyist can put 3-man years into programming, finding all bugs, documenting his product and distribute for free? The fact is, no one besides us has invested a lot of money in hobby software.
Free software has done all of these things better than non free software.
Comment Why is this modded flamebait? (Score 5, Insightful) 329
Why is this modded flamebait?
If we take the history of Longhorn/Vista into account, it's very much possible that it will never be realized on a real production level. Disclosing it now, is clearly a move to stay in the news, which is mainly relevant the stock market.
Come on, what were the last great news from Redmond? They clearly need some publicity, so yes it might be vaporware.
If we take the history of Longhorn/Vista into account, it's very much possible that it will never be realized on a real production level. Disclosing it now, is clearly a move to stay in the news, which is mainly relevant the stock market.
Come on, what were the last great news from Redmond? They clearly need some publicity, so yes it might be vaporware.
Windows 7 Won't Have Compact "MinWin" Kernel 580
An anonymous reader points us to an interview Microsoft's Windows 7 development chief, Steven Sinofsky, did with CNet. He reveals that Windows 7 will be a further evolution of Vista, and will lose the rumored MinWin kernel. "We're very clear that drivers and software that work on Windows Vista are going to work really well on Windows 7; in fact, they'll work the same. We're going to not introduce additional compatibilities, particularly in the driver model. Windows Vista was about improving those things. We are going to build on the success and the strength of the Windows Server 2008 kernel, and that has all of this work that you've been talking about. The key there is that the kernel in Windows Server 08 is an evolution of the kernel in Windows Vista, and then Windows 7 will be a further evolution of that kernel as well."
Asus Set To Release Desktop Eee PC Variant 171
the_leander writes "The Register has pictures of the desktop version of Asus's Eee PC, reportedly called the 'Ebox.' It will be released early next month after it has been unveiled publicly at Computex in Taipei on June 3. It'll come equipped with the same Xandros Linux distribution as the Eee, though it's likely that Windows XP will be available also. But given the probable choice for CPU, Atom, ithe Ebox is unlikely to allow for the use of Vista, unless you're something of a masochist. It's expected to retail for $200-$300."
Submission + - Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (canada.com)
SpaceAdmiral writes: "The Canadian government is secretly negotiating to join the U.S. and E.U. in an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA). The agreement would give border guards the power to search your iPod and cellphone for illegal downloads, as well as force ISPs to hand over customer information without a warrant. According to David Fewer, staff counsel at the University of Ottawa's Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic: "If Hollywood could order intellectual property laws for Christmas what would they look like? This is pretty close.""
Comment 7 years long enough (Score 5, Interesting) 979
If we assume that technology and communications is improving, and the pace of progress is increasing then logically the duration of monopoly should get shorter and shorter rather than longer.
Nowadays if a movie is good it makes a profit within a few weeks of its release. If it's not good, stop making bad movies then.
It is ridiculous that there should be a monopoly for > 100 years.
Think about it, if copyright only lasted 7 years, do you think Microsoft would dare release something as crap as Vista? They'd have to make something significantly better than Windows 2000.
If Microsoft won't want to play by those rules, I'm sure Apple or some others will be happy to take over.
As for patents and people talking about drugs needing long patent terms, the AFAIK drug companies spend more money on marketing (aka bribing doctors with goodies and holidays) than R&D, and FDA approval.
Nowadays if a movie is good it makes a profit within a few weeks of its release. If it's not good, stop making bad movies then.
It is ridiculous that there should be a monopoly for > 100 years.
Think about it, if copyright only lasted 7 years, do you think Microsoft would dare release something as crap as Vista? They'd have to make something significantly better than Windows 2000.
If Microsoft won't want to play by those rules, I'm sure Apple or some others will be happy to take over.
As for patents and people talking about drugs needing long patent terms, the AFAIK drug companies spend more money on marketing (aka bribing doctors with goodies and holidays) than R&D, and FDA approval.
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