[TriLUG] "taxation without representation"

[Sinner from the Prairy]

El dia Thursday 31 January 2002 01:00 am, no tenies res mes que fer i vas i 
m'envies aquest mail:
> On Thursday 31 January 2002 12:00 am, you wrote:
> > Thoughts?

> Me too. Business owner. No more M$.

> I read that in the 1960s, the US gov mandated that each time a computer was
> purchased, a different vendor was picked.  Pretty soon, there were lot's of
> computers that could not talk to each other. Then a fellow by the name of
> J.C.R. Licklider decided that computers should be able to communicate
> regardless of the manufacturer.  Then came ARPAnet followed by DARPA who
> funded UCB from which sprang sockets.  You know the rest.
>
> Summary: Diversity is a good thing.  Because of it we have the Internet and
> WWW and email.  M$ is one of the evil axis powers lulling people into
> stupidity.  The US and State govenments should mandate the use of freely
> available software whenever a reasonable alternative exists.  Plenty exist
> today.  Paying for WIndows and Office products with my tax dollars must
> stop.

Hear! Hear!

IIRC, IBM was able to ship laptops with no Windows on it. Dell, maybe too. HP 
soon will ship desktop equipments with MAndrake on it.

Now,

Remember that a bought laptop, presents you with an EULA the first time you 
boot it. Or is it on one of the manuals that clutter the laptop box? Anyway, 
it says something that "I agree , by pressing the OK button, to abde by 
Microsoft altest EULA posted on their website and changed at will. I also 
agree to upgrade Windows every year. And, of course, I agree to run 
propietary-ony, sub-standard quality software in here. IF you do not agree, 
please contact with the vendor. [OK] [CANCEL]"
-- 
"I fart in your general direction! Your mother was a hamster and your father 
smelt of elderberries!"
RedHat QA Test Engineer  --  Running RedHat 7.2 on i386smp
http://www.ibiblio.org/sinner/