[TriLUG] "taxation without representation"

[Ed Hill]

On Thu, 2002-01-31 at 06:53, Sinner from the Prairy wrote:
> 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]"


The EULA is now more clever.  I got a new IBM Thinkpad A22p in November
2001 and it was wrapped in a plastic case that had a sticker on it.  The
sticker said the following (and I paraphrase):

  To use this hardware you must agree to the terms of the included 
  software licensing agreement.  If you do not agree to these terms, 
  you must not break this seal and should immediately return both 
  the machine and the all included components and software to IBM.

Unfortunately, I no longer have the sticker as it was thrown out with
the wrapping.  Other folks (and it was discussed a lot on the CLUE-talk
list out here: http://clue.denver.co.us/) have also recently purchased
new laptops from other vendors (eg. Compaq) and have been presented with
essentially the same scenario.

This is awful.  And a clear abuse of monopoly power.

I hope that y'all wrote letters describing this rotten situation and
other MS abuses to R. Hesse while the Tunney Act comment period was
still in effect (it ended back on monday)...  I did.

IMNSHO, if the current toothless proposed settlement goes through, we
can expect the "MS tax" to become even more prevalent.

Ed


-- 
Edward H. Hill III, PhD
Post-Doctoral Researcher   |  Email:       ed at eh3.com, ehill at mines.edu
Division of ESE            |  URL:         http://www.eh3.com
Colorado School of Mines   |  Phone:       303-273-3483
Golden, CO  80401          |  Fax:         303-273-3311
Key fingerprint = 5BDE 4DA1 66BE 4F7B BC17  3A0C 932B 7266 1E76 F123
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