So, has anyone not helped M$'s profit this year?

Post #21,674 by Meerkat 12/16/01 10:08:57 PM Reply	So, has anyone not helped M$'s profit this year? Just an idle thought. At first I thought that I hadn't. Yay. But I realised that I started a new job in June, so a new PC was bought by the company, with NT on it. So, indirectly, I've helped M$ get a few more dollars. And by buying an iBook with IE5 pre-installed, I helpd Microsoft again. And I may have helped them again, by buying a Sega Dreamcast with its 'Compatible with Win CE' silkscreened on the front. Bummer. Surely some of you folk haven't helped the Borg this year? Maybe it should be my new year's resolution :) On and on and on and on, and on and on and on goes John.
Post #21,680 by admin 12/16/01 11:12:19 PM Reply	Same deal here. My company bought me an NT machine. Of course, I very quickly installed SuSE on it, but there you have it. At my last job, I did a little better wrt the new computers. I actually convinced them to buy me a Dell workstation with Linux on it. Regards, -scott anderson
Post #21,682 by static 12/16/01 11:39:24 PM Reply	Current position, I don't think so. The PC I'm using at the moment is a "recycled" PC, as it was one of the former director's PCs. But he replaced it with a Thinkpad running Windows. :-/ My previous job I got a new PC, though we "re-used" a W2K CD for it. Hmm. Then, too, I bought my laptop back in March. It still has Windows ME on it (/me ducks)... Wade. "All around me are nothing but fakes Come with me on the biggest fake of all!"
Post #21,684 by Meerkat 12/16/01 11:45:40 PM Reply	And I thought the proper phrase was ME Sucks, as opposed to ducks :) So far, 3 out of 3 have contributed to the M$ 25 billion or thereabouts... On and on and on and on, and on and on and on goes John.
Post #21,683 by Andrew Grygus 12/16/01 11:44:16 PM Reply	I help them, with considerable delight. I am a license Nazi. When I quote systems and software to my clients I carefully explain to them the licensing conditions and the penalties ($150,000 max per licensing "shortfall"), and itemize every dollar that goes to Microsoft (always seperate invoice lines for Windows, etc.), and why it's their own damned fault they are paying it. I take a certain perverse delight in sticking them with the consequences I have been warning them about for the last decade, and watching them squirm. As far as I'm concerned, Microsoft's products are Microsoft's property, and they have every right to ask whatever they want from the suckers who so willingly gave them a monopoly - who wouldn't accept just a little more trouble to assure their own freedom. For every predator, there is a rightful prey. [link\|http://www.aaxnet.com\|AAx]
Post #21,755 by Ashton 12/17/01 5:29:52 PM Reply	Pointed answers are best, for the simplistic. Have passed on your hint to a local VAR/Systems guy, suggesting.. like the ITEM and TAX columns on invoice a ~ M/Soft COSTS/TAX column (actual title will vary per personalities, o'course ;-) Wouldn't this be an excellent policy to proselytize for? If every zIWEer passed on this hint, and each one of those told two and.. ? And no one could call it ABM (after all, one IS selling the crap ordered, isn't one?) (Maybe a lot like: OK you wanted to trade a little liberty for a little security. Right? So don't whine to me about that 3 month detention incommunicado.. as a 'potential witness'. You're the one who happened to be in the same city as Atta was. Right? So there's your security at work. Tough about your job, your wife and your bein declared dead.. Oh and the sellin o' your Porsche for the balance due.) Must be fun makin out them invoices, hmm? W.C Fields' spirit a hoverin in the background.. and calliope music! send in the clowns! Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Cackle.. Ashton
Post #21,685 by a6l6e6x 12/17/01 12:41:09 AM Reply	Not his year, for me. However, I have to confess to doing it last year. I just had to update the early Windows 95 release to Windows Me to get USB and 32-bit FAT support. I have convinced at least one person not to upgrade to XP, so far. Additionally, I am trying to increase their expenses. I am on their developer mailing list. I delete their email but keep quiet about a glossy MSDN magazine and CDs which they send me. It must cost them something. Alex Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from religious conviction. -- Blaise Pascal (1623-1662)
Post #21,693 by marlowe 12/17/01 9:19:08 AM Reply	I believe I had a narrow escape. I've got a couple of Windows PCs at work. They wanted to upgrade ,e to WIN2K, but I was able to talk them out of it. So I'm running old versions of Windows that let me dual boot Linux. Unfortunately, the development tools and e-mail they standardized on force me to use Windows, which hampers my productivity a bit, so I'm still paying that Microsoft tax. This does nothing for my usual cheerful, tolerant easygoing attitude. Why, I haven't visualized world peace or hugged a tree in months. [link\|http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/marlowe/index.html\|http://www.angelfir...e/index.html] Sometimes "tolerance" is just a word for not dealing with things.
Post #21,756 by Ashton 12/17/01 5:36:34 PM Reply	Try to look at it this way Maybe yer bein punished fer your sins? Purgatory: knowin what it is and bein forced to work with it Every Day\ufffd. Besides.. The trees know who you are.. and what they can expect from you. Hmmm any wood in yer house? (They talk to each other, y'know?) Ashton :-\ufffd
Post #21,706 by Steve Lowe 12/17/01 11:26:28 AM Reply	Unfortunately I got a new laptop earlier this year, had Win98 preinstalled. Then upgraded it to Win2K, and now to XP Pro. There's also Office XP on it. It also dual-boots RH7.2, which amazingly hasn't been affected by all the changes with the other OS. I think I like Grub :). I haven't personally purchased any M$ware tho. I've been pegged as "geekier than the rest of the geeks" in my department, so anytime anything new comes in, I'm the one who gets asked to play with it so there's always a fair amount of install/uninstall activity going on in my cube. ----- Steve
Post #21,707 by SpiceWare 12/17/01 11:26:56 AM Reply	purchased a new Thinkpad so one more license for the evil empire. Darrell Spice, Jr. [link\|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/\|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
Post #21,776 by lordbeatnik 12/17/01 9:51:17 PM Reply	Re: purchased a new Thinkpad Same here. I got a new thinkpad that came with wintendo. I tryed to get it blank or with linux, but the bastards wouldn't do it. But, I'm redeeming myself by setting my dad up on linux over Christmas. He's finally so disgusted that he's willing to go through the effort of learning linux. Oh, and this notebook had windows replaced the second day after I got it. It's happily running Debian unstable. Dave "LordBeatnik" Jeffery
Post #21,822 by SpiceWare 12/18/01 9:41:17 AM Reply	added eCS(the "new" OS/2) and Linux to mine though I left 98 on it so I can support work from home. Darrell Spice, Jr. [link\|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/\|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
Post #21,905 by lordbeatnik 12/18/01 5:15:34 PM Reply	CD or repair partition? Out of curiosity, did yours come with some sort of windows CD, or did it come with the all too common repair partition. I was less than amused to find a Gig of my hard drive's size wasted on a fscking repair partition. I now use it as a fine example of what total scum M$ is. Dave "LordBeatnik" Jeffery
Post #21,912 by SpiceWare 12/18/01 6:09:17 PM Reply	Came with partition, though I now have the CD called up and ordered it and IBM sent it free of charge. I'm still having weird issues with 98. It keeps flipping out over it's "D" drive. It returns "device not ready" on drive D. THere's a new icon for drive "E" (even though there's not really a drive E) and everything on D: is now on E:. Had to reinstall a few programs to get them to work off E. I've fixed it before by reinstalled 98, but the program returned a week later. I tried putting 2000 on it but the scanner I use for my parents bills(which then get emailed to them in Mexico) ONLY has 98 drivers. Darrell Spice, Jr. [link\|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/\|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
Post #21,709 by inthane-chan 12/17/01 11:38:39 AM Reply	Well... I think it's best if I just don't say anything here. :P "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Post #21,722 by ben_tilly 12/17/01 1:05:39 PM Reply	Worse than you One iBook with IE5. One upgraded desktop machine at work. One copy of a production machine for testing purposes. And I am somewhat responsible for the purchase of multiple PCs which directly afterwards had Linux installed. Cheers, Ben
Post #21,725 by drewk 12/17/01 1:13:56 PM Reply	Not that I can think of Hmm, didn't buy anything. Didn't have anything bought for me. Convinced a few neighbors that maybe they should let me install some free stuff on a partition -- after they see how much room is left after the new games they expect for Christmas. I'd say I'm on the plus side for the year. ;) We have to fight the terrorists as if there were no rules and preserve our open society as if there were no terrorists. -- [link\|http://www.nytimes.com/2001/04/05/opinion/BIO-FRIEDMAN.html\|Thomas Friedman]
Post #21,728 by cforde 12/17/01 1:24:06 PM Reply	nope, didn't buy any hardware or software I'm planning on buying a new Apple system in January though. Have fun, Carl Forde
Post #21,786 by broomberg 12/17/01 11:14:56 PM Reply	MapPoint Great mapping program. Allows you to feed in addresses, zip codes, etc, and get back a variety of Pinpointed maps. Indispensable for a business that schedules seminars, to get a feel of the concentration of clients in various areas. I bought this for a company that I've setup a Linux mail server, firewall, and actively talk up Linux and down M$. And at the same time, I make sure my preference doesn't get in the way of good business decisions. The ONLY competition that I could come up with is MapInfo, at 10 times the price.
Post #21,887 by Yendor 12/18/01 2:42:52 PM Reply	hanging head in shame I (sob) bought a single (cry) Microsoft Natural keyboard. What can I say? They brand some good hardware (cuz they sure as hell don't make it themselves). -YendorMike "The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by the skeptics or the cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need people who dream of things that never were." - John F. Kennedy
Post #21,891 by inthane-chan 12/18/01 3:03:25 PM Reply	Er... Hate to say it, but it is all designed in-house, then the manufacturing is outsourced. I've seen the design labs... "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you." - Friedrich Nietzsche
Post #21,896 by Yendor 12/18/01 3:22:20 PM Reply	Clarification... I knew they designed it in-house. They're great at human-computer interaction, but the actual production of the hardware isn't their forté. I just stated it poorly. -YendorMike "The problems of the world cannot possibly be solved by the skeptics or the cynics whose horizons are limited by the obvious realities. We need people who dream of things that never were." - John F. Kennedy

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