Post #61,004
11/4/02 11:20:59 AM
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And thank you, Clinton.
Redux, 1993 consent decree. Different admin, same result. "You were very bad, but if you promise to not do it again, we'll just let it slide. Or we might use strong language at you again."
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Post #61,005
11/4/02 11:25:11 AM
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Hi cagle! (tony is it?)
-drl
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Post #61,019
11/4/02 2:16:37 PM
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Uh-oh. . . . .
(rapidly scanning brain to figure out who this is)
Give me a hint or two and see if I can guess.
Actually, apart from the obvious fizzling of the legal process, one could argue that the very process hurt M$ in the long run anyway. After all, the whole world got to sit there for several months and watch M$ get caught in bald-face lies time and time again, had their bullying tactics with vendors brought under the harsh light of day, etc. Really, even without any sort of punishment or restrictions, NO ONE believes anything M$ says anymore. Except the die-hard dittoheads, of course, but they'll always be there.
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Post #61,025
11/4/02 2:33:18 PM
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They're done in the Rest Of The World anyway...
... everybody's going to assume they got off so easy in exchange for making it easy for NSA et. al. to spy on friends and neighbours. Watch the rest of the world start to move very seriously to other platforms in very fast order... it's going to accelerate a LOT in the coming year.
IOW- watch this be the death of the North American software industry as a globally competitive force within two years... hell, my personal opinion is that *everybody* that designs primarily for Windows is going to see sales outside the US go into free fall (Adobe, Macromedia are a couple of examples of companies like this) that are going to be in real trouble within six months. IMhO, of course.
--\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Jack Troughton jake at consultron.ca *\n* [link|http://consultron.ca|http://consultron.ca] [link|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] *\n* Laval Qu\ufffdbec Canada [link|news://news.consultron.ca|news://news.consultron.ca] *\n-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Post #61,042
11/4/02 3:37:17 PM
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I agree
though I think 6 months is rather optimistic.
Darrell Spice, Jr.
[link|http://home.houston.rr.com/spiceware/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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Post #61,053
11/4/02 4:24:12 PM
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I don't think it's optimistic at all
Look how many projects have gone into serious production in the last two weeks... they've even been discussed here.
Looking at the wider trend, the Rest Of The World wants off the MSFT treadmill, and this decision is going to make that happen a lot more quickly than it was happening before. I'm willing to bet that the EU (outside of UK, perhaps) is going to get their migration seriously going by the end of this year, and will largely be done by the end of next year. To do anything else is dereliction of their duty to their country; the only reasonable conclusion that can be made from reading the judgement (security is blanketed, gov't depts get to stop disclosure for *any reason*) is that there are backdoors being placed in new versions of windows to aid Ashcroft et. al. in their "anti-terrorism" efforts... and if (like with echelon) some of that data should get into other parts of the gov't, or even into the hands of US based companies, well, that's just an accident of circumstance, right?
--\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\n* Jack Troughton jake at consultron.ca *\n* [link|http://consultron.ca|http://consultron.ca] [link|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] *\n* Laval Qu\ufffdbec Canada [link|news://news.consultron.ca|news://news.consultron.ca] *\n-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Post #61,062
11/4/02 5:36:36 PM
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Well reasoned, but short of convincing
It remains unclear (to me anyway) whether the int'l Corporate Ruling Class are vastly less effective in spinning, financing and otherwise corrupting Euro politics [?] Yes I'm tempted to believe that their finest work is among Murican consumer sheep.. they are so unfailingly Randy & Willing to be screwed. The usual sanctimonious shibboleths which seduce judges here, may fail on those who actually teach history and reasoning in their schools. Always, we may hope..
But I have no slightest personal conceit that I comprehend the Euro-equivalents.. nearly well enough, nor can I imagine that 'Truth'-telling is very much more favorably welcomed across the entire homo-sap settlements - in perpetual religiosity-Warz too.
We can only hope that Standard Bizness paranoia about NSA backdoors.. prevails - unproven (though surely not unprovable.?.) but simply too obvious for the customary inept denials from the Champion Liar Corp of the World.
Let us prey,
Ashton
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Post #61,071
11/4/02 6:59:16 PM
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Don't forget, if the gov of Germany...
...gores the MSFT ox on their networks, they're not goring a German ox. This immediately removes a giant blind spot for the relevant decision makers that seems to afflict the current US administration. The issue in the private corps elsewhere in the world... well, all they need to do is to look at the bottom line to have their mind made up for them... the bottom line, and the new licensing terms coming out of Redmond. If you're a French medical equipment research company, do you want to give MSFT the chance to come in and look over your data in case any of it has been improperly downloaded without paying off the relevant media conglomerate? I don't think so... and yet, if you want to have a stable and «koff koff» "secure" version of windows, you'll have to give them the permission and the means to do just that. Who wants to explain that to their shareholders/stakeholders? Nobody... --\r\n-------------------------------------------------------------------\r\n* Jack Troughton jake at consultron.ca *\r\n* [link|http://consultron.ca|http://consultron.ca] [link|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca|irc://irc.ecomstation.ca] *\r\n* Laval Qu\ufffdbec Canada [link|news://news.consultron.ca|news://news.consultron.ca] *\r\n-------------------------------------------------------------------
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Post #61,081
11/4/02 7:52:31 PM
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The things aspect that I'm betting on.
Over here, it was portrayed as a great, home-grown business.
We don't want to hurt MS because that would just be hurting ourselves.
Over there, that won't exist.
If anything, they will realize that THEIR home-grown businesses are NOT thriving because all the <insert local currency here> are being sent to Redmond.
This is a great deal for politicians over there.
#1. They get to show that they favour the locals over the Yanks.
#2. They get to show that they're interested in reducing their imports.
#3. They get to show that they want to reduce government expenditures.
#4. And, because it is free (like beer), they get to show that they love the children and want them to have access to technology.
Personally, I don't see why ANY non-US government hasn't already started funding their own coders to polish / translate the various Open Source offerings.
The sooner they do that,
the sooner they start saving money,
the sooner they start helping their economy,
the sooner they start employing their own people,
etc.
etc.
etc.
Some can be bought by MS gifts and such. But so what? MS will have to recoup that gift when the next license sweep comes through. Then they'll have another chance to save even more money. :)
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