Linux-Advocacy Digest #603, Volume #33 Sat, 14 Apr 01 11:13:05 EDT
Contents:
Re: NT is stagnant while Linux explodes (Chris Ahlstrom)
Re: there's always a bigger fool (Chris Ahlstrom)
Re: there's always a bigger fool (Chris Ahlstrom)
Re: Linux = CHOICE! ("George Davenport")
Re: Blame it all on Microsoft (Chris Morgan)
Re: Something like Install Shield for Linux? (Bob Hauck)
Re: there's always a bigger fool (Bob Hauck)
Re: Pete Goodwin is in good company (Pete Goodwin)
Re: Pete Goodwin is in good company (Pete Goodwin)
Re: Pete Goodwin is in good company (Pete Goodwin)
Re: Windoze is dying.... (Ray Chason)
Re: Something cool in gcc ("Gary Hallock")
Re: Microsoft: Closed source is more secure (Ray Chason)
Re: Linux = CHOICE! (Pete Goodwin)
Re: Big Brother Billy does it again! (Charles Lyttle)
Re: Something cool in gcc (Chronos Tachyon)
Re: A mentality problem of linux programmer. (Charles Lyttle)
Re: there's always a bigger fool (Charles Lyttle)
The Future Uv Development (FUD) (Dan)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: Chris Ahlstrom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: alt.destroy.microsoft,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: NT is stagnant while Linux explodes
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 13:01:38 GMT
Kelsey Bjarnason wrote:
>
> The number of bugs _found_ is less than in Windows... but is the number of
> bugs that _exist_ less? What are the comparitive number of Unix systems
> (server and client) in use compared to the number of Windows systems (server
> and client) in use? Doesn't Windows clock in with just a few more
> installations?
On the desktop, yes. On the server side, no, not all.
> This strikes me as akin to the argument "Since New York had 8 murders last
> year, but Podunk only had 2, Podunk is safer" - ignoring the niggling little
> detail that Podunk, having a population of 2,000 compared to New York's 8
> million, makes it 1,000 times *more* likely you'll get murdered in Podunk.
First, its more like 100 murders vs 8, though this doesn't materially
affect the outcome.
Second, New York has factors that Podunk doesn't have, such as gangs,
overpopulation, crime lords, etc. (This would be akin to Window's
badly-written code.) Therefore, a strict comparison by ratio is
incorrect.
Third, the sample variance is very high in Podunk, so that many measurements
might come up with 0 murders in Podunk, in which case your ratio is
inapplicable.
In any case, UNIX code has been around a *lot* longer than Windoze code,
and so has had much more time to be cleaned. UNIX code has experienced
far less churn (change of method, change of formats, and other rewrites)
than Windoze code.
Nice try with those troll-tistics, Kels.
Chris
--
This application has crashed unexpectedly.
Hit OK to terminate, or Cancel to debug it.
Doh!
------------------------------
From: Chris Ahlstrom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: alt.destroy.microsoft,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: there's always a bigger fool
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 13:09:31 GMT
Kelsey Bjarnason wrote:
>
> Umm... the registry is not the reason apps require reboots.
You're right... its often the reason for the Blue Screen of Doh!
> Generally
> speaking, there are three reasons an install wants to reboot:
>
> 1) It has attempted to update a locked file, such as a system file.
Then stop the services that are using the file first. If the services
are network services, "telinit 1" would do the trick.
> 2) It has installed something expected to run during the startup phase of
> operations
Then stop all the old dependencies, and start the new ones again.
> 3) It is installing a service (not in the NT sense, but in the sense of a
> background application or library) which needs to be launched in order to
> work
Then launch it first.
The thing about NT is that everything was so tangled that the easiest
way out is a reboot. Win 2000 has improved greatly on this, but probably
not yet to the level of UNIX modularity.
> > On REAL operating systems, you can have 500 programs (or thousands, even),
> > and install a new app....WITH NO FEAR of anything bad happening.
>
> Funny; I tried that today. Tried to install xemacs. Not once, not twice,
> but three times - and every time, guess what it did? It froze the machine.
> No, not just X - the whole damn machine. No restarting X. No logging into
> another terminal as root and doing a graceful shutdown. No nothing. No
> response at all from keyboard, mouse, network, or anything else.
Check the logs! Check your memory. There's some bad karma present <grin>.
By the way, recreating the same problem three times merely makes the
presentation more dramatic.
Chris
--
This application has crashed unexpectedly.
Hit OK to terminate, or Cancel to debug it.
Doh!
------------------------------
From: Chris Ahlstrom <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: alt.destroy.microsoft,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy
Subject: Re: there's always a bigger fool
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 13:12:13 GMT
Chad Everett wrote:
>
> I must be living in that fantasy world then...
>
> I installed StarOffice on my Linux box while I was running Microsoft
> Office 2000 and Photoshop, no problem. In fact my Linux box was also
> running netscape, several term windows, gimp, vmlinux ( running the
> afore mentioned W2K with Office 2000 and Photoshop), playing an audio
> CD, and a standalone Java program of my own design.
Do you use VMWare or some other product? How do you like it?
Chris
------------------------------
From: "George Davenport" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: soc.singles
Subject: Re: Linux = CHOICE!
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 06:26:06 -0700
Matthew Gardiner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
>
> <snype>
>
> True, and isn't it great when a distro makes a really fucking
> awful distro you have the opportunity to goto another vendor,
> and you can keep changing until you find one that suites your
> needs.
linux slut
> Hmm, I wonder if
> the Wintel clan can do that, NOPE!
George
------------------------------
From: Chris Morgan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.theory,comp.arch,comp.object
Subject: Re: Blame it all on Microsoft
Date: 14 Apr 2001 09:41:45 -0400
"Erik Funkenbusch" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> > Is it just me, or did you not read either Judge Jackson's words, or
> > mine? Server operating systems were explicitly discounted from the
> > market in detail, in the findings of fact.
>
> You said "Judge Jackson ruled the market to be Intel-Compatible PC operating
> systems."
>
> That's the market. Obviously there are server operating systems that run on
> Intel-Compatible PC's. You can't rule that the market is Intel-Compatible
> PC operating systems, and then say that some Intel-Compatible PC operating
> systems don't count. If that was your intent, you would have said
> "Intel-Compatible Desktop PC Operating systems" or "Intel-Compatible
> Non-server Operating systems". But you didnt' say that.
Why don't you stop worrying about what I said and go read the findings
of fact. _Judge Jackson_ ruled the market to be Intel compatible PC
operating systems. He then basically went on to say server operating
systems don't count in this case. Simply saying it aint so isn't
really advancing your case.
--
Chris Morgan <cm at mihalis.net> http://www.mihalis.net
Temp sig. - Enquire within
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Bob Hauck)
Subject: Re: Something like Install Shield for Linux?
Reply-To: bobh = haucks dot org
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 13:43:37 GMT
On Sat, 14 Apr 2001 03:59:22 GMT, Kelsey Bjarnason
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> "Bob Hauck" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > On Fri, 13 Apr 2001 16:26:32 GMT, Kelsey Bjarnason
> > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > > Further, if I was going to suggest replacing it with "The WIndows way
> > > of handling installation", that would be MSI, not InstallShield.
> > I figured. You're starting to sound like an MS salesman.
>
> Why? Because I happen to think this is a good technology, and I'm using it
> as a counter to some of the typical anti-Windows noise?
No, because you are comparing unlike things to make MS look good. I did
not know what MSI is/was and you presented it as an alternative to RPM.
It is apparently not that, but some sort of enterprise management tool.
Your happy experiences with InstallShield also don't correspond with my
experience.
> Hey, if I could find a comparable technology available free for Linux,
Why does it have to be free? If you are rolling out 10K desktops, I
would think you would have a budget. Is there something wrong with
paying for software you need?
> > Life is easy if you only have to deal with your own products.
>
> MSI doesn't merely support MS products. Or perhaps you meant it only runs
> on Windows?
Yes, it only runs on Windows is what I meant. Microsoft does still have
to support non-MS applications.
> True enough. Where can I get RPM for my C64? Or even for Windows?
I'm pretty sure that the rpm sources will build under Cygwin and on most
Unix variants.
Probably not on a C64 though. That comment is, however, the sort of
dismissive comment that I would expect from an MS salesman.
> > This MSI is starting to sound like something a lot more heavyweight
> > than InstallShield or RPM.
> Indeed. It's a management and deployment tool, which happens to also
> include installation as part of that process.
You are talking about enterprise deployment, which is not the problem
RPM was designed to solve. Therefore comparing MSI with RPM is
meaningless. There _are_ management tools for Unix that will run on
Linux, so I don't see how lack of such tools is holding up enterprise
deployment of Linux. If your argument is that every Linux distro ought
to come with something like MSI, well, my response is that most people
don't have a need for such a thing.
--
-| Bob Hauck
-| To Whom You Are Speaking
-| http://www.haucks.org/
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Bob Hauck)
Crossposted-To: alt.destroy.microsoft,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,soc.singles
Subject: Re: there's always a bigger fool
Reply-To: bobh = haucks dot org
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 13:43:38 GMT
On Sat, 14 Apr 2001 08:54:07 GMT, Kelsey Bjarnason
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> > On REAL operating systems, you can have 500 programs (or thousands, even),
> > and install a new app....WITH NO FEAR of anything bad happening.
>
> Funny; I tried that today. Tried to install xemacs. Not once, not twice,
> but three times - and every time, guess what it did? It froze the machine.
You should report that to somebody then. I've never heard of an XEmacs
install freezing a Unix machine.
--
-| Bob Hauck
-| To Whom You Are Speaking
-| http://www.haucks.org/
------------------------------
From: Pete Goodwin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Pete Goodwin is in good company
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 13:49:55 GMT
Ray Chason wrote:
> Windoze, when you swap cards, has a bad habit of keeping the old
> drivers active. I don't know how many times I've seen strange
> behavior because an old driver was still active: the new card often
> doesn't work properly or its driver refuses to install.
The way its supposed to work is the driver is still there but not loaded
because the hardware wasn't found. This is true of WDM drivers, I'm not so
sure about VXD drivers.
--
Pete
Running on SuSE 7.1, Linux 2.4, KDE 2.1
Kylix: the way to go!
------------------------------
From: Pete Goodwin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Pete Goodwin is in good company
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 13:51:28 GMT
Tom Wilson wrote:
> Hi Pete. Long time no type.
> How the hell did you manage to screw up this time?
> (Have run a similar NIC configuration under SuSE 7.0 with no difficulty)
Ask Mandrake.
Ask SuSE.
Neither of the above got it right.
Windows 98 SE got it right.
--
Pete
Running on SuSE 7.1, Linux 2.4, KDE 2.1
Kylix: the way to go!
------------------------------
From: Pete Goodwin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Pete Goodwin is in good company
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 13:52:14 GMT
Tom Wilson wrote:
>> > Pete appears to be the LCD of cumputer users. Linux
>> > distributers/developers should use him as a beta tester. If it works
>> > for Pete then it will work for anyone.
>>
>> 8) sounds right to me!
>
> You do thrive on abuse, don't you Pete? <g>
I didn't consider what was said was abuse! If I can make it work then it
should work for anyone!
--
Pete
Running on SuSE 7.1, Linux 2.4, KDE 2.1
Kylix: the way to go!
------------------------------
From: Ray Chason <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Windoze is dying....
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 13:58:19 -0000
"Todd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>"Ray Chason" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in
>message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
>> http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=01/04/13/1236215&mode=thread
>>
>> Well, well, well. It seems the almighty Redmond Empire can't get
>> its Xbox out on time.
>
>Did you bother reading the article?? There was *nothing* from any official
>sources (not even unofficial for that matter) that claimed XBOX would be
>late.
Does it matter? Suppose the Xbox did ship late, or not at all.
Would this have any bearing on the future of Windoze?
No?
So why is Linux "dying" because of what happened to Indrema?
>Here is a quote from the article:
>
>"As with most rumors, there is little hard evidence backing up the theory
>that Microsoft will miss it's fall launch, and Microsoft itself has said
>that the Xbox is right on schedule if not slightly ahead of production
>goals. "
>
>> Guess Windoze must be dying.
>
>Dream on.
Yes, I realized as soon as I gave the command to post that I should
have included some kind of explicit sarcasm marker.
--
--------------===============<[ Ray Chason ]>===============--------------
PGP public key at http://www.smart.net/~rchason/pubkey.asc
Delenda est Windoze
------------------------------
From: "Gary Hallock" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Something cool in gcc
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 09:56:30 +0000
In article <RCTB6.3184$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Erik Funkenbusch"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> You think it's cool that a compiler violates the C++ standard without
> even a warning? What if you're trying to write compliant code?
>
You can catch this error using the -pedantic option. Then you'll get
the message:
warning: ANSI C forbids variable-size array `str'
> In any event, I think this may be an optimization. C++ allows you to
> use constant variables as array declarations, since you're not changing
> the value of cb, it is probably optimizing it to a const value.
>
No, gcc really does support variable size arrays at run time.
Gary
------------------------------
From: Ray Chason <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Microsoft: Closed source is more secure
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 13:59:46 -0000
"Adam Warner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>`By contrast, Microsoft does extensive testing on every product, and on
>every patch, said Lipner. "People ask us why our security patches take so
>long. One of the reasons they take so long is because we test them."'
Ah yes, extensive testing, which is why such glaring boners as the
ILOVEYOU/Melissa vulnerability got out the door.
--
--------------===============<[ Ray Chason ]>===============--------------
PGP public key at http://www.smart.net/~rchason/pubkey.asc
Delenda est Windoze
------------------------------
From: Pete Goodwin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Linux = CHOICE!
Crossposted-To: soc.singles
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 13:55:27 GMT
Matthew Gardiner wrote:
> True, and isn't it great when a distro makes a really fucking awful
> distro you have the opportunity to goto another vendor, and you can keep
> changing until you find one that suites your needs. Hmm, I wonder if
> the Wintel clan can do that, NOPE!
That's because with Windows it just works and there's no need to hop
vendors.
--
Pete
Running on SuSE 7.1, Linux 2.4, KDE 2.1
Kylix: the way to go!
------------------------------
From: Charles Lyttle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Big Brother Billy does it again!
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 14:10:20 GMT
Mig wrote:
>
> Charles Lyttle wrote:
>
> > Mig wrote:
> >>
> >> Dave Martel wrote:
> >>
> >> > Here we go again, folks! From the Wall Street Journal:
> >> >
> >> > <http://www.canoe.ca/MoneyWSJ/wsj2-dow.html>
> >>
> >> [cut]
> >>
> >> > There's much more of interest in the article, including MS's claim
> >> > that the reason they're doing this is to avoid paying a license fee
> >> > for a higher-quality MP3 encoder. Yeah, sure.
> >>
> >> Dont get histeric - its just their software that wont recortd MP3's.
> >> Guess what - it does not do it today and people still use MP3
> >>
> > Read the article. It won't play MP3 properly either. Deliberately
> > degrades the quality so MS stuff sounds better.
>
> Is this it ?
> " Under Microsoft's new restrictions -- which prevent its built-in
> software from recording MP3 files at fidelity rates higher than 56 kilobits
> per second -- MP3 music "sounds like somebody in a phone booth underwater,"
>
> Read it again WICH PREVENTS ITS BUILT_IN SOFTWARE
>
> How the heck can they prevent someone from playing their own MP3 files
> acquired legally? You guys claims do not make sense.
>
This is a standard process for MS. Put in a feature to deliberately
malfunction with competitors products. Hope users get the impression
that it is the competing product that is bad. Then the competition dies
and only the MS propritary software is left. I hope they have played
this game once too often. Your post makes me think they haven't.
> Besides who really cares.. There is ogg
--
Russ Lyttle
"World Domination through Penguin Power"
The Universal Automotive Testset Project at
<http://home.earthlink.net/~lyttlec>
------------------------------
From: Chronos Tachyon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Something cool in gcc
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 14:20:15 GMT
On Sat 14 Apr 2001 06:19, mlw wrote:
[Snip]
>
> It amazes me that people draw such a distinction between C++ from C.
>
> function(char *str)
> {
> printf("%s\n", str);
> }
>
> The above function is perfectly valid C++ code. It is also perfectly valid
> C code.
>
[Snip]
You are incorrect here. That code is neither legal C nor legal C++, but
for different reasons. In C, if you don't explicitly declare a return type
for a function, it defaults to returning an int; the function above has no
return statement, so you're returning an undefined value (most likely,
either the return value of printf, or 0). In C++, not declaring a return
type is illegal.
--
Chronos Tachyon
Guardian of Eristic Paraphernalia
Gatekeeper of the Region of Thud
[Reply instructions: My real domain is "echo <address> | cut -d. -f6,7"]
------------------------------
From: Charles Lyttle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: A mentality problem of linux programmer.
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 14:24:31 GMT
JLI wrote:
>
> When someone complained in this group that something is too
> difficult to do in Unix, the answer is mostly like "you are too dump",
> or "this guy is paid by Microsoft". This indicates a foundament
> mentality problem of linux programmer. Here is another example
> I encountered recently in our company.
>
> We have just finished a commercial product (a C/C++ SDK) and the
> setup procedure went through quite smoothly. The only thing we don't
> like is that you have to set two or three environment variables
> manually after the setup procedure. So we asked our unix programmer
> whether we can set the environment variables automatically during the
> setup procedure. The answer we got is "if someone doesn't know how
> to set an environment variable on unix, he should not program on
> unix, do they?". I didn't respond directly, but my response would be "if we
> don't know or want to do such simple work for our client, we should not
> sell software, do we?".
>
> Many Linux programmers are hoppyiest not professionals. They program
> for themself and for fun. There is nothing wrong with that. But if you
> want to do business with software, that won't work.
>
> JLI
His reply should have been "If you have to mess with user environment
variables, you shouldn't be selling software."
If you try that you will definately screw up some systems. I would not
permit your software on any of my systems.
--
Russ Lyttle
"World Domination through Penguin Power"
The Universal Automotive Testset Project at
<http://home.earthlink.net/~lyttlec>
------------------------------
From: Charles Lyttle <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: alt.destroy.microsoft,comp.os.ms-windows.advocacy,soc.singles
Subject: Re: there's always a bigger fool
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 14:32:03 GMT
Ayende Rahien wrote:
>
> "Matthew Gardiner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > Kelsey Bjarnason wrote:
> > >
> > > [snips]
> > >
> > > "Aaron R. Kulkis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
> > > news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > >
> > > > Since there is no junior-high-designed "registry" to get corrupted,
> > > > there is ZERO need to shut down other programs to install a new app.
> > >
> > > Umm... the registry is not the reason apps require reboots. Generally
> > > speaking, there are three reasons an install wants to reboot:
> > >
> > > 1) It has attempted to update a locked file, such as a system file.
> > > 2) It has installed something expected to run during the startup phase
> of
> > > operations
> > > 3) It is installing a service (not in the NT sense, but in the sense of
> a
> > > background application or library) which needs to be launched in order
> to
> > > work
> > >
> > > One might suggest that in the case of #3, a better approach could be
> used.
> > > I agree. In the cases of #2 and #1, I'm not sure how, given such an
> > > application being installed, Linux would handle this any better; how
> exactly
> > > does Linux handle live patching of the kernel, for example, without
> > > rebooting?
> > >
> > Just in regards to:
> >
> > 1. Linux has most, if not all libraries installed required for most
> > software, however, when more libraries need to be installed, no reboot
> > is required. Under O/S 2 Warp 4, you had to reboot after applying a
> > service pack (because it included low-level drivers, kernel updates
> > etc), however, in an application sense, it should not be required.
>
> What about needing to update those libraries?
>
Just install the new version. The old version is still there in case it
is required by another program. After careful consideration, if you find
that you have no apps requiring the old version, delete the old version.
These days, libraries are so backward compatible that it is seldom a
problem. In any case, rebooting is not required.
--
Russ Lyttle
"World Domination through Penguin Power"
The Universal Automotive Testset Project at
<http://home.earthlink.net/~lyttlec>
------------------------------
From: Dan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: The Future Uv Development (FUD)
Date: Sat, 14 Apr 2001 14:33:45 GMT
These events are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons either real or
imagined is purely coincidental. Please Do Not Panic!)
In the bedroom of a small house in rural Kansas:
Joe, a 23 year old developer who contributes regularly to the
Katewatchee Office project in his free time, is just finishing up some
work on the latest and greatest application to go in the next release.
He is very excited about the improvements he has made and can't wait to
add the source to the development tree. These improvements are the
final step in making Katewatchee the pre-eminent, holographic 3d
physical (H3P), web, watch, cell-phone, radio and nostril enabled office
product in the world. At 17:25 (18:25 Zulu), he touches the wall
establishing a connection to the Internet, securely connects to the
source host server, and...
In an apartment on the 11th floor of a high rise in Moscow:
Ingrid has been a technical writer for the past 11 years, but has only
recently started contributing to the open source movement. While
searching for background information on a project she was working on and
very interested in, she came across an open source project with the same
goals. To enable secure, encrypted molecular travel between the five
space stations and the Pluto orbiter...wow, what a thrill! And she had
thought that the opensource community's enabling of molecular travel had
been cool. At the 13,567th page of text, she is almost finished. At
22:25 (18:25 Zulu) she touches the wall in order to distribute the
specifications and...
In a villa in the Chilean Andes:
Guiseppe has been the leading technical engineer on the open source
automobile project for years. Under his guidance, and with the help of
thousands of volunteers across the world, the project has decreased the
incidence of collisions to .3% of the baseline rate, established at the
time the project was started. Fatalities occur on the average of once
every 10 years, now. But, with the latest design improvements just
collected and compiled from the contributing engineers, that rate should
decrease another ten fold while,at the same time, increasing passengers
comfort. At 12:25 PM (18:25 Zulu) he touches the wall and...
On a canal boat in the UK:
Slava has contributed off and on to the open source clean, abundant
energy project for the last 3 years. He was personally responsible for
realizing the massive energy potential of common top soil. While
supplying enormous amounts of usable energy through a simple and easily
controlled process, the only other products are healthy vegetable
plants. Slava has just finished up work on a modification to the
process that will allow it to also use radiation and petroleum
contaminated soil, thereby helping to clean the environment as well. At
18:25 (18:25 Zulu) he turns and touches the hull in order to distribute
this new information...
Meanwhile, in Brazil (MicroSS's HQ complex, formerly the Brazilian Rain
Forest):
"Are we ready?", asks Darth Gater.
"Yes sir, the men are standing by!" answers Nochin Allballs.
"Good. I want this to be a devastating reminder that innovation only
happens with us. We'll destroy them and send them running back to their
communist rat holes where we can track them down at our leisure and make
them sing 'O solo mio' for us. Yeah, who's your daddy now, eh, Torvalds?
Is the government standing by?"
"Yes, sir, the president has expressed his gratitude for allowing him to
take this step on your behalf."
"I don't recall giving him permission to speak. You just tell him I want
his girls in black berets standing by. This mission has to be performed
with perfect timing, with synchronicity. The world depends on us to
restore innovation and licensing fees back to the market place, to
restore to the world the freedom to buy our product and to wait
breathlessly while we come out with fix after patch after fix, and I
will not have it ruined because he is busy dallying a girl on his knee
while shoving an onion loaded burger in his mouth. Have you seen my
beret?"
"Sir, here you are, sir!" Moug Diller steps in, proudly bearing the
beret, "And I must say it looks very nice on you, sir! It makes you
look very self-confident!"
"Thank you, Diller. Allballs, have him taken out back and beaten like he
hasn't had breakfast."
"Yes, sir!"
Diller is dragged away by two surly Software Engineer drones."Thank you,
sir!!!"
Gater stops and takes a slow survey of his demesne. Once, all of this
had been non-revenue producing rain forest, but now was starting to show
some promise. It was his hope to turn it into a fully productive
operation, based on the model he had established on the Everest Plateau
(Mount Everest, before he had gained control of that useless lump of
earth). But all of his hopes, dreams and aspirations rested on the
success of the operation about to take place. Damn it, they had to
succeed! There was no choice. The future of consumer based revenue
depended on it. Taking a deep breath, he turned to Allballs.
"Allballs, it is now 17:58 Zulu. Give the signal."
"Yes sir!" Allballs turns, sits down at his keyboard, brings up
superduperX-PU-hyperterminal, gets the blue screen of death (3rd
millennium X-PU version), reboots, brings up
superduperX-PU-hyperterminal, dials the modem, connects and at last
(18:25 Zulu), he sends the command...
All across the world, in hundreds of thousands of homes, brown
shirted,government sponsored MicroSS troopers (who were also wearing a
very sharp looking black beret) stormed the homes of a multitude of
known OpenSource deviants, interrupting an untold number of transactions
which could have taken an enormous toll on further MicroSS revenues.
But now, all was safe. MicroSS had restored the world to the
American(tm) way of life. Rejoice, for the right to innovate has been
returned to us!
"Allballs, now that we have been successful, pump up the price on our
3rd millenium line."
Dan Barber
Mojolin: The Linux Job Site
http://mojolin.com
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