Linux-Misc Digest #132, Volume #24 Wed, 12 Apr 00 21:13:04 EDT
Contents:
Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: X won't start (Tom Williams)
Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation ("Jon A. Maxwell (JAM)")
Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation ("Jon A. Maxwell (JAM)")
Re: Help, Please ("Tom Hoffmann")
Re: Netscape install ("Tom Hoffmann")
Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation ("Ermine Todd")
Re: Why linux will never go beyond geekdom ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation (Matt Kennel)
Re: Skipping boot scripts !!! (Robert Heller)
Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation (David Steuber)
Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation (David Steuber)
Re: Netscape install ("Tom Hoffmann")
Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation ("Jon A. Maxwell (JAM)")
HELP: Lost my GNOME panels ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: Help, please.... (James Franklin)
Re: HELP: Lost my GNOME panels (Kevin Vandersloot)
Why wont init start??? ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: Summing Up File Sizes (Harlan Grove)
Re: Visio (Microsoft vs. Unix) (Roger Marquis)
Re: Why linux will never go beyond geekdom ("Pencil Necked Geek")
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 18:00:13 -0500
On Wed, 12 Apr 2000, Robert Barry wrote:
> To use your book example:
>
> I would say Windows, IE, MS Office, etc are all separate books. They are
> not chapters of the same book.
> So MS is saying to buy the windows book you must buy all our other books and
> put them up on your bookshelf.
>
> I don't think that is legal. In my opinion that is tying one separate
> product to another.
You can go out and buy a Chevy engine from a junk yard. That, ipso facto,
shows that it is a separate product. However, you're not going to be able
to buy it from General Motors. They're going to insist you buy the rest
of the car too. And most of the things they sell you will only work on
their products. So should GM be busted up into a bunch of separate
companies that only make engine blocks, carborators, or axles?
------------------------------
From: Tom Williams <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: X won't start
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 23:07:42 GMT
In article <8bavec$9j6$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
Andy9701 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I'm having some problems with X not starting up correctly. When I
boot
> up, everything goes fine until Linux tries to start up X. I get the
> gray colored screen, with the X cursor, and then usually the screen
> would flash and I'd get a gui login. However, at this point now it
> just sits there, and doesn't do a thing...I didn't let it sit for very
> long, so that might be the problem.
>
> I recently compiled kernel 2.2.14, upgrading from 2.2.5-15 (Red Hat
> 6). That was two days ago, I haven't had any problems up until now.
>
> Any ideas what the problem may be, and how I could fix it?
>
> Thanks in advance,
> Andy
>
> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.
>
Hi! When X is sitting theree, try to use the Ctrl-Alt-F1 keystroke to
access a virtual terminal. If you get a character mode login screen,
login and see if you can determine if xdm (or kdm or gdm) is having a
problem starting which is why you aren't getting your login screen.
Good luck!
Peace......
Tom
Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.
------------------------------
From: "Jon A. Maxwell (JAM)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation
Date: 12 Apr 2000 23:24:32 GMT
Ermine Todd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: (comp.lang.java.advocacy)
|
| I dispute your statements. It is EASY to lock down a user
| environment such that the system is protected yet the users can
| run all the apps to their hearts content. I've done it and I've
| seen it done at many locations.
So what are the easy steps to locking down NT, Ermine? That is another
'stub out the Win32 API and you have a competing OS' bit of tripe.
Jam (address rot13 encoded)
------------------------------
From: "Jon A. Maxwell (JAM)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation
Date: 12 Apr 2000 23:26:08 GMT
Ermine Todd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: (comp.lang.java.advocacy)
|
| To my knowledge, it has NEVER been necessary. The only possible
| reason that I could see for having something writable would be if
| you were using that directory to hold temporary files ... but not
| even that is necessary.
WHAT has never been necessary? Most people read from the top down,
not from the middle down and then from the top to the middle.
Jam (address rot13 encoded)
------------------------------
From: "Tom Hoffmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Help, Please
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 23:16:04 GMT
The Netscape problem sounds like a nameserver issue. Do you still have an
intact /etc/resolv.conf file that specifies your search domain and
namesever IP addresses?
In article <8d2dmn$5d6$[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "Don"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> My Red Hat 6.0 has been working fine using Gnome. All of a sudden I now
> cannot access Compuserve - I can dial up and after the log on nothing
> happens - It was working. When I start Netscape, I get a message that it
> cannot find: home.netscape.com home6.netscape.com internic.net
> "This means that some or all hosts will be unreachable."
>
> Also my printer stopped working. When I try to print nothing happens.
> When I run printer tests from the printtool only "Print ASCII directly
> to port" works. When I try print ASCII test page and print postscript
> test page I get the message: error printing to queue lp error reason :
> lpr : connect : connection refused jobs queued, but cannot start
> daemon. Has my Gnome gone crazy or is it me? What could I have done to
> have caused this? Any help would be appreaciated.
>
> Don [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
>
>
>
------------------------------
From: "Tom Hoffmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Netscape install
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 23:29:14 GMT
I am at the same point in the install as you, but prior to tonight I had
not tried to go any further due to time constraints. Taking a look now, I
find interestingly, there is no read me or install file or make as I would
have expected. However, if you execute "netscape" it fires up the browser
window ... but there is nothing to tell you that you are running Netscape
6. Hmm.
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "constants"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I downloaded Netscape 6 and I did tar -xzvf netscape.tar.gz and it
> worked. But I can't find an install script. So the folder /packages is
> created with a whole bunch of files in it. I know this is a stupid
> question but do I need to have the tar.gz file in a special folder when
> I tar it? Also after tar -xzvf what other command do I give to install
> it?
>
>
------------------------------
From: "Ermine Todd" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 16:31:54 -0700
Crossposted-To: comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
The simple answer is that you have the user logon as a generic user and not
with Admin rights. You install the apps as Admin, you protect the OS
files - what's the problem?
--ET--
"Jon A. Maxwell (JAM)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:8d30jg$jtc$[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> Ermine Todd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: (comp.lang.java.advocacy)
> |
> | I dispute your statements. It is EASY to lock down a user
> | environment such that the system is protected yet the users can
> | run all the apps to their hearts content. I've done it and I've
> | seen it done at many locations.
>
> So what are the easy steps to locking down NT, Ermine? That is another
> 'stub out the Win32 API and you have a competing OS' bit of tripe.
>
> Jam (address rot13 encoded)
>
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Why linux will never go beyond geekdom
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 23:38:15 GMT
Pencil Necked Geek wrote:
>
> Hi, troll!
>
> Couldn't get it to work?
>
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > Purely because it sucks the big one, no games ! no word !
> > KDE....it stinks....Gnome.....amateur hacks with pretty graphics
> >
> > --
> > Doh
Dood! Too funny!! Thank you
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Matt Kennel)
Crossposted-To: comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation
Date: 12 Apr 2000 23:39:13 GMT
Reply-To: mbkennel@<REMOVE THE BAD DOMAIN>yahoo.spam-B-gone.com
On Wed, 12 Apr 2000 01:41:17 +1000, Christopher Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
:
:> Microsoft had *nothing* to do with making computers cheap.
:>
:> Microsoft doesn't make computers.
:>
:> Thank IBM for the cheap hardware. They designed the PC using off-the-shelf
:> parts that anyone could copy. The only difficult part to making a clone
:> was duplicating the BIOS.
:>
:> The competition between computer makers is what drove the hardware costs
:> down so fast.
:
:And I'm sure the easy availability of a cheap OS that would run on any of
:those clones had absolutely nothing to do with it.....
No. Of course the availability of any cheap operating systems would
do it but there could have been many alternatives and Microsoft was
hardly the driver, more like the bus rider.
Cheap PC's come from Moore's law. Case Closed.
I will thank the thousands of anonymous physicists, electrical engineers
material scientists and chemists who have worked vigorously over the
last two decades to advance all aspects of semiconductor design.
The essential hardware technology has been quietly revolutionized many
times since 1980. I don't think people realize how much new effort
and new discovery and new invention is required to continue the
seemingly inevitable Moore curve.
--
* Matthew B. Kennel/Institute for Nonlinear Science, UCSD
*
* "To chill, or to pop a cap in my dome, whoomp! there it is."
* Hamlet, Fresh Prince of Denmark.
------------------------------
From: Robert Heller <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Skipping boot scripts !!!
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 23:52:25 GMT
"Thomas Garsiot" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>,
In a message on Wed, 12 Apr 2000 02:13:48 GMT, wrote :
"G> Hi,
"G>
"G> I completely scraped my box when upgrading from debian slink to potato.
"G>
"G> For information, I'm running Linux 2.2.14 on my laptop (Toshiba Satellite
"G> 2180 CDT) and have problems with the PCMCIA drivers.
"G>
"G> But : I can't boot since the PCMCIA initialisation script is run at boot
"G> time.
"G>
"G> So my question is :
"G> Is there a way to disable the execution of init.d scripts at boot time ?
"G> or at list stop it ...
"G>
"G> Please help, I'm completely stuck with this ...
"G>
"G> Thanks in advance.
"G>
"G> Thomas
Type at the lilo boot prompt:
linux single
This brings the box up in single user mode. *Some* of the init.d
scripts are run, but only the bare minimum to function -- the stuff
linked in /etc/rc.d/rc.1 -- (PCMCIA is linked in at /etc/rc.d/rc.3 and
/etc/rc.d/rc.5).
"G>
"G>
"G>
--
\/
Robert Heller ||InterNet: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://vis-www.cs.umass.edu/~heller || [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.deepsoft.com /\FidoNet: 1:321/153
------------------------------
Crossposted-To: comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation
From: David Steuber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 00:00:00 GMT
[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Mike Willet [8019899]) writes:
' Basic and Powerpoint (I think!!)
I used Basic (an entirely different flavor) on CP/M and on TRS-80s
before there was a Microsoft.
--
David Steuber | Hi! My name is David Steuber, and I am
NRA Member | a hoploholic.
http://www.packetphone.org/
Fortune's Real-Life Courtroom Quote #52:
Q: What is your name?
A: Ernestine McDowell.
Q: And what is your marital status?
A: Fair.
------------------------------
Subject: Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation
From: David Steuber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 00:00:01 GMT
"Robert Barry" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
' I heard a good illustration of how Microsoft is abusing its monopoly status.
' It goes like this:
' Microsoft is the only company that sells milk.
' Everybody needs to milk.
' Another company makes bread
' Microsoft wants to enter the bread market.
' Microsoft tells its customers (oem & retail) that to buy its milk you
' must also buy its bread.
'
' That tying is what's illegal. You can't leverage your monopoly position
' in milk to bread that way.
This is the best analogy I have seen. It is also disturbingly accurate.
--
David Steuber | Hi! My name is David Steuber, and I am
NRA Member | a hoploholic.
http://www.packetphone.org/
Reisner's Rule of Conceptual Inertia:
If you think big enough, you'll never have to do it.
------------------------------
From: "Tom Hoffmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Netscape install
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 00:02:43 GMT
Ahhh. There we go. Once you have un-tar'd the file, just execute
"netscape" from the package directory. Make sure you are specifying the
full path, or are CD'd to the /package directory or it will pick up the old version.
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, "constants"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> I downloaded Netscape 6 and I did tar -xzvf netscape.tar.gz and it
> worked. But I can't find an install script. So the folder /packages is
> created with a whole bunch of files in it. I know this is a stupid
> question but do I need to have the tar.gz file in a special folder when
> I tar it? Also after tar -xzvf what other command do I give to install
> it?
>
>
------------------------------
From: "Jon A. Maxwell (JAM)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.lang.java.advocacy,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.advocacy
Subject: Re: How Microsoft inhibits competition & innovation
Date: 13 Apr 2000 00:08:58 GMT
Ermine Todd <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: (comp.lang.java.advocacy)
|
| The simple answer is that you have the user logon as a generic
| user and not with Admin rights. You install the apps as Admin,
| you protect the OS files - what's the problem?
Microsoft has a 37-page document describing how to secure NT.
It is not just a list of OS files to protect.
http://www.microsoft.com/NTServer/security/exec/overview/Secure_NTInstall.asp
This is an 'overview', by the way -- it's just the beginning of what
you need to do.
Jam (address rot13 encoded)
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: HELP: Lost my GNOME panels
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 20:05:21 -0400
This is my story, and I'm sticking to it:
I was logging out of a user account (not root) using the logout button
on the gnome pannel. I selected save session and selected logout and
OK.
As it was logging off, I got a window saying that a particular program
was not working with two options: remove program, or . I don't quite
remeber what the program was. At first I just pressed the continue
button, but the message returned. The second time I pressed the 'remove
program' button.
When I logged back in, my panels were gone! Now I cannot get them
back! Does anyone know what the heck I did and how to get my panels
back?
There are only two users on my computer, one is a regular user, the
other the root user. The root user is unaffected.
I am running RH6.1. So far I can get around with the enlightenment
0.16.3 pull down menus, but I'd really like to get my panels back.
Thanks in advance!
--
___________ Beny
/ _______ \
/ / \ | King of the cranium,
\___\ / / Great one of the grey matter,
/ / Magnificent one of the mind,
/ / Baron of brain,
|__| The one,
__ The only, The Riddler
/ \
\__/ http://on.to/riddlers-world
"I'm a humble person, really
I'm actually much greater than I think I am..."
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 19:17:14 +0000
From: James Franklin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Help, please....
The message is because when a parent process was killed, the children
went with it. Your method is attempting to kill the children that were
killed with the parent process.
I am still new to Linux but that is my take on it.
> Stefan Jang <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > --------------4163A8D988141CA98087C99E
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> > Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> >
> > Hello,
> >
> > I've wrote a simple script that kills process on Linux machine. I
> > noticed that my
> > script does kill the processes but gives out following messages:
> >
> > kill <pid>: No such process
> > kill <pid>: No such process
> > kill <pid>: No such process
> > kill <pid>: No such process
> > kill <pid>: No such process
> > kill <pid>: No such process
> > kill <pid>: No such process
> > kill <pid>: No such process
> >
> > Is there a way not to display above message?
> > Or How do I get rid of this message on Linux?
> >
> > My script looks like these:
> >
> > #!/bin/sh -f
> > # Trying to determine the Operating System
> > OS=`uname -s`
> > case $OS in
> > 'Linux')
> > /bin/ps -auxgww | grep "<Program name>" | grep -v grep | awk '{print
> > $2}' | xargs kill
> > ;;
> > esac
> >
> > Thanks,
> >
> > Stefan
> [HTML cut]
>
> --
> # Andreas K�h�ri, <URL:http://hello.to/andkaha/>.
> # All junk email is reported to the appropriate authorities.
>
> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.
------------------------------
From: Kevin Vandersloot <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: HELP: Lost my GNOME panels
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 17:19:05 -0700
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> I logged back in, my panels were gone! Now I cannot get them
> back! Does anyone know what the heck I did and how to get my panels
> back?
>
Don't know exactly why you lost your panel but to get it back type 'panel
&' at a command prompt and choose save session and you should get them back
------------------------------
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 02:38:37 +0200
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.linux.admin,comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.questions
Subject: Why wont init start???
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
==============364FAC6539A8691F8BFEA092
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
i asked this question before.....i'm not sure if anyone responded
because i was unable to get onto usenet for a few days.
please answer again:
i'm trying to create a boot disk. i copy the kernel image and the
relevent files to my boot disk (including init and all my necessary
device files). but...when i boot from the floppy....the kernel boots up
to the point it's supposed to start init...but then......instead of
starting init it says:
kernel panic: init not found. Try passing init= as kernel parameter.
init is located in /sbin.
why wont it start??
thanx
ali
==============364FAC6539A8691F8BFEA092
Content-Type: message/rfc822
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline
X-Mozilla-Status2: 00000000
Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Sat, 08 Apr 2000 23:19:07 +0200
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.51 [en] (X11; I; Linux 2.2.14 i686)
X-Accept-Language: en
MIME-Version: 1.0
Newsgroups:
comp.os.linux.setup,comp.os.linux.admin,comp.os.linux.help,comp.os.linux.questions,comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Why wont init start???
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
hullo...
here's the problem...i'm trying to create a bootdisk, but for some
reason, init wont start. I've copied a kernel image to disk, and set
the root device correctly with rdev. I've created bin, dev, sbin, etc,
root and usr directories and i've copied init and some other useful
utils (like cp, mv etc) to my boot disk. But...when i try to boot from
the floppy....the kernel starts loading, then says:
kernel panic: init not found. Try passing init= as kernel parameter.
I thought the kernel automatically looked for init in /sbin (that's sbin
on the floppy disk in this case). BTW, i'm using init 2.74.
what's the problem...and how can i fix it?
thanx (in advance)
ali
==============364FAC6539A8691F8BFEA092==
------------------------------
From: Harlan Grove <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Summing Up File Sizes
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 17:14:40 -0700
In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Parminder Lehal
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
<snip>
>You can do the sum yourself too.. with this
>ls -l | awk '{sum+=$5;print sum;}'
It's been pointed out in comp.lang.awk from time to time
that this fails when admins have been too creative by
putting embedded space characters into user or group names.
Likely not an issue, but better to stick with du. Also, put
the print statement in an END block unless you really do
want to see the running totals.
* Sent from AltaVista http://www.altavista.com Where you can also find related Web
Pages, Images, Audios, Videos, News, and Shopping. Smart is Beautiful
------------------------------
From: Roger Marquis <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Visio (Microsoft vs. Unix)
Crossposted-To: comp.unix.solaris,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 00:30:52 GMT
As Connie Guglielmo and Randy Barrett point out in the article below,
Microsoft's anti-competitive business practices have not noticeably
changed since Jackson's decision was handed down nor are they likely to
in the foreseeable future. Without a structural solution, one that
splits the applications from the operating systems with no officers or
board members in common, this issue is likely to remain in the courts
and the headlines for years.
If, on the other hand, Microsoft is broken up like Standard Oil and
AT&T we can expect a rebirth of computer operating systems similar to
what occurred in telecommunications. Can you picture today's economy
running on AT&T regulated 300 baud modems instead of T3s, T1s, DSL and
wireless? (Telecommunication Act of 1996 notwithstanding)
With Word for Linux, Excel for Solaris, and Quicken for FreeBSD there
will be no need to choose an OS because it owns and restricts the
rights to its application software. Visio for Solaris where are you?
Roger Marquis
====================================================================
Forwarded from http://www.zdnet.com/intweek/stories/news/0,4164,2523958,00.html
Inter@ctive Week News Microsoft Got Nailed: So What?
By Connie Guglielmo and Randy Barrett, Inter@ctive Week
April 10, 2000 7:41 AM ET
If the antitrust saga surrounding Microsoft were turned into a
movie, it would be a B-flick called something like "Digital
Trustbusters" or "Boies Don't Cry."
In the Microsoft-Department of Justice drama, it's hard to say
whether the government's victory means anything. The DOJ
trumpeted its win after U.S. District Judge Thomas Penfield
Jackson ruled that Microsoft as guilty of illegally
maintaining its monopoly and of unlawfully tying its Internet
browser to its Windows operating system (OS). Market watchers
couldn't help but notice, however, that the company - which
immediately said it plans to appeal the ruling - is free to go
about its business while the courtroom drama continues.
In the end, the courts could hand down drastic punishments,
including splitting up the company. But, in the near term,
competitors that think the case may have given them a break
from Microsoft's machinations still have plenty of things to
worry about.
Here are 10 of them:
1 Microsoft remains undaunted. Legal analysts said it's
unlikely that any interim remedies will be imposed against
the company while the trial continues to play out, leaving
Microsoft to go about its business unfettered.
That business includes shipping later this year a new
consumer version of its OS - called Windows Millennium
Edition - and working on a new video game console called
X-Box that will put it into competition with existing
video game heavyweights such as Sony and Sega. In the
meantime, Chairman Bill Gates is expected to unveil within
the next few weeks Microsoft's "five year plan for the
second phase of the Internet."
2 Consumers will keep buying Microsoft products. The
overwhelming majority of respondents to an Inter@ctive
Week quick reader poll said the court's ruling would not
affect their decision to keep buying Microsoft products.
3 Microsoft will keep selling products. Within a month of
releasing its Windows 2000 professional-level OS in
February, Microsoft reported it had sold more than 1
million copies. Though the Linux freeware OS is gaining
some traction among information technology users, Windows
remains the most widely used OS, according to research
firm GartnerGroup Dataquest.
4 Microsoft's financial position will only improve. Though
Microsoft's stock plummeted after the verdict was
announced April 3, it is expected to rebound, with 31 of
the 33 analyst firms issuing a "strong buy" or "buy"
rating on its stock. For fiscal 2000, the consensus
estimate is that Microsoft will earn $1.67 per share, a
14.4 percent jump over fiscal 1999's $1.43 figure.
5 Exclusive distribution deals are not prohibited. In his
43-page ruling, Jackson did not find Microsoft guilty of
abuses in its exclusive distribution agreements with PC
manufacturers and other parties. That leaves the company
free to continue entering into contracts that might put
Microsoft competitors at a disadvantage.
6 Dissension in the remedy ranks. If the rumors are true
that settlement talks broke down, in part because of
disagreements between the DOJ and the 19 states in the
antitrust action over what remedies should be pursued,
that dissension could hurt them if they propose vastly
different remedies to Jackson later this month.
7 Unintended consequences. Many questions remain as to
whether any behavioral or structural remedies will have
the desired effect of curtailing Microsoft's monopoly
abuses and, at the same time, minimizing government
influence in the high-tech industry. Of note: More than
one-third - 36 percent - of all respondents in an
InsightExpress online poll believe if Microsoft is broken
up, the sum of the parts will eventually be substantially
more valuable than Microsoft today.
8 No remedy has worked before. It took five years of
negotiations between the government and Microsoft to get
to the 1995 consent decree, which was the basis for DOJ's
renewed antitrust attack in 1997. Though that decree
expressly forbade tying between Microsoft applications and
its OS - and though Jackson ruled last week that the
company had, in fact, illegally tied its Internet Explorer
browser to Windows - market watchers rightly note that
browser rival Netscape Communications has long since lost
the browser war. IE is currently the dominant browser used
by Net surfers.
9 The company might win its appeal. Microsoft is counting on
the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., which
handed it a victory in the browser tying matter in 1998,
to do so again. But here's the twist: Jackson agreed last
week to fast-track the remedies phase of the case, with
the DOJ and 19 states involved in the action asked to
submit their proposals for possible remedies by the end of
this month. Microsoft will have until mid-May to respond,
with the DOJ and states filing their responses shortly
after. Jackson could also send the case directly to the
Supreme Court. Such a move would not only bypass the Court
of Appeals, it could also mean the Supreme Court, which
would then get the case as early as this summer, might
render a final ruling as early as the end of this year -
much faster than originally anticipated.
10 Time, time, time is on Microsoft's side. The
administration could change. The Internet's pace could
radically change the landscape. The length of the appeals
process - if the fast-track scenario does not play out -
could alter the market in such a way that any punishment
handed down won't have any meaningful impact on Microsoft.
In the meantime, Microsoft continues to roll out new
products, introduce new technologies, and invest in and
acquire companies outside of the personal computer
industry.
====================================================================
------------------------------
From: "Pencil Necked Geek" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Why linux will never go beyond geekdom
Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2000 19:36:09 -0500
Reply-To: "Pencil Necked Geek" <.>
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> Pencil Necked Geek wrote:
> >
> > Hi, troll!
> >
> > Couldn't get it to work?
> >
> > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]...
> > > Purely because it sucks the big one, no games ! no word !
> > > KDE....it stinks....Gnome.....amateur hacks with pretty graphics
> > >
> > > --
> > > Doh
> Dood! Too funny!! Thank you
It's funny 'cause it's true.
Now, I'm going to go play some XBill. Who says there are no games for
Linux?!
------------------------------
** FOR YOUR REFERENCE **
The service address, to which questions about the list itself and requests
to be added to or deleted from it should be directed, is:
Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
You can send mail to the entire list (and comp.os.linux.misc) via:
Internet: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Linux may be obtained via one of these FTP sites:
ftp.funet.fi pub/Linux
tsx-11.mit.edu pub/linux
sunsite.unc.edu pub/Linux
End of Linux-Misc Digest
******************************
