[GRLUG] "Microsoft Hated is a Disease"

[peyeps at iserv.net]

> Is the operating system not a program, then?  You're taking your
> hatred of the monopoly at the operating system level and advocating
> that everyone one One True Program for each thing you do at the
> desktop level.  Would you advocate that everyone run Firefox?  Or that
> everyone run a particular window manager?  Or that everyone use KDE
> over GNOME?

You are correct, the operating system is a program.

Perhaps I should have said the experience of the user should be
independent of the operating system being used.

For example.  It doesn't matter whether I am running Windows, Mac or
Linux,in the upper left hand corner is the control for shutting down the
computer.

It doesn't matter whether I'm running Mac, Linux, or Windows, Open Office
performs the same.   (Something Microsoft can't even do for Mac for their
Office application.)  Microsoft doesn't support IE on Linux.  It's not in
my list.  Skype works on all three, so it's on my list.  Gimp works on all
three.  It's on my list.  Needless to say MS Office is off my list.

I'm looking at Python, because it is supported on all three platforms. 
The idea is I can write some code, and it will work.  I have to play games
with Javascript because path names vary between Windows and non-windows
systems.  I suspect the same will be true of Python.  But I should be able
to develop a little control code that can eliminate that issue.

When a person sits down at a computer, they don't want to have to guess
what to do to get their job done.

"One True Program for each thing you do at the desktop level.  Would you
advocate that everyone run Firefox?"

Firefox is supported on all three platforms.  Chrome is not.  IE is not.
Safari is not.  I've not played with Opera, so can't say there.

"Or that everyone run a particular window manager?  Or that everyone use KDE
over GNOME?"

Now you are getting personal ;-}

To be honest, I haven't played that much with KDE, so can't say it should
be KDE or Gnome.  I like the way Gnome and Nautilus works, but know there
are a lot of people who like KDE and by no means think they are wrong.  It
is an issue of preferences.  But as far as I know whether you are running
Gnome or KDE, it is my understanding you can re-arrange panels and menus
to put things where you want them.  Remember I told you that the shutdown
control is in the upper left hand corner of any OS I use?  Only Mac won't
let you move it around.

>
> Technically, patents are already "open source."  The idea behind the
> patent system is to publicly document a design in such a way that it's
> freely usable after the period of exclusivity is up.
>
> If you meant "indemnify", well, that's a tricky thing; As far as I
> know, there's no way to provide a legally binding guarantee that you
> won't sue someone for violating your patent without signing a contract
> with them.  That's called a "license", regardless of the terms of the
> contract and any compensation identified.
>
> The crux of the matter is that in order to grant a license to "open
> source", you would have to sign a contract between you and "open
> source", which requires "open source"* to be legally authorized to
> represent all open source developers.  Which requires those developers
> to be have signed a contract with "open source" to grant that
> authorization.
>
> Except that Open Source is not a legal entity so much as a concept,
> and you still have the problem of getting the developers to sign a
> legally binding contract with that entity, anyway.
>

I was thinking of the Open Invention Network.

>> (Why run Linux on Windows escapes me, but some people want to do it.)
>> Personally running Windows on Linux makes more sense.
>
> I run Cygwin on my workstation because I can't stand cmd.exe.  I run
> Windows on the bare metal of my workstation because writing
> high-performance C++ apps on Windows is part of my job.

OK, you are stuck with windows.  You have my sympathy.  In the same
position myself.  I just dual boot.  But that's why I want applications
that are the same regardless of the OS.  My .odt documents open the same
whether I'm running Mac, Windows or Linux and I have the same set of tools
and controls and preferences.  That wouldn't be true if on one I was
running MS Office.

> When you mandate that Something be done some Particular Way, you
> create an environment where everything subsequently developed that
> depends on being able to have Something done is constrained by the
> limitations of that Particular Way, and the results aren't going to be
> as clever, useful or innovative as they could be otherwise.

Chrome is an innovation.  But it is not available to everyone.  I know,
they are working on it, so perhaps that's a bit unfair.

Silverlight is only available for Mac and Windows.  Flash is available for
all three.  Moonlight is supposedly the independently developed
alternative to Silverlight for Linux, but only until Microsoft lowers the
boom.  They will because they will be trying to force people off Linux. 
Why else would they say Linux infringes two hundred patents, but won't
tell us what they are?