From owner-freebsd-chat Tue Apr 21 12:04:04 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id MAA19916 for freebsd-chat-outgoing; Tue, 21 Apr 1998 12:04:04 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from out4.ibm.net (out4.ibm.net [165.87.194.239]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id TAA19744 for ; Tue, 21 Apr 1998 19:03:46 GMT (envelope-from dwilde1@ibm.net) Received: from ibm.net (slip-32-100-79-15.ca.us.ibm.net [32.100.79.15]) by out4.ibm.net (8.8.5/8.6.9) with ESMTP id TAA67712; Tue, 21 Apr 1998 19:03:12 GMT Message-ID: <353CED4E.652BD872@ibm.net> Date: Tue, 21 Apr 1998 12:02:38 -0700 From: Don Wilde Reply-To: dwilde1@ibm.net X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.04 [en] (Win95; I) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Dag-Erling Coidan Smørgrav" CC: Brett Glass , chat@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Nader paper mentions FreeBSD References: <199804201425.IAA20391@lariat.lariat.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-chat@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org I posted this to HWG-servers, but the LG squashed it before it ever made the list. I would like to put forward my personal nightmare scenario. There are a whole lot of businesses out there that depend on Micros**t Windows-based PC's, mine being one of them. Remember that now M$ is close to controlling the server market as well as the PC market. Remember all the license terms of the Agreement you sign by breaking the seal on the package: * You own nothing * Company warrants nothing except the media * Company promises nothing about what software does * You absolve company of liability for _any_ actions of software. What if there's a time-bomb or internet-enabled trigger that goes out and checks your network for licenses? The latest NT Service Pack requires installation of IE4 with all its little ActiveX snoops enabled. Even if you don't have IE on the desktop, surely it's trivial for M$ to have put a little bootstrap hook into Windows a long time ago. Remember too that cloning is not acceptable to them, even if you own the proper ## of packages on the shelf. Perhaps he wouldn't lock up the PC's, but it would be a major irritant if DLL's disappeared, or the display didn't work anymore, or... Just those little things, you know, that keep us from having time to learn and configure FreeBSD because we're too busy fixing users' PC's... I'd investigate more, but my users are calling! Something about Word that won't display once it loads? ~~~8( To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-chat" in the body of the message