OT: Windows Vista / Office 2007

[Dale Carlson]

Well, I am looking forward to Vista for professional reasons. I work in a college enterprise environment. Most of our users are faculty who demand the "academic freedom" to browse, click, download, and install everything they damn well please - academically-related or not. And they treat everybody in the IT department as their personal repairmen after they've screwed up their college-owned PCs and laptops with spyware, adware, viruses, and other malicious logic.



We've had running battles with them about this, but the reason they can do this is because they are all administrators, which means all of the malware they've unintentionally downloaded is free to run. With Vista, we can make them limited users again because you can install software as a user, but you have to give that software explicit permission to install or run.

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I hear you kefguy. I take care of about a dozen computers for friends/family. My mom's is the worst, since she gets bored and browses to those greeting card sites and other sites riddled with adware/malware. Since I live so many miles away, I don't get to clean up her system often. She is complaining right now that her system is so slow that she is planning to buy a new one. I am sure I can fix it when I get back home next month.



I am looking forward to Vista. I just hope it won't make my peripherals obsolete like WinXP did.

 

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

Nelson-why not remote access into her computer and fix it?

 

[Dre L]

Yep, Nobleman that is why Microsoft is laughing just like you...because they see a reason to partnership with them.

Good article, Microsoft teams with Novell to make sure Microsoft customers don't have any interoperability problems. To sanction a version of Linux that doesn't infringe on Microsoft patents and copyrights. Yeah, they're working together, sounds like business to me. Use the Microsoft sanctioned linux (Novell), they'll assist you per their customer support agreement.



Open source, great stuff, one product runs great on one version of linux, but doesn't necessarily work well with anything else. Try to get some enterprise support with it, good luck. Here's a free product, and here's your team of consultants for it, no they're not free.



The linux world needs to grow up and learn that it needs to play well with everything else, not the other way around. It's just as old as Windows, yet one is running enterprise platforms giving UNIX a run for its money, and the other is, well, linux.



Microsoft isn't just Windows, it's business systems, e-commerce, databases, business intelligence, portals, and a force of solutions all integrating, and interoperating, at the Windows desktop to let a business user have real information and tools at hand, all while listening to their music off their desktop, all with one support number.



Linux has its place. We're constantly questioning that place, but it is there. Whether anyone will make something of that place remains to be seen. Maybe they should claim they have superior hardware like Apple.

 

[Tom Schindler]

Q and Tom, this is a warning. If either of you makes another post that even vaguely resembles a threat, you will earn a permanent ban, with no further warning or comment from me.

Rich, I never made a threat. Point is that Q hides behind this website. He has no valid email address, no "real" name, and likes to shoot me and others down. I am simply saying that there are plenty of ways to get someone name and address by just their licence plate number. It is legal to do. If I were to meet Q in person, I would shake his hand and offer his a cold beer.



I never once said I was going to shoot him, nor inflict ANY bodily harm.



Just making sure you know I said no type of threat, though Q has very few positive things to say. I am sure many members here can say I am one of the most helpful people here.





Tom

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I will be driving through Iowa next summer. I plan to stop by to say hello. You still live in the same place...don't you? I have your address and real name.



- Caymen

 

[WXMotorSports DecalsPartsAccs]

Noble - I'm quite away what MS business model is. I was a partner for them for 10 years plus I know hundreds of employees that work there in different divisions. But, thanks for the lesson on their model. And, Bill Gates is now in the hotel business too...

 

[Gavin Allan]

No, they are not both software. Music can be digital in form, but that makes it more "information" than software. Computer programs are software. Both are stored digitally, but not everything stored digitally is the same, especially when it comes to usage restrictions.



The difference is that each typically has different "fair use" restrictions.



If I buy a CD I can legally rip it and use it on as many devices as I would like. That's typically not true when I buy a laptop that has software pre-installed, even if its comes with a CD or DVD for the pre-installed software. I typically can't take that computer software and legally install it on any number of other personal use machines. The copyright on the PC software typically prohibits such use. The music on the CD is typically not prohibited in that way.



Another example of where it is different with music in the digital domain is music available through download. Many digital rights management systems (like used by MSN and Microsoft) allow for "copy once" or "copy never" when downloading songs from their sites. Again, this is another example of where not all digital material is covered by the same blanket "I bought it once, I can use it whereever I want as long as I don't resell it" belief.



Now, with all that said, please don't get me wrong. I do think that many companies are on the verge of trying to overly restrict what consumers can do with digital content, and may actually infringe on traditional fair use rights. I'm not the only one...see the link below:



TJR

I understand that the legislotors have made differing laws for music and computer software protection. My point is that technically, there is very little difference between the two-- they are both artistic code that is placed on some medium or in cyberspace. There isn't much reason why one is more highly protected by law than another, especially when they are essentially the same thing.

 

[Dale Carlson]

My point is that technically, there is very little difference between the two-- they are both artistic code that is placed on some medium or in cyberspace. There isn't much reason why one is more highly protected by law than another, especially when they are essentially the same thing.

Gavin, being in a digital format does not make them "essentially the same thing", technically or otherwise. Computer software, things like operating systems and applications, are tools. Digital music, images, and text are data, or as TJR says, information. If you installed some music on a blank hard drive or flash drive and tried to play it, you wouldn't be able to. You wouldn't even be able to get your PC/laptop/PDA/Ipod to boot. All of that music is just a bunch of electrical potential flipped one way or the other on some magnetic medium until it can be translated by an application that is running within an operating system. That's the difference. Without the tools, the data is worthless.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Gavin said:

My point is that technically, there is very little difference between the two-- they are both artistic code that is placed on some medium or in cyberspace. There isn't much reason why one is more highly protected by law than another, especially when they are essentially the same thing.

And technically your social security number and other information stored in digital form are no different than a music MP3 file or MSWord.exe, but I suspect you would want laws that protect and safeguard that information and restrict other people's use of it, right?



Just because two different things are technically stored the same way doesn't make them equal from a "fair use" standpoint.



TJR

 

[Tom Schindler]

That is utterly laughable. You mean, like how helpful you were in this thread? Is this your idea of "helpful?" I call it more like being an a$$.

...if you only knew...





Tom