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Story: Microsoft's Ed Muth dissects Linux' 'weak value proposition'

Dear Mailroom,

We kindly thank Mr. Muth for speaking out (for) against Linux. While Mr. Muth does his thing, which gets lots of press, he is only enhancing Linux' exposure to the whole world.

Mr. Muth, please keep up the good work!

Dave

Dear Mailroom,

Ed Muth says: "I find it hard to believe that some of the best computer scientists in the world will want to do their work for free."

Microsoft just does not understand the Open Source paradigm. Why do people do this? Because they are not working to the same rules as Microsoft. It is a 'Gift Culture'. Your status is not dependent on how much money you can earn, but how much you can give to the community.

How can Microsoft possibly understand this?

On the flip side: Are companies like Intel and Sun taking the Linux community for a ride? By seemingly supporting Linux they are putting pressure on Microsoft to comply with their wishes. Are they going to still support Linux when it starts eating into their revenues?

Alex Wright

Response: Good point Alex. We'll ask the question...

Dear Mailroom,

This is simply a FUD (Fear Uncertainty and Doubt) tactic, it's a shame because corporates will get the message that this shameless dark sir is sending.

Decision making corporates must know that Ed Muth is being economical with the truth about a few simple facts. He tries to insinuate that there is not much software available to use with the Linux software: "...since Linux supports so few applications."

There is a lot of Linux software available on the market. Those "available for Linux" software cover all needs in the market, most of them free of any charges and usually giving better performance.

I see a sickness in all this; columnists, reporters and others from the mass media report what this guy is telling to the world. Doing so they are simply helping him give free publicity for his products and they are not doing it for the public interest.

They are doing it in the interest of Microsoft against the interest of the public without even understanding it.

Corporates come on! don't listen to those guys who have been manipulating your kind for the last 20 years! Open your mind to more efficiency, more versatility and more stability.

Please read about the Halloween documents: Learn about the fundamental FUD.

Denis-Carl Robidoux Programmer.

Response: I can confirm that none of our reporters/columnists are ill and that none of them are in the employ of Microsoft. I can also confirm how sad I feel it is that you had to resort to such spurious claims to make a point.

Ed.

Dear Mailroom,

Aside from the fact that I wonder how many MS personnel have ever tried Linux and/or the programs that are available on-line to do many of the same things that MS Office, etc., do, I do have a 'quibble' with a point he made...in fact I laughed out loud.

He made the point that a corporation or (as I read into his statement) large group of companies wouldn't go internally with having a myriad of different operating systems. Nothing could be further from the truth! In 1988 I retired from the United States Army. My son is presently a programmer for the USAF. Would Mr. Muth care to take a 'SWAG' at just how many OSs the US Government used then and still uses now?

After I retired, I went to work for a 'private' corporation here where I live in the US. I've since 'retired' -- quit -- again twice. At a minimum, this corporation uses three different OSs to accomplish it's job in the one place I work. The latest nonsense was to take a perfectly good 'puter', put Windoze on it as the main OS, stick SCO UnixWare 7 under *that* as a program, and make the thing into nothing more than a terminal.

Ed, you've been sitting up in Washington state too long and the rain has warped your brain.

Story: Microsoft drops bomb on Linux-loving partners

Dear Mailroom,

Firstly the Senate passed a resolution declaring a missile defence system to be a national priority.

Even if they had passed more funding for a missile defence system remember that such funding has never stopped since Reagan proposed it in the mid 80s. $50 billion has been spent so far. Almost nothing has been built with the $50 billion, certainly nothing worth a damn, which is why this is such a great program for those involved by the way.

I'll be optimistic and say some initial deployment should be expected about 2007. Don't be relieved just yet.

The secrets, if they passed out of Los Alamos, left around 1985.

Robert Pierson

Story: Microsoft settlement offer a PR stunt?

Gates, the Harvard dropout, is doing what he has always done. He wants the settlement HIS way. A sign of very spoiled brat.

Owen Thompson

Story: Nuggets: World's first MPEG 4 InternetCam from Sharp.

Dear Mailroom/Nuggets,

Sounds good to me.

Once it's on your computer you can write your home movies to CD and it's there in perpetuity. And since it's digital you can copy without degradation. I've been waiting for something like this.

The problem I have with digital tape camcorders is the expense of a capture card, and even 1/2 hour quality video takes up so much disk space I would need an expensive DVD-Ram writer with disks at £25 a time. However, if this thing stores 1 hour on a card then the quality can't be great. What happened to Firewire?

Why isn't it standard on motherboards?!

Patrick.

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