Defining "PC" categories -- was Walmart PC's are gone

[Craig White]

On Fri, 2007-11-16 at 10:24 -0700, der.hans wrote:
> Am 16. Nov, 2007 schwätzte keith smith so:
> 
> > Okay, however other than limited academic programs I have not seen M$ give away the OS.  I think if they did that would be proof that they are using their monopoly power to keep and gain even more market share.
> >
> > So lets hope they do give away the OS.
> 
> They do. Through Gates' foundation. Through lawsuit settlements. For
> marketing. m$ uses OS licenses to pay debts. When it does this for
> publicly owned debt, e.g. lawsuits brought by a government entity, it
> rips off the taxpaying public.
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gosh - that would be a first
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> Trump gets government subsidies for his whacky ideas.
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OK - Trump - you're fired
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> The oil companies complain about the cost of oil and want federal money
> to holp recover from Katrina as eXXon sets new worldwide records for
> corporate earnings.
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duh - you got 2 oilmen as Pres and Vice-Pres, the price of oil rose from
$26 per barrel to almost $100. The price of gas...you know.

you can't say that this is actually surprising
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> The RIAA paid a settlement by donating old stock they couldn't sell to
> public libraries. Anybody need 50,000 copies of "A Debbie Boone Groundhog
> Day"?
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Phil ?  Phil Connors ?

Don't go slagging one of my favorite movies.

You made me google 'A Debbie Boone Groundhog Day' - couldn't locate it
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> 
> The airlines get paid day in and day out to have certain parts of their
> fleets ready to be used for the military in a time of war, then complain
> when they actually have to turn over aircraft as required by the contract.
> 
> Toy manufacturers keep feigning surprise when the media finds out that
> some toy is unsafe.
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of course the CPSC (Consumers Product Safety Commission) has shed more
than 50% of their payroll since Bush took office and then recess
appointment (because even Republican controlled Senate wouldn't approve
the stooges Bush nominated), who travels at the expense of
corporations/lobbyists - hardly surprising
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> Many corporations intentionally don't do the right thing in order to
> create profits. m$ is definitely knee deep in that movement and have
> billions and billions dollars as a result. The government isn't going to
> require m$ give it back or pay fines.
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not this administration
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> So...
> 
> 1. We can complain about illegal and unethical business practices. It
> won't get anything changed. If people dying due to bad toys and drugs
> doesn't really get change don't count on people caring about the m$ tax.
> 
> 2. We push for requirement of Free and Open Standards. Suddenly we find
> we can get assistance from big companies like IBM, Google, Intel and AMD
> and from small companies that have had their data held hostage by m$
> proprietary formats.
> 
> 3. We can continue working on, supporting and promoting Free Software that
> absolutely rocks over the proprietary software equivalents. This is how I
> think we'll have the biggest impact, especially if we can get people and
> governments using Free and Open Formats[0].
> 
> Buy products that support Free Software and Open Standards. If you find a
> way, let the companies know that you bought the product due to its support
> of Free Software and Open Standards. Avoid buying from companies that
> continuously threaten Free Software and Open Standards.
> 
> Donate to organizations like the Free Software Foundation and Software
> Freedome Lay Center. Donate to Free Software projects via organizations
> like the GNOME, KDE and Apache foundations or via 'donate now' mechanisms
> or whatever on project web sites.
> 
> Donate by submitting thourough bug reports. Donate by providing patches if
> you can.
> 
> Donate by helping user groups have interesting events that will help
> local ground roots support for Free Software. A good way to do that is
> bring people to the Free Software Stammtisch, this Tuesday, or to PLUG's
> annual end of year party next month. The latter should be easier as there
> will be cheesecake :).
> 
> Does Apple care if a bunch of geeks don't go buy an ipod? No. They don't
> even care if the geeks don't update to the newest one every 6 months like
> everyone else. They might care if we all buy and iAudio, which advertises
> ogg and flac support as well as support for GNU/Linux, or an insignia
> player, which advertises ogg and flac support, especially if we get our
> music downloads from www.Magnatune.com rather than some vendor-lock-in
> music site.
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I hate myself for buying/using/loving my iPod...guilty pleasure  ;-)
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> [0] Yesterday I verified with the state's new information security officer
> that they understand GNU/Linux is not Windows. I also got confirmation
> from the head security officer for the department of health that they use
> a lot of *NIX and have some GNU/Linux geeks playing with stuff. Now we
> need to find out who's on the proposed project oversight committees and
> get them to understand the benefits of Free and Open Standards.
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thanks

Craig