[ale] AOL sues Microsoft

[rob hoppe]

Matt Shade wrote:

> Nah, I didn't find it harsh.  But I dont' see myself so much as taking the
> "easy way out" as much as the practical way.
>
> At HP, we used to run EVERYTHING off MPE and HP-UX. No Windows apps at all.
> That was great, and just about every tool we used was written in-house.
> About 3 or 4 years ago, someone high up decided that Microsoft was the way
> to go, and over the course of say a year, moved everyone off our UX
> workstations onto intel based boxes running NT. We still had plenty of unix
> apps, so we ran Reflection/X, but even those unix apps have been phased out
> over time. Now, nearly everything we use is built for Windows. I was one of
> the loudest voicest against this type of move, but unfortunately, I'm really
> just a peon and upper management does really listen to those of us who
> actually use the tools.
>
> The internal applications written for us to use are all written for Windows.
> I, however, write a lot of little tools for my teams to use, and those are
> all written for Linux or UX. It'll never be enough to turn the tide around,
> but at least I feel like I'm doing my part.
>
> I also actually do like Windows, though. I can be so much more productive
> running NT than trying to workaround using something else. It'd be really
> slick to run VMWare, but that not terribly practical, and I just don't have
> the money for it. Even if I did, I doubt I'd be able to use it effectively.
> If there was a way I could run ALL my tools and apps on a Linux box, you
> have to believe that I'd jump on it. If there was a way I could run them on
> an HP3000, I'd kill for that! As it stands now, though, I have to use the
> best tools for the job. That's why I have on my desk at work an NT, an
> HP9000, an HP3000, and two linux machines. And at home, I have all my linux
> and hpux machines networked and displaying on my Win2k monitor.
>
> Call it the easy way out if you like, or even cowardice (where did that come
> from?), but sometimes you even have to use things you would prefer not to
> use just to get the job done.
>
> And oh yeah....it burns me up that Microsoft IS the top dog and that the
> whole world has succumbed to the Windows onslaught. I sometimes wonder how
> much further we would be if Amiga had been smarter in the 80's, and they
> were the ones who caught on and were on every desktop. Amiga had a cheaper
> machine and an OS that could run rings around something like Win95, and this
> was back in the 80's!
>
> matt
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Geoffrey" <esoteric at 3times25.net>
> To: "ALE" <ale at ale.org>
> Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2002 08:33
> Subject: Re: [ale] AOL sues Microsoft
>
> > This is going to sound harsh, so be it....
> >
> > Matt Shade wrote:
> >
> > > Well...I could be called a Microsoft "apologist"....I use, and will
> continue
> > > to use, Microsoft products because they do for me what I need to do. I
> can't
> > > beat their Word for creating docs that are shareable with customers. I
> can't
> > > beat their PowerPoint for presentations I need to make. If I need a new
> > > scheduling program, then something made for windows is going to beat out
> > > anything I've seen for linux.
> > > It's not that I don't want linux to be the top dog, but for right now,
> it's
> > > not.
> >
> >
> > And won't be as long as people have that kind of attitude.  Sometimes
> > you just have to do what's right, although it might be painful You're
> > not doing what's right.
> >
> > You're not the only one who could take the 'easy way out' and just use
> > M$ products.  My company has been  moving that direction for a few years
> > now.  I've been fighting it all the way.  I even changed
> > assignments/organizations in order to better position myself to make a
> > difference, be heard on this issue at the corporate level, and most of
> > all, enable myself to continue to work on a non-Microsoft platform.
> >
> > Yeah, there's been a lot of pain.  A lot of time I've spent trying to
> > figure out how to make it work, when I could have just fallen back to
> > the pre-install Windows that once had graced my corporate laptop.
> >
> > Have I made a difference?  I don't know, but there is now a Linux vpn
> > client for our corporate vpn and I'm running my vpn through a little box
> > that is provided by the corporation and is a firewall/router that's
> > running Linux.  I never thought I'd see the day, truly.
> >
> > Don't get me wrong, I still have to fire up vmware/windows to view some
> > word docs, because they aren't properly formatted by anything I've found
> > on Linux.  But, I'm not going to just give in.  I am so much more
> > productive now that I've got a real operating system to work with.  So
> > the initial pain was worth it.
> >
> > If you want to make a difference you've got to do something and not just
> > follow the crowd.  Following the crowd, that's cowardice.  Some folks
> > don't have a choice, so be it.  But, if/when you do, you've got to do
> > the right thing.
> >
> > > So I suppose I'm one of those that are keeping Microsoft on top and
> > > linux trying to catch up. But I'm not the only one. One of the reasons
> why I
> > > am on the MS side is the people who are writing software for Windows.
> >
> >
> > And why would that put you on M$'s side?
> >
> > > I
> > > don't know what the numbers are for Win programmers as opposed to linux
> > > programmers, but I'd be willing to bet it's better than 4 to 1. Maybe
> even
> > > 10 to 1. I don't know.
> > > I'm not out to bash Linux. Hell, I've been a linux
> user/programmer/advocate

HP has a problem known as Carly!

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