>>Probably at the top of your list, eh? :-)
>>
>>Ya, I used the 'I' word. Perhaps 'crook', 'liar', 'cheat', 'thief' and others come to mind. Those are words commonly used to describe a company that has been convicted three times of violating the law, that suspends your civils rights in EULA fine print, that is running a pyrimid scheme with stock options, leaving you the taxpayer to pay the payroll, and is doing their best with some of our worst politicans to make MS the collector of tolls on PCs and the Internet hiways. But, you don't want to hear this stuff. Because the three monkeys play well with you don't expect others to enjoy their company too.
>
>I don't share your views on MS, but unlike some others here, I give you credit for practicing what you preach.

Thanks!

>
>>This sentence is pathic. You are the consumer. Until they get congress to pass laws mandating the use of their products (and they are working on that for the DRM) you have a right and an obligation to complain. If you, the consumer, won't hold them to a standard commensurate with the community welfare, then who will? All that has to be done for evil to win is for good men to do nothing.
>
>Yeah, Jerry, big, bad MS is collaborating with the U.N. to take over the world. People who think MS is that bad should stop their whining and go with another company, rather than continuing to buy their products and complain about them. That is pathetic. If people don't MS, then go somewhere else. But basically, these people should stop whining, especially at Ken Levy.

Ken's a fine fellow, and he's not the problem. He just does what he is told. If you know something about MS and the UN then let us in on it! :-)

>
>>But America IS! EULAs which prevent you from critizing a product for any reason should be illegal. The Declaration declared that certain rights are unalianable. That means you can't be separated from your rights. One of those rights is the 1st Amendment to the Bill of Rights guaranteeing you the tight of free speech. I if buy or license product X and it doesn't live up to the marketing hype or fails to function properly as it should I have the right to tell my experiences to someone else without getting the software developer's permission to do so. That's identical to expecting the Chinese government to grant you permission to critize it.
>
>Where are these EULAs? Do you really think they are enforceable? Do you really see a scenario where someone if going to the Big House because they complained that VFP crashes too much? I will tell you flat out, unequivically: it's not going to happen.

They will try, using the 'copyright' and DMCA....
http://slashdot.org/features/00/05/11/0153247.shtml
http://slashdot.org/features/00/05/13/2038233.shtml


>
>>What are you passionate about Chris? Where will you draw the line on infringements of your liberty and economy?
>
>When they are threatened. By the likes of real terrorists like Al Queda, Hamas, Jerry Falwell, and the People's Front of Judea. Not some Microsoft EULA. That is just totally ridiculous.
>
>>Would you get mad if you went to a Ford dealer to buy a car and found out that they only come with Chevy engines? Would it make you madder if you demanded a Chevy engine in your chevy car but was told by the chevy dealer that you will still have to pay for the Ford engine even if you didn't take it home? Let say you ran a fleet of chevy trucks, but had only one Ford. How would you feel if Ford required you to buy a Ford engine for every chevy truck in your fleet, even though only one was a Ford.? Would it make you made that the Ford engine in your Chevy truck stalled frequently and had to have parts replaced far too often? Would it make you mad that the Ford engine couldn't pull the load that the chevy engine could, but the small print in the lease agreement prevented you from telling anyone about it, or about the fact that the carburator on the Ford engine spontaneously burst into fire? Go to another dealer you say? Can't Ford has a lock on all car dealerships. Everyone
>has
>>to run the Ford engine because Ford got a monoply early in the engine game. If Ford has it's way, no dealership in the world would be able to sell any car except that it came with a Ford engine, even if the buyer purchased another engine and installed it himself.
>>Is that the kind of world you want?
>
>You know what I would do Jerry? I would tell everyone that the Ford engine couldn't pull the load that the Chevy did. And you know what would happen to me? Absolutely nothing. Not a thing. Ford isn't going to sue me, and neither is MS.

Then you would do what I am doing! Glad to hear it.

>
>And it turns out the MS doesn't have a monopoly because everyone has alternatives.
The why are 95% of the new PCs sold with WinXX? Why did Dell have to pull the FreeDOS sidestep, which Microsoft will most certainly find a way to punish?

>Don't like Windows? Go with Linux. Don't like MS Office? Go with StarOffice. Don't like SQL Server? Go with mySQL. Feel like MS is charging your school system too much? Go with someone else. This notion that MS dominates everything is pure fantasy. Oh, I forgot, I am preaching to the choir. You don't use any MS products. See? People really can use computers without Microsoft at all.

With some effort. Mom and Pop and millions of computer illiterates don't have a choice. I had to roll my own box to avoid paying the Microsoft tax. I should have been able to simply purchase a BOX from Dell or any other vendor and then buy the OS I wanted without have to pay for one I didn't want. That is a monoply in action.
JLK