Varied Technology Links (only a little zen)
October 19th, 2006 | Published in Intellectual Property, Open Source, Operating Systems, Software, Web2.0 | 2 Comments
- For you Windows types, IE 7 is out, and they found a vulerability 24 hours after release.
- Also, for you Windows types, here is a plain english interpretation of the Windows Vista EULA (End User License Agreement.) How about this one: "You may not work around any technical limitations in the software." What else is it that us geeks do? You can’t play mpeg-4 videos except under extremely limited conditions, and if you upgrade your computer more than once, you’ll have to pay. So if you are a hardware geek, expect to pay MS every other time you get a new motherboard. And since they seem to upgrade their OS every 6 years or so … I have a suggestion. Get Ubuntu, and have done already. Notice, I didn’t say "get a mac". You could, and still be better off. Apple’s OS is, of course proprietary, and Apple’s EULA is a little less evil. And, you can run any windows software you want on it, at either native speed, or a bit slower in emulation. But you’d still have to buy Windows. So you’d still have the same problem. But if you really want to have done with stuff like this, get Ubuntu. It’s the best flavor of Linux out there right now in terms of ease of use. (Some think that Microsoft is abandoning power users.)
- A company going in the other direction: Eudora is going open source (no, they are not open sourcing old Eudora code, they are changing direction to use Mozilla Thunderbird as the underlying technology.)
- There is a new site, called "Campus Reader" which aggregates feeds from college news sources. I like it. A lot. Anyone for "Nonprofit Reader"?
- Yahoo and Microsoft have Google Envy. Is this news?
October 25th, 2006 at 9:13 pm (#)
>> if you upgrade your computer more than once, you’ll have to pay. So if you are a hardware geek, expect to pay MS every other time you get a new motherboard <<
Is this referring to activation? If so, this is FUD. I have used the same CD key to reinstall a single copy of XP multiple times through 3 successive complete machine replacements. As long as you don’t use the same key to activate multiple Windows copies in a single short period of time (read: post the key on Usenet), my experience is that activation has been pretty nonintrusive.
October 26th, 2006 at 7:26 am (#)
I don’t think this is FUD, from what I read. My understanding is that Vista is supposed to be different than XP - a lot more limited and locked down than XP has been (which was a lot more limited and locked down than 2000 …)
I haven’t read the EULA itself - but here is the relevant quote: “The first user of the software may reassign the license to another device one time.” This sounds quite different than the activation issue.