h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

You make a lot of good points, and I am very happy to see a nice intelligent conversation in h2g2.com. I am used to fights involving monkey's and spaceships instead of anti-trust laws. I suppose I agree on several levels that if the other companies had a greater market share we might see MS producing more features. I've heard that the chance of breakup is only about 10%, so I hope that is true. Part of what makes me not want to see too much done to microsoft is the fact that many laws were made so long ago. The anti-trust laws were designed to stop oil tycoons and huge brick and mortar style companies. While many parts still apply I wonder if they need to be modernized.
It reminds me of the recent anger over the patent system. People can patent a business method but now in the internet age that can mean a lot. There are websites devoted to destroying amazon.com because it patented 1-click ordering. Ofcourse I suppose the laws can't be rewritten until we see how they work as is so maybe this case will lead to reform in some parts. I have a feeling that by the time this case is resolved this conversation will have been dead for years.

(Sorry about the fractured paragraphs. The sentences don't seem to sound right next to eachother)
P.S. I respect all your opinions.

That's an interesting point in fact. Particularly about the patent system. I'm afraid that's a little out of whack. Even Amazon admits it, saying they'd be happy to have some new form of Net-age patent that is good for only 2 or 3 years or something, I forget what the actual proposal is. Priceline is another one that's gotten some form of business practice patent and trying to enforce it. I dunno if there should in fact be any protection at all for these sorts of things. At the very least the time period should be adjusted as suggested.

The anti-trust laws are old as well, as you say, and these may need revisited. Part of the real problem is not even necessarily the laws, in my opinion, but the speed in which this kind of process happens. The business of computer stuff changes too quickly for the courts to be taking 2 years to decide such things. That criticism I agree with. About the rest, though, it's very hard. I can't shake the idea that it seems rather clear that Microsoft used its position to threaten other companies into being compliant. But in fact on that point they are apparently not pressing Microsoft. Anyway, it doesn't look like the remedies they will seek have anything to do with the lack of competition in the OS market. All the findings of law seem to be about the browser and application markets. (The one part about exclusionary contracts actually was found in favor of Microsoft, that they didn't violate any laws there.)

AHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!! MUST DESTROY MS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I will be back to my old self in a hour or so but right now I am going nutz trying to install IE 5.01
I finally decided to update to 5.01 and then when the update program reached 6553 kb it just stopped receiving more data. There was no error message, it just sat there. So I hit cancel after 7 minutes and then resumed setup which made it start back at 2,300 kb. It finally gets back up to where it was before and stops receiving anymore information at ... you guessed it ... 6553 kb. Then I tried navigating the ms support site and after tearing apart a piece of my desk and eating a shoe I realized that was pointless. So I am trying again and if it doesn't work, then AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What really pisses me off is the fact that you can't uninstall IE from Win95 OSR 2. When I thought I had uninstalled it properly, I clicked on a URL in ICQ, and the damned thing opened up in IE!! I wanted to throw my computer across the room. Why is it still on my hard drive, taking up space that a useful or well-designed program could be occupying?! Gates must die!!! Someone has to pay, and it might as well be him.

Well the download failed 4 times. Anyway, relax a little. That is an old windows system and it is not as bound to IE as windows 98. But you know you can set different programs to be the default web browser. For some reason I can't find out how to make netscape default because it is too hard to find, but I know it is there and if you make a different program the default then when you click a link it will automatically use that program and won't launch IE. I am ofcourse still pissed at MS because the install I was using didn't work but I don't think mr. Gates needs to die. I just watched his biography in fact on A&E and if you look at most old photos of him you might actually feel sorry for such a, well, nerd. His picture should be next to the dictionary entry for that word. The documentry showed many pictures of him when he was in his early twenties and running the company and he looks smaller than most 12 year olds.
So just remember when you fume at him that your 5 year old cousin could probably kick his #^@ and he knows it.

Oh yeah. I still can't believe they put out a sort of "feel-good" commercial with just him in it talking. He may look like the prototypical nerd, but even with a prepared speech he seems to come off like an arrogant ass much of the time.

As an aside, my IE 5.0 Mac edition installation was flawless. Been running well for neary 2 weeks now.

I am upset that I keep having this error installing. Ofcourse IE 5.5 is just around the corner (or maybe it is several months, hmmm). I think some of the problems with that commercial is that it is just him talking, and while he doesn't sound evil or anything, no one can really be made to feel happy about MS because of the ad. And part of the problem is pure and simple: THAT MISERABLE NERD HAS 70 BILLION DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!! HE HAS 70 FR#%KEN BILLION DOLLARS!!!!! I MEAN, THAT IS 70,000 MILLIONS OF DOLLARS!!!! AND 70,000,000 THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS!!!!!!! AND IT IS 7,000,000,000 HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS!!!!!!!!!!

I mean, it is hard to like someone like that.

Netscape is my default browser in windows, in the registry. The problem is that some programs don't utilize the registry (probably because they're designed to work under many different OS's) so they go looking for IE. Since you cannot rid yourself of IE, it will load. IE is a rash in my system, and there is no soothing cream to make the pain go away.

Hmmm, you can probably change what some of those programs use for the net. Check under the options menu. If you can then it may make you browse for the netscape launch file. I never thought I would have such a long conversation from that weird befuddled beginning. And are several of you in North America because usually I don't get replies at the same time I am on.

North American working the graveyard shift here.

I've poked around in the systems settings for ICQ, but never seen one for default browser. It's rare that I have my internet connection going without my browser open anyway, so now i just copy it into the nav bar.

Hmmm, people always end up having to do stuff like that. When I used to use aol on my old computer the windows registry got screwed up so aol kept trying to use a proxy and I never used the net inside aol on that computer again. It was really annoying.

About the whole uninstalling thing, I'm not sure why it's so difficult to get rid of Explorer. Just do a search for it (or simply look in your Applications or Internet folder). And when you find the program (and it's bits) throw it away. Or does Windows have some creepy security system that doesn't let you do that?

Windows marks those files and folders as system folders, and will not allow you to change that attribute. The only way to delete them is to identify them, then reboot straight to DOS (going to a DOS session from Winbloze won't allow you to change the attribute) and remove the system attribute on all those folders, and deltree them. But the fact that this elaborate scheme is even necessary is absolutely disgusting.

Well I think I know why you did an uninstall and still found it there. I remember that on my old computer the IE5 was screwed up so I decided to uninstall then reinstall. However, after I uninstalled the original version of IE (3 I believe) was there in its place. I am guessing that since windows has been joined at the hip with IE (Especially in windows 98 which uses it for folders, personally I kinda like the folder system because it creates less clutter). If I were you I would not risk screwing up windows and if you really hate the program then just don't use it.

Just wanted to see if i could resurect an old thread.

Yikes!!! I had forgotten about this conversation. Quite a bit has happened in the case since the last post was made. The judge has accepted the DOJ's reccomendation that MS be broken in two, and the impending appeal is still waiting. At the end of the summer the Supreme Court will decide if it will hear the case or if it will go down to the regular appeals court. Most expert opinions I read said that the Supreme Court hates going through huge court records in cases like this and that they will most likely send it down to the Appeals court. Then they can just judge the appeals courts rulings instead of the entire case. I am still rooting for MS to get off with only restrictions. Mainly restrictions that say that they can't force computer companies to not bundle competitive software. Unfortunately, that issue brings up problems. Even if a restriction like that was placed, MS software would still probably win the bundled spot over the competition because the computer vendors would save money by buying the other software and the OS in one big load. So other companies might still cry foul.

And another issue I was just thinking about. MS started some organizations to promote its beliefs on the anti-trust situation. So ORACLE CEO Ellison decided to start his own organizations to dig up dirt on MS and had a company attempt to buy trash from workers at these MS funded organizations. I wouldn't have picked sides in this specific situation, if Ellison hadn't made me so mad with a hypocritical statement he made. He said that it was wrong for MS to start organizations and call them independent, yet Oracle continually claimed that the foundation that hired the detective agency was independent until Ellison admitted that they were hired by Oracle. That is silly hypocrisy. He just really bugged me with that. I wonder if this post will actually be re-energized?

when I suggested that the hatred of bill gates may stem from his success and that I realy don't have anything against him or microsoft I use Linux because I want to and can run a number of windows apps through WINE or I can use the pirated copy of win2k that share the disk.

(Point made earlier by me)One thing that bugs me about the break-up is that the D.O.J. claims that the seperate Applications company created by the MS breakup would produce software suites like MS office for Linux. However, MS sells it suites for lots and lots of money, and most Linux users are very much used to either free or low cost software suites. Which is part of the appeal of linux. Also, while not all linux users hate MS most Linux users who post their opinions on the net seem to have a very negative stance towards MS and would never buy the product. Also, many of MS office's sales come from bundling with PC's and a linux version can't do that because big companies don't sell computers with linux installed. And they won't start doing that until big programs that make windows useful come to linux and big programs won't come unless they do it.

There was a point in there somewhere but I lost it.

Well MS have been making Mac versions of office for years, but then the mac user group are the kind of people who will pay ridiculous ammounts of money for anything ( they bought the Mac didn't they ).

If Microsoft do decide to build apps for Linux then they will be automatiacaly gunned down for jumping on the bandwagon, they can't win.

I am a die-hard Mac person who bought a version of Microsoft Word because EVERYBODY USES IT. Other than that, I have no use for Gates or his horrendous business practices. I mean, come on. The man has enough money for his great-great grand-children to still be millionaires. That is, if anyone could stand to start a lineage with him.

So if he has so much money, why does he need to stop competitors and try to make himself richer? Just let the little guys in...competition breeds good ideas...and then new materials and better materials can be made (if the patent laws provide ).

And the version of Word that I had to resort to buying was made (or released) in '98. So it's not like they keep very up to date on Mac software. -