Category: Computers, Science & Technology

What is “the Windows Tax?” Well, evil Microsoft has an agreement with every PC maker saying that they WILL install Windows on every PC sold. So, what if you are buying a PC to install Linux on it? Well, you still have to pay Microsoft’s evil “Windows Tax” and you end up owning a copy of Windows whether you want it or not! So, what if you went to the trouble to PROVE that you didn’t use Windows and demanded the “tax” be returned to you? Well… guess what? A guy in England actually did it!

Dell customer gets Windows refund

“Dell today gave freelance programmer and sysadmin Dave Mitchell, of Sheffield, UK, a refund of 47 pounds ($89) for the unused copy of Microsoft Windows XP Home SP2 bundled with his new Dell Inspiron 640m laptop, Mitchell says. Dell also refunded the tax, for a total of £55.23 ($105).”

Wow! What if we all did this? I suspect the numbers for Windows sales would go down, and the installed base of Linux would go up from a statistical point of view!

And what does Microsoft get? Good question. They deal is supposed to make Microsoft technology work better with Linux. Microsoft says that it is doing this based on their own customer’s demand. Check this out:

Microsoft Paying Novell $348 Million in Linux Deal

“SEATTLE — Software maker Novell Corp. (NOVL) said on Tuesday Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) will make two separate up-front payments totaling $348 million to the company under an agreement to allow Novell’s open-source Linux software to work with Windows. Microsoft will pay Novell $240 million up front in subscription fees to allow the world’s largest software maker to use its Linux software. Microsoft will pay an additional $108 million up-front for use of patents, Novell said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.”

$348 MILLION! It does make you think. What is Microsoft up to? Linux itself is free and Open Source. SuSE Linux is just one company’s version based on free source code. Things to make you go, “Hummmmmm.”

Bat-tang! Take that Microsoft!

IBM Linux Commercial

Remember the series of IBM commercials for Linux where “Linux” was metaphorically a little kid? Well, I didn’t see this one at the time… but check out this video. It rocks!

Wow! (Tongue firmly in cheek.) Microsoft Office 2007 has finally been sent to manufacturing! And, it is expected to cost “eleven-dy billion dollars!” And, it is so bloated that you have to have a super computer to run it! OK, I jest… but not by much!

Office 2007 Goes Gold

Honestly, I use OpenOffice. It is FREE! And, it does everything I need in an “Office Suite.” Yeeesh.

OpenOffice.org

The FCC has endorsed BPL (Broadband over Power Lines) as a new method of delivering network connectivity. At least this way, some folks I know that live WAY out in the “boonies” can finally get high speed Internet!

FCC Endorses Broadband over Powerline

“The Federal Communications Commission on Friday gave a big boost to Broadband over Powerline (BPL), classifying the technology as an ‘information service.’ The declaration places BPL-enabled access services on equal footing with cable modem and DSL Internet access services. The FCC has campaigned for BPL approval for years, although ham radio operators have long complained that BPL would interfere with its service. By ruling BPL service’s transmission component is ‘telecommunications,’ and an ‘information service,’ BPL will find it easier to deploy beyond the handful of networks that are currently scattered around the country, mostly in the Northeast. ‘The Commission’s broadband statistics show that subscribers to BPL Internet access services, although few in number overall, increased by nearly 200 percent in 2005,’ said FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, who has been a supporter of the technology. ‘By finding that BPL Internet access services are information services, the Commission provides the regulatory certainty necessary to foster competition between different broadband platform providers.'”

Yike! That headline says it all!

Microsoft to Promote Linux: The Details

Steve Ballmer (of all people!) said in yesterday’s press conference: “Two things, I’ll make it real simple: Number one, [Novell and Microsoft] are going to work together technically to help the Windows world and the Linux world interoperate. Number two, we’ve struck a deal under which we can provide patent agreements to Linux customers, in which Microsoft’s intellectual property is respected, and we are appropriately compensated for the use of our intellectual property; and we’ve done both of those things in a way that we think still allows the open source development community to actively pursue what it has been doing on behalf of everybody for the last several years.”

Scott Redmon, our Guilford County Webmaster, and super graphics dewd, has contributed a Thanksgiving season header to the Blog! Thanks, Scott!

OK… you know your Doctor. I am NOT a big M$ fan. However, I gotta give M$ a few props. Microsoft Windows Media Player 11 has some nice features… oh, by the way, it is now officially out.

Microsoft Windows Media Player 11

It is a free download. It will upgrade your library and playlists from older versions. The default skin is cooler, but you can also download all kinds of other skins, visualizations, etc. So… OK… it is pretty cool. Worth a download!

OpenBSD is a very tight, secure “unix-like” operating system. If you want a solid, secure server operating system, check out OpenBSD!

OpenBSD 4.0 Released!

Version 4.0 has improved hardware support, OpenRCS, OpenSSH 4.4, greatly improved IPSec and many other fixes and enhancements.

RSS is “Really Simple Syndication” and is the basis of most Blogs, Podcasts, and what has come to be called “New Media” on the web. If you have ever looked at the XML code of a raw RSS feed (such as you saw under old web browsers) it was BORING! Now, it looks cool! Check out what it looks like under Internet Explorer 7.0:

Now, check it out under Mozilla Firefox 2.0:

Firefox wins! It has the cool “Dr. Bill” cartoon, and more details… so, once again, Open Source rocks! Ha! The feed to see, by the way is:

Subscribe to Our Video Feed:
https://www.DrBill.TV/category/dr-bill-netcasts/feed/

Subscribe to Our Audio Feed:
https://www.DrBill.TV/category/dr-bill-audio/feed/

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