Once a scoundrel ...

[Dan]

... always prone to skulduggery.

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2012/...ntcmp=features

[DBelton]

And in other news.. (linked to from the above article)

http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/...om-your-butts/

Butt (sic) Microsoft has been trying for years to lock other browsers out of Windows, and they get caught and forced to allow them. I wonder how this new move is going to go over in the EU, where Microsoft got slapped down last time they tried this?

[kona0197]

I'm confused. You all say MS is evil for their business practices and doing stuff like this yet Apple gets away with much the same behavior yet we don't discuss that?

[Dan]

Who said anything about Apple getting a pass on anything? <....>

Go back and look around a bit, Terry. Lock-in is one of the most frequently heard complaints about Apple as well.

In fact ... you don't have to go too far back in the archives. http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=279664 <....>

[dd_wizard]

Speaking of lock-in...

What is Nvidia going to do in the GPGPU market? The new Intel MIC accelerator card (google Intel Knight's Corner) does 1TF double-precision using a linux OS. No more proprietary drivers for HPC machines!

dd_wizard

[Evil_Bert]

Microsoft. They're like weeds. No matter how much you try, and how pleased you might be with some seasonal minor victory, you just know they're going to be back next year in some different patch but with the same noxious infestation.

I say we take off and nuke them from space. It's the only way to be sure.

[smr54]

Well, it is Fox news. Is there any other confirmation?

For those not in the US, many of us don't consider Fox to be a valid news source.

[ElderSnake]

Not surprised in the slightest if it's true.

They have no regard for competition or freedom of choice whatsoever. Still even if it goes ahead like this they will either get legally king hit in their metaphorical faces and made to play nice or some clever buggers will develop work arounds, at least.

[stevea]

Yes - I reserve 92% of my ire for M$, 6% of Apple and the remainder goes to Gnome.

Not so sure you can't eradicate or at least check those weeds Bert. You just need to find/create/introduce aggressive competition for their prime resource. M$ lost the smartphone market on competition and there is no reason to think a their tablet offerings won't be as tasteless, and clunky as their other offerings. Yes they have market muscle and money. Yes they have a bag of IP patents they use to leech off of real inventions. But they have met a Waterloo in court in the US and Europe recently, and their IP has little value in China and a minor amount in India.

The history of big companies in the US is that most grow big, ossify and fail when they can't change course. A good example of an exception is IBM that has re-invent itself several times. I expect Google is a survivor as they are willing to innovate and change. M$ is a well ossified juggernaut that can do damage to whomever is in their path - but can't change path if their survival depended on it.

M$ may still dominate the desktop in 10yrs, but I'll wager it's a "who cares" issue to most end users by then.

[BBQdave]

Originally Posted by Dan

Who said anything about Apple getting a pass on anything? <....>

Go back and look around a bit, Terry. Lock-in is one of the most frequently heard complaints about Apple as well.

Absolutely agree! If anything (coming from a Mac world), I believe Apple is worse than Microsoft. They trotted out osX under the Open Software flag and bragged about Unix hardness, only to completely abandon their base and lock down the Mac. The latest is the removal of CUPS from osX, to be replaced with an apple proprietary software print mechanism. I mean crApple completely sold out it's base

At least with Windows you know what you are in for, they make no bones about it.

And I know this is negative energy and all... but I am happy to move on with my legacy eMac as a file server and everything else GNU/Linux, and I look forward to the day people toss their iHave's in the dump along with all the other shiny chewables of the past-day