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| Proverbs, aphorisms, quotations (English) |
by Linux fortune |
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Microsoft ActivePromo Campaign: "Windows Competitive Upgrade Offer"
Microsoft's PR masterminds are planning a massive marketing campaign,
code-named "ActivePromo 2000", to promote the upcoming release of Windows
2000 (scheduled for February 2001). This marketing campaign will include a
"Windows Competitive Upgrade Offer" promotion.
Users of non-Microsoft operating systems (Linux in particular) will be given
the opportunity to trade-in their present OS for a free copy of Windows 98
(or NT 4.0) and Office 97. People (all three of them) who want to
participate in this program will have to:
1. Mail their operating system's floppy disks or CD-ROMs to Microsoft
2. Agree to a two year contract with the Microsoft Network.
3. Agree (in writing) to the Competitive Upgrade License Agreement; one of
the terms of which is that the user may not install, copy, or otherwise use
a non-Microsoft OS for five years.
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The War Against Linux
A significant obstacle on the path to Linux World Domination has emerged. A
reactionary grass-roots movement has formed to fight, as they call it, "The
War Against Linux". This movement, code-named "LinSux", is composed of
people (mostly Microsoft stockholders and commercial software developers)
who want to maintain the status quo. They are fighting back against the
rise of Linux and free software which they see as a threat to their financial
independence.
The most damaging attack the LinSux folks have launched is "Three Mile
Island", a Windows macro virus designed to inflict damage on computers that
contain a partition devoted to a non-Microsoft OS. When the victim computer
is booted into Windows, the virus activates and deletes any non-Microsoft
partitions. Ironically, the many security flaws in Windows allow the virus
to damage alternative operating systems but leave Windows unscathed.
"The War Against Linux" has also been fought in more subtle ways.
Time-tested methods of Linux advocacy have been turned into subtle forms of
anti-Linux advocacy by the LinSux crowd. MSCEs are smuggling NT boxes into
companies that predominantly use Linux or Unix. LinSux "freedom fighters"
are rearranging books and software boxes on store shelves so that Microsoft
offerings are displayed more prominently.
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I used to be interested in Windows NT, but the more I see of it the more
it looks like traditional Windows with a stabler kernel. I don't find
anything technically interesting there. In my opinion MS is a lot better
at making money than it is at making good operating systems.
-- Linus Torvalds
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"In a way they were right the basics of operating systems, and by extension the Linux kernel, were well understood by the early 70s; anything after that has been to some degree an exercise in self-gratification."
-- Linus Torvalds (Open Sources, 1999 O'Reilly and Associates)
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Operating Systems Installed:
* Debian GNU/Linux 2.1 4 CD Set ($20 from www.chguy.net; price includes
taxes, shipping, and a $3 donation to FSF). 2 CDs are binaries, 2 CDs
complete source code;
* Windows 98 Second Edition Upgrade Version ($136 through Megadepot.com,
price does not include taxes/shipping). Surprisingly, no source code
is included.
-- Bill Stilwell, http://linuxtoday.com/stories/8794.html
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Overall, the philosophy is to attack the availability problem from two
complementary directions: to reduce the number of software errors through
rigorous testing of running systems, and to reduce the effect of the remaining
errors by providing for recovery from them. An interesting footnote to this
design is that now a system failure can usually be considered to be the
result of two program errors: the first, in the program that started the
problem; the second, in the recovery routine that could not protect the
system.
-- A.L. Scherr, "Functional Structure of IBM Virtual Storage
Operating Systems, Part II: OS/VS-2 Concepts and
Philosophies," IBM Systems Journal, Vol. 12, No. 4.
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It is important to note that probably no large operating system using current
design technology can withstand a determined and well-coordinated attack,
and that most such documented penetrations have been remarkably easy.
-- B. Hebbard, "A Penetration Analysis of the Michigan Terminal System",
Operating Systems Review, Vol. 14, No. 1, June 1980, pp. 7-20
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No guarantee of accuracy or completeness!
©TU Chemnitz, 2006-2013 |
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