Re: [PhillyOnRails] The last word on all this Microsoft crap...unless somebody has more:-)

[GREG NEELEY <greg_w_neely@yahoo.com>]

Thanks for the feedback on latest MS OS's as
resource hogs.

As a Kansas, and someone who has a vested interest
in this political season to a former Kansan's
intellectual legacy to the country, I want to say
something here about the lack of competition in 
software from a Kansan's viewpoint.

Our first great American to communicate that "iron
triangles" create inferiority was President
Eisenhower, in the late fifties.  "Eisenhower" is
German for "make of iron" ( iron smith ), and,
prophetically, he warned about our industry, and the
dangers of big government and American capitalism.

Ike warned about the "military industrial complex"
in his farewell address as President to the nation:

Triangle 1: Congress, Pentagon, Defense contractors

Of course, Ike was only human, so before he left
office, he went a long way towards creating Triangle
2:

Triangle 2: Big highway, Big Oil, Big Auto

Middle-sized markets, such as Kansas City and
Philadelphia, pay a huge price for triangle 2, because
most of the federal money streaming in to support
this particular nasty little triangle goes to where
the
voters are, in big markets such as NYC, Chicago, and 
Los Angeles.

Relationship to our current situation as software
developers? Extending this concept to IT:

Triangle 3: Proprietary software vendors, hardware
vendors, big business

Ever wonder why Windows 3.1, the first commercially
successful software product with WYSIWIG for the PC,
sold for $49.95, and why Vista is retailing for
almost 200 bucks?  Why should this be the case, when
the added functionality over the last 20 years in
almost every other area of computing, including
hardware, has come with a price DECREASE, not a
four-fold price INCREASE. The answer, of course, is
adoption of proprietary software, such as Windows,
instead of an open model for software has led to
monopolization and lack of competition on the desktop.

Ever heard of the WINTEL alliance?  I give you
hardware
vendors as apex two in this particular nasty little
triangle.  Because the software running on their
devices is not open, who makes the decision as to what
software gets released for the hardware companies to
develop their next-generation product line?  The
latest
example here is the release of Windows Mobile 6.0,
where Microsoft will decide which mobile
telecommunications hardware platform vendor receives
the OS code for subsequent proprietary enhancements by
them, and release.

By the way, the above situation is extremely unpopular
with the U.S. government, including the FCC.  If you
watched the continueing struggle by our government on
this issue, you'll note the auction of roughly 200 MHz
of wireless spectrum in the 700 MHz range is being
regulated by the FCC, and roles out in 2008. 
Requisite to all vendors who obtain license for
devices on these frequencies as that EMS providers
will have priority (fire, ambulance, etc.), and, more
importantly on the hardware front, that rather than
providing proprietary devices to the departments
(leads to five firemen entering a burning building
while sharing one overly expensive $900 radio),
competition will be FORCED to keep prices down,
by insisting that a group of devices that EMS
management picks, and not the wireless companies
alone, will be operable on these frequencies.

Again, we've got into such a mess with this nasty
little triangle, that the FCC has to fight tooth and
nail to get some practical and cost effective devices
out there to Americans who save lives in the field.

Concluding, the only thing I have to say about big
business is that what makes this country work is when
bloated big business gets their asses kicked by a
small company.  Big businesses love clinging to their
old "Macroshaft" crap.  How many big business do you
know
that are still running Windows 98, or W2K on the
desktop, and W2K2000 server?  A ton. This isn't
innovation.  It's big business largess, and
inefficiency, just as old man Rockefeller controlled
40% of the energy production in this country before
the
Feds broke up Standard Oil into the seven sisters.

Somebody needs to write a book on "Trangleitis", and
put a copy on Ike and Mammie's tomb out in Abilene.

Man, was that old man ever right on this one.

Sorry for getting long in the tooth, but when I see
what you people are doing with open software, it
really makes me happy to see that "Philadelphia
Freedom" is alive and well.

"Virginia!  Virginia! Up, men, up! For your wives, for
your land..." - Confederate General Armestead at
Gettysburg.
--- Toby DiPasquale <toby@cbcg.net> wrote:

> On Wed, Aug 29, 2007 at 09:17:49AM -0400, Keith
> Fitzgerald wrote:
> > i have to run vista on a box for work ... i have
> it totally stripped down.
> > no fancy aero [fancy being relative to M$ here],
> only necessary services
> > turned on, etc ... and it boots up with ~800MB ram
> eaten. ms is some voodoo
> > software.
> 
> Try running the fucker in VMware... I initially
> installed with a 10GB
> virtual disk, only to find out that it wasn't enough
> for the god-damn
> install!
> 
> -- 
> Toby DiPasquale
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