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Thread ID: 17689	2002-04-09 16:35:00	New Zealand complaint targets Microsoft	Guest (0)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
42883	2002-04-09 16:35:00	Sorry you will have to pop off to zdnet.com.com	Guest (0)
42884	2002-04-09 19:47:00	Click over to Computerworld from here, it's there. Or follow this (if you can, it's big). www.computerworld.co.nz I should read the whole thing myself. robo.	Guest (0)
42885	2002-04-09 19:50:00	It is a bit wordy, but to me the thing is simple: Up until now, when you bought the software you thought you were buying the right to buy upgrades when you see fit. From July 2002, you lose that right unless you start paying. Isn't that a unilateral change in the terms of the contract? robo.	Guest (0)
42886	2002-04-09 19:53:00	Oh, and another thing: Does this mean that under the software assurance regime that the vendor will be releasing new versions MORE often? If not, you might not get anything for your two year contract. But is that what anyone wants? Major upgrades every two years? robo.	Guest (0)
42887	2002-04-09 20:06:00	Linux just stepped up another notch. Three cheers for microsquish. 'Is editing on unix really vi-able?'	Guest (0)
42888	2002-04-09 22:34:00	Being an IT Manager myself in a reasonable large company, the option available to me is simple. 1. All MS software will be purchased as fixed term asset for four years. There will be no s/w upgrade during that period other than service packs. This will be in-line with hardware replacement schedule which is also every four years. 2. At the end of four years whenever the hardware are replaced, we will purchase new MS license as well. (Lets see MS cope with that cash flow :P ) 3. Investigate replacing the company's desktop software with Linux based systems. The sad thing is I spent my last 10 years championing MS. At every company I've worked for I've migrated all PCs to Windows desktops and servers, changed all databases to SQL Servers, migrated Lotus Notes to Exchange. At the end of 2001 my principle changed. Now all I think about is how to stick it back to MS as much as possible and the easiest way was to communicate my strategic direction to move away from MS to all my peers in IT management roles. What have I done in 2002 so far? I've cancelled our project to migrate our Oracle database to MS SQL Server. In its place we'll investigate Linux and Star Office to see if it is a serious contender to MS.	Guest (0)
42889	2002-04-09 23:18:00	Seems to be just another way Microsoft is forcing otherwise legitimate users into the underground, and making them get illegitimate copies of stuff through p2p sites like kazaa and morpheus, etc. When you start making things too hard (and expensive) for people, they look for other options. For the general public, Linux is still not a real option. Downloading upgrades and patches (illegally???) from kazaa etc, is. Looking at this from two angles - The Consumer, and the Business: Firstly the consumer: Think about it. How many times have you looked at new games in a shop, but with the $100 price tag just walked away? Easier to download it - albeit it takes time. If it was $50, you wouldn't hesitate. For a legitimate copy with the nice shiny manual, etc, you'd grab it in an instant. The manufacturer would make far more money selling twice as many at a cheaper price than they do selling half as many at a bloody ludicrous price! And software piracy wouldn't be such a big problem. It's money hungry idiots like microsoft that force prices up more and more and more, making it just out of the average guys price-range - forcing them use kazaa and morpheus. Microsoft continues to invent new ways to screw the consumer - And the consumer finds new ways to fight back. If they continue down this road, people will still get free upgrades, it will just be through cracked versions offered on other sites on the net. Once again Microsoft will lose in the long run, and look for another way to screw you. Businesses are different, I guess, where you must do everything by-the-book to prevent a law-suit. And this would no doubt be where Microsoft would make the biggest income. Billions of commercial users needing to keep up-to-date to stay in the race with competitiors. Joe average consumer can live with a slightly inferior system, cause his living doesn't depend on it. And with businesses needing to be compatible with each other, microsoft's market share continues to grow. Not sure what the business user can do about it, but for the consumer - Microsoft complains about software piracy - In my eyes, it's ideas like this that are causing it - Lets watch them dig their own graves.	Guest (0)
42890	2002-04-10 00:50:00	I had a dream last night. Every PC user on the planet cried 'enough'. They refused to buy a PC bundled with XP. They said 'Office 97 works nicely, thank you'. Their lives were simpler, their systems ran like absolute rockets running Win98 and NT4 with Office 97 on Pentium IV 2GHz boxes with 256Mb ram. Then, they had all this spare money than they spent on reducing their debt, providing for their retirement, and helping the third world. At the same time, there were a lot of redundancies at a few big software companies and jobless staff burned effigies of the guys who thought that maintenance licensing would be a pretty neat idea.	Guest (0)
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