[Asterisk-Users] US$200 bounty for * paging feature

[Walt Reed]

On Tue, Apr 19, 2005 at 06:24:09PM -0700, trixter http://www.0xdecafbad.com said:
> as a whole.  I enjoy cheap computers, if it were not for microsoft
> creating windows, making computers easier to use for everyone, the mass
> production and highly competitive hardware market would not exist.  If
> that didnt happen the $300 computer of today would likely not exist, and
> if it did it would cost more like computers did 20 years ago, $2000+ for
> a bare system.

<rantmode>

Um, that's total bullshit. Low computer prices and "ease of use" would have
existed if MS was never around. You completely dismiss billions of man
hours of hard work by those outside MS making advances in hardware and
software around the world. To make a statement like that, you show a
total lack of knowledge of the industry. 

> I have worked for over 10 years in the software development industry and

Then you entered the industry far too late to know the real history of
computing, have read too many MS revisionist history books, or were
hiding under a rock.

For example, The Amiga for example had a wonderful OS, great
multi-tasking, awesome windowing interface etc. over 10 years before MS
(some would argue longer.) Comodore didn't have a chance against the
mighty combo of IBM, MS, Compaq. and other x86 hardware and software
vendors in the business world (the Amiga was originally designed as a
game machine and could never escape the stigma AND had the same
bone-headed single hardware source issue that Apple has. Poor management
/ marketing also contributed to the companies death.) (Speaking of
Apple, it boggles the mind that it took them over 15 years to add
multi-tasking to their product line - and yes, I am dismissing their
prior failed unix attempt.)

MS has no effective competition due to their illegal business practices,
killing off alternatives (BeOS is a recent example) by pressuring large ISV's
to only write for the Windows OS, restrictive contracts with hardware
vendors, and other sleezy tactics. They effectivly killed Java on the
desktop. They continue with a powerful FUD campaign against Linux, 
Apple, Firefox, etc. I could go on, and on, and on.

In my opinion, MS has held the world of computing back about 15 years
(unless you think that having the worst security model / track record in
computing history, and proprietary interfaces and file formats with no
publicly available documentation is a good thing.) Unfortunately the
reality of business means that we have to deal with this horrible
corporation and their aweful software. MS and their single platform (for
servers and desktop anyway) means that we are still saddled with the
horrible x86 architecture, the interrupt structure, bus, bios, etc.
(essentially most everything about a PC.) By the way, that architecture
is why it's so hard to make reliable hardware, why we need an external
card to get a reliable timer device, etc.

Before you spout off about how great MS has been to the industry, maybe
you should learn a little about that industry and it's history first,
M-kay?

</rantmode>