Coward.

THat is irrelevant. What is relevant is your contention is that I and others are not freedom loving because I FREELY choose to use the software that works to me that happens not to be FOSS.

Quit changing the subject Pog and address what I am saying!

“Of course, M$ and “partners” are the real parasites, charging far above the cost of production for information, software. ”

Utter baloney. Commercial software vendors ( OF whom Microsoft and its ISV are only one part) license products for anyone’s use. That license is for a fee and comes with terms. Terms that one is FREE to accept or reject as one sees fit.

Of course if you reject the terms and are unable to negotiate terms more to your liking, you don’t get to use the product. If you do agree to the terms, you only get to use what you licensed under the terms you agreed to.

But in either case it is you choice. No one is twisting you arm or mine.

“The world does not owe the parasite, M$, a living and can make its own software and share it freely.”

The world does not owe Robert Pogson free software either. In a freedom loving society anyone who creates software has the right to set the terms of use for their software. and If those terms require a fee and/or come with restrictions, that is the right of the creator. You as the potential user have only two options, accept the terms and use the software, or reject the terms and forgo use of the software.

Period.

Robert Pogson, you have been blessed by a community of like minded people with a license for free use of their collective work. But just because you have been blessed with that gift does not mean that you are entitled to all software under the same terms.

“M$ could make a healthy living selling its licences for $20 instead of $50+ and they could make the world a better place by distributing for $0 Debian GNU/Linux to people who cannot afford M$’s usual fees.”

If you wish to donate your resources, that is your right. You have ZERO right to insist that others do the same.

IMHO That is not freedom loving at all.

Because a computer serving 20 clients is, uhm, a server? And no, with 21 machines I wouldn’t want to go peer-to-peer, thank you.

Why should anyone have to buy a server and pay for a server OS just to connect 21 machines together? That is asinine and shows a willingness to be a slave to M$.

So they should have stayed with Win9x? After all, it was much less complex than NT (or Linux, for that matter). BTW:
http://www.joelonsoftware.com/articles/fog0000000020.html

No problem: Install Windows Server on one machine and add the 20 clients.

“Give a copy to a friend?”

No problem, and then he could try it for 30 days – if Windows wasn’t already on his PC, which is very unlikely.

“Publish a benchmark of it?”

Benchmarks are published all the time, and AFAIK only Oracle seems to have a problem with that.

“Change any of the code?”

You can’t change the code of the OS you’re using, either, so what’s the point?

Nope. FLOSS is a cooperative project of the world and we can do what we want with our hardware up to its limitations not some EULA’s limitations designed to prop up monopoly.

Using FLOSS is not about abusing others’ work. The creators of FLOSS use GPL and other FLOSS licences because they want to share that work. It’s not abuse to accept the offer.

Of course, M$ and “partners” are the real parasites, charging far above the cost of production for information, software. M$ could make a healthy living selling its licences for $20 instead of $50+ and they could make the world a better place by distributing for $0 Debian GNU/Linux to people who cannot afford M$’s usual fees. M$ could also make much less complex software which would meet the needs of users rather than M$’s self-interest. Instead, they coerce the world into using bloatware full of vulnerabilities, restrictive EULAs and excluding competitive OS options like GNU/Linux. The world does not owe the parasite, M$, a living and can make its own software and share it freely.

Its a desktop OS that I am licensing Pog? What part of this don’t you get?

“Publish a benchmark of it?”

Why should I want to?

“Change any of the code?”

We have been down this road time and time again Robert Pogson. I have 10x the experience that you have with writing and maintaining code, and I wouldn’t dream of touching anything as complicated as Windows even if I did have the source code. ANd trading proven function and feature of closed source software that already works for me just so that I can gat access to source code when all I want to do is actually USE the software to get my work done is the ultimate in stupidity.

But I’ll tell you what Pog. When you actually decide to learn C or C++ and actually start sitting down and hacking at that wondrous source code you think is so precious AND you actually begin to get experience in maintaining your custom Mods, then IMHO you will have a right to talk about source code access!

“Nope. EULA forbids stuff freedom loving people take for granted.”

No Pog, freedom loving people cherish the freedoms outlined in the real four freedoms. Freedom loving people don’t get their knickers in a knot because of the terms of a license for the use of SOMEONE ELSE’S PROPERTY don’t allow them to misuse it.

Freedom loving people exercise their freedom to not agree to the terms of the license and not use the product and respect the rights of other freedom loving people to exercise THEIR rights to agree to the license terms and then get on with the bushiness at hand.

IMHO that is what freedom loving people do.

Only parasites think that they can do what they please with someone else s property. Only parasites get upset because they can’t use a personal desktop OS as a server class OS.

As I said a total load of crap!

Sure you can run applications but can you connect 21 machines together to share files in a lab without violating the EULA? Give a copy to a friend? Publish a benchmark of it? Change any of the code? Nope. EULA forbids stuff freedom loving people take for granted.

Haters of freedom?

What a total unwashed load of crap!!! I wish to be free to use what works for me. I do give a rats patootie what you think freedom is. IMHO you would not know what true freedom of IT is!.

I would love to sit you down in front fo my personal desktop, demonstrate what I can do with it, and then have you tell me to my face that you think I hate freedom.

Jerk!