Proprietary software--banned in Boston? (News.com) [LWN.net]

Proprietary software--banned in Boston? (News.com)

Posted Oct 1, 2003 0:10 UTC (Wed) by nd (guest, #15578)
In reply to: Proprietary software--banned in Boston? (News.com) by rknop
Parent article: Proprietary software--banned in Boston? (News.com)

It sometimes amazes me how much Microsoft is alike with the Soviet Union.
Huge in size (biggest in the world?), awfully dictatorial, heavily using
propaganda ("FUD"), globally threatful, backward in technologies, closed
so that no one could break away. Whenever somebody does break themselves free, they all the sudden become "un-American cancerous virus" and declared to have a "pacman-like nature", as Billy Gates once described the GPL license. Isn't this astounding?

Yes, the guys in Massathussetts surely made a drastic decision. But maybe this is the only efficient one to withstand Microsoft?

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Proprietary software--banned in Boston? (News.com)

Posted Oct 1, 2003 1:30 UTC (Wed) by huaz (guest, #10168) [Link]

> It sometimes amazes me how much Microsoft is alike with the Soviet Union.
> Huge in size (biggest in the world?), awfully dictatorial, heavily using
> propaganda ("FUD"), globally threatful, backward in technologies, closed
> so that no one could break away.

SU was gone more than one decade ago, and today this is mostly true for US now. It's huge, it heavily uses propaganda (not only to its own people but also the world), it's a global threat to world peace, and it now starts to close its doors.

OT: immigration to or from ?

Posted Oct 1, 2003 6:27 UTC (Wed) by guybar (guest, #798) [Link]

I'm sorry for the OT-ness, but you really got me curious:

nd said:

>> ... [The SU was] closed so that no one could break away.

(my emphasis) then you [huaz] replied:

> ... [the US] now starts to close its doors.

Huaz, what you say here is a harsh allegation, can you back it up ?

AFAIK, the US is making immigration to it harder, not from it.
Either you misspoke, or I misunderstood, or the US laws had REALLY
changed. Any references ? links ?

OT: immigration to or from ?

Posted Oct 1, 2003 20:02 UTC (Wed) by huaz (guest, #10168) [Link]

> Huaz, what you say here is a harsh allegation, can you back it up ?
>
> AFAIK, the US is making immigration to it harder, not from it.
> Either you misspoke, or I misunderstood, or the US laws had REALLY
> changed. Any references ? links ?

I think you already backed me up.

So you call it open when immigration "from" it is OK, while "to" it is not? In my dictionary a door opens both ways.

Or you are just talking about one-way doors?

Sorry, I didn't mean to raise a political flame here.

OT: immigration to or from ?

Posted Oct 1, 2003 21:53 UTC (Wed) by piman (subscriber, #8957) [Link]

There's no such thing as "immigration from". It's called "emigration".