MESSAGE
| DATE | 2003-11-13 |
| FROM | From: "Ray C."
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [hangout] MSN, Google & Linux
|
http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=12603
Letter of the day
By The Letterman: Tuesday 11 November 2003, 10:28
Subject: Imagine Life Without Google
Mike;
Microsoft really, really wants Google. It wants Google for one reason,
namely, to strip it naked and to castrate it. Microsoft wants to put an end
to people being able to use the power of Google, especially as to the way
that we all can use Google as a tool which makes the Internet particularly
useful in helping us all to get through our days without depending on
Microsoft.
Here's an exercise for all to try. Search Google for Linux Windows That gets
you about 14 million pages, even with the English preference or filter turned
on. Now, got to msn.com and search the Microsoft way for the same two words.
You get exactly 18 pages. The word censorship doesn't seem to do justice to
what Microsoft has done to a msn user who wants to compare Linux with
Windows, does it?
Here's another exercise. Search msn for Linux. Note that the third item
returned is tech.msn.com and that the page no longer exists. The fourth item
deals with this topic "Alternatives to Linux-Apache-MySQL-PHP Learn about the
Microsoft alternatives and how to move to them from open source products."
The mind boggles at the amount of fear that Microsoft has that people who
search the Internet for knowledge, answers and understanding. Microsoft's
fear is so great that it is willing to subvert what is truly one of the great
inventions of history, searching the Internet, to a mere tool with one
purpose, namely, to trick us all into buying Microsoft's software.
I am compelled to describe that this particular Microsoft stunt is patently,
totally, absolutely, completely perverse. I can well imagine that the
founders of Google could not have been able to sleep at night for the rest of
their lives if they had allowed Microsoft to buy and cynically subvert their
creation. After all, they already have more money than they can possibly
spend in their lifetimes, they have a fantastic life of creative fulfillment
ahead of them and they do have, well, their pride.
A hearty thanks to the founders of Google, then, for not selling Google to
Microsoft, whatever their specific reasons were for not doing so. And, for
the rest of us, a lesson in what the Internet and its resultant technologies
would end up being used for if Microsoft had its way. To all the users of msn
and its so-called "search" feature, I have to say, wake up & smell the
coffee, kids.
Harry Fletcher
--
At times the discrepency between institutions and technology becomes an
incompatibility, and then one or the other must give way.
-Allen Wheelis
____________________________
NYLXS: New Yorker Free Software Users Scene
Fair Use -
because it's either fair use or useless....
NYLXS is a trademark of NYLXS, Inc
|
|
