Atleast Microsoft helped the USA 1

[perlone]

Microsoft, Cisco formed a private liberty and helped out the United States where I live which I think is wonderful since the World Trade Center has been gone and planning to rebuilt. ----------------------------------------
There is no Knowledge, That is not power.

Age: 16
E-mail: projectnet01@yahoo.com
School: Coral Springs High School (

http://www.coralspringshigh.com)

Companynot done yet)
NoteMy ISP is down and not accepting any emails.
-Aaron
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[MasterRacker]

They've donated a lot and are helping to collect more. Compliments to them!
Jeff

I haven't lost my mind - I know it's backed up on tape somewhere ....

 

[JAXDBase]

The media seems to de-emphasize the fact that because of the US Computer industry - we pioneered and still are the number 1 in IT technology/production. I believe that it is assinine for the previous administration to disassemble MS. Thank God! the Bush administration is keeping it together. I have always known that in addition to a strong military a strong information gathering / processing system is necessary. What good is it to have a strong economy without good info. You cannot decouple one from the other by today's standards. Modern management and production demands good info that the company can use. IT and MS/Oracle,etc. have the core competencies to deal with it. Countries and to a lesser extent companies use "intel" for competetive purposes. We NEED a strong IT industry in the US and breaking up MS does not accomplish that...

 

[gunthnp]

right mircosoft helps the USA no more then stardard oil did at its time or AT&T did but breaking them up help every one a lot more gunthnp
Have you ever woken up and realized you where not alive.

 

[Kspade]

only the right type of break up will help. And it will not only help the US of A, but the entire world. I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every moment of it.

 

[Guest_imported]

yea microsoft helped and is helping the world globzlization cause, and might have helped the united states in realizing that it's catering only to mega corporations who give the most money to their campaign funds. Im sure many progs and os's came along that got squashed becasue microsoft used it's muscle to get them out, and Bill Gates may have good intentions but the whole reason he is where he is is because of the people who he stole his code off of, so im torn between this and that, i don't htink he did a whole world of good, i think our dominance in the it field would have come to with or without him. i think he's trying to figure out how to take over the world, hes worth mroe than most third world countries.

 

[rycamor]

I personally don't care whether Microsoft is broken up. It will make no difference in the end. You think the guys in Redmond haven't figured out how to profit either way? The thing I am tired of is the whole "painting everything with the same brush" concept our country has of dealing with Microsoft. In other words, let's not focus on whether Microsoft should be this or that, but let's just correct them whenever their actions fall outside of what the law allows.

For example, the case of the browser is an iffy one. Who should have say in whether Microsoft includes a browser or not in their OS? Honestly!! But the one that angers me is the agreement that they force on hardware vendors to prevent them from even having an alternative OS in the bootloader. This is what killed BEOS, which was by all accounts a much more well-thought-out user-level OS.

As for Microsoft helping the USA, who knows? They may have helped in a lot of ways, but then again, a lot of money has been spent unnecessarily. And they are consummate politicians, who know how to play the game on all sides.

Where I really fear they might hurt the US is in much more frightening ways. You think Microsoft isn't working in secret with as many politicians and legislators as possible? You think Microsoft would shy away from trying to do such a thing as outlaw the GPL? Or even outlaw open source software in general? Don't laugh!! Stranger things have happened in this country when businesses get their hands in government. This kind of thing frightens me far more than whether Microsoft is allowed to do this or that. And this kind of thing will go far to turn America into a police state. Actually, the more I think about Microsoft, the more I fear the possibility of a police state.

For an example, see

http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1104-847303.html.

And then read near the bottom: "Rather than form a federation with Microsoft and work with what we had already created, there was this notion that the world should be offered an alternative". (to Passport) Oh, yes... the dreaded alternative.

And here's another (less) frightening one:

http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/16585.html.

Notice the quote: "I have to believe that a large percentage of executives who work at Microsoft are not in it for the money. They could all walk away tomorrow and never have to work again. It seems that their motivation is to run the world's largest and most powerful company because it fuels their egos."

I would have to agree that this is a likelihood. And honestly I don't mind anyone running the largest and most powerful company. I just don't want that company to hijack our laws and government to take away our choices. No amount of donations to the right cause are worth that. -------------------------------------------

"Calculus is just the meaningless manipulation of higher symbols"
                          -unknown F student

 

[DaveStL]

rycamor, I have just one thing to say about your above post (to borrow a phrase from the 60s and 70s): RIGHT ON!!