“You’re right. Some of the evangelism practices that I taught and executed at Microsoft in the 1990’s were unethical. I didn’t think so at the time — I thought that they were just hyper-competitive — but I agree now.”
–James Plamondon, former Microsoft ’shills chief’
LAST WEEK we showed solid proof that Microsoft was paying people for what’s known as “AstroTurfing”. It’s part of the company’s strategy and policy — always has been. The men at the very top — those who are responsible for this — are Marshall Goldberg and James Plamondon.
Some people remember “Steve Barkto”, who was exposed by a newspaper for being a Microsoft agent [1, 2, 3, 4]. Gary M. Stewart may be another such agent, who has posted under literally hundreds of names in mediums that include USENET, Digg, Slashdot, even Netscape/ Propeller, where he libeled, embarrassed, threatened, gave fake testimonies, stole identities and — above all — viciously attacked everything and everyone that competes with Microsoft. This has gone on for over a decade, and that’s just one person (there are more).
Among the names that he posted under: Moshe Goldfarb, Sandeep Kumar, Abbie Diaz, achmed.jones, Aftab Singh, Allen Cusimano, Allie Perkins, Allison Juergans, allison_hunt1969, Alicia Hunt, Ana Thema, andyschipowitz, Anna Banger, anonymous, arkady.duntov, Archie, Archie Moss Bunker, Archie Watermann, Attila, Baba Booey, Babcock Johnson, babcock.latreen, Babu Singh, ball.cock.the.plumber, banjo.boy69, Bill Thomson, Billy, bill.gates.loves.me, BingoBongo, bison, Bjarne Jensen, bjornstad8800, BklynBoy, bones4jones, bonobo magilla, Boyce Mabri, BSEE, Bunsen Burner, Buster, c.baumstumpff, CBFalconer, Charles LeGrand, Charlie, Choppers McGee, Chris Thomas, Christine Abernathy, Claire Lynn, Clippy, Clock King, collie4roy, Collie Entragion, Colon Singh, common cold, compton.plaines_kid, Connie Hines, Corrie, corry.lebeu, Corrie Titlaand, Cory Dyvik, Curtis Wilson, cymon.says, Damian O’Leary, Dana Bush, Danny Kwong, dbx_boy, Deadpenguin, Debbie, detective48, Devon Dawson, dismoqualifetch, Donn Carlsbad, donna.bunting_tv, dont.pullout, doris.gets.her.oates, Doug Richardson, Dragon.Boy, Dr.Long John Jones, dy.sector, echo.valley_26809, Elliot Zimmermann, Elwin Winters, Emmanuel Arias, Fawn Lebowitz, flatfish+++, foamy, frank boson, Franz Klammer, Fred Simmons, gabriele howorth, Gary Stewart, GayClod, George Cotton, George Littlefield, Gilbert, Gilbert Goiter, Gilbert Hochaim, gilligan, goldfarb44, gooseborg, Greg Finnigan, Greg Laplante, Hans Kimm, Hans Tomlinson, Harry Hilton, Harvey Fogel, Heather, Heather69, Heather Trax, Heddy Seafield, Heidi van Wong, helmut.ginter, hepcat, high_pain_humper, Hugh Himless, hymen.the.jew, llanalott, Ishmeal Hafizi, itchy balls, Ivan Mctavish, IvanaB, Jason, jeff.smiley, Jeff Szarka, jjwassermann, Joe Josephson, John, John King, John Shelton, John Smith, johnnyscotrun, jolt.n.pizza, Jorge Jorgensen, jorge_shillingford, Jose Lopez, juke_joint, kaptain kaput, Karel Olish, karen.bullfinch, Karen Hill, Karla Snodgress, kathy_krantz, Kaylie Solomon, Kendra, Kenneth Downs, Kenny Dugan, Kent Dorfman, Ken Johnson, Kim Coinop, Kinglen Wang, Kristen, kumba killington, Kurt Janker, Kyle Cadet,  lafferty6, L Didio, Laura Shillingford, Le Farter, Le Yammy, Leaking Onion, Leo Diaz, Les Cramer, Les Turner, Les Walton, Leslie Bassman, Lilly, Lindy, linux.curious, Linux Exposer, linux.freak.detector, Lisa Shavas, Lisa Cottmann, Lois Hunt, Long, long_tong_ling,  luisortizhome, Lukumi Babalu Aye, Luna Lane, Major Mynor, Manny, mark.kent.is.owned, Mario Fermin, McSwain, mista twista,Mogumbo, Moses, Mooshoo Bong Singh, mr.macfeelme,  mycarisfast, narrows_whitefish, nate_mcspook, Navid Shakibapour, oh.bama.da.rack, okto_pussy, opensource.sucks, organ.creep, OSS KDE User, Paddy McCrockett, Paul Wannamaker, Paris Marriot, Patricia, Patrick Landrum, Patty LeGrange, patty pippins, Patty Poppins, percy samson, Peter Gluckman, Peter Kohlmann, peter.traphagen, Phil, Phillip Cornwall, phoung, phoung quoak, pickle_pete, Piss Clam, Polly Ester, Poopy Pants McGee, pus.boy99, pyles69, Quimby, Quinton Magee, Quizno Backer, Ray Schitzmepantz, Reporter, Rich, Richard P. Johnson, Richie, Richie O’Toole, Richie Spano, right.wanger, Robert Strunk, rodolfo.garcia44, rothstein_ivan, Roy_Pestowitz, Roy.Schakemetitz, Roy.Schavedmenutz, Roy.Schavesmewankz, roy.shysterwitz, Roy.Schitzowitz, roys.testicles, roy.the.spam.king, RP Modell, ryebra, Sally Vadi, Sammy, Sammy Whalen, Saul Goldblatt, schavemetitz, Schestertitz, schestowizzle, schestowitz, schitzmepantz, schisterwitz, Schlomo Smykowski, Sharon Cackle, Sharon Hubbasland, Sean, Sean Fitzhenry, Sean Macpherson, Sewer Rat, sewer_clown, Shelly K., Sherlock Holmes, Schlomo Rabinowitz, Simon, Simon Lewis, simply.lisa, Singer, sista sledgehammer, slacker.mcspritze, Spammy_Davis, spanny_davis, Stefan Karstensen, Stephan Simonsen, Stephanie, Stephanie Mannerz, Stephen, Stephen Olsen, Stephen Townshend, stomach.pump, SuckyB, Sue, sue quinterra, sully1999, SunnyB, Susan, Susan Bladder, Susan Lapinski, Susan Wong, Suzi Wong, suzie.linux, Suzie Wong, Swampee, swing.cock, sylvano12tegriorgriach, Ted Bennington, Terri Sorensen, Terry Porter, The Beaver, Thorsten, Thorsten Thigpen, Timmy Luncford , Toby Rastus Roosovelt III, toe.mein, Tomas Bicsak, tomas.bozak, Tomas Dunton, Tomas Lucatorto, Tori, Tori Wassermann, Torre Stanslaand, Trace Dennison, Tracee, Traci, traci.alicock, traci.manicotti, traci.pusey, Traci Spritzendrainer, trailerpark, Trina Swallows, Trolly, Trudi Simpkins, Tryxie Lustern,  udayshankar29, Uday Shankar, victimizedb, victimizedbyms, Vince Fontain, Vladimir Yepifano, Walter Bubniak, Wang Mycock, Wasser, Waterskidoo, wendy, Wendy Duzz, Wendy Toiletwater, Whizzer, Wilbur J, willy watkins jr, Willy Wong, wiltons_pypes, Winnie Septos, wizard.shot, wm_walsh, Wobbles, wylbur.horseman, Yanick Schmuley and zyklon_C.
That’s just a sample, a fraction of the names that he has used (about 200, among many more). Gary was mass-mailing my colleagues and bosses. He did the same to other people whom he tried to get in trouble, or get fired. That’s because they advocated GNU/Linux. Gary also posted inflammatory and libelous stuff, sometimes ‘on behalf’ (forging) of posters whom he was discrediting. The severity of this is very high. The allegations, once tied to Microsoft, would have enormous consequences because the number of victims of high and the damages high too.
The identity of Gary was exposed several years ago back when one of his victims, “mjcr”, found out his identity and posted:
#################################### ###### Begin Original Message ###### ####################################
He mainly focuses on /comp.os.linux.advocacy/ but he regularly (cross-) posts to other groups, & to non-computer related groups.
Gary Stewart on c-24-60-155-178.hsd1.ma.comcast.net
This was investigated & tied this very same address to the "linux-sux troll. This address is a cable user in Mass. Apparently Gary Stewart IS the linux-sux troll as well as being the flatfish troll.
He lives at one of these addresses:
93 Thayer St, Millville, MA
30 Chickatawbut St, Dorchester, MA
229 N Brookfield Rd, Barre, MA
[...]
############################### ###### End Original Message ### ###############################
That was years ago, so it’s possible that the address/es have changed. As for the name, this was confirmed last year, again. He accidentally had his Windows username, “Garys” (as in C:\Documents and Settings \Garys), displayed to the public. It’s a case of sloppiness. He posted under the name “Polly Ester” (like polyester) in MSG-ID 46fd58dd $0$26405$88260...@free.teranews.com
#################################### ###### Begin Original Message ###### ####################################
From: "Ms. Polly Ester" <pes...@gmail.net> Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy References: <46fd2a49$0$26379$88260...@free.teranews.com><ii00t4-98l....@dragon.myth> Subject: Re: Linux users and COLA posters blatantly break the law Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 16:32:21 -0400 X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.3790.3959 X-RFC2646: Format=Flowed; Original X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.3790.4073 Lines: 49 Message-ID: <46fd58dd$0$26405$88260...@free.teranews.com> NNTP-Posting-Date: 28 Sep 2007 19:41:17 GMT X-Complaints-To: ab...@teranews.com
> —–BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE—– > Hash: SHA1 > On Fri, 28 Sep 2007 13:13:36 -0400, > Ms. Polly Ester <pes…@gmail.net> wrote: >> Here we see that two of the major scumbags on COLA are sharing one >> internet connection between them. Yet the terms-of-service (TOS) >> forbids this sort of thing. >> http://www.demon.net/helpdesk/producthelp/aup/thusfup/ >> Why is it that both Mark Kent and Roy Schestowitz are posting from >> the same internet connection? Doesn’t the lowly community college >> that Roy goes to have internet access yet? If so, why isn’t he >> using that instead of breaking the law? >>http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.advocacy/msg/256384be674… >>http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.linux.advocacy/msg/ebbd4b4b2ba… > That’s because they are both posting from demon.co.uk you pillock.
No. It’s because they are both posting from the same machine at ellandroad.co.uk
The IP address for the news server (news.demon.co.uk) is:
C:Documents and SettingsGarys>tracert news.demon.co.uk
Tracing route to news.news.demon.net [158.152.254.254]
> Honestly, some of the trolls we get around here are really dumb.
The lintards are even dumber.
############################### ###### End Original Message ### ###############################
Roy Schestowitz wrote: > [copied from my blog post]
<snip>
> "It's made me A LOT of money," he says. Well, this is just the > beginning of what could soon develop. Does he, like James Plamondon, > spill the beans on Microsoft?
uh oh... Spamowitz is doing some of his "investigative journalism":
* reposting 10 year old articles * imagining nefarious motives around every corner * using his blog as "evidence"
Gary M. Stewart wrote: > On Fri, 2 Jan 2009 09:46:01 -0500, DFS wrote:
>> Roy Schestowitz wrote: >>> [copied from my blog post]
>> <snip>
>>> "It's made me A LOT of money," he says. Well, this is just the >>> beginning of what could soon develop. Does he, like James Plamondon, >>> spill the beans on Microsoft?
>> uh oh... Spamowitz is doing some of his "investigative journalism":
>> * reposting 10 year old articles >> * imagining nefarious motives around every corner >> * using his blog as "evidence"
>> Luser.
> A friend of mine told me the idiot posted it on his BN site!!
> Hahahahhaha!
LMAO!
They get their panties in a wad when they think they can prove the existence of Microsoft "agents".
>> Gary M. Stewart wrote: >>> On Fri, 2 Jan 2009 09:46:01 -0500, DFS wrote:
>>>> Roy Schestowitz wrote: >>>>> [copied from my blog post]
>>>> <snip>
>>>>> "It's made me A LOT of money," he says. Well, this is just the >>>>> beginning of what could soon develop. Does he, like James Plamondon, >>>>> spill the beans on Microsoft?
>>>> uh oh... Spamowitz is doing some of his "investigative journalism":
>>>> * reposting 10 year old articles >>>> * imagining nefarious motives around every corner >>>> * using his blog as "evidence"
>>>> Luser.
>>> A friend of mine told me the idiot posted it on his BN site!!
>>> Hahahahhaha!
>> LMAO!
>> They get their panties in a wad when they think they can prove the existence >> of Microsoft "agents".
>> What nutjobs.
> According to Schestowitz "people in high places are emailing him about > this".
> Hahahhahhaha!
> My sides are splitting from laughing so hard.
What about him giving "World Leaders" the green light the other day?
Hilarious. And like all the funniest things - it's true that he says these things!
Still, the funniest for me is Arsestrom claiming its OK to open a gmail account in someone else name and use that for immoral and illegal purposes since its not "really stealing". Can he sink any further?
> I have to admit, setting that fool Schestowitz up like this wasn't my idea > but it worked out even better than I had ever imagined!
> I guess I just didn't realize he could be so gullible. > I was wrong on that one, big time!
> Roy Schestowitz = The Peter Salinger of COLA !
The problem with him is that he really does believe in himself as some sort of OSS/Linux messiah.
I would love to be a fly on the wall in his IRC channel now as he starts bitch slapping a few of the faithful in heavy handed reprisals.
After takin' a swig o' grog, Tim Smith belched out this bit o' wisdom:
> In article <gjlv4i$40...@news.motzarella.org>, > "Gary M. Stewart" <gmstewart1...@gmail.com> wrote: >> I have to admit, setting that fool Schestowitz up like this wasn't my idea >> but it worked out even better than I had ever imagined!
>> I guess I just didn't realize he could be so gullible. >> I was wrong on that one, big time!
> Roy's posting is an income producing endeavor, so naturally he assumes > that others are also somehow making money from posting.
You are contradicting what Roy has said about making money from posting here.
-- If little green men land in your back yard, hide any little green women you've got in the house. -- Mike Harding, "The Armchair Anarchist's Almanac"
"Don Zeigler" <sitt...@this.computer> stated in post 2ja26ma7xw65$....@this.domain.or.that on 1/2/09 10:06 PM:
> Gary M. Stewart wrote:
>> They actually did offer me a job back in the mid 80s but I wasn't really >> interested.
> Translation: I wasn't qualified to swab out their toilets.
Not having a *real* response and yet wanting to troll, Don Zeigler decides to engage in "translation trolling".
And the crowd goes wild.
-- I can't say we will succeed at this, but we will make a significant attempt to elevate the Linux desktop to the point where it is as good or better than Apple. - Mark Shuttleworth (founded Canonical Ltd. / Ubuntu Linux)
"Don Zeigler" <sitt...@this.computer> stated in post 4jgc6lm6bni5$....@this.domain.or.that on 1/2/09 10:24 PM:
> DFS wrote:
>> Show us just one, fool.
> One dork? That's easy. (Pointing at you, d00f)
You sure name call a lot.
-- When I'm working on a problem, I never think about beauty. I think only how to solve the problem. But when I have finished, if the solution is not beautiful, I know it is wrong. -- R. Buckminster Fuller
"Don Zeigler" <sitt...@this.computer> stated in post 1xb4tcqcu4sm5....@this.domain.or.that on 1/2/09 8:34 PM:
> DFS wrote:
>> * reposting 10 year old articles
> That's funny coming from someone who digs up ancient posts about Linux > problems.
> Dork.
You sure name call a lot.
-- ... something I'm committed to work on, focusing increasing amounts of resources of Canonical on figuring out on how we actually move the desktop experience forward to compete with Mac OS X. - Mark Shuttleworth (founded Canonical Ltd. / Ubuntu Linux)
You go wild when you see I've posted, Michael. It gives you a chance to try to appear "amusing" and "clever". Too bad we all know how you really are. -- Regards, [dmz] Owner/proprietor, Trollus Amongus, LLC
"Don Zeigler" <sitt...@this.computer> stated in post 8ab8f4flt3xj$....@this.domain.or.that on 1/2/09 11:26 PM:
> Snit wrote:
>> And the crowd goes wild.
> You go wild when you see I've posted, Michael. It gives you a chance to try > to appear "amusing" and "clever". Too bad we all know how you really are.
You are not funny.
-- Do you ever wake up in a cold sweat wondering what the world would be like if the Lamarckian view of evolution had ended up being accepted over Darwin's?
Roy Schestowitz wrote: > [copied from my blog post]
> “You’re right. Some of the evangelism practices that I taught > and executed at Microsoft in the 1990’s were unethical. I > didn’t think so at the time — I thought that they were just > hyper-competitive — but I agree now.”
> –James Plamondon, former Microsoft ’shills chief’
> LAST WEEK we showed solid proof that Microsoft was paying > people for what’s known as “AstroTurfing”. It’s part of the > company’s strategy and policy — always has been. The men at > the very top — those who are responsible for this — are > Marshall Goldberg and James Plamondon.
> Some people remember “Steve Barkto”, who was exposed by a > newspaper for being a Microsoft agent [1, 2, 3, 4]. Gary M. > Stewart may be another such agent, who has posted under > literally hundreds of names in mediums that include USENET, > Digg, Slashdot, even Netscape/ Propeller, where he libeled, > embarrassed, threatened, gave fake testimonies, stole > identities and — above all — viciously attacked everything and > everyone that competes with Microsoft. This has gone on for > over a decade, and that’s just one person (there are more).
> [snip]
> From: "Gary M. Stewart" <gmstewart1...@gmail.com> > Subject: Re: Another user loves Ubuntu > Date: Thu, 1 Jan 2009 21:01:48 -0500 > Message-ID: <gjjshp$bm...@reader.motzarella.org> > X-No-Archive: YES
> [...] Don Zeigler wrote:
>> How I Wasted My Life Trolling COLA
>> by Gary Stewart, aka flatfish and about 600 other nyms
> It’s made me A LOT of money…. A Best Seller you might say……
Roy, it is obvious no matter how much the Wintrolls will deny it. There is active astroturfing going on, through the likes of the posts from Gary M. Stewart, DFS, Erik Funkenbusch, Tim Smith, amicus_curious, clogwog and nyms (Rick Mather), Hadron Quark and a few lesser trolls. It is obvious that they communicate and coordinate.
EU has made strides for fairness in competition; there, such activity is considered illegal. However, most of those trolls including clogwog live outside the EU and are not subject to EU law (as Marti found out regarding clogwog).
Regarding Snit AKA Rhino Plastee and a few other nyms (Michael Glasser), it is possible too, although currently he seems to be nothing more than a nut case.
Linux is considerably more stable, inherently less viral prone than Microsoft Windows. Apple OSX based on BSD Unix variant also follows suite, why some able to afford prefer it.
In spite of all the nasty FUD these astroturfers toss up, Linux is gaining. Because windows has dominated the microcomputer desktop environment (and perpetuated for a time due to uncompetitive monopoly maintenance), it has been an initial slow climb for Linux.
For example, look at all the lawsuits with Microsoft as defendant:
[quote] Microsoft's lawsuit payouts amount to around $9 billion Updated Twice the GDP of Cambodia By Désiré Athow: Thursday, 14 July 2005, 2:35 PM * UPDATE Additional material at the end of this article.
MICROSOFT HAS had a long, a very long history of litigation, court orders, patent infringements and antitrust lawsuits against it since the very beginning of its history. We;ve managed to draw up a partial list of these.
The surprising thing is not only the number of those lawsuits against Microsoft - at one time, it had more than 130 pending - but more importantly, the sheer amount of money it represents.
The Redmond giant has been ordered to pay nearly $9 billion, a figure which is set to rise with some lawsuits still to be ruled on.
[.... Table below rearranged according to award amount, header added]
Award Amount Plaintiff -------------- ------------------ $1,950,000,000 Sun $1,100,000,000 California $850,000,000 IBM $750,000,000 AOL $613,000,000 EU $536,000,000 Novell $521,000,000 Eolas $500,000,000 DR DOS/Caldera $440,000,000 Intertrust $250,000,000 Apple $240,000,000 Minnesota $202,000,000 Florida $150,000,000 Gateway $104,600,000 Arizona $96,000,000 Perma Temps $89,000,000 North Carolina $83,000,000 Stac $64,000,000 Tennessee $62,000,000 SPX $60,000,000 Burst $35,000,000 Immersion $34,000,000 Massachusett $32,000,000 Kansas $23,250,000 Be $22,600,000 Nebraska state $12,300,000 Montana $10,500,000 Maryland $10,500,000 Private (5) $9,700,000 Vermont $9,330,000 South Dakota $9,000,000 Employee fired (3) $9,000,000 North Dakota $8,960,000 Carlos Armando (1) $8,600,000 Daum (4) $6,200,000 Columbia $4,100,000 Bristol $3,150,000 New Mexico $2,000,000 Iowa Undisclosed Alacritech Undisclosed AT&T Undisclosed Sendo Still in court? Discrimation Suit (2) Still in court E-data Still in court Forgent Still in court Go Still in court Mythic Still in court Wordperfect suit Still in court Real
[...] * UPDATE Thanks to Groklaw and Mr. Jaffar for their assistance. Ten more cases have now been added and the total in the coffer now exceeds the $9 billion mark:
Time Line Settled, undisclosed Ticketmaster Settled, undisclosed Priceline Still in court? Goldtouch technology Settled, undisclosed Syn'x $ 250,000 eLeaders Settled, undisclosed e-Pass Still in court Roger Avary (6) Still in court Arendi Holdings Still in court? Borland $100,000,000 [/quote]
[quote] New Case Against Microsoft Brought To European Commission Dec 01, 2008
The Dutch software dealer HW Trading has proffered a complaint concerning Microsoft's marketing practices to the European Trade Commission. The reason: Microsoft has for years been selling its products at a higher price in Europe than it does in America. [/quote]
Going back to Linux succeeding, if you think about it, outside US, the educational and business sectors are more Linux friendly than US. Even in US, Linux deployments do not often make mainline news because of the lack of paid for advertising, which Linux does not need. Following are news leaks:
Regarding Kerala, India's 12,500 high schools now embracing Linux and FOSS:
[quote] Kerala high schools complete the migration to Linux and Open source Indian Express - Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Kerala is all set to become the first state in India to completely banish Microsoft and allow only GNU/Linux free software to be used in the mandatory IT test at the state SSLC examinations that half a million students will appear for from next week. Till last year, they could take the exam using either free software or the Microsoft platform. Not anymore.
A few weeks ago, the Government formally ordered that only free Linux-based software should be used for IT education in high schools, using new the Linux text books developed by State Council for Educational Research and Training and the Free Software Foundation of India.
The state government's anti-proprietary planks apart, another major plus of abandoning Microsoft, claim state IT Mission officials, is plainly the cost factor. “Going for a massive Windows-based infrastructure cost a lot. Linux can bundle all applications with the operating system facilitating a single installation kit”. [/quote]
[quote] ProInfo and Linux Educacional - KDE in Public Schools in Brazil * Apr. 23rd, 2008 at 6:09 PM
One of the highlights of fisl9.0 for me was getting to know better the work that is being done by Brazil's Ministry of Education (MEC). They have just unveiled the numbers for the ongoing ProInfo project. What is interesting about this project is that it not only provides infrastructure (computers and net connectivity) but also open content to students in public schools.
The software installed on these systems is "Linux Educacional 2.0", a very clean Debian-based distribution, with KDE 3.5, KDE-Edu, KDE-Games, and some tools developed by the project.
[...]
As this first slide shows, until the end of this year there will be already 29,000 labs deployed, serving approximately 36 million students. This number grows to more than 53,000 by the end of 2009, and at that time 52 million students will have access to them. You can also see in the slide a solution that is being developed for classrooms: a single hardware unit with integrated projector, cpu, bundled content and DVD player. With it, digital content will no longer be restricted to the info lab, and will be usable by teachers in the traditional classrooms as well. [/quote]
[quote] EU: Schools increase use of Open Source Open Source News - 26 February 2008 - EU and Europe-wide - General
Schools using GNU/Linux or other Open Source systems for desktop PCs are no longer rare, though in many countries their numbers are very low. Not so in India, Macedonia, the Philippines, Russia and Turkey, where hundreds of thousands of pupils are becoming familiar with Open Source.
This type of software will become more prominent in education, expects Datamonitor, a research firm. In a report published last month it predicts that spending on Open Source software, including maintenance and services, by the education sector globally will reach $489.9 million by 2012, compared to $286.2 million today.
[....]
However popular these laptops may become, the number of Western European classrooms were Open Source software is being used daily, is dwarfed by those in countries like Macedonia, Turkey and Russia.
High Plains Thumper <highplainsthum...@invalid.invalid> writes:
> Roy, it is obvious no matter how much the Wintrolls will deny > it. There is active astroturfing going on, through the likes of the > posts from Gary M. Stewart, DFS, Erik Funkenbusch, Tim Smith, > amicus_curious, clogwog and nyms (Rick Mather), Hadron Quark and a few > lesser trolls. It is obvious that they communicate and coordinate.
LOL! Sure. This will come as a surprise to the others as it is to me. I would not mind, but like me, all I see is Erik correcting your lies and Tim is never anything other than factual and polite.
I like and use Linux. And I know a lot more about it than you and even took the time out to educate you about what Debian was and how its releases worked. You failed to comprehend though.
> EU has made strides for fairness in competition; there, such activity > is considered illegal. However, most of those trolls including > clogwog live outside the EU and are not subject to EU law (as Marti > found out regarding clogwog).
Marti? Watch out Columbo.
> Regarding Snit AKA Rhino Plastee and a few other nyms (Michael > Glasser), it is possible too, although currently he seems to be > nothing more than a nut case.
What about your nyms Wendy? Or Roy Colley's nyms? Or him using a gmail in someone else's name for illegal and immoral purposes?
Your whining and self righteous posturing is nothing short of pathetic.
> Linux is considerably more stable, inherently less viral prone than > Microsoft Windows. Apple OSX based on BSD Unix variant also follows > suite, why some able to afford prefer it.
I agree. As an OS. Unfortunately its HW support for modern HW is (and was) not so hot in many cases. The commercial SW that people WANT is not available for it. It's entertainment coverage is almost zero in terms of modern games. And of course people like you scare new users away.
