On Fri, 2002-10-04 at 18:01, Joaquim J. Peixoto wrote:

> It is frustrating as hell, I agree. But whoever has worked with the
> "professional" OS's from Mr. Gates (eg. NT, Win2k and XP) or other
> non-personal OS's knows that the direct hardware access like manipulation of
> the serial ports can not be allowed or the result will be an unstable system
> or at least an non-secure one.

Oh really?  Don't tell any Unix folks, we've always had direct access to
the hardware via C libraries since, oh... before I was born... and I'd
daresay that even the early versions of Unix were more stable than Mr.
Gate's "professional quality" junk.  And later versions of Unix (like
Linux) now also provide the source to the kernel itself so you can
really get at the hardware directly -- that may be slightly more
"unstable" if you don't know what you're doing, but it's an option you
definitely don't have with the Microsoft crud.

Last time I bothered to look at their financial reports, Microsoft had
about $2 BILLION U.S. in CASH in their "war chest" for legal defense, so
they'll skate with a virtual slap on the wrist.

However, Gates & Co. are CONVICTED criminals... folks shouldn't forget
that.  They going through SENTENCING now... the trial's over.  I don't
think justice will be served, though.  Too many people drank the
kool-aid.

--
Nate Duehr, nate@natetech.com

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