Re: Uncle Sam Wants YOU!

["Jim Roland" <jroland@roland.net>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "J Sloan" <jjs@mirai.cx>
To: "Jim Roland" <jroland@roland.net>
Sent: Sunday, July 01, 2001 11:34 PM
Subject: Re: Uncle Sam Wants YOU!


> Jim Roland wrote:
>
> > I don't see them taking RedHat or Slackware away from me!
>
> I see your point, but in a very real sense they
> are taking red hat or slackware from you -
>
> They have been pushing the industry frantically
> to make ms windows the standard and deprecate
> everything else - many people have discovered
> the frustration of "microsoft-only" web sites and
> software which exists for windows only.
>
> For those who find that they can no longer
> connect to their isp unless they are running
> ms windows, it's a rude awakening.
>
> Sure, you can keep using slackware, but
> you won't be able to connect to the internet
> if they have their way - won't that be lovely?

Sorry, I can't disagree more.  Nobody is stopping me from purchasing RedHat
or any other Linux Distro at Frys Electronics, online, or downloading a free
(legal) copy of it.  Nobody is stopping me from installing it on a PC, and
nobody stops me from connecting to the internet with it.  In fact, my
windows machine connects to the same internet connection (cablemodem) as my
linux systems, all behind a firewall appliance which actually touches the
interface.

Fact remains, TCP/IP and IPv6 are RFC STANDARDS not Microsoft standards.
Even so, there are ways around the MS-CHAP issues preventing connections to
the internet to allow Linux systems that speak STRAIGHT TCP/IP.  See also,
GTE.  GTE about 3 years ago had their network fixed so that Microsoft
systems could only connect, their modem pools literally hung up the line if
you were using anything non-Microsoft.  Currently, as long as you
authenticate with them properly, they don't care what you use.

How would you expain the Cisc's, Linksys's, etc?  They aren't Microsoft,
besides they pass IP over the wire, any IP-compatible machine will connect
to it.

Simply put, where I live (a top 10 metro area) there are plenty of ISPs that
accept dial-ins from any system that authenticates PAP or CHAP/MS-CHAP.


Like I've been saying before...stop blaming the "Dark Empire" and let's all
come up with solutions to beat them at their own game.

I'm done with this subject, it's aleady older that the science experiment
leftovers in my refrigerator.