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Two months with Ubuntu Linux and loving it

Posted by dave on · 11 comments
Geek.com; By RickGeek
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In late June of this year, I made a type of executive decision. I have been a software developer by trade throughout my entire professional career. I began programming commercially in 1987 and have followed the progression from MS-DOS 3.31 through 6.22, then Windows 3.x, 95 and up. I’ve moved from the library of custom-developed tools in C and assembly during my MS-DOS days to the GUI + libraries present in Windows OSes. Still, even today, I continue to code for Windows even though I am migrating much of that knowledge to the Linux side after having such a successful run with Ubuntu.

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Comments (11)

Quoting:A guy who uploaded the latest Star Wars movie got arrested, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and criminal copyright infringement and got jail and home confinement A guy who uploaded the latest Star Wars movie got arrested, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and criminal copyright infringement and got jail and home confinement. As part of his home confinement, he agreed to install some tracking software on his computer. The problem is Hes an Ubuntu Linux user and the govt doesnt have any tracking software for Linux. So hes been told that he must use Windows for the term of his confinement. Looks like a case of cruel and unusual punishment to
http://www.e-pressen.dk/shownewsb.php?id=79709

more links here :

http://techdirt.com/articles/20070822/221127.shtml http://torrentfreak.com/bittorrent-admin-monitored-by-us-gov... http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=533484
ouch, I finished reading that and a whole lot of posts, including from the felon himself. Lots of unwashed, unthinking masses type stuff in there for responses.

What gets me is a convicted (copped a plea) felon gets sentenced to having to pay a convicted monopolist. I'm not sure how well the argument of being forced to switch OS's will fly as cruel and unusual punishment, heck there are a whole lot of people who are forced to use it every day at work, still he says he is going to try. Never know though the American Criminals Liberties Union has pulled off weirder wins.

I happen to be a proponent of forcing people convicted of ANY crime, even one as inane as this, to pay for the costs of their rehabilitation. This extends to the cost of a valid windows license, the software he agreed to, the food he ate in jail, everything. Still gotta feel a bit sorry for the guy though, even though he knew he was breaking the law, he like many others feel that this particular kind of enforcement is completely over the top.
>he like many others feel that this particular kind of enforcement is completely over the top

yep...so am i....weird people at 'the top' gives weird laws..."America , home of the free"... lol...
Well, I am happy that he's going to fight this on principle. Not that I support his actions, but being forced by the government to run Windows is moronic. BTW, what's preventing him from simply booting into a Live CD. I doubt that the monitoring program is written in such a way that your ISP blocks you from the internet unless you're running it.
Yeah, If the courts are willing to pay for the Windows OS, personally I'd tell them I'd rather not use my computer. As far as using a Live CD, I can't see what would stop him.

I hope he wins. The whole thing, including being prosecuted for downloading the movie is simply ridiculous.



Surely this tracking software would be better if it were on a separate proxy server that he'd be forced to connect through? Then the gov can make sure he can't tamper with it. Tracking his online activities I assume?
Tracyanne a small correction, it wasnt downloading it he got busted for. He was hosting it as well as being an admin for the torrent site he was hosting it on.
He's busted for piracy...

...and his restitution involves using software from the biggest pirate in the world? http://www.kmfms.com/whatsbad.html#predatory

Ludicrous. Idiotic. Moronic. Hypocritical. A bad case of cranial-rectal-insertion syndrome.

Besides, if all he has to do is "avoid Linux," he can just switch to FreeBSD.
>Besides, if all he has to do is "avoid Linux," he can just switch to FreeBSD.

No -- he doesn't have to avoid Linux and the Windows stuff is not restitution. It's all about the monitoring software -- it runs under Windows.
> No -- he doesn't have to avoid Linux and the Windows stuff is not restitution. It's all about the monitoring software -- it runs under Windows.

If that's the case dino, then if i were him I'd simply build a vmware image on my linux box, for the purpose of running the windoze-only monitoring software. problem solved.
Yeah, I finally got around to RTFA.

Wine to the rescue!

Really, is there no problem to which free software is a (or the) solution?

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