Hi,
the IUT of Metz, the University of Metz and GRAOULUG are organizing
a day of presentations on FOSS.
Date: friday march 24 2006
Place: entrance hall of the IUT Metz, on the Saulcy campus.
http://www.graoulug.org/wiki/wakka.php?wiki=JourneeLibre2006
Specific subjects are free games and FOSS in the enterprise.
Greetings, Eric
Hi,
for those not checking SlashDot - the TU Dresden's Operating System group
has released some of their work in the form of a demo CD. It is a nice
L4 microkernel-based OS, mostly licensed under GPL.
http://demo.tudos.org/eng_about.html
The ISO is 118MB, they provide a .vmx for VMware player, they also show
how to use qemu to boot the thing.
Have fun,
Eric
---
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [Patents] remboursement_licence
Date: Thu, 2 Feb 2006 09:36:54 +0100 (CET)
To: patents(a)aful.org
Dernièrement, j'ai acheté un portable de la marque Toshiba avec installé
d'office "windows XP familale"...Comme je ne voulais de XP familial,
j'ai acheté par la suite une licence XP pro que j'ai fait installer par
un informaticien. En effet, le magasin, Saturne pour ne pas le nommer,
m'avait expliqué que la garantie de l'ordinateur n'était plus valable si
j'installais moi même un OS... ils ont même ajouté qu'un multiboot
Windows/Linux faisait sauter la garantie !!!).
J'ai téléphoné à Microsoft France pour savoir si je pouvais me faire
rembourser la licence Windows XP familial. Voilà leur réponse :
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Objet : Votre e-mail du 31 janvier 2006
Monsieur,
Nous avons bien pris connaissance de votre e-mail du 31 janvier 2006
Nous avons bien noté que cela concerne un remboursement de Windows xp
Familiale.
Le logiciel Windows xp familiale que vous avez acquis est une version
OEM c'est à dire une version vendue pré installée dans la machine à l'achat.
Vous avez désinstallé Windows xp familiale version OEM et avez installé
un autre logiciel Windows xp Professionnel sur le pc à l'origine destiné
à Windows xp familiale.
Le remboursement est impossible.
Nous espérons avoir répondu à votre attente et nous vous présentons au
nom de Microsoft tous nos vux pour cette nouvelle année
Cordialement,
Dominique THOMAS
Centre de Relations Clients
msfrance(a)microsoft.com
0 825 827 829 (0,15 TTC la min.)
18, avenue du Québec
91 957 Courtaboeuf Cedex
« Votre ordinateur connecté à Internet nécessite une protection
constante. Consultez http://www.microsoft.com/france/securite
pour connaître les 3 étapes indispensables conseillées par Microsoft
pour sécuriser votre ordinateur. »
Sitel pour le compte de Microsoft France
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Si je comprends bien, la licence OEM pour Microshit XP ne vale rien et ne
coûte rien.
Et dès qu'on installe un soft de chez M$, si on le laisse désinstaller par
des tiers, M$ refuse de rembourser une license dont on n'a pas besoin.
Je me demande, comment la CE peut se laisser harnaquer par MS? Ils font ce
qu'il veulent et la CE se laisse faire.
Je sais pourqoi je n'utilise pas ces soft, ne pas parler de la relation
qualité/prix.
En plus je ne comprends pas les gens qui connaissent des alternatives à MS
et qui refusent catégoriquement à l'utiliser où le conseillent encore.
Mad World
--
Today is the Tommorrow you worried about Yesterday.
Al
A diffuser largement.
http://www.paperjam.lu/c/articles/14039.html
Articles
___
*Open Source Open Computers - Linux Days: An Exploitation of Collaboration*
Linux Days 2006 took place in Luxembourg at the end of January to
promote the Open Source and Free Software Philosophy to the Luxembourg
Public.
*Publié le 24.02.2006*
In order to promote the open source and free software philosophy,
students from the Centre de Recherche Public Henri Tudor and the
University of Luxembourg in conjunction with the Linux User Group
Luxembourg and a number of corporate sponsors organised the 3rd Linux
Days. This year's event included tutorials, presentations, exhibitions,
and apparently, the first open and free source beer.
One of the event's speakers, Brent Frere, is the technical Director for
Plan-Net, a Luxembourg privately owned company since 1999 and the oldest
company in Luxembourg that supports free and open source solutions and
business models.
Can you explain free and open source software to the uninitiated?
"Many solutions are available from the free software/open source
community. Free software solutions are often already used and tested, so
we build upon something proven, supported and documented, that we are
allowed to adapt and that will last longer because it is based on
standard languages, protocols and APIs. Open and free doesn't mean
'gratis'. If a client has an open and free source solution developed
especially for his needs, he has to pay for the development effort.
Free software is licensed under the GPL license. A software is open
source or free depending on the terms of its licence. The proprietary
way to develop software is less efficient and is harmful for the
software user. You pay for the software development, but as you don't
have access to the source code, you cannot correct, adapt or build on
your software. The free and open source way is to get a community
together to develop a common solution. Cost savings can be passed along
in terms of development and adaptation. You get a tool that exactly fits
your needs instead of `one-size fits all´ software.
So does free mean there are no rules with open source software?
"There are rules and regulations to free licences. Free/open source
software development and vending respects legal principles of IP,
anti-dumping laws and copyrights. You are not allowed to steal the
common wealth by putting any part of the free or open source code inside
a proprietary solution. If you benefit from a free or open source code
for your project, you must only respect the licence terms that cover the
community. The extensions of a solution stay free.
What is the main goal of Linux Days?
"The goal is to have a platform in Europe for learning computer skills.
It is important for universities and research centres to keep access to
all levels of the information technology stack, including the source
code, and it is dangerous for Europe not to have such capability at a
strategic level. Imagine for example that you are trying to teach
students engineering on cars, but you can only teach them how to drive
and they are not allowed to look inside the engine.
Can you offer an example of the disadvantages of proprietary
software?
"A tennis club in Luxembourg needed software and a hardware solution for
the automatic opening and closing of their court doors, turning on and
off their lights, etc. They paid for a proprietary solution in 1991, but
the company they purchased the solution from failed. The tennis club
then changed their opening hours, but the system they paid for was no
longer tuneable because they haven't received the source code. Everybody
loses in such a case.
The danger is a legal issue that has existed since the beginning of
computers. In the early 70s, AT&T licensed its Unix to American
universities in source-code format, but students had to sign a non-
disclosure agreement not to use any of those codes or methods. So when
they graduated they could not work anywhere but for AT&T. It is
dangerous to allow too few hands to control information and
telecommunications.
What are the advantages of an open source solution?
"Using the tennis club example, we could build them a tailor-made
solution that they would then own and could develop further to suit
their needs. Taking existing free/open source solutions as a starting
point, we can dramatically reduce the adaptation costs. If multiple
tennis clubs get together, the price of the development is divided,
leading to a less expensive solution, and the user is not locked in to
anyone, including Plan-Net, for its future developments.
We are not interested in selling expensive hardware or software. We
refuse to have any agreements with any hardware or software vendors.
Since we integrate free and open source software, the imagination of the
customer is the only limit."
Mary Carey <http://www.paperjam.lu/c/author/95.html>
--
Brent Frère
Directeur Technique
Plan-Net s.à r.l.
8, rue des Martyrs
L-3739 Rumelange
Grand-Duché de Luxembourg
Tél: +352-26.56.02.22
Fax: +352-26.56.02.55
http://plan-net.lu
Le Service-Pack Plan-Net: l'abonnement services qui met à votre disposition immédiate une équipe multi-disciplinaire en informatique:
* Réseaux, solutions libres et traditionnelles
* Sites web et Intranet
* Développement sur mesure
* Gestion de projets
* Infographie (communication et technique)
This e-mail signature can be checked if you have the CaCERT certificate installed.
Check http://www.CaCERT.org for details.
Hi Mike,
Just read your message of Dec 2005, so I hope this is not way too late. My experience with Alternet is the following:
1. they failed after 5 visits to my home to hook me up to their ADSL line,
2. they called the P&T who did the job in 1,5 hours, meanwhile they agreed to pay any additional costs this implied for me (I was responding to their offer of 49euros all-in to get connected),
3. when the P&T bill for 270 euros got sent to my house Alternet refused to honour the agreement,
4. even after several telephone calls, they simply refuse to acknowledge a letter I sent out to them.
I'm asking them 200euros compensation but they don't seem to care at all about exisiting clients. I mean, do you have any advice about how to get hem to respond? Of course I will cease to be an Alternet client pretty soon if things don't work out, but I have to wait until one year is up.
It's not much money but their arrogance is frustrating!
Best wishes.
Roger.
At the next meeting, I'll do a rerun of my Samba presentation that I
gave at the LinuxDays. The main focus will be the more advanced topics
(primary domain controller, print server setup) that I had to skip at
the Linux Days.
Alain
Hi,
for those who haven't heard about it yet, the FOSDEM takes place
in Brussels the weekend of february 25th/26th: http://www.fosdem.be/
The FOSDEM is a developer's conference, where the subjects tend to
be quite "deep".
I was wondering if anyone from LiLux was going there? There will be
2-3 people from the CRP for sure on saturday.
Greetings, Eric
Hi,
I hope no-one is bothered by a post that isn't particularly about Linux.
It's about my experience choosing high-speed internet access in
Luxembourg and ends with a request for info about Alternet/Tiscali.
I recently arrived in Luxembourg and started looking for a good ISP.
My discovery? It's incredibly hard to find out any quality of service
info on an ISP. There is, for instance, no website that collects
information and complaints about ISPs. I find this amazing because
the contracts here are very restrictive, and if you don't like the
service, there's nothing you can do but wait until the contract ends.
I was used to being able to get out with 30 days notice.
Anyway, at first, I assumed I' go with DSL because I've always have.
Then tried to persuade me to consider cable - cheaper, faster, and
offering a telephone alternative to P&T. Coditel is the cable
provider in my area. The cable fan I spoke to is in an Eltrona area.
Try as I might, I couldn't get any objective information on the
Coditel service. What I did get was a lot of anecdotal evidence that
Coditel was having serious tech problems with their telephone
service, and their billing and customer support service was seriously
lacking. I did hear that their internet service worked as advertised.
But I also heard that the company's quality had gone downhill since
it was acquired by a Belgian company. Since I'm not really interested
in the local cable offerings for TV, I'd only have cable if it
offered me a way to avoid paying for a P&T landline, as well. Based
on what I could find out, I dropped the idea.
Next I returned to DSL. Having tracked the prices, I could see that
competition was having a noticeable effect, reducing the cable price
advantage. But again, I had limited information on quality of service.
So I devised an experiment. I have a DSL modem that I bought in
Canada. I decided to ask all 11 DSL ISPs I knew whether my DSL modem
ought to work here. I sent the message listing the technical specs of
my modem (I had already ascertained with the manufacturer that it
probably will work here) at 15:58 on Dec. 12. It's not 16:32 on Dec.
14, and so far, only 4 of the ISPs (2 of which turned out to be
different names for the same outfit) have bothered to respond.
Based on this experiment and my interaction with the people who
responded and their prices, I am considering signing up with Alternet/
Tiscali (they responded right away with accurate, detailed
information and had a deal on a level with the cheapest on the
market. I wonder if I could trouble list members for any information
that I should consider before committing myself.
Thank you,
Mike
mglists@gmailcom
