Windows only tax software in Spain is challenged

[davidnix71]

http://www.macobserver.com/editorial/2001/06/29.1.shtml


It's called Padre instaed of Hermano Mayor, but the effect is the same. If you have to run Windows, then your finances aren't safe.

[worker201]

This isn't directly a Microsoft problem - it's more of an unfortunate market situation that has arisen because of Microsoft's market position.  I kinda see both sides of the story - if it's a convenience program, it makes sense to target the largest number of potential users possible without having to deal with versioning problems.  Microsoft's position in the market, and the overly-large backwards compatibility (I mean huge - beyond any reasonable expectations) of Windows systems kinda answer the question of who to target with the software.  On the other hand, Microsoft does not have a provider contract with the Spanish government -- and even if they did, they would be obligated to not give preferential treatment to Microsoft's customers.

What I think is kinda interesting is that the Linux users of Spain are way more organized than Apple Spain.  A handful of marginalized computer users appears to have way more influence on technological matters than a multi-billion dollar tech corporation.  In this case, Apple's centralized organization has actually hurt Mac users.  The Macfolk over there would have had better results from being a loosely organized mob of protesters than asking top lawyers and policy consultants for help.  I think this is a great win for grassroots organizations around the world.

Another interesting thing in the article is the idea of Europe having widespread access to benefits online, but perhaps that discussion is best suited for another thread.  What I do find kinda sad is that online benefits management software is still written as a client application.  Wouldn't this sort of stuff be much more efficient and secure as a server application?  Just point your browser (IE, Safari, Konqueror, etc) at the site and log in - easy.  Today's internet suggests that writing some sort of AJAX and/or Web-2.0 network application is pretty simple, and if Yahoo! can do it, Spain (an extremely rich country) should be able to do it too.

[davidnix71]

A browser app is definitely the way to go. You don't share the program or code with anyone. Nothing to download. Maybe a few files saved for reference purposes on the home users machine. Encrypted transaction like buying something online.

Someone in the Spanish government probably gets a kickback on this.

[Kintaro]

I'd have never thought a democratic government would even attempt this. Even in Australia the Government internet filter software you can freely download which they subsidized the development of supports Linux. I mean why not develop for platforms nobody uses? ITS FREE MONEY.

[worker201]

Do you think that only people who use Windows should have access to government services?  Cuz that's fucked up.

[Kintaro]

They should surely support macs, but fuck minorities as small as Linux users.

[worker201]

Do you think that only people who use Windows or Macs should have access to government services?  Cuz that's fucked up.

[Kintaro]

What else do people use?

[worker201]

(Unless you're a damn fool, you know that there are lots of hobbyists and self-styled rebels out there who are using whatever they happen to find, usually some flavor of Linux.  So this post will focus on some other users that you might not know about.)

Linux, Irix, and Solaris, to name a few.

SGI probably has higher retention of outdated/outmoded hardware than Apple does - otherwise, Irix would be totally dead, which you probably knew already.  What you might not know is that SGI has a very large installation base among academia and science, because they are so good at modelling and rendering.  A lot of them have been repurposed into clusters, but a significant number remain on the desktop as daily work machines.

Linux is also extremely popular in those areas, because the easy access to libraries makes scripting and CLI app development very easy.  Getting free software has its perks too, especially for those subsisting on grant money or stipends.  It's not surprising to find sociology grad students who use Perl and ImageMagick to reconstitute MatLab data.  The openness of Linux has also led to some incredibly awesome single-purpose tools.  Since many academic and scientific computing applications have a need for high precision and uncompromising methods, academic toolsmiths all over the world are creating hi-powered tools that will only run in Linux.  These tools are so good at their one job that it is worth learning CLI and shell scripting to take advantage of them.  These professors, students, and scientists, who are driving the development of Linux, are not quite the "grandma who wants to use email" that many people insist Linux has to market for (we can talk more about that later).

For some reason, enterprise Linux is rarely found at American universities.  Many computer resources are therefore going to Solaris, which provides the adaptability of Linux and the reliability of Sun.  A few years ago, everything was RedHat.  Now, most labs have Sun Workstations, and Linux is confined to professors and grad students who purchased hardware/software with grant money.  So the balance between Solaris and Linux is changing.

[Kintaro]

Yeah well let me know when Linux has a 3D memory manager and I'll help promote it to SGI customers.

[Refalm]

Isn't 3D memory only being used in cellphones and PDA's?

[Kintaro]

Err, I'm talking about OpenGL not RAM. Linux uses xorg as a makeshift memory manager and it sucks.

http://linuxhaters.blogspot.com/2008/06/nitty-gritty-shit-on-open-source.html

[worker201]

Yeah well let me know when Linux has a 3D memory manager and I'll help promote it to SGI customers.

Too late.  Irix died in December 2006, and SGI computers since then have been using SuSE ELS or RHEL.

[Kintaro]

And probably nvidia, with its famed closed source memory manager.

[Calum]

but fuck minorities as small as Linux users.

it's not surprising that you say this with relation to australian politics, that's the attitude that australian politics (and actually most democracies, since we saw them mentioned above) has (have) in most areas (not just support for different computer platforms).

Basically governments, organisations, individuals, none of them care about any minority group that they themselves are not part of or involved with. That's why minorities generally have to do their own campaigning. and that's why telling minorities to fuck off is a waste of time, so what's the point in doing it? Just let the minorities campaign. In fact when people start telling your minority group to fuck off, it's a good sign that your campaigning is starting to make an impact.