Sterling Ball, whose company is the world’s leading maker of premium guitar strings, explains why he made the move to open source and why he’s never looked back since.*
*editorial: Spite!
Ah, so this happened in 2000 and the MS anti-trust ruling came down in 2001. That tracks. It was in the 90s that I really started to distance myself from MS as a small-time dev, and I haven’t looked back since. They were a notoriously evil monopoly that, while lacking any true innovation in their products, was very inventive at coming up with ways to screw over the competition, steal trade secrets, etc. They knew they could get away with it. We all did.
To give you an example, I had a friend who attended a developer conference and ran a booth where they were trying to sell software involving running mall directory consoles I think it was? Whatever. Well, rumour spread that the vendor Internet was running on a sandboxed subnet managed by the graphics research division at MS, and there was a lot of suspicious activity on that LAN. This was not long after it had become clear that MS had outright stolen disk compression tech from another company (Stacker?) and folded it into their own OS, so indie devs were super paranoid. The busiest booth quickly became that of a new company that had just come up with a security and full disk encryption package. They made a lot of on-the-spot sales just to fellow vendors!
Why does Microsoft always abuse its customers?
Why does Microsoft always abuse its customers?
It’s what big pseudo-monopolies do.
This isn’t a Microsoft specific problem.
The idea that if you have 2,000 terminals they all have to have a Web browser, that’s crazy. It just creates distractions.
Anybody else read this on your work computer?
“In 2000, the Business Software Alliance conducted a raid and subsequent audit at the San Luis Obispo, Calif.-based company that turned up a few dozen unlicensed copies of programs”
Later in the article they claim this meant armed marshals showed up at their door to enforce based on a tip from a program that designed to get employees to snitch on their bosses. If that’s true that’s absolutely wild. In what world do you give software companies license to do mandatory audits with severe financial penalties and police support based on heresay that was enticed by the auditor
In what world do you give software companies license to do mandatory audits with severe financial penalties and police support based on heresay that was enticed by the auditor
One where One Rich Asshole Called Larry Ellison, otherwise known as Oracle, exists.
For Java licencing you need to have one license per employee regardless if they use the SDK.
I call BS - I’ve been through dozens of these license audits.
It simple generates a bill or conversation about alignment.
Article from August 20, 2003
Did you want to settle?
Never, never. That’s the difference between the way an employee and an owner thinks. They attacked my family’s name and came into my community and made us look bad. There was never an instance of me wanting to give in. I would have loved to have fought it. But when (the BSA) went to Congress to get their powers, part of what they got is that I automatically have to pay their legal fees from day one. That’s why nobody’s ever challenged them–they can’t afford it. My attorney said it was going to cost our side a quarter million dollars to fight them, and since you’re paying their side, too, figure at least half a million. It’s not worth it. You pay the fine and get on with your business. What most people do is get terrified and pay their license and continue to pay their licenses. And they do that no matter what the license program turns into.I wonder if that little poison pill about having to pay the legal fees for the Business Software Alliance from day 1 is still true? I’d also be curious to see a follow-up today for how they’re using FOSS in their business. There are a lot more resources today than there were in 2003!
I am sure it is still true for business, and they just put it on the books as something they pay for and do not think twice about it. As the rich keep getting richer because of this little buy line in so many companies books I hope more of your US companies do it. I have no idea how they do it here in Canada but I am sure they have something, wish the world would realize what the French police did when they disliked Windows XP and created a Linux distro for themselves instead of suffering.
No no, it’s the BSA here too. They’ll probably sue the same way.
I really want governments and businesses in Canada to go FOSS rather than paying big US tech money to harvest our data.
I’m so sorry, that sounds like extortion of some sort.
The American way.
This article is over 23 years old. I’d be curious if they’re still entirely open source.
Exactly, I’d love a followup.
I tried to search around and most results still bring references to the same article. The only way is to contact the company, it’s still in business.
The other question, have they given back to any of the open source projects?
Article says they’re using Red Hat, so my guess is they’re paying for updates, and probably a support contract. While it’s not exactly the best way to contribute (giving money to IBM), it’s not nothing. Plus IBM does contribute to open source projects beyond RHEL.
i do have to wonder if 23 years later they’re still with RedHat especially since IBM renegotiated many of the contracts when they bought redhat. i’m almost curious enough to email Ernie Ball with the full expectation that they email back “we ain’t telling you shit about our network topology”
EDIT: Curiosity got the better of me and I sent an email asking
edit2: they emailed back with an extremely reasonable “we ain’t telling you shit about our network topology”
You got to let us know if they get back to you.
see edit2
Just bought some Ernie ball accessories recently. I feel much better about that purchase. I wonder if the company still refuses MS products.
I generally use Ernie Ball strings, for no real reason, other than I’m already familiar with them. Now I have a good reason.
I don’t know why they wouldn’t, shit’s just gotten way easier since then.
Great read even if it’s an old article.
I tell you what, our hits to eBay went down greatly when not everybody had a Web browser.
He sounds like fun at parties.
Down
