lix blog

X-Plane 10 has just been released.

“Vor den Ruhm haben die Götter den Schweiss gesetzt”

… the story continues. Am still trying to acquire a computer that is whether bound to a proprietary operation system, nor uses outdated hardware components.
Today I was writing to Lenovo Switzerland:

Guten Tag sehr geehrte Lenovo

Gerne würde ich mir eines Ihrer Produkte kaufen. So beispielsweise das ThinkPad X121e oder X220.
Da ich jedoch ausschliesslich das Betriebssystem GNU/Linux Debian benutze, möchte ich dieses ohne Lizenzkosten bei Lenovo oder einem Händler erwerben.

Könnten Sie mir mitteilen, beziehungsweise einen Händler empfehlen, wo ich eines Ihrer Produkte kaufen kann ohne gezwungen zu werden, die Lizenzkosten über ein Produkt zu bezahlen, welches ich nicht benutze?

Besten Dank & freundliche Grüsse, A.A.

Lenovo writes back:

Sehr geehrter Herr A.A.,

vielen Dank für Ihre E-Mail.

Lenovo verfügt über ein Netzwerk kompetenter Händler, die Ihnen helfen, die am besten geeigneten Lösungen aus unserem Angebot auszuwählen.
Lenovo Business Partner sind auf den Vertrieb und den Support unserer Produkte spezialisiert und am Business Partner Logo zu erkennen (siehe Anhang).
Bei Fragen zu Preis, Verfügbarkeit sowie Bestellmöglichkeiten helfen Sie Ihnen gerne weiter.
Lenovo Vertriebspartner beraten Sie sowohl Online als auch vor Ort.
Kontaktdaten für Business Partner in Ihrer Nähe finden Sie unter:

http://shop.lenovo.com/SEUILibrary/controller/e/chind/LenovoPortal/de_CH/special-offers.workflow:ShowPromo?LandingPage

Freundliche Grüsse / Cordialement / Cordiali saluti / Best regards

M.D.

… wobei meine Antwort sich wie folgt liest:

Guten Tag Herr D.

Besten Dank für Ihre Antwort auf meine Anfrage.

Wie von Ihnen vorgeschlagen habe ich mich umgehend dies bezüglich an einen “kompetenten Händler” ihres “Netzwerks” gewendet. Dieser verweist mich jedoch wieder zurück an den Hersteller, also Lenovo.

Es geht, bei meiner Anfrage um genauere Auskunft der Bestellmöglichkeit. Ins Besondere interessiert mich die Möglichkeit der Bestellung Ihrer wunderbaren Notebook Produkte ohne Betriebssystem, genauer ohne dass ich als Kunde die Kosten einer Lizenz eines Betriebssystems trage, welches ich gar nicht benutzen will. Schliesslich handelt es sich bei dem Betriebssytem-Produkt ja auch nicht um ein von Lenovo hergestelltes Produkt, sondern eines Dritten.
Um es anders zu sagen: Ich wünsche mir ein Gerät bei Ihnen, dem Hersteller, zu kaufen, ohne dass eine dritte Firma die Lizenzkosten eines Produktes erhält, welches ich weder erwerben, geschweige denn noch benutzen möchte.
Ich hoffe, im Sinne des freien Wettbewerbs und im Sinne internationaler Kartellrechte und Gesetze, dass dieses Produkt eines Dritten, in diesem Falle Microsoft, nicht an Ihre Produkte gebunden ist.

Mit Neugier freue ich mich auf Ihre postivie Antwort, wünsche ein schönes Wochenende und verbleibe mit freundlichen Grüssen, A.A.

h2g2

“Man gestattet uns regelmässig Demokratie zu spielen”
One regularly grants us to play a little democracy.
Hagen Rether

If you are not paying for it, you are not the customer. You are the product.

“No mud No lotus!”

Hagen Rether‘s Auftritt bei “Neues aus der Anstalt“.

English transcription:
(Link to Youtube video with english subtitles)

Rether! Hello.

Winners don’t exist any more. Only loosers exist nowadays. There are just to types of loosers. The guilty ones and the un-guilty ones.

In Libya there were no winners as well. But a Libyan now has the possibility having four women again. Wouldn’t this be the moment introducing womens rights now? Let us bomb Libya.

Since Peter Struck are SPD ordered air strikes a suitable mean for development aid. Democracy-bombers, we’re sending now. Because it’s so easy. Now Peter Struck became a member of the board of the “Friedrich Ebert Foundation”. Poor Friedrich Ebert. If he knew, he would alternately turn over in his grave and vomit, turn over in his grave and vomit, turn over in his grave and vomit.

And if, in Afghanistan, the aid of the women would continue to be so successful, we should be obligated to do so as well in other coutries. Everything else would be failure of performance. In Uzbekhistan, where women are being kidnapped, and in Saudi-Arabia where they aren’t alowed to drive a car. But we just don’t bother. It’s just not our business. We don’t even manage to support the opposition in Syria or in Iran. We just don’t bother. We don’t see any interest. It’s not our business.

Let us finally bomb India, for example. In India half a billion women are living in a caste system, which has nothing to do which rights for democracy, human rights or rights for women. But we fly there for Goa parties for enjoying the Ayurveda massages. They even get the nuclear weapon, as India is known for being a stable democracy.

There we stand in Calcutta with our back pack and watch how the kids are dying in the sunk. “Come on Hagen this is a tradition in India. The Indian does not know other than his caste system. They have a total different handling over dead and poverty. Who are we to think we should interfere, this would be arrogant and colonial.” “Yes true.” “Further the Indian lives from tourism. How would it be if India could finally live from what it produces? But no they aren’t allowed to do so. They get seeds by Monsanto, which doesn’t work. Thousands of Indian farmers commit suicide, which isn’t so bad for us, as the farmer’s widows perfectly know how to offer us Ayurveda massages.”

We just don’t bother. We don’t see any interest. It’s not our business.

And here everyone shouts for transparency and information. For the sake of what? We don’t do anything with it. We know everything, but don’t permutate our know-how. We would have to change our lives. Information for the sake of informing? That doesn’t help.

We know all under what poor circumstances these iPhones are being produced. But instead of feeling bad about it we buy that crap and stand in the queue for it. And Bill Gates, ahm sorry, Steve Jobs will be praised as employer-god for the next 300 years and clever inventor. “Hey Hagen, they don’t even have agreed wages in China. You can’t compare that. If the Chinese or the Indians would pay agreed wages, IKEA could close their business.”

Try buying a jogging suite in a store here which doesn’t come from a oblique Police state. We just don’t bother. We don’t see any interest. Nothing. Never. It’s not our business.

Mexico? I don’t know anything about it. I know that they starve because they can’t bake Tortillas any more, as the Maize price is being speculated to high. Our cattle gets that stuff in Germany and the rest used is as fuel.

“Oh shit the mineral oil is getting scarce soon. What should be using to tank up now?” “Mhmmm. Let us maybe tank up aliments.” “Oh good idea, but not our aliments, theirs.” “Well sure. It also was their mineral oil, stupid. Moron.”

We just don’t bother. We would have to do something. Which is silly. No we don’t. We are happy as it is.

And we think these undemocratic misogynist tribal structures in Afganistan are unappetising. Where we should do something against it. “Let us finally bomb the Masai in Africa. They live in tribal structures there. A Masai women is worth less than a sugar beet.” Is this of interest to us? “The Masai need elections for mayors, WIFI, suburban railways and washing machines. The Masai warriors marry 12 and 14 year old girls. This is unsupportable for us democrats. We should bomb away these Masai finally. This is hardly bearable. The Masai warriors will then be transmuted into ISAF Police men and the girls then go to schools and the kids being adopted by Madonna. For that they learn waht Democracy is. And then we’ll do this everywhere.”

Sure. It’s about free trade, not about Democracy. Horst Köhler (former German President) was the only guy who had the guts to name that we’re waging economical wars and a week later he was gone. It’s about free trade. And after that in the future we can sell our subsidised chicken feet to the Masai. – Happy christmas goose!