KDelphi—I got the idea Xbox Live was populated by adolescent bigots from the news story above.  That’s what it says.  It appears to emanate from a site called “Kotaku” and was written by someone called Malcolm McWhertor, whose byline was elided when Truthdig lifted the story.  Kotaku/McWhertor in turn rely on a site called “Consumerist”.  Both links are given above.  I myself know nothing about Xbox Live except what people tell me, and that it’s from Microsoft.  Somehow I am not surprised to learn that the online gaming community is replete with jerks, because one runs into so many of them in so many other areas of life.  You can still get away with abusing homosexuals, I guess.

Recently, I bought a rather nice system running Windows XP on a Dell for $200.  Second-hand, of course, from a Senegalese fellow who advertises in Craigslist.  I plan to convert it to Ubuntu, a flavor of Linux, but it would certainly do as it is for email, web browsing, and word processing.  However, if your present system runs at all it ought to be able to run Firefox.

I do not have enough experience with Ubuntu to know whether it can be unleashed on non-techies.  Most flavors of Linux are not easy to deal with for those unfamiliar with the Craft, but Ubuntu might be the exception.

Kdelphi,

I don’t know how old your computer is, or what kind processor you’re using, but you may be able to use firefox without using IE at all.

You’ll need to use the IE browser to download firefox, but once that is done, you can uninstall IE and just set firefox as the default browser.

Thing is, it could take a while to get used to firefox, and you might wanna be able to go back and forth until you do. That would be the drawback if you don’t have enough memory for both.

I have been trying to withdraw from Microsoft to the extent that I can, and I’ve had some limited success. But, I think the problem for many of us is that we can’t ‘afford’ it now. I considered a Mac when my last two laptops crashed and burned, but I couldn’t afford to buy a new computer and replace all of the software. So, I’m still running windows on this new one. But, I’ve been able to avoid using the browser and most of the software, since others have come along. igoogle offers nearly everything that MS Office has - free. It all works great with firefox.

The BEST way to boycott would probably be for everybody to switch to the MAC, and use an alternate operating system.

So, that can be a project. I also got this last computer, (less than 6 months ago) for less than $500.00, and it’s a Toshiba. It might be worth it to keep an eye on possible deals or on-line deals with them or somebody like Dell. They really are damn near giving the things away now.

(seriously).

So, it might be worth checking into, even under such hard times. My guess is it’s a worthy investment, since it may be the only way to really accomplish full access to any services that do become available for us.

I am getting VERY tired of gay bashing and prejudice—it needs to stop! How ridiculous.

I thought that there would be more to this story, too.

YOu are right, Nelson! I wish I could use some other system on my pc, but, it is , unfortunately, not my choice. If the uS wasnt so protective of its monopolies, we would have broken up Microsoft’s “too big (and horrible!) to fail”  systems a long time ago. They have been sued for monopoly all over the world—but, not in the good old uS of A!

I have never played MSN games, so I wouldnt know. but, where did you (Anarcissie) get the idea that it is populated by adolescent bigots? I would suspect that to be true, it is just that my f*cking IE browser is acting up and I cant open sh*t with any big pics on it. I’ve been messing with this all day.

I would love to boycott MSN. I cant use Firefox (too old a pc) and I cant seem to figure out Linux—anyone got any ideas? Is there a way to use Firefox without IE or do they have to run side by side? Anyone kmow? Thanks.

I dont have RAM to run both…I’ve asked a few peopel and no one seems to know, except just to say “download it and run them concomittently”

I don’t know much about Xbox Live, inasmuch as I avoid Microsoft products whenever possible.  If it’s a sort of slum dominated by adolescent bigots, what’s an intelligent lesbian doing in it?  Maybe Microsoft should have two Xbox networks, one for the adolescent bigots and another for everyone else?  It’s a curious story and I have a feeling we’re missing some information.

I think that it is high time that the people put Microsoft in its place.
If Microsoft wants to be a provider of games and game related software then they must move their thinking into the 21st Century, or they should suffer the consequences. Boycott sounds like a reasonable thing.
We are too far along in our lives to let some corporation dictate to us how and who we should love, whether they be male or female.
Microsoft has gotten too big for its britches and its about time that they feel the wrath of the people.