On Wed September 29 2004 23:59, s. keeling wrote: > Incoming from Jarrod Major: > > Hey Gang, > > > > I apologize in advance, this may be a long one...
hehe, me too. :-) > I apologize in advance too, though it shouldn't be long, however my > views have been seen by some to be rather extreme. It takes all kinds. I appreciate your presence on the list (as with others). <snip> > > 3) Microsoft bashing is bad. Using any of your favourite pet names for > > them is > > In your opinion. In mine, they deserve everything we can throw at > them, and there's lots we can deservedly throw at them. Even CERT is > recommending against the use of IE. Come on, Jarrod, this is Calgary > Linux User Group. Microsoft sucks, in so many ways! Microsoft bashing has become somewhat of a pastime in many communities, which is regretable. Nobody regularly bashes Sun or IBM and there are tremendous corporate and product/service flaws in both of those companies, both past and present -- not unlike Microsoft. There seems to be a hero and a villain for each day in the Open Source community, a fact that I find odd considering the remarkable left-leaning libertarian-type contingent. One would think we'd be past black and white stereotyping, but ah, humanity, who can escape it? ;-) If there are faults and flaws in a company or product which serve as evidence toward a point (e.g. "Even CERT is recommending against the use of IE." <== that's an excellent point!) then that's fine, but name calling (e.g. "Microsoft sucks, in so many ways!") just becomes juvenile. Eventually, it amounts to little more than gossip or slander (in terms of net effect <== no pun intended! ;-). People get torn down, whether deserving or not. Even if the recipient is deserving, it ends up not detracting from them, but from us. The whole point of the matter, I think, is one of character. Sure, they might suck, but it's we who lose face when we say it. Call a spade a spade. SCO has engaged in detestable business (legal?) practices. Microsoft produces shoddy software and has questionable ethics, corporately speaking. Linux and FOSS are providing an option to these both technologically and socially. In my opinion, we should try not to make a habit of it criticizing, but instead try and use it to keep things constructive. From one who can always use a healthy dose of practicing what he preaches, Curtis S. _______________________________________________ clug-talk mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://clug.ca/mailman/listinfo/clug-talk_clug.ca
