On Wed, 30 Jun 1999, Arup Bhanja wrote:
> I personally believe we should criticise the products/software and not
> personally attack anybody.
As you'll know, Linux groups have a very diverse population, and knowing
this can help in not getting upset by the diverse viewpoints of postings
you will see. Some of us actually have a problem with the person even more
than we have a problem with the technology (Assuming you believe Microsoft
is a technology company - I don't. Their most visible 'services' are
marketing and government lobbying, and these are the areas they have been
most successful)
If Microsoft technology products were 100% reliable, sold for the price
you can get Linux via Cheapbytes and available in all languages I would
still have a problem with Bill Gates himself. He can be credited for
having the largest individual lobbying to remove freedoms via increased
predominance of intellectual property as opposition to free market
principles, opposition to fair trade, substitutes for innovation, and so
on.
I use Linux not because of the technology, but because of the license
and philosophy behind the license. When I started using Linux the various
*BSD systems were orders of magnitude ahead and are still more reliable
and robust systems. That didn't matter to me as much as the fight against
monopolies and the legal tools (Copyright, Patents, other IP, WIPO, WTO,
World Bank) which encourage/enforce them.
That all being said, the original message was a joke and should have
been taken in that light ;-)
> Incidentally, Microsoft is talking to Eric S. Raymond --the open source
> guru and we can only speculate the outcome. Also, Microsoft is working
> closely with ActiveState corp. to build a Perl for windows so they ARE
> thinking in internet time.
Like bandaids on a bullet wound, they are fighting hard to postpone what
many of us believe is the inevitable. I am glad they are 'embracing' more
standard technologies, hopefully with the end result that people will not
have any technological limitations forcing them to one brand. It will be
about time that Microsoft will be selling based on merit, not on monopoly.
P.S. I'm one of those lucky people who are self employed and run an
almost 'proprietary free' business. While some of my customers use
Microsoft, Apple, Sun and other proprietary products on their desktop
which I support with their connectivity to the LAN/Internet, and I do have
StarOffice and Netscape on my own computers, I otherwise deal with
non-proprietary software systems.
---
Russell McOrmond, Internet Consultant: <http://russell.flora.org/work/>
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