Sridhar Dhanapalan wrote: > I can't see how it is _bad_ for SLUG or for Linux.
Its not _bad_ for SLUG its just that I can't possibly see anything good come out of it. > It's just a meeting, after > all. At best, we both go away with a better understanding of each other. Linux has been around since 1991 and I started using it in 1995. May other people attending SLUG have been using Linux similar lengths of time. We have all seen Microsoft's behavior towards Linux and FOSS, we have seen Balmer's statements that Linux is a cancer, we have seen the links to SCO, the dirty tricks against FOSS in the third world, the campaign against OLPC, the OOXML related stacking if standards bodies, the patent related threats, the conviction of anti-competitive behaviour (with a punishment that seemed more like a reward than a punishment) and thats just what I can remember off the top of my head. With that history, I wonder what more there is to say and what more is there to understand. A humble apology from Microsoft would be interesting, but that has to come from Balmer not from minions like these people. > I sympathize with your view, but what makes the Free Software world better > than the proprietary dominion is that we are open to code, ideas and > discussion. By suppressing conversation, we become more like them, not less. I agree with you on this for the vast majority of cases but not for Microsoft. I get the ocasionaly email from companies that want to use my projects libsndfile and libsamplerate in their commercial products. I've often heard of these companies but I've never heard them say anything bad about me, Linux or FOSS, so I gladly work with them and help them its a win win situation for both parties. Now compare this with Microsoft that has spent huge amounts of effort, time, and money (by the standards of FOSS, not Microsoft which seems to be rolling in it) trying to kill, maim or injure Linux and FOSS. What can they possibly say? > Once you've heard what they have to say, you are obviously free to dismiss > it. I honestly expect many of us to do so, but at least we would have made a > better informed decision than we could have otherwise. > > Free Software and the FOSS community do not operate in a vacuum. We are in > constant interaction with other code bases, development ideologies, > organizations and companies. I can't see how it would hurt us to communicate > a little more with other parties. Commnicating with other parties is fine, as long as those other parties haven't declared themselves our biggest and worst enemy and don't have a long history of specifically trying to harm us. For the case of Microsoft I would like to see a public apology from the very top of microsoft and a promise to correct their past behaviour before I particularly want to hear what some microsoft minion has to say. > By the way, is there any reason why there's a Reply-To header on your > message pointing to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Its my attempt at preventing people CCing me on list mail. In this case I think discussing this on the main list is appropriate because I really don't think there are that many people on this activities list. Erik -- ----------------------------------------------------------------- Erik de Castro Lopo ----------------------------------------------------------------- "So if you were to say 'Microsoft,' I'd say 'Where? Let me grab me my stake and crucifix!'." -- Bridget Kulakauskas -- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
