Re: [tlug] Microsoft adver-FUD on SourceForge

["Stephen J. Turnbull" <stephen@example.com>]

>>>>> "Josh" == Josh Glover <jmglov@example.com> writes:

    Josh> Nasty shite, MS, nasty shite.

Thus speaks a guy fed by an aggressive advocate of certain software
patents, whose main mailing address is a company that just signed a
contract to serve as lynchpin censor for the Chinese government.[1]  Put
those rocks down, man, you're living in a glass house.

Think about it.  Steve Smith is right.  It helps pay the bills for
Sourceforge[2], and these look very much like actual facts, not the
"GPL gives your profits jock itch" FUD of the Halloween papers period.
If they're not, they'll come back to haunt Microsoft as their lies
have done in the past.  Assuming they're true, it does FLOSS no good
to ignore those facts, and may very well do it good to have its nose
rubbed in it.

You should also remember that every time Microsoft is forced to
mention Linux, it validates Linux as serious competition.  Any decent
businessman realizes that any product that deserves his vendor's
negative advertising also deserves his serious consideration.

And have you read any of Microsoft's whitepapers?  I've read a few,
and it's my opinion that every time Microsoft publishes a whitepaper
providing even minimal details of alleged cost savings, it's painting
a bullseye on its profit margin.  You think Oracle, Sun, and IBM
aren't studying those case studies?

Also, suppose (as is quite possible) that when the time comes to think
about switching to Microsoft's Next Big Thing, Rayovac discovers that
the TCO had ballooned, and they didn't know how to control it, and
decided to bring that back in-house and return to Linux or NetBSD?
Save that ad, man, it may be wonderful ammunition!

Footnotes: 
[1]  Yes, it matters.  If you can get packets to Mountain View and
back, and request English, Google will probably serve them there.  But
with the contract, Google US will refuse any packets from China or
redirect them to its crippled PRC servers, and may even provide
expertise to help China enforce that contract on its residents.

[2]  Which doesn't have as big a vested interest in Linux as you might
think.  They're a special-interest portal now, not a Linux hardware
distribution company's charity and loss leader.

-- 
School of Systems and Information Engineering http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp
University of Tsukuba                    Tennodai 1-1-1 Tsukuba 305-8573 JAPAN
               Ask not how you can "do" free software business;
              ask what your business can "do for" free software.