Re: [tlug] How to Push Linux! .......................

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

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

    Josh> On 07/02/06, Lyle (Hiroshi) Saxon <ronfaxon@example.com>
    Josh> wrote:

    >> Josh Glover wrote:

    >>> Remember a big, nasty, monopolistic company called IBM?

    >> Thanks to IBM allowing any company to produce the PC, we have
    >> machines to install Linux on.  I don't think IBM is a good
    >> comparison to Microsoft....

    Josh> That was a mistake by IBM, not any act of kindness.

Actually, not.  Remember, at that time IBM had (by the skin of their
teeth) just escaped from the Justice Department's clutches, courtesy
of Ronald "I Can Sleep Through a Nuclear War, and How Could a Man Who
Can't Spell 'Nicaragua' have Anything to Do with Iran-Contra?" Reagan,
and a really really bad government team (_Folded, Spindled, and
Mutilated: U.S. v. IBM_ fascinated me, but I can't recommend buying
it, it's heavy going for the non-specialist---if I make it on Friday,
I'll bring a copy).  I doubt that they really wanted to get involved
in that.  Furthermore, their arch-enemy (AT&T) had _not_ escaped, and
who knew what might escape from Bell Labs (or Xerox Parc, for that
matter)?

Note that NEC, which courtesy of extremely cozy relations with
government and major corporations alike, screwed itself bigtime by not
being 100% compatible.

So while whether attempting to lock up the market would have been a
better strategy is an open question, I don't think IBM's decision
should be considered a mistake, given their situation at the time.
The mistake that they did make was to sign up to pay the Microsoft tax.

    Josh> Please note that I also grant Steve carte blanche to
    Josh> criticise me for working for Amazon and using Gmail.

I don't criticize you for working for Amazon.  I'm not entire cool
with Gmail, but certainly I'm more upset about your use of a
thread-damaged mailer than I am about your use of a Google
affiliate. :-)

I haven't decided how _I'm_ going to deal with the latter (my page was
once #1 in Japan on Alta Vista and top 5 world wide; search engine
karma is something I'm very conscious of), but my probable response
will be to investigate thoroughly and make sure the deal is what it
looks like, then treat all Google referrals to a 10 second public
service ad explaining what Google is doing, and maybe wondering what
the implications are for, say, looking up side effects of cancer drugs
produced by Google advertisers.


-- 
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.