Re: [tlug] RESPECT MICROSOFT

["Josh Glover" <jmglov@example.com>]

On 12/08/07, Dave M G <dave@example.com> wrote:

> My point is simply that the choice isn't binary, either to value Linux,
> or devalue Microsoft.

Precisely! This is why I get tired of seeing Slashdaughter-esque posts
to this list about Microsoft.

I don't really care much about Microsoft these days, because their
monopoly really does not affect my life much. When it does matter, I
get involved, such as with the OOXML issue, or with lobbying against
Exchange as a corporate mail environment.

Microsoft's co-opting of standards is a serious risk to me
professionally, and just pisses me off privately. So I will fight them
in that arena. But I don't see much of a point in making blanket
statements about how Microsoft is evil and must be defeated. I really
don't think they are more evil than Oracle, Sun, or Apple, just more
successful, so their shady dealings have had a bigger impact.

And I see a big downside for the Linux community in making
melodramatic statements, as it tends to marginalise our opinions. The
only value in radicalism is in making the rest of us look reasonable
(as Keith pointed out), but if the radicals are too noisy, it makes us
think we have an unbridgeable gap between us (cf. current political
situation in the US), and we cannot get any real work done.

-- 
Cheers,
Josh