[ale] OT: newsflash: Microsoft is still the devil...open source beware

[Randy Ramsdell]

Jonathan Rickman wrote:
> On 7/30/07, *John Wells* <jb at sourceillustrated.com
> <mailto:jb at sourceillustrated.com>> wrote:
>
>     Every member of this list should read the following article:
>
>     http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070730120109643
>
>     Scary how keeping up with Microsoft is like reading Machiavelli...
>     _______________________________________________
>     Ale mailing list
>     Ale at ale.org <mailto:Ale at ale.org>
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>
>
>  
> That reads like the paranoid rantings of a "shooter on the grassy
> knoll, Bush planned 9/11, foolsball is the debbil Bobby Bouche"
> lunatic. How this person maintains any credibility is beyond me.
> Having taken a step back from the Linux community for the last two
> years or so, I can now see very clearly what people are referring to
> when they speak of Linux and FOSS advocates as a bunch of barking
> moonbats. Now, I certainly do not ascribe altruistic motives to
> anything Microsoft does. After all, their job is to deliver value to
> their shareholders and customers, by hook or (in unfortunately far too
> many cases) by crook. But at the same time, I do not automatically
> brand EVERYTHING they do as some covert attack on Linux or open source
> software in general, because frankly...they probably have better
> things to be concerned with...like improving their products,
> which, over the last 3-4 years they have  had tremendous success
> doing, as any objective observer will admit. Perhaps the open source
> community would be better served to do likewise, rather than spending
> so much time and energy fighting an imaginary battle against an
> opponent that is half heartedly engaged at best.  Personally, I like
> having their offerings available at the big software buffet and don't
> care to much for the idealistic vision of an all FSF/GPL world. I have
> Linux and Windows playing quite well together, primarily through the
> efforts of Microsoft developers, in a great twist of irony.
>  
> Finally, remember this is computer software people. Just computer
> software. The sun will rise tomorrow. Relax.
>  
> --
> Jonathan "misses the old days when it was about the software" Rickman
>  
>  
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What you fail to understand and fail miserably it the fact that
Microsoft's viral ways have caused many many problems in the computer
industry that I work in and PJ/Others simply remember that and you
simply want to forget and wash over it as if it didn't happen. It is
amazing how people like to classify or judge others based upon their
emotional level, also. Anyhoo,  do  you remember  how microsoft added
hooks to JAVA so that anyone running a UNIX flavored OS was unable to
run the application. As an example, MOST online stock investment trading
companies use JAVA technology to bring real-time quotes, charts , etc
... to end users. Well lo and behold and with one fell swoop and one
upgrade of the application to the new microsoft version of JAVA with
those hooks, NO ONE using a UNIX OS was able to use the real-time
services anymore. This lasted until Sun won the lawsuit and microsoft
was denied the ability to distribute JAVA any longer. So I and any other
Unix users were without those services for well over a 2 years. Wasn't
one of the reasons to use JAVA was to be able to run  applications
independent of the installed OS?  So microsoft and their super nice ways
decided that it would be ok to destroy the very purpose of why the
technology existed in the first place. Paaaaaleeeese. Go ahead and bash
PJ and all the others that advocate Linux/ OSS , etc... all you want and
please classify/judge all that actually have strong beliefs that are
different from yours.