[ale] pigs do fly

[Richard Bronosky]

On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 10:59 PM, Michael B. Trausch<mbt at zest.trausch.us> wrote:
> That said, the code is GPL, and it can be openly audited.  As with anything,
> it should be looked at on its own merit, not the author's merit.  It does not
> matter if a contributor is well-known or well-liked, when it comes to
> favorably-license code; it only matters whether or not the code stands up on
> its own merits.

I completely disagree. I would never hire the roofing contractor who
mistreated my in-laws this year. I will never again by tires from the
guy who told me all sales are final when I discovered my tires were
out of round. I could give more examples but I think my point is
clear.

What is different is that only one company has wrong me and those I
care about in such a way that it is clear that they want to destroy
everything I hold dear. The goals of Microsoft are in direct
opposition to the goals of Open Source. This whole thing calls to
mind:
"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness
and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with
darkness?" http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=54&chapter=6&verse=14&version=31&context=verse
(now I must digress momentarily, but I think you will be glad if you
continue reading) Taken out of context, that has been used to mean
"don't have friendships or be accepting of people who don't share your
beliefs." That is not what is said there at all. It says "do not be
yoked". A yoke http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/yoke#Noun is the thing
you use to attach two oxen together so that they are unable to stray
from each other. They are force to follow the same path, perform the
same task, and arrive at the same destination. Two oxen eating grass
together in a pasture, playing 'bovine games', or breeding are not
yolked. They have a relationship but are free follow their individual
paths to reach their destinations.

If Microsoft were contributing drivers to make wireless networking,
sleep/suspend/power management, video acceleration/DirectX, WINE, or
even their mice/trackballs and keyboards work better... I'd be cool
with it. But that is not what is happening. They want to (as literally
as a computer metaphor could possibly be applied) put a yoke Linux.
Not only that, they give themselves the exclusive rights to be the
host OS. So, not only do they want to be the oxen your boxen are yoked
to... They want to be the man cracking the whip as well. You don't
find this offensive?

For those that would accept this code contribution, there is another
passage http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=29&chapter=5&verse=20&version=31&context=verse
(That one is in jest. ;-)

-- 
.!# RichardBronosky #!.