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Time to Write About Something Besides Redmond
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Comments (12)
Code + Docs Politics
Amen all around, brothers and sisters.
(Am I allowed to say that?)
What makes this little piece all the more impressive is the source.
Tom is a former Lxer Senior Editor who, ummm....you might say he was just a little itsy bitsy bit obsessed by the Mean Team from up Washington way.
That's a problem. Wasting too much energy worrying about the MacroNasties at Microsoft doesn't make free software any better and doesn't help a single new user make the switch. Heck -- while we're foaming, we're not taking a serious look at our own warts and figuring out how to make them go away or make them easier to live with.
Microsoft ends up beating us without having to try.
Which is a good thing for them, because trying doesn't seem to work very well these days. Vista may do more to open people's eyes to Windows alternatives than all of the free software ever written. The question is this: Do people buy Macs or do they try Linux? Sitting around fuming about how rotten Microsoft is won't cost Apple any sales.
What makes this little piece all the more impressive is the source.
Tom is a former Lxer Senior Editor who, ummm....you might say he was just a little itsy bitsy bit obsessed by the Mean Team from up Washington way.
That's a problem. Wasting too much energy worrying about the MacroNasties at Microsoft doesn't make free software any better and doesn't help a single new user make the switch. Heck -- while we're foaming, we're not taking a serious look at our own warts and figuring out how to make them go away or make them easier to live with.
Microsoft ends up beating us without having to try.
Which is a good thing for them, because trying doesn't seem to work very well these days. Vista may do more to open people's eyes to Windows alternatives than all of the free software ever written. The question is this: Do people buy Macs or do they try Linux? Sitting around fuming about how rotten Microsoft is won't cost Apple any sales.
I re-read Neil Stephenson's _In The Beginning Was The Command Line_ over the last couple of days. I find his observations c. 1999 to still be spot-on 8 years later.
Also interesting is the tie-in with his suggestion that people _want_ to believe they're getting something for their money, with the _Windows Is Free_ article.
"I got it for nothing, but it's worth something or they wouldn't be selling it."
compared to
"How can it be any good if no one is making any money from selling it?"
Yelling and screaming just drives people away. I've seen it over and over too. I think we aught to keep a few liveCDs around and just be there when they need an alternative.
> Sitting around fuming about how rotten Microsoft is won't cost Apple any sales.
I've seen very few "converts" to or from Macs. People who like Apple tend to like Apple. I remember that it was Apple who put computers into schools in large numbers before Microsoft did, too. I guess by the time the Apple2's came up for replacement, the hardware price difference was enough to cause the shift.
Also interesting is the tie-in with his suggestion that people _want_ to believe they're getting something for their money, with the _Windows Is Free_ article.
"I got it for nothing, but it's worth something or they wouldn't be selling it."
compared to
"How can it be any good if no one is making any money from selling it?"
Yelling and screaming just drives people away. I've seen it over and over too. I think we aught to keep a few liveCDs around and just be there when they need an alternative.
> Sitting around fuming about how rotten Microsoft is won't cost Apple any sales.
I've seen very few "converts" to or from Macs. People who like Apple tend to like Apple. I remember that it was Apple who put computers into schools in large numbers before Microsoft did, too. I guess by the time the Apple2's came up for replacement, the hardware price difference was enough to cause the shift.
>I've seen very few "converts" to or from Macs
I've seen quite a few. I must admit that I'm surprised because this didn't used to happen, but it does now. I've certainly recounted ad nauseum the story of getting a beautiful $8500 HP server from somebody who got fed up with Windows Server and replaced it with a Mac Server.
I think people used to be more patient with Windows. Now, they've lost it. Apple makes cool stuff and the prices aren't as crazy as they used to be. People buy Apple iPods and iPhones, maybe a Mac doesn't seem so far a stretch.
I've seen quite a few. I must admit that I'm surprised because this didn't used to happen, but it does now. I've certainly recounted ad nauseum the story of getting a beautiful $8500 HP server from somebody who got fed up with Windows Server and replaced it with a Mac Server.
I think people used to be more patient with Windows. Now, they've lost it. Apple makes cool stuff and the prices aren't as crazy as they used to be. People buy Apple iPods and iPhones, maybe a Mac doesn't seem so far a stretch.
> I think people used to be more patient with Windows. Now, they've lost it.
I really like to think so. Certainly the "functionality" difference no longer exists. It's a matter of applications.
I really like to think so. Certainly the "functionality" difference no longer exists. It's a matter of applications.
dino: Do you have that story posted somewhere? If not, maybe you could make an article out of it.
As soon as I make an article out of my family members' experiences with Linux.
As soon as I make an article out of my family members' experiences with Linux.
>dino: Do you have that story posted somewhere? If not, maybe you could make an article out of it.
Nah, it's just something I mention when it seems appropriate. Not really enough there to make a story, especially since a few permissions might be involved.
Nah, it's just something I mention when it seems appropriate. Not really enough there to make a story, especially since a few permissions might be involved.
Take out the names of people and brands/models, like:
"I've certainly recounted ad nauseum the story of getting a beautiful, and expensive, High-Power server from somebody who got fed up with the Wasteful server from Redmond and replaced it with a Munchy server from Cupertino."
Or some such.
"I've certainly recounted ad nauseum the story of getting a beautiful, and expensive, High-Power server from somebody who got fed up with the Wasteful server from Redmond and replaced it with a Munchy server from Cupertino."
Or some such.
"BTW, a personal note to Carla, if she reads this. That squid article about redirecting a user to kittenwars.com when they to somewhere they are not supposed to? My teenage son really hates that. I really love it. Thanks!"
Thanks Dave! That is one of my personal favorites. Thank you to Peter Stevens who invented the Upside-Down-Ternet- I've had more fun with that! http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netsecur/article.p... "Peter Stevens, brilliant inventor of the Upside-Down-Ternet, kindly published the scripts he uses to torment wireless freeloaders. They invert images, turn images upside down, or re-direct moochers to Kittenwar.com, no matter what URL they try to access."
It works fine on wired networks too.
Thanks Dave! That is one of my personal favorites. Thank you to Peter Stevens who invented the Upside-Down-Ternet- I've had more fun with that! http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netsecur/article.p... "Peter Stevens, brilliant inventor of the Upside-Down-Ternet, kindly published the scripts he uses to torment wireless freeloaders. They invert images, turn images upside down, or re-direct moochers to Kittenwar.com, no matter what URL they try to access."
It works fine on wired networks too.
On the other hand.........
One could also argue that the "obsesion with Microsoft in Open Software communities" is NOT excessive and is VERY reasonable.
I would claim as others in the Open Source community do who are more eloquent than this writer, that such obsession with Microsoft has led to and [hopefully] will lead to improvements in such key current issues as, respectively, the GPLv3 (vs Microsoft's EULA, DRM, Trusted Computing....) and successful uptake of ODF (over Microsoft's OOXML).
Two pieces related to this obsession that have recently come "over the wire" are these: - SVJN's 'Microsoft's Open Source Trashware', http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2174730,00.asp - Roy Schestowitz's 'Microsoft Set for Lock-in-backed Hijack (and Novell Helps It)', http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/91693/index.html
Also, competition makes the product better. For perhaps more Open Software/Source developers than community members may acknowledge here, the challenge of innovating and creating a MUCH BETTER "product" through such "obsession" has been A GOOD THING.
AAMOF, the direction sure seems to be the other direction; Microsoft has a not-so-successfully-veiled "obsession" with FOSS itself!!! Oh no! This just cannot be! Perish the thought /*sarcasm*/. Perhaps there is only one solitary example over the last few years of Microsoft being obsessed with Open Soource? /*heavy understatement*/
This from one of the commentators to Tom Adelstein's piece
Two pieces related to this obsession that have recently come "over the wire" are these: - SVJN's 'Microsoft's Open Source Trashware', http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,2174730,00.asp - Roy Schestowitz's 'Microsoft Set for Lock-in-backed Hijack (and Novell Helps It)', http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/91693/index.html
Also, competition makes the product better. For perhaps more Open Software/Source developers than community members may acknowledge here, the challenge of innovating and creating a MUCH BETTER "product" through such "obsession" has been A GOOD THING.
AAMOF, the direction sure seems to be the other direction; Microsoft has a not-so-successfully-veiled "obsession" with FOSS itself!!! Oh no! This just cannot be! Perish the thought /*sarcasm*/. Perhaps there is only one solitary example over the last few years of Microsoft being obsessed with Open Soource? /*heavy understatement*/
This from one of the commentators to Tom Adelstein's piece
Quoting:While it may not be a good idea to obsess about Microsoft, we cannot disregard them completely. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance. Microsoft may be irrelevant to our forward-looking plans, but the fact remains that they continue to pour significant resources into attempts to destroy Linux and Open Source. While it is impossible to destroy the community, they will be more effective at delivering setbacks to us if we are not paying attention.
Oh, and relating to competive "obsession", this just arriving in "over the wire".
Carla Schroder's 'What's So Precious About Bad Software?', http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netos/article.php/...
The first paragraph:
Carla Schroder's 'What's So Precious About Bad Software?', http://www.enterprisenetworkingplanet.com/netos/article.php/...
The first paragraph:
Quoting:What's the real reason for closed, proprietary code? Embarrassment.
Sure, we are drowned in tides of twaddle about precious IP, Trade Sekkrits, Sooper Original Algorithms that must not be exposed to eyes of mere mortals, and all manner of silly excuses. But that's all a smokescreen to cover up the real reason: to hide code of such poor quality that even PHBs know to be embarrassed. Exhibit A: Windows itself. Which proves it takes more than throwing billions of dollars and thousands of programmers at a software project to build something that is actually good.
"Exhibit A: Windows itself. Which proves it takes more than throwing billions of dollars and thousands of programmers at a software project to build something that is actually good. "
FYI, this last quote from Carla Schroder would probably be more directed at bad code than a focus on Microsoft per se.
Other than that, one of the points you seem emphasizing, vainvener, is that Open Source advocates are much more vocally obsessed with MS, than is MS vocally obsessed with Open Source advocates. Instead of MS being as openly vocal as the reverse in its antagonism with Open Source, it tends to obsess over the latter by specifically _not_ vocalizing directly against it. Possible examples of this are MS's Get the Facts campaign; spreading various type of FUD against Open Source projects and key initiatives; support for bloggers who may be unknown shills for Redmond; behind-the-scenes lobbying and payoffs to various governments, business and OEM's (the so-called Windows tax); Redmond's current strategy of outwardly "Embracing" Open Source; the list goes on and on. At the same time, MS may have few other choices than these, since Open Source's Open and communal nature could tend to break up MS's focus on distinct Open Source entities.
Although that final quote from the commentator to Tom Adelstein's piece in your first thread above does seem to agree that obsession with MS is uncalled for, at the same time, he or she _does_ suggest the reasons why such an overriding focus on the doings of the Redmond giant tends to be so pervasive.
2c
Other than that, one of the points you seem emphasizing, vainvener, is that Open Source advocates are much more vocally obsessed with MS, than is MS vocally obsessed with Open Source advocates. Instead of MS being as openly vocal as the reverse in its antagonism with Open Source, it tends to obsess over the latter by specifically _not_ vocalizing directly against it. Possible examples of this are MS's Get the Facts campaign; spreading various type of FUD against Open Source projects and key initiatives; support for bloggers who may be unknown shills for Redmond; behind-the-scenes lobbying and payoffs to various governments, business and OEM's (the so-called Windows tax); Redmond's current strategy of outwardly "Embracing" Open Source; the list goes on and on. At the same time, MS may have few other choices than these, since Open Source's Open and communal nature could tend to break up MS's focus on distinct Open Source entities.
Although that final quote from the commentator to Tom Adelstein's piece in your first thread above does seem to agree that obsession with MS is uncalled for, at the same time, he or she _does_ suggest the reasons why such an overriding focus on the doings of the Redmond giant tends to be so pervasive.
2c
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BTW, a personal note to Carla, if she reads this. That squid article about redirecting a user to kittenwars.com when they to somewhere they are not supposed to? My teenage son really hates that. I really love it. Thanks!
Dave