Who is the enemy of FLOSS today?

"Microsoft started to work with standarization bodies like ISO and W3C"

No, Microsoft didn't "work" with the ISO, they subverted the process and b(r)ought new members to the organization in order to pad the votes. OOXML is broken, and has been from the start.

W3C? Note that Microsoft has no interest in an InternetExplorer9 which can pass the acid2 test. Standards compliant? I don't think so.

"it stopped sending hostile messages to the FLOSS world and eventually even started developing open source software itself, to a limited degree."

Others have already commented on this. Microsoft has not changed its position on open source software. It is simply trying to change the publlic's perception.

dj,

How many times do you have to be told NOT to be confused by facts. Drink in the story and treat it with respect, since creating plausible fiction with a purpose is exceedingly difficult. Shilling is an art, it's the substandard practitioners that give it a bad name. So relax and believe you are watching a movie and give your critical faculties a rest. Then you will believe anything ...

So I ask you: what do facts have anything to do with our story of praise for anything MS?

YBT

Quoting:believe you are watching a movie and give your critical faculties a rest. Then you will believe anything ...

I just watched Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium. Your advice didn't work.

Gus,

I am not giving advice on how to appreciate the Arts. No I am telling you how the audience must respond to commercial lies and dissembling (all for the Higher Good, of course), i.e.professional level shilling. I cannot help that you chose to watch crappy movies, can I?

Give it up for some good old porn ... need some links?

YBT

Quoting:Give it up for some good old porn ... need some links?

Uninstall WINE first

Wow ---

How appropriate that this thread comes up. I'm in the process of writing an article for the re-launch of my own website, which has lain dormant since 9/11.

The idea is that I have a bunch of articles from 1999-2001 that I am using as the basis for a sort of "Rip Van Linux" look at where we are today.

Responses on this thread would fit very well with those old articles.

Microsoft remains a big meanie, but it's big push failed years ago.

The Microsoft strategy was to push NT into the glass house, riding the huge cost advantages of commodity hardware and common desktop/server skillsets.

Linux killed that. It got mindshare as a Unix alternative that ran on commodity hardware and could leverage existing Unix skillsets.

And Microsoft got greedy and Microsoft OS's ummmm....underperformed.

It's perfectly legit to look at the new meanies out there and decide that Microsoft is just a (big) face in the crowd.

Quoting:Uninstall WINE first

While not a Tea Totaler I do not indulge in alcoholic beverages often*. Indeed the last drink I can remember was five years ago, a bottle of beer I did not finish.

YBT

* Makes it hard to keep my lies on the straight and narrow.

"How many times do you have to be told NOT to be confused by facts."

Sorry. Been drinking the wrong kool-aid.

TxtEdMacs

I think you are asking people, as any stage magician would, to suspend their disbelief and enjoy the show.

Who knows? Steve Balmer might be the next Doug henning or Marshall Brodien!

(On second thought, I shouldn't insult Marshal Brodien like that)

Quoting:Indeed the last drink I can remember was five years ago, a bottle of beer I did not finish.

Ah, but who knows how often you have been on a binge in the last five years, only to wake up the next morning and not remember a thing?

Sander,

That explains everything, I see my life in flashed with five year intervals. It's still 1999, isn't it?

YBT

P.S. It all started when I began drinking bottled water in plastic.

Cr@p. I was hoping that somebody else would step up to play language church lady.

But no, so...

Txt !!!!!!

I believe you mean somebody who abstains from alcohol, not somebody who adds up tea.

That would be a teetotaler.

dino,

Thanks missed that one. I must be totaled, I bet is already 2000 or 2001 and I missed all the action of the Centennial change over. Did I miss anything of importance?

YBT

Txt -

Nah.

Nothing whatsoever.