On the other hand.........
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| vainrveenr Aug 27, 2007 8:43 AM EDT |
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 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. |
| vainrveenr Aug 27, 2007 8:54 AM EDT |
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: Quoting:What's the real reason for closed, proprietary code? Embarrassment. |
| flufferbeer Aug 27, 2007 6:28 PM EDT |
"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 |
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