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On dealing with Microsoft
On dealing with Microsoft
Posted Jun 24, 2004 6:24 UTC (Thu) by melevittfl (guest, #5409)Parent article: On dealing with Microsoft
I think Eric was trying to say something a bit like the old "They came for my neighbour, and I did nothing..." argument.
We may not want to fight a war, but Microsoft is. If we don't, at least, pay attention, and be ready to fight when the time comes, we are going to loose.
You're right, the vast majority of people should worry about producing better open source software, but when the next anti-open source bit of legislation comes around, we need to be ready to do something about it.
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On dealing with Microsoft
Posted Jun 24, 2004 19:09 UTC (Thu) by Baylink (subscriber, #755) [Link]
Ah yes... "they came for the Jews, but I was a Catholic, so I said nothing".IMO this is *exactly* the point ESR is trying to make, and as much as I agree with Jon's reply, I don't think he really rebutted this particular aspect of it. The major corporations which own our politicians don't seem to be able to think of any other way to compete with Open Source than by having said politicians make some of the fundamental underlying properties of F/OSS into *crimes*... things you can't *do* F/OSS and avoid.
And the politicians, in general, aren't smart enough to see the unintended consequences, and the corporate pukes don't *care*.
I've often thought the proper solution here is the same as the solution to people calling criminals 'hackers'; to quote Manny Davis: 'down tools and tell them go to hell'. Pull the plugs, wipe the drives, deprive the corporate monoliths of the benefits of the Free software they want to make illegal, and see how they like it (when the United States goes in the toilet).
Oh, whoops. I shouldn't say things like that. They'll call me a terrorist.
But, yes, this point does have to continue being hammered, IMHO.
No, it won't make ESR any extra friends.
RMS ain't the most popular guy, either.
In some circles, Linus isn't real popular, neither. It's hard to be a leader and still be popular. Hell, even Nelson Mandela's honeymoon was only about a year...
But, hell; maybe it's just me.
So many things are just me...