LWN: Comments on "Microsoft wins Linux award (vnunet)"

Microsoft wins Linux award (vnunet)

Peter — Sat, 01 Feb 2003 06:44:36 +0000

They *have* to put a positive spin on the article, because it is their award, their product. So they have to be positive about OSS too..

Uh, no, they have to be positive about the term "open source", which apparently doesn't really mean "free software" anymore. Now Microsoft can just tell customers, "You're curious about open source? We got yer open source right here! And you don't even need to migrate away from Windows 2000 for it, either!"

I think it's a beautiful jujitsu move!

Nah - they'll probably just low-key it, if anything. And there's nothing wrong with being able to say "See, even the open source people give us awards." See above about how "open source" doesn't really mean anything except "compatible with Linux" anymore.

Microsoft wins Linux award (vnunet)

Peter — Sat, 01 Feb 2003 06:39:02 +0000

Not as sick as Henry Kissinger winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

Hmmm, I didn't know he had. Guess that was a different year from the time Yassir Arafat won. (:

Microsoft wins Linux award (vnunet)

xoddam — Fri, 31 Jan 2003 14:58:51 +0000

Not as sick as Henry Kissinger winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
But wait, it'll be Colin Powell next year...

Microsoft wins Linux award (vnunet)

simon_kitching — Thu, 30 Jan 2003 04:36:52 +0000

But isn't it amusing to think of Microsoft announcing this award?

They *have* to put a positive spin on the article, because it is their award, their product. So they have to be positive about OSS too..

I think it's a beautiful jujitsu move!

Microsoft wins Linux award (vnunet)

bill_turner1 — Wed, 29 Jan 2003 19:33:31 +0000

what kind of insanity is this??

Microsoft has been about the absolute WORST, of any company, so far as
their 'corporate behavior' is concerned since 'day one' and anybody
that thinks otherwise is a lot of things, but one thing they are not.

A 'computer professional.'

I have been involved with computers in one form or another since 1980.

Microsoft winning an award for 'best Open Source' ANYTHING is about the
sickest joke I've ever heard in my life.

But I'm not laughing...

I repeat, what insanity is this? How much did Bill Gates and Microsoft
pay for this little award? God knows they have enough money.

Sorry. I don't 'buy' that they have won this on their own merits.

Mindcraft. The Gartner Group. Only two examples that anyone who has
been paying the slightest bit of attention to the world around then
over the past couple of years will recognize immediately.

I repeat, who did they pay off and what did they pay. There has to be
something like that going on. Nothing else makes any sense whatsoever.

If not, then one thing I absolutely guarantee you.

I will never attend an event that has "Linux World" as part of it.

Nope. Not if they have sold their souls this badly.

All the coverage I've read had been bad enough. "No Geeks" to speak of.

This is sickening. I'm going to throw up now...

Microsoft wins Linux award (vnunet)

coriordan — Wed, 29 Jan 2003 09:21:17 +0000

>The term "Open Source" has become a meaningless industry buzzword

My thoughts exactly. Bruce Perens said a few years ago, "It's time to talk about Free Software again".

Companies "OpenSourcing" software doesn't raise my interest at all, the bigger the piece of software, the more likely they are just bullshitting for publicity.

Ciaran O'Riordan

Microsoft has nothing in common with Unix

libra — Wed, 29 Jan 2003 09:18:26 +0000

What is also quite astonishing is to see that the winning product, Microsoft Services for Unix is indeed quite poor in quality. I tried it once and found it so useless and limited in fonctionnality that I finally renounced.

If I really need to have Unixlike tools on Windows I would better choose Cygwin which is far more evolved and quite cheaper. But the truth is that Unixlike tools are better used on Unixlike platform.

To conclude I would say that the award given to Microsoft is not bad because it goes to Microsoft but because it goes to a bad product. With such a bad publicity some people trying Microsoft Services for Unix may really think that there is nothing good in the open-source world when the best product according to award is indeed just a trash.

Fortunately those interested in Unixlike products are normally enough intelligent to avoid this trap, others won't be concerned.

Microsoft wins Linux award (vnunet)

achitnis — Wed, 29 Jan 2003 07:50:52 +0000

And then there is this.

Pictures of the SFU Team cutting the cake.

And we give people like this awards????

Microsoft wins Linux award (vnunet)

smoogen — Wed, 29 Jan 2003 00:03:54 +0000

These awards and the lack of true hackers are what seperates LinuxWorld from Linux.conf.au. One was crap and one was worthwhile... It was one of the reasons I used to like the very old Linux Expos but avoided most of the shows later on. Now to work on getting a passport for the next conf.au

Cynical Ploy

rjamestaylor — Tue, 28 Jan 2003 22:48:34 +0000

Expos and conventions are so pre-Web, anyway. Toss 'em.

Cynical Ploy

ncm — Tue, 28 Jan 2003 22:29:51 +0000

The award was just a cynical ploy by the show management to pick up publicity for cheap irony. There's nothing to see here.

Microsoft wins Linux award (vnunet)

mattdm — Tue, 28 Jan 2003 22:01:49 +0000

Many of the other nominees -- and winners -- weren't even slightly Open Source, as far as I can see. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but where can I get the source to CA's eTrust Antivirus or IBM's Tivoli?

It's silly for Microsoft to win, but at least their package *does* include some Free/OSS software. I normally try to be agnostic on the Free Software vs. Open Source debate, but this award makes Stallman's point starkly clear. The term "Open Source" has become a meaningless industry buzzword and the ideal of free-as-in-speech software -- *any* ideal, from the sociopolitical to the just plain pragmatic -- is entirely lost.

Microsoft wins Linux award (vnunet)

Penguin_roar — Tue, 28 Jan 2003 21:32:51 +0000

Well i found the award repulsive and very strange to be honest. To reward someone so fiercly badmouthing and non competitive is very crazed. What about Ximian, Code Warrior and a bunch of other integration projects? The only thing MS services for unix is developed for is a transition FROM *nix TO Windows. I dont think that goes under integration but rather migration tools.

It was a stupid move to reward them and i dont understand who did it and why.

Wy reward the one that wants you dead the most? Its just beond my braincapacity.