[chat] MS bashing - WAS: NZ Company resuses to duplicate Knoppix CDs

[mkraus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]

G'day....

Jon B> Posting this wasn't meant to be M$ bashing, just pointing out a
Jon B> ridiculous business practice.

Unfortunately the most I've heard out of this article has been horrendous Microsoft bashing.

Now, MS isn't my most favourite company in the world, however whenever *anything* that may be perceived as negative happens regarding Linux - sooner or later it's Microsoft's fault - and almost always sooner. Does Microsoft really conspire that much???  Even if they do, is it worth our energy anyway?

Such a level of paranoia is remarkable!  It certainly isn't something that promotes our cause.

Not everything Microsoft does sucks - and even when it has, at least its been something and people have been purchasing. Others may do it better, yes, but MS has still played a part in our computing history - like it or not.

We are always the first to jump up and down regarding Microsoft anti-competitiveness and FUD - yet we ourselves act that way towards MS. This isn't always a bad thing - but you know it's tiring. (You know we don't always listen to the end-user when MS does - and sometimes that means dumbing things down technically, and we don't want to hear that.)

I guess my point is for all their faults Microsoft must be doing a number of things right and we can learn from that - or at least not have to put them down in order to try to advocate Linux.

Part of the philosophy around Linux is the "we all win" concept - something I love!  It's not "we will win if Microsoft looses" - something that is only a hollow victory - but something that seems to be a common recurrent theme.

What else would we be doing if we weren't just trying to combat Microsoft's anti-competitiveness and monopolising pushes? Lets start focussing on that, as that is going to be far more attractive to people than just trying to outdo Microsoft. (Remember that kid at school who would always big note themselves by putting others down, while we could say that MS is doing that - isn't it time we were responsible for when we do that as well?)

Please don't misinterpret this, they're still may be a lot of smelly things around MS - but lets let GNU/Linux stand on its own merits rather than the shortfalls of others - it is after all a most brilliant OS with brilliant people and a brilliant philosophy behind it.

Warmest regards

Mike
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Michael S. E. Kraus
Network Administrator
Capital Holdings Group (NSW) Pty Ltd
p: (02) 9955 8000