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Odd message to post to this list. On 7 Jan, 2013, at 10:02 pm, Martijn Grooten wrote:
Of course, there's the whole open source thing.
Is there really?There's also the whole Free Software "thing". They're not the same. Just thought I'd mention it.
I like open source,
Can you guess what the next word is?
but
<snip>
Microsoft. I certainly don't dislike them
You strike me as (very) well-informed, Martijn, so that surprises me. They're dastardly, moustache-twirling, cartoon criminals. They've been convicted of anti-competitive acts directly harming their users, that is, everyone alive to a first approximation. They screw their customers because they don't (think they) have any choice. There's no ifs or buts about the matter; they're dirty rotten scoundrels. That is not the case for any other major tech company I know of. Most of the big names, when you think about it, are players in free software to some extent, with the possible exception of Adobe.
In terms of tech, MS have never been or produced any of the following: - First - Least buggy - Fastest - Safest - Smallest - Cheapest - Easiest - Most featureful - Most interoperable - Most empowering - Prettiest or any other superlative I can think of.Yet thanks to one stupid IBMer's mistake in 1981 they are the leading software house today.
BTW, might it be apposite to declare interests? My work involves no kind of partnering with MS, no revenue or value of any kind going either way. Can your employer (Sophos, right?) make that claim?
Either the user has control over the software or the software has control over the user, as Microsoft's crime demonstrates, so, no, we can't all just get along. Software that does not guarantee the four freedoms is not morally neutral, nor is it natural or inevitable or the default; it is of recent origin and it has nothing like the record of achievement that free software does (though it does stand on open source's shoulders).
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