[ale] FW: [Fwd: Linux General Store Opens in Atlanta]

[Crozier, Mindi]

This message is in MIME format. Since your mail reader does not understand
this format, some or all of this message may not be legible.

------ =_NextPart_000_01BD7DDF.94F41E9C
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"

Here's some good press about Linux

-----Original Message-----
 From:	joe [SMTP:joe at linuxgeneralstore.com]
<mailto:[SMTP:joe at linuxgeneralstore.com]> 
Sent:	Tuesday, May 12, 1998 11:20 AM
To:	Crozier, Mindi (Atlanta)
Subject:	[Fwd: Linux General Store Opens in Atlanta]

 <<Linux General Store Opens in Atlanta>> 

------ =_NextPart_000_01BD7DDF.94F41E9C
Content-Type: message/rfc822
Content-Description: Linux General Store Opens in Atlanta

Message-ID: <3.0.5.32.19980512003141.007c1bf0 at mindspring.com>
 From: fob at mindspring.com
To: joe at linuxgeneralstore.com
Subject: Linux General Store Opens in Atlanta
Date: Tue, 12 May 1998 00:31:41 -0400
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.1960.3)
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="iso-8859-1"

Joe, Thanks for your time.  Here is the article I am planning to use in
the
next issue.
~Reggie


FOB Editorial
Linux General Store Opens in Atlanta

Caribou Coffee or Starbucks is unlikely to make plans to set up shop in
the
vicinity of the Linux General Store anytime in the near future.   If you
have been to Marietta street, about 2 miles west of GA Tech, you know
the
area.  It's the kind of place dotted by strip clubs, pawnshops and
salvage
yards - definitely the low rent district.  But this is often the kind of
area where innovation emanates, and mavericks flourish.  Don't let the
area
scare you off, there is a gem amongst the rocks!

Joe Devita and his charming partner Mindy have set up a computer store
in
this most unlikely place.   Joe has a loft building with a two car
garage
that he has converted into a hardware and networking shop - with one key
difference - the sign on the door proclaims proudly "Linux Inside."
Inside
you will see all kinds of PC hardware running Linux servers, Linux
clients,
and Linux web servers.   LGS is becoming established as a wholesaler of
Linux based machines, in a software world that sold its' soul to
Microsoft
over the last decade, and is starting to realize that all is not honky
dory
in this world of Windows.  As reported in Fortune magazine recently
"Microsoft - The Scariest Company in the World,"  banks and newspapers
are
getting concerned about the Microsoft juggernaut.  "Hey we thought that
Microsoft was a software company all along, how were we to imagine that
they would want to get into the banking,  newspaper, and other
businesses!" 

For those executives who think they are in specific narrowly defined
industries, recall the words of Theodore Levitt,  Professor Emeritus of
Marketing at Harvard University, and the originator of the term
"strategic
marketing" who pointed out that the buggy whip industry thought that the
arrival of the motor cars around the turn of the century posed no threat
to
them.  After all, there would always be horse drawn buggies, and there
will
always be a demand for our product they reasoned.  History has a
different
story to tell.  Bill Gates is even more menacing than oil titan John D.
Rockefeller, with whom many parallels have been drawn.  And in the era
of
instant, global, communications where currency is the only currency of
trade, Gates can buy loyalties of entire segments of the population.
After
all, we all work for money don't we?

And now the titans of the banking industry, and the newspaper industry,
and
even General Motors we are told, are alarmed at the giga influence of
the
Microsoft machine.  If Microsoft can become the virtual Walmart of all
goods and services, why do you need banks, or newspapers or vendors of
most
other services?  And as for hard tangible goods, Microsoft can become
the
controlling seller/agent, much like Walmart has become the mass marketer
of
goods from suppliers who supply products at razor thin margins.  It is a
scary prospect indeed!  

That it has taken the US DOJ nearly twenty years to sound the wake up
call
is rather hard to fathom.  But at least, the DOJ in Mr. Klein has a
sharp
and keen prosecutor who recognizes that Microsoft is vulnerable to a
broad
antitrust case violating the Sherman Act, whereby a monopolist uses its
hegemony to finance its other marketing efforts, all the while
obstructing
competitors from making any headway.   I believe we are going to see
some
fireworks ahead over the next several years.

In this environment, it is heartening to note a few brave souls like Joe
and Mindy of the Linux General Store.  Much like the pioneers who
arrived
on the Mayflower  may be considered renegades according to conventional
wisdom, these are the individuals who can help break the stranglehold
and
usher in a new era in computing.  For, as Joe Devita expressed concern
that
if the unrelenting, unthinking embrace of Microsoft were to happen right
down to American schools and colleges, the US would lose its ability to
innovate.  If third world countries in the Eastern bloc continue to buy
up
older PC's, set up Linux, PGP, etc. and start to develop some killer
software, it could be a major strategic threat to the dominance of the
western world.  The cold war is over, the new millenium is here, and the
new weapons are likely to be cyber control systems rather than the
klunky
nukes of yesteryear!

Raj (Reggie) Sundra
Publisher, FOB Magazine
fob at mindspring.com
404-255-4469


------ =_NextPart_000_01BD7DDF.94F41E9C--