[ale] OT: Re: posting to Linux mail list

[Chris Ricker]

On Fri, 19 Dec 2003, Geoffrey wrote:

> I'll let you know.  I'll give you my perspective.  I personally see 
> Microsoft as a marketing company that tries to write software.  You'll 
> not get a lot of pleasant responses from me or, I suspect from this group.

My take is a bit different than yours, Geoffrey. Let the man post his survey 
and we can tell him what we'd like from Microsoft.

What I'd like from MS is true interoperability. Open formats, open
standards, open protocols. Changing this would not hurt MS sales, either.
The world already has all the MS-only shops it's going to get. For the rest
of us in the real world working in multivendor environments, dealing with MS
proprietary lockin is extremely expensive and painful, and hurts MS sales in
such environments. We actively look for open solutions just because we have
to integrate with everything from Windows to Linux to other Unix to
mainframes. MS products don't get considered very long with such needs 
because they're not suitable.

later,
chris

PS In case it's not clear, by open I mean standard, documented, and
unencumbered by patents, not necessarily free or open source.