[ale] What do y'all think about Microsoft's new war?

[Ned Williams]

I want to hear what SUN has to say about the openoffice garbage,seeing as
how they still OWN star office?

Ned


On 5/14/07, Brian W. Neu <ale at advancedopen.com> wrote:
>
>  This crap isn't going to end anytime soon, unless Microsoft ends up
> betting to heavily on the losing party in Congress and some kind of OSS
> consortium of companies lobbies the winning party and gets some kind of sane
> intellectual property and patent reform in place.  Lawyers, who billed out
> millions in the SCO case, are all going to be against this so you are
> looking at an uphill battle.
>
> If you want to be part of the solution, look for some kind of PAC through
> maybe Groklaw or others and HAND write your congressmen and Senators.  It
> may not seem like much, but for most political people, their lives revolve
> around staying in power and your efforts to write them a letter carries more
> weight than anything you could do.  Sending letters to the DNC and RNC might
> help too, but someone has to organize a movement/mission that you find
> attractive first.  It might already be done.
>
> Personally, I'd love to see Microsoft try this.  The amount of hatred that
> brews against them will only increase.  This goes along Steve Jobs'
> explanation of why Microsoft DRM is dead which is that DRM made criminal
> insinuations and brought lawsuits against the customers.  Rather than
> abiding by the age-old saying of "The customer is always right", Microsoft
> has shifted gears towards a motto that is, "Pay up, shut up, and fall in
> line."
>
> Also, customer service isn't isolated to certain products.  If a customer
> doesn't like the treatment he got buying shirts from your store, he isn't
> coming back for toothpaste later.  An NT4 customer realizing that the
> upgrade path has been removed is less likely to sign back up for more
> abuse.  All human decisions are emotional(as logical as you may think you
> are, you're wrong) and when the relationship turns sour, it's hard to
> restore.
>
> Economics is an interesting study, but at even the highest levels one must
> not reason oneself past the fact that capitalism and the free trade is the
> natural way in which humans do business.  When presented with mild to modest
> taxes, restrictions, and obstacles, you will see mild to moderate amounts of
> people skirting those laws and restrictions to trade freely.  When presented
> with an overly burdening layer of taxes and restrictions, you sow the seeds
> for revolution(think "Tea Party" eq &tax("Tea") || "Revolutionary War" eq
> &tax("Intolerable") ).  My opinion is that Microsoft is about to make the
> same customer service mistake twice and the underdog, which is always a
> media favorite, will be poised for an even greater leap forward.
>
> So don't be upset.  Don't be lazy, but don't take offense to Microsoft's
> strategy.  Insecurities surfacing are often an ugly and vile thing.  Just do
> your part to counter them by making your voice known politically, and
> working your tail off in OSS to make a better product and a better sales
> presentation because it IS a free market and always will be no matter
> who/what tries to hinder it.
>
>
>
> Michael B. Trausch wrote:
>
> This is disturbing to me.<http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033867/index.htm>
> Microsoft has pretty much declared war on all of us.  What happens if they
> succeed?  Do you think they will?
>
> I am sure that we all remember that back in November, Microsoft and Novell
> entered into an agreement<http://www.microsoft.com/interop/msnovellcollab/open_letter.mspx>,
> stating that Microsoft was coming to terms with Linux.  Interesting that now
> they are pretty much saying that Free Software violates them and they are
> pretty much threatening to take action against Free Software.  They want to
> destroy freedom.
>
> They're claiming that "the Linux kernel ... violates 42 Microsoft
> patents", "Linux [GUIs violate] another 65", "[OpenOffice.org] ...
> infringes 45 more", "E-mail programs infringe 15", and "other assorted FOSS
> programs allegedly transgress 68".
>
> Is anyone else getting really sick of this crap?
>
>     -- Mike
>
> --
>   Michael B. Trausch  fd0man at gmail.com
>   Phone: (404) 592-5746    Jabber IM:  fd0man at gmail.com
> fd0man at livejournal.com
>   *Demand Freedom!  Use **open** and **free** protocols, standards, and
> software!*
> "What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without
> evidence." ?Christopher Hitchens
>
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