[Linux-aus] Curse Microsoft - THEY JUST DON'T GET IT

[Jon maddog Hall]

David,

"They just don't get it" because most people "just don't get it".

Most people think that Free Software's value is in the fact that it is gratis
(or at least low cost) and don't see the value that you get from being able to
have it meet your needs.

Most people think that "Open Source" is just that, source code, and they do
not understand that "Open" means "Open in your business practices, open in
allowing your customers to help you design the next stages of your product,
open in allowing your customers to help you debug and test your product.  Open
to the point of cooperating with your competitor to lower the cost of your
products overall...to grow the pie so that your share of the pie is larger.

I ran into the mentality that you showed us when I was still at Digital
Equipment Corporation, working in the Unix group.  I am sure that there is some
product manager at Microsoft that was given the task of "distributing this
document", and took a standard form and a standard license and stuck it up on
the web.  No thought, no understanding.  They will be in their little drone
job until Microsoft closes its doors.

But it is not enough for them just to be their normal sloppy selves.  We have
to be better.

Warmest regards,

md
-- 
Jon "maddog" Hall
Executive Director           Linux International(R)
email: maddog at li.org         80 Amherst St. 
Voice: +1.603.672.4557       Amherst, N.H. 03031-3032 U.S.A.
WWW: http://www.li.org

Board Member: Uniforum Association, USENIX Association

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