[Linux-aus] [Osia-discuss] Re: If you could ask Microsoft a question, what would it be?

[Jeff Waugh]

<quote who="Steven D'Aprano">

> On Sun, 13 Jan 2008 10:23:11 am Jeff Waugh wrote:
> > It's not like they *need* to stick their head in the lion's mouth.
> 
> Well, actually, if Microsoft want to be taken seriously in the Open 
> Source community, they do.

Yeah, this is true -- I think some folks within Microsoft been attempting
this for a while now, but the massive trust vacuum and aggressive actions
elsewhere in the company [1] have done them absolutely no favours at all.

So, there are events and circumstances that I would not (and in some cases,
did not) support Microsoft involvement -- such as major, public community
and industry events, where the whole tittilation factor would just demolish
our message -- but having a few Microsoft people at a LUG meeting simply
doesn't have the same kind of risk or negative cost/benefit.

We can all agree that there's no reason to trust Microsoft right now... But
it doesn't follow that we should completely avoid or ignore them.

- Jeff

[1] Ber, well, Bill Hilf was being a bit of a dork even before he left the
Open Source group.

-- 
GNOME.conf.au 2008: Melbourne, Australia http://live.gnome.org/Melbourne2008
 
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