Why not Linux?

[Colin McGregor]

--- Rick Tomaschuk <rickl-ZACYGPecefkm4kRHVhTciCwD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> I was watching Global (Rogers 3) this morning. It
> seems their morning
> news staff feel Micro$oft is a 'trusted source'. The
> topic was back to
> school. Global news recommends that students should
> not use regular
> encyclopedia's or http://www.wikipedia.org/ as a
> reference but should
> use Encarta. This was not a commercial (it was
> publicity). So what have
> we learned? Well given events over the last 12 years
> ...if you lie,
> cheat, deceive, manipulate the government, patent
> office and public you
> eventually cross a threshold from criminal to
> 'trusted source'. Sounds
> something like George Orwell's Animal Farm...anyone
> read that? 
> BTW I'm now running Novell Desktop 10 and it's
> great!! Included is Helix
> Banshee, Firefox and Evolution...the best yet.
> Regards,
> Rick Tomaschuk

I have not read Animal Farm I'm afraid, but I do know
my industry history well enough to know that Microsoft
is not the first firm in our industry to be a less
than honourable player.

Go back to the 1960's and the "jokes" were about IBM
and the seven dwarfs (UNIVAC, Burroughs, Scientific
Data Systems, Control Data Corporation, General
Electric, RCA and Honeywell). Namely, IBM totally
DOMINATED the computer industry with only a handful of
small players on the side, in a way that is in many
ways comparable to the current situation with
Microsoft. IBM achieved its position of power through
some morally/legally questionable tactics (and spent
time in court over such tactics). Now, IBM has been
brought into line (due to Microsoft, sigh, groan) and
is now a much more respected, if still very much a
hardball player (as SCO is learning the hard way) in
the industry.

This situation did not stop at least one of my
instructors in college during the 1980s from
worshipping the ground IBM walked on. The fact that I
thought it obvious to all that IBM was at the time
something of a bully who needed to be taken down a
notch wasn't obvious to all.

I do admit to liking some Microsoft keyboards/mice,
but overall I see Microsoft in exactly the same light
as I saw IBM in the mid-1980s a bully who needs to be
taken down a notch (or two). I do hope Microsoft
coming down does not happen because a new comparable
nasty shows up and that Microsoft does evolve into
something respectable (i.e.: maybe just makers of nice
keyboards and mice :-) ).

Colin McGregor

> "We need to slaughter Novell before they get
> stronger."
> -Former Microsoft VP James Allchin in a 09-9-91
> e-mail (as revealed in
> Caldera v. Microsoft)
> http://www.msboycott.com/quotes/
>  
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