Microsoft for Linux people

[Evan Leibovitch]

John Van Ostrand wrote:
> An MS user group may be an option to help add to that experience (via
> others). One sprung up last year here in Waterloo. It seemed heavily
> supported by Microsoft and I suspect that it is an MS attempt at
> cultivating and astro-turf movement. You may find the same in the GTA.
>   
Much as it may turn my stomach, I'd be hesitant to call such groups
astroturf. Open source doesn't have a monopoly on computer user groups,
and Microsoft's sponsoring them is not anymore insidious as Red Hat
sponsoring a LUG or Oreilly sending free swag.

>From certain perspectives, Linux User Groups are helping to lobby and
recruit for things that profit Novell and IBM, and Windows groups are no
more evil than that.

In any case, there's been a PC user group in Toronto for ages
(http://www.pcct.org/). I don't ever recall it getting MS money.

> As an aside, I find it disturbing that we've seen two posts from people moving to Microsoft.
>   
"Having to hold their nose and work with" != "moving to".

Microsoft is out there. Linux and open source has made strong headway --
far deeper than Unix or OS/2 ever did -- but there is a lot of inertia
to overcome. Furthermore, Microsoft has made "good enough" an art form,
and in many cases open source may be superior, but not better _enough_
to force a compelling reason to switch. In the meantime, an increasing
number of hybrid environments are IMO Good News, since they indicate the
rising number of Windows shops experimenting with mixed environments.

And let's face it, there are many more Windows shops moving to mixed
environments than Linux shops. For every Linux admin needing to learn
enough Windows, there are a hundred with the opposite problem.

- Evan

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