From owner-freebsd-advocacy Thu Nov 5 20:45:49 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id UAA16422 for freebsd-advocacy-outgoing; Thu, 5 Nov 1998 20:45:49 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from obie.softweyr.com ([204.68.178.33]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id UAA16400 for ; Thu, 5 Nov 1998 20:45:08 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from wes@softweyr.com) Received: from softweyr.com (wes@zaphod.softweyr.com [204.68.178.35]) by obie.softweyr.com (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id VAA09674; Thu, 5 Nov 1998 21:44:36 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wes@softweyr.com) Message-ID: <36427EB4.AABA1891@softweyr.com> Date: Thu, 05 Nov 1998 21:44:36 -0700 From: Wes Peters Organization: Softweyr llc X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (X11; I; FreeBSD 2.2.6-RELEASE i386) X-Accept-Language: en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG CC: miker@cnet.com Subject: Halloween memo - what does it mean? Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG I have just re-read several portions of the "Halloween Memo," and some of the on-line media coverage of it. While wading through all of the hooplah, I came across a nugget of wisdom in a C|Net article entitled "Memo angers open source advocates," in which writer Mike Ricciuti paraphrases the memo thusly: "Warning that the growing popularity of Linux and other so-called open source software (OSS) poses a direct threat to Microsoft's revenue stream..." Now how many of us here REALLY believe Microsoft is concerned with the impact of Linux, Apache, Sendmail, or any other "Open Source Software" on their bottom line? Show of hands? Yes, Terry, you may go to the bathroom. Anyone else? I thought not. So why, you must ask yourself, are we hearing about the "Linux threat" daily? Why is something that has NEVER before popped up on the radar screen suddenly become the "talk of the town?" Why do we suddenly have two memos leaked from one of the most paranoid organizations in the world, perhaps second only to Intel? Why indeed! What is Microsoft up to? The LAWSUIT, dummy! I wonder how Mr. Raymond is going to feel, when he wakes up after all this is over, faced with his real position in this global power play. The Microsoft PR engine, recognizing Mr. Raymond for his rabid advocacy and limited foresight, has played him like a Stradivarius. They don't even have to conduct the campaign themselves; all they have to do is conjure up a fake memo each week, "leak" it to their unwitting friend Snark, and let him tell the entire Internet and hence the world that Linux is going to clobber Microsoft and render them monopoly-less. And that is the point of all this, is it not: Microsoft cannot have a MONOPOLY on desktop computing because all those rabid Linux fans out there are giving away their system, right? I can't wait to see what next week's memo will bring. Another internal memo describing how IE 5.0 will recognize Apache and Netscape web servers and respond slower to them, making them look less responsive? (Oh, that's right, IE 4.0 *already does this.*) Extensions to Exchange that make it incompatible with mail clients from Netscape and Eudora. But that's already public policy, leaked in this week's memo. Boy, you never know what "innovation" those Microsoft product planners will come up with next, do you? -- "Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?" Wes Peters Softweyr LLC http://www.softweyr.com/~softweyr wes@softweyr.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-advocacy" in the body of the message