Build Date: Fri Feb 14 11:20:12 2025 UTC
i want a machine gun. i want whoever is doing this to me to stand in front of it and suck it.
-- rotten elf
Open Source Destroying America
2001-02-17 02:41:35
... according to Microsoft's Jim Allchin, one of those "suits" that Microsoft employs to convince people that overpaying for software is now the "American Way".
First Microsoft claimed that Open Source was just a fad. Then Microsoft claimed that Open Source could never provide "quality" software. Then they attacked the support structure of Open Source, saying users would never be able to get answers to their questions or have their problems fixed. This time, however, unlike previous battles, Microsoft's FUD has been unable to convert the masses that mattered to their point of view. So now it appears that Microsoft has a new plan for attack... claiming that Open Source is "Un-American".
So as far as I'm concerned, if Microsoft can claim Open Source Software is un-American, then I can claim that Microsoft is desperate. That is only conclusion that I can come to after reading Jim Allchin comments. Seriously, I don't understand their strategy. As I see it there are three groups of people that are listening to this rant that Microsoft is trying to influence. The first two are those that buy Microsoft products... the geeks and the suits. If you have ever been involved in a budgeting cycle in a large company, when it comes to buying software, you know that sometimes the geeks make the decisions, and sometimes the suits do.
First are the geeks. The geeks have been in the software trenches and know just what kind of crap Microsoft is pushing all these years and that Open Source moves the power from the vendor to the client. Geeks like that. Geeks hate Microsoft... just as Microsoft has always hated geeks.
Next are the suits. The suits are only interested in money. They could give a shit about the American way. I mean look at two All-American companies... GE and Nike. Both have moved most, if not all, of their operations to low cost overseas countries. If Philip Knight and Jack Welsh are willing to take heat for transferring thousands of high paying American jobs to Indonesian serfs making 30 cents an hour, I think it is safe to assume that they give a crap about the U.S. and the American Way of life. Nor do they have any loyalty to Microsoft. They only have loyalty to money.
The third group that might listen to Microsoft message is the politicians. They at least pay lip service to the concept of the "American Way". But if you've been following the news for the past... oh say... five years, you know that Microsoft has been dragged to court numerous times for using less then All-American business practices. In fact, they are have been declared a monopoly and are currently under a court order to break up. They appealed, naturally, claiming that they need the "Freedom the Innovate". So, Microsoft wants the freedom the innovate.... err... without any Open Source competition. Yeah... I'd like that kind of freedom... I get to do anything I want and everyone else... well, they can't.
I think we can draw two conclusions from this little rant. First, Microsoft, the proprietary software dinosaur, is beginning to feel the jaws of economic evolution dig into its neck and is starting to panic. Second, unlike old economy companies facing their demise, (see Montgomery Wards), Microsoft won't be sliding into insignificance either quietly or with any dignity.
T O P S T O R I E S
The Future Ain't What It Used To Be
Ideas have taken horrifying shape and rooted into our modern reality. (More...)
The Once & Future King of Dust
Only The Onion could have acquired Infowarts. (More...)
Another Nobel Prize-Winning Author Describes Drunkenness
This book won a Pulitzer Prize. Here's its famous paragraph on getting drunk... (More...)
Why I'm pretty sure JD Vance had sex with a couch
True or false? The answers await us in that magical land where all truths are revealed -- the internet. (More...)
In 2010 Dr. Cheng-Huai Ruan discovered a way to cause a patient with an abnormal heartbeat to get back into a normal rhythm by sticking a finger up the patient's ass. (More...)
WKRP in Cincinnati aired from 1978 through 1982. Howard Hesseman played Dr. Johnny Fever, a DJ from Los Angeles who was fired from his previous job for saying the word "booger" on the air. In the show Hesseman would do some dialogue, introduce a song, and start the song. You'd hear a few notes, but never the whole song. (More...)
C L A S S I C P I G D O G
Patient Joab's scientifick editorial discusses aspect of the space-time-beer continuum never before processed by sub-bush-robot minds!!! Too fabulantastic to contempulate! (More...)
The Cross Canadian Ragweed Red Dirt Roundup
Went to one of the only really enjoyable outdoor concerts I can remember (maybe I didn't enjoy it enough). The finest in dirty hillbilly music: The Cross Canadian Ragweed Red Dirt Roundup. For those ignorants, Cross Canadian Ragweed is a horrendous allergan in Texas, and it's also a band. In a great show of humility, CCR was the worst major act in their line up. Fortunately, they have talented friends. (More...)
Johnnie Royale's Guide to Wakes
Wakes can present problems for Bad People of the Future. (If you don't know what a BPotF is, you need to read more of the PDJ.) Sure, your friend is gone and you miss him and that really sucks; it does, I know. But all Bad People of the Future are gonna die, and they have all accepted that fact. They do deserve, however, to have one final kickass party to celebrate all the bad things they've done in the past, present and future. And you, as a friend, have to make sure that their desire for a final send off is well executed (sorry for the pun). That's just the way of BPotFdom. (More...)
Experimenter is a film released in 2015 starring Peter Sarsgaard. It tells the story of Dr. Stanley Milgram's life, including the infamous Milgram electric shock experiment, tests on crowds, and his work developing a theory on the mechanics of social networks. It currently streams on Netflix. (More...)
Report from Spiritual Machines
Arkuat gives you the inside scoop on the "Spiritual Machines" panel and conclave. Wacky excitement ensues! (More...)
It was the night of the Leonid meteor showers -- the perfect opportunity to break out the evil opaline liquor, get madder than hatters, and test wireless ethernet hardware... Would the plunging meteorites interfere with the 2.4GHz band? What about our delicate brain waves? (More...)