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[Fwd: Nader 0/MS 0]

I got a link to an artcile by Gary Rivlin (East SF Bay writer/columnist)
The article
seemed a bit flat to me so I wrote the guy and told him that big story
was that MS
and all the other SW corps were just scamming the public and that if the
press would
start promoting the value of Public Domain SW that would be a worthwhile
use
of pen. Well, amazingly enough he responded. I gave him some links and
asked if I could
forward to the list. He didn't say no so here it is.




Mark,
Thanks for taking the time to write.  I am writing more about this topic,
much more, indeed i'm at work on a book that's essentially "the case
against MS."  I'm taking the arguments of people like Reback and Susman/DR
DOS suit, and the DoJ and McNealy, and the arguments of people who've got
stuff posted on the web (Mitch Stone at "Boycott Microsoft" is one
example), laying them out indepth, and testing them as an investigative
reporter with 15 yrs experience.  The Nader dispatch was just a way of
getting a magazine to send me to D.C. and help defray the cost of my
research.  

Yes, I would very much like to take you up on your offer of advice.
indeed, i've had on my 'to do' list to learn more about the alt OS's to
Windows.  I've of course heard of Caldera given they were in my piece, but
don't know much more about them than can be gleened from a trip to their
web page, nor have i ever used their product (yes, i'll confess, i'm on
Win95).  And i know nothing about red hat, and though i've read about Linux
and heard people talk about it, mainly they talk about it more in pol terms
as an alt to MS rather than in technical/consumer terms as a free-standing
product. So right there that was a help, to give me feedback on your exp
with Linux, and to learn of redhat.  Can you tell me anything more--about
experiences with Caldera's product, ANYTHING about Redhat (where they
based, are they a small outfit, do you know anything about the people
behind it...)

Anyway, i would very much like to tak you up on your offer to help me
expose MSFT.  I don't make any promises on what conclusions people will
draw from this book--i'm going to let the facts and their arguers speak for
themselves--but i can assure you i'll dig deep and work hard on this.  The
publisher is Random House, this'll be my third book.  the first two were on
politics and social issues.

thx,

Gary Rivlin

PS: you describe yourself as a "Senior Software Engineer"--where do you
work? TOo, where's Shoreline WASH?