Re: AM-INFO digest 28 "FREE"

[dski@cameonet.cameo.com.tw]

  David E. Y. Sarna (David@ObjectSoftCorp.com) wrote --
   
  > comparing free software with drugs is repulsive and offensive. Civilized
  > people debating the proprietary of Microsoft's marketing techniques
  > ought restrain their personal anger enough to be able to conduct civil
  > dialogue. Those who can't should see a psychiatrist.
   
  David, I see nothing uncivil about the comparison. I once spent several
  days with a person who was going through heroin withdrawal. A person very
  close to me. And I have long felt that Microsoft's marketing techniques
  resemble nothing so much as those of drug pushers.
  
  I am baffled as to why a computer professional would defend Microsoft. I
  have worked with professional programmers for twelve years (at *hardware*
  companies), and in my experience they (1) are able to switch among
  disparate systems (text-based, graphical, 68xx, x86, Un*x, you name it)
  with ease, because the basic principles are the same, and (2) have, in
  most cases, at least a mild dislike for Microsoft and for Windows. I
  daresay if a meteorite were to flatten MS HQ and wipe out the whole crew,
  no computer professional anywhere else in the world would experience
  untoward difficulty. So what gives?
  
  I suppose the above will offend you too. Well, few things in this world
  offend me more than Microsoft and its products. Microsoft robbed me, man,
  by making impossible -- and, to all who've seen nothing but Microsoft
  products, inconceivable -- a standards-based way of working (yup, here I
  go again) that I feel is the greatest advance in writing since clay
  tablets.
  
  And by the way, I've corresponded with someone at Microsoft who also
  loves, and long tried to hold onto, that way of working. So I wouldn't
  exactly jump for joy if that meteorite were to hit. But I would think,
  "We are saved."
  
  Dan Strychalski
  dski@cameonet.cameo.com.tw