[Am-info] Fw: Thank you, Microsoft, but no thanks!

[Erick Andrews]

On Fri, 9 Nov 2001 15:33:21 -0600, Joe Barr wrote:

>
>
>Begin forwarded message:
>
>Date: Fri, 9 Nov 2001 16:55:05 -0500
>From: "Eric S. Raymond" <esr@thyrsus.com>
>To: wire-service@thyrsus.com
>Subject: Thank you, Microsoft, but no thanks!
>
>
>In remarks at a Microsoft stockholders' meeting, Bill Gates recently
>claimed that Microsoft was responsible for the success of open source.
>
>"Really," he said "the reason you see open source there at all is
>because we came in and said there should be a platform that's
>identical with millions and millions of machines."
>
>As an exercise in retroactive imperialism, this is little short of
>breathtaking.  It ignores the fact that though the open-source culture
>wouldn't get public visibility until after 1993, or a name for itself
>until 1998, it already existed well before the foundation of Microsoft
>in 1975.  Many of today's most active hackers can readily remember a
>time when the typical response to the word "Microsoft" was "Who are
>they?" -- and some of our most important work (such as the Berkeley
>TCP/IP stack that Microsoft itself copied and used) was written years
>before the computing landscape flattened into PCs as far as the eye
>can see.
>
>But there is one smidgen of truth in this; yes, Mr. Gates, recently you
>have
>helped open source succeed -- in much the same way Osama bin Laden has
>helped beef up airport security lately.
>
>Microsoft's monopolistic, price-gouging, bullying behavior is making
>open source more attractive every day.  We'd thank you, except that
>you're only accelerating a process that would have happened anyway.
>You're a serviceable villain, but not a necessary one; the dedication
>to excellence and the sense of worldwide community that are behind the
>open-source movement were here long before Microsoft, and will still be
>here
>long after Microsoft is gone.
>-- 
>		<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/">Eric S. Raymond</a>
>

I would be very interested if Mr Stallman has said anything since.

-- 
Erick Andrews