[dundee] Taylug Weekly Articles 8 - POMS

[Arron M Finnon]

So i suppose the question is Gary do you trust M$?  

I suppose the next assumption i'm going to make (tis always a dangerous
thing to do so every please forgive me for it), is why do people not
trust (and i generalise to the list, and most parts of the Linux
community at general) m$.

Trust can well be defined as a personal belief in correctness of
something.  It is a deep conviction of truth and rightness and can not
be enforced.  If you gain someones trust then you have established an
interpersonal relationship, based on communication, shared values, and
experience.  Trust always depends on mutuality.

I suppose it is in this answer that you'll find my gripe (i would have
said ours but one generalisation per email is enough) and why i believe
that you will always find the level of bashing of M$.  Which for most
parts i tend not to agree on, but i take a shot in the dark that's for
differing reasons than yourself.  

There is no mutuality between myself and M$, nor is there likely to be
now.  This is one of the overwhelming factors of the Linux communities
of the world being successful and reaching parts where no proprietary
company dare tread the believe in sharing and trusting your peers.  It
is in this end that security in my mind has benefited as far as Linux is
concerned.  The passing up the tree, code, because it benefits our
community system that we all agreed on by participation.  Those
companies that started in a closed source field and took the dive in to
an open source frame work which led to them trusting not only the
community but their customers, have not looked back.  Our interpersonal
relationships with those that we see as peers, and the trust that their
advice is of sound ethics, and at heart tries to carry rightness.  The
other question i suppose we need to ask is does M$ trust you?  Does it
trust anyone?

It is to this why i believe all M$ products are vulnerable, not in the
fact of the code may or may not be buggy, but the trust is, and was,
never there.  Without trust there is no freedom.  Peer review and
participation can be achieved without trust, but if you don't trust your
reviewer, how truthful will you be.  If you trust and believe in the
ethics, and more to the point the rightness of that person, and not
meaning to coin a phrase here, but does that bring value for your buck.
This could go on to tenth degree, and i will try to end it on a more
personal vibe.  I distrust Microsoft, i do not believe that they have my
best interests at heart, and i don't believe that they act in a right
way.  I will always choose the less secure OS over a secure OS if i
don't trust the vendor.  Some may think that i'm crazy for saying that,
however trust, freedom, and liberty to study the workings of the system
are very key values in my tree of computing needs.  

I hope that this wasn't too melodramatic, and in someways helpful

freedom loving trusting finux signing off