[Gllug] just preaching to the converted !

[Adrian McMenamin]

On Sat, 2005-10-22 at 13:24 -0400, Steve Nelson wrote:

> 
> I would spec a linux system over a Windows system 9/10 times, but not
> always, and just mindlessly slagging Windows off really doesn't do the
> Linux image much good, and simply perpetuates the fud-ish myth of
> Linux not being a true professional OS, and rather the domain of
> foaming-at-mouth, sandle-wearing, bearded hippies (which, incidentally
> is the problem with getting Debian in the enterprise... Suse is
> perceived to be smart Germans in suits, Redhat is smart Americans in
> suits, Debian is weird people with funny t-shirts).
> 
> S.


Some good points here and I'll recount a meeting I went to this week. I
don't work in IT so this was almost by chance - but I attended a meeting
with some CIOs from some very big corporates as well as key people from
some big suppliers.

It was all Chatham House terms so I cannot say who said what, but
basically the hostility to OSS (nobody dared used the term free
software) was intense. One CIO of a very big firm said OSS "worried" him
because he didn't feel he had anybody to hold to account for it and
other basically dismissed it all as small beer and the plaything of
techies (as I am in the middle of a kernel compile for my Dreamcast he
might have had a point) - perhaps they all had their company websites
hosted on IIS, I don't know, but for once I felt some sympathy for the
ESR argument that our attitudes and terminology do us more harm than
good.

These people have probably lost millions because of failings in MS
software but they weren't persuaded by any of the alternatives. It was
all rather salutary.

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