[Klug-general] Bill Gates made Frankenstein Software Industry

[Karl Lattimer]

On Tue, 2008-01-15 at 14:00 +0000, Matthew Macdonald-Wallace wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-01-15 at 13:45 +0000, Karl Lattimer wrote:
> > On Tue, 2008-01-15 at 13:36 +0000, Alan Pope wrote:
> > > On Tue, Jan 15, 2008 at 12:27:41PM -0000, Stephen Ryan wrote:
> > > > 
> > > > Bill Gates:: Imagination without reason is a monsterous thing.
> > > > 
> > > 
> > > Enough already. Please stop. I really don't care for this.
> <snip />
> > I for one found the recent round of speculation quite interesting.
> > 
> > K,
> I agree that the speculation was interesting, however the comparisons of
> BG to Frankenstein are, IMHO, pointless and are now getting tedious as
> well.

Notice the lack of replies to that post. Sure its not the place to be
making bold statements about who or what bill gates is like that without
following on from a previous email. 

Changing topic and blatting out the old email are points which make even
me twinge (even though I'm not one of these email list purist top post
nazi's).

Having said that, the points were quite well made.

> As a community, the open-source world needs to stop saying "Microsoft
> are crap" and start saying "we are the best, why use anyone else?"
> 
> It's the same message, however it's worded more positively.  As a quick
> straw poll, how many of you work for companies that spend their entire
> marketing budget on slagging off the opposition? In the FLOSS movement,
> we need to prove that our software stands on it's own merits, people
> will then realise of their own accord that what we can provide as a
> community is a low-cost, stable, secure and viable business option to
> their IT issues.

I agree with this sentiment entirely, as a selling point we should show
linux as better, not just better than the alternative. 

> Whilst I realise that MS-Bashing is a popular sport in the community
> (and I have done more than my fair share in the past!), if people are to
> see through the FUD and consider Linux/FLOSS as a viable business
> alternative, we need to stop acting like kids in a playground yelling
> "you smell of poo" to anyone we don't like! :o)

Sport is the word :) 

And although I agree with the points made, what's wrong with a bit of sport on this list :D

> /me gets back into his box,

Shakes the box to make sure Matt reads the reply.

K,