[Wylug-discuss] Rob Enderle at SCOForum 2004

Fri Aug 13 10:44:09 BST 2004

On Fri, 13 Aug 2004, James Holden wrote:
>
> All,
>
> Have you read this:
>
> http://www.sco.com/2004forum/agenda/Enderle_keynote_SCO-Forum2004.html
>
> I'm personally offended at many parts of it. The guy's on a different
> planet, it seems.
>
> <Outrageous insinuations snipped>

The whole thing is a wind-up.  It's badly argued, inflammatory, contains
wild insinuations and zero proof of any of them.  I wouldn't get worked
up about it - he seems to think he's god's gift to IT, but this piece
is going to cause him acute embarrassment in the future.

Why I say insinuations: he is very careful not to say anything that is
(demonstrably) untrue, merely placing things close together.  For example,
he doesn't say (F|f)ree software people are exactly like Nuremburg Nazis,
he merely tries to make the audience think of them together:

    "In college, both graduate and undergraduate, I was
     fascinated with human behavior. I watched the tapes of the
     Nuremburg experiments that showcased how people put in
     positions of authority could be ordered to torture and kill
     other people and that the majority of those tested in the
     study failed the "humanity" test. Groups of people can do
     really bad things and not failing the humanity test became a
     personal goal.

    "Stop for a moment and take the macro view, how does the
     behavior of the Linux attack force that has been focused on
     SCO and Microsoft really differ from other hate groups. If I
     even named these groups I would lose you so I won't, but
     isn't the behavior similar?"

The answer ("No") isn't even worth giving.  The same goes for much of
the rest of his speculation.

I particularly like the title; "Free Software and the Idiots Who Buy It".
If you must read it, don't get angry - it's not worth it.