Date: Sun, 10 May 1998 22:52:57 -0500 From: Benjamin Lewis <bhlewis@gte.net> To: Amancio Hasty <hasty@rah.star-gate.com> Cc: advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Letter to DOJ and State Attorney Message-ID: <199805110352.WAA29948@home.bhl> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 10 May 1998 18:01:02 MST." <199805110101.SAA00877@rah.star-gate.com>
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Amancio-
Sorry if you see this letter more than once (typo on my part).
I hate to jump out of the blue and onto your letter, but I do feel that it
would be a mistake to send it in its current form. Here's my review:
> Hello,
>
> The purpose of this letter is to ask you to block the Microsoft's Win98
> release until it is clear that its monopolistic practice ceases.
>
> I believe that one the tightest strong-holds that Microsoft has on
> the PC industry is the way that Windows is bundled with virtually
^ (pedantic edit)
> every PC now sold. This serves as a way to block any other competing
> operating system and sets the stage for application dominance by
> Microsoft.
>
> Enclosed is Ralph Nader's letter which was submitted to major
> PC manufacturers . Naturally, there was no response from the PC
> manufacturers. Clearly, PC manufacturers need to have re-assurance
> that if they start distributing alternative
Up until this point, I think the letter is great. Perhaps a bit more formal
greeting would be in order, but that is just a nit-pick. I would finish the
last sentence above like this:
...operating systems that no retribution from Microsoft would be
forthcoming.
> Open Source OS platforms
> such as FreeBSD ( http://www.freebsd.org ) that there will not be any ill
> forthcoming action from Microsoft.
>
> Given that FreeBSD is supported world-wide and its developement is
> conducted in an open forum , I believe that FreeBSD can provide
> honest innovation. For example, please visit http://www.thinker.org
> which is a web server farm of FreeBSD systems serving images from
> a 3 Terabyte database, http://www.thinker.org/imagebase/index-2.html
> which clearly states that the image database is a joint project
> between the San Francisco Fine Arts and the Computer Science
> Division of the University of California at Berkeley;additionally,
> I have the original e-mail announcement stating that the image
> database is managed by a farm of FreeBSD systems should you be
> interested.
I don't think that it is appropriate to include FreeBSD advocacy in this
letter. I think that including the above portion makes it clear that your
agenda is to promote one operating system at the expense of Microsoft, rather
than protecting citizens from the actions of a monopolist.
Although FreeBSD users like ourselves might like to see FreeBSD being
advocated by the Justice Department, the DOJ is (supposed to be) about
protecting all citizens and not promoting one organization at the expense of
another. The advocacy would make the letter seem be from a man who wants the
government to step in so that his favorite project can succeed instead of
stepping in to protect the citizens from a company.
Just some thoughts,
-Ben
--
Benjamin Lewis
bhlewis@gte.net -or- bhlewis@purdue.edu
--
Benjamin Lewis
bhlewis@gte.net -or- bhlewis@purdue.edu
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