Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 11:28:46 -0600 From: Wes Peters <wes@softweyr.com> To: Rahul Siddharthan <rsidd@physics.iisc.ernet.in> Cc: Technical Information <tech_info@threespace.com>, FreeBSD Advocacy <advocacy@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: FreeBSD and Microsoft Message-ID: <3B3B694E.736EF309@softweyr.com> References: <5.1.0.14.2.20010627144405.02633958@127.0.0.1> <XFMail.010627111801.stox@imagescape.com> <3B3A2720.815A74C0@acuson.com> <3B3A2F72.6783462E@hilo.net> <5.1.0.14.2.20010627144405.02633958@127.0.0.1> <20010627131125.A52377@mooseriver.com> <4.3.2.7.2.20010627215902.017e9e70@threespace.com> <20010628102030.B9802@lpt.ens.fr>
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Rahul Siddharthan wrote:
>
> I have to wonder, why the heck are Microsoft doing this? If more and
Just another poke at Linux, I suspect.
> more people start to learn that Linux isn't the only MS-alternative
> out there, there's another OS with friendlier licensing which does
> everything linux can (including running linux binaries like
And it's cheaper to license than Caldera OpenLinux.
> StarOffice) and is used by Microsoft itself (and on doing some
> research, they'll also learn that the same OS is used by Apple),
> exactly how does that help Microsoft?
>
> It's certainly good for FreeBSD; it's not necessarily bad for linux
> (whose users don't really care about Microsoft donations); but I don't
> see how it will be good for Microsoft.
That we agree on. Microsoft hasn't seemed to learn the lesson "there is
no such thing as bad press, as long as they spell your name right." What
they seem to be accomplishing with all this "fighting Linux" hoopla is
getting Linux mentioned in the mainstream press more often than they ever
have before. Now they're dragging FreeBSD into the limelight also, some-
thing that 8 years of FreeBSD advocacy have managed to do only once or
twice.
It seems they imagine FreeBSD is somehow allied with them, and it is to
some extent. Any cool features added to FreeBSD can be poked into MS
proprietary products wholesale or piecemeal; the same cool feature added
to Linux cannot be without violating the GPL. That does not really make
FreeBSD their ally; we are still about burying their unreliable, slow,
bloated software on the computing scrapheap. On the other hand, if they
import enough of our work, they might actually end up with a system that
works reliably. It's working for Apple. ;^)
I expect the response from the more enlightened in the Linux community
will be "Cool. If the FreeBSD guys find some value in this, we'll
port it. If not, let them discover that it's just a ruse." We've
certainly taken that attitude with Linux apps often enough. Or maybe
it'll convince them it's time to write a FreeBSD binary API interface
like our Linuxulator.
--
"Where am I, and what am I doing in this handbasket?"
Wes Peters Softweyr LLC
wes@softweyr.com http://softweyr.com/
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