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Friday's Front Page |
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Linux Don't Blink: A veteran programmer editorializes about Linux and Microsoft.A sample: "Last week, talking with Victor Raisys, Microsoft's guy watching Linux, a heated conversation -- they were playing the "There have always been a lot of Unixes" tape for me, and I said emphatically, Linux is not Unix. Linux is Lotus in the early days. Linux is Apple. Linux is a bright hope that millions of young programmers have for an independent and free future. In the past it was independence from IBM that mattered, now it's independence from Microsoft." From:Dave Winer's "DAveNet" newsletter
An Open Letter to ReadersMany of you have written over the past several months asking what has happened to me, and why Boycott Microsoft has been left in such a neglected state, after so much obsessive attention was paid to it over so many years. I have tried to reply personally to these questions, but know I have not always been able to do so. Please accept my apologies -- I did not mean to leave anyone in the dark. No, I am happy to report, I have not fallen prey to the "dark side." I appreciate your interest and concern, and I am otherwise well. A great many reasons could be stated for allowing Boycott Microsoft to fall into suspended animation, but the most salient is that my life has become unmanageably busy over the last year or so. I'm sure many of you can identify with the phenomenon of ever-growing responsibilities and ever-shrinking time. Something had to go, I decided, and Boycott Microsoft, as one of the principal drains on my time, energy and resources for many years, was the most expendable. Also, I'd had for some time been harboring the suspicion that the crying need for a effort of this kind was passing. Boycott Microsoft was begun in the days when critiquing Microsoft was not regarded as a legitimate form of free expression, and media critics were nearly nonexistent. Alas, with the filing of the antitrust suit, the Microsoft critic bandwagon became mighty crowded in a big hurry. We now find media pundits left and right saying what we better-informed people have known for years -- that Microsoft is not a company we can trust with our technological future. Welcome to the front lines, ladies and gentlemen -- the shock troops are delighted to see the reinforcements. This is not to say that grassroots efforts like Boycott Microsoft have necessarily been crowded out. In fact, obtaining the attention of the traditional "forces that be" in our culture suggests a victory of considerable scope. And, even though the next phase of this conflict is more complex, and has been largely turned over to the forces of the media, government and the markets, we still owe it to ourselves to vote wisely with our dollars and to speak our minds on issues of import. This is, as always, where the rubber hits the road. Speaking for voting with dollars, I should also mention that although I have fallen unforgivably behind, I have not forgotten your bumper sticker orders. These have been backordered for some time, and I'm now sitting on quite a backlog. Rest assured that nobody's check will be cashed until I ship, and everyone will get more then they ordered when I finally get this burden unloaded. Thanks again, as always, for your patience, you support, your assistance and your help. Regards, Mitch Stone Editor/Publisher 07 October 00
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Some weeks it looks like Redmond feels entitled to capture not just part of what we save, but all of it. That just isn't going to fly with corporate America forever. When your margins are more sensitive to Bill Gates' pricing whims than they are [to] the price of oil, that's an untenable position for a large company to be in.
JOHN CHAPMAN, Sr. Technology Executive, Amaco
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