Re: [school-discuss] Microsoft and free software (was: inservice day)

[Leon Brooks <leon@brooks.fdns.net>]

On Tue, 3 Sep 2002 08:38, Burkhard Woelfel wrote:
> Am Montag, 2. September 2002 05:13 schrieb Leon Brooks:
>> On Mon, 2 Sep 2002 01:45, Burkhard Woelfel wrote:
>>> Am Sonntag, 1. September 2002 17:57 schrieb Douglas S. Blank:
>>>> How about an annual, international day that we celebrate and
>>>> inform our local schools about open source in education? But
>>>> larger than just Linux, an "Open Source Day".

>>> Why not just call it Free Software Day? It sounds a little
>>> political or hippy, but that impression fades quickly if you
>>> start to talk about examples like Linux, Apache, you name them.

>> Yes, and invite people to ask Microsoft for some free software.

> Huh? Do they have such a product? Or is it just time to discuss the
> term freedom here? (Or did I miss some kind of joke, help me if I
> did.)

Joke. Here's how it works:

1. If you ask Microsoft for Open Source software, the general response
   is, `We don't have any of that'. This produces the first impact: we
   have something that Microsoft don't.

2. This is generally followed by derogatory remarks about OSS. These
   produce the second impact: onlookers don't like to see large
   corporations slagging competitors off. It's almost an announcement
   that the corporate can't compete in that area, or is in some way
   worried about its potential.

3. Then you ask `What about Services For Unix (SFU)?' Ooh. It turns out
   that Microsoft _do_ ship OSS, even GPLed software. This produces a
   double whammy: the Microsoft rep looks foolish for (1) not knowing
   their own product line; and (2) slagging off software that they ship
   and support themselves. This costs them any remaining credibility
   among the peanut gallery.

Cheers; Leon

PS, here's a glossary for the ESL crowd: `slagging off' is abusing or running 
down; a `peanut gallery' is a crowd (sometimes of hecklers, but always of 
interested bystanders) not directly involved in a contest or drama but ready 
to witness it and support one side or the other, traditionally by throwing 
peanuts or popcorn at the players involved; a whammy is a major effect or a 
significant blow.