On Mon, Nov 22, 2004 at 09:38:51AM -0600, Brian Hurt wrote: > On Mon, 22 Nov 2004, Chris Cox, N0UK wrote: > > > On Sat, 20 Nov 2004, Mark Mitchell wrote: > > > > > On Fri November 19 2004 8:10 pm, elhaddi at constantdata.com wrote: > > >> Mr. Steve Ballmer goes to Singapore ... > > >> http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/biztech/11/19/tech.microsoft.linux3.reut/index > > >> .html > > >> > > > > > > I really like this part; > > > > > > Balmer: "We think our software is far more secure than open-source software. > > > It is more secure because we stand behind it, we fixed it, because we built > > > it. Nobody ever knows who built open-source software," he added. > > > > Actually, that is a true statement - very strange indeed coming from > > microslop. > > > > We know who WROTE the code, but it could have been YOU, or ME, or the next > > door neighbour who BUILT (as in `make config; make dep; make) the code! > > > > This is the sort of crazy things that monopolies say when they're going > down the tubes. I liked the IBM sales rep who cautioned a customer that > "you want to be carefull and not get locked into an open solution." > > What's supporting Microsoft is primarily the belief that there isn't an > alternative. Once the perception changes, and people beleive that there > is an alternative, they'll switch and never go back. Note that there are > a lot of things that feed into this belief- Microsoft's iron grip on OEM > preinstalls, those managers who have bet their reputation on Microsoft, > etc. One interesting aspect that also feeds into this is, I think, a > desire to not have a choice- if there is no choice, there is no *wrong* > choice. But what it always boils down to is "we must use Microsoft, we > have no choice." > > Brian > Two of the IT managers at the company for which I presently work had a vist recently from Microsoft reps. The managers gave us a glowing description of the future. Essentially, "We've seen Microsoft's vision. They are incredible. We can't go wrong using their products. They are going to have even more market share than ever before." I wish I saw more real change going on, but I'm still seeing business as usual. Maybe I just need to get out more. -- Jim Kaufman Linux Evangelist public key 0x6D802619 --- If the presence of electricity can be made visible in any part of a circuit, I see no reason why intelligence may not be transmitted instantaneously by electricity. -- Samuel F. B. Morse _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list