| W. Chris Shank on 26 Nov 2007 01:56:16 -0000 |
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I can make one teeny tiny argument why politics might be a reasonable topic for this list. The MS Juggernaut was (is?) the biggest obstacle for significant Linux acceptance. Back in 1998, or so, the Clinton Administration / Attorney General was pursuing legal action via the anti-trust suits. Very shortly after the Bush administration came to power, the new attorney general caved and gave MS a mere slap on the wrist with that lame settlement which kept MS together and pretty much didn't change anything. Had the Windows-Office duopoly been broken, who knows what the technology landscape would look like today or how common Linux would be, or what other new and interesting things would have been built by all the people using Linux and other OSS as a starting point. So I think the MS stranglehold on technology has been an inhibitor to innovation over the last 10 years* and the opportunity to do something about it was aborted by politicians. *The first 10 years it actually helped, when MS was small and innovative. Politically, I'm a bit conflicted. As a businessman, I tend to lean right. But as a technologist, I believe that the Internet and the Open Source development methodology is the most significant technological advancement for human-kind since the wheel. I believe OSS-based technology should constitute the foundation and infrastructure of our future civilization. As our society becomes more dependent on technology, I think it's imperative not to allow one company to control this foundation to the extent that they could place any kind of liens, restrictions, royalties, encumbrances on it's use. To do so would be like allowing Ford to own a limitless patent on the wheel. We'd all still be driving Model-A's, they'd cost a fortune, and Ford would have no incentive to improve the product because all competitors would be required to license their technology at enormous cost. Now, if this were the case, then maybe one could argue we'd have flying cars by now because there would be more motivation to find alternatives to ground based transportation. But then, if the wheel is patented, that may well extend to knobs and dials as well, so how are you going to steer the bugger, but I digress. Business and politics are intertwined and Linux still needs to figure out how it will ultimately succeed in business. Politicians need to realize that foundation software like Windows and Linux are more than a product. It's roads and sewers and telephone poles. It's the shit you need to make the rest of the world work. So as you can see if have no idea what i'm talking about or who i'm voting for, I'm just still mad at getting chastised for busting on toby. ;-p ----- Original Message ----- From: Walt Mankowski <waltman@pobox.com> To: plug@lists.phillylinux.org Sent: Sunday, November 25, 2007 6:29:31 PM GMT-0500 Subject: Re: [PLUG] OT: PLUG Political Party Poll On Sun, Nov 25, 2007 at 11:17:54PM +0000, mdecheser@comcast.net wrote: > Filtered content?? That would be in opposition to net neutrality ;). > > I resisted writing a caustic reply to your rather intolerant > reaction to my msg (I'm assuming it was my msg that set you off > since you didn't reply Brian's initial posting), so I'll simply > state that the tag "OT" in the subject line of the e-mails should be > sufficient enough for you to manually filter whatever content you > don't want to read. I can't speak for Toby, but personally I don't give a damn if you support Rob Paul, Attila the Hun, or the Monster Raving Loony Party. I just don't think such discussions belong on the PLUG list, "OT" in the subject line or not. What could a person's political leanings possibly matter to a linux discussion? Even if the original poster thought he might gather some interesting demographic information for some unknown purpose, this is hardly going to be a scientific survey. You'll more than likely get a few die-hard supporters for various positions, while the majority of people either ignore it or kill the entire thread. Walt -- W. Chris Shank ACE Technology Group, LLC www.myremoteITdept.com (610) 640-4223 -------------------------------- Security Note: To protect against computer viruses, e-mail programs may prevent sending or receiving certain types of file attachments. Check your e-mail security settings to determine how attachments are handled. ___________________________________________________________________________ Philadelphia Linux Users Group -- http://www.phillylinux.org Announcements - http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug-announce General Discussion -- http://lists.phillylinux.org/mailman/listinfo/plug
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