When the final bell tolls and Microsoft is forced to confront the Linux tidal wave (instead of playing its current game of misinformation and attrition) there will be one Achilles heel that the Redmond contingent can take advantage of: Choice. Simply remind the average Linux user that they have a choice on any issue, and a frenzy of infighting erupts.
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Jimbob
16 years 29 weeks 6 days 13 hours ago
This guy has a point. And I have
This guy has a point. And I have a feeling that MS have already been pushing this angle with their stooges and shills at (dis)InformationWeek and elsewhere on the net.
Unfortunately, I think we are all a little guilty of doing free software a dis-service by causing rifts by dividing the community. Free software vs Open Source, Linus vs RMS, KDE vs GNOME, Ubuntu vs PCLinuxOS vs Fedora vs Gentoo vs blah.
The only way to combat this is to turn our own community around and embrace the notion that everyone has the freedom to choose and if they don't choose what we chose... who cares? Even if they choose something that's bad for them we shouldn't freak out. We should just try and encourage them to change.
We need to say "Good for you for using foss no matter what you call it and no matter what distro/app you have chosen." If someone chooses to call free software "Open Source"... don't freak out. Just keep calling it free software yourself if that's what you want to do. If they question you about it answer their questions politely. Maybe even point out that they maybe ignoring the freedom aspect by calling it "Open Source" but don't get angry and don't engage in arguments about it. Remember that not everyone cares about the same issues as you do even if they really really should (like their own freedom).