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Should We Boycott Microsoft? Can We?

linuxjournal.com — I want to discuss something quite different: whether the open source community should be boycotting Microsoft, and if that is even possible.

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  • balrog85, on 04/28/2008, -0/+2I don't see any problem with using Microsoft products...as long as you don't pay for them =)
  • JosipBroz, on 11/17/2008, -0/+0I know, almost a year has passed since these posts, but I must strongly disagree with balrog85. I don't think it's about money. It's about locking-in and being made an accessory to all the dirty marketing tricks the convicted monopolist does. It's about being a part of it or not being a part of it. It's like those pushers that give you the first shots for free. Microsoft gives LOTS of stuff to "charity", but it's not charity actually, it's tax-deduction. After a while, all those schools, retirement homes, social centers etc. discover that their "free" licenses have expired and they have to purchase new ones. There was a group of volunteers who wanted to computerize schools in a poor country (i think it was Tanzania) but couldn't get them to adopt open source because all the universities and companies required Windows/MS Office skills as prerequisites! So how's that for fair play?
  • bboyle, on 04/28/2008, -2/+2Microsludge has proven itself time and again to be unworthy of any support from the community as a whole. The fiasco with OOXML and the ISO is just the tip of the iceberg. I am actively migrating all my systems away from Windows as quickly as I can find replacements, and am using Wine or a Xen VM to run Windows for applications that I have to run and don't yet have any Linux/FOSS corollary with which to replace them, such as my stock/options trading software. So far, except for the trading software, I am about 99.5% of the way to MS independence.
  • schestowitz, on 04/28/2008, -5/+3Good read for those who still don't realise why the Novell deal is harmful. FTA:

    'Except that it's not quite that simple. Microsoft's vision of “live and let live” is predicated on its continuing use of software patents, and of the open source side letting Microsoft and Novell handle all the tiresome implications for open source. In effect, though, this amounts to recognising Microsoft's patents, and accepting its “solutions” for the open source community. “Live and let live” turns out to be tantamount to accepting Microsoft's right to file, own and use software patents, which, in its turn, means accepting they apply to the open source world. '

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