"My downstairs neighbor--I'll call him 'Fred' to keep his name out of print--works for Microsoft. I don't know exactly what his job is--something to do with developer relations down here in the Bay Area. But we chat from time to time about software. Now Fred knows perfectly well I've been writing about Linux and open source for the past few years. Still, we get along. I tease him about working for the evil empire (which he joined mid-career). He teases me about my Ubuntu tee-shirt. Then he laughs when I remind him that I still run XP on my laptop at home. So far he hasn't offered me any discounts on Microsoft gear.
"We may differ in our views about software, but one thing Fred and I have in common is that we both lived for extended periods in Europe. Lately Fred has taken to taunting me about what he calls the 'flop' of the big European drive to switch their local governments from Windows to Linux desktops..."
