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Neko Nata - Subject: *sigh* ( Nov 2, 2009, 20:42:57 )
I think this situation pervades the world we live in. Anytime people come up with something awesome, there appears someone -- usually a big corp -- saying "hey, you want that thing? Wow, it's just us, we got everything about that thing. Listen, I'll tell you what, just buy from us and you'll save a bunch"... They look like rats, and yet they behave like a Pied Piper, mesmerizing your High Management into buying the single solution idea. If ISO was taken, it's our fault, too: because we put a naïve trust that it was immune to external control and they used the very classical trojan approach. And it's our fault if we do nothing about it -- at the very least creating another standards body -- if ISO cannot be healed. That's why I also get amazed at guys like Miguel, who keep caressing (proprietary) Tigers and tell us: "Look how beautiful they are! Come and touch their fur... here, I left the door open for you my Linux friends". M$ is desperately trying to be cool; once cool was being innovative like Apple, so all ads would hammer us with how innovative M$ can be -- now the trend is Freedom and I get the message: "come, talk to us and use our patents freely... for a reasonable price". Well, thanks, but no, thanks. Ideas will always be free, and I don't need RMS to prove this point to me (BTW, thanks to all his good work). A lot of otherwise savvy people are unfortunately blissfully ignorant of these dangers, so this article comes has a good timing. Intellectual property for me, as a concept, is so real as a unicorn. I, for one, have to deal with this M$ mind domination at work. Some things already work at lower-than-acceptable levels. Things which can be done with Linux in 20 minutes sometimes end up requiring a costly purchase of a new app... which will demand more hardware, of course, and will take days to be bought. It's a purely political matter, as hidden agendas promote inferior technical solutions... alas, with time they get more and more exposed for what they really are: crooks. Time is on our side, but this beast is taking way too long to die...
