“Ever since I wrote ‘It’s Time to Get Over Microsoft,’ people
have demanded in blogs and emails how I could ignore the obvious
threat that Microsoft represents to free software. Usually, I ask
them to read the article more carefully, and note that it suggests
that free software has grown strong enough to take care of itself.
The fact that so many free software supporters persist in a
negative identity–that is, one defined by not being a Microsoft
user–frankly puzzles me when the community has so much to be proud
of in its own right.“As a citizen of Canada, a country whose national identity is
too often defined in terms of anti-Americanism, I’m all too
familiar with the limitations of a negative identity. Admittedly,
Microsoft bashers, just like Canadians who are hostile to the
United States, are in little danger of losing their identities
through the disappearance of the object of their hate, but other
dangers remain…”