“A fierce debate over whether open source software really is
un-American.”
“You probably remember the firestorm of controversy that
Microsoft vice president Jim Allchin created with his unfortunate
remark implying that open source code is un-American. If you do,
then you probably remember as well that Red Hat CEO Matt Szulik
challenged Microsoft to debate the issue. When Redmond declined the
invitation, Red Hat CTO Michael Tiemann wrote a standalone response
to Allchin’s remarks. You can find a link to that response in the
Resources section. Tiemann’s response was all well and good, but it
left me hungry. I still wanted to see Microsoft and Red Hat go mano
a mano. Time passed, but the desire still gnawed at me. I had to
take action….”
“Young’s background with Red Hat is well known. He is a
cornerstone of the Linux community and heads up the world’s most
popular distribution of Linux. Allmouth is not so well known, so I
dug up a little background on him. When he graduated from high
school, he was voted “Most Likely to Become the Next Joe McCarthy”
by classmates. Allmouth has been using personal computers for over
six months, and he credits that background with providing him all
the savvy he needs to lead software innovation within the monopoly.
Favorite book: The Prince. Favorite flag: American. Favorite
breakfast: Seeds of Competition. Favorite item on menu: everything.
Allmouth is above all else the epitome of Ambrose Bierce’s
definition of a patriot, and his remarks reek of the kind of
patriotism Bierce made famous.”