[ Thanks to James Maguire for this
link. ]
“Buying a stairway to heaven
If the last few years have shown anything, it is that Microsoft
cannot buy its way to acceptance (assuming, of course, that it
consistently wants to). Microsoft has spent what for other
companies must be a small fortune buying online ads to sites such
as Newsforge, sponsoring Linuxworld, and donating to projects like
Apache, yet all of it is largely wasted.“A few purists may decry such tactics, but, for the most part,
the community is willing to accept the money without changing its
attitudes. About the only result of such funding has been to give
the Microsoft-haters ammunition and to make the rest of us regard
the company as bumbling in its tactics and ignorant of the
community it is trying to influence.“What Microsoft has so far failed to understand is that money
has only limited currency in the community. Few people involved in
FOSS are so otherworldly that they refuse a regular paycheck or
will turn down a sponsored flight to a development conference. But,
beyond a very basic point, money matters surprisingly little in the
community. More than cash, what matters is commitment to the
community ideals.”