[ Thanks to JJS
for this link. ]
“In the U.S. elections this week, a change of power took place
in the Congress that had an almost instantaneous effect at the
White House. Just a few days before, President Bush said of a
potential Democratic takeover of Congress: ‘The terrorists win and
America loses.’ This week his line has changed to ‘reconciliation’
and ‘bipartisan effort.’ That’s the way it is with dogma, which is
heartfelt right up to the moment when it is no longer felt at all.
That might be the best way, too, to understand Microsoft’s recent
deal with Novell and apparent embracing of Linux.“There was a time–right up to a week ago–when Microsoft
appeared to feel, from the statements of Bill Gates and Steve
Ballmer, that they could ridicule Linux out of corporate America or
use a campaign of fear uncertainty and doubt (FUD) to undermine the
open source operating system. There was nothing good about Linux,
they said, and a lot that was bad. They even argued that paying
Microsoft for Windows was less expensive than getting Linux for
free. Yeah, right…”