[Fwd: Re: Walter leaving and shift to XP.]

[Martin Langhoff]

On Thu, Apr 24, 2008 at 9:12 AM, Aaron Konstam <akonstam at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
> I would suggest that you don't really understand the reason for
>  supporting open source. No software running on top of XP, for example,
>  will free of the pressures form MS to do what they want you to do. And
>  what they want you to do may have nothing to do with the desires of
>  teachers and students across the world.

There is another reason.

We *are* delivering computers to people unused to them. They are bound
to be considered magic gadgets -- so we *will* spawn a significant
cargo-cult around them. There are two options:

 - ensure that the users can figure out that they are free to tinker
with the whole stack
 - give them a corporate-branded black box

How many billions would MS give to a foundation that acts as a facade
for a MS-branded cultural colonization?

It's not wonder that the makers of "The gods must be crazy" put a Coca
Cola bottle in the middle of it. Are the rations handed out by UN
branded with Golden Arches?

cheers,



m
-- 
 martin.langhoff at gmail.com
 martin at laptop.org -- School Server Architect
 - ask interesting questions
 - don't get distracted with shiny stuff - working code first
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