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Microsoft Software Linux

Community vs. Corporate Linux, The Coming Divide 201

tobyj writes "MadPenguin.org discusses the great divide that will separate corporate Linux (companies that are working with Microsoft) and community Linux (companies that haven't yet partnered with Microsoft) and their impact on Linux as a whole. Matt Hartley writes, "For Linux enthusiasts, the rules are simple and clear to interpret. But for Microsoft and its Linux partners, we will see plenty of them pointing to self-created loopholes, which will result in fierce debate, and perhaps even worse, blatant defiance. As a collective community, we'd like to think that this whole issue will just blow over, but with the massive migration of so many Windows users and companies that wish to capitalize on this migration, defiance of the GPL will happen and more so than ever before."
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Community vs. Corporate Linux, The Coming Divide

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  • by artgeeq ( 969931 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:20AM (#20212475)
    I think if someone could come up with a penguin with a Borg eye-piece, it would be very funny. Maybe give him a Microsoft T-shirt, too.
    • I think if someone could come up with a penguin with a Borg eye-piece, it would be very funny. Maybe give him a Microsoft T-shirt, too. - Funny? This image will haunt me in my dreams, I won't be able to have any sleep tonight, you insensitive clod!
  • by changling bob ( 1075587 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:22AM (#20212491)

    Click here to get the latest prices on Linux distributions!


    Erm... free?
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by skeeto ( 1138903 )

      Click here to get the latest prices on Linux distributions!

      Erm... free?

      You can charge money to distribute free software. I am allowed to sell you a copy of the latest Unbuntu CD for a million dollars if I want. Remember that free refers to liberty, not price.

      This comes right from the GNU website [gnu.org]: "Actually we encourage people who redistribute free software to charge as much as they wish or can."

  • Ermmm.... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by JamesRose ( 1062530 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:23AM (#20212513)
    (companies that are working with Microsoft) and community Linux (companies that haven't yet partnered with Microsoft)
    • Re:Ermmm.... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Entrope ( 68843 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:44AM (#20212763) Homepage
      It's called "framing" -- as in framing the debate by choosing the terms.

      This way anyone who might be sitting on the fence can clearly understand the consequences: If you think Microsoft is a stinky abusive monopolist but you are successful at offering large-scale 24x7 support to large customers, you're *community* Linux, not corporate, and your customers will leave you! Likewise, if you haven't upgrade to Shared Source Linux.NET, you will -- just as soon as Microsoft sends out the lawyers.
    • The original article is no more than FUD and speculation... Corporate Linuzz? I though THAT thing (whatever that is) existed before MS got it's deal with Novell... RedHat anyone? And that is a bad thing why? There will always be corporated Linuzzz distributions whoever is working on it, be it MS, RedHat, or some new player. The real deal is, let it be? Don't want it? Don't use it, but for satan's sake, let anybody who wants use it without bitching!!!

      It's not like somebody is desecrating the Holy Bible, (e

      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by mlts ( 1038732 ) *
        I'm for a "corporate" or "enterprise" version of Linux, because it gets Linux more mindshare. Its a lot easier to adopt an OS if you know the "big boys" are running it, than if its not that well known or proven in the enterprise.

        I've posted about this on other threads, but having a distro of Linux that has certifications like Common Criteria, FIPS, and others is always a plus. This allows companies to show that they are doing due diligence and satisfy the legal eagles.

        I do worry about "Tivo-ization" thoug
  • by G3ckoG33k ( 647276 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:26AM (#20212565)
    "community Linux (companies that haven't yet partnered with Microsoft)"

    What?!

    Rather think "When Microsoft writes an application for Linux, I've Won.", as said by Linus Torvalds

    -
    • Think Freedom. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by twitter ( 104583 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:39AM (#20212719) Homepage Journal

      Rather think "When Microsoft writes an application for Linux, I've Won.", as said by Linus Torvalds

      It's not that easy.

      When M$ becomes a free software company, we will all win. If M$ becomes a free software owner, we will all lose. The whole point of free software is to avoid software owners - people who make you pay for the privilege of using and improving their software but who will restrict those uses and improvements so that you never get what you want.

      • by maillemaker ( 924053 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @12:52PM (#20213581)
        That's the conclusion I've come to.

        What are the things championed here on Slashdot more than anything else? DRM and Free Software.

        So why is it that I couldn't find a free solution to ripping and re-encoding DVDs? I must have tried 5 or 6 different applications with no luck - the audio and video were always out of sync. Even tried the much-ballyhooed Auto Gordian Knot with the same result. Reading the support forums is a joke. "Oh, you need to go pull it up in AutoDub or VirtualDub and adjust the sync rate". Oh, go download this and that codec to make it work.

        It seems like you needed 5 or 6 independent "free" pieces of the pie to make it go, and none of them did the trick.

        What did I finally do? I went and spent $80 over at Slysoft for a single software package that just worked.

        • by Lxy ( 80823 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @01:24PM (#20214021) Journal
          So why is it that I couldn't find a free solution to ripping and re-encoding DVDs?

          K9copy? On Debian I found K9copy very easy to install, very easy to use, and almost flawless at ripping and encoding. I have yet to find a mis-sync in my backed up DVDs. The hardest part is you have to add the contrib and non-free repos into Debian so it'll grab DeCSS. That's not very hard :-). If you're using Ubuntu, multiverse is the equivalent. I'm guessing on Fedora you can add livna and get the same results, though I haven't tried.

          I have seen problems on many distros in having to build things together, and I agree, DVD playback and encoding has been painful until recently. K9Copy + [recent well supported distro] seems to be the quickest fix.
        • "It seems like you needed 5 or 6 independent "free" pieces of the pie to make it go, and none of them did the trick."

          Wellcome to Free Software. Our developers reuse code, that is why they can beat Microsoft and you can still get their code for free most of the times.

          If you were using a system with a modern approach to software instalation, that wouldn't be a problem, but you seem to be using Windows... Well, there is a price you pay for that. After things are installed, they often integrate quite well.

          • More like (Score:4, Interesting)

            by blueZ3 ( 744446 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @05:00PM (#20216777) Homepage
            Welcome to the world of free software, where developers write software for their own use, without reference to pesky things like interoperability, interface standards, or usability.

            Let's face it, what's holding free software back isn't some evil conspiracy by a shadowy group of corporations working behind the scenes to subvert the moral goodness of the software ecosystem. It's the apparent inability of free software developers to make their code attractive at any level other than price.

            In my opinion, the essential examples of this are gimp and Ubuntu.

            Why is Ubuntu popular? Not because it's Windows-y, but because it installs painlessly (without the requiring obscure command-line incantaions that a lot if distros do). You pop in the CD and answer about five questions and you wind up with a box that has all the "standard" software (a browser and some basic tools) that's on the network and ready to go. The interface is clean, it generally works in expected ways (keyboard shortcuts do what you expect, it has a "trash can", etc)

            The gimp, on the other hand, is a messy pile of usability errors looking for a home. Obscure names for common tools are only the start--the odd behavior of the separate application windows is also egregious.

            Free software will only become a real competitor to close software when people espousing it come to the realization the price is not the only factor.

            Sorry for the rant :-)
        • So why is it that I couldn't find a free solution to ripping and re-encoding DVDs?

          Because DVD ripping software is not free in the US. The DMCA makes it a crime to share that software, even to tell people where the parts are. To use that kind of software, you have to import the pieces through a non-US distribution. Because most of the English world slavishly tracks US law, the import is hard to find in English as well. It can be done but it would be much easier if the US were a free country with laws

      • When M$ becomes a free software company, we will all win. If M$ becomes a free software owner, we will all lose.

        Not gonna happen. Remember when RedHat discontinued their desktop OS (alienating formerly-loyal customers) and made their distribution non-free? Well, folks have released White Box Linux and CentOS, based on the Redhat code. RedHat had the nerve to threaten suit against those groups since they credited RedHat as providing the source for the project (Funny, doesn't the GPL require crediting the or

    • by an.echte.trilingue ( 1063180 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:47AM (#20212813) Homepage
      "corporate Linux (companies that are working with Microsoft)" ... "community Linux (companies that haven't yet partnered with Microsoft)"

      Because, as we all know, RedHat and IBM are not corporations.
      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by ewilts ( 121990 )
        You make a good point but forgot to point out that the original article being linked to made no distinction between "corporate Linux" and "community Linux". Whoever posted that to /. simply made that up. And s/he got it very, very wrong. .../Ed
  • by jshriverWVU ( 810740 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:26AM (#20212567)
    No matter what companies buckle it won't break the stronghold that is OSS. We as users choose Linux and other OSS because it meets our needs, company deals won't break that. For developers we contribute to the OSS movement because it's something we believe in, and a way to pay back to for the wonderful work others have done.

    I don't see that ending any time soon.

    • Two points (Score:2, Informative)

      by einhverfr ( 238914 )
      First, I think that all FOSS licenses will keep us free (GPL, BSD, MIT, Apache, etc). In fact, I have made contributions to BSD-licensed software and GPL-licensed software. It doesn't matter to me what license is used provided that it doesn't contain onerous restrictions (I have no plans to do anything under the Affero Public License, for example because it is too EULA-like and I am *very glad* that the FSF saw the light and only gave a linking exception to that license rather than allowing for the worst
    • If AMD and ATI were to require signed drivers through their CPU's we'd be mighty screwed in 5-10 years.
       
        We are still on the brink and we'll never be totally secure in having free software.
       
        The only thing keeping MS from really examining under the table deals with hardware manufacturers is the EU and to a lesser extent Linux's total ineptitude on the desktop.
  • Where's the beef? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by asv108 ( 141455 ) <asv@@@ivoss...com> on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:28AM (#20212581) Homepage Journal
    Seriously, how did this get to the front page? What is newsworthy about the link? 60% of the page is advertising/links bundled with a few small paragraphs of mindless speculation.
  • Massive migration? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by LighterShadeOfBlack ( 1011407 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:31AM (#20212625) Homepage

    ...but with the massive migration of so many Windows users and companies that wish to capitalize on this migration...
    Sorry, what? I'm not exactly in a corporate environment anymore but I haven't seen any signs of a massive migration to Linux. Sure there are switchers here and there at an individual company level but there's also no small amount of others going back to Windows. Did I miss a peice of news somewhere about big Windows to Linux switching or is that statement based solely on 2007 being (Yet Another) Year of Linux despite all evidence to the contrary?
  • by serviscope_minor ( 664417 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:31AM (#20212631) Journal
    So there are two kinds of Linux company:
    • Those that have partnered with Microsoft. And,
    • Those that haven't yet (i.e. will) partnered with Microsoft.


    What about the kind that realise that Microsoft has screwed so many business partners in the past (Spyglass, for an excellent example) that a partnership with them is not sound buisness.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      Microsoft is less likely to destroy its partners then it's competitors. JOIN US OR YOUR BUSINESS DIES. I am no way affiliated with Microsoft, it was a joke!
    • by dattaway ( 3088 )
      For every distribution that Microsoft dominates, two more will pop up. Its the business edition of the game, "Whack a Mole!"
  • Game Over (Score:5, Interesting)

    by JeremyGNJ ( 1102465 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:32AM (#20212641)
    Another self destructive attitude with Linux.
    "If they wont play nice, then we cont support their stuff"

    good move. push Linux more into obscurity by not supporting modern technologies.

    It kind of hints at something big missed last week though, when it comes to patents:
    If Microsoft 0wnz Novell
    and Novell 0wnz Unix
    and SCO failed it's lawsuit against linux for the reason of "not owning Unix in the first place"
    Could Novell now have an trump card when it comes to Linux?.....could it take the same patent lawsuit against Linux that SCO attempted, while using it's rightful ownership?
    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by myxiplx ( 906307 )
      No, because Novell aren't suicidal.

      The only reason this was a valid tactic for SCO was because the company was on the way out anyway - there was nothing to loose. The lawsuit was never going to win and they knew that, it was purely there to spread FUD about linux and make a tidy packet for a few individuals.

      The circumstances just aren't there for 'normal' companies to do this.
    • Can't happen (Score:5, Informative)

      by Tony ( 765 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:45AM (#20212791) Journal
      ...could it take the same patent lawsuit against Linux that SCO attempted, while using it's rightful ownership?

      The SCO lawsuit was not about patents, it was about contract violation and copyright infringement. Patents were never mentioned by SCO.

      Novell now has legal standing with respect to Unix copyrights. However, they distribute an entire GNU/Linux distribution, much of which (including the Linux kernel) is under the GPL. Therefore, they can't even attack Linux for copyright infringement. So Novell has no "trump card" when it comes to Linux.
      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Gazzonyx ( 982402 )
        Could be off topic - but check out SCO's stock as of 20 minutes ago :) SCOX: 0.43 -1.13 (-72.43%) - The SCO Group, Inc. [google.com]
        Am I the only screaming, "That's what you get, that's what you friggin' get!"?
      • ...could it take the same patent lawsuit against Linux that SCO attempted, while using it's rightful ownership?

        The SCO lawsuit was not about patents, it was about contract violation and copyright infringement. Patents were never mentioned by SCO.

        Was it ever about copyright infringement? Sure - there was lots about it in the press. SCO really beat that drum in public forums where proof wasn't required. But they never produced any proof in court. Not just proof that was refuted... but anything proof at all. Theorizing that Novell now has a strong position gives a lot more credit to SCO's claims (read: FUD) than it warrants.

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by einhverfr ( 238914 )
      First, I generally only buy Linux-friendly hardware because most of my stuff runs Linux. There are exceptions where required (the Symbol MC50 is really nice for taking inventory in a retail business but I *hate* Windows Mobile sucks, and that is being polite) but I figure I should point out that although TFA suggests that this is the socially responsible path, I do this just because it is easier.

      I dont have time to reverse engineer hardware and write drivers. Bravo to those that do!

      I don't have the expert
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • by rangek ( 16645 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:48AM (#20212831)

      They also want to have their bases covered when it comes to liability.

      Can you point to any instance where Microsoft, or some other comparable company has been held liable for defects in their software? People keep bringing up this argument, but I can not ever recall anyone actually using this in practice.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        In my experience it is more the illusion and feeling of security of having someone to hold liable. C-levels want to feel good about there being someone, with real assets, at the other end of the product, regardless if they ever sue them. Unfortunately most C-levels are "old school" and where cultivated in cultures where "no one got fired for buying IBM (or Microsoft)", hopefully this will change as these dinosaurs retire, and younger/fresher ideas start to permeate the corporate board rooms.

        The other proble
      • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

        by mlts ( 1038732 ) *
        Its less of liability (as in suing a company if something happens), rather its a target where fingers can be pointed at.

        Scenario 1: Machines with Commercial OS "A" get breached. IT department shows that the OS, database, and other security measures are commercial, by known brands. Corporate rep gets tarnished, but because the company did due diligence with a solid paper trail, there is a smaller attack profile by potential plaintiffs.

        Scenario 2: Machines with a non-commercial OS "B" get breached. IT de
    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      While other companies might not rely on the community to patch their software, the company that does provide support relies on the community to improve and patch their software. Where would redhat be without the community?
    • They also want to have their bases covered when it comes to liability.

      Good luck with holding *any* software company liable after you agree to that EULA disclaiming all liability.
  • by PCM2 ( 4486 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:41AM (#20212739) Homepage
    Last I heard, Red Hat was about as "corporate" as Linux got. (Before we start murmuring about Novell, why don't we check the size of Novell's customer list vs. that of Red Hat?) And, last I heard, Red Hat flat-out rejected a deal with Microsoft the likes of the one Novell signed. On the other hand, is Red Hat "working with Microsoft"? I don't have examples off the top of my head, but considering that it would be in the best interests of Red Hat's entire installed base, I would say that it is more than likely. I guess that's why they call it a line in the sand and not a line in the concrete.
    • I guess that's why they call it a line in the sand and not a line in the concrete
      They call it a line in the sand because Moses didn't have any wet concrete handy.
      • by PCM2 ( 4486 )

        They call it a line in the sand because Moses didn't have any wet concrete handy.

        Errr, minor point, but Moses didn't draw the line in the sand; Bowie did. Moses ran.

      • I dunno, he turned the Nile into blood with his staff, I reckon concrete from sand wouldn't have been that difficult... :p
  • by thatskinnyguy ( 1129515 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:44AM (#20212761)
    I saw this coming after Redhat stopped making Linux for everyone and went corporate only. Sure there is Fedora; but it's not Redhat. The same thing applies to SuSE/OpenSuSE.

    I, for one, like corporate Linux. The support is all there. With community distros, I can't tell you how many times my questions have gone unanswered or have been mocked. With corporate editions, I can actually call/email someone with and issue and get a response in a timely manner.

    I understand the whole attitude about keeping Linux free; but alienation of community users by community users is a good way for community Linux to shoot itself in the foot.
    • See here. I've personally never used it, only the servers variants, so I couldn't say what's new or interesting about it (aside from the fact that they've re-entered that market). It's based on 5, which unlike Vista *does* feel like an incremental step forward, so there's that.
  • From his article, "The Coming Divide"
    "There is in fact a coming divide that will hit the Linux community like a freight train. The battle lines have already been drawn, and companies that support Linux, such as Canonical, will eventually find themselves fiercely pitted against companies like Linspire, who only a short time ago, entered into an agreement of cooperation."
    http://www.madpenguin.org/cms/?m=show&id=7988 [madpenguin.org]

    From my article, "The Coming Linux Storm"
    "The Linux community is heading for a clas
    • by AVee ( 557523 )
      So, conspiricy theorists are rarely original. And writers of 'opinion' pieces on open source websites are the worst kind.

      Please stop fighting these 'freedom stealing' windmills and start enjoying your freedoms. You do realize you lost your all your copyleft freedoms the moment you started writing stuff like this when you could have been writing cool software, testing some beta version of something or even installing Linux on the PC of you mother in law? It's useless to make such a fuss about what the rest
  • The problem... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by rehtonAesoohC ( 954490 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:48AM (#20212837) Journal
    I think the most obvious problem here is that the Linux community (not partnering with Microsoft) has an eye that sees things without a shade of green around everything. There isn't money to be made in every aspect of what it looks at, and is only interested in improving what they already have. Microsoft and partners looks at it with green tinted goggles (The goggles, they do nothing!) and tries to find ways to eke out money regardless of making improvements.

    If they have to improve something to make money, then that would be their motivation.

    I think the Linux community itself is divided, however. There are several companies trying to make money from Linux (Red Hat), and then there are other groups of people who are intent on making sure Linux remains open source and free for all...

    I would think that either Linux needs to remain completely free and open source for ALL distributions, or Microsoft is going to start sticking its fingers into the pie, trying to figure out where the money drip is.
  • by 3seas ( 184403 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @11:52AM (#20212875) Homepage Journal
    ...is it a slow news day?

    This persistent nagging as to how this or that or the other are issues the linux community has to deal with or they will fall and linux will be no more....bla bla blaaaa..pff pff spit..

    This sort of shit out of the mouth has been going on since Linus first announced his plans to create linux. Perhaps it was going on before that even with article on Stallman.

    I'd really honestly sincerely like to see the stats as to how many of these stories and anal-analists have actually panned out. And that includes SCO and Microsoft shit babeling about Linux...

    what's the score? absolute BS __________________________________________ vs. Panned Out _
    (space alloted for answers)

  • look at all the trouble you are causing! /ducks
  • Why is Slashdot.. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Safiire Arrowny ( 596720 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @12:01PM (#20212981) Homepage
    Why is Slashdot helping to promote this type of fear by posting this type of article?
    • Where exactly in the article did you see FUD ..

      was: Re:Why is Slashdot..
      • This insinuation that MS is causing a 'coming divide' in the Linux community.
        • by rs232 ( 849320 )
          "This insinuation that MS is causing a 'coming divide' in the Linux community

          "is he saying he wants FOSS to become, instead of a competitor, more like a kind of cheap subsidiary [groklaw.net] that innovates principally for Microsoft's benefit? Microsoft gets innovation and code and makes money from it. Maybe some patents you didn't notice, too. Linux vendors on the bridge make some money. You get nothing"

          "Linspire has now signed a patent deal with Microsoft, which I'm sure does not surprise you. They've been fores
  • Missed story (Score:5, Insightful)

    by huckamania ( 533052 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @12:01PM (#20212985) Journal
    I thought this was going to be about desktop versus server linux. An Ubuntu vs IBM type of thing. Throw in some FUD about (un)fair schedulers and file access writes slowing things down, it would make for some interesting trolling. No takers?

    Anywhile, tagging the companies that work with MS as 'corporate' takes some serious spinning. I'm sure IBM, Sun, Oracle, Apple, etc would all chafe at being left out of the 'corporate' segment. But then, all 4 of them might qualify to be 'corporate' under these terms since most are in bed with MS already, to some degree.

  • Is there any successful partnership with Microsoft...

    M$ is black widow... No one get any benefit from them...

    IBM, Stac, Sybase ...

    Clever people learn other's mistakes, stupid people learn own mistakes...
  • Z0mg, what is this?

    The least desirable scenario is for Microsoft to benefit/profit from/soak up any of the good-vibes associated with Linux. And any kind of "partnership" with M$ -- whether corporate or community -- would do just that. The "corporate vs. community" headline is misleading. It is not and should not be a matter of fragmenting Linux developers or potential end-users according to corporate or community motives.

    Being 'corporate' is not necessarily bad for Linux. Indeed, I think the only

  • "GPLv3 Enforcement: This Could Become a Bumpy Road"

    "Working Together As a Community to Leave Behind Microsoft Media Formats"

    "Separating the Weak From the Strong"

    "No matter how hard we try to down play it, the patent threats and deals that are being made because of them are hurting the community [madpenguin.org] - it's a simple fact. The real trick will be to see who sticks this out and who falls back to closed source alternatives, as we see Linux getting split with IP politics"
  • by LingNoi ( 1066278 ) on Monday August 13, 2007 @01:05PM (#20213775)

    There is in fact a coming divide that will hit the Linux community like a freight train. The battle lines have already been drawn, and companies that support Linux, such as Canonical, will eventually find themselves fiercely pitted against companies like Linspire, who only a short time ago, entered into an agreement of cooperation.
    As a Linux user I don't see what this has to do with Microsoft or why they where even mentioned at all. It seems to be more to do with a divide between Linux distributions you have to pay for and ones you don't.

    Canonical has made Linux Desktop a reality and now companies like Novell are suffering because of it.

    No matter how hard we try to down play it, the patent threats and deals that are being made because of them are hurting the community - it's a simple fact.
    How so? Maybe for the US but not the rest of the world.

    A clash between the different versions of the GPL have already begun
    Mixing GPL 2 and 3 code is not much of a problem if the project is using the "or at your option any later version" clause as most projects are. If not then you're screwed but in reality I fail to see any real cases of this happening. Note its only code, you could have GPL 2 and 3 applications running no problem side by side.

    This article is all over the place what is the main point of this article again? It went from distribution divides, to licensing issues, to patent problems. arrgh! stay on topic!
  • "Defiance" of GPL'd Linux already has a name. It's called BSD.
  • The Linux community has always been split between the Pragmatists and the Faithful, so this is nothing new. Gnu/Linux thrives in spite of this fact (or perhaps, horror or horrors, *because* of it), and that won't change anytime soon.
    • Actually, the community has always been divided between the Stallman fanatics that call Linux "GNU/Linux" and those that find that name rather silly and childish.
  • Using Microsoft is a bad dividing line to use. Linux is free to partner up with other commercial entities too. It just so happens at this time it's Microsoft. This must show some need somewhere, otherwise it wouldn't have started to happen. I see many posts about how this is bad, but does anybody have points about the bright side?
  • So, the community is divided on those that made a deal with Microsoft (I'll call those ones "Dead") and those without such deal (I'll call those "Other"). Well, big deal! We have yet another pair of labels to put on each other... And the "Dead" ones won't even stay long enough to make a big number.

    Microsoft is trying to divide and conquer the community. The only problem is that we are already divided, and are strong that way. If that was a sucessfull strategy, Microsoft would jump directly to the "conquer"

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