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Optimizing Linux Advocacy Efforts
An anonymous reader writes "Open source advocate Tony Stanco, of the George Washington University Cyberspace Policy Institute has been getting flamed for allowing Microsoft reps to speak at an Open Source in government conference he's putting on next month. Today, in a commentary on NewsForge, Tony responds to the flamers. He says, "Leave it to the kooks in the community to make Microsoft look sympathetic." Is he right? Should we be willing to listen to what Microsoft has to say? Aren't open minds important to open source?" Newsforge and Slashdot are both part of OSDN.
Chris DiBona
Co-Editor, Open Sources
Open Source Program Manager, Google, Inc.
This is about lobbying for a position.
I don't see the oil companies inviting alternative energy and environmental protection groups into conferences discussing how to improve oil production/development.
I don't see World Finance groups bringing poor people into their conferences. (perhaps they should)
As a rule, a particular constituency has a right to organize and exclude those that do not represent the values of that community. Why should we not take advantage of this? Why should we let the deck be stacked against us because 'we are better than that?'
Open meeting laws do not apply to these private gatherings.
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
I know you're just trolling, but I'm going to answer this anyhow.
:)
OE would begin to run, then I would see a dialog telling me "There was a problem" and it would close again. When I clicked on the technical details, it told me the problem was with wlang.dll, and some other details that weren't a lot of help.
Normally when I get something like this, I simply uninstall and then reinstall the program which cleans up all the broken/corrupted EXE's, DLL's and configuration associated with the problem, but in XP they have made IE and OE non-removable, so MS's tech support for this issue is a little more complicated.
Step one; XP comes with a handy tool that checks all the critical system files and repairs them as required. Usually it works, this time it didn't.
Step two; you can hack the registry and fool windows into thinking IE and OE are not installed. The installer program for IE should then overwrite all the files and build a clean configuration, fixing any that are damaged. This also failed.
Step three; you can do what Microsoft calls an "In-place upgrade", reinstalling the entire OS while keeping as much of the drivers and applications as the installer recognises. This also failed.
Step four; suggested on IRC. You can create a new user, who should have a clean config for OE, and see if they can run it. No.
Step five; suggested on IRC, you can boot in safe mode in case there's a broken driver somewhere causing the problem. We were getting desperate at this point
Step six; I have another windows box which is working prefectly, let's see if all the OE files and that dll are identical. They are.
Step seven. It's 11pm and Liz wants the box for work tomorrow. Reinstall the fucking thing.
I run freebsd at home, so there's possibly a few other things I could have done that I'm not aware of.
455fe10422ca29c4933f95052b792ab2
MS does have a valid point in banning Linux use within the company- if any GPL'd code is used in an MS product, then, legally, MS cannot charge for that product, and has to make the source available.
This sentence is completely wrong and it only confirms that the M$ FUD does work.
You should read the GPL before you post.
First, using (or not using) Linux and/or any GLP'd software has nothing to do with the license you choose for your product. You can use an open source environment to produce a commercial application.
The other point is that nothing forbids you from charging for yours GPL'd product. It is legal as long as you provide the sources to the buyer.