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Linus Calls Microsoft Hatred "a Disease"
Hugh Pickens writes "In the aftermath of Microsoft's recent decision to contribute 20,000 lines of device driver code to the Linux community, Christopher Smart of Linux Magazine talked to Linus Torvalds and asked if the code was something he would be happy to include, even though it's from Microsoft. 'Oh, I'm a big believer in "technology over politics." I don't care who it comes from, as long as there are solid reasons for the code, and as long as we don't have to worry about licensing etc. issues,' says Torvalds. 'I may make jokes about Microsoft at times, but at the same time, I think the Microsoft hatred is a disease. I believe in open development, and that very much involves not just making the source open, but also not shutting other people and companies out.' Smart asked Torvalds if Microsoft was contributing the code to benefit the Linux community or Microsoft. 'I agree that it's driven by selfish reasons, but that's how all open source code gets written! We all "scratch our own itches." It's why I started Linux, it's why I started git, and it's why I am still involved. It's the reason for everybody to end up in open source, to some degree,' says Torvalds. 'So complaining about the fact that Microsoft picked a selfish area to work on is just silly. Of course they picked an area that helps them. That's the point of open source — the ability to make the code better for your particular needs, whoever the "your" in question happens to be.'"
To me, Linus' statement does not seem to be about free software. It seems to be about social consciousness.
I admire Mr. Torvald's leadership of the Linux kernel, but he is not someone I would go to for social wisdom. I'm not sure what his intention was in saying that Microsoft hatred is a disease. It's not really hatred, it is dislike, and dislike of Microsoft is becoming widespread. Even the New York Times expresses dislike for Microsoft in the title of this February 13, 2009 article: Will Clippy Be a Greeter at Microsoft's New Stores?
The actual effect is the opposite of what Mr. Torvalds is overtly saying. The actual social effect is something like, "The dislike of Microsoft is becoming so widespread and intense that it is like an epidemic." Mr. Torvalds is publicizing Microsoft "hatred", not stopping it.
Dislike of Microsoft is not new. Pam Edstrom's daughter, Jennifer Edstrom, wrote the 1998 book, Barbarians Led by Bill Gates, with a former Microsoft manager. Quote from the first Amazon review in the list of reviews: "The authors are evidently very anti-Microsoft, yet at the same time their stories come across not so much as how stupid Microsoft is, but how mismanaged and lucky Gates & Company have been, which is closer to the truth than many people think." Pam Edstrom is a former Microsoft employee, and one of the founders of Waggener Edstrom, Microsoft's public relations agency.
Who would you believe about the subject of dislike of Microsoft, a former Microsoft manager who wrote a book about the subject, or Linus Torvalds? Perhaps Mr. Torvalds just doesn't have sufficient experience, or sufficient awareness of the experience of other people. There is a cure for that. He could install a few Microsoft Windows computers and maintain them.