Stuart D. Gathman
This is really insightful.
Thanks.
And the more SPF users there are, the less effective
M$ harrassment of a few of them is.
Indeed. The two are too philosophically opposed to make compatible bed
fellows; that being said it was worth a try and I renew my kudos to Meng
for trying.
I am very embarrassed with what I wrote below, but the way to handle
things now is a guerilla war.
This community can not win against M$ in court, and I doubt it can win a
PR battle either. For the same reasons: being outgunned, which means
outspent. For each dollar the SPF community can spend, M$ can spend a K
without even showing it on the bottom line. In other words: yours might
be bigger than Bill Gates', but how does you wallet compare to his?
Unfortunately, the political side does not look good either, because of
timing. Although SPF needs to be deployed world-wide, M$ is an American
corporation. Here's the deal: this is election year, we're less than 6
weeks from it, and as of today, no politician nor staff down to the
rookies gives a rip to SPF. Iraq, the economy, blah blah. This sells.
SPF, no.
BEST case: if Bush is re-elected, some politician staff might notice SPF
by the beginning of December (takes time to clean the post-election
stuff). Christmas is soon, result is maybe in the 3rd week of January in
your wildest dreams something will begin to move. If Kerry passes, add 2
1/2 months to the schedule. Just the way it works.
And, as we all know, politicians are too honest to be bought. Which is
fortunate, because if they could M$ would own large numbers of them by
now :-)
Another thing that comes to mind is P2P, and I don't like comparing it
with SPF either but here it is anyway: Is P2P legal? (cough). Has anyone
being able to stop it? No. Why? Because 100 million people are using it.
Same applies to SPF. Make it work, then we'll think about making it
legal, if need be.
Michel.