Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.
Re: Anti-Microsoft sentiment
Author: Joshua Allen Posted: 9/16/2000; 8:02:04 PM Topic: Debunking the OSS Bazaar? Msg #: 21418 (In response to 21413) Prev/Next: 21417 / 21419
I don't see how this is relevant, no matter who brought it up.Yikes! This is starting to feel like wading through mud! I wasn't actually intending to debate anything. The point was raised by you, paraphrased in the most terse way I know:
- You said that business is approached either like war or like sports, and characterize Microsoft as treating business like war.
- In a reply muchly agreeing with you, I pointed out that sports vs. war could be considered an inadequate analogy, since I see the fundamental difference between sports and war to be whether people die (and war has rules by the way). I suggested that some sports involve making the other guy lose, while others don't, and that maybe this was a better analogy. You characterize Microsoft as using the first approach to business, while other companies choose to use the second.
Note that I wasn't trying to debate anything; and was trying very hard to avoid an argument about which approach was "correct". The analogy was offered up because:
- I thought you might like it, and maybe this analogy would be more powerful for what you were trying to say. I could have just said, "you are wrong because war is entirely coercive and humans get killed." But I felt that would be a dirty trick when you probably were making a good point, so I decided to offer an alternative analogy.
- I selfishly wanted to talk more about the other sorts of non-Microsoft things that these analogies evince. Honestly, there are really smart people here, and I get the kind of mental challenge here that I cannot find on any other message boards. You must forgive me if I try every now and then to drag you into a topic that I want some help thinking about.
Please also note that I didn't intend to be disrespectful about the whole "Did Microsoft really break the rules" thing. I just feel that its such a loaded topic, like "Catholic vs. Protestant". No matter how many protestants say "any idiot could see Catholicism is wrong", nobody convinces each other. I just don't see how dialogue could lead to a gradual shared perspective. Saying that the legal system will decide was just my way of copping out because I don't have the energy to try reaching a shared POV here.
There are responses to this message:
- Re: metaphors (Anti-Microsoft sentiment), David McCusker, 9/16/2000; 8:26:08 PM
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