Kenneth Gonsalves wrote: > the only question being asked here is 'should the community > participate in conferences where microsoft is a sponsor' - and if it > does, how does the community benefit?
I believe there is a disconnect between what Kenneth is talking about and what others are talking about. We all (Kenneth included) believe that every company (even Microsoft) should have as much an opportunity as others to be at a FOSS event if it has something relevant to say. This is probably a point on which every body including LA, Anupam, Kenneth agree upon. Kenneth(and Me and others) goes beyond this argument with the following line - Microsoft has had enough opportunities to participate in FOSS in the time so far. Microsoft has announced its intentions and beliefs rather clearly everytime - it doesn't like GPL/Free software/Opensource, and it will go to any length to subvert this community/movement/industry. It has shown its subversive intentions this time too - by undermining Linux in a Linux event by ostentatiously participating to show their open source offerings, and then promoting their closed source software as an alternative. Given this rather long track record of Microsoft, we feel that it has no place in an Free/Open Source event of any nature. Its presence(leave alone sponsorship) itself undermines the event's credibility. It is because of this argument, that we are considering whether we should associate ourselves with any organization which doesn't feel the same way about our movement. And please, for those focusing on the "practical side of Linux", it would be best that you stay away from this discussion. You obviously don't look at the larger picture. There would be no Linux/FOSS if people only focused on the "practical side". - Sandip _______________________________________________ ilugd mailinglist -- ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org http://frodo.hserus.net/mailman/listinfo/ilugd Archives at: http://news.gmane.org/gmane.user-groups.linux.delhi http://www.mail-archive.com/ilugd@lists.linux-delhi.org/
