[wplug] postgazette article was ( linux embedded appliances?)

Bill Moran wmoran at potentialtech.com
Thu Jan 22 14:38:19 EST 2004


John Harrold wrote:
> Sometime in January Drew from Zhrodague assaulted the keyboard and produced:
> | 	http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04022/264254.stm
> | 
> | 	I think this is the story someone was talking about.
> | 
> | 	Ian James seems to have his own head jammed into his ass, but then 
> | again we know that not much (any at all?) of Red Square Systems' business 
> | is Linux. They seem hell bent on charging their customers as much as 
> | absolutely possible, whether RS benefits from this or not.
> | 
> | 	"I never sit down with customers whose burning question of the
> | moment is whether we should go to Linux," said Iam James, chief executive
> | officer of IT consultant Red Square Systems. "You can save money by
> | avoiding licensing costs, but there aren't as many applications. With
> | Microsoft products, it's easier to find more qualified people to deal with
> | them."
> | 
> | 	Obviously, their definition of "qualified" means Microsoft 
> | Certified. I woner what applications he's talking about that don't run on 
> | Linux -- Citrix? 
> 
> well i am a microsoft bigot, but i don't think this article is all that
> bad. while the quote above does appear in the article, it's not really
> representative of the entire article. i would estimate that the portion
> deadicated to this guy is less than 1/3 of the article. 
> 
> part of a journalists job is to provide a complete, or shall i say
> balanced, story. i don't think it's wrong of her to get info from both
> sides. if the stuff above comprised 90% of the story, then i think people
> would be justified in feeling slighted. sure the ms consultant is pimpin'
> off fud-what would you expect. a story that provides both sides of the
> story is more likely to be taken seriously than one which considers only
> the virtues of linux.

This article really upset me when I first read it.  Since then, I've had
a number of people tell me to calm down, and their arguments have been
valid.  The article is more good than it is bad.

My major complaint comes from the fact that I was deceived when I was
interviewed.  I was given the impression that this was a article on Linux,
not a Microsoft vs. Linux article.  The difference may be subtle, and it's
quite possible that it was my misunderstanding, but as a result, I did not
provide _any_ anti-Microsoft ammunition to the reporter, it was all pro-
open source, and there's a lot I could have said if I had known.

Meanwhile, it's obvious that the pro-Microsoft interviewees knew full well
that they were being interviewed to defend Windows against Linux.

But I agree, John, the article is more positive than it is negative, and I
need to look past my personal feeling of betrayal on this.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com




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