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

[Beth Lynn]

Hi

I just wanted to take a moment to respond to Drew, John & Bill.
Also this is address to everyone else who answered my pleas for assistance
since a reporter is researching a Linux story.

I guess I sent the Linux embedded appliances question to the list too
late. Ooops!

> > 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.

Yes, this is the reporter in which I was in communication with.
Many of the themes that she touched on for this article reflect
some of the questions she asked me. I sent Corilyn mail on Tuesday
inviting her to future WPLUG events so I find it odd that she
did not respond and she did not let me know that the article was
to be published today.

> > | 	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? 

Sigh. What a shame! I specifically recall making exactly the counterpoint
to this argument in my conversations with Corilyn. I said that some
folks may resist using Linux because there isn't a single corporate face
behind it like Microsoft. In addition to community support (both virtual
and local based LUGS) there is a good deal of corporate support.
In fact there are multiple corporate faces who support Linux for profit.
At the small business level you have company's like Bill Moran's 
(Potential Technologies). At the big business level you have names like 
IBM, Novell, SUSE, Redhat, et al. Corilyn was a little confused by the 
concept that people really do make money on free software. I attempted 
to explain the free speech vs free beer but I guess I went over her head. 
Or perhaps these facts didn't jive well with the point she was trying to 
get across with this article.

whatever.
 
> John Harrold wrote:
> > 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.

It actually doesn't surprise me that there was some content in this
article regarding why people stay with Microsoft. I actually believed
this article was going to be about why businesses will sometimes
choose Linux here in Pittsburgh.

Just to get real, Pittsburgh corporate computing is stuck in the ice age.
Pittsburghers don't do change. Even if you say "It's FREE!" it won't help.
If windoze is what they are used to, that's where they will stay. If they
have an ancient VMS or Unix mainframe it will keep going as long as there
is a reason for it to draw power. People stay with what works for DECADES 
until it doesn't work anymore. 

You'd be surprised how many corporations depend on this one DOS/Win 3.11 
box where someone 10+ years ago hacked together a proprietary piece of 
software that doesn't run on Win 9x nor do they have the source code to 
attempt to port it. No backups. When this hard drive crashes, they're
screwed but hey that's some other day. Managers count on the concept
that they will be dead or retired when it all goes down. What? Me worry?

On Thu, 22 Jan 2004, Bill Moran wrote:

> 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.

Since I thought this article was going to be about why businesses will 
sometimes choose Linux in Pittsburgh, I assumed it was going to be as 
an alternative to Windows. But that was my impression.

Personally I do not feel hurt that I wasn't quoted in this article.
I told Corilyn that she really should talk to Bill Moran of Potential 
Technologies and someone at Telerama about being a local small business
that uses and supports Linux.

I am greatly disappointed that she made no mention of WPLUG and
what a great community we have going here. She seemed really interested
in visiting a WPLUG event and including the experience to "add color"
to her article. I mentioned to her that it would be great if she gets
a chance to see Linux in action before she writes this article. 
Perhaps maybe some other day.

I do not think that Corylin is aware that Linux is a part of our day 
to day professional life and not just an obscure operating system we
all just happen to come across because we are "tech savvy"

I propose this to anyone who is interested...
We as a WPLUG whole write a letter in response to this article. 
The intension is not to "burn bridges" but to say "Hey, we are the Greater 
Pittsburgh Linux users community and this is how we see Linux being used
in our day to day lives" I'm not that great of a writer so what we need
is a volunteer who hears these ideas and is able to articulate in writing
in a cohesive manner. If we need to continue to discuss this we could
continue over the list, irc, or in person. (I will make this call in
a separate mail to wplug at wplug.org so that all persons interested would
be aware of this)

Anyhow, I hope I did my best representing WPLUG before the media.
Live and Learn.

Thanks,
Beth Lynn