Barnaby's Canadian IT Pro WebLog

No doubt you've seen the review of your talk on NewsForge: Kicking it up a notch: Microsoft's open source message gains subtlety [http://trends.newsforge.com/trends/05/04/01/2122210.shtml]

After reading the article, I'm really sorry I missed your talk. You seem to have gotten the message across so well that the True Believers are worried that Microsoft has started using the "time-honored debating tactics" of being polite, reasonable, honest, and thoughtful, and warns that "even these informed people" can be influenced by these "tactics".

I've posted my comments on my own blog here: http://radio.weblogs.com/0111737/categories/newsstream/2005/04/07.html#a2215

This article appears to be a review of a seminar describing Microsoft's revised attitude towards Open Source. As I read it, though, I started wondering when the Spanish Inquisition was going to show up. The article is actually a warning to all True Believers that Microsoft has started using the "time-honored debating tactics" of being polite, reasonable, honest, and thoughtful, to promote its Microsoft-Is-Not-ALL-Evil heresy. It ends up with a warning that "even these informed people" can be influenced to stray by these sinister "tactics", and that it "shows that the rules of engagement can change at any time -- and that the FOSS Community had better be ready when they do." What ever happened to the Apple fanatics? -- Eric

"Barnaby Jeans, an IT Pro Advisor at Microsoft Canada, has a new approach to Microsoft advocacy. ... Warning that "not all distributions are created equal or even compatible" without giving specifics, he goes on to say that most of the highly customized distributions fall into the Roll Your Own category that most corporations lack "the skill or the money to maintain." The implication is that the advantages of having access to the source code is overrated. ... Because Jeans demonstrates a knowledge of his subject, the implications of his argument are likely to be accepted without question, except by audience members who already know something about the subject. ... The result is a much more sophisticated and effective defense of Microsoft than consumers usually see. ... The effectiveness can be judged by the fact that the people who approached him after the seminar were the open source users in the audience. Although their opinions were unchanged, even these informed people seemed to respect the Microsoft perspective in a way that they had not at the start of the presentation. ... Many people in the FOSS communities are used to the Microsoft response to open source being crude and hysterical. What Jeans proves is that it can just as easily be subtle and sound reasonable. Even more importantly, he shows that the rules of engagement can change at any time -- and that the FOSS Community had better be ready when they do."