Re: [DotGNU](slashdot) Microsoft dumps hailstorm ?

[Barry Fitzgerald]

Norbert Bollow wrote:
> 
> http://weblog.digital-identity.info/archives/000069.html sounds
> genuine enough to me.
> 
> "Passport" isn't going to get dropped anytime soon, even if
> Microsoft may be forced to make it less evil in the process of
> the battle, in which their main strategic objective is to gain
> some kind of de facto control of authentication and virtual
> identities on the internet.
> 


Oh, I agree completely.  MS isn't going to just shelve their work -
they're going to adjust their strategy to what's happening and take that
work and apply it to other endeavors.  They're not stupid and they've
put a lot of resources into Hailstorm services over the past few years. 
However, we're left with a Hailstorm that threatens Free Software almost
as much as any other major vendors webservices.  I don't mean to
downplay MS' marketshare, but with a less centralized MS webservice
infrastructure - we're not as heavily plagued by the possibility of
Hailstorm marketshare making it impossible for Free Software to play on
the net.  

This is not to say that we should not be wary, we should.  But,
"anarchy" (for lack of a better word - and meaning the political
tendency and need for decentralization and opposition) may be working
pretty strongly on our side. 

        -Barry