Re: [Fsfe-uk] Fwd: OSS Watch inaugural conference, 11 December 2003

[Kevin Donnelly]

Hi Andrew

I think your rant is bizarre, and suggests you are only on this list to 
reassure yourself that free software is still not *quite* "good enough" to 
justify your jettisoning whatever proprietary software you use on your 
desktop every day.  (Do it, man!  You'll breathe easier!  Free software is not 
only for the server/enterprise space!)  I'm content to let Alex' very 
reasoned response stand in place of the ear-burner I was about to 
send.

The only point I would add to what Alex said is that even in terms of 
"balance" this conference doesn't make the grade.  "A balanced and neutral 
source of information about Open Source software" should be just that - the 
balance should apply to OSS (eg not overselling it in places where it would 
be inappropriate), not to computing as a whole.  If it's important to present 
"alternatives", why not also have Sun or IBM or Macromedia or Apple or any of 
a host of others?  

I also happen to think a presentation by MS alone is a gross insult to 
people's intelligence  - do you think anyone likely to come to this 
conference is  so thick that he/she doesn't know there are alternative MS 
technologies?  The whole point of such a conference should surely be to 
provide a view of what is the REAL alternative, not to hear more of the 
claptrap they already hear non-stop from vendors (your good self excluded, 
I'm sure). 

-- 

Best wishes

Kevin Donnelly

www.kyfieithu.co.uk - Meddalwedd Rydd yn Gymraeg