[KLUG Advocacy] Re: [KLUG Members] New York Times Endorses Linux

[advocacy@kalamazoolinux.org]

>http://www.nytimes.com/2002/09/18/opinion/18WED2.html
>This is on the Editorial Page of the New York Times today.
>Not a news article, or a guest opinion, but the position of
>the newspaper itself on the topic.

It seems a strange position for a producer of copyrighted material to take, 
very much out of stride with the rest of the industry.

Maybe they actually get the fact that in the end reduced openness will hurt them
too, and badly (IMHO).  It is hard for me to imagine being pro-Linux solely on
the basis of "For consumers, that would be good news", then why not endorse
Apple,  come out with a position on the M$ monoplity trial, etc...

On a side note - 
1. I wish the whole Walmart/Lindows thing would go away.  It has to come up in
every statement/discussion of this kind.  Lindows represents the worst of Linux,
and offers nothing novel (their one click installer, blah blah, is not novel. 
There are several ways to get that, Red-Carpet bieng just one).
2. "Its informality could be a liability for the sort of serious governmental
and commercial projects for which it is now being considered." Oh my.  The "FHS"
anyone?  Major disrributions are quite formal, just don't grab packages from
www.podunk.tz.
3. After bumming around with computers at a local public school I think I have a
pretty solid belief that Apple cannot pose a legitimate threat the M$ hegemony.
 Lets face it Mac OS 8.x 9.x, sucked.  Those people (at least the ones I met)
are gun shy and really want to escape Apple to PCs.  It will be hard to
out-market past bad experiences.  They don't have any clue what Linux/UNIX is, 
which may actually turn out to be a good thing.  Of course, not having any clue
of what UNIX is also makes it harder for Apple to pitch OS-X on that point.  All
in all, a loss for Apple.