[LIG] Re: [FSF India] Re: WB Govt ties up with MSFT

[Khuzaima A. Lakdawala]

Hi,

There were other things which I wanted to say before I lost my balance
yesterday. Please bear with me:

> The idea was to create a document which would present hard facts which
> cannot be debated away.

I think I mentioned in an earlier post about the well-oiled and
efficient marketing machine at MS's disposal. They employ some of the
best (albeit, misguided) brains in the business whose *full time* job
is to debate these "hard facts" about security, flexibility, total
cost etc. It is a well-known fact, even more well-known in OUR
community, that Microsoft reached where it did not because of any
technical merit but entirely on its marketing merits.

They will depute their best marketing guys to refute all these hard
facts and convince the civil servants (or even ministers) that their
product is in fact better! Don't expect the poor civil servant to
differentiate fact from FUD.

Microsoft is the *MASTER* of these techniques. We *cannot* beat them
at their own game. Organisations having far more resources then us,
and having far superior products then Microsoft's, have tried this
game and failed.

Just stressing on GNU/Linux's technical superiority, flexibility,
security etc is not only insufficient, but *futile*!

If, at this late stage when the WB Government has apparently already
decided to go ahead with its tie-up with MS, we cannot convince them
*solely* on the basis of the *philosophy* of Free Software, on the basis of
*Freedom*, then let it be so. One state lost to MS, one battle
lost. But let us not fall into this trap of discussing only the
"hard facts".

If tomorrow, another state decides to tie up with, say, Adobe or
Oracle, are we going to write up another document describing all the
"technical demerits" of their software vis-a-vis Free Software
alternatives?

You see the futility of this approach? You see how "knee-jerk" it is?
It will simply constantly keep us on our toes without achieving
anything. It will magnify every small battle into a large unfightable one.

I would like to address all the "practical" folks out there. The only
practical approach to fighting proprietary software is the one based
on *freedom*. You don't even have to be an "idealist" to appreciate
this. It is so obvious!

Instead of expending our energies writing individual anti-MS,
anti-Adobe, anti-Oracle etc. letters of questionable value, let us
endeavour to write one generic anti-proprietary-software letter
addressed to Governments, describing all the ills of proprietary
software and all the benefits (in their entirety) of Free
Software. Let us not wait till another State Government decides to tie
up with another proprietary software company before we send this
letter. Let us draft it and send it now! Most of the material required
for such a letter can be easily gleaned from the FSF web site.

- Khuzaima 

Raju Mathur <raju@linux-delhi.org> writes:

> Khuzaima,
> 
> While I agree that freedom is the most important facet of Free
> Software, I deliberately omitted mentioning it in the letter.  If you
> notice, I have tried to stay away from any of the following:
> 
> - Controversial issues (e.g. MS' ongoing court case(s))
> - Un-verifiable data
> - Philosophy
> - Opinions
> 
> The idea was to create a document which would present hard facts which
> cannot be debated away.


-- 
Khuzaima A. Lakdawala