I was thinking about this a lot since I first read about the survey. Is 
it possible for them to "beat us"? Beyond an attempt to get global 
legislation passed that bans the use and development of FOSS, I fail to 
see how they can "beat us".

What I find interesting is the fact that many new technologies that 
Microsoft is planning on releasing (tabbed browsing, plain text 
configuration files, beefed up CLI, threaded email views) are things 
that I have been using on my FOSS desktop for a very long time.

I believe Microsoft believes that by equaling or bettering FOSS in 
features, that it will ultimately defeat the movement. Fortunately they 
are very wrong. It is not just about features. It is about the entire 
philosophy of FOSS that makes it work. Empowering each and every user to 
dive as deep into the system as necessary. Not creating artificial 
barriers of entry/exit (ie proprietary file formats, unpublished 
protocols, etc..). Not hiding behind binaries and making each 
contributor responsible for their contribution (as an end user, if I 
wanted, I can review source and tout why it totally sucks or is genius.. 
closed source doesn't provide me that opportunity).

Beyond the pure technological aspects of FOSS, there are very 
interesting global and sociological aspects to FOSS as well. It doesn't 
matter where you live, it doesn't matter what your age, it doesn't 
matter your gender, race, religious beliefs, disabilities or economic 
status. FOSS is available to you. If you contribute, all that matters is 
your contribution. period. Age discrimination, gender, race, religious 
discriminations do not exist. In fact, given the global nature of many 
OSS projects, I believe for many users it has brought a sense of "global 
citizenship" which further breaks down barriers and I believe leads to 
greater global awareness among all of us.

How can Microsoft, a single US corporation possibly beat this?

Joe


Thomas Cameron wrote:
> Don't help them out, folks.  They want you to tell them how to beat us.