Monday, July 04, 2005

Hypocrisy of the FOSS

Why is Microsoft being perpetually hated and bashed by the open source community? Why is Bill Gates being hated like the plague by the open source community? I am an open source fan, I believe in their cause. But I really believe that the goal sometimes is being diverted from providing free (as in freedom) and open source software to Microsoft bashing. MS reached its behemoth size because it is good. Being good doesn't mean superior product (e.g. Windows XP vs OS X). They are good because nobody else is. IBM? They got screwed remember. Apple, the same. How about Open Source? They aren't. Don't know why these zealots are so mad at an institution that they can never abolish. To tell you frankly, the GPL's way is nothing short of being a communist/socialist versus MS and Apple's capitalism.

A chunk of Bill's money goes to charity. Can the open source community top that? Can they fund thousands for their healthcare and education? Can they alleviate poverty? Open source's goals is very noble indeed but the way the zealots degenerate to pointing their energies at bashing MS is indeed counter productive.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, like its mega corporation source, is the world's largest charitable foundation. The foundation has an endowment of approximately US$28.8 billion. To maintain its status as a charitable foundation, it must donate at least 5 percent of its assets each year. This amounts to over $1 billion.

So bash all you want. Sue all you want but I think MS is here to stay. The future lies in either OS X or a POSIXed Windows.... I guess.

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