LinuxSA Mailing list archives

  From: Greg  <grog@lemis.com>
  To  : Ian Loxton <ilox@airnet.com.au>
  Date: Fri, 31 Jan 2003 12:59:55 +1030

Re: Sun left out of Linux meet

On Friday, 31 January 2003 at  3:43:56 +1030, Ian Loxton wrote:
> Re: Australian IT article; http://tinyurl.com/53s4
>
> Duncan and Sun would be rightly peeved at the garbage going on over
> this event;
>
>  "Microsoft is making the most of its opportunity, flying US
>  business strategy senior vice-president Maggie Wilderotter
>  to Australia to address the public sector troops.
>
>  This has prompted rival software maker Sun Microsystems to
>  complain about being frozen out of an official role at the
>  seminar.
>
>  "I'm looking for some guidance from the federal government
>  as to what they're seeking to achieve from the event," Sun
>  Australia Linux product manager Duncan Bennet said. "The
>  event is very much about open source and, obviously, Sun has
>  a number of open source products.
> ..
>
>  "NOIE business strategy branch general manager Steve Alford
>  said the program for the seminar had been decided in
>  consultation with public sector CIOs and software industry
>  groups.
>
>  "Our target audience for the seminar are the chief
>  information officers and chief technology officers, may of
>  whom have made substantial investments in their departments
>  in the Microsoft operating environment," Mr Alford said.
>
>  "This is not a Linux sales program. It aims to provide a
>  balanced view."
> "
> What a piece of work this is.  MS can bring out one of their big guns
> and get to sit on the panel alongside IBM etc all the while openly
> being antagonistic to the whole concept of opensource - anti-American
> <sigh>

A couple of things you left out there:

1.  Sun wasn't the only company not allowed to speak.  Originally,
    only IBM was going to speak.  There are plenty of other companies
    who weren't invited either.
2.  Sun paid the reporter's fare to go to LCA.
3.  Which sounds more balanced to you: presentations from two
    companies making money from Open Source, or presentations from one
    company each making money from Open Source and being threatened by
    Open Source?
4.  How about a group in the talk which is neither directly threatened
    by Open Source nor directly benefits from it, but which knows the
    issues and can present them dispassionately?  Say AUUG, for
    example?

> Does anybody seriously expect anything positive to come out of this?

Yes, I most certainly do.

It's easy to criticize the government.  In fact, it's easy to get the
feeling that it's our duty.  In fact, though, I have been very
impressed by the people at NOIE.  My main concern from my own point of
view is that we won't live up to their standards.  I'll give more
details after the event.

Yes, I'm not happy that Microsoft will be there either.  But you
certainly can't say that it would give a less balanced view than
having Sun there instead of them.  I'm just hoping that Microsoft will
be unable to convince people.

See http://www.noie.gov.au/projects/egovernment/Better_Infrastructure/OSS/
for more details.

Greg
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