From: Patrick May <pjm@spe.com>
Date: Mon, 29 Dec 1997 19:59:03 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: Why I Support Microsoft
In-Reply-To: <v0310280db0c2f8195048@[207.167.93.63]>
Message-ID: <1661-Mon29Dec1997034752-0800-Patrick May <pjm@spe.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Tim May writes:
 > At 1:53 PM -0700 12/27/97, Patrick May wrote:
 > >The President should issue an executive order mandating that all
 > >government agencies immediately remove all Microsoft operating systems
 > >from their machines, to be replaced with Linux.  All Microsoft
 > >products should be eliminated as well.  The standard text format
 > >should be LaTeX.  All businesses receiving money from government
 > >contracts should be required to use the same tools.
[ . . . ]
 > 
 > Much to be said for this "free market solution." Certainly the Justice
 > Department has no business screaming "monopoly!" if it's still
 > "standardizing" on MS products.
[ . . . ]
 > On the other hand, requiring _any_ language, program, or OS is probably a
 > mistake. If the Arctic Cartography Office wants to keep using its Macs, why
 > should some bureaucrat force them to scrap their Macs and use Linux?
 > 
 > (Yeah, yeah, a form of Linux, MK-Linux, runs on Macs. But Adobe Photoshop
 > doesn't run under Linux. And Mathematica doesn't run under Linux for the
 > Mac (last I checked). And so on. The point is, why standardize at the end
 > of a gun?)

     Okay, so I'm a UNIX-head; I forgot about the Macs (a dangerous
thing to do, given the ferocity of their supporters).  If the
government were to adopt my suggestion, two major results would be:

     - The third party market for Linux software would grow rapidly
       and enormously.
     - The government's software budget would be reduced dramatically.

I consider both of these to be Good Things (tm).  The government
wouldn't be forcing anything at the point of a gun, they'd simply be
making a financially responsible vendor selection (hey, there's a
first time for everything).  Our tax dollars shouldn't be wasted on
substandard software when superior, cheaper alternatives exist.

Regards,

Patrick May
S P Engineering, Inc.