[lug] Press Draft

[Chuck Phillips]

Wayde Allen writes:
 > Hmmm ... I'm not too certain what to say about this activity.  The main
 > thing is that whoever chooses to do it better be darn sure that it stays
 > friendly and doesn't break any laws.  If it gets too confrontational this
 > could back fire in the sense that you would just be confirming the claims
 > that the Linux community is nothing more than an over zealous bunch of
 > hacker fanatics.

Along those lines, I'm a little concerned about the term
"counter-demonstration".  A "demonstration" (as opposed to a product demo), 
insinuates some perceived injustice.  While this is certainly true in some
instances (e.g., the Caldera lawsuit), most folks frankly don't care.

"Informational picketing" or something more along the lines of pointing out
alternatives sounds more positive to me.  This is especially appropriate
for Win2K because of Linix's proven performance, TCO, and case histories in
the server arena -- quite frequently even when the clients are Win32.
Stats on the prevalence of Apache/Linux are appropriate here.  Having a
laptop running GNOME and/or KDE on hand to demonstrate Linux's increased
user friendliness might be useful.  Hmm.  Arranging for a non-technical
reporter to actually use GNOME and/or KDE to write a short document
(spreadsheet?) might be useful.


Aside?: Another point to raise might be the "single supplier" issue.  Not
the best way to run a business.  Yet another point is how MS traditionally
deals with competitors, outspending them sometimes into the ground when
they can't be purchased.  Now consider how MS has decided to jump into
every successful software arena (compilers, office suite, database,
embedded systems, servers, etc.) -- often to the severe detriment of
companies whose products helped make MS successful in the first place.
(E.g., VisiCalc, Lotus 123, Wordstar, WordPerfect, Lattice C, DBase,
Harvard Graphics, Netscape, etc.)  Businesses and home users didn't buy
MS-DOS for the "C:" prompt; they originally bought MS-DOS/Windows
specifically to run these non-MS products.  Every successful software
company is a potential competitor of MS.  More recently, MS has jumped into
the hardware arena.  (Sound cards, mice, keyboards, set top web browsers,
etc.)  It's likely that successful hardware companies are about to become
MS competitors also.  Do you want to base your business on the product of a
*likely* future competitor?  Do you want to make your likely future
competitor even more successful by increasing the demand for their products
by tying your product to theirs?  Is this the kind of business you want to
do business with?  This may not be the (probably isn't) best forum to raise
MS business practices, but I'm not sure what would be.  I'm thinking the
business press.  Suggestions?

	FWIW,
		Chuck