Well I wrote another letter to Rob, why am I doing this?


Rob,

You know today you said one thing I never thought you would say, that
software patents are becoming too large an issue for anybody to manage
or write off. that is very true. IBM is using them against SCO, again a
bad idea.

The GROKLAW letter is about end users who feel threatened small and
powerless compared to the endless PR telling them they are thieves. They
are making an honest attempt to address what they see as the evil in the
world when they meant to do no harm. Totally human.

If they removed your comment I think that wasn't a good idea though, I
am sorry. Believe it or not, I see you as another person with a unique
perspective to be understood and appreciated. Instead you have been made
an enemy, which I think is a bad idea.

I do think that there is just as much of a "dedication" (you like to
call it religion) that some people have for MS as for OSS, and they have
have their cults too, fringe cults who will not listen to the truths
they see before them. They are the ones trying to hold on to their own
dogmas, hold on to what they knew, and don't try to thrive with what may
be coming.

I agree with you on one point, the OSS of today IS DOOMED absolutely,
and the actions of these types of people just bring it it closer to the
next phase where the religion is gone and the business really begins.
The phase that IBM services and the RedFlag distribution has started.
OSS will have a long and full real world business oriented life, and
will become the way of the world. As I mentioned before, regardless of
the trepidations of a few zealots, the shrill harping of an
"intellectual property victim", or the misgivings of a few analysts.

Really, our words are the crickets chirping to the great redwood. They
have little bearing on its success or failure.

Clay