On Apr 3, 1:36 pm, Homer <use...@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Verily I say unto thee, that Tom Shelton spake thusly:
>
> > When I was an MVP, I used to post regularly to the .net groups using
> > slrn on gentoo linux - and I made it quite clear as it was part of my
> > .sig. Nobody cares. Many MVP's also use Linux. I'm not sure why
> > you think this is a big deal?
>
> I bet Sweaty the Impaler thinks it's a big deal.
>
> After all, according to him "Linux violates 235 Microsoft patents", so
> I'd imagine he finds it a bit hard to accept his MVPs might be using
> this "infringing" software.
>
> Now I'm not suggesting you're a corporate thug like Ballmer, but he is
> nonetheless the CEO of the company you're so closely associated with,
> and this company is one of the world's most corrupt and reprehensible,
> with a litany of extremely well documented crimes and thuggish
> behaviour, spurred by an institutionalised hatred of democracy,
> capitalism and freedom, and a particularly malevolent agenda against
> Free Software (which Ballmer describes as a "cancer").
>
> So are you really surprised when Linux advocates sneer at the discovery
> of Microsoft MVPs using Free Software?
>
Only because they are ignorant of what it means to be an MVP? I've
never even been to the Redmond campus. I've never met anyone from
MS. I got a couple of nice gifts and a free MSDN subscription.
That's about it.
> Like Ballmer, I'd find it hard to consolidate this contradictory
> behaviour, but for quite antithetical reasons - of course. It is a quite
> inescapable fact, that by technically supporting Microsoft, you are
> helping them, which means that (unless you are chained to your desk, and
> have a gun pointed at your head) you are complicit with their behaviour.
>
If you say so.
> Being forced to support Microsoft as an inevitable consequence of one's
> employment, where one did not actually choose to work on the Microsoft
> "stack" from the outset, is one thing, but the "honour" of MVP is not a
> "job", it's an "award presented by Microsoft [to] exceptional technical
> community leaders ... for _voluntarily_ providing technical expertise
> towards technical communities supporting Microsoft products or
> technologies." [1]
>
Yep. I spent a lot of time helping others - for free, on my own
time. Sounds really, sinister to me.
--
Tom Shelton
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