On Mon, 14 Oct 2019 11:44:11 -0500
golinux@??? wrote:

> On 2019-10-10 13:52, golinux@??? wrote:
> > On 2019-10-10 13:49, Steve Litt wrote:
> >> On Fri, 11 Oct 2019 05:16:19 +1100
> >> Andrew McGlashan via Dng <dng@???> wrote:
> >>
> >>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> >>> Hash: SHA256
> >>>
> >>> Hi Steve,
> >>>
> >>> First off, I fully support your initiative.
> >>>
> >>> On 9/10/19 5:25 pm, Steve Litt wrote:
> >>> > I can't give you proof, but I can give a strong piece of
> >>> > evidence:
> >>> >
> >>> > http://asay.blogspot.com/2006/10/interview-with-red-hat-cto-brian.html
> >>> >
> >>> I think that is a very long bough you are drawing here; I wanted
> >>> to see the proof and be able to use it to advantage in arguing
> >>> for non systemd pollution of systems ... but it was quite weak.
> >>> We need [and,
> >>> I believe, already have much stronger arguments than that
> >>> interview gave for sure.
> >>
> >> If we already have such stronger arguments, for gosh sakes please
> >> reveal
> >> them. It seems like most Geeks pick Occam's Razor over "Follow the
> >> money" every time.
> >>
> >> SteveT
> >>
> >
> > The fiddling continues while Rome burns . . .
> >
> > (golinux ducks and runs)
>
> Sorry to dredge this thread up again but this link arrived to my
> inbox this morning. Sadly, I have no doubt that even this letter
> will be ignored and business as usual will win the day:
>
> https://dissidentvoice.org/2019/10/bayer-shareholders-put-health-and-nature-first-and-stop-funding-this-company/
>
> Just sayin' . . .
>
> golinux

*You* have no doubt this letter will be ignored. There were people who
had no doubt that the North American colonists could not get rid of the
British, or that Gandhi and his followers couldn't kick out the
British, or that slavery was forever, or that Apartheid would never be
overthrown, or that the Soviet Union was forever. And our history books
sing the praises of Washington, Gandhi, Lincoln, Mandella, and Reagan.
But before the big name change-forcers, there were little people
writing letters and organizing protests.

These movements take time. If we start now, the solution will arrive
too late, but earlier than if we start next year.

The cigarette companies are all on the run in the United States. Back
in 1980, I didn't think I'd live to see the day when they didn't pedal
their dope with impunity. Then in 1986 I saw my first no-smoking Burger
King. At that point I had been speaking to smokers in restaurants, one
on one, for fifteen years, telling them what that cigarette they held
right under my nose did to the taste of my meal (they never held it
under their own noses, cigarette smokers back then were a smug and
entitled bunch). Did Congress notice my little chats with smokers and
pass a law? Not hardly likely. But I really think that other
non-smokers saw what I did and copied it, and others copied them, and
after a couple decades it added up.

I can show you at least fifty messages from folks who had no doubt that
systemd was a done deal, and later that some folks called the VUAs were
bluffing blowhards who could never stand up to the $23 billion Red Hat
juggernaut. And yet here we are, and we are not alone.

In the 1990's into the very early 2000's, everyone who was anyone had
no doubt that Free Software could not survive in the
Microsoft-monopolized software universe. "C'mon Steve, you get what you
pay for: Linux is just a toy for geeks and socialists. A homogeneous
software environment is the best, and we've standardized on Microsoft.
Get over it." But we wrote letters, we spoke at Microsoft-centric
computer clubs, we passed out flyers and free Linux CDs, we wrote
articles, we talked it up, and today the majority of our technological
backbone is built on Free Software.

"No doubt" is a risky position to hold. I'll finish this email with
something my Grandfather told my Dad when my Dad was a wee little
teenager:

"Son, some day you'll be in a bar, a guy will sit next to you and try
to bet you ten bucks that the jack of spades will jump out of the deck
in his hand, urinate in your ear, and jump back into the deck. Son,
don't take that bet, or you'll be out ten bucks and have an ear full of
urine."

SteveT