Wonder all you want, but let the actions speak

[Jon 'maddog' Hall, USG Product Management]

>Given that the words were at least in part aimed at a bunch of
>people who can barely hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE, I felt that my concern about
>the wording was justified.

I disagree.  When people do not know the difference between lettuce and
hamburger, trying to teach them about caviar is useless.  And you ignored
the "editor factor".  If you try to get too involved in describing the
licensing, the editor putting out the piece will chop that whole section.
Trust me, it has happened.

>I did not blather the version of my comments that you saw all over the
>net - I only sent them to linux-sig-admin.

Linux-sig-admin represents one of the target markets for my machines.  I might
expect that some of the people on that list might either use one of Digital's
machines with Linux, or at least mention it as a possible "buy" to someone
else.  I am not familiar with AOI's products, but let's assume you worked for
the University of Lowell, how would you like it if I sent mail to a mailing
list of "students-who-are-considering-universities" stating some aspect like "I
wonder if U of Lowell respects diversity among students?"  You might guess
that some black students, some Jewish students, some women, some gays, etc.
might think twice about coming to Lowell, even though Lowell states very
emphatically in their literature that they respect diversity.

>Since I think what DEC and Red Hat are doing is a splendid thing, I guess
>I'll take this opportunity to tell you so.

>Hope there's no hard feelings.

I joined Digital over eleven years ago to be with the UNIX group.  I went to
Digital (not Sun, IBM or HP) because I had been using UNIX on Digital's
products for the past four years (Bell Labs), but even more due to the
experience that I had with the company over (now) a quarter of a century.

While Digital has sometimes done stupid things, I have found that usually there
are good people inside the company that wish to do "the right thing".  From
what I see with Linux, Digital is trying to do "the right thing".  From what
I see of the vendors such as Red Hat, Y*l, Transtech, etc.  they also seem to
want to do the "right thing".  There will be mistakes along the way, but
over time it will tell.  You vote for whether we are "doing the right thing"
with your buying dollars.

No, there are no hard feelings.  If there were, you would know it.

md

===============================================================================
Jon "maddog" Hall			Senior Leader
Mailstop ZK03-2/U15			UNIX Software Group
Digital Equipment Corporation		Internet: maddog at zk3.dec.com
110 Spit Brook Rd.			Voice: 603.881.1341
Nashua, N.H. 03062-2698			Fax: 603.881.6059