The problem is that you have an army of scared MCSE’s and (very likely) more than one MS employee that feel that knee-jerk response to counter anything “Linux.” They are scared to death. I see it every day.

Over the years, I’ve asked several MCSE’s why they’re so overtly hostile to Linux. After I got past their “Linux sux0rz” bluster, it boiled down to one thing: their job security. They were actually afraid of losing their jobs if Linux came to their companies. When I suggested that maybe they should then consider learning Linux, they–at last–admitted to me that they didn’t think they were smart enough. And that’s why they were scared. They feel helpless against not just Linux, but Linux/UNIX admins. People who feel helpless (like these scared MCSE’s) will stop at nothing to try to discredit or discourage you. They feel they have too much (their livelihoods!) to lose.

And remember one other thing. In the United States, at least, there is no such concept as “intellectual property.” So, when American companies like Microsoft and their lapdogs (e. g. SCO, Apple) talk about their “intellectual property” getting somehow “violated,” they are talking out of their behinds, and it smells like it. If you even so much as try actually suing for “intellectual property” violations in my country, the judge will take pleasure throwing you out of court. You have to actually *state* the *actual* violation.

So, as the Brits would say, Microsoft is talking bollocks. And the scared MCSE’s need to wake up.

–SYG

They that can give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.