[nylug-talk] Finally, some closure on all the Dell anti-FOSS conspiracy threads...

[Ah Pook]

On Tuesday 01 May 2007 3:02 pm, Ron Guerin wrote:
> Ah Pook wrote:
> > On Tuesday 01 May 2007 2:05 pm, Jay Sulzberger wrote:
> >> Please forgive me for being direct: what do you disagree with in
> >> my statements in this thread?
> >
> > The assumption that Dell somehow has an obligation to sell software
> > and support to an audience of people who aren't going to be
> > purchasing from them anyway.
>
> On the off chance that I seem to be making that assertion, I don't
> think Dell is evil, I think Dell is doing what it thinks is in the
> best interests of its shareholders, which is what it's legally
> obligated to do.

I don't think you're making that assertion, and perhaps I'm misreading 
others' statements.  I think we're in agreement - if Dell thought it 
could make money from selling Linux boxes, it would have done so years 
ago.  They're in the business of making money.  End of story.

> That said, there seems to be a lot of people in our community eager
> to have an affair with Dell, and I believe this to be short-sighted,
> and not in our best interests.  I can only hope to be proved wrong.

And I'm definitely with you on that.  It feels something like McDonald's 
selling salads.  I guess it's good, but I don't see Dell as any friend 
of OSS.