[wellylug] Microsoft At WellyLUG last night.

[Sam Cannell]

The level of childish paranoia in this thread is really disturbing.

I've just a few points -

* I don't recall anybody getting Windows XP eval CDs thrust upon them, or
hearing anyone mention that the Microsoft guys were pushing any of their
products at the lug meeting.  Even so, is it such a big problem if they are?
Why is it fine for the Open Source community to evangelise their products,
but not for Microsoft to promote theirs?

* People appear to be worried that they're likely to be "converted" by the
Microsoft folks.  You're giving their marketing department far, far too much
credit.  If a knowledgeable person talking to you about Windows is likely to
convert you, then perhaps your decision to use Linux was uninformed in the
first place?  Perhaps this would've been a good opportunity to express
*your* point of view, had you not had your heads thrust into the sand?

* If you're trying to get anybody in the Real World(tm) to take you
seriously, spelling Microsoft 'Micro$oft' is probably the worst thing you
could possibly do.  It wasn't really funny the first time, and it's
certainly not funny now.  This whole business makes me think of a quote from
an article on (the unfortunately deceased) Segfault -

'"I'd always been a loyal Microsoft consumer," said one CoreDump.org reader.
"But after reading that story, I've come to realize the awful truth:
Microsoft is a large publically-traded corporation that deals with
significant amounts of money. I'm never buying one of their products
again."'

I'd also like to echo Chris' comment at the beginning of the thread.
Unfortunately I didn't get a chance to have a chat to the Microsoft folks at
the meeting, but I understand quite a few people did, and appreciated the
opportunity.

Sam