Comment 1822 for bug 1

Hi :)
Barry has.  Check his recent attachments to this list.

I'm
 not suggesting ranting.  Richard Stallman seems to get away with it but
 i probably wouldn't.  Barry's approach seemed to be very effective.
Make them feel the market pull.  The market is changing.  These shops
will only realise that if increasingly they find that customers ask for
compatibility with Gnu&Linux.

As the "age of the desktop"
ends we see people use a plethora of mobile devices, from laptops to
hand-helds and even down to watches which almost all entirely run on
unix-based platforms.  Mostly that is Gnu&Linux (such as Android,
Blackberry, soon Ubuntu) but Apple's iThings (iPad, iPhone etc) are also
 strong in the market.  Often devices are used in a combinations that
co-operate with each other.  MS is infamous for taking over rather than
co-operating.  Gnu&Linux tends to co-operate.

There needs
to be many different layers of approach.  Richard Stallman is good for
those that are into "Direct Action" such as ranting or finding the
specific day that FSF organises for massed returns of desktops to demand
 refunds on unused Microsoft licenses.  Direct action entrenches people
though and pushes them into fighting back so we need other approaches.

Class
 actions and legal routes have been used against MS before and MS often
loses in such cases.  The RTF case.  The web-browser wars.  Generally
fighting MS in court seems to suck all the energy and drive of an
organisation.  Opera won against Internet Explorer in court but they
don't reap the benefit.  At least, not yet.  The companies involved in
the RTF case similarly vanished.  They won pyrrhic victories.  Court
action needs to continue but so do other approaches.

The
professional approach of Mark Shuttleworth and they way Barry used are
more likely to result in dialogue that opens the way for businesses to
realise they need to support the new range of devices that almost
exclusively don't use Windows.  If they only support Windows in the
future then a lot of those businesses will go bust.  They need to know
that.  We need to let them know.  Humour and professionalism go a long
way.

As you point out businesses might suffer if they offer
options at the moment because MS will withdraw support from them.
However there will be a tipping point where businesses find that they
can do without the support because so many people have been demanding
non-MS support.

It's not the case the 1 approach is good and
another bad or that 1 way leads to victory and another doesn't.  All
different ways going on at the same time does seem to be getting there.

So, if you are in the UK then check out Barry's recent attachments.  Modify and apply for yourself.
Regards from
Tom :)