Tuesday 21 June 2011

Memories of a Crystal City

circa. 2002 - Microsoft once dominated the IT landscape like no other before - large enough to create masses of followers, devotees and handlers. Linux users stood out like a sore thumb. We were the geeks of the geeks, unwilling to return to the fold of popular culture as presented by Gates.
Apple had been brought to it's knees and kissed the ring. Sun and Java could barely manouver. Novell, the giant of the decade past, was defunct and just a gutted shell. All the players held Microsoft certifications like badges of honor, or like playhouse mystery rings. Clubhouses dominated the IT field - with groups mowing down other groups mercilessly. Akin to early city state rivalries, everyone kowtowed to the Beast. Gates had a monopoly. Unlike any before, or since. Kinda like what the financial behemoths of today experience.
Onto this stage walked a paralegal named Pamela Jones, PJ, and she begins writing in a blog about the machinations of Microsoft and its minions' attempt to annihilate Linux. Groklaw exposed the legal fight of SCO and Novell over the core pieces of the Linux kernel. Who owned what, who said what, who did what, who promised to open source and who pulled the strings. It revealed dirty deals and discoveries that everyone suspected, but couldn't prove - Long range plans made in dark rooms through holding companies create solely to take down Linux and the threat of open source. Every bit of subterfuge imaginable taken from a spy novel and acted out in a real court with real players.
IANAL was coined, IANAL/IMHO was echoed on post after post. Her blog became the cannibal central for Trolls and Pro-Trolls. More FUD was spread over this issue than any before it, and ever since. Until Bitcoin came along that is.

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