Date:	Thu, 7 Oct 1999 16:02:15 +0200 (CEST)
From:	Rik van Riel <riel@nl.linux.org>
To:	Linux Kernel <linux-kernel@vger.rutgers.edu>
Subject: FUD counter

Hi,

After the recent FUD attacks (by SCO, Microsoft and others) where
the "attackers" have resorted to outright lies and half-truths, it
has become apparent that the Open Source community can simply
counter such articles with friendly, well-worded responses that
are purely based on easily verifyable facts.

It's also quite clear that there are several dozen people on
these lists who like to spend time getting angry about the FUD
attacks and sometimes writing down replies. This is not only
inefficient, it also gets in the way of people who just want to
code and now have to cope with extra traffic on the lists.

Putting one and one together, it would probably be best to set
up a mailing list (and maybe later a web site) dedicated to
setting straight the facts that were bent so horribly against
us by marketing departments in various companies.

This not only gives us some sort of "marketing department" of
our own, it also makes sure that the regular FUD attacks don't
take time away from the developers. Of course, we cannot work
like a "normal" marketing department. We do all of our work
out in the open and, as such, are exposed to much more scrutiny
than any commercial company could ever be. This means that we
will have to limit our responses facts that are 100% true and
easily verifyable. I suspect this will be easy and fun for
most of us anyway, so I'll just stick to that rule :)

People wanting to join in the fud countering effort can join the
fud-counter@nl.linux.org mailing list by sending a message to:
	"majordomo@nl.linux.org"
with the following text in the body of the message:
	"subscribe fud-counter"

And remember, from now on there's no reason to post fud alerts
to linux-kernel, linux-future or any other of the development
lists...

regards,

Rik
--
The Internet is not a network of computers. It is a network
of people. That is its real strength.
--
work at:	http://www.reseau.nl/
home at:	http://www.nl.linux.org/~riel/