@JLV Re: With Microsoft nothing is free
Oh, I very seldom downvote: much more satisfying to argue ;) and downvoting someone because you're engaged in a difference of opinion with them is just unsportsmanlike behaviour. (I'll make one exception: if I do downvote a post, I tend to reply giving my reasons. But because I'm always ready to get schooled in such august company, I usually just do the latter; you can't retract a downvote.)
In any case I broadly agree with your point (that post actually started life as a grammarnazi, hence the bolding, then I went away for a bit, came back and changed thrust for some reason). As you pointed out, this is mostly focused on the embedded space, where my references don't fit and I suspect people are a bit less partisan about OSes than they are in the desktop and even server spaces. (I mean, how else do you explain Windows' embedded market share? lol). There's certainly a lot less to differentiate Linux and BSD in that space, right enough.
Also, I do indeed find that I like Microsoft more the lower their fortunes sink and the more they have to actually compete on merit. No argument there. As for the mooted Übershell, well, I ran in terror from Powershell after one sitting, so I can't really comment much, but I'm quietly fascinated by the idea of creating a chimera of its and bash's good points. Not sure how possible it really is to marry two such diverse models, though.
But yeah, I'd be pretty fed up if we weren't allowed to take the piss when they (or the *nix side) do screw up comically. But those who just do it reflexively are rather tedious :(
Biting the hand that feeds IT
