Sorry, it wasn't meant as an attack on anyone, more of a comment on social/political implications of technical choices. We as engineers tend to look at technical issues aside from the social implications of what we do. Read Stallman on the GNU and Free Software movement for the political vision behind FSF and GNU (
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/philosophy.html#AboutFreeSoftware). I think it is fair to say we wouldn't have GNU/Linux or any of the opensource tools we enjoy now if it wasn't for his groups recognition of the implications of proprietary software models.
My point is that perhaps it is better to develop and support around tools and protocols which promote the freedoms and protections most of us would like rather than supporting organizations who goal is to end privacy and non-proprietary software. The techncial concepts behind .NET on the other hand perhaps can be implemented in a way which provides and alternative to relying on Microsoft and I believe that would be a very good thing.
