[CS-FSLUG] "Boycott MS" Noise

[Don Parris]

On 1/21/06, Ed Hurst <ehurst at asisaid.com> wrote:
> I'm not one who supports willy-nilly every "Christian" boycott of
> business over political agendas.
>
> (Quote) Ken Hutcherson, pastor of Antioch Bible Church in Redmond,
> Washington, where Microsoft is based, is coordinating the opposition,
> according to Fuiten. He will likely urge church members nationwide to
> divest shares in Microsoft and other companies that support the
> legislation, Fuiten says.
>
> "There are about 63 million evangelicals in America, and so we work in a
> lot of mutual funds and investment portfolios," says Fuiten, 56. "If you
> could make Microsoft's stock drop by $1 a share, you cost Bill Gates
> $200 million." (End quote)
>
> (http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000103&sid=aJM4HaNLjBt8&refer=us)
>
> Shall we tell them it would cost Gates & Co. more if we boycotted MS
> software, as opposed to stocks?
>
>
> --

Personally, I still think we should tout their lack of business
ethics, either in place of their political stance, or alongside of it.
 If he's going to fight them on the political front, he should also
raise their support for pro-abortion groups.

I'm not sure about your premise here.  I think he knows people are not
willing to delete Windows from the hard drive, or buy a Mac instead of
a PC.  Thus, by divesting their shares, they speak with their wallets,
but without having to sacrifice using the software.  I agree that it
would make far more sense to have a GNU/Mac revolution.  Microsoft's
loss of users would have a ripple effect on their 3rd-party partners. 
However, the likelihood of that happening would be a bit far-fetched. 
Not impossible, but definitely stretching the realm of reality. ;-)

I don't know if this still applies, but microsoft's EULA for FrontPage
2002 (http://www.infoworld.com/articles/op/xml/01/10/15/011015opethics.html)
would likely preclude many Christians from using that software,
especially if sermons denouncing homosexuality are published on the
web using FrontPage 2002 (at least in some jurisdictions).  That
statement is not in the WindowsXP or Office 2003 EULAs.  I wonder if
it is still in use in FrontPage?

Don
--
DC Parris GNU Evangelist
http://matheteuo.org/
gnumathetes at gmail.com
"Hey man, whatever pickles your list!"