Response to FLOSS 91: Boycott Novell

This post is my response to episode 91 of FLOSS Weekly, a podcast that focuses on Free, Libre, and Open Source Software (FLOSS). This episode was an interview with Roy Schestowitz, representing the Boycott Novell web site. First, let me make my position clear on a few things:

• Before listening to this podcast, I was not aware of the existence of the Boycott Novell site, nor the apparent controversy surrounding it. I was aware of the community reasons for wanting to boycott or otherwise punish Novell, namely the Novell-Microsoft patent agreement.
• I fully support the idea of boycotting companies like Novell, who damage the credibility and legal integrity of Free Software/Open Source in general, and Linux in particular.
• I think the Novell-Microsoft agreement was pretty ridiculous, and the idea that the Linux community needs Novell to "shield" us from Microsoft is silly at best.

That said, I also want to make clear that my intention is not to attack Roy as a person. But I do take serious issue with how he, and by extension Boycott Novell, came across in this interview. I feel that if Roy had been representing a community I was a part of, I would be sorely disappointed by how things went. This episode may be a good case study for learning how not to handle yourself in an interview.

Despite the length of this interview (one hour), virtually no clear answers came out of it. Perhaps Roy was having a bad day, but he seemed to just talk in circles around questions instead of facing them or answering them. It sounded like a tech interview with Bill Clinton -- legendary ol' Slick Willy dancing around the point of what you asked.

I also found a lot of naiveté and/or double standards expressed in the interview. Roy said Microsoft is worthy of slamming because it only seeks to exploit or pollute Linux, and yet IBM and other Linux partners are viewed differently. That's not to say that IBM or others have tried to harm Linux/FLOSS the way Microsoft has; clearly Microsoft has been very hostile towards Linux and open source.

But it's also very naive to say that say that Microsoft interacts with the Linux community only for money, whereas IBM supports Linux for higher principles. Both companies either support or attack Linux because they see that as a way to make money. That's what companies do. Maybe the culture at IBM is very friendly to open source, Linux, etc. but that wouldn't be enough to make them do what they do. The possibility of making money encourages and allows them to be friendly to open source. The moment friendliness to open source seriously hurts the bottom line, you could see a 180 on all that friendliness.

Next, Roy seemed extremely dodgy on the issue of spam. Apparently, he and the Boycott Novell site have been accused of spamming, or endorsing spam. I don't know enough about this issue one way or the other, so I can't express an educated opinion on what's happening there. But what I will say is that Roy came across as simultaneously too passive and perhaps dodgy enough to raise suspicions that he is involved with the spam. Host Jono Bacon tried repeatedly to make the point that Roy should at least post an official statement on the site saying Boycott Novell does not engage in these activities, doesn't support them, and in fact denounces them.

I think Jono's suggestion is sensible. Roy's response was that he doesn't want to engage with the spammers at all, and he repeatedly said "I don't even know these people." I lean more in Jono's direction: it doesn't matter if you know who they are, they are damaging your credibility and you're just lying on the floor taking it like a chump. If somebody went around Facebook, Twitter, Slashdot, etc. spamming links to my blog posts and pretending to be associated with me, I would immediately put a big front-page statement that I don't condone it and am against that behavior. Of course, I could be lying -- but at least I've taken a public stance on the issue to try to put it to rest.

This issue is even more important when you consider what Boycott Novell, by its very name, represents: a call to arms. My blog doesn't really call people to action or organize any activities on any scale. But Boycott Novell seeks to be a community promoting a specific agenda and promoting a specific understanding of the situation. If you're out there riling up the peasants and whipping them into revolt, you have to accept the possibility that some bad eggs are going to take it too far -- and you have to do the responsible thing by discouraging and very publicly distancing yourself from that kind of behavior.

Side note: This is very similar to why I'm disappointed in the Dalai Lama over the Dorje Shugden controversy. It's not that I think the Dalai Lama has no right to advise against worshiping Shugden. I do think his silence on the violent and sometimes deadly actions of overzealous supporters represents either a) lazy irresponsibility or b) unspoken acceptance of said violence. Either way, it's disappointing and sad.

In the end, this interview left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It was like watching a news interview with a government official, squirming in their seat as they worm their way around the knife's point of serious questions. Whether Roy intended it or not, he came off as disorganized at best, disingenuous and evasive at worst.