Stone Mirror wrote:

I fail to see how that invalidates it as a point of comparison of one open source project entering another open source project's market, which so happens to be the point of comparison I was drawing.

But, hey, I'm not trying to convince you. I'm merely providing evidence and arguments for the folk who read this thread later. They can weigh your arguments and my responses and come to their own conclusions over the merits of your position.

My point is that open source projects enter into existing markets, even markets with existing open source projects, all the time. You're trying to draw the distinction between "platforms" and "every other market with multiple open source options", and that just makes your argument weak.

After all, if it weren't for open source competition, we'd all be stuck writing in vi.

Clearly, those Beanshell guys (www.beanshell.org) should be drawn and quartered. As should the SuperWaba (www.superwaba.com.br) fiends. And, y'know, that Groovy syntax looks Java-ish enough that they too should be subject to your wrath. And while the Apache Harmony team is trying to follow JDK-official procedures, I'm sure that's just a front for their Java-ish language unsavory behavior, so you better go after them too. And there are probably other projects that reimplemented the Java language that I'm forgetting off the top of my head, but you better go bust some of their heads, too.

Let me know how all that goes.

By making up the quotes, for one.

I've had words attributed to me in print that I know damn well I didn't say, but they were something the article's author wanted to attribute to me. From others I've talked to, this stuff is pretty commonplace -- "editorial privilege" extends to quotes, nowadays, apparently.

Possibly. I wasn't at the event in order to have conclusive evidence one way or another. The quotes sound credible, in that I can imagine Verizon Wireless saying them. And, frankly, with Android still in the run-up to a full open source release, and given the traditional "IP" legal crap involved with not-yet-open-source projects, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised if VZW did say them and really meant it. Heck, if it weren't for the last paragraph of your original message in this thread, I wouldn't have even responded.

But, more to my point, had you picked just about *any* other source for the quote, I wouldn't have quibbled. The Register, for me, is a source of entertainment and rumor; I need verification from another independent reputable source before believing much of what they say.

Feel free.

Again, my comment wasn't so much aimed at the quote, but the place where you chose to grab the quote from. The only spot I've seen the quote is in El Reg or places that link back to El Reg, though, to be honest, I haven't spent significant time trying to find other sources of the quote.