Recently the subject of discrimination has been something I have been thinking a lot about. It was the subject of some meetings with ubuntu-women, something I have discussed with my friend Sulamita in a Brazilian bar at 4.30am and the subject of various ad-hoc discussions at the Ubuntu Developer Summit. As the wider Open Source community grows, it becomes more of an issue every day, and something we all need to be aware of.

While in Brazil I made a promise to Sulamita that I would be blogging about the issue of discrimination against women, and I have been holding off writing an entry until I had some real, practical, implementable steps that I can advise people to take to help make the situation better. Although I will never fully understand how some women are made to feel at the hands of such discrimination, I have been hoping my contribution could be to help contribute to an awareness of the issue, and for that to happen I felt I needed to construct some doable steps that people can execute. Solving social problems is *hard* though, which ain’t all that surprising, so I had held off on a blog post until I had some such action points. I have since discovered that there is really *one key step* that we all need take – don’t accept or allow discrimination in your community.

In my mind *all* discrimination is bad. Every day people get up and are discriminated due to gender, age, race, mobility, technical knowledge and more. The issues of discrimination, while different in the specifics (e.g. women are discriminated in different ways to age discrimination), the underlying issue is very similar – mistreating people because of a grouping they are part of. We have all suffered this in different ways, from serious racial hatred to someone not taking you seriously because you have long hair and an Iron Maiden t-shirt.

*Equality is not a luxury, it is a requirement*. To achieve this we need a change of thinking, a new philosophy. A few years back, environmental issues were largely the concern of a niche group of people; those with an expressed interest in the issue would recycle, bike to work and try to avoid wasting energy. As time went on and the issue grew, it was clear that saving the planet was most certainly not the responsibility of the few, but of the many. As the media and foppy haired politicians jumped on the subject, environmental issues became something that all of us should care about. Caring for the planet is now something that *everyone* is responsible for.

We need to take the same approach to discrimination in our community. Our community is defined by diversity, it is a pulsating machine driven by ideas, culture and experiences that each one of us brings to the table. The vast majority of us understand this diversity, relish it and enjoy exploring each other’s thoughts and culture as we create this incredible free software platform. Then, out of nowhere, we allow a bunch of ignorant muppets to come in and undermine this diversity with their nonsensical views.

Remember how I said social change is *hard*. Well, it *is* hard, but not impossible, and we can make very real change by simply not tolerating discrimination. **Say no to discrimination**. It is a responsibility that every one of us is tasked with. We may disagree on the direction of free software, we may disagree on who we like and dislike in this community, but I think we all agree that each of us should be treated as equals. If someone discriminates on a mailing list, in an IRC channel, on a forum, at a LUG,at a conference or anywhere else, don’t stand for it. It is a small step, and one voice that may not be heard alone, but this is the ethos of Open Source – each of us coming together as one to make amazing things happen *together*. Lets make something really amazing happen and stop discrimination in our community.

*I would like to encourage every blogger, podcaster, forums poster and anyone else to raise this issue. We need a unified voice, lets work together.*

It seems Microsoft are at it again. More software patent threats. Yadda yadda yadda. I have an odd relationship with Microsoft – on one side I know, respect and get on well with a number of people who work there, and I have been invited to their Redmond and Reading campuses and liaised with them about Open Source issues. On one side they are doing great work, listening to customers, and creating compelling products. But, then they go and resort to FUD tactics…again. One (unnamed) Microsoft employee once told me that most of the people on the ground, doing development out with customers really do *get-it* but Microsoft have suffered from a disconnected management clique. I am beginning to see where this person is coming from.

So here were are with another beautifully crafted shitstorm. Should we worry? Well, I am by no means a lawyer, and I only have an approximate grasp of the different issues involved, but I think the risk is minimal for a number of reasons. To save writing swathes of text, I am going to bang through the reasons why we should not worry too much about Microsoft’s noise, all presented in bullet time:

* **The software patents system is on shaky ground** – the software patents system has already faced issues in terms of enforcing patents effectively, and recently the Supreme Court stated in a unanimous opinion that patents have been issued too readily for the past two decades, and lots are probably invalid. Lets also not forget that software patents are only enforceable in *some* countries.
* **SCO case** – Microsoft must be looking at the SCO case and making notes. The SCO case has worked out rather bad for SCO with a delisting and the company facing rough waters. Irrespective of the confidence in SCO’s argument, it cannot be denied that the case has brutalised SCO’s business.
* **Microsoft will not want to piss off partners** – it is estimated that half of the companies in the Fortune 500 have Linux running in their data-centers. Linux is rallying its way through the corporate world, and many of these companies will not only have agreements with Linux vendors but also with Microsoft. If Microsoft are going bring a legal case against Linux, they are going to cause problems for existing partners. I believe that the value of partners will outweigh this.
* **Free software users are essentially un-traceable** – how many free software users are there? Anyone with even half a clue knows that this is an impossible question to answer – the nature of free software means that we cannot track who is using it; it can be freely copied and re-distributed. As such, there is no effective method of contacting people and hammering them for potential license fees or payment. Sure, Microsoft could target large scale companies, but the cost of the case needs to be covered by the potential revenue it could bring in – the Linux distributors are unlikely to cover a huge amount in damages, so a successful win needs to ensure that a revenue stream is created.
* **Linux has big-business behind it** – I am not going to reel off a list of companies, but a number of large organisations have a vested interest in Linux, and these companies are ploughing in huge amounts of money and investment into Linux-based products. These companies will be as keen to protect their own business interests as Microsoft are.
* **Could they actually win?** – I have not even covered the potential of them winning and whether they have a solid legal argument. Every case needs to have the right balance of circumstances to make it happen, and I have been merely looking at the issues around the edge of the core case. If they have a somewhat ropey case, it makes things even more uncertain for Microsoft.

Let us also not forget that Microsoft are a convicted monopolist. Microsoft have already been through the legal machine and come out with burned fingers. Any large-scale legal assault will need to be carefully considered, and if they are going to step into the fire again, they need to have a pretty strong case, and I would guess that many of the above issues are going to stand in the way of such a case.

Three or four years ago I would have worried about such a threat, but these days I am less worried as I think the Linux machine has built to such a point where it is a serious industry force that will take more than one company to derail. Sure, its complacency, and sure, we should never rest on our laurels and indeed continue to fight against software patents, but I am not exactly loosing sleep over this.