Tomorrow, I’ll be attending a university tecnological fair were Free and Open Source Software reps will share a panel with a Propietary Software reps, a Microsoft guy (not really sure if he is a representative or if he is just an enthusiast). My question for you my dear reader is…
What would you ask the microsoft panelist if you had just one question?
P.S. There have been ocations like this before in Venezuela. From what I have heard, Several times the Microsoft panelist does not show.
Efrain Valles 
I’ll ask of their strategy for interoperability, probably not the best question out there but at least respectful to the panelist
No time to think of the end-all be-all question but if it were me, I would focus on some positive aspect of MS/Windows (they DO do some things very well), whichever is appropriate and base my question on that.
We’ve all heard the cookie-cutter questions slamming MS/Windows in various ways. We all know about where they suck. How about you choose to be different. I imagine the resulting discussion would be much more fruitful.
I would ask
“Why the blue screen is blue?” 🙂
Now that ISO has refused to fast track OOXML acceptance, will they consider dropping it and supporting ODF? If not, why not?
“What is your plan to make Vista more compatible with anything besides Vista?”
This comes after trying to trouble shoot a network where I had XP and Ubuntu file sharing in no time and spent the next 4 hours trying to get a Vista box to play nice with either of them.
Nice questions… keep them coming… I still have a couple of hours till I head to the conference..
Very good questions indeed
I once asked a guy from Microsoft “Why doesn’t Microsoft like to follow published standards?” referring to things like CSS in IE. he told me “Microsoft is the standard”. I thought it was a good question, but may not be appropriate in your situation.
It is a good question and I guess this can be linked with Phil’s question on OOXML.
Cheers
I would ask what the panelist think about the fact that in developing countries due to low incoming people are preferring to use Linux instead of pirates copies of Windows. In Brazil there is even governmental tax-incentive for companies producing budget computers with Linux pre-installed.
I also would like to ask if Microsoft has something better than “starter edition” of windows to help the democratization of informatics in developing countries.
Very good question. neighboring country, we should have the same issues.
Anyone reading this blog will think that Microsoft’s method of developing and distributing software is completely different than that of F/LOSS.
Ignoring the philosophical differences, I don’t think that are all that different. There are usually similar obstacle to overcome in either world to make, perfect and ship the software.
My question would be:
What can the F/LOSS community learn from Microsoft’s experience in making software.
Anyone reading this blog will think that Microsoft’s method of developing and distributing software is completely different than that of F/LOSS.
Ignoring the philosophical differences, I don’t think that are all that different. There are usually similar obstacle to overcome in either world to make, perfect and ship the software.
Yes, but we do not have money in piles, nor do we charge anything for anyone (at least not Ubuntu). They should be doing way much better than us, with those prerequisites.
And diversity is key. How much diversity does microsoft foster? Don’t know. I haven’t used their products in a while.