[vox] Microsoft interested in our feelings

[Larry Dieterich]

At 7:32 AM -0800 12/19/03, Bill Kendrick wrote:
>I received an email last night from one Michael Surkan from Microsoft
>(based on the mail headers, it looks legit; not some prankster ;^) )
>
>He wanted to know if it would be appropriate to post a note to our 'vox'
>list asking if folks here would be willing to talk about where they'd
>like to see MS go down the road... kind of a 5-year-plan, to paraphrase.
>
<snip>
>I'm quite curious as to what they're up to, and how much MS would actually
>listen to us techie geeks. :^)
>

Sounds like an electronic equivalent of what PR & Marketing people 
call a "focus group", where they get a bunch of people together and 
get them to discuss a product and listen to their language and 
analyze the values at work.

I imagine the real objective of Mr Surkan's involvement is to find 
terminology and concepts to feed to MS' PR machinery.

They are apparently are "paying attention to" the Linux community and 
most likely seeking ways to undermine it (since the SCO gambit seems 
to be failing).

IMO, it means they are scared.