IT Patriotism

I've noticed a talking point among some Microsoft astroturfers, who seek to use it as an argument for staying with Microsoft and not using Linux / FOSS software; you should reject "foreign" when "good US companies" like Microsoft are at the forefront of everything. In other words, "vote patriot". At first I thought this was a bed idea for Linux / FOSS but now I'm not so sure.

If we see this as an example to follow, then those US companies will find themselves minority players in no time. The US after all is only around 6% of the global population. Right now companies like Microsoft and other US companies strangle smaller companies from other countries. If others "vote patriotism", it means they reject US companies in favour of their own. In cases where there are no national corps that fit the bill, there is the global FOSS option.

• Microsoft = US
• Apple = US
• Novell = US
• RedHat = US

Even US patriots can go Linux by switching to RedHat or Novell. This is only the OS front, which is the base platform for computers. To make any PC useful it needs additional software, so you apply the same thinking out to those applications too.

In the UK, Crunchbang Linux, or Linux Mint may be classed as "British" so either one would be the "patriotic" choice as a base OS, instead of (US) Microsoft Windows. As far as I know there is no UK office suite, so the fallback position would be the global FOSS option, which opens up OpenOffice, Abiword and KOffice as the (slightly less) "patriotic" option. France have at least one Linux distro in Mandriva Linux, so it'd be an option for the patriotic vote.

This post is not advocating patriotism as the sole deciding factor, it's a rebuttal to the use of patriotism to stay with Microsoft. Like anything in life, options need weighed up on many levels. Supporting the local economy is just one of many. By rejecting Microsoft not only does your money flush around your own country, it will feed more into the tax system. Microsoft like all large companies are well practised at evading their fair share of tax using every loophole and offshore escape route they can find. The more tax is gathered, the more you're helping your own public services. This seems like a good reason to factor patriotism into the decision.

Do you want your government, education, law enforcement, defence, infrastructure and commerce reliant on a US corporation? Surely factoring in patriotism would see that reliance cut off in favour of controlling your own destiny. The UK nuclear defence may be British, but it relies on the US for targeting, which means it's not independent. What happens if one day the UK are forced to launch at the US? Granted it's not likely to happen but the point remains, if you're reliant on a foreign entity, your destiny is not your own.

I'm not sure the pro-Microsoft astroturfers playing the patriotism card was all that well thought out. If applied globally it would ruin Microsoft. Imagine every government outside of the US dumping Windows and Office. Imagine every non-US company, school, hospital etc following suit. As I pointed out earlier, you could be a good US "patriot" and switch to RedHat Linux, which still cuts Microsoft out of the loop.

I've become rather enamoured with Debian Squeeze over the last few days, to the point that I've installed it first on my main desktop, then my netbook. Debian is listed on Distrowatch as a "global" distro. I am a Scot, living in the UK.