Ever feel like you're Rodney Dangerfield? You live someplace and Linux shows you no respect, time-zone-wise that is. What I mean is that you live somewhere that's not one of the time-zones that comes predefined with Linux. If that sounds like you, then read on and get Linux to show you a little respect.

I know you are quite concerned that Red Hat is not showing due respect for your (unidentified) patents, but it strikes me as a little rich that you or Microsoft should be lecturing anyone on the proper respect for the patents of others given all of the following parties that believe that Microsoft does not respect their patents...

Can you believe it? Given Microsoft's history of antagonism, It's hard to believe anyone - let alone the Linux Foundation - would call on the FOSS community to respect Microsoft. No, if Microsoft wants respect, they should get it the 'old-fashioned' way - by earning it.

I have been covering Microsoft for over 25 years - I've even written a few books about Windows. During that time, I've developed a certain respect for a company that just doesn't give up, and whose ability to spin surpasses even that of politicians.

One of the biggest gripes the FOSS community has with respect to Microsoft's business tactics is that its longstanding exclusionary agreements with hardware vendors has stifled genuine competition. This is the very issue of one of two claims Novell will be allowed to press against Microsoft in their anti-trust lawsuit.

I respect Richard Stallman for the same reason I respect gravity. The man is a force of nature. He is like the iron core of the Earth: fixed, central, essential.

The main theme of The Linux Week In Review 22 is a message to businesses: please respect the intelligence of your customers. Respect their ability to make decisions for themselves. Don’t allow companies to co-opt your products, no matter how tempting the money that they offer might be.

Several free software writers have
called Iliad, one of the main telecom companies in France, to respect
their work, and a judicial proceeding has begun to demand the respect
of their licence. This action follows repeated refusals of Iliad to
publish the source code of the Free Software included in their Freebox.

This is not about being anti-Microsoft. I oversee thousands of machines that use Microsoft software, and many users need applications that are available only for the Microsoft environment. It's not about being anti-Apple. I respect the user experience of Mac OS X, and I wish Steve Jobs would license the operating system to other hardware manufacturers.