On Friday I was honored to sit in front of a group from the Techrepublic community and talk open source. The driving force of the debate was open source vs. proprietary software. The ever-present subtext of that debate is Linux vs. Windows. The audience was pleasantly surprised when the debate never turned sour. Why is that? So many asked. The answer, although one-sided, is simple.

Linux is about embracing, about community, about acceptance. In many ways, Linux is the polar opposite of Microsoft. Naturally the first reaction to that statement is Of course, Linux is open source and Windows is not. But think about it on a much grander scale. Think about your network environment…all those Windows machines working happily side by side. The minute you put a Mac or a Linux machine into that mixture those Windows machines start wanting to know What is GOING ON????