John

The letter need not be confined to MS- too much trouble IMHO to try and shift them with the political scenario that seems to exist around here.

Without too much trouble, a broadly acceptable "FUD rebuttal" letter can be crafted and readied with weight of 'x' developer signatures behind it. The first time Gartner or the VB Journal fellow issue one of their usual slogans, the rebuttal is issued in whatever forum will host it- online mags, paper IT rags, corporate competitors to Gartner, whatever. Low cost and easy.

Companies like Gartner cannot affords to see that too many times- effective rebuttal requires them to justify themselves or lose credibility. oops.

We can and should invite MS to be part of it. They can be 'quoted' in the letter, or 'referred to' in the letter, as they see fit. None of us would *dream* of trying to tell MS how to run its business or market MS or all of the other slop that gets trotted out, all we will do is invite participation and include any suitable quotations in our letter.

I've done this before, in case you can't tell. A few(!?) years ago, 200 Medical students successfully altered a university rule that had previously been blocked by the Senate since the university began. You just need the right lever and suddenly everybody wants to help you. Having lots of you is such a good start. And then you need leadership and I'm going to risk attack by saying that there is damned all leadership in the VFP promotion stakes around here, just lots of doom-sayers and apathy merchants.

While we may not always agree, I'd be a lot happier to see someone like JVP leading than somebody whose only contributions is sighs of "it's no use". At least JVP stands up and tries.

Regards

JR