Post Syndicated from Bradley M. Kuhn original http://ebb.org/bkuhn/blog/2018/07/23/butchers-and-vegans.html

Someone linked me to this
blog by a boutique proprietary software company complaining about porting
to GNU/Linux systems, in which David Power, co-founder of Hiri, says:

Unfortunately, the fundamentalist FOSS mentality we encountered
on Reddit is still alive and well. Some Linux blogs and Podcasts
simply won’t give us the time of day.

I just want to quickly share a few analogous quotes that show why that
statement is an unwarranted and unfair statement about people’s reasonably
held beliefs. First, imagine if Hiri were not a proprietary software
company, but a butcher. Here’s how the quote would sound:

Unfortunately, the fundamentalist vegan mentality we
encountered on Reddit is still alive and well. Some vegetarian blogs
and Podcasts simply won’t give us the time of day.

Should a butcher really expect vegetarian blogs and podcasts to talk about
their great new cuts of meat available? Should a butcher be surprised that
vegans disagree with them?

How about if Hiri sold non-recycled card stock paper?:

Unfortunately, the fundamentalist recycling mentality we
encountered on Reddit is still alive and well. Some environmentalist
blogs and Podcasts simply won’t give us the time of
day.

If you make a product to which a large part of the potential customer
population has a moral objection, you should expect that objection, and
it’s reasonable for that to happen. To admonish those people because they
don’t want to promote your product really is akin to a butcher annoyed that
vegans won’t promote their prime cuts of meat.