Lawsuits and Language

Lawsuits and Language

I got a funny shock this morning, when I turned on my computer and my Mugshot thingy told me that RH is being sued. I think the most interesting part about this, is experiencing it from the point of view I got from the internship I did at RH. If I were just doing things the old way, I would have most likely found out sometime really late this evening when I do my daily OSNews read.

Instead, the first thing I see is Greg DeKoenigsburg's post, and that practically the whole world (all 10 people) have read it. As I'm sitting there working on a debate project for school, more and more posts and blurbs keep showing up on Mugshot, to the point that I end up looking into it just a bit for the debate project, which coincidentally happens to be on international debate treaties. It will certainly make things more interesting this coming Monday.

Finally, I get a chance to sit down and read up on what's going on. I realize, I know who Mark Webbink is, I know what's at stake, and I know exactly what Novell and Red Hat are going to have to stand for, and stand up to. (Curiously, they are in the same boat despite having two very different outlooks on Open Source in general.) Ultimately, thanks to the things I learnt from Red Hat, it's actually very exciting!

(Dare I say more interesting than a Steelers game?)

Anyways... I just want to mention, the world is multilingual, and it's great that p.fp.o is. I also enjoy the chance I get to work on the languages I do know, as if I'm not being swarmed with class work already. It is a great opportunity for any language students, and even non language students, or even just human beings in general to see how technology shapes the language we use, and how other languages cope with technological terms and vocabulary coming out of an English dominated world.