---
title: Emptying the Straw
date: 2004-06-23T22:07:39Z
modified: 2004-06-23T22:07:39Z
permalink: "https://redmonk.com/sogrady/2004/06/23/emptying-the-straw/"
type: post
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 20
categories:
  - Trends & Observations
timestamp: 2004-06-23T22:07:39Z
tags:
  - Trends & Observations
---

Couple of interesting items kicking around my [Straw](http://www.nongnu.org/straw/) client:

First, let me be the millionth blogger to salute [Cory Doctorow](http://www.craphound.com/) of the [EFF](http://www.eff.org/)‘s gem of a [presentation](http://craphound.com/msftdrm.txt) on DRM. Just a brilliant job. Instead of writing on our pieces on the topic in the future, I can just point to that, and say – “Yeah, what he said.” From this, you might conclude that I do not agree with Michael Gartenberg’s [dissenting opinion](http://weblogs.jupiterresearch.com/analysts/gartenberg/archives/003164.html).

Second, I’m monitoring with interest the work of Nat Friedman and the other Gnome hackers on the [Beagle](http://www.gnome.org/projects/beagle/) and [Dashboard ](http://www.nat.org/dashboard)projects. I’m not sure who’s (Google? MS? Novell?) going to get it rightfirst – meaning an integrated, indexed and intelligent desktop – but I’m sure that either way I’m going to be right on board. Note the [Mono](http://www.go-mono.com/) underpinnings.

Third, Tim Bray’s take on netbeans – [“it’s not bad”](http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2004/06/20/NetBeans) – was worth a chuckle. Actually, I’m just giving him a hard time because we just see Eclipse as a near de facto standard. Just about every ISV we speak with cites Eclipse – or Visual Studio – as their preferred app dev integration point of choice. Sun’s got some hard decisions to make in the netbeans space, and soon.

Last, it’s nice to see a ‘Softie [speak his mind](http://radio.weblogs.com/0001011/2004/06/19.html#a7816) about corporate behaviors. This can only be a good thing.