In which I try to help more and complain less

Update (2011-01-12): Better: http://sgillies.net/blog/1065/thats-more-like-it

A reader suggested to me in comments that I should approach the words on the FOSS4G 2011 site (which I quoted previously) from a different angle and try to appreciate that they're aimed at folks outside the FOSS4G community. Speaking to them using their own language including, apparently, their own unflattering stereotypes of open source users in an anything goes effort to lure them in to the event. I suppose this makes some twisted sense if you ignore an eventuality: that this corporate audience will at some point discover themselves fully surrounded by these very same wild-eyed open source hippy freetard philosophers. But nevermind that for now, I'm fully onboard with the FOSS4G rhetoric and have some other stereotypes that the marketers are free to use or repurpose if the original

Many early adopters of FOSS solutions chose them based on "philosophical" reasons, but ...

starts to wear thin. How about this one, which uses unnecessary quotes to maintain the right style?

Many early adopters of FOSS solutions were into GIS as a "fun" hobby, but ...

That will have strong appeal for certified professionals.

Many early adopters of FOSS solutions felt "everything" should be free, but ...

The conference is coming back to the USA, and nothing is more American than using Communists as bogeymen.

Many early adopters of FOSS ranted about the "difference" between freedom and free beer, but ...

Always with the damn philosophizing, those freetards.

Many early adopters of FOSS were from "academic" backgrounds, but ...

I almost forgot the Ivory Tower! Nobody is less pragmatic than an academic researcher, right? Hope this helps, and Merry Christmas.