On Nov 9, 2024, at 13:43, Evan Leibovitch via talk <talk@gtalug.org> wrote:

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The article also recalls -- now that I think about it -- my reaction to the use of "M$" and other such cavalier Microsoft-bashing in open source circles these days. Once upon a time the criticism was well deserved, now it's just puerile.

That was “M string”, a valid variable name in the BASIC language that Microsoft did a lot to promote in the 70s and 80s. I think it was meant playfully at the time. But Microsoft’s business model has evolved considerably since then, I haven’t seen a BASIC interpreter in Windows this century, and remembering that history probably has me marked as a greybeard.