Linked by Andrew Youll on Fri 26th Aug 2005 15:44 UTC, submitted by Salvatore Cangeloso
It would seem that the upcoming release of Microsoft's Windows Vista does not seem like a good thing for the desktop Linux community. After all, this update to Windows XP is going to focus on two attributes which have pushed users to Linux for years- security and stability. Upon closer inspection though, the move to Vista may be the perfect time for the Linux community to make headway on the desktop and increase its user base dramatically. The number of features which Microsoft has cast aside since Longhorn and the hardware requirements of Vista have set the stage for a large scale move to desktop Linux. 
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"Kind words don't always get the job done. If that was true, drill Sargent's in the military would never yell or say things which could be considered 'mean'.
How was fire discovered, not by sitting on two sticks!"
Drill Sargent's have a purpose for saying "mean" things to cadets. They do that to try to get the cadet acclimated to an environment where the team matters, not the person's personal feelings about a given task.
Drill Sargent's use "mean" techniques to "break down" the cadet's self esteem, so the cadet can become part of the team.
Unfortunately, drill Sargent tactics don't work well in the consumer computer world. Unlike the military, home-computers will seldom have the chance of killing you literally, and people can and should have the right to choose what operating system works for them, be it windows or mac or even Linux. One of the basic tenets of the Free Software movement is the ability to make choices about the software you'll use for a given task. So, in the spirit of freedom -of-choice, don't bash people for not using your preferred OS, and don't limit people's choice by telling them that they can only use open-source software if they want to be "one of the elect" or something like that. Windows and Mac have there respective problems, but so does Linux.