“Far from bringing openness and cooperation to the world of IT, Linux enthusiasts want to keep it as closed as possible – while collecting lavish praise from half-baked anti-capitalists – so they can carry on feeling self-important. After all, if these geeks could write real software, they’d be working for a proper company. Like Microsoft.” Read the editorial at Spiked. IMNSHO: Some of the author’s points are valid. But for the most part, speaking as a woman to woman, she just needs a good spanking.
A Line on Linux
About The Author
Eugenia Loli
Ex-programmer, ex-editor in chief at OSNews.com, now a visual artist/filmmaker.
Follow me on Twitter @EugeniaLoli
yeah, she does need some spanking. still, even here in our “3rd world” country, linux people can be quite the snobs. some partly have low regard to those who can not read and understand documentation…especially those who are too lazy to. in fact, i give great kudos to the people who labor to bring linux to the desktop. it’s like trying to make both ends of a one-foot steel bar meet. i do take exception however, to the statement that Linux enthusiasts want to keep Linux closed. duh!!! like m$??? double duh!!! i’d like to hear her substantiate that claim. linux is there for the taking…and the taking-apart.
all in all, i believe the author has a shallow grasp of the topic and was bordering on sensationalizing her article to at least catch interest. pathetic.
If the author could write a real story, she’d be working for a proper company like Playboy.
BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH
wew sorry, I have never laughed that much.
what a dumb 8!7CH.
1) most Linuc kernel programmers work for real companies like IBM, RH, Suse, Sun, HP, etc.
2) since when does MS’s $h!7 don’t stink?
I am sorry, but when a person comes out swinging so hard, I get turned off and no matter what they might have to say, I tune out. I think this journalist needs to take a lesson in veiled flaming from David Coursey at ZDNET.
“she needs a good spanking”
I volunteer!
…but certainly a little dose of the fact.
All right, to be honest, I think the author here has one good point: No one should ever, ever, ever use Linux because of ideological reasons. It is only an operating system, and turning it into the coming of a new wave of thinking or something is really not giving it the respect it may deserve. Linux isn’t where it is because of its use-restrictive software license, it is where it is because it costs no money and has some interesting capabilities.
All that said, use FreeBSD. 8)
Trolling at its finest, with some additional FUD thrown in for good measure. *sigh*
The Financial Times of London is the snob’s newspaper of Britain & is read by those who probably sympathize with MS, & pure Capitalism far more than the rest of us. Remember Linux & OSS is a real threat to fat software companies who stock is owned in large part by her readers. Since I come from that neck of the woods, her comments make me want to puke & I don’t even use Linux enough to be really upset. She reminds me of that superior attitude I sometimes miss (thinking of John Cleese sketches).
If she really knew what she was talking about, she would be working for the Beeb. As it happens I just love to hear all the stories of UK, Korea, Peru, endless list of govs being forced out of MS world. A lot of her readers no doubt work for the UK gov as civil servants & she appears to be doing MS dirty work to stop them from doing the right thing.
nudge nudge wink wink
As far as the spanking goes, I wouldn’t touch her with a 20-foot pole.
I didn’t like the way she refered to Linux as “underground.” Linux’s birth-place was in a University, as do many open source project. The idea behind open source, and Linux, is education and knowledge. Not making money. And what’s so underground about big companies like IBM, and Sun supporting Linux? People who are serious about networking or web hosting would be using Linux or a Unix variant. I say Windows is the underground. Back doors, security holes wider than the Grand Canyon, ridiculous licensing policies, prices that make a rich man cry, now that’s underground. I’ll be 6 feet underground (dead) if it weren’t for alternative OSes.
And since when did computers and technology have anything to do with politics? Oh that’s right, it started when Microsoft thought they were higher than the government. I don’t understand why so many people fail to understand that computers are also toys. You don’t have to be in this business to make money. Beyond email, web surfing, chatting, and gaming, there are many other ways we can have fun using computers. Programming for example. We just want to have a little fun, not over throw the government or ruin anyone’s business. Get that in your head lady.
Her last sentence bothers me the most. “Like Microsoft” ::Me shutters uncontrolably:: What did Microsoft ever do for me that was worth me favoring them? Oh yeah, the allowed a sh!t load of worms and viri to run loose and bugger up my office’s workstations. I just saw Jason X tonight. Even Hollywood is picking on Microsoft.
Ok, I’m done yapping. Who’s next?
> All right, to be honest, I think the author here has one
> good point: No one should ever, ever, ever use Linux
> because of ideological reasons.
Why not? Certainly, Linux isn’t where it is *within the business world* because of it’s license. That market is usually a bit more pragmatic than hackers of all sorts and plain old geeks at large. Some people have different priorities.
A lot of people who put philosophy (or at least the side effect of the ideology behind Linux and other Free/OS software) supported Linux to the point that it was feasible for practical-minded businesses to bother using it. Without that initial underground, grass roots support for that reason, there’s little chance Linux would be anywhere near where it is today.
Personally, I’m very pragmatic about what software I use. Currently I use Mac OS X because it provides the most efficient environment for the work I need to accomplish. However, this is in the short term. Eventually, I am aiming that my entire operating environment will be written in or accessible from Squeak Smalltalk. This is because of Smalltalk’s inherently hyper-open nature. This openness, which precedes any holy wars or jargon-filled licenses, is the key to having a self-sustaining system that *I* can maintain indefinitely, without having to worry about whether or not some company will have their “business plan” change overnight, and throw a wrench into the works.
This same argument works for a more primitive (in ways), but similar system like a Debian distro. However, this argument works largely only for those who are have something to gain by such an arrangement.
A business often doesn’t have time for such things, and takes the least costly solution. Different entities (hackers, non-coding geeks, small businesses, huge corporations, &c) have different methods of determining the “fitness” (applying an evolutionary metaphor) of a particular hardware or software. For me, I’ve free time, during which I enjoy coding- so it’s has a higher “profit margin” for me to maintain or create a system for which I have the knowledge to maintain- add the features I want, modify to look and feel like I want- indefinitely, rather than put up with a a mediocre system that consistently falls short of the way I think.
A lot of people don’t enjoy doing this. So they put up with systems that suck (relative to what they really want), but it’s better than working on it themselves.
It’s great you use FreeBSD. Some people use it because of technical advantage, others because of its cost, and others because it makes them l33t3r than Linux users.
Perhaps this doesn’t make sense to anyone, perhaps I’m just high. But there has to be someone else out there that knows about what the hell I’m talking.
So Eug when do we ever get to see about Linux. Im not really a linux fan, but jeez that article (and I use the word barely willingly) attacks the things about Linux I dont find to be it’s main problems. Sounds like a bitter woman who doesnt need a spanking but a bitchslap.
Rash generalizations(Read: FUD) like “people who use linux are snobs”, “People use linux as a revolt against MS” and “There is no software for linux” are the leading cause of people overlooking linux as a major contender in the OS market. It is true that linux is a supirior OS to MS, but I am sure that didn’t factor into the decisions of amazon, dreamworks and other companies when switching from Big Iron and workstation unix machines to Linux.
This woman is clearly on the outside looking in, which seems not only bias toward MS but ignorent to the fact that linux is simply better then MS in every respect but software support. I am sure if enough well informed companies went to certain software houses(Read:adobe) we could all have photoshop for linux(if we have the money) ^_^
Women LOVE a good spanking…
>>”she needs a good spanking”
>>I volunteer!
No, no, let *me* do it!
I want to do it!
What the he is an “Anti-capitalist protester”??? Are they protesting Anti-capitalists, or are they them selves anti-capitalists and protesting some un-named ism…
Sure I know what she means… but A REAL WRITER wouldn’t leave a dangling participle in her article WOULD SHE??
she said:
“Really, for all their insistence on the openness of Linux, for all their revelling in their underground status, these Linux people are actually a bunch of snobs. They don’t want you to understand the secret language that makes them feel special. They want to make it as hard as they can to join their gang.”
linux people are notoriously impossible to get a straight answer from. anything you ask them, they will come forth in hordes answering every question they happen to know an answer to except the exact one that you asked them. if you lose patience and point that out to them, they will complain that your question wasn’t submitted with the proper respect, or that they are not being paid to answer your question, or that you’re too stupid to understand a legitamate answer and should go rtfm. they always have some excuse not to answer your questions, yet they still want to be regarded as all-knowing linux gurus just because a mandrake distro installed itself onto their pc all by itself without their intervention.
she thinks this is their snobbery, and that they know the answers but are willingly witholding assistance, but i know the truth: they do not in fact know the answers to your questions, so they have to pretend that the answers are above your understanding or beneath their dignity as an excuse not to answer them.
Hmm…probably a better way to generate revenues than banner ads.
(Posting from OS X for the first time…my fiance gave me an account on her G3…yay!)
So whats the question?
You could say same thing about any other OS esp Windows, they are all so technically complex under the hood if anything goes seriously wrong, you need an OS buddy.
Windows users have the huge advantage of some support nearby, either from the office tech or a friend or neighbor or what ever. I can’t say I know of a single acqaintance in the notWindows camp who could help me out if I ever got stuck. I can see that as a good enough reason for most people to stay away from any minority OS.
Most people want to stay with the majority mainstream group, she is confused about why some of us don’t want to be in that same camp. To her we all look like activists.
“all in all, i believe the author has a shallow grasp of the topic and was bordering on sensationalizing her article to at least catch interest.”
Yes, it’s fairly obvious her research was minimal (WINE is a distro? Good grief) and she wanted to provoke, not inform.
I’m more used to seeing this sort of idiocy in the tabloids that use BIG PRINT for the hard-of-thinking and cover at least 25% of their front page with a photo, another 25% with the headline, and the article itself consists of not more than 150 very simple words.
It’s so full of holes it’s not even worth replying to.
Does all journalist love and make a living on bullshit? Or is it easier to get paid for that shit?
Fiona Harvey has bought into the Microsoft FUD on Linux,
hook, line and sinker. If she actually believes what she
wrote and is not just trolling for flames, she’s an idiot.
The people working on Linux also have day jobs, most in
the software industry. They have created an OS that is
more stable, more reliable and more secure than anything
Microsoft ever produced. Sure, some of them are socially
challenged geeks, so are a lot of programmers who work for
Microsoft, Sun and Apple.
The GNU licence and Open Source are not a socialist/communist plot to overthrow capitalism and free enterprise. They are a mechanism designed to insure that maximum numbers of people have access to the source code
so they can work on it and improve it. There are plenty
of people making money off Linux and open source. They’re
just not doing it by hiding the code.
Eugenia, you are brilliant!
Check out:
http://www.ineedaspanking.com
I can’t for the life of me understand why this was posted on OSNews. The author is clearly clueless. It isn’t hard to find people who spout off about topics of which they know little. We don’t need a link to another clueless article. It must be a slow day for real news.
The hell with reviews, critical analysis, software previews and rumour sites..
Lets have a weekly poll as to which IT / Technology guru/leader/coder ought to be flogged for their latest actions!!!!!!!!!!
I had a read of the posts first, THEN I read the article to see what you lot were on about….
As far as I can see, the author of this article does indeed seem to have shown genuine interest in Linux as an alternative to the other crap that is available, but was put off both by the high learning curve of the operating system and probably, (but not specifically mentioned) by asking a few questions on online forums.
Do not get me wrong, I think the author has looked at the operating system itself rather than a windowing manager, and if so, she is correct. I have been using Linux since 1992, kernel ver 0.9.2 and I have almost every major distro installed on my PC’s, but I still do not know what every single command does, there are just too many, and some of them are just variations of another package. I think this is just a geek coding for some glory rather than coding to enhance the system.
Linux does need a very easy to understand gui in order to be accepted by the hoardes, KDE and Gnome are easy to use, but not easy to understand. Lycoris attempts to make the Linux desktop a great deal more easy to understand, by using menus in plain English like; “Use a Scanner” instead of sane, etc
Going over the article again, the author appears not to be spreading FUD against Linux and also not to be saying Linux will never replace Windows, in fact, I think she was indeed looking at Linux and the ethos of the Linux community with a hope of joining in. If she had tried a copy of Lycoris, the article would indeed have been very different.
Linux forums are usually not filled with geeks who don’t know how to answer a question, look around on Linux Journal forums, Mandrake expert forums and Lycoris forums and you will get a proper taste of the true spirit of the Linux community.
One last thing, the lady does not need a spanking for voicing her opinion, spanking is a pleasant hobby for two (or more) participating adults, and should only be done if there is an ample supply of baby oil and ice cubes :^)
Is it me or is Linux getting a lot negative press lately?! I mean a week ago the Meta Group that slandered Linux from IBM’s point of view saying that Linux is a fake pretty much and nothing but hype…
http://www.geek.com/news/geeknews/2002may/gee20020513011671.htm
but then turns around being apologetic to Microsoft while making excuses why the latest patches for WinXP is expected…
http://www.osopinion.com/perl/story/17734.html
I think the the Evil Empire is feeling pressure from the little guys so now probably has sent out an APB to spread FUD about, of course it wont work, but you can’t blame them for trying at least!
Well, I guess I could be considered a snob, then.
But when someone comes and asks me about something that didn’t compile, doesn’t work or whatever on their linux-distribution, I always ask them if they looked properly at the error messages and consulted the manpages.
NO ONE will learn anything from just getting the answer straight off. If people then actually look at some man-pages and a howto, and still can’t get it working, I’ll try as good as I can to help them.
I know there are some people who really don’t want to help anyone, but my own experiences point towards a bigger amount of people actually wanting to help as much as possible. Most I’ve asked for help were very helpful, and didn’t make me feel stupid, and they didn’t just brush me off.
I’m not going to comment on the other points in the editorial, as most here already did that.
It’s just too damn biased and shallow-minded for my taste :
I’ll say amen to the bit about trying to get help with Linux. RTFM is all well and good, but my experience was that man pages aren’t a great deal of help when you’re just starting out. That’s the reason I use NetBSD instead – at least I can pin my housemate against the wall and hit him until he gives me a straight answer 😉
It seems that you wouldn’t be the only one. <licks lips; vapidly grins; rubs hands> But the worst thing I found with her article was its shallowness. For pity’s sake, she’s suppose to be writing for a major financial newspaper, one of the most widely read and respected in the world, and she comes up with that gubbish?
She hasn’t even touched on major reason why I moved lock-stock-and-barrel to Linux – hardware moves faster than software, and when I moved to Linux mid-nineties, was that I needed something to take advantage of my hardware, and Windows was crap, eating a directory once because the swap file needed to grow. <shrug> So I bailed out a.s.a.p.
I wrote Spiked this little comment about Fionas Harveys
“A line on Linux”:
“I am really impressed by this article, Fiona Harvey has
done her work very well. I can feel this almost with every line from the article, that she has a very good and deep understanding of the things she is talking about.
So let me add only the last four missing words:
Linux sucks – Windows rules”
am I totally wrong ???
If you actaully read some of their other IT articles. You will find out that not only do they not have a clue, they are all opinionated whiners. Their articles about “how web usability is bad” particulary come to mind. Frankly I would never read their news service again. It’s more fun reading microsofts homepage.
I think the person who wrote this article fails to understand that monopolies are not good for consumers and monopolistic practices are also illegal in the UK and the US so supporting any alternative product be it good or bad helps to break the monopoly.
The law on monopolies should be strengthened because it is hard to prosecute big companies for infringements because they throwback claims like it will hurt jobs and be bad for the economy if they are penalised but surely in a civilised society no one is above the law…
The alternative product is usually better and cheaper anyway or it will never compete with the monopolist.
we are all consumers so thus you could suppose monoplies are bad for everyone and limit choice, even if you work for a monopolist.
Also, how you can slate people who work for love and not for greed is cynical and hard to understand.
I use both linux and windows and they both serve different purposes depending on what you need to do.
Competition is a very good way to force product improvement and lowering of prices. also i believe it is better for many companies to earn normal (low profit) than a few companies to earn super (high) profit. everyone can be better off that way all although that may not be desirable for everyone depending on there point of view.
I favour neither MS or Linux, i just believe any monopoly is a bad thing and the software is one of the worst examples of a monopoly because normal people have to put up with MS regardless.
>Linux is a computer operating system, just like Microsoft’s Windows
>orApple’s Mac.
Linux is an OS kernel and I always thought Macs were computers.
For a technology correspondant 2 mistakes in the first line is not a good sign!
>The real problem with Linux is that it is quite, quite unusable.
She does have a point though, most poeple (i.e. non geeks) have problems with windows never mind Linux. However the KDE and Gnome people are doing great work in this area and are catching up fast. Run into problems with Linux and without the relevant knowlege (or at least a good book) you’re f***ed.
I think there are some people who use Linux because of the politics but I think these are in a minority, I don’t know how many times I’ve heard “but it’s not free software”.
>speaking as a woman to woman, she just needs a good spanking.
and I bet you’d enjoy every minute of it 😉
GNU me baby.
One of the most pathetic pieces ever written. The opinions of the common idiot.
This is exactly what you expect to hear from someone both uneducated and easily influenced (micro$oft springs to mind). If linux coders/users are such snobs why are there always so many people ready to help? and ready to write tutorials/HOWTOS etc? I doubt that this author even knows how to point-n-click her way around the windoze control panel.
I honestly cant believe that an idiot like this is allowed to comment on sunjects so obviously above her head.
I resent the implication that using Linux for ideological reasons is somewho wrong. I use Linux because I like its ideology. I believe that (in systems software, anyway) Open Source is the way to go. Sure I lose something by using Linux instead of Windows (its often slower, more tempermental about configuration, and harder to keep updated) but I gain the peace of mind that I’m not a slave to whatever Microsoft wants to push down my throat. I was forced to upgrade to Windows 98 once, only because MS wouldn’t support USB properly in Win95, and I decided I’d never deal with it again. Not everything is nice and logical, doing whatever works in your best interest. Not everything is about balancing pros/cons and choosing the best option. Some things are about feeling and gut-reaction. Otherwise, nobody would ever buy a Jaguar vs a Mercedes (because Mercedes has better price/performance) just because they connect with Jags better.
My biggest confusion regarding this article is why she bothered writting it. First, I disagree with almost everything she said and it seemed utterly wrong. Linux is not that hard to use, the community was very helpful to me when I was a newbie, and Linux is getting easier to use with every new release. It was much harder to use when I first started almost four years ago than it is now, and it is getting easier.
And most importantly, if you think its too hard for you to use, if you are too lazy to learn it, then don’t use it. No one is forcing you to use it, and if you want to use it, its free.
Incidentally, it does not strike me as anticapitalist. It is not anticapitalist to give away your property(arguably that changes if you are giving away your property to help maintain an illegal monopoly, but generally…..), and companies are built around this. Red hat is a shining example, but not the only one.
The day I work for Microsoft is the day I get a stable life, with a wife, a few kids, maybe a dog, in Silicon Valley… wait, this sounds better than Open Source programming (NOT! hehe 🙂
the day linux can support all the hardware windows can, automattically updates, and runs atleast ALL windows games(I dont care about the office crap)…. you can bet I will be there; but right now linux is far from ever beating windows, or even being good competition(number of users wise). the support for 56k modems is horrible, it tells you that your hardware modem is a winmodem(not allowing you to use it)… even tho it has been supported since kernel 2.3.x— and no one wants to spend their time configureing wine in order to get a windows game to install.
That’s why I read very few news sites on the Net’. So much bull and … Oh wait I read /. Nevermind.
Keep it up Eugenia!
Linux is not that hard to use, the community was very helpful to me when I was a newbie, and Linux is getting easier to use with every new release.
————
Somewhere in this sentence is a contradiction.
Linux is not that hard to use, the community was very helpful to me when I was a newbie, and Linux is getting easier to use with every new release.
————
Yes, there are linux snobs out there who look down their long grey beards (counterbalanced by their long grey pony tails, or they would fall over) and tell you “read the man pages.” As someone pointed out here, man pages are not for newbies. They are generally useless if you are unfamiliar with the subject matter. I don’t know why so many geeks can’t understand that. I also love when they just throw some bizarre command syntax at you with no explanation. Can’t do that. Explaining is beneath them. Apparently some people were born with penguin DNA. The rest of us are inferior life forms.
Fortunately there ARE many linux users out there who are willing to help others learn the ropes. The afore-mentioned “geeks” are just a vocal minority. Ignore them. They don’t care if you read their rants anyway, as long as they can read their own condescending crap in print. It makes them feel good about themselves.
This kind of attitude kept me away from Linux for a long time. What eventually drove me to it was a job requirement plus a distrust of where MS wants me to go today. I’m almost 100% self-taught, so it certainly isn’t impossible to learn – just different.
Linux is getting easier to use, however. I use Red Hat 7.1 with Ximian Desktop and love it (though my laptop still has Win2k Pro). Easy to use, easy to update, great apps (AbiWord and gnumeric in particular…even GIMP is starting to make sense to me). It still has strange quirks (like print jobs that go along fine for 15 pages, then convert to ASCII garbage graphics in the middle of a page for no apparent reason), but life with Linux is improving.
Microsoft moles can be identified by their unwavering committment to preventing windows users from installing linux. A microsoft mole might be identified by one or more of the following activities:
1. Tells a newbie who is having a problem to shut up and RTFM
2. Claims that a user-hostile program that lacks any kind f usability is “perfectly ready for the desktop”
3. Tells said developer of program to “keep up the good work”
4. Tells people who criticize a badly designed free software UI to “quit whining” or “you get what you pay for”
5. Uses the word “Idiot”,”Simpleton” or “Moron” in the same sentance as “GUI”. An example would be the sentance “GUI’s are for morons who can’t think”.
6. Runs around screaming “Don’t standardize linux GUI’s. It’s a matter of choice–don’t promote facism.”
If you see your friend, spouse, employer, LUG members, or poster to on-line forums such as Slashdot engaging in one or more of these counter-revolutionary activities, there is a very good chance that they are agents of microsoft committed to making sure that linux will not be installed on the machines of existing windows users.
The point to my silly piece: Bill Gates doesn’t have to lift a finger to sabotage linux on the desktop because so many people in the linux community and Free Software development community do his job for him.
I agree that there are a few of those long-bearded geeks out there who simply loves to sit there and look super-proficient and loves to be above all others. But that is a very little share of the skilled linux-users.
Most are very happy to help.
But I really don’t think it’s too much for someone to ask a newbie to at least TRY to read some documentation first. It could just be that it turned out good. Think and try before asking. And if it then fails many, many people will be happy to help. IF they actually know the answer.
I’ve tried before giving people some easy documentaion (not man-pages), and we’re talking easy step tutorials, and some even refused to read it and kept just asking for the syntax/command they needed. That is the point where I think they should try just a little harder instead of just demanding an answer.
And don’t call me a long-bearded geek, please. I spend many hours each week trying to help people with the linux-systems. And I’ve only been using it for a year myself
I have to agree that too many Linux users get intoxicated by snobery and ideology ; mainly because this 60 % , as I estimate, of Linux users don’t understand Linux ideology at all and because they think they are better than average just because they use the Linux Desktop.
(wich is crap in the present times !)
If you ask for the help of this users they point you immediatly to the FAQ and the manpage which were written for version 1.0 when you have version 3.4 working and the man and FAQ don’t help you anymore … and, yes, nobody (of the 60 % of users) knows the answer but everybody are whilling to help you and will give you an answer that has nothing to do with the problem just to show off their knowledge.
I never posted for help on Linux because I don’t like it – mind that I am not a Guru or an Expert like you geeks and that I never claimed to be one – and because it is not in my nature (I am an individualist) but I read the forums and they really call (literaly) the newbies “stupid” and make the new users of Linux feel like they are too stupid to use such a marvelous OS wich is only for Linux Geeks and they don’t like to be annoyed by the “average Joe” (just like the Linux People here in OsNews are calling the Author “stupid”, “spank her”, or “she is an outsider looking in”, “she doesn’t know that Linux is a kernel and Mac is a Computer”, “they don’t have a clue”, etc. in the end they are all the same Linux <crap> Users type). Aren’t this (60 %) Linux Geeks SNOBS ?
I think that Mr. Dave Donley (see above) was the only person here who made sense -> The author tried to use Linux but got refused and was not helped by the Linux software/distribution nor the community.
Every user of Linux should know (since you are geeks) that Mozilla, KOffice, KDE (2 and 3), don’t work and are full of bugs ! (in the present moment, to say the least) and you don’t need to be an expert or a Linux poweruser or a Linux Geek to work with a browser or an office suite or a GUI !
I use Linux, BSD’s (Free,Open,Net), Windows and QNX for now because I like to use them all for a task or two.
I can firmely say that Linux is not superior than BSD for networking; and that Linux (not the kernel my friend, I mean the environment) is not stabler than Windows 2000 !
I dislike Linux Geeks with all my heart ! (Go to hell with all your pretensious superiority)
To be a geek (whatever that means) is to be some sort of superior human being (which is stupid since all mens are equal and have their particular skills on some subject).
Spanking doesn’t sound like a good idea. See http://www.nospank.net – the way she writes sounds more like she *was* spanked by some users on a message board and is now trying to pay back the experience.
Gee, how narrow minded. She’s prolly just an MS employee scared about her future work at the company
.
Seriously, its a shame she doesnt know what she’s talking about because the article was well writen. It was just filled with nonsence. Shame, damn Shame…
I must admit, i LOVE UNIX oses, and Linux first showed me the path, but i have got to say i dont like it very much anymore mainly because it is hard to use and the doumentation isnt pretty.
I prefer OpenBSD
You sound like the most pretentious snob in this entire column. I, unlike yourself, have asked for help with Linux and found people a lot more friendly than you say.
btw – Mozilla does work well – IMHO much better than IE. Yes it has bugs, but so does IE and every large project.
fire her, she’s late for April fools!!!!
That said, i have to add linux users are quite prone to say RTFM to anyone asking a question. That’s why I use win2k :/
blu said:
“You sound like the most pretentious snob in this entire column.”
†ha†’s exac†ly wha† a †ypical anal-re†en†ive linµx drøne wøµld say, †ake valid cri†icism and †µrn i† ßack arøµnd øn †he øne døing †he cri†icizing. i†’s always †he newcømer’s ƒaµl†, isn’† i†. yøµ can’† answer any valid qµes†iøns, ßµ† ßy gød yøµ can make †he qµes†iøner †hink †wice aßøµ† ever asking again.
ßlµ said:
“I, unlike yourself, have asked for help with Linux and found people a lot more friendly than you say.”
very †rµe. linµx peøple are sø helpƒµl †ha† even iƒ †hey døn’† knøw †he answer †ø yøµr qµes†iøn, †hey answer i† anyway! all øƒ †hem dø! repea†edly! jµs† †ry †ø shµ† †hem µp! and †hen when yøµ cømplain †ha† †hey’re answering every qµes†iøn excep† †he exac† øne †ha† yøµ asked, †hey pøin† øµ† høw many ‘answers’ yøµ already gø† and †ha† †hey’re nø† ßeing paid †ø help yøµ, and mayße yøµ shøµld jµs† r†ƒm iƒ yøµ aren’† sa†isƒied wi†h all †heir ‘help’!
nø, he was righ†. linµx is ca†ching øn, ßµ† i†’s nø† ‘†hanks’ †ø yøµ peøple, i†’s ca†ching øn ‘in spi†e øƒ’ yøµ. yøµr søle claim †ø ƒame is †ha† yøµ’re less øßjec†iønaßle †ham micrøsøƒ†. søøner ør la†er sømeßødy will crea†e a dis†rißµ†iøn †ha† reƒlec†s †he needs and desires øƒ nørmal peøple, prøßaßly ßy acciden†, and †hen all yøµ wanna-ße exper†s can snivel and ßi†ch like yøµ did when †he a†heøs ƒørk was annøµnced.
As Linux grows in popularity, there will be a growing band of people who hate it, just as there is for Windows.
She rocks.
I’m not anti-Linux, though I prefer more ‘canned’ operating systems like Windows, BeOS, and MacOS X. (I like total consistency. If you don’t, that’s cool, too. But I’m happiest in Linux when every app I use is KDE. I hate launching, for instance, a GNOME app in KDE. The inconsistency in appearance is grotesque and annoying to me.)
But I really don’t think it’s too much for someone to ask a newbie to at least TRY to read some documentation first. It could just be that it turned out good. Think and try before asking.
I don’t think anybody could disagree with that.
I’ll bet if most of the snobs who respond “RTFM” would first ASK if the newbie in question had already read the FM, that said newbie would response “Yes.” This is part of the assumption by said snobs that newbies are too stupid to read (hey, we are newbies at linux, not life in general), so too often they respond with personal insults instead of determining what the newbie has already done to solve his own problem.
Well, maybe some are too lazy to read, but I think most of us, in search of an answer fast, would consult what we have first before going on-line and waiting for an answer on the usenet.
In addition, much documentation is very incomplete. Look at the manual for GLADE. The most technical sections consist of no more than “Somebody needs to write this.” There is still work to do. KDE 2.1 was the same. (Dont’ have KDE 3 so I don’t know if this has improved.) I mention GLADE because I would really like to learn it, but where is the information??
Once again, I believe that the real hard-core snob-geek creatures are just a vocal minority. I wonder why they even hang out on newsgroups where newbies come for help. However, along with the personal insults about my cranial capacity and my unsuitability for such highbrow pursuits as linux, many others have really tried to help and have asked questions so they could give better answers. My thanks to them.
Let’s see, in the same column the author writes (a) that Linux has millions of users and (b)that Linux is “quite unuseable”.
So which is it?
I think that anyone who makes flat-out “my opinion is the only one that counts, no matter how ignorant I am” statements is to be pitied, not hated. It is a characteristic shared by many insecure and uninformed people.
Operating systems are dull and boring? Yes, to some folks, in the same way that the internal combustion engine that powers your car is dull and boring to some folks. But then again, other folks find that same internal combustion engine fascinating and make a living working on it – and some people find operating systems fascinating and make a living or a hobby of working on them. What’s so hard to understand about “different strokes for different folks”???
I currently use Mandrake Linux at work on my desktop, and FreeBSD at work on my server; at home we have two PC’s with Linux and Windows 98 on them, and my wife has a Mac with MacOS 9 and MacOS X on it. Until recently I used to use BeOS too (it’s hard to find BeOS compatible hardware these days). Each of these operating systems has good and bad points, which is why we use all of them!
-J.V.
Poor girl! This is a typical case of
an uncurable disease called “WINDIOTISM.”
😉
its not the money thats the problem its not the woman either. ITs the lack of respect for super natural life that is holding linux back from having photoshop ! mauh,ha ,ha!
NOTE: please disregarde everything you hav just read