Ask Not What Your Operating System Can Do For You

Note the date: 23 Sep 08. The idea is based around Ubuntu 9.04, but it’s still current.

The article itself is magnificently eloquent, to the point where it brings tears to a developer’s eyes. If only … if only … if only.

And then there’s the comments, which collectively summarize the state of Linux FUD today. At random:

As a relative newcomer to Ubuntu, and a strong developer, I have been looking for ways to contribute, which might interest me. (Dimwit Drake)

Ubuntu as a platform for developer, just give us a hand we promise a jump. (Ludicrous Lemming)

Bug reports can be closed, but a bad first impression remains forever. (Sensible Simian)

If anything, it would good that Canonical provides launchpad so you can support your solution. (Illiterate Idiot)

How much is Canonical really contributing to the open source world? (Emu a la Epiphany, with Crunchy Frog Sauce)

Q Do not forget the size of these companies!
Canonical : 200 employees
Novel : 4000
Red Hat : 2200

...

A But why cant more people be hired? (Economic Eejit)

And so it goes on. And on. And on.

Much more of this, and I think I can prove the existence of the Tooth Fairy by induction. Just give me a large enough coil and a random Loon.

Quite incidentally, using the same markup for bullet lists as you use for bold type is possibly the worst decision in IT since an urban spaceman decided he could sweep the world with a brown Linux Desktop.