4
Votes
Old, but nauseating enough to bear repeating. I’m going to claim best-ever FUD coverage for this one: it has absolutely everything (whether relevant to the “topic” or not).
One minute the Loons are claiming that they are the Leet of the World, because only they understand the Veiled Mysteries Of The Kernel, and the next moment they’re moaning at ordinary people who have the temerity to want something that Just Works.
Joe Sixpack just can’t win, can he?
Brought to you by a link gleaned from one of the snivelling little twits on Helios’ blog.
Comments
This is the most obnoxious, inane and verbose list of ’10-reasons-why-linux-rocks-and-you-should-switch-to-it’, which not only uses tautology and other lame rhetoric trics, but essentialy declares that this system doesn’t require or actually deserve any users at all. All in all sounds like a big apology about apologizing for linux and kinda reminds me of the bulgarian prime minister, who declared that his electorate was made from bad human material.
Cue Kurkos on Bulgarians …
It is quite tremendous, isn’t it? The very first paragraph is practically illiterate, and it goes downhill from there. By the end, I couldn’t quite work out whether she was arguing that Linux is a genius-level system that every simpleton can use, or a simple and elegant system that only geniuses should be allowed to use.
The weird thing is, every last commenter could obviously understand it better than I. I mean, they all agreed wholeheartedly with it…
well it starts badly, gets worse in the middle, and then sort of tails of at the end…
I gave up trying to see the actual point of what she’s chatting about here, I think the crux is “Linux doesn’t need lies to make it look good, lies are insulting to the people, Linux is teh awesome and stands on it’s own two feet [...etc]”, but then presents a bulleted list of the same BS she proclaims to be crusading against. Oh well.
Frequent incremental releases:
After which, your computer and OS MAY start up, and if this occurs and you are really lucky most/all of your hardware/programs will still work. On the other hand…
Continual improvements:
Yes, because Unity and Gnome 3 are such boons to mankind. I still see the same junk now that I did 3 years ago when I decided to dance with Linux, not realizing that it was a transvestite hooker.
Dominates super-computing:
Who. Gives. A. Fv(k? Your average user does not now, and never will have access to a “Super Computer”. Not to mention that they are running hihgly cutomized versions that are designed for one task scenarios. How about distrubuted computing, aka BOINC and others? Does Linux claim they rule that too? Most home PCs are Windows, and they are the ones it is targeted at.
Dominates on the server:
Yes… servers. The waiter class of the computer world. You place an order from the menu. The waiter trots back to the kitchen and fetches you your plate. Good Linux.
Dominates the embedded realm:
I’m assuming this is about Android(?),in which case we have the classic fallacy that Android is Linux and is InherentlySecure and all that nonsense, until the studies come out showing malware all over the Android environment, when all of a sudden Android isn’t Linux.
Dominates in real innovation:
Real innovation? Like Unity you mean? Linux dominates in copying everyone else’s innovation is what was supposed to be written.
Dominates in flexibility and customizability:
Yes, there are 10,000 Distros all giving out the same packages, and 57 kinds of ugly/hack-job Desktop environments. Linux is a useability nightmare looking for people to haunt. it IS possible to make something too customizable… Linux acheived it.
Dominates in user-friendliness:
Buzzzzzzzzzzzz! I’m sorry, that is the WRONG answer. The only time Linux is user friendly is when the computer is shut off. Otherwise the user is online searching for how to make his new camera work with Linux, tweaking config files, trying to figure out why main audio is playing through the headphone jack, or wishing (s)he could just watch a damn movie with Flash or on DVD.
Does not fuel the World Wide Botnet:
Bull! Oh wait, we are supposed to ignore that botnet comprised of Linux web servers right? Right?
Genuine innovation comes from Linux and FOSS:
Maybe from colleges with stuff like BOINC, otherwise, no. The majority of FOSS is devoted to reinventing every wheel 42 times over. Innovation is NOT copying notepad and naming it Knote or Gnote.
Bigger on the desktop than it is given credit for:
again, just no. I have never seen Linux in the wild, other than on my own computers. Not in people’s homes, not in businesses, not even on college kids laptops. Windows, yes—XP, Vista, 7 and even a few old 98’s—Windows everywhere. OSX: Yep, can’t walk through the Library or the Deli without some glowing apple on the back of a screen. Linux: nada por nada.
@DigitalAtheist:
You’re being most unfair to Linux-on-a-server. It isn’t just the waiter, you know. Access it via Linux-on-the-desktop, and it also does the cooking.
Of course, what with the power-consumption fail and all, what it actually cooks is your own genitals.
But it does a thoroughly good job of it. If, like Stallman, you are partial to eating bits of your own anatomy, you can be assured that the FDA will accept the result as a hygienic and medium-rare and possibly even nutritious meal.
(For desktop read laptop, btw.)
No no Dr. L. Linux on the desktop has the ability to also cook genitals. it just takes a few moments longer. ;-)
And if you think that was nauseating, try her previous:
http://blog.linuxtoday.com/blog/2009/01/careers-in-pund.html
@DrLoser
I love Ms. Schroders reaction to a journalist asking for a “review unit”. The journalist in question could have just installed a distribution on a random PC then blasted it for shoddy hardware support, but then he’d have been “unfair”, wouldn’t he?
By asking for a review unit, he was (deliberately or not) giving the Linux evangelists a chance to hand over a fully working and configured machine for him to review Linux, where Linux would stand or fall on its own quality. Note how Ms. Schroder is silent on whether anyone actually took the reviewer up on this. A lack of confidence in their own product perhaps? You’d have thought Shuttleworth and Canonical would have fallen over themselves to provide a machine with Ubuntu.
She’s also wilfully blind to the fact that Linux journalists and evangelists are just as guilty of not knowing what the hell they’re on about (or just making stuff up) when it comes to Windows and other Microsoft products.
What really upsets me about the “Careers In Linux Journalism” article is the vinegar she spouts over Mr. Preston Galla.
Where did he ever say he’s writing on Linux? From what I read, he said that he says he’s written about the virtue of Windows and ignored those of Linux.
If anything, he seemed to set out with an open mind, and concluded by listing both positives and negatives that he experienced.
I mean, with the exception of Neal Stephenson, I wouldn’t really consider her list of excellent writers to be even remotely close in journalistic integrity to Galla’s article
Oh wait, I forgot – it’s only balanced if it extols the virtues of Linux and badmouths Windows every three sentences. How dumb of me.
On that note – she apparently missed that Neal Stephenson doesn’t really care about Linux, and became a Macfag, after OSX came out (although I’m not sure if this is still the case). Also, I think she either didn’t really read 'In the beginning…’ or didn’t really understand … or both …
But then, she has no clue, is pro-linux, and must shout it off the rooftops, so she’s an objective journalist of course.
You must be signed in to leave comments.