Kid with the ball

[machiner]

Remember that bratty little kid that "owned" the ball at the playground...or on the block.

His rules, or he'd take his ball back home and nobody could play.

Microsoft is the kid with the ball, and all the other kids forgot how to stand up to the brat.

See the following link:

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1766920,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000616


It's ok for a manufacturer to protect their wares. Of course, but we have grown accostomed (because of the newness of the industry) to companies like Msoft making rules as they go, and/or employing less than honorable behavior to secure a profit.

Let's not kid ourselves too much, in capatilism, you do what you must to turn a buck (oftentimes it turns humans into shits) and that's the way it goes....we could talk about the psychosocial ramifications of this for weeks...

My posit is this; how long can complacency and fear rule the day?

I don't feel for WINE - they're in business and it's tough - look at the playing field - but I do think it's time to strike back - not with little jabs, but with a knockout blow.


I propose our own FUD campaign against msoft something like this:

Oh, you still use Microsoft products? Sorry. Call me when you graduate 3rd grade.

Now the wording of that phrase sucks, but the message is good - I think we should all start to really pity and ostracise our msoft using bretheren to the point the msoft does the same.

I know, I know - be careful what you ask for -- and I don't want all those "point-n-click" msoft drones to migrate to linux - I just want them to realize how stupid (yeah - that's what I said) they are using msoft. How completely useless they are as humans because of their sheepish nature. Yeah - it's societal and psychological for me - control the mind, control the body - msoft knows this.


msoft, politicians, teachers, clergy -- they all know the same thing -- the way to get through to people is to emotionalize issues...

So - you're still using Microsoft -- ? Sorry for you. Chump.

[machiner]

The above post was pre-coffee.

[BWF89]

I don't think a negative FUD campaign is the best idea. If we don't use FUD we can always say that Microsoft is being the childish one, resorting to name calling and whatnot. We should try to not make Microsoft the issue and show what Linux can do rather than what Windows can't.

Why don't commercial Linux companies run TV commercials?

[machiner]

IN certain situations it is necessary to fight fire with fire.

In life, you pick the battles you can win (or else not - and have a little more fun) and you fight those according to the rules of the field.

Fighting msft by successfully employing their own tactics is the only way to win this battle....doesn't make me proud to spread "fear and loathing"...but sometimes one approach is better than the next to reach the desired outcome.

Anyway - let's not make such a big deal of this -- rock on any way you want.

I'll begin a campaign of demeaning anyone I see using msoft - why - 'cause I'm still not coffee saturated and I'm in a "biker-bar" mood.


5 msft users are coming today so I can switch them to Ubuntu... and one needs a firewall made form an old Tecra laptop....My campaign has officially begun.

<maniacal laughter>muu hahaha aahhahaha ahhaha</maniacal laughter>

[BWF89]

That article said that your Microsoft products will only not work if you try to update them. Couldn't you just continue to use their products and either not update them or buy the next version whenever they come out?

[machiner]

Sure, I guess...but there's a bigger picture.


Happy Sunday.

[BWF89]

Sure, I guess...but there's a bigger picture.


Happy Sunday.
The bigger picture is that Microsoft can't really stop people from useing their products on non-Windows platforms. They can slow it down & make it a little less effective but they can't stop it. I mean why would you want to download updates for MS Word? I use Word 98 Mac Edition every day in school and I think it's great. Imagine what the new versions of Word are like. You don't need updates for programs like Word. You need updates for programs like malware scanners, browsers & games.

[az]

My wife knows only that linux runs better than windows. She is not aware of the concept of open source. I have twice overheard her explaining to telemarketers (ISP or cable companies) that we do not have Windows, "we have upgraded to linux."

Hee hee.

[machiner]

"...upgraded to linux"

That's the kind of fundamental phrasing (shool of thought - I've UPGRADED to Linux, not switched) that I'm talking about.

[panickedthumb]

The attitude of Linux users toward Windows users is one of the things that has turned people off to the Linux community for years. I don't think it's wise to propagate that attitude. However, instead of saying "Call me when you graduate 3rd grade," why not give them the 4th-12th grade education in clever enough ways to make people pay attention

[machiner]

There was that part where I wrote that the wording was all wrong.
That's what I meant.

Yeah - "call me when you graduate...".

Horrible. Idea stays though.

A terrific burden rests upon all the savy linux users in computerland. This burden is knowing, and tempering the response of that knowledge.

We've run windows. We've been hoodwinked by windows for years. We bought it all.

Now we run linux. We care for our windows using bretheren, care so much as to attend injury (os) assist in repairs, makeshifting when necessary - educating. Helping.

Our burden is not lashing out. After all the hours, days months...and tempering our responses and thoughts, carrying our windows bretheren, even the vast seas of evidence denouncing their choices in computing as unreasonable, even through all of this our bretheren use windows.

Our burden makes our voices and hearts grow weary. We labour 'neath the weight to carry ourselves with temperence and dignity.

Occassionally, for whatever reson, we say:

nya nya!

And we scare off a would-be linux user. So what?

Where's the harm? Probably doing that tepid interloper a world of good by the deed. Stay with windows.

Look, I can poke fun all day - you - we all can, over a pint - chide all night long. Glorious.

I won't demean "my windows using bretheren" - I will employ "commercial - advertisement" like tactics.

What's the quickest way to a man's heart?

A knife through the chest. (baa hahahah haha)

right?

[panickedthumb]

You put it much better that time, and I can tell you used to be a writer.

But yes, agreed totally. We need to revamp the way people think about Linux.

To quote StrongBad when he got an email (which had a virus) that had something like "strong ba&%#)*&^hgJH*%548567486" in the body:
"Well, there's a 'Strong Ba' in there, but it's getting eaten by some.... linux... or something."

That's kinda what it boils down to-- people think that Linux is something nonsensical and complicated, when I really don't think it's that much more complicated than Windows if you take the time to re-teach yourself. I started using Linux about 3 months after I started using Windows, so I've been learning Linux along with Windows almost since I started. To others, who have every nook and cranny of Windows figured out, it takes some re-training, and that's where we have to say "hey, look, it's not going to work the way you think it will, but it will work, and you can do it."

Though I've said it before, I don't care who uses Linux and who uses Windows or whatever. But I do care about the computing world at large, and if more people switched to Linux I think it would be a much healthier and happier place, therefore getting a few more percentage points of market share would be nice ;)

[BWF89]

"We don't want all those point n click Windows drones switching to Linux"

What could be more simplier than Linspire Linux? We have the technonoly to get alot of people from Windows to Linux. It's called Linspire or Xandros. All those Windows newbs could switch to that and in a week they'd have no prolbems.