Penguin cracks Windows servers (IT-Director) [LWN.net]

Penguin cracks Windows servers (IT-Director)

Posted May 4, 2003 16:52 UTC (Sun) by rknop (guest, #66)
In reply to: Penguin cracks Windows servers (IT-Director) by danielpf
Parent article: Penguin cracks Windows servers (IT-Director)

A good point. I *really wish* I could just never think about Microsoft. I don't use Windows, Office, or any of their stuff, so you'd think I wouldn't have to think about it. But every time somebody sends me a Word attachment, or ASCII text exported with gratuitous cp-1252 characters, and every time some DRM, cable theft, or other intellectual property law is about to be passed that would outlaw free software, I have to think about Microsoft.

I wish it weren't so, but that's the world we live in.

-Rob

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Penguin cracks Windows servers (IT-Director)

Posted May 4, 2003 18:50 UTC (Sun) by erat (guest, #21) [Link]

I don't like a lot of what Microsoft does either, but I'm not going to brand them with everything that is evil about technology today. Nothing in life is as simple as that.

My biggest beef is that the promotion of Linux STILL needs the Microsoft crutch. When technologies can't stand up on their own or can only be elevated by lowering the competition, that tells me that the people maintaining/promoting the technologies or the technologies themselves are weak. I know Linux is better than that. I just wish the Linux brethren would learn that as well.

Until Linux can lose the crutch and gain its own identity ("Use Linux because Microsoft Sucks" doesn't fly as an identity, either), I don't see it ever gaining the credibility that it deserves.

Just my 2 shares of VA Linux stock.

Linux promotion?

Posted May 4, 2003 19:59 UTC (Sun) by vonbrand (subscriber, #4458) [Link]

Oh, come on. You know very well that Linux has no PR office, that some people feel Linux needs promoting and "winning over" something else doesn't mean every Linux enthusiast does so.

Linus' reason for Linux is good enough for me: "Just for fun".

Linux promotion?

Posted May 4, 2003 21:32 UTC (Sun) by erat (guest, #21) [Link]

You're correct: there is no official Linux PR office. To date, Linux PR has come from folks like you, me, and Rob.

Hence my comments...

And I don't care if the Linux == anti-MS crowd does not reflect the views of all Linux enthusiasts. Those are the people that the press focuses on, those are the people who make the most noise, those are the people who are PERCEIVED as running the Linux show, Linus' comments aside. (And the fact that Mr. Corbet decided that the anti-MS line was the most important in the article disappoints me. I would have thought the point of the article was the success of Linux, not the fall of Microsoft.)

So, regardless of which self-appointed rep is speaking on behalf of Linux today, if the message continues to be "Use Linux because Microsoft Sucks" Linux will continue to be perceived more as a revolution and less as a viable OS.