OT: Microsoft's grinning robots or the Brotherhood of the Mac. Which is worse?

[Thomas Milne]

On Wed, Oct 7, 2009 at 9:53 AM, Lennart Sorensen
<lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Oct 06, 2009 at 02:35:18PM -0400, George Nicol wrote:
>> Point taken, Evan.
>>
>> From the article: "I know other operating systems are available.
>> But *their advocates* seem even creepier, snootier, and more
>> insistent than Mac owners. The harder they try to convince me,
>> the more I'm repelled." (emphasis my own)
>>
>> A very good illustration of why you promote the correct style of
>> Linux evangelism that you've always recommended on this listserv.
>> To some degree, railing against Microsoft is okay when preaching
>> to the choir at TLUG but always counterproductive when we take
>> the fight to them and attack them on a battlefield they hold.
>> The "ice house" incident comes to mind. I don't want to dredge
>> up old conflicts but I would like to ask DJP for the benefit of
>> his experienced opinion.
>
> Well clearly this particular person doesn't want a good system.
> He explicitly said so.  He likes dealing with an unreliable system.
>
> Some people don't believe in listening to advice, they only want to
> do what they have already decided.  Some people can't admit that their
> original decision is no longer the best choice.  That would be admitting
> to making a mistake to some extent.
>
>> David, you've tried both extremes of evangelism: A 10 foot Tux
>> in their face, and the quiet availability of Linux and OSS in
>> your fine establishment. Which has gained the most converts?
>>
>> So easy to bash MS, so hard to resist the temptation.
>>
>> I'm just asking. Please, no flames folks. Thanks.
>
> Well most people use windows because it is what comes on the computer,
> not because they picked it.  Or they use windows because they happen to
> use some application that only comes for windows.  Mac users to a large
> extent and linux users almost entirely have specificaly chosen to use
> their system.  Windows users pretty much never made that choice, they
> just live with it.
>
> It's like a guy once told me:  His dad kept on buying fords because
> he had alweays bought fords, and assumed all other cars were just as
> unreliable so why buy anything else.  He was content to deal with the
> problems he was used to rather than try something else.
>
One point that's missed a _lot_ in these discussions is that using
Windows is _not_ a victimless crime. I don't think that it is at all
'smug' or overly pious to remind Windows users that their choice has a
huge impact on the overall ecology of the Internet. The botnets that
plague us with spam, ddos attacks, and all the other worms, malware
(and lions and tigers and bears, oh my) are a direct result of
Microsoft's monopolistic and proprietary shenanigans.

I am at a loss to explain how anyone could equate the sometimes
zealous promotion of Mac or Linux superiority with the ignorance that
perpetuates Microsoft's dominance.

If Windows users are sick of hearing about how crappy their OS is,
well, I don't really care. I guess people who used 8-track tapes were
sick of hearing about how crappy their technology was too, and look
where they are now.
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