Very Computer

I keep seeing posts about how linux is dead, or linux is dying or
failing.  Where does this *come from?  Are MS spies among us,
spreading rumors and outright lies?  Linux is growing.  The only place it
will probably never become popular is among the brain dead point and
drool crowd.  But among those of us who are not lame and stupid it is
very popular indeed.  It is far more fitting to judge something by what
kind of people use it than by just how many.  Baywatch is popular show,
but there are far better shows on TV with smaller audiences of the more
intelligent viewers.  Linux will never die unless something better comes
along.  It can't be killed by something as lame as win95 or winnt.  It
might not ever penetrate the markets these products are meant for, but
that is unimportant because neither of these will penetrate its market
either.  I think that you will have two kinds of computer users in the
years to come; a small percentage of knowledgable experts and
accomplished amateurs, and a whole slew of users who don't see a computer
as being much different from a toaster.  Operating systems like Linux
will always be the ones which the experts choose to use if they can.  
Win95 and the MacOS is for the stupid cows out there who think that
a megahertz is some kind of pain tolerance scale.  Win95 actually isn't
all that bad, it could be a lot worse.  But there is just no excuse for
the crappy OS that apple makes.  I'm done complaining.... for now.

Lee Reynolds

Quote:> I keep seeing posts about how linux is dead, or linux is dying or
> failing.  Where does this *come from?  Are MS spies among us,
> spreading rumors and outright lies?

Quote:> Lee Reynolds

As for whether Bill's company is paying stooges to make Linux look bad in
this newsgroup--well, it's a public forum, and anyone can post here.

And if that is in fact happening, I'm not surprised; corporate America and
morality have never been on the same docket in my schedule; ever heard
something like: "well, that may be the right thing to do, but this is
business!"?

I would suggest that if there *are* stooges trolling around here, they
should be ignored.  They will eventually go off by themselves.  And if
someone posts something about Linux that's an outright lie, and you do feel
inclined to respond, give them an http reference or something that has
already been offered, as proff that they are full of baloney.

[snip]
: Some of this stuff seems to be cross-posts.  I have no doubt, though, that
: there are Microsoft enthusiasts out there who want to respond to some of
: this newsgroup's more zealous posters.  I also have no doubt that members
: of Bill Gates' crew are very interested in finding out what Linux does
: well, so those qualities can be incorporated into NT, thereby making it
: more appealing to those who would rather run Linux.

Some time ago, MS hired a student at some university campus (I forget
where) to find out why so few students were buying the academically
discounted Windows NT.  The student discovered that these targeted
students were instead using freeware unicies, usually Linux.

[snip]

: I would suggest that if there *are* stooges trolling around here, they
: should be ignored.  They will eventually go off by themselves.  And if
: someone posts something about Linux that's an outright lie, and you do feel
: inclined to respond, give them an http reference or something that has
: already been offered, as proff that they are full of baloney.

There really are MS stooges lurking here.  Remember Tom Payne?  

"In 1984 mainstream users were choosing VMS over UNIX.  Ten years later
they are choosing Windows over UNIX.  What part of that message aren't you
getting?"

He was mildly amusing for a while.

--
David Griffith  

Yes, we know who you are, so pack a tooth brush and we will be there on
Tuesday Feb 30 to take you away. :]
--

Linux it's not just an OS it's an Adventure.
Paul E Larson

Quote:> I keep seeing posts about how linux is dead, or linux is dying or
> failing.  Where does this *come from?  Are MS spies among us,

Quote:> Some time ago, MS hired a student at some university campus (I forget
> where) to find out why so few students were buying the academically
> discounted Windows NT.  The student discovered that these targeted
> students were instead using freeware unicies, usually Linux.

Quote:> "In 1984 mainstream users were choosing VMS over UNIX.  Ten years later
> they are choosing Windows over UNIX.  What part of that message aren't you
> getting?"

TTFN,

  Sumner

--

  Apologies to legitimate repliers.

: >
: > Some time ago, MS hired a student at some university campus (I forget
: > where) to find out why so few students were buying the academically
: > discounted Windows NT.  The student discovered that these targeted
: > students were instead using freeware unicies, usually Linux.

: That would be Carnegie Mellon University, last fall.  There were big
: discussions all over cmu.os.linux.* about it; the MS goon kept
: trying to get everyone to admit that they were pirating copies of
: NT.  

I'd love to find archives of some of those discussions...  Remember
Whatsisname Payne from MS who whined about how people chose VMS over unix
in the 80s?  Something tells me that the discussuions of which you speak
are something of an accellerated version of Payne's rants.

--
David Griffith  

Summary, from memory:

--------------
MS plant:
So, people, I'm wondering why it is that there aren't more people buying
NT at the computer store here on campus.  I'm one of the campus MS student
contacts, and they've asked me to check it out.

Linux person #1:
We run Linux.

MS plant:
MS seems to think that on a technologically oriented campus like this,
more people should be buying NT.  

Linux person #1:
Why?

Linux person #2:
Hey, guys, I just found out that MS-plant is trying to demonstrate rampant
piracy of NT on our campus.  Wacky.

MS plant:
MS is quite interested in getting usage numbers for NT.  I'm not going
to give any specific names to them, don't worry about that.  How many
of you also have NT on your machines?

Linux people:
A few.  Not very many.  Those of us who do bought it, for the most part.

MS plant:
You guys aren't being straight with me, are you?
--------------

At this point, two things happened:

1.  Pointless name-calling flames started.

2.  Someone posted a little shell-script to run through all of CMU's
IP addresses and check which OS they were running; the piracy numbers
were no higher than other campuses, and there was a pretty large
number of Linux boxes relative to other techie campuses.

Things eventually petered out.

TTFN,

  Sumner

--

  PGP public key and other info at http://www.pathway.net/sumner/