Re: Operating systems are not religions (you fools)

[TuxTrax]

e71p@yahoo.com (e71p@yahoo.com) wrote in message 
news:<bbe127a4.0406221539.402620d9@posting.google.com>...
> I had an interview today where I was told that, because I had
> coded so much for Unix/Linux and only a couple years for Windows
> that I had to "change [my] religion" to Windows. I said, in
> as polite a tone as possible, "well it's not really a religion,
> it's just an OS; and I'm pretty much agnostic about OSes".
> But that wasn't enough, the dingbat manager was apparently quite
> serious and didn't believe that I could convert away from my 
> Unix-and-Linux religion -- he didn't believe I was agnostic --
> to Windoze. He even mentioned that "at least" I didn't have any
> Java on my resume -- that would have been pure heresy it seems.
> But I even resorted to praising Windows despite the fact that I commonly 
> watch Explorer crash under XP Pro after certain operations. Granted
> the kernel itself stays running...just don't install Visual C++!
> I must say I find it pathetic and stupid that people get wrapped up in their
> little operating systems. It's not just the interviewer: the bickering 
> that goes on in Usenet is just the same, with Linux advocates trying 
> to insult 'less pious' Linux users and Windows zealots making insipid 
> childish attacks. The disdain that self-promoted gurus and experts
> have for the public only shows their hubris. And of course anyone 
> who questions open source is automatically a heretic--the enemy.
> And all this religious childishness is over what, a stupid box of circuits 
> sitting on your desk? Why the hell care? These people need to get a LIFE.

Yes, it can seem childish at times. But take care you are identifying
the real issue here. While it is true that there are those that are
just talking heads, so full of themselves as to be fairly nauseating
to listen to, it is perhaps more often the case that
Linux/Unix/BSD/Mac users find themselves outspoken and seemingly
"religious" about their OS because of the relief of finding tools that
actually work without pain.

Like a man that has suffered greatly from a grivious old injury
suddenly discovering a powerful anasthetic, I for one, found great joy
and relief in my use of Linux, and then Macintosh's. The really sad
thing is that there is absolutely nothing wrong with the PC. In many
ways, it is ideal due to it's ability to take on such a myriad of
configurations. What is very wrong with the pc is that it usually
hosts products from a company that writes crappy, low quality software
- Microsoft. This is not to speak of any objections I have to
microsoft as a modern day assimilator of all things and general doer
of unethical deeds.

I have been using computers since I was about sixteen. I am now
fourty. I have used many different kinds of computers for many, many
years because I am a hobbyist, and a HAM radio operator. The joy I
have at finally using software that is reliable, of the highest
possible quality, and in the case of Linux, affordable, makes me a
so-called religious zealot. But not for the reasons you suggest. It is
because I know what computers are capable of, and why people think
that they are capable of next to nothing without a PHD behind your
name. It's because of Microsoft. Microsoft has done more than any
other single entity to squash innovation, destroy innovators, and make
the average user believe that they are incapable of using their own
machine without frequent and legthy calls to the helpdesk.

In short, it is pleasure I want to shout from the mountaintops for all
to hear. The pleasure of using my macs and linux boxes. Machines that
never:

1) lock up
2) BSOD
3) Crash
4) leak memory
5) refuse to work as advertised
6) send my work into the twilight zone never to be seen again.

Honest to god ~ at work, I have seen word eat the report document we
use. We take half a shift keeping it updated, and it will just swallow
it twenty minutes before shift end. Before we are supposed to present
the information to the next shift. Or it will dissapear and reappear
later. Every time someone asks me if I know why the computer
(windows/apps) has done such-and-such, I say:

Because it's a microsoft product.

regards,

Mathew