On Linux being anti-capitalistic

As most of those who knows me knows, I'm a GNU/Linux advocate. The GNU/Linux operating system is running exclusively on all my computers, and that is the way it will continue to be for a long time. This is what I'm happy with, providing me both the flexibility and the stability I want from day to day.

Today I was presented with a blog post at ShelleyTheRepublican that was, uhm, interesting.

Fortunately Microsoft have prepared a great deal of information to help computer users get away from this menace

Interestingly enough I wrote an article commenting on Microsoft's Get The Facts campaign not too long ago, which had 15,000 unique visitors in a day. Something tells me Tristan Shuddery, the original author of the article, was not one of them.

My favorite paragraph in the blog post is still

If you see a company using Linux, it may be that they have not paid for this software. Report them to the Business Software Alliance who have the legal authority to inspect any company's computers for illegal programs like Linux.

The Business Software Alliance's website states the following:

The Business Software Alliance is the foremost organization dedicated to promoting a safe and legal digital world. BSA is the voice of the world's commercial software industry and its hardware partners before governments and in the international marketplace. Its members represent the fastest growing industry in the world. BSA educates consumers on software management and copyright protection, cyber security, trade, e-commerce and other Internet-related issues.

Now, first of all. Using a product that is offered for free is still legal, no matter what Shelley seems to believe. For some reason she seems to believe that nobody is making money off of GNU/Linux. But has she considered that most pay more for support than the actual product? And people want to customize their packages to fit their company, giving programmers work to do. Companies, like International Business Machines (IBM) is making money and providing jobs for employees all around the world, including America which she seems particulary centered around.

Finally, remember to include Linux users in your prayers tonight. As individuals we may not be able to change people's minds, but the Bible teaches that God can make any sinner repent.

Well, its a good thing I'm non-religious then, and I have a hard time expressing how happy I am that this woman is unable to change my mind.

Tristan follows up on the story in a comment to the post stating

Thanks for posting my article Shelley; I submitted this to the mainstream IT press, but none of them wanted to know. It's shocking to learn that the same liberal bias that infects mainstream news-sources also affects the technical press.

Yes, Linux is a primative European clone; It is much less capable than Windows. In fact it omits features that were standard in Windows back in 1998; For example Linux has no built-in anti-virus or anti-spyware software.

You cannot even buy popular utilities like Norton Security to compensate for this fact. There are no tools for common tasks like defragging a hard disk. God knows what you would use to send a fax or make a website. You cannot even get Front Page for Linux.

Linux is that bad; The only explaination I can think for people using it is that it by-passes the protection given by American companies and the Dept of Homeland Security. It should be considered a terrorist program.

Tristan

protect yourself against identity theft

Interestingly enough, Tristan's web log (blog) is hosted on blogger.com, a service provided by Google. as "rj" states in some comments:

rj said...

Shelley, you'd do better to go research the matter yourself.

There's a good chance that blogger.com runs on Linux. Maybe you should ask them.

Shelley said...

No way. Blogger.com is hosting on Windows!!!
I would not host my website on Linux either. It's disgusting.

rj said...

Blogger.com is run by Google.

"What operating system (OS) does the Google Search Appliance run on?

The Google Search Appliance is based on the same software that is used in Google's datacenters. The operating system is a hardened version of Linux that is optimized for search, sometimes referred to as Google Linux."

Google Enterprise Solutions

"Google quickly outgrew the confines of its Menlo Park home, and by February 1999 had moved to an office on University Avenue in Palo Alto. At eight employees, Google's staff had nearly tripled, and the service was answering more than 500,000 queries per day. Interest in the company had grown as well. Red Hat signed on as its first commercial search customer, drawn in part by Google's commitment to running its servers on the open source operating system Linux."

Google Corporate Information

And to close up, the ShelleyTheRepublican website is itself hosted using the Open Source Apache running Linux.

Sorry, I think you are a liar.
Me and linux hosting? Never!

Ignorance is bliss.

8 thoughts on “On Linux being anti-capitalistic”

  1. Yes, the actual post might be a satire, but can you honestly say that you have not encountered such attitudes in society?

    It all comes down to a matter of perception, someone reading the article and not understanding the satire need to get a balanced view, hence this blog post.

    Personally I've been met with elements described in the original post way too often.

  2. I *love* the original text. The cherry on the cake is the number of commenters that don't get the fact that it's a plain and great satire.

    K_F: do you really know people who think like that?

  3. Samuel: I wish I could say no.

    In a light version it is related to a phenomenon referred to as a Giffen Good. I have a known example not too far away from my present location that serves as an example for this related to selling a house.

    A house was for sale for nearly half a year at a price of about 400,000 NOK (Norwegian Kroners, this was in the 80's if I don't recall incorrectly but it would be about 64,000 USD today). When they increased the price to 600,000 it was sold within a couple of weeks. Why? A different market segment, looking for houses in the above 500,000 price range started looking at the house, not because they did anything to change the house, but because it was more expensive.

  4. Sure this post was a joke ...
    I'm sure this will be revealed somewhat later on.
    Sure there are people thinking this way ou there and they're surely as dangerous as terrorists are ...

    C ya,
    KO-Tek

  5. Sirs, This is not a joke. Would you be joking if you knew your federal dollars were going towards foreign imports when an American solution exists. For more information I suggest that you contact Citizens Against Tax Waste. God Bless, Tristan

  6. linux vs.windows webhosting.???
    I wondered which should be used for dynamics sites using flash css javascript forms etc.
    I was looking at this companies corporate plan and would like to have the option to set up several seperate websites for different customers
    assigning each an allotment of space with seperate access by them and allowing me access is this site suitable for my needs or is it as it seems just too good to be true???

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