Alas, young Source-Walker, thou and thy comrades in the true Source are
doomed.
Though thy Source flows floweth freely and the cost of thy applications
be naught, none can afford the Free Source. Money is the root of power
in the Galaxy, those without are silent and dispersed to its nether
regions. There they walk like beasts, having not the means to acquire
corporate transit.
The way of the Free Source is difficult, and fraught with danger. It is
Open only to those strong in the force of logic and algorithm. It
eludes all but the elect.
When disaster befall a devotee of the Free Source, who will he sue?
Woe betide the governor or duke of information technology who puts his
faith in Open Source. The masses cannot comprehend it, nor can the
princes of industry. Verilly training in the true Source is long and
arduous. Masters and adepts of the source--yea even of its obscure
applications--are few and their compensation exceedingly high.
The darkness of property is the easy path. The vendor stands ready for
suit. Though his champions be garlanded in ivy, his purse is full. The
prince among Vendors attends to his marketing. The wise vendor doth
sacrifice cunning in hacker ways to pander to the masses. Secretaries
and princes do praise him. He levies great armies of knight to serve
the dark source. The way of the dark force is easy and swift. Its
masters and adepts are many, and their demands delight the keepers of
treasure.
The prince of vendors is cunning and strong. Neither competitors nor
Open Source stand before him. All will be conquered and assimillated.
Turn to the darkness of the proprietary cause young Source-Walker, let
the stock option be yours. Great is the power of the dark side. Green
are its rewards.
Marc Erickson wrote:
>
> The OS Wars Trilogy
> A long time ago, in a galaxy not unlike this one, the microprocessor was
> invented. There was much rejoicing over this discovery. No longer must
> computers be controlled by a mystic priest-hood. Computers can be used by
> all as useful tools!
>
> The Knights of Hackerdom, hereafter referred to as Hackers, used and
> developed and promoted and in general considered this new breed of
> computer a Good Thing. These magical devices could lead to wonders
> never before seen in the galaxy. So these Hackers, a strange group
> to begin with, devoted their lives to the development of this technology.
>
> For a while peace and prosperity filled the galaxy. This was the age of
> Apple II's and Commodore 64's, Atari's and TRS-80's. A renewed sense of
> learning and cooperation-operation filled all the lands. There was
> comfort in knowing that for all the programs being used the source was
> flowing freely. When one had the source code, happiness and well-being
> flowed. Unfortunately during this time there was a rumbling in the source.
> One
> of the first systems, the Altair system, had a BASIC interpreter crafted
> by a young Hacker named Bill. Bill, however, did not want the source of his
> creation flowing freely. He enjoyed subverting the source for his own
> purposes, mainly for monetary benefit. The use of proprietary code is the
> dark side of the source. This new age of joy and prosperity had to come to
> an end sooner or later. An old Imperial Power, IBM, decided to try to
> control this
> new way of life. It released its PC, thus beginning the clone wars. With IBM
> clones flooding the market, backed by the old Empire, up-starts had little
> chance. The ix86 architecture was enforced. This was a chaotic time, and IBM
> made one mistake. Needing an Operating System to be the life-source of their
> new product, IBM chose young Bill to obtain one.
>
> About this time the dark side of the source became too much and young Hacker
> Bill became Darth Gates. Obtaining an inferior 8-bit OS, he made this the
> mainstay of the IBM world. In just a few short years Darth Gates controlled
> the OS, managing to leave the old Imperial IBM far behind. While Gates could
> have used his powers for good, instead he chose to strive for evil. While
> all this was happening, rebel groups attempted to bring down the evil
> stronghold. Apple, Amiga, and Unix factions fought valiantly, as did some
> direct competitors in Darth Gates' market. Alas, to no avail. And as the
> evil
> OS moved from version 1.0 through version 6.0 the future looked dim. To make
> matters worse, Darth Gates hatched a sinister plan to counter-act the
> minimal success of the rebels - steal their technology. Thus the DeathOS was
> devised. The first half-working version was DeathOS3.1, and it could destroy
> the usefulness of even the most powerful 386. While the rebels learned to
> fight
> off this beast, the new DeathOS's, 95 and NT were developed that could even
> bring down mighty Pentium systems. The future looks grim, can no one stop
> this plague?
>
> Unbeknownst to Darth Gates, on the planet Finlandia a young Hacker named
> Linus has a vision. He decided that a 386 could be made to do something
> useful
> after all. And out of this vision came Linux! Drawing from the mystic
> Unix religion, this new OS was developed. Strong in the free side of the
> source, Linux only grew more and more powerful every day. Improved by
> Hackers throughout the galaxy, and aided by strong flightless waterfowl
> the OS became a major fighting tool of the rebels. Hackers, which had been
> a dying breed, rallied behind Linux and the GNU project. All is not lost!
> The galaxy chafing under Darth Gates will rise again! The battle has begin!
> Who will win?
>
> To find out, watch for the upcoming OS Wars Trilogy, appearing soon in a
> theater near you.
>
> And, as always, may the Source be with you
>
> "I wrote this today, frustrated as usual with the idiots in Redmond. Sorry
> for any inaccuracies in the parallel; I only have knowledge of the second
> trilogy; the rest is second hand from my girlfriend who has read all the
> books.
> Apologies to George Lucas." -- Vince Weaver
>
> "The myth that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armor to
> lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the
> fact
> that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology, led them into it in
> the first place, and continues to do so today." -- Douglas Adams
>
> Thomas R. Fasulo, Editor and Expurgator of MS Word
> I HATE COMPUTERS Newsletter
> Http://extlab7.entnem.ufl.edu/IH8PCs/
