Jon Copeland wrote:
Retort, Counter-Retort & Justification of Counter-Retort! Excellent!
-j-
Dave Bourassa wrote:
Aaron J. Seigo wrote:
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On June 4, 2004 01:11, Alex wrote:
I like best of all info about Blaster worm how it shut down Linux
system!
well, what they actually said in that article is that the Linux
system(s) didn't provide patching services for the Windows clients
(though i thought that was what Windows Update was for?) and they
didn't put server-side mail AV software (e.g. clam AV) so the virus
got through their SMTP server onto the desktops. it's worded so that
it may sound like they meant it took out the Linux system, but if
you read carefully that's not what they were saying. all the same....
it's amazingly dissapointing and frustrating to deal with this
public attack being coordinated by MS, SCO, Sun, Symantic, etc... at
the show one fellow who works in sys admin / support in a Windows
shop came along and sputtered a list of MS propaganda against Linux:
o Linux is slow (turns out he tried a recent Red Hat on a P166
laptop. turns out XP doesn't run on it either. i suggested that if
he ran Linux on his old machine w/out a GUI or ran a Linux GUI from
the late 90s time period he'd do just fine. or maybe just run it on
reasonable hardware. he conceded that was probably true.)
o Linux is expensive to switch to and expensive to manage (sure, if
you pick certain insane scenarios, such as a MS-only shop with no
Linux experience switching everything over at once to all Linux and
then only proceed to count the first 3 years of cost (e.g. one rev
cycle). or if you ignore the fact that you don't need RH[AE]L or
SLES on all your systems, or that everyone's update services except
RH's are free-as-in-beer (though even RH has YUM now))
o Linux is hard to manage and update (easy to debunk with a modern
distro. i happened to be installing 1GB of development packages when
he came by. seeing as i was doing nothing but changing CDs to set up
a full dev env while the little progress bar whirred on it was good
timing for him to try that bit if FUD on =)
o there is no central company guiding Linux so it has no direction
and therefore will fall apart (ignoring the last 10 years of
successful development that has created a finely working system,
ignoring the fact that large and highly skilled
companies/organizations are involved providing expertise, ignoring
the fact that this bit of untruth is a way to justify vendor lock-in
which is a real threat as opposed to the "many contributors"
boogey-man. when confronted with a full SUSE 9.1 install, it was
pretty hard for him to believe the claim that the process doesn't
work.)
.... etc ...
it was almost like he was going through a mental checklist of all
the FUD MS has been spewing for the last few years. i was tempted at
times to check if there was a MS sales rep behind me coaching him
;-) i asked him where he was getting all his information. he said
his MS rep and stuff he read in the trade press. i asked him who
sponsored these negative articles he read in the trade press. he
said probably MS. at which point i got more than a little annoyed
and said (paraphrasing, don't remember the exact wording, but this
was basically it),
"So. You gave your money and entrusted your networks to Microsoft
and in return they repay your loyalty to them by lieing to you and
taking advantage of you. Then you come here and repeat those same
lies to me, someone who has spent a considerable amount of time
helping creating the things Microsoft is slandering. I hope you can
understand how that's a little insulting to me, and quite sad for
you. I would think that if you give your money and trust to someone
that they wouldn't treat you so badly, that they wouldn't outright
lie to you like that. It's unbelievable."
i call this the "How does it feel being Microsoft's bitch?" line of
reasoning, and have found it quite effective in the past. before
leaving, he said was going to try Linux again. this time on decent
hardware. =)
- -- Aaron J. Seigo
Way to go, Aaron!! I'm going to save this little diatribe or yours
as it is an exellent retort for future linux luddites.
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Let's all blame Linux for MS's problems. We shouldn't need to fix their
crappy system, especially considering they're trying to screw Linux at
every turn.
--
Why am I scared of Windows? Let's just say I will be glad I have my Knoppix CD.
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