'Xish Advocates

Some material is very old and may be incorrect today

© September 2007 Anthony Lawrence

2007/09/23

"Linux advocates are people who don't even use their computers. They don't view computers as tools for getting other things done, they see them as the thing to get done."

That quote is from The 8 Most Awful Minorities: # 2, Alternative technology advocates. I came across that because it links to my Welcome to Unix page.

I don't agree that alternative technology advocates are "pretty much the lowest form of human life" as is asserted there, but yes, I can see why Windows folks find us chafing, Heck, my "Welcome to Unix" piece is a sarcastic look at some of the less useful attitudes we 'xish folk have toward Microsoft and its user base. But that sentence I quoted at the top is so very, very wrong. In actuality, it's completely backwards: it's because we appreciate tools that we love Unix and Linux.

It's because my Mac OS X system has BSD roots that facilitate and ease my daily work that I will only use Windows when forced. It's because my Linux office file server gives me the ability to automate tasks that improve my work life that I would never consider replacing it with a Windows OS. My BSD web server has performed flawlessly year after year and again Unix scripting allows me to easily and often effortlessly complete tasks that would frustrate me to fury if it were a Windows server. I most definitely see my computers as tools for getting things done.

No, this complainant has the wrong idea about alternative technology advocates. It is all about the work and the tools that make it easy. As has been said many times before, Microsoft does make some things "easy", but when things get tough, Redmond operating systems fall down ignominiously while Linux and Linux take a deep breath and plow on through.

Sure, we are arrogant, annoying and some among us go too far. That's all too true.

But we do have good reasons, don't we?

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