[ILUG] open list abuse

[Rick Moen]

Quoting Simon Kenyon (simon at koala.ie):

> fine
> this is a group for linux
> and if anyone asks a question about windows they get their head blown off
> so i made an invalid assumption that the people here were advocates of 
> linux :-)

Are you genuinely, _seriously_ unclear about why the notion that liking
Linux necessarily implies disliking Microsoft Corp. is considered
annoying?  That's astonishing, if so -- but I think I can clarify.


1.  A time-honoured gutter-rhetorical tactic used by OS-debating trolls,
especially of the Microsoft-advocating variety, e.g., on Usenet's
comp.os.*.advocacy newsgroups, is to immediately impugn others' motives.
E.g., _you_ obviously like your preferred OS because you're a fanatical
ideologue motivated by unreasoning hatred of the competition, whereas
*I* am purely using what works best out of strictly practical concerns,
etc., tra-la.

We (those of us who've spent even minimal time on the Net) got tired of
hearing that in grammar school.  The knowledge that some people persist
in such logic through some stupendously prolonged fit of adolescent
misbehaviour -- and that they get cited when convenient (or emulated) by
shills such as David Coursey, Laura Didio, various Gartner Group
flunkies, etc. is ever-present in the back of our minds, but we'd rather
not be reminded of it.

I've actually had reporters corner me and attempt to ask me leading
questions along the lines of "But you're using Linux primarily in order
to avoid Microsoft products, right?  I mean, you don't actually _like_ 
using a non-Windows OS, do you?"  

2.  There's a long and tedious record of MS-Windows users coming
storming into Linux online forums waving their arms wildly and saying
"Linux has to do [foo] in order to defeat Microsoft", where [foo] is
that user's personal problem du jour -- making the bizarre assumption
that we're a volunteer army of anti-Microsoft fanatics lacking only 
an immediate agenda, which the user is graciously willing to supply.

3.  The people who actually _do_ most often and most fervently dislike
Microsoft Corporation, in my experience, are _not_ Linux users at all, but
rather Microsoft's own semi-captive customer base.  


So, basically our annoying-git detectors start whooping loudly when we
hear people making noises like that -- for well-established reasons of 
past experience.