[ale] Let's Party! (To celebrate computer viruses!)

[Brian MacLeod]

On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 2:17 PM, Michael B. Trausch <mbt at zest.trausch.us>wrote:

> Or, expressed with slightly less obvious bias:  Windows lacks a sound
> philosophy for compartmentalized software and is, has been, and will be
> until its death vulnerable to all sorts of problems stemming from poorly
> thought out design and implementation.  Even worse, the company is and
> historically has been a very good _business_, in the sense that they
> know how to get the money, regardless of the social, security, or other
> implications.
>
> Of course, I think many of us could go on and on and on, but really.
> Let's at least be adult about it and call it like it is, without
> resorting to childish wordplay and dysphemisms.  After all, they have
> given us enough to work with without making ourselves look like the
> imbeciles we already know they are.  It gets old.
>
>
As a business major, I find the association of the name Microsoft and the
idea of good business insulting.  They are a great marketing company.  But
good business entails meeting the needs of a segment and having everyone
feel they got something good out of it, and that society overall benefits
from the interaction.  It is obvious that the business which Microsoft
conducts typically yields significantly less benefit for society than for
itself...

...since we're in the mood to be correcting things.

I too tire of the zealotry to the point of renaming things, but not because
it's annoying for me to parse, but for me to have to explain to others who
are looking for options that 1) don't require further explanation as to the
renaming/making fun of the first option (yes, I get asked this, and yes,
Microsoft Windows is often people's first option, it just is), and 2)
doesn't look like to be supported by a bunch of loonies.  I'm not saying we
aren't loonies (I'm one to speak), but there's a time and a place, and
trying to get people off the Microsoft treadmill is not one of them.
Reasoned arguments, such as the one Michael put here, are going to be much
more effective in that because we haven't forced someone to internally
squelch our statements because we look like we're insane or cliquish.

I have seen a lot of interest in my MBA program for Linux, but I have seen
many turned off because of this behavior which they consider inappropriate.
I've got a few now working on their own installations, but it's taken a lot
of convincing that being anti-Microsoft is all there is to this community.

Being for something doesn't mean you must always speak poorly of the
opposing view.


Brian
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mail.ale.org/pipermail/ale/attachments/20090923/69baa443/attachment.html