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

[Brian MacLeod]

On Wed, Sep 23, 2009 at 3:43 PM, Jeff Lightner <jlightner at water.com> wrote:

>   Please…
>
>
>
> If people are more turned off by “inane” comments of some proponents than
> they are by the actions of Microsloth then it says more about their own
> mindsets than it does about us.
>
>
>
> Personally I find this line or argument close to those for certain
> political or religious views.  Either you buy it or you don’t and attempting
> to force others to see it your way is itself a form of zealotry in my not so
> humble opinion.  “Adults” do play and word play is certain a form of play.
> Those who decry such play try to imply those of us who engage in it are
> “children”.  They are themselves guilty of the same attempt to cast
> aspersions on opposing views as the ones that seem to offend them.   As a
> “adult” I’m quite willing to enjoy puns, irony, alliteration and other forms
> of word play and yes even if some without a sense of humor are “turned off”
> by it.
>
>
>

It's not that I don't enjoy it.  I love word play, and I engage in it a lot
(you should hear the groans from those in the know).  I think that a forum,
where we INVITE people to come ask questions about this new thing for them
should make an effort to not be so free in doing so if we really want to see
Linux succeed.  And I certainly find Microsoft's actions to be in large part
questionable.  I'm just saying this some of our behavior makes selling this
to new folks harder than it needs to be at times.  We already have the deck
a bit stacked against us, we don't need to be making matters worse.

The video is laughable.  It's begging for parodies, and that should
absolutely happen, and knowing the community, it will happen.  Bully.
That's appropriate.

Changing Microsoft to some other name, or Windows, or Vista at every
possible moment is not, because sometimes we have to explain what we mean to
people not in the know.  Or, they stop paying attention.  That's not helping
us.

Brian
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