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

[Michael B. Trausch]

On Wed, 2009-09-23 at 17:31 -0400, Brian Pitts wrote:
> On 09/23/2009 03:48 PM, Michael B. Trausch wrote:
> >
> > I certainly do not advocate that people aren't entitled to their
> > opinions; but like in every other aspect of life, there is a time and a
> > place for them.
> 
> Why wouldn't this thread on this mailing list qualifies as such a time
> and place?
> 
> I mean, if we were to give each poster a quota of one "Winblows" post a
> year, wouldn't this be the topic to use it on?

Perhaps clarification would be useful.  I'm woefully excellent at lack
of clarity, relatively often.

This is a technical list.  We also share humor, anecdotes, and opinions.
But there is a major difference between the type of opinion that "I
think Linux is better than Windows because..." or "I think that
FreeSWITCH is better than Asterisk because..." and opinions of the type
that are nothing but simple bashing or religious arguments.  We do have
the occasional metareligious argument (isn't it about time for another
vi vs. emacs vs. nano thread?), though generally it does ultimately
serve some sort of educational purpose or as a dampener against the
inertia of a sinking mood on a bad day.

Many Windows users do not even realize that there's a viable other
choice out there for them, and the empty bashing is easily perceived by
users of the system as attacks against them.  This is easily understood;
it's along the same lines as other sorts of similar bashing attacks that
people perceive as against them, personally, in many other situations.

If this list were _not_ advertised as a welcoming environment for
newbies and veterans alike to get together and discuss our favorite
operating system kernel and various compilations of software built
around it and software that runs on top of it, it'd be _entirely_
acceptable to discuss whatever.  I make many little jabs and bashes at
various things I do not like---in personal communications.

But this is an open, public forum that (supposedly) is for the purpose
of helping people and (mostly) centered around Linux in general.  We
certainly don't cater to either Stallman or Gates, or we'd be AGLUE or
AWE, respectively.  We do not advertise the list to be "A group for
bashing non-Linux systems," nor do we advertise the list to be "A place
for all kinds of fundamentalist discussion."

Unless I'm woefully mistaken, it's supposed to be a welcoming
environment to help everyone, newbies like (maybe) our parents and
grandparents, and veterans who've been using UNIX since the 70s or
earlier, alike.  In a phrase, "mixed company" (although of a different
type than the image that the phrase tends to conjure).  To discuss it in
context with other systems is natural and a good way to increase the
knowledge of the group.  Say, comparing systems on a technical level, or
from a practical end-user perspective, or to ask about the problem of
the day that we can't figure out a fix for, but know that someone on
this list has likely encountered a similar or identical situation and is
happy to help.

	--- Mike

-- 
Blog:  http://mike.trausch.us/blog/
Misc. Software:  http://mike.trausch.us/software/

“The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too
high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving
our mark.” —Michelangelo