may I respectfully suggest...

Story: Use old version of Windows instead of Linux, says Texas TeacherTotal Replies: 12
Author Content
tuxchick

Dec 11, 2008
7:36 PM EDT
...that this unseemly pigpiling stop?
azerthoth

Dec 11, 2008
7:44 PM EDT
On the bright side, this teacher is now (in)famous, and might be courted by MS to teach in their in house preschool (or whatever). See there is a possible silver lining for this teacher.

The whole thing really does fall into the 'WTF' bin, and I'm glad Ken shared the story, but an internet witch hunt is un needed, just a little education for an educator.

So I'm with TC on this. While she is now cringing and screaming at her monitor "Dont side with me, your freakin nuts, I dont need that kind of association".
moopst

Dec 11, 2008
9:06 PM EDT
What's distressing is that this is so believeable. MS has so salted the Earth that even some people who have seen Linux don't think it's real or legitimate.
tracyanne

Dec 11, 2008
9:30 PM EDT
TC, ever tried to stop the tide. The Internet is a little like that. The horse has bolted, the feeding frenzy will not stop until it stops.

Incredible mixture of metaphores.
tuxchick

Dec 11, 2008
11:53 PM EDT
True, TA. For what it's worth, and I most definitely am not criticizing our beloved Scott Ruecker, over at brand x I am boycotting all stories related to this. It's sickening, it's cruel, and it is not good advocacy. No apology in sight yet.....
Scott_Ruecker

Dec 12, 2008
12:29 AM EDT
I thought about it Carla, but I can't, for many reasons..I will say that I have no intention of inundating my newswire with it.
hkwint

Dec 12, 2008
11:06 AM EDT
The story just hit the national Dutch IT-news site as well causing 300+ reactions where 50-100 is normal. I'm glad the site is in Dutch; because a lot of people say 'such a thing could only happen in the US', but because it's in Dutch my fellow American readers can't read those allegations.
Sander_Marechal

Dec 12, 2008
11:25 AM EDT
I read the Dutch story (it's on tweakers.net, a Dutch IT side). I must say that the story is quite well written. Nothing like the vitriol we saw on other websites. Not too much show making and judgment. Yeah, the comments on the various stories are even worse but that's not the editors fault.

BTW: The story mentions also that Helios has had further contact with Karen, that she apologised for her quick judgement, that she won't be suing anyone (not even Helios for causing the media stir) and that Helios has agreed to demonstrate Linux to her and install it on her computer.

So, Yay for Helios and Boo on the vitriolic crowd of commenters (worldwide, not just those of tweakers.net).
tuxchick

Dec 12, 2008
11:50 AM EDT
I'm starting to think the whole story is fiction. Because that's a more comfortable belief than believing it's true, and that so-called linux advocates would really behave in such a cruel manner. WTF kind of person says these things:

  "If you find my following words terse or less than cordial, take a   breath and prepare yourself...what I have to say to you are soft   strokes to your hair in comparison to what you are about to experience."

"soft strokes to your hair"?? Say what??? I doubt he'd say that to man.

  "You've been trained well."   "you have no idea the slavery you work under"   "you are unable to grasp it"   "don't shackle your students in your prison".   "a person this uninformed.. still holds a position of authority".

Wow, I know if someone said that to me I would instantly be their best friend and support their cause! Especially after siccing the whole entire Internet on me, and making sure I knew about it by emailing me the links so I could read all those flames myself! Yay! (Hint: actually I wouldn't, I would hate them and everything they stood for like any normal person would)

Only in delusion-land is this considered decent behavior and good advocacy.

Sander_Marechal

Dec 12, 2008
12:03 PM EDT
@TC: It's just the way Helios writes. Go back and read all his other work, even to way back before Tux500. He's always written like this. Only the HeliOS Solutions website isn't written like this, because I wouldn't let him write it all by himself :-) It was partly written by Helios, partly by me and parts were taken from the getgnulinux.com website under a CC-by-sa-3.0 license)
Steven_Rosenber

Dec 12, 2008
1:57 PM EDT
I enjoyed the part where the teacher thought MS would donate "old" copies of Windows to help out. I bet they have a stack of Windows 98 discs ready to roll.
azerthoth

Dec 12, 2008
2:05 PM EDT
@hkwint, dont bet on that, there is a plugin that translates websites very nicely. Its not perfect, but works adequately. Because I do read some Dutch and Italian sites on occasion.
penguinist

Dec 12, 2008
2:48 PM EDT
Does the greater Linux community really benefit from this kind of "advocacy"?

Something doesn't smell right to me...

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