Commentary: The Penguin Doesn't Fly, Avoid Linux

This is one of the best pieces of mis-information I have read in a long time. I was tempted to answer line by line, but then decided against it as it is the same thing as it always was. . I am also sure that " somewhere, someone , very soon" will not be able to resist.

I admit, it's tempting. But where to begin?? There's so much rubbish in there!! Wut, I had to memorise an 800-page list of commands?? Nobody told me.

He can't find his files?? How about just clicking on the little Home icon??

And yes, Gimp etc. are also available for Windows... that's the whole point of free software.

And his comment about throwaway computers... yaaah, he doesn't get it.

Should I laugh, or cry? I am amazed, I really am. Schocked even! And a sprinkling of bafflement.

Urk.

it's pity he doesn't give us a chance to respond. Only email address is available, and most probably he doesn't even reads them.

Quoting:it's pity he doesn't give us a chance to respond.

You said he gave an email address, try it and if you get nothing in return then complain. Spammers are so dumb, since costs seem nil to none, they just dump without thought. Why do one or two when 100 per day means they can sell their services based on astronomical numbers?

Doing a site alone, even someone that writes stupid content is still work. Adding cleaning out the trash from posters more interested in seeing themselves in print is a waste of energy.

On my site I have replied to every real email sent, when I was running another site I might have missed one since my partner did not know how to configure SpamAssassin and would neither understand how the built-in filtering would not work nor give me access rights. So getting about 100 a day (and probably rising) I just got out of that work.

As dumb as you perceive this person to be, try an email. It might work [or like here - it might not].

Sorry all with embedded serious tags, no jokes today.

Txt.

P.S. If you write, please be polite and make your points logically. If you do this and are attacked, post both. [Then Digg the thread.]

Lawyers do tend to be Windows users and in my experience not so cutting edge in the tech department.

The above line is taken from the LXer lead to the story. It doesn't reflect well on lawyers since I have successfully taught 10 year old kids to use Linux in about 30 minutes. There are some things that come to mind concerning this piece and I will outline them here...feel free to add to them...they will be used at a later date:

The level of fud reached by this article stinks of being a paid hit-piece. A paid-by-the-word paid hit-piece.

When condensed down to its final elements, this is just a kicking, screaming tantrum in public that Linux is just too different from Windows and our attorney friend is throwing a public hissy fit over the fact.

We have been blessed with a permanent record of an official proclamation. Title of said proclamation?

"I'm an idiot and here's the proof."

h

I think you all missed the most important part of this article:

Quoting:In fact, Linux is not really cheaper for lawyers or anyone whose time is money. Whereas Windows is typically bundled with the purchase of a new computer, buying it that way really only adds about $75 under bulk licenses to computer makers. And that is money that can’t really be saved by avoiding Windows because computers sold without any OS or with Linux as an alternative are hard to find, and don’t sell cheaper. So for those inclined to try Linux for free, the break even point is about 15 billable minutes, far less time than is needed to actually install it, assuming that you find a deal for a computer without a proprietary OS.

He says Windows is cheaper because the price is worth only 15 minutes of his time. It's true, but the really worrying part is that if you pay for computer support, the price difference goes away. Usually, Linux is even cheaper because your computer support guy has to spend far less time dealing with your troubles.

The example only works if you do your own computer support. Would you trust a lawyer who does is own computer support? A lawyer who clearly seems to be non-technical? A lawyer who uses Windows, which requires significant expertise to keep even half secure? Would you trust him with your most private data?

If I were his client I would start running now...

*****************************

It doesn't reflect well on lawyers since I have successfully taught 10 year old kids to use Linux in about 30 minutes.

*****************************

Same here, plus the fact that these kids here don't even understand English...they are Thai

So how complicated can it be

Quoting:Would you trust him with your most private data?

Well, our own country shows you can't trust legal nor military people with private data at all. Same for Great Brittain.

The fact that the Dow Jones, most of the US military and the US Mint , just to name a few have migrated to Linux...and yes, many of them use the desktop as well; speaks volumes. Unfortunately our Counselor friend has conveniently left that out. Wonder why?

Your witness

h

How can he say that user files are buried 8 layers down the directory tree? I mean... /home/username/directorynameofyourchoice is not that complicated.... and Home can usually be reached with a single click in pretty much all file managers.

Either he's really dumb... or just spreading lies on purpose.

I mean... /home/username/directorynameofyourchoice is not that complicated....

It comes down to "but it's not C: program files!!!"

That's it...he's pissed because he has to actually think outside of the indoctrination he's accepted. He has to learn something new and should it ever be discovered and admitted to, that's what this whole rant is about...

It's not what resides within my comfort zone therefore it scores a 10 on my "this-sux-o'meter".

It resides no deeper than that...and the depth of his wallet. I still say this reeks of a paid hit piece.

h

My apologies for not letting this die... but a reader on Groklaw just dug up this "bug report" from mr Kovel:

http://bugs.kde.org/show_bug.cgi?id=147096

Just read it - it is the most hilarious thing I think I have read in a long time. And you know... I am taking back every bad thing I ever said about KDE4, and will install it this evening out of pure sympathy for those poor people for having to put up with this rubbish.

@jacog: That's the most hillarious thing I've seen so far! The guy really is an idiot.

Quoting:To make life easier and more intuitive, I tried changing mnt/hdc to simply E:, as it has been in computing since Day 1, and to change the mnt/hda to C: as it has been since hard drives came into use.

Quoting:The idea that Konquerer gives users more freedom than Windows is silly. Konquerer only allows creation of new folders somewhere within the home folder, and doesn't allow created folders to be moved outside the home folder;

Quoting:ne would never dream that a house icon on the desktop, universally recognized as a launcher taking you to your Internet home page, is actually the entry to the main file management program

In short, Windows-itis.

He seems to blame a lot of things on Konqueror that have nothing to do with Konqueror. Let's hope he never has to use MacOS.

I also resent the C: has been used since hard drives were invented comment... on my Commodore 64, drives had numbers like ,8 ,9 etc. On my Amiga it had mount aliases like system: and home: or work:, and on Unix systems circa 19bloodylongago, they certainly did NOT use C: to denote any drive.

And looking at the Windows XP machine I am on here at work... there is no E:, just a C: and a P: ... so obviously this one must be broken.

I also rather like:

Quoting:I tried installing a Windows game called "Candyland" using Wine, and got 50 Konquerers popping up, faster than I could shut them off, until I maxed out the system resoruces. My computer hung for 7 minutes with even the clock frozen until I could shut down with Ctl-Alt-Del.

In sum, Konquerer is a poor product, unacceptable really.

I nearly submitted this to the newswire, but it's hardly news.

"To make life easier and more intuitive, I tried changing mnt/hdc to simply E:, as it has been in computing since Day 1"

?

"and to change the mnt/hda to C: as it has been since hard drives came into use."

?!?

We have a name for this type: http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/L/luser.html

I'm now even more glad to see him getting both PNW3D and schooled. If he ever goes to Silicon Valley (yeah, FAT32 chance, I know), he should check out the Computing History Museum: http://www.computerhistory.org/

EDIT: Another very pertinent link: http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20080812

I haven't been using Linux for very long - running Sabayon for a couple of years now. Even I know that it doesn't look like Windows - that's its attraction!

Yeah. Windows hurst my eyes. The "professional/classic" XP theme is bearable but that green/blue home theme is beyond ugly. Vista ain't much better. Too much bling. It feels like riding a pimp mobile.

My Father is a lawyer. He switched from Windows to VectorLinux, then to Ubuntu and now he's using PCLinuxOS. He had less problems with Linux than with Windows and he's been using it for 5 years now.

what about your father emailing this " other " lawyer ? Any chance of that ?

There are several other Lawyers who use Linux, One name that comes to mind is Christian Einfeldt, perhaps he could be prevailed upon to write something.

LXer featured some Italian lawyer firm who switched to Linux a while ago. Maybe I can find it...

I remember a while ago about a large legal firm in New Zealand being asked by the state [sic] services commission to provide a report on the use of open source software and Linux in the public service. It too, contained much false information, prompting a response by NZ's own FOSS society to the commission.

http://osdir.com/ml/user-groups.linux.hawkes-bay/2006-03/msg...

and here

http://craighumphrey.blogspot.com/2006/03/chapman-tripp-make...

and here

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060301213210833

and now proof that the report's negative spin was short lived, here

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20060313054547209

and here

http://nzoss.org.nz/news/2007/ministry-justice-open-source-d...

I do not come across lawyers that often, but from personal experience and from those that I do, I would say that they can at times, demonstrate a very limited (and perhaps only cursory) understanding of reality and logic. As an example, I tout the security issues surrounding the MS word format. Even now years later (and despite my continually mentioning these insecurities), most lawyers I come into contact with continue to use this format for online document transfer. Actually, sometimes I just plain gobsmacked.

Here's one point in the article I found interesting;

> Virus protection is readily available at no charge to Windows users, e.g., Avast.

Well, yes. For personal use. If you're recommending that a lawyer's office use it, I suggest you might want to look at that license more carefully. :)

But jdixon, facts only get in the way of a good hate :)

> ...facts only get in the way of a good hate...

Pesky little things, aren't they. :)

Lawyers earn a lot from IP, this so called 'Intellectual Property'. I agree more to the term of 'Intellectual monopoly' myself. Anyway, for a lot of the lawyers (but still a minority of all lawyers), IP is the main reason they exist. Of course some of them are scared to death by a free society; because a free society in which people share is a society without Intellectual Monopolies to defend in front of a court. If there were no such a thing as software patents a lot of lawyers would become unemployed.

Therefore, it is to their advantage that the world uses software coming with EULA's and patents so complex that only lawyers can make and understand them. Something like BSD licenses means the end of their job because anyone can understand the things. Lots of 'poor' co-operating people not organized in a company, working on free GPL'ed software also means the end of their job, because those people can't pay lawyers to defend their copy-left.

Yeah, I saw lawyers trying to influence software so they can earn more from it before. It was in the Euro-parliament; the JURI - mainly filled with 'legal beagles'. No single programmer or IT-SMB representative or somebody with ties to them was in there, meaning they don't knew &*(^ about software at all.They had to decide about software patents. Of course they weren't interested in software at all; only in patents, and they favoured the software patents; it meant more work for them and their friends.

I grew up on the streets of Chicago during the Depression. My mom would send me down to the corner tavern on Friday evenings to buy a fish and a bucket of beer. It cost 50 cents for both. I remember walking into that narrow hall with a bar that ran the entire length of the building and not being able to see the end of it because the cigar smoke was so thick.

There were three types of patrons there on Friday night. There were the factory workers who gathered at the back tables. There were the professional gangsters that worked for Al Capone and there were the Ward/Precinct Politicians. I always knew the politicians. They were the ones the gangsters called "sir" and wore the nicest shoes. As I grew up to be of age I spent a short time considering a career in Chicago politics. It seemed the shortest and easiest road to wealth. There were only two problems I faced. I could not bring myself to deal with killers and I could not at any cost, consider lying to people in order to publicize a false point that I wanted others to accept as true. In reading the article by this attorney, I am a bit surprised to see one fact remain.

Chicago style politics is still alive and well. In reading this, I wonder to myself who he calls "sir". Ten minutes alone with his unabridged client list would probably tell the entire story.

Ed

@edtimar:

I strongly suggest you cross-post that to the Groklaw page.

Direct link: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080809033233244

Gus, I post here from time to time simply because it is easy enough for an old man to do with his failing eye sight and the fact that a good friend advises me that no one will yell at me here for being less than knowledgeable about Linux. To be honest, it's not my thin skin that hinders me in doing as you suggest. It is the convoluted and confused layout of those comments. If you feel my comment is worthy of that company, you have my permission to quote this, although I don't really see anything valuable within it. I am flattered that you would think so.

Ed

Did you notice that they have a link to the GPL? Ordinarily in a FUD piece like this the intent is to promote ignorance and reinforce misconceptions and as such would not have a link to a source of good information.

My first reaction was that it must be a source of amusement to their lawyer audience, a human readable license - what a joke. I suspect this is aimed at those who are threatened by freedom, those who make their living representing the monied interests against the rest of society.