What I hate about Linux

This off topic stuff is fun but TC is right.

Could we have an non Linux place here?

Gee, I thought the subject of what various decision making processes consist of and what they're called came up naturally.

Sad, TC, if I offend you. I tried, really I did, I went back to the top of this thread and checked! It was entirely Linux related!

Bob Bob Bob, we did digress, badly. Far afield, over the horizon even.

Its congenital with me but there is no excuse for the rest of you!

All Linux all the time!

Political (and religious) debates are like porn- no one is ever more than a couple of clicks away from more than they can ever read in a hundred lifetimes. But good Linux and tech discussions are rare in this vast wasteland of the Internet. That's one of the things that sets LXer apart. If I'm the only one who feels this way, well then I'm the odd one out, and that's the way it is.

Quoting:If I'm the only one who feels this way,...

No your are not alone.

Although I enjoy discussing religion and politics, I try very hard not to participate online. I prefer to engage in person where physical expressions are visible.

Online, presenting where I stand on issues is enough. Normally, that doesn't take much verbiage.

>> Although I enjoy discussing religion and politics, I try very hard not to participate online. I prefer to engage in person where physical expressions are visible.

Yeah. It's fun to see the look on their face when you pull a gun on them.

All that said, TC is indeed correct. The "group decision making" did get lost in the chaff.

I will do better.

I agree with TC. There is a rather odd political mix in the linux community: Leftists (e.g. RMS) and Libertarians (e.g ESR) and others. Given this diversity politics can easily derail intelligent discussion.

No TC, you're not alone. Sometimes I am a bit carried away, it starts out as comments on the way of decision making in open source communities and it usually ends at politics. Shame on me!

>> There is a rather odd political mix in the linux community: Leftists (e.g. RMS) and Libertarians (e.g ESR) and others.

I fall into the 'others' category. What this should tell you is that the tenets of FOSS are in no way tied to any one political philosophy. They are, more or less, universal.

When we attempt to bind FOSS to a political group, or any other exclusionary group, we are doing it and the community an incredible disservice.

"FOSS is leftist, conservatives need not apply." "FOSS is American, non-Americans need not apply." "FOSS is [your exclusionary group here], others need not apply."

What a bunch of hooey. FOSS is a superior way of developing software that benefits everyone except monopolists. That is the only exclusion that I can logically apply to it.

> I fall into the 'others' category. What this should tell you is that the tenets of FOSS are in no way tied to any one political philosophy. They are, more or less, universal.

True enough. FOSS does of course have political implications since it is a powerful form of social organization. This makes it attractive to those with political leanings of various kinds. I guess a potentially useful analogy is to scientific research which is not particularly politically (i.e. left-right) aligned but does often atttract political controversy.

Quoting:Yeah. It's fun to see the look on their face when you pull a gun on them.

You don't have to worry about that NoDough, I don't own a gun. :)

>> You don't have to worry about that NoDough, I don't own a gun. :)

Really? Want to borrow one of mine?

Quoting:"It's abvious that democracy can't work when *all* people are allowed to vote;

In Australia ALL people (of voting age) MUST vote, or be prosecuted for not doing so.

Quoting:Really? Want to borrow one of mine?

I said I don't own one, not I don't have access to one. :)

Quoting:"It's abvious that democracy can't work when *all* people are allowed to vote;

In Australia ALL people (of voting age) MUST vote, or be prosecuted for not doing so.

Same for Belgium, and see the result where democracy indeed doesn't work: About 6 months without government now (and still Bob didn't move there???)

Quoting:>> There is a rather odd political mix in the linux community: Leftists (e.g. RMS) and Libertarians (e.g ESR) and others.

If I don't want to be associated with ugly haircut - Americans like RMS or gunlovers like ESR, does that mean I'm in the others group? Serious though, please keep in mind 90% of the world doesn't live in the US, and the above means nothing to them!

> Belgium, and see the result where democracy indeed doesn't work: About 6 months without government now (and still Bob didn't move there???)

Seems to me that it's working perfectly. The Belgians don't want a government, so they don't have one. :^)

Ok, if I may one more aspersion between F/OSS and "politics": F/OSS encompasses every different form of decision making, so it's perfectly natural that many different "political" philosophies will find a way to get involved.

Such a melting pot makes it inevitable that there will be clashes. Luckily, those clashes do not lead to violence. :^)

> Serious though, please keep in mind 90% of the world doesn't live in the US, and the above means nothing to them!

Oh but it does! Have you ever seen the gun market of Pakistan?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i9xf62PKC5M

Neither the Socialism of RMS or the Militarism of ESR are unique to America.

While tempting, I think I better can try to give a good example and stop talking politics. Nonetheless, I believe an off-topic forum on LXer would be welcome, so we can 'chroot' TOS-violating threads to the off-topic garbage-bin (just because I like the politic discussions, that'd be).

Seperating philosophical and technical issues would be a good thing for LXer in my opinion.

(Darn, that's twice!)