Used to be my home page
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| Author | Content |
|---|---|
| Abe Oct 10, 2005 10:48 AM EDT |
But today, it is LXER.COM. At one point, I used to not mind MS commercials at all. I even used to make the extra effort to click on the links for LinuxToday to reap some revenue, until it gotten so bad, I stopped visiting LinuxToday completely. Well, almost completely, but I stopped posting completely. It is a matter of principals. |
| tuxchick Oct 10, 2005 12:05 PM EDT |
This topic has come up before. I have mixed feelings- yes, the "Linux Reference Center" is totally offensive. It is typical Microshaft propaganda, FUD, lies, and distortions. Sometimes I think "feh, scroo LT." But I still support them, because I think it's more important to support Linux and F/OSS. Still, it sux. |
| wjl Oct 10, 2005 11:32 PM EDT |
LT used to be - no, not my homepage, not even my start page, but a very often visited site for me. Until I learned about lxer. Looking back at it today, it's just one of the pages where the actual content makes less than 25% of the page width - the rest are ads of more or less questionable value (for me, that is - maybe someone else is interested in that kind of stuff). To sum it up: for them (Jupiter media), the internet seems to be like the broadcasting from private TV stations: a source of income, where the customers are the companies who put their ads on the screen - not the readers or viewers which are interested in content. This makes the big difference to quality sites like the one here. And no, I'm not paid by lxer for writing this ;-) |
| PaulFerris Oct 11, 2005 1:28 AM EDT |
wjl: you're spot on about the TV thing -- note that content is segregated into "channels" -- that's not an accidental paradigm you've chosen there. |
| MESMERIC Oct 11, 2005 1:52 AM EDT |
I haven't been to LinuxToday in ages since those ads. Sure, we can all be cynical about they are the real clever ones taking money from MS. But for the newcomer to Linux, these FUDs do actually work. I've met and worked with people pondering about Linux, these being Windows administrators. They take now these Microsoft Studies as Gospel truths. I suppose you can also say "Well, their loss!" to that. What if its a school headmaster that was about to migrate all the computers to Linux? Or a London Council politician? Or a Scottish Police Officer? |
| r_a_trip Oct 11, 2005 2:47 AM EDT |
They take now these Microsoft Studies as Gospel truths. I suppose you can also say "Well, their loss!" to that. What if its a school headmaster that was about to migrate all the computers to Linux? Or a London Council politician? Or a Scottish Police Officer? We really should say their loss and be glad they are not switching. If MS FUD can keep them with MS, they are purely making cost-based decisions. FOSS has lower cost, but it is not its main attribute. Freedom is at the core of FOSS and people switching because of the Freedom aspect are more likely to be long term supporters of FOSS solutions. Cost based "GNU/Linux users" will drop it at the first instance that they perceive something else to be cheaper or when they think that proprietary package X has 1 feature more than the FOSS counterpart that they absolutely need now. FOSS needs people who care about Freedom, not people who only care about the bottomline. Freedom might be more expensive longterm, but the benefits outweigh the costs. |
| MESMERIC Oct 11, 2005 5:11 AM EDT |
Funny then. I know of two people. One I installed Fedora, the other Ubuntu. Both hated the distro and was asking for their Windows partition back. I said sure, I will do that ... I gave time and now they do *NOT* want their Windows back. This is no false propaganda. As long as people have a certain impression of Linux, that will remain unless they experience something different. Your pre-judging question might be: "Sure, but what do these obtuse individuals have to contribute to FOSS anyway?" I am not sure about the Fedora person. But the Ubuntu person, being a South African himself - started to take interest in Michael Shuttleworth's distribution, and the prospect of helping communities with Linux. He runs a Computer Workshop for the Unemployed and is one of the very few that actually wants to give something back to the world. Finally he agreed Linux and FOSS is one way of doing that. With FUD ads and FUD-spreading. Sure it will keep those Linux advocates with a job. But my "personal" frustration, is that it can make people switching to Linux - that much harder. Freedom also comes with an increasing Linux user base. Hardware drivers. Video Codecs. Compliant Websites, etc. The average Joe would contribute to Desktop Linux with numbers. And that is good enough for me. |
| SFN Oct 11, 2005 8:47 AM EDT |
My home page: about:blank It contains all the editorial content that I desire to have thrown at me everytime I log on. |
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