Topic: The State of the Gnunion

[toasty0]

I do not ( put in bold for the cognitively challenegd) support all that is written in this peice, but I do find much of it thought provoking and worth consideration.

The world of technology today is much like that of the worlds of politics and religion: the zealots and the fanatics are held high, for all to see, praise, and follow. Their words become engraved in stone, to be quoted like Scripture, Googlebombed from all four corners of the internet by overly active href'ers. Opinions are not really opinions, they are hard, prejudiced beliefs that, if tested, will be violently defended to the last keystroke. Spreading lies about opposing beliefs, as well as open, unbridled hatred of "the enemy" is de facto standard. Demonizing the enemy and his supporters is a favorite pastime of the tech community.

The widely held view among those in the tech community is that of support for open source software (software written by programmers at large who make the code available freely to all), an almost fanatical defense of the GPL software license, the idolizing of fanatical open source zealots, and last but greatest is the acceptance of Linux as the all-time, infallible, unbreakable, damn near perfect operating system called Linux. It's as if God looked down and said, "I'm gonna make me an Operating System." And there was Linux. Most likely, if you're reading blogs on the internet, you've probably been influenced by the tech community; most of the things above are acceptable.

If Linux, GPL, all things GNU, and open source software could be said are the pillars of the tech community, then it is also true that the devils and demons of the tech community are certain commercial software companies. To the techno zealots, if Microsoft is satan, then SCO is his footstool. To them, Microsoft is the greatest evil since the guys in swastika-marked, black overcoats.

Of course, that comes as no suprise: a commercial software company's interest lies in making a profit and earning a living, whereas open source software's and the tech community's interest lies in contributing to public knowledge and therefore theoretically bettering humankind.

What may come as a suprise to most, however, is that public enemies 2 & 3 are political and religious, respectively. More precisely, as enemies of the the technology community, in line behind Microsoft & SCO and certain other commercial software companies, is the United States' Republican Party and Christian organizations.

US Conservatives and Republicans are seen as downright unintelligent; supporters of ignorant ideas and old fashioned ways. The high-horse attitude of the techno-zealots look down upon anyone lower than them when it comes to intelligence. Philosophically, this can be attributed to the generation of losers, geeks, nerds, and other social bottom-dwellers that comprise the tech community today; like in high school, if they can't claim the women, sport prowess, or beauty, then at least they can claim intellectual superiority. Additionally, the US Republican Party is seen among the community as the party of the common folk: Joe Sixpack, you know, that Budweiser drinking, Nascar watching, Jesus loving redneck we all so fondly love to hate, is a Republican. By constrast, it is the intellectual MIT graduate, with progressive-leaning political views, and student of atheism and all things humanistic, he is the Democrat. To be fair, although the community would side with the intellectual Democrat over the ignorant Republican any day, the tech community doesn't put a whole-hearted heave behind the party. If one could describe the commonplace view of a geek in the tech community, it is one of a 1960's hippy's anti-establishment, anti-corporatism, crossed with the humanistic and anti-religionist views of Karl Marx, tied with a nice bow of government suspicion ala tin-foil cap sporting conspiracy theorists, all bundled together to become what could be considered a sect of Libertarianism. To reinforce and invigorate the community, the spirit of oppressed minority acts as the driving force behind all the prejudiced views.

Christianity, as mentioned, may be a suprise to most, seeing as how religion usually has little to do with technology, especially software. What reasons are behind the Christianity-as-enemy train of thought? The reasons are many fold. For starters, the anti-establishment, outsider views of the community cause them to see Christianity as the religion of the Republican common folk. Therefore, by being associated with conservatives and the US Republican Party, Christianity comes under the critical eyes of vicious tech peanut galleries around the web. Despite being a minority in the tech community, Christians often voice their opinions & beliefs (be that of the very ideas of the existence of God, fallible science, and morality, as unpopular as those beliefs are in the tech community), causing Christianity to become a target of unbridled prejudice and hatred among many techies. Furthermore, the very idea that God exists is at odds with the humanistic, anti-religious views of the community at large. If one could black-and-white it, the technology community hates morality of any kind, pitting itself against Judeo-Christian beliefs.

For those in the minority who have political or ethical views opposing any of the pillars of the GNU, it is a sad day for you. Write a post critical of Linux or the GPL, say something favorable about God, mention a positive about anything contrary to the de facto political view, and you'll receive 15 replies by anonymous posters saying they've had sex with your mother. On tech community peanut galleries like Slashdot or Kuro5hin, everything from piracy to hacking to DDOS attacks to child pornography is morally sound and accepted, all in the name of personal liberty.

This site, Virtual Karma, is a site for geeks and wanna-be geeks. Want to be a geek? Great. Want to join the tech community at large? Well then, all you have to do is become a secular, anti-corporate, progressive Libertarian and trade in your ethics for a bowl of high-horse, techno-zealot conformity. Oh, and be sure to support GPL, GNU, Linux, abbreviate Microsoft as "M$", and if anyone writes anything contrary to the above opinions, be sure to post anonymously and insult them in the most hate-filled, prejudiced rant possible.

One can only hope that as time passes, Linux & GPL extremists will graduate from the current levels of zeal and immaturity. Better yet, we can hope it becomes realized that Linux is just an operating system kernel, and the GPL is just a software license. Both are nothing to get religious about.

http://virtualkarma.blogspot.com/2005/03/state-of-gnunion.html

[Bonk]

IMO, QNX and FreeBSD kick linux's butt anyway... (and QNX is proprietary). 

Interesting read, thanks for posting it!

[Sirgod]

<snikers> It's cause I'm a white man right. 

Stephen

[Mr_Tricorder]

Wow.  I guess I'm in a really tight spot, being Christian, conservative, AND a Republican (yes, I'm also a white male and live in the South).  Maybe I should give up supporting open-source software, trade in my computer for a tractor and a Confederate flag, and start drinking beer with my mentally challenged friends.  I guess I was just fooling myself when I thought I was smarter than the average person and I was above submitting to the will of M$ (sorry, I guess I can't use that abreviation for Microsoft anymore either).

[toasty0]

Wow.  I guess I'm in a really tight spot, being Christian, conservative, AND a Republican (yes, I'm also a white male and live in the South).  Maybe I should give up supporting open-source software, trade in my computer for a tractor and a Confederate flag, and start drinking beer with my mentally challenged friends.  I guess I was just fooling myself when I thought I was smarter than the average person and I was above submitting to the will of M$ (sorry, I guess I can't use that abreviation for Microsoft anymore either).

   class HD
   {
      private string model=null;
      private string type=null;
      private string serialNo=null;

      public string Model
      {
         get{return model;}
         set{model=value;}
      }

      public string Type
      {
         get{return type;}
         set{type=value;}
      }

      public string SerialNo
      {
         get{return serialNo;}
         set{serialNo=value;}
      }
   }

[E_Look]

Hey, Toast, how DO you stand vis a vis the article?

[toasty0]

Hey, Toast, how DO you stand vis a vis the article?

My daddy always told me not to debate religion. It ain't polite.

[E_Look]

   Good one, O Burnt White Bread!  +1