All hail the state. Back in the day, commies were not allowed to speak out against the state. You had to praise the state. All artwork was about how great communism was, all music, all journals. You couldn't even get an informative newspaper, because it was always printed full of pro-commusist messages. Conversation? 'Hows Russia?' 'It's great, man, it's got communism.' see? I've picked up a few copies of linux journal, and all it seems to print is how great linux is, why you suck if you use windows. While i have little respect for Microsoft (i thought Win 3.1x was ok.), I am quite often annoyed by linux users' attitude. They seem to do the linux think as if it were a middleclass trend(ie, commie liberals and 'art'.) I ask, where's the real information, and what the hell is up? (heh, Red Flag Linux..)

I wander down here at times to give these guys hell like that. Linux is good but I personally can't see the justification in making the switch.

Linux will talk about companies that switch from MS to Linux. MS will talk about companies that switch from Linux to MS.

To each their own.

@ Riser: Did you try Ubuntu last weekend?

@surrealdeal: No, Linux is not a communist OS.

BSD maybe

Windoze most definitely, if you disobey the great leader you end up in the Gulag.

lol, had to laugh when i seen the thread title.

one thing though, russia has never been communist, it had/has a totalitarian government based on certain individuals own ideologies.

linux on the other hand is far more like communism in the way that anyone is free to do what they want and contribute to the greater good.

so is it like communism in that sense, yes. is it a totalitarian dictatorship, no.

microsoft on the other hand....

Not even. Bill Gates is a true capitalist pig, and i applaud him for that. However, I don't see how giving away a free operating system helps strengthen U.S. economy, or any economy for that matter. Linux functions to stop Software competition because you can't compete with 'free' (as in not paying). did anyone read the article about china hacking into the pentagon? I see this happening more eaisily if the whole world was open source. And what in the hell do you mean "russia has never been communist"?

As strangestranger already mentioned Russia is / was totalitarian not communist.

The Soviet Union was also totalitarian not communist.

Certainly they were influenced by communism but they were not actually communists.

I am very much a capitalist pig, am anything but friendly to communism yet I support open source.

Linux_0,

Surrealdeal brings an interesting point. There is more than a ferver supporting linux. Why? Because people save money? It seems to be more than that. I don't mind linux and I think there is something to say for Torvald giving it away for free. It appears that Linux vs Windows is a zealous battle with vicious negative threats, (not your statements at all by the way) etc about a bunch of software?! There is more to feelings that deep, than software. I don't get it. Freedom? Choice? Ok... but there has to be something else to it.

I have entertained the idea of trying ubuntu out on one of my machines at home for fun but as I read and look into that stuff, I will have to spend more time, learn more about linux, spend more time and really just have a web browsing machine that I can play media files on. Understand that I am not a programmer, I am a nerd in the medical field and really don't have time for all of that. What advantage is that to me? Windows was made to help organize etc and it worked. No its not perfect, but I coudn't get anything done without it. Isn't that why programmers have jobs? To make it so those who don't can use pc's?

(Russia is/was totalitarian in its form of governement (held by the wealthy.) Communism is a form of economics, for which they were, or were the closest thing to.)

zoo

By downloading you agree to the terms and conditions of one linux philosophy, ie GNU licencing. It's all about 'open'. Instills a sense of worthlessness that nothing you make can amount to anything because it will only be recompiled under the GNU. Your only redemption is to 'advance the state of open source', reinforcing helplessness. The thing about commies i hate the most is that commies are about being commies; propaganda has become a lifestyle. And i see that happining in the linux community.
You mention 'deeper feelings'. How many people do you know would like to 'help the world' but don't exactly know how. Like a porn-star that was molested by her father, longing for something. I think that the appeal of linux is that you are supposedly 'helping the world' by perfecting software no one has to pay for because the starving in africa really really need that free database program. It's a delusion.
We do have neurotic teenagers working on linux, don't we now?

Well I'm just wondering what it says about my political leanings when I'm posting this on an open source copy of firefox running on a capitalist pig copy of XP running on a free (as in price) yet closed source VMWare machine running on very open source copy of Ubuntu.

Observations from my switch to Linux back in 04.

XP crashed and my disc lost data.
I'd O/C'd my machine to the point where reactivating XP was going to require a call to MS
After years playing with Windows from 3.0 to XP and Win2k server I just fancied a change

I support it as I do a good bar or resteraunt. I recommend it to others and tell them that despite the slightly rough edges they have some lovely drinks/food and the prices are fantastic. I can see why people eat McDonalds, they know what they are getting. Personally I'd rather take the risk of the odd dish I might not get on with to the bland taste every time I ate out.

Surrealdeal,

I agree with you there. Propaganda is prevalent. It reminds me of when I went to Jordan earlier this year and an Arab man continually tried to teach me Arabic. Then they wanted to tell me about how their grandfather owned the land and how good it all was. Another man told a friend with me that we should move there and live. (NOTE: This is not a racist/hateful statement, I do not hate Arabs, Moslems, Jews, etc. I just didn't want to learn Arabic, the area we were in was nothing different than usual and, no, I do not want to move there.) That is what some, not all, of the linux stuff reminds me of. "Come and move here", and on and on, yet for what gain? I agree with you, just to further this work/agenda/ideal?

I am certainly open to any thoughts that a person who thinks linux is great has, but for objective reasons, not just because one should use it. ( I realize it is used for servers and the like, but I am coming from the standpoint as pc user that does not program.)

zoo

Surreal, you've got to be a psychologists wet dream ... If you think Linux is communist like, then bloody Microsloth is 100% Nazi! Hail Bill a little less and have an open mind, you seem pretty bent on this commie thing

Anyway, in the very end, it's up the the end user. No one is forcing you. I ran windows for half my life while, eventually went to a linux operating system, I like it enough that I recommend it to my friends, but I don't force them to use it. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, I respect that, but I feel your comments have been the lowest sledging we've seen in these forums.

All software has bugs of some sort, with windows, you just pay for them.

@Linux:

I haven't had the time. I had some family matters come up that has been time consuming. I've also been trying to enjoy the last remaining warm weather.

yawn. You use firefox? you're a commie. You use XP? you're a helpless commie. Furthurmore, VM?! what, you can't just get a dedicated machine? Or do you miss the familiar sting of MS? Maybey you just play games on it, it which case you are a child. Ubuntu? hah. a 'user friendly linux'. You've been brainwashed into thinking that you need a pretty interface.

@knightrous... I have always admired the Nazis. They pulled off socialism in a hardcore, non-pansy way; and their scientists have always been overly commited to their work. case in point: BMW. case in point: magnetic media, prelimenary atom bombs, rockets, anti-cancer propaganda. Microsoft has bugs, so does linux. A LOT. And that's where the nazi's come in. It's survival of the fittest: If you as a consumer can't debug applications than that is too bad. People really ought to arm themselves with disassemblers and debug programs. If MS has a fault, it's that it's standards aren't open enough. Note standards, not operating system. If you want the red chineese, and ex-soviet states posing a threat to information systems worldwide, than I suppose MS should be a little more open. Or you could use linux. (Or let them buy 3Com.)

Far from it. I just happened to be having a play with some networking setups the other night. As for a second machine why bother? Why take up the space and run up the electric bill when I can do it all on one system? Why do I even have XP on there... lowest common denominator. By the way I don't do computer games, not since my 48k days anyway.

As for being 'Brainwashed' far from it. I chose Ubuntu after trying Fedora and Suse and a few other smaller distros. I used to work with a few flavours of Unix and have done my time at the command line. For me it was about a distro that looked like it would be around for a while and which automated a lot of the mundaine tasks. It was like Debian only more polished and there was already a good community there to support me.

May we enquire as to what OS you are running and why you chose it? You seem quick enough to dismiss most things out there I really am curious.

No, you may not.

In that case I'll just have to assume you use a Mac... Nuff said really.

I tip my hat to you, audiovoodo. You win the thread!

Too mean. i will neither confirm, nor deny, that i use mac os. Though i will say that your tone seems quite elitist. Your primary argument for using linux is that other oses seem too bland, and i must refer you to my previous post where i compared linux users going after linux like a yuppie looking for the next trendy thing. MSG makes things taste better, but causes nerve damage.

What exactly did you expect when you start off with the tone you did. I welcome some discussion about the pros and cons of various systems. They all have plus points, even Mac OS. Indeed I'd quite like a Mac Mini to play with.

You made some very simple mistakes, one of them being to think that access to source code makes a system less secure. Code that is reviewed by thousand of users and which the developers know will be visible to others forces them to make security and robustness part of the initial design and not an afterthought.

Linux has its faults. It is a fragmented system where much effort is spread across far to many distributions for its own good. I make no apologies for having a degree in computing or having spent 10 years+ working daily with computers. If you knew the truth of my situation which is that I simply can not afford new hardware or to pay for an OS then maybe you could see that a lot of my motives for using linux are purely financial, however I'd still not take a Vista box over my Ubuntu system as I just prefer it. Simple as that.

You know people respond to what they fin