Linux zealots proud to be as miserable as planes

Without wanting to get into heated debate, if you think that the airline industry is the biggest problem America has today you've led a very sheltered, and capitalist life. Such views as you clearly hold are another example why any 'article' on The Register should not be taken seriously.

For one thing, the airline industry do not dictate that you stand in ticketing lines and are security screened. At least not in the UK. The airPORT industry, led by government decree such things. The two industries are discreet, albeit relying on each other.

I've no problem with your swings at open source, but I fail to see how a supposedly educated man can write such utter nonsense about the airline industry. The speed issue that you mutter about is purely a problem of physics verus economics. We (Britain and France) provided an aircraft that could get you from London to New York in 5 hours. I suspect you never used it because it's operating costs were too high. That it never became more popular is purely down to market forces, not the airline industry inability to provide it.

The problem with super fast flight is summed up in two words. Supersonic boom. This phenomenon, which if you paid attention at school and got a real job instead of writing for The Register, prohibits supersonic flight above most landmasses in the world because it tends to explode windows, roof tiles, and other places that people often inhabit. There's nothing the airline industry can do about it, it's a factor of physics, so if you want it changed, do us a favour and let the big man know when you reach the pearly gates.

This leaves out the obvious fact that supersonic flight requires significantly lighter and smaller planes that consume more fuel per person than conventional flight, hence why they are more expensive to run.

However, if you're so great, please demonstrate so by providing the solutions to these problems rather than simply complaining about how poor they are. If you've nothing constructive to say why do you bother?

Of course this will be met be with a contemptuous response the like of which alll Register 'journalists' are capable.

Steve Brown

Thanks for setting the bar so damned low, Steve.

This is how I interpreted your article [Out of place quote] [Out of place letter from mom] "boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wahboo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah boo hoo wah wah wah"

[Bad analogy about Open Source] [A cheap shot at Linus and the Finns]

Dr. Otto Cry Baby

Er, pardon my slow cousin Harold. He just discovered the internet and thinks he's part of a meme stream. Susan, don't forget to wipe the custard off his brow.

Open Source progresses where people see need or have a want. Personally I don't have a need or want to connect a bluetooth camera. I can and do however very easily use my USB based camera.

Open Source also requires sponsorship to foster and sponsorship comes from capitalism. That capitalism is going to sponsor projects that have some level of value to the sponsor. Thus IBM and servers, RedHat and servers, HP and servers.

If you want to use your bluetooth camera, consider finding 5 - 10 other people that would like to use their bluetooth cameras and pay an OSS programmer to implement the feature.

I would be happy to help you with any of this.

Sincerely, Joshua D. Drake President Command Prompt, Inc.

Five to ten people? WHAT?!?! Susan, can you get a napkin for Mr. Drake as well?

Stern: Your butt joke humor suggests your cranial development is slower than both airline travel AND open sores software. Matter of fact, your attempts at smarmy humor rank somewhere just below the preteen musings of my daughter. Which suggests OSS was born, and has evolved entirely within the time your sense of humor has existed in utter stasis.

What *is* funny, though, is when cheap hack columnists become so filled with themselves they assume the writing style and humor of a movie or food critic, but without their constraint of topic matter.

Maybe soon you'll even be as funny as an MTV veejay. Could you one day actually be as funny as Kennedy or Carson Daly?

Dare to dream, Otto!

Bill

Let's not bring your preteen daughter and butt humor into this. Please. I'll sell you some dignity for five bucks.

I'm sitting here typing away on a 128 bugs Windows armed with an ultrashit file system and jet-fueled BSOD[bkue screen of death], wondering when the Windows freaks are going to solve their eternal bug problem[changing to linux?] so that something I buy actually works with my close shit PC.And whriting this bullshitgives me the idea that you must be full of shit writing this stupidity And letter to you MOM : GO STICK YOUR SON BACK WHERE HE CAME FROM CAUSE HE'S TALKING BULLSHIT!!!CLEAR?

Dart Weider

I can't quite hear you through the stream of bullshit, Dart. Can YOU SPEAK UP?

As great as you are, or at least as your mother finds you, I find your article to be the most idiotic article I've ever had the patients to read and to be honest I should have stopped reading after I saw your mother was speaking. You're confusion of issues and who to blame them on is amazing. Anyway to explain to you what I mean. You're view that "LIBERALS" are the ones responsible for the TSA safety checks is quite incorrect, it would be the religious right, that force us to do such things since they are the paranoid side that also requires us (the United States) to stay in Iraq in order to help rebuild the country which they destroyed.

That aside, lets get onto try to fix your extremely ignorance on open source. First off, no one with half a briain admits to running this operating system (don't worry I don't include you in the catagory of having half a brain you have made it apparent you have much less than half... I'll put you in the 1/4 section if you're lucky). These people usually figure they can get away with saying they run RedHat instead of admitting they don't know linux and are using mandriva. The others usually openly admit and Support their operating systems. I'd say there is more of a debate between Debian based operating systems (including Ubuntu) and RPM based operating systems (such as RedHat, SuSE(Novell Linux) , and Mandriva). In any case each has their place, and have their pros and cons. In any case I really hate smug writers that don't know anything about a subject but bash it because they don't understand something. Printer drivers? Dude get an HP Printer they usually support linux and work perfect.

As for you're color scheme figure it out, you're a big boy with a quarter brain. The Linux community has come VERY far in the last few years, and have surpassed Microsoft in many ways and is still free. Also if you are really having a problem with Linux, where is your free operating system? These people are giving their work away to people and their stuff usually works well and bug fixes come out faster and better than the people at paid companies, and still you write this crap spitting in their faces saying YOU SUCK! You're an asshole dude! Open source community don't listen to this no talent ass clown! You're doing great!

John Moyer

I stopped reading at "as great as you are." So, thanks, John.

A Reg reader has the following comments to make on the story The only thing worse than flying is open source code:

The basic thought behing socialism is to take care of eachother, ever thought of what "being social" means? I suggest you do your reseach on Wikipedia before you write your next article.

Since I bet that there are thousands of people who have been filling your mailbox with this already, I decide not to take this any further. Everyone has the right to have their own opinion, even though your opinion is basicly wrong.

Yours truly, A happy Linux user.

John Doe

Look at that. He does all this Wikipedia research and can't come up with a more creative name than John Doe. Enough said.

You call Linus a socialists! WTF... You Son of a Bitch! You sorry mother fucker! If I should ever catch your ass out in public I'll be sure to stomp the side of your fucking head in. Now run and get a communicating a threat warrant you bitch!

Tom Wickline

Now, this man I can like.

The only thing worse than the airlines is the lack of technology in the world because of the criminal activities of capitolism. You heard me right. The capitolist pig bastards that wrote that 4 year old peice of shit that hasn't been updated in forever. Forget the fact that you can't modify the damn OS to suite you, your needs, and workflow, but try using it to transfer your propriatary, copyrighted, intelectual property, DRM'd, or (insert other stupid shit here) music that you paid for to your other computer. Fuck it, you can't even practice your fair use rights, just because some company paid your elected official to ignore it. And yes, I am talking about Windows XP.

The one other thing that makes me more sick than the Nazi Bush dictatorship is the %99 of the bullshit that comes in my store that DOESN'T WORK.... WINDOWS. The only things that work in this town where I live are 1. My Mac, wich runs an OS that is partly open source, and 5 years ahead of Microsoft’s theft ring, and 2. The two Slackware 9 Linux boxen in the back of my office that have been humming away with 11 month uptimes since their last updates. I don't know about you, but I would rather spend my time working WITH the machine than ON it. Windows is NOT for most people, or your typical grandmother. Grandmother doesn't understand why a commercial for ViAkaTra keeps popuping up on her 'peecee' with flashy colors on it, asking her to click it to get an erection.

Want a printer to work?. haha. You paid for the wrong OS buddy. How many Lexmarks have you plugged into a Windows PC, and it WORK without having to pop in the CD you can't find? Oh yea, you can go to Lexmark.com and download the closed-soure bug-filled drivers that you can’t modify, but most of this society is still using 'dial-up'. They are still on 'dial-up' because whiney little Baby Bell wants to cry about small business CLECs using their 80 year old copper. Bell has thousands of miles of unlit fiber, but instead of setting afire the light that could be 100 mbit broadband, they want to sit and cry holding their copper wand, waving it at elected officials, hoping they will dissapear, so that they can run the country. As long as greed stands in the way, America(C), the Land(C) of the Inc.(C) will STAY behind in broadband coverage. You think THAT is innovative?

Yesterday I plugged a Lexmark X5150 into a fresh install of Suse 10. Worked without having to do anything but tell it what tray to print from. Hows that for Innovation? Microsoft sounds pretty damn far behind to me.

In the Windows world you end up with empty pockets, and walk out with nothing. You pay for Music, and it comes back and bites you in the ass. You download your music for free, and it is forever no matter what you transfer it to. You pay $300 for an OS, and expect it to be good, but the reality is that it is shit, and breaks every chance it gets, like the fine and expensive china on the dinner table. Its expensive, and looks good, but it breaks too easy, and is useless. The name ‘Windows’ really matches Billy boy’s OS. Allow me to refer you to a good read: http://marshallbrain.com/manna1.htm And my upcoming book, (look for it in the near future): Rome II, The fall of Corporate America And I leave you with this thought. The best things in life are free. J.D. Meadows

Thanks for that enthralling trip into your mind, J.D. And thanks as well to the New York Times and Slashdot for giving me the credit I deserve. ®

Otto Z. Stern is a director at The Institute of Technological Values - a think tank dedicated to a more moral digital age. He has closely monitored the IT industry's intersection with America's role as a world leader for thirty years. You can find Stern locked and loaded, corralling wounded iLemmings, nursing an opal-plated prostate, spanking open source fly boys, wearing a smashing suit, dropping a SkyCar on the Googleplex, spitting on Frenchmen, vomiting in fear with a life-sized cutout of Hilary Rosen at his solar-powered compound somewhere in the Great American Southwest.