My parents taught me at a young age that there are two subjects that are
not talked about -- Politics and Religion. :-)
Everyone keeps saying to drop the subject so PLEASE CAN WE NOW DROP IT?
TIA -- Patti -- Registered Linux User #184611
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Original Message <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
On 9/30/00, 12:19:19 PM, "Austin L. Denyer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote
regarding Re: OT [newbie] Off-topic posts.:
> > > be moderated. If not then anything that even vaugely relates
> > > should be fine. When people start telling others what they can
> > > or can't talk about then things just go to hell w/ flame wars
> > > etc. A new list is great but
> > <minor snip>
> > Maybe I'm missing the obvious here, but what the fsck is it about US
> > Politics that "even vaguely relates" to Linux? Please, humor me, this
> > bemused Linux user is eager to learn...
> > <snip>
> >
> > As you've noticed, politics is a very unusual topic. Everybody seems
> > to have something to say. It is much tollerated, except when you
> > disagree. And it's sad that anybody has to suffer exposure to it if
> > they don't want to, let alone on this Linux group. And it has
> > nothing to do with Linux, just with the survival of the human race.
> I agree. To me, politics has no place in a Linux list. This is where we
> learn the tricks of the trade for a computer operating system. The users
> are generally not interested in 'my politician is better than your
> politician', any more than they are interested in 'my God is better than
> your God', or 'my color is better than your color', or "my sex is better
> than your sex', or any other such bigotry. The closest we have here are
the
> 'techie wars' of (for example) vi/pico/emacs, Windoze/Linux, etc., and
even
> they tend to suck, as the ferocity of the argument is generally inversely
> proportional to the amount of hard evidence to back either side...
> > I was flamed for posting something about the history of computing and
> > how situations at that time influenced the development of GNU and
> > eventually Linux. It's amused me at how long this political discussion
> > has gone on and the turns it has taken, from funny to screaming curses.
> > -Gary-
> I for one was saddened by the flames you received for your 'history
> lessons'. Why? Because I believe that Linux and the history of
computing
> are inextricably linked. It is a lot easier to understand Linux, and why
> Linux is the way it is, if you have a good basic understanding of the
> history of computing.
> It also helps for programming. Those of us who can remember programming
in
> raw hex using a 25-key keypad with a 7-segment LED display on a machine
with
> only a few kilobytes of RAM know the importance of tight code. A lot of
> today's programmers wouldn't believe the applications we could write in a
> few kilobytes. Also, the tight code ran so much faster than today's
> bloatware...
> Oh well.
> Regards,
> Ozz.
