On Tue, Mar 24, 1998 at 01:51:22PM -0500, Bruce Tong wrote:
> Maybe we can "out cool" the others. The web is a great place for all
> consumers and corporations. A nice simple "Linux Hosted" or "Developed on
> Red Hat Linux" graphic on all our web pages would go a long way. Then link
> them all to a taste-fully done, one page web site with a lite,
> ready-for-printing bullet list of advantages.
This is a fine idea; I'd be happy to add a Linux graphic to my home
page (where it could join the 'Best Viewed with any Browser" and other
graphics) but...
> Somebody who sees lots of cool web sites all with this picture will
> eventually develop an open mind toward Linux. If we build the band wagon,
> then maybe they'll jump on it.
I wish I could agree with you (about the "open mind" bit). I would
love to be vigorously nodding my assent at this point, but unfortunately
many years of bitter experience (which I point to as the source for
my somewhat curmudgeonly nature) have got me shaking my head slowly
in disappointment. Their minds aren't open, and they're not *going*
to be open. These are people who still think the Internet is a new thing,
that Unix is a fringe technology, and that installing a web-based frontend
to their glass-room-enclosed mainframes is Hot Stuff. They're
busy giving each other awards and figuring out how to defend their turf;
anything new is a threat to them. They're busy trying to figure out how
to solve problems with NT that some of us in the Unix world had licked
over a decade ago, so far in the past that we've forgotten they were
problems. Their lives are permeated with "groupware" and "decision
support tools" (as if anyone in management actually had the balls to
make a decision) and an entire morass of...well, frankly, raw, unrefined
crap, that The Unix Way -- simple, clean, tight -- is anathema to them.
I hate to sound like a tired old grump (errr...) but the only way to
deal with these people is to run over them -- and I mean that in the
most constructive, life-affirming, positive way, but I do mean it. Stop
trying to convert them and concentrate on kicking their butts.
We did it before: while all the corporate types pledged allegiance
to Ken Olson and VMS &etc., we built the Internet and rendered them
a sad little footnote. It can be done again. I'll help. I find it
an excellent way to work off aggression. ;-)
---Rsk
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