The Death of Free Software

While everyone else is bailing out of the sinking Linux ship, here are some dumbasses investing $10 million in it: http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?bw.082901/212412053

And if that isn't enough, Ximian thinks they are going to be financially successful by selling stuffed monkeys to support their Free Software development. What the hell?? Yeah I got a CS degree so I can spend my days stuffing cotton in toy monkey bellies. Heheh I'm glad I don't work there.

And here's another barrel of laughs for you - SuSe is saved from death by IBM. Okay, first off, the only person I've ever known who used SuSe was retarded guy out in California who was on a permanent acid trip. He liked Linux because of the pretty colors. Secondly, after OS/2, I don't think anyone trusts IBM with operating systems.

And then there's Debian GUN/Linux whose "stable" branch was last updated in January 1972. Love that cutting edge technology!

Oh! And we mustn't forget VA Linux who were actually selling a real product for a while (computer systems), but now have decided to toss that in exchange for... you guessed it! Selling free software. Anyone smell bankruptcy in the air? Oh, but don't worry, they have valuable properties like "Slashdot" whose editor is named Commander Taco. Yeah, I can see the Linux Revolution happening any day now.

At times like this one wonders how people can be this stupid??? I mean, come on people... I read the "GNU Manifesto" or whatever it is about 10 years ago. Back then I thought it was stupid, and today I still think it is stupid. Don't get me wrong.. I've written code for GPLed software, but I never held the illusion that it was more than a hobby. These guys like ESR, RMS, and Bruce Perens go around talking like they know it all, and they're changing the world. You've got to wonder if they hate all programmers or what?? God forbid someone want to be paid for their work!!! WTF.

The sour state of the economy was caused by morons like them and their followers. People who thought it would be a good idea to sell dogfood over the internet. People with no grasp whatsoever on basic economics, but with some money in their pocket to waste. Ignoring their growing credit card debts, they figured they'd get rich quick by investing in things new and shiny.

But back to Free Software...

Let me ask you this: If you went up to the average american today, and asked them "Sir/Madam, I going to start a business where we sell a product that is already available for free. I would like you to invest $1,000.00 in my business." You would get laughed out of town!!! Why can't "geeks" figure out this simple bit of common sense?

Sorry if this article is offensive to some people, but I get pissed when people tell me that it is immoral for programmers to want to be able to put food on their tables.

	+1, FP (5.00 / 1) (#1)
	by Craig McPherson on Fri Aug 31st, 2001 at 05:01:09 PM PST

	Good framework. Needs more Vitriol, though. -- If you want to know why Lunix is so screwed up, just take a look at the people who use it. Idiocy.

	this article is consistent with your site. (1.00 / 1) (#2)
	by Anonymous Reader on Sat Sep 1st, 2001 at 12:28:44 PM PST

	The person who wrote this article is not fluent with technology or business. Free software did fine before corporate backing and will probably continue to do so. The FSF got plenty of support from university and industry long before any scene like this was around. They wrote this thing called GCC that people seemed to need and benefit from.

	Doesn't change the fact that Communism fails. (5.00 / 1) (#3)
	by Craig McPherson on Sat Sep 1st, 2001 at 03:40:47 PM PST

	Linux users make me ill. I tried it once, and after realizing that my mouse didn't work in X, I decided to stick with an OS that works without having to reprogram the source code in order to get it to work. I'm ALWAYS happy to take Linux users down a peg or two. According the the Free Software Foundation, the GNU project was begun in 1984, the same year of George Orwell's 1984 (or for you Linux hippies, this version), a book that describes a Communist-dominated world where free-enterprise and free thought have been outlawed. If Linux had existed in 1984, Orwell surely would have included it in the book, but as it was, computers were almost nowhere to be found in the book -- Orwell is clearly trying to make a statement that without free-enterprise, without Microsoft, we wouldn't have computers in our home, we wouldn't have the Internet as part of our daily lives, and we wouldn't be able to communicate our ideas freely around the world.. Since 1984, the GNU operating system (including the most popular branch of it, GNU/Linux or Lignux) has made almost no impact on the world at large. After 17 years of pushing the Communist ideal, the most reliable web traffic reports that less than one half of one percent of all web users are using the GNU operating system. Linux user's make ridiculous claims to refute the plain and simple statistics (completely ignoring Occam's Razor on which modern science is founded), like that nearly 4% Linux users use quasi-legal "freedom proxies" (many of which illegally remove advertising from web pages without the consent of the page owners, thus stealing bandwidth and often putting the page out of business) or "alternative web browsers" (which may very well infringe on Microsoft's patents, and hence be illegal). So let's be generous and say that 0.7% of web browsers use Lignux. Yes, Linux has a greater marketshare in the server market than in the client market, with nearly 20% of all server computers running a non-Microsoft operating system. But the server market is of economic insignificance, because only one server is needed, on average, for every 5000 client machines. Microsoft's Internet Information Server was recently ranked the #1 web server in a survey of 5000 professionally-certified network engineers, with a massive 72% of the vote. Most of the "servers" running Linux are fly-by-night scam companies, student computers in college dorm rooms serving illegal MP3s and stealing money from the recording industry, non-profit organizations and charities (read: "Socialist")s, and "businesses" with so little business sense that they can't even afford to pay for their software. Richard Millhouse Stallman, Principal developer of the operating system often inaccurately called "Linux" (although a self-confessed Socialist with a Communist father from a Socialist scandanavian country tries to steal the credit -- not that I'd know why he wants it), has admitted Communist leanings, and has often made claims that don't quite touch with reality -- for example, Socialist Software would have prevented Mad Cow Disease. Microsoft, as a symbol of Capitalism, is tied to the very economic success of the United States. The Wal-Street Journal recently plotted a graph of Microsoft's stock price over the last 20 years, and then added curves showing the United States's top economic indicators over that same period. The curves matched almost exactly: when Microsoft does well, the nation does well. When Microsoft does poorly, the nation does poorly. In Cuba, where nearly every citizen runs Linux or some other "free" operating system on their home computer, and Microsoft has no established presence, poverty is high. Citizens often "disappear" for speaking out against the government. Quality of life is one of the lowest on the earth. Free Speech does not exist. Go figure. -- If you want to know why Lunix is so screwed up, just take a look at the people who use it. Idiocy.

	Excellent tr^H^Harticle (1.00 / 2) (#4)
	by Anonymous Reader on Sat Sep 1st, 2001 at 04:02:56 PM PST

	This is nearly as good as the Linux Gay Conspiracy ;-)

	Adequacy.org... (5.00 / 1) (#5)
	by Anonymous Reader on Sat Sep 1st, 2001 at 04:13:43 PM PST

	... has a no tr^H^Harticle policy.

	I'll bet you have very, very long hair, right? (5.00 / 1) (#6)
	by Craig McPherson on Sat Sep 1st, 2001 at 07:01:52 PM PST

	Why do Free Software Zealots immediately discount anyone who dares to insult their Holy Operating System of Bliss and Life, without any regard to the facts? Confront any Linux fanatic with some facts critical of Linux, and he'll (I'd say "he or she will", but let's be honest, females are too smart to use a freeware OS) immediately shift into one of two modes: 1. (If the critique is posted on ZDNet, Microsoft, New York Times, etc) "Well, this is what we've come to expect from ZDNet/M$/etc. There's no need to even look at the facts, because it insults our OS so it's FUD so it's wrong. Let's send a bunch of 'YOU SUCK YOU SUCKING MORONS' e-mails to the author of the story and anybody else who wants to hear our rantings, to prove to them that we're mature and intelligent individuals and won't tolerate anybody badmouthing our OS." 2. (If the critique is posted on a message board, newsgroup, etc.) "Guys, this is a troll. Ignore the troll. You can tell he's a troll because he insults Linux. There's no need to even look at the facts, because that's what the troll WANTS us to do. Man, what a great/terrible troll. The trolls lately are really funny/lame. We should congratulate/ban them. The trolls are helping/destroying this message board. Troll, I say, TROLL. We're too afraid to challenge our own beliefs so we'll just laugh at/ignore the troll and go back to wanking." Linux: the choice of mature, sensible people. -- If you want to know why Lunix is so screwed up, just take a look at the people who use it. Idiocy.

	Because you are wrong (3.00 / 2) (#7)
	by Anonymous Reader on Mon Sep 3rd, 2001 at 12:06:42 AM PST

	* Stallman is not a communist * You don't reprogram source code to get a mouse to work...I don't know what problems you had with your mouse or when you had it, but having problems with your mouse seems very unlikely * The GNU philosophy is about the freedom to express source code (a subset of ideas in general) * Web browsers in no way can be patented by Microsoft. Especially since there were web browsers around long before Microsoft cared about the internet * One server per 5000 clients can't be true Basically, by you depth of almost facts which are wrong us GNU/Linux users declare you a troll. Now, in typical troll fashion, you respond hostily but never submit to my claims or compromise. Therefore, discussion with you is fruitless. Be gone troll.

	First of all... (5.00 / 1) (#8)
	by Craig McPherson on Mon Sep 3rd, 2001 at 12:53:40 AM PST

	...get an account if you want to stand the chance of anyone taking you seriously. As long as you're hiding behind a pseudonym, nobody knows if you're legit or just trolling. "Stallman is not a communist" 1. Centralized management of resources. 2. Anti-corporate attitude. 3. "Communal ownership" concepts. 4. Anarchistic attitudes. 5. Frequent Anti-American, Anti-Democratic comments. 6. Long hair, drug use. 7. Common association with Liberal social causes. 8. Advocated the elimination of intellectual property laws. 9. Advocates making software and video piracy legal in the name of "communal ownership of ideas." If he's not a Communist, or at least a left-leaning Socialist. "You don't reprogram source code to get a mouse to work...I don't know what problems you had with your mouse or when you had it, but having problems with your mouse seems very unlikely." Just for kicks, I once went to a "Linux help site", http://www.linuxnewbie.org/ , to see what the hippies were up to. Let me say that I was quite frankly shocked and disturbed by the site. Some people had been posting on the site's message board for YEARS and had upwards of 8,800 posts listed in thier profiles. How it must stink to be one of THOSE losers! In addition to the obsessive tendencies of the "regulars" (basically a clone of the Slashdot crowd), I took a sampling of random questions from the "tech support" forum. Nearly 30% of them were some variant of "How do I get my mouse to work in X?" The answer invariably involved reprogramming the source code to some file called "XF86Config." Yes, very user-friendly. "The GNU philosophy is about the freedom to express source code (a subset of ideas in general)" That's well and good, but: 1. What about the fact that free software can't produce software that normal people can actually use? 2. What about the programmers who need to feed their families and pay their rent? 3. What about people who DON'T WANT their source code to be open? Free software would be fine if it were restricted to the world of free software, but there are two problems with that: a: The viral nature of the GPL. b: The fact that RMS supports stealing, pirating, and involuntary "open sourcing" of software that's NOT covered by the GPL? "Web browsers in no way can be patented by Microsoft. Especially since there were web browsers around long before Microsoft cared about the internet" I don't see exactly how that would work. The web didn't exist before 1993! "One server per 5000 clients can't be true " Maybe if you're using UNIX boxes, one server can only handle 100-1000 clients, but with powerful Windows NT servers, which can run on some of the most powerful computer hardware in the world including the 64-bit Itanium and the 64-bit Alpha, one sever can easily handle up to 10,000 clients without breaking a sweat, assuming you've purchased 10,000 client access licenses. How's that for facts? You won't even respond to them, you'll just call me a "troll" again, not realizing that adequacy.org, the premier site for controversial opinions, does NOT allow trolling and deletes at least a dozen trolls on a daily basis. Anything you read is, therefore, not a troll. -- If you want to know why Lunix is so screwed up, just take a look at the people who use it. Idiocy.

	GCC? Ha! (none / 0) (#10)
	by Anonymous Reader on Tue Sep 4th, 2001 at 07:55:31 AM PST

	GCC is the worst goddamn compiler I've ever used. Every time I've compared it to REAL compilers from REAL commercial *nix vendors, I've gotten much worse results out of GCC, assuming I got any results at all. It takes longer to compile, and produces bigger binaries, which run slower (due to GCC's braindead "optimization").

	I agree with part of your post, but... (5.00 / 2) (#11)
	by Craig McPherson on Tue Sep 4th, 2001 at 03:30:25 PM PST

	who are these "REAL Unix vendors" you speak of? I didn't think there were any. -- If you want to know why Lunix is so screwed up, just take a look at the people who use it. Idiocy.

	Windows RuleZ!!! (1.00 / 1) (#12)
	by Anonymous Reader on Wed Sep 5th, 2001 at 11:25:32 PM PST

	I only use LinuX because my professor sais it will help with my bad programming.. anyways I like Windows! Linux can't even display my fonts correctly. imagine that. And so what I didnt pay anything for it... But I do have one problem with "Logical Analysis" "Logical" morons like you thought people could not sell water few years ago. "You cant sell water!!??" "Its already free dumbasses!!" Well who is looking stupid now?? People make billions on selling water.. BUT ITS FUCKING FREE.. WATER IS FREE.. So is that logical "Logical Analysis" ??

	Real Unix vendors (none / 0) (#14)
	by Anonymous Reader on Fri Sep 7th, 2001 at 12:03:28 AM PST

	HP has an excellent compiler that comes with HP-UX. IBM's AIX and Sun's Solaris also come with good compilers, I believe. SGI has been pretty stupid, so they're going out of business soon, but until they do, they still sell IRIX, which comes with a very well-written optimizing compiler that beats the crap out of GCC any day of the week, for both code-level and processor-level optimizations.

	True, but... (3.00 / 1) (#9)
	by Anonymous Reader on Mon Sep 3rd, 2001 at 05:02:11 AM PST

	Who's to say that big hardware companies aren't going to like it? Who's to say that they don't want to do to Microsoft what Microsoft did to them (basically commoditize their price inflated hardware)? I agree that companies based solely on free software are stupid, but hardware companies have a lot to gain here. They can write the software to promote their own hardware instead of being forced into a contract by Microsoft that states exactly how Microsoft's software is to be presented to the consumers.

	Idiot. (1.00 / 1) (#13)
	by rawGuru on Thu Sep 6th, 2001 at 10:44:18 AM PST

	This has to be the biggest troll post I have ever seen. Windows running 5000 clients. Yeah right. On one side you have MS. They want to tell you what to do. They want to own everything. On the other side you have Linux. They dont care what you do. They will also give you all the tools you need to do it, for free. Sure RMS is an odd ball. Nobody is making you use the GPL. Its just there if you want it. Nobody is making you not charge money for your programming services. You can do whatever you want. The GPL is viral. Thats what it was made for. To keep all software that uses it free. And then there is Linux. You can write all the non-free software you want on Linux without any worry. There is nothing saying that you have to GPL software when you write it for Linux. One last note. If you dont like Linux don't use it. I would not mind at all. I use Linux because it works. I do not use Windows because it does not work. If Windows was good, you would have never seen Linux. OS/2 was the best OS that I have ever used. IBM just didn't put enough into marketing. BeOS was a very good OS as well. If only they had the money to go against MS. Thre is only two ways to beat MS. Have more money, or be freeware. BOFH... You will do it right or not at all.