On Sep 10, 9:21 pm, hymen.the....@xxxxxxxxx wrote:
> One total asshole over in comp.os.linux.advocacy posts thousands of
> messages a month to the group and very few get replies except from his
> shills, Homer, Mark Kent and William Poaster.
Roy posts articles that are relevant to Linux, showing where Linux has
increased penetration, and how Microsoft has attempted to stop Linux.
Linux has disrupted Microsoft, and even when Linux isn't the only OS
on the user's desktop, applications that were originally written for
Linux have also been designed to run on Windows as well. Firefox,
Open Office, cygwin, and many other applications have begun to put a
dent into Microsoft's "Applications barrier to entry".
Virtualization, Cygwin libraries, Java 2, and AJAX have provided the
ability to support Linux and Windows equally well.
In some cases, it's not even necessary to recompile.
Even when the front end is IE and Windows, it's nearly impossible to
spend a day without going to Linux servers and Unix servers, accessing
server sites powered by Java, PHP, Apache, Tomcat, Jakarta, Struts,
and even JBoss, most of which started as Linux based OSS projects.
Eclipse is becoming one of the most popular multi-platform application
frameworks. The main reason for this is that it supports Linux as
well as Windows.
> Another poster posts a couple of messages with topics like 'Linux is
> free, Windows is not' and 'People would rather pay for Windows than
> get Linux for free'
For most people, the perception is that Windows is free. It comes
with their PC, it's pre-installed, they don't get a significant
discount if they order a machine without it, and the OEM has to pay
for the licenses whether they are used or not.
What is remarkable isn't that so many machines are sold with Windows,
but that so many of those who buy machines that were sold with
Windows, purchase machines that have been optimized to be "Linux
Ready". It's hard to say how many of these "Linux Ready" systems are
actually converted to Linux, but it is very easy to add Linux to most
of these systems.
For most people, Linux isn't a replacement for Windows, it's an
enhancement to the PC. Only about 5% of the Linux user community uses
Linux exclusively. Most Linux users are more pragmatic. They run a
combination of Linux and Windows.
Cygwin provides the ability to run applications written for Linux on
Windows. Cygwin supports Windows 9x, NT 4, 2K, XP, and Vista. Users
can install only the command line applications, or they can install
the X11 server and run Linux graphics applications including KDE and
Gnome tools.
VMWare Player, VirtualPC, and other Virtualization programs allow
Windows users to run Linux as a virtual system on Windows. The
Windows user launches the Linux application like it was an
application. For many new Linux users, "Appliances" of this type are
often the easiest way to try Linux. Many applications vendors have
eliminated the entire installation process, by just offering a VMWare
Player "appliance". Vendors such as Oracle, IBM, SAP, and many others
are now offering "evaluation systems" preconfigured using Linux VMs.
> and instantly they get hundreds of replies while
Often, a Windows advocate posts on this group with one of the classic
arguments, and it's an opportunity to share how to respond to similar
comments in the marketplace.
> the so called Linux advocates messages get 3 at best replies and those
> three are the same three people talking to each other.
Generally, posting to the "home team" doesn't generate much of a
conversation. You get better responses and more interesting
conversations in this group when you make contriversial claims. For
example, if I claim that over 51% of all PCs are made "Linux Ready",
there will be responses saying that this is an absurd number, and
public statements by CEOs of OEMs suggesting that the number isn't
that far off (Dell saying "most" PCs were being sold with XP instead
of Vista).
> Don't believe it?
You observations aren't that far off.
> Go look for yourself.
I deleted your stats, but your observations aren't that far off.
> Linux advocacy is deader than yesterday's news about Brittany Spears.
> She bombed at the MTV awards in case you have not heard.
So did Vista :-D.
Linux Advocacy has spread. It used to be that this was the only venue
for getting the word out, that didn't end up getting filtered,
censored, or just disappearing almost instantly.
New technologies such as digg, blogs, and wikis have reduced the need
for repetitive discussions of the same old stuff. Publishers who
provide feedback are tending to keep pro-linux feedback longer.
There are also deeper pockets involved. Sam Palmisano, Michael Dell,
and Eric Schmidt are huge Linux advocates. When Sam says he wants to
have everyone at IBM using Linux as much as possible by the end of
2007, it's something that makes you take notice. Compared to that,
Rex Ballard, a long time advocate and IT Architect, just isn't as
interesting.
When Eric Schmidt says that Linux was critical to the success of
Google, which now is one of the most profitable media giants in the
industry, that's much more interesting than a guy who used to work as
a director of electronic distribution for Standard & Poor's or as
director of the Alliance Developer program for Dow Jones.
When the OWNERS and CEOs of 8,000 publishers say they are using Linux
and OSS for most of their online publications, that's much more
interesting than hearing from the guy who shared OSS with technicians
who worked for those 8,000 publishers back in 1997.
When the CEOs and CTOs of JPMC, SunTrust, Bank of America, Citibank,
and HSBC share that they are aggressively using Linux and OSS, that's
much more interesting than a guy who worked as a consultant for 20-30
banks and financial institutions, and introduced them to Linux and OSS
from 1996-2007.
Roy Shestowitz digs up those postings from the leaders, movers, and
shakers of $billion+ companies, government agencies, and shares them
in this group.
Microsoft has their "Fast Facts" site.
Linux has Roy on Google.
> BTW here is that posters google stats, which are sicko if you ask me,
> get a life already:
It's much easier to post 40 articles/day when all you need to do is
paste the link and a 1 paragraph quote. Roy has been a bit more
efficient lately by combining a number of articles on a theme. Roy
will often post links to a total of over 400 Linux related articles
per day.
I don't know if Roy is paid for his advocacy, but he probably should
be.
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