Linux.com: A Clarification… to What the World is Coming To

“I know what you’re all thinking. “Oh, look, it’s that Basil
freak again. Why doesn’t he just shut up?” Well, “What the World is
Coming To” was my first article, and many of you agreed with it.
Thank you to those who did. Not to say that those who don’t agree
with me aren’t to be thanked; they helped me realize where I didn’t
explain what I was trying to say completely. So here’s my
rebuttal-slash-clarification to Wednesday’s article. It might
change a few minds, and at the very least, you’ll have a better
idea of what you’re disagreeing with.”

“…More people is always good. At the very worst reason it gets
companies to put money into Linux. What IS a bad thing is
people that come in for the wrong reasons. Newbies in general are
great for Linux, and I often visit Linux news groups to give them
help. Yes, I too was a newbie, I haven’t forgotten, and to tell you
the truth, I haven’t completely outgrown it yet. Contrary to
what many people say, however, there are times when the free, open
OS is a bad idea. My father has Windows, and when I’m at his house
I use IE5 and Word2000 all the time, and I can’t believe anyone
could honestly say Linux is better for simple tasks like e-mail and
word processing. It just isn’t. And neither of those programs
crashes anymore than Linux’s counterparts. To my dad, therefore,
Linux would not be a good choice. It’s just another OS, with more
rules and quirks he’d have to learn, only to come out with about
the same performance.”

“Once again, no. I’m not a guru. I don’t code, I never said I
did (and just for Mr. Anonymous over there, I was far from being
born when ‘pinkos’ were around). What I do is I use my computer at
home. I use it out of pure curiosity, and we all know Linux is just
great for that. Like I said, I don’t code, yet. What I do to
contribute is test beta programs and write bug reports, advocate
Linux, etc. So, of course I don’t expect gurus out of every single
Linux user. What I would like to see is some sort of contribution.
After all, for all of you who said I don’t understand the open
source concept, user contribution is, in essence, your payment for
open software. It’s open for the sole reason that you can
contribute. So yes, I expect people to contribute to Linux.”

Complete
Story