“People who have been inside enemy lines, Microsoft’s Redmond
facility, say the walls are plastered with “company lines” to
motivate the employees. We immediately rush to the offensive with
“Microsoft is Borg!”, “What a bunch of mindless drones – saying
what other people brainwash them with!”, and other such…
community lines. Is it brainwashing, or buying into the mentality?
Is it as evil as it sounds?”
“At this moment, I am gazing at my computer case, which is
covered in stickers, most of them ones I’ve picked up at various
Linux shows. Phrases like “Linux inside!”, “Support for the
revolution”, and “Sick of crashing?” jump out at me. The
oval-shaped LNX sticker has a place of prominence, as does the
exclamation-point Linux.com sticker. I wonder… when was the last
time anyone saw a Windows sticker (not counting the “Designed for
Windows!” ones on the computers we avoid at Best Buy)? Or sported a
“Geek by nature; Windows by choice” t-shirt? Certainly people at
Redmond don’t have caution tape surrounding their work area
proclaiming it a “Linux-Free Zone”… do they?”
“Where do we draw the line between community involvement and
commune-like brainwashing? If a Linux company gives away shirts
that say, “There’s nothing wrong with Windows 2000… that Linux
can’t fix”, we scramble to sport them proudly at our local Barnes
and Noble just to see the look on other people’s faces. We
wear our hearts on our sleeves, quite literally in some cases. We
are the minority, the proud, the elite who know where it’s really
at and are wondering when the rest of the world will catch up. In
the meantime, we’ll wear our Linux shirts and our Linux hats and
drive our cars with Linux stickers on them and wrap our desks with
“Windows-Free Zone” caution tape (yes, I am guilty of all of these,
and more), enjoying our status as the elite group who is riding the
wave of the future, just you wait and see.”