Linux Geeks To Take Over World 511
B'Trey writes "According to this story by Rob Enderle of TechNewsWorld, Linux geeks are one of the most powerful forces in the world and are set to become the next Mob. Does this mean I get to wear a cool fedora and carry my distro CDs in a violin case?"
Re:You still won't get a date on Friday. (Score:1, Informative)
Re:You still won't get a date on Friday. (Score:5, Informative)
Vroom vroom, Rob. Fire up your stupid Ferrari laptop and go from zero to troll in 3.4 seconds.
Re:You still won't get a date on Friday. (Score:3, Informative)
WTF? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Union? Linux? (Score:4, Informative)
"one of the worst articles ever"?
Before you make such sweeping statements perhaps you should google for Enderley's other articles which easily outstrip even this article. The man is a master of crap, thank you very much. Not easily achieved!
Re:IT does not fit into unions (Score:1, Informative)
It's the sheep that have been convinced by the power holders that collectivisation is not in their interests.
Try to resist the propaganda the Americans feed you.
Not "cats", but "retards" (Score:4, Informative)
1. Being disconnected from reality, and believing in nutjob ideals of purity and perfection, instead of more realistic compromises that work.
Which is at least mildly entertaining when it comes to "vi vs emacs vs Eclipse vs VS.NET" flame wars, in which some small detail is inflated to mean "it's not 100% perfect, so it 100% sucks." But it's less funny to see people shaft themselves and screw up their own life in pursuit of that pure utopia and relentless shunning anything less than perfect. Between something like (A) having a boss that shits on you, demands 84 hour weeks, makes "YOUR job could be the next to move to India" a corporate motto, and generally makes Dilbert's PHB and Catbert look like good compassionate folks, and (B) a union, a nerd will keep option A because B isn't 100% perfect.
2. Disconnected from reality again, in the form of believing in nut-job extremist theories, of course dressed up to look like some 100% perfect ideal as mentioned above. You're pretty much not a nerd if you don't really believe in some oriental religion, or magic, or global conspiracies, or... some bullshit idealization of pure unregulated capitalism, 19th century style. Which is what we're seeing waved around every time someone mentions unions.
"Noo, unions just let people demand more pay for worse performance! They get in the way of capitalism! Let's get rid of minimum wages, unemployment benefits, medical insurance, etc, too! Make those lazy bums work harder!"
Well, guess what, folks? That unregulated capitalism didn't work _that_ great for the country. It just served to funnel most of the benefits into the pockets of a small oligarhy, while 90% of the population was living only _barely_ better than slaves on a plantation, and were left to literally starve the instant they had an accident and couldn't work any more.
Using _that_ model to rise productivity and GDP, yeah, would work, except it wouldn't be _you_ who sees any benefits out of it. You'd just have over half the factories producing bigger yacht and personal planes for CEOs while you're starving on a miserable wage. That's what historically did happen.
3. Insecure. Nooo, maybe the boss will fire me if I don't kiss his ass and lick his boots. Or god forbid join a union that says "no, sorry, 110% unpaid overtime is right out." Better keep a low profile instead, not stand out from the crowd, and line up for the daily boot licking routine like everyone else.
Instead let's whine on
Guess what, folks? It won't. If you're even vaguely tempted to compare your job to Dilbert comics, chances are that your management already knows you're spineless. They won't grow a compassionate side, they'll keep piling shit upon you and thinking it's _normal_. That's how you got there in the first place.
4. Hidden behind a "Nice Guy" (TM) facade. Nah, can't do something as nasty as, ugh, a strike to the boss. Would tarnish that "Nice Guy" facade and all that.
5. In reality not that nice, and self-centred to ridiculous extremes. Just you're the smart guy, everyone else is a retard, right?
The sad reality is that your average nerd doesn't want to fight for _others'_ rights. "Whaaat? And end up having to do a strike too, to support workers from another company? Why would I want to go on strike when it's not about _me_?" seems to be another major theme that pops up on these boards and others each time someone even mentions unions.
Well, guess what, folks? You're not really the centre of the universe. The Real World (TM) is a give-and-take place. People will help you if you help them. That's what it's all about. If you want it all to be only about _you_, then you're on your own. And that's how the IT worker conditions got to be the mess that they are.
Re:You still won't get a date on Friday. (Score:0, Informative)
If the "official" unions in the US are indeed corrupted (probably not true, "Union Busting" is a sport in the US), then find alternative, more aggressive unions like those similar to the IWW, surely there must be some Anarcho-Syndicalist unions out there.
They usually have a direct democracy model with a rotational principle, so that every member can have a say in things, to avoid abuse of power.
The purpose of unions is for workers to have more power against their employers, to make sure they receive the fruits of their labor, to limit the exploitation of themselves by ther employers.
Don't complain when your jobs are outsourced to India, if you aren't organized, it's your own damn faults that you are powerless.