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?"
Commentary, not journalism (Score:4, Insightful)
The reason why this is a commentary and not an article is because there are few or no facts to back up the majority of what Rob Enderle says. I personally consider that unprofessional, even if it doesn't technically break the rules.
-Jem
Re:A story without much of a point (Score:3, Insightful)
It would be nice. (Score:4, Insightful)
The problem is, a good number of geeks are anti-union. Not for any clear reason, as unions originally formed in England in the times of King Charles (in coffee houses, no less, which is why he banned them), as a means of providing health insurance. Members donated money towards a fund, and when someone got sick, the union payed for the best care they could afford.
Today, there are health providers for that, working in a closed fashion, picking providers by means of a closed algorithm, choosing whether to pay or not by a closed review based on closed criteria you will never see. For some reason, many geeks find this preferable to a member-run union system, which could be as open as you liked.
Unions also guarantee that employees have reasonable rights. Not everything in the book, but reasonable rights. At present, equal rights at work is something that's put on a poster, but rarely practiced. With a union that is balanced in membership and structure, that could be reversed very rapidly. Of course, there are some who would object to equality and employment by merit, but I think most people are out of the Middle Ages at this point.
Of course, there are corrupt Unions. America is filled with them, where there is virtually no balance, little honesty or integrity, and just as much closed-mindedness as they were intended to defeat.
So? Are you telling me that the nation's brightest and best (cos to be a geek, you practically have to be!) can't build a better Union? They've wiped the floor with proprietary software, overwhelmed and "Turned" many corporate giants, but can't even come up with a working system to govern their own lives?
If the only Unions in history had been Evil Monsters, I might be sympathetic. But ignorance produced by closed-source attitudes is the very Evil that geeks are commited to destroying.
More Enderle FUD. (Score:5, Insightful)
My read is that this is a pathetic attempt to link "Linux" and "union" in the minds of IT management. The article is absurd on it's face. It relys on a redefinition of the words "Linux" and "union" in order to make it work, thus rending the entire ridiculous screed meaningless.
This is WAR! (Score:5, Insightful)
At no time in history has a technology firm been as thoroughly attacked as SCO.
In 2003, SCO started a lawsuit against IBM, began spreading FUD, and demanded $699 for every copy of Linux. Their lies have been attacked, as they should be. SCO's business has suffered because of this, but that's just collateral damage. If you offend a lot of people, a large number of them will respond negatively.
their executive leadership has been threatened, and their ability to function has been almost completely eliminated.
That's what happens when you attack a community. But it was wrong to make physical threats. Please don't imagine that because someone made a threat then all people against SCO must all be terrorists.
In addition, companies using Linux technology and not complying with the GPL generally face a combination of legal and public relations exposures
EXACTLY. People who commit civil torts should face legal sanctions. Why is the article suggesting it's wrong to enforce a licence? Should Microsoft or IBM not enforce their licences?
Let's take the most powerful software company in the world, Microsoft, and imagine a scenario where they had a problem with a negative article. Generally they could call and complain
And that's pretty much what happened - a large number of people complained to the publisher and the advertisers. It is their right, isn't it? It's not mob rule to complain when someone pisses you off.
The O'Gara/PJ saga also demonstrates the lack of mature leadership.
There was no leadership... just a large number of individuals who expressed their views on MOG's article. Linux folks don't need no stinking leadership. Linux isn't a union or a political party.
Without strong leadership any organization with this much power can easily find itself with an image more similar to that of organized crime
I really can't see anyone organizing Linux folks on anything other than a technical level. Too diverse, too independent, too spread out across the globe, too focused on technical issues, too apolitical probably.
I have to wonder if this is just another round in the MS/Linux war. Enderle seems to have picked his side - the one with the money - and is attacking the enemy to the best of his ability. Fortunately, that's not a big threat.
Re:Power to reproduce (Score:0, Insightful)
To be fair, although the multinationals do have a lot to thank the OSS community for, I think the OSS community has a lot to thank the multinationals for in return. Take Open Office, where would that project be without Sun buying StarDivision in 1999 and open sourcing StarOffice 5.2 in 2000?
Personally I feel that the current relationship is symbiotic and works well. Sure in the future the OSS community should probably become less reliant on the multinationals, as long as they don't bite the hand that's fed them.
Portability under Linux (Score:3, Insightful)
Portability is the difference between surviving and not surviving; at least for me. Linux is not the one true OS, but it is an excellent example of the new way of thinking, a way which doesn't have greed at its core.
Re:You still won't get a date on Friday. (Score:5, Insightful)
Open source hackers -- the old "cathedral" FUD notwithstanding -- have always been a collection of individuals who relied upon their own unique skills to bring new ideas to the table and to share them with others.
Perhaps this union would better suit the MCSE crowd.
Re:You still won't get a date on Friday. (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:You still won't get a date on Friday. (Score:3, Insightful)
Why u wanna repeat those lies? (Score:4, Insightful)
Enderle is still trying to work that meme but no one has shown it to be factual.
The majority of zombies are WINDOWS boxes.
None of SCO's claims of "threats" or "attacks" have been substantiated. Yet if they WERE attacked, it would be ultra-easy to post the logs showing it.
SCO's "evidence" of the "attacks" are the same as the "millions of lines" of "stolen" code they've claimed. Non-existant.
Enderle's Subtle Axe (Score:5, Insightful)
Linux, you see is an underworld agent threatening your profits. With that idea firmly planted, Enderle reaches for his current favorites in his arsenal.
SCO is a reasonable company besieged because they dared sue IBM. This is where Enderle gets to note DoS attacks and personal threats. It seems this alone has sunk SCO and not anything to do with their own buisness tactics or actual strength of their case against IBM. For some reason he also takes this time to mention Microsoft and point out that even this powerhouse is powerless in the face of such an onslaught.
Enderle also notes that companies who violate the GPL face union-like retaliation. And while it does point out "Linux" (which Enderle notes early on he doesn't wish to distinguish from other players) has managed to defend its license... the implication is certainly that this isn't business as normal.
Enderle's next favorite is the O'Gara incident. He generously describes the involved piece as an incomplete expose where O'Gara "implied, but did not prove, that PJ worked for IBM." What Enderle fails to note is that O'Gara also implied that PJ was a paranoid nutjob with generally frowned-on religious beliefs. The impression implied is that the Linux community apparently responded to unwelcome news rather than a personal hatchet job bordering on harassment. And again, Enderle gets a chance to trot out the DoS boogyman. Whats interesting is that he characterizes disapproving emails to advertisers supporting Sys-Con as an "attack". In the end, Enderle characterizes the negative response to this incident as power not even wielded by big corporations or governments. If demands aren't met, Linux moves against you.... and it would seem fits you for digital cement loafers.
You see - Linux is the new Mob. That is Enderle's subtle point. It's more subtle than his normal attacks. But it is a hatchet job, none the less.
One final comment - it's interesting how Enderle highlights the O'Gara incident as damning PR for the Linux community. The opinion is that if the community hadn't responded to O'Gara, the piece would have simply slipped past unnoted. But instead, it was picked up by major trades and gave Linux a black eye. Readers might want to question for themselves why the major news outlets picked this up and pay close attention to the players. Is this Enderle claiming that "suits are back" [paulgraham.com]?
Re:You still won't get a date on Friday. (Score:3, Insightful)
He is trying to scare people away from Linux, by saying that the developers are all powerfull. Like as if they could just uninstall the software and source from your systems all of a sudden. What a stupid article, and what bad summary here on slashdot.
Re:You still won't get a date on Friday. (Score:5, Insightful)
No big organization is entirely free of corruption and greed and unions are no different. For all their flaws, they have done some good. Look at history. What were conditions in the factories like before unions? It was these horrible conditions that gave rise to unions in the first place.
Unions are far from perfect, but so is management at most companies. Just look at the US Airways story [timesonline.com] to see why unions are still needed.
No morons where? (Score:3, Insightful)
Using the Bar Association as an example of an organization that knows how to keep morons out probably wasn't the best choice.
My note to Mail Author (Score:3, Insightful)
You're dead wrong. You're so wrong it's amazing. In creating comparisons between unions, large corporations, and movements, you are being more than mildly unwise, and making yourself look like, in so many ways, someone who is both paid to know what he's talking about, and completely unaware of what he is talking about. Your article is more of a 'run away from Linux' pile of steaming bison-dung than almost anything else I have read in years. The particular incident you are mentioning was a case of invasion of privacy. Were Microsoft's minions to have their privacy invaded - or, God Forbid, the Great Bill have His Privacy Infringed Upon - they would be shot, stabbed, sued, and then their family would have had to eat the body for lack of charity from all the scared peons around them. Whoever paid you to find some way to portray negatively the Linux community and Open Source Movement certainly got what they paid for.
Secondly, to the difference between movements, unions, and corporations: Corporations are after profit, and only profit. Corporations are bereft of certain interpersonal skills, not being people and all. They're treated like people because of - essentially - historical need that is in some ways outdated and some ways still around. Unions are bands of workers attempting to equal the playing field any way they can, and live better lives by negotiating as a group. Movements have a calling. Movements want to make everything better for everyone involved by changing the very playing field. Where unions attempt to negotiate as a whole, movements simply happen. They happen for completely different reasons from unions or corporations. In the case of the Open Source Movement, it has happened not for profit, but for efficiency. The Open Source Movement has happened in response to copyright law making the professions of so many intelligent people frustratingly inefficient in a closed, corporate, trade-secret based environment. In response to their frustration, due to smart people not doing the same thing twice, and really smart people not wanting to do the same thing anyone else has done ever before, 'nerds' have started to share. In the name of efficiency, not accumulated negotiation. If you look at the people behind open source, you look at the people who push it forward the most, they're the ones who benefit through being able to USE it as much as anyone else. The sponsors and creators are working in the name of efficiency, that thing captialism is supposed to drive the hardest. And many of them have managed to make huge amounts of money along the way. Not Bill Style Money, which is apparently all you're paid to respect, but money that they're willing to put back into the community that helped them get where they ended up.
As far as I'm concerned, Slashdot doesn't need people like you peeping in. You don't get it. I'd love to say this with a lower user ID, but this is all I've got, and I say you're fifteen years older than me and not as perceptive about what you're talking about, despite being paid.
Re:You still won't get a date on Friday. (Score:4, Insightful)
This is the kind of article that, if presented to a freshman composition instructor, would be returned with red text in the margin saying "I'm not accepting this until you actually do some research. This work is unacceptable."
He was so far off the mark it was almost comical. He reminded me of an old man sitting in the park, mumbling about how we "oughta just nuke all them arabians, and dem Frenchies, too". You hear him talk, you marvel at the absolute lack of clue, and you wonder if he's just putting you on... Then you realize, no, he really IS that feeble-minded.
And you go have lunch, completely putting the weird old fart out of your mind.
Re:No morons where? (Score:1, Insightful)
Moron or propaganda? Both!! (Score:4, Insightful)
Of course, his argumentation is weak enough to make him look like a moron. Which he probably is, otherwise he would act in a more subtle and difficult to disprove way.
Let's have a look at his technique:
1) He starts with the probably valid point that the emergence of a Software Labor Union is not unlikely, due to reasons he lists IMHO correctly.
2) "Linux: Critical Mass Requirement Met"
Here, he jumps to talking about a union of Open Source developers, conveniently ignoring that the worst working conditions are reported from (closed source) game development studios. Which is where I would expect the first Software Labor Unions to pop up.
He goes on to talk about "Linux and open source has penetrated most technical schools, government IT shops, and technology companies", in order to make it sound more dangerous.
In order to buy this so far, you have to be uninformed or stupid. But this paragraph could still be excused as a slip in wording by a guy that needs a bit of pep in his article
3) "Linux: Organization Requirement Met"
Much talk about the trouble SCO is in, and vague accusations about criminal activities for which the Open Source is supposedly responsible.
Again, he conveniently ignores that SCO made most of the trouble for itself. Sueing a company like IBM who can afford excellent lawyers itself, plus pissing off your own (ex-)business partners is hardly a good strategy.
More talk about how "its [Microsofts] supporters often appear as an endangered species during a government-approved hunting season". By now, we are clearly in propaganda country.
3) "Linux: Power Requirement Met"
Here, Enderle talks about how Maureen O'Gara wrote an article about PJ of Groklaw and the resulting backlash forced Sys-Con to pull the article.
"Linux effectively made good on a threat that is beyond even Microsoft's reach, and often beyond the U.S. government's reach. That threat is putting your company out of business if the desired result is not achieved"
Wrong on two accounts:
a) There were no "threats" in the way a mobster would make them.
b) Microsoft has done similar things before. By other means, but they have put companies out of business that got in their way. Remember Netscape?
"What is even more amazing is the effort was so powerful it may have eliminated a sister publication as collateral damage. LinuxWorld may no longer be a viable publication after the voluntary departure of its entire editorial staff."
And the editorial staff explicitly said that they were leaving due to lack of journalistic integrity on part of the publisher. Forgot to mention that, Mr.Enderle?
4) "Linux: Leadership Unmet"
Here, he tries to pass of the Open Source community as fanatics and lunatics who use their power irresponsibly. To back up his argumentation, he gives a few links to media who have picked up the story about O'Gara and claims the effort backfired.
But if you actually follow the links, O'Gara does NOT look like the good girl in this controversy.
Overall, Enderle comes off as a second-rate propaganda writer rather than as an analyst.
Re:My note to Mail Author (Score:2, Insightful)
However, the assumption that the people talking about F/OSS (not necessarily those creating it) can be led is not true; nor do those running individual projects necessarily want to lead them. I think that the claims of DoS are shocking -- if true and intentional then the slashbots et al. need to grow out of this kind of behaviour (but if it was an unintentional slashdotting, that's unfortunate). Calling an e-mail campaign (the e-mail version of letter-writing campaigns) an 'attack' shows that the guy got carried away with his own story and hyperbole.
I wonder why we get these trolls posted to the front page? Would troll.slashdot.org be a better section place for this that we can deselect in preferences?
Re:You still won't get a date on Friday. (Score:2, Insightful)
Why do you think the wages there are so much lower, it's not all cost of living. These people are prepared to work under conditions and for compensations that are very much reminiscent of the situation here about 100 years ago, including child labour and modern forms of wage slavery.
Re:You still won't get a date on Friday. (Score:3, Insightful)
I definitely liked the Maureen O'Gara thing: no mention whatsoever that the staff of LinuxWorld got fed up with O'Gara's half-ass researched articles, etc., no, instead, "In a coordinated combination of attacks which included a broad DOS attack on Sys-Con and an e-mail attack on Sys-Con's advertisers, Linux effectively made good on a threat that is beyond even Microsoft's reach..."
Awsome. We are to be feared. More power to us. But not with articles that describe us as the next bad thing....