This post is a response to Information Week's article on Bob Sutor's failed attempt to speak for- and consequent preaching down to- the Linux community.
I wanted to let it lie but I just couldn't and since everybody else seems to be doing it, I hereby appoint myself spokesperson for the linux community.
Deep breath... here goes.
1) IBM is not the reason why people are using Linux.
And no, IBM is not a "driver" either. Maybe what they mean is that they once wrote a driver, but thats not really the same thing. Oh, the driver was for Oki Data printers (who?). And it was written with some help from Oki data. But IBM did help- I think they got the coffee or something...
2) Thats because nobody really knows what IBM does with Linux
Sure they have the nice shiny LTC (Linux Technology Centre) which by all accounts has a head count of 10000 and a budget of several billion (OK I'm just joking), but what so they actually do? They are not involved with the steering groups of any of the major linux projects, far less the linux kernel itself. Whats that? Oh they work with eServer? But isn't that actually a commercial product? With no users? Which actually has nothing to do with Linux other than running on it? Did I mention that nobody uses it? mmkay.
3) The desktop on Linux in no way resembles a 2001 version of windows. This is so wrong on so many levels.
Let it suffice to say that Bob Sutor is a foppish wide brimmed asshat who probably doesn't like the inconvenience of actually using Linux since he, like all the other worker drones in his soul-crushing corporate hell, are forced to use a patched version of windows 2000. But hey, that last patch was put out in 2002 (which is way more recent than 2001) and at that last conferance he attended, the keynote speech on Linux was delivered by somebody who had once looked over the shoulder of his nephew while they installed redhat. That means that Bob is a Linux expert bitches. Putting aside for one moment the naked glaring innacuracy that is being screamed at the monitors of 1000 Linux users at this very moment (which is that kde and knome, not linux, provide the desktop), the experience of a recent Ubuntu install comprehensively kicks the butt of even Vista. XP and 2000? No chance. On a side note, I really like the cube.
4) IBM's comments to the Linux community of developers carry a lot of weight. Not.
They just don't. The opinions of IBM are insiginificant to the direction linux is going in, to a degree that is so minuiscule it is hard to quantify. I want to but I can't. Really I can't. NEXT!
5) Bob's 'thinking outside of the box'. He envisions linux running on platforms other than x86 sometime in the future, becoming a strong player in internet-enabled devices.
errrr, Say what now?
Friday, August 8, 2008
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