You don't really care, so why fake it?

NOTE to readers: This is commentary that I was going to delete. But I left it as a warning to you Linux newbies, as to what you can expect when you talk about Linux at parties. Yes, a few of you dorks, just might get invited to one, sometime!

One of the biggest lies I hear all the time, that right up there with my favorite:
"Someday, I've got to learn more about DOS." Which is changing to; "Someday, I've got to learn more about Windows."

These are lies, and every programmer knows that. Because if you knew anything about DOS, you would know, it only manages storage- it does nothing else that is useful. It makes files, and it deletes file, and that's about it. So what you mean by saying this, is a total mystery to us Techies?

So what's this other NEW LIE then? "I would change over to Linux in a minute, except I have to read/write Microsoft Office files all the time." How I know this is a lie, is because the second I point out that Sun's Open Office, which actually comes with all Linux distributions, and opens and writes all MS-Office files, I hear; "Oh, I didn't know that! Is that dip?" And off they shoot, like a person with diarrhea, across the room away from you.

If YOU want to shoot down Linux, Microsoft Office is not a good argument. THE ARGUMENT/excuse is; "I would but I need better support and hardware drivers." Bingo, there is the flaw with running a Linux workplace!

I had the displeasure of buying a Kodak printer recently. And while Kodak gives meaningless lip service to Linux, they don't and will never support it! They are Windows shop, and that's all! Ironically, Kodak cameras work perfectly fine with Linux, because of the USB standard, not because they support it.

Why is Windows / Apple so popular? It's because they do all the work for you, and distribute precompiled code (like I can't reverse engineer that)! God forbid that we should ever have to tell anybody about the secrets of talking to our printer. They clone us for sure! When the guys that are going to clone you, already know all your secrets to begin with. It's just dumb! What they are really afraid of, is intelligent people like me, asking question that they can't answer from a script of stock answers. The concept of actually having to know your product- it's a lost art.

I have respect for men that are honest; "I'm lazy, I don't want to work that hard, and I like things done for me!" Yeah, like that's going to ever happen.

Getting passed the fluff: The real question is not; "What is Open Source?" it's "Why Open Source?" And the stock answer is just stupid: "So you can change it!" Well, if you have 20 years to learn the whole topic, maybe! The facts are that a whole bunch of GNU and Linux are written in scripts. Which means you get code, not a program. Granted it will run transparently like compiled code, but it's not. This came about so that multiple authors could work on the same project, without perfectly matching systems. It's easier development. So it's for their convenience, not so much yours- making that change, is a lie to most of us! So today all Linuxs have Perl/Tcl/Bash/Python/Ruby installed already for you, because it's the backbone of the whole system.

That's just kind of a bonus topic tossed in here.

When I started in computers, years ago. Everything came with a price. Which was ok, because it was a reasonable price. I don't begrudge anyone from making money. But when it all narrowed down to just Microsoft, instead of the prices going down, they went up? I didn't become anti-Microsoft, it was the other way around; Microsoft became anti-Randy! Like they wanted to force me off the market. Today, I think that YOU are wasting your money on Microsoft, which is what makes me an advocate for Linux and Open Source. It's all about economics with me! I can run my business today, on the price of Hardware only. Can you say that?

It's just funny that I never hear anybody say; "Someday, I'll learn more about Linux." I'm sure somebody some where will say it, or I wouldn't have started this blog!