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It seems likely that everyone here has heard the old saw "No one ever got fired for buying|using Microsoft". Well, times change.
The government of the Italian province of South Tyrol wants to save money and, noting Munich's savings of over 10 million euros, it sees Free Software as a solution. (The freedom thing isn't lost on them either.)
Governor Arno Kompatscher says "We've started to review our license costs. If there are free and open source alternatives, and where the costs and risks of changing are justified, we will switch to these." The new policy is meant to reduce IT costs. Should this fail, the region must resort to reduce its workforce, in order to balance the region's budget.
Did you catch the nuance? If you are a gov't employee and they can't change software because you aren't adaptable enough to use something other than Windows, you can plan on being the first one out the door. Hat tip to Robert Pogson for just the right spin on this story.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Hairyfeet on Monday April 21 2014, @03:22AM
Everyone here should probably know that ANYTHING by Robert Pogson should be taken with a fucking TRUCKLOAD of salt because the man is certifiably batshit. How batshit? The man has Voldemort syndrome [tmrepository.com]. I swear to God its true, its so bad that some of us that post on Linux insider has made a game out of it, see if you can trick crazy pogson into saying the "M" word...nobody has managed to pull it off. not in 5 fricking years has he EVER said Microsoft or Windows, its "The other OS" like a fucking ninja hit team led by Bill gates will murder him if he says the word.
So just remember when you are dealing with Pogson you are dealing with a guy that probably has a penguin shrine in his home and has his car blessed by St. iGNUcious, just saying.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by Appalbarry on Monday April 21 2014, @04:09AM
Oh Lord - if only I still had some mod points!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 21 2014, @04:28AM
a fucking TRUCKLOAD of salt
You really don't get the "a grain of salt" metaphor, do you?
Hint: You went the wrong direction with the quantity.
not in 5 fricking years has he EVER said Microsoft or Windows
Why would he advertise for the competition?
When M$ says "Linux", it's accompanied with "cancer".
certifiably batshit
We'll let everyone judge for himself.
Something I wrote previously: [soylentnews.org]
Blogger and Linux advocate Robert Pogson taught high school in the Great White North in one of the poorest communities north of the Rio Grande.
He started with a pile of disused Lose95 boxes infected to the gunwales, without a COA anywhere to be found, zero budget, and with no Linux experience.
The cost of shipping anything to that remote area was ridiculously expensive.
Your situation can't possibly be any worse.
One thing he found was that every year there were a few kids who wanted to learn even more than the basics.
He channeled that energy and that made his workload lighter.
M$ teaches dependency--specifically corporate dependency; don't fall into that trap and don't teach the kids that.
You are reminding me of story of the ponytail.
http://tinyurl.com/KenStarks-vs-WindozeSupportGuy [tinyurl.com] (orig) [blogspot.com]
-- gewg_
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday April 21 2014, @11:07AM
The path to refuting "Voldemort syndrome" is not likely to include "M$" and "Lose95."
Look, Pogson has taken a perfectly reasonable statement by the South Tyrolian governor, and allowed his anti-Microsoft fantasy to turn it into a projected David-vs-Goliath campaign. The actual statement, any reasonable reader understands that Kompatscher is trying to save money by reducing licensing costs. (-- notice the period, indicating the completion of a thought) If they can not balance the budget by reducing licensing costs, then they will reduce staff. (new thought, indicating a second strategy for balancing the budget)
It's like saying "I'm trying to pay off my credit card debt by cutting out latte's. If that doesn't work, then I'll cut back on beer." That doesn't mean I've been drinking latte-flavored beer - it means I've prioritized categories in which to reduce expenses.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by mojo chan on Monday April 21 2014, @09:11AM
Indeed, TFS is obviously bullshit. Budgets are limited, local government is making cuts to staffing all over and these guys found a way to keep some people in work by switching to a cheaper OS. It's not a threat, it's a simple statement of fact - if their plan fails they will have to go back to cutting jobs because there is no money.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday April 21 2014, @02:21PM
Glad to see that coming up with a catchy buzzword "diagnosis" is all it takes to prove "insanity" these days.
And you cite a site defining "Voldemort(tm)" (no use of the word "syndrome" anywhere on that page, by the way) as being what this one guy has, specifically referencing Microsoft. That's about as honest as writing a Wikipedia article with the specific aim to support your viewpoint.
P.S: The whole purpose of that site is to denigrate "freetards"? Thanks; you get the Prejudicial Holier-Than-Thou Asshole trophy of the day.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Monday April 21 2014, @05:07PM
Slurping that koolaid, huh pal? And that website is made BECAUSE FREETARDS USE TROPES that are JUST AS PREDICTABLE as ANYTHING on TVTropes! If you take the top 20 TMs you can break down ANY FOSSie post and have it 100% covered, from shills/trolls/vampires [tmrepository.com] to circle of loon [tmrepository.com], from stable ABI nonsense [tmrepository.com] to works for me [tmrepository.com], its ALL TROPES because they use the same tired old bullshit over and over AND OVER.
If you want to be butthurt that its so easy to point out the tropes how about NOT USING TROPES that are frankly older than Stallman's neckbeard,mmmkay?
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday April 21 2014, @10:16PM
Yes, because anyone who disagrees with you in brainwashed. Obviously.
Just because you repeat the same argument doesn't make it necessarily wrong. And calling someone who disagrees with you an idiot doesn't help anything, either. From a five minute skim of a few random entries on that site, it doesn't appear to offer any constructive criticism, only FLOSS-bashing. Very enlightened, pointing out the failings of your opponent in a maximally scornful way, dressed up in faux-psychological terminology and a holier-than-thou bow on top.
Protip: You leading off with calling us "freetards" makes me instantly skeptical of anything you say.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Monday April 21 2014, @10:21PM
Good lord, this site reads like a how-to guide of fallacious arguments and hypocrisy. I don't even know where to start.
The real joke, though, is any argument I made, you would slap one of these labels on and consider it dismissed.
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday April 22 2014, @04:34AM
If you use nothing but tropes? Damned straight I'll dismiss it because they are TALKING POINTS and NOT a discussion. Its NO different than when you are dealing with a religious zealot that keeps going back to the dogma when in doubt, from Scientology with their dianetics to Christians that just keep spewing bible passages, its NOT discussion, its TALKING POINTS.
So damned straight if you start spewing those same lame memes like "works for me" or "stable ABI nonsense" you can expect me to call it out for what it is, dogma. This is why I have always separated a FOSS advocate from a FOSSie, because a FOSS advocate can rationally discuss the pros and cons of any system with authority while a FOSSie like Pogson with his Voldemort syndrome can't do anything but run back to the great book of GNU for more dogma.
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday April 22 2014, @04:35PM
Is it still dogma if it's true? Obviously not all of it, but...
"Lame memes" is in the eye of the beholder. Using the same preaching-to-the-choir with vehement opponents won't work...usually you can never change someone's mind unless they're already thinking about changing it.
Hmm. Well, thanks for that, at least. With the vitriol present on that site, I wasn't expecting to hear such an admission.
Computers suck in general. Open and closed source both have their pros and cons and most of the arguments we have between them turn out to be the same ones, really. I'll admit I probably have more faith in open source than I really should, but part of that is a reaction to closed-source controlling most of the market/world. We all fall victim to our knee-jerk reactions, even when we try not to. Or maybe I'm just not sufficiently enlightened :-)
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
(Score: 2) by Hairyfeet on Tuesday April 22 2014, @08:34PM
The vitriol is the result of FOSSies, who like moonies ONLY speak in dogma. You get anecdotes with zero proof, you get "UseDistroX" where X will always be a Distro you haven't named, you get "Works For Me" with again zero proof or even a screencap showing they actually have it working, its all complete and total bullshit.
This is why I say there is a difference between a FOSS advocate and a FOSSie, and I have NO problems with FOSS advocates BTW, because instead of resorting to lame memes they say "I personally like X and here is why" dot dot dot where the dots are their explanation of why it works for them. They are quick to point out any difficulties they had in setup, any ongoing issues, and they don't pretend that Linux is a magical pixie dust panacea for all that ails because as you rightly pointed out ALL OSES SUCK to one degree or another. Hell I have written an "Ode to hating of Vista" and "Win 8 why you so dumb?" with long lists of the boneheaded shit that is in that OS, because again nothing is perfect.
That is NOT however what you get from a FOSSie, instead it is NEVER the OS, ITS YOU. Either you aren't "buying the right hardware" which if you have to buy special hardware its not a WINDOWS replacement, its a MAC, the God fucking awful "GUIs" that are nothing but CLI screen scrapers are perfect because "CLI makes you smart TM", and the one I have heard most often which is fucking hilarious is "If they would only embrace the power of CLI". CLI is nothing but a 1970s GUI designed for repitive tasks and scripting, not the fucking force LOL.
Trust me friend, you are NOT a FOSSie. Go over to LinuxInsider and spend a little time talking to Pogson or KiVolt and find out what a FOSSie is. I bet my last dollar within 30 minutes of speaking with them you'l go "Holy shit, the fuckers are batshit insane!" BTW that whole Voldemort thing? NOT A JOKE, in over FIVE YEARS we have never gotten pogson to say Microsoft, Windows, or even MS or MSFT, its ALWAYS "The other OS" or once in a blue moon you can get the lamer "M$" from him, he really IS that batshit, like Ballmer has a ninja hit tam waiting to strike if he EVAR types the words...I wish I was fucking joking man, I'm not, the FOSSie faction is THAT religious about GNU, to them its a fucking cult man. This is why I am quick to call out a FOSSie, because just as we saw in TFS where he took two completely unrelated concepts, 1.- We need to save money so we'll use a cheaper product, and 2.- if this doesn't save enough money we are gonna have to let people go, and turned that into another "little guy triumphs over the Redmond Satan!" propaganda bullshit.
but please do not take MY word for it, head on over to Linux Insider and look up any article by ms Noyes. Pogson ALWAYS is a major contributor to those and it doesn't matter what the topic is, you'll get it turned into a religious "GNU VS Satan" line along with as I said the Voldemort thing, even if he has to tapdance around the word Microsoft so fucking hard it makes him sound like he's completely mad. Full disclosure....you'll see also in any article by ms Noyes comments filled with hatred for me because I am the "resident Windows guy" that she uses for an alternative spin on the topic. It was made QUITE clear from the outset that that was my job, she wanted the Windows side of the articles for balance, but go look at the comments because its fricking hilarious how butthurt the FOSSie faction gets with ANY form of dissent. I have been called "shillstrollsvampires TM" and much worse more times than I can count because with the FOSSie faction the ONLY answer allowed is "GNU is great and perfect and MSFT kills babies!".
ACs are never seen so don't bother. Always ready to show SJWs for the racists they are.