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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: 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.