Return to BSD News archive
Xref: sserve comp.os.386bsd.misc:2851 comp.os.linux.misc:20380 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!bunyip.cc.uq.oz.au!munnari.oz.au!ihnp4.ucsd.edu!agate!spool.mu.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!ai-lab!life.ai.mit.edu!burley From: burley@churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu (Craig Burley) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.misc,comp.os.linux.misc Subject: Re: I hope this wont ignite a major flame war, but Ive got to know! Date: 27 Jul 94 15:45:26 GMT Organization: Free Software Foundation 545 Tech Square Cambridge, MA 02139 Lines: 68 Message-ID: <BURLEY.94Jul27114527@churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu> References: <30drlt$7tc@news.u.washington.edu> <Ct5qpn.G6E@murdoch.acc.Virginia.EDU><9407221206.29@rmkhome.com> <DHOLLAND.94Jul25171448@scws33.harvard.edu> <1994Jul26.165729.12612@rosevax.rosemount.com> <michaelv.775258457@ponderous.cc.iastate.edu> NNTP-Posting-Host: churchy.gnu.ai.mit.edu In-reply-to: michaelv@iastate.edu's message of 26 Jul 94 21:34:17 GMT In article <michaelv.775258457@ponderous.cc.iastate.edu> michaelv@iastate.edu (Michael L. VanLoon) writes: >: > : Linux is the choice of a GNU Generation >: This kind of nonsense benefits nobody. Whoever posted it, can it. >I thought it was clever and amusing. Therefore it benefitted me. >It's a pun on the Pepsi slogan, dude! Doncha get it? Except that it's an untrue statement. GNU software runs on a range of systems that you can't count on both hands and both feet. Including systems that aren't even unix. And, Linux is in no way endorsed by the FSF, regardless of any connection they may have with it, or any of the other dozens of OS's their software runs on. So, I think BSD users have a point when they say "it's a load of horse hockey" whenever they see such a misleading statement. Not only does it imply that the BSD's are *not* the choice of the GNU generation, but that the FSF endorses Linux as its system of choice, and both implications are untrue. What tired baloney. "GNU generation" != FSF. "Y choice of X" !=> "!Y not choice of X". Meanwhile, the fact that the "motto" is a parody of a highly-financed and thus well-known slogan for an international, low-cost product makes it clear that the parody/humor content is intentionally vastly higher than the accuracy content. Intelligent people and/or people with even a little bit of a sense of humor know these things. Tell me, are Coke drinkers running around yelling about how Pepsi is issuing misleading statements about the choice of a "new generation"? Is anyone as likely to decide, based on the Linux "motto", that a) they are a member of the "GNU generation" (whatever that is) and that b) they should therefore adopt Linux instead of BSD without further thought or research, as they are to decide they're a member of the "new generation" (whatever _that_ is) and that they should drink Pepsi without ever trying Coke because of Pepsi's PR? (For that matter, can you name a single BSD user, other than yourself, who has actually stated that the motto is misleading, as you imply has happened on USENET?) Hassling people for coming up with or using clever slogan parodies, especially harmless ones like "Linux: the choice of a GNU generation", is a mammoth waste of time and net.resources. Then again, maybe this subthread is an indication of the relative lack of creativity, humor, insight, cleverness, or free time on their hands of the BSD community? I mean, can't they come up with their own funny slogan? "BSD: Better System, Dude!", for example, and that was without even _thinking_. Offhand, the Linux vs. BSD "debates" remind me of the early Mac vs. IBM debates (around 1986 or so). The Mac people were terminally weird, funny, hilarious, off-the-cuff, and so on, while the IBM people were always sourpusses. When I finally decided to get a computer, I chose a Mac at the time, partly because of the kind of people who used those systems -- they were simply more enjoyable to get along with. And even though when I had to get a free UNIX for my 486, I had only Linux as a real choice, I would be pretty happy to switch, but I doubt I'd fit in well with the BSD crowd based on the kinds of posts I'm seeing from them (or at least from the anti-Linux crowd). Sure, there are Linux-using bozos, but it seems to me that some of the most interesting people I know on the net use Linux, or at least support its use. -- James Craig Burley, Software Craftsperson burley@gnu.ai.mit.edu