Yesterday I found the following link to an insulting piece about critics of Mono, amongst other controversial elements that may prove harmful to the freedom of Free software. People whom the author disagrees with are being compared to the taliban. To be fair, the post may not be the original source of such strong terminology (it was most likely coined elsewhere based on prior observations where Boycott Novell specifically gets labeled that), but it is still akin to the cheapening of terms like "terrorism" in order to advance goals. Here is the part about Mono:
Whilst the software taliban’s fixation with Mono is unfortunate, their targeting of applications written using Mono is far worse. Many developers have chosen to use C# as their preferred language for application development on Linux. And a number of high quality applications have been the result. Why should the developers’ perfectly reasonable language choice result in the Mono uninstall fest that greets every new version of Ubuntu for reasons that have nothing to do with the quality of the application itself?
“By using words like "taliban" they are dodging verboten insults like "Nazi" but coming across as shameless daemonisers nonetheless.”We have already explained how "religion" is used to smear passionate Free software proponents [1, 2, 3]; even "terrorism" is sometimes used as a slur. "It's becoming more common," says Glyn Moody, "we need to call it out as being Godwin 2.0"
Many of these tactics come about when the subject of Microsoft is brought up. A lot of people prefer to ignore Microsoft's constant attacks on GNU/Linux [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Now that an "open-source" (not really "Open Source") company agrees to a partnership with Microsoft it is only reasonable to raise doubts, without the opposite side resorting to name-calling, smears, distortions, and so forth. By using words like "taliban" they are dodging verboten insults like "Nazi" but coming across as shameless daemonisers nonetheless. ⬆
Comments
satipera
2009-11-04 11:49:03
As the saying goes.."First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win".
satipera
2009-11-04 11:49:03
As the saying goes.."First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win".
TheTruth
2009-11-04 15:47:19
You are above "cheapening" that word..
Oh but wait.... YES YOU DO ....
http://boycottnovell.com/2009/08/29/comparing-free-software-to-evil/
So it's ok for you to do it, but when someone else does it, it's somehow bad.
Talk about "talking out of both sides of your mouth".
Trouble with lying Roy, is you have to be good at it, and smart and have a good memory.
It appears you are none of those things, so you taking the "high road" kinda makes you look like a troll, and a shill.
But thats more than expected from you ROY, it's a shame you are so bad it lying, perhaps you might try another line of "work".. If you actually did work in the first place.. LOL..
Good luck with that, and how does it feel for you to have the heat turned on you, with a critical eye..
It's funny, if it was not so pathetic...
your_friend
2009-11-05 05:43:04
Roy Schestowitz
2009-11-05 08:34:56
satipera
2009-11-05 00:03:00
You seem so desperate to have a pop that you are comparing two articles of completely different types and then saying the author of the second is as bad as the author of the first.
The first article is a personal statement of opinion that compares some people in the floss movement to the Taliban. The second article which you link to is reporting what other people have been saying. What you have done is as silly as accusing a crime reporter of being a criminal because of what he wrote about the crime.