Pah!
"...why it is that techies reserve their greatest ire for people who to all intents and purposes are just like them."
Windows lusers are nothing like me!!
Techies are often at odds with the world – but nothing matches the venom they save for other geeks foolish enough to devote their lives to other platforms. That’s why tonight we’ll be examining why the tech “community” more often resembles a seething primal soup of warring techno tribes. For this Reg lecture, Platform Wars, …
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Anyone who has read 16th and 17th century pamphlets dealing with religious differences must feel a sense of deja vu when encountering many Mac/Linux/Windows discussions. The willingness to divert into argumentum ad hominem, the reluctance to establish common ground before addressing differences, and the total failure to read anything written by anyone else as carefully as it deserves are quite characteristic of both.
In the case of pamphlets, the availability of the Bible in the local European language was one trigger. Translators went back to the oldest Greek and Hebrew texts and found inconsistencies with the Latin text which had been in use for 1000 years. But relatively cheap printing was the enabling technology. Reformers like Luther exploited it brilliantly to push forward the Reformation. Indeed, they were in some senses dragged forward by the technology. Without it their arguments would have been made in handwriting to a minority: with it, they sent Europe (and eventually and rather later England) into schism and turmoil. And quite a few people got burned. Literally.
After a while, folk began to work out that showing politeness and respect doesn't undermine a strong argument, but actually makes it more likely to be heard and understood. But a good punch-up is always fun, no matter how pointless and counter productive. That never changes.
>Anyone who has read 16th and 17th century pamphlets
Indeed. Those who say that the Internet is the biggest driver of social change since the invention of printing should be aware that it works both ways.
When printing reached the masses, it produced the same array of fake news, trolls, sock-puppets, brigading etc.
Yeah, it's amazing how, with the technology of the time, they could get to Oceania, or wherever England happens to be.
England is lost, lost, LOST out in the North Atlantic, utterly cut off from civilization (and France). Soon the schools will be teaching hapless students such spellings as 'color' and 'center' as England drifts slowly, slowly, into the reach of the Dread Continent. T. May Not will be revealed to be the vile socialist that she really is, as will Lizzy Saxe-Coberg-Gotha. Charlie Saxe-Coberg-Gotha will actually have to get a job. It will be determined that, contrary to long-standing public belief, Anne Saxe-Coberg-Gotha really is almost as smart as her horse. Almost. And the US National Real Football Team will inherit a lot of English footie players... and will still lose to Trinidad and crash out of World Cup qualification.
Scotland, on the other hand, will stay right where it is.
As do many people, just end up hating some more than others.
Loathing windows, does not mean I think OSX, Linux or whatever is awesome, just that they are not as bad as Windows. I'm sure most peoples "preference" (bar a few fanboyz/girlz) is just along the lines of the least bad option.
Every OS Sucks. A ballad for the modern age.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d85p7JZXNy8
Yes. They all suck. Fortran, C, cpp, postscript, bash, basic, java,... they are all "pyton" as the Norwegians say, spitting.
About editors on the other hand... (well, editors in contrast to the bloat that is emacs) ;p *ducks* (it's Friday, I'll buy a beer for the first emacs user I meet today for this comment)
Actually, it's my familiarity with successive versions of Windows that makes me despise it. But still, its the only OS that runs the (very good) software that I use, so Linux, MacOS et al aren't viable options.
(Actually, I quite liked NT 4 and 7, though envious of features seen on other OSs).
But there was also the Electron. Same as the BBC , cut down but with various bits that could be added later, and much more. It was the techie minded, low cost version of the BBC. I learnt to write code in the 6502 assembly language on the good old Elk. And almost changed my career path to go into IT as a full time profession ( instead of spending the next twenty odd years training and supporting less tech aware folk as an addon to my main job).
All hardware sucks. All OSes suck. All code sucks. All fanbois/grrls suck.
There is no such thing as software. So-called "software" is merely the current state of the hardware, as defined by code.
The sooner all you religious bigots realize the above is true for all platforms, the better off the world will be. Use what works and shut up about it.
I really ought to practice what I preach ... but that never made a priest any money, now did it?
'So-called "software" is merely the current state of the hardware, as defined by code.'
See icon. It's amazing how there's a single word for "the current state of the hardware, as defined by code" so we don't have to keep saying that cumbersome phrase over and over again. English is good at reducing complex thoughts or phrases to a single word; i.e. it's efficient.
Count me out! My irrational biases are as dear to me as my kidneys.
Kidding aside, I rather like and dislike most OSes according to how much I use them -- the more I uses X the more I get impatient with what it doesn't do which system Y does nicely. But often the system I use is mandated by forces greater than myself, such as my wife.
Languages are another matter... Xrist, just let it compile and run this time! It should run! It's not perfect, but dammit... it should run... oh, wait. No it shouldn't, my mistake. Now let's see...
Oh damn. May Javascript go to the devil. Tool of the devil!....
...still doesn't run.
Can a sociologist establish a measurement for the 'temperature' of a group of individuals, and the 'pressure' they are under, and then establish, for each personality type, the number of impacts per time period and force involved in each, required to cause additional energy release from the individual, escalating the reaction rate, or whether the impact energy is absorbed causing deformation of the structure?
Funny how the same patterns can be found at different scales.
Yes its fine. Any paper that wears its heart on its sleeve and doesn't lie in the news articles (saves that for the Opinion) is fine. Guardian, Telegraph, Times (mostly), Indy. All good.
The Daily Mail demands apologies. Opinion pieces masquerading as news on the front page are a bad thing.
... had a hamster for a mother and it's father smelt of elderberries.
Dragon 32 was the real machine for the great unwashed, boyo, way ahead of its time, powerful, expandable and didn't cost the earth buy and upgrade.
And Dragon, in true British fashion, flopped, got bought out, and took out it's new owner on a continued deathslide.
It's been mentioned in the article already. Techies are not much different to the regular blokes* and most people are still tribal. We like to group, to differentiate from other groups, being it on religion, country, profession, you name it - and technology platforms for techies. The latter, at least, is hardly ever cause for bloodshed** and hence a rather peaceful war.
* Surely I don't want to exclude them but I've yet to come across any significant number of female techies who are equaliy obsessed about their platform being the best.
** Except (not really a platform though) those bloody sharp-edged fuckers of Olivetti computers. I hated them. And I also hate Windows 8, Office 365, Apple's locked platform rubbish....