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20070222,00 — The Fellowship of the Ring

Wilders Security is a popular forum mostly for Windows users. It's run by someone called Wilders. Quite a few regulars use Radsoft's XPT which the people at this site were instrumental in crafting. Even more run the effective NOD32 antivirus suite (on Windows natch).



Longboard, purportedly of Sydney Australia and a 'very frequent poster' at the forum, picked up the 'Uncle Steve Archive' link found here. 'Laughed till my eyes popped out', wrote Longboard.

Longboard's modest tag is 'don't confuse me with someone who actually knows what they're talking about' - that's cute and disarming. But Longboard's still missing two salient (and crucial) points.

  • About Microsoft he writes 'love it or hate it'.

    There's no way to 'love' MS. Seriously: how can one 'love' MS or - any company? It's just a bloody computer! [In the case of Windows this can be almost taken literally.] Do you drive a Ford? Do you therefore 'love' Ford? When motoring home from work do you choose one freeway over another? Do you therefore 'love' that freeway?

  • About Rixstep's criticism of Microsoft he writes 'hold a grudge for a long time'.

    This is dangerous. There are no grudges. One must wonder from time to time what people are thinking.

Swedes have a saying: 'if you want to make a stone wet you need to spit on it many times'.

It's about propaganda, Longboard. It's about getting the message out, as the message is deemed to be important for everyone. It's the same as Rob Enderle writing about 'his opinion' - but where Enderle is obviously Sauron, Rixstep and others like-minded are hopefully the Fellowship of the Ring.



People don't read everything. And they forget. New people come to the web. It's important they see this stuff - which is forged totally on ridicule - so you get this crazy attitude that because Microsoft are a company you're expected to swallow their shite. That you as a consumer don't hold the cards and don't have the rights. For you do - it's just that most people are actually 'sheeple'.

Bah bah.

Build up their confidence and make them laugh a bit and people will both think more clearly and also get a bit 'cocky' - to the point they dare call the 'wisdom' of M$ into question. Those of the Lucky Country should understand this better than others.

And we need that. The Internet is currently not a safe planet. It needs to be. So that other 'planet' - the terrestrial one - gets safer and freer both. [Your neighbour Pete Gutmann has a lot to say about that too.]

And if you got a good laugh - so much your eyes almost popped out - then it worked, didn't it?

Cheers.

PS.

PPS. It's not about piracy either. Uncle Steve made the same reprehensible mistake Mister Bill made thirty one years ago. Dell's Idea Storm website is deluged in inquiries about how to not have Windows anymore.

The top three inquiries:

  1. Preinstalled Linux - almost 70,000 inquiries.
  2. Preinstalled OpenOffice - over 40,000 inquiries.
  3. Linux Laptops - over 30,000 inquiries.

Amongst the other top inquiries:

  • Firefox Preinstalled as Default Browser - over 23,000 inquiries.
  • No OS Preloaded - over 23,000 inquiries.

Also amongst the popular inquiries:

  • Linux Ready Sticker - over 10,000 inquiries.
  • No Windows Option - over 7,000 inquiries.
  • Provide Linux Drivers - almost 7,000 inquiries.



So perhaps the virtual planet is at long last finally approaching its tipping point and Sauron might be truly shaking in his Made in Mordor™ ActivePleather® Boots®. If not before then at least now.

And the Fellowship of the Ring might still pull this one off.

PPPS. Uncle Steve's middle initial is actually 'A' but that wouldn't be any fun would it?

See Also
Ballmer: 'YOU STEAL MY SOFTWARE'

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