The StartX Files: Peace, Love, and Linux? My Foot!

By: Brian Proffitt
Monday, March 5, 2001 09:48:42 PM EST
URL: http://www.linuxplanet.com/linuxplanet/opinions/3064/1/

Who are they kidding?

I enjoy a good ad campaign as much as the next fellow, as I crave being seduced by the ad-meisters of Madison Avenue like most other red-blooded Americans. My current favorite TV ad, for example, is for a certain German car that comes plummeting down out of a tree after being inexplicably stuck there. Good slapstick comedy--gets me every time.

So does inadvertent irony, which is why I started laughing very loudly when I saw the latest IBM ad for Linux.

Peace, Love, and Linux? Are they kidding?

I mean sure, I recognize the reference, of course. They are trying to convey some of that free-thinking, stream of consciousness, touchy-feely stuff that was a big part of living in the Sixties. At least so I hear, since I was more interested in Saturday morning cartoons at the time.

On that level, I really liked what this ad was trying to convey--since I think at its best, Linux does engender the kind of community spirit and openness IBM is trying to represent.

Then I find myself writing sentences like that last one, and I end up shaking my head in wonder.

IBM? Peace? Love? Sixties? Segfault error.

If you talk to anyone of age at that time, they would tell you that IBM was part of the crypto-fascist ruling class that was trying to put down the will of the people with their suits and punch cards. In short, IBM was the Man. And now, thirty years later, they're telling us about peace and love.

Okay, okay, joke made. IBM, after all, is just trying to sell a message, and you can't blame them (or their ad agency) for being creative. You can, however, hold them a little bit accountable for having the blinders on.

Because while this touchy-feely sensation is true of Linux at its best, Linux is hardly at its best these days, now is it?

I have watched with some alarm these past few weeks the growing number of conflicts that have been popping up around Linux. Many of these conflicts are simply new twists on seemingly age-old problems.

KDE enthusiasts reacted with alarm when Ximian purchased keyword ads on KDE-related information on Google. Actually, alarm is a bit of an understatement--it was like kicking a hornet's nest over and watching them swarm. So began yet another round in another skirmish in the great desktop war.

Blah, blah, blah.

"Ximian is evil," the affronted KDE users cry, "they don't play fair!"

"KDE is evil," the defending (this time) Ximian supporters holler, "they're just mad they didn't think of this first!"

"Are not!"

"Are so"

"You started it!"

"Nuh uh!"

Please, I can get more intelligent arguments from my eight-year-old.

Community Squabbling: Who Wins and Who Loses?

People accuse those of us in the media of stirring these conflicts up to generate page views. I think that's a weak argument. We don't generate this stuff, and for the most part, we certainly don't like it. Such issues are tiresome, repetitive, and completely unnecessary.

I'll say it once more for the folks in the back: there is no need to have any conflict between KDE and GNOME. Let the developers build what they want, let the users use what they want, and we'll all be better off at the end of the day.

The same solution certainly applies to the biggest brouhaha of them all: Free Software vs. Open Source. Never has a more vitriolic group of people raised their voices in such a fundamentally pointless argument.

If I were a developer, I would want to just pick the license I want based on what I wanted to do and just be done with it. If that happens to be an Open Source-style license, great! More in keeping with Free Software's guidelines, wonderful! Any other style of license, fantastic! Because, and I think this is a point we're all missing, a vast, huge majority of users simply do not care what the license is. They just want the damn application to do the job.

Should they care? I personally feel they should, but who wants to get caught up in all the hateful arguments?

Does this mean we should all just lie back and let others have their own opinions, regardless? Of course not. Asking people not to voice their opinions is like spitting at a forest fire to put it out.

But I ask you, in all honesty, is it really necessary to openly insult and degrade people just because their opinions don't match our own? Particularly when we all have such common cause?

I know from first-hand experience how hard it is to dial down the rhetoric. I myself have often hurled insults at Microsoft and other Linux-bashing companies and individuals. It's a natural reflex to come out swinging when what you feel strongly about is attacked.

The problem is this: if it were just us, maybe we could be content to lash out at each other's opinions and stances. But it is not just us: there are millions of potential Linux users out there, standing at the threshold, trying to decide to come in or not. If you think this in-fighting is not keeping them nervous, you're kidding yourself.

And, from an even more pragmatic point of view, the more we fight amongst ourselves, the more Microsoft can sit back and watch us make ourselves look like squabbling children.

It's time, for our own sakes, to stop the knee-jerk reactions of hostility and rhetoric. It's time to grow up and discuss our differences with a little more sense and a lot less showing off on how well we can flame someone.

Otherwise Peace, Love, and Linux will remain one big joke.