Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Tech / Nerd My Two Favorite Linux Foundation Ads
Posted by Jonathan Golob on Tue, Apr 14, 2009 at 10:52 AM
This one is beautifully produced, but really. Linux = Gandhi? Hmmm.
Also: Ubuntu > Fedora. Fight.
2
I've got Ubuntu. The more computers that have pre-installed Linux, the better. This little Asus I've got will have to be replaced at some point. :)
3
They didn't equate Linux and Gandhi. They equated the struggle and the mechanics of non-violent confrontation. I understand that it's faster and easier to simply mock them, but the comparison is interesting.
On one hand you have an unrepentant monopolist, defending their position with every means available. On the other, you have an alternative given away for free. I can see why they might characterize this as meeting violence with non-violence.
If you meant that you consider the cause to be less important - there too I think you might be wrong. Even a cursory understanding of the arguments surrounding Net Neutrality, wikileaks.de, "porn free" internets, HDMI and The Pirate Bay reveal that the widespread dissemination of affordable, reliable networking and encryption gear might do as much for the widespread adoption of human rights and the sterling example of Gandhi.
On one hand you have an unrepentant monopolist, defending their position with every means available. On the other, you have an alternative given away for free. I can see why they might characterize this as meeting violence with non-violence.
If you meant that you consider the cause to be less important - there too I think you might be wrong. Even a cursory understanding of the arguments surrounding Net Neutrality, wikileaks.de, "porn free" internets, HDMI and The Pirate Bay reveal that the widespread dissemination of affordable, reliable networking and encryption gear might do as much for the widespread adoption of human rights and the sterling example of Gandhi.
4
John Galt:
I didn't meant to really mock them. The winning ad was far worse in this regard; I found the Red Hat ad to be fairly inspiring.
I've actually given quite a bit of thought to the social and economic concequences if the open source movement's philosophy were a….
A simplistic portrayal of "free versus evil" isn't quite right. Microsoft turned PC manufacturing into a commodity business and therefore made its major economic complement cheaper. Linux turns operating systems into a commodity, making a major economic complement of anyone doing work with computers cheaper. (Example: see IBM.)
If Linux has killed any monopoly, it was Sun Microsystem's monopoly on big iron servers.
I didn't meant to really mock them. The winning ad was far worse in this regard; I found the Red Hat ad to be fairly inspiring.
I've actually given quite a bit of thought to the social and economic concequences if the open source movement's philosophy were a….
A simplistic portrayal of "free versus evil" isn't quite right. Microsoft turned PC manufacturing into a commodity business and therefore made its major economic complement cheaper. Linux turns operating systems into a commodity, making a major economic complement of anyone doing work with computers cheaper. (Example: see IBM.)
If Linux has killed any monopoly, it was Sun Microsystem's monopoly on big iron servers.
7
I don't think Fedora's even in the running any longer. Ubuntu's competitors are now OpenSUSE, Arch, and maybe PCLinuxOS. Fedora's fine as a testbed for RH's new technologies, but it doesn't really focus on usability or stability.
The RH video is very nicely produced, and is thought-provoking, but no matter how justified it might actually be, the invocation of Gandhi and populist non-violent resistance really does make me squirm. Not because I think that software is unimportant, but because I think that one must establish that importance more firmly prior to invoking a legend of Gandhi's magnitude. Without doing so, it looks like ingenuous self-importance.
The RH video is very nicely produced, and is thought-provoking, but no matter how justified it might actually be, the invocation of Gandhi and populist non-violent resistance really does make me squirm. Not because I think that software is unimportant, but because I think that one must establish that importance more firmly prior to invoking a legend of Gandhi's magnitude. Without doing so, it looks like ingenuous self-importance.
8
Why didn't they have a fake date for the fake Bill Gates quote? They had real dates for all the real quotes, but no date on that one.
10
The first one was kinda funny, if rhetorically lacking.
The second one, I didn't even watch because seriously? Three and a half minutes? That's not an ad, that's an infomercial.
The second one, I didn't even watch because seriously? Three and a half minutes? That's not an ad, that's an infomercial.
11
@7: Lee
re: " Not because I think that software is unimportant, but because I think that one must establish that importance more firmly prior to invoking a legend of Gandhi's magnitude. Without doing so, it looks like ingenuous self-importance"
Good point.
re: " Not because I think that software is unimportant, but because I think that one must establish that importance more firmly prior to invoking a legend of Gandhi's magnitude. Without doing so, it looks like ingenuous self-importance"
Good point.
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