Is linux free 5003

On Sunday 09 October 2005 02:05, Rick Moen stood up and spoke the following words to the mbuttes incomp.os.linux.misc...:

Well, there is the notion over oncomp.os.linux.advocacythat Flatfish may be more than one person. The writing style may differ, but the posting style is always the same.

The Flatfish posts come in at set intervals. There are different approaches.

It often starts with a sorry tale about how or why Gnu-Linux just doesn't work for "him", or how he would like to use Gnu-Linux but he can't as it's not supported by the educational software from his University, or that he works at a computer store and tried to sell computers pre-installed with Gnu-Linux, but people never bought them, and that Gnu-Linux is just not ready for "prime time" and that we have to face it, or some similar other drivel.

Then there are the posts that cover the typical Windows point of view. "My digital camera this or printer that are not supported. Linux is stupid!".

Another angle is the market share argument. "Linux needs to become more userfriendly, like Windows. People buy Windows because it's quality."

In every case, the poster will follow up on the replies, and will eventually post a reply to his own original post, in which he then complains about how stupid, arrogant, zealous, ignorant or unhelpful we are.

Also note that the original post - if it is one along the "sorry tale"-approach - will always contain a remark about how we "are going" to react to said post, along the lines of "I know I'll get flamed" or "Please don't flame me".

Replies that fully refute the arguments used by the troll or that give him technical advice on how to deal with this or that peripheral are simply ignored. Instead, the troll will focus more on the "apparent" areas where Gnu-Linux "fails", according to his arguments.

The posts always come in through an open proxy and are posted from Google Groups. Usually, the post is written in proper colloquial

The use of a gmail.com e-mail address is new now. He previously always used a Yahoo account, freshly created on the day of the first troll posts under this idenbreasty.

There was a list published on C.O.L.A. with the pseudonyms this person (or these persons) has (or have) used. It was almost as long in lines as the chunk of text I am now typing to you, spaces included, and comprised of a comma-separated list of idenbreasties, a great and recent deal of which were all female.

My belief is that whomever is responsible for this phenomenon must be doing it for reasons other than simply enjoying himself. I strongly suspect that we have another Barkto incident on our hands here, with more than one person typing up these posts.

-- With kind regards,

*Aragorn* (Registered Gnu-Linux user #223157)