_________ SWAT MAGAZINE ISSUE THIRTY THREE SEPTEMBER __________ / \___________________________________________/ \ / *NIX - THE L33T OS \ / Xenophon \ ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Hi, its me again Xenophon hope you liked the last moths article, well heres another. If you think my docs are shit, and can suggest improvements then I will always listen, so get in touch. For the past year or so I have been witness to the progression of what I feel it un unpleasant turn in peoples ("Hackers", "Skript0rs) &c.) attitude to computing in particularly Microsoft (or should I say Micro$oft :). Unfortunately I feel that the old script-kiddie-ish 3l33tness has enjoyed something of a revival in the form of the "Hate Microsoft" campaign. As with all other manifestations of 3l33tness it arises from the attempts by pathetic little geeks who's mum got them a computer at christmas, they read a story about "hackers" and decided to become one. With no prior knolage about computers they decied to go and "hang with the big boys on IRC". After lurking for a while, piping up the odd lame comment like "K4n any of j00 t3ll m3 h0w to h4x0r my sk00l network", and getting k/b, they finally work out that linux is to put it in their terms "the 3l33t ting" so they go out, spend £30 on the latest redhat (or corel more likely - :), and Install it. From this point on the effect grows, more and more people latch on to the idea, and start trying to gain recognition and respect (as well as the higly sougt after l33t status) by slagging of MS, and going on about how great linux is though they most likely havent ever recompiled a kernel, or even changed the window manager. Lately this has got worse and worse. I'll give an example of a bit of log of a discussino that happened on one of my favourite irc chans, #progenic that is usually full of friendly and interesting peeps (Hi to all of you). --- BEGIN LOG EXTRACT. PUNCTUATION &c. CORRECTED --- [14:57] <|[mace]|> Why buy m$ when u can get unix? [14:57] Because most apps are supported on ms. [14:57] <|[mace]|> Win emulator....... [14:57] ....and we all know how good they are [14:58] Why use a win emulator when you could have the real thing? [14:58] Doesn't make sense. [14:58] Besides there's enough pirated copies of windows. [14:58] <|[mace]|> OK, why buy ms word when u can get star office for free (which is a lot better)? [14:59] true [14:59] cos MS office is a product that's supported worldwide. [14:59] it has the customerbase. [14:59] <|[mace]|> star office can work with all formats [14:59] Most of these people who hate Microsoft do it to be "cool". Same thing with the people who choose the Netscape Internet Browser over Internet Explorer. They choose it because and I quote, "Microsoft Sucks". Clearly I.E. 5.x handles new web technologies better than Netscape Communicator 4 (on the Windows platform at least). But a chosen few, who mostly use Windows themselves, won't even dare use I.E. because they don't like Microsoft. What is going through their minds? [14:59] <|[mace]|> neway, the fact is, people still buy stuff [15:00] <|[mace]|> i use IE [15:00] lol, I dont hate MS, i dislike the way they do business, and how they send out very buggy software, which seems sometimes on purpose. [15:00] Of course other software has bugs --- END LOG EXTRACT --- I feel that Hyrax & T/B really sum it up here. I'm not saying that I agree entirely with either of them, and cirtainly not with mace, indeed I feel that Microsoft turn out software that is not sufficiently reliable and is cirtainly not efficient. Indeed I would never dream of using MS products to drive my network I have at home, only OSes such as linux due to their nature are able to be so efficient that they can run on a 4mb 486, and turn it into a sophisticated secure and reliable router for a network of about 8 computers. And this is the kind of attitude, or people like me that some people have picked up on and turned into a Micrsoft hate campaign, misinterpreting, I feel me and others. Just because I feel linux is the only way for my network, and I wouldnt ever use MS doesnt mean I hate them, because in other circumstance I *DO* use their products. It is true IE does pick up on new standards more quickly, and MS Word is more widely supported, and for this reason I use them (well IE anyway), I also feel that Windows9x is (for my purposes) more useable as a desktop OS. I used to have somerespect for the people who said purely "MS is rubbish, I only use *nix its better in all ways", and there are doubtless people who feel like that with grounds for it, but there are many who simply say so in their "quest for l33tness". I hope I havent come accross too "anti-linux" in this doc, because thats not how I feel, I am a firm linux supporter, in its place, as a server and to a cirtain extent as a desktop OS, but I still try to keep a balanced opinion on it. I thinks thats what some people need to get a hold of - a balanced opinion, and realise that all OSes including GPL ones, and those by microsoft, have their places, their ueses and their users. Well, hope you enjoyed the txt, if so (or even if not) you can contact me by email, icq, or /memo, please direct comments, hellos, criticism, suggestions, ideas &c to: xenophon@phreaker.net, and spam or flame to /dev/null@127.0.0.1 Most weekends you'll catch me on irc, it hard to say where I'll be, Ill generally be in #rm-hacking but it keeps changing server so often that I have difficulty finding it myself sometimes. So try me in #rm-hacking on irc.progenic.com, sandman.ukshells.org, or irc.darkwar.net. Im also often in #progenic, also on irc.progenic.com. My ICQ # is 57722001, either just pop me a msg or Ill add you to the list if you want. So feel free to drop me a line or whatever, -Lord Xenophon