On Thu, 21 Jan 2016 12:08:19 +0000
Simon Hobson <linux@???> wrote:

> reading this list is like being at an evangelical meeting of some
> hardcore cult - and that *IS* very off-putting to a large number of
> people.

Both clauses of the preceding partial sentence are absolutely true. And
it goes without saying that I am a minor priest in this cult.

Here's the thing though: If you say in public that you don't use
systemd, that's offputting to 1/3 of the Linux population. A very vocal
and judgmental 1/3. If you actively participate in any plan to provide
an alternative to systemd, you've now offput 2/3 of the Linux
population, and are going to get your name constantly dragged through
the mud.

So the Devuan project has already offput 2/3 of the Linux population.
And although I cannot provide any backup for this opinion, it's my
opinion that most fans of corporate Linux are in the 2/3 we already
offput, and very few real fans of corporate Linux remain in the 1/3 not
yet offput.

So there are few left in our membership and prospective membership who
would be offput by anti-Microsoft assertions.

Meanwhile, the fact that we're Linux at all skews us to have long ago
blown off the Microsoft fans, and makes it likely that a sizeable
portion of us have very anti-Microsoft opinions, especially those who
have been in Linux long enough to remember the Halloween Documents,
Microsoft's Halloween Code, Microsoft execs Mundie and Allchin's whines
to congress to make GPL illegal, and Microsoft's generous license fees
paid to Linux patent troll SCO, which enabled SCO to randomly sue Linux
users for several more years.

Bottom line, we long ago blew off most of those who would have found
our, or at least my, way of phrasing things offputting.

We all hope there will come a time when Devuan becomes a plurality
force in the world of Linux. Such an eventuality is no less probable
than was Linux's takeover of everything but the desktop, if that
probability were predicted in the 1990's. And if you look at Linux
promotion in the 1990's, it was very cultish within, and very
offputting to fans of corporate computing or even those who believed
technology choice to be a meritocracy.

And when Devuan becomes such a plurality, having won the war for the
hearts and minds of those having strong believes concerning software
choice and modularity, we'll tone down our rhetoric to become more
inclusive of meritocracy believers and all but the most hard-core
corporatists. But it's too early for that now: Right now our job is to
inspire strong beliefs leading to strong development, testing,
documentation and advocacy, and an absolute and constitutional
rejection of systemd.

SteveT

Steve Litt
January 2016 featured book: Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting
http://www.troubleshooters.com/28