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Of course random, unknown people are not trustworthy. While it's trendy to criticize the "MSM" and 'old' media, they do have one essential advantage over crowd-sourced information: MSM publications have a reputation to protect:

The MSM does such a great job reporting fairly ad honestly, even when corrected right?

Since when has any election coverage involved any in-depth policy comparison, any coverage beyond "rumors say"?

Since when has anything of consequence been put above video-game style smart-bomb footage?

Do you really think hillary clinton or orrin hatch would be around if the news had reported they co-sponsored a bill which would have made every media widget everyone uses illegal?

What about actual, in-depth coverage of protests with interviews on both sides and analysts digging through the nitty-gritty to help the public decide if they're right?

The only difference between MSM and individual commentary is the amount of money the MSM makes.

Since when has a fact checker been placed on hannity or oreilly.

Of course random, unknown people are not trustworthy. While it's trendy to criticize the "MSM" and 'old' media, they do have one essential advantage over crowd-sourced information: MSM publications have a reputation to protect:

The MSM does such a great job reporting fairly ad honestly, even when corrected right?

Since when has any election coverage involved any in-depth policy comparison, any coverage beyond "rumors say"?

Since when has anything of consequence been put above video-game style smart-bomb footage?

Do you really think hillary clinton or orrin hatch would be around if the news had reported they co-sponsored a bill which would have made every media widget everyone uses illegal?

What about actual, in-depth coverage of protests with interviews on both sides and analysts digging through the nitty-gritty to help the public decide if they're right?

The only difference between MSM and individual commentary is the amount of money the MSM makes.

Since when has a fact checker been placed on hannity or oreilly.

Perhaps the volumes of help most commonly viewed should be reproduced in offline form for users by paid/trusted editors at Canonical.

You mean like the official book?

and also this one..

Furthermore, let's talk about the issue with the girl in Wisconsin putting her ISP CD in and not understanding why it doesn't work. Maybe a simple dialogue explaining to her that windows installers won't work on Ubuntu (flag disabled if wine is present)-- perhaps something like Apple's windows-mac equivalence guide would be helpful. Imagine that your users have no idea what to expect from your system.

Perhaps you should read Scott Richie's ideas. That's exactly what they're working on.

This is why Ubuntu is not ready for the mainstream- because their "community support" ideal is a rat's nest of dipshits who are working out of religious passion.

No it's because the reporter was a dipshit troll who put the words "Woman blames Ubuntu for missing online classes" (Finally changed to Dell) and then went on to give out her full name in the article.

Then in a later post the very same reporter is laughing about all the attention he got on his site. Yeah, anything to make a quick buck while ruining Abbie's life.

The story made national headlines on small techie sites as well as USA Today and Newsweek.com. So, really, truly, from the bottom of our sales department's heart...THANK YOU!!!!

http://addins.wkowtv.com/blogs/behindthenews/archives/84

and the so called "Ubuntu community" which you are so sure are the attackers and your comparison to Microsoft is absolute nonsense.

Just because some freedom douche sent in an email or phoned the studio doesn't mean they use Ubuntu. The reporter felt it necessary to cast the Ubuntu community all in the same light (again) in his post titled "Just how mean can Ubuntu users be?" where he goes trolling and name calling. Yeah, real professional.

What I don't get about your post is how you associate Ubuntu user to be Ubuntu Community. If I use Windows to play some games does that make me part of the Windows Community? There are over 10 Million Ubuntu users of course there are going to be some assholes however when I read that news about the women some of the comments said they didn't even use Ubuntu but hated how much misconstruing of facts there were.

There's only one reason why that news story got so much negative feedback and that's because it was posted on Digg, Slashdot and Reddit. Assholes of the internet. This story was never posted in the Ubuntu news letter which is in my opinion the Ubuntu community. Not like all these little shits on digg who think they are leet because they have linux and are standing up to the man to fight for open source freedom.

1. The article was initially done by a consumer advocate. When the news station called Verizon & MATC, they were helpful. Whether or not they would have been as sympathetic and helpful to her as an individual (without the threat of bad press) is still an open question.
2. Your response is typical of the "you should have just figured it the fuck out yourself, you idiot," response that so many Linux advocates love to give. "If it's trivial for me to get these things working, it MUST be trivial for everybody else." There's this trait called empathy. If you want mainstream adoption, you might need to learn a little about it.

And, from the fucking followup article:

That's also when the comments - many of them angry, rude, and hateful - started pouring in. Some Ubuntu users accused 27 News of "unscrupulous reporting," hitting a "new low for local news," and writing an "atrocious article."
Many Ubuntu users also wrote very personal attacks about the young lady who was having trouble using the operating system. They called her "lazy," "a dumb girl," and "not worthy of a college degree."
The young woman also contacted 27 News to report she's being harassed on her Facebook account by Ubuntu users.

Yeah. Way to go Linux community. Get yourselves a reputation in the media for hateful personal attacks and harrassment of people who don't abide by the FLOSS principles you revere so highly. Instead of using it as an opportunity to ask, "What could we do better?" the Ubuntu zealots circle the wagons and attack anybody who doesn't drink the kool aid. Great call. Be sure to let us all know how that works out for your dreams of widespread adoption.

Perhaps you should read the update he made after that..

http://addins.wkowtv.com/blogs/behindthenews/archives/84

I want each of you to remember why you got picked on in grade school and high school and feel the need to act this way as adultsâ¦if you even are adults. PS: let the flame war on me beginâ¦frankly, the more traffic I get to my blog, the cooler I am!

and this..

I have an idea...learn how to spell.

and this..

Ummm...Chip, you repeated yourself using Dim-Wit twice...so, who's the dim-wit now?

We all know there are idiots out there who should be ignored. This news reporter thought it best to bring himself down to their level and why?

Because it generates more page views..

The story made national headlines on small techie sites as well as USA Today and Newsweek.com. So, really, truly, from the bottom of our sales department's heart...THANK YOU!!!!

Even that part is largely bad reporting.

I'm sure that whenever a news organization runs a story on Hilary Clinton there are nut jobs writing in with all kinds of sexist nonsense. That doesn't make everyone who doesn't agree with Hilary Clinton a sexist. Same with racist responses to minority politicians/celebrities.

Obviously this station became a bit of a lightning rod with their Ubuntu story, but they should still have the common sense to ignore people who are being unreasonable and not associate their behavior with an entire class of people.

Their lack of professionalism becomes even clearer when you read their "Behind the News" blog posts on the issue. The author sounds like a child. "There was a typo in your email so you're an idiot" type stuff. I'm sure they were dealing with some rather outrageous comments, but come on, that can't be new for ANY news organization.

And to be fair, the woman in the story did deal with her problem in a remarkably poor way, almost to the point of being unbelievable.

"I found that a very small portion of the Ubuntu community is truly heartless losers. ... You perpetuate the stereotype of computer dorks who sit in their dark rooms staring at the little box with lights furiously typing their hatred for the rest of humanity. Your e-mails made all of us laugh hysterically all day long! ... I want each of you to remember why you got picked on in grade school and high school and feel the need to act this way as adultsâ¦if you even are adults. PS: let the flame war on me begin."

On that note, congratulations to the Linux community! You have exposed yourselves as pretentious twats that you are, and generated tons of great press (sarcasm) for your cause. Morons.

Update to the original story here.

Seriously, with all the attention this story has gotten, all sorts of normal people will not want anything to do with Linux now. Way to F'n go.

An update has been posted by WKOW, I can't say it's much better than the original article.

Mostly they're covering their asses and calling Ubuntu users hateful.
http://www.wkowtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=9682258

Actually, this story did cause some criticism, which resulted in a followup story (even calling it "Ubunto" once - nice). So more angry (or informative) letters from Linux-advocates aren't going to set the record straight at this point.

But it does raise a larger question about the adoption of Linux. How can the perception that Microsoft Windows and its trappings are effectively mandatory be overcome? Her computer can handle all of her needs: email, web browsing via Firefox, Microsoft Office-compatible documents via OpenOffice.org, and no need to "install" any Windows-only "Verizon High Speed Internet CD" to use Verizon DSL.

But since many Linux-advocates presumably want to see things like Ubuntu go mainstream, the answer can't be "this woman is a moron and the TV station is worse for covering it". Her problems, even if they seem ridiculous, were real enough to her. So how do you counter this kind of problem? (Some might say decent journalism could have helped here, but that's part and parcel of the perception problem.)

Thats right, keep giving the morons out there more ammo .. how retarded are you?

At the end of the article is a link to a follow-up by the assistant news director. It's not quite an apology, but it demonstrates that someone in the Ubuntu community got through to someone at the news station: http://addins.wkowtv.com/blogs/behindthenews/

Actually, this story did cause some criticism, which resulted in a followup story (even calling it "Ubunto" once - nice). So more angry (or informative) letters from Linux-advocates aren't going to set the record straight at this point.

But it does raise a larger question about the adoption of Linux. How can the perception that Microsoft Windows and its trappings are effectively mandatory be overcome? Her computer can handle all of her needs: email, web browsing via Firefox, Microsoft Office-compatible documents via OpenOffice.org, and no need to "install" any Windows-only "Verizon High Speed Internet CD" to use Verizon DSL.

But since many Linux-advocates presumably want to see things like Ubuntu go mainstream, the answer can't be "this woman is a moron and the TV station is worse for covering it". Her problems, even if they seem ridiculous, were real enough to her. So how do you counter this kind of problem? (Some might say decent journalism could have helped here, but that's part and parcel of the perception problem.)

One for the Lunix fagboys who think Lunix is "ready for the desktop". Here is a real-world example of the inadequacies of Linux when doing perfectly normal stuff in the real world:

http://www.wkowtv.com/global/story.asp?s=9667184&ClientType=Printable

27 News Troubleshooter: Woman says Dell computer kept her from taking online classes

Posted: Jan 13, 2009 03:42 PM

MCFARLAND (WKOW) -- Abbie Schubert paid more than $1,100 for a Dell laptop hoping to enroll in online classes at MATC.

But something stopped her: Ubuntu.

That's an operating system for your computer similar to Windows that runs off the Linux system.

Schubert says she ordered her laptop online at Dell.com expecting to buy your classic bread-and-butter computer.

She didn't realize until the next morning her laptop defaulted to the Ubuntu operating system.

"It's been a mess," she said. "I regret ordering the computer."

Schubert says she never heard of Ubuntu before learning that's when she accidentally bought. She called Dell the very next day and says the representative told her there was still time to change back to Windows.

But she says Dell discouraged her.

"The person I was talking to said Ubuntu was great, college students loved it, it was compatible with everything I needed," said Schubert.

So she stuck with it.

Later, she discovered Ubuntu might look like Windows, but it doesn't always act like it.

Her Verizon High-Speed Internet CD won't load, so she can't access the internet. She also can't install Microsoft Word, which she says is a requirement for MATC's online classes.

As a result, with no internet and no Microsoft Word, Schubert dropped out of MATC's fall and spring semesters.

She also says Dell claimed it was now too late to get Windows and any changes she made herself would void her warranty.

"I'm extremely frustrated," said Schubert. "I wanted to get back to school, but I needed a computer to be able to do that."

27 News contacted Dell, but the company has not responded to us yet.

However, we think we've helped her get back to school.

Verizon says it will dispatch a technician to try to assist her accessing the internet without using the Windows-only installation disk.

MATC also says it promises to accept any of Schubert's papers or class documents using whatever software she has installed.

Democrats were only accused of doing this by the Republicans and only laptops (the easiest and most valuable hardware to steal) were taken, quickly from an office where they were plainly visible from the street.

Engaging in vandalism against Bush offices by teenagers is not quite as bad as tearing up valid registrations.

Criminally negligent op-ed pieces do not facts make.

Accusing a group of committing illegal activities with no evidence is a typical Republican tactic.

Press releases aimed at creating a non-existant scandal and failing are pretty weak as a source.

Finally, defrauding a company by making up fake voter registrations to earn more money in a $9 per hour job is not making people think they are registered when they are not.

Take off your DNC-issue blinders, and maybe you'll see that both sides engage in all sorts of nefarious activities to make sure their side wins. Nothing to see here, move along.

:PP