Linux And Hip Hop

greybeardthelonely writes: "TwoMobile.com has a great story on how Linux is like hip hop and rap music. There's even a hip-hop penguin ..." You should read this, even if you can't stand rap music. Here's a quote: "Just like Linux, rap music was something that scared corporations until it was big enough to be profitable, and suddenly everyone wanted a piece of the action."

Comments

Nice comparison.

[urgle]

"rap music was something that scared corporations until it was big enough to be profitable"

...as opposed to heavy metal, doom metal, death metal and all metal varieties that endeared big corporations until they were big enough to be profitable.

I agree with this on one principle

[mbpark]

Before 1990, rap music was not thought of as being as profitable as other forms of music.

Why is that? Before 1990, the Billboard lists were not compiled based on actual data, rather they were based on hearsay on what albums were selling the most from the record stores.

When soundscan was implemented in the summer of 1990, I believe it was, the first week's top 10 from Billboard based on actual album sales featured a VERY big surprise.

NWA was in the top 10, and at #2 that week with the album 'Efil4zaggin'. They were #1 the next week. Darn good album too, even though Ice Cube left NWA before it.

Much is the same with Linux and Microsoft. The old metrics of OS sales do not apply anymore, since Linux uses a different distribution method than Microsoft, as well as the traditional distribution channels. Now that the actual population of linux servers is being measured against the actual population of MS servers, the metrics have changed. In other words, the old methods of measuring OS penetration (physical sales) are like the pre-Soundscan methods (hearsay).

I am looking forward to seeing actual counts of Linux servers in corporations. Boeing has been cited as having over 50,000. I would especially like to see what percentage of the corporate mail server market Linux has over MS and Lotus.

In this way, Linux is like rap music, in that it was ignored because of methods of measuring sales and distribution that did not truly reflect actual figures.

Re:I agree with this on one principle

[JDax]

I saw this article off a Linuxtoday link before /. posted it and thought it was stretching the comparison a bit too much (and not even worth putting in print), and although it's obviously generating alot of disucssion, it's also (as expected) generating alot of degenerative discussion.

Just as an FYI folks, "rap" was out WELL before the 80s whereas "hip hop" was an 80s thing (and the so-called "rappers" that folks keep citing and emulating on this forum weren't even BORN when rap began to appear - down in the basements at parties, out on the street corners in Brooklyn, and on the radio with a DJ named Doug "Jocko" Henderson, Sr.). &nbsp Rap was a rhythmic form for DJs to use in compliment to the music, to add to the entertainment at dance parties while spinning records, not something intended for real singers.

And the only comparison that I can maybe see (other than rap being almost as old as Unix - yes it is) is that both it and Linux started out being distributed (as the parent of this suggests) via what could be termed "the underground", ie., "street" rappers could only distribute their works on tape themselves to their friends and interested listeners (no BIG RECORD COMPANY(tm) would do it because R&B, Soul, Rock,and Pop, and at one time, Disco (which is alive and well and renamed to "House" and "Club" music), were more profitable) just as Linophiles, at one time, distributed copies of distros to their friends via disk or their own burned CDs (not counting FSF or Walnut Creek) - ie., before the "commercial" boxed distros became available.

Other than that, the comparison really ends...

Other Things That Linux Is Like

[Hrunting]

1. The Pet Rock
   That's right. Some dude went out into a field, found a whole bunch of rocks, and started selling them. All of the suddent, he had the number one selling novelty/toy on the market. Of course, now you get laughed at if you have a pet rock.
   
2. Rockets
   That's right, Goddard was laughed at, but when he showed that you could launch anything with highly explosive fuel and not hurt yourself, governments started taking notice and now we have rockets everywhere.
   
3. NASCAR
   People used to think that NASCAR was a joke, something that a bunch of hillbillies watched when grandma wasn't showing them how well she could hit squirrels with pine cones, but then they actually counted the number of hillbillies watching NASCAR and saw that it was way more than the number that was watching NBA basketball and realized it was The Next Big Thing(tm). Now we have Jeff Gordon losing to the Pepsi girl and drivers going to Hardee's in their racecars.
   
4. Dell & Gateway
   
   Hell, no one thought you could make a living selling computers out of your garage, but then everyone realized that it was cheaper and hipper to buy them from hicks than from corporate moneymen and now they have multi-gazillion dollar companies. Who woulda thunkit?
   
5. Slashdot
   
   From humble a humble start as 'Chips N Dips' (or something), people started noticing Slashdot when they reported on things other than Microsoft. Now all of the sudden, Slashdot comments are quoted as insider comments ("Mr. Coward wrote in reply to the judge's findings, 'First post!'") and Slashdot is getting bought out by every major Linux company that exists.
   
6. The USA
   Everyone thought they were a wannabe country, a bunch of freedom fighters who were being brats about paying their taxes, but whoa, they started noticing when America would walk into other countries, pick fights and, holy cow, win! Now everyone recognizes that no matter how small others may think you are, all you have to do is speak softly and carry a big stick and you can put a McDonald's wherever you damn well please.
   
7. Christianity
   People thought these Christian Jews were wackos until they started converting everything under the sun. The world took notice when the largest empire in the world adopted Christianity through its emperor and the rest, well, it's in the Bible somewhere.

Come on people, we can make useless analogies all day long. Linux is a phenomena, and you can compare it to a lot of other phenomena. Trying to say it's like something else, though, takes away a little bit from the true magic of what happened in this specific instance and begins a group down the road of trying to develop in a manner similar to some other reference, which takes away from the spontaneity of what may happen and may serve to derail the power of the change.

The development of Linux is like the development of Linux. Enjoy the ride; don't analyze it.
Everything big once started out small

keepin' linux real

[rnd()]

How would the average person respond
if you replaced their entire music
collection with rap music?

Probably about the same way they would
respond if you fdisked their hard drive
and installed linux.

Despite the fact that rap music has become
at least as commercialized as other types
of music, the culture that created rap music
is still heavily margainalized in society.

Chris Rock made a good point about the
margainalization of black culture. He said
something like, "yes, I make a lot of money doing
what I do, but how many white people out there
would trade places with me?

The question to be asked about linux is,
while there are a lot of people willing to
invest in a heavily-hyped company like Redhat,
how many of those people would install
linux on their computer?

Linux, like rap in its early days, needs glitz
to survive. I remember wondering why MC Hammer
decided to drop the MC from his name. I hope
we don't see companies like Redhat and VA
dropping linux from theirs.