Are Geeks in Saudi Arabia Just Like Us?

Robin 'Roblimo' Miller (of NewsForge and sometimes Slashdot) spent five days in Saudi Arabia's capital, Riyadh, meeting with local Linux advocates and users, and wrote five articles while he was there. The article titles are Saudi Arabia: Linux advocates in white robes, Saudi Space Institute techies love their new Linux computer, Meet Saudi Arabia's most famous computer expert, Saudi open source conference opens minds, and Linux and open source opportunities in the Mideast. This is the first in-depth look ever at open source (and programming in general) in a conservative Islamic country. Roblimo concludes that under the robes, Saudi geeks are much like geeks everywhere, but from comments on the stories it looks like a lot of people don't agree.

Comments

Re:People are pretty much the same around the worl

[Zachary Kessin]

Nice theory. Tell that to the "Mother" of two who blew herself up at the Erez crossing point last week. She killed 4 Israelis and left about 6000 Palistianians out of work for the near future.

Re:Geeks everywhere are (essentially) the same

[corbettw]

When you think trying to keep guns out of school is the same as locking little girls in a burning building, you are in a majorly fucked up society. Something else to think about.

Re:Well..

[Hobbex]

Well, this is Roblimo writing, so that he overlooks this fact isn't exactly suprising. Read this article to find out more about this condescending, chauvinistic, closet misogynist.

I quote:

A woman just like you wouldn't be there for you when you wanted a hug. She'd be obsessively coding or posting on Slashdot herself, and would brush you off when you needed her. What you really want is a woman who will be there for you when you get tired of staring at your monitor and need some loving, but will leave you alone and not demand your attention when you're busy. You don't want a Geek Girl. You want a woman who is willing and able to meet a geek's needs, which is not the same thing at all.

Men involved in activities that demand long periods of intense concentration (programmers, artists, writers, musicians, etc.) need women who will respect what they do and help them do it well, not women who compete with them.

We need what are now called "old fashioned girls" who don't mind cooking our meals, rubbing our sore shoulders, and running our bath water for us. There are plenty of these women out there.

Apparently being locked up in servitude of me is what many women want, so then the Saudi's are doing them a favor...