Sandals and Ponytails Behind Slow Linux Adoption

Eric Giguere writes "CNet is reporting that according to former Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn 'the lax dress code of the open-source community is one of the reasons behind the software's slow uptake in commercial environments.' In particular, Quinn blames the 'sandal and ponytail set' for sluggish adoption of Linux by businesses and governments." From the article: "Quinn, who faced plenty of scrutiny over his support of the OpenDocument standards-based office document format, said proponents of open source in government faced formidable opposition from vested interests if they went public."

Comments

De facto, not preference

[MythMoth]

Having read the damned article, I'd like to point out something that a lot of posters seem to be missing.

Nowhere that I've seen in that article does he say that ponytails and sandals signify anything about the skills, attitude, or professionalism of the people in question.

He is talking about peoples' perceptions, and the need to be politically savvy when selling OSS to those same people.