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Why Doesn't Microsoft Have A Cult Religion?
rs232 writes "'Apple has one. So does the Java community, Oracle, IBM, and Google. Lord knows anyone who uses Linux or free and open source software is dedicated to spreading the gospel of St. Linus Torvalds and St. Richard Stallman. But does anyone really worship the Gods of Redmond?' While many Microsoft employees are pumped to work there, article author Michael Singer explores why even enthusiastic Microsoft-watchers acknowledge that customers and product developers are unenthusiastic about the software giant. He theorizes that it comes down to passion: Microsoft lost that a long time ago, he says, and so passionate people gravitate to other projects and products."
Microsoft is like Christianity. It's been around for a long time - though there are older religions that are much more revered. It has its own quirks, its not without fallacies though the head proponents like to believe otherwise, and its almost a fashion for 'educated public' to poke holes into it and blame everything on it - although many of the very same people refuse to switch to a new religion when given the opportunity. In spite of its wide and well known drawbacks, it continues to be the most popular religion by far.
Above all, the most striking resemblance is that blind faith seems to be only thing that's holding it up.
My sig has been answered.
Worthw4ile. So I If *BSD is to goodbye...she had incompatibilities
If you redefine your group to be Computer professionals, M$ is an abhorant, abusive and dominant cult. Using the Wiki definition you so kindly provided,
beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be outside the mainstream
and realizing that:
The M$ practices are uniformly considered dated, wrong, dangerous and anything but mainstream. Nothing they do has ever been accepted as excellent and apologists always have to point to some ugly piece of hardware or software lock in to justify their choice, the rest being "good enough". The acceptance of the sum of these things AT ANY COST, against all evidence of efficacy, by many of the same experts who then inflict it upon the ignorant masses is the hallmark of an irrational cult member. It is doublethink.
The damage done by this cult is beyond that done by most religious cults by far, and second only to Communism in modern times. The more zealous members have an intolerance found only in those who have confused their faith for science. Simply mentioning alternatives in front of them is unpleasant enough to enrage them and torrents of abuse soon follow. They demand that people modify their morals to accommodate their obsolete business and software development models, which would otherwise perish. They engage in character and economic assassination, but such individual damage pales in comparison to the damage done by the inadequacy of the "product" they have such blind faith in. winDOS was a virus and worm infested pit from the beginning, using it for control systems was unethical and connecting it to networks has been a dissaster that has cost us all plenty.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Slasdot is obsessed with MS, everything they do or say is subjected to unending speculation here, albeit negative.
and mostly correct, because M$ is evil.
Outside of Slashdot I dont know a soul who really gives a rats ass what MS do ...
That's because they don't know what M$ does. They know that their computer sucks life more than anything else in their life but they don't know why or that things could be different.
One of the main reasons "normal" people don't know anything different is because people like you, practitioners of the M$ cult. Did you even realize that you were a member of a cult?
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Hey, I'm posting this from my Powerbook. Though I could have posted it from my FreeBSD computer as well. No microsoft here, so I'm afraid I'm not one of those rabid MS evangelists you seem worried about.
You have been and still are a M$ user and rabid defender. The first two hits for your user name and XP bring up you bragging about how cool XP is at home and at work.
I could dig up more but I'd rather go eat dinner. From this small sampling, I'd say your deluded view of M$'s reliability and utility puts you solidly in the M$ cult, regardless of what other software you claim to use. Still, it's good to see you branch out. Alternate software use eventually brings enlightenment and a better temper.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Vista is far from a disaster.
As for why? Jealously. Lets face it, everyone would love to be as successful as Microsoft are. Apple and Linux aren't even in the same ball park, popular as they are.
You don't worship real gods. Only false gods are worshiped. Real gods are respected, and taken for granted like everything else. That's Microsoft. I have great respect for everything Microsoft. It's all there. And because it's not an escape from other problems, it's work. Microsoft facilitates a great load of wonderful work.
Those people who worship linux as a cult do so because tehy see linux as an escape from the problems of Microsoft. Those are the same people who don't realize that linux has problems of its own. They don't notice those problems because they are too caught up in the escape from the Microsoft problems.
Works with people too. Many run into bad relationships when they run away from others. Alcoholics do it too. Of course, so does slamming your hand in a door. It works very well. But it takes a special kind of superior intelligence to realize that slamming your hand in a door, and being drunk, are merely distractions and not solutions.