Even before I read this Slashdot, hearing the news from Colorado took me back to my schooldays, which were a long time ago (I'm 34). I remember hearing myself described as "brilliant at computers but absolutely mongoloid at everything else". I remember being the one who nobody would pick for the football team. I remember discovering computers (8-bit era, folks; the Z80 was a dream machine) and spending 12 solid hours online playing the original fortran Adventure (Colossal Cave). And yes, I felt alienated, and angry, and an outsider. That was in Wales (UK), in the late 70s and early 80s. Plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose.
How about this for a nice little conspiracy theory? (1) MS arrange for a benchmark that will annoy the heck out of the Linux community. (2) The Linux community respond. Inevitably, the less evolved amongst them will flame the publishers of articles about the survey with stupid threats of hacking and virus attacks. There will be many letters to trade publications by illiterates, referring to "Windoze". (3) MS ensure that publicity is given to these reactions, thus associating Linux with that sort of reaction from that sort of person. Just what is needed to promote the OS amongst professionals. In short, the mindless amongst Linux users may have done a lot more harm than the benchmark itself.
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Even before I read this Slashdot, hearing the news from Colorado took me back to my schooldays, which were a long time ago (I'm 34). I remember hearing myself described as "brilliant at computers but absolutely mongoloid at everything else". I remember being the one who nobody would pick for the football team. I remember discovering computers (8-bit era, folks; the Z80 was a dream machine) and spending 12 solid hours online playing the original fortran Adventure (Colossal Cave). And yes, I felt alienated, and angry, and an outsider. That was in Wales (UK), in the late 70s and early 80s. Plus ca change, plus c'est le meme chose.
How about this for a nice little conspiracy theory?
(1) MS arrange for a benchmark that will annoy the heck out of the Linux community.
(2) The Linux community respond. Inevitably, the less evolved amongst them will flame the publishers of articles about the survey with stupid threats of hacking and virus attacks. There will be many letters to trade publications by illiterates, referring to "Windoze".
(3) MS ensure that publicity is given to these reactions, thus associating Linux with that sort of reaction from that sort of person. Just what is needed to promote the OS amongst professionals.
In short, the mindless amongst Linux users may have done a lot more harm than the benchmark itself.