Great closing... I fully agree with all you comments!!!!!

If the community does not grow up, Linux will always used by its fanboys only....

It's an interesting point you make. It *is* often very difficult to engage the community in intelligent discourse. Ubuntu has actually helped a lot with how they often welcome newbies into the fold on their boards. However, chasing up my issues with more technical people have often left me feeling like they had no interest in engaging in discussion regarding implementations or decisions.

The communities can often be very clique-ish and it's starting to put me off making an effort to help sort out problems. If nothing yields soon, I fear I may have to take my fanboi-ism elsewhere, which would be a shame since so much good work has come from the community.

"Is this series of "Ubuntu Sucks..." articles a parody of ill-informed and rather dim-witted Linux-bashing. If so, it is brilliant satire."

Well I picked it right, see my comment above from an earlier post.

However, while a number of the posts to you have been offensive, I would not go along with your central idea. The *nix community has always been helpful to me over the years, especially the Zenwalk crowd.

You have exposed the fact that when people are posting anonymous comments they can lose their manners, when talking about anything. Look up the Guardian Comment is Free whenever they post about Richard Dawkins or Christopher Hitchens, or American foreign policy. Or for that matter look for a forum on house prices or Saabs v BMWs.

Good luck with the install of Gutsy Gibbon this weekend. It would be good if you would follow this series of (rather rubbish) spoofs with a genuine comment.

For what it's worth, I think that Gutsy Gibbon is a marvel.

Great! Now it is official:

Randall Kennedy hereby publicly announced that everything he wrote about Ubuntu was just to provoke. Its just flamebait, bring out your worst!

InfoWorld is meant to be a playground for trolls!

That's it, you really deserve getting fired now. Besides stating some downright lies about the functions in Ubuntu, you also generalize all Linux-users (and really all!) to basements-geeks. Now I'll take that as a personal insult. I've been using Ubuntu now for almost two years and I recently got rid of all my ntfs-partitions, and surprise(!), I like it a lot better than windows. Not a single crash or other problem since then. And yet another surprise, I am an university student studying political science and I don't even have my own basement. There, your thesis is disproved at once, and you also need to ask yourself this: how many of your precious windows users are also basement-geeks, and how could this be in any sense OS-related? By the way, you should also be smart enough to know that what OS you prefer to use and how you use it is a matter taste and people (yet another surprise) adapting to it fast. Now if you would spend some time in front of an Ubuntu-system (with an open mind) you would probably find it just as useful to YOU as windows. Although I have more things to say, I'm not going to waste anymore time on you because I have an exam to write on my ubuntu system. Get fired well.

The relative silence in the comments on this post speaks volumes. How many Linux fanboys clicked through the whole series, leaving nasty messages on each one, only to arrive here with nothing to say for themselves?

Like you, I find a lot to appreciate in Linux and especially in Ubuntu. Also like you, I often find the 'community' very disappointing.

"So, I hear Apple's got a new version of OS X coming out...hmmmm... :-)"

You, sir, are evil. And I mean that in a good way. The problem is that you've already blown your cover with this Linux journalism experiment.

You'll need to enlist the help of another journalist who has done balanced Apple coverage in the past, but gotten burned by fanboy rage. Good luck!

Interesting 'experiment'.

I'm going to have to disagree, though, with your conclusion. I think, if anything, you've demonstrated only that there's a loyalty to Ubuntu, bordering on the semi-fanatical, rather than an immaturity on the part of all of Ubuntu's community.

Emphasis on 'if anything'.

The problem with your study -- and I use that term very loosely -- is that it's intentionally provocative. Yes, you argue, this is entirely the point! Highlight all the Linux 'fanbois' who reveal their teeth when they feel threatened. Brilliant idea.

Except, of course, you've skipped over what your contribution to the situation. What you've done is run roughshod over the contributions of millions. The brilliant thing about Ubuntu, and Linux, in general, is that you don't have to have a master's degree in software engineering to contribute -- simply using Ubuntu contributes, because it builds prestige and in turn encourages developers to migrate to the system. Of course, if people like it to the extent that they post bugs on Launchpad, Ubuntu's bug-tracking site, then they're taking contribution to the next level. If they refer it to their friends, they're helping marketing. If they post on the Ubuntu forums where they need help, they help out both Documentation and Merge Priority.

Here's the most exciting part of Ubuntu. Screw the fact that it's free. Screw the fact that it's now getting more and more support around the world (Dell, ATI, NVIDIA -- those are some serious names. And you have to consider that Ubuntu has gotten to the point it's been /without/ their support. Think of how it'll be /with/ it!). Screw the fact that it's nearly infinitely customizable, if you have the initiative, and screw the fact that it's notoriously stable. The most exciting part is that it's powered by the people that use it.

This week is Ubuntu Open Week, and classes are being offered via an IRC channel on a bunch of interesting topics, from documentation, to becoming a packager, to even a chat with the self-appointed benevolent dictator for life of Ubuntu himself, Mark Shuttleworth. The fact of the matter is that all of the talks have been attended excellently, and there's been some fairly decent participation in them, as well. People are interested, because the big-shots listen. You get people like the SABDFL himself in there fielding questions for two hours. You get guys like Jono Bacon, Rich Johnson, and John Riddell who sit around and joke with people, and listen to complaints and take suggestions.

Add to that fact that everyone who wants to be a contributor /is/ a contributor, and you've got one wacky community plan right there. Ubuntu talks a lot about humanity -- the word itself deals with that issue -- but it's not only about humanity in treating the users, it's about being human. Every single aspect of Ubuntu is controlled by us for us. In theory, that concept sounds like a tacky shoe ad; in practice, it works at a level far more competent than the US or Canadian government do. It's human in that people make it because we want something that will do what we want it to do. It's human because we determine what goes into it. It's human because the people who have the final say listen to us too, and aren't afraid to mingle -- just ask the members of the Ubuntu-UK local community team: the head honcho showed up and bought drinks for the team.

Here's where your commentary fails to account for its own actions. Frankly, there's no wonder that there's so many responses to your articles that are so derogatory. I'll be the first to admit that fanboyism is dangerous if taken too far, but let's pretend that I've insulted and lied beyond-the-point-of-redemption about something of yours that you cherish, that recognizes your contribution and gives you a tangible return on investment. The obvious target would be your significant other (and this brings us to our next point, but hold that thought!), but let's use your writing career instead.

You've obviously made some money out of it, and achieved fairly decent exposure. Now, pretend out of nowhere that I say your writing is complete and total falsehood, accompanied with a very full stench of cat urine. Let's say that I think you're full of shit, in other words, and that I don't think you were really trying to provoke a response to prove a point, but you really just enjoy yanking Linux 'fanboi' chains, as part of your fanatical worship of Microsoft. True or untrue as that may be, I've called something that's (hopefully) dear to you shit. What do you do? Well, you could post a series of pseudo-satirical articles with the intent of riling up thousands of people, or you could just call me a really ugly name.

If you don't think that doing the former is worth your time, you'd probably do the latter. That's exactly what 200-odd people have done in your comments for the previous articles. You wanted to bring out the 'Linux beast', so you've said, and you obviously found validation. Really, though, what you've done is issue some blatant lies, and then wrote a smarmy post whereby you reject your culpability for any objections arising from those lies, and then home in on those people who were so offended by your blatant misuse of intellect, feigned or otherwise, and who essentially flipped you the bird.

Is there a problem with Linux fanboyism? Hell, yes. The problem is that these posts just exacerbate the situation. Regardless of whether or not you 'like' Gutsy, what you've done is failed to engage this community on an intellectual level. Go take a peek at planet.ubuntulinux.org. Go read some of the comments on the articles linked there, and tell me that they're not intellectually valid or useful. Any one of those could be an example of the intellectual community. It just so happens that when you spout lies, people are going to call you on it, and if it's something near and dear, you can expect cries for your blood mixed into that.

In the end, though, I suppose I'm pleased that you take satisfaction at what you've done. Despite the Ozymandian claim, you've really managed to showcase a love for Ubuntu, rather than an immature community. Look at how many people you've offended. All fanboys? I don't think so. The fanboys are the ones who are going to come out here and systematically prove you wrong, word-by-word and phrase-by-phrase. These comments are just from people who feel that intentional lies about a product provided for the greater good are worthy of an epithet. You wrongfully equate a mature community with the straight-faced acceptance of what is at best slander.

Perhaps the most painful part of your sermon is your admonition of 'bois' to get out of their parents' houses. Classy -- a characterization of all Ubuntu users as pimply-faced teenagers. This, of course, is simply not true; some of us also have ungainly facial hair, and quite a few of us are happy to have our parents living in our houses. Some of us haven't even got to the point where pimples have become a major concern (and at this point, I make reference to my brother, who happens to have only recently crossed the threshold of teenagerhood). How very audacious of you, Mr. Kennedy, to reduce us to stereotypes!

When I wake up in the morning, Mr. Kennedy, my reflection shows me part of the solution. I've posted some bug reports, taken part and asked questions in the Live Week, handle a good portion of the tech support questions asked on Facebook, and advised people what I think of Ubuntu. I'm always careful not to tell people that Windows is evil, or the spawn of Satan; I'm perpetually telling people that they should look at what they need and seek it.

When you wake up, Mr. Kennedy, does yours show you part of the problem? You've spread lies for the purpose of confirming your ego, exposing what you say to be the complete lack of maturity on the part of the Ubuntu community, and more than likely brought quite a bit of disgrace down on Infoworld for such blatant baiting (I can't vouch for the site, because I've never visited before, but I'm astounded your boss hasn't fired you for such inflammatory remarks and obvious personal vendettas. This, from what I gather, is supposed to be an informative site, rather than a site for diatribes and 'Haha-I-gotcha-suckers-you-look-dumb's.

Last, but not least: If most of us have never booted Windows, why do you think there is such hatred of it amongst the Linux community? You might argue that as one of Windows' rivals, Linux 'fanbois' might be naturally jealous of its success. You might be right, in some instances, but the fact is most of us are comfortable with Linux's growth right now. Could it possibly be that some of us found Windows wanting? The rule, as it has always been, is 'the best tool for the job'. For more and more people, that's Ubuntu.

Woah, so it was trick, how clever !

Is Vista a trick too ? I mean, maybe you willingly took 7 years to develop it, end with a piece of crappy software, sell it to people who have to buy a new computer to use it, and finally realize you have to offer downgrades to XP so people calm down.
But I don't see the purpose in that either...

Could you explain how it is that telling garbage you don't even believe, and receiving the deserved backfire can be an proof of whatever you're saying ?

fanboys are passionnate, so what ?
tell a Matrix/Star Wars/Orwell/Lynch that the thing they like is pure s***t, they'll hate you, and insult you, but doesn't mean they're wrong being passionate ?

Microsoft tried a lot of things to take linux down, but this one attempt is either pathetic, or hilrious (and the epilogue "ahaha, you fell for it" is a major bonus)

Here, here!! Bravo!

...and here it is, right on schedule, the predicted swipe at the fanboys, only with a twist. Why should people who devote their lives to FOSS be so passionate when you slander their work, apparently just to prove a point?

All along, it was just what I said it was, a cheap manufactured controversy, and crap.

If you had slandered Vista like this, what do you think Steve Ballmer would have to say?

So basicly your saying that Linux sucks without any resonable explination and that Windows is the best, also without any resonable explination? If you want to make a point, don't go on a mindless bashing rampage. Give some facts, show your view without sounding like you want to kill someone, and just be plain more respectful.

Glad you like it!

I'm just a normal user myself, decided to get it after Windows, slow anti-virus programs hogging my computer, which in the end weren't letting me work at all.

So I got Ubuntu... no odd crashes, no need to reinstall every few months, no anti-viruses and viruses, so I can actually *work* and not wrestle with my computer. It's great :)

You called the article "Why Linux Sucks", thats not intelligent discourse. You framed the debate and got exactly what you were looking for. Congrats you wanted to antagonize people and you succeeded. While its obvious some crossed the line, and I'm not excusing that, you prodded people and you are amazed you get a reaction? A reason Linux has a "fan boy" section of the community is because members are invested in Linux, either through time or money (donations). I scanned two parts of your series and wasn't impressed so i didn't bother to respond until i read this. If you want to write an article about fanboys in the Linux community then write an article about fanboy.
I started using Ubuntu in July and have found the community very friendly.
"Gotch ya" journalism is one of the reason i stoped following the main stream press, thanks for lowering my expectations.

"But how to proceed? Clearly, engaging this community on an intellectual level was pointless. No, to really "bring out the Linux beast" I would need to show the temerity, the audacity, the outright stupidity to actually criticize one of their sacred cow distributions. And not in the nice, "fair and balanced" way of a professional journalist, but rather in the over-the-top, zealous, "in your face" way that so many Linux "fan bois" had demonstrated to me."

That's nonsense. Provoking an outraged reaction by being slanderous doesn't prove anything. This was a cheap stunt from the beginning, and a cheap stunt it remains. You are a cheap journalist, and your name and the name of this publication have been cheapened.

I am not a "boi". I am a 49 year old man, and I don't respond to reasonable, intelligent criticism the way I responded to this article. Go back and read my responses, and you'll see that I acknowledged from the beginning that there are legitimate criticisms to be made of Ubuntu. My father wrote for a newspaper all his life, and he taught me something about journalistic standards and integrity. People who expect decent journalism got swept up in your little joke on the fanboys, and now that we see that you were only kidding, the fanboys will probably laugh it off. People who expect decent journalism are going to remember this.

Holding up a mirror to the fanboys? You did no such thing.
I know you like to think you've tricked everyone into this grand social experiment, but you've proven nothing other than the fact that when you punch someone in the stomach, they tend to get mad at you.

You 'tried to engage in intelligent discourse' by writing a series of articles called "Why Ubuntu Sucks", and filling them with lies and mudslinging so severely braindead and MS-glorifying that even the most stoic Linux user would have to take offense.

There was no intelligence in your articles, just schoolyard bullying and if you expected to get anything else in return, you obviously know nothing about human psychology.

You hit the community over the head with a hammer and ran away, and _NOW_ you're trying to point out how aggressive they have suddenly become?

You reaped EXACTLY what you sowed, and I find it highly reprehensible that you're now blaming the Linux community for defending itself after _a decade_ of nothing but lies, verbal assaults, and attack ads from MS shills like you.

I don't feel guilty or embarrassed at all for pointing out your obvious mistakes and calling the whole thing a piece of unjournalistic garbage because it lacked a single citation, source, reference, or evidence of anything you claimed.
And I'd do the same to an Ubuntu-glorifying article just as ridiculously biased, if that one also made fun of the names MS chose for their applications (Even if it was only to make a lame sex joke).

From the very first paragraph of your articles there was no civility coming from your side, it was so over the top that there could be only one reaction from everyone who read it. And you knew that perfectly well.

Your writing was so beneath contempt of anything a tech website ought to publish that we were all appalled. Naturally you get a reaction. Even ad hominem attacks, but I think that was to be expected. You didn't cite a single piece of evidence for any of your outrageous lies, so there wasn't really anyone but you to criticize.

No, the only thing you proved is that the days are over where Linux people will just roll over and accept this kind of garbage written about them in the tech news.

The fact that anyone at all managed to keep a civil tone in the comments to your articles should speak volumes about the patience of the Linux community.

And for the record: "Here, for the whole world to see, preserved for all eternity in the digital ether of cyberspace.."

..are exactly _NO_ references to the n-word and only 3 comments with the f-word throughout this entire series. That's exhibiting more civility than what I've seen on forums for cooking recipes.

But hey, why let facts get in the way of your big dance and "gotcha" moment?

(I do see a lot of posts with the word 'bullshit', however, but I think there's a very logical explanation for that)

It looks like you're the one with a horrible judgement of the Linux community, and you've only exposed the many ways in which people will tell you you're dead wrong about everything when you write a series of articles that are.. well.. dead wrong about everything.

Also, I don't blame you for liking Ubuntu and putting it on your computers. If I had to pay $500 a pop for an OS on more than one machine, I'd learn to like Linux in a hurry too.

"Is Vista a trick too ?"

Shivan, actually, Vista is a hacked version of Debian - albeit it with many useful driver removed and some pauses introduced so that you need to buy new hardware.

You read it here first.

"So I decided to do what any good journalist would do . . ."

Except that this simply proves you are not a good journalist. In fact, you don't even qualify for the title of journalist, good or otherwise.

"Clearly, engaging this community on an intellectual level was pointless."

Yes, because you are clearly not an intellectual.

Based on this series of articles, there is no reason to ever read anything you write, much less believe any of it.

I'm proud of the Linux community. I think the response was fairly rational for someone who sees something they care about slandered, certainly for the web. Go to cbsnews.com, say something derogatory about George Bush, and see what you get. A Windows enthusiast in a forum recently called me a "cokgoobling fagboy". And yes, that's how he spelled it.

Considering the volume of the responses, and the overall crappyness of the flame-baiting articles, there was very little that was low and personal about them. Overall, the tone was outraged, but thoughtful, and eloquent. I must confess that I allowed myself to use the word "chickenshit" to describe the series of articles. But in my defense, that was because they were so unbelievably chickenshit.

Your experiment is flawed. If you had made kind, respectable, considerate points you might have gotten a kind, respectable, considerate response. What you did, however, was post misinformation in an article which, to the informed reader, came across as either being poorly researched, or deliberately biased. This is like waving a gun around in a biker bar to prove that bikers are violent people.

Challenging misinformation in journalism doesn't make someone a 'fanboi'. I use both Windows and Linux comfortably and professionally, each has their strengths and weaknesses, and I welcome HONEST discussions of those strengths and weaknesses.

Look at the comments from Windows fans simply accepting the results of your "research" in 1-4 and giving a knee-jerk "right on!" without critique. How many prospective Linux users have read parts 1-4 and decided not to try something different? How many Small Business decision makers read the articles and decided to go with MS instead of Ubuntu because you've reinforced their prejudices? Satire is fine, but be responsible and wrap it up in one article so there is no misunderstanding.

The only thing your "experiment" shows is that the Linux community does not believe everything they read, does not tolerate poor journalism, and are not afraid to confront it when they see it.

I wish I could get paid to troll!

If you "actually *like* Ubuntu" then surely you'd not want to do it (and its community) such a fiercely slanderous disservice. From a journalistic standpoint, you've clearly demonstrated that you're a hack--and I surely hope that your struggle for satire and provocation yields no damaging result (that is to say: prospective converts don't take your tripe seriously).

It would behoove you to demonstrate the maturity and wisdom that a purported 20+ years of related experience should command. (Or find a new line of work.)

Wikipedia: "An Internet troll, or simply troll in Internet slang, is someone who intentionally posts controversial or contrary messages in an on-line community such as an on-line discussion forum with the intention of baiting users into an argumentative response. ... A troll's main goal is usually to arouse anger and frustration among the message board's other participants, and will write whatever it takes to achieve this end."

This lame 5-part series wasn't written by Randall Kennedy, "good journalist," it was written by Randall Kennedy, troll.

As they say on Usenet: WTKF. HAND.

I'll say it again, this time with even more conviction.

For shame, Mr. Kennedy. For shame, Infoworld.

You took great joy in publicly and blatantly *lying* about the hard work of thousands of people, under the guise of "journalism" (!), and ended by hurling insults at *everyone* who stood up for the truth - even those reasoned in their rebuttals.

You are worse than a schoolyard bully - you are a hairy, evil, drooling troll without the sense to be embarrassed by the lies to which you proudly admit.

Had you done exactly the same thing to Vista and the engineers who worked on it, I would say exactly the same thing - you are a very poor excuse for a human being, and a disgrace to the profession of journalism.

And I'll never believe another article I read in Infoworld.

More than anything else, it offends me to see this unprincipled rascal describe some maniac racist flamer as "the *true* face of the Linux Community." He said that, in so many words, in explaining his actions. That alone, without the cruel manipulative trickery, places his actions beneath contempt. We thought he was attacking Ubuntu, but he was attacking US. Now don't we feel silly for getting all bent out of shape?

Read the comments to Kennedy's articles carefully. You'll see some bad language (I always assume that if they want to keep that out, they certainly can), you'll see attacks on Kennedy's journalistic integrity (were we wrong?) but you certainly won't see any racial epithets, and I don't think you'll see many of the low personal attacks that are the essence of true flaming. Kennedy will pretend that he was able to trick us into giving him what he wanted, but overall, that's just another one of his many lies.

Modded -1 Flamebait

Honestly I didn't read it all. I read part 1 which was silly, and then part 2 which compared Vista to some random video on youtube. At this point I decided that weblog.infoworld.com must be open to any random troll or something as the 'articles' were clearly just trolls. Part 5 would be cute except the real lesson is that "Infoworld posts contrarian nonsense for page hits."

So what lesson are you supposed to have imparted here?

That bashing an OS with stupid, inane points on what is supposed to be a professional site will get people posting negative comments about your journalistic integrity and ability?

I hate to inform you of this, but if you posted this same exact article series and just replaced the names of the OSes with any two randomly picked names you would get the exact same response.

It says absolutely nothing about anyone except call your own judgment into question.

What you did is the same as an idiot that whacks a hornet nest with a stick and then is just stunned that they would dare attack him. I don't question the bees in that case, I question the intelligence of the idiot whacking the bee hive.

Randall Kennedy is a TROLL!!!!!

You can find childish behavior in any community. You just proved it exist in the community of journalist.

I'm not sure exactly what you were trying to prove, or why you thought it was worth the effort of writing five columns to do it.

I think you'll find that any time you write something disparaging about any operating system, there will be no end of debate. Unfortunately, there are also those who interpret your use of the term "sucks" as an invitation to reply with epthets.

So...do you not believe anything you wrote about Ubuntu? It (and any other OS) surely has its warts. However, the advantage of a FOSS operating system over a proprietary one, is that it should be free from ulterior commercial motives. I have found that Linux allows me more freedom and control over how I use my computer and what I can do with it. I will be the first to admit, that I'm not a naive user. However, others I know, have become increasingly annoyed at the barriers Windows seems to be throwing up when they try to work with media, for example.

In any case, I use Ubuntu on four computers, one at work, one at home and one each for my daughter and brother. While there have been issues, things have generally gone smoothly, over the course of several years. Two of the Ubuntu installs were in response to stability problems with the Win2K and WinXP installs originally on the machines. Rather than re-install Windows, we agreed to give Ubuntu a try. No one has seen a compelling reason to go back to Windows.

So, while Ubuntu may suck, from my personal experience, and that of my family, it appears it doesn't suck any worse than Windows.

Randall Kennedy! You're an Ass hat!

Randall,
I think you're full of crap. This is just your cheesy cop-out way of getting out of this series after you received too much heat from your bosses. Go play with your Vista machine Linux hater!!!
We're not fooled by your self serving explanation. Have some integrity to stick by your convictions loser!

"Instead, I got a glimpse of the *real* face of the Linux community, the immature, mom's basement-dwelling, pimple-faced geek side that the Red Hats, Novells and Canonicals of this world don't want you to see."

People are so distracted by the spoof, they miss the slur.

Mr. Kennedy, I challenge you to go through all of the responses to the entire "Ubuntu Sucks" series, and see what you can find that is as degrading, baseless and overall insulting as your characterization of the "*real* face of the Linux community" as a racist lout who is too dumb to know that he's n-baiting a white man. I'm sure you'll find something, but you won't find much.

I'm not talking about bad language. That's just style, and you could have filtered that out if you want to. You actually said that this is who we are, the *real* face of our community. And that was when you weren't spoofing, when you were being "honest".

In quotes, of course.

Ouch. Ouch! OUCH!
I am a 22 year old, FEMALE, ubuntu user - that doesn't live with her parents!

3 yeas ago I started using Xandros, then Ubuntu and I have aways found the community (both online and the Linux User's Groups that I have spoken to) to be thoughtful and very helpful.

You probably have no idea of the damage that you have done to the newest Ubuntu release - do a google news search and see what comes up... Your article! - Repeatedly!

If you have been treated badly I am very sorry, but your response has been a thought out, thorough, intentionally inaccurate and hurtful, Five-part attack on a fantastic piece of software, it's writers and now users like me!

I really hope you write a more balanced article to make amends here. Ok, you've shown us what children WE can be - but who are YOU going to be?

I am not impressed - and I am not laughing.

I find it weird that you chose the Ubuntu community to make this 'point' about. Ubuntu's community is the most welcoming and helpful of any I've ever seen. Yes, other distro's have forums and irc channels where people can be kinda jerks. But this "experiment" of yours has really only drawn a handful of the 6 million or so Ubuntu users to lose respect for the publication you represent, and in some cases, attack you, because, believe it or not, apparently some minute percentage of Ubuntu users is much like you in terms of how they relate.
While you do hit on some points, such as how xorg can be rather frustrating, you also make some complete bs remarks. For example, compiz fusion. It can offer more functional features than aero. It can minimize to tray with genie effects, offer desktop switching,window previews, and expose style window selection. However, making a youtube video with the more frivolous effects is much more entertaining.

In any case, the whole series seems rather a sad thing with your motives exposed. The unfortunate thing is that some people who probably aren't the most informed will buy into your hyperbole and get a bad view of the Ubuntu community, the community that probably least-typifies the gross generalizations you make.

So let's review what you've established with this article:
1. When insulting something people care about, a subset of the people will respond negatively.
2. Specifically, Ubuntu has users who might respond negatively.
3. Not every user of Ubuntu is completely professional.

All three are certainly true. However, I don't see this being groundbreaking by any means. In fact, you have wasted your own time, and your readers' time. You established things that are already true, about ANY group, and made conclusions from those establishments which are poor, at best. First, you seem to imply that Canonical is somehow trying to "hide" enthusiasts like those who have responded negatively. That is simply not true. Canonical and Ubuntu officials simply act professional, and do their jobs. They do not control the users or attempt to hide them, but they do what ANY company does, and try their best to act professional in all situations. A subset of the community does not do that, and has no reason to do that. Applying the actions of this subset to the entire community is wrong, and unprofessional as a journalist.
This little "experiment" of yours is just that in a nutshell: unprofessional. Your goal was what? To establish that a subset of the Ubuntu community responds negatively to criticism? Well-done. That's true of ANY community, anywhere. Because of the nature of your "experiment", nothing is discovered. It was unscientific, so you have no idea what percentage of the Ubuntu community actually responds in that manner. Basically, you have done nothing. Every fact this experiment has proven, we have already known, and every implication you have made based on those is either trivial, or incorrect. Someone's paying you to do a five-part series telling us that some people react negatively. Why?
In addition, in the process, you likened the "face" of the Linux community to the worst parts of it. It would be the equivalent of telling us all Germans are Nazis, all Americans are criminals, all Muslims are terrorsts, and all Christians are ignorant bigots. I just don't think any more needs to be said.

I am somewhat at a loss. I am a linux user, primarily an Ubuntu user, and I read your series with skepticism (like many). I also read the comments, and felt that there was nothing to add to the few that raised legitimate points (or to the others that resorted to the ad hominem attacks).

While I agree that your series was effective in showing the nastier side of people, I don't think that it is reflective of the linux community, but rather the internet community. I am involved in my *physical* linux community. I belong to a "Women Who Love *nix" group, complete with mailing list and monthly meeting at a coffee shop. I troubleshoot linux issues for my friends and colleagues at my University. I actively test mathematical applications that run from the terminal or in a GUI, both to support the efforts of people developing for linux, and to expand my resources as a mathematician.

I imagine that any group that you attempt to engage in "intellectual discussion" on the internet, especially by baited hook, will devolve similarly. Honestly--who has the time to read *and respond to* these over-the-top missives other than the dedicated "fan boys" and "trolls" who have little other to do with their time?

I urge you to look to ubuntuforums.org or the ubuntu irc channel to engage the true ubuntu community.

I'll tell my little 14 years old sister and my little 10 years old brother they are geeks (They are using Kubuntu since a year without having me to re-install the OS).

I wonder how much they'll be laughing.

Funny, the windows people here have all the pimples.... and they smell too. The Unix/ linux guys wash and have social skills, at least.

Oh-Kay. So, you didn't just want to start a flamewar. You wanted to conduct an "experiment"? Why? Did you ever have any doubts as to what kind of responses your articles would receive? And then you proceed to further insult the people you inflamed by giving essentially the same "speech" that William Shatner gave on Saturday Night Live many years ago (the "infamous" Star Trek Convention sketch). I've never been a regular reader of your columns so I can't say that you've lost your journalistic integrity since I don't know if you ever had any to begin with. I just know that you definitely don't have any now. One last comment about your "fine" series of "Ubuntu Sucks" articles: Whatever. Now, just go away, little man, you bore me.

I enjoyed your article. I've been using Ubuntu for work for two years. It's actually manageable when you have a Windows laptop by its side.

Even though I really like Ubuntu Linux, I must say that the conceited attitude of some users in the support forum is truly annoying. They believe that "Linux is better than Windows because Linux is open-source and Windows is not." But being open-source doesn't guarantee software quality, and you have pointed out the main areas where Ubuntu is still trailing behind Windows.

In fact, most people don't care if something is open-source or not. They don't know how to program and will never learn to do it. So the idea "you can improve the software yourself" isn't of much value to them.

Current ubuntu/linux "guru" community is so concerned with making everything open-source that they don't realize how software quality counts more than its open-source status. Well, these people will always exist, and I have nothing against them. But what they produce will never be good enough for the public.

One thing you must take into consideration is that Windows has been around for two decades and little Ubuntu OS has been out for three years. In those three years, Canonical has achieved something incredible. Yes Ubuntu is not ready for prime-time, most applications still need work but they're functional. Ubuntu is a work in progress and if it does go on as it's been going, it can replace Windows and it won't still suck! The only thing I'd like to say is that Ubuntu doesn't have the years of experience and financial backing of Microsoft but it can get there. Ubuntu has a different goal, provide a FREE OS for kids in poor countries, not to compete with Winblows. You must've gotten it all wrong.

Thanks for a good series. We still don't have a decent alternative to MicroSoft, and I doubt there's anything valuable ever going to come from the foul mouthed get-a-lifers. One last thing. Could we retire the term "sucks"? Even used ironically, it lowers the tone of the discussion.

How much have M$ paid you for this collection of nonsense, Randall?

Well, at least you're likely to win two journalism awards for it all: "Most Clueless Linux Review of the Year" and "Most Blatant Vista Fanboy". Well done, you.

"Clearly, engaging this community on an intellectual level was pointless."

What a smug, arrogant, pointless little man you are, Randall.

So, based on your preconception you've rolled out a bunch of lies in order to illicit a response? The fact that a few people have called you 'a fucking idiot' doesn't mean that the profanity makes the statement any less true.

Infoworld, why are you giving this moron column space?

Finally, for those looking for more honest, intelligent and respectful appraisals of Vista / Ubuntu, try these:

http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10006214o-2000331758b,00.htm
http://community.zdnet.co.uk/blog/0,1000000567,10006217o-2000331777b,00.htm

P.S. If the editors at Infoworld think all this 'buzz' from Kennedy treating his readers like morons will mean more readers, think again. This could come as a surprise: people like to be treated with respect.

It wasn't a joke.

Look I just installed 7.10 on my notebook.

Things are definitely improved from the red hat days, I was even surprised by the resize partition ability, and the ability to import user accounts from XP on install. The CDROM automount works and my WiFi actually works out of the box. impressive (for an early 1990's OS).

But here's the bad news:

-Plugins like java and flash won't install on Firefox, says they are not found. After exhaustive web searches there is no mention of the problem. Also searched in Ubuntu's forums.

It doesn't tell me where it is looking so I can make sure that it is available. Is it the Internet, or the install CD (which is in the drive)?? It doesn't tell me what to do next, after the failure message it says it succeeded and reloads the page and I get to try again. I give up.

I don't want to join an online community just to use my computer. I want it to just work.

-OK so I wanted to play with the Beryl whatever 3D stuff you see on you tube and see how cool it is. First an exhaustive search in Gnome/local machine add programs to find it, no luck. Then web searches, found some '05-ish docs. OK. Realized I need a graphics driver. Search for it. Try to figure out if my "Radeon graphics driver FireGL 9000" that is running is what it says it is as I believe my notebook is intel 945 integrated graphics. Intel says that my 945 and older drivers are included in my linux distro already so I shouldn't use the xorg2 driver. Is the driver for my device a restricted driver or what. Read the beryl docs more. Read some articles on the sorry state of graphics on Linux. Try to figure out if Mesa is the OpenGL I should use or is Mesa just a software opengl pipline used for fallback?? Decide maybe things won't work due to lack of GPU power/shader support on my notebook. Still can't find the actual package to install and low confidence of success.

I hate to tell you but this is a fan boi OS. I don't want to do a homebrew project or join an online community to figure it out. I don't want to have to "figure it out".

I'll look again in ten years. Maybe Ubuntu/linux will be up to win95 maturity by then.

As a word of advice, it's usually best not to refer to your own discussion or conversation as "intellectual." That's best for others to decide.

Well, what do you know? Flame bait elicits flames. Who would have thought? And I remember when InfoWorld was a news publication.

I see that now, proof that you must always consider the source, is true even for infoworld. How many other articles have I read (and trusted) been a lie?

Having seen the headline (Ubuntu Still Sucks), made me reconsider escaping the MicroGates world. Thankfully, you owned up to the farce (but not out of the responsibility) you created. This version of "War of the Worlds" should never have been played in this manner.

Too bad "consider the source" now applies to Infoworld now.

WOW!!! That was REALLY irresponsible! I use Windows XP, Ubuntu, Debian and OSX in my work for various purposes. I also lived on the bleeding edge of NT back in the day (BTW - you're wrong about not being able to boot to the command line, or an emergency video setting in both early NT and Ubuntu).

You just wasted my time with these articles. For some time I've been getting the feeling from Infoworld that it is going the way of most of US journalism and replacing partisanship and sensationalism for information but if you're next article isn't a sincere apology for wasting everyone's time then THIS PROVES IT.

In fact, if I don't see that apology next time I get one of the emails you send me, I'm canceling. I haven't got the kind of value I used to get from Infoworld in quite some time....

I drink Scotch because I am a Scot, and also drink brandy, Bourbon, and others spirits as they all have merit.
I am now 77 years if age and have found that, over the years, "discussions" on the merits of one piece of software over another are not very useful, and usually pointless. What matters, in this case, is that the Ubuntu community have given me an OS that is a joy to use and the Ubuntu Community is a resource for all my questions, and I've even been able to offer help on occasions.

Thanks a lot InfoWorld…

I had just installed kubuntu and took these articles seriously and started thinking I may have made a mistake. Then I find out you were just pulling my chain...

There is no place for this in technical journalism. Shame on you and Mr. Kennedy. I have always taken InfoWorld as a trusted source of news and technical information. You have done irreparable damage. Good bye.

who the fu** is Randall Kennedy anyway, bill gates lost golden gate lover? Are you a majority stock holder in microsoft or something? Or just a guy who knows what PCI means, but never even seen a PCI slot? Are you pissed because your shares keep going down and the fact that no one likes vista....

I'm still yet to hear something good said about vista, and I work on cross platforms for a living. The only thing I ever hear about vista is, do you think my laptop will still run xp? Is there anyway we can put XP on this computer?

I always say no, and hand out a live disk of ubuntu, tell them it's free, and make another friend.

Good day to you Randall Kennedy, what a waste of life this was.

I think that some of these comments are much better than the article itself. Manufactured controversy on the cheap was met by some very intelligent answers. Maybe I am naive but I look at the good comments (the intellectual ones :-)) and remember those.

I also have to say that I am sad that this site accepted this type of article. Makes me question the goals of this publication. There is plenty of others out there and I guess I will have to seek better sources.

"So I decided to do what any good journalist would do:"

Well, no, you decided to do what any modern mainstream journalist with an agenda would do, ala Dan Rather. You produced something analogous to "fake but accurate" and threw it as red meat to people who are a bit more sophisticated and knowledgeable than your average 6 O'clock News viewer who takes anything the mainstream media throws at them as gospel truth. (Your own comments on your feelings regarding modern political events kind of indicate to which group your membership is registered) And you got a reaction.

Well done, I'm sure you are satisfied with yourself. Professional? Hardly. Worthy of appearing in the contents of a publication that professionals use for consideration in IT decisions? Not at all. Consider the fact that your own comments are now "enshrined for all eternity in the digital ether of cyberspace." How many people googling for Ubuntu information are going to come across your comments and add those comments to their decision matrix? Given that they come from a publication like Infoworld, those comments are going to carry greater weight than if they came from something like, say, the CBS News or Time Magazine. So now your misdirection gets taken as critical thought and factual opinion and may play a part in some critical technical decisions.

Good job, your little "journalistic experiment" has added just a bit more tarnish to the already dreadfully tarnished journalistic world as well as Infoworld's reputation.

And STILL they come, as moths to the flame, visages twisted in righteous indignation, bathed in the glow of... the light on the basement stairs.

Nicely done piece. I have also experienced all of those challenges with Windows and Linux, and more to your point I also marvel at the emotional investment people put into technology jihads when they don't have anyone else in their life to use their emotions with.

"And STILL they come, as moths to the flame, visages twisted in righteous indignation, bathed in the glow of... the light on the basement stairs.

Nicely done piece. I have also experienced all of those challenges with Windows and Linux, and more to your point I also marvel at the emotional investment people put into technology jihads when they don't have anyone else in their life to use their emotions with."

So what are the odds that Kennedy posted this? I'd say about 50-50. The line about the basement stairs seems pretty close to his wiseass style.

Just for the sake of arguement, what if people don't have anything else in their lives to care about? Is that a good reason to mock what they have? And then to mock them for caring? Are your really that much of a douchebag?

People WORK on this stuff. This is their WORK. Of course they're invested in it. But this was never an attack on the technolgy. It was an attack on the community. I think people SHOULD take it personally.

And it proves nothing about the Linux community's ability to handle criticism of the technology, because there was no criticism of the technology in these articles. Criticism requires critical thought. This was just a bunch of jokes and puts downs. I personality dislike Ubuntu myself, but I was insulted by the general lack of quality in these articles. At the time I wrote that it was as if he had phoned it in, while driving, with the kids in the car.

And then I was insulted BY THE INSULT. I was MAD, and no one has the right to say that I shouldn't be. I'm over it now, but your cluelessness requires a response.

And lets not forget how long Kennedy took setting up his antihilarious prank. Why shouldn't he take five days of crap after dishing out five days of crap?

Amen

Hey "blackbelt":

Would that I had posted such a rebuttal!

Mr. "AndStillTheyCome" is clearly a far more eloquent writer than I might ever hope to become.

Credit where credit is due, et al... :-)

RCK

Very nice article. It's fun to get people riled up. I'll be sure to read more of your stuff in the future.

The problem with Ubuntu is that it divides the Linux crowd by taking Debian technology and making it comprehensible to newcomers but incomprehensible to experienced Debian users. If you think Ubuntu is a "sacred cow" of the Linux community, I can show you some Debian forums where it is NOT popular. That's at least in part because Ubuntu looks like Debian, but if you try to use it like Debian, it'll frustrate you to no end.

I haven't tried it since Fiesty Fawn, and I can't remember every problem that I had. I do remember driving myself half crazy looking for KDE in the repositories... how could there not be KDE? Well, it turned out that I was supposed to be looking for "kubuntu-desktop". How was I supposed to know that? Some kind of signpost along the way would have been helpful.

Maybe this new release will consider the technology from the point of view of the experienced Linux users. That would be a good thing, because the Ubuntu community could benefit from their experience, especially if they ever want to get into the real power of the unix heritage, and not just stay locked in to another twenty years of flash animation and clickclickclickclick.

And that, Mr. Kennedy, is what criticism looks like. You talk about the subject at hand, and you make a real argument for a real point of view. You get off your high horse, and you risk being wrong. I thought someone ought to show you.

When you offer real criticism in good faith and are met with contempt, your audience is unjust and has revealed themselves as boorish. When, in place of criticism, you offer sexual entendre jokes based on an application's name, you are reveled as boorish and your audience's contempt is justified.

And when you offer your audience contempt...

RE: "...and that, Mr. Kennedy, is what criticism looks like."

Yeah, but, blackbelt_jones, you're presuming that the interest was in criticism when you judge Kennedy's work on these grounds. It's clearly not! This was purposeful baiting - you know Fox News / Air America style sleaze.

Kennedy is just traveling along a well worn path of BS sensationalism that passes from news. He is exploiting us by getting our attention. He is casting Infoworld as an ENTERTAINMENT VEHICLE and driving us and his magazine toward the same wasteland that has rendered most journalism irrelevant.

Get the joke?!! Ha ha- Infoworld isn't a place to get news. Its a place where the editors are willing to let their writers play games with your time and attention. Since Microsoft is an advertiser and Ubuntu isn't.... It's all in good fun to spend a chunk of credibility kissing a little Vista behind.

The difference of course is that Fox and Air America own licensed bandwidth that is in relatively short supply and Infoworld lives primarily on the web and print as a function of it's credibility. I've recently started searching for alternatives and guess what? There are plenty just a web search away....

I came to Infoworld for insight and answers. I got this....

Looks like an opportunity for competition to me.

"Mr. "AndStillTheyCome" is clearly a far more eloquent writer than I might ever hope to become."

Well, maybe, but that doesn't make him any good. He doesn't actually have anything to say; it's just another caricature. "HA HA You're all losers living in the basement." Not exactly groundbreaking, y'know?

I don't think you are being mature and reasonable. You taunt Linux users and devs as being "pimply-faced basement dwellers", and claim that your jab represents the "real" Linux community. Well, I'm a 46 year-old surgeon who codes as a hobby (like *Dr.* Kolivas does, or did), I own my own home, and I always try to be helpful (and *am* always polite) with anyone who needs help with the programs I work on ("Tux, Of Math Command", and "Tux Typing", both at http://tux4kids.alioth.debian.org).

This is not "good journalism", irrespective of your rationalizations. You are just slinging insults to generate flames.

"A surgeon who codes as a hobby?" Damn, that's impressive!

Yawn.

Dressing up flame-bait as journalism and then claiming some kind of obscure moral victory when a few fan boys show up and call you rude words seems deeply hypocritical when you complain about ad hominem attacks while making snide comments about the "pimple faced hordes".

You've conceded that your articles were intentional parodies of contrived Nix heads attacks on MS written so as to attract a certain type of response.

This leaves us with several hundred comments some of them pathetically immature and some concise criticisms of what appeared to be bad journalism.

I'm particularly pleased, having trawled the comments that its a tiny minority who've responded rudely.

All you have proven is that when provoked some people react idiotically .

congrats.

Now that I'm no longer angry, I'm wondering if anyone is up for a discussion...

I want to raise two points.

1. Overall, the most obnoxious members of any group are often the most visible by definition. This goes for conservatives, liberals, christians, muslims, feminists, tv preachers... you name it. You should always be careful about judging a whole community, ANY community, by the few who push themselves into your field of vision at the slightest provocation. Needless to say, this was not a "slight" provocation.

I no longer feel the need to respond to Mr. Kennedy. I think he owes us an apology, and if we get it, I'll stop blocking the ads from this site. But he either knows he went too far, or will never know. And I don't want to presume to know his motives. Is he a paid troll for Microsoft? Not necessarily. Is he someone who doesn't understand Linux? Frankly, from this series of articles, there's no way to tell. So it isn't to Mr. Kennedy in particular that I address the following.

To me, this whole business about "Linux Fanbois" seems like a Karl Rove tactic. Karl Rove made it a practice to attack political enemies for their strengths. Any Corporation, and this includes Microsoft, would kill for the kind of "brand loyalty" Linux enjoys. How do you turn a powerful asset like a fiercely loyal user base into a liability? With caricatures of basement-dwelling losers, and diminutive epithets like "fanbois". (That spelling makes me want to give a French Pronunciation... "fan-bwah")

Occam's razor suggests that the most logical reason for Linux's loyal fan base is a good product... not that IBM, the U.S. Military, and those behind the international space station are all losers living in their parents' basements.

Again, I don't want to assign sinister motives to Mr. Kennedy. Having scolded him for a week now, I think we ought to step back, and give him the benefit of the doubt. It may be that he really is so lacking in imagination that he associated 10 million Linux users with a handful of boorish emails he received once. Once you've seen his photo on the website, that becomes more plausible.

Hey "blackbelt,"

Actually, that's my staff photo from back in 1997. I was working for Giga Information Group at the time, heading-up their coverage of Windows NT as Senior Analyst in their Santa Clara office.

Back then I was known as the guy with the "crazy notion that we'd all be running a future version of NT on our desktops some day" (everyone else was betting on Windows CE and Terminal Sevices, including my colleague, Rob Enderle).

Of course, it was just a "crazy notion..."

RCK

LOL!

Kennedy, you are the master of the non sequitor! I honestly don't know what you're talking about, but I'm pretty sure that none of those things are running on MY desktop!

Anyway, after all that silliness, I wanted to make a serious point, but after succumbing to the temptation to make one last jibe, a non sequitor is probably all I deserve. Heretofore, I'm going to save my outrage for those who deserve it; global warming and holocaust deniers, and Republicans.

erm, dudes? was it not obvious from the first? this is a media-literacy and PR-wars test. your ambition whatever it be, will only be realised if nurtured, protected and above all cultivated in an environment of political savvy.

people must be convinced that they want it.
they must attach to it ideas of extatic self-aggrandisement.

it must be made fashionable.

when *nix CLI gurus have demonstrated that they can use linux to give women what women want, the linux community will be laughing.

I gave my wife -and all the women in my family- phone calls to anywhere at zero cost. I set her up with a distro, wm, desktop, settings, tweaks. got feedback from her and over 2 weeks of refinement it was perfect for her needs.

now she can't go back to mswin. she can see it's fake. she uses kaffeine to save multimedia streams. YOU SEE? she CAN'T go back!

btw, are you guys american or something, 'cos when you have something to say, some of you are using -like- ten times too many words than what you ought to be using just to put across what it is that you really mean to be saying.

Randalls words were honed.
As i read, i found myself grinning wryly.
I am english, you see.

now where were we? Ah yes!
Jesus and God are the same person:- Discuss.

The great thing about the internet is that just about anybody can access gazillions of computers and www sites and so forth. The downside is, well, anybody can access ...

It's no surprise that any over-the-top article will draw forth responses by some people whose interpersonal skills register about -5 on a scale of 1 to 10.

All that said, I accomplish a lot of productive work with Ubuntu and other flavors of Linux every day, and wouldn't switch to Vista on a bet. But it's only fair to look for ways to make Linux even better. X windows, for instance, is a real bear to configure. If there is a good UI for mysql or postgresql, as easy to use as Microsoft Access, I haven't been able to google it up. Don't get me started on GIMP -- there surely must be a better way to edit photos.

Rather than spend our energies howling at Microsoft, we should be striving to make Linux even better than it is. We should make applications more useful, more easily configurable, and leaner. We may not have the gigadollars at Bill Gates' disposal, but we do have thousands of very talented people.

It that's not a bit of post hoc self-justification for juvenile nitpicking then you're still a dickhead anyway

Randall:

I can understand being upset by epithet-slinging idiots, but why do U characterize _/all/_ Linux fans as PFBDs (Pimple-Faced Basement Dwellers)? I can guarantee that if U post /anything/ on the internet, somebody will rabidly attack U for it.

So ignore them!

When idiot gets insulting about a disagreement, they have simply become noise (which the internet amplifies, granted) which should properly be ignored. Let the world be the judge of their idiocy; don't be dragged down to their level and sling the same mud.

I have only been using Linux for about six or seven years, and in all that time, I have almost never looked at source code. As a programmer who has butted his head against intransigent software vendors who won't make their package do what I need it to do countless times over the past thirty years, however, it sure gives me a Warm Fuzzy knowing that if the package maintainer won't fix it, _I_CAN_.

Code is something like art, in that I really don't care what the artist (programmer) is like; I just like the artwork (package). There are all kinds of people writing open-source stuff (mostly for Linux, but also for BSD and other platforms); among them U can probably find Nazis, Communists, born-again Christians (I'm one), Islamic fundamentalists, Republicans (I'm not one), homosexuals, and folks of just about every type. So what? Use the code, improve it, share it, and make money off it (somehow IBM managed to make 10**9 dollars U.S. in the last year or so from Linux and Linux-related offerings), but don't throw rocks at it just because there are a lot of loud-mouthed idiots who have something insulting and stupid to throw at U.

Thank U so much for painting me with that brush.

I don't get this. A microscopic minority of the Linux community uses foul language and that is why Ubuntu sucks. What kind of logic is that? And why would Infoworld even publish such a dumb article? I guess that is the power of the web.
Nevertheless, I think that Ubuntu has many advantages, but also lacks a lot. Things like a decent, on in all configuration programs such as YaST is absent, some of the popular technologies are ignored (namely supporting FakeRAID out of the box), and, although not a fault of Canonical, the hype made Ubuntu to be the Ãœberlinux that fixes everything. Ubuntu is a fine distro, but then again it is just another Linux distro. Ubuntu still sucks only because it isn't best of breed in all categories. We can just wait and tap our foot hoping that Ubuntu brings something really new to the table and learns a few lessons from the big two.

Hey it looks like he wrote the book on the N-word

http://books.google.com/books?id=huR2HQAACAAJ&dq=inauthor:Randall+inauthor:Kennedy&ei=DMcyR8jTJY6IswP8uZyxAQ

'Fan boi' it's a fan boi in linux world.. video game workd... soccer world... etc world...