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1093 Comments
- JKAL, on 01/16/2009, -33/+846I'm all for Linux as a server and desktop OS, but going on a insult rampage towards the girl and the newspaper is just counter productive. WE as Linux proponents are not winning any new friends. Acting like the jocks that bullied most nerds in our younger years is also what makes non-Linux users afraid of the switch, sure she seemed lazy or impatient, but these are the type of people who need OUR encouragement more than any others.
After using Linux for over the last 6 years, I notice this elitist attitude increasing exponentially in the forums, give people a break and take them under your wing.
The whole thing would have turn around in a flash in favor of the Linux community had a Linux expert near by, gone to her aid personally.
But, what has been done cannot be undone, but as a community we should learn from this and act differently next time. Yes the other side will play dirty, but going in that dirt with them, only creates extremism to both sides, which always leads to negative outcomes, like certain events in the world today. - z00k, on 01/16/2009, -88/+592I still don't think she deserves a degree.
- RedTroll, on 01/16/2009, -22/+449The Linux "community" has given the poor girl the weirdest and creepiest experience of her life. At least she now has one hell of a story to tell her friends...
- sloppychris, on 01/16/2009, -48/+438""They're mad because it puts Ubuntu in a bad light," said Adam Wiesenfarth, a technology consultant at UW-Madison."
No, they're mad because it put Ubuntu in an inaccurate light. - Bicep, on 01/16/2009, -28/+366Whoever the jackasses are that were sending hate messages to the woman, you should be ashamed of yourself - that kind of nonsense isn't going to help anyone. It's one thing to share your constructive thoughts and criticisms with the news station(in a non-vulgar manner), but it's another thing entirely to assault upon someone else's freedom by acting like a rude idiot to someone else- that's just not the right thing to do. That being said, I also don't think it's logically accurate (or even fair) at all to say the "GNU/Linux community" as whole is to blame for a few of the overzealous type idiots either. Let me say that again...The GNU/Linux "community" didn't impinge upon the woman's freedoms, a few idiots did.
As for the news station (if you watched the whole video) they actually did reach out to help this woman, that's why the guy at the end of the video was saying everything was being worked out(she could use OpenOffice for college, and Verizon was going to get her connected). Unfortunately, the first part of the news story seemed to cast a very negative tinge to the whole story, namely because of the chatter between the news anchors.
So, assuming the woman will stop getting harassed(and this is the first priority - no one should be trying to take away her freedoms of expression), this whole ordeal may even turn out to be a good thing for both the GNU/Linux community and the town of Madison Wisconsin because of the publicity involved. The people of Madison WI may get to learn they actually have a choice in operating systems, and Verizon will likely create a process to better handle the GNU/Linux user-types.
Freedom and fairness for all.
Humans enabled with Technology.
That's what it's all about. - Phocion55, on 01/16/2009, -14/+315My cellphone just broke and can't communicate with work colleagues.
Following this girl's logic, I should quit my job. - blooby, on 01/16/2009, -7/+217Who's update girl?
- gamingspartan, on 01/16/2009, -6/+204In foolishness? She canceled her entire education because a computer wouldnt work. Seems kind of like she didnt want a degree if thats all it took to defer her.
- brstilson, on 01/16/2009, -21/+172"Ubuntu is an operating system that contains Linux."
*shudder* - honesttussey, on 01/16/2009, -26/+143"That's also when the comments - many of them angry, rude, and hateful - started pouring in.
Some Ubuntu users accused 27 News of "unscrupulous reporting," hitting a "new low for local news," and writing an "atrocious article."
Many Ubuntu users also wrote very personal attacks about the young lady who was having trouble using the operating system. They called her "lazy," "a dumb girl," and "not worthy of a college degree."
The young woman also contacted 27 News to report she's being harassed on her Facebook account by Ubuntu users."
Stay classy Linux users. - MakanGuru, on 01/16/2009, -12/+116"Many Ubuntu users also wrote very personal attacks about the young lady who was having trouble using the operating system. They called her "lazy," "a dumb girl," and "not worthy of a college degree.""
I am not an Ubuntu user, but i 100% agree with the Ubuntu users above. Does this make me a bad person? :) - theaceoffire, on 01/16/2009, -1/+95You guys are missing the point here.
She didn't ask for help. Not from the School, not from the ISP, nor from her family or friends.
She just gave up and called the news.
And we are supposed to blame Linux for not being so easy that you can *accidentally* do what you want?
If she had asked her ISP, they would have set her up (They said so). Her school had people there to help her, had she asked. Her teacher was happy to accept stuff done with whatever program she had.
But whatever, asking questions are for nerds, so stop picking on me! - seanieb, on 01/16/2009, -12/+106He still doesn't get it. And he doesn't seem to want to understand. Thats a bad characteristic for a journalist.
- mithrasinvictus, on 01/16/2009, -9/+101They should do a follow up piece on some moron that went to the apple store, bought a box, and later discovered that the store forgot to include windows.
- tuxchick, on 01/16/2009, -10/+98Well said. Not only is there a large and vocal group of asshats ready to attack anyone who doesn't toe their personal party line, they even jump on you when you agree with them, if you don't do it in exactly the right way. Linux doesn't need more friends, not when they act like this.
- Snap65, on 01/16/2009, -20/+103I love GNU/Linux but this just shows how far fetched "XXXX Year of the Linux" is. Personally I think she is an idiot but I wouldn't harass her for lack of brain cells. I would actually help her learn Ubuntu. This needs to be the target audience
- knuj, on 01/16/2009, -28/+103I just don't trust what the girl is saying...it strikes me as untruthful. WKOW's role was in not doing their job as factual reporters. They still don't seem to have a clue about why their story is so biased and inaccurate. Certainly they are amazed by the scope of the reaction but don't really have a clue why. In order to help the girl or the station they have to want to be helped they actually would want to find out the truth. I don't think WKOW is interested in the truth or Open Software it was just a Buzzable Human Interest that they thought would help their ratings.
NEWSFLASH FOR WKOW: It did help your ratings you used...the following words...UBUNTU...LINUX..FREE SOFTWARE
Albeit in a bad light, but these are the only reason your station got so much bank on this story....Mmmmn think about it, What WKOW was to dd a real story on this UBUNTU SOFTWARE FREEDOM LINUX stuff challenging Microsoft..hell even Google runs Linux. Maybe we are on the cusp of something here, perhaps even a Software Revolution where users are not bound to proprietary and restrictive licenses that binds them to the sellers as an exploitable resource for life. Maybe this is the true spirit of the pioneers of software for the masses. Technology is shared and developed as a community resource for all to use rich poor, for educational institutions for free, secure reliable at hand for free and even Yes Yes that's a real story..
Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh - SnowCrashv5, on 01/16/2009, -53/+121The girl deserves to be insulted. I could give a ***** if I hated Linux, this is a simple case of a consumer not doing their research before dropping a $1000, so she could go to a TECHNICAL SCHOOL, and she doesn't blame herself, she blames the OEM and Linux. Not only that but she trolls a news station parading around her own ignorance, the news media.. being what it is (not experts in everything, especially technology) bought it hook line and sinker. Some people on the internet call her out for A) being stupid and B) acting stupid in the news after she realizes how stupid she was, and then she flails her arms all over again.
- triscuitbiscuit, on 01/16/2009, -3/+70I agree... Is she unaware of the public library? Did you really have to drop out of school because of a computer issue? Seriously.
- inactive, on 01/16/2009, -6/+72What's to shudder about? Linux is a kernel, and it IS contained (as a component) inside Ubuntu, which is a OS.
- m0llusk, on 01/16/2009, -10/+72Maybe drama school would be a better choice?
- YodaJones, on 01/16/2009, -74/+136***** propaganda from a no-name news station in some podunk town about a stupid student.
Buried. - Darkhacker, on 01/16/2009, -13/+72The girl wasn't attacked because she had trouble with Linux. After all, who among us hasn't had problems with ANY operating system? She was attacked because she wasn't a careful shopper when purchasing the computer in the first place. You have to manually select Ubuntu. Dell ships with Windows by default meaning she changed one of the configuration settings. And because she called a *news crew* instead of asking for help at the college or using a library computer to ask on the Ubuntu forums.
And the news crew was attacked because they couldn't even pronounce the damn thing correctly despite making a note of it multiple times. Plus the fact that they even covered the story in the first place is laughable. What's next? Man wakes up groggy, but is out of coffee. Story at 11. - newwatch51, on 01/16/2009, -7/+65There are ***** in nearly all communities. ***** among Mac users, ***** among Windows users, and just general ***** as well. So yes, there are plenty of ***** that use Linux. But there are plenty of good people in the community too.
- Godlike, on 01/16/2009, -4/+60I work in I.T. and have done helpdesk for years. At one point I wanted so badly to become proficient in linux, surrounded by linux nerds and hackers as friends for years, but ended up a shrinkwrap/windows/MS technician as a career because the nerds around me were exactly that; elitist, antisocial, 'learn it yourself' ***** with bad attitudes about it.
I grew up in DOS; MS is what I know because that's my first exposure, the reason I am not a fan of linux as an actual, workable, every user OS is because of the ***** and eltitst attitudes of that community. I know enough to function in the systems that I need to use because I have to be able to touch almost anything, even if I've never seen it before, but it sure doesn't help me in bash. When you have problems you need someone to help you and if you are not extremely proficient at searching already you are not going to have a good time with linux.
I have wanted to speak to this for so long, you guys (and you know who you are) wonder why M$ is so popular, but M$ has cocoa and a hug ready, you guys are all wielding knives and looking around nervously like you know a secret. Where the ***** do you think the user base is going to go?
That community really needs to learn the difference between ignorance and stupidity. Not knowing something due to lack of exposure or lack of necessity does not make you stupid.
(Though certainly this girl may be stupid, I am not attempting to make that judgment here.) - DeathfireD, on 01/16/2009, -5/+61Notice how their second article sheds more light on the subject? IE. "As a result, she says she canceled her online courses at Madison Area Technical College" and "she accidentally ordered a laptop with Ubuntu, instead of Windows.".
These things should have been put in the first article in-staid of making it seem like the girl was dropping out of college when she was really just dropping out of her online classes. This news site is to blame for all the rage in my opinion. They took something small and made it seem like something big (OMG girl quits college because of Ubuntu!?!). - Nosferotu, on 01/16/2009, -2/+56Every community with large membership is going to have ***** in it.
People are angry at this article not because she's panning linux, but because of the absurdity of it. Rather than spend an hour trying to figure out her new OS, she tries to use it as an excuse to drop out of TWO SEMESTERS of college AND contacts a news organization to try to get it sorted? The stupidity leaking from this story is ridiculous, and the original story was clearly written by someone who didn't have a good grasp on what they were talking about. I'm not part of the linux community, and I can still appreciate the backlash against that sort of thing being pinned to Ubuntu as THEIR problem. I'd expect the same kind of response from ANY community. - warbrain, on 01/16/2009, -30/+83And they have completely scorned themselves. I appreciate it - the Linux community, from what I've experienced, is full of ***** who don't want to help anyone. This is no surprise to me.
- DivisibleByZero, on 01/16/2009, -8/+61I still think it's unscrupulous reporting. Not once did they mention that the girl could have walked down to her nearest computer store, purchased a copy of windows, and installed it on the machine. They acted like it was some faulty hardware that she was stuck with.
Vista Home Basic costs $200 retail. That is kind of pricey, but if $200 is the determining factor of you going to college or not, you'd be screwed eventually anyhow. - idreamwideyed, on 01/16/2009, -8/+58now, i dont know about anyone else, but if i dropped out of school due to "technical issues" with my ***** laptop, my father would have kicked my ass. i understand that not everyone knows ubuntu, but our (meaning, mine and this girls) generation grew up with computers! its not like she doesnt know what google is. and if shes too ignorant to think that, gee, i can go to my local library and do about five minutes of research, i wont have to drop out of school, then, well, there isnt much hope for her.
this girl has 'oh, poor me' syndrome. she's going to whine, bitch and complain until SOMEONE ELSE fixes her problems for her. has everyone forgotten about self reliance? do we really all need to go running to the local news every time our internet craps out on us? i remember being 12 years old, on the phone with our ISP every time our internet would fail to connect. and guess what! it worked!
i'm sorry, but i dont feel bad for her at all. she gives women a bad name, and continues to reinforce the stereotype that women cant do a damn thing for themselves. - alanocu, on 01/16/2009, -7/+53The girl is planning to be a rocket scientist? And she quit college because of an operating system? Since when do rocket scientists stop problem-solving and just quit?
- abaybas, on 01/16/2009, -1/+46Yeah this is exactly what I was thinking. She needed something to blame for her performance.
- protogenxl, on 01/16/2009, -4/+48Update Girl drops out of college because of Linux or How a small TV station in Wisconsin set the interweb on Fire.
- inactive, on 01/16/2009, -18/+62When idiots fail they look for other people to blame, e.g. its the airlines fault i can't fly and not my 400lb fat ass, it's alcohols fault my wife left me etc. you hear it all the time.
A webpage is a webpage, it doesnt matter about the OS. She ***** up because she is a retard. - loconet, on 01/16/2009, -6/+49Never mind that.
How about this ..
"Ubuntu fans read our story and linked to it on Linux fan message boards .. "
fans? fan message boards? Since when is Linux a pop star? Is this station taking the piss? What kind of ridiculous journalism are they pretending to do? - RedTroll, on 01/16/2009, -22/+65The people at this paper are probably laughing their assess off right now thanks to the deranged Ubuntu fanboys.
- inactive, on 01/16/2009, -1/+41I was thinking that too....I mean if that's all it takes for her to quite school...then she was looking for a reason to leave, because at worse, she could of went to her local library and used their computers till she got her stuff in place. I mean my dad died and I still didn't quite college.....some kids are just lazy and will use any excuse to leave the college their parents are probably pressuring them to be at.
- theaceoffire, on 01/16/2009, -4/+43@Hortnon
She didn't ask the School for help, or her ISP.
The ISP Volunteered to send someone to set it up, and the School has a help desk designed for this very scenario.
She is either A) Searching for a reason to quit, or B) A complete moron. - Hamletlere, on 01/16/2009, -8/+46What makes you think that knowning low-level command line programs is required with a pre-installed version of Ubuntu? Guess what? Mac OS X has all of those commands as well, but there are MANY non-Unix guru's using the OS.
And frankly, I have to ask: why did she drop out instead of buying a copy of Windows to install herself on the laptop? Schools usually sell copies for far less than retail prices. - fotoman607, on 01/16/2009, -11/+48read the blog:
http://addins.wkowtv.com/blogs/behindthenews/archi ...
it sounds like somebody is asking to get DoS pwnd - alehx, on 01/16/2009, -0/+36MATC is an area technical college.
She was most likely going to enroll in a 2 year program that guaranteed enrollment at UW if she had a certain GPA.
I think this is hilarious because:
1. This is my local news channel
2. Anyone with some knowledge about a computer could have helped her out
3. The Linux fan-boys just swarmed this site like a plague of open-source locusts
4. WKOW has no idea how to deal with this Linux scourge what-so-ever
5. I'm waiting for the main WKOW page to be replaced with the Linux logo - puter, on 01/16/2009, -1/+35Honestly, I don't think the computer had anything to do with it. I have a feeling she did not want to do the work and used the computer as an excuse not to. Eventually it came back to bite her in the ass and she had to tell her parent's something...so she made a big deal and blamed the computer.
Honestly, I have a couple degrees in the area and I still see students doing it even in grad school. They don't want to do the work so they validate not doing it by blaming the technology. - Asianwaste, on 01/16/2009, -14/+48You know, I had computer problems every now and then with my PC... you know what my classes told me? USE THE ONES IN THE LABS!!!!
- Portfolioso, on 01/16/2009, -2/+32I use Windows and I still laugh at her for being a moron, and for the news station looking like a fool. Whether you're a Ubuntu user or whatever other OS, I can tell a dumbass when I see one.
- Hortnon, on 01/16/2009, -14/+44She tried several things within her experience and skill level and got nowhere. One of the smartest men I've ever met was unable to install basic software or run Java applications in *Windows*.
This is a story all you Linux zealots need to take to heart. Yeah, Linux is great. But you need to realize that most people aren't capable of learning the core user experience differences easily. Hell, just having / instead of C:\ has confused many people that I've worked with to no end.
Don't blame the user - Blame the differences (good and bad) between Windows and Linux. You need to be trying to help the users make the move if they choose to, not beating the ***** out of them for not already knowing everything. - Heywoodj, on 01/16/2009, -17/+47The chick? The personal attack was unwarranted. She ( sadly) is just like 80% or more of computer users out there.
The TV station on the other hand had it coming. Someone here said it best yesterday "What are they owned by Microsoft?"
My 10 sockpuppets and I have no regrets for what they got yesterday.
Like Version (the real bad guy here) likes to say CAN YOU HERE ME NOW. - djparallax, on 01/16/2009, -4/+34The saddest thing about all of this is....
1.) Verizon will work with Ubuntu, if you install a $40 router.
2.) Ubuntu can easily use OpenOffice (or Google Docs!) - michaelenger, on 01/16/2009, -7/+36I agree. We all hide behind the anonymity of the internet and the fact that our opinions are reflected in our peers, but we have to take into consideration that people are different from us internet-savvy types and won't know what to do if faced with a problem. Of course she was at fault for dropping out of school and blaming the computer instead of doing the 3 minutes of research (a phone call to Verizon), but I'm guessing that her frustration overwhelmed her ability to think of a solution that most people DON'T take for granted.
It's easy for us to say "google it", "call someone smart" or RTFM, but the mentality of common users is that it should work without any hassle and this was clearly an obstacle too great for her to overcome. I'm as annoyed as anyone about the negative light that was shed on Linux by the article, but nothing warrants harassing the girl, over facebook or otherwise. If my car breaks down on the way to an important meeting and I panic instead of rationalize, I wouldn't like a group of mechanics to send me emails telling me how retarded I am for not doing something they could do in their sleep.
TL;DR: DIGG HAS GONE TOO FAR THIS TIME! - infiniphunk, on 01/16/2009, -16/+42Maybe if update girl had done a bit of research beforehand and bought a computer that would suit her needs she wouldn't have had to drop out and nobody would have made fun of her. Learn to use your brain, supposedly you'll have to in college.
- rockmanac, on 01/16/2009, -5/+31Wow... RTFA. We're a TV station, not a newspaper!
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