"Linux ate my baby and gave me cancer"
Yesterday, I found out about some girl in Madison, Wisconsin who "had" to drop out of her online college courses because she accidentally ordered a Dell with Ubuntu on it instead of Windows. A local news station picked up the story and made it into a tear-jerking human interest piece. They also misrepresented Ubuntu in the process.
The girl's complaints were that the computer didn't have Microsoft Office and she couldn't get Internet access because Verizon had given her a Windows-only installation CD. As it turns out, Verizon high-speed Internet access actually supports Ubuntu, and as many a nerd knows, Ubuntu comes with a program called Open Office, which is a free productivity suite that's compatible with Microsoft Office.
The girl's problems with the OS could have been solved in a single email from one of thousands of loyal Linux users, but instead of trying to deal with it, she decided her best option was to drop out of her online classes, blame the recession and Bush for all her problems, and then cry until she got dehydrated.
OK, so maybe those last few things didn't happen, but you see my point. Unless she was planning on using her diploma as a drool napkin, then it's obvious that college is not for her.
My only real beef with this whole thing is the fact that after receiving vitriolic hate mail from Ubuntu users who were furious about the negative light in which he had cast the operating system, the thumbhead who broke the story followed it up with a retarded straw-man argument and an indictment of everyone who was candid enough to point out how stupid the girl is.
Sure, his faux-benevolent blustering got the poor dolt her precious Internet access, but so would a call to the IT guys at Madison Area Technical College (or a single search on Yahoo Answers). To be perfectly honest, I'm not even sure how someone could accidentally order a computer with Ubuntu in the first place. Did she buy it based on how shiny it was? Did she just start smashing the keyboard with mittened hands while she was on Dell.com until the nice UPS man delivered her computer and told her to stop? And since when are people who make Forrest Gump look like Stephen Hawking getting accepted by colleges? Maybe she was there on a softball scholarship or something.
Some people are all up in arms about how poorly this girl was treated by vicious Linux users. In fact, she reported that she was even getting harassed on Facebook. I'm not sure that the people who rush to her defense are fully understanding the depth of her stupidity.
Imagine that someone you knew didn't know how to drive a manual transmission car but went ahead and bought one anyway because she liked the color. Then imagine that she somehow got it home, only to discover that she's a certifiable moron, the car is useless, and she missed Blue's Clues. Finally, imagine that instead of trying to learn how to drive the car, she cried until a passing reporter asked her what was wrong, and the reporter did a story about how BMW makes an inferior product and owes her an apology. You know you'd tease her until she either committed suicide or developed an eating disorder.
Except running Ubuntu is easier than getting raped at Michael Jackson's house.
The girl's complaints were that the computer didn't have Microsoft Office and she couldn't get Internet access because Verizon had given her a Windows-only installation CD. As it turns out, Verizon high-speed Internet access actually supports Ubuntu, and as many a nerd knows, Ubuntu comes with a program called Open Office, which is a free productivity suite that's compatible with Microsoft Office.
The girl's problems with the OS could have been solved in a single email from one of thousands of loyal Linux users, but instead of trying to deal with it, she decided her best option was to drop out of her online classes, blame the recession and Bush for all her problems, and then cry until she got dehydrated.
OK, so maybe those last few things didn't happen, but you see my point. Unless she was planning on using her diploma as a drool napkin, then it's obvious that college is not for her.
My only real beef with this whole thing is the fact that after receiving vitriolic hate mail from Ubuntu users who were furious about the negative light in which he had cast the operating system, the thumbhead who broke the story followed it up with a retarded straw-man argument and an indictment of everyone who was candid enough to point out how stupid the girl is.
Sure, his faux-benevolent blustering got the poor dolt her precious Internet access, but so would a call to the IT guys at Madison Area Technical College (or a single search on Yahoo Answers). To be perfectly honest, I'm not even sure how someone could accidentally order a computer with Ubuntu in the first place. Did she buy it based on how shiny it was? Did she just start smashing the keyboard with mittened hands while she was on Dell.com until the nice UPS man delivered her computer and told her to stop? And since when are people who make Forrest Gump look like Stephen Hawking getting accepted by colleges? Maybe she was there on a softball scholarship or something.
Some people are all up in arms about how poorly this girl was treated by vicious Linux users. In fact, she reported that she was even getting harassed on Facebook. I'm not sure that the people who rush to her defense are fully understanding the depth of her stupidity.
Imagine that someone you knew didn't know how to drive a manual transmission car but went ahead and bought one anyway because she liked the color. Then imagine that she somehow got it home, only to discover that she's a certifiable moron, the car is useless, and she missed Blue's Clues. Finally, imagine that instead of trying to learn how to drive the car, she cried until a passing reporter asked her what was wrong, and the reporter did a story about how BMW makes an inferior product and owes her an apology. You know you'd tease her until she either committed suicide or developed an eating disorder.
Except running Ubuntu is easier than getting raped at Michael Jackson's house.
posted by Vaughan at
1:41 PM
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