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This is a little off topic... but man, I really hate when people use the term FUD (Fear, uncertainty, and doubt). There are several reasons for this:

1. Many people who are not involved with computers, and even some who have been in the industry a long time, do not know what this term stands for. I have had to explain it so many times it isn't funny. I have to assume that there are many who did not have the luxury of someone like me to ask and thus are still in the dark. I was taught that, even when writing a journal article for a specific field, that the excepted practice for using acronyms that are not universally understood is to write them out in full the first time. As FUD is used in quick jabs this negates its usefulness in public forums.

2. It is used too often when it is really a stretch to fit in a conversation. (To me this to me is somewhat indicative of another problem, which is the avoidance of legitimate debate or criticism) About half the time I see FUD it is in this context. "Linux users are all a bunch of commies" could easily be construed as FUD. Talking about legitimate software flaws or failings is not FUD (well, depending on whether they are being portrayed fairy or overemphasized). But too often the latter is prematurely dismissed after a precursory glance as FUD, rather than a legitimate argument of whether the pros outweigh the cons, or better yet discussing solutions.

3. It is not that powerful a concept. There is nothing spectacular about FUD. There are times when a concept leads to looking at looking at a problem from a different light and when compartmentalizing this concept in an acronym is clearly useful to the point than the flaws of acronyms in general are more than made up for. Fear, uncertainty, and doubt when used in this context are synonyms; no major insight there. You might as well just substitute the liberals perennial favorite fear-mongering.

Then again this could all just be my irrational backlash against a life in acronyms. I grew up on military posts and then went straight into engineering, and sometimes I just get sick of all the acronyms. Two of three days ago I got a call from my dad from Baghdad. He said they were investigation a vm-ied. By that he meant "vehicle-mounted improvised explosive device"... aka a car bomb. But no, the military can no more easily call that a car bomb than we computer professionals / enthusiasts (of either side) can get off our haunches and either come up with real counter arguments to criticism or at least pick up a thesaurus to come up with a new derisive adjective every once and a while.

I understand the desire to attempt to dissuade someone from listening to an argument without really putting much effort into dissembling it, especially when there is an almost infinite supply of tripe on the Internet. However you are deceiving yourself if you think that is really effective means of combating it. Furthermore on a site such as freerepublic, which exists for the free exchange of thought and ideas, we are all big enough to think for ourselves and realize when an argument is valid and worth our time or not. If you don't want to fully debate a point then you should feel free to leave it to others to do so.

-paridel